cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Heterogeneity and regulation of manganese peroxidases from Phanerochaete chrysosporium.

Abstract Lignin and Mn peroxidases are two families of isozymes produced by the lignin-degrading fungus Phanerochaete chrysosporium under nutrient nitrogen or carbon limitation. We purified to homogeneity the three major Mn peroxidase isozymes, H3 (pI = 4.9), H4 (pI = 4.5), and H5 (pI = 4.2). Amino-terminal sequencing of these isozymes demonstrates that they are encoded by different genes. We also analyzed the regulation of these isozymes in carbon- and nitrogen-limited cultures and found not only that the lignin and Mn peroxidases are differentially regulated but also that differential regulation occurs within the Mn peroxidase isozyme family. The isozyme profile and the time at which each isozyme appears in secondary metabolism differ in both nitrogen- and carbon-limited cultures. Each isozyme also responded differently to the addition of a putative inducer, divalent Mn. The stability of the Mn peroxidases in carbon- and nitrogen-limited cultures was also characterized after cycloheximide addition. The Mn peroxidases are more stable in carbon-limited cultures than in nitrogen-limited cultures. They are also more stable than the lignin peroxidases. These data collectively suggest that the Mn peroxidase isozymes serve different functions in lignin biodegradation.
Comparative evaluation of genetic algorithm and backpropagation for training neural networks

Abstract In view of several limitations of gradient search techniques (e.g. backpropagation), global search techniques, including evolutionary programming and genetic algorithms (GAs), have been proposed for training neural networks (NNs). However, the effectiveness, ease-of-use, and efficiency of these global search techniques have not been compared extensively with gradient search techniques. Using five chaotic time series functions, this paper empirically compares a genetic algorithm with backpropagation for training NNs. The chaotic series are interesting because of their similarity to economic and financial series found in financial markets.
In vitro and in vivo studies of the trypanocidal properties of WRR-483 against Trypanosoma cruzi.

Background: Cruzain, the major cysteine protease of Trypanosoma cruzi, is an essential enzyme for the parasite life cycle and has been validated as a viable target to treat Chagas’ disease. As a proof-of-concept, K11777, a potent inhibitor of cruzain, was found to effectively eliminate T. cruzi infection and is currently a clinical candidate for treatment of Chagas’ disease. Methodology/Principal Findings: WRR-483, an analog of K11777, was synthesized and evaluated as an inhibitor of cruzain and against T. cruzi proliferation in cell culture. This compound demonstrates good potency against cruzain with sensitivity to pH conditions and high efficacy in the cell culture assay. Furthermore, WRR-483 also eradicates parasite infection in a mouse model of acute Chagas’ disease. To determine the atomic-level details of the inhibitor interacting with cruzain, a 1.5 A u crystal structure of the protease in complex with WRR-483 was solved. The structure illustrates that WRR-483 binds covalently to the active site cysteine of the protease in a similar manner as other vinyl sulfone-based inhibitors. Details of the critical interactions within the specificity binding pocket are also reported. Conclusions: We demonstrate that WRR-483 is an effective cysteine protease inhibitor with trypanocidal activity in cell culture and animal model with comparable efficacy to K11777. Crystallographic evidence confirms that the mode of action is by targeting the active site of cruzain. Taken together, these results suggest that WRR-483 has potential to be developed as a treatment for Chagas’ disease.
Antimicrobial action of compound 48/80 against protozoa, bacteria, and fungi.

Abstract Compound 48/80 inhibited the growth of protozoa, bacteria, and fungi but had no effect on the multiplication of viruses. All susceptible organisms were inhibited by 10 μg/ml of crude compound 48/80, and some were inhibited by as little as 0.1 μg/ml. Against Tetrahymena py - riformis , this drug was seven times more potent than quinine. Separation of compound 48/80 into different fractions indicated that some antimicrobial activity could be separated from the histamine-liberating activity. It was found that compound 48/80 is not surface active at 500 μg/ml.
Bacterial membrane transport of beta-exotoxin, an anti-metabolite of RNA synthesis.

β-Exotoxin is produced extracellularly by certain strains of Bacillus thuringiensis during the stationary growth phase, apparently resulting from nucleic acid metabolism1. It is a monophosphorylated adenine nucleoside derivative2,3 and can modify RNA polymerase activity of mammalian and bacterial origin in vitro through substrate competitive inhibition4,5. RNA polymerase in nuclei from rat liver6 and insect larval fat bodies7 is sensitive to exotoxin, and inhibition seems to be subject to reversal by ATP. Other functional enzymes that catalyse reactions involving ribonucleoside triphosphates are similarly inhibited by exotoxin, such as adenylate cyclase8. Exotoxin is more toxic in mammalian and other eukaryotic systems than in cell-free prokaryotic extracts, and it can cross cell and nuclear membranes in mammalian systems5,6,9. But I know of no report of any effect of exotoxin on intact, physiologically normal bacterial cells. Therefore I have investigated the intracellular effect of exotoxin on RNA synthesis in actively metabolising bacterial cultures. This report describes the intracellular inhibition of RNA synthesis by exotoxin in cultures of Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis treated to increase their permeability. Further data revealed that exotoxin is totally excluded by the bacterial membrane, even in those treated cells.
Radiation complications in edentulous patients

Complete dentures were fabricated for 88 patients following completion of cancericidal doses of radiation therapy to the head and neck regions. All were followed for at least 6 months after delivery. All patients received dentures resting within the radiation field. Three patients developed osteoradionecroses directly attributable to their dentures. These three had been dentulous prior to therapy and had either pre- or posttreatment extractions. Of the 58 patients who had been edentulous prior to therapy, none developed osteoradionecrosis. Five patients developed soft tissue necroses secondary to the use of dentures.
CONFIRMED RECORDS OF TWO GREEN STURGEON FROM THE BERING SEA AND GULF OF ALASKA

Abstract In the spring of 2006, fisheries observers identified 2 Green Sturgeon specimens in Alaska waters: 1 in the Bering Sea and 1 in the western Gulf of Alaska. These occurrences are noteworthy because the northern range limit for Green Sturgeon is poorly documented, and specimens encountered in northern latitudes could be either North American Green Sturgeon (A. medirostris) or Asian Sakhalin Sturgeon (A. mikadoi). The specimen collected in the Bering Sea was destroyed, but several morphological characteristics were determined from photographs. The specimen from the Gulf of Alaska was collected and preserved. Morphometric and meristic data from this specimen were compared to published ranges of A. medirostris and A. mikadoi, as well as the published record of a Green Sturgeon reported from the western Bering Sea in 1953. These comparisons show that the specimen collected in the Gulf of Alaska is A. medirostris and suggest that the specimen reported over 50 y ago from the western Bering Sea also may h...
Differential Effect of H1 Variant Overexpression on Cell Cycle Progression and Gene Expression

To identify functional differences among non-allelic variants of the mammalian H1 linker histones a system for the overexpression of individual H1 variants in vivo was developed. Mouse 3T3 cells were transformed with an expression vector containing the coding regions for the H1c or H10 variant under the control of an inducible promoter. Stable, single colony transformants, in which the normal stoichiometry of H1 variants was perturbed, displayed normal viability, unaltered morphology and no long-term growth arrest. However, upon release from synchronization at different points in the cell cycle transformants significantly overproducing H10 exhibited transient inhibition of both G1 and S phase progression. Overexpression of H1c to comparable levels had no effect on cell cycle progression. Analysis of transcript levels for several cell cycle-regulated and housekeeping genes indicated that overexpression of H10 resulted in significantly reduced expression of all genes tested. Surprisingly, overexpression of H1c to comparable levels resulted in either a negligible effect or, in some cases, a dramatic increase in transcript levels. These results support the suggestion that functional differences exist among H1 variants.
Edge-Driven Mechanical Microplate Models of Strike-Slip Faulting in the Tibetan Plateau

[1] The India-Asia collision zone accommodates the relative motion between India and Eurasia through both shortening and pervasive strike-slip faulting. To gain a mechanical understanding of how fault slip rates are driven across the Tibetan plateau, we develop a two-dimensional, linear elastic, two-stage, deformable microplate model for the upper crust based on the behavior of an idealized earthquake cycle. We use this approach to develop a suite of simple India-Asia collision zone models, differing only in boundary conditions, to determine which combination of edge forces and displacements are consistent with both the slip rate measurements along major Tibetan faults as well as the geodetically observed extrusion of crustal material toward Southeast Asia. Model predictions for the Altyn Tagh (1–14 mm/yr), Kunlun (3–10 mm/yr), Karakorum (5–12 mm/yr), and Haiyuan (3–5 mm/yr) faults are in agreement with geologically and geodetically inferred slip rates. Further, models that accurately reproduce observed slip rate gradients along the Altyn Tagh and Kunlun faults feature two critical boundary conditions: (1) oblique compressive displacement along the Himalayan range front west of the Shillong plateau, and (2) forcing in Southeast Asia. Additionally, the ratio of internal-block potency rate to the total potency rate for each microplate ranges from 28% to 79%, suggesting a hybrid view of deformation in Tibet as simultaneously localized on major faults and distributed at length scales <500 km.
Dual-gate operation and volume inversion in n-channel SOI MOSFET's

The effects of volume inversion in thin-film short-channel SOI MOSFETs and the efficacy of dual-gate operation in enhancing their device performance have been analyzed using two-dimensional device simulations and one-dimensional analytical computations. The analyses have been restricted to the strong inversion regime, which is the practically useful region of operation of the SOI MOSFETs. In this region, the analyses suggest that when compared at constant V/sub G/-V/sub T/ values, the dual-channel volume inverted devices do not offer significant current-enhancement advantage, other than that expected from the second channel, over the conventional single-channel devices for silicon thicknesses in the 0.1- mu m range. >
Automated Registration of High Resolution Images from Slide Presentation and Whiteboard Handwriting via a Video Camera

A PowerPoint© (PPT) slide presentation and a whiteboard handwriting capture system, when used together, could provide a better means to present a lecture in a classroom and later to deliver more effective e-lectures for off-campus students. When the PPT slides are projected on the whiteboard where the instructor annotates, modifies, or expands the PPT presentation, geometrically registering high-resolution images from the two sources yields high quality digital presentations. Since the two sources do not share the same materials, one with printing notes and the other with handwriting notes, we use a low-cost digital camera as a bridge to align the two sources. We present a hybrid registration approach to align the PPT and handwriting images. We use domain knowledge in a classroom presentation (i.e., the illumination of the slide projection, the timing information for both slide changes and handwriting page creation) to align the camera views with the digital slides and to extract handwriting contents from clustered video scenes. We propose a coarse-to-fine content matching method to register handwriting contents captured by the video camera and the whiteboard capture system. Experimental results are presented to validate our approach.
A comparison of phenobarbital and codeine incorporation into pigmented and nonpigmented rat hair

Drugs and endogenous compounds circulating in the blood may ultimately become incorporated into a growing hair shaft. Hair analysis for drugs of abuse is a growing field in the area of forensic and clinical toxicology. However, the underlying principles that govern drug incorporation into hair are not known. In this study, we examined the incorporation of a weak acid, phenobarbital, and a weak base, codeine, into Sprague-Dawley (SD) rat hair. Codeine or phenobarbital was administered to male SD rats at 40 mg/kg/day for 5 days by intraperitoneal (ip) injection. Hair was collected from the back 14 days after beginning the 5-day dosing protocol and analyzed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) for codeine and phenobarbital. The time-courses of phenobarbital and codeine in plasma were also obtained after a single ip injection (40 mg/kg). Concentrations of codeine and phenobarbital in SD hair samples were 0.98 ± 0.10 and 17.01 ± 1.40 ng/mg hair, respectively. The areas under the curve (AUC) of plasma concentration versus time for codeine and phenobarbital were 1.58 and 414.50 µg h/µL, respectively. Notwithstanding the greater phenobarbital concentrations in hair, when plasma concentrations were considered, codeine was apparently incorporated to a 15-fold greater extent than phenobarbital. Because hair pigmentation may be important in drug incorporation, the incorporation of these two drugs was also studied in Long-Evans (LE; produces both black and white hair on the same animal) rats after 40 mg/kg/day of ip drug administration for 5 days. Hair was collected at the same time as the previous experiment. Concentrations of codeine in hair were 44-times greater in pigmented than nonpigmented hair from the same animals. In contrast, hair concentrations of phenobarbital were identical in both pigmented and nonpigmented hair. These data suggest that hair pigmentation greatly affects weak base incorporation but not weak acid incorporation into hair. Because hair concentrations of phenobarbital are not affected by pigmentation, phenobarbital may be an ideal drug to separate out factors other than pigmentation involved in incorporation of drugs into hair.
TOWARD A HOLISTIC SIX-PERIOD RADICAL INNOVATION LIFE CYCLE MODEL

In-depth historical assessment of innovation over the past several hundred years shows that the incremental innovation and cost reduction emphasized in the late 20th century will prove inadequate and even counterproductive in the 21st century for achieving sustained, global competitive advantage requiring radical innovation. Accordingly, a comprehensive, holistic innovation life cycle model is needed. Ongoing research since the PICMET'07 Conference has confirmed this need for a viable model, and developed an Accelerated Radical Innovation (ARI) methodology as part of the life cycle framework for a viable model. A significant contribution of the ARI methodology has been to develop improved techniques for measuring and guiding innovation progress, based on focused assessment of 10 innovation attributes at each of the 10 ARI steps in the first two phases of a six-phase life cycle envisioned to describe any radical innovation life cycle. This paper first summarizes systematically the most prominent radical in...
Estimating divergence times of notothenioid fishes using a fossil-calibrated molecular clock

Hypotheses concerning the diversification of notothenioid fishes have relied extensively on estimates of divergence times using molecular clock methods. The timing of diversification of the cold adapted antifreeze glycoprotein (AFGP)-bearing Antarctic notothenioid clade in the middle to late Miocene has been correlated with the onset of polar climatic conditions along the Antarctic Continental Shelf. Critical examination of the previous molecular clock analyses of notothenioids reveals several problems associated with heterogeneity of nucleotide substitution rates among lineages, the application of potentially inappropriate nucleotide substitution rates, and the lack of confidence intervals for divergence time estimates. In this study, the notothenioid partial gene mtDNA 12S-16S rRNA (PG-rRNA) molecular clock was reanalysed using a tree-based maximum likelihood strategy that attempts to account for rate heterogeneity of nucleotide substitution rates among lineages using the penalized likelihood method, and bootstrap resampling to estimate confidence intervals of divergence time estimates. The molecular clock was calibrated using the notothenioid fossil Proeleginops grandeastmanorum. Divergence time estimates for all nodes in the PG-rRNA maximum likelihood tree were substantially older than previous estimates. In particular, the estimated age of the AFGP-bearing Antarctic notothenioid clade predates the onset of extensive sea ice and development of polar conditions by at least 10 million years. Despite caveats involving the fossil calibration and limitations of the PG-rRNA dataset, these divergence time estimates provide initial observations for the development of a novel model of the diversification of cold adapted Antarctic notothenioid fishes.
Nerve growth factor enhances [3H]nicotine binding to a nicotinic cholinergic receptor on PC 12 cells.

Although nicotinic cholinergic agonists have functional effects on PC 12 cells, radioligand-binding sites have not been detected. We, therefore, studied PC 12 cells incubated in the presence of nerve growth factor (NGF) and determined that specific [3H]nicotine-binding sites were induced approximately 2.5-fold in the presence of NGF (50 or 100 ng/ml). Specific binding was maximal between the first (100 ng/ml NGF) and seventh (50 ng/ml NGF) days of treatment and was stable for 2 weeks with addition of NGF every 3 days. Using intact cells, average association and dissociation rates for [3H]nicotine were 0.00021 min-1 nM-1 (n = 2) and 0.048 min-1 (n = 2), respectively, at 4 C, yielding an average apparent Kd of 229 nM. At 22 C, stable equilibrium was not attained during association studies. A similar Kd value for broken cell preparations was obtained by kinetic analysis (i.e. an average association rate of 0.00042 min-1 nM-1 and dissociation rate of 0.087 min-1), yielding an average Kd value of 207 nM (n = 2...
ASSESSING THE FRAMEWORK OF POLICY OUTCOMES: THE CASE OF THE U.S. CLEAN AIR ACT AND CLEAN WATER ACT

The Clean Air Act (CAA) and Clean Water Act (CWA) have been the lynchpins of the U.S. environmental policy for the last half century. Under both acts the federal government sets standards and the states implement, the outcomes of the CAA and CWA have not been the same however. While criteria air pollutants across the nation have been reduced or maintained under the management control strategies of the CAA, far less is known about the effects the CWA has had on water quality, even though, most agree water quality has improved since its implementation. These acts are built on similar frameworks, but the real difference lies on the embedded identification of assessment criteria. The CAA creates a rigid framework for the consistent identification and monitoring of air pollutants, while the CWA relies on a much more flexible system that varies over space and time. Thus, it is the embedded environmental assessment criteria within these acts that have led to different outcomes for similar policies.
A study of Trypanosoma cruzi with the electron microscope.

Trypanosoma cruzi has been examined with the electron microscope. Crithidia and metacyclic forms of a blood agar culture have been studied and compared with the adult tissue forms, obtained in tissue cultures, from the same strain.In all the forms studied, the internal structure of the body is not revealed because it is too thick for electron penetration. In places where a good penetration has been obtained the cytoplasm shows a fine striation in spiral or parallel arrangement. This striation can be digested with trypsin or by prolonged osmic acid fixation.Dense spherical bodies of variable size can also be observed in the body portion. They can be dissolved with xylene.The whole body of the trypanosome is covered by a fine, transparent sheath.The flagellum is formed by the axoneme which consists of five or nine fibres. It can be followed throughout the whole length of the metacyclic and of the adult tissue forms. In the crithidia forms of the blood-agar culture, it disappears in the anterior part of the body. The whole flagellum is covered by a fine sheath. The axial fibre bundle can be digested with trypsin or by prolonged osmic-acid fixation. Both, the striation and the fibre bundle are contractile structures which could explain the movements of the trypanosome.Some dividing forms are also described.
Getting Emotional About Health

The consequences of having an illness have two crucial types of stakes: for self and for family. Therefore, the current research examines the effectiveness of health messages that present consequences for the self or family, focusing specifically on the dual role played by emotions in serving these stakes: as a provider of resources and of information. The authors theorize that (a) the valence dimension of discrete emotions influences resources, thereby fostering or hindering the processing of aversive health information, whereas (b) the self/otherrelatedness dimension of discrete emotions provides information that interacts with the focal referent in the message (self or family) to determine compatibility. In experiments 1-3, the authors demonstrate that when individuals are primed with a positive emotion (e.g., happiness, peacefulness), the compatibility between the referent and the discrete emotion fosters the processing of health information. When the primed emotion is negative (e.g., sadness, anxiety), however, compatibility hinders processing of the message. In experiment 4, the authors track emotions pre- and post-exposure to a health message to demonstrate that the effect observed occurs due to an increase in the negative emotional state in compatible situations when processing disease-related information. The authors conclude by discussing the implications of the findings for increasing the effectiveness of health-related messages.
Early History of Pediatric Ultrasound (Circa 1960–1985)

Jack O. Haller, MD Department of Radiology Beth Israel Medical Center New York, New York USA Thomas L. Slovis, MD Department of Pediatric Imaging Children’s Hospital of Michigan Detroit, Michigan USA Diane S. Babcock, MD Department of Radiology Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center Cincinnati, Ohio USA Rita L. Teele, MD Department of Radiology Starship Children’s Hospital Grafton, Auckland, New Zealand
Change in Nuptiality Patterns among Cuban Americans: Evidence of Cultural and Structural Assimilation?1:

“Is assimilation dead?” (Glazer, 1993). One group of sociologists argues that the classical assimilation model no longer, if it ever did, serves to facilitate our understanding of immigrant incorporation into American society. Another group contends that it remains a powerful tool. In this paper I test these two alternatives through an analyses of changing patterns of Cuban American nuptiality behavior throughout the 1970–90 period. Based predominantly on PUMS of the 1970, 1980 and 1990 U.S. censuses, I find support for the conjecture that the classical assimilation model, with some modifications, continues to provide us with a viable tool to study contemporary immigrant incorporation in the United States.
Using Complex Network Representation to Identify Important Structural Components of Chinese Characters

It has recently been shown that the Chinese character system can be treated as a complex network, in which the nodes represent written Chinese character components, and a connection between nodes indicates a structural relationship between the two corresponding components. This study explores the complex network formed by written Chinese components. We examine the considerations involved in generating such a network (boundary choice, weighting of edges and nodes, connectivity model, etc.). Treating these considerations as variables, we create several complex network representations of the Chinese writing system, and compare their resulting topologies. By analyzing these networks, we try to identify important written components and component clusters, and thereby gain insight into the best strategies for structure-based written Chinese vocabulary acquisition. Sample networks can be found at http://cse.unr.edu/~mgunes/Chinese/.
Estimation of Distribution Functions Using Data from Different Environments

Suppose that when a unit operates in a certain environment, its lifetime has distribution G, and when the unit operates in another environment, its lifetime has a different distribution, say F. Moreover, suppose the unit is operated for a certain period of time in the first environment and is then transferred to the second environment. Thus we observe a censored lifetime in the first environment and a failure time of a "used" unit in the second environment. We propose an EM algorithm approach for obtaining a self-consistent estimator of F using observations from both environments. The case where failure times are subject to right censoring is considered as well. We also establish the maximum likelihood estimator of F when the unit is repairable. Application and simulation studies are presented to illustrate the methods derived.
Multiple ways to incorporate Oracle's database and tools into the entire curriculum (tutorial presentation)

It is not uncommon for students to view the curriculum as pieces instead of an integrated whole. This can hinder them from applying knowledge learned previously in one course to the course they are currently taking. In addition there are a number of recurring concepts in computer science that students need to recognize. The concepts associated with the management of large amounts of information is one such area.
Both tissue and serum phospholipases release rat intestinal alkaline phosphatase

Rat intestinal alkaline phosphatase (IAP) is unique among the brush-border membrane enzymes in that it is released bidirectionally (lumen and blood) and exists in either soluble (serum) or particulate (cellular) form. To elucidate the mechanism of membrane release, we examined the effects of phosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipase C (PtdIns-PLC) and serum anchor-specific phospholipase D (PLD) on the solubility of the various tissue forms of IAP. The "solubility" of cytosol IAP could be explained in part by intracellular PtdIns-PLC activity, detected by production of acidic IAP isomers, and by ethylene glycol-bis(beta-aminoethyl ether)-N,N,N',N'-tetraacetic acid (EGTA)-sensitive PtdIns hydrolysis. Contamination with serum (abundant with anchor-specific PLD) was responsible for the complete or partial solubilization of IAP that was found during processing of light mucosal scrapings. Anchor-specific PLD activity was increased after fat feeding, and the IAP released did not react with antiserum that recognizes the PtdIns-PLC-released phospholipid portion of trypanosomal variable surface glycoprotein. These data are consistent with the hypothesis that, after secretion from the enterocyte bound to a phospholipid-rich membranous particle, IAP release into serum is mediated by serum anchor-specific PLD. The soluble forms of IAP in the lumen and the cytosol fraction appear to be due to a combination of endogenous PtdIns-PLC activity and anchor-specific PLD contamination that occurs during cell fractionation.
Review of Aesiocopa Zeller, 1877, with the Descriptions of Two New Species (Tortricidae: Sparganothini)

ABSTRACT. The formerly monotypic genus Aesiocopa Zeller, 1877 is reviewed. Three species are included: A. vacivana Zeller, 1877 (type species) from Panama and Costa Rica; A. necrofolia Brown & Phillips, new species, from Mexico, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica; and A. grandis Brown, new species, from Costa Rica. The genus is recorded sparingly from Mexico to Panama. Although A. vacivana and A. grandis are known from only a handful of specimens, A. necrofolia has been reared from larvae numerous times in Costa Rica and from 15 different plant families: Asteraceae, Euphorbiaceae, Fabaceae, Hernandiaceae, Icacinaceae, Lauraceae, Magnoliaceae, Myrsinaceae, Myrtaceae, Piperaceae, Rubiaceae, Salicaceae, Sapindaceae, Smilacaceae, and Urticaceae. The abundance of rearing records suggests that the species is polyphagous, and the paucity of field-collected adults suggests that it may not be avidly attracted to light. The same may be true for its congeners.
Practical Approaches to Designing Weather Derivatives Under Yield Data Limitations

This paper implements several contract design strategies to evaluate the effectiveness of simple semi-naive approach to index construction that can be implemented in situations where only short and/or aggregate data series are available. In order to mitigate the aggregate nature of the available yield data, we attempt to look at areas sharing the same growing conditions rather than simply located within the same administrative boundaries. In order to avoid the need for data-demanding analysis, we use agronomic requirements to specify parameters of insurance contracts, called agronomic contracts in this paper. The risk reduction of thus constructed weather index contracts, are evaluated and compared with the performance of the “optimal” contracts suggested in the literature. While the agronomic contracts do not achieve the same degree of risk reduction as the “optimal” contracts, they do provide meaningful risk protection and typically at lower premiums. As expected, the agronomic contracts perform better in homogeneous production areas.
DOES DESPERATION JUSTIFY DEPARTURES FROM ETHICAL STANDARDS

In 2007, I was a member of a taskforce empanelled by the North Carolina Institute of Medicine and charged with creating a proposal to ethically confront what was expected to be a major, worldwide pandemic of influenza. It was feared that it could create havoc, panic, and deaths that might equal, if
Digital Holographic Microscopy Study of Early Morphological Changes during Apoptosis

We present a digital holographic study of cellular volume changes during apoptosis. The reconstruction is performed by the angular spectrum method. The phase unwrapping is done in software using our varying reconstruction distance algorithm.
Antibacterial Effects of Burdock(Arctium Lappa L.) Concentrate on Vibrio parahemolyticus

The antibacterial activities of burdock roots against Vibrio parahemolyticus were investigated.The peel and peeled root of two varieties of burdock named Liuchuan and Huangji were extracted with 80% ethanol,classed as LP,LR,HP and HR respectively.The data from disk diffusion method and minimum inhibitory concentration(MIC) values showed that the antibacterial activity of LP was more significant than that of LR,HP and HR.The time–kill study indicated that V.parahemolyticus was reduced to non-detectable levels with 1000 μL/mL LP extract treatment at 4 and 25 ℃ for 7 h in DW and no bacteria cell was detected with all treatment on Day 1 at 4 and 25 ℃ in BHI.Basing on its good antibacterial activitiy,LP could be useful in control of V.parahemolyticus.
A novel time and voltage based SAR ADC design with self-learning technique

This paper presents a novel time and voltage based technique for successive approximation register (SAR) analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to improve the conversion speed. By taking advantage of the fact that at low supply voltage there will be a significant difference in comparator decision time for different input voltages, the proposed technique creates multiple auxiliary voltage levels for comparison and hence eliminates the need of additional comparators for acceleration as compared with the existing methods. In addition, a digital self-learning module is also presented, which calculates the uncertainty window required for bound update in the proposed method and thus adjusts to different process corners. To validate these concepts, a 10-bit SAR ADC is designed in 130nm CMOS process with 0.5V power supply voltage. The circuit operates in both conventional and proposed modes. Simulations show that the largest number of conversion cycles is 7, hence resulting in an acceleration of 30% over the conventional scheme, while the average number of cycles is 5.58. Simulation results also demonstrate that the proposed method does not affect accuracy. Both ADC operation modes achieve SNDR (signal-to-noise distortion ratio) of 59dB, corresponding to an ENOB (effective number of bits) of 9.5-bits.
Inhibitory effect of zinc ions on platelet aggregation and serotonin release reaction.

Abstract Collagen-induced aggregation of dog platelets and collagen-or epinephrine-induced release of c14-serotonin was significantly inhibited by zinc ions. An optimal inhibitory concentration range of added zinc which interferes with collagen-induced aggregation or release reaction was narrow, between 10 and 15 μM zinc; effective concentration of zinc inhibiting epinephrine-induced release reaction was also 15 μM, although a wider range of concentrations was also effective (1-25 μM). The presence of plasma in the incubating medium was essential for the zinc inhibitory effect; only fibrinogen and not albumin or globulin substituted for plasma. Without plasma in the medium, addition of zinc enhanced the release reaction induced either by epinephrine or collagen. The content of zinc in buffer-washed dog platelets was 0.21 μg/109 cells. During incubation with zinc added to the buffer-PPP (1:1) medium the content of zinc in platelets increased several times. Most of the excessive amount of the metal, however, leaked out of the cells during subsequent washing procedures. The possible mechanisms of the zinc effect on platelet functions are discussed.
Exenatide Treatment Alone Improves β-Cell Function in a Canine Model of Pre-Diabetes

Background Exenatide’s effects on glucose metabolism have been studied extensively in diabetes but not in pre-diabetes.
WORKSHOP SUMMARY: DNA STRAND BREAK REPAIR IN EUKARYOTES

Publisher Summary Ionizing radiations and a number of chemical agents produce strand breaks in DNA. One reason is the tendency for strand breaking agents to produce many types of lesions in DNA in addition to strand breaks. It is well established that many such strand breaks are rapidly repaired. The major reason is the relatively small number of strand breaks in cellular DNA after exposures to strand-breaking agents for which the ability of cells to form colonies has dropped substantially. In the measurement of DNA single-strand breaks, the most used method is that of alkaline gradient sedimentation. The numbers of breaks can be determined with reasonable accuracy when exposure to strand breaking agents, for example, X-rays has reduced the single-strand molecular weight to about 5 × 108 daltons or less. Reliable measurements do not seem possible by alkaline sedimentation for smaller numbers of breaks( larger single-strand DNA).
Cannabinoids and bipolar disorder

Prevalence rates of cannabis use disorders (CUDs) among patients with bipolar disorder are markedly high. Available literature on CUDs in bipolar disorder is limited and often inadequate to answer questions regarding the impact of the comorbidity. Notwithstanding, available evidence points to an association between cannabis use and an earlier age at onset of bipolar disorder, increased severity and frequency of mood episodes, particularly mania, and increased number of comorbid Axis I and II disorders, as well as severe deficits in psychosocial functioning. Less conclusive associations have been observed with suicide attempts and psychosis. Taken together, findings indicate that cannabis use may be associated with worse prognostic outcomes in patients with both disorders. Animal studies and anecdotal reports have suggested potential therapeutic effects, but to date, no definitive evidence suggests that cannabinoids are therapeutically beneficial and, therefore, further research is needed.
Research Methods in Healthcare Epidemiology: Survey and Qualitative Research

Surveys are one of the most frequently employed study designs in healthcare epidemiology research. Generally easier to undertake and less costly than many other study designs, surveys can be invaluable to gain insights into opinions and practices in large samples and may be descriptive and/or be used to test associations. In this context, qualitative research methods may complement this study design either at the survey development phase and/or at the interpretation/extension of results stage. This methods article focuses on key considerations for designing and deploying surveys in healthcare epidemiology and antibiotic stewardship, including identification of whether or not de novo survey development is necessary, ways to optimally lay out and display a survey, denominator measurement, discussion of biases to keep in mind particularly in research using surveys, and the role of qualitative research methods to complement surveys. We review examples of surveys in healthcare epidemiology and antimicrobial stewardship and review the pros and cons of methods used. A checklist is provided to help aid design and deployment of surveys in healthcare epidemiology and antimicrobial stewardship. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2016;1-6.
Persistence of memory B cells by inhibition of caspase-9-dependent and independent cell death

August 20-22, 2012 E to antigen stimulation leads to significant expansion of antigen-specific lymphocytes in adaptive immune responses. Following the clearance of antigens, most of these expanded lymphocytes are cleared by programmed cell death. However, some activated antigen-specific lymphocytes can survive and develop into memory cells. Memory B cells represent a heterogeneous population that can rapidly proliferate and differentiate into antibody secreting cells after re-encountering the antigens. It has been shown that the persistence of memory B cells is independent of the presence of antigens. To achieve long-term survival, memory B cells may suppress the intrinsic cell death pathways. The molecular mechanisms underlying the long-term survival of memory lymphocytes are investigated. Compared to germinal center B cells, memory B cells displayed inhibition in caspase signaling and were resistant to cell death during in vitro culture. Memory B cells produced less reactive oxygen species under stress and were resistant to oxidative stress-induced necrosis. Using memory B cells with conditional deletion of caspase-9, we demonstrated that the inhibition of both caspase-9-dependent apoptosis and oxidative stress-induced necrosis were important for the long-term survival of memory B cells. Simultaneously targeting distinct cell death pathways may promote the ling-term survival of memory B cells and improve the efficacy of vaccination.
Umbilical cord-care practices in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review

Neonatal sepsis is the third leading cause of deaths for infants in their first month of life. The newly cut umbilical cord can be a pathway for bacteria that can cause newborn sepsis and death. Optimal umbilical cord care practices for newborns and during the first week of life, especially in settings with poor hygiene, has the potential to avoid these preventable neonatal deaths. The purpose of this review of cord care practices is to assist in the development of behavior-change strategies to support introduction of novel cord-care regimens, particularly 7.1% chlorhexidine digluconate for umbilical cord care. We searched domestic and international databases for articles that were published in English between January 1, 2000, and August 24, 2016. We found 321 articles and reviewed 65 full-text articles using standardized inclusion criteria. The primary criteria for inclusion was a description of substances applied to the umbilical cord stump in the days following birth. We included 46 articles in this review of umbilical cord-care practices. Articles included data from 15 low- and middle-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa (8 countries), Asia (5 countries), North Africa (1 country), and Latin America and the Caribbean (1 country). Findings from this review suggest that documentation of cord-care practices is not consistent throughout low- and middle-income countries, yet existing literature depicts a firm tradition of umbilical cord care in every culture. Cord-care practices vary by country and by regions or cultural groups within a country and employ a wide range of substances. The desire to promote healing and hasten cord separation are the underlying beliefs related to application of substances to the umbilical cord. The frequency of application of the substance (either the number of days or the number of times per day the substance was applied), and source and cost of products used is not well-characterized. This desire to actively care for the umbilical cord of a newborn—as noted in the variety of cord care practices and beliefs identified in this review—points toward the need to contextualize any behavior change approach to align with the local culture.
Confucian Citizenship of Shared Virtue

Citizenship is not a part of classical Confucian political thought. The philosophers of the classical period conceived of a division between rulers and ruled. The rulers acted, the ruled were acted upon. They felt that most people did not have the knowledge necessary to participate in government effectively and instead hoped for sagely rulers and wise ministers who would care for the people’s interests. However, most modern Confucian political thinkers are democratic to at least some degree, which calls for re-thinking the absence of the role of citizen in Confucian thought. In this chapter, I argue that this absence needs to be rectified, and even democratic Confucian thinkers cannot accept liberal accounts of citizenship which either separate civic and private virtue, or conceive of civic virtues as structural rather than substantive. Based on the thought of twentieth century New Confucians, I develop an account of citizenship and civic virtue centered around the virtues that are considered part of human nature. In the process, I consider challenges regarding value pluralism and excessive government involvement in individual morality.
Language Use Contributes to Expressive Language Growth: Evidence From Bilingual Children.

The unique relation of language use (i.e., output) to language growth was investigated for forty-seven 30-month-old Spanish–English bilingual children (27 girls, 20 boys) whose choices of which language to speak resulted in their levels of English output differing from their levels of English input. English expressive vocabularies and receptive language skills were assessed at 30, 36, and 42 months. Longitudinal multilevel modeling indicated an effect of output on expressive vocabulary growth only. The finding that output specifically benefits the development of expressive language skill has implications for understanding effects of language use on language skill in monolingual and bilingual development, and potentially, for understanding consequences of cultural differences in how much children are expected to talk in conversation with adults.
Sediment supply controls equilibrium channel geometry in gravel rivers

In many gravel-bedded rivers, floods that fill the channel banks create just enough shear stress to move the median-sized gravel particles on the bed surface (D50). Because this observation is common and is supported by theory, the coincidence of bankfull flow and the incipient motion of D50 has become a commonly used assumption. However, not all natural gravel channels actually conform to this simple relationship; some channels maintain bankfull stresses far in excess of the critical stress required to initiate sediment transport. We use a database of >300 gravel-bedded rivers and >600 10Be-derived erosion rates from across North America to explore the hypothesis that sediment supply drives the magnitude of bankfull shear stress relative to the critical stress required to mobilize the median bed surface grain size ([Formula: see text]). We find that [Formula: see text] is significantly higher in West Coast river reaches (2.35, n = 96) than in river reaches elsewhere on the continent (1.03, n = 245). This pattern parallels patterns in erosion rates (and hence sediment supplies). Supporting our hypothesis, we find a significant correlation between upstream erosion rate and local [Formula: see text] at sites where this comparison is possible. Our analysis reveals a decrease in bed surface armoring with increasing [Formula: see text], suggesting channels accommodate changes in sediment supply through adjustments in bed surface grain size, as also shown through numerical modeling. Our findings demonstrate that sediment supply is encoded in the bankfull hydraulic geometry of gravel bedded channels through its control on bed surface grain size.
Estimating the duration of a refractory period in perceptual learning

Auditory skills improve with practice. Producing across-day learning requires a sufficient number of trials per session; additional trials in the same session produce no additional improvement. Thus, trials appear to integrate within a session to reach a learning threshold, after which there is a refractory period during which trials do not contribute to learning. The refractory period duration must be <24 hours because training on consecutive days yields learning each day, but its exact duration is unknown. To narrow the range of possible durations, we trained young-adult, normal-hearing listeners on a basic auditory task (interaural-level-difference discrimination) either for two sessions of sufficient training separated by 30 minutes (n = 10) or 10 hours (n = 10), or for just one session (n = 15), and assessed their learning on the next day. The 30-minute group learned no more than the single-session group, indicating the second session did not aid learning, whereas the 10-hour group learned more than ...
Chain terminal group leads to distinct thermoresponsive behaviors of linear PNIPAM and polymer analogs

Abstract Poly(alkylacrylamides), most notably poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM), are widely studied thermoresponsive polymers. Linear PNIPAM, poly(N-n-propylacrylamide) (PNnPAM) and poly(N-cyclopropylacrylamide) (PNCPAM) were synthesized via RAFT polymerization to obtain polymers with low dispersity and varying terminal groups. The polymers were studied with a combination of small-angle neutron scattering (SANS), turbidimetry measurements, and dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) simulations to determine the influence of terminal group and monomer structure on assembly and thermoresponsive behavior in solution. Large scale, fractal assemblies (larger than 1 μm) are observed below the critical temperature for polymers terminated with short hydrophobic groups, but for long hydrophobic terminal groups, polymers formed small micelles (ca. 15 nm). The two cases give rise to two distinct thermoresponsive behaviors: the fractal assemblies display the traditional coil-to-globule behavior, whereas the corona of the micelles collapsed well below the critical temperature due to n-clustering, while the micelles remained in solution. The results indicate that, despite making up only a small fraction of the polymer, the terminal groups play a large role in both the conformation and assembly of PNIPAM and its analogs below the critical temperature, and hints at the possibility of new design strategies for thermoresponsive materials.