cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Affinity-based protein profiling identifies vitamin D3 as a heat shock protein 70 antagonist that regulates hedgehog transduction in murine basal cell carcinoma.

Abstract Vitamin D3 (VD3) is a seco-steroid that inhibits the Hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway. Initial studies suggested its anti-Hh activity results from direct inhibition of Smoothened, a seven-transmembrane cell surface receptor that is a key regulator of the Hh signaling cascade. More recently, a role for the Vitamin D Receptor in mediating inhibition of Hh-signaling by seco-steroid has been suggested. Herein, an affinity-based protein profiling study was carried out to better understand the cellular proteins that govern VD3-mediated anti-Hh activity. We synthesized a novel biotinylated VD3 analogue (8) for use as a chemical probe to explore cellular binding targets of the seco-steroidal scaffold. Through a series of pull-down experiments and follow up mass spectrum analyses, heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70) was identified as a primary binding protein of VD3. Hsp70 was validated as a binding target of VD3 through a series of biochemical and cellular assays. VD3 bound with moderate affinity to Hsp70. In addition, both selective knockdown of Hsp70 expression and pharmacological inhibition of its activity with known Hsp70 inhibitors suppressed Hh-signaling transduction in murine basal cell carcinoma cells, suggesting that Hsp70 regulates proper Hh-signaling. Additional cellular assays suggest that VD3 and its seco-steroidal metabolites inhibit Hh-signaling through different mechanisms.
Colonial Crucible: Empire in the Making of the Modern American State

At the end of the nineteenth century the United States swiftly occupied a string of small islands dotting the Caribbean and Western Pacific, from Puerto Rico and Cuba to Hawaii and the Philippines. "Colonial Crucible: Empire in the Making of the Modern American State" reveals how this experiment in direct territorial rule subtly but profoundly shaped U.S. policy and practice - both abroad and, crucially, at home. Edited by Alfred W. McCoy and Francisco A. Scarano, the essays in this volume show how the challenge of ruling such far-flung territories strained the U.S. state to its limits, creating both the need and the opportunity for bold social experiments not yet possible within the United States itself. Plunging Washington's rudimentary bureaucracy into the white heat of nationalist revolution and imperial rivalry, colonialism was a crucible of change in American statecraft. From an expansion of the federal government to the creation of agile public-private networks for more effective global governance, U.S. empire produced far-reaching innovations. Moving well beyond theory, this volume takes the next step, adding a fine-grained, empirical texture to the study of U.S. imperialism by analyzing its specific consequences. Across a broad range of institutions - policing and prisons, education, race relations, public health, law, the military, and environmental management - this formative experience left a lasting institutional imprint. With each essay distilling years, sometimes decades, of scholarship into a concise argument, Colonial Crucible reveals the roots of a legacy evident, most recently, in Washington's misadventures in the Middle East.
Youth Withdrawal Moderates the Relationhips Between Neighborhood Factors and Internalizing Symptoms in Adolescence

Adolescents higher in temperamental withdrawal are at risk for anxiety and depressive symptoms; however, not all youth higher in withdrawal exhibit internalizing symptoms, suggesting that contextual factors may influence these relationships. We examined whether youth withdrawal moderates the relationships between neighborhood processes (crime, social cohesion) and internalizing symptoms and whether findings were consistent with the diathesis-stress or differential susceptibility hypotheses. Participants were 775 adolescents (M = 15.50 ± 0.56 years, 72 % male, 76 % White). Adolescents higher in withdrawal manifested higher internalizing symptoms in the context of lower neighborhood crime and lower neighborhood social cohesion than youth lower in withdrawal, supporting diathesis-stress. These findings elucidate neighborhood processes associated with internalizing symptoms, which can inform models of risk and resilience for these symptoms among children who differ in temperamental withdrawal.
PI3K/Akt/mTOR Pathway: A Growth and Proliferation Pathway

The phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (Akt)/ mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway regulates numerous cellular processes such as growth, proliferation, cell cycle progression, motility, adhesion, and angio-genesis, and appears to be constitutively active in a majority of renal cell carcinoma (RCC). The integrity of the pathway is clearly vital to the survival and growth of RCC as pharmacologic inhibition of PI3K or Akt induces apoptosis in RCC tumor cells and tumor regression in vivo. These observations suggest that the PI3K/Akt/ mTOR pathway may be an attractive target for drug development in the treatment of RCC. The recently demonstrated clinical efficacy of inhibitors of mTOR supports this hypothesis and demonstrates the relevance of this pathway in RCC. As Akt activates numerous kinases, transcription factors and other proteins associated with cell growth and survival in addition to mTOR, it is possible even greater clinical responses may be achieved with agents that disrupt the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway upstream of mTOR. Concurrent with the development of inhibitors of PI3K or Akt for clinical application are efforts to identify predictive biomarkers of response to agents targeting elements of the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway so as to develop more individualized patient selection strategies. In this chapter, we will review the molecular biology of the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway, its relevance to RCC, and its potential as a therapeutic target in RCC.
GRINDING MICROORGANISMS WITH A PERISTALTIC PUMP.

Abstract The Randolph Co. model 610 peristaltic, ⅛-hp pump was effective for preparative purposes in disrupting baker's yeast and spores of Bacillus globigii when suspended with glass beads. Best results were obtained with use of a slurry just fluid enough to flow through tubing while stirred. Beads of 0.2 and 0.1 mm were used to best advantage for the yeast cells and spores, respectively. Yeast cells were disrupted completely within 15 min, and the spores in 10 to 30 min. Temperature and surface denaturation are readily controlled, and the system is easily modified for use with large quantities of microorganisms.
An introduction to microevolution: rate, pattern, process

This special issue of Genetica brings together a diverse collection of contributions that examine evolution within and among populations (i.e., microevolution), and the role that microevolution plays in the formation of new species and morphological forms (i.e., macroevolution). Many of the papers present evidence of microevolution occurring over contemporary time frames, further validating the near ubiquity of ongoing evolution in the world around us. Several synthetic reviews of empirical work help to define the conditions under which microevolution is or is not likely to occur. Some of the studies speak directly to current controversies in evolutionary biology, such as the relative roles of determinism and contingency, and the nature of the relationship between microevolution and macroevolution. In general, microevolution seems driven largely by deterministic mechanisms, particularly natural selection, but contingency plays a role in (1) determining whether or not suitable conditions are present for evolution to proceed, and (2) guiding the precise manner by which evolution proceeds. Several theoretical treatments and empirical reviews confirm previous research in showing that microevolutionary processes are at least capable of generating macroevolutionary trends. Macroevolution may indeed reflect microevolution writ large but the pattern by which it arises is perhaps best characterized as microevolution writ in fits and starts.
Gene–Environment Interaction

Gene–environment interaction refers to the fact that individuals with different genotypes have different responses to the same environmental factor. It represents the major component of genetic epidemiology, an emerging discipline that aims at elucidating the role of genetic factors as well as their interaction with environmental factors in the occurrence of disease in populations. There are two broad categories of approaches in examining gene–environment interactions: conventional and nonconventional study designs. Conventional study designs include mainly case–control and cohort studies in which gene–environment interaction can be assessed by incorporating an interaction term into the statistical model. Quite a few publications have addressed the issue of power and sample size calculations using such approaches. However, exposure misclassification can lead to bias in the estimation of an interaction effect, and an increased sample size may be needed in applying these strategies. Therefore, nonconventional study designs, which include case-only studies, twin studies, transmission/disequilibrium tests (TDT), and affected relative pair studies, have become more and more popular. This article primarily focuses on nonconventional approaches.
Sociocultural Contexts for Teaching and Learning

There has been an increased recognition of the work of the Russian psychologist L. S. Vygotsky in the fields of education and educational psychology. John-Steiner and Mahn review this body of work, focusing on its role in helping create new explanatory theories that address the complexities of schooling in settings that are becoming more linguistically and culturally diverse. This literature is used as a lens to examine salient issues in educational psychology, such as, first and second language acquisition, literacy, writing and current educational reform efforts related to teaching, bilingualism, standardized assessment, and the integration of special needs and culturally diverse students into educational settings. Keywords: bilingualism; culture; ethnography; language acquisition; sociocultural; Vygotsky
A Layered Architecture for Coordination of Mobile Robots

This paper presents an architecture that enables multiple robots to explicitly coordinate actions at multiple levels of abstraction. In particular, we are developing an extension to the traditional three-layered robot architecture that enables robots to interact directly at each layer — at the behavioral level, the robots create distributed control loops; at the executive level, they synchronize task execution; at the planning level, they use market-based techniques to assign tasks, form teams, and allocate resources. We illustrate these ideas through applications in multi-robot assembly, multi-robot deployment, and multi-robot mapping.
A fertility channel model for post-correction of continuous speech recognition

The authors have implemented a post-processor called SPEECHPP to correct word-level errors committed by an arbitrary speech recognizer. Applying a noisy-channel model, SPEECHPP uses a Viterbi beam-search that employs language and channel models. Previous work demonstrated that a simple word-for-word channel model was sufficient to yield substantial increases in word accuracy. The paper demonstrates that some improvements in word accuracy result from augmenting the channel model with an account of word fertility in the channel. The work further demonstrates that a modem continuous speech recognizer can be used in "black-box" fashion for robustly recognizing speech for which the recognizer was not originally trained. The work also demonstrates that in the case where the recognizer can be tuned to the new task, environment, or speaker, the post-processor can also contribute to performance improvements.
Remote Determination of Exposure Degree and Iron Concentration of Lunar Soils Using VIS-NIR Spectroscopic Methods

On the Moon, space weathering processes such as micrometeorite bombardment alter the optical properties of lunar soils. As a consequence, lunar soil optical properties are a function not only of composition, but of degree of exposure on the lunar surface as well. In order to accurately assess the compositional properties of the lunar surface using remotely acquired visible and near-infrared spectroscopic data, it is thus necessary either (1) to compare optical properties only of soils characterized by similar degrees of exposure or (2) to otherwise normalize or remove the optical effects due to exposure. Laboratory spectroscopic data for lunar soils are used to develop and test remote spectrocopic methods for determining degree of exposure and for distinguishing between the optical effects due to exposure and those due to composition. A method employing a ratio between reflectances within and outside of the 1 micrometer Fe(2+) crystal field absorption band was developed for remotely identifying highland soils that have reached a steady-state maturity. The relative optical properties of these soils are a function solely of composition and as such can be directly compared. Spectroscopic techniques for accurate quantitative determination of iron content for lunar highland soils are investigated as well. It is shown that approximations of the 1 micrometer Fe(2+) absorption band depth using few to several channel multispectral data or spectroscopic data of inadequate spectral range cannot be used with confidence for compositional analysis. However, band depth measurements derived from continuum-removed high spectral resolution data can be used to calculate the weight percent FeO and relative proportion of iron-bearing silicates in mature lunar highland and mare/highland mixture soils. A preliminary effort to calibrate telescopic band depth to laboratory soil measurements is described.
Killing With Kindness Confessions of an Obsessive

This is a story about how my obsessive lifestyle inhibits the development of a new intimate relationship. The story unfolds in three parts—the first, documenting obsessive disorders from two medical perspectives; the second, personalizing the disorder in terms of my past relational life; and the third, working through my current relationship through an extended conversation between that intimate other and me.
Time-dependent profiling of metabolites from Snf1 mutant and wild type yeast cells

The effect of sampling time in the context of growth conditions on a dynamic metabolic system was investigated in order to assess to what extent a single sampling time may be sufficient for general application, as well as to determine if useful kinetic information could be obtained. A wild type yeast strain (W) was compared to a snf1Δ mutant yeast strain (S) grown in high-glucose medium (R) and in low-glucose medium containing ethanol (DR). Under these growth conditions, different metabolic pathways for utilizing the different carbon sources are expected to be active. Thus, changes in metabolite levels relating to the carbon source in the growth medium were anticipated. Furthermore, the Snf1 protein kinase complex is required to adapt cellular metabolism from fermentative R conditions to oxidative DR conditions. So, differences in intracellular metabolite levels between the W and S yeast strains were also anticipated. Cell extracts were collected at four time points (0.5, 2, 4, 6 h) after shifting half of...
Advances in uncooled LWIR thermal sensors

Night vision technology is present in most military systems used today. The sensors range from night vision goggles to high performance infrared ()targetacquisition and tracking systems. These sensors have provided a distinct battlefield advantage and will continue to be important in future confrontations and peace-keeping missions. With the importance placed upon night vision, lower cost and wider availability of night vision technology is an important consideration. Sensors can be employed in greater numbers as the cost is reduced and as the sensor package becomes lighter and consumes lower power. Sensor packaging, conformal to the system configuration, helps the sensor readily adapt to new system configurations. Infrared sensors that do not require cryogenic cooling meet many of these characteristics. Recently, the excellent imaging performance of uncooled IR focal plane arrays have captured the attention of many system users and initiated the emergence of new applications. This paper reviews these application areas, explores new possibilities, and assesses the technology underway to further expand the realm of uncooled IR imaging. Technology advances, both in the sensor technology and the interface with the imaging system, will expand uncooled JR technology into additional military and commercial systems.
Linking the ecology of natural oak regeneration to silviculture

The regeneration requirements of oaks (Quercus spp.) differ among species. Oaks differ in their ability to produce seed, germinate and, as for reproduction, to endure shade, drought, and other stresses. Under the low to moderate shade that characterizes the understories of their natural habitats, the xerophytic oaks depend heavily on their drought tolerance and capacity to die back and resprout repeatedly. Successful regeneration of xerophytic oaks depends largely on the long-term survival and accumulation of oak reproduction, which may span 2 or more decades. Some of this reproduction develops large roots in advance of final harvest, which thereby enhances long-term survival and the potential for rapid shoot growth after overstory removal. In the more nutrient- and moisture-rich ecosystems, seedling populations of indigenous oaks arising from a single cohort typically fall to near extinction within a few years. High mortality rates are related to seedling intolerance to shade and the prevailing low light intensities under the high stand densities and stratified canopies typical of those ecosystems. In the absence of natural disturbance or silvicultural intervention, oak reproduction beneath dense stands in rich ecosystems typically fails to accumulate over time and thus fails to form the large root systems necessary for competitive success after overstory removal. The required timing and intensity of silvicultural operations for regenerating oaks therefore depend on the ecosystem-specific population dynamics of each species. Knowledge of birth, death, and other population processes of oak reproduction within defined classes of ecosystems, as well as knowledge of periodicity in seed production are prerequisites to the development of ecologically sound silvicultural prescriptions and realistic predictive models for regenerating oaks.
Defect production in copper and silver by light energetic ions

Measurements have been made of the change in residual electrical resistivity in thin‐film specimens of Cu and Ag induced by light‐ion irradiations (H,D,3He, 4He) below 10 K in the energy range 15–40 keV. The number of Frenkel pairs created per incident ion was deduced and compared with theoretical predictions. The efficiency factor (ratio of experimental to theoretical value) was found to decrease from ∼1 to 0.7 (0.9 to 0.65) for Cu (Ag) as the recoil spectrum was shifted to higher energies by increasing the projectile mass and/or energy.
Symptoms of nitrogen saturation in an aggrading forested watershed in western Maryland

The objective of this study was to evaluate the nitrogen (N) biogeochemistry of an 18–22 year old forested watershed in western Maryland. We hypothesized that this watershed should not exhibit symptoms of N saturation. This watershed was a strong source of nitrate (NO3 −) to the stream in all years, with a mean annual export of 9.5 kg N ha−1 year−1 and a range of 4.4–18.4 kg N ha−1 year−1. During the 2001 and 2002 water years, wet deposition of inorganic N was 9.0 kg N ha−1 year−1 and 6.3 kg N ha−1 year−1, respectively. Watershed N export rates in 2001 and 2002 water years were 4.2 kg N ha−1 year−1 and 5.3 kg N ha−1 year−1, respectively. During the wetter water years of 2003 and 2004, the watershed exported 15.0 kg N ha−1 year−1 and 18.4 kg N ha−1 year−1, rates that exceeded annual wet deposition of N by a factor of two (7.5 kg N ha−1 year−1 in 2003) and three (5.5 kg N ha−1 year−1 in 2004). Consistent with the high rates of N export, were high concentrations (2.1–3.3%) of N in foliage, wood (0.3%) and fine roots, low C:N ratios in the forest floor (17–24) and mineral soil (14), high percentages (83–96%) of the amount of mineralized N that was nitrified and elevated N concentrations (up to 3 mg N l−1) in soil solution. Although this watershed contained a young aggrading forest, it exhibited several symptoms of N saturation commonly observed in more mature forests.
Studies of sample preparation for surface-enhanced raman spectrometry on silver hydrosols

Abstract Surface-enhanced Raman spectra (SERS) on silver hydrosols of p-nitrobenzoic acid, p-aminobenzoic acid and aniline are reported. Several theoretical and practical aspects of the hydrosol preparation protocols and sample preparation procedures, and their effects on the sensitivity and reproducibility of the Raman signals are discussed. The effect of acidity on SERS signal intensity is shown to depend on the time of observation of the Raman spectra, illustrating the relevance of time to quantitative SERS data. the identification power of SERS at trace levels for closely related compounds (p-nitrobenzoic acid, p-aminobenzoic acid and aniline) is illustrated.
Negative differential conductivity in a confined superlattice

Abstract The effects of confinement on steady state miniband transport are examined here, particularly with respect to negative differential conductivity. The superlattice is taken to be confined in one of the two directions normal to the growth direction. Using a balance equation approach adjusted to incorporate superlattice band structure and transverse confinement-induced subbands, we present the results of numerical calculations which take account of impurity, acoustic phonon and polar optic phonon scatterings. Nonlinear drift velocity and electron temperature are exhibited as functions of applied electric field for a series of confined superlattices having miniband width Δ = 900 K . Negative differential conductivity is clearly manifested and the case of confinement width d x = 45 nm appears to be suitable for use in high frequency oscillators even at 300 K lattice temperature.
The ‘Lost Decade’ and Japanese Business Studies

The 1990s have been branded ‘Japan's Lost Decade’ — a period of missed opportunities for Japanese policy-makers and corporate leaders. It was also a difficult time for Japanese business studies — as a field we missed significant opportunities to examine systematically the many critiques of the Japanese business system, and to develop a research agenda that would provide general insights into change processes in business systems. This paper proposes evolutionary theory as one vehicle for understanding and assessing the basic assumptions of many of the critiques of Japan's business system produced over the last decade. It suggests that the concepts of variation, selection and retention can provide fruitful guides to research topics, and proposes that the field of Japanese business studies should work to re-establish Japan's longstanding role as a ‘critical case’ in social science.
Alcohol consumption and the occurrence and severity of aggression: an event‐based analysis of male to male barroom violence

Although a considerable body of experimental research supports the contention that alcohol facilitates aggression, some investigators have argued that these findings cannot be generalized to actual occurrences of aggression. Moreover, controversy continues concerning whether expectancies supporting alcohol's influence on aggression moderate the relationship. The present study is an event-based examination of the relationship between alcohol consumption, personality characteristics, contextual variables, and the occurrence and severity of male-to-male bar aggression. Men (n=190) who experienced either a physically aggressive episode or an incident of threat in a bar were assessed with respect to stable individual difference factors, such as personality factors, trait anger, and alcohol-aggression expectancies. The participants were also interviewed about the circumstances surrounding the most severe episode of bar aggression or threat that occurred in the past year. Logisitic regression analyses indicated that while alcohol consumption did not predict the occurrence of aggression, heavy alcohol consumption by the participant and the opponent was associated with aggression severity and physical harm, and that this relationship was present after controlling for personality and situational factors. The belief that alcohol was a cause of aggression was associated with the occurrence of aggression, but it was not related to severity or harm, and did not appear to moderate the alcohol-aggression relationship. These results suggest that alcohol expectancies may facilitate the occurrence of aggression. However, the results also support the contention that alcohol use may contribute to the severity of aggression occuring in bar contexts. Aggr. Behav. 29:346–365, 2003. © 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc..
Local anesthetics induce human renal cell apoptosis.

Renal cell apoptosis contributes significantly to the pathogenesis of acute renal failure. Local anesthetics induce apoptosis in neuronal and lymphocytic cell lines. We examined the effects of chronic (48 h) local anesthetic treatment (lidocaine, bupivacaine and tetracaine) on human proximal tubular (HK-2) cells. Apoptosis induction was assessed by detecting poly(ADP)-ribose polymerase fragmentation, caspase activation, terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase biotin-dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) staining, DNA laddering and by cellular morphology. Cell death was quantified by measuring neutral red dye uptake and lactate dehydrogenase released into the cell culture medium. All 3 local anesthetics caused concentration-dependent cell death, induced HK-2 cell apoptosis and potentiated TNF-alpha induced apoptosis. Local anesthetics induced HK-2 cell apoptosis by activation of caspases 3, 6, 7, 8 and 9. ZVAD-fmk, a pan-caspase inhibitor, blocked the local anesthetic induced HK-2 cell apoptosis. Local anesthetics also inhibited the activities of anti-apoptotic kinases protein kinase B (Akt) and extracellular signal regulated mitrogen-activated protein kinase. Local anesthetic's pro-apoptotic effects are independent of sodium channel inhibition as tetrodotoxin, a selective voltage-gated sodium channel blocker, failed to mimic local anesthetic-mediated induction or potentiation of HK-2 cell apoptosis. We conclude that local anesthetics induce human renal cell apoptotic signaling by caspase activation and via inhibition of pro-survival signaling pathways.
Tropospheric Sulfate Aerosol Formation Via Ion-Ion Recombination

We propose a source of aerosols in the lower atmosphere associated with the creation, growth, and recombination of ubiquitous cosmogenically generated ions. This particle source should be favorable in the relatively clean, stable marine boundary layer, providing a uniform, continuous fine particle generator in the presence of dimethylsulfide emissions. Through this mechanism, new sulfate aerosols can be formed at sulfuric acid vapor partial pressures well below the supersaturations required for homogeneous binary nucleation of sulfuric acid/water solutions, which is consistent with numerous observations of new particle formation under sub-saturated conditions. The evolving aerosols in turn control the acid vapor concentration and thus modulate the sizes of the precursor ions and the rate of new particle formation. A simple model representing this nonlinear coupled system predicts that the physical and chemical processes connecting ions, vapors, and aerosols effectively constrain the particle population to a relatively narrow range of values. This self-limiting behavior may explain in part the apparent stability of the marine sulfate aerosol, with mean concentrations of the order of several hundred per cubic centimeter.
Velocity dependence of the nucleon-nucleon interaction, exchange currents and enhancement of the dipole sum rule in nuclei

Abstract A model is employed to describe the velocity dependence of the effective nucleon-nucleon interaction in nuclear matter. The interactions in this model consist of π− and ρ-meson exchange, together with short-range correlations induced by the strongly repulsive potential resulting from ω-meson exchange. With known coupling strengths, these interactions produce an effective mass m ∗ /m = 0.75 in nuclear matter. Through the formalism of Fermi liquid theory, the exchange-current correction to the orbital g-factor, δgl, can be described in terms of the velocity dependence in the neutron-proton interaction, and, within the model, this can be related to the effective mass m ∗ . With m ∗ /m = 0.75 , the δgl for the proton turns out to be 0.22, 45% of it coming from π-meson exchange. Additional contributions to m ∗ /m in nuclei come from the coupling of vibrations to quasiparticles; these are especially important in the nuclear surface, and tend to increase the effective mass, when averaged over both nuclear volume and surface, so that 〈m ∗ /m〉 av. ≳ 1 . In so far as these contributions arise from isovector vibrations, we can use the same model as for π- and ρ-meson exchange, and show that the same relation between m ∗ /m and δgl holds, so that for 〈m ∗ /m〉 av. = 1 , δgl = 0. The contributions from coupling to vibrations will depend upon the single-particle state, however; states of high-angular momentum will tend to have 〈m ∗ /m〉 av. and δgl > 0. Finally, the enchancement δgl in gl can be connected with the enhancement k in the dipole sum rule originating from the giant-resonance region. This connection is not very precise, but gives a small positive κ ∼ 0.2.
Role of B1 and B2 receptors and of nitric oxide in bradykinin-induced relaxation and contraction of isolated rat duodenum

Abstract Bradykinin (BK) and its analogues induce a typical biphasic response (relaxation followed by contraction) in the isolated rat duodenum. We studied the role of B 1 and B 2 BK receptors and nitric oxide (NO) in relaxation and contraction of the isolated rat duodenum. Both effects are concentration-dependent: BK has shown an EC 50 (contraction) of 3.8 ± 1.9 × 10 −7 M and an IC 50 (relaxation) of 3.0 ± 0.7 × 10 −9 . Similar results were obtained with the selective B 2 receptor agonists [Hyp 3 , Tyr(Me) 8 ]-BK and [Phe 8 ψ(CH 2 -NH)Arg 9 ]-BK, showing an EC 50 of 9.6 ± 1.9 × 10 −7 M and 5.6 ± 2.9 × 10 −7 M and an IC 50 of 3.5 ± 0.6 × 10 −10 M and 6.8 ± 1.7 × 10 −10 M, respectively. Furthermore, the effects induced by these three agonists were not altered when tissues were treated with 42.1 μM Mergetpa, a carboxypeptidase N inhibitor. While the relaxant and contractile effects elicited by BK were significantly inhibited in the presence of Hoe 140 (0.7 μM), a selective B 2 receptor antagonist, those induced by the selective B 1 receptor agonist desArg 9 -BK were not. Furthermore, [Leu 8 ]-desArg 9 -BK (2.6 μM), which is both a pure and selective B 1 receptor antagonist, acted as an agonist on the rat duodenum, inducing a biphasic relaxant and contractile effect. These relaxant and contractile effects were not altered by drugs that inhibit or stimulate NO production, such as L-NAME (200 μM), a combination of L-NAME (200 μM) and indomethacin (2.5 μM), L-arginine (1 mM), or superoxide dismutase (20 U/ml). However, the contractile effect was significantly reduced when tissues were preincubated with methylene blue (100 μM), which inhibits activation of guanylate cyclase. We conclude that 1) BK and its analogues selectively activate a B 2 receptor, producing a biphasic effect (relaxation and contraction); 2) DesArg 9 -BK may either acts via a different receptor which might be another B 1 receptor subtype or a typical B 1 receptor where [Leu 8 ]-desArg 9 -BK acts as a partial agonist; and 3) neither NO nor the prostaglandin pathway mediates BK-induced relaxation in the isolated rat duodenum.
Parent-child resemblance in weight status and its correlates in the United States.

Background Few studies have examined parent-child resemblance in body weight status using nationally representative data for the US. Design We analyzed Body Mass Index (BMI), weight status, and related correlates for 4,846 boys, 4,725 girls, and their parents based on US nationally representative data from the 2006 and 2007 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). Pearson partial correlation coefficients, percent agreement, weighted kappa coefficients, and binary and multinomial logistic regression were used to examine parent-child resemblance, adjusted for complex sampling design. Results Pearson partial correlation coefficients between parent and child’s BMI measures were 0.15 for father-son pairs, 0.17 for father-daughter pairs, 0.20 for mother-son pairs, and 0.23 for mother-daughter pairs. The weighted kappa coefficients between BMI quintiles of parent and child ranged from −0.02 to 0.25. Odds ratio analyses found children were 2.1 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.6, 2.8) times more likely to be obese if only their father was obese, 1.9 (95% CI: 1.5, 2.4) times more likely if only their mother was obese, and 3.2 (95% CI: 2.5, 4.2) times more likely if both parents were obese. Conclusions Parent-child resemblance in BMI appears weak and may vary across parent-child dyad types in the US population. However, parental obesity status is associated with children’s obesity status. Use of different measures of parent-child resemblance in body weight status can lead to different conclusions.
Systematic energetics study of graphene nanoflakes: From armchair and zigzag to rough edges with pronounced protrusions and overcrowded bays

Using the PM3 molecular orbit method, we have determined the cohesive energies of 214 fully relaxed hexagonal graphene nanoflakes with different edge structures. The energies of flakes with deep and ultra-deep bays, and protrusions with trio-carbons (C3H3) and quadro-carbons (C4H4) were determined. The pristine hexagonal zigzag flakes (C24H12, C54H18, C96H24, C150H30, C216H36, C294H42, and C384H48) are found to become more energetically stable with size. Yet, the addition of bays or protrusions reduces their relative stability. Inclusion of shallow armchair bays keeps the planar structure of the flakes intact and leads to small changes in energy. HH fjord overcrowding in deep and ultra-deep bays leads to twisting and bending of the flakes and very strong destabilization. For selected flakes, we also calculated the energies of structural isomers where the relative positions of bays or protrusions are systematically varied. We develop structure–energy relationships (SERs) by comparing tendencies for the energetic variability of the structural isomers.
Angioplasty after thrombolysis in the treatment of evolving myocardial infarction

Abstract Potent pharmacological agents that rapidly induce coronary thrombolysis reduce morbidity and mortality from evolving myocardial infarction especially when administered early after the onset of ischemia. However, recanalization frequently unmasks residual, high-grade stenoses that can impair reflow, predispose to reocclusion, and limit salvage of myocardium. Coronary angiopiasty performed immediately after recanalization induced by thrombolysis reduces the severity of stenosis and can enhance salvage. Unfortunately, complication rates are higher with emergency compared with delayed angiopiasty. Thus, mechanical recanalization early after thrombolysis should be reserved for patients with signs or symptoms of recurrent ischemia or for those in whom pharmacological recanalization has failed but a large amount of myocardium remains at risk. percutaneous transluminal coronary angiopiasty / myocardial infarction / myocardial blood flow .
Carbon and proton NMR assignments for 6,7‐dimethoxycoumarin

The carbon and proton NMR spectra of 6,7-dimethoxycoumarin are completely assigned from XCORFE and HETCOR studies.
Basic computer troubleshooting and preventive computer maintenance operation

A tutorial on operating a computer to minimize hardware failure and board-level troubleshooting is presented. The benefits and risks of doing your own computer maintenance are described. The paper discusses major causes of computer failures and how to prevent them. Functional descriptions of major computer modules are provided. Troubleshooting for both operative and nonoperative systems is described. Basic troubleshooting symptom analysis, fault isolation, and board swapping are illustrated.
Viscous Damping of r-Modes in Hybrid and Quark Stars

Complementary to the interest in the naturally low viscosity of quark matter at high temperature generated by heavy-ion collisions, the viscosity of quark matter at high density and low temperature is relevant for neutron stars. r-mode oscillations, which cause the star to lose rotational energy via the emission of gravitational waves, are damped by the bulk and shear viscosities of matter. Because of the large viscosity of quark matter relative to hadronic matter, the presence of quark matter in neutron stars increases the amount of viscous damping and makes r-modes more stable. r-modes also tend to be more stable in strange quark stars for the same reason. Thus the presence of quarks in dense matter may imply that r-modes do not contribute to the spin-down of compact objects. Neutron stars probe QCD at high densities and low temperatures, complementary to relativistic heavy-ion collisions which primarily probe QCD at low densities and high temperatures. The confirmation that some neutron stars contain quark
FEAR OF CRIME AND CITY NIGHTLIFE

ABSTRACT Recent years have seen numerous efforts to redevelop downtown areas. The data presented in this paper concern the failure of Toledo's Portside Marketplace as a downtown retail-entertainment center. To what extent can the facility's lack of use be attributed to the public's fear of crime, especially after dark? This study investigates 1) who actually made use of Toledo's downtown entertainment areas at night, 2) public perceptions of downtown safety, and 3) the avoidance of downtown areas as a consequence of the public's fear of crime. Telephone survey data (N=400) suggest that the public's fear of crime was associated with the avoidance of Toledo's downtown areas at night. The deterrent effect of the fear of crime operates over and above the effects of a respondent's age or his or her family income. As a blue-collar, industrial center, Toledo's relative lack of high income, younger people was also an important barrier to downtown revitalization.
Parameterized complexity and inapproximability of dominating set problem in chordal and near chordal graphs

In this paper, we study the parameterized complexity of Dominating Set problem in chordal graphs and near chordal graphs. We show the problem is W[2]-hard and cannot be solved in time n o(k) in chordal and s-chordal (s>3) graphs unless W[1]=FPT. In addition, we obtain inapproximability results for computing a minimum dominating set in chordal and near chordal graphs. Our results prove that unless NP=P, the minimum dominating set in a chordal or s-chordal (s>3) graph cannot be approximated within a ratio of $\frac{c}{3}\ln{n}$ in polynomial time, where n is the number of vertices in the graph and 0<c<1 is the constant from the inapproximability of the minimum dominating set in general graphs. In other words, our results suggest that restricting to chordal or s-chordal graphs can improve the approximation ratio by no more than a factor of 3. We then extend our techniques to find similar results for the Independent Dominating Set problem and the Connected Dominating Set problem in chordal or near chordal graphs.
Growth of Crystals in Silica Gel using a Co-solute

AFTER the publication by Cochrane1 of a procedure for growing single crystals of β-AgI in concentrated KI solution, several workers2,3 described the application of variants of his technique to growth in silica gel. We have also been active in this area and have grown single crystals of α-HgS and β-Hgs as well as β-AgI, AgBr and AgCl.
A novel product from Beckmann rearrangement of erythromycin A 9(E)-oxime

Abstract Beckmann rearrangement of erythromycin A 9(E)-oxime with toluenesulfonyl chloride in ethyl ether at −45°C generates 9,11-imino ether IV which leads to azithromycin. The 9,11-imino ether can also be readily obtained from isomerization of its isomer 6,9-imino ether III.
A patient-specific Monte Carlo dose-calculation method for photon beams

A patient-specific, CT-based, Monte Carlo dose-calculation method for photon beams has been developed to correctly account for inhomogeneity in the patient. The method employs the EGS4 system to sample the interaction of radiation in the medium. CT images are used to describe the patient geometry and to determine the density and atomic number in each voxel. The user code (MCPAT) provides the data describing the incident beams, and performs geometry checking and energy scoring in patient CT images. Several variance reduction techniques have been implemented to improve the computation efficiency. The method was verified with measured data and other calculations, both in homogeneous and inhomogeneous media. The method was also applied to a lung treatment, where significant differences in dose distributions, especially in the low-density region, were observed when compared with the results using an equivalent pathlength method. Comparison of the DVHs showed that the Monte Carlo calculated plan predicted an underdose of nearly 20% to the target, while the maximum doses to the cord and the heart were increased by 25% and 33%, respectively. These results suggested that the Monte Carlo method may have an impact on treatment designs, and also that it can be used as a benchmark to assess the accuracy of other dose calculation algorithms. The computation time for the lung case employing five 15-MV wedged beams, with an approximate field size of 13 X 13 cm and the dose grid size of 0.375 cm, was less than 14 h on a 175-MHz computer with a standard deviation of 1.5% in the high-dose region.
A biomimetic robotic jellyfish (Robojelly) actuated by shape memory alloy composite actuators

An analysis is conducted on the design, fabrication and performance of an underwater vehicle mimicking the propulsion mechanism and physical appearance of a medusa (jellyfish). The robotic jellyfish called Robojelly mimics the morphology and kinematics of the Aurelia aurita species. Robojelly actuates using bio-inspired shape memory alloy composite actuators. A systematic fabrication technique was developed to replicate the essential structural features of A. aurita. Robojelly's body was fabricated from RTV silicone having a total mass of 242 g and bell diameter of 164 mm. Robojelly was able to generate enough thrust in static water conditions to propel itself and achieve a proficiency of 0.19 s(-1) while the A. aurita achieves a proficiency of around 0.25 s(-1). A thrust analysis based on empirical measurements for a natural jellyfish was used to compare the performance of the different robotic configurations. The configuration with best performance was a Robojelly with segmented bell and a passive flap structure. Robojelly was found to consume an average power on the order of 17 W with the actuators not having fully reached a thermal steady state.
Impacts of grants and contracts on academic researchers’ interactions with industry

Abstract Based on a representative national sample of 1564 academic researchers, we investigate the impacts of research grants and contracts on the nature and extent of faculty research and technology activities with industry. A particular focus is on understanding the independent contributions of industry and government grant sources on levels of industrial involvement. In addition to examining the source of grants, the study controls for a number of independent factors including: scientific field, research center affiliation, tenure status, and gender. Results suggest independent effects of grants and contracts on industrial activities. Grants and contracts from industry have a significant effect on academic researchers’ propensity to work with industry, as measured by an “industrial involvement scale.” Federally-sponsored grants also have an impact in increasing work with industry, but a more moderate one. Further, those with more grants and contracts (of each type) have a greater propensity for industrial involvement than those who have such contracts but fewer. This holds even when proxies for productivity and career stage are introduced in regression equations. The analysis also considers whether provision of grants and contracts is best viewed as a predictor of industrial involvement or just another type of industrial involvement using factor analysis and nested multivariate modeling to compare effects.
Containment control for a directed social network with state-dependent connectivity

Social interactions influence our thoughts, opinions and actions. In this paper, social interactions are studied within a group of individuals composed of influential social leaders and follower groupies. Each person is assumed to maintain a social state, which can be an emotional state or an opinion on a social event. Followers update their own states based on the states of local neighbors, which are considered as reasonable, while the social leaders maintain a desired constant state. Social interactions are modeled as a directed graph where each directed edge represents an influence from one person to another. Motivated by the non-local property of fractional-order systems, the social response of individuals in the network are modeled by fractional-order dynamics whose states depend on influences from local neighbors and past experiences. A decentralized influence method is then developed to maintain existing social influence between individuals (i.e., without isolating peers in the group), and to influence the social group to a common desired state (i.e., within a convex hull spanned by social leaders). Mittag-Leffler stability methods are used to prove asymptotic stability of the networked fractional-order system.
Therapeutic angiogenesis for critical limb ischaemia.

Critical limb ischaemia (CLI) is the most-severe clinical manifestation of peripheral arterial disease (PAD), and is associated with a high risk of amputation and death. Therapeutic angiogenesis is an approach to stimulating blood vessel growth to improve tissue perfusion, and has the potential to benefit patients with CLI for whom revascularization is not an option. Here, Brian Annex reviews data from clinical trials of therapeutic angiogenesis in patients with PAD, and discusses how advances in systems biology, genetics, and gene therapy might be used in new approaches to this therapy.
Nucleation and particle growth in supercooled flows of SF6/N2 and UF6/N2 mixtures

Abstract Nucleation and particle growth are examined for supercooled QF 6 vapor streams diluted in a carrier gas like H 2 , He, N 2 , Ar, or Xe under conditions commonly met in molecular laser isotope separation. Critical cluster radii r * are determined by the usual Kelvin surface-energy correction for a droplet’s curvature, but in addition account is taken of a reduction in the intrinsic heat of vaporization of a small cluster due to a decreased average monomer extrication energy. Critical embryo populations are calculated using a new theory published earlier. The results are believed to be an improvement over earlier Farkas–Becker–Doring–Volmer–Zeldovich relations. Time-dependent equations for combined nucleation and particle growth rates in adiabatically cooled gases are formulated, and explicit approximate solutions are derived. As expected, particle growth rates are found to quickly overtake homogeneous nucleation rates, once growth commences. The theory is applied to supersonically expanded UF 6 /N 2 and SF 6 /N 2 flows, and appears generally in agreement with experiment.