cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Social Structural Constraints on the Interpersonal Transfer of Knowledge

While many studies have illustrated the benefits of knowledge transfer for individuals and organizations, far fewer have focused directly on the social structural impediments to the interpersonal e...
Does a lower (higher) labour force participation rate imply greater (lower) income tax evasion? An exploratory empirical inquiry for the U.S.

This exploratory study seeks to add to the income tax evasion literature by investigating a heretofore ignored potential determinant of aggregate federal personal income tax evasion in the U.S., na...
Concentric rings with k-t acceleration enables rapid and effective fat-water-separated cardiac cine MRI at 3 T

Background Cine imaging is the core technique for cardiac MRI studies. Often times, it is also essential to have information identifying fat signal in the heart to characterize masses, detect fatty infiltration and ARVD, discern fat from fibrosis in LGE imaging, and improve visualization of the pericardium. However, such information traditionally requires additional scans that obtain fat-suppressed images for comparison. This prolongs the examination time, is susceptible to mis-registration between the fatsuppressed and fat-visible images, and does not directly utilize positive contrast from fat. In this work, we present an integrated cardiac MRI technique that produces coregistered cines of both water and fat signal from a rapid single-breath-hold scan.
Neutron Capture Cross Sections of 151Eu and 153Eu from 3 to 2200 keV

Neutron capture by enriched stable isotopes of europium was measured as a function of energy by time of flight at the Oak Ridge Electron Linear Accelerator. Deformed optical model and reaction theo...
Family Violence: A Clinical Overview

Few topics have elicited such public and professional interest in recent years as family violence. Although the abuse and neglect of other family members has been with us for centuries—and during that time often received tacit societal approval—only recently has the outcry against domestic violence resulted in a significant allocation of resources directed toward intervention and research. The expanded awareness of the extent of maltreatment has also led to a dramatic increase in the reported incidence of abuse and neglect. In turn, clinical intervention with family violence is no longer a specialty practiced by a few professionals. Rather, family violence is so pervasive that most clinicians will confront it at some point in their career. Indeed, family violence has been linked with such diverse phenomena as physical trauma, dental injuries, depression, anxiety disorders, conduct problems in children, sexual dysfunctions, and multiple personality disorder (see Kaplan, 1996). Moreover, several relatively common conditions are associated with family violence, including substance abuse, poverty, unemployment, and stress (see Ammerman & Galvin, 1998; Wolfe, 1987). It is evident that every clinician must be familiar with the indicators, etiology, and treatment of intrafamilial abuse and neglect.
Captive Converts: Slavery and Mobility in the Portuguese Empire in the Seventeenth-Century Western Indian Ocean

In this paper, I analyze a Portuguese Inquisition case to explore mobility and transitions between captivity, slavery, and freedom. My central questions are as follows: how did African and Asian captives become slaves within the Portuguese Empire in the Indian Ocean and how did these slaves contest their status? To explore these questions, I examine the life of Paulo, alias Sidi Assem Vacanady, who faced the Goa Tribunal of the Portuguese Inquisition in 1689. The Portuguese took him captive in Mombasa, whereupon he converted from Islam to Catholicism. From East Africa the Portuguese took Paulo to Goa, India. There he was sold to a local Catholic Indian resident. Eventually Paulo encountered his brother and with him absconded to the Mughal Empire, living as a free Muslim. However, he later returned to Goa, whereupon his former master reasserted his ownership by denouncing Paulo to the Inquisition. Using Paulo's case, I follow his experience of captivity in East Africa and his journey of enslavement, freedom, and re-enslavement in India within the context of the larger seventeenth-century Indian Ocean World. Enslaved people circulated in and out of the Portuguese Empire, changing their religious affiliations while following circuitous routes through captivity, slavery, and freedom.
Generalized Solitary Waves in a Stratified Fluid

The problems considered in this paper deal with generalized solitary waves in a stratified fluid over a flat bottom in the presence of surface tension. By a generalized solitary wave we mean a solitary wave with a small amplitude oscillation at infinity. First let us briefly discuss some recent progress in the exact theory of solitary waves on water of constant density with surface tension. An approximate equation governing solitary waves with surface tension was originally derived by Korteweg and de Vries1 and has been named after them. Let τ be the Bond number, a nondimensional surface tension coefficient, and F be the Froude number, the square of a nondimensional wave speed. The critical values of τ and F are respectively 1/3 and 1. For τ > 1/3, F 1 but near 1, the solution denotes a wave of elevation. The existence of a solitary wave of depression, which decays to zero at infinity, was proved by Amick and Kirchgassner2. For 0 < τ < 1/3, the linearized governing equations possess one positive eigenvalue and the corresponding eigenfunction is oscillatory. Numerical studies and other physical models due to Hunter and Vanden-Broeck3, Zuferia4 and Boyd5 indicate that a generalized solitary wave may take place. The main difficulties are to isolate the oscillatory part and to estimate its amplitude. The existence proof of a generalized solitary wave has been given by Beale6 and Sun7 independently using different methods.
The distribution-based remapping of the nodal mass and momentum between arbitrary meshes for staggered arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian hydrodynamics

Abstract We present a new distribution-based remapping of the nodal mass and momentum between arbitrary source (Lagrangian) and arbitrary target (rezoned) meshes for indirect staggered arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian hydrodynamics. The method is based on the following ideas: define cell-centered momentum and mass on the source mesh; conservatively remap those cell-centered quantities from source to target meshes; and use local constrained optimization for each cell of the target mesh to conservatively distribute cell mass and momentum to the nodes of the cell. This new method is efficient, conservative, accurate and bounds preserving.
Ion permeation in potassium ion channels

The study of ion channels dates back to the 1950s and the groundbreaking electrophysiology work of Hodgin and Huxley, who used giant squid axons to probe how action potentials in neurons were initiated and propagated. More recently, several experiments using different structural biology techniques and approaches have been conducted to try to understand how potassium ions permeate through the selectivity filter of potassium ion channels. Two mechanisms of permeation have been proposed, and each of the two mechanisms is supported by different experiments. The key structural biology experiments conducted so far to try to understand how ion permeation takes place in potassium ion channels are reviewed and discussed. Protein crystallo­graphy has made, and continues to make, key contributions in this field, often through the use of anomalous scattering. Other structural biology techniques used to study the contents of the selectivity filter include solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance and two-dimensional infrared spectroscopy, both of which make clever use of isotopic labeling techniques, while molecular-dynamics simulations of ion flow through the selectivity filter have been enabled by the growing number of potassium ion channel structures deposited in the Protein Data Bank.
Deepwater Horizon oil spill exposure and child health: a longitudinal analysis

The BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill (DHOS) created widespread concern about threats to health among residents of the Louisiana Gulf Coast. This study uses data from the Resilient Children, Youth, and Communities study—a longitudinal cohort survey of households with children in DHOS-affected areas of South Louisiana—to consider the effect of DHOS exposure on health trajectories of children, an especially vulnerable population subgroup. Results from latent linear growth curve models show that family DHOS exposure via physical contact and job/income loss both negatively influenced initial child health. However, the effects of physical exposure dissipated over time while the effects of job/income loss persisted. This pattern holds for both general child health and the number of recent physical health problems children had experienced. These findings help to bridge the literature on disaster impacts and resilience/vulnerability, with the literature on socioeconomic status as a fundamental cause of health outcomes over the life course.
Influences of Phosphates on the Adhesion of a Catechol-Containing Polymer

Bioadhesives are popular characterization targets for informing the design of synthetic materials. Many naturally occurring adhesive proteins are phosphorylated, yet we do not know why phosphorylation might be so prevalent in nature. Here phosphate-containing biomimetic polymers were made using the chemistry of catechol, or 3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (DOPA), for adhesion. Structure-function studies were carried out with this family of poly(catechol-phosphate) polymers to determine how phosphate groups influence bulk adhesion. Bonding was studied both dry and underwater. Under some conditions polymers containing phosphate groups exhibited extreme levels of surface wetting on steel substrates. Dry adhesion increased moderately with greater phosphate content in the polymers. Underwater bonding was weaker than dry and achieved, only to a limited degree, when the polymer phosphate content was high. These results indicate that phosphates may provide an aid to the more impactful adhesive properties of catechols. Such insights may also help to explain the existence of phosphates in bioadhesives as well as inform the future design of high performance materials.
Association of the H2FPEF Risk Score with Recurrence of Atrial Fibrillation Following Pulmonary Vein Isolation.

Background While atrial fibrillation (AF) and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) commonly coexist, the efficacy of pulmonary vein isolation in the setting of HFpEF is unclear. Methods In a cohort of patients who underwent cryoballoon ablation (CBA) from 2011 to 2016, we calculated the H2FPEF risk score, a novel 6-item score (scale: 0-9 points) that accurately predicts the probability of HFpEF. We compared characteristics of patients by H2FPEF score and evaluated the association of H2FPEF score with 12-month recurrence of AF post-procedure. Results Of patients with available data to calculate the H2FPEF score (n=105), the median H2FPEF score was 5 (interquartile range: 4-6), corresponding to >80% probability of HFpEF. Compared to patients with H2FPEF scores ≤4 (n=34), patients with H2FPEF scores of 5 and 6 (n=46) and ≥7 (n=25) carried higher rates of hypertension (≤4: 21% vs. 5 and 6: 63% vs. ≥7: 88%, P<0.001) and diabetes (≤4: 0% vs. 5 and 6: 9% vs. ≥7: 32%, P=0.001). The overall 12-month recurrence rate of AF was 21%. There was no association between H2FPEF score and recurrence of AF at 12 months (OR per SD increase in log-H2FPEF score: 0.87, 95% CI: 0.54-1.40, P=0.57). Conclusions Among patients undergoing CBA for AF, median H2FPEF scores are elevated, and screening for occult HFpEF may be warranted in this population. There was no association of the H2FPEF score and AF recurrence at 12 months, suggesting efficacy of CBA even among patients with high H2FPEF scores.
Racial attitudes & political cross-pressures in nationalized elections: The case of the Republican coalition in the Trump era

Abstract While scholars have found that Trump was able to capitalize on the racial attitudes of white voters, it is less clear how these racial attitudes influenced vote-choice across partisan and ideological cleavages in the electorate. It is also unclear whether racial attitudes affected voting at the congressional level or electoral outcomes at the aggregate level. Using a novel measure of racial attitudes at the subnational level and survey data, we make three clear findings: (1) Trump and Republican congressional candidates benefited from conservative racial attitudes both at the aggregate level and among white voters, (2) this electoral benefit for Republicans persisted during the 2018 midterm elections, and (3) the effect of attitudes on vote-choice did not significantly vary across partisan and ideological cleavages in the white electorate. Our findings suggest that, even during the era of highly nationalized and partisan elections, racial attitudes are still a mechanism by which Republicans can win significant electoral support among Democrats and relatively liberal voters in the white electorate. These findings have implications for the growing salience of race in the Republican electoral coalition.
Making Plaintiffs Whole: A Tax Problem of Interest

This article illustrates the dramatic tax impact of interest awards in otherwise non-taxable litigation recoveries and proposes two alternative legislative solutions for the over-taxing of plaintiffs in these cases. While plaintiffs who recover personal injury awards typically receive favorable tax treatment, those who receive interest on such awards are taxed on the interest and often are not able to utilize deductions for attorney’s fees and other costs paid to obtain the award. Further, the attorney’s portion of the recovery in a contingency fee arrangement will also be included in the plaintiff’s gross income. The result is that the plaintiff recovers less of the interest than the Treasury or her attorney, preventing the plaintiff from truly being made whole. After reviewing the historical and theoretical framework that produces these results, I suggest previously-proposed judicial solutions to the problem are impracticable and a legislative solution is necessary. I conclude with a proposal for two alternative legislative solutions - an expanded deduction and an exclusion - to provide relief for plaintiffs recovering partially taxable awards and to achieve the policy of fully compensating injured plaintiffs.
Constrained Choice: Mothers, The State, and Domestic Violence

Mothers who are the victims of domestic violence face unique challenges in their quest for safety. The legal response to domestic violence requires that mothers respond to abuse in specific state-sanctioned manners. However, when mothers respond accordingly, such as by reporting abuse and leaving the abusive relationship, their safety and the safety of their children is not guaranteed. Moreover, by responding in state-sanctioned manners, mothers risk a host of negative consequences including increased threat to their immediate and long-term safety, the loss of their children, undesired financial, health, and social consequences, and criminal prosecution. On the other hand, when mothers respond to abuse in unsanctioned manners, such as by staying in abusive relationships, they face similarly hostile consequences including continued abuse, the loss of their children, and criminal prosecution. Thus, regardless of how mothers respond to domestic violence, they risk being harmed by their abuser and the state. As a result battered mothers’ choices are significantly constrained. Though the legal response to domestic violence has improved dramatically over the past few decades, reforms are still needed. The state should sanction a broader range of maternal responses to domestic violence and accept greater responsibility for preventing and responding to private family violence. In addition to increasing victim safety, implementation of these reforms would increase respect for maternal autonomy and demonstrate the state’s true commitment to protecting women and children from domestic violence.
Towards development of a novel screening method for identifying Alzheimer’s disease risk: Raman spectroscopy of blood serum and machine learning

Abstract There is an urgent clinical need for a fast and effective method for diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The identification of AD in its most initial stages, at which point treatment could provide maximum therapeutic benefits, is not only likely to slow down disease progression but to also potentially provide a cure. However, current clinical detection is complicated and requires a combination of several methods based on significant clinical manifestations due to widespread neurodegeneration. As such, Raman spectroscopy with machine learning is investigated as a novel alternative method for detecting AD in its earliest stages. Here, blood serum obtained from rats fed either a standard diet or a high-fat diet was analyzed. The high-fat diet has been shown to initiate a pre-AD state. Partial least squares discriminant analysis combined with receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was able to separate the two rat groups with 100% accuracy at the donor level during external validation. Although further work is necessary, this research suggests there is a potential for Raman spectroscopy to be used in the future as a successful method for identifying AD early on in its progression, which is essential for effective treatment of the disease.
Integrating a Brain-Compatible Curriculum into a Higher Education Dance Major

In the fall of 2012, the University of Tampa dance program proposed its first dance major. The vision was to build a unique curriculum that would strengthen our approach to teacher training and off...
Low-Concentration NOx Gas Analysis Using Single Bimodular ZnO Nanorod Sensor.

Quantitative measurement of the nitrogen oxide mixture (NOx, usually of NO and NO2) usually relies on sophisticated, space-consuming, and expensive spectroscopy techniques such as gas chromatography (GC), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and chemi-luminescence detection (CLD). The direct and portable measurement solutions are lacking in this regard. In this work, by utilizing the bimodular sensing strategy, we successfully demonstrated the differential measurement of NOx with errors smaller than 8.3%, by correlating the sensor electrical and electrochemical responses. The effective detection is successfully displayed in the low-concentration ranges of 1-10 ppm for NO and 100 ppb-1 ppm for NO2, where weak competitive gas co-adsorption mitigated the cross-sensitivities compared to the higher-concentration range. Based on the electron occupation with negligible competitive adsorption, the accurate theoretic prediction of the mixture responses versus component concentration relieves the reliance on repeated calibration and empirical functions. With the miniaturized size and simplified electrical feedthrough, the single bimodular nanorod sensor provides a promising solution for direct and portable NOx analysis at low concentrations.
Causal AI with Real World Data: Do Statins Protect from Alzheimer's Disease Onset?

Causal artificial intelligence aims at developing bias-robust models that can be used to intervene on, rather than just be predictive, of risks or outcomes. However, learning interventional models from observational data, including electronic health records (EHR), is challenging due to inherent bias, e.g., protopathic, confounding, collider. When estimating the effects of treatment interventions, classical approaches like propensity score matching are often used, but they pose limitations with large feature sets, nonlinear/nonparallel treatment group assignments, and collider bias. In this work, we used data from a large EHR consortium –OneFlorida– and evaluated causal statistical/machine learning methods for determining the effect of statin treatment on the risk of Alzheimer's disease, a debated clinical research question. We introduced a combination of directed acyclic graph (DAG) learning and comparison with expert's design, with calculation of the generalized adjustment criterion (GAC), to find an optimal set of covariates for estimation of treatment effects –ameliorating collider bias. The DAG/CAC approach was assessed together with traditional propensity score matching, inverse probability weighting, virtual-twin/counterfactual random forests, and deep counterfactual networks. We showed large heterogeneity in effect estimates upon different model configurations. Our results did not exclude a protective effect of statins, where the DAG/GAC point estimate aligned with the maximum credibility estimate, although the 95% credibility interval included a null effect, warranting further studies and replication.
Diseases of the Gastrointestinal Tract

Diseases of the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) are common in the elderly and are responsible for approximately 30% of visits that older patients make to the physician. Normal aging is also associated with an alteration in function in almost all aspects of the gastrointestinal tract. Altered motility of the esophagus, atrophy of gastric mucosa with resultant reduction in acid secretion, constipation, and diverticular disease are just some of the changes that are commonly seen in the elderly relating to both “normal” aging and age-prevalent illness. Some of these changes have been attributed to an altered life style, i.e., a diet deficient in calories, protein, fiber, and fluid intake, and retirement, loneliness, loss of self-esteem, and anxiety.
Cultural Muslims: Popular Religiosity among Teachers in Public Elementary Schools in Turkey

Abstract Even though there are many studies about religious life in Turkey, there are very few that examine religiosity within a specific profession. This study explores popular religiosity among Turkish elementary school teachers. Popular religion, folk religion, unofficial religion, invisible religion, common religion, religious populism”all of these terms point to a dimension of religious life that suggests a differentiation between the religion of ordinary people and the religion of theologians, reverends, and other religious professionals. In this study, I use the results of a survey that I conducted with 295 teachers in 12 public elementary schools in Turkey in 2005 to explore popular religiosity among teachers. The results show that popular religiosity is lower among teachers than the majority of population. However, some teachers make religion a part of their cultural life, and see the practice of religion as a cultural habit.
Extraction of temporal motion velocity signals from video recordings of neonatal seizures by optical flow methods

This paper presents a procedure developed to extract quantitative information from video recordings of neonatal seizures in the form of temporal motion velocity signals. These signals are obtained from the velocity fields computed for successive frames of the video recording by a variety of optical flow methods. The experimental results provide evidence that the motion velocity signals produced by the proposed procedure constitute an effective representation of videotaped clinical events and can be used for seizure recognition and characterization.
Entity relation detection with factorial hidden markov models and maximum entropy discriminant latent dirichlet allocations

Coreference resolution (CR) and entity relation detection (ERD) aim at finding predefined relations between pairs of entities in text. CR focuses on resolving identity relations while ERD focuses on detecting non-identity relations. Both CR and ERD are important as they can potentially improve other natural language processing (NLP) related tasks such information retrieval and extraction, web-searching, and question answering and also enhance non-NLP tasks such as computer vision, database constructions or ontologies. In this thesis, I propose models to handle both coreference resolution (CR) and entity relation detection (ERD). Both systems are built on machine learning models. The CR system is based on Factorial Hidden Markov Models (FHMMs). The ERD is based on Maximum Entropy Discriminant Latent Dirichlet Allocation (MEDLDA). The work on CR only resolves pronouns. It is a supervised system trained on annotated corpus. The basic idea is that the hidden states of FHMMs are an explicit short-term memory with an antecedent buffer containing recently described referents. Thus an observed pronoun can find its antecedent from the hidden buffer, or in terms of a generative model, the entries in the hidden buffer generate the corresponding pronouns. In the hidden buffer, all references are expressed as diverse features. In this work, besides the common gender, number, person and animacy, I converted Givenness Hierarchy and Centering Theories to probabilistic features, thus greatly improving the accuracy. A system implementing this model is evaluated on the ACE corpus and I2B2 medical corpus with promising performance. For ERD, a novel application of topic models is proposed to do this task. In order to make use of the latent semantics of text, the task of relation detection is reformulated as a topic modeling problem. The motivation is to find underlying topics which are indicative of relations between named entities. The approach considers pairs of named entities and features associated with them as mini documents. The system, called ERD-MEDLDA, adapts Maximum Entropy Discriminant Latent Dirichlet Allocation (MedLDA) with mixed membership for relation detection. By using supervision, ERD-MedLDA is able to learn topic distributions indicative of relation types. Further, ERD- MEDLDA is a topic model that combines the benefits of both Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) and Maximum Margin Estimation (MME), and the mixed membership formulation enables the system to incorporate heterogeneous features. We incorporate diverse features into the system and perform experiments on the ACE 2005 corpus. Our approach achieves better overall performance for precision, recall and Fmeasure metrics as compared to SVM-based and LDA-based models. ERD-MedLDA also shows better overall performance than state-of-the-art kernels used previously for relation detection.
Doping controlled superconductor-insulator transition in Bi2Sr2-xLaxCaCu2O8+δ

We show that the doping-controlled superconductor-insulator transition (SIT) in a high critical temperature cuprate system (${\mathrm{Bi}}_{2}{\mathrm{Sr}}_{2\ensuremath{-}x}{\mathrm{La}}_{x}{\mathrm{CaCu}}_{2}{\mathrm{O}}_{8+\ensuremath{\delta}}$) exhibits a fundamentally different behavior than is expected from conventional SIT. At the critical doping, the sheet resistance seems to diverge in the zero-temperature limit. Above the critical doping, the transport is universally scaled by a two-component conductance model. Below, it continuously evolves from weakly to strongly insulating behavior. The two-component conductance model suggests that a collective electronic phase-separation mechanism may be responsible for this unconventional SIT behavior.
REVIEWS: The Neurourological Examination in Women

ABSTRACT Yang CC. The neurourological examination in women. J Sex Med 2008;5:2498–2501 The review provides a description of a physical examination protocol to rule out significant neurologic disease as a cause for a woman's sexual complaints, or to confirm a neurologic cause for the sexual dysfunction, particularly in women with known neurologic disease.
North Central Sociological Association Presidential Address. The Mindful Society: Contemplative Sociology, Meta-Mindfulness, and Human Flourishing

Mindfulness as a spiritual and a secular practice has been gaining both adherents and scientific legitimacy as a path to emotional and physical healing. There is also an emerging social movement that posits mindfulness as a solution to many otherwise intractable social problems. Influential social and political leaders are promoting the ideal of a “mindful society” as a foundation for increased human flourishing and ecological well-being. This Presidential Address explores these developments by offering a kind of meta-mindfulness, a sociological awareness of the strengths and limitations of how mindfulness has been adapted to our cultural milieu. I offer suggestions on the positive contributions that sociology might make to the mindfulness social movement, with special attention to the concept of sociological mindfulness. I suggest that sociology has an important role to play in the shift toward the contemplative that is happening in higher education across many disciplines.
Whispering gallery microcavity lasers

Whispering gallery mode (WGM) optical microresonators have attracted intense interests in the past decades. The combination of high quality factors (Q) and small mode volumes of modes in WGM resonators significantly enhances the light-matter interactions, making them excellent cavities for achieving low threshold and narrow linewidth lasers. In this Review, the progress in WGM microcavity lasers is summarized, and the laser performance considering resonator geometries and materials as well as lasing mechanisms is discussed. Label-free detection using WGM resonators has emerged as highly sensitive detection schemes. However, the resolution is mainly limited by the cavity Q factor which determines the mode linewidth. Microcavity lasers, due to their narrow laser spectral width, could greatly improve the detection resolution. Some recent developments in sensing using microcavity lasers are discussed.
Development of an ECHO-PIV® Technique and Validation in Pipe Flow

Non invasive echocardiographic techniques have been widely used to provide structural information via imaging of cardiovascular anatomy and functional hemodynamics via measurement of local blood flow velocity. Although the non-invasive nature of the technique is highly attractive, Doppler measurement of blood velocity is still limited due to the inherent angle dependence which requires the ultrasound beam be parallel to the flow direction. This limitation precludes measurement of velocity vectors within the flow field. Such multi-dimensional information would be useful for quantitation of velocity profiles, shear stress, vorticity and flow rate in vivo.Copyright © 2002 by ASME
Transcriptomic profiling of central nervous system regions in three species of honey bee during dance communication behavior.

Background We conducted a large-scale transcriptomic profiling of selected regions of the central nervous system (CNS) across three species of honey bees, in foragers that were performing dance behavior to communicate to their nestmates the location, direction and profitability of an attractive floral resource. We used microarrays to measure gene expression in bees from Apis mellifera, dorsata and florea, species that share major traits unique to the genus and also show striking differences in biology and dance communication. The goals of this study were to determine the extent of regional specialization in gene expression and to explore the molecular basis of dance communication.
Dietary fat increases quercetin bioavailability in overweight adults.

cope Epidemiologic evidence supports that dietary quercetin reduces cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk, but its oral bioavailability is paradoxically low. The aim of this study was to determine whether dietary fat would improve quercetin bioavailability in adults at high risk for CVD and to assess lipid-mediated micellarization of quercetin in vitro. Methods and results In a randomized, cross-over study, overweight/obese men and postmenopausal women (n = 4 M/5 F; 55.9 ± 2.1 years; 30.8 ± 1.4 kg/m2) ingested 1095 mg of quercetin aglycone with a standardized breakfast that was fat-free (<0.5 g), low-fat (4.0 g), or high-fat (15.4 g). Plasma was obtained at timed intervals for 24 h to measure quercetin and its methylated metabolites isorhamnetin and tamarixetin. Compared to the fat-free trial, plasma quercetin maximum concentration (Cmax), and area under curve (AUC0–24 h) increased (p < 0.05) by 45 and 32%, respectively, during the high-fat trial. During the high-fat trial, isorhamnetin Cmax and AUC0–24 h also increased by 40 and 19%, respectively, whereas Cmax and AUC0–24 h of tamarixetin increased by 46 and 43%, respectively. Dietary fat dose-dependently increased micellarization efficiency of quercetin aglycone in vitro. Conclusion Dietary fat improves quercetin bioavailability by increasing its absorption, likely by enhancing its micellarization at the small intestine.
Transcriptional Activation of Heat Shock Factor HSF1 Probed by Phosphopeptide Analysis of Factor 32P-labeled in Vivo

Mapping of tryptic phosphopeptides of heat shock factor 1 (HSF1) from non-stressed or moderately heat-stressed HeLa cells, labeled in vivo by [32P]orthophosphate, revealed four major phosphopeptides A to D. Heat stress drastically increased phosphopeptide signals. To identify target peptides and amino acids and to correlate phosphorylation and transactivation function, phosphopeptide maps were produced of LexA-human HSF1 chimeras and mutant derivatives thereof, and transactivation activities of original and mutant chimeras were compared. LexA-HSF1 chimeras were previously shown to be regulated identically to HSF1, except that they transactivate promoters with LexA-binding sites instead of hsp promoters. The patterns of phosphopeptides of LexA-HSF1 and endogenous HSF1 were similar. Analysis of single residue substitutions suggested that phosphopeptide C is peptide VKEEPPSPPQSPR (297–309) phosphorylated on Ser-307 but not Ser-303. Substitution of Ser-307 but not Ser-303 caused deregulation of factor activity. Mapping of several constitutively active chimeras associated unphosphorylated peptide C with the transcriptionally active HSF1 conformation, suggesting that dephosphorylation of this peptide (at Ser-307) may either be an integral step in the activation process or serve to maintain the active conformation of HSF1. Exploiting this correlation, indirect evidence was obtained that activation domains of HSF1 interact with the distantly located regulatory domain to maintain the factor in an inactive state.
Influences of temperature and salinity on asexual budding by hydromedusa Proboscidactyla ornata (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa: Proboscidactylidae)

At the head of Tanabe Bay, on the Pacific coast of Japan, dense populations of Proboscidactyla ornata medusae were observed at 24°C, 34 psu from July 2001 to September 2002 (maximum 472.4 individuals m−3). In the laboratory, 288 immature medusae of P. ornata collected from Tanabe Bay in May–June 2006 were cultured individually and fed with asphyxiated Artemia nauplii under 12 experimental conditions (four different temperatures (17°C, 20°C, 23°C and 26°C) combined with three different salinities (28 psu, 31 psu and 34 psu)). For 30 days, 94% of the medusae survived at all conditions. The maximum number of clones produced was 0.32 clones medusa−1 day−1 at 20°C, 34 psu; the number of medusae increased 10.5 times in 30 days. The maturation percentage at 23°C (54.2–58.3%) was higher than at 17°C (12.5–25.0%) and was positively correlated with the number of nauplii ingested. Temperature-specificity of energy usage was observed: 20°C for asexual budding and 23°C for sexual reproduction. The direct relationship between budding and temperature is demonstrated among hydromedusae for the first time in this study. Additionally, the influence of salinity on budding suggests a hypothesis on an advantage of budding at offshore and high saline waters.
Effects of the earth's rotation on convection: Turbulent statistics, scaling laws and Lagrangian diffusion

Abstract The effects of Earth's rotation on convection into stratified fluid under uniform surface cooling are investigated using a large-eddy simulation (LES) model. The initial mixed layer depth varies by a factor of 40 and temperature gradient below the mixed layer varies by three orders of magnitude. At the end of integration (typically 20–40 inertial periods), the so-called natural Rossby number for the rotating experiments varies from 0.06 to 2. The wide range of conditions used is designed to extract scaling laws of rotating convection and to shed light on the importance of Earth's rotation on convection. It is found that the effects of rotation can be characterized by a series of hyperbolic tangent functions of the natural Rossby number. The effects of rotation are most pronounced when Ro is order 0.1 or less. For Ro ≥ 1, the effects of rotation become small. Comparison of Lagrangian statistics of numerical floats reveals that horizontal mixing is suppressed in the presence of rotation. This result is consistent with the finding that integral length scale and turbulent intensity decrease when rotation is included, in contrast to the conclusion of an early study that argued for increased horizontal mixing in the presence of rotation.
Marine macrophysiology: Studying physiological variation across large spatial scales in marine systems

A new approach toward understanding marine ecosystems has emerged through the integration of ecological physiology and macroecology. This multidisciplinary approach, titled here marine macrophysiology, facilitates unique insight into the foundation of macro-scale ecological patterns, such as biogeographic distributions, via examination of functional attributes of marine organisms across large spatial scales. For example, these broad-scale physiological inquiries confer the ability to directly assess the abundant-center hypothesis (aka Brown's principle) which proposes that species have decreased performance toward their range edges. By extension, the marine macrophysiological perspective also stands to clarify our understanding of more complex macro-scale phenomena such as biological invasions, the design of marine protected areas, and species' responses to global climate change. In this article, we review recent marine macrophysiology research and offer insights into future directions for this emerging field.
Staying Alive: Cell Death in Antiviral Immunity

Programmed cell death is an integral part of host defense against invading intracellular pathogens. Apoptosis, programmed necrosis, and pyroptosis each serve to limit pathogen replication in infected cells, while simultaneously promoting the inflammatory and innate responses that shape effective long-term host immunity. The importance of carefully regulated cell death is evident in the spectrum of inflammatory and autoimmune disorders caused by defects in these pathways. Moreover, many viruses encode inhibitors of programmed cell death to subvert these host responses during infection, thereby facilitating their own replication and persistence. Thus, as both virus and cell vie for control of these pathways, the battle for survival has shaped a complex host-pathogen interaction. This review will discuss the multifaceted role that programmed cell death plays in maintaining the immune system and its critical function in host defense, with a special emphasis on viral infections.
Multiple forms of mouse 3 beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase/delta 5-delta 4 isomerase and differential expression in gonads, adrenal glands, liver, and kidneys of both sexes.

Abstract Observations of patients deficient in the steroidogenic enzyme 3 beta-hydroxy-delta 5-steroid dehydrogenase/isomerase (3 beta HSD) have suggested the presence of distinct 3 beta HSD structural gene(s) that are expressed at peripheral sites, possibly the liver. We now report the isolation of cDNA clones representing three forms of 3 beta HSD from mouse Leydig cell and liver libraries. The three forms share significant identify but differ from each other by 5-10% within their coding regions. RNA that hybridizes to radiolabeled 3 beta HSD probes is present in the gonads, adrenal glands, liver, and kidneys of both sexes. Ribonuclease protection analysis using antisense probes derived from each of the three forms demonstrates that one form, 3 beta HSD I, is restricted to steroidogenic tissues. Two other forms, 3 beta HSD II and III, are expressed in liver and kidney but are not detected in steroidogenic tissues. A polyclonal antibody raised against the human placental form of 3 beta HSD recognizes a 42-kDa protein in gonadal and adrenal tissue and a 45-kDa protein in liver. The antibody recognizes a 42-kDa protein in kidney only weakly. 3 beta HSD enzyme activity is present in testicular, adrenal, hepatic, and renal tissue, with adrenal tissue possessing the highest specific activity. When expressed as total 3 beta HSD activity for whole organ mass, activity is greatest in the liver. The results demonstrate that the mouse liver is a significant site of 3 beta HSD activity and demonstrate the existence of multiple 3 beta HSD structural genes in the mouse.
Recurrence of Cardiac Sarcoidosis in a Heart Transplant Recipient

We present the case of a young man who received a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) as a bridge to transplantation for end-stage heart failure, in whom the diagnosis of sarcoid cardiomyopathy was made at the time of LVAD implantation. He subsequently underwent uncomplicated heart transplantation. Nineteen months later, a routine surveillance endomyocardial biopsy specimen demonstrated recurrence of sarcoidosis in the transplanted heart.
The learning of patterned strings problems by squirrel monkeys

Abstract Squirrel monkeys were trained on a series of 11 patterned strings problems. The learning of a cross resulted in strong negative transfer during subsequent learning of a pseudocross. The monkeys had considerable difficulty in learning an intermixed series of crosses and pseudocrosses after these problems had been learned separately. Consistent baiting of one string in an asymmetrical pattern did not facilitate performance when both strings were baited equally often. These results indicate that squirrel monkeys learn simple patterned strings problems, not by tracing the path of the baited string to the food cup, but by forming a discrimination based upon the position of the food cup relative to the strings.
Cointegration analysis of the black market and official exchange rates in India

The examination of stochastic properties of the black market and official exchange rates in India reveals that the series are cointegrated and, therefore, possess a longrun equilibrium relation. The black rate is found to be more sensitive to shocks, and at the same time, adjusts more quickly to departures from the long-run equilibrium relation. This is expected, since the policy-determined official rate was set by what seems to be a sluggish and/or arbitrary mechanism, and that the black had to largely respond and adjust to the exogenous shocks in order to maintain the long-run equilibrium relation.
Sources of covariation among the child-externalizing disorders: informant effects and the shared environment.

Background. Research has documented high levels of co-morbidity among childhood externalizing disorders, but its etiology remains in dispute. Specifically, although all behavior genetic studies of the etiology of the co-occurrence of attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), and conduct disorder (CD) agree that genetic factors are important, differences exist across studies in the relative weight assigned to genetic, shared environmental factors (i.e. factors that increase similarity among family members), and non-shared environmental factors (i.e. factors that decrease similarity among family members). Because heritability estimates can vary across informants, we used a biometric informant-effects model to determine whether these discrepancies were a function of systematic differences in maternal and child informant reports of ADHD, CD, and ODD.Method. We studied 1782 11-year-old twins from the Minnesota Twin Family Study. Symptom counts for each disorder were obtained from interviews administered to twins and their mothers. We fit a model that allowed us to examine, both across and within informants, the genetic and environmental contributions to the co-occurrence among ADHD, CD, and ODD.Results. The results revealed that the co-occurrence among the disorders common to maternal and child informant reports was influenced largely by shared environmental forces. Genetic factors also contributed, though their impact was only marginally significant. In contrast, the co-occurrence unique to each informant was influenced exclusively by either genetic or non-shared environmental factors.Conclusions. Such findings offer additional evidence that shared environmental factors are important to the co-morbidity among ADHD, CD, and ODD, and highlight the necessity of considering informant effects when drawing conclusions about the origins of co-morbidity from analyses of genetically informative data.
Disparate reactions of thioesters of (methylenecyclopropyl)acetic and β-(cyclopropylidene)propionic acids with lithium diisopropylamide and with general acyl dehydrogenase from pig kidney

Abstract The anion generated from the isopropyl thioester of (methylenecyclopropyl)acetic acid may be quenched with water to give an unrearranged thioester and an acyclic isomer, isopropyl 4-methylpenta-2 E ,4-dienethioate; the coenzyme A thioester of (methylenecyclopropyl)acetic acid is a known inactivator of acyl dehydrogenases. The isopropyl thioester of β-(cyclopropylidene) propionic acid reacts with LDA followed by water to give only 3-(cyclopropyl)prop-2 E -enethioate, and its coenzyme A thioester does not inactivate the acyl dehydrogenase from pig kidney (EC 1.3.99.3).
Plasma Polymerization Behavior of Fluorocarbon Monomers in Low‐Pressure AF and RF Discharges

The plasma polymerization behavior of fluorocarbon monomers was investigated using C 3 F 6, C 3 F 6 O, C 4 F 10 and C 2 F 4 H 2 , which were compared to hydrocarbons such as methane and butane. The plots of the normalized thickness growth rates of plasma polymers, GR/FM, versus the energy input composite parameters, W/FM, revealed the energy-deficient and monomer-deficient domains for each monomer, along with the critical energy input, (W/ FM) c , representing the transition between the two domains. The luminous gas phase in fluorocarbon discharges does not contain much polymer-forming species and thus, the monomer-deficient domain shifted to a much lower W/FM and GR/FM values than in the case of hydrocarbon systems. For hydrocarbon systems, deposition rates were greater in RF than in AF discharges, which is opposite to the situation observed for the fluorocarbon systems. These differences were attributed to the locations of the dissociation glows and to the nature of the luminous gas phase in respect to polymer-forming species.
Physical properties of insect cuticular hydrocarbons: The effects of chain length, methyl-branching and unsaturation

Abstract The waterproofing abilities of insect cuticular lipids, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons, are thought to depend upon their biophysical properties. However, little is known regarding the effects of specific structural changes upon cuticular lipid properties. We examined the phase behavior of pure hydrocarbons differing in chain length, methyl-branching pattern, and unsaturation, using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Melting temperatures ( T m ) of 21–40 carbon n -alkanes increased by 1–3°C for an increase in backbone chain length of one carbon atom. The effects of methyl-branching on hydrocarbon properties depended upon the location of the methyl group along the molecule. Melting temperatures of 25-carbon long methylpentacosanes decreased by over 30°C as the location of the methyl moiety was shifted from the terminal portion of the molecule to more internal positions. Addition of a second methyl branch had additional effects on T m . Unsaturation decreased T m by 50°C or more.