cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Low-Pressure Pericardial Tamponade: Case Report and Review of the Literature.

Abstract Background Focused cardiac ultrasound (FoCUS) is accurate for determining the presence of a pericardial effusion. Using FoCUS to evaluate for pericardial tamponade, however, is more involved. Many experts teach that tamponade is unlikely if the inferior vena cava (IVC) shows respiratory variation and is not distended. Case Report A 53-year-old woman presented to the emergency department (ED) with severe orthostatic hypotension, exertional dyspnea, and hypoxia. The evaluation did not reveal an acute cardiopulmonary etiology, but FoCUS demonstrated a pericardial effusion, with several signs consistent with tamponade. The IVC, however, was not distended. She was believed to be hypovolemic, but fluid therapy provided minimal benefit. The patient's condition improved only after aspiration of the effusion. The patient's presentation was likely a "low-pressure" pericardial tamponade. Patients with this subset of tamponade often do not have significant venous congestion, but urgent pericardial aspiration is still indicated. Why Should an Emergency Physician Be Aware of This? Pericardial tamponade may not manifest with IVC plethora on ultrasound. Patients with low-pressure tamponade do not present with the most florid signs of tamponade, but they nonetheless fulfill diagnostic criteria for tamponade. If a non-plethoric IVC is used to rule out tamponade, the clinician risks delaying comprehensive echocardiography or other tests. Furthermore, the potential for deterioration to frank shock could be discounted, with inappropriate disposition and monitoring.
Design and Usability of a Heart Failure mHealth System: A Pilot Study

Background: Despite the advances in mobile health (mHealth) systems, little is known about patients’ and providers’ experiences using a new mHealth system design. Objective: This study aimed to understand challenges and provide design considerations for a personalized mHealth system that could effectively support heart failure (HF) patients after they transition into the home environment. Methods: Following exploratory interviews with nurses and preventive care physicians, an mHealth system was developed. Patients were asked to measure their weight, blood pressure, and blood glucose (if they had diabetes). They were also instructed to enter symptoms, view notifications, and read messages on a mobile app that we developed. A Bluetooth-enabled weight scale, blood pressure monitor, glucometer, and mobile phone was provided after an introductory orientation and training session. HF nurses used a dashboard to view daily measurements for each patient and received text and email alerts when risk was indicated. Observations of usage, cases of deterioration, readmissions, and metrics related to system usability and quality of life outcomes were used to determine overall effectiveness of the system, whereas focus group sessions with patients were conducted to elicit participants’ feedback on the system’s design. Results: A total of 8 patients with HF participated over a 6-month period. Overall, the mean users’ satisfaction with the system ranked 73%, which was above average. Quality of life improvement was 3.6. Patients and nurses used the system on a regular basis and were able to successfully identify and manage 8 health deteriorations, of which 5 were completely managed remotely. Focus groups revealed that, on one hand, the system was beneficial and helped patients with: recording and tracking readings; receiving encouragement and reassurance from nurses; spotting and solving problems; learning from past experiences; and communication. On the other hand, findings also highlighted design issues and recommendations for future systems such as the need to communicate via other media, personalize symptom questions and messages, integrate other health tracking technologies, and provide additional methods to analyze and visualize their data. Conclusions: Understanding users’ experiences provides important design considerations that could complement existing design recommendations from the literature, and, when combined with physician and nurse requirements, have the potential to yield a feasible telehealth system that is effective in supporting HF self-care. Future studies will include these guidelines and use a larger sample size to validate the outcomes.
On the in vivo function of the mitral heart valve leaflet: insights into tissue–interstitial cell biomechanical coupling

There continues to be a critical need for developing data-informed computational modeling techniques that enable systematic evaluations of mitral valve (MV) function. This is important for a better understanding of MV organ-level biomechanical performance, in vivo functional tissue stresses, and the biosynthetic responses of MV interstitial cells (MVICs) in the normal, pathophysiological, and surgically repaired states. In the present study, we utilized extant ovine MV population-averaged 3D fiducial marker data to quantify the MV anterior leaflet (MVAL) deformations in various kinematic states. This approach allowed us to make the critical connection between the in vivo functional and the in vitro experimental configurations. Moreover, we incorporated the in vivo MVAL deformations and pre-strains into an enhanced inverse finite element modeling framework (Path 1) to estimate the resulting in vivo tissue prestresses [Formula: see text] and the in vivo peak functional tissue stresses [Formula: see text]. These in vivo stress estimates were then cross-verified with the results obtained from an alternative forward modeling method (Path 2), by taking account of the changes in the in vitro and in vivo reference configurations. Moreover, by integrating the tissue-level kinematic results into a downscale MVIC microenvironment FE model, we were able to estimate, for the first time, the in vivo layer-specific MVIC deformations and deformation rates of the normal and surgically repaired MVALs. From these simulations, we determined that the placement of annuloplasty ring greatly reduces the peak MVIC deformation levels in a layer-specific manner. This suggests that the associated reductions in MVIC deformation may down-regulate MV extracellular matrix maintenance, ultimately leading to reduction in tissue mechanical integrity. These simulations provide valuable insight into MV cellular mechanobiology in response to organ- and tissue-level alternations induced by MV disease or surgical repair. They will also assist in the future development of computer simulation tools for guiding MV surgery procedure with enhanced durability and improved long-term surgical outcomes.
Control of the Osteoblast Lineage by Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Signaling.

This review will provide a timely assessment of MAP kinase actions in bone development and homeostasis with particular emphasis on transcriptional control of the osteoblast lineage. Extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) and p38 MAP kinase function as transducers of signals initiated by the extracellular matrix, mechanical loading, TGF-β, BMPs, and FGF2. MAPK signals may also affect and/or interact with other important pathways such as WNT and HIPPO. ERK and p38 MAP kinase pathways phosphorylate specific osteogenic transcription factors including RUNX2, Osterix, ATF4, and DLX5. For RUNX2, phosphorylation at specific serine residues initiates epigenetic changes in chromatin necessary for decondensation and increased transcription. MAPK also suppresses marrow adipogenesis by phosphorylating and inhibiting PPARγ, which may explain the well-known relationship between reduced skeletal loading and marrow fat accumulation. MAPKs transduce signals from the extracellular environment to the nucleus allowing bone cells to respond to changes in hormonal/growth factor signaling and mechanical loading, thereby optimizing bone structure to meet physiological and mechanical needs of the body.
Simplified method of making alginate-polylysine microcapsules for hybridoma cell culture using RPMI 1640 medium

The method of making alginate-poly-L-lysine microcapsules for hybridoma cell culture can be simplified by cultivating the cells in RPMI 1640 medium. Phosphate concentration in RPMI 1640 medium is sufficiently high to dissolve the alginate gel and, thereby, can be used to eliminate the step of citrate buffer treatment required for reliquefying the interior alginate gel.
Exploring the Functions of Different Forms of Trust in Collaborative Natural Resource Management

Successful natural resource management increasingly requires collaboration across boundaries and between diverse stakeholder groups, and trust is a key ingredient of successful collaboration. This ...
Response to Comment on Kaul. Mitigating Cardiovascular Risk in Type 2 Diabetes With Antidiabetes Drugs: A Review of Principal Cardiovascular Outcome Results of EMPA-REG OUTCOME, LEADER, and SUSTAIN-6 Trials. Diabetes Care 2017;40:821-831.

I would like to thank Dr. Feldman-Billard for her interest in my article (1) and for raising several important issues (2). First, I agree with the author that the exact mechanism(s) contributing to the increased risk of diabetic retinopathy (DR) with semaglutide (and possibly liraglutide) remain unclear, and potential explanations, among others, include rapid glucose lowering and a direct deleterious effect on the retina. Second, with regard to the retinopathy outcome in EMPA-REG OUTCOME (BI 10773 [Empagliflozin] Cardiovascular Outcome Event Trial in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients), as mentioned previously, the individual component results, but not the composite retinal outcome, were …
From Physiological Signals to Pulsatile Dynamics: A Sparse System Identification Approach

Various brain signals including neuronal spiking activity have an impulsive profile that upon interactions with physiological or measurement processes lead to observed pulsatile experimental data. For example, neuroendocrine data and electrodermal activity data have a pulsatile nature. To characterize the pulsatile nature of such signals, we utilize physiological state-space models and optimization formulations that take advantage of the sparse nature of the underlying pulses. We illustrate that our methods are successful in characterizing pulsatile dynamics underlying pulsatile physiological data. In particular, we deconvolve cortisol and skin conductance data as well as concurrent cortisol and adrenocorticotropic data. Moreover, we design impulsive inputs for constant and circadian demands and holding costs on desired pulsatile profiles. Characterization of such pulsatile signals will aid our understanding of the pathological states related to these signals and has the potential to be used in designing bio-inspired pulsatile controllers; immediate applications include understanding normal and pathological neuroendocrine and affective states.
Diamonds, drugs, and the digital age: Global capitalism in Cormac McCarthy’s The Counselor

This article examines the critique of global capitalism in Cormac McCarthy’s 2013 screenplay and film The Counselor. McCarthy’s economic views have been critically understudied, and The Counselor o...
Taming the Elephant: Introduction to Divestitures

A divestiture is the disposition or sale of an asset by a company, and it usually occurs when a business unit is somehow more valuable as a separate entity. A separation is when a large entity breaks up into two or more entities.
Images of Objective Knowledge Construction in Sexual Selection Chapters of Evolution Textbooks

Textbooks provide a rich site within which to investigate how members of a scientific discipline choose to represent their research to general audiences. We used critical contextual empiricism as a framework for interrogating how a scientific community is depicted via images in evolution textbook chapters on sexual selection. Textbooks that exhibit science within the tenets of critical contextual empiricism will depict uptake of disciplinary change and acknowledge the inseparability of the social and rational aspects of scientific knowledge construction. Sexual selection is an exemplary arena for this work because the field has undergone substantial change in the past few decades that has been driven by critique from within and among disciplines. We used quantitative methods and content analysis to examine images from the textbook editions and from a time series of editions to examine the portrayal of updated understandings of sexual selection. We found that most textbook images did not reflect the shift happening in the scientific community. Images highlighted primarily the classic view of sexual selection focused on males. Examples typical of a more realistic, complicated understanding received little attention even though the scientific literature on these topics appeared decades before these textbooks were published. Images of males were more common than images of females, females were depicted for fewer concepts than males, and images of males and females reinforced stereotypical sex roles. This study highlights an opportunity for acknowledging the inseparability of the social and the rational in scientific knowledge construction.
The Radioactive Deoxyglucose Method

The brain is a complex, heterogeneous organ composed of many anatomical and functional components with markedly different levels of functional activity that vary independently with time and function. Other tissues are generally far more homogeneous with most of their cells functioning similarly and synchronously in response to a common stimulus or regulatory influence. The central nervous system, however, consists of innumerable subunits each integrated into its own set of functional pathways and networks and subserving only one or a few of the many activities in which the nervous system participates. Understanding how the nervous system functions requires knowledge not only of the mechanisms of excitation and inhibition but even more so of their precise localization in the nervous system and the relationships of neural subunits to specific functions.
The Nitrate–Nitrite–Nitric Oxide Pathway in Traditional Herbal Medicine for Heart Disease

The inorganic anions nitrate and nitrite are important intermediates in the nitrogen cycle. The nitrate–nitrite–nitric oxide pathway has been shown to exist in many alternative herbal medicines or dietary supplements. Many herbal medicines contain high levels of nitrate and to a less extent nitrite. There is an effective system in certain herbal medicines for reducing nitrite to nitric oxide. Many herbal medicines for heart disease regulate the activities of NO synthase and nitrate/nitrite reductases, and thus maintain the “Yin-Yang” balance of NO production. The ability of herbal medicines to reduce nitrate and nitrite to NO effectively may account for some of their beneficial impacts on cardiovascular disorders. Understanding the mechanism of action for herbal medicines will allow for better combinations of herbs for natural disease combat as a key player of alternative Western medicine.
Preschool children’s early writing: repeated measures reveal growing but variable trajectories

Findings from education to neuroscience highlight the role of young children’s print-related skills, including early writing, in predicting and enhancing the development of their later literacy abilities. However, the field lacks standardized, comprehensive measures with relatively brief scoring systems that can capture the progression from scribble lines into shapes, letters, first words, and messages. Repeated writing samples from Tools of the Mind curriculum provided a unique opportunity to examine growth across 6 months of preschool. To score the continuum of early writing skills, we designed a pilot 9-point scale (Early Writing-9; EW-9). Inter-coder agreement was high (ICC = 0.96, p < 0.001). In a sample of 62 children (3–5-years of age), we scored an average of 16 weekly samples per child, from the beginning of the school year until early spring. Findings from multilevel growth-curve models demonstrated that the development of early writing skills was substantial, highly variable, and often rapid. The shape of the trajectory yielded significant linear, quadratic, cubic, and quartic trends, consistent with a pattern of overall tapering growth. Among all predictor variables entered, including gender, age, and number of years in the program, only name-writing ability (assessed at school entry) predicted early writing scores after 6 months. Theoretical and educational implications for early writing development during preschool are discussed.
Examining How Stakeholders at the Local, State, and National Levels Made Sense of the Changed Kindergarten:

Kindergarten in the United States has fundamentally changed. It is the new first grade where children are taught increased academic content and experience more standardized testing. There is much d...
Diagnostic Utility of 18FDG-PET in Neurolymphomatosis Presenting as Atypical Facial Pain (P06.146)

OBJECTIVE: To highlight the utility of 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET)/computed tomography (CT) in establishing the diagnosis of neurolymphomatosis (NL). BACKGROUND: NL, or lymphomatous infiltration of the nervous system, is a rare primary or secondary manifestation of hematological malignancy. Establishing the diagnosis can be difficult using conventional imaging modalities. Cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) and bone marrow analysis do not increase the diagnostic yield. Nerve biopsy, although both sensitive and specific, may result in permanent nerve damage. During the last decade, FDG PET imaging has been used to diagnose, stage, and monitor treatment in lymphoma. Recent literature supports a diagnostic role for FDG-PET in the evaluation of patients with suspected NL. DESIGN/METHODS: Case report. RESULTS: A 70-year-old woman undergoing treatment for aggressive B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma presented with episodic left-sided facial pain. The lymphoma initially presented as a left neck mass and also involved the submandibular, cervical, axillary, mesenteric and inguinal nodes. Recent FDG PET imaging had shown near complete resolution of the malignancy following chemotherapy. The facial pain was periorbital and extended along the zygomatic bone. She denied photophobia, phonophobia, nausea, vomiting or associated autonomic features. Initial neurologic examination was normal. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the face, orbit and neck with contrast was negative. A week after presentation, she developed hypesthesia in a V3/V2 distribution. Repeat MRI was again non-diagnostic. CSF analysis was negative. FDG PET-CT scan showed increased FDG uptake along the left V3 branch of the trigeminal nerve and in the left parotid gland. An ultrasound guided biopsy of the left parotid lesion confirmed recurrent lymphoma. CONCLUSIONS: Cranial neuropathy is a rare presentation of NL and establishing the diagnosis can be challenging. This case illustrates the potential diagnostic utility for FDG PET in the evaluation of patients with suspected NL especially if MRI is negative. Disclosure: Dr. Toledano has nothing to disclose. Dr. Siddiqui has nothing to disclose. Dr. Thompson has nothing to disclose. Dr. Garza has received personal compensation in an editorial capacity for UpToDate, Inc and Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports. Dr. Pittock and Mayo Clinic have a financial interest in the technology entitled "Neuromyelitis Optica Autoantibodies as a Marker for Neoplasia." This technology has been licensed to a commercial entity but no royalties have been received. Dr Sean Pittock has received research support from Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Portable, layer-wise task performance monitoring for NLP models.

There is a long-standing interest in understanding the internal behavior of neural networks. Deep neural architectures for natural language processing (NLP) are often accompanied by explanations for their effectiveness, from general observations (e.g. RNNs can represent unbounded dependencies in a sequence) to specific arguments about linguistic phenomena (early layers encode lexical information, deeper layers syntactic). The recent ascendancy of DNNs is fueling efforts in the NLP community to explore these claims. Previous work has tended to focus on easily-accessible representations like word or sentence embeddings, with deeper structure requiring more ad hoc methods to extract and examine. In this work, we introduce Vivisect, a toolkit that aims at a general solution for broad and fine-grained monitoring in the major DNN frameworks, with minimal change to research patterns.
Intensity of Statin Therapy Affects Progression of Coronary Artery Vasculopathy

Purpose Statin therapy offers long-term morbidity and mortality benefits after orthotopic heart transplant (OHT), regardless of lipid levels. Multiple statins have been specifically studied in post-OHT patients, showing decrease in dyslipidemia and development of cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV). CAV is an accelerated form of coronary artery disease characterized by concentric fibrous intimal hyperplasia along the length of coronary vessels. CAV is detectable by angiography in 43% of survivors in the first 8 years after OHT. Treatment with statins significantly reduces the incidence of transplant CAV and shows mortality benefit at ten years. This retrospective study examines the relationship between certain variables and the risk of developing CAV in a cohort of OHT patients at a single center. Methods Retrospective data points from 212 OHT patients at a single center were collected from the electronic medical record. For all patients, statin dosage was recorded as low, moderate, and high intensity based on the 2013 ACC/ AHA guidelines. Patient's yearly catheterization reports were reviewed for diagnosis of CAV. Time from OHT to CAV diagnosis was calculated from the date of the diagnosing catheterization. If a patient was diagnosed with CAV, data points including degree of CAV, systolic blood pressure, lipid levels, and HbA1c at the time of CAV diagnosis were recorded. Results Statin intensity was the only significant variable in the Cox Proportional Hazards model (p= 0.0025; HR = 1.49 (95% CI: 1.15-1.93). Similar models to predict rejection were considered, and no variables were found to be significant. A binary logistic regression model was run to predict the presence of any malignancy, and no variables were found to be significant at the 0.05 level. Elevated systolic blood pressure and HbA1c were also significant findings in the CAV group as compared to the non-CAV group of OHT patients (p=0.003 and p=0.035 respectively). Conclusion The intensity of statin therapy significantly affects the progression of CAV. OHT programs should be vigilant in prescribing their OHT patients statins and encouraging compliance due to the risk of life threatening complications. As well, as prescribing statins, patients should be monitored closely for hypertension and diabetes as these disease processes are more often found in patients with CAV, than those would do not have a CAV diagnosis.
Antecedents leading to perceived franchise support

Franchising is an important part of the U.S. economy. According to the International Franchise Association (IFA), franchising provides 9.0 million jobs and pays out 351 billion dollars in wages and...
Online vs. Offline in the U.S.: Are the Media Shrinking?

We find that combined revenues for 10 major media in the U.S. have steadily declined as a proportion of overall economic activity (GDP) from 1999 to at least 2009 (the latest year for which we have complete data). For individual media, we find a generally consistent pattern in which increasing revenues from Internet distribution are exceeded by declines in revenues from established distribution channels, with the exception of television and video games, whose revenues have so far kept pace with GDP. We also report a marked overall shift from advertiser to direct payment support for the media industries over this period. We consider 4 possible reasons for these revenue trends: shifts in consumer media usage; reduced appropriability due to more difficult copyright protection or to inadequate advertising business models, and reduced costs due to more efficient Internet distribution. A preliminary analysis of U.S. Census employment data for the media industries since the late 1990s corroborates the declining revenue trends, but offers suggestive evidence that media production has declined less than media distribution and exhibition functions.
Spatiotemporal Mapping of Bacterial Membrane Potential Responses to Extracellular Electron Transfer

Extracellular electron transfer (EET) allows microorganisms to gain energy by linking intracellular reactions to external surfaces ranging from natural minerals to the electrodes of bioelectrochemical renewable energy technologies. In the past two decades, electrochemical techniques have been used to investigate EET in a wide range of microbes, with emphasis on dissimilatory metal-reducing bacteria, such as Shewanella oneidensis MR-1, as model organisms. However, due to the typically bulk nature of these techniques, they are unable to reveal the subpopulation variation in EET or link the observed electrochemical currents to energy gain by individual cells, thus overlooking the potentially complex spatial patterns of activity in bioelectrochemical systems. Here, to address these limitations, we use the cell membrane potential as a bioenergetic indicator of EET by S. oneidensis MR-1 cells. Using a fluorescent membrane potential indicator during in vivo single-cell-level fluorescence microscopy in a bioelectrochemical reactor, we demonstrate that membrane potential strongly correlates with EET. Increasing electrode potential and associated EET current leads to more negative membrane potential. This EET-induced membrane hyperpolarization is spatially limited to cells in contact with the electrode and within a near-electrode zone (<30 μm) where the hyperpolarization decays with increasing cell-electrode distance. The high spatial and temporal resolution of the reported technique can be used to study the single-cell-level dynamics of EET not only on electrode surfaces, but also during respiration of other solid-phase electron acceptors.
Second window near-infrared dosimeter (NIR2D) system for radiation dosimetry

Fiber-coupled scintillation dosimeters are a cost-effective alternative to the conventional ion chambers in radiation dosimetry. However, stem effects from optical fibers such as Cerenkov radiation incur significant errors in the readout signal. Here we introduce a second near-infrared window dosimeter, dubbed as NIR2D, that can potentially be used as real-time radiation detector for clinical megavoltage beams. Lanthanide-based rare-earth NaYF4 nano-phosphors doped with both erbium and cerium elements were synthesized, and a compact 3D printed reader device integrated with a photodetector and data acquisition system was designed. The performance of the NIR2D was tested using a pre-clinical orthovoltage radiation source and a clinical megavoltage radiation source. The system was tested for dose linearity (100, 200, 600 MU), dose rate dependency (100, 200, 400, 600 MU min-1), and energy dependency (6, 10, 15 MV). Test results with the clinical linear accelerator demonstrated excellent dose linearity and dose rate independency when exposed to 6 MV linac beams-both data follows a linear trendline with R2 > 0.99. On the other hand, the NIR2D was energy dependent, where the readout dropped by 9% between 6 and 15 MV. For stem effects, we observed a finite Cerenkov contribution of 1%-3% when exposed between 100-600 MU min-1 (6 MV) and 3%-6% when exposed between 5-15 MV (600 MU min-1). While the stem effects were still observable, we expect that enhancing the current optical setup will simultaneously improve the scintillation signal and reduce the stem effects.
Aliasing and Polar Gap Effects on Geopotential Coefficient Estimation: Space-wise Simulation Study of GOCE and GRACE

The effects of aliasing and polar data gap have been investigated analytically and numerically for the upcoming dedicated gravity satellite missions. It is verified that they could cause more significant systematic error in the solution via least-squares estimation than the effect from the instrument’s noise. Both effects produce similar error trends in the geoid height estimation, while they corrupt coefficients corresponding to different spectral domains.
Biosimilar Perceptions Among Healthcare Professionals and Commercial Medical Benefit Policy Analysis in the United States

Biosimilars represent a significant cost savings opportunity for the entire healthcare system. Despite efforts from the United States Food and Drug Administration, adoption has not been as successful as originally hoped. Perceived barriers to adoption of biosimilars have been described previously, but more knowledge is needed. Further, increased understanding is needed surrounding commercial payer preferences of biosimilars. A survey to assess perceived barriers to biosimilar adoption was dispersed to healthcare leaders who work in health-systems, physician practices, and the pharmaceutical industry. Policies from the top 15 commercial payers, by covered lives, were reviewed to collect information surrounding coverage and preferred products to assess if perceptions from healthcare leaders align with payer policies. The largest number of responses (n = 76) came from health-systems (n = 56), followed by pharmaceutical manufacturers (n = 12), and physician practices (n = 8). Responses from each cohort aligned very closely with the composite results of the group. Responses surrounding safety and efficacy were high amongst all groups, while rebate increases to payers for reference products were of highest concern for adoption. United Healthcare had the most policies preferring biosimilars (6/7, 86%). Filgrastim-sndz (Zarxio), had the most preferred statuses for a biosimilar (10/15, 67%). The infliximab reference product had the most preferred statuses for a reference product (9/15, 60%). Findings from this study outline the greatest perceived barriers to adoption of biosimilars from a variety of different stakeholders. Rebates from reference product manufacturers to payers was the main deterrent for biosimilar use.
Microbiota Perturbation or Elimination Can Inhibit Normal Development and Elicit a Starvation-Like Response in an Omnivorous Model Invertebrate.

Omnivorous animals, including humans, harbor diverse, species-rich gut communities that impact their growth, development, and homeostasis. Model invertebrates are broadly accessible experimental platforms that enable linking specific species or species groups to host phenotypes, yet often their specialized diets and distinct gut microbiota make them less comparable to human and other mammalian and gut communities. The omnivorous cockroach Periplaneta americana harbors ∼4 × 102 bacterial genera within its digestive tract and is enriched with taxa commonly found in omnivorous mammals (i.e., Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Firmicutes). These features make P. americana a valuable platform for identifying microbe-mediated host phenotypes with potential translations to mammals. Rearing P. americana insects under germfree conditions resulted in prolonging development time by ∼30% and an up to ∼8% reduction in body size along three dimensions. Germfree rearing resulted in downregulation of gene networks involved in growth, energy homeostasis, and nutrient availability. Reintroduction of a defined microbiota comprised of a subset of P. americana commensals to germfree insects did not recover normal growth and developmental phenotypes or transcriptional profiles observed in conventionally reared insects. These results are in contrast with specialist-feeding model insects (e.g., Drosophila), where introduction of a single endemic bacterial species to germfree condition-reared specimens recovered normal host phenotypes. These data suggest that understanding microbe-mediated host outcomes in animals with species-rich communities should include models that typically maintain similarly diverse microbiomes. The dramatic transcriptional, developmental, and morphological phenotypes linked to gut microbiome status in this study illustrates how microbes are key players in animal growth and evolution. IMPORTANCE Broadly accessible model organisms are essential for illustrating how microbes are engaged in the growth, development, and evolution of animals. We report that germfree rearing of omnivorous Periplaneta americana cockroaches resulted in growth defects and severely disrupted gene networks that regulate development, which highlights the importance of gut microbiota in these host processes. Absence of gut microbiota elicited a starvation-like transcriptional response in which growth and development were inhibited while nutrient scavenging was enhanced. Additionally, reintroduction of a subset of cockroach gut bacterial commensals did not broadly recover normal expression patterns, illustrating that a particular microbiome composition may be necessary for normal host development. Invertebrate microbiota model systems that enable disentangling complex, species-rich communities are essential for linking microbial taxa to specific host phenotypes.
Biomechanics of Bone and Age-Related Fractures

Publisher Summary This chapter defines and explains some of the basic terms and concepts used in bone mechanics with particular emphasis on the concepts most relevant to the study of age related fractures. It states that one primary reason for studying the mechanics of bone is to improve the understanding of how and why bones fracture. From an engineering viewpoint, fractures represent a structural failure of the bone whereby the forces and moments applied to the bone exceed its load-bearing capacity. Therefore, when investigating the biomechanics of age-related fractures, one must consider the mechanical properties of bone as well as the applied loads and how these two factors change with age, as both of these factors contribute to the structural behavior of the whole bone, and both can change with age. Following this, the study presents a review of the current understanding of the mechanical behavior of cortical and trabecular bone and of whole bones. This information provides a foundation for the final that focuses on the biomechanics of age-related fractures. Finally, this chapter considers the roles of both skeletal loading and bone fragility as they relate to hip and spine fractures and identify important directions of future research in these areas.
Photoregulation of Chloroplast Gene Transcription in the Chromophytic Alga Heterosigma carterae

Light acts as a complex regulator of cellular development and gene expression in photoautotrophs. Although light signals are highly effective in controlling cellular division and chloroplast biogenesis in the toxic marine alga Heterosigma carterae, their influence on gene expression has not been well characterized. To address this need cultures of H. carterae synchronized by an alternating light-dark regime were sampled through 12 h of light and 12 h of dark to characterize cell division, chloroplast complement, and chloroplast RNA abundance. These studies have identified a unimodal pattern of chloroplast transcriptional activity for a suite of cellular and photosynthetic genes. To determine the alga's response to a change in photoperiod, 12-h light/12-h dark-synchronized cultures were transferred to constant light and then periodically sampled. Although cellular and chloroplast division cycles remained synchronized in constant conditions for 24 h, the transcriptional apparatus responded by increasing ctRNA abundance within 45 min of the change in photoperiod. However, the ability of the alga to mount this rapid transcriptional response was limited to the first 2 h of the putative dark period. Thus, the chloroplast transcriptional apparatus of H. carterae may initiate a rapid, temporally gated response to a change in photoperiod that is independent of ongoing light-entrained cellular and chloroplast division cycles.
Lease versus Borrow-to-Buy Analysis

Several models have been proposed in the finance literature, as well as in promotional material circulated by lessors, for evaluating whether equipment should be purchased or leased. The lease versus borrow-to-buy decision requires a careful analysis of the cash flows associated with the two alternatives for obtaining the use of the equipment. The key concept in the lease versus borrow-to-buy decision is the need to neutralize the financial risk between the two alternative financing methods. Keywords: lease; borrow-to-buy decision; adjusted discount rate; direct cash flow from leasing; equivalent loan; residual value; debt displacement; tax shield
Carbon Isotopic Fractionation Does Not Occur during Dark Respiration in C3 and C4 Plants

The magnitude of possible carbon isotopic fractionation during dark respiration was investigated with isolated mesophyll cells from mature leaves of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), a C3 plant, and corn (Zea mays L.), a C4 plant. Mesophyll protoplasts were extracted from greenhouse-grown leaves and incubated in culture solutions containing different carbohydrate substrates (fructose, glucose, and sucrose) with known [delta]13C values. The CO2 produced by protoplasts after incubation in the dark was collected, purified, and analyzed for its carbon isotope ratio. From observations of the isotope ratios of the substrate and respired CO2, we calculated the carbon isotope discrimination associated with metabolism of each of these substrates. In eight of the 10 treatment combinations, the carbon isotope ratio discrimination was not significantly different from 0. In the remaining two treatment combinations, the carbon isotope ratio discrimination was 1[per mille (thousand) sign]. From these results, we conclude that there is no significant carbon isotopic discrimination during mitochondrial dark respiration when fructase, glucose, or sucrose are used as respiratory substrates.
Microfilament bundles: I. Formation with uniform polarity

Summary The coelomocytes of the sea urchin, Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis , have been used as a model system to investigate the relative orientation of single actin-containing filaments to the cell membrane as they are regrouped in multifilament bundles during a cellular morphogenetic event. In detergent-treated, heavy meromyosin (HMM) incubated and negatively stained cells, the polarity of each microfilament, regardless of whether it occurs singly or in a bundle, is such that the arrowhead complexes formed along the length of each filament by the HMM decoration point inward away from the cell membrane and toward the center of the cell. A mechanism is proposed by which the uniformly polar bundles may be formed.
Some Aspects of Floating Point Computation

The floating point format is widely used in computing because it allows for the representation of numbers with greatly varying magnitude. This paper introduces some general aspects of floating point representation and includes a discussion of the implications of balanced and unbalanced exponent ranges. A statistical approach is presented in order to analyze the error in floating point computations. The shortening of computer words is discussed and is applied to study aspects of the fraction error and the relative error.
Role of Arrestins in G-Protein-Coupled Receptor Endocytosis

Publisher Summary β2AR activation by catecholamines initiates a cascade of events that culminate in the cyclic adenosine monophosphate-dependent phosphorylation of multiple cell specific target proteins. Within seconds to minutes after activation by agonist, β2AR becomes phosphorylated by the β-adrenergic receptor kinase (βARK). β2AR phosphorylation by βARK promotes the binding of another protein, termed β-arrestin, to the receptor, which effectively uncouples the β2AR from the stimulatory G-protein and attenuates signaling. β2AR uncoupling is rapidly followed by a loss, or sequestration, of cell surface β2ARs into an intracellular compartment distinct from the plasma membrane. Recent studies suggest that β2AR internalization may be important for receptor resensitization, via a process that involves dephosphorylation and recycling of the receptor back to the plasma membrane. There is general agreement that GRs are physically internalized into cells in an agonist-dependent manner, and that this process may occur by both clathrin- and non-clathrin-mediated processes. For β2AR in particular, the available evidence supports receptor internalization predominantly through clathrincoated pits. Based on the studies described, it is hypothesized that arrestins, which bind directly to activated phosphorylated receptors, play a pivotal role in β2AR internalization via their interaction with some component of the clathrin-coated pit. To explore this possibility, studies examined whether arrestins interact with clathrin, the major structural protein of coated pits. In initial studies, in vitro translated radiolabeled β-arrestin and arrestin 3 are found to bind specifically to clathrin cages, while visual arrestin showed no appreciable binding. To determine whether β-arrestin and arrestin 3's interaction with clathrin occured directly, the binding of purified recombinant arrestins to clathrin in several assembled forms is assessed. The ability of β-arrestin and arrestin 3 to bind both GRs and clathrin with high affinity suggests that nonvisual arrestins likely function as adaptor proteins to promote receptor localization in clathrin-coated pits. To address this question in intact cell studies, it is assessed whether β2ARs are localized in clathrincoated pits in an agonist- and β-arrestin-dependent manner.
Abstract 398: Epigenetic changes in testis specific Y-like 5 gene in human prostate carcinoma: Gene expression analysis and its potential as a biomarker

Proceedings: AACR Annual Meeting 2014; April 5-9, 2014; San Diego, CA INTRODUCTION Testis specific Y-like protein (TSPYL-5) is a member of TSPY-L family of gene, whose functions are currently unknown. TSPYL-5 was reported to possess tumor suppressor function and a target for epigenetic silencing in human glioblastoma and colon carcinoma. The exact nature of TSPYL-5 gene expression and its epigenetic modification is not known in prostate carcinoma. We hypothesize that this gene could be expressed in prostate carcinoma cells and tissues and its methylation status could function as an epigenetic biomarker for aggressive prostate cancer phenotype. MATERIALS AND METHODS Human prostate carcinoma cells (PC3, DU145, LnCAP) was grown in DMEM-F12 media with 10% FBS at 37oC. Normal prostate epithelial cells (RWPE1-) were maintained in keratinocyte serum free media. Total RNA was extracted from the cells and converted to cDNA which served as a template for PCR amplification in the presence of TSPYL-5 gene primers. The amplified PCR products were analyzed by 2% agarose gel electrophoresis. Methylation-specific PCR (MSP) was performed with primers designed for the CpG island in the gene promoter to detect the methylation changes in the carcinoma cells. RESULTS Quantitative RT-PCR analysis of TSPYL-5 gene expression in different human prostate carcinoma cells lines identified 2-3 fold higher expression (P ≤ 0.005) in lines with metastatic propensity (PC3) compared to less aggressive ones. MSP analysis indicated differential promoter methylation of TSPYL-5 gene in carcinoma and normal prostate epithelial cells (RWPE1). Consistent methylation in LnCAP and DU145 cells was observed in our experiments and was associated with reduced expression of the gene. CONCLUSIONS Expression of TSPYL-5 is higher in human prostate carcinoma cells derived from more metastatic phenotype. This expression could be influenced by DNA methylation. It is not clear whether TSPYL-5 expression in prostate carcinoma cells could play a part in tumor suppressor function. Alternately, the presence of this gene may play alternate roles including treatment resistance and cell growth. Further, DNA methylation of the CpG island of TSPYL-5 could serve as a robust biomarker of aggressive phenotype in human prostate carcinoma. Citation Format: Senthil R. Kumar, Jeffrey Bryan, Magda Esebua. Epigenetic changes in testis specific Y-like 5 gene in human prostate carcinoma: Gene expression analysis and its potential as a biomarker. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 398. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-398
Use of chitinase to assess ruminal fungi associated with plant residues in vitro

Treatment of fibrous residue from in vitro digestion trials with chitinase was evaluated gravimetrically and microscopically to determine the associated fungal biomass. The percent dry weight removed by chitinase with time paralleled changes in the number of sporangia associated with leaves. The fungal biomass contributed about 12% dry matter to the residue of leaves incubated with ruminal fluid plus streptomycin and penicillin.
Interior-Point Algorithms for Semidefinite Programming Based on a Nonlinear Formulation

Recently in Burer et al. (Mathematical Programming A, submitted), the authors of this paper introduced a nonlinear transformation to convert the positive definiteness constraint on an n × n matrix-valued function of a certain form into the positivity constraint on n scalar variables while keeping the number of variables unchanged. Based on this transformation, they proposed a first-order interior-point algorithm for solving a special class of linear semidefinite programs. In this paper, we extend this approach and apply the transformation to general linear semidefinite programs, producing nonlinear programs that have not only the n positivity constraints, but also n additional nonlinear inequality constraints. Despite this complication, the transformed problems still retain most of the desirable properties. We propose first-order and second-order interior-point algorithms for this type of nonlinear program and establish their global convergence. Computational results demonstrating the effectiveness of the first-order method are also presented.
Specific Induction of Golgi Stress by Targeted Protein Destabilization

Little is known about stress induced by increased protein load and misfolding within the Golgi apparatus. Studies performed in secretory cells requiring extensive O-linked glycosylation reveal part...
CsrA activates flhDC expression by protecting flhDC mRNA from RNase E-mediated cleavage.

Csr is a conserved global regulatory system that controls expression of several hundred Escherichia coli genes. CsrA protein represses translation of numerous genes by binding to mRNA and inhibiting ribosome access. CsrA also activates gene expression, although an activation mechanism has not been reported. CsrA activates flhDC expression, encoding the master regulator of flagellum biosynthesis and chemotaxis, by stabilizing the mRNA. Computer modeling, gel mobility shift, and footprint analyses identified two CsrA binding sites extending from positions 1–12 (BS1) and 44–55 (BS2) of the 198-nt flhDC leader transcript. flhD'-'lacZ expression was reduced by mutations in csrA and/or the CsrA binding sites. The position of BS1 suggested that bound CsrA might inhibit 5' end-dependent RNase E cleavage of flhDC mRNA. Consistent with this hypothesis, CsrA protected flhDC leader RNA from RNase E cleavage in vitro and protection depended on BS1 and BS2. Primer extension studies identified flhDC decay intermediates in vivo that correspond to in vitro RNase E cleavage sites. Deletion of these RNase E cleavage sites resulted in increased flhD'-'lacZ expression. Data from mRNA decay studies and quantitative primer extension assays support a model in which bound CsrA activates flhDC expression by inhibiting the 5' end-dependent RNase E cleavage pathway.