cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Value of multidisciplinary collaboration in acute and chronic pancreatitis

Multidisciplinary collaboration (MDC) has been widely adopted in healthcare to optimize patient care. MDC brings several specialized healthcare providers to the table using several methods, including multidisciplinary meetings (MDMs), multidisciplinary clinics, teleconferences, and online multidisciplinary expert panels, to reach the goal of achieving the best diagnosis and treatment plan for complex diseases. Diagnosis and management of acute/chronic pancreatitis is complex which necessitates the development and utilization of MDC. The key members of pancreatitis MDM include gastroenterologists, radiologists, pathologists, hepatobiliary surgeons, chairperson, and a coordinator. After selection of admitted or referred patients, the availability of required information is reviewed, and then each case is discussed. The final diagnosis and treatment plan is confirmed by consensus, especially for complex cases that require endoscopic intervention or pancreatectomy and patients with the possibility of pancreatic adenocarcinoma. It has been shown that MDMs have improved the clinical outcome of patients with acute/chronic pancreatitis. In addition to MDM, the feasibility of multidisciplinary clinics, teleconferences, and online multidisciplinary expert panels for the management of pancreatic disorders has been investigated. Understanding structure, potential advantages, and limitations of MDC will help clinicians and healthcare systems in developing an optimized MDC to improve the management of acute/chronic pancreatitis. This narrative review summarized prior recommendations and explored the impact of MDC on clinical outcomes of patients with pancreatitis. Our recommendations offer a generalizable method that can be utilized by healthcare systems.
EoE disease monitoring: Where we are and where we are going.

Abstract Objective To review literature on various methods of monitoring and characterizing eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) with respect to their validity as well as risk to the patient. Data Sources A literature search was performed using PubMed with keyword combinations of EoE and monitoring as well as various techniques used for monitoring, including but not limited to, symptoms, endoscopy, histology, fluoroscopy, FLIP, noninvasive monitoring, and biomarkers. Study Selections Case-control studies, observational studies, peer-reviewed reviews and guidelines, and systematic reviews were selected, reviewed, and summarized here. Results A wealth of research regarding monitoring of EoE is currently being undertaken and published. Our review highlights those that have been validated and are currently being used, as well as some that show promise for future monitoring and disease characterization. Conclusion Eosinophilic esophagitis is a chronic condition that at this time requires upper endoscopy as the gold standard of diagnosis and monitoring. There is a great need in the field for less invasive monitoring tools and better ways to characterize disease to allow for personalization of therapies.
Addressing the data guardian and geospatial scientist collaborator dilemma: how to share health records for spatial analysis while maintaining patient confidentiality.

The utility of being able to spatially analyze health care data in near-real time is a growing need. However, this potential is often limited by the level of in-house geospatial expertise. One solution is to form collaborative partnerships between the health and geoscience sectors. A challenge in achieving this is how to share data outside of a host institution’s protection protocols without violating patient confidentiality, and while still maintaining locational geographic integrity. Geomasking techniques have been previously championed as a solution, though these still largely remain an unavailable option to institutions with limited geospatial expertise. This paper elaborates on the design, implementation, and testing of a new geomasking tool Privy, which is designed to be a simple yet efficient mechanism for health practitioners to share health data with geospatial scientists while maintaining an acceptable level of confidentiality. The basic premise of Privy is to move the important coordinates to a different geography, perform the analysis, and then return the resulting hotspot outputs to the original landscape. We show that by transporting coordinates through a combination of random translations and rotations, Privy is able to preserve location connectivity among spatial point data. Our experiments with typical analytical scenarios including spatial point pattern analysis and density analysis shows that, along with protecting spatial privacy, Privy maintains the spatial integrity of data which reduces information loss created due to data augmentation. The results from this study suggests that along with developing new mathematical techniques to augment geospatial health data for preserving confidentiality, simple yet efficient software solutions can be developed to enable collaborative research among custodians of medical and health data records and GIS experts. We have achieved this by developing Privy, a tool which is already being used in real-world situations to address the spatial confidentiality dilemma.
An Interprofessional Approach to Targeted Sonography Training Using Computer-Based Simulation in Medical Students’ Clinical Training: A Case Series:

Purpose:Document a feasibility study of an interprofessional approach to targeted sonography training (TST) for medical students, incorporating computer-based simulation (CBS).Procedure:Three parti...
Anthropological Approaches to Why Brexit Matters

The anthropology of Brexit reflects a complicated Brexit process that has involved all of the nations of Europe in various ways, and has been linked to other social, political and economic forces worldwide. With reference to four views of Brexit by anthropologists long known for their ethnographic work in the UK, France, Hungary, Ireland and the former Yugoslavia, this introduction to a special issue reviews the Brexit process as both a chronicle of what has already been achieved by anthropologists and as a possible stimulus to future research. It argues that the anthropology of Brexit should be viewed from many perspectives, including but not limited to the comparative examination of power, culture and political economy.
Continuous Glucose Monitoring for Underserved and Minority Patients with Type 2 Diabetes in an Interprofessional Internal Medicine Clinic.

Objective Evaluate the impact of interprofessional continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) on glycemic control in underserved and minority patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Methods The IRB-approved, retrospective quasi-experimental study was conducted between August 2018 and August 2019 at an internal medicine residency clinic. Adult patients with diagnosed T2DM, an indication for CGM (hyperglycemia, hypoglycemia, and/or glycemic variability), and at least 10 consecutive days of CGM data were included. Patients who were pregnant and/or missed one or more clinic appointments were excluded. Patients were followed weekly over a 14-day period during which data from the CGM sensor were downloaded and interpreted by the interprofessional team. Interventions with shared decision-making were made at each visit. Results Fifty-five patients were included, with a mean age of 61+11.2 years, 86% were of non-white race, and 56% were female. Average blood glucose levels decreased from 208.39 mg/dL at week 1 to 190.74 mg/dL at week 2, a 17.65 mg/dLreduction (p = 0.0281). Time within target range (70-180 mg/dL) increased by 6.16% (p = 0.0038), while time above range (>180 mg/dL) decreased by 5.5% (p = 0.0168). Average number of hypoglycemic events (readings 0.05). Of the 66 interventions made after week 1, 33% were made by the pharmacy team, 56% were made by the attending or resident physicians, and 11% were made by the dietician. Of 59 interventions made after week 2, 32% were made by the pharmacy team, 49% were made by the attending or resident physicians, and 19% were made by the dietician. Conclusions The interprofessional collaborative CGM service was associated with improvements in glucose control based on increased time within target range and reduced hyperglycemia, without increasing the risk of hypoglycemia or medication burden.
Optimizing Inference Performance of Transformers on CPUs.

The Transformer architecture revolutionized the field of natural language processing (NLP). Transformers-based models (e.g., BERT) power many important Web services, such as search, translation, question-answering, etc. While enormous research attention is paid to the training of those models, relatively little efforts are made to improve their inference performance. This paper comes to address this gap by presenting an empirical analysis of scalability and performance of inferencing a Transformer-based model on CPUs. Focusing on the highly popular BERT model, we identify key components of the Transformer architecture where the bulk of the computation happens, and propose three optimizations to speed them up. The optimizations are evaluated using the inference benchmark from HuggingFace, and are shown to achieve the speedup of up to x2.37. The considered optimizations do not require any changes to the implementation of the models nor affect their accuracy.
An Enemy We Will Not Tolerate: The Politics of Punishment Attacks and Policing

The prevailing wisdom in the political science literature holds that insurgent groups serve their own interests most effectively when they use selective violence against suspected collaborators hidden amongst their constituents. By targeting those that are believed to be disloyal, the insurgents demonstrate their own lethal efficiency while simultaneously undermining promises made by the government to protect those that prove willing to provide intelligence on local insurgent activity. However, insurgents have also demonstrated a tendency to use selective violence in order to establish their own systems of law enforcement to deal with common criminals, such as thieves and vandals. These acts of rough justice serve as part of the insurgent group's overall strategy to build institutions of governance to replace those provided by the state, although they are unlikely to serve as effective deterrents to collaboration and often appear to have the opposite effect. Vigilante actions draw on the same pool of relatively scarce resources — manpower, money, vehicles and the like — that insurgents must also rely on in their pursuit of victory over government forces on the battlefield. As a result, the institution-building and war-fighting goals of insurgent groups are often in tension with each other. This paper offers a formal model to explain how insurgents resolve this tension in the context of their competition with the state to become the dominant providers of law enforcement. Hypotheses are derived from the model and evidence is presented from a variety of intrastate conflicts to justify the core assumptions of the model and demonstrate the plausibility of the hypotheses.
The 44 kDa Pim-1 kinase phosphorylates BCRP/ABCG2 and thereby promotes its multimerization and drug resistant activity in human prostate cancer cells

AACR Annual Meeting-- Apr 12-16, 2008; San Diego, CA 3244 We previously showed that the 44 kDa serine/threonine kinase Pim-1 (Pim-1L) can protect prostate cancer cells from apoptosis induced by chemotherapeutic drugs (Oncogene, 25: 70-78, 2006). To further explore the mechanisms of Pim-1L mediated resistance to chemotherapeutic drugs in prostate cancer cells, we employed a yeast two-hybrid screening to identify cellular proteins that are associated with Pim-1L and we found the ABC transporter BCRP/ABCG2 as one of the potential interacting partners of Pim-1L. We also showed that the expression level of Pim-1L and BCRP are up-regulated in mitoxantrone and docetaxel-resistant prostate cancer cell lines. Pim-1L is colocalized with BCRP on the plasma membrane and induces phosphorylation of BCRP at Threonine 362. Knocking-down Pim-1L expression in the drug resistant prostate cancer cells abolished multimer formation of endogenous BCRP and resensitized the resistant cells to chemotherapeutic drugs, suggesting that BCRP phosphorylation induced by Pim-1L is essential for its functionality. This is further corroborated by our finding that the plasma membrane localization and drug resistant activity of BCRP was compromised by T362A mutation. Our data suggest that Pim-1L may protect prostate cancer cells from apoptosis, at least in part, through regulation of transmembrane drug efflux pump. These findings may provide a potential therapeutic approach by disrupting Pim-1 signaling to reverse BCRP-mediated multidrug resistance.
Income Falsification on Mortgage Applications During the Housing Bubble

We develop new measures to detect income falsification on mortgage applications during the housing bubble. We find that regulators failed to prevent income falsification. Additionally, regulatory requirements imposed on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the “GSEs”) to promote lending in regulator-defined “underserved areas,” encouraged securitizers to purchase mortgages with falsified income from those areas, for resale to the GSEs. There were also regulations that required lenders that wished to merge across state lines to demonstrate that they were serving “community needs.” These regulations are found to have a similar effect. They encouraged lenders to make loans with falsified income to low-income areas, and may have also caused lenders to buy poor quality securitized loans. These findings provide a systemic explanation for the rise in poor quality subprime mortgages, particularly securitized mortgages.
The multigap resistive plate chamber as time-of-flight detector for the STAR experiment at RHIC

The Multigap Resistive Plate Chamber (MRPC) is a suitable candidate for the Time-of-Flight system for the STAR experiment at RHIC at the BNL A time resolution of 50 ps with an efficiency of 98 %has been measured with MRPCs composed of 6 gas gaps of 220 i.tm. Results obtained during the year 2000 are reported here. © 2002 CSI. All rights reserved
Substance Abuse Among Single Moms: Towards a Qualitative, Psychological and Emotional Approach

This paper reviews the emotional and psychological assessment of substance use among single mothers who are in a recovery program. The study addresses the impact of addiction on children and family. It examined how different kinds of substance alter behavior and relationship between users and other individuals in their environment. It describes substance use following exploratory methodology and investigative framework. The setting of this study was a very diverse one and participants were selected from a cross-racial standpoint. Units of study were substance abuse recovery centers located in Grand Rapids Michigan. The mission of these recovery centers aimed at helping substance abuse patients understand the enormous impact of addiction on self, children, family and environment. A myriad number of themes however emerged during this study which demonstrates that there exists a correlation in behavior pattern, in emotional swing and psychological attitude abusers display while they were under the influence of substance. A large number of literatures on substance abuse treatment were assessed to evaluate its pragmatic consequences and relevance to participant‟s ongoing emotional swing and reaction to their environment and family as well. However, much of the current literatures available were in a form of opinion without sound statistical research base and analysis.
The human brain and face: mechanisms of cranial, neurological and facial development revealed through malformations of holoprosencephaly, cyclopia and aberrations in chromosome 18

The study of inborn genetic errors can lend insight into mechanisms of normal human development and congenital malformations. Here, we present the first detailed comparison of cranial and neuro pathology in two exceedingly rare human individuals with cyclopia and alobar holoprosencephaly (HPE) in the presence and absence of aberrant chromosome 18 (aCh18). The aCh18 fetus contained one normal Ch18 and one with a pseudo-isodicentric duplication of chromosome 18q and partial deletion of 18p from 18p11.31 where the HPE gene, TGIF, resides, to the p terminus. In addition to synophthalmia, the aCh18 cyclopic malformations included a failure of induction of most of the telencephalon – closely approximating anencephaly, unchecked development of brain stem structures, near absence of the sphenoid bone and a malformed neurocranium and viscerocranium that constitute the median face. Although there was complete erasure of the olfactory and superior nasal structures, rudiments of nasal structures derived from the maxillary bone were evident, but with absent pharyngeal structures. The second non-aCh18 cyclopic fetus was initially classified as a true Cyclops, as it appeared to have a proboscis and one median eye with a single iris, but further analysis revealed two eye globes as expected for synophthalmic cyclopia. Furthermore, the proboscis was associated with the medial ethmoid ridge, consistent with an incomplete induction of these nasal structures, even as the nasal septum and paranasal sinuses were apparently developed. An important conclusion of this study is that it is the brain that predicts the overall configuration of the face, due to its influence on the development of surrounding skeletal structures. The present data using a combination of macroscopic, computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques provide an unparalleled analysis on the extent of the effects of median defects, and insight into normal development and patterning of the brain, face and their skeletal support.
Sleep restoration is associated with reduced plasma C-reactive protein and depression symptoms in military personnel with sleep disturbance after deployment

Abstract Background Deployed military personnel are vulnerable to chronic sleep disturbance, which is highly comorbid with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression, as well as declines in health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Inflammation is associated with HRQOL declines and sleep-related comorbidities; however, the impact of sleep changes on comorbid symptoms and inflammation in this population is unknown. Methods In this observational study, we examined the relationship between reported sleep changes and concentrations of inflammatory biomarkers, interleukin 6 (IL-6), and C-reactive protein (CRP) in peripheral blood. The sample was dichotomized into two groups: (1) decrease in Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI; restorative sleep) and (2) no change or increase in PSQI (no change). Mixed between–within subjects analysis of variance tests were used to determine group differences on changes of inflammation and comorbid symptoms. Results In our sample of 66 recently deployed military personnel with insomnia, 34 participants reported restorative sleep whereas 32 reported no sleep changes. The two groups did not differ in demographic or clinical characteristics, with the exception of PTSD diagnosis at baseline. The restorative sleep group had significant reductions in CRP concentrations and depression symptoms, as well as reduced fatigue and improvements in emotional well-being, social functioning, and physical functioning at follow-up. Conclusions Military personnel who report sleep restoration after deployment have reduced CRP concentrations, decreased severity of depression, and improved HRQOL. These findings suggest that treatment for sleep disturbances may be associated with improvements in mental and physical health, thereby supporting continued study in this line of research.
Programmed cell death: Implications for neuropsychiatric disorders

Programmed cell death, sometimes referred to as apoptosis, occurs through an active process requiring new gene transcription, in contrast to the passive cell death produced by metabolic toxins. Programmed cell death is an essential part of normal development, particularly in the nervous system. Spatial, temporal, or quantitative errors in the stimuli that initiate programmed cell death, or errors within the programmed cell death pathway itself, can result in an abnormal number of neurons and pathological neural development. Excesses and deficits in neuronal numbers have now been observed not only in typical neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's and Huntington's diseases, but also in several neurodevelopmental disorders, including schizophrenia and autism. Recent investigations into the mechanisms of cell death during C. elegans neurodevelopment thymocyte negative selection, and withdrawal of sympathetic ganglion cells trophic support provides intriguing clues to the etiology and pathophysiology of these neuropsychiatric disorders.
Purification and some regulatory properties of glycogen synthase I from rabbit renal medulla.

Abstract 1. 1. Glycogen synthase I (activity ratio ≈ 1) was purified over 10,000-fold from rabbit renal medulla. 2. 2. The purified synthase was stimulated about 1.5-fold by glucose-6-P and other divalent anions when assayed at pH 7.7 and near saturating UDPGlc. When assayed at physiological UDPGlc (75–100 μM), the enzyme was stimulated about 5-fold by glucose-6-P. 3. 3. At pH 7.7 the activation by either Na 2 SO 4 or glucose-6-P was due to an increase in V and a decrease in S 0.5 for UDPGlc. At pH 6.9, activation was due to a decrease in S 0.5 . 4. 4. At low UDPGlc, synthase activity was inhibited by adenine nucleotides and the inhibition was partially relieved by glucose-6-P. UDP inhibited in a competitive manner with respect to UDPGlc. 5. 5. These results suggest that the activity of renal medullary synthase I may be regulated by cellular metabolites.
THE ELECTROPHYSIOLOGIC EFFECTS OF AMIODARONE AND HALOTHANE ON CANINE PURKINJE FIBERS

Amiodarone may cause serious complications in patients receiving general anesthetics. Potentially adverse electrophysiologic interactions between amiodarone and halothane were studied with the use of standard microelectrode techniques to record intracellular action potentials (APs) from excised canine Purkinje fibers. A second dog (support dog) was anesthetized and a femoral arteriovenous bypass circuit created in which arterial blood from the support dog superfused the Purkinje fiber in a tissue bath. The applicability of this model was established by first comparing the AP effects of halothane during blood perfusion with those in Tyrode's solution. Halothane reduced AP duration (APD; P less than 0.05) during Tyrode's solution superfusion and blood cross-perfusion. After the blood perfusion-Purkinje fiber model was validated, the interaction between halothane and amiodarone was studied using Purkinje fibers from dogs chronically treated with oral amiodarone, superfused with blood from chronically amiodarone-treated support dogs. Amiodarone reduced resting membrane potential and prolonged APD. Depression of AP amplitude and reduction of the maximum rate of increase of phase 0 of the AP (Vmax) by halothane (both P less than 0.05) suggested risk of conduction defects if halothane is administered to patients receiving chronic amiodarone therapy.
Tremolite decomposition on Venus II. Products, kinetics, and mechanism

Abstract We present revised tremolite powder thermal decomposition kinetics using previous and newly acquired data from longer time (years instead of months) and lower temperature experiments (
Cobranding arrangements and partner selection: a conceptual framework and managerial guidelines

Cobranding, the strategy of marketing brands in combination, has received increasing attention from academics and practitioners alike. This study examines two cobranding decisions facing a firm: the cobranding structure and the selection of a partner. Propositions rooted in the theories of attribution and categorization posit (a) how the levels of cobranding integration, exclusivity, and duration influence brand evaluation and consideration and (b) how consistency with the partner brand in hedonic attributes, complementarity in functional attributes, and brand breadth moderate the effect of partnership structure. Higher integration or longer duration likely has a greater impact on evaluation and consideration; an exclusive arrangement has a greater effect on evaluation but lowers consideration. For managers, these propositions are directly applicable; the outcomes of brand evaluation and consideration map onto the strategic goals of brand development and market development, respectively.
Evaluation and treatment of pediatric idiopathic urolithiasis-revisited.

The objective of the study was to update the evaluation and treatment of idiopathic urolithiasis in children in Western society. A secondary goal was to evaluate patients’ compliance with high fluid intake. Over 2 years we prospectively studied children referred to us for idiopathic urolithiasis confirmed radiographically, excluding those with secondary disorders. A metabolic urinalysis, which included calcium, citrate, uric acid, oxalate, cystine, and creatinine, was ordered in all patients. Hypercalciuric patients were first treated with a low-sodium (Na)/high-potassium (K) diet and if hypercalciuria persisted, thiazides or potassium citrate was added. Follow-up ultrasound scans were scheduled every 10–12 months. Urine specific gravity (SG) measured during clinic visits was used to assess compliance with high fluid intake. A survey was sent to pediatric urologists and nephrologists to establish a recommended maximal SG value. Thirty healthy school-aged children served as controls. There were 45 children (24 males, 21 females) aged 10.4±2.0 years (median 11.0) studied. Stones were retrieved and analyzed in 28 showing calcium composition in all. Urine chemistry analysis was incomplete in 3, and in the others showed hypercalciuria in 33 (78.6%), hypocitraturia in 1 (2.4%), and normal values in 8 (19.0%). Treatment of 33 hypercalciuric patients consisted of diet alone in 13, potassium citrate in 17, thiazides in 2, and potassium citrate and thiazide in 1. All 33 achieved normocalciuria, apart from 2 who remained mildly hypercalciuric on diet alone. The 12 normocalciuric children were treated by diet modification alone. Follow-up ultrasonography showed no new stones in 36 of 39 patients. In 3, new stone formation was associated with recurrence of hypercalciuria after the potassium citrate dose was lowered or discontinued. Upon their first clinic visit, the urine SG of stone formers (1.021±0.007) was significantly higher than the maximum SG recommended by 18 physicians of 1.010±0.003 (P<0.001), and not different from the SG in the control group (1.018±0.007). Urine SG at follow-up visits was unchanged in stone formers. We therefore propose a step-wise approach in evaluating children with idiopathic urolithiasis in Western society, in which first only urine calcium is studied. Only if urine calcium is normal, should other chemistries be studied. In many hypercalciuric children, low-Na/high-K diet alone is effective, while in most others the addition of potassium citrate is well tolerated, normalizes calciuria, and protects against new stone formation. Children rarely comply with the recommendation of high fluid intake.
Goal-oriented stimulus generation for analog circuits

We present a methodology to generate goal-oriented test cases for verifying nonlinear analog circuits. We use a learning-based approach to identify the goal regions in circuit's state space. We use the information that we learn to guide the growth of Rapidly-exploring Random Trees (RRTs) towards these goal regions. Compared to previous approaches for test generation, our methodology generates several test cases of the circuit that are more concentrated in the relevant operating regions. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach on typical case studies. We show that our methodology can be used to generate test cases for undesirable behavior that was previously hard to detect.
Cost-effectiveness of adjunctive hyperbaric oxygen in the treatment of diabetic ulcers.

Objectives: This study estimates the cost-effectiveness (CE) of the adjunctive use of hyperbaric oxygen (HBO2) therapy in the treatment of diabetic ulcers based on the payer's and societal perspectives.Methods: The study population was a hypothetical cohort of 1,000 patients sixty years of age with severe diabetic foot ulcers. A decision tree model was constructed to estimate the CE of HBO2 therapy in the treatment of diabetic ulcers at years 1, 5, and 12. Scenario and one-way sensitivity analyses were also undertaken to identify parameters that may significantly influence the estimates.Results: The CE model estimated that the incremental cost per additional quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gained at years 1, 5, and 12, was $2,255, respectively.Conclusions: The study results indicate that HBO2 therapy in the treatment of diabetic ulcers is cost-effective, particularly based on a long-term perspective. However, the results are limited by the clinical studies that provide the basis of the CE estimation.
Effects of ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) on protein turnover in cultured muscle cells.

Abstract The goal of the study was to evaluate the mechanism by which ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) regulated protein metabolism in skeletal muscle. L8 myotubes were cultured and effects of various times and doses of CNTF on protein synthesis and degradation were evaluated. Effects of CNTF on turnover of specific pools of proteins (myofibrillar and non-myofibrillar) were also evaluated. Protein synthesis was assayed by incorporation of radioactive tyrosine into muscle proteins. Degradation was assessed by release of labelled tyrosine from pre-labelled myotubes. Effects of CNTF on protein turnover were found to be time- and dose-dependent. CNTF (1 and 10 ng/ml) increased myofibrillar protein synthesis after 12 h of exposure but had no effect on non-myofibrillar protein synthesis. Longer exposures of CNTF (24 h) reduced non-myofibrillar protein synthesis and had no effect on myofibrillar protein synthesis. High concentrations of CNTF (10 and 20 ng/ml) reduced myofibrillar protein degradation but had no effect on degradation of non-myofibrillar proteins. To evaluate the mechanism by which CNTF exerts control of protein turnover, we completed a Northern blot for CNTF receptor α-subunit (CNTFRα). This was non-detectable via conventional northern analysis. Use of RT-PCR, however, confirmed expression of CNTFRα, albeit at a low level compared to rat skeletal muscle. This low expression of the receptor in L8 myotubes may explain the limited effect of CNTF in vitro compared to the larger effects typically detected in vivo. CNTF regulated protein turnover through control of protein synthesis and degradation. Effects were dose and timedependent. These observations may explain ability of CNTF to exert both anabolic and catabolic actions in vivo.
Separated Local Field 13C NMR Spectroscopy Reveals Lipid Order Fluctuations

Solid-state NMR and small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) are currently among the most widely used experimental methods for investigating structural and dynamic properties of phospholipid bilayers [1]. However, SAXS measurements provide information about membrane dynamics only at very high-resolution, whereas 2H NMR has a prerequisite of isotopic enrichment of the phospholipid. An alternative is magic-angle spinning (MAS) solid-state 13C NMR spectroscopy, where direct magnetic-dipolar couplings and nuclear spin-lattice relaxation times are measured at natural isotopic abundance [2]. This method provides structure and dynamics for the headgroup, glycerol backbone, and acyl chains in one experiment. As proof of principle, we measured the magnetic-dipolar couplings and nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rates in the liquid-crystalline state for the homologous series of phosphatidylcholine lipids (DLPC, DMPC, DPPC). The quasi-static dipolar lineshapes exhibit segmental order parameters that can be compared with previously measured 2H couplings. In terms of dynamics, correlation of the effective segmental order parameters with the nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rates shows that the square-law scaling for the 13C and 2H systems is universal. Moreover, 13C measurements provide valuable information about the highly dynamic headgroup region that is not commonly observed in 2H NMR experiments. Combination of solid-state 2H and 13C NMR methodologies provides greater insight into the structure and dynamics of membranes than would be determined from either technique alone [3]. This study establishes further precedent for the use of solid-state 13C NMR for research into complex biological membranes and biomaterials at natural isotopic abundance. [1] H.I. Petrache and M.F. Brown (2007) Methods in Membrane Lipids, Humana Press, 339-351. [2] J.D. Gross et al. (1997) JACS119, 796-802. [3] M.F. Brown and S.I. Chan, Encyclopedia of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Wiley, New York 1996, 871-885.
Using sensitivity to word structure to explain variance in high school and college level reading ability

In this study three experiments investigate the relationship of sensitivity to word structure to direct and indirect measures of reading achievement in normal high school and college students using a four-part morpheme Sensitivity Test (MST). This test assesses knowledge of the syntactic category of common noun, verb, and adjective suffixes (Part 1), the ability to generalize this knowledge to novel forms (Part 2), the ability to distinguish derivationally-related word pairs from pseudo-related word pairs (Part 3), and knowledge of how suffixes differ in their effect on syllable boundaries in the complex word (Part 4). Experiment 1 showed that the SAT Verbal scores of 26 undergraduates correlate significantly (p<0.05) with Parts 2 and 4 of the MST; Part 1 showed ceiling effects. Experiment 2 showed that the Nelson Reading Test scores of 24 ninth-grade students correlate significantly (p<0.005) with all parts of the MST. Experiment 3 showed a significant difference between means (p<0.005) on all parts of the MST for 26 proficient and 54 non-proficient high school readers. Results are consistent with the morphophonemic nature of English spelling.
Morphology of fractured domains in brittle fracture

We propose a thermodynamic approach, allowing one to determine the shape of the intensively fractured zones (IFZs), simultaneously with the distribution of stress and strain within the IFZ appearing in brittle fracture. The approach combines Gibbs’ variational paradigm of the theory of heterogeneous systems with Griffith’s variational paradigm of the theory of brittle fracture. We suggest some simple constitutive models for solid substances undergoing brittle fracture and solve some boundary value problems on nucleation of an isolated IFZ within an isotropic elastic material.
Anisotropy of space as gravitational polarization

Because the solar system is orbiting around the center of the Milky Way galaxy with a speed of about 220 km/s, I showed, in a previous paper (M. Mizushima: J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 61 (1992)1125), that g x x - g y y = g x x - g z z =10 -12 , where g i j is the metric for an observer moving with the solar system, and the x -axis is in the direction of the orbiting velocity of the solar system, namely, in the direction of constellation Cygnus. To detect any anisotropy of space, Brillet and Hall placed an interferometer on a turntable which rotated in a horizontal plane, and they tried to detect any change in size of a cavity optically. They could detect fractional change of the cavity size to 0.5×10 -14 , but they did not find any anisotropy of space (A. Brillet and J. L. Hall: Phys. Rev. Lett. 42 (1979) 549). It is shown here that the reason why they did not observe anisotropy of space was that they mounted the interferometer cavity too rigidly on the turntable.
Analysis of FOXO1A as a candidate gene for type 2 diabetes.

Abstract The human forkhead box O1A ( FOXO1A ) gene on chromosome 13q14.1 is a key transcription factor in insulin signaling in liver and adipose tissue and plays a central role in the regulation of key pancreatic β-cell genes including IPF1 . We hypothesized that sequence variants of FOXO1A contribute to the observed defects in hepatic and peripheral insulin action and altered β-cell compensation that characterize type 2 diabetes (T2DM). To test this hypothesis, we screened the three exons, 3′ untranslated region, and 5′ flanking region for sequence variants in Caucasian and African-American individuals with early onset ( p >0.08; Caucasians, p >0.09). Of the 8 Caucasian SNPs, six comprised a single haplotype block spanning over 100kb and including most of the large first intron. In contrast, no block was observed among SNPs typed in African-Americans. No haplotype was associated with T2DM. FOXO1A variation is rare and is unlikely to contribute to T2DM in either Caucasian or African-American populations.
Value Creation, Social Innovation, and Entrepreneurship in Global Economies

This introductory article provides a multidisciplinary and international lens by which to view the social entrepreneurship phenomenon. It offers a brief overview of the current research to highlight how social innovation and new social value creation are the underpinnings of the social entrepreneurship phenomenon. A focused summary of each of the articles presented in this special issue is described along with their potential contribution for future research on social entrepreneurship.
Validation of Lake Whitefish Catch-Per-Unit-Effort Data with Time Series Analysis

Abstract Catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) data for lake whitefish Coregonus clupeaformis in Michigan waters of Lake Huron were examined with time analysis to test if they can describe the abundance of lake whitefish. Relations between lake whitefish CPUE and environmental and biological data were investigated with cross-correlation analysis. A 4-year time lag, corresponding to the age at maturity, was found for lake whitefish CPUE. Cross-correlation analysis indicated that lake whitefish CPUE was negatively correlated with monthly air temperatures and abundance of sea lamprey Petromyzon marinus in previous years, and CPUE was positively correlated with fishing effort 1 year later. The results indicated that fishermen track lake whitefish abundance and that CPUE can describe fluctuations of the lake whitefish population.
Possibility of detecting heavy neutral fermions in the Galaxy

It is shown that heavy neutral fermions in the galactic halo could produce numerous detectable low-energy events in a ''thermal'' neutrino detector if the heavy-fermionndashnucleon vector coupling is comparable in strength to the vector weak interaction. The conditions under which a detectable event rate could arise for fermions with purely axial-vector couplings are also discussed. In a silicon detector heavy-fermion events would be concentrated at low energies, and could be distinguished from solar or supernova neutrino events, which are expected to have a flatter energy spectrum. A measurement of the energy spectrum of heavy-fermion events could lead to a determination of the fermion mass, subject to astrophysical uncertainties concerning the velocity distribution of halo particles.
Efficient Rydberg Excitation of He with STIRAP

The ~100% efficiency of STIRAP is used to produce Rydberg He atoms in a slightly supersonic beam. We focus the atoms with a hexapole electrostatic lens and calibrate the Rabi frequency with the Autler-Townes effect.
Association of HLA-DQB1*0201 with stiff-man syndrome.

Stiff-man syndrome (SMS) is a rare disorder of the central nervous system of probable autoimmune origin. Patients with SMS often have other autoimmune diseases, in particular type I (insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus (IDDM). Approximately 60% of patients with SMS have high titers of autoantibodies against the enzyme glutamic acid decarboxylase. Similar to SMS, the majority of patients with IDDM have autoantibodies against glutamic acid decarboxylase at or before diabetes onset, although usually at a lower titer and with a different reaction pattern than patients with SMS. To investigate the immunogenetic basis of SMS, we HLA-typed 18 patients with the disease. Seventy-two percent carried the DQB1*0201 allele (13 of 18, P = 0.02 vs. 18 of 48 controls), indicating that SMS is associated with this allele. DQB1*0201 is also a susceptibility allele for IDDM and other autoimmune diseases. Patients with SMS carried the IDDM-protective DQB1*0602 allele and other sequence-related DQB1*06 alleles with the same f...
Specific PCR identification of Pasteurella multocida based on putative transcriptional regulator genes

Pasteurella multocida is an important animal pathogen that may also infect humans through animal bites and scratches. After comparison of transcriptional regulator gene sequences from the P. multocida genome with other DNA sequences at GenBank, we identified two genes (i.e., Pm0762 and Pm1231) uniquely present in P. multocida. By using oligonucleotide primers (Pm0762F/R and Pm1231F/R) designed from these genes in PCR, it was found that specific DNA products of expected sizes were obtained with genomic DNA from P. multocida only, but not from other bacteria. These results indicated that the putative transcriptional regulator genes Pm0762 and Pm1231 are species-specific, and that the PCR methods targeting these genes provide a useful means of rapidly and precisely identifying P. multocida from other bacteria. Further elucidation of the roles and functions of these putative transcriptional regulator genes (Pm0762 and Pm1231) and their protein products may help provide valuable insight into the molecular mechanism of P. multocida virulence and pathogenicity.
Benzodiazepine pharmacodynamics: evidence for biophase rate limiting mechanisms

Pharmacokinetics do not adequately reflect recovery from cognitive neuromotor impairment induced by most benzodiazepines. This paper examines across time the nature of the relationship of effect to serum concentration of three benzodiazepines. Using the same protocol lorazepam, alprazolam, diazepam and placebo were administered to eight healthy males at doses of 0.057, 0.029, 0.286 and 0.000 mg/kg, body weight, respectively for the first study and at 0.028, 0.014, 0.143 and 0.000 mg/kg, respectively, for the second study. After each dose administration multiple measurements were made over a period of 5.5–11.5 h using two different psychomotor performance tests. Serum drug concentrations were also measured. The profiles for diazepam and alprazolam effects demonstrate a stepwise decrement in the slopes of the concentration versus response curves across time, illustrating the rapid development of acute tolerance. In contrast, lorazepam induced a remarkably constant relationship between concentration and effect across testing intervals.
Optimizing system configurations quickly by guessing at the performance

The performance of a Web system can be greatly improved by tuning its configuration parameters. However, finding the optimal configuration has been a time-consuming task due to the long measurement time needed to evaluate the performance of a given configuration. We propose an algorithm, which we refer to as Quick Optimization via Guessing (QOG), that quickly selects one of nearly best configurations with high probability. The key ideas in QOG are (i) the measurement of a configuration is terminated as soon as the configuration is found to be suboptimal, and (ii) the performance of a configuration is guessed at based on the measured similar configurations, so that the better configurations are more likely to be measured before the others. If the performance of a good configuration has been measured, a poor configuration will be quickly found to be suboptimal with short measurement time. We apply QOG to optimizing the configuration of a real Web system, and find that QOG can drastically reduce the total measurement time needed to select the best configuration. Our experiments also illuminate several interesting properties of QOG specifically when it is applied to optimizing Web systems.
Sensitivity of an energy balance climate model with predicted snowfall rates

A two-level zonally-averaged seasonal energy balance model with separate land and ocean temperatures and an explicit surface energy budget is used to study the effects of the snowfall rate on the extent of snow cover and ice sheets. Sensitivity experiments are performed both with and without ice sheets and with two different snowfall parameterizations. When snowfall rates are prescribed independent of latitude, higher snowfall rates increase the area of snow cover but reduce the sensitivity of the snow line to changes of the solar constant. To eliminate arbitrary assumptions about the snowfall rate, a relationship between the atmospheric transports of water vapour and sensible heat is derived and tested against observations. The relationship obtained is used to predict the meriodional transport of water vapour in the model, from which the precipitation and snowfall are calculated. The response of the hydrologic cycle to changes of the solar constant is qualitatively similar to that found in general circulation models. The snow line is more sensitive with the predicted precipitation than with the prescribed precipitation because the predicted precipitation rate increases toward the equator. When ice sheets are included, they are larger than permanent snow cover under the same conditions because the cold surface temperatures at high elevations on the ice sheet inhibit melting. Feedback effects of the ice sheets are small, in part because they are limited to 30% of a latitude circle in this model. DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0870.1985.tb00424.x
Design, implementation, and evaluation of a single-copy protocol stack

Data copying and checksumming are the most expensive operations on hosts performing high-bandwidth network I/O over a high-speed network. Under some conditions, outboard buffering and checksumming can eliminate accesses to the data, thus making communication less expensive and faster. One of the scenarios in which outboard buffering and checksumming pays off is the common case of applications accessing the network using the Berkeley sockets interface and the Internet protocol stack. In this paper we describe the host software for a host interface with outboard buffering and checksumming support. The platform used is DEC Alpha workstations with a Turbochannel I/O bus and running the DEC OSF/1 operating system. Our implementation does not only achieve “single copy” communication for applications that use sockets, but it also interoperates efficiently with in-kernel applications and other network devices. Measurements show that for large reads and writes the single-copy path through the stack is five to seven times more efficient than the traditional implementation for large writes. We also present a detailed analysis of the measurements using a simple I/O model.
Life detection with the Enceladus Orbiting Sequencer

Widespread organic synthesis in the early solar nebula led to delivery of similar complex organics, probably including nucleobases or their precursors, to many potentially habitable locations such as Mars, Europa, and Enceladus. If life evolved beyond Earth, the presence of these organics could have biased life towards utilization of informational polymers (IPs) like RNA or DNA. Given this, searching for and sequencing any such IPs offers a definitive, information rich, approach to life detection that complements existing methods. Saturn's icy moon Enceladus offers possibly the best conditions in the solar system to find extant life beyond Earth. Recent discovery of a salt-water plume likely derived from sub-surface liquid reservoirs provides direct access to this potentially habitable environment. We describe an instrument concept, the Enceladus Orbiting Sequencer (EOS), specifically geared to search for life on Enceladus. As a payload on board an Enceladus flyby or orbiter mission, EOS would capture ice grains from the plume, then concentrate and characterize any long charged polymers using nanopore or semiconductor sequencing. Searching for life on Enceladus could give us our first glimpse of a second genesis and test whether biochemistry is varied or universal.