cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Diversifying Evolution of the Ubiquitin-26S Proteasome System in Brassicaceae and Poaceae.

Genome amplification and sequence divergence provides raw materials to allow organismal adaptation. This is exemplified by the large expansion of the ubiquitin-26S proteasome system (UPS) in land plants, which primarily rely on intracellular signaling and biochemical metabolism to combat biotic and abiotic stresses. While a handful of functional genomic studies have demonstrated the adaptive role of the UPS in plant growth and development, many UPS members remain unknown. In this work, we applied a comparative genomic study to address the functional divergence of the UPS at a systematic level. We first used a closing-target-trimming annotation approach to identify most, if not all, UPS members in six species from each of two evolutionarily distant plant families, Brassicaceae and Poaceae. To reduce age-related errors, the two groups of species were selected based on their similar chronological order of speciation. Through size comparison, chronological expansion inference, evolutionary selection analyses, duplication mechanism prediction, and functional domain enrichment assays, we discovered significant diversities within the UPS, particularly between members from its three largest ubiquitin ligase gene families, the F-box (FBX), the Really Interesting New Gene (RING), and the Bric-a-Brac/Tramtrack/Broad Complex (BTB) families, between Brassicaceae and Poaceae. Uncovering independent Arabidopsis and Oryza genus–specific subclades of the 26S proteasome subunits from a comprehensive phylogenetic analysis further supported a diversifying evolutionary model of the UPS in these two genera, confirming its role in plant adaptation.
My Place or Yours? Using Spatial Frames to Understand the Role of Place in Forest Management Conflicts

Vegetation treatment projects in wildland urban interface (WUI) areas are highly visible to public scrutiny, which can lead to stakeholder conflicts (e.g. land managers, public) that block a treatm...
Does Regulating Audit Pricing Enhance Audit Quality and the Timeliness of Audit Reporting? The Texas Experience

Does Regulating Audit Pricing Enhance Audit Quality and the Timeliness of Audit Reporting? The Texas Experience
Stumbling Into Adulthood: Learning From Depression While Growing Up:

Depression manifests in distinct ways across the life course. Recent research emphasizes how depression impedes development during emerging adulthood. However, our study—based on 40 interviews with...
CHAPTER 2 – SEMIOTICS

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses semiotics. Like most other languages, decision table languages have multiple dialects, which fall into two groups depending upon whether they are used for human-to-human communication or for human-to-machine communication. Documentation languages tend to be informal and may include graphic devices such as flow charts, while programming languages are defined by their processors. In all decision table languages, the decision table appears as a language element. Even in the languages that appear to consist of decision tables, there must be an outer language mechanism for grouping sets of related tables and indicating the one that is to be operative first. This outer language contains a syntactic type allowing the syntactic description of permissible decision tables to be separated from the syntactic description of the remainder of the outer language. It is appropriate to consider the syntax for a single, isolated decision table. The semantics of outer language, decision tables, and base language are partially separable. The outer language determines the semantic context of the invocation of each decision table and that of the resulting execution of the actions it selects.
Immune Mediated Diseases

As the spectrum of feline immune-mediated cutaneous diseases has expanded markedly in the recent two decades, veterinarians are encouraged to become familiar with the characteristic clinical features of various immune-driven skin disorders to permit early diagnosis and appropriate treatment. This article describes the signalment, clinical signs, laboratory and histopathology findings, as well as treatment outcomes in different immune-mediated skin diseases in cats.
Learning from hunter education volunteers’ experiences

Hunter education (HE) is offered in all 50 states, with oversight provided by state wildlife agencies (SWAs). The vast majority of HE courses are taught by volunteers. Recruiting and retaining volu...
The Effect of International Travel on the Spread of Covid-19 in the U.S.

A striking, yet simple fact concerning the spread of COVID-19 is its substantial geographic heterogeneity. Many factors have been proposed to explain this geographic heterogeneity, including population density, cultural differences, and public response. In this paper, we sort these factors into two broad categories: environment and exposure. While environment is comprised of a wide range of factors, including population density, cultural differences, and public response, exposure consists of factors related to the inflow of potential virus carriers. For the United States, one can argue that, at least initially, exposure was largely determined by the inflow of international airline travelers. We examine the relationship between international passengers arriving in a county during the early period of the pandemic and the number of COVID-19 cases or deaths in the county during the first wave of the pandemic in the U.S. We find that passengers from Italy, but not China, were an important source of exposure, and thus increased the early spread of COVID-19 in the U.S. These results suggest that stopping travel from Europe earlier likely would have had greater impact on reducing the spread of the virus in the US, compared to the relatively early ban on travel from China. Perhaps more importantly, these results suggest that banning travel from pandemic hotspots may be smart policy, depending on the specific characteristics of the virus.
Liability, Liability Shields, and Waivers

COVID-19 lawsuits are not easy to win. Viral transmission of COVID-19 remains possible even where reasonable care is taken and litigation against cohorts such as employers, health care providers, and nursing homes is already difficult. Notwithstanding, both health care providers and re-opening businesses (as well as essential businesses and nursing homes) have lobbied hard for liability shields. About half the states have listened to their entreaties, passing various narrow to broad immunities that may deter litigation at least until courts grapple with their constitutionality and interpretation. In addition, some businesses have deployed exculpatory clauses in their contracts or signage refuting any liability for injury or damages. Courts have various doctrines in place for analyzing these clauses including voiding them if they impact necessary services. This paper was prepared as part of the COVID-19 Policy Playbook: Legal Recommendations for a Safer, More Equitable Future, a comprehensive report published by Public Health Law Watch in partnership with the de Beaumont Foundation and the American Public Health Association.
Tandem Breastfeeding and Human Milk Macronutrients: A Prospective Observational Study.

BackgroundTandem breastfeeding is defined as two or more offspring of different ages who are breastfed by their mother at the same time. Breastfeeding during pregnancy and tandem breastfeeding have...
Sex Differences in the Exocrine Pancreas and Associated Diseases.

Differences in pancreatic anatomy, size, and function exist in men and women. The anatomical differences could contribute to the increase in complications associated with pancreatic surgery in women. Although diagnostic criteria for pancreatitis are the same in men and women, major sex differences in etiology are reported. Alcohol and tobacco predominate in men, whereas idiopathic and obstructive etiologies predominate in women. Circulating levels of estrogens, progesterone, and androgens contribute significantly to overall health outcomes; premenopausal women have lower prevalence of cardiovascular and pancreatic diseases suggesting protective effects of estrogens, whereas androgens promote growth of normal and cancerous cells. Sex chromosomes and gonadal and nongonadal hormones together determine an individual’s sex, which is distinct from gender or gender identity. Human pancreatic disease etiology, outcomes, and sex-specific mechanisms are largely unknown. In rodents of both sexes, glucocorticoids and estrogens from the adrenal glands influence pancreatic secretion and acinar cell zymogen granule numbers. Lack of corticotropin-releasing factor receptor 2 function, a G protein–coupled receptor whose expression is regulated by both estrogens and glucocorticoids, causes sex-specific changes in pancreatic histopathology, zymogen granule numbers, and endoplasmic reticulum ultrastructure changes in acute pancreatitis model. Here, we review existing literature on sex differences in the normal exocrine pancreas and mechanisms that operate at homeostasis and diseased states in both sexes. Finally, we review pregnancy-related pancreatic diseases and discuss the effects of sex differences on proposed treatments in pancreatic disease.
Experimental Measurements of Particle Diffusion and Velocity Profiles in a Granular-Flow Mixing Layer

Abstract The present experimental research investigates transverse particle diffusion in a flow of granular material. The mixing-layer experiments are conducted in a vertical channel fed by an entrance hopper that is divided by a splitter plate. On either side of the splitter plate differently colored, but otherwise identical glass beads, enter the test section. Downstream of the splitter plate the colored particles collide which may result in a migration of particles across the centerline. The measurements include the distribution in color concentration across the channel, and the distributions in the local velocity and fluctuating velocity in the flow direction. The results indicate that the diffusion rate is influenced by the flow rate, and by the wall shear which depends on the surface conditions of the channel side walls and the channel width.
Exhibition Review: Maison Martin Margiela “20” The Exhibition

(2011). Exhibition Review: Maison Martin Margiela “20” The Exhibition. Fashion Theory: Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 99-107.
Photoemission and Ferromagnetism

Photoemission is a well established technique for the study of the electronic structure of atoms and solids In particular, angle-resolved photoemission has been used extensively to map the band structure of clean and adsorbate covered surfaces, both metal and semiconductor. Extending the technique by measuring the spin of the photoemitted electrons allows the possibility of examining the exchange split band structures characterizing ferromagnetic systems. Here the technique becomes particularly useful in the study of the magnetic properties of surfaces, thin films and associated interfaces.
Accelerators and Crowd-Funding: Complementarity, Competition, or Convergence in the Earliest Stages of Financing New Ventures?

In this study, we examine the evolving role and dynamic impact of early-stage accelerators in the broader funding ecosystem available to entrepreneurs. We have assembled a unique, hand-collected data set that triangulates from a variety of sources to trace the trajectory of start-ups as they proceed through the early stages of outside financing. We pay particular attention to founding firm and founding team attributes, early stage investor roles, and full financing details. Our primary data sources for this study include Crunchbase, Thomson One’s VentureExpert, and LinkedIn. We track the universe of start-ups that participated in the Y Combinator and TechStars accelerators and a complementary sample of start-ups backed by angel investors over the period 2005-2011 (n= 740 observations). Our early results suggest that accelerator-backed start-ups receive the first round of follow-up financing significantly sooner; are more likely to be either acquired or to fail; are founded by entrepreneurs from a relatively elite set of universities; and exhibit substantially greater founder mobility amongst other accelerator-backed start-ups. We then seek to compare these companies — and when appropriate link them to — new ventures that have backing from crowd-funded platforms. By doing this, we are able to hone in on several key facets known to impact entrepreneurial outcomes such as survival and growth: founder background and experience, the role of the networks and interconnections, and the nature of the business idea.
Current issues in genetic toxicology testing for microbiologists.

Publisher Summary This chapter provides a history of genetic toxicology, a description of the most commonly used regulatory tests, and an overview of international regulatory guidelines—most of which are accepted by regulatory agencies in the United States. Genetic toxicology tests are designed to detect chemical agents capable of damaging DNA and chromosomes of cells. Furthermore, genetic toxicology tests are an integral part of the toxicological evaluation of chemicals for adverse human health effects, especially cancer. The most commonly used regulatory genetic toxicology tests are a series of well-characterized mutagenicity tests, which include in vitro bacterial and mammalian assays, as well as in vivo mammalian assays. They have a high predictive value for rodent carcinogenicity. However, these tests should not be used as a substitute for rodent carcinogenicity studies. They should be used to determine the spectrum of genetic effects of specific chemicals and to aid in the interpretation of genetic toxicity test results.
Intermediate Elites in Pre‐Columbian States and Empires

Intermediate Elites in Pre-Columbian States and Empires. Christina M. Elson and R. Alan Covey, eds. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2006. 312 pp.
The Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption and American Implementing Law: Implications for International Adoptions by Gay and Lesbian Couples or Partners

This article examines in the history of the Hague Convention on Inter-Country Adoption and the potential impact on adoption of children by gay and lesbian couples and partners,and international recognition of such adoptions. It is timely because America's ratification of the Hague Convention has just been completed and the American implementing laws have now taken effect. When the Convention was first drafted, no country allowed gay adoption, but by the time the Convention was approved, it was emerging and was being discussed. The Hague Conference drafting discussions addressed the issue. It is clear that the drafters of the Hague Convention intended the Convention to have no impact whatever on inter-country recognition of adoptions by gay and lesbian couples. The Convention intended to leave that to the domestic policies of the sending and the receiving states. The potential for the Hague Convention, ironically, to reduce the number of inter-country adoptions is noted, but the intent of the Convention to eliminate obstacles to responsible inter-country adoption in the long run is encouraging.
The real new urbanism: Engaging developing world cities

While the developing world is projected to urbanise rapidly during the next 40 years, canonical social and architectural/urban theory positions western modernisation (read: the developed world) as an ideal model for development. Yet modernity in the developing world is complex and operates at a wide range of physical and temporal scales; it resists the total homogenising processes of ‘western’ modernisation even as it absorbs them into its development patterns and spatial practices. This provides an opportunity to rethink normative architectural and urban design practices, to pursue new forms of expanded critical practices capable of engaging developing world cities intelligently and productively. In order to theorise such practices, this article investigates developing world modernity, redefines traditional notions of ‘site’, ’criticality’ and ‘context’ through an anthropological theory of locality, and challenges post-criticality as a viable response to the complexity of global economic, political, and environmental crisis.
Statistical information processing: Computing for the nanoscale era

Computing platforms operating at the limits of energy-efficiency need to contend with the issue of robustness. This energy vs. robustness trade-off is fundamental in such systems. This talk will describe a Shannon-inspired framework referred to as statistical information processing (SIP). SIP navigates the energy vs. robustness trade-off by treating the problem of energy-efficient computing as one of information processing on low-SNR and unreliable nanoscale device/circuit fabrics. In doing do, SIP seeks to transform computing from its von Neumann roots in data processing to a Shannon-inspired foundation for information processing. Key elements of SIP are the use of information-based metrics, a stochastic low-SNR circuit fabric, and statistical error compensation techniques based on estimation and detection theory, and machine learning. SIP has been used for designing energy-efficient and robust computation, communication, storage, and mixed-signal analog front-ends. This talk will conclude with a brief overview of the Systems On Nanoscale Information fabriCs (SONIC) Center, a 5-year multi-university research center, focused on developing a Shannon/brain-inspired foundation for information processing on CMOS and beyond CMOS nanoscale fabrics.
Constrained Path Monte Carlo For Fermions

This article contains lecture notes on the constrained path Monte Carlo method and its applications to study the Hubbard model. The lectures were given at the NATO Advanced Summer Institute held in Ithaca NY (1998). The article is published as a chapter in the book `Quantum Monte Carlo Methods in Physics and Chemistry,' Ed. M.P. Nightingale and C.J. Umrigar (Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1999).
Protein accumulation in early chick embryos grown under different conditions of explantation.

The recent development of techniques originally devised by Waddington (1932) for the maintenance of the explanted chick embryo (Spratt, 1947; New, 1955; Wolff & Simon, 1955) has opened the possibility of determining quantitatively some parameters of the developmental processes occurring in embryonic tissues under these conditions. As a result of such measurements, protein accumulation in explanted embryos was found to be much smaller than in embryos developing in the egg. On the other hand, the progress of somite formation was found to take place at similar rates in embryos developing as explants or in situ (Herrmann & Schultz, 1958). The slow rate of protein accumulation in the explanted embryos made it seem desirable to investigate whether under some other conditions of explantation protein accumulation would approach more closely the rate of protein formation observed in the naturally developing embryo.
Closed-loop adaptation for robust tracking

Model updating is a critical problem in tracking. Inaccurate extraction of the foreground and background information in model adaptation would cause the model to drift and degrade the tracking performance. The most direct but yet difficult solution to the drift problem is to obtain accurate boundaries of the target. We approach such a solution by proposing a novel closed-loop model adaptation framework based on the combination of matting and tracking. In our framework, the scribbles for matting are all automatically generated, which makes matting applicable in a tracking system. Meanwhile, accurate boundaries of the target can be obtained from matting results even when the target has large deformation. An effective model is further constructed and successfully updated based on such accurate boundaries. Extensive experiments show that our closed-loop adaptation scheme largely avoids model drift and significantly outperforms other discriminative tracking models as well as video matting approaches.
Critical pressures and buckling modes of regular polygonal prismatic tubes

Abstract The critical pressures and buckling modes of regular polygonal prismatic tubes of 3, 4 and 5 sides under uniform external pressures are determined in this paper.
Prospects for CD40-directed experimental therapy of human cancer.

CD40, a member of the tumor necrosis factor receptor (TNF-R) family, is a surface receptor best known for its capacity to initiate multifaceted activation signals in normal B cells and dendritic cells (DCs). CD40-related treatment approaches have been considered for the experimental therapy of human leukemias, lymphomas, and multiple myeloma, based on findings that CD40 binding by its natural ligand (CD40L), CD154, led to growth modulation of malignant B cells. Recent studies also exploited the selective expression of the CD40 receptor on human epithelial and mesenchymal tumors but not on most normal, nonproliferating epithelial tissues. Ligation of CD40 on human breast, ovarian, cervical, bladder, non small cell lung, and squamous epithelial carcinoma cells was found to produce a direct growth-inhibitory effect through cell cycle blockage and/or apoptotic induction with no overt side effects on their normal counterparts. CD154 treatment also heightened tumor rejection immune responses through DC activation, and by increasing tumor immunogenicity through up-regulation of costimulatory molecule expression and cytokine production of epithelial cancer cells. These immunopotentiating features can produce a “bystander effect” through which the CD40-negative tumor subset is eliminated by activated tumor-reactive cytotoxic T cells. However, the potential risk of systemic inflammation and autoimmune consequences remains a concern for systemic CD154-based experimental therapy. The promise of CD154 as a tumor therapeutic agent to directly modulate tumor cell growth, and indirectly activate antitumor immune response, may depend on selective and/or restricted CD154 expression within the tumor microenvironment. This may be achieved by inoculating cancer vaccines of autologous cancer cells that have been transduced ex vivo with CD154, as documented by recently clinical trials. This review summarizes recent findings on CD154 recombinant protein- and gene therapy–based tumor treatment approaches, and examines our understanding of the multifaceted molecular mechanisms of CD154–CD40 interactions.
Primary Cleavage of the HAV Capsid Protein Precursor in the Middle of the Proposed 2A Coding Region

Portions of the P1 and P2 hepatitis A virus (HAV) polyprotein were generated by in vitro translation of cDNA transcripts and analyzed for a primary cleavage reaction that would release the capsid protein precursor. No autocatalytic activity was observed on either side of the 2A coding sequence. Incubation of these proteins with an extract containing active HAV 3C protease, however, resulted in cleavage at a position approximately 40 amino acids downstream of the previously proposed P1-2A junction. This cleavage site likely accounts for the VP1-containing proteins of approximately 38-40 kDa observed in HAV-infected cells.
Slow wave artifacts seen with chopper type EEG during high frequency stimulation.

Abstract Slow wave artifacts (e.g. 3/sec.) may be mistaken for evoked cortical responses to subcortical high frequency (e.g. 100–300/sec.) stimulation, if chopper type EEG-amplifiers are used. The artifacts are present only during the high frequency stimulation. Evidence is presented which indicates that the artifacts result from a heterodyne or “beat” effect between the vibrator system of the amplifier and the incoming stimulus.
Association between Zenker diverticulum and gastroesophageal reflux disease: development of a working hypothesis

A cause-and-effect relation between gastroesophageal reflux disease and Zenker diverticulum remains unclear. Convincing evidence exists demonstrating that patients with Zenker diverticula have increased resting tone of the cricopharyngeus muscle, and that this may be an important initiating factor for the development of Zenker diverticula. Yet some patients with cricopharyngeus hypertonicity never develop Zenker diverticulum. In this context, we hypothesize that acid-induced esophageal shortening may be an important cofactor. We suggest that acid reflux induces longitudinal esophageal shortening, which in turn increases the risk for the development of herniation between 2 spatially related structures, the pharyngeal constrictors and cricopharyngeus muscles, leading to the development of Zenker diverticulum. This hypothesis awaits clinical verification.
Action of maleic hydrazide on dormancy, cell division, and cell expansion.

Maleic hydrazide (MH) can inhibit cell division in dormant lettuce seeds in which cell division occurs in the absence of growth by cell expansion. Concentrations of MH that inhibit normal growth of wheat seedlings by 85 to 90% have no effect on the growth of wheat from irradiated grain, which grows without any cell division. Thus MH affects mitosis in a system where gibberellic acid (GA) does not, and (MH has no effect on cell expansion in a system where GA is active. When wheat is treated with a combination of MH and GA, the two chemicals apparently act independently on growth, All these findings suggest that the effect of MH on seedling growth can be largely or entirely attributed to an inhibition of cell division and not to any appreciable effont on cell expansion. MH and GA do not appear to give specific interactions on lettuce seed gerraination, thereby providing further evidence against the theory that MH and GA affect growth through common mechanisms. A number of similarities between effects of MH and of ionizing radiation are discussed, including the capacity to permit gerraination and limited seedling growth of wheat without cell division. (auth)
Strength of preference and risk attitude in utility measurement

Abstract A relationship between a value function v (compatible with the theory of ordered value differences) and a utility function u (compatible with the expected utility theory) is explored. According to a behavioral interpretation, v encodes the strength of preference while u encodes the strength of preference and risk attitude. The results of two experiments (one conducted in a real-world setting and another in a laboratory) involving 24 cases and the data reported in the literature involving 10 cases support the constant relavie risk attitude hypothesis. The implied unique transformation between v and u is tested as a descriptive model and as a predictive model. The descriptive model is then used for inference concerning several behavioral hypotheses.
Motivating political preferences: Concerns with promotion and prevention as predictors of public policy attitudes

Motivation is an important component of many political decision making theories. However, different definitions of motivation have led to different conclusions as to how influential motivation is on political attitudes. When motivation has been defined in terms of personal interest, its predictive value has been questioned (Sears and Funk in Advances in experimental social psychology, vol 24. Academic Press, New York, pp. 1–91, 1991); however, other motivational variables like Schwartz’ (Advances in experimental social psychology, vol 25, Academic Press, New York, pp. 1–65, 1992) values have been found to be strong predictors of such attitudes. This article investigates the influence of another type of motivational variable. Specifically, two studies examined how chronic concerns with fundamental needs for security (i.e., prevention) and growth (i.e., promotion) relate to public policy attitudes. In samples of both college students and nationally representative US households and across a variety of policy areas, stronger prevention concerns predicted support for government intervention to maintain public and personal safety, whereas stronger promotion concerns predicted support for government intervention to ensure opportunities for growth and enrichment.
Model of the evolution of nanoparticles to crystals via an aggregative growth mechanism

A mechanistic mathematical model is presented that describes the evolution of precursor nanoparticles (PN) to crystals. The model treats PN as pseudospecies evolving through an arbitrary number of reversible first-order steps and having the ability to contribute to growth by aggregation with existing crystals after they evolve beyond a certain stage. The number concentration of any of the intermediate PN is small compared to the initial number concentration of PN. If quasi-steady-state (QSS) is assumed for these intermediate PN, the model can be solved analytically. The analytical solution can be used to obtain initial parameter estimates for the full, dynamic model. DLVO interactions between coalescing PN are accounted for in the model through the coalescence kernel, which is shown to be very sensitive to the size of the particles and to the surface potential of the particles. Modifications are made to the mechanism to increase the likelihood of older PN to coalesce and to decrease the likelihood of older PN to dissolve. The maxima in the simulated crystal size distributions (CSD) propagate to larger sizes over time in a propagating front manner and, in some cases, a peaked population can form.
The effect of anticipation and the specificity of sex differences for amygdala and hippocampus function in emotional memory

Prior research has shown memory is enhanced for emotional events. Key brain areas involved in emotional memory are the amygdala and hippocampus, which are also recruited during aversion and its anticipation. This study investigated whether anticipatory processes signaling an upcoming aversive event contribute to emotional memory. In an event-related functional MRI paradigm, 40 healthy participants viewed aversive and neutral pictures preceded by predictive warning cues. Participants completed a surprise recognition task directly after functional MRI scanning or 2 weeks later. In anticipation of aversive pictures, bilateral dorsal amygdala and anterior hippocampus activations were associated with better immediate recognition memory. Similar associations with memory were observed for activation of those areas in response to aversive pictures. Anticipatory activation predicted immediate memory over and above these associations for picture viewing. Bilateral ventral amygdala activations in response to aversive pictures predicted delayed memory only. We found that previously reported sex differences of memory associations with left amygdala for women and with right amygdala for men were confined to the ventral amygdala during picture viewing and delayed memory. Results support an established animal model elucidating the functional neuroanatomy of the amygdala and hippocampus in emotional memory, highlight the importance of anticipatory processes in such memory for aversive events, and extend neuroanatomical evidence of sex differences for emotional memory.
Imitation learning for natural language direction following through unknown environments

The use of spoken instructions in human-robot teams holds the promise of enabling untrained users to effectively control complex robotic systems in a natural and intuitive way. Providing robots with the capability to understand natural language directions would enable effortless coordination in human robot teams that operate in non-specialized unknown environments. However, natural language direction following through unknown environments requires understanding the meaning of language, using a partial semantic world model to generate actions in the world, and reasoning about the environment and landmarks that have not yet been detected. We address the problem of robots following natural language directions through complex unknown environments. By exploiting the structure of spatial language, we can frame direction following as a problem of sequential decision making under uncertainty. We learn a policy which predicts a sequence of actions that follow the directions by exploring the environment and discovering landmarks, backtracking when necessary, and explicitly declaring when it has reached the destination. We use imitation learning to train the policy, using demonstrations of people following directions. By training explicitly in unknown environments, we can generalize to situations that have not been encountered previously.
Long dsRNA and silent genes strike back:RNAi in mouse oocytes and early embryos

RNA interference (RNAi) refers to the selective degradation of mRNA induced by double-stranded RNA (dsRNA), first discovered in Caenorhabditis elegans. Homology-dependent silencing phenomena related to RNAi have been observed in many species from all eukaryotic kingdoms. RNAi and related mechanisms share several conserved components. The hallmark of these phenomena is the presence of short dsRNA molecules (21-25 bp long), termed short interfering RNA (siRNA), which are generated from dsRNA by the activity of Dicer, a specific type III RNAse. These molecules serve as a template for the recognition and cleavage of the cognate mRNA. As it is beyond the scope of a single review to cover all aspects of RNAi, this review will focus on certain steps of the pathway relevant to mammals and on the use of long dsRNA to specifically silence genes in mammalian cells permissive to this technique, such as oocytes and early embryos.
Direct reaction of adsorbed molecular oxygen with hydrazine on a clean Pt(111) surface

The oxidation of hydrazine on the clean Pt(111) surface has been investigated by temperature-programmed reaction spectroscopy (TPRS) in the temperature range 130–800 K. Direct reaction of molecular oxygen is observed on the Pt(111) surface for the first time, as indicated by the desorption of nitrogen beginning at 130 K with a maximum rate at 145 K, below the molecular oxygen dissociation temperature. Direct reaction of hydrazine with adsorbed molecular oxygen results in the formation of water and nitrogen. With excess hydrazine, all surface oxygen is reacted, forming water. When only adsorbed atomic oxygen is present, the low-temperature nitrogen yield decreases by a factor of 3 and the peak nitrogen desorption temperature increases to 170 K. No high-temperature (450–650 K) nitrogen desorption characteristic of nitrogen atom recombination is seen, indicating that during oxidation the nitrogen-nitrogen bond in hydrazine remains intact, as observed previously for hydrazine decomposition on the Pt(111) surface and hydrazine oxidation on rhodium. Two water desorption peaks are observed, characteristic of desorption-limited (175 K) and reaction-limited (200 K) water evolution from the Pt(111) surface. For low coverages of hydrazine, only the reaction-limited water desorption is observed, previously attributed to water formed from adsorbed hydroxyl groups. When excess hydrazine is adsorbed, the usual hydrazine decomposition products, H2, N2 and NH3, are also observed. No nitrogen oxide species (NO, NO2 and N2O) were observed in these experiments, even when excess oxygen was available on the surface.
Epstein-Barr virus-associated smooth muscle tumors in ataxia-telangiectasia: a case report and review

Chromosomal breakage syndromes, including ataxia-telangiectasia (AT), are autosomal recessive disorders in which DNA repair mechanisms are defective resulting in chromosomal instability. Affected individuals are at high risk for developing malignancy because of the widespread resulting cellular effects. One such effect, severe immunosuppression, can permit virally mediated neoplasms to manifest, similar to those seen in acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), congenital immune deficiency syndromes, and posttransplant populations. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a common viral agent known to be associated with lymphoid, epithelial, and smooth muscle malignancies in such patients. Although smooth muscle tumors have been reported in patients with AT, their association with EBV has not been evaluated. We present a case of EBV-associated laryngeal leiomyosarcoma and jejunal cellular leiomyoma in a child with AT. This case suggests that the development of neoplasia in patients with chromosomal breakage syndromes may be related to the immunosuppressive consequences of these diseases, and searching for infectious causes (such as EBV) is important.
Exaggerated insulin secretion in Pima Indians and African-Americans but higher insulin resistance in Pima Indians compared to African-Americans and Caucasians.

Aims African-Americans have a higher prevalence of Type 2 diabetes than Caucasians, but a lower prevalence than Pima Indians. Studies suggest that both African-Americans and Pima Indians are more insulin resistant and have higher acute insulin secretory responses to glucose than Caucasians; however, a direct comparison between these three populations is lacking. Methods We measured insulin secretory responses to intravenous glucose (acute insulin response, AIR, 25 g ivGTT); insulin action at physiological (M-low) and supra-physiological (M-high) levels of hyperinsulinaemia (2-step hyperinsulinaemic clamp); basal and insulin-suppressed endogenous glucose production in 30 African-Americans, 30 Pima Indians and 30 Caucasians with normal glucose tolerance who were carefully matched for age, sex, and body fat (hydrodensitometry or DEXA). A subgroup of 24 subjects from each group additionally underwent a standardized mixed meal test. Results M-low was lower in Pima Indians (0.50 ± 0.03) compared to Caucasians (0.59 ± 0.02, P = 0.02) and African-Americans [0.58 ± 0.03 mg/kgEMBS/min, log10 (means ± SE), P = 0.03] but was not different between African-Americans and Caucasians. Basal endogenous glucose production was lower in Pima Indians (2.43 ± 0.06) compared to African-Americans (2.70 ± 0.06, P = 0.02) and was not different between Pima Indians and Caucasians (2.59 ± 0.09 mg/kgEMBS/min) or African-Americans and Caucasians (all P > 0.18). Insulin-suppressed endogenous glucose production during the clamp was not different among the groups (all P > 0.40). AIR was higher in both African-Americans (13.51 ± 0.26) and Pima Indians (13.72 ± 0.27) compared to Caucasians (12.33 ± 0.25 pm, log10, both P < 0.01). The areas under the curve for glucose in response to the oral glucose tolerance test and mixed meal test were higher in Pima Indians compared to African-Americans (P = 0.03 and P = 0.03, respectively) and Caucasians (P = 0.01, mixed meal test), but not different between African-Americans and Caucasians. Conclusions Exaggerated glucose-stimulated insulin secretion, manifested initially as an increased response to an intravenous glucose challenge, appears to be a characteristic in people with normal glucose tolerance at higher risk for diabetes. Lower whole-body insulin sensitivity in Pima Indians compared to African-Americans, however, may contribute to the higher risk for Type 2 diabetes in Pima Indians compared to African-Americans.
Requirements for catalysis in the Cre recombinase active site

Members of the tyrosine recombinase (YR) family of site-specific recombinases catalyze DNA rearrangements using phosphoryl transfer chemistry that is identical to that used by the type IB topoisomerases (TopIBs). To better understand the requirements for YR catalysis and the relationship between the YRs and the TopIBs, we have analyzed the in vivo and in vitro recombination activities of all substitutions of the seven active site residues in Cre recombinase. We have also determined the structure of a vanadate transition state mimic for the Cre–loxP reaction that facilitates interpretation of mutant activities and allows for a comparison with similar structures from the related topoisomerases. We find that active site residues shared by the TopIBs are most sensitive to substitution. Only two, the tyrosine nucleophile and a conserved lysine residue that activates the 5′-hydroxyl leaving group, are strictly required to achieve >5% of wild-type activity. The two conserved arginine residues each tolerate one substitution that results in modest recombination activity and the remaining three active site positions can be substituted with several alternative amino acids while retaining a significant amount of activity. The results are discussed in the context of YR and TopIB structural models and data from related YR systems.
Effects of alcohol cues on smoking urges and topography among alcoholic men

Although the prevalence of smoking among alcoholics ranges up to 97%, little is known about mechanisms underlying the co-occurrence of smoking and alcohol use, or the role tobacco may play in alcohol treatment recovery. Adult male alcoholics in treatment (n = 30) were randomly assigned to visual and olfactory exposure either to alcohol cues or to control cues, and then were allowed to smoke while continuing visual exposure to the same cues. Exposure to alcohol cues resulted in significantly greater self-reported urge to drink and urge to smoke but had no significant effect on the topography of smoking behavior. When variance due to urge to smoke was controlled, greater urge to drink correlated negatively with number of cigarette puffs. The results provide some support for a priming hypothesis of tobacco's role on alcoholism recovery. Clinical and theoretical implications are discussed.
A Synthetic Retrotransition (Backward Reading) Sequence of the Right-Handed Three-Helix Bundle Domain (10-53) of Protein A Shows Similarity in Confomation as Predicted by Computation

A recent computational analysis of retro-proteins (backward reading of native proteins) suggests that the retro-protein has a tendency to adopt a structure similar to that of the natural one, as de...
Breast cancer workshop for nurses: Innovative approach to staff development

Breast cancer is a major health problem today. Mastectomy and adjuvant therapy are standard treatments available in most acute care hospitals. Nurses who care for mastectomy patients have primary responsibility for patient education. This article describes use of a breast cancer workshop to strengthen teaching capabilities of staff nurses. The workshop addresses facts regarding breast cancer and the educational needs of breast cancer patients. It also provides opportunity for nurses to develop patient education standards for patients who have had a mastectomy.
Identification of a sperm protein 17 CTL epitope restricted by HLA-A1.

Sperm protein 17 (Sp17) is a novel cancer-testis antigen. We previously reported the successful generation of Sp17-specific HLA-A1-restricted cytotoxic T-lymphocytes (CTLs) from the peripheral blood of a healthy donor using a recombinant Sp17 protein. These CTLs were able to kill not only target cells pulsed with the recombinant protein but also fresh Sp17+ tumor cells. In the present study, we have identified a nonapeptide sequence within the Sp17 protein that is predicted to have a high binding affinity for the HLA-A1 molecules. We generated the synthetic nonapeptide and successfully propagated a peptide-specific CTL line. We confirmed that peptide Sp17103–111 (ILDSSEEDK) contains an Sp17 CTL epitope restricted by HLA-A1 and identified amino acid residues 104, 107, 109 and 110 as crucial for the CTL lysis. Our findings therefore provide the tool for the characterization of CD8 T-cell function in vivo and generation of epitope-specific treatment strategies. © 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Colonoscopic Treatment of Acute Diverticular Hemorrhage Using Endoclips

Although colonoscopy is used in the diagnostic evaluation of patients with diverticular hemorrhage, data on colonoscopic treatment outcomes are limited. We reviewed records of inpatients undergoing colonoscopy to identify patients that were colonoscopically diagnosed and treated for acute diverticular hemorrhage. Eleven patients with acute diverticular hemorrhage had active bleeding (n = 7) or non-bleeding visible vessel (n = 4) at colonoscopy. Endoclip treatment (preceded by epinephrine injection in 64%) achieved hemostasis in all patients without procedural complications. Patients were discharged within three days without evidence of early rebleeding. During a median follow-up of 15 months, late recurrent bleeding occurred in two patients (18.2%). Colonoscopic treatment of patients with acute diverticular hemorrhage using endoclips appears to be effective and safe, with high rates of immediate and long-term success. Colonoscopy should be considered in patients with suspected acute diverticular hemorrhage, as it may enable definitive therapy without the need for more invasive treatment.
Development of vaccines for prevention of Ebola virus infection

Ebola virus infection causes severe hemorrhagic fevers with high fatality rates up to 90% in humans, for which no effective treatment is currently available. The ongoing Ebola outbreak in West Africa that has caused over 14,000 human infections and over 5000 deaths underscores its serious threat to the public health. While licensed vaccines against Ebola virus infection are still not available, a number of vaccine approaches have been developed and shown to protect against lethal Ebola virus infection in animal models. This review aims to summarize the advancement of different strategies for Ebola vaccine development with a focus on the discussion of their protective efficacies and possible limitations. In addition, the development of animal models for efficacy evaluation of Ebola vaccines and the mechanism of immune protection against Ebola virus infection are also discussed.
Introduction: BPH and sexual dysfunction--recommendations for the primary care physician and urologist.

Introduction: BPH and sexual dysfunction – recommendations for the primary care physician and urologist
Bleu cheese flavor production by submerged fermentation with on-line monitoring by gas chromatography

Eight cultures ofPenicillium roqueforti and related species were compared in shake-flask cultures on the basis of aroma.P. decumbens IFO 7091 was chosen as having the aroma closest to real Bleu cheese, and was used for fermentation studies. Gas chromatography was employed to obtain a continuous record of 2-pentanone concentration in the fermentor. Methyl ketones are characteristic of Bleu cheese flavor, and a subjective correlation was observed between the aroma of the fermentor off-gas and the 2-pentanone concentration measured. Cell growth and milk fat utilization increased consistently with increasing agitation and aeration, but 2-pentanone production did not correlate with growth and was maximum at intermediate values of agitation and aeration. The maximum 2-pentanone concentration, 100 ppm, was approximately ten times the concentration in Bleu cheese on a dry solids basis. Production of Bleu cheese flavor by submerged fermentation offers the opportunity for a new commercial value-added product from butterfat.
Simplified operative method for heart and lung transplantation

Abstract An operative method was developed to facilitate heart and lung transplantation. Four consecutive operations in small cynomolgus monkeys (average 4.7 kg) are described in which central cannulation and cardiopulmonary bypass were employed. The major modification from previous reports is the use of a retained portion of the right atrium for a single inflow anastomosis. Preservation of the donor sinoatrial node assures normal sinus rhythm postoperatively. The method obviates potential caval stenosis, and would facilitate the operation in man where the intrathoracic component of the inferior vena cava is short.
An Algorithm for the Bounded Variable Integer Programming Problem

An algorithm is proposed for the bounded variable pure integer programming problem which treats general integer variables directly in an implicit enumeration procedure closely related to that advanced by Balas and Geoffrion for binary programming problems. Means of obtaining near optimum solutions through a slight modification of the algorithm are discussed. Techniques which use bounds on variables to improve algorithmic efficiency are developed and examined computationally. Further computational results indicate that direct treatment of general integer variables is significantly more effective than binary expansion.