cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Insights into the origin of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma from mouse models

Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) is a malignant cancer of the bile ducts within the liver, with a devastating overall 5-year survival of less than 5%. Besides surgery, chemotherapy with gemcitabine and cisplatin is the only approved therapy, with limited effectiveness. Gaining insight into the natural development and evolution of ICC would help provide context for various clinical efforts including early detection and improved histological classification. Unfortunately, the precise etiology of the earliest stages of ICC largely remains unclear. Mouse models of ICC have provided some initial insight into this question, particularly regarding the cell of origin (COO) of ICC. Evidence exists for both hepatocytes and cholangiocytes as the COO, and is complicated by the fact that ICC and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) appear to exist along a common developmental spectrum, exemplified by the fact that single engineered mice often produce both HCC and ICC simultaneously. In this perspective, we attempt to synthesize the existing knowledge on candidate COOs, influential signaling pathways, and micro-environmental factors into a single narrative on ICC etiology.
A systematic review and meta-analysis of predilation and postdilation in transfemoral carotid artery stenting.

Abstract Objective In this review, we evaluate the short-term impact of different ballooning combinations on hemodynamic instability neurologic events, and mortality associated with carotid artery stenting. Methods We used a search strategy to identify studies in the Cochrane Library trials register, PubMed, EMBASE, Google Scholar, and the US National Library of Medicine clinical trial databases up to May 2019. Studies reporting either hemodynamic instability, neurologic events, or mortality were included according to the recommendations of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-analysis. Fixed and random models were used to summarize the effects. Results Of seven included cohort studies for qualitative review, six were selected for meta-analysis. Patients without postdilation had significantly less hemodynamic instability in the random effects model (risk ratio, 0.53; 95% confidence interval, 0.37-0.77; P = .001). Regardless of the dilation type, the overall summary effect in the fixed model showed a significant decrease in the risk of developing short-term neurologic events (risk ratio, 0.67; 95% confidence interval, 0.47-0.97; P = .03). Last, the exclusion of either of the two dilation techniques had no significant effect on mortality. Conclusions Avoiding postdilation reduces perioperative hemodynamic instability and this benefit lasts at least up to 30 days. Regardless of the type, fewer dilations during carotid artery stenting possibly decreases the neurologic events during and 30 days after the procedure. The data also suggest that the residual stenoses above current practiced standard may provide a safer threshold to prompt postdilation. Statements about the long-term effects of dilation techniques requires more study.
Analysis of epidemic situation of malaria in Longlin Various Nationalities Autonomous County in Guangxi from 1951 to 2014

OBJECTIVE To analyze the data of epidemic situation of malaria in Longlin Various Nationalities Autonomous County, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China from 1951 to 2014 and discuss the distribution characteristics and epidemic law, so as to provide the evidences for developing the prevention and control strategies of the disease. METHODS The data about the epidemic situation of malaria in Longlin Various Nationalities Autonomous County were collected and analyzed statistically with Excel 2007. RESULTS Totally 93 460 malaria cases were reported from 1951 to 2014 in the county. There were two morbidity peaks of malaria during this period, namely 1950s and 1970s, and the annual average incidence rates were 3 237.94/100 000 and 1 572.12/100 000, respectively, but it began to flatten after 1980s. Before 2000, the local cases were the main type, however, there were no endogenous cases since 2008. In 1950s, falciparum malaria was the main type of the disease, and the cases with falciparum malaria, tertian malaria and quartan malaria were accounted for 45.01% (2 392/5 314), 33.72% (1 792/5 314) and 19.55% (1 039/5 314), respectively; while in 1960s, the proportion of cases with tertian malaria increased, that of the cases with quartan malaria decreased, and there were no quartan malaria cases reported since 1980s. There were imported malaria cases reported since 1990s, and a total of 51 cases were found in this period, among which, 50 cases (98.04%) were tertian malaria, and the main infection sources were the cases from epidemic areas in other provinces of China. After 2000, the imported malaria cases with falciparum malaria increased, with a proportion of 60.00% (21/35), and the infection sources were mainly from Africa and Southeast Asia. CONCLUSIONS The local endemic of malaria in Longlin Various Nationalities Autonomous County has been effectively controlled, but the situation of imported malaria is still severe in this county. Therefore, strengthening the surveillance of floating population, especially the workers backing from overseas, is still the key of malaria prevention and control in the future.
One hundred years of (influenza) immunopathology.

Abstract It has been over 100 years since the 1918 influenza pandemic, one of the most infamous examples of viral immunopathology. Since that time, there has been an inevitable repetition of influenza pandemics every few decades and yearly influenza seasons, which have a significant impact on human health. Recently, noteworthy progress has been made in defining the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying pathology induced by an exuberant host response to influenza virus infection. Infection with influenza viruses is associated with a wide spectrum of disease, from mild symptoms to severe complications including respiratory failure, and the severity of influenza disease is driven by a complex interplay of viral and host factors. This chapter will discuss mechanisms of infection severity using concepts of disease resistance and tolerance as a framework for understanding the balance between viral clearance and immunopathology. We review mechanistic studies in animal models of infection and correlational studies in humans that have begun to define these factors and discuss promising host therapeutic targets to improve outcomes from severe influenza disease.
Abstracts from the NIH Office of Research on Women's HealthTenth Annual Interdisciplinary Women's Health Research SymposiumOctober 24, 2013: Tenth Anniversary NIH Interdisciplinary Women's Health Research Symposium October 24, 2013

The Office of Research on Women's Health (ORWH) initiated its signature research and career development programs in women's health based on a paradigm that views interdisciplinary approaches as essential to moving forward the science associated with women's health and to increasing understanding of the contributions of sex and gender factors to human health and disease. From the beginning it was hoped that supporting interdisciplinary research efforts and building a cadre of interdisciplinary women's health researchers would help to reduce the fragmented approach to women's health issues and encourage more comprehensive, integrated approaches to women's health and new ways of evaluating those who conduct such research. ORWH supports innovative ways to encourage collaborative, interdisciplinary research that is team based to improve women's health through two major initiatives, the Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health (BIRCWH) program and the Specialized Centers of Research (SCOR) on Sex Differences. The BIRCWH program was first funded in 2000, and the SCOR center was first funded in 2002. Both programs were expanded in fiscal year 2012 as part of the implementation of the 2010 National Institutes of Health (NIH) Strategic Plan for Women's Health Research, A Vision for 2020 for Women's Health Research (http://orwh.od.nih.gov/resources/policyreports/index.asp).
Negative Effects of COVID-19 Stay-at-Home Mandates on Physical Intervention Outcomes: A Preliminary Study.

BACKGROUND: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, beneficial physical intervention classes for individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) were cancelled. OBJECTIVE: To understand effects of the COVID-19 stay-at-home mandate and the inability to participate in recommended and structured physical interventions as a consequence of these mandates, specifically designed mobile assessments were used that collected both self-reporting information and objective task-based metrics of neurocognitive functions to assess symptom changes for individuals with PD. METHODS: Self-reporting questionnaires focusing on overall quality of life (e.g., when individuals typically feel at their best, changes in activity levels, and symptom progression) were given to all individuals (nâ=â28). In addition, mobile-based neurocognitive assessments were administered to a subset of the population (nâ=â8) to quantitatively assess changes due to COVID-19 restrictions. RESULTS: The highest self-reported factors in which individuals denoted feeling their best were after exercise (67.86%) and being in a comfortable and supportive environment (60.71%). Objective measures found overall duration of physical activity during the stay-at-home mandate decreased significantly (pâ=â0.022). With the lack of overall activity, 82.14%of individuals self-reported having at least one symptom that worsened moderately or higher. Further testing, using mobile-based assessments, showed average completion times of functional tasks increased, taking about 2.1 times longer, while accuracy metrics showed overall degradation. CONCLUSION: Although the COVID-19 stay-at-home mandate was intended to help protect individuals at high risk from coming into contact with the virus, it also prevented individuals from receiving recommended supervised exercise interventions resulting in significant negative effects in social well-being and across motor and speech neurocognitive tasks for individuals with PD.
Reading Tea Leaves, Drinking Tea: Four Transformations in Philosophy of Religion

Four transformations are impacting all universities in North Atlantic cultures and often beyond: the global transformation, the critical transformation, the multidisciplinary transformation, and the practical transformation. The academic field of philosophy of religion has been slow to respond to the associated challenges, even though its departmental homes – philosophy and academic religious studies – have proved to be more agile, at least in some respects. The implacable social reality of these transformations affords criteria for estimating the future of philosophy of religion and recent field-wide empirical studies add specificity. Using these resources, it is possible to read the tea leaves, understand what’s happening, and imagine what is required to reverse the trend of rapid contraction of academic positions in philosophy of religion.
Interpreting Impact Echo Data to Predict Condition Rating of Concrete Bridge Decks: A Machine-Learning Approach

Abstract Maintaining the structural reliability of highway bridges under a budget constraint necessitates the development of accurate prediction models of bridge deck deterioration to maximize brid...
Sex Crimes: Second Edition

This is a textbook for an upper-level Sex Crimes course at a law school or graduate-level seminar in a variety of disciplines. It covers the criminalization of sexual deviance, rape, sexual assault, obscenity, non-consensual pornography, child molestation, incest, child pornography, sex trafficking, sex work, prostitution, sex offender registration, sex offender residency restrictions, and sex offender civil commitment. The included material is either public domain, Creative Commons, or included with the copyright owner's permission. The book itself is released under a Creative Commons license which you can find at the beginning of the book. I encourage editing, revising, and distributing under those permissive terms.
Deciding what’s (sharable) news: Social movement organizations as curating actors in the political information system

News is often sourced not directly from journalistic outlets, but from various actors that “curate” content into individuals' information networks. Although these curating actors impact the news in...
Plastic Surgery Aspects of Large Open Myelomeningoceles

The repair of large complex myelomeningoceles remains one of the most difficult challenges facing pediatric neurosurgeons. Recent collaboration with our plastic surgery colleagues has led to the joint introduction of repair techniques for these complex malformations. Our current practice is for the neurosurgical team to expose the neural elements and placode of the myelomeningocele and release them from the surrounding tissues. Once the neural reconstruction is completed the plastic surgery team completes the reconstruction with appropriate flaps and skin rotations. Our center has been using these techniques for over two decades with very gratifying results. The surgical exposures and nuances of these complex closures are discussed below.
Prosody in the Production and Processing of L2 Spoken Language and Implications for Assessment

This article offers an extended definition of prosody by examining the role of prosody in the production and comprehension of L2 spoken language from mainly a cognitive, interactionalist perspective. It reviews theoretical and empirical L1 and L2 research that have examined and explored the relationships between prosodic forms and their functions at the pragmatic and discourse levels. Finally, the importance and the various dimensions of these relationships in the context of L2 assessment are presented and the implications for L2 testing employing new technologies and automated scoring systems are discussed.
Systematic decrements in QTc between the first and second day of contiguous daily ECG recordings under controlled conditions.

Background: Many thorough QT (TQT) studies use a baseline day and double delta analysis to account for potential diurnal variation in QTc. However, little is known about systematic changes in the QTc across contiguous days when normal volunteers are brought into a controlled inpatient environment. Methods: Two separate crossover TQT studies included 2 days of no treatment lead-in days with ECG collection preceding periods of drug treatment. In the first study, there were two pairs of such contiguous days with 10 replicate electrocardiograms (ECGs) collected at six time points, and in the second study, there were four pairs of contiguous days with nine replicate ECGs collected at five time points. These lead-in day pairs provided the opportunity to evaluate any systematic changes across contiguous first and second days of an inpatient environment. Within-patient consistency of change across pairs of days as well as within day, diurnal variation could also be evaluated. Results: Modest (4.2 ms [range 1.9–6.5 ms]) but consistent decreases (significant [P < 0.05] for all 32 comparisons) were observed (probability: ≤5.4 × 10−16). Although group behavior with respect to QTc was consistent, individual subjects demonstrated substantial variability across pairs of days. Evidence of diurnal variation was weak and inconsistent. Magnitude of any diurnal variation was less than magnitude of change across days. Conclusions: Subjects show a systematic decrease in QTc from first day to second day of inpatient status and do not demonstrate a significant diurnal pattern. The magnitude of this systematic change is sufficient to influence QTc study interpretation. (PACE 2011; 34:1116–1127)
Ecosystems Monitoring: An Information Extraction and Event Processing Scientific Workflow

This paper presents a novel architecture that brings together Information Extraction (IE) with Event Processing (EP)research areas to globally monitor human activities and biodiversity dynamics and measure their impact on ecosystems. The two areas (IE and EP) are rich on their own and we believe their integration will achieve a much more comprehensive solution to ecosystems monitoring. The integration is based on a closed loop mechanism that guarantees the communication and the evolution of the overall architecture. While we use Microblogging communities (e.g., Twitter) as a news producing tool, we keep track of the vulnerable ecosystems using a GIS tracking database. We also make use of Google Map/Earth API capabilities to dynamically update the GIS database. After a complete cycle, the architecture produces a list of vulnerable ecosystems. This architecture leverages the rich research in Scientific Workflows to achieve the integration and communication of the various components. We are in the process of developing a system that can be used by conservationists and decision makers to efficiently allocate their time and limited resources in response to ecosystems perturbation.
The Role of the Father in Child Development

For a variety of sociopolitical, economic, scientific, and clinical reasons, considerable interest in the study of father-child relationships has emerged in the last decade. In the last few years, the focus has narrowed to concern about the effects of increased paternal involvement. Interest in, and concern about, the latter seems to be especially prominent among social service providers and clinicians. For this reason, and also because the voluminous literature on paternal influences has been scrutinized quite extensively, we will focus in this chapter on evidence concerning the effects of increased involvement. Much less will be said, mostly in summary fashion, about paternal influences more generally, although readers will be referred to recent reviews for further discussions of the literature.
Activation of transcription of the human presenilin 1 gene by 12‐O‐tetradecanoylphorbol 13‐acetate

We have recently identified an Ets element controlling over 90% of the basal expression of the human presenilin 1 (PS1) gene. We have also shown that Ets1 and Ets2 act as transactivators of the PS1 gene by cotransfection experiments in SK-N-SH neuronal cells. The PS1 gene is widely but differentially expressed across tissues and the expression in brain appears to be restricted to neurons. To gain further insight into the regulation of the gene we have examined the regulation of PS1 by 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol 13-acetate (TPA). SK-N-SH neuronal cells were treated with 0.2 micro m TPA for 30 min to 24 h and the level of expression of the endogenous PS1 gene was measured by Northern blot analysis. A two- to threefold increase in the level of PS1 mRNA appeared 4-8 h after the addition of TPA. A similar increase in transcription activity was observed in nuclear run off experiments, indicating that the increased mRNA level results from an activation in the initiation of transcription of PS1. Consistently, TPA also increased the level of PS1 protein. No activation of the PS1 endogenous gene by TPA was observed in hepatoma HepG2 cells. Next we tested the effect of TPA on the expression of the PS1 promoter by transfecting fusion genes including various fragments of the PS1 promoter linked to a CAT reporter into SK-N-SH cells. TPA also stimulated the expression of the PS1CAT constructs. Generally wild type constructs -687/+178, -118/+178, -22/+178 including the short -35/+6 fragment showed a minor two- to threefold activation by TPA. Point mutations eliminating the -10 Ets motif or the -6 CREB/AP1 motif did not decrease the stimulation by TPA. Thus TPA appears to activate the transcription of the PS1 gene by a mechanism which does not require these elements.
Development and evaluation of an open-ended computational evolution system for the genetic analysis of susceptibility to common human diseases

An important goal of human genetics is to identify DNA sequence variations that are predictive of susceptibility to common human diseases. This is a classification problem with data consisting of discrete attributes and a binary outcome. A variety of different machine learning methods based on artificial evolution have been developed and applied to modeling the relationship between genotype and phenotype. While artificial evolution approaches show promise, they are far from perfect and are only loosely based on real biological and evolutionary processes. It has recently been suggested that a new paradigm is needed where "artificial evolution" is transformed to "computational evolution" (CE) by incorporating more biological and evolutionary complexity into existing algorithms. It has been proposed that CE systems will be more likely to solve problems of interest to biologists and biomedical researchers. The goal of the present study was to develop and evaluate a prototype CE system for the analysis of human genetics data. We describe here this new open-ended CE system and provide initial results from a simulation study that suggests more complex operators result in better solutions.
The Anatomy of a Housing Bubble: Overconfidence, Media and Politics

This paper investigates a potential housing bubble in Hong Kong in the 1990s. A within-city analysis is performed using a monthly panel data set on 324 large-scale housing complexes (estates) located in 17 out of 18 districts in Hong Kong. The empirical analysis focuses on crosssectional variations in home prices each month during the bubble and controls for housing price fundamentals using district-month fixed effects. I find evidence consistent with an overconfidence-driven speculation bubble. The same analysis is performed using a placebo period prior to the price upswing and no similar patterns are found. I propose media coverage and political uncertainties as potential causes of the bubble.
Tutorial: Creating Productive Global Virtual Teams – Developing Effective Collaboration across Cultures and Time Zones

Description. In today’s global economy, knowledge workers have to collaborate on a daily basis with colleagues around the world. While travel may be preferred for certain tasks, the bulk of global collaboration is based on technologically-mediated communication. Thus, a new challenge for organizations is in developing the skills, capacities, and attitudes that will make working across cultures and time zones successful.
Geometric configurations for large spacecraft-tracking arrays

This paper will explore the configuration constraints and tradeoffs for a prototype DSN array being developed at JPL.
Immunomodulatory effects of opioids.

Objective – To review the immunomodulatory effects of opioids. Data Sources – Original research publications and review articles using the PubMed search engine with the following keywords – opioids, morphine, immuomodulation, and immunosuppression. Veterinary and Human Data Synthesis – Opioids have been shown to modulate the immune system in animal models by affecting both the acquired and innate arms of the immune system. Natural killer cell activity, T-cell proliferation, antibody production, phagocytic cell function, and cytokine production have all been shown to be affected by opioids. Many of these effects are reversed by opioid antagonists. Opioids have also been shown to induce sepsis in laboratory animals. Opioid administration alters immune parameters in healthy humans at analgesic doses and may increase the risk of infection in some patient populations. Conclusions – While opioids remain the most powerful and widely used analgesics available, their negative effects on the immune system are well established in the laboratory setting. Thoughtful consideration should be given to the use of certain opioids in critically ill patients, especially those with pre-existing immunocompromise.
Bayesian Analysis of Time-Series Data under Case-Crossover Designs: Posterior Equivalence and Inference

Case-crossover designs are widely used to study short-term exposure effects on the risk of acute adverse health events. While the frequentist literature on this topic is vast, there is no Bayesian work in this general area. The contribution of this paper is two-fold. First, the paper establishes Bayesian equivalence results that require characterization of the set of priors under which the posterior distributions of the risk ratio parameters based on a case-crossover and time-series analysis are identical. Second, the paper studies inferential issues under case-crossover designs in a Bayesian framework. Traditionally, a conditional logistic regression is used for inference on risk-ratio parameters in case-crossover studies. We consider instead a more general full likelihood-based approach which makes less restrictive assumptions on the risk functions. Formulation of a full likelihood leads to growth in the number of parameters proportional to the sample size. We propose a semi-parametric Bayesian approach using a Dirichlet process prior to handle the random nuisance parameters that appear in a full likelihood formulation. We carry out a simulation study to compare the Bayesian methods based on full and conditional likelihood with the standard frequentist approaches for case-crossover and time-series analysis. The proposed methods are illustrated through the Detroit Asthma Morbidity, Air Quality and Traffic study, which examines the association between acute asthma risk and ambient air pollutant concentrations.
Anatomical organization of the brachial spinal cord of the cat. III. The propriospinal connections

Summary The present study has demonstrated the existence of a topically organized projection from neurons in Rexed's laminae V–VIII to the motoneuroneal cell groups in the brachial cord of the cat. It was found that cells in the lateral parts of laminae V–VII project preferentially to the dorsolateral part of the lateral motoneuronal cell group and that cells in the central parts of lamina VII project preferentially to the ventrolateral and the medial parts of this cell group, both projections being primarily ipsilateral. Cells in the medial parts of lamina VII and in lamina VIII were found to project preferentially to the medial motoneuronal cell group, bilaterally. The projections to the lateral motoneuronal cell group appeared to arise primarily within the brachial cord, while the projections to the medial motoneuronal cell group were found to have a wider segmental origin. In addition, homologous areas of laminae V–VIII appeared to be interconnected throughout the brachial cord. The dendrites in the motoneuronal cell groups are oriented predominantly longitudinally, while those in laminae V–VIII appeared to be oriented primarily in the transverse plane. It was found that the terminal arborization of the propriospinal and brain stem fibers frequently tended to assume the orientation of the dendrites of the regions in which they terminated. The findings have been discussed in relation to both the intrinsic motor organization of the spinal cord and the organization of the descending pathways.
Mechanics and Quantum Supermechanics of a Monopole Probe Including a Coulomb Potential

A supersymmetric Lagrangian used to study D-particle probes in a D6-brane background is exactly soluble. We present an analysis of the classical and quantum mechanics of this theory, including classical trajectories in the bosonic theory, and the exact quantum spectrum and wave functions, including both bound and unbound states.
Heterosexual and homosexual mothers' self-described sex-role behavior and ideal sex-role behavior in children

Self-descriptive scores and ratings assigned to an “ideal” child on the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) by heterosexual and homosexual mothers were compared, and no significant differences were found. However, significance was obtained when mothers were classified in terms of self-described sex-role behavior on the BSRI. Mothers tended to rate an “ideal” child in the same manner in which they rated themselves. Results show mothers' self-described sex-role behavior to be a better indicator of desired sex-role behavior in children than mothers sexual orientation. Similarities in sex-role behavior and attitudes of heterosexual and homosexual mothers far outweight these mothers' differences when determined by self-description and attitudes toward ideal child behavior.
Ampa receptors and rapid synaptic transmission

Abstract Excitatory synaptic transmission in the vertebrate central nervous system (CNS) is mediated predominantly by glutamate receptors. AMPA (α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionate)-sensitive glutamate receptors are endowed with kinetic properties which allow them to transmit fast repetitive signals. At some synapses in the CNS, the rapid onset of desensitization of AMPA receptors limits the duration or amplitude of synaptic events. Combining different AMPA receptor subunits may generate receptors specialized for encoding signals in specific neural pathways. Additionally, synaptic strength may be controlled by protein kinases acting directly on AMPA receptors.
Inflammatory Activation of Human Brain Endothelial Cells by Hypoxic Astrocytes In Vitro is Mediated by IL-1β:

Leukocyte infiltration into the brain contributes to the development of ischemic brain damage and is mediated by endothelial/leukocyte adhesion molecules, cytokines, and chemokines released by ischemic brain cells. In this study, we provide evidence that human astrocytes (FHAs) subjected to in vitro hypoxia produce proinflammatory mediator(s) capable of up-regulating inflammatory genes, including intercellular adhesion molecule-1, interleukin (IL)-1beta, tumor necrosis factor-alpha, IL-8, and monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1) in human cerebromicrovascular endothelial cells (HCECs). FHAS were exposed to hypoxia in an anaerobic chamber for 4 hours, followed by reoxygenation for 24 hours. Astrocyte-conditioned media (ACM) collected from normoxic FHAS or FHAS subjected to hypoxia/reoxygenation were applied to HCEC cultures for 4 to 24 hours. Semiquantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, immunocytochemistry, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay demonstrated up-regulation of intercellular adhesion molecule-1 in HCECs exposed to hypoxic ACM. A pronounced elevation in cytokine IL-1beta and tumor necrosis factor-alpha, and chemokine IL-8 and MCP-1 mRNA, accompanied by increased release of immunoreactive cytokines and chemokines into cell media was observed in HCECs exposed to hypoxic ACM. Hypoxia/reoxygenation induced a transient (4 to 18 hours of reoxygenation) up-regulation of IL-1beta mRNA in FHAS and a two- to threefold increase in IL-1beta levels secreted into ACM. Pretreatment of FHAS with 10 micromol/L dexamethasone inhibited both hypoxia-induced expression/secretion of IL-1beta and the ability of hypoxic ACM to induce inflammatory phenotype in HCECs. The ability of hypoxic ACM to up-regulate inflammatory genes in HCECs was inhibited in the presence of IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra) and by pretreating ACM with the blocking anti-IL-1beta antibody. These findings strongly implicate IL-1beta secreted by hypoxic astrocytes in triggering inflammatory activation of HCECs and thereby influencing inflammatory responses at the site of the blood-brain barrier.
Estimating the number of genetic elements that defer senescence inDrosophila

Although many different physiological and biochemical changes characterize the process of senescence, little is understood of the genetic elements that determine its age of onset. We provide here the first estimates of the number of genetic factors that extend longevity inDrosophila melanogaster. Life span was measured in F1, F2 and backcrosses of true-breeding long and short-lived stocks ofD. melanogaster, established by selection. Estimates of the number of effective factors delaying senescence range from about 0.3 to 1.5, indicating control by a single factor. The distribution of longevity shows this to arise as selection acts on the short-lived parental stock. Life span is extended at the cost of early fecundity.
Enumerators for Protograph-Based Ensembles of LDPC and Generalized LDPC Codes

Protograph-based LDPC and generalized LDPC (G-LDPC) codes have the advantages of a simple design procedure and highly structured encoders and decoders. The design of such “protograph-based codes” relies on what is effectively a computer-based search. As such, following Gallager, it is prudent to restrict the search to a “good ensemble,” for example, an ensemble whose minimum distance grows linearly with codeword length. A good ensemble can also mean one with good stopping set, trapping set, or pseudocodeword properties. In this paper, ensemble codeword weight enumerators for finite-length LDPC and G-LDPC codes based on protographs were derived, and then the asymptotic case was considered. The asymptotic results allow us to determine whether or not the typical relative minimum distance in the ensemble grows linearly with codeword length. Then, the codeword weight enumerator technique is adapted to yield ensemble stopping set, trapping set, and pseudocodeword enumerators for protograph LDPC and G-LDPC codes. In this case, the asymptotic results allow us to determine whether or not the typical relative smallest stopping set size, trapping set size, and pseudoweight grows linearly with codeword length. Trapping set enumerators for G-LDPC code ensembles represent a more complex problem which we do not consider here.
Increase of interleukin-1beta mRNA and protein in the spinal cord following experimental traumatic injury in the rat.

Interleukin-1 beta (IL-1beta) is a major mediator of inflammation and a growth promoter for many cell types that could play an important role in the consequences of traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI). In the present study, the expression of IL-1beta and its mRNA was determined in the rat spinal cord following a standardized contusion injury. IL-1beta mRNA, measured with quantitative RT-PCR, was significantly increased in the lesion site by 1 h after SCI (35.2 +/- 5.9 vs. 9.1 +/- 2.1 pg/mg RNA, n = 3, P < 0.05) and remained significantly higher than in the normal spinal cord for at least 72 h post-injury (p.i.). IL-1beta mRNA levels in tissue immediately caudal to the lesion site did not change after the injury. IL-1beta protein levels, measured by an ELISA, were determined at the lesion site and in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum samples. IL-1beta levels in the CSF and serum were much lower than in the spinal cord. At the lesion site, IL-1beta was increased significantly by 1 h p.i., peaked at 8 h (32.3 +/- 0.1 vs. 7.6 +/- 1.9, ng/g tissue, n = 5, P < 0.05) and remained significantly higher than normal through at least 7 days p.i. These results suggest that the increased IL-1beta mRNA and protein levels are an early and local response at the lesion site that could trigger other, later, responses to traumatic SCI.
Flattening filter removal for improved image quality of megavoltage fluoroscopy.

Purpose: Removal of the linear accelerator (linac) flattening filter enables a high rate of dose deposition with reduced treatment time. When used for megavoltage imaging, an unflat beam has reduced primary beam scatter resulting in sharper images. In fluoroscopic imaging mode, the unflat beam has higher photon count per image frame yielding higher contrast-to-noise ratio. The authors’ goal was to quantify the effects of an unflat beam on the image quality of megavoltage portal and fluoroscopic images. Methods: 6 MV projection images were acquired in fluoroscopic and portal modes using an electronic flat-panel imager. The effects of the flattening filter on the relative modulation transfer function (MTF) and contrast-to-noise ratio were quantified using the QC3 phantom. The impact of FF removal on the contrast-to-noise ratio of gold fiducial markers also was studied under various scatter conditions. Results: The unflat beam had improved contrast resolution, up to 40% increase in MTF contrast at the highest frequency measured (0.75 line pairs/mm). The contrast-to-noise ratio was increased as expected from the increased photon flux. The visualization of fiducial markers was markedly better using the unflat beam under all scatter conditions, enabling visualization of thin gold fiducial markers, the thinnest of which was not visible using the unflat beam. Conclusions: The removal of the flattening filter from a clinical linac leads to quantifiable improvements in the image quality of megavoltage projection images. These gains enable observers to more easily visualize thin fiducial markers and track their motion on fluoroscopic images.
Repair efficiency of (5'S)-8,5'-cyclo-2'-deoxyguanosine and (5'S)-8,5'-cyclo-2'-deoxyadenosine depends on the complementary base.

Abstract 5′- R and 5′- S diastereoisomers of 8,5′-cyclo-2′-deoxyadenosine (cdA) and 8,5′-cyclo-2′-deoxyguanosine (cdG) containing a base-sugar covalent bond are formed by hydroxyl radicals. R -cdA and S -cdA are repaired by nucleotide excision repair (NER) in mammalian cellular extracts. Here, we have examined seven purified base excision repair enzymes for their ability to repair S -cdG or S -cdA. We could not detect either excision or binding of these enzymes on duplex oligonucleotide substrates containing these lesions. However, both lesions were repaired by HeLa cell extracts. Dual incisions by human NER on a 136-mer duplex generated 24–32 bp fragments. The time course of dual incisions were measured in comparison to cis-anti -B[ a ]P- N 2 -dG, an excellent substrate for human NER, which showed that cis-anti -B[ a ]P- N 2 -dG was repaired more efficiently than S -cdG, which, in turn, was repaired more efficiently than S -cdA. When NER efficiency of S -cdG with different complementary bases was investigated, the wobble pair S -cdG·dT was excised more efficiently than the S -cdG·dC pair that maintains nearly normal Watson-Crick base pairing. But S -cdG·dA mispair with no hydrogen bonds was excised less efficiently than the S -cdG·dC pair. Similar pattern was noted for S -cdA. The S -cdA·dC mispair was excised much more efficiently than the S -cdA·dT pair, whereas the S -cdA·dA pair was excised less efficiently. This result adds to complexity of human NER, which discriminates the damaged base pairs on the basis of multiple criteria.
Arthroscopic Findings Associated with Roof Impingement of an Anterior Cruciate Ligament Graft

Nineteen patients with roof impingement of an anterior cruciate ligament graft had their grafts inspected during second-look arthroscopy. The diagnosis of roof impingement was suspected from the clinical findings of an effusion, extension deficit, recurrent instability, or anterior knee pain. The diagnosis was confirmed when a portion of the tibial tunnel was anterior to the tibial intersection of the slope of the intercondylar roof on a lateral roentgenogram of the fully extended knee. During second-look arthroscopy the impinged anterior cruciate ligament graft had one or more of the following features: fractured bundles, guillotined remnants at the tibial insertion, parallel fragmentation of an uninterrupted graft, fibrous nodule, or an extrusion of graft material at the outlet of the notch. We hypothesize that these changes in the integrity of the anterior cruciate ligament graft are caused by mechanical injury from roof impingement. CLINICAL RELEVANCE. One should suspect that a patient with an effusion, extension deficit, recurrent instability, or anterior knee pain after an anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction may have roof impingement. A lateral roentgenogram in full extension is diagnostic if the tibial tunnel is anterior to the intercondylar roof. The surgeon should be aware that impinged grafts can have a variety of arthroscopic appearances in addition to the previously reported fibrous nodule or Cyclops lesion.
“Fractions of Men”: Engendering Amputation in Victorian Culture

In 1866, the Atlantic Monthly published a fictional case study of an army surgeon who had lost all of his limbs during the Civil War. Written anonymously by American neurologist Silas Weir Mitchell, “The Case of George Dedlow” describes not only the series of wounds and infections which led to the amputation of all four of the soldier's arms and legs but also the after-effects of amputation. Reduced to what he terms “a useless torso, more like some strange larval creature than anything of human shape,” Dedlow finds that in disarticulating his body, amputation articulates anatomical norms. His observation of his own uniquely altered state qualifies him to speak in universal terms about the relationship between sentience and selfhood: “I have dictated these pages,” he says, “not to shock my readers, but to possess them with facts in regard to the relation of the mind to the body” (1866:5). As such, the story explores the meaning of embodiment, finding in a fragmented anatomy the opportunity to piece together a more complete understanding of how the body functions—physically and metaphysically—as a whole.
Wild-Type Endoderm Abrogates the Ventral Developmental Defects Associated with GATA-4 Deficiency in the Mouse

GATA-4 knockout mice die by 9.5 days postcoitum and exhibit profound defects in ventral morphogenesis, including abnormal foregut formation and a failure of fusion of the bilateral myocardial primordia. During early mouse development, GATA-4 is expressed in cardiogenic splanchnic mesoderm and associated endoderm, suggesting that the presence of this transcription factor in one or both of these tissue types is essential for ventral development. To distinguish whether GATA-4 expression in mesoderm or endoderm accounts for the phenotype of the knockout mouse, we prepared chimeric mice by injecting Gata4-/- ES cells into 8-cell stage ROSA26(Gata4+/+) embryos. We identified a series of high percentage null chimeras (8-10 days postcoitum) in which Gata4+/+ cells were restricted to visceral yolk sac endoderm and small portions of the foregut/hindgut endoderm. Despite an absence of GATA-4 in all other cells of these embryos, there was normal development of the heart, foregut, and surrounding tissues. We conclude that expression of GATA-4 in endoderm rather than cardiogenic mesoderm is required for ventral morphogenesis.
Knowledge, barriers, and motivators related to cervical cancer screening among Korean-American women. A focus group approach

AbstractCervical cancer is a significant health problem for Korean-American women. It currently is the number one female cancer diagnosed among women in South Korea. Despite this fact, Korean-American women have very low rates of cervical cancer screening. The purpose of this research were to gain a
What Matters to Career K-12 Educators.

Case studies about issues arising from education policy were written between 2003 and 2011 by doctoral candidates in Curriculum and Instruction who were career K–12 educators. Literary analysis was employed in grouping 57 case studies, which described primarily situations that occurred in school districts in one large metropolitan area, by topic and theme. Case studies of high school reform; development of programs for vulnerable students; high-stakes testing provisions of No Child Left Behind with attention to the variables of time, alignment, grouping for instruction, professional development, and teacher quality; and ethical issue were considered. Conclusions reinforce concerns about the ability of current federal accountability and related state policy to support the curriculum or the qualities of teachers needed by today’s public school students. To be successful, a locally implemented innovation must achieve an unlikely confluence of policy compliance, administrative support, and a common vision at ...
Navigation in the Computer Medium: A Cognitive Analysis:

The goal of this research is to provide a cognitive analysis of navigation in the computer medium. As the complexity of computerized information systems increases, interface designers face the form...
The ultrastructure and the hormonal control of product synthesis in the hedonic glands of the red‐spotted newt Notopthalmus viridescens

The ultrastructure and the hormonal regulation of hedonic glands in male and in female red-spotted newts have been studied throughout the year and under various experimental conditions. Hedonic glands are simple, alveolar, merocrine glands that contain a single layer of secretory epithelial cells surrounded by a discontinuous layer of myoepithelial cells. Although hedonic glands from both sexes are alike in form, females have only about a third as many as do males. While newts are in breeding conformation during the fall, winter, and spring, large quantities of a glycoproteinaceous product are sequestered within the lumina of their hedonic glands. During those seasons the secretory cells are cuboidal and contain abundant rough endoplasmic reticulum with dilated cisternae and active Golgi complexes. Secretory granules are numerous in the apical cytoplasm and appear to be attached to microfilaments and microtubules. During the summer months, secretory cells are quiescent and assume a columnar configuration, reducing the lumen to negligible proportions. Rough endoplasmic reticulum is sparse, residual secretory granules contain small vacuities, and lipid droplets and glycogen aggregates occur. Hedonic glands of newts in breeding conformation regress to the summer state within three to four weeks under laboratory conditions. In laboratory-conditioned, gonadectomized male newts hedonic glands remain unchanged after treatment with saline, prolactin, or testosterone but are transformed to the breeding state by treatment with prolactin and testosterone in combination. Hedonic glands from ovariectomized females respond similarly to prolactin in combination with testosterone, but fail to respond to prolactin with estradiol.
Measurement of Regional Cerebral Blood Flow With 133Xenon and a Multiple-Crystal Scintillation Camera

A method was devised to measure gray and white matter cerebral blood flow simultaneously in multiple regions of the brain using 133Xenon and a multiple-crystal scintillation camera. Following magnification cerebral arteriography, 133Xe was injected into the internal carotid artery and the washout of tracer was monitored with a scintillation camera which consists of 294 individually collimated NaI (TI) crystals. These data, obtained from each crystal overlying the brain, were processed by a weighted least-squares nonlinear regression technique. The blood flow rates of the rapid and slow compartments were calculated by the Kety-Schmidt formula along with 95% confidence limits for each measurement. In four patients, local increases or decreases in regional cerebral flow were correlated with areas of pathology. In one patient with a cerebral arteriovenous malformation, regions of local shunting of tracer were identified. Application of a three-compartment analysis to these curves permitted estimation of the magnitude of shunting along with gray and white matter flow in the lesion. The increased discrimination provided by the multiple-crystal camera and the estimates of measurement accuracy obtained by this mathematical analysis may facilitate more precise localization of regional blood flow abnormalities in intracranial disease.