cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
HIV-Negative Plasmablastic Lymphoma: Not in the Mouth

Plasmablastic lymphoma (PBL) is an aggressive variant of non-Hodgkin lymphoma initially reported in the oral cavity of HIV-positive individuals. Since its original description, several cases have been reported in patients who do not have HIV infection. However, despite its recognition as a distinct subtype of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma several years ago, comprehensive reviews of this entity are lacking. A MEDLINE search through June 2010 was performed to identify cases with a pathologic diagnosis of HIV-negative PBL based on morphology and minimal immunohistochemical criteria. Our study included a total of 76 cases. The median age was 57 years (range, 1 to 90 years) with a male-to-female ratio of 1.7. Seventy-four percent of cases did not have an apparent association with immunosuppression, 18% had a concurrent lymphoproliferative or autoimmune disorder and 9% developed PBL after solid organ transplantation. Oral involvement was observed in 21%, advanced stage in 60%, Epstein-Barr virus–encoded RNA expression was positive in 45% and Ki-67 expression of greater than or equal to 80% in 61% of the cases. Chemotherapy was documented in 43 patients, from which 43% received the cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, prednisone (CHOP)–like regimens. The median and the 2-year overall survival for the whole group were 9 months and 10%, respectively. Patients who had HIV-negative PBL have distinct clinicopathological characteristics, such as short overall survival and lower rates of oral involvement and Epstein-Barr virus–encoded RNA expression than the previously reported in HIV-positive patients.
A dynamic rerouting model for air traffic flow management

Abstract In this paper, we present a stochastic integer programming model for managing air traffic inbound to an airport when both the airport itself and its approach routes are subject to adverse weather. In the model, ground delay decisions are static, while those on rerouting are dynamic. The decision variables in the model are aggregate number of flights planned to arrive at various capacity constrained resources. The model does not directly assign arrival times to individual flights. Therefore, in context of Collaborative Decision Making, which is the governing philosophy of the air traffic management system of the United States, the solutions from the dynamic rerouting model can be directly fed to some resource allocation algorithm that assigns routes and release times to individual flights or to the airlines who operate them. When adverse weather blocks or severely limits capacity of terminal approach routes, rerouting flights onto other approaches yields substantial benefits by alleviating high ground delays. Our experimental results indicate that making rerouting decisions dynamically results in 10–15% delay cost reduction compared to static rerouting, and about 50% less delay cost compared to a “pure” ground holding strategy (i.e., no rerouting). In contrast to static rerouting, the dynamic rerouting capability results in making rerouting decisions that are better matched to realized weather conditions. Lower total expected delay cost is achieved by delaying the rerouting decisions for flights until they reach the divergence point between alternative routes, and hence exploiting updated information on weather while making those decisions. In cases where the airport is the main, but not the only, bottleneck, the dynamic rerouting model may assign higher ground delays so that the rerouting decisions can be deferred until more information on en route weather becomes available.
The effect of sand/cement ratio and silica fume on the microstructure of mortars

Abstract Cement mortars containing 0 and 10% silica fume were prepared at a water/cement + silica fume ratio of 0.60 and sand/cement ratios of 0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 1.8, 2.0, 2.25 and 3.0. Pore-size distributions were studied by mercury intrusion and reintrusion. More pores of (97→0.175) × 10 3 nm size form at the sand interface for mortars with silica fume than without it. There is only a slight difference in the fine pore distribution with and without silica fume.
More respect for connective tissues.

S trabismus surgeons have traditionally regarded extraocular connective tissue as a nuisance, mechanically irrelevant except insofar as it must be “cleaned” when muscles are operated on. Miller challenged this notion in 1989 when he reported the first magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies showing that rectus muscles do not side-slip in eccentric gazes. He inferred that connective tissues constrain rectus muscle paths. There ensued a detailed reexamination of the orbit’s gross anatomy. In 1995 the rectus connective tissue pulleys were described histologically and functionally, consisting of collagenous sleeves in posterior Tenon’s fascia, stiffened by elastin and smooth muscle. Muscle orbital layers were recognized to insert in pulley connective tissues. Degeneration of these connective tissues occurs with aging, correlated to limitation in vertical duction and sagging of horizontal rectus pulleys. The earlier proposal that active repositioning of rectus pulleys by corresponding orbital layers might influence ocular torsion has been supported by electrophysiological findings that motoneurons innervating cyclovertical muscles do not carry torsional commands that would be required for a neural implementation of Listing’s law and that eye movements evoked by electrical abducens nerve stimulation conform to Listing’s law without cyclovertical muscle activation. We now know that pulleys influence the balance of horizontal, vertical, and torsional actions that every muscle produces. It is particularly significant that pulleys are accessible to surgical manipulation. One widely recognized strabismus due to connective tissue pathology is the “heavy eye syndrome,” esotropia and hypotropia associated with axial high myopia where surgery for correction of inferiorly displaced lateral rectus path can produce dramatic benefits. Nevertheless, we strabismus surgeons have hesitantly grasped the profound implications of orbital connective tissues. The present issue of the Journal includes 2 papers that highlight surgical importance of the orbital connective tissues. Iizuka and Kushner studied surgical anatomy of connective tissue between the superior oblique and superior rectus muscles. They found that when the connective tissue
Assumed Consensus of Attitudes The Effect of Vested Interest

People tend to overestimate the extent of existing support for their attitudes. This study sought to determine whether this assumption of consensus would be influenced by the hedonic relevance of the attitude in question. Accordingly, 144 undergraduates equally divided with respect to class status (freshmen and sophomores versus juniors and seniors) were told that their university administrators were studying a tuition surcharge plan that would affect either underclassmen, upperclassmen, or all students. Respondents were asked to evaluate the plan and to estimate the proportion of other students who shared their attitude. Subjects who thought they would be affected by the plan estimated that considerably more students (of all classes) would share their attitude than did respondents who would not be affected. This vested interest-assumed consensus relationship was independent of attitudinal extremity. Implications of these results for the further study of attitude-behavior consistency and judgmental bias w...
Abdominal radiotherapy for cancer of the uterine cervix and endometrium

From 1973 through 1985, 49 women received postoperative open-field whole abdominal radiotherapy as primary management for peritoneal metastases from uterine cancer. The 5-year relapse-free rate was 63% in women with endometrial carcinoma, and two prognostic subsets were identified. Five-year relapse-free rates fell from 77% in women with spread to the adnexa or peritoneal fluid to 36% in women with macroscopic spread of cancer beyond the adnexa. Any peritoneal spread of cervical carcinoma yielded a 3-year relapse-free rate of 31%. Although abdominal spread of cervical cancer was associated with other poor prognostic factors, peritoneal metastases frequently occurred in otherwise early endometrial cancer. Four percent of patients developed small bowel obstruction requiring surgical intervention. The utility and limitations of whole abdominal radiation are discussed.
An immunofluorescence study of T and B lymphocytes in ozone-induced pulmonary lesions in the mouse

Ozone is a photochemical oxidant which reacts with a variety of biological molecules. In experimental animals the toxicity of ozone results from damage to cells in the lung and is associated with the process of reactive repair and an influx of inflammatory cells. In this work we used an indirect immunofluorescence technique to study the effect of ozone on T and B lymphocytes with special reference to their presence in ozone-induced pulmonary lesions. BALB/c mice were exposed to ozone at a concentration of 0.7 ppm for 20 hr per day, 7 days per week, for 4 or 14 days. Control mice were housed in comparable chambers lacking ozone. Frozen sections of lung were prepared and stained for the surface markers Thy-1.2 (T lymphocyte) and sIgM (B lymphocyte). These experiments showed that T lymphocytes infiltrate the lung lesions during ozone inhalation, and increase their presence as ozone exposure continues. They were present in the centroacinar region and tended to occur in clusters within the ozone-induced lesions. In contrast, the infiltration of B lymphocytes was virtually nonexistent with few or no sIgM positive cells present in the lesions after either 4 or 14 days of exposure to ozone. These results show that T lymphocytes occur within the sites of ozone-induced damage and support that this cell type plays a role in the reactive host response to ozone inhalation.
Evaluation of procedures to reduce bias in fish growth parameter estimates resulting from size-selective sampling

abstract Size-selective ﬁsh sampling can strongly bias von Bertalanffy growth parameter estimates. Bias-correction methods have been developed, but they often require previous knowledge of selectivitypattern, capture–recapture data or intensive age-growth sampling over multiple consecutive years.When corrective measures are not feasible, investigators have attempted a number of biologically basedprocedures to reduce this bias. We evaluated several existing biologically based procedures that couldpotentially remove bias from growth parameter estimates. We built an age and length structured popu-lation model and tested the utility of four procedures to remove bias: 1) ﬁxing t 0 at zero, 2) deleting dataassociated with ages that are not fully vulnerable to sampling, 3) deleting less than fully vulnerable agesand ﬁxing t 0 at zero, and 4) ﬁxing L ∞ at the maximum value observed in the data. We considered sam-pling gears that had no size selectivity, asymptotic selectivity, and dome-shaped selectivity patterns forall procedures. Results suggested that none of these procedures would eliminate bias in growth param-eters across all three gear selectivity patterns. Investigators should attempt to use methods to correctgrowth parameters for size selectivity of sampling gears (e.g., mark recapture methods). If such correc-tions are not feasible, prior information about the size selectivity pattern of sampling gears is necessaryfor informed selection of biologically based von Bertalanffy ﬁtting procedures.© 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
How Enriched Carbon Dioxide Environments May Alter Biotic Systems Even in the Absence of Climatic Changes

The drought of '88 brought the greenhouse effect to the forefront of both popular and scientific literature (e.g., Boyle 1987; Tangley 1988; Cohn 1989). Perhaps more importantly, conservation biologists now strongly appreciate how changes in global temperature might severely reduce biodiversity (Peters & Darling 1985; National Research Council 1988). Moreover, recent evidence suggests that, regardless of corresponding changes in global temperature, elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations may also disrupt natural communities and potentially lead to simplification of ecosystems (Tolley & Strain 1984; Bazzaz et al. 1985; Strain & Cure 1985; Williams et al. 1986; Bazzaz & Garbutt 1988; Fajer et al. 1989). Due to the critical role of carbon dioxide in photosynthesis, the enrichment of atmospheric CO2 concentrations, such as those predicted during the next century (Chen & Drake 1986), will augment the carbon resources available to plants. Changing this carbon resource base may affect biotic systems in the following ways: (1) Certain plant species may be outcompeted by neighboring plants which respond more positively to changing atmospheric CO2 conditions, rendering them and other organisms that depend upon them more vulnerable to stochastic extinctions; and (2) Insect herbivore population densities may fall in response to the lower nutritional quality of plants grown in enriched CO2 environments, rendering them more likely to experience stochastic extinctions. Furthermore, higher trophic level organisms may then become more threatened due to reductions in abundance of their herbivorous insect food source. Plant Species Threatened
Nonlinear Dynamics of Layer Growth and Consequences for Protein Crystal Perfection

Abstract In situ high-resolution optical interferometry of lysozyme crystal growth reveals that under steady external conditions, the local growth rate R, vicinal slope p and step velocity are not steady but fluctuate by several times their average values. The variations in p, which is proportional to the local step density, indicate that these fluctuations occur through the dynamic formation of step bunches. Our previous work with unstirred solutions has shown that the fluctuation amplitude of R increases with supersaturation and crystal size (Vekilov et al., Phys. Rev. E 54 (1996) 6650). Based on scaling arguments and numerical simulations, we have argued that the fluctuations are the response of the coupled bulk transport and nonlinear interface kinetics to finite amplitude perturbations provided by the intrinsically unsteady step generation. In this paper, we emphasize the recently discovered spatio-temporal correlation between the sequence of moving step bunches and striations (compositional variations) in the crystal, visualized by polarized-light microscopy. Hence, these unsteady kinetics have detrimental effects on the perfection of the crystals, and means to reduce and eliminate them should be sought. To this end, based on the above conclusion as to the mechanism of the kinetic unsteadiness, we accelerated the bulk transport towards the interface by forced solution flow. We found that this results in lower fluctuation amplitudes. This observation confirms that the system-dependent kinetic Peclet number, Pek, i.e., the relative weight of bulk transport and interface kinetics in the control of the growth process, governs the step bunching dynamics. Since Pek can be modified by either forced solution flow or suppression of buoyancy-driven convection under reduced gravity, this model provides a rationale for the choice of specific transport conditions to minimize the formation of compositional inhomogeneities. Interestingly, on further increase of the solution flow velocities >500 μm/s, the fluctuation amplitudes in R increased again, while the average growth rate decreased. At low supersaturations, this leads to growth cessation. The growth instability, deceleration and cessation were immediately reversible upon reduction of the flow velocity. When solutions, intentionally contaminated with ∼1% of covalent lysozyme dimer were used, these undesirable phenomena occurred at about half the flow rates required in pure solutions. Thus, we conclude that enhanced convective supply of impurities to the interface causes an increase in step-bunching related defects, growth deceleration and, in some cases, cessation. Finally, we correlate the “slow protein crystal growth” to step bunch formation. We show that in the absence of significant step density variations, the kinetic coefficient for step propagation is as high as 4×10−3 cm/s, which is 1–2 orders of magnitude higher than the previously determined, apparent values for any protein.
Robust and sustainable schedulability analysis of embedded software

For real-time systems, most of the analysis involves efficient or exact schedulability checking. While this is important, analysis is often based on the assumption that the task parameters such as execution requirements and inter-arrival times between jobs are known exactly. In most cases, however, only a worst-case estimate of these quantities is available at the time of analysis. It is therefore imperative that schedulability analysis hold for better parameter values (Sustainable Analysis). On the other hand, if the task or system parameters turn out to be worse off, then the analysis should tolerate some deterioration (Robust Analysis). Robust analysis is especially important, because the implication of task schedulability is often weakened in the presence of optimizations that are performed on its code, or dynamic system parameters.In this work, we define and address sustainability and robustness questions for analysis of embedded real-time software that is modeled by conditional real-time tasks. Specifically, we show that, while the analysis is sustainable for changes in the task such as lower job execution times and increased relative deadlines, it is not the case for code changes such as job splitting and reordering. We discuss the impact of these results in the context of common compiler optimizations, and then develop robust schedulability techniques for operations where the original analysis is not sustainable.
Evaluating residual coding with JPEG2000 for L-infinity driven hyperspectral image compression

This paper presents a study on the compression of hyperspectral satellite data using JPEG 2000 and residual encoding (RE). The first step in the process is to apply a decorrelating transform in the spectral-direction or z-direction. In most cases in this study, the Karhunen-Loeve Transform (KLT) is used. For comparison, some examples are also included where the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) is used for this purpose as well as examples with a purely 2-D approach that uses no z-direction transform. Bit-rate allocation techniques are used in order to take advantage of the energy compaction obtained when applying a transform in the z-direction. The transformed slices and their corresponding bit rates are input into JPEG 2000 in order to obtain the compressed bit stream. In this study, the compressed bit stream is decompressed at the encoder side in order to compute the recovered data. These data are then subtracted from the original data in order to calculate the residuals, which are then quantized and losslessly encoded separately using JPEG2000 itself in order to control the maximum absolute error (MAE). An analysis between using and omitting residual encoding with respect to MAE is included. It is observed that a decrease in the MAE by a factor of 3 is achieved for this data with very small overhead when the residual encoding is utilized. The two data sets used in this study are the well known Cuprite radiance imagery from AVIRIS and a set from the Hyperion satellite system, both of which are available in 16 bits per value form.
Biochemistry and bioenergetics of glutaryl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency

Glutaryl-CoA dehydrogenase (GCDH) is a central enzyme in the catabolic pathway of l-tryptophan, l-lysine, and l-hydroxylysine which catalyses the oxidative decarboxylation of glutaryl-CoA to crotonyl-CoA and CO2. Glutaryl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency (GDD) is an autosomal recessive disease characterized by the accumulation of glutaric and 3-hydroxyglutaric acids in tissues and body fluids. Untreated patients commonly present with severe striatal degeneration during encephalopathic crises. Previous studies have highlighted primary excitotoxicity as a trigger of striatal degeneration. The aim of this PhD study was to investigate in detail tissue-specific bioenergetic and biochemical parameters of GDD in vitro, post mortem, and in Gcdh -/- mice. The major bioenergetic finding was uncompetitive inhibition of α-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase complex by glutaryl-CoA. It is suggested that a synergism of primary and secondary excitotoxic effects in concert with age-related physiological changes in the developing brain underlie acute and chronic neurodegenerative changes in GDD patients. The major biochemical findings were highly elevated cerebral concentrations of glutaric and 3-hydroxyglutaric acid despite low permeability of the blood–brain barrier for these dicarboxylic acids. It can be postulated that glutaric and 3-hydroxyglutaric acids are synthesized de novo and subsequently trapped in the brain. In this light, neurological disease in GDD is not ‘transported’ to the brain in analogy with phenylketonuria or hepatic encephalopathy as suggested previously but is more likely to be induced by the intrinsic biochemical properties of the cerebral tissue and the blood–brain barrier.
Mass divergence in tropical weather systems Paper II: Large-scale controls on convection

Composited summertime deep cumulus convective weather systems are investigated over three tropical oceans. The occurrence and intensity of the convection are governed by various large-scale forcing mechanisms, such as ITCZ convergence, easterly waves, and differences in diabatic heating between the disturbance and its clear or mostly cloud-free surrounding region. Vertical profiles of divergence and vertical velocity for the weather systems are analysed from the point of view of trying to establish the relative importance of each large scale control on convection. The dominant forcing in the Western Pacific and the GATE region is ITCZ convergence, with important secondary roles being played by differential radiative-convective heating, easterly waves and convective feedback. In the Western Atlantic trade wind region there is no contribution from ITCZ convergence; the vertical motion of a typical weather system is consequently much weaker than in the other regions. In all three regions the contribution to vertical velocity from frictional convergence is shown to be quite small. A large diurnal modulation of convection is observed. In the GATE region a diurnal variation is documented for the low-level convergence into the ITCZ. A physical mechanism is proposed to explain this phenomenon. It is shown that the actual observed vertical motion of the summer-time tropical oceanic weather systems comes from a combination of forcing mechanisms and does not result from any individual large-scale control acting by itself. It is important that any idealized picture of tropical weather systems be broad and flexible enough to account for the large regional and multi-scale forcing mechanism differences which exist. A simple ‘easterly wave’ or ‘ITCZ’ model of organized tropical convection is inadequate.
Experimental study of the effect of EDTA on Cd adsorption by Bacillus subtilis: a test of the chemical equilibrium approach

Abstract The interactions between aqueous metals, organic acids, and bacteria can significantly affect mass transport in many geologic settings. This study examines the Cd–EDTA– Bacillus subtilis system to investigate these interactions, and to test the applicability of a chemical equilibrium approach to quantify aqueous and surface complexation reactions that occur in the system. The experiments indicate that fully-protonated EDTA adsorbs onto the bacterial surface through hydrophobic interaction, and that adsorption of the deprotonated EDTA molecule is negligible. Aqueous EDTA can strongly compete with the bacterial surface for aqueous Cd, and the presence of aqueous EDTA significantly diminishes Cd adsorption onto B. subtilis . Independent of the experimental measurements, we use chemical equilibrium modeling to estimate the extent of Cd adsorption in the Cd–EDTA–bacteria systems. The observed adsorption behavior is in excellent agreement with the estimations, suggesting that chemical equilibrium modeling can successfully account for the distribution of mass in a system in which both aqueous and surface metal–organic complexation occurs.
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY IN THE ALLOY SYSTEM INDIUM--THALLIUM.

The superconducting transition temperatures of over 75 samples spanning the entire composition range of the indium-thallium alloy system have been measured. The highest ${T}_{c}$ measured was about 3.8\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}K in the bcc phase; the lowest was 2.5\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}K in the fcc phase. In all phases, ${T}_{c}$ decreases with increasing Tl content, the rate of decrease in the tetragonal (indium) phase being, however, much less steep than in the other phases. The Seraphim empirical rule, $\ensuremath{\Delta}{T}_{c}={k}_{1}x+{k}_{2}\mathrm{ln}x$, is found not to describe our data in the dilute thallium range. An anomaly in the ${T}_{c}$-versus-composition plot at 4.4 at.% Tl is extremely similar in form to one previously identified in In-Cd as a Brillouin-zone effect. Transition temperature and isothermal magnetization data are used to locate the two-phase region separating the tetragonal and cubic phases; the boundaries of this region are: 30.1\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.4 and 31.7\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.3 at.% Tl at 3.3\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}K. The existence of such a region indicates that the tetragonal-cubic transformation is first-order, in agreement with the earlier room-temperature calorimetric work of Predel. The transition temperature of bcc Tl was estimated by extrapolation of the bcc alloy data to zero solute concentration; the result was 2.49\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}K.
Peer Response in the Composition Classroom: An Alternative Genealogy

This article reexamines the historical emergence of peer response as a pedagogical technique in composition classrooms. It first reviews Anne Ruggles Gere's influential account of that history, focusing on how that account was shaped by process pedagogy, collaborative learning theory, and ideologies of classroom authority and student autonomy. Then the author explores an alternative genealogy in which peer response emerges out of classroom practices of recitation and correction. The purpose of this rereading of peer response's history is to reconfigure teacher and student agency and also to suggest how historical analysis can enable or constrain present-day practices.
Skin friction in zero-pressure-gradient boundary layers

A global approach leading to a self-consistent solution to the Navier-Stokes-Prandtl equations for zero-pressure-gradient boundary layers is presented. It is shown that as Re δ →∞, the dynamically defined boundary layer thickness δ(x)∝x/ln 2 Re x and the skin friction λ=2τ w /ρU 2 0 ∝ 1/ln 2 δ(x). Here τ w and U o are the wall shear stress and free stream velocity, respectively. The theory is formulated as an expansion in powers of a small dimensionless parameter dδ(x)/dx → 0 in the limit x → ∞.
The Economics of Open Access Publishing

Abstract: This special issue of Economic Analysis and Policy is devoted to try and understand the academic publishing industry and in particular the recent move towards open access, as EAP has done in 2008. The various articles examine the motivations, the challenges and the roadblocks for authors, editors, publishers, libraries and readers. It also highlights some of the benefits of open access beyond the obvious increase in readership. Several examples from journal editors, content management providers and bibliographic data distributors are also provided.
Near-fatal suicidal hanging

Cl Dr. George Stembach: This case began as a radio call, with our being notified that the paramedics were managing a lCyear-old boy who had sustained a respiratory arrest subsequent to an apparently suicidal hanging. The paramedics reported a blood pressure of 100 mm Hg systolic, a pulse of 150 per minute, and a respiratory rate of 20 to 25 per minute. The patient opened his eyes spontaneously, but displayed no verbal or motor response, and consequently had a Glasgow Coma Scale score of 6. The chest was clear to auscultation, but intercostal retractions were observed. The pupils were 5 mm and nonreactive. The remainder of the examination was reported to be unremarkable.
Chlorine Gas Exposure Causes Systemic Endothelial Dysfunction by Inhibiting Endothelial Nitric Oxide Synthase–Dependent Signaling

Chlorine gas (Cl(2)) exposure during accidents or in the military setting results primarily in injury to the lungs. However, the potential for Cl(2) exposure to promote injury to the systemic vasculature leading to compromised vascular function has not been studied. We hypothesized that Cl(2) promotes extrapulmonary endothelial dysfunction characterized by a loss of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS)-derived signaling. Male Sprague Dawley rats were exposed to Cl(2) for 30 minutes, and eNOS-dependent vasodilation of aorta as a function of Cl(2) dose (0-400 ppm) and time after exposure (0-48 h) were determined. Exposure to Cl(2) (250-400 ppm) significantly inhibited eNOS-dependent vasodilation (stimulated by acetycholine) at 24 to 48 hours after exposure without affecting constriction responses to phenylephrine or vasodilation responses to an NO donor, suggesting decreased NO formation. Consistent with this hypothesis, eNOS protein expression was significantly decreased (∼ 60%) in aorta isolated from Cl(2)-exposed versus air-exposed rats. Moreover, inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) mRNA was up-regulated in circulating leukocytes and aorta isolated 24 hours after Cl(2) exposure, suggesting stimulation of inflammation in the systemic vasculature. Despite decreased eNOS expression and activity, no changes in mean arterial blood pressure were observed. However, injection of 1400W, a selective inhibitor of iNOS, increased mean arterial blood pressure only in Cl(2)-exposed animals, suggesting that iNOS-derived NO compensates for decreased eNOS-derived NO. These results highlight the potential for Cl(2) exposure to promote postexposure systemic endothelial dysfunction via disruption of vascular NO homeostasis mechanisms.
Estrogen receptor signaling in lung cancer.

Lung cancer has long been thought of as a cancer that mainly affects men, but over the past several decades, because of the high increase in tobacco use by women, there has been a corresponding dramatic increase in lung cancer among women. Since 1998, lung cancer deaths in women have surpassed those caused by breast cancer in the United States. Annual lung cancer deaths among US women currently surpass those caused by breast, ovarian, and cervical cancers combined. Women are more likely than men to be diagnosed with adenocarcinoma and small cell carcinoma of the lung compared to squamous cell carcinoma, and never-smokers diagnosed with lung cancer are almost three times more likely to be female than male. These observations in the population, coupled to the findings that both estrogen receptors (ERs) and aromatase, the enzyme that synthesizes 17β-estradiol, are expressed by lung tumors, suggest a role for female steroid hormones in control of lung cancer growth. Preclinical data and clinical data are increasingly emerging to support this concept, and to suggest that a local production of estrogen and expression of ERs occurs in lung tumors that arise in men as well as in women. An additional protein that recognizes 17β-estradiol with high affinity, GPR30, also is expressed in lung tumors at high levels and may be responsible for some of the proliferation signals induced by estrogen.
The Validation of Dissonance versus Impression-Management Theories

Summary Three experiments were designed to determine whether dissonance theory or impression-management theory provides a more adequate explanation of attitude change within the confines of the “counterattitudinal advocacy” experimental paradigm. The designs employed were a simple manipulation in the laboratory, a more complex laboratory design, and a field experiment closely replicating other designs which had successfully produced attitude change using counterattitudinal advocacy. The results indicated no significant attitude change in any of the experimental attempts. It was concluded that both dissonance and impression management theory may be too broadly defined, in view of the variety of phenomena they attempt to explain.
Possibility function based fuzzy neural networks: case study

This paper describes the framework of a novel approach to fuzzy neural networks, In this approach, a fuzzy neural network accepts a set of possibility functions as well as vectors as input and produces a vector of membership function values as output. A fuzzy neural network implemented in this approach consists of three components: a parameter computing network, a converting layer, and a backpropagation based network. Such a fuzzy neural network shows promise for the classification problems with complex feature sets because it is able to attain comparable classification accuracy with fewer nodes and layers than a backpropagation-based neural network. The authors have implemented a prototype of this approach and applied this prototype to two real world problems: satellite image classification and lithology determination. For both problems, promising results were achieved. >
Inflammation and Foveolar Hyperplasia Are Reduced by Supplemental Dietary Glutamine during Helicobacter pylori Infection in Mice

We recently showed that L-Gln protects cultured gastric cells from ammonia-induced cell death and predicted that Gln may also protect during Helicobacter pylori infection in vivo. Thus, the aim of this study was to test whether supplemental dietary Gln protects against H. pylori-associated pathology. For this, C57BL/6 mice were fed a purified diet consisting of 20.3% protein (1.9% Gln), 66% carbohydrate, and 5% fat or 25.3% protein (5% supplemental L-Gln; 6.9% total Gln), 61% carbohydrate, and 5% fat. After a 2-wk prefeeding period, mice were divided into sham-(uninfected) or H. pylori-infected groups. Body weight and food consumption were recorded weekly. Tissue histopathology, H. pylori colonization, serum IgG, and pro- and antiinflammatory cytokine mRNA expression were determined at 6, 12, and 20 wk postinfection (wkPI). Inflammation, antiinflammatory cytokine, and interleukin-1beta mRNA expression were significantly greater at 6 wkPI in H. pylori-infected mice fed supplemental Gln compared with those fed the control diet. At 20 wkPI, however, inflammation and foveolar hyperplasia were significantly lower in H. pylori-infected mice fed supplemental Gln compared with those fed the control diet. Body weight gain, food consumption, H. pylori colonization, and serum IgG did not differ in H. pylori-infected mice fed supplemental Gln compared with the control diet. Our data demonstrate that H. pylori-infected mice fed supplemental dietary Gln have reduced H. pylori-associated pathology in vivo that is accompanied by beneficial changes in the immune response to H. pylori early in infection. Thus, Gln supplementation may be an alternative therapy for reducing H. pylori-associated pathology.
High-pressure size exclusion chromatography analysis of dissolved organic matter isolated by tangential-flow ultrafiltration

A 1,000-Dalton tangential-flow ultrafiltration (TFUF) membrane was used to isolate dissolved organic matter (DOM) from several freshwater environments. The TFUF unit used in this study was able to completely retain a polystyrene sulfonate 1,800-Dalton standard. Unaltered and TFUF-fractionated DOM molecular weights were assayed by high-pressure size exclusion chromatography (HPSEC). The weight-averaged molecular weights of the retentates were larger than those of the raw water samples, whereas the filtrates were all significantly smaller and approximately the same size or smaller than the manufacturer-specified pore size of the membrane. Moreover, at 280 nm the molar absorptivity of the DOM retained by the ultrafilter is significantly larger than the material in the filtrate. This observation suggests that most of the chromophoric components are associated with the higher molecular weight fraction of the DOM pool. Multivalent metals in the aqueous matrix also affected the molecular weights of the DOM molecules. Typically, proton-exchanged DOM retentates were smaller than untreated samples. This TFUF system appears to be an effective means of isolating aquatic DOM by size, but the ultimate size of the retentates may be affected by the presence of metals and by configurational properties unique to the DOM phase.
Iris Segmentation for Challenging Periocular Images

This chapter discusses the performance of five different iris segmentation algorithms on challenging periocular images. The goal is to convey some of the difficulties in localizing the iris structure in images of the eye characterized by variations in illumination, eyelid and eyelash occlusion, de-focus blur, motion blur, and low resolution. The five algorithms considered in this regard are based on the (a) integro-differential operator; (b) hough transform; (c) geodesic active contours; (d) active contours without edges ; and (e) directional ray detection method. Experiments on the Face and Ocular Challenge Series (FOCS) Database highlight the pros and cons of the individual segmentation algorithms.
Development of an interactive multimedia training simulator for responding to abortion clinic bomb threats

This paper describes the development of an interactive multimedia computer program to provide realistic training for responding to bomb threats targeted at abortion clinics. Because the simulator is computer-based, clinic administrators can receive training that might not otherwise be possible due to time, cost or operational limitations.
Attenuation in a dielectric elliptical cylinder

The problem of the propagation of electromagnetic waves along a dielectric cylinder of elliptical cross section is considered. There exist two dominant waves which possess zero cutoff frequencies. The attenuation characteristics of these dominant waves are analyzed theoretically and experimentally. Good agreements are obtained. It is shown that one of the dominant waves, with its electric fields parallel at the center of the cylinder to the minor axis of the elliptical cylinder, can propagate along a flat dielectric strip with much lower loss than can the HE_{11} wave along a circular cylinder having the identical cross-sectional area.
The impact of electronic mail versus print delivery of an exercise program on muscular strength and aerobic capacity in people with type 2 diabetes.

AbstractTaylor, JD. The impact of electronic mail versus print delivery of an exercise program on muscular strength and aerobic capacity in people with type 2 diabetes. J Strength Cond Res 22(5): 1696-1704, 2008-Previous research indicates that the Internet, electronic mail (e-mail), and printed mat
AN IMPROVED STRUCTURAL APPROACH FOR AUTOMATED RECOGNITION OF HANDPRINTED CHARACTERS

This paper examines several line-drawing pattern recognition methods for handwritten character recognition. They are the picture descriptive language (PDL), Berthod and Maroy (BM), extended Freeman's chain code (EFC), error transformation (ET), tree grammar (TG), and array grammar (AG) methods. A new character recognition scheme that uses improved extended octal codes as primitives is introduced. This scheme offers the advantages of handling flexible sizes, orientations, and variations, the need for fewer learning samples, and lower degree of ambiguity. Finally, the simulation of off-line character recognition by the real-time on-line counterpart is investigated.
Identity processing styles and the need for self-esteem in middle-aged and older adults.

This study was a test of the relationship between self-esteem and the identity processing styles of identity assimilation (i.e., maintaining consistent views of the self), accommodation (i.e., changing the self ), and a balance between consistency seeking and identity change. A community sample of 242 older adults ranging in age from forty to ninety-five (M = 63.31) completed measures of identity processing and self-esteem. Previous research has demonstrated that identity assimilation increases with age in order to maintain self-esteem in the domain of physical and cognitive functioning; this is referred to as the identity assimilation effect (IAE). Based on this research, a similar result was expected in the domain of personality. Although identity assimilation and balance predicted increases in self-esteem, and identity accommodation predicted decreases in self-esteem, as predicted, no interaction effects were observed. The results of this study suggest the IAE may be domain specific to physical and cognitive functioning.
Social networks and context-aware spam

Social networks are popular for online communities. This paper evaluates the risk of sophisticated context-aware spam that could result from information sharing on social networks and discusses potential mitigation strategies. Unlike normal spam, context-aware spam would likely have a high click-through rate due to exploitation of authentic social connections. Context-aware spam could lead to more insidious attacks that try to install malware or steal passwords. In this paper, we analyzed Facebook, a popular social networking website. Our goal was to determine how many users were vulnerable to context-aware attack email and understand aspects of Facebook's design that make such attacks possible. We also classified different kinds of email attacks based on certain pieces of data such as birthdays, lists of friends, wall posts, and user news feeds. We analyzed Facebook starting from a single university e-mail address to calculate the number of users who would be vulnerable to each type of attack. We found that a hacker could send sophisticated context-aware email to approximately 85% of users. Furthermore, our analysis shows that people with private profiles are almost equally vulnerable to a subset of attacks. Finally, we discuss defense strategies. Some strategies would require users to coordinate their privacy policies with each other. We also suggest design improvements for social networks that may help reduce exposure to context-aware attack email.
Epidemiologic and Clinical Features of Campylobacter jejuni Infections

Gram-negative bacteria of the genus Campylobacter and of related genera frequently colonize the gastrointestinal tracts of humans, other mammals, and birds. One organism, Campylobacter jejuni, has been recognized as an important human pathogen, usually causing a diarrheal illness. Infection is common throughout the world, but clinical and epidemiologic features differ in developed and developing countries. The high incidence of C. jejuni infections and their propensity to invade tissue and to induce inflammation are compatible with a role in the causation of Guillain-Barre syndrome.
Quantum Cascade Lasers

As a result of mass production, millions of semiconductor diode lasers are manufactured each month and appear in products ranging from telecommunications transmitters to DVD players and laser pointers. For traditional laser diodes, the applications are often dictated by what part of the electromagnetic spectrum is accessible. For example, telecommunications lasers operate in a region of the infrared where silica optical fiber has minimum dispersion or transmission loss. Laser-based displays, on the other hand, require red, green, and blue lasers to make a visible image. A biological fluorescence system will often require an ultraviolet source to function correctly. Though most people are unaware, a large part of the electromagnetic spectrum is still not fully utilized commercially due to the lack of a proper laser source. This includes the bulk of the “infrared” region. Though the scientific community has been exploring it for some time, the systems used for research are usually too bulky, too expensive, and too hard to understand to become large scale commercial products
Molecular Evolution of the Toll-Like Receptor Multigene Family in Birds

Toll-like receptors (TLR) are membrane-bound sensors of the innate immune system that recognize invariant and distinctive molecular features of invading microbes and are also essential for initiating adaptive immunity in vertebrates. The genetic variation at TLR genes has been directly related to differential pathogen outcomes in humans and livestock. Nonetheless, new insights about the impact of TLRs polymorphism on the evolutionary ecology of infectious diseases can be gained through the investigation of additional vertebrate groups not yet investigated in detail. In this study, we have conducted the first characterization of the entire TLR multigene family (N = 10 genes) in non-model avian species. Using primers targeting conserved coding regions, we aimed at amplifying large segments of the extracellular domains (275-435 aa) involved in pathogen recognition across seven phylogenetically diverse bird species. Our analyses suggest avian TLRs are dominated by stabilizing selection, suggesting that slow rates of nonsynonymous substitution help preserve biological function. Overall, mean values of ω (= d(n)/d(s)) at each TLR locus ranged from 0.196 to 0.517. However, we also found patterns of positive selection acting on specific amino acid sites that could be linked to species-specific differences in pathogen-associated molecular pattern recognition. Only 39 of 2,875 (∼1.35%) of the codons analyzed exhibited significant patterns of positive selection. At least one half of these positively selected codons can be mapped to putative ligand-binding regions, as suggested by crystallographic structures of TLRs and their ligands and mutagenic analyses. We also surveyed TLR polymorphism in wild populations of two bird species, the Lesser Kestrel Falco naumanni and the House Finch Carpodacus mexicanus. In general, avian TLRs displayed low to moderate single nucleotide polymorphism levels and an excess of silent nucleotide substitutions, but also conspicuous instances of positive directional selection. In particular, TLR5 and TLR15 exhibited the highest degree of genetic polymorphism and the highest occurrence of nonconservative amino acid substitutions. This study provides critical primers and a first look at the evolutionary patterns and implications of TLR polymorphism in non-model avian species and extends the list of candidate loci for avian eco-immunogenetics beyond the widely employed genes of the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC).
Evidence for Participation of Vit. B6 in Glutamine-a-Keto Acid Transamination-Deamidation Reaction

Summary1. Liver homogenates prepared from rats given large doses of isonicotinic acid hydrazide (INAH) exhibited reduced glut-aminepyruvate transaminase-deamidase activity and increased glutaminase activity. 2. Purified enzyme preparations (free of glutaminase) prepared from livers of INAH-treated rats catalyzed the glutamine-pyruvate reaction at markedly reduced rates compared to controls. Addition of pyridoxal (or pyri-doxamine) phosphate produced a considerable increase in activity of the preparations obtained from INAH-treated rats, but not of that of the untreated controls. 3. The evidence supports the concept that vit. B6 participates in the glutamine transaminase system.