cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Drug therapy model with time delays for HIV infection with virus-to-cell and cell-to-cell transmissions

In this paper, we analyze models of drug therapy for a HIV model with multiple delays considered in Chen et al. (J Math Anal Appl 442:642–672, 2016). As expected, in the presence of perfect inhibitors the populations of infected cells, virus, and effector cells decay exponentially to zero. When protease inhibitors are used, the production of infectious virions is diminished, as shown in our drug therapy model. First, we prove that the solution is positive and bounded from above. Our main result states that both the infected cell and infectious virus populations are asymptotically bounded by terms proportional to $$1-\eta $$ , where $$\eta \in [0,1]$$ represents the protease inhibitor(s) effectiveness. Furthermore, under an additional condition, the infectious virus population is asymptotically bounded by a constant multiple of $$(1-\eta )^2$$ .
Suspensions and Achievement: Varying Links by Type, Frequency, and Subgroup:

Researchers have shown that receiving suspensions is associated with negative educational outcomes. However, existing studies fail to control for unobservable differences between those students who...
Washington: The New Wall Street?

Financial regulatory reform undertaken without an understanding of the true causes of the recent crisis, awareness of lessons from abroad and knowledge of our own regulatory history is doomed to fail. This paper, (which is excerpted from a speech given by the author on April 8, 2010, in Washington, DC), attempts to provide a perspective for successful, enduring regulatory reform.
The Future and Challenge of Lean Six Sigma in Healthcare

This book provides an overview of Lean Six Sigma and the Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control (DMAIC) methodology, and real-world healthcare case studies applying these methods and tools. This chapter describes a view into the future with the attempt at projecting where Lean Six Sigma for healthcare will evolve over the next decade.
Nature contact at school: The impact of an outdoor classroom on children’s well-being

Nature contact facilitates healthy child development and a disconnect with nature presents potential health risks. This study was designed to test a nature intervention at an elementary school among children. An experimental crossover design was implemented over six weeks; two teachers taught their respective kindergarten classes the daily language arts lesson in either the control (indoor classroom) or nature treatment (outdoor classroom) conditions. Child well-being measures were compared in the two conditions. Teachers' redirections of child behavior were significantly fewer in the nature condition (t = 2.49, p < 0.05) compared to the control. Also, fewer children were off task in the nature condition on average. There were mixed well-being results; children reported no significance difference in happiness in the two conditions, but teachers reported modest benefit in child well-being in the nature condition. The outdoor classroom is a promising method for increasing nature contact and promoting student well-being.
Temporal patterns of ground flora response to fire in thinned Pinus – Quercus stands

The ground flora stratum affects stand structure, resource acquisition, nutrient cycling, and taxonomic richness in forest ecosystems. Disturbances such as thinning and prescribed fire alter forest...
Comparison of hospital surgical site infection rates and rankings using claims versus National Healthcare Safety Network surveillance data

National policies target healthcare-associated infections using medical claims and National Healthcare Safety Network surveillance data. We found low concordance between the 2 data sources in rates and rankings for surgical site infection following colon surgery in 155 hospitals, underscoring the limitations in evaluating hospital quality by claims data.
The Molecular Profiling Lottery: More Accuracy, Less Precision, and No Cost

The concept of complete molecular profiling to select investigational treatment options is appealing, theoretically allowing the matching of patients to investigational drugs specifically targeted to molecular features of each patient9s cancer. Although some patients do benefit from such a strategy, the vast majority do not. See related article by Tuxen et al., p. 1239
The Challenge and Importance of Differentiating Trauma and Stress-Related Disorders from Autism Spectrum Disorders

Through a case vignette, the authors explore the significant diagnostic, systemic, and parental psychological challenges in arriving at an appropriate diagnosis and service plan for children presenting with (often overlapping) symptoms of ASD and TSRD. The supports that are available for children with a diagnosis of ASD are often designed to help families access therapeutic skill builders or support workers that can help teach social skills and pragmatic language skills; resources are offered to provide respite for families. Conversely, children with a TSRD will benefit most from being engaged in therapy with their primary caregiver, thus making outside skill builders and respite care providers less effective for achieving long term goals. While a personal support worker may reduce the amount of time that a child has to build a predictable and secure relationship with their caregiver, the challenge is that parents with a child with a TSRD may be similarly tired as parents of a child with ASD from managing behaviors and would themselves benefit from respite.
Fibrin Modulates Shear-Induced NETosis in Sterile Occlusive Thrombi Formed under Haemodynamic Flow

Neutrophils can release extracellular traps (NETs) in infectious, inflammatory and thrombotic diseases. NETs have been detected in deep vein thrombosis, atherothrombosis, stroke, disseminated intravascular coagulation and trauma. We have previously shown that haemodynamic forces trigger rapid NETosis within sterile occlusive thrombi in vitro. Here, we tested the effects of thrombin, fibrin and fibrinolysis on shear-induced NETosis by imaging NETs with Sytox Green during microfluidic perfusion of factor XIIa-inhibited or thrombin-inhibited human whole blood over fibrillar collagen (±tissue factor). For perfusions under venous pressure drops (19 mm Hg/mm-clot), thrombin generation did not alter the near-zero level of NET generation. In contrast, production of thrombin/fibrin led to a twofold reduction in neutrophil accumulation and a sixfold reduction in NET generation after 30 minutes of arterial perfusion (163 mm Hg/mm-clot). Exogenously added tissue type plasminogen activator (tPA) drove robust fibrinolysis; however, tPA did not trigger NETosis under venous flow. In contrast, tPA did enhance NET generation in clots subjected to arterial pressure drops. After 45 minutes of arterial perfusion, clots treated with 30 nM tPA had a threefold increase in total NET production and a twofold increase in normalized NET generation (measured as deoxyribonucleic acid:neutrophil) compared with fibrin-rich clots. Blocking fibrin polymerization resulted in similar level of NET release seen in tPA-treated clots, whereas e-aminocaproic acid abolished the NET-enhancing effect of tPA. Therefore, fibrin suppresses NET generation and the absence of fibrin promotes NETs. We demonstrated that shear-induced NETosis was strongly inversely correlated with fibrin in sterile occlusive clots.
Systemic chemo (CTX) plus surgery and intraperitoneal (IP) CTX for patients (pts) with gastric cancer (GC) and peritoneal carcinomatosis (PC).

117Background: The role of IP CTX in pts with GC and PC is unclear. The PHOENIX-GC phase III study (J Clin Oncol 2018;35:1922) did not show overall survival (OS) benefit for IP CTX plus systemic CT...
Interparental and Parent–Child Conflict Predicting Adolescent Depressive Symptoms

The current study explored longitudinal family conflict predictors of adolescent depressive symptoms occurring during middle childhood. We tested the mediating effects of mother–child and father–child conflict when children were in 6th grade on the relation between interparental conflict when children were in 5th grade and adolescent depressive symptoms when children were in 9th grade in a sample of 601 families enrolled in the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Fathers’ reports of interparental conflict at 5th grade were related to greater mother–child and father–child conflict at 6th grade, and mothers’ reports of interparental conflict at 5th grade were related to greater mother–child conflict at 6th grade. Further, greater mother–child conflict at 6th grade was related to greater adolescent depressive symptoms at 9th grade. Results highlight the importance of understanding family system processes that unfold over time in predicting adolescent depressive symptoms.
Science dialogue mapping of knowledge and knowledge gaps related to the effects of dairy intake on human cardiovascular health and disease

AbstractDairy has been described as everything from a superfood to a poison; yet, arguments, assumptions, and data justifying these labels are not always clear. We used an issue-based information s...
STEP: A Spatio-Temporal Fine-Granular User Traffic Prediction System for Cellular Networks

While traffic modeling and prediction are at the heart of providing high-quality telecommunication services in cellular networks and attract much attention, they have been approved as an extremely challenging task. Due to the diverse network demand of Internet-based apps, the cellular traffic from an individual user can have a wide dynamic range. Most existing methods, on the other hand, model traffic patterns as probabilistic distributions or stochastic processes and impose stringent assumptions over these models. Such assumptions may be beneficial at providing closed-form formula in evaluating prediction performances, but fall short for practice use. In this paper we propose STEP, a s patio- te mporal fine-granular user traffic p rediction mechanism for cellular networks. A deep graph convolution network, called GCGRN, is constructed. It is a novel combination of the graph convolution network (GCN) and gated recurrent units (GRU), which exploits graph neural network to learn an efficient spatio-temporal model from a user’s massive dataset for traffic prediction. The prototype of STEP has been implemented. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that our model outperforms the state-of-the-art time-series based approaches. Besides, STEP merely incurs mild energy consumption, communication overhead and system resource occupancy to mobile devices. Moreover, NS-3 based simulations validate the efficacy of STEP in reducing session dropping ratio in cellular networks.
Flexible Modeling of Hurdle Conway-Maxwell-Poisson Distributions with Application to Mining Injuries.

While the hurdle Poisson regression is a popular class of models for count data with excessive zeros, the link function in the binary component may be unsuitable for highly imbalanced cases. Ordinary Poisson regression is unable to handle the presence of dispersion. In this paper, we introduce Conway-Maxwell-Poisson (CMP) distribution and integrate use of flexible skewed Weibull link functions as better alternative. We take a fully Bayesian approach to draw inference from the underlying models to better explain skewness and quantify dispersion, with Deviance Information Criteria (DIC) used for model selection. For empirical investigation, we analyze mining injury data for period 2013-2016 from the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). The risk factors describing proportions of employee hours spent in each type of mining work are compositional data; the probabilistic principal components analysis (PPCA) is deployed to deal with such covariates. The hurdle CMP regression is additionally adjusted for exposure, measured by the total employee working hours, to make inference on rate of mining injuries; we tested its competitiveness against other models. This can be used as predictive model in the mining workplace to identify features that increase the risk of injuries so that prevention can be implemented.
Immersive Non-physical Environment: High-Touch and Human Resources

The term “high-touch” focuses on patient experience in the context of interaction among patients with all aspects of their healthcare program. This is particularly relevant for planning, building, and operating a Lifestyle Medicine Center. The high-touch experience influences patient engagement and can therefore optimize clinical outcomes. Efforts of the Affordable Care Act and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have the development and implementation of high-touch models to improve outcomes with lower cost. A variety of these models are discussed. Although there are insufficient data on the effect of high-touch models on clinical outcomes with lifestyle medicine, there is evidence that increasing primary care visits reduces cardiovascular risk, improves diabetes control, and decreases hospital admissions. Logistically, in order to provide a high-touch environment in a Lifestyle Medicine Center, human resources need to be leveraged and an optimal healthcare professional and staff team created. This interdisciplinary team needs to reach patients within a diversity of clinical situations and ethno-cultural backgrounds. Two key approaches are motivational interviewing and shared decision-making.
Functional Analysis of Pupil Nonlinearities

In attempting to describe mathematically or to characterize the black box input-output behavior of the human pupil light reflex, we investigated three different basic formulations of the system. The Wiener G-functionals, a recently developed mathematical characterization of systems, will be discussed in detail but we will first briefly present two other, more standard approaches to the problem, describing functions and heuristic modeling [30]. Neglecting the experimental details — some of which will be presented later — let us assume that the experimenter has available transducers capable of generating input light stimuli as wave forms of arbitrary time dependence and monitoring an analog voltage proportional to the output, which is pupil area of a normal awake human subject.
The impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on mental health of undergraduate students in New Jersey, cross-sectional study.

Objective The COVID-19 pandemic has been a period of upheaval for college students. The objective of this study was to assess the factors associated with the increased levels of mental health burden among a sample of undergraduate college students in Northern New Jersey, the region of the U.S. severely impacted by the outbreak of COVID-19. Methods College students (N = 162) enrolled in an introductory core curriculum course completed a cross-sectional survey. The survey collected information on demographics, knowledge levels and sources of COVID-19 information, behavior changes, academic and everyday difficulties, and mental health measurements (depression, anxiety, somatization, and stress). Multivariable regression analysis was performed to identify factors associated with mental health outcomes. Results Descriptive findings indicate that students have a fundamental knowledge of COVID-19 transmission and common symptoms. Students tend to use and trust the official sources and have changed their behaviors in accordance with public health recommendations (i.e., increased hand washing, wearing mask). However, students reported a number of academic and everyday difficulties and high levels of mental health distress. High levels of depression were associated with difficulties in focusing on academic work and with employment losses, while higher levels of anxiety were more likely to be reported by students other than freshmen and those who spend more than one hour per day looking for information on COVID-19. Inability to focus on academic work and an elevated concern with COVID-19 were more likely to be associated with higher levels of somatization, while trusting news sources was associated with lower levels of somatization. Those with higher levels of perceived stress were more likely to be females, unable to focus on academic work, and report difficulties in obtaining medications and cleaning supplies. Conclusions The COVID-19 pandemic is making a significant negative impact on mental health of college students. Proactive efforts to support the mental health and well-being of students are needed.
Dysgu: A Tool to Keep Students Engaged Outside the Classroom

This paper presents an out-of-class active learning environment, called Dysgu. Dysgu presents an innovative approach to out-of-class activities by combining multiple dimensions of best practices from different spectrum of student learning into a coherent idea and delivering such activities with personalization and adaptation. The goal of the Dysgu system is to study the impact of frequent out-of-class activities on student learning and engagement when the students can compare their progress with the rest of the class and where the activities are smaller (in scope) with scaffolding support, are interactive in nature, and delivered via a mobile platform. Initial usability tests and software engineering quality matrices show that the software is easy to use, manage and extend.
A “Sugar-Coated” Proton Pump Comes into Focus: High-Resolution Structure of a Human V-ATPase

In this issue of Molecular Cell, Wang et al. (2020a) present near-atomic resolution cryoEM structures of a proton-pumping vacuolar ATPase from human cells, illuminating the glycosylation of integral subunits and identifying a novel and conserved glycolipid ligand.
Vortices as fractons

Fracton phases of matter feature local excitations with restricted mobility. Despite the substantial theoretical progress they lack conclusive experimental evidence. We discuss a simple and experimentally available realization of fracton physics. We note that superfluid vortices form a Hamiltonian system that conserves total dipole moment and trace of the quadrupole moment of vorticity; thereby establishing a relation to a traceless scalar charge theory in two spatial dimensions. Next we consider the limit where the number of vortices is large and show that emergent vortex hydrodynamics also conserves these moments. Finally, we show that on curved surfaces, the motion of vortices and that of fractons agree; thereby opening a route to experimental study of the interplay between fracton physics and curved space. Our conclusions also apply to charged particles in a strong magnetic field. Fractons are phases of matter featuring particles with restricted mobility and represent a new paradigm of quantum condensed matter physics; but observing them experimentally is a challenge. Here, the authors demonstrate a simple platform for the realisation of fracton physics with vortices of a two-dimensional superfluid.
Using real world data to support regulatory approval of drugs in rare diseases: A review of opportunities, limitations & a case example

Conducting clinical research in patients with rare diseases presents a variety of challenges. At the same time, rare diseases represent a large area of unmet medical need with a significant burden of morbidity throughout the world. One of the most common issues with designing clinical trials for rare disease populations is that the gold-standard randomized controlled trial design is often not feasible in these small and usually geographically dispersed populations. Real world data therefore has particular relevance in the rare disease setting, where it may be used as a comparator for single-arm treatment trials and in support of submissions to regulatory agencies for drugs to treat these conditions. In this report, we review the potential utility and limitations of external controls for regulatory approval of drugs in rare diseases and present a recent case example of the successful utilization of external controls in the Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) population.
Effects of an "Active-Workstation" Cluster RCT on Daily Waking Physical Behaviors.

Purpose This study aimed to evaluate the effects of sit-to-stand and treadmill desks on sedentary behavior during a 12-month, cluster-randomized multicomponent intervention with an intent-to-treat design in overweight office workers. Methods Sixty-six office workers were cluster-randomized into a control (n = 21; 8 clusters), sit-to-stand desk (n = 23; 9 clusters), or treadmill desk (n = 22; 7 clusters) group. Participants wore an activPAL™ accelerometer for 7 d at baseline, month 3, month 6, and month 12 and received periodic feedback on their physical behaviors. The primary outcome was total daily sedentary time. Exploratory outcomes included total daily and workplace sedentary, standing and stepping time, and the number of total daily and workplace sedentary, standing, and stepping bouts. Intervention effects were analyzed using random-intercept mixed linear models accounting for repeated measures and clustering effects. Results Total daily sedentary time did not significantly differ between or within groups after 12 months. Month 3 gains were observed in total daily and workplace standing time in both intervention groups (sit-to-stand desk: mean Δ ± SD, 1.03 ± 1.9 h·d-1 and 1.10 ± 1.87 h at work; treadmill desk: mean Δ ± SD, 1.23 ± 2.25 h·d-1 and 1.44 ± 2.54 h at work). At month 3, the treadmill desk users stepped more at the workplace than the control group (mean Δ ± SD, 0.69 ± 0.87 h). Month 6 gains in total daily stepping were observed within the sit-to-stand desk group (mean Δ ± SD, 0.82 ± 1.62 h·d-1), and month 3 gains in stepping at the workplace were observed for the treadmill desk group (mean Δ ± SD, 0.77 ± 0.83 h). These trends were sustained through month 12 in only the sit-to-stand desk group. Conclusions Active-workstation interventions may cause short-term improvements in daily standing and stepping. Treadmill desk users engaged in fewer sedentary bouts, but sit-to-stand desks resulted in more frequent transitions to upright physical behaviors.
Primary Retinal Vasculitis: Systemic Associations and Diagnostic Evaluation

Background: Inflammation of the retinal vasculature without an infectious etiology, systemic disease association, or concomitant ocular disease is termed primary retinal vasculitis, and can result in severe and permanent vision loss. Patients with primary retinal vasculitis usually are subjected to an extensive but unrewarding diagnostic evaluation. This study was undertaken to determine the value of such a diagnostic workup, and to determine whether systemic diseases develop in these patients during the course of their illness. Methods: The clinical records of 25 patients seen between 1984 and 1994 with the referring diagnosis of primary retinal vasculitis were reviewed retrospectively. Recorded data included patient age, sex, race, medical history, medications, visual acuity, extent of retinal disease, and the results of their diagnostic evaluations. Results: On presentation, none of the patients had an underlying systemic disease attributable as the cause of their retinal vasculitis. Review of systems was suggestive of an underlying systemic disease in 1 of 25 patients. Diagnostic evaluation in this patient showed a positive antinuclear antibody value and a double-stranded DNA, suggestive of systemic lupus erythematosus. Subsequently, systemic lupus erythematosus was diagnosed based on the development of other diagnostic criteria. The review of systems was not suggestive of an underlying systemic disease in 24 of 25 patients. False-positive diagnostic test results were obtained in 5 (20.8%) of these 24 patients. No underlying systemic disease associated with the patients' retinal vasculitis subsequently developed in any of these five patients (mean follow-up, 4 years). Conclusion: Few diagnostic tests should be ordered in patients with retinal vasculitis in the absence of a medical history suggestive of underlying systemic disease.
Counseling Center Management of After-Hours Crises: Practice and Problems

Abstract Responding to after-hours student crises is commonly expected of college counseling center staff, and is arguably one of the least-favored and most taxing aspects of counseling center work. Stressors of such work are compounded by the lack of clear guidelines in the literature regarding how such crises should ethically and legally be addressed. This study identifies counseling center practices for responding to after-hours crises at 192 schools nationwide. Practices at small, medium, and large schools are compared and problem areas discussed. Legal, ethical, and clinical implications of decision making are ad dressed and guidelines for creating an after-hours crisis policy are provided.
Bandpass /spl Sigma//spl Delta/ modulator employing undersampling and on-chip Q-enhanced LC filter

The rapid development of wireless digital radio systems (especially cellular telephony) has led to a great effort to design high resolution and high speed bandpass analog-to-digital converters. In this paper, an implementation of a continuous-time bandpass /spl Sigma//spl Delta/ modulator for use in modern cellular/PCS receivers is given. The modulator operates at a 195 MHz IF with a bandwidth of 300 kHz. The bandpass filter is implemented using an on-chip LC resonator with Q-enhanced circuit. The design employs undersampling the IF signal allowing use of standard CMOS technology and reducing the complexity of subsequent digital signal processing stages. Also, it shows a possibility of developing a receiver offering the performance of a superheterodyne scheme without requiring extra mixers to downconvert the IF signal to baseband. The modulator was implemented in a 1.2 /spl mu/m CMOS process.
Fair Weather Friends? Economics, Public Opinion, and Climate Change

Social surveys suggest that the American public’s concern about climate change has declined dramatically since 2008. This has led to a search for explanations for this decline, and great deal of concern about whether there is has been a fundamental shift in public trust in climate science. We evaluate over thirty years of public opinion data about global warming and the environment, and suggest that the decline in belief about climate change is most likely driven by the economic insecurity caused by the Great Recession. Evidence from European nations further supports an economic explanation for changing public opinion. The pattern is consistent with more than forty years of public opinion about environmental policy. Popular alternative explanations for declining support — partisan politicization, biased media coverage, fluctuations in short-term weather conditions, or the “climategate” scandal in 2009 — are unable to explain the suddenness and timing of opinion trends. The implication of these findings is that the “crisis of confidence” in climate change will likely rebound after labor market conditions improve, but not until then.
Using Semantic Information for Processing Negation and Disjunction in Logic Programs

There are many applications in which integrity constraints can play an important role. An example is the semantic query optimization method developed by Chakravarthy, Grant, and Minker for definite deductive databases. They use integrity constraints during query processing to prevent the exploration of search space that is bound to fail. In this paper, we generalize the semantic query optimization method to apply to negated atoms. The generalized method is referred to as semantic compilation. We show that semantic compilation provides an alternative search space for negative query literals. We also how semantic compilation can be used to transform a disjunctive database with or without functions and denial constraints without negation into a new disjunctive database that complies with the integrity constraints.
Substance Abuse: Drugs

Drug abuse remains one of the most serious issues afflicting both young and adult individuals in the United States and the world. While illicit drugs are most frequently thought of as being the biggest problem, legal substances like tobacco, alcohol, and prescription opiates accounts for the vast majority of negative medical, economic, and social impact. Drugs that are abused share many psychoactive properties even though the neurobiological mechanisms of action differ. Tolerance and physical dependence are common features that contribute to the sustainability of abuse but frequent relapse after successful detoxification makes it important that new and improved treatment strategies continue to be developed.
Preventable Hospitalization Among Elderly Medicare Beneficiaries With Type 2 Diabetes

OBJECTIVE —To examine the impact of comorbid conditions on preventable hospitalizations among Medicare beneficiaries aged ≥65 years with type 2 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS —Data were drawn from the 1999 Medicare Standard Analytic Files, a 5% nationally representative random sample of Medicare beneficiaries. The analysis sample included 193,556 Medicare beneficiaries aged ≥65 years with type 2 diabetes (ICD-9-CM codes 250.xx) who were enrolled in fee-for-service Medicare. Preventable hospitalization was assessed by measuring ambulatory care-sensitive conditions, an accepted measure of hospitalizations that could have been prevented with appropriate outpatient care. Multivariable analyses controlled for demographics; mortality; renal, ophthalmic, or neurological manifestations of diabetes; type of physician providing the outpatient care; and per capita community-level indicators of income and hospital beds. RESULTS —Ninety-six percent of beneficiaries in the sample had a comorbidity, and 46% had five or more comorbidities. Among beneficiaries with type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular-related comorbidities were common and accounted for increased odds of preventable hospitalization, controlling for other factors. The likelihood of a preventable hospitalization increased in the presence of a claim for comorbid congestive heart failure, cardiomyopathy, coronary atherosclerosis, hypertension, or cardiac dysrythmias. Noncardiovascular comorbidities associated with a greater likelihood of preventable hospitalization included chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma and lower respiratory disorders, Alzheimer’s disease/dementia, personality/anxiety disorders, depression, and osteoporosis. Our data suggest that nearly 7% of all hospitalizations could be avoided. CONCLUSIONS —These findings support the need for improved outpatient care strategies to reduce the impact of comorbidity on unnecessary hospitalization in patients aged ≥65 years with type 2 diabetes.
Arabidopsisearly-flowering mutants reveal multiple levels of regulation in the vegetative-to-floral transition

Abstract The isolation and characterization of flowering time mutants should further the understanding of the developmental pathways that regulate the transition to reproductive development. Because plant development is a sequential and continuous process, the genetic analysis of floral initiation is likely to benefit from the analysis of mutations that cause pleiotropic phenotypes. This review focus on early-flowering mutants ofArabidopsisthat display additional phenotypes in either inflorescence development or light perception, and discusses the possibility that genes controlling early flower development are regulated by environmentally responsive genetic pathways.
Immunochemical studies on carboxypeptidase A

Abstract Rabbit antibodies to carboxypeptidase A (CPA) were characterized by various immunochemical techniques including double diffusion in agar, enzyme inhibition and complement fixation. Procarboxypeptidase A (PCPA), the zymogen, contains two other subunits in addition to the precursor of CPA. PCPA reacts with antiCPA but less effectively than CPA indicating that whereas some antigenic determinants of the enzyme are available in the zymogen, other antigenic determinants are masked. The tryptic activation of PCPA leads to the formation of a transient endopeptidase and the active enzyme. The events which lead to the formation of CPA have been followed immunochemically. Changes which occur when CPA is acetylated or treated with a chelating agent to form the apoenzyme have also been measured by antiCPA.
Measurement of Corneal Elasticity with an Acoustic Radiation Force Elasticity Microscope

To investigate the role of collagen structure in corneal biomechanics, measurement of localized corneal elasticity with minimal destruction to the tissue is necessary. We adopted the recently developed acoustic radiation force elastic microscopy (ARFEM) technique to measure localize biomechanical properties of the human cornea. In ARFEM, a low-frequency, high-intensity acoustic force is used to displace a femtosecond laser-generated microbubble, while high-frequency, low-intensity ultrasound is used to monitor the position of the microbubble within the cornea. Two ex vivo human corneas from a single donor were dehydrated to physiologic thickness, embedded in gelatin and then evaluated using the ARFEM technique. In the direction perpendicular to the corneal surface, ARFEM measurements provided elasticity values of E = 1.39 ± 0.28 kPa for the central anterior cornea and E = 0.71 ± 0.21 kPa for the central posterior cornea in pilot studies. The increased value of corneal elasticity in the anterior cornea correlates with the higher density of interweaving lamellae in this region.
Isolation of a full length ovine angiotensin II type-1 receptor (AT1-R) cDNA.

A full-length ovine AT1-R cDNA (2358 bases: Genebank AF254119) was isolated from ovine adrenal cortex using 3′-RACE. While homology of the 5′-untranslated region to human sequence was low (34.2%), the beginning of both human exon 1 and human exon 5 (encoding the end of the 5′-untranslated sequence/complete protein coding region/3′-untranslated sequence) were exceptionally conserved and in context. The intervening untranslated sequence showed lower homology to human sequence, but still contained four additional ATG sequences close to corresponding “in frame” TGA Stop codons shown in human to impair AT1-R translation in vitro. The putative protein coding sequence was >99% identical to the previous reported ovine genomic sequence. The predicted amino acid sequence in turn encoded a protein with the properties of a seven α-helix transmembrane receptor sharing closest homology (99.1 %) to the bovine receptor and lowest to the rat Type 1a (90.5%). The 3′-untranslated region showed relatively high homology to th...
Combinatorial Development of Ternary Electrocatalysts for Methanol Oxidation

We report a combinatorial and high throughput catalyst optimization of ternary Pt-Co-Ru alloy electrocatalysts for the oxidation of methanol in Direct Methanol Fuel Cell anodes. A densely sampled ternary Pt alloy catalyst library was prepared and electrochemically tested in parallel for catalytic activity. A composition-activity map was obtained from which suitable catalyst candidates with improved activity were identified. Then, high throughput methods for evaluating corrosion stability of the alloy catalysts were developed based on structural and compositional criteria. Finally, combining stability-composition and activity-composition maps resulted in consensus maps which pointed to a new optimized ternary alloy electrocatalyst with overall composition Pt18 Co62 Ru20 .Copyright © 2007 by ASME
The relationship of insects to the deterioration of stored grain by fungi

Abstract The data presented tests the hypothesis that knowledge of basic biological relationships between insects and fungi in the stored grain ecosystem can open new paths for management of the system. Evidence indicates: (1) some storage insect species are disseminators of storage fungi and some are exterminators; (2) some storage fungi attract storage insects and promote their population increases and other repel and secrete toxins harmful to insects; (3) certain morphophysiologic, biochemical similarities of fungi and the early developmental stages of insects suggest that new protective chemicals, ‘insecticidal fungicides’, could be designed or specifically sought. A specific example of a naturally occuring compound with dual action, sorbic acid (2,4-hexadienoic acid), is given and its effect on both insects and fungi is discussed. Sorbic acid is the only compound in the U.S. presently labelled by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) as GRAS (Generally Regarded as Safe) and registered by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) for use on grain (maize) in storage.
Collisionally Induced Photoabsorption by the H - Ion

The influence of charged-particle interactions on the photoionization cross section of ${\mathrm{H}}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ is reinvestigated. In particular, polarization of the initial state which gives rise to a free $s$-wave electron in the final state is considered. It is found that a perturber density of roughly ${10}^{20}$ ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$ is necessary in order for this process to compete with the usual transition in the near-infrared region. This is in sharp disagreement with the result of a previous investigation.
A Trusted Third-party (TTP) based Encryption Scheme for Ensuring Data Confidentiality in Cloud Environment

Abstract Cloud computing is an emerging paradigm that affects a large part of the IT industry by offering dynamically scalable resources (e.g., hardware and software) that are provisioned as a service over the Internet. Cloud computing provides numerous advantages to organizations in terms of improved scalability, lower cost, and flexibility, to name a few. Despite these technical and economical advantages, many potential cloud consumers are still hesitant to adopt cloud computing due to security and privacy concerns. In particular, one of the main factors for the reluctance of organizations to adopt cloud computing is the lack of strong encryption scheme that can ensure the confidentiality of client's data while store in cloud service provider's (CSPs) data centers. With the existing encryption schemes adopted by the CSPs, there is always a possibility that the client's data can be compromised due to insider threats. In this paper, we propose a new scheme capable to secure client information from both insider and outsider threats. In particular, we develop an encryption scheme by combining both symmetric and asymmetric cryptographic algorithms, which provide strong data confidentiality preserving secret key encryption functionalities, including periodically renewable public key certificates through trusted third parties. Due to these functionalities, the data owner can utilize the best secret key encryption schemes while the trusted third party will hold and communicate the secret keys to CSPs on behalf of cloud service users (CSUs).
Garden labor exchange among the Ye'kwana

Abstract The Ye'kwana Indians of southern Venezuela engage in extensive garden labor exchange. Approximately 40% of a household's labor is committed to gardens owned by other households. Owing to a number of situational constraints inherent in Ye'kwana household organization and garden ownership, individuals are not free to benefit other individuals directly. For example, if an individuals labors in another household's garden he benefits all members of the household who feed from that garden. Knowledge of these constraints led to the formulation and succesful testing of a simple inclusive fitness model that predicts that mean relatedness between households is correlated with the intensity and balance in exchange. In addition, it is argued that the Ye'kwana system of garden labor exchange is a form of reciprocity biased by kinship.
Cardiac adaptation to increased systemic blood pressure in borderline hypertensive men

Abstract The present study examined cardiac characteristics of borderline hypertensive men with a positive parental history of hypertension. Hemodynamics in relation to left ventricular function and structure were evaluated in 15 borderline hypertensive men with a parental history of hypertension and in 20 normotensive control subjects with a negative parental history. Groups were matched in age, height, weight and percent body fat. Left ventricular mass and dimensions were measured by M-mode echocardiography, and left ventricular function was assessed by radionuclide ventriculography. Both groups had similar left ventricular mass, dimensions and wall thicknesses. In relation to control subjects, borderline hypertensive men had a significantly higher heart rate and blood pressure (BP) (p
Studies of a cell line derived from a human malignant melanoma.

Employing in vitro methodology and new staining techniques, changes in karyotype of a heteroploid tumor cell line derived from a pulmonary metastasis of a malignant melanoma were studied over 10 months of continuous cultivation. The modal karyotype of tumor cells in a 3-week-old culture was composed of 41 intact and 11 marker chromosomes. These markers contained three paired (disomic) and five other (monosomic) elements. The derivative cell populations in 5- to 10-month-old cultures showed changes merely in the paired markers from disomy to monosomy, by loss of one element or by formation of a new marker chromosome. Prolonged treatment in a defined medium completely devoid of serum resulted in a selection of heteroploid cells and suppression of diploid fibroblasts. The heteroploid cultures were further enriched by collecting freely suspended cells. Growth of tumor and normal cells in mixed culture had no apparent influence on either cell type.
MR arthrography of the shoulder and hip after fluoroscopic landmarking.

Purpose. To describe a technique for intra-articular injection in the MR suite after conventional fluoroscopic landmarking in order to streamline MR arthrography.
Altered Pituitary-Thyroid Function in the Brattleboro Rat with Diabetes Insipidus*

To determine the roles of vasopressin in the regulation of the pituitary-thyroid axis, we studied this axis in vasopressin-deficient Brattleboro rats with diabetes insipidus. When plasma TSH, T3, and T4 concentrations were determined by RIA, it was found that plasma TSH levels were increased by 100–170%, and T3 levels were lowered by about 20% in the homozygous (DI) and heterozygous (HZ) Brattleboro rats. The plasma T4 level decreased by about 20% in DI rats, whereas its level in HZ rats was similar to the control level. TRH (250 ng/ 100 g BW, iv) increased plasma TSH levels at 10 and 20 min in all three groups, but the TSH response to TRH in DI and HZ rats was significantly greater than that in the control rats. Continuous administration of desamino-D-arginine vasopressin (48 ng/day for 7 days, sc) normalized urine volume and osmolality in DI rats, but did not affect the abnormalities in the pituitary-thyroid axis. The same dose of DDAVP in HZ anials significantly decreased urine volume and increased osm...
Agricultural Economics beyond the Farm Gate

The industrialization of American agriculture during the past three decades has diminished farm numbers and the farm population. While total agricultural production has increased, the input, finance, service, processing, transportation, and distribution industries surrounding production agriculture have now become the dominant economic components of the food and agriculture system. The transformation of production agriculture from a major economic sector of the U.S. economy to minor status has been in progress since the founding days of the Republic, but has received impetus in the post-World War II era via the technological revolution involving mechanical, chemical, biological, and managerial innovations on the farm. What has emerged from this process is a highly interdependent subsystem of the U.S. economy for providing food and fiber for consumers at home and abroad. Agricultural scientists, including agricultural economists, have tended to place undue emphasis upon the technological, economic, and social aspects of production agriculture as the food and fiber system changed over time. While public investments in research and education for the production side of agriculture are admittedly inadequate, the lack of attention to the technological and economic problems of the balance of the food and fiber system is deplorable. In terms of value added, employment, or other measures of economic importance, the food and fiber system beyond the farm gate is roughly twice that of production agriculture. More significantly, productivity and inflation problems beyond the farm gate have affected national economic performance more persistently than gyrations in the farm economy per se. The overall purpose of this paper is to challenge agricultural economists and policy makers to think about some important issues facing our contemporary economic system. This emphasis does not mean that farm production economics is unimportant or unnecessary. It is argued, however, that changes are needed within the agricultural economics profession to deal with a large number of significant economic problems and concerns beyond the farm gate.
Enthalpies of hydrogenation of the dimethylpentenes, ethylpentenes, methylethylbutene, and trimethylbutene

Abstract The molar enthalpies of hydrogenation are given for the dimethylpentenes, ethylpentenes, methylethylbutene, and trimethylbutene. Four compounds with terminal double bonds not stabilized by a methyl group have a mean Δ hyd H m o of −122 kJ·mol −1 , within a narrow range. Terminal double bonds stabilized by a methyl or ethyl group in the 2-position have a mean Δ hyd H m o = −114 kJ·mol −1 , while double bonds in the 2-position stabilized by one or two methyl groups or an ethyl group α to it have Δ hyd H m o = −108 kJ·mol −1 . The exceptional case is cis -4,4-dimethylpent-2-ene, which has Δ hyd H m o = −130.4 kJ·mol −1 , owing to cis -repulsion energy. Comparison with existing literature values is made.
Pharmacogenomics of Alcohol Response and Addiction

Alcoholism is a complex psychiatric disorder that has high heritability (50–60%) and is relatively common; in the US the lifetime prevalence of alcohol dependence is 20% in men and 8% in women. Current psychosocial and pharmacological therapies have relatively modest effects. Treatment is complicated by the fact that alcoholism is often co-morbid with other disorders, including anxiety, depression, and antisocial personality disorder. Approximately 80% of alcoholics smoke cigarettes and there is considerable genetic overlap between nicotine and alcohol addiction. Convergent evidence supports the classification of alcoholics into two broad categories: type 1 — later onset with feelings of anxiety, guilt, and high harm avoidance; and type 2 — early age of onset, usually men, impulsive, antisocial, and with low levels of brain serotonin.
Susceptibility of Dall sheep (Ovis dalli dalli) to pneumonia caused by Pasteurella haemolytica

We evaluated susceptibility of Dall sheep (Ovis dalli dalli) to bacterial pneumonia induced by two strains of Pasteurella haemolytica of domestic sheep origin by evaluating the sensitivity of blood neutrophils of eight Dall sheep to lysis by cytotoxins of P haemolytica, and by intratracheal inoculation of three Dall sheep, two bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis), and two domestic sheep with 3.7 × 106 or 2.5 × 107 colony forming units of P haemolytica. Neutrophils from the Dall sheep were more sensitive to lysis by cytotoxins from supernatants of a P. haemolytica, biotype A, serotype 2 (A2), of domestic sheep origin, than were neutrophils from six bighorn sheep. This cytotoxic bacterium was the same isolate that was used for intratracheal inoculation of two Dall sheep and two domestic sheep. Inoculation of this cytotoxic P. haemolytica A2 resulted in fatal fibrinopurulent pleuropneumonia in the first Dall sheep within 24 hr of inoculation, and pneumonic lesions in the second Dall sheep before it was euthanized...