cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Disruption of synaptosomal calcium channel function by Lambert-Eaton myasthenic immunoglobulin is serum-dependent.

Abstract An autoantibody to nerve terminal Ca 2+ channels has been suggested to mediate the pathogenesis of the neuromuscular disorder Lambert-Eaton Myasthenic Syndrome (LEMS). We demonstrated previously that in the presence of control human serum, immunoglobulins isolated from a patient with LEMS reduced flux of Ca 2+ into isolated nerve terminals during depolarization. The objective of the present study was to determine the role of serum in reducing uptake of 45 Ca 2+ into rat brain synaptosomes by LEMS IgG. Depolarization-dependent uptake of 45 Ca 2+ through voltage-gated Ca 2+ channels was determined using synaptosomes incubated with control (disease-free) and LEMS IgG with or without control human serum. In the absence of human serum, LEMS IgG did not reduce uptake of 45 Ca 2+ into synaptosomes. However, in the presence of control human serum (10% of total incubation volume), 45 Ca 2+ uptake was reduced significantly by LEMS IgG (2 and 4 mg/ml), but not by IgG from disease-free patients or by 10% (v/v) control human serum alone. This concentration of serum was found to be optimal; higher concentrations produced significant reductions in Ca 2+ uptake, whereas at lower concentrations the serum/IgG combination was ineffective. The depressant effect of high concentrations of serum alone on 45 Ca 2+ uptake was mimicked by equal concentrations of bovine serum albumin suggesting that deficits in 45 Ca 2+ uptake produced by high concentrations of serum were due to increased protein binding of the radiolabel. Heat-inactivating the serum abolished its ability to interact with the LEMS immunoglobulins to depress 45 Ca 2+ uptake. This suggested a role for complement in this effect. To test whether the membrane attack complex (MAC) or the alternative pathway of complement (APC) contributed to the alteration in Ca 2+ channel function, 45 Ca 2+ uptake into synaptosomes was measured following incubation with LEMS IgG and C5- or Factor B-deficient serum, respectively. LEMS IgG reduced K + -stimulated uptake in both cases. Thus, neither the MAC nor the APC contributed to disruption of Ca 2+ channel function by LEMS IgG in synaptosomes. In contrast, incubation of synaptosomes with LEMS IgG and C3-deficient serum prevented the reduction in 45 Ca 2+ uptake suggesting that the C3 component of the complement pathway may participate in Ca 2+ channel dysfunction in synaptosomes following incubation with serum and LEMS IgG.
Integration of Computational Fluids Dynamics and Virtual Reality Visualization for Constructing the Wind Field

3-D wind field models were developed for constructing 3-D wind fields in an urban wind condition and over irregular terrain. The virtual environment is used to visualize the simulation results. Simulation results based on statistical input data were obtained for 3-D urban wind flow over the Classroom and Office (CLO) building at Purdue University Calumet (PUC). The objective for this project was to construct the 3D wind field around the roof of the CLO building in order to analyze the wind condition and identify a suitable installation area which would have relatively more wind power but less turbulence for the wind turbine. By using the virtual reality (VR) technique, the simulation results can be clearly and vividly shown in a virtual environment that would not be as limited as traditional two-dimensional views. Statistical analysis was based on the wind data that was recorded by a sensor located on the roof of the CLO building. Specific wind conditions, which were obtained from the statistical analysis, were applied to simulation cases for the wind flow around a 3-D geometry model of the CLO building. In addition, different wind directions were applied in the Fluent program. After the CFD simulation results were exported, the virtual reality technique was used to visualize the simulation results, which can be observed intuitively. Visualization of simulation results are easier to be observed and be analyzed.Copyright © 2011 by ASME
Size‐resolved fine and ultrafine particle composition in Baltimore, Maryland

[1] The third-generation real-time single-particle mass spectrometer (RSMS-3) was deployed from March to December 2002 in Baltimore, Maryland, as part of the Baltimore Particulate Matter Supersite. The site was located to the east of the downtown area and northwest of many local industrial emission sites. RSMS-3 actively sampled and analyzed over 380,000 individual particles within the 48–770 nm size range. The resulting positive and negative ion spectra for each particle were classified using a neural network algorithm, adaptive resonance theory ART 2-a. A subset of these data, particles analyzed between 1 April and 30 November 2003, is presented here. Over 99% of these particles could be described by 10 major composition types. Ambient number concentrations were determined for each type and correlated with particle size, wind direction, and time of day/year. On the basis of this information, local and regional sources of different composition classes are postulated. Almost 40% of all particles in the Baltimore aerosol are internally mixed, consisting primarily of organic carbon, ammonium nitrate, and ammonium sulfate. Most of these particles are likely derived from regional sources. The remaining particles appear to be derived mainly from local sources and processes and include elemental carbon (almost 30%), ammonium nitrate (over 10%), and various metals (over 20%). The particle composition types found in Baltimore aerosol are compared to previous measurements in Houston and Atlanta.
Gender inequalities in US adult health: The interplay of race and ethnicity

Gender differences in adult health are well documented, but only recently has research begun to investigate how race and ethnicity condition gendered health disparities. This paper contributes to this line of inquiry by assessing gender differences in morbidity across five major US racial and ethnic populations. Using data from the 1997-2001 waves of the National Health Interview Survey, the analysis examines differences in men and women's self-rated health, functional limitations, and life-threatening medical conditions for whites, blacks, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and Cubans. For each health outcome, we investigate the utility of socioeconomic factors in accounting for observed disparities. Contrary to finding universal excess in female morbidity, the results show that the magnitude of gender difference varies considerably by racial/ethnic group, health outcome, and comparison category. The most striking findings are the consistently higher levels of functional limitations for all women compared to men in their same racial/ethnic group and the poorer health of black women relative to both white and black men for all health measures, after adjustment for socioeconomic and background factors. The gender gap for all other health measures is more variable, and for Mexican women a difference is only evident for functional limitations and only when compared to Mexican men. Our results underscore the need for more research on the role of race and ethnicity in shaping gendered health inequalities and the mechanisms that lead to such variable patterns of difference across and within US racial and ethnic populations.
Effect of Distance Education on Reference and Instructional Services in Academic Libraries

Distance education is one of the fastest growing trends of higher education in the United States. This trend has brought various changes and challenges to academic libraries and librarians in their provision of reference and instructional services. This article reviews the literature on the effect of distance education programs on reference and instructional services in academic libraries. The ongoing efforts made by librarians and the various challenges they face in meeting distance learners’ needs for reference and instructional services are synthesized and discussed.
Kinetics of thymidylate synthase inhibition by disulfides.

Abstract The inactivation of thymidylate synthase (5,10-methylene-tetrahydrofolate: dUMP C- methyltransferase , EC 2.1.1.45) by a number of disulfides has been examined and found to be a second-order process. The apparent second-order rate constant was strongly influenced by the chemical structure of the disulfide. The data suggest that negatively charged functional groups decrease the reactivity of the disulfides and that positively charged groups enhance the reactivity. GSSG did not react with non-catalytic SH groups, since the number of SH groups of both GSSG-treated and untreated thymidylate synthase was the same. Several sulfhydryl compounds were tested for their ability to reactivate thymidylate synthase that had been inhibited by 2,2′-dithiodipyridine. Complete reactivation was obtained with either dithiothreitol or 2-mercaptoethanol. Reactivation by 2-mercaptoethanol was a second-order process.
Theory and Simulation of Nanostructured Materials for Photovoltaic Applications

Quantum mechanical electronic structure calculations are playing an ever-expanding role in advancing nanotechnology as well as in advancing our understanding and design of new functional materials. Recent research utilizing quantum mechanical electronic structure calculations is helping to improve upon our understanding of existing nanomaterials-and predict new nanomaterials-for photovoltaic applications.
Flow singularity and slip velocity in plane extrudate swell computations

Abstract It is common knowledge that flows of viscoelastic liquids with stress singularities, like the extrudate swell flow, pose formidable obstacles to numerical computations at relatively low Weissenberg number. This paper describes an effort toward alleviating the stress singularity by means of a slip boundary condition at the die wall. The Oldoyd-B and the upper-convected Maxwell differential constitutive equations were used for simplicity and computational efficiency. With a no-slip boundary condition it was found that for Newtonian, upper-convected Maxwell and Oldroyd-B liquids the global solution was always mesh-dependent until the Newton iteration diverged at very fine tessellations in the vicinity of the static contact line. With a natural slip boundary condition the global solution became mesh-independent at the same tessellations. Moreover, the macroscopic predictions became independent of the amount of slip in a relatively broad region of slip coefficient. The Newton iteration converged up to Weissenberg number 0.6 with a no-slip boundary condition and up to 1.7 with a lip boundary condition for the upper-convected Maxwell liquid. For the Oldroyd-B liquid the maximum Weissenberg number was 0.85 without slip and 1.866 with slip. Although slip velocity, surface tension and Newtonian viscosity (or retardation time) enhanced some numerical stability in general, it appears unlikely that they could advance viscoelastic computations significantly. In the limiting case of no swelling, at infinitely large surface tension, the analytical solution for Newtonian and, a second order fluid showed: (a) elasticity increases the strength of the singularity that exists for Newtonian liquid at the contact line, and thus Newton iteration is expected to diverge at coarser and coarser tessellations as the elasticity increases in agreement with the finite element findings. (b) Finite element predictions for the same flow agreed with the analytical solution in the vicinity of the singularity only when a slip boundary condition was employed. (c) Slip boundary condition in the vicinity of the contact line alleviates the stress singularity. However, it forces the stress to go through a maximum which is equally catastrophic of the Newton iteration convergence.
Novel states of electrons on a helium film

Three novel states of electrons on a helium film are described. The first is a diplon, an electron trapped by a positive charge located on a substrate beneath the film, the second is a variation of the first leading to the possibility of a two-dimensional metal-insulator transition, and the third is a ripplonic polaron, an electron self-trapped in a surface dimple. From a survey of experimental searches for the ripplonic polaron state I conclude that no polaron transition occurs on films thicker than 14 nm at T>1.5 K.
Combining the setbase approach with negative databases

In 2009, Shamir proposed the setbase approach to protect the privacy of biometric data during ID documents issuance. One year later, Bringer and Chabanne introduced negative databases for biometric data. In this paper, we show that negative database techniques can also be applied to the setbase approach to enforce some of its security characteristics.
Abstract B39: Role of hepatoma upregulated Protein (HURP) in prostate cancer tumorigenesis.

Hepatoma up-regulated protein (HURP) is a cell cycle-regulated and microtubule-associated protein. It functions as a Ran GTPase effector and is involved in the stabilization of the mitotic kinetochore fibers. The expression of this protein is elevated in different tumor types and associated with tumor progression and aggressiveness. Also, a significant elevation of HURP expression was reported in normal stem cells including haematopoietic stem cells, mesenchymal stem cells, and mouse embryonic stem cells but not in differentiated cells, an evidence for HURP as stemness maintenance factor. The aim of this study is to analyze the oncogenic potential of HURP in prostate cancer (PCa). We analyzed the expression level of HURP in PCa patients and found the transcripts of HURP were overexpressed in PCa. The elevated expression of HURP in PCa was found to be associated with higher Gleason score, systemic progression and poor prognosis. Furthermore, using a case-control cohort study we demonstrated the overall prognostic ability of HURP mRNA in advanced PCa, as tested in receiver operating characteristic analysis [AUC 0.74 (95% CL, 0.68 to 0.8)]. In addition, we analyzed the expression level of HURP protein in tumor tissue and in prostate benign and cancer cell lines; we found that the level of HURP protein was almost 5-fold higher (p Support: DOD PC094680 (CRG), PCF Creativity Award (CRG). Citation Information: Mol Cancer Ther 2013;12(11 Suppl):B39. Citation Format: Abdelouahid El-Khattouti, Tangeng Ma, James R. Kent, Ingrid Espinoza, Christian R. Gomez. Role of hepatoma upregulated Protein (HURP) in prostate cancer tumorigenesis. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference: Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics; 2013 Oct 19-23; Boston, MA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Ther 2013;12(11 Suppl):Abstract nr B39.
Scanning electron microscopy of the fetal membranes of an oviparous squamate, the corn snake Pituophis guttatus (Colubridae).

Although the fetal membranes of viviparous squamates have received much study, morphology of their homologues among oviparous reptiles is poorly understood. The scarcity of information about these membranes in egg-laying reptiles hampers attempts to distinguish specializations for viviparity from ancestral oviparous features. We used scanning electron microscopy to examine fetal membranes of an oviparous snake (Pituophis guttatus) throughout the developmental period from oviposition to hatching. The external surface of the chorion contains broad, flattened cells that lack surface features; these cells form a continuous layer over the allantoic capillaries and offer a minimal barrier to respiratory exchange. In contrast, the surface epithelium of the omphalopleure bears elaborate surface ridges suggestive of absorptive capabilities. These ridges are prominent in the first few weeks after oviposition, but diminish thereafter. During development, the isolated yolk mass (IYM) of the omphalopleure becomes depleted, and the tissue becomes heavily vascularized by allantoic vessels. Surface features of the omphalopleure progressively take on the appearance of the chorioallantois, but the changes are not synchronous with loss of the IYM or membrane vascularization. Previous studies on viviparous snakes suggest that the chorioallantois and omphalopleure are respectively specialized for gas exchange and absorption in the intrauterine environment. Our studies of fetal membranes in P. guttatus offer evidence that cytological specializations for these functions originated under oviparous conditions, reflecting functional capacities that predate viviparity. J. Morphol., 2008. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Gunslinger School Administrators: Nontraditional Leadership in Urban School Systems in the United States.

Educators, political leaders, and the public in the United States share a broad con sensus that school systems in the larger urban areas are not meeting the educational needs of the children they are charged to serve. The result has been a virtual explosion in alternative reform strategies. In one fascinating example, some cities have consciously decided to recruit a school CEO or superintendent whose professional backgrounds lie entirely outside of the sphere of public education. We liken these education outsiders, these nontraditional school system leaders, to the gun-Ringer of American frontier mythology, the stranger, like Shane, who rides into town and solves a menacing problem that the townsfolk cannot manage themselves. This article explores the gunslinger phenomenon in public education leadership by describing it, specifying the conditions under which cities resort to this sort of reform, and exploring its implications for public education.
Four user, 2.5 Gb/s, spectrally coded O-CDMA system demonstration using low power nonlinear processing

This paper describes the demonstration of 2.5-Gb/s four-user optical-code-division-multiple-access (OCDMA) system operating at bit-error rate /spl les/10/sup -11/ utilizing programmable spectral phase encoding, an ultrasensitive (/spl sim/200 fJ/b) periodically poled lithium-niobate-waveguide nonlinear waveform discriminator and 10G Ethernet receiver. A comprehensive description of this ultra-short-pulse spectral phase-coded OCDMA system is presented. On the subsystem level, two key component technologies, namely, femtosecond encoding/decoding and low-power high-contrast nonlinear discrimination, have been developed and characterized. At the system level, data for the four-user OCDMA system operating at 2.5 Gb/s for binary as well as multilevel code families are described.
Fullerene formation in atmospheric pressure opposed flow oxy-flames

Abstract Samples of condensable material from opposed flow diffusion flames of methane and acetylene and oxygen enriched air at atmospheric pressure were collected and analyzed by high-pressure liquid chromatography to determine the fullerene yield. High resolution transmission electron microscopy studies revealed the presence of fullerenes and well-defined carbon layers with various degrees of curvature. Results show that fullerene formation strongly increases with the acetylene content in the fuel. Increasing strain rate positively affects the fullerene content in the condensable material; higher strain rate flames favor fullerenes over soot, indicating lower fullerene consumption by soot due to lower soot concentration. If the oxygen content in the oxidizing oxygen/nitrogen mixture is increased, fullerene concentration increases due to the higher temperatures and higher precursor concentration. Similar relative variations of fullerene concentrations with flame conditions are predicted by the numerical model. However, the absolute concentrations of fullerenes are, in general, underpredicted by 4 orders of magnitude. This result can be partially attributed to uncertainties in the rate coefficients for H-abstraction and C2H2-addition. This discrepancy also suggests that other important fullerene formation pathways are to be included in the numerical model.
Magnetic resonance histology for morphologic phenotyping.

Magnetic resonance histology (MRH) images of the whole mouse have been acquired at 100-micron isotropic resolution at 2.0 T with image arrays of 256 x 256 x 1024. Higher resolution (50 x 50 x 50 microns) of limited volumes has been acquired at 7.1T with image arrays of 512 x 512 x 512. Even higher resolution images (20 x 20 x 20 microns) of isolated organs have been acquired at 9.4 T. The volume resolution represents an increase of 625000 x over conventional clinical MRI. The technological basis is summarized that will allow basic scientists to begin using MRH as a routine method for morphologcic phenotyping of the mouse. MRH promises four unique attributes over conventional histology: 1). MRH is non-destructive; 2). MRH exploits the unique contrast mechanisms that have made MRI so successful clinically; 3). MRH is 3-dimensional; and 4). the data are inherently digital. We demonstrate the utility in morphologic phenotyping a whole C57BL/6J mouse.
International Transmission of Shocks in a Business-Cycle Model Under Imperfect Competition

This paper investigates the effects of introducing imperfect competition in an international business-cycle model. We provide some international evidence on markups and analyze the implications of increasing returns to scale and monopolistic competition for the effects and the international transmission of technology and government spending shocks. We also consider exogenous markup fluctuations as a source of shocks and of transmission of business cycles. We show that imperfect competition improves the behavior of a standard model driven by technology shocks, although the behavior of foreign trade variables remains unexplained. We also show that an imperfectly competitive model driven by government shocks can explain the international business cycle at least as well as a model driven by technology shocks.
Beginning antibiotics for acute rhinosinusitis and choosing the right treatment.

Acute bacterial sinusitis (ABS) is an extremely common problem in both children and adults. There are three clinical presentations of acute sinusitis: (1) onset with persistent symptoms (nasal symptoms or cough or both for >10 but 6 years) and adults to enhance the certainty of diagnosis. The predominant bacterial species that are implicated in acute sinusitis are Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, and Moraxella catarrhalis in children. In the last decade, there has been an increasing prevalence of penicillin-resistant S. pneumoniae, and β-lactamase-produding H. influenzae and M. catarrhalis. Although these has been some controversy in the literature regarding the effectiveness of antibiotics in the treatment of ABS, most studies in which the diagnosis of acute bacterial sinusitis is confirmed with images and appropriate anti-biotics are preseribed show superior outcomes in recipients of antibiotics. Therapy may be initiated with high-dose amoxicillin or amoxicillin-clavulanate. In penicillin-allergic patients or those who are unresponsive to amoxicillin, amoxicillin-clavulanate is appropriate. Alternatives include cefuroxime, cefpodoxime, or cefdinir. In cases of serious drug allergy, clarithromycin or azithromycin may be prescribed. The optimal duration of therapy is unknown. Some recommend treatment until the patient becomes free of symptoms and then for an additional 7 d.
Recombinant cytochromes c biogenesis systems I and II and analysis of haem delivery pathways in Escherichia coli

Genetic analysis has indicated that the system II pathway for c-type cytochrome biogenesis in Bordetella pertussis requires at least four biogenesis proteins (CcsB, CcsA, DsbD and CcsX). In this study, the eight genes (ccmA-H) associated with the system I pathway in Escherichia coli were deleted. Using B. pertussis cytochrome c4 as a reporter for cytochromes c assembly, it is demonstrated that a single fused ccsBA polypeptide can replace the function of the eight system I genes in E. coli. Thus, the CcsB and CcsA membrane complex of system II is likely to possess the haem delivery and periplasmic cytochrome c-haem ligation functions. Using recombinant system II and system I, both under control of IPTG, we have begun to study the capabilities and characteristics of each system in the same organism (E. coli). The ferrochelatase inhibitor N-methylprotoporphyrin was used to modulate haem levels in vivo and it is shown that system I can use endogenous haem at much lower levels than system II. Additionally, while system I encodes a covalently bound haem chaperone (holo-CcmE), no covalent intermediate has been found in system II. It is shown that this allows system I to use holo-CcmE as a haem reservoir, a capability system II does not possess.
Model and solution for the thermal response of blood-perfused tissue during laser hyperthermia

wave, noncontact, laser hyperthermia treatment of tumors. The first model is where all the laser energy is absorbed at thesurface of the tissue and the second model is where the laser energy penetrates into the tissue before absorption. Both modelsinclude the effect of blood perfusion in the solution for the temperature rise. It is shown that perfusion has a negligible affecton the temperature distribution for the surface absorption of laser energy. However, in the case of laser energy penetration,perfusion has a significant effect which increases with increasing optical penetration.
Direct Radial to Ulnar Nerve Transfer to Restore Intrinsic Muscle Function in Combined Proximal Median and Ulnar Nerve Injury: Case Report and Surgical Technique

A distal median to ulnar nerve transfer for timely restoration of critical intrinsic muscle function is possible in isolated ulnar nerve injuries but not for combined ulnar and median nerve injuries. We used a distal nerve transfer to restore ulnar intrinsic function in the case of a proximal combined median and ulnar nerve injury. Transfer of the nonessential radial nerve branches to the abductor pollicis longus, extensor pollicis brevis, and extensor indicis proprius to the motor branch of the ulnar nerve was performed in a direct end-to-end fashion via an interosseous tunnel. This method safely and effectively restored intrinsic function before terminal muscle degeneration.
Toward the automated generation of genome-scale metabolic networks in the SEED

Current methods for the automated generation of genome-scale metabolic networks focus on genome annotation and preliminary biochemical reaction network assembly, but do not adequately address the process of identifying and filling gaps in the reaction network, and verifying that the network is suitable for systems level analysis. Thus, current methods are only sufficient for generating draft-quality networks, and refinement of the reaction network is still largely a manual, labor-intensive process. We have developed a method for generating genome-scale metabolic networks that produces substantially complete reaction networks, suitable for systems level analysis. Our method partitions the reaction space of central and intermediary metabolism into discrete, interconnected components that can be assembled and verified in isolation from each other, and then integrated and verified at the level of their interconnectivity. We have developed a database of components that are common across organisms, and have created tools for automatically assembling appropriate components for a particular organism based on the metabolic pathways encoded in the organism's genome. This focuses manual efforts on that portion of an organism's metabolism that is not yet represented in the database. We have demonstrated the efficacy of our method by reverse-engineering and automatically regenerating the reaction network from a published genome-scale metabolic model for Staphylococcus aureus. Additionally, we have verified that our method capitalizes on the database of common reaction network components created for S. aureus, by using these components to generate substantially complete reconstructions of the reaction networks from three other published metabolic models (Escherichia coli, Helicobacter pylori, and Lactococcus lactis). We have implemented our tools and database within the SEED, an open-source software environment for comparative genome annotation and analysis. Our method sets the stage for the automated generation of substantially complete metabolic networks for over 400 complete genome sequences currently in the SEED. With each genome that is processed using our tools, the database of common components grows to cover more of the diversity of metabolic pathways. This increases the likelihood that components of reaction networks for subsequently processed genomes can be retrieved from the database, rather than assembled and verified manually.
Depression, Disability, and Rehabilitation Services for Women:

The purpose of this paper is to review scientific evidence for the co-occurrence of major depressive illness and disability, and to examine this phenomenon specifically for women in the United Stat...
Cache interleaving in multiprocessor systems

Abstract The paper studies the effect of cache interleaving on the bandwidth and access time. It has been observed that there is a significant improvement in the instruction execution rate due to the increase in bandwidth and decrease in access time. Performance is further improved by using c access notion in the cache interleaving.
Conserved residues and the mechanism of protein folding

EXPERIMENTAL1–6 and simulation7 studies show that small mono-meric proteins fold in one kinetic step, which entails overcoming the free-energy barrier between the unfolded and the native protein through a transition state8,9. Two models of transition state formation have been proposed: a 'nonspecific' one in which it depends on the formation of a sufficient number of native-like contacts regardless of what amino acids are involved10–12, and a 'specific' one, in which it depends on formation of a specific subset of the native structure (a folding nucleus)8,13,14. The latter requires that some amino acids form most of their contacts in the transition state, whereas others only do so on reaching the native conformation. If so, mutations affecting the stability of the transition state nucleus should have a greater effect on the folding kinetics than mutations elsewhere, and the residues involved should be evolutionarily conserved. Lattice-model simulations and experiments8,13–16 suggest that such mutations exist. Here we present a method for determining the folding nucleus of a protein with known structure with two-state folding kinetics. This method is based on the alignment of many sequences designed to fold into the native conformation of a protein to identify the positions where amino acids are most conserved in designed sequences. The method is applied to chymotrypsin inhibitor 2 (CI2), a protein whose transition state has been previously studied by protein engineering14–16. The involvement of residues in folding nucleus of CI2 is clearly correlated with their conservation in design, and the residues forming the nucleus are highly conserved in 23 natural sequences homologous to CI2.
Long-period, long-duration seismic events during hydraulic stimulation of shale and tight-gas reservoirs — Part 1: Waveform characteristics

ABSTRACTLong-period long-duration (LPLD) seismic events are relatively low-amplitude signals that have been observed during hydraulic fracturing in several shale-gas and tight-gas reservoirs. These events are similar in appearance to tectonic tremor sequences observed in subduction zones and transform fault boundaries. LPLD events are predominantly composed of S-waves, but weaker P-waves have also been identified. In some cases, microearthquakes are observed during the events. Based on the similarity with tectonic tremors and our observations of several impulsive S-wave arrivals within the LPLD events, we interpret the LPLD events as resulting from the superposition of slow shear-slip events on relatively large faults. Most large LPLD waveforms appear to start as a relatively slower, low-amplitude precursor, lacking clear impulsive arrivals. We estimate the energy carried by the larger LPLD events to be ∼1000 times greater than a ∼MW−2 microseismic event that is typical of the events that occur during hyd...
National and International Freight Transport Models: An Overview and Ideas for Future Development

This paper contains a review of the literature on freight transport models, focusing on the types of models that have been developed since the 1990s for forecasting, policy simulation and project evaluation at the national and international levels. Models for production, attraction, distribution, modal split and assignment are discussed. Furthermore, a number of ideas for future development, especially for the regional and urban components within national freight transport models, are included.
Hairy cell leukemia and light chain (AL) amyloidosis: a case report

: Hairy cell leukemia is a monoclonal B-lymphocyte disorder and, therefore, may be associated with production of systemic monoclonal immunoglobulin light chains, the first and foremost requ...
Newer Algorithms in Bradycardia Management

Permanent cardiac pacemakers (PPM) are effective in the treatment of bradycardia in a growing number of clinical scenarios. An appreciation of the capacity of PPMs to result in negative hemodynamic and proarrhythmic effects has grown alongside clinical experience with permanent pacing. Such experience has necessitated the development of algorithms aimed at optimizing device functionality across a broad spectrum of physiologic and pathologic conditions. This review highlights recent device-based algorithms used in automated threshold testing, reduction of right ventricular pacing, prevention and treatment of pacemaker-mediated tachycardia, mode switching for atrial tachyarrhythmias, rate-modulated pacing, and advances in arrhythmia storage and remote monitoring.
The Reaction Self-Force of a Classical Point Particle Actually Does not Diverge

For a point charge in a uniform external electric field the laws of classical electromagnetism are currently thought to imply an infinite self-force acting on the charge, in the opposite direction of the external force. This is a physically bizarre situation. We show here that this is not actually implied by the laws of classical electromagnetism. The problem with the standard approach turns out to be that it incorrectly tacitly assumes that the self-force is generated by acceleration induced by the external field when in reality the self-force is generated by acceleration induced by the sum of the external field and the self-force field itself.
Effects of Chromosomal Inversion on Cell Fitness in Escherichia Coli K-12

In an effort to learn what factors might mitigate the establishment of Escherichia coli variants bearing major chromosomal rearrangements, we have examined the effects on cell growth of two inversions between rRNA operons. One of these inversions, IN(rrnD-rrnE), had been propagated in a commonly used subline of E. coli K-12 for approximately 30 yr before its discovery, a fact that illustrates the absence of obvious detrimental effects associated with the inversion. We found that culturing under conditions requiring repeated transition from stationary phase to rapid growth led to the replacement of IN(rrnD-rrnE) cells by cells that had undergone either of two types of additional chromosomal inversion: one type fully restored the wild-type order, while the other partially restored it. The partial reinversion was also between rrn operons, but it left a small transposition. The tendency for overgrowth by these revertants persisted through several rounds of periodic selection. In contrast, the other inversion, IN(rrnG-rrnE), was associated with severe, detrimental effects. The effects of IN(rrnG-rrnE) were also alleviated by full or partial reinversion. The probable relationship between the severity of the effects caused by the inversions and the degree of displacement of the replication origin is discussed. Spontaneous inversion events between rrn operons separated by 18% of the chromosome were estimated to occur at a frequency of roughly 10(-5). If extended to natural situations, the growth disadvantage together with the relatively high frequency of reinversion suggest that clones of cells with an inversion between these rrn operons would be readily overgrown by revertants.
Visualizing Longitudinal Data With Dropouts

This article proposes a triangle plot to display longitudinal data with dropouts. The triangle plot is a tool of data visualization that can also serve as a graphical check for informativeness of the dropout process. There are similarities between the lasagna plot and the triangle plot, but the explicit use of dropout time as an axis is an advantage of the triangle plot over the more commonly used graphical strategies for longitudinal data. It is possible to interpret the triangle plot as a trellis plot, which gives rise to several extensions such as the triangle histogram and the triangle boxplot. R code is available to streamline the use of the triangle plot in practice. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.
Small RNA Makes Its Move

It has been known for almost 100 years that when a plant virus infects a leaf, mobile signals are transmitted through vessels in the stem to other leaves to confer resistance to subsequent infection. More recently, the silencing of exogenous transgenes has been shown to involve a mobile signal ( 1 ). Although RNA molecules have been implicated in systemic plant cell-to-cell communication, the nature of mobile RNA that silences gene expression has not been clear ( 2 ). Now, four studies—including those by Molnar et al. ( 3 ) and Dunoyer et al. ( 4 ) on pages 872 and 912 of this issue—report that small interfering RNA (siRNA) and microRNA (miRNA) are mobile signals that control gene expression during plant development.
Teenage Pregnancy in Perspective

In an effort to provide the clinician with suggestions for preventive and remedial approaches to adolescent pregnancy, the nature, medical, social, economic, and psychological aspects of the problem are reviewed and discussed. While the rate of adolescent pregnancy is declining, there are more than 560,000 deliveries to teenagers annually. Medical risks are significantly diminished by early and comprehensive prenatal care. The major complications continue to be social and economic. Lower I.Q.s in offspring of adolescent mothers have been reported. Failure to complete high school significantly increases the risk of unemployment, trapping the premature parent and her offspring in a web of poverty. A lack of a sense of future and viable alternatives may legitimize the option of motherhood in the minds of many adolescent girls. Furthermore, an ignorance and a denial of sexuality combined with the developmental imperatives of experimentation and rebellion place the adolescent at high risk for pregnancy.
Dynamic body transformation and matching from scanned data

Summary form only given. Appropriate combinations of statistical and geometric methods permit modeling and estimation of complex objects. This paper investigates such combinations in the modeling of human body models in computer graphics. By concentrating on such a particular class of objects, we show how example based techniques together with interpolation ones can exploit existing data and knowledge about body shape and size modelling. Graphical modeling of human bodies obviously has applications in the entertainment industry for character animation and simulations involving people. Other applications range from virtual reality to ergonomic and manufacturing studies.
The Asynchronous Transfer Mode: a tutorial

Abstract The Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is the switching and multiplexing technique chosen by CCITT for the broadband access to the ISDN. The user-network interface offers one physical channel over which connections are multiplexed using short, fixed length packets (called cells). The ATM layer in the network performs relaying functions, with every cell carrying a label used for switching. This report is a tutorial. It aims at providing the reader with background information that is necessary to understand the debate about potential virtues and shortcomings of the ATM.
Incentive-aware data dissemination in delay-tolerant mobile networks

This work centers on data dissemination in delay-tolerant mobile networks, where data fall into a range of interest types and each node may have one or multiple interests. The goal is to deliver data messages from sources to nodes with corresponding interests. We consider selfish nodes with rational behavior, and propose a credit-based incentive scheme to promote nodal collaboration. The key challenge is to effectively track the value of a message under such a unique network setting with intermittent connectivity and multiple interest types. Given poor end-to-end connections, credits are rewarded to the final deliverer only. Thus the value of a message for an intermediate node highly depends on its probability to deliver the message. Such probability itself is nontrivial to estimate. Moreover, a message is usually desired by multiple mobile users. Therefore, it can be potentially “sold” multiple times to different receivers. On the other hand, while more than one copies can be created during the transmissions of a message, a particular receiver “pays” for the first received copy only. These characteristics together make the development of incentive mechanism a unique, interesting, and challenging problem. In this paper, we present effective schemes to estimate the expected credit reward, and formulate nodal communication as a two-person cooperative game, whose solution is found by using the Nash Theorem. Extensive simulations are carried out based on real-world traces to evaluate the proposed scheme in terms of data delivery rate, delay and overhead. To our best knowledge, this is the first work that incorporates incentive stimulation into data dissemination in delay-tolerant mobile networks with selfish nodes and multiple interest types.
Hypnotic pseudomemories, prehypnotic warnings, and the malleability of suggested memories

This study used Orne's nocturnal events paradigm to test the effects of warning highly hypnotizable participants about the possibility of hypnotic false memories. We found that warnings reduced suggestibility but not false memories during hypnosis. Fewer warned participants (12/32, 38 per cent) than unwarned participants (12/16, 75 per cent) accepted the suggestion to hear a noise that awakened them when they were age-regressed to a night of the previous week. However, an analysis of only those persons who accepted the suggestion during hypnosis showed that the warning had no effect on their posthypnotic pseudomemories: among this group, 75 per cent of warned versus 58 per cent of unwarned persons stated immediately after hypnosis that the noise occurred in reality (i.e., reported a pseudomemory). During a final confidential assessment, 58 per cent of the warned participants who had accepted the noise suggestion reported a pseudomemory, versus 50 per cent of the unwarned participants. Comparing pseudomemory rates across all participants, regardless of whether they passed or failed the noise suggestion, 28 per cent of warned participants versus 44 per cent of unwarned participants reported pseudomemories, a nonsignificant difference. Finally, warned and unwarned participants were equally confident in their false memories. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Language: en
Entropy basis for the thermodynamic scaling of the dynamics of o-terphenyl

Structural relaxation times and viscosities for non-associated liquids and polymers are a unique function of the product of temperature, T, times specific volume, V, with the latter raised to a constant, γτ. Similarly, for both neat o-terphenyl (OTP) and a mixture, the entropy for different T and pressure, P, collapses to a single curve when expressed versus TVγS, with the scaling exponent for the entropy essentially equal to the thermodynamic Gruneisen parameter. Since the entropy includes contributions from motions such as vibrations and secondary relaxations, which do not affect structural relaxation, γS<γτ. We show herein that removal of these contributions gives a satisfactory account of the magnitude of γτ. Moreover, the relaxation times of OTP are found to be uniquely defined by the entropy, after subtraction from the latter of a V-independent component.
Dynamical quorum-sensing in oscillators coupled through an external medium

Abstract Many biological and physical systems exhibit population-density-dependent transitions to synchronized oscillations in a process often termed “dynamical quorum sensing”. Synchronization frequently arises through chemical communication via signaling molecules distributed through an external medium. We study a simple theoretical model for dynamical quorum sensing: a heterogenous population of limit-cycle oscillators diffusively coupled through a common medium. We show that this model exhibits a rich phase diagram with four qualitatively distinct physical mechanisms that can lead to a loss of coherent population-level oscillations, including a novel mechanism arising from effective time-delays introduced by the external medium. We derive a single pair of analytic equations that allow us to calculate phase boundaries as a function of population density and show that the model reproduces many of the qualitative features of recent experiments on Belousov–Zhabotinsky catalytic particles as well as synthetically engineered bacteria.
Single Cell/Cellular Subregion-Targeted Phototransfection

Introduction of exogenous genetic material, such as DNA, mRNA, siRNA, or miRNA, into cells is routinely performed using one of the many different standardized methods, including lipid-mediated transfection, electroporation, and microinjection to identify their biological function. The ability to control the location and amount of nucleic acids introduced into a cell is particularly important for studying polarized cells such as neurons. Lipid-mediated transfection is simple and fast but lacks regional specificity of delivery, whereas microinjection is regionally specific but labor intensive. To overcome these obstacles, we developed and use the method of phototransfection. In this method, a conventional microscope with a high-power pulse laser of any wavelength is able with minimal destructiveness to induce transient pores into the plasma membrane of the target cell, which remain open long enough to allow exogenous genetic material to diffuse into the cytosol before the pore closes due to membrane dynamics. The technique is not limited by choice of cell type or by genetic material to be introduced, and for RNA allows transfection of multiple mRNAs simultaneously in any desired amount or ratio. Further, phototransfection allows the target area to be a specific cell in a population of cells or a specific subregion within a cell. This protocol summarizes the key steps for performing phototransfection, provides a guide to optimization, and uses as an example green fluorescent protein (GFP) mRNA transfection within a single neuronal process.
Causal Inference in Randomized Experiments With Mediational Processes

This article links the structural equation modeling (SEM) approach with the principal stratification (PS) approach, both of which have been widely used to study the role of intermediate posttreatment outcomes in randomized experiments. Despite the potential benefit of such integration, the 2 approaches have been developed in parallel with little interaction. This article proposes the cross-model translation (CMT) approach, in which parameter estimates are translated back and forth between the PS and SEM models. First, without involving any particular identifying assumptions, translation between PS and SEM parameters is carried out on the basis of their close conceptual connection. Monte Carlo simulations are used to further clarify the relation between the 2 approaches under particular identifying assumptions. The study concludes that, under the common goal of causal inference, what makes a practical difference is the choice of identifying assumptions, not the modeling framework itself. The CMT approach provides a common ground in which the PS and SEM approaches can be jointly considered, focusing on their common inferential problems.