cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The flying insect thoracic cuticle is heterogenous in structure and in thickness-dependent modulus gradation

Abstract The thorax is a specialized structure central to insect flight. In the thorax, flight muscles are surrounded by a thin layer of cuticle. The structure, composition, and material properties of this chitinous structure may influence the efficiency of the thorax in flight. However, these properties, as well as their variation throughout the thorax and between insect taxa, are not known. We provide a multi-faceted assessment of thorax cuticle for fliers with asynchronous (honey bee; Apis mellifera) and synchronous (hawkmoth; Manduca sexta) muscles. These muscle types are defined by the relationship between their activation frequency and the insect's wingbeat frequency. We investigated cuticle structure using histology, resilin distribution through confocal laser scanning microscopy, and modulus gradation with nanoindentation. Our results suggest that thorax cuticle properties are highly dependent on anatomical region and species. Modulus gradation, but not mean modulus, differed between the two types of fliers. In some regions, A. mellifera had a positive linear modulus gradient from cuticle interior to exterior of about 2 GPa. In M. sexta, modulus values through cuticle thickness were not well represented by linear fits. We utilized finite element modeling to assess how measured modulus gradients influenced maximum stress in cuticle. Stress was reduced when cuticle with a linear gradient was compressed from the high modulus side. These results support the protective role of the A. mellifera thorax cuticle. Our multi-faceted assessment advances our understanding of thorax cuticle structural and material heterogeneity and the potential benefits of material gradation to flying insects. Statement of significance The insect thorax is essential for efficient flight but questions remain about the contribution of the exoskeletal cuticle. We investigated the microscale properties of the thorax cuticle, a crucial step to determine its role in flight. Techniques including histology, nanoindentation, and confocal laser scanning microscopy revealed that cuticle properties vary through cuticle thickness, by thorax region, and between species with asynchronous (honey bee; Apis mellifera) and synchronous (hawkmoth; Manduca sexta) muscles. This variation highlights the importance of high resolution cuticle assessment for flying insect lineages and points to factors that may (modulus gradation) and may not (mean modulus) contribute to different flight forms. Understanding material variation in the thorax may inform design of technologies inspired by insects, such as mobile micro robots.
Low-threshold InP quantum dot and InGaP quantum well visible lasers on silicon (001)

Monolithically combining silicon nitride (SiNx) photonics technology with III-V active devices could open a broad range of on-chip applications spanning a wide wavelength range of ∼400−4000nm. With the development of nitride, arsenide, and antimonide lasers based on quantum well (QW) and quantum dot (QD) active regions, the wavelength palette of integrated III-V lasers on Si currently spans 400 nm to 11 µm, with a crucial gap in the red-wavelength regime of 630–750 nm. Here, we demonstrate red In0.6Ga0.4P QW and far-red InP QD lasers monolithically grown on CMOS-compatible Si (001) substrates with continuous-wave operation at room temperature. A low-threshold current density of 550A/cm2 and 690A/cm2 with emission at 680–730 nm was achieved for QW and QD lasers on Si, respectively. This work represents a step toward the integration of visible red lasers on Si, allowing the utilization of integrated photonics for applications including biophotonic sensing, quantum computing, and near-eye displays.
HTCondor data movement at 100 Gbps

HTCondor is a major workload management system used in distributed high throughput computing (dHTC) environments, e.g., the Open Science Grid. One of the distinguishing features of HTCondor is the native support for data movement, allowing it to operate without a shared filesystem. Coupling data handling and compute scheduling is both convenient for users and allows for significant infrastructure flexibility but does introduce some limitations. The default HTCondor data transfer mechanism routes both the input and output data through the submission node, making it a potential bottleneck. In this document we show that by using a node equipped with a 100 Gbps network interface (NIC) HTCondor can serve data at up to 90 Gbps, which is sufficient for most current use cases, as it would saturate the border network links of most research universities at the time of writing.
The Perils of Using Mechanical Turk to Evaluate Open-Ended Text Generation

Recent text generation research has increasingly focused on open-ended domains such as story and poetry generation. Because models built for such tasks are difficult to evaluate automatically, most researchers in the space justify their modeling choices by collecting crowdsourced human judgments of text quality (e.g., Likert scores of coherence or grammaticality) from Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT). In this paper, we first conduct a survey of 45 open-ended text generation papers and find that the vast majority of them fail to report crucial details about their AMT tasks, hindering reproducibility. We then run a series of story evaluation experiments with both AMT workers and English teachers and discover that even with strict qualification filters, AMT workers (unlike teachers) fail to distinguish between model-generated text and human-generated references. We show that AMT worker judgments improve when they are shown model-generated output alongside human-generated references, which enables the workers to better calibrate their ratings. Finally, interviews with the English teachers provide deeper insights into the challenges of the evaluation process, particularly when rating model-generated text.
Toolkit for Oscillatory Real-time Tracking and Estimation (TORTE).

Abstract Background Closing the loop between brain activity and behavior is one of the most active areas of development in neuroscience. There is particular interest in developing closed-loop control of neural oscillations. Many studies report correlations between oscillations and functional processes. Oscillation-informed closed-loop experiments might determine whether these relationships are causal and would provide important mechanistic insights which may lead to new therapeutic tools. These closed-loop perturbations require accurate estimates of oscillatory phase and amplitude, which are challenging to compute in real time. New Method We developed an easy to implement, fast and accurate Toolkit for Oscillatory Real-time Tracking and Estimation (TORTE). TORTE operates with the open-source Open Ephys GUI (OEGUI) system, making it immediately compatible with a wide range of acquisition systems and experimental preparations. Results TORTE efficiently extracts oscillatory phase and amplitude from a target signal and includes a variety of options to trigger closed-loop perturbations. Implementing these tools into existing experiments is easy and adds minimal latency to existing protocols. Comparison with Existing Methods Most labs use in-house lab-specific approaches, limiting replication and extension of their experiments by other groups. Accuracy of the extracted analytic signal and accuracy of oscillation-informed perturbations with TORTE match presented results by these groups. However, TORTE provides access to these tools in a flexible, easy to use toolkit without requiring proprietary software. Conclusion We hope that the availability of a high-quality, open-source, and broadly applicable toolkit will increase the number of labs able to perform oscillatory closed-loop experiments, and will improve the replicability of protocols and data across labs.
KiU-Net: Overcomplete Convolutional Architectures for Biomedical Image and Volumetric Segmentation.

Most methods for medical image segmentation use U-Net or its variants as they have been successful in most of the applications. After a detailed analysis of these traditional encoder-decoder based approaches, we observed that they perform poorly in detecting smaller structures and are unable to segment boundary regions precisely. This issue can be attributed to the increase in receptive field size as we go deeper into the encoder. The extra focus on learning high level features causes U-Net based approaches to learn less information about low-level features which are crucial for detecting small structures. To overcome this issue, we propose using an overcomplete convolutional architecture where we project the input image into a higher dimension such that we constrain the receptive field from increasing in the deep layers of the network. We design a new architecture for image segmentation- KiU-Net which has two branches: (1) an overcomplete convolutional network Kite-Net which learns to capture fine details and accurate edges of the input, and (2) U-Net which learns high level features. Furthermore, we also propose KiU-Net 3D which is a 3D convolutional architecture for volumetric segmentation. We perform a detailed study of KiU-Net by performing experiments on five different datasets covering various image modalities. We achieve a good performance with an additional benefit of fewer parameters and faster convergence. We also demonstrate that the extensions of KiU-Net based on residual blocks and dense blocks result in further performance improvements. Code: https://github.com/jeya-maria-jose/KiU-Net-pytorch.
Second-Harmonic Generation and Non-Resonant Absorption in Sub-Picosecond Laser-Solid Interactions

Second harmonic emission produced by the interaction of a 130 fs laser pulse with solid aluminum has been spectrally analyzed. For an angle of incidence near 20°, the specular second harmonic is blue shifted when the laser intensity exceeds 1 × 1017 W/cm2. This effect is also observed in PIC simulations of the experiment. Several absorption mechanisms are examined for their consistency with the data.
Is the Report of Lazarus's Death Premature? A Reply to Cameron and Postlewaite

Over a year ago, Ms. Faith Cuenin and I wrote an article about the tax treatment of guaranteed payments under section 707(c) that are made in kind. We concluded that a partnership does not recognize gain or loss on the making of a guaranteed payment with appreciated or depreciated property. We also concluded that the partner’s basis in the property received will equal its fair market value at the time of payment, and that the payment does not affect the partner’s outside basis in his partnership interest except to the extent of the partner’s share of any deduction that the partnership obtained by making the payment. Professors Cameron and Postlewaite strongly disagree with one of the conclusions we reached in our Article (i.e., our conclusion that the partnership does not recognize gain or loss) and with all of our reasoning. While I find their arguments well reasoned and documented, for reasons that I explain in this response, I continue to hold to the conclusions that Ms. Cuenin and I reached in the original article. The Cameron and Postlewaite article can be divided into two principal parts. One is the contention that section 707(c) was impliedly or effectively repealed by the adoption of section 707(a)(2) as part of the Tax Reform Act of 1984. The second is a contention that, even if section 707(c) is still viable, the conclusion concerning the partnership’s nonrecognition of income that Ms. Cuenin and I reached in the original article, and our reasons for reaching that conclusion, are wrong. This article addresses both contentions.
Secrets, hot spots, and generalization: preparing students to design software families

An important technique for coping with the increasing size, variability, and complexity of software systems is the construction of software families. This technique exploits the common properties of a group of related software systems to achieve reuse of design or code. Computing science students should be introduced to the concept of software families and the methods for constructing them. This paper describes a course on the principles and practice of developing software families. It outlines the structure of the course and evaluates it from the perspective of the students and the instructor.
Molecular phylogeny of the beetle tribe Oxypodini (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Aleocharinae)

This is the first study to comprehensively address the phylogeny of the tribe Oxypodini Thomson and its phylogenetic relationships to other tribes within the staphylinid subfamily Aleocharinae. Using the hitherto largest molecular dataset of Aleocharinae comprising of 4599 bp for representatives of 22 tribes, the Oxypodini are recovered as non-monophyletic. Members of the tribe belong to three distantly related lineages within the Aleocharinae: (i) the Amarochara group as sister clade to the tribe Aleocharini, (ii) the subtribe Tachyusina within a clade that also includes the tribes Athetini and Hygronomini, (iii) all other Oxypodini in a clade that also includes the tribes Placusini, Hoplandriini and Liparocephalini. Based on the inferred phylogeny, five subtribes of the Oxypodini are recognized: Dinardina Mulsant & Rey, Meoticina Seevers, Microglottina Fenyes, Oxypodina Thomson and Phloeoporina Thomson. The following changes in the classification of the Aleocharinae are proposed: (i) Amarochara Thomson is removed from the Oxypodini and placed in the tribe Aleocharini; (ii) the subtribe Taxicerina Lohse of the Athetini is reinstated as tribe Taxicerini to include Discerota Mulsant & Rey, Halobrecta Thomson (both removed from the Oxypodini) and Taxicera Mulsant & Rey; (iii) the subtribe Tachyusina Thomson is excluded from the Oxypodini and provisionally treated as tribe Tachyusini; (iv) the oxypodine subtribe name Blepharhymenina Klimaszewski & Peck is placed in synonymy with the subtribe name Dinardina Mulsant & Rey.
Chapter 10 Visual cognitive ERPs

Publisher Summary With the advent of new technologies to explore brain functions, comes the expectation of the emergence of new insights into human experience and cognition. Current literature holds such hopes for functional MRI and PET neuroimaging techniques. Similarly, electroencephalography (EEG) technology has been used to explore cognition and the mind for over 50 years. Despite the current enthusiasm regarding the role of neuroimaging in cognitive neuroscience, new insights into the origins of conscious experience and the code of visual cognition in the human brain are few, and far between. This is partially because of the need for an adequate paradigm to address the neural coding mediating consciousness (visual and otherwise). Although psychophysiology has not provided the revolutionary insight into brain function that was once expected, a number of paradigms have emerged that provide a novel look at attention, language, and memory mechanisms. In this chapter, the components of visual cognitive event related potentials (ERPs) are discussed. An extensive literature on the effects of neurodegenerative and psychiatric diseases on these potentials are also briefly presented.
Electrical Coupling Between the Upper and Lower Atmosphere

A quasistatic model of global atmospheric electricity is used to examine the electrical coupling between the upper and lower atmosphere.
Criteria for Grasar Action in Astrophysical Sources

The theory of gamma ray amplification through stimulated annihilation radiation (grasar) was developed by Ramaty, McKinley and Jones. For gamma ray bursts similar to the March 5, 1979 burst, an observed annihilation line of width 0.03 MeV would imply a grasar source. The minimum pair density needed for the onset of grasar action is approx. 10 to the 30th power/cu cm and the peak of the grasar line, without a gravitational redshift, is at 0.5 MeV.
Clustering of GPS velocities in the Mojave Block, southeastern California

[1] We find subdivisions within the Mojave Block using cluster analysis to identify groupings in the velocities observed at GPS stations there. The clusters are represented on a fault map by symbols located at the positions of the GPS stations, each symbol representing the cluster to which the velocity of that GPS station belongs. Fault systems that separate the clusters are readily identified on such a map. The most significant representation as judged by the gap test involves 4 clusters within the Mojave Block. The fault systems bounding the clusters from east to west are 1) the faults defining the eastern boundary of the Northeast Mojave Domain extended southward to connect to the Hector Mine rupture, 2) the Calico-Paradise fault system, 3) the Landers-Blackwater fault system, and 4) the Helendale-Lockhart fault system. This division of the Mojave Block is very similar to that proposed by Meade and Hager [2005]. However, no cluster boundary coincides with the Garlock Fault, the northern boundary of the Mojave Block. Rather, the clusters appear to continue without interruption from the Mojave Block north into the southern Walker Lane Belt, similar to the continuity across the Garlock Fault of the shear zone along the Blackwater-Little Lake fault system observed by Peltzer et al. [2001]. Mapped traces of individual faults in the Mojave Block terminate within the block and do not continue across the Garlock Fault [Dokka and Travis, 1990a].
Ecology based decentralized agent management system

The problem of maintaining a desired number of mobile agents on a network is not trivial, especially if we want a completely decentralized solution. Decentralized control makes a system more robust and less susceptible to partial failures. The problem is exacerbated on wireless ad hoc networks where host mobility can result in significant changes in the network size and topology. In this paper we propose an ecology-inspired approach to the management of the number of agents. The approach associates agents with living organisms and tasks with food. Agents procreate or die based on the abundance of uncompleted tasks (food). We performed a series of experiments investigating properties of such systems and analyzed their stability under various conditions. We concluded that the ecology based metaphor can be successfully applied to the management of agent populations on wireless ad hoc networks.
A new performance model of optical burst switching with fiber delay lines

We present a new performance model for a prioritized optical burst switch architecture employing fiber delay lines (FDLs) as optical buffers to reduce the burst loss probability. The performance of such architecture cannot be captured accurately using traditional queueing models since FDLs behave fundamentally differently from conventional electronic buffers. We formulate a Markovian model to evaluate the system performance when the burst arrival process is Poisson and the burst lengths are exponentially distributed. Both the balking and bounded delay characteristics of FDLs are captured in the model. A conservation law is used to extend the analysis to a system implementing differentiated services with two prioritized traffic classes. The extended model captures the system dynamics for high priority traffic and yields a good approximation for low priority traffic. We also find that the previously developed models are approximations of our general model in the regimes of short and long FDLs. Our numerical results validate the accuracy of our modeling approach and demonstrate significant performance gains when FDLs are employed as optical buffers.
Time, quantum mechanics, and tense

The relational approach to tense holds that “the now”, “passage”, and “becoming” are to be understood in terms of relations between events. The debate over the adequacy of this framework is illustrated by a comparative study of the sense in which physical theories, (in)deterministic and (non)relativistic, can lend expression to the metaphysics at issue. The objective is not to settle the matter, but to clarify the nature of this metaphysics and to establish that the same issues are at stake in the relational approach to value-definiteness and probability in quantum mechanics. They concern the existence of a unique present, respectively actuality, and a notion of identity over time that cannot be paraphrased in terms of relations.
Hydrogen transfer from crotyltri-n-butylstannane to carbon radicals

Abstract Attempted reaction of carbon centered radicals with crotyltri-n-butylstannane leads not to CC bond formation was with 2-propenyltri-n-butylstannane, but to hydrogen abstraction resulting in production of butadiene and tri-n-butylstannyl radicals.
Inhibition of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase from tobacco tissue culture by scopoletin and scopolin

Abstract The pH optimum for glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase from tobacco tissue culture was determined to be between 8 and 9. The plot of the reaction velocity vs. glucose-6-phosphate concentration showed a non-sigmoidal, hyperbolic saturation curve. A similar curve was obtained for the NADP + saturation function. Compounds that may be related to glucose-6-phosphate metabolism were tested for their effects on the enzyme. It was found that the phenolic compounds, scopoletin, scopolin, esculin and ferulic acid, inhibited the enzyme. Similar inhibitions by scopolin and scopoletin were observed for three other NADPH producing dehydrogenases from the same plant cells; namely, 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase, NADP + specific isocitrate dehydrogenase and NADP + specific malate dehydrogenase.
Creating Windows applications using Borland's OWL classes

This paper presents a brief overview of Windows programming in C++ with Borland's OWL classes and describes the planning and organization of a course in graphical user interfaces. It may be helpful to instructors who would like to combine the creation of graphical user interfaces with an intermediate or advanced course in object-oriented programming.
Three-dimensional treatment planning for central lymphatic irradiation

The purpose of this study was to investigate the applicability of 3-dimensional (3D) treatment planning for central lymphatic irradiation (CLI). CLI requires more than 1 course of treatment with large, highly blocked, overlapping beams, and careful planning is required to ensure that such treatments are delivered safely and effectively. Three patients were selected for this study. Each patient completed at least 1 course of radiation therapy for CLI and was scheduled to receive irradiation to an adjacent area with overlapping beams. Two treatment plans were generated for each patient: a standard, 2-dimensional (2D) treatment plan and a 3D treatment plan designed to mimic the standard plan, taking advantage of unique 3D features. The time required to complete the treatment plans and differences in the treatment planning processes were noted. The time required to generate a 3D treatment plan was approximately the same as the time required to generate a standard 2D treatment plan; however, the 3D planning process required less redundancy of data entry than the 2D process. The 3D treatment plan was qualitatively similar to the standard 2D treatment plan; however, differences in beam penumbra and beam junctions were noted, and are most likely due to differences in the dose-calculation models used in these 2 treatment planning systems. Dose-volume histograms (DVHs) were calculated for the spinal cord and were found to be useful to the physicians for quickly and accurately evaluating the presence or absence of hot spots in the junction region. 3D treatment-planning has some advantages over 2D treatment planning for CLI; the main advantage of the 3D treatment plan is that it provides a single plan for each patient with multiple views of the data, including different planar cross-sections and DVHs. For the 2D system, a separate plan was generated for each view, requiring redundant data entry. The quality of the output of the 3D treatment plans is superior to that of 2D treatment plans, but the clinical utility is about the same. Currently, the time required for 2D and 3D treatment plans is similar. However, as dosimetrists become more familiar with 3D treatment planning systems, we expect this familiarity and regularity of use to translate into a significant time advantage.
GNGA for general regions: Semilinear elliptic PDE and crossing eigenvalues

Abstract We consider the semilinear elliptic PDE Δ u + f ( λ , u ) = 0 with the zero-Dirichlet boundary condition on a family of regions, namely stadions. Linear problems on such regions have been widely studied in the past. We seek to observe the corresponding phenomena in our nonlinear setting. Using the Gradient Newton Galerkin Algorithm (GNGA) of Neuberger and Swift, we document bifurcation, nodal structure, and symmetry of solutions. This paper provides the first published instance where the GNGA is applied to general regions. Our investigation involves both the dimension of the stadions and the value λ as parameters. We find that the so-called crossings and avoided crossings of eigenvalues as the dimension of the stadions vary influences the symmetry and variational structure of nonlinear solutions in a natural way.
Cost-effectiveness of 2 + 1 dosing of 13-valent and 10-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccines in Canada

Background Thirteen-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) and 10-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV10) are two recently approved vaccines for the active immunization against Streptococcus pneumoniae causing invasive pneumococcal disease in infants and children. PCV13 offers broader protection against Streptococcus pneumoniae; however, PCV10 offers potential protection against non-typeable Haemophilus influenza (NTHi). We examined public health and economic impacts of a PCV10 and PCV13 pediatric national immunization programs (NIPs) in Canada.
Invited paper: ICRF edge modeling studies

Abstract Theoretical models have been developed, and are currently being refined, to explain the edge plasma-antenna interaction that occurs during ICRF heating. The periodic structure of a Faraday shielded antenna is found to result in strong ponderomotive force in the vicinity of the antenna. A fluid model, which incorporates the ponderomotive force, shows an increase in transport to the Faraday shield. A kinetic model shows that the strong antenna near fields act to increase the energy of deuterons which strike the shield, thereby increasing the sputtering of shield material. Estimates of edge impurity harmonic heating show no significant heating for either in or out-of-phase antenna operation. Additionally, a particle model for electrons near the shield shows that heating results from the parallel electric field associated with the fast wave. A quasilinear model for edge electron heating is presented and compared to the particle calculations. The models' predictions are shown to be consistent with measurements of enhanced transport.
Characteristics of developing mitochondrial genetic and respiratory functions in germinating fungal spores

Spores of the fungus Botryodiplodia theobromae began a cyanide-sensitive oxygen consumption immediately upon exposure to a liquid medium, and spore germination and respiration were not affected by ethidium bromide, d-threochloramphenicol, and acriflavin until later during germ tube emergence. These inhibitors of the mitochondrial genetic system all inhibited total cell protein synthesis to the same intermediate degree from the outset of incubation. When spores were incubated in water under non-germinating conditions, protein synthesis and oxygen uptake proceeded at initial rates almost identical to those seen in spores germinating in the presence of the three mitochondrial system inhibitors. Although the spores respired at rapid rates from the onset of incubation, no cytochrome absorption peaks could be observed in mitochondrial fractions prepared from ungerminated spores; they were readily observed in germinated spores, however. When the spores were germinated in the presence of inhibitors of the mitochondrial system, an excess of cytochrome c was observed in the near absence of cytochromes a and b. The results indicate that the ungerminated spores of this organism contain a preserved, potentially functional aerobic respiratory system which requires cycloheximide-sensitive ribosome activity to become functional when the spores are inoculated into a liquid medium.
Outcomes after surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome.

Abstract Purpose: This study determined whether there is an association between psychological and socioeconomic characteristics and the long-term outcome of operative treatment for patients with sensory neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome (N-TOS). Methods: Clinical records, preoperative psychological testing results, and long-term follow-up questionnaire data were reviewed for consecutive patients who underwent surgery for N-TOS from 1990 to 1999. Multivariate logistic regression models were developed as a means of identifying independent risk factors for postoperative disability. Results: Operative decompression of the brachial plexus via a supraclavicular approach was performed for upper extremity pain and paresthesia with no mortality and minimal morbidity in 170 patients. After an average follow-up period of 47 months, 65% of patients reported improved symptoms, and 64% of patients were satisfied with their operative outcome. However, 35% of patients remained on medication, and 18% of patients were disabled. Preoperative factors associated with persistent disability include major depression (odds ratio [OR], 15.7; P = .02), not being married (OR, 7.9; P = .04), and having less than a high school education (OR, 8.1; P = .09). Conclusion: Operative decompression was beneficial for most patients. Psychological and social factors, including depression, marital status, and education, are associated with self-reported disability. The impact of the preoperative treatment of depression on the outcome of TOS decompression should be studied prospectively. (J Vasc Surg 2001;33:1220-5.)
Intracranial Endovascular Balloon Test Occlusion: Indications, Methods, and Predictive Value

Abstract Abrupt interruption of the internal carotid artery without a balloon test occlusion (BTO) carries a 26% risk of cerebral infarction. BTO is a test used to decrease this risk by evaluating the efficacy of the collateral circulation. Clinical tolerance of parent vessel occlusion can be assessed by a BTO with several variables, including the clinical examination, angiographic assessment, stump pressure, induced hypotension, perfusion scanning, transcranial Doppler ultrasonography, and neurophysiologic monitoring. This review discusses the indications, methods, predictive value, and complications of BTO.
Identification of autonomously replicating sequence (ARS) elements in eukaryotic cells.

Abstract Autonomously replicating sequence (ARS) elements were first identified in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as chromosomal DNA fragments that promoted high frequency of transformation and extrachromosomal maintenance of plasmid DNA. These specific sequence elements were subsequently shown to function as origins of DNA replication. Detailed analysis of the structure and function of ARS elements has been limited largely to S. cerevisiae and more recently the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe. Characterization of ARS activity in other eukaryotes is far less complete. Here we describe the ARS assay developed in yeast and its application to the study of origin function in other eukaryotes. Other available methods for detecting autonomous replication in these systems are also presented.
HDL metabolism in diabetes

Based on the data reviewed, it is necessary to conclude that diabetes is associated with profound changes in HDL metabolism. However, once we go beyond this simple generalization, it is apparent that the relationship between diabetes and HDL metabolism is not a simple one. A good deal of the complication evolves from the fact that IDDM and NIDDM seem to affect HDL metabolism quite differently, with the only apparent similarity the fact that plasma HDL-cholesterol concentration can be low in untreated patients with either IDDM or NIDDM. Thus, in patients with IDDM the primary event seems to be related to the insulin-deficient state, which results in a decrease in HDL turnover rate and resultant decline in plasma HDL-cholesterol concentration. In contrast, HDL turnover appears to be accelerated, not reduced in patients with NIDDM, and the low plasma HDL-cholesterol concentration is a consequence of the increased turnover rate. In addition, patients with NIDDM are not absolutely insulin deficient, and available evidence suggests that the higher the plasma insulin level, the lower the plasma HDL-cholesterol concentration in these patients. The differences noted above in the effect of IDDM and NIDDM on HDL metabolism are of great interest, and, unfortunately, not very well understood. There is, however, one additional difference, which may be of paramount clinical importance. For reasons not totally clear, plasma HDL-cholesterol concentrations in patients with IDDM treated with insulin are not lower than normal, and even tend to be higher than these values in a nondiabetic population. Possibly as a result of this phenomenon, there is no evidence that changes in plasma HDL-cholesterol concentration play a role in the development of macrovascular complications in IDDM. Although it is apparent from the considerations discussed in this review that a great deal more needs to be learned about the effect of insulin deficiency on HDL metabolism, changes in HDL metabolism do not appear to be clinically important in patients with IDDM. Unfortunately, this does not appear to be the situation in patients with NIDDM. Plasma HDL-cholesterol concentrations are lower than normal in patients with NIDDM, and this finding seems to be related to increased morbidity and mortality from CAD. Furthermore, there is no form of anti-diabetic treatment, irrespective of how effective it has been in achieving glycemic control, that has been shown to substantially increase plasma HDL-cholesterol level. Indeed, it has been difficult to demonstrate a consistent effect of any therapeutic approach on plasma HDL-cholesterol concentration.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Genomic-based tools for the risk assessment, management, and prevention of type 2 diabetes

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a common and serious disorder and is a significant risk factor for the development of cardiovascular disease, neuropathy, nephropathy, retinopathy, periodontal disease, and foot ulcers and amputations. The burden of disease associated with T2D has led to an emphasis on early identification of the millions of individuals at high risk so that management and intervention strategies can be effectively implemented before disease progression begins. With increasing knowledge about the genetic basis of T2D, several genomic-based strategies have been tested for their ability to improve risk assessment, management and prevention. Genetic risk scores have been developed with the intent to more accurately identify those at risk for T2D and to potentially improve motivation and adherence to lifestyle modification programs. In addition, evidence is building that oral antihyperglycemic medications are subject to pharmacogenomic variation in a substantial number of patients, suggesting genomics may soon play a role in determining the most effective therapies. T2D is a complex disease that affects individuals differently, and risk prediction and treatment may be challenging for health care providers. Genomic approaches hold promise for their potential to improve risk prediction and tailor management for individual patients and to contribute to better health outcomes for those with T2D.
Neuroleptic treatment of schizotypal personality disorders

Abstract Seventeen schizotypal patients were treated with low doses of Haloperidol in a single-blind trial. Improvement was noted on overall schizotypal symptoms as assessed on the Schedule for Interviewing Borderlines (SIB) with positive change particularly reflected on the scales measuring ldeas of Reference, Odd Communication and Social Isolation. Ratings on the Global Assessment Scale (GAS) indicated overall clinical improvement. Complaints of side effects, particularly sedation were extensive and contributed to a 50% dropout rate. Though the study indicates that low dose Haloperidol may be useful for some schizotypal personalities, it also underscores the serious compliance problems in a group of patients highly sensitive to side effects.
Effects of heterotopic conditioning stimuli on first and second pain: A psychophysical evaluation in humans

Abstract Psychophysical experiments were carried out on 7 human participants to determine the extent to which experimentally produced first or second pain is reduced by concomitant nociceptive stimulation of body regions remote from those at which test stimuli are presented. This form of pain reduction has been termed diffuse noxious inhibitory controls (DNIC). Test stimuli used to evoke first and second pain consisted of intense electrical pulses delivered to the ankle area by subepithelial electrodes. Conditioning stimuli were 10 sec thermal stimuli (43, 47, 51 °C) applied to 1 cm 2 areas of skin of either the dorsal surface of the contralateral foot or the abdominal region. The perceived magnitudes of first and second pains evoked by test stimuli were rated on visual analogue scales (VAS). Frankly noxious conditioning thermal stimuli (47 and 51 °C), but not innocuous thermal stimuli (43°C), applied to the contralateral foot or abdomen reliably inhibited both first and second pain. However, the degree of inhibition was significantly greater for second pain that for first pain. In addition, the inhibitory effects did not outlast the duration of the conditioning stimulus. All of these results closely parallel electrophysiological observations about DNIC in primates. Since the extent of reduction of first pain is relatively weak and the durations of all inhibitory effects are very brief, it is unlikely that DNIC subserves the functions of relieving pain or providing a mechanism of coding pain. The spatial and temporal pattern of DNIC indicates that it may be a phenomenon associated more with the organization and production of withdrawal reflexes than with the relief of pain or pain coding.
Object and spatial imagery dimensions in visuo-haptic representations

Visual imagery comprises object and spatial dimensions. Both types of imagery encode shape but a key difference is that object imagers are more likely to encode surface properties than spatial imagers. Since visual and haptic object representations share many characteristics, we investigated whether haptic and multisensory representations also share an object-spatial continuum. Experiment 1 involved two tasks in both visual and haptic within-modal conditions, one requiring discrimination of shape across changes in texture, the other discrimination of texture across changes in shape. In both modalities, spatial imagers could ignore changes in texture but not shape, whereas object imagers could ignore changes in shape but not texture. Experiment 2 re-analyzed a cross-modal version of the shape discrimination task from an earlier study. We found that spatial imagers could discriminate shape across changes in texture but object imagers could not and that the more one preferred object imagery, the more texture changes impaired discrimination. These findings are the first evidence that object and spatial dimensions of imagery can be observed in haptic and multisensory representations.
Drug Utilization, Dosing, and Costs After Implementation of Intravenous Acetaminophen Guidelines for Pediatric Patients

OBJECTIVES The objectives of this evaluation of medication use were to characterize the use of intravenous acetaminophen at our institution and to determine if acetaminophen was prescribed at age-appropriate dosages per institutional guidelines, as well as to evaluate compliance with restrictions for use. Total acquisition costs associated with intravenous acetaminophen usage is described as well. METHODS This retrospective study evaluated the use of acetaminophen in pediatric patients younger than 18 years of age, admitted to a tertiary care hospital, who received at least 1 dose of intravenous acet-aminophen between August 1, 2011, and January 31, 2012. RESULTS A total of 52 doses of intravenous acetaminophen were administered to 31 patients during the 6-month study period. Most patients were admitted to the otorhinolaryngology service (55%), and the majority of doses were administered either in the operating room (46%) or in the intensive care unit (46%). Nineteen doses (37%) of intravenous acetaminoph...
Timing recovery in data storage systems: framework and approach of Kalman filtering

Recent error correction coding is able to work with low Signal-to-Noise Ratios (SNR), thus increasing the recording densities in data storage systems. With low SNR, conventional timing recovery is likely to lose stability and entire blocks of data may be lost. Reliable timing recovery is required in low SNR to reduce the loss of lock rate. In this paper, we introduce the framework of current timing recovery system, challenges of timing recovery in low SNR, and application of Kalman filtering to timing recovery. With Kalman filtering, timing recovery performance is improved in acquisition, tracking, and dropout compensation, and loss of lock rate is reduced.
Seeking, Thinking, Acting: Understanding Suburban Resident Perceptions and Behaviors Related to Stream Quality

Theories in risk, psychology, and communication suggest aiming to inform the public about basic ecological facts may not be enough to influence knowledge of risks or behaviors to mitigate water quality risks. The risk information-seeking and processing model and the theory of planned behavior suggest several additional variables that are likely to influence risk-mitigating behaviors. We used data from a survey of watershed residents in Ohio to explore a model of behavioral intentions to positively impact stream health. Residents' informational norms, or the perceived pressure to know about local stream health, strongly predicted their information-seeking behaviors. Active-seeking behaviors predicted positive attitudes toward behaviors impacting stream health, which predicted intentions to positively impact stream health. Implications for outreach include couching communication in terms of risk found important to the local community, here wildlife were seen as negatively influenced by water quality, as opposed to plain reports typically provided by utility companies. Increasing social pressure to feel informed by emphasizing the existing knowledge of stream ecology among residents could change the norm for the less informed. A low response rate limits the generalizability of findings here, but leveraging these findings in outreach efforts could prove more successful in engaging the public to improve stream health and support policies to improve stream health.
Work, Family and Community Support as Predictors of Work-Family Conflict: A Study of Low-Income Workers.

Abstract This study examines relationships between support from work, family and community domains with time- and strain-based work–family conflict in a sample of low-income workers. Results reveal significant within-domain and cross-domain relationships between support from all three life domains with work − family conflict. With respect to family support, support from children was associated with lower time- and strain-based family interfering with work and extended family support was associated with lower strain-based work interfering with family. Non-work support other than family was also important. Neighbor support was related to lower time-based family interfering with work. Community support was related to reduced time and strain-based work interfering with family and strain based family interfering with work. At work, family-supportive organizational perceptions and supervisor support were related to lower time-based work interfering with family. Findings highlight the need to adopt a more comprehensive approach when examining sources from which low-income employees draw social support.
Decreased Levels of Recent Thymic Emigrants in Peripheral Blood of Simian Immunodeficiency Virus-Infected Macaques Correlate with Alterations within the Thymus

The thymus is responsible for de novo production of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells and therefore is essential for T-cell renewal. The goal of this study was to assess the impact of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) infection on the production of T cells by the thymus. Levels of recent thymic emigrants within the peripheral blood were assessed through quantification of macaque T-cell receptor excision circles (TREC). Comparison of SIV-infected macaques (n = 15) to uninfected macaques (n = 23) revealed stable or increased TREC levels at 20 to 34 weeks postinfection. Further assessment of SIV-infected macaques (n = 4) determined that TREC levels decreased between 24 and 48 weeks postinfection. Through the assessment of longitudinal time points in three additional SIVmac239-infected macaques, the SIV infection was divided into two distinct phases. During phase 1 (16 to 30 weeks), TREC levels remained stable or increased within both the CD4 and CD8 T-cell populations. During phase 2 (after 16 to 30 weeks), TREC levels declined in both T-cell populations. As has been described for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients, this decline in TREC levels did at times correlate with an increased level of T-cell proliferation (Ki67+ cells). However, not all TREC decreases could be attributed to increased T-cell proliferation. Further evidence for thymic dysfunction was observed directly in a SIVmac239-infected macaque that succumbed to simian AIDS at 65 weeks postinfection. The thymus of this macaque contained an increased number of memory/effector CD8+ T cells and an increased level of apoptotic cells. In summary, reduced levels of TREC can be observed beginning at 16 to 30 weeks post-SIV infection and correlate with changes indicative of dysfunction within the thymic tissue. SIV infection of macaques will be a useful model system to elucidate the mechanisms responsible for the thymic dysfunction observed in HIV-infected patients.
Mineralized gelatin methacrylate-based matrices induce osteogenic differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells

Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) are a promising cell source with pluripotency and self-renewal properties. Design of simple and robust biomaterials with an innate ability to induce lineage-specificity of hiPSC is desirable to realize their application in regenerative medicine. In this study, the potential of biomaterials containing calcium phosphate minerals to induce osteogenic differentiation of hiPSC was investigated. hiPSC cultured using mineralized gelatin methacrylate-based matrices underwent osteogenic differentiation ex vivo, in both two-dimensional and three-dimensional cultures, in growth medium devoid of any osteogenic-inducing chemical components or growth factors. The findings that osteogenic differentiation of hiPSC can be achieved through biomaterial-based cues alone present new avenues for personalized regenerative medicine. Such biomaterials that could not only act as structural scaffolds, but could also provide tissue-specific functions such as directing stem cell differentiation commitment, have great potential in bone tissue engineering.