cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Imaging of metabolism and autonomic innervation of the heart by positron emission tomography.

Positron emission tomography (PET) allows, in combination with multiple radiopharmaceuticals, unique physiological and biochemical tissue characterization. Tracers of blood flow, metabolism and neuronal function have been employed with this technique for research application. More recently, PET has emerged in cardiology as a useful tool for the detection of coronary artery disease and the evaluation of tissue viability. Metabolic tracers such as fluorine-18 deoxyglucose (FDG) permit the specific delineation of ischaemically compromised myocardium. Clinical studies have indicated that the metabolic imaging is helpful in selecting patients for coronary artery bypass surgery or coronary angioplasty. More recent research work has concentrated on the use of carbon-11 acetate as a marker of myocardial oxygen consumption. Together with measurements of left ventricular performance, estimates of cardiac efficiency can be derived from dynamic 11C-acetate studies. The non-invasive evaluation of the autonomic nervous system of the heart was limited in the past. With the introduction of radiopharmaceuticals which specifically bind to neuronal structures, the regional integrity of the autonomic nervous system of the heart can be evaluated with PET. Numerous tracers for pre- and postsynaptic binding sites have been synthesized. 11C-hydroxyephedrine represents a new catecholamine analogue which is stored in cardiac presynaptic sympathetic nerve terminals. Initial clinical studies with it suggest a promising role for PET in the study of the sympathetic nervous system in various cardiac diseases such as cardiomyopathy, ischaemic heart disease and diabetes mellitus. The specificity of the radiopharmaceuticals and the quantitative measurements of tissue tracer distribution provided by PET make this technology a very attractive research tool in the cardiovascular sciences with great promise in the area of cardiac metabolism and neurocardiology.
Apparent Absence of Dosage Compensation for Z-linked Genes of Avian Species

Although the two are rather similar in absolute size, the avian Z-chromosome makes up nearly 10% of the genome, while the original X of placental mammals comprises only 5%. It would appear that birds have an even greater need than mammals for developing an effective dosage compensation mechanism for their Z-linked genes. It is a great surprise to find that avian species apparently failed in developing an effective means for achieving the dosage compensation.
The Utility of Intraindividual Variability in Selective Attention Tasks as an Early Marker for Alzheimer's Disease

This study explored differences in intraindividual variability in 3 attention tasks across a large sample of healthy older adults and individuals with very mild dementia of the Alzheimer's type (DAT). Three groups of participants (healthy young adults, healthy older adults, very mild DAT) were administered 3 experimental measures of attentional selection and switching (Stroop, Simon, task switching). The results indicated that a measure of intraindividual variability, coefficient of variation (CoV; SD/M), increased across age and early stage DAT. The CoV in Stroop discriminated the performance of epsilon4 carriers from noncarriers in healthy older controls and the CoV in task switching was correlated with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers predictive of DAT.
Design and synthesis of potent and selective macrocyclic thrombin inhibitors

A series of potent and selective proline- and pyrazinone-based macrocyclic thrombin inhibitors is described. Detailed SAR studies led to the incorporation of specific functional groups in the tether that enhanced functional activity against thrombin and provided exquisite selectivity against trypsin and tPA. X-ray crystallography and molecular modeling studies revealed the inhibitor-enzyme interactions responsible for this selectivity.
Chapter 16 Sodium Channels in Lipid Bilayers: Have We Learned Anything Yet?

Publisher Summary The chapter discusses the use of model membranes to study functional questions about Na+ channels. Nearly all such studies have been carried out in planar lipid bilayer membranes. Two methods have been developed for observing the behavior of ion channel proteins at the single-molecular level: patch recording and reconstitution into model membranes. Both of these techniques exploit the unique property of ion channels: the extremely high rate of ion movement through the open channel; the experimenter can literally watch individual channel molecules opening, closing, and conducting ions. The results obtained by these methods provide high-resolution functional information at the molecular level.
Climate change: Unattributed hurricane damage

In the United States, hurricanes have been causing more and more economic damage. A reanalysis of the disaster database using a statistical method that accounts for improvements in resilience opens the possibility that climate change has played a role.
A regression and path analysis of yield related traits in two populations of grain amaranths

(1990). A Regression and Path Analysis of Yield Related Traits in Two Populations of Grain Amaranths. East African Agricultural and Forestry Journal: Vol. 55, No. 3, pp. 147-158.
Unsaturated-Zone Modeling: Progress, Challenges, and ApplicationsAll rights reserved. No part of this periodical may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

U nsaturated-Zone Modeling: Progress, Challenges, and Applications is the product of a 2004 symposium, sponsored by UNESCO and the International Association of Scientific Hydrology (IAHS), on the topic of unsaturated zone modeling held at Wageningen University in The Netherlands. The objective of
Plasmonic Based Kinetic Analysis of Hydrogen Reactions within Au−YSZ Nanocomposites

The kinetics of the hydrogen reaction on a nanocomposite film comprised of gold (Au) nanoparticles embedded within yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) was determined through an analysis of the localiz...
Asleep at the Switch: Local Public Services and Municipal Accountability

Do people hold politicians accountable for the performance of government? I test this question using individual-level experiences with the performance of one major public service: transportation. I compile records of transit performance, tracked via individuals’ fare transactions and train delays, and link these data to opinion surveys. I show that people perceive different levels of performance, but fail to connect performance with judgments of government. I build on this by testing the importance of responsibility attribution on people’s ability to hold government accountable. I find that when people are experimentally provided with information on government responsibilities, they are able to connect their experiences of performance with their opinions of government. These results demonstrate that confusion about government responsibilities can frustrate accountability.
Bodhisattva's Crown of The Early-Tang Period in The Dunhuang Art of Mogao Grottoes

During the Tang Dynasty, in particular, the Early-Tang period, was a period of great prosperity when the massive Bodhisattva's images were build and at the same time the presentation of Bodhisattvas' decorations in wearing apparel and adornment had developed rapidly. Crown, which had been wearing by every Bodhisattvas was served as one of the most important symbols of the Bodhisattva's identity, possess the implication of Bodhisattva's symbolism and secular decoration. As a result, by a careful study of Bodhisattva's crown, we could discover the traces of a nation's cultural development and the mutual influences among the different nations. The account of Bodhisattva's crown can be found in the related historical records that had recorded the relative references in help with research of Dunhuang Art and the image building of Bodhisattva. This article is trying to discuss the problem by making a comparative study on Bodhisattva's crown of the Early-Tang period in terms of its variety, occurrence and development of Bodhisattva's decoration and aesthetic connotation so as to understand the occurrence and development of Bodhisattva's decorations at that time and to inherit the fine tradition to serve the contemporary garment designing.
Public Opinion From a Rural State About Condoms for HIV Prevention: 1993 and 1998

This study determined public opinion about the availability promotion, use, and effectiveness of condoms for the prevention of HIV transmission. Data were collected in 1998 and compared to similar data collected in 1993, utilizing the same Likert-type, 8-item questionnaire for both data collections (2 additional questions were added in 1998). Samples of 688 and 521 Indiana adult residents were randomly telephoned in the spring of 1993 and 1998, respectively, by the Indiana University Center for Survey Research. Major findings include a relative stability of public opinion from 1993 to 1998. Opinion on whether condoms should be made available to teenagers in Indiana public schools with parental permission was mixed in both samples. Overall, the respondents in both samples supported condom use promotion in schools, by the federal government, and by the 3 major television networks. The vast majority in both surveys believed that condoms are either very or somewhat effective in preventing HIV transmission. Mo...
Surgical approach to critical pulmonary valve stenosis in infants less than six months of age.

During the past 7½ years, 36 infants (≤6 months of age) underwent surgical relief of critical pulmonary valve stenosis. The results of closed and open (cardiopulmonary bypass, CPB) procedures were compared. Closed procedures included Brock valvotomy (two patients) and normothermic inflow stasis with transpulmonary valvectomy (10 patients). Twenty-two patients had open procedures with valvectomy alone (five patients) and right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT) reconstruction (17 patients). Two additional patients had staged operations (shunt followed by open procedure at 3 and 5 months postoperatively). Patients who had the closed procedures, as compared with CPB, were significantly younger (10 versus 61 days, p
Effects of in vivo treatment with PIXY321 (GM-CSF/IL-3 fusion protein) on proliferation kinetics of bone marrow and blood myeloid progenitor cells in patients with sarcoma.

PIXY321, a stimulator of multipotent colony-forming units (CFU-GEMM), burst-forming unit-erythroid (BFU-E), and colony-forming units granulocyte/macrophage (CFU-GM) progenitor cell proliferation in vitro, is currently being assessed in phase-I/-II clinical trials. We evaluated kinetics of CFU-GEMM, BFU-E, and CFU-GM proliferation in bone marrow (BM), blood, and granulocyte (CFU-G) and macrophage (CFU-M) progenitors in BM of chemotherapy-naive patients with sarcoma-administered PIXY321 (25 to 1000 micrograms/m2/day subcutaneously for 14 days). BM and/or blood cells from three to four patients at each dosage were assessed before, during, 1 to 2 days, and 7 days following treatment with PIXY321. Cells were pulse-treated in vitro with or without high-specific activity tritiated thymidine (3H-dThr) (to assess the percentage of progenitors in S-phase of cell cycle) and cultured for immature and more mature subsets of CFU-GEMM, BFU-E, CFU-GM, and for CFU-G and CFU-M. Despite heterogeneity in baseline cycling status of progenitors in BM, administration of 125 to 500 micrograms PIXY321 to patients at least doubled (p 38% cells in cycle. Within 1 to 2 days after cessation of PIXY321 infusion, all progenitors were in a slow or noncycling phase below that of many of the pre-BM samples (immature and mature CFU-GM and mature BFU-E) or were back to background levels (CFU-G, CFU-M, CFU-GEMM, and immature BFU-E). These cycling effects were similar to those previously noted for BM CFU-GM and BFU-E in patients on clinical trial with GM-CSF. In contrast, higher dosages of PIXY321, especially 1000 micrograms, increased cycling of BM and blood progenitor cells early during treatment, but cycling rates decreased while patients were still being administered PIXY321; decreased cycling was maintained after cessation of PIXY321. PIXY321 is thus highly active in vivo as a stimulator of multipotential and more lineage-restricted progenitors. The kinetics of progenitor cell proliferation noted in this study highlight differences seen with GM-CSF and G-CSF. The effects described here could be of relevance in design of future clinical trials using PIXY321 as an adjunct treatment in patients undergoing cytoreductive therapy.
Intracellular generation of reactive oxygen species in endothelial cells exposed to anoxia-reoxygenation.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) play an important role in the pathogenesis of ischemia-reperfusion injury. Extracellular H2O2 generation from bovine pulmonary artery endothelial cells (EC) is known t...
Enterprise-wide optimization for industrial demand side management: Fundamentals, advances, and perspectives

Abstract The active management of electricity demand, also referred to as demand side management (DSM), has been recognized as an effective approach to improving power grid performance and consumer benefits. Being large electricity consumers, the power-intensive process industries play a key role in DSM. In particular, enterprise-wide optimization (EWO) for industrial DSM has emerged as a major area of interest for both researchers and practitioners. In this work, we introduce the reader to the fundamentals of power system economics, provide a definition of DSM that reflects more strongly the consumer's perspective, and present a comprehensive review of existing works on EWO for industrial DSM. The review is organized into four parts, which correspond to the four main challenges that we identify as: (1) accurate modeling of operational flexibility, (2) integration of production and energy management, (3) decision-making across multiple time and space scales, and (4) optimization under uncertainty. Finally, we highlight research gaps and future opportunities in this area.
Hormesis: Improving Predictions in the Low-Dose Zone

This chapter explores the historical foundations of hormesis, including the underlying reasons for its marginalization during most of the twentieth century and factors that are contributing to its resurgence and acceptance within the toxicological and pharmacological communities. Special consideration is given to the quantitative features of the hormetic dose response, as well as its capacity for generalization. Based on subsequent comparisons with other leading dose–response models, the hormesis dose response consistently provides more accurate predictions in the below threshold zone. It is expected that the hormetic dose response will become progressively more useful to the fields of toxicology, pharmacology, risk assessment, and the life sciences in general, especially where low-dose effects are of interest.
Forms: Whole, Rhythm, Hierarchy, Network

An invigorating inversion propels Caroline Levine's wonderful book Forms: Whole, Rhythm, Hierarchy, Network: While “formalism” in literary studies, in law, in math, in religion generally means “str...
Extended Mind and Embodied Social Psychology: Contemporary Perspectives

This study traces the evolution of a research program that frames the human mind as an embodied social phenomenon. The essay is divided into two parts, the first one focused on historical issues, the second on contemporary developments. The discussion begins with the mind-body problem central to the scholarship in this area and then focuses the changing perspective on consciousness as a symbolically mediated process. Next, the paper surveys the relevant writings of Mead and Vygotsky, tracks the debate about the place of body in interactionist sociology, and connects this debate to current research in neuroscience. The report concludes with reflections on the prospects for embodied sociology and the contribution it can make to the debate about extended mind.
Watching the Glass Ceiling: An Investigation of Financial Presentation Modality and Gender Bias

We investigate how presentation modality (text vs. video) and executive gender influence evaluators’ perceptions of management competence and the future performance potential of that executive’s company. Consistent with recent labor market research (Shroeder and Epley 2015), seeing and hearing (rather than reading) identical information from a CEO improves the competence assessment of the CEO; however, this result is largely gender dependent. Male-delivered financial reports enhance participant views of CEO competence while female-delivered reports do not. In addition, male-led firms have expectations of enhanced future company performance that are only partially mediated by views of CEO competence. While we find modest evidence that the female competence disadvantage is associated with industry (because female CEO competence is marginally improved in a ‘feminine’ industry), we find no evidence that a female-led company enjoys enhanced expectations of future company performance.
Revenue Management in Crowdfunding

We develop a model of crowdfunding dynamics that maximizes revenue for a given fundraising campaign by optimizing both the pledge level sought from donors or backers and the duration of the campaign. Our model aligns with the patterns of backer/donor arrival and pledging observed on crowdfunding platforms, such as Kickstarter. Using our model, we calibrate the revenue lost from using pre-specified pledge levels or campaign durations. We show that under the optimal design, the pledge level sought decreases as the goal of a campaign increases, with a more pronounced effect for both very low and very high campaign goals. We further demonstrate how uncertainty in pledge accumulation improves campaign revenue and aids campaign success. In particular, we show that campaigns with high goals benefit from highly uncertain environments more than campaigns with low goals.
Hedging Risk Factors

Standard risk factors can be hedged with minimal reduction in average returns. Stocks with low factor-exposure have similar performance relative to stocks with high factor-exposure, hence a long-short portfolio hedges factor risk with little reduction in expected returns. This is true for both “macro” factors relating to the business cycle, and “reduced-form” factors such as value and momentum. Hedging macro factors also hedges business cycle risk (e.g. NBER recessions) and hedges many other macro factors argued to be priced in the literature, and hedging “reduced-form: factors generates large alphas. Our results have implications for portfolio formation and for understanding the economic origins of equity risk premiums.
Immunologic Mechanisms in Lung Carcinogenesis and Metastasis

Progression and metastasis of cancer proceeds in the context of a host response that includes interactions with immune cells that can both attenuate and paradoxically promote the process of metastasis. Growing evidence demonstrating the role of the inflammatory response in carcinogenesis is shedding light on a functional relationship between the host immune system and the malignant neoplasm. The interaction between neoplasm and the immune system can be described with the concepts of (1) cancer immunosurveillance, (2) cancer immunoediting, (3) complicity of the host cellular networks in lung tumorigenesis, and (4) tumor-mediated immunosuppression. Understanding the molecular mechanisms involved in inflammation and lung carcinogenesis provides insight for new drug development that target reversible, non-mutational events in the chemoprevention and treatment of lung cancer.
The Development of Mediated Behavior in Children: An Alternative View of Learning Disabilities

The problems of identifying and educating learning disabled children are attracting increasing amounts of attention from developmental psychologists interested in cognitive processes. Queries as to why disabled children fail on certain academic tasks provide a common ground of concern for researchers and educators alike. Perhaps the single most important issue is whether the poor school performance of the disabled child reflects an inability to achieve or a lack of task appropriate skill which could be acquired through instruction. If taken from a cognitive-developmental perspective, this issue is reflected in the extensive work which describes the child’s growing independence from immediate environmental controls to the thoughtful regulation of behavior.
Miscible Fingering in Electrokinetic Flow: Symmetries and Zero Modes

Analysis is carried out to examine the miscible fingering phenomenon when a fluid with a lower electrolyte concentration advances into one with a higher concentration. Unlike earlier miscible fingering theories, the linear stability analysis is carried out in the self-similar coordinates of the diffusing front. The dominant destabilizing mode is shown to be a localized concentration disturbance within the diffusive layer. However, transverse diffusion is shown to eventually stabilize the instability at time t=t c that scales as b 8/3, where b is the breadth of the channel, and lengthen the dominant transverse wavelength as t 3/8 in the interim. With these scaling laws, we arrive at the conclusion that transient fingering is insignificant in sub-millimeter micro-devices which use electrokinetic flow to transport biological and environmental electrolyte samples.
Prostaglandins in semen and their relationship to male fertility: a study of 145 men

Prostaglandin (PG) F2 alpha and PGE were measured in 163 semen samples from 145 men attending our male infertility clinic. In addition, each semen sample was analyzed for 13 different fertility parameters. Blood plasma levels of testosterone, follicle-stimulating hormone, and luteinizing hormone were also determined in many of the patients. The data obtained were then analyzed using multiple regression analyses on each PG for all of the parameters studied. The results indicate seminal PGF2 alpha and PGE concentrations were 2.78 +/- 0.24 micrograms/ml and 46.0 +/- 4.5 micrograms/ml, respectively. The seminal parameters that were significant predictors of seminal PGF2 alpha included: Ca++ concentration (P less than 0.001), Zn++ concentration (P less than 0.01), and percentage of tapered sperm (P less than 0.05). The seminal parameters that were significant predictors of seminal PGE included: Ca++ concentration (P less than 0.01) and sperm motility (P less than 0.05). Plasma testosterone was also a significant predictor of seminal PGE (P less than 0.05). These results suggest that seminal PGs are important to the human male fertility potential in that their levels are significantly interdependent with specific parameters of male fertility.
Practical Clinical Pearls

This chapter about how observing some trifles and recognizing what is seen is intended to help us become better diagnosticians.
Arterial PO2 Values Vary Dramatically During Diving and Surface Activities in the Freshwater Turtle (Trachemys scripta)

Mammals and birds maintain a narrow range of arterial PO2 values to preserve near complete O2 saturation. Since arterial blood gases in mammals and birds are tightly coupled with lung gas values, t...
Deep Neural Network Convolution for Natural Image Denoising

Deep learning has recently proven extremely successful in many low-level image-processing tasks including natural image denoising. However, with regards to designing deep models for practical image processing, there are numerous essential viewpoints that one ought to consider. In this work, we first aimed to reply to probably the most critical design questions through theoretical analysis and extensive experiments: How deep and wide a deep denoiser should and can be? Does denoising performance get improved by using residual learning? Can and should we switch from the region-based to image-based models? And second, based on our analysis, we designed a deep neural network for natural image denoising which was hundred-layer deep, exploited both internal and external residual learning, and was trained in an image-based fashion. Our deep denoiser achieved the state-of-the-art results quantitatively and qualitatively on multiple datasets including one with more than 10,000 images.
An Investigation of Interaction Patterns in Emergency Management: A Case Study of The Crash of Continental Flight 3407

The nature of emergency response operations varies based on agency, county, population, leadership, etc., which leads to serious challenges to interactions between emergency responders during routine emergencies. There have been very few studies that have provided direct insights into the emergency interactions from an information processing view based on real experience from the field. With the help of a case study, this paper aims to explore inter-agency interactions by addressing two research questions: (a) how do emergency agencies interact? (b) what characterizes interactions in the different stages of an emergency? This paper develops a framework for identifying emergency interactions that illustrate the templatic and dynamic styles as well as the active and passive patterns of interactions by examining data from the emergency reports. To summarize, this paper contributes to research in areas of inter-agency cooperation and emergency management.
Exome Resequencing Reveals Evolutionary History, Genomic Diversity, and Targets of Selection in the Conifers Pinus taeda and Pinus elliottii

Loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) and slash pine (Pinus elliottii) are ecologically and economically important pine species that dominate many forest ecosystems in the southern United States, but like all conifers, the study of their genetic diversity and demographic history has been hampered by their large genome size. A small number of studies mainly based on candidate-gene sequencing have been reported for P. taeda to date, whereas none are available for P. elliottii. Targeted exome resequencing has recently enabled population genomics studies for conifers, approach used here to assess genomic diversity, signatures of selection, population structure, and demographic history of P. elliottii and P. taeda. Extensive similarities were revealed between these species: both species feature rapid linkage disequilibrium decay and high levels of genetic diversity. Moreover, genome-wide positive correlations for measures of genetic diversity between the species were also observed, likely due to shared structural genomic constraints. Also, positive selection appears to be targeting a common set of genes in both pines. Demographic history differs between both species, with only P. taeda being affected by a dramatic bottleneck during the last glacial period. The ability of P. taeda to recover from a dramatic reduction in population size while still retaining high levels of genetic diversity shows promise for other pines facing environmental stressors associated with climate change, indicating that these too may be able to adapt successfully to new future conditions even after a drastic population size contraction.
Does Future Orientation Moderate the Relationship Between Impulse Control and Offending? Insights From a Sample of Serious Young Offenders:

Researchers have recently begun to examine motivational factors as moderators of the relationship between self-control and offending behavior. The current study extends prior work by investigating ...
Assessing Knowledge of Sickle Cell Trait/Disease Inheritance in Metropolitan Detroit.

Abstract Sickle cell disease (SCD) is an autosomal recessive disease not specific to one race. This study aims to assess knowledge about the inheritance pattern of sickle cell disease among college students in the Metropolitan Detroit area. An electronic survey was administered to undergraduate students at Oakland University, and first through fourth year medical students at Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine (OUWB). The primary analysis compared knowledge of sickle cell disease inheritance pattern between different demographic categories. A total of 146 Oakland University (27.4%) and OUWB (72.6%) students responded to the survey. The average age of the respondents was 24.27 ± 4.09. The majority of respondents were female (61%) and white (72.6%). In total, three (3) respondents - 1 white, 1 Asian and 1 African American, reported knowing that they have sickle cell disease/trait. In addition, one (1) white female respondent reported having an infant carrying the sickle cell trait. Most respondents (95.9%) knew that sickle cell disease/trait is genetically inherited, but a majority believed that it is associated only with African-Americans (67.8%). Respondents who were college graduates were more likely to correctly identify SCD inheritance patterns (98% compared to 85% of undergraduates; p = 0.002) and less likely to correctly answer the question “Who gets the disease?” (24% compared to 63%; p
Conscious contents: Their unanalyzable, arbitrary, and unarbitrary properties.

Unlike most scientific approaches to the study of consciousness, the Attention Schema Theory (AST) attempts to explain the riddle of subjective experience: … in addition to the content of conscious...
Teaching Derivatives Using Bloomberg: An Experiential Learning Approach

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the existing literature on experiential learning in finance by discussing the instructional design of an undergraduate derivatives course. Moreover, we advocate for the use of Bloomberg Terminals as an experiential learning tool, providing students with real-life experiences. This paper proposes and describes two learning products designed to enhance the experiential learning benefits of this course: a customized instructional manual and a simulation for option trading strategies. To measure the effectiveness of this experiential teaching approach, we rely on pre- and post-class surveys, as well as a recent graduate survey. Our findings suggest that integrating Bloomberg in the classroom has both short term and long term implications: In the short run, it improves students learning outcomes. In the long run, the results of the survey suggest that learning how to use Bloomberg in the classroom provided a boost to recent graduates, both during their job search and during the first weeks after they start.
Thinking About Risk: Responding to Threat and Disintegration in a Fraught World

In the United States today, it is hard to escape the sense that we are living in a society saturated by risks—from random gun violence to devastating forest fires to disasters related to crumbling infrastructure. There is a striking disconnect between this reality of pervasive risk and the tendency in some quarters to look at risk through a social constructionist lens that often regards risks as routinely exaggerated. We often point to a growing intolerance of risk, which generates new or intensified forms of intrusive control and is rooted in an essentially irrational longing for a “golden age” when life was more predictable and more stable.
“I Have a Voice”: Reexamining Researcher Positionality and Humanizing Research With African Immigrant Girls

This personal perspective piece examines the researcher’s positionality through the stance of humanizing research in multiethnic youth communities. Drawing on Paris and Paris and Winn’s notions on ...
Staufen 1 amplifies proapoptotic activation of the unfolded protein response

Staufen-1 (STAU1) is an RNA-binding protein that becomes highly overabundant in numerous neurodegenerative disease models, including those carrying mutations in presenilin1 (PSEN1), microtubule-associated protein tau (MAPT), huntingtin (HTT), TAR DNA-binding protein-43 gene (TARDBP), or C9orf72. We previously reported that elevations in STAU1 determine autophagy defects and its knockdown is protective in models of several neurodegenerative diseases. Additional functional consequences of STAU1 overabundance, however, have not been investigated. We studied the role of STAU1 in the chronic activation of the unfolded protein response (UPR), a common feature among neurodegenerative diseases and often directly associated with neuronal death. Here we report that STAU1 is a novel modulator of the UPR, and is required for apoptosis induced by activation of the PERK-CHOP pathway. STAU1 levels increased in response to multiple endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stressors, and exogenous expression of STAU1 was sufficient to cause apoptosis through the PERK-CHOP pathway of the UPR. Cortical neurons and skin fibroblasts derived from Stau1-/- mice showed reduced UPR and apoptosis when challenged with thapsigargin. In fibroblasts from individuals with SCA2 or with ALS-causing TDP-43 and C9ORF72 mutations, we found highly increased STAU1 and CHOP levels in basal conditions, and STAU1 knockdown restored CHOP levels to normal. Taken together, these results show that STAU1 overabundance reduces cellular resistance to ER stress and precipitates apoptosis.
Contemporary practice in clinical chemistry: blood gas and critical care testing

Abstract This chapter provides condensed information for understanding and interpreting results for blood gas, lactate, and glucose tests in blood. The specific areas addressed are: (1) definitions and explanations of blood gas and acid–base terms, including sections on strong ion difference and anion gap; (2) the biochemical and physiological processes that lead to clinical alterations of blood gas, glucose, and lactate results in blood; (3) a stepwise approach for organizing and understanding acid–base and clinical data to facilitate interpretation and understanding of acid–base disorders; (4) a section on cord blood gases; (5) guidelines for assessing the oxygenation status in blood; and (6) proper sampling conditions and pitfalls to avoid in specimen collection, transport, and processing. In addition, self-assessment questions reinforce the concepts presented in the text. This chapter should serve as a concise reference for gaining an understanding of critical care testing and interpretation.
Abstract A12: Promotion of pancreatic cancer by perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA)

Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer deaths and one of the most lethal forms of cancer diagnosed in the United States. While the exact cause of pancreatic cancer is unknown, established risk factors for pancreatic cancer include smoking, alcohol consumption, and pancreatitis, all of which share the ability to generate oxidative stress—a condition known to promote cancer progression. Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a chemical widely used in consumer and industrial applications, has been shown to induce pancreatic acinar cell tumors in rodents through a yet to be determined mechanism. In humans, epidemiologic studies have linked PFOA exposure to adverse chronic health effects including several types of cancer. PFOA has been detected in essentially all of the American population, with mean serum levels close to 4 ng/ml and a predicted half-life of ~4 yrs. We have previously shown that exposure of mice to PFOA for 7 days triggered oxidative stress in the pancreas, which was associated with focal ductal hyperplasia and inflammation. The purpose of this study was to determine if PFOA exposure promotes the progression of pancreatic cancer in a well-characterized mouse model of pancreatic cancer, the LSL-KRasG12D;Pdx-1 Cre (KC) model. For our studies, KC mice received either tap water or tap water containing 5 ppm PFOA, starting at 2 months of age. Mice were sacrificed at 6 and 9 months of age, corresponding to 4 and 7 months of PFOA treatment, at which time serum and tissues were collected. Pancreata were processed for histologic examination (HEPdx-1 Cre mouse model, which is accompanied by oxidative stress and an inflammatory response. These results, coupled with the widespread human exposure to PFOA and its biologic persistence, suggest that it may participate in promoting pancreatic cancer progression. Citation Format: Barbara A. Hocevar, Lisa M. Kamendulis. Promotion of pancreatic cancer by perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Environmental Carcinogenesis: Potential Pathway to Cancer Prevention; 2019 Jun 22-24; Charlotte, NC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Can Prev Res 2020;13(7 Suppl): Abstract nr A12.
Modeling Laminar-to-Turbulent Transition in the Panel Test Facility Arcjet

A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) laminar-to-turbulence transition model was developed for the NASA Ames Research Center’s 20 MW Panel Test Facility (PTF). Surface pressure, heat flux to a water...
Mechanisms of Psychiatric Comorbidities in Epilepsy.

Psychiatric illnesses, including depression and anxiety, are highly comorbid with epilepsy (for review see Josephson and Jette (Int Rev Psychiatry 29:409-424, 2017), Salpekar and Mula (Epilepsy Behav 98:293-297, 2019)). Psychiatric comorbidities negatively impact the quality of life of patients (Johnson et al., Epilepsia 45:544-550, 2004; Cramer et al., Epilepsy Behav 4:515-521, 2003) and present a significant challenge to treating patients with epilepsy (Hitiris et al., Epilepsy Res 75:192-196, 2007; Petrovski et al., Neurology 75:1015-1021, 2010; Fazel et al., Lancet 382:1646-1654, 2013) (for review see Kanner (Seizure 49:79-82, 2017)). It has long been acknowledged that there is an association between psychiatric illnesses and epilepsy. Hippocrates, in the fourth-fifth century B.C., considered epilepsy and melancholia to be closely related in which he writes that "melancholics ordinarily become epileptics, and epileptics, melancholics" (Lewis, J Ment Sci 80:1-42, 1934). The Babylonians also recognized the frequency of psychosis in patients with epilepsy (Reynolds and Kinnier Wilson, Epilepsia 49:1488-1490, 2008). Despite the fact that the relationship between psychiatric comorbidities and epilepsy has been recognized for thousands of years, psychiatric illnesses in people with epilepsy still commonly go undiagnosed and untreated (Hermann et al., Epilepsia 41(Suppl 2):S31-S41, 2000) and systematic research in this area is still lacking (Devinsky, Epilepsy Behav 4(Suppl 4):S2-S10, 2003). Thus, although it is clear that these are not new issues, there is a need for improvements in the screening and management of patients with psychiatric comorbidities in epilepsy (Lopez et al., Epilepsy Behav 98:302-305, 2019) and progress is needed to understand the underlying neurobiology contributing to these comorbid conditions. To that end, this chapter will raise awareness regarding the scope of the problem as it relates to comorbid psychiatric illnesses and epilepsy and review our current understanding of the potential mechanisms contributing to these comorbidities, focusing on both basic science and clinical research findings.
Risk for dating violence and sexual assault over time: The role of college and prior experiences with violence.

Objective: Despite increased research on emerging adults and interpersonal violence, evidence on the role of college attendance in risk for dating violence and sexual assault is mixed. We examined ...
Cost-effectiveness of atezolizumab and bevacizumab in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.

e18829Background: The IMbrave150 trial found that atezolizumab and bevacizumab significantly prolonged progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in patients with locally advanced me...
Plus-Sport: The Impact of a Cross-Cultural Soccer Coaching Exchange.

Developing and Improving Synergies in Chinese and United States Soccer (DISCUSS), was a two-way coaching exchange program that took place in 2010-2011. The goal of the program was to increase cultural understanding between the representatives of each country, in addition to exchanging soccer coaching information. The purpose of this study was to comprehensively evaluate the DISCUSS program. Specifically, the investigation centered on the participant’s cultural awareness and understanding of the U.S. through sport for development and peace (SDP) programming. The following themes emerged from the data with respect to the cultural awareness and understanding of the coaching exchange participants: (1) a changed impression of Americans and American society, (2) a changed view of American’s interest in soccer, and finally, (3) a perspective that sport and coaching were reflective of culture. Overall, the findings provide further support for SDP and sport diplomacy as worthwhile endeavors in promoting cultural understanding.
Molecular mechanisms in temozolomide-resistant glioblastoma

Abstract Glioblastoma (GBM), the most common and aggressive brain tumor, can be treated using a multimodal treatment. Temozolomide (TMZ) has been the gold standard chemotherapeutic agent for newly diagnosed GBM for over a decade. However, almost all GBM patients eventually become resistant to chemotherapy including TMZ and develop recurrent tumors that are more aggressive than primary GBM. This chapter reviews the molecular mechanisms of innate and acquired TMZ resistance in GBM. It also summarizes potential treatment options and new target identification methods for TMZ-resistant GBMs.
Treating random effects as observed versus latent predictors: The bias-variance tradeoff in small samples.

Random effects in longitudinal multilevel models represent individuals' deviations from population means and are indicators of individual differences. Researchers are often interested in examining how these random effects predict outcome variables that vary across individuals. This can be done via a two-step approach in which empirical Bayes (EB) estimates of the random effects are extracted and then treated as observed predictor variables in follow-up regression analyses. This approach ignores the unreliability of EB estimates, leading to underestimation of regression coefficients. As such, previous studies have recommended a multilevel structural equation modeling (ML-SEM) approach that treats random effects as latent variables. The current study uses simulation and empirical data to show that a bias-variance tradeoff exists when selecting between the two approaches. ML-SEM produces generally unbiased regression coefficient estimates but also larger standard errors, which can lead to lower power than the two-step approach. Implications of the results for model selection and alternative solutions are discussed.
A dynamic analysis of rotary combustion engine seals

Real time work cell pressures are incorporated into a dynamic analysis of the gas sealing grid in Rotary Combustion Engines. The analysis which utilizes only first principal concepts accounts for apex seal separation from the crochoidal bore, apex seal shifting between the sides of its restraining channel, and apex seal rotation within the restraining channel. The results predict that apex seals do separate from the trochoidal bore and shift between the sides of their channels. The results also show that these two motions are regularly initiated by a seal rotation. The predicted motion of the apex seals compares favorably with experimental results. Frictional losses associated with the sealing grid are also calculated and compare well with measurements obtained in a similar engine. A comparison of frictional losses when using steel and carbon apex seals has also been made as well as friction losses for single and dual side sealing.
A Mundell-Fleming Study of Japan's Monetary Expansion

With the new government, Japan has announced plans for massive monetary expansion through expansion of money base. In this paper after reviewing Japan’s monetary policy I use Mundell-Fleming model under assumptions of high capital mobility and flexible exchange rates to demonstrate the changes affiliated with Japan’s monetary expansion.
An approach to facilitate reliability testing of Web services components

The paradigm of Web services that transforms the Internet from a repository of data into a repository of services has been gathering significant momentum in both academia and industry in recent years. However, as more and more Web services are published on the Internet, how to choose the most appropriate Web service components from the sea of ever-changing, unpredictable, and largely uncontrollable Web services poses a big challenge. we propose a mobile agent-based approach that selects reliable Web service components in a cost-effective manner.
d-Alanine Oxidase from Escherichia coli: Localization and Induction by l-Alanine

Dialyzed membranes of Escherichia coli prepared by an ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid-lysozyme method catalyze the oxidation of both l-alanine and d-alanine. The specific activities for the oxidations of both d-alanine and l-alanine are increased fivefold when the cells are grown in the presence of either l-alanine or dl-alanine, but are increased only slightly when grown in the presence of d-alanine. In the dl-alanine-induced system, the specific activities for the oxidations of some other d-amino acids are also raised. dl-alanine also induces two other alanine catabolizing enzymes, alanine dehydrogenase and alanine-glutamate aminotransferase which are found in the "soluble" fraction of lysozyme-treated cells. The oxidations of both l-alanine and d-alanine were associated with the membranes of induced cells. After the membranes were disintegrated by sonic treatment, both l-alanine and d-alanine oxidation catalysts sedimented in a sucrose density gradient together with d-lactate and l-lactate dehydrogenases, apparently as a single multienzyme complex.
Ecology of Land Cover Change in Glaciated Tropical Mountains

Tropical mountains contain unique biological diversity, and are subject to many consequences of global climate change, exasperated by concurrent socioeconomic shifts. Glaciers are in a negative mass balance, exposing substrates to primary succession and altering downslope wetlands and streams. A review of recent trends and future predictions suggests a likely reduction in areas of open habitat for species of high mountains due to greater woody plant cover, accompanied by land use shifts by farmers and pastoralists along the environmental gradients of tropical mountains. Research is needed on the biodiversity and ecosystem consequences of successional change, including the direct effects of retreating glaciers and the indirect consequences of combined social and ecological drivers in lower elevations. Areas in the high mountains that are protected for nature conservation or managed collectively by local communities represent opportunities for integrated research and development approaches that may provide ecological spaces for future species range shifts.
Full-envelope fuzzy logic control

This paper addresses the development of a full-envelope controller for nonlinear systems based on the fusion of ideas from linear control theory and fuzzy logic. The term model-based fuzzy Logic control has been coined to describe this dynamic compensation approach. The model-based fuzzy logic controller is essentially a bank of fuzzy logic controllers with the composite control input smoothed by a linear compensator. The proper fuzzy controller in the bank is chosen by a measurement of the magnitude of the reference input, and the linear compensator is determined based on a linearized model of the nonlinear plant. It is shown that the resulting controller provides full-envelope control of the highly nonlinear benchmark plant. >
Elderly consumers: problems and behaviours

The purpose of this study was to explore older consumers' problems and behaviour. Data were collected by interviewing. Responses of 150 older Wisconsin residents were analysed using chi square to determine significant differences in consumer problems and behaviour related to the demographic variables: age, sex, place of residence, marital status and education. The distribution of responses was most frequently influenced by marital status. The demographic variables of age, sex and place of residence were also found to influence the response distribution, although less frequently than marital status; there were no significant differences in responses by education. Based on the findings, recommendations are made for consumer education programmes designed specifically for older persons.