cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A Mechanism for the Evolution of Phosphorylation Sites

Protein phosphorylation provides a mechanism for the rapid, reversible control of protein function. Phosphorylation adds negative charge to amino acid side chains, and negatively charged amino acids (Asp/Glu) can sometimes mimic the phosphorylated state of a protein. Using a comparative genomics approach, we show that nature also employs this trick in reverse by evolving serine, threonine, and tyrosine phosphorylation sites from Asp/Glu residues. Structures of three proteins where phosphosites evolved from acidic residues (DNA topoisomerase II, enolase, and C-Raf) show that the relevant acidic residues are present in salt bridges with conserved basic residues, and that phosphorylation has the potential to conditionally restore the salt bridges. The evolution of phosphorylation sites from glutamate and aspartate provides a rationale for why phosphorylation sometimes activates proteins, and helps explain the origins of this important and complex process.
Structure, Molecular Mechanisms, and Evolutionary Relationships in DNA Topoisomerases

Topoisomerases are enzymes that use DNA strand scission, manipulation, and rejoining activities to directly modulate DNA topology. These actions provide a powerful means to effect changes in DNA supercoiling levels, and allow some topoisomerases to both unknot and decatenate chromosomes. Since their initial discovery over three decades ago, researchers have amassed a rich store of information on the cellular roles and regulation of topoisomerases, and have delineated general models for their chemical and physical mechanisms. Topoisomerases are now known to be necessary for the survival of cellular organisms and many viruses and are rich clinical targets for anticancer and antimicrobial treatments. In recent years, crystal structures have been obtained for each of the four types of topoisomerases in a number of distinct conformational and substrate-bound states. In addition, sophisticated biophysical methods have been utilized to study details of topoisomerase reaction dynamics and enzymology. A synthesis of these approaches has provided researchers with new physical insights into how topoisomerases employ chemistry and allostery to direct the large-scale molecular motions needed to pass DNA strands through each other.
Rivers of Law and Contested Terrain: A Law and Society Approach to Economic Rationality

The Centrality of the Economy to Law and Society Scholarship The theme of this year's meeting is Rivers of Law: The Confluence of Life, Work, and Justice.1 The river metaphor draws upon the topography of our host city of Pittsburgh, and it symbolically evokes many of the themes of law and society scholarship. Like law, rivers are sites of regulation and of contest; they are sites of violence and death and they help to nurture life; and, like law, rivers direct resources toward some groups and away from others. While the river metaphor evokes themes that are central to law and society (LS Donahue 1988). At the broadest level of abstraction-and with the recognition that I am glossing over important distinctions within each perspective-LE Delaney 1989; Donahue & Heckman 1991; Nelson & Bridges 1999; Suchman & Cahill 1996; Rostain 2000) while many LE Cooter 1989, 1995, 2000a, 2000b; McAdams 1998; Dau-Schmidt 1990, 1997).3 The time is ripe for L&S and L&E to engage in a dialogue that will ultimately enrich our understanding of law and the economy. Ideally, this dialogue will help us move beyond the impasse of the norms-vs.-efficiency debate that too often impedes further discussion. I view this talk as a point of departure for that dialogue. My goal is to articulate a framework for understanding law and the economy that draws upon the major tenets of L&S scholarship yet ventures into territory normally occupied by those in L&E. …
A quadratic programming approach in estimating similarity relations

The problem of estimating how similar N objects are when they are compared with each other is investigated, using comparative judgments of all possible pairs of the N objects as data. The pairwise comparisons focus on the similarity relations instead of the relative importance of each object. A quadratic programming model is also proposed. It processes the similarity-based pairwise comparisons and determines the similarity relations among the N objects. The model has linear constraints; therefore it can be solved easily by transferring it into a system of linear equations. >
Amiodarone Induced Pulmonary Fibrosis in Infancy

We report a case of pulmonary fibrosis in an infant receiving amiodarone for treatment of intractable atrioventricular reentrant tachycardia secondary to Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. At 9 months, a screening chest radiograph showed a diffuse interstitial infiltrate in an asymptomatic, thriving infant. Amiodarone was discontinued and the pulmonary fibrosis resolved gradually over 6 months. This case documents the first report of amiodarone induced pulmonary fibrosis in the pediatric age group. We speculate that as amiodarone is used more frequently to manage pediatric arrhythmias, pulmonary fibrosis, a known complication of this antiarrhythmia in adults may be seen with increasing frequency in children.
The Technomyth in Transition: Reading American Popular Culture

In the opening pages of his 1971 study, Politics as Symbolic Action, Murray Edelman underlines his belief that “psychological characteristics, social interaction, and political acts are alternative expressions of the same phenomenon.” In the discussion that follows, however, he tacitly privileges the political aspect of the transaction to an extent that quite undermines his initial image of an interdependent network of reactive/responsive processes. The bias is an understandable one, given his anxiety to counter the naive view of “governmental acts as reflections of people's cognitions.” It is also, unfortunately, a problematic one, insofaras its implication of a self-consciously Machiavellian political leadership deliberately manipulating public affect to its own ends simply substitutes for one misapprehension another equally naive.
Nonfatal work-related motor vehicle injuries treated in emergency departments in the United States, 1998-2002

BACKGROUND: Current data on nonfatal work-related motor vehicle injuries are limited and fragmented, often excluding government workers, self-employed workers, and workers on small farms. This study seeks to bridge the present data gap by providing a national profile of nonfatal work-related motor vehicle injuries across all industries and occupations. METHODS: Study subjects were people who suffered nonfatal work-related motor vehicle injuries and were treated in a hospital emergency department in the United States. Subjects were identified from a stratified probability sample of emergency departments. National estimates and rates were computed. RESULTS: From 1998 to 2002, the average annual rate of nonfatal work-related motor vehicle injuries was 7 injuries per 10,000 full-time equivalents. The rate was three times higher in men than in women. The rates were higher in workers 15-19 years of age and in workers 70 years or older. Justice, public order, and safety workers had the largest number of injuries, and taxicab service employees had the highest injury rate of all industries. Truck drivers had the largest number of injuries, and police and detectives, public service employees had the highest injury rate of all occupations. CONCLUSION: Future efforts need to develop and enhance the use of surveillance information at the federal and state level for work-related nonfatal motor vehicle injuries. Prevention efforts need to address occupational motor vehicle safety for both commercial truck/bus drivers and workers who are not commercial drivers but who drive light motor vehicles on the job. Language: en
Knowledge Base Population: Successful Approaches and Challenges

In this paper we give an overview of the Knowledge Base Population (KBP) track at the 2010 Text Analysis Conference. The main goal of KBP is to promote research in discovering facts about entities and augmenting a knowledge base (KB) with these facts. This is done through two tasks, Entity Linking -- linking names in context to entities in the KB -- and Slot Filling -- adding information about an entity to the KB. A large source collection of newswire and web documents is provided from which systems are to discover information. Attributes ("slots") derived from Wikipedia infoboxes are used to create the reference KB. In this paper we provide an overview of the techniques which can serve as a basis for a good KBP system, lay out the remaining challenges by comparison with traditional Information Extraction (IE) and Question Answering (QA) tasks, and provide some suggestions to address these challenges.
Inflammatory Bowel Disease Activity Assessment with Biologic Markers and 99mTc-WBC Scintigraphy: Are There Different Trends in Ileitis Versus Colitis?

To evaluate whether scintigraphy with 99mTc-labeled white blood cells (WBC) can assess the intensity of bowel inflammation, a large dataset of laboratory values and clinical activity indices was correlated with 99mTc-WBC scintigraphy in children with Crohn’s disease (CD), ulcerative colitis (UC), and miscellaneous colitis (MC). Also evaluated was whether stratification of children with CD as ileitis versus colitis results in different correlation coefficients for laboratory values versus 99mTc-WBC scintigraphy. Methods: Over a 6-y period, 313 99mTc-WBC studies were performed. A dataset of 2,714 laboratory values is available for analysis. Results: There is a positive correlation between the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and large bowel uptake of 99mTc-WBC (P
Land use planning and national soils policies

Abstract Land is used for many purposes. It is also the focus of conflict between a wide range of land uses including agriculture, mining, forestry and nature protection, leisure, and urban and industrial development. Competition between users grows more under increasing population pressure and in countries with a mixed economy. Decision making on land use options is therefore a current problem of modern societies. Adequate planning and decision making about land use is facilitated by a national soils policy framework. This is a set of guidelines, aimed at ensuring a sustainable utilization of the land—either for agricultural or non-agricultural uses—and limiting direct or indirect damage to the environment. The policy is integrated into a national development plan, and addresses the natural diversity and specific physical and socio-economic problems of the region concerned. National soils policies are therefore very country-specific; they rely on clearly defined long-term objectives and involve strategies and tools for implementation. A number of examples are given to illustrate the most relevant issues in national soils policies.
A solution for the location problem in arbitrary computer networks using generic dominating sets

Many problems exist related to the location problems of resources in a computer network to accommodate client demands subject to constraints imposed on the clients and the servers. For example, one classical location problem consists of computing the dominating sets (DS) of a network. A DS is a set of nodes in the network (called dominating nodes) such that the remaining nodes in the network are adjacent to at least one dominating node. The problem of finding a DS of minimum cardinality is known to be NP-complete. A variety of conditions may be imposed on the dominating set D in a graph G = (V, E). Among them, we have multiple domination and distance domination. Multiple domination requires that each vertex in V --- D be dominated by at least k vertices in D for a fixed positive integer k. Distance domination requires that each vertex in V --- D be within distance r of at least one vertex in D for a fixed positive integer r. We refer to the problem of computing DS when these two conditions are taken into account as the Generic Dominating Sets (GDS) problem. Prior work on solving the GDS problem focuses on interval graphs (IG), which can represent only a few network topologies. We present the first solutions to the GDS problem for arbitrary graphs. Simulation results regarding several configurations are presented.
How Shall I Live? Constructing a Life Story in the College Years

This chapter applies the concept of narrative identity to college student development. The authors describe a narrative interview method that can be used to promote the development of a purposeful life story in the college years.
Characterizing Microblogs with Topic Models

As microblogging grows in popularity, services like Twitter are coming to support information gathering needs above and beyond their traditional roles as social networks. But most users’ interaction with Twitter is still primarily focused on their social graphs, forcing the often inappropriate conflation of “people I follow” with “stuff I want to read.” We characterize some information needs that the current Twitter interface fails to support, and argue for better representations of content for solving these challenges. We present a scalable implementation of a partially supervised learning model (Labeled LDA) that maps the content of the Twitter feed into dimensions. These dimensions correspond roughly to substance, style, status, and social characteristics of posts. We characterize users and tweets using this model, and present results on two information consumption oriented tasks.
Conformational switching in self-assembling mechanical systems

A study of 1D self-assembly of a type of mechanical conformational switches, minus devices is presented where assembly occurs via the sequential mating of a random pair of parts selected from a part bin, referred to as sequential random bin-picking. The minus devices facilitate the robust yield of a desired assembly against the variation in the initial fraction of the part types, by specifying a fixed assembly sequence during the self-assembling process. It is also found that while the minus devices can "encode" some assembly sequences, encoding other assembly sequences requires the use of another type of conformational switches, plus devices. It is proved that the local rules corresponding to the minus and plus devices, and three conformations per each component, can encode any assembly sequences of a 1D assembly of distinct components with arbitrary length.
Ngila: global pairwise alignments with logarithmic and affine gap costs.

UNLABELLED Ngila is an application that will find the best alignment of a pair of sequences using log-affine gap costs, which are the most biologically realistic gap costs. AVAILABILITY Portable source code for Ngila can be downloaded from its development website, http://scit.us/projects/ngila/. It compiles on most operating systems.
A new wiggler beam line for SSRL

A new high-intensity-beam line with a wiggler magnet source is described. This project, in final stages of design, is a joint effort between Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (LBL), the Exxon Research and Engineering Company (EXXON), and the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL). Installation at SSRL will begin in the summer of 1982. The goal of this project is to provide extremely high-brightness synchrotron radiation beams over a broad spectral range from 50 eV to 40 keV. The radiation source is a 27 period (i.e., 55 pole) permanent magnet wiggler of a new design. The wiggler utilizes rare-earth cobalt (REC) material in the steel hybrid configuration to achieve high magnetic fields with short periods. An analysis has been made of the polarization, angular distribution and power density of the radiation produced by the wiggler. Details of the wiggler design are presented. The magnet is outside a thin walled (1mm) variable gap stainless steel vacuum chamber. The chamber gap will be opened to 1.8 cm for beam injection into SPEAR and then closed to 1.0 cm (or less) for operation. Five remotely controlled drives are provided; to change the wiggler gap, to change the vacuum chamber aperture and to position the wiggler. Detailsmore » of the beam line optics and end stations are presented. Thermal loading on beam line components is severe. The peak power density at 7.5 m is 5 kW/cm/sup 2/ for the nominal wiggler field and present SPEAR beam currents and will approach 20 kW/cm/sup 2/ with the maximum wiggler field and projected SPEAR beam currents.« less
Evaluation from Start to Finish: Incorporating Comprehensive Assessment into a Training Program for Public Health Professionals

This article examines the role of a comprehensive evaluation process in the context of a program to enhance use of the Internet by public health professionals. The Public Health Information Link for Nevada incorporated training and Web site development into a program to raise levels of awareness and competence of the public health professional. Evaluation played a key and ongoing role in the planning and implementation phases and made a marked contribution to the overall effectiveness of the project. Evaluation contributed to the ability to make midprogram adjustments, thereby enhancing user satisfaction and confidence. Participant evaluations indicated significant improvement in self-perceived competence in utilizing the Internet for job-related activities. The authors conclude that the effort to integrate evaluation in an ongoing manner is balanced by the value of continuous feedback. A Web site review checklist, which will be useful to public health professionals who are developing new Web sites, is ap...
Cancer genomic research at the crossroads: realizing the changing genetic landscape as intratumoral spatial and temporal heterogeneity becomes a confounding factor

The US National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) created the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Project in 2006. The TCGA’s goal was to sequence the genomes of 10,000 tumors to identify common genetic changes among different types of tumors for developing genetic-based treatments. TCGA offered great potential for cancer patients, but in reality has little impact on clinical applications. Recent reports place the past TCGA approach of testing a small tumor mass at a single time-point at a crossroads. This crossroads presents us with the conundrum of whether we should sequence more tumors or obtain multiple biopsies from each individual tumor at different time points. Sequencing more tumors with the past TCGA approach of single time-point sampling can neither capture the heterogeneity between different parts of the same tumor nor catch the heterogeneity that occurs as a function of time, error rates, and random drift. Obtaining multiple biopsies from each individual tumor presents multiple logistical and financial challenges. Here, we review current literature and rethink the utility and application of the TCGA approach. We discuss that the TCGA-led catalogue may provide insights into studying the functional significance of oncogenic genes in reference to non-cancer genetic background. Different methods to enhance identifying cancer targets, such as single cell technology, real time imaging of cancer cells with a biological global positioning system, and cross-referencing big data sets, are offered as ways to address sampling discrepancies in the face of tumor heterogeneity. We predict that TCGA landmarks may prove far more useful for cancer prevention than for cancer diagnosis and treatment when considering the effect of non-cancer genes and the normal genetic background on tumor microenvironment. Cancer prevention can be better realized once we understand how therapy affects the genetic makeup of cancer over time in a clinical setting. This may help create novel therapies for gene mutations that arise during a tumor’s evolution from the selection pressure of treatment.
Manufacturability analysis environment-MAPEX

A CAD manufacturability analysis environment, MAPEX, is described in this paper. It can be used to extract a large number of manufacturability/yield relevant design attributes from an IC layout. The extracted attributes can then be used to improve design tools/strategies or to analyze the reasons for observed yield loss. >
Optimal Timing of Transfer Out of the Intensive Care Unit

Background Little other than subjective judgment is available to help clinicians determine when a patient should be transferred out of the intensive care unit. Objective To assess whether remaining in the intensive care unit longer than judged to be medically necessary is associated with increased 30-day mortality. Methods This prospective, observational cohort study was performed in a 13-bed, closed-model, adult medical intensive care unit of a county-owned, university-affiliated hospital that often has difficulty transferring patients to general care areas because of a lack of available beds. Analysis included all 2401 survivors of intensive care from the study period. Delay in discharge from the intensive care unit was defined as time elapsed between the request for transfer and the actual transfer. Logistic regression was used to assess the association of discharge delay with 30-day mortality, adjusting for demographics, comorbid conditions, type and severity of acute illness, care limitations in the unit, and other potential confounding variables. Nonlinear relationships with continuous variables were modeled with restricted cubic splines. Results Overall, 30-day mortality was 10.1%. Mean discharge delay was 9.6 (SD, 11.7) hours; 9.9% had a discharge delay exceeding 24 hours. The relationship of 30-day mortality to discharge delay was statistically significant and U-shaped, with the nadir at 20 hours. Conclusions These data indicate an optimal time window for patients to leave the intensive care unit, with increased mortality not only if they leave earlier but also if they leave later than this optimal timing.
A cross-input adaptive framework for GPU program optimizations

Recent years have seen a trend in using graphic processing units (GPU) as accelerators for general-purpose computing. The inexpensive, single-chip, massively parallel architecture of GPU has evidentially brought factors of speedup to many numerical applications. However, the development of a high-quality GPU application is challenging, due to the large optimization space and complex unpredictable effects of optimizations on GPU program performance. Recently, several studies have attempted to use empirical search to help the optimization. Although those studies have shown promising results, one important factor—program inputs—in the optimization has remained unexplored. In this work, we initiate the exploration in this new dimension. By conducting a series of measurement, we find that the ability to adapt to program inputs is important for some applications to achieve their best performance on GPU. In light of the findings, we develop an input-adaptive optimization framework, namely G-ADAPT, to address the influence by constructing cross-input predictive models for automatically predicting the (near-)optimal configurations for an arbitrary input to a GPU program. The results demonstrate the promise of the framework in serving as a tool to alleviate the productivity bottleneck in GPU programming.
A Nonparametric Test of the Predictive Regression Model

This article considers testing the significance of a regressor with a near unit root in a predictive regression model. The procedures discussed in this article are nonparametric, so one can test the significance of a regressor without specifying a functional form. The results are used to test the null hypothesis that the entire function takes the value of zero. We show that the standardized test has a normal distribution regardless of whether there is a near unit root in the regressor. This is in contrast to tests based on linear regression for this model where tests have a nonstandard limiting distribution that depends on nuisance parameters. Our results have practical implications in testing the significance of a regressor since there is no need to conduct pretests for a unit root in the regressor and the same procedure can be used if the regressor has a unit root or not. A Monte Carlo experiment explores the performance of the test for various levels of persistence of the regressors and for various lin...
The Prevalence of Middle Ear Disease among Learning Impaired Children Does a Higher Prevalence Indicate an Association

The prevalence of middle ear disease among children who are educationally classified as learning disabled as compared to that found in normal children is discussed. A higher incidence of middle ear pathology was found among the learning impaired children. The potentially hazardous effects that middle ear disease can have upon academic and linguistic development are emphasized.
Student Learning of Criterion 3 (a)-(k) Outcomes with Short Instructional Modules and the Relationship to Bloom's Taxonomy

Engineering accreditation criteria require that engineering graduates demonstrate competency with a set of skills identified in Criterion 3 (a)-(k). Because of a scarcity of instructional material on many of these topics, a team of engineering instructors developed and tested a set of short modules for teaching these skills. Using before and after module surveys, the students indicated their confidence in their ability to do specific tasks derived from the module's learning objectives. Data also were obtained with a control group not receiving the instruction. In comparing pre- and post-module data, 33 percent of the comparisons were significantly different at the 0.05 level. In comparing control and post-module data, the corresponding value was 44 percent. These results indicate that instruction with these short modules produced a significant effect on student learning.
The Dynamic Role of GRP78/BiP in the Coordination of mRNA Translation with Protein Processing

The role of GRP78/BiP in coordinating endoplasmic reticular (ER) protein processing with mRNA translation was examined in GH3 pituitary cells. ADP-ribosylation of GRP78 and eukaryotic initiation factor (eIF)-2alpha phosphorylation were assessed, respectively, as indices of chaperone inactivation and the inhibition of translational initiation. Inhibition of protein processing by ER stress (ionomycin and dithiothreitol) resulted in GRP78 deribosylation and eIF-2 phosphorylation. Suppression of translation relative to ER protein processing (cycloheximide) produced approximately 50% ADP-ribosylation of GRP78 within 90 min without eIF-2 phosphorylation. ADP-ribosylation was reversed in 90 min by cycloheximide removal in a manner accelerated by ER stressors. Cycloheximide sharply reduced eIF-2 phosphorylation in response to ER stressors for about 30 min; sensitivity returned as GRP78 became increasingly ADP-ribosylated. Reduced sensitivity of eIF-2 to phosphorylation appeared to derive from the accumulation of free, unmodified chaperone as proteins completed processing without replacements. Prolonged (24 h) incubations with cycloheximide resulted in the selective loss of the ADP-ribosylated form of GRP78 and increased sensitivity of eIF-2 phosphorylation in response to ER stressors. Brefeldin A decreased ADP-ribosylation of GRP78 in parallel with increased eIF-2 phosphorylation. The cytoplasmic stressor, arsenite, which inhibits translational initiation through eIF-2 phosphorylation without affecting the ER, also produced ADP-ribosylation of GRP78.
SM proteins Sly1 and Vps33 co-assemble with Sec17 and SNARE complexes to oppose SNARE disassembly by Sec18

Secretory and endolysosomal fusion events are driven by SNAREs and cofactors, including Sec17/α-SNAP, Sec18/NSF, and Sec1/Munc18 (SM) proteins. SMs are essential for fusion in vivo, but the basis of this requirement is enigmatic. We now report that, in addition to their established roles as fusion accelerators, SM proteins Sly1 and Vps33 directly shield SNARE complexes from Sec17- and Sec18-mediated disassembly. In vivo, wild-type Sly1 and Vps33 function are required to withstand overproduction of Sec17. In vitro, Sly1 and Vps33 impede SNARE complex disassembly by Sec18 and ATP. Unexpectedly, Sec17 directly promotes selective loading of Sly1 and Vps33 onto cognate SNARE complexes. A large thermodynamic barrier limits SM binding, implying that significant conformational rearrangements are involved. In a working model, Sec17 and SMs accelerate fusion mediated by cognate SNARE complexes and protect them from NSF-mediated disassembly, while mis-assembled or non-cognate SNARE complexes are eliminated through kinetic proofreading by Sec18.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.02272.001.
From Natural Language Specifications to Program Input Parsers

We present a method for automatically generating input parsers from English specifications of input file formats. We use a Bayesian generative model to capture relevant natural language phenomena and translate the English specification into a specification tree, which is then translated into a C++ input parser. We model the problem as a joint dependency parsing and semantic role labeling task. Our method is based on two sources of information: (1) the correlation between the text and the specification tree and (2) noisy supervision as determined by the success of the generated C++ parser in reading input examples. Our results show that our approach achieves 80.0% F-Score accuracy compared to an F-Score of 66.7% produced by a state-of-the-art semantic parser on a dataset of input format specifications from the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (which were written in English for humans with no intention of providing support for automated processing). 1
A Multiproduct Network Economic Model of Cybercrime in Financial Services

In this paper, we propose a network economic model of cybercrime with a focus on financial services, since such organizations are one of the principal targets of such illicit activity. This multiproduct model is constructed as a layered bipartite network with supply price, transaction cost, and demand price functions linking the networks. A novelty of the new model is the incorporation of average time associated with illicit product delivery at the demand markets with the demand price functions being decreasing functions of such times, as noted in reality. The governing equilibrium conditions are formulated as a variational inequality problem with qualitative properties of the solution presented. An algorithm, with nice features for computations, is then applied to two sets of numerical examples in order to illustrate the model and computational procedure as well as the types of interventions that can be investigated from a policy perspective to make it more difficult for cybercriminals to obtain sensitiv...
Do two graminoids, the invasive Phalaris arundinacea and the native Scirpus microcarpus, have similar ecosystem effects in a wetland?

Invasive species have been documented to have widespread ecosystem impacts, but these effects are dependent on characteristics of the environment and potentially on similarity in traits between the invasive and replaced native species. We compared the ecosystem effects of two graminoid wetland species with similar traits, the highly invasive Phalaris arundinacea L. (Poaceae family) and the native Scirpus microcarpus J. Presl & C. Presl. (Cyperaceae family). Both species had naturally established in monoculture patches in close proximity to each after agricultural abandonment over at least two decades ago in an Oregon, USA marsh. We compared seasonally the effects of the two species in paired patches on a broad suite of ecosystem soil responses. The two communities differed in a number of ecosystem processes and characteristics, such as belowground productivity, soil temperature, soil texture, soil pH, CH₄ production, and aspects of the N cycle. However, these species-level effects were secondary to strong controls of season and edaphic factors. We demonstrate that an invasive introduced species can have widespread ecosystem effects when compared with a relatively similar native species, but these effects may be moderate compared with natural environmental controls over ecosystem processes.
Potential Pennsylvania Economic Impact of Four Natural Gas Severance Tax/Fee Proposals

Reports analysis with Pennsylvania structural economic and demographic model of the impacts of four natural gas severance tax/fee proposals active in May 2011.
Orc5 induces large-scale chromatin decondensation in a GCN5-dependent manner

In eukaryotes, origin recognition complex (ORC) proteins establish the pre-replicative complex (preRC) at the origins, and this is essential for the initiation of DNA replication. Open chromatin structures regulate the efficiency of preRC formation and replication initiation. However, the molecular mechanisms that control chromatin structure, and how the preRC components establish themselves on the chromatin remain to be understood. In human cells, the ORC is a highly dynamic complex with many separate functions attributed to sub-complexes or individual subunits of the ORC, including heterochromatin organization, telomere and centromere function, centrosome duplication and cytokinesis. We demonstrate that human Orc5, unlike other ORC subunits, when ectopically tethered to a chromatin locus, induces large-scale chromatin decondensation, predominantly during G1 phase of the cell cycle. Orc5 associates with the H3 histone acetyl transferase GCN5 (also known as KAT2A), and this association enhances the chromatin-opening function of Orc5. In the absence of Orc5, histone H3 acetylation is decreased at the origins. We propose that the ability of Orc5 to induce chromatin unfolding during G1 allows the establishment of the preRC at the origins.
Abstract 35: 30-Day Risk-Standardized Mortality and Readmission after Ischemic Stroke in Critical Access Hospitals

Background: Critical access hospital (CAH) designation identifies hospitals providing emergency and inpatient care to residents of rural communities. Patients with cardiovascular disease and pneumonia have poorer outcomes at CAHs, but stroke outcomes have not been assessed. Objective: Compare risk-adjusted 30-day mortality and readmission rates after ischemic stroke for patients treated at critical access and non-critical access hospitals. Methods: The cohort included all fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries 65+ years of age discharged with a primary diagnosis of ischemic stroke (ICD-9 433, 434, 436) in 2006. Risk-standardized mortality and readmission rates at 30 days were compared for patients treated at CAH versus other hospitals using hierarchical logistic regression models, adjusted for patient demographics, medical history, and comorbid conditions. Results: There were 10,267 ischemic stroke discharges from 1,165 CAHs and 300,114 discharges from 3,381 non-CAHs. Patients discharged from CAHs were older, more often women and white, and generally had more comorbid conditions. CAHs had higher unadjusted in-hospital (6.4% vs. 4.6%, p Conclusions: Although there were no differences in readmission rates, stroke patients discharged from CAHs had higher unadjusted mortality than those discharged from non-CAHs. These differences, however, were at least partially explained by differences in patient characteristics. Further research is needed to identify factors contributing to these differences.
Mortality by decade in trauma patients with Glasgow Coma Scale 3.

The aim of this study was to assess how increasing age affects mortality in trauma patients with Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) 3. The Los Angeles County Trauma System Database was queried for all patien...
Buckling Efficiencies of Plate Materials at Elevated Temperatures

The structural efficiencies of plates that fail as a result of elastic or plastic buckling are considered. Several materials are evaluated on the basis of short-time elevated temperature properties using structural efficiency criteria that depend upon whether failure is due to elastic or plastic buckling. Efficient temperature ranges of application for the materials considered are determined. Relative weight penalties resulting from decreased physical properties at elevated temperatures are indicated.
P2-02-10: Differential Targeting of the RB-Pathway To Expand the Therapeutic Index in the Treatment of Triple Negative Breast Cancer.

Background: The retinoblastoma tumor suppressor (RB) is inactivated in a significant fraction of triple negative breast cancers (TNBC). RB loss is believed to contribute to tumor initiation and progression, and provocative data suggest that RB loss is associated with improved response to cytotoxic chemotherapy. Unfortunately, such therapies have significant side effects that impinge on patient quality of life. Here we explored the ability to specifically target RB loss in TNBC to expand the therapeutic index by protecting against undesired side-effects of chemotherapy. Experimental Design: A combination of cell culture and xenograft models of triple negative breast cancer were used to evaluate how RB-status impinges on sensitivity to chemotherapy. These models were complemented by the analyses of clinical specimens from patients treated with chemotherapy. Parallel use of agents that activate RB function with high specificity were interrogated as potential tissue protectors to ameliorate side effect of chemotherapy. Results: RB loss in preclinical models is associated with increased sensitivity to conventional cytotoxic chemotherapies that are frequently employed in the treatment of TNBC. The findings were recapitulated through the analyses of clinical specimens, and suggest that the loss of RB could be particularly useful in defining TNBC patients with improved response to chemotherapy. Combination studies of pharmacological activation of the RB pathway and cytotoxic chemotherapies commonly used to treat TNBC demonstrated that activation of RB can modulate the efficacy of cytotoxic compounds in the treatment of TNBC. Importantly, functional studies indicated that RB pathway activation limits cardiotoxicity associated with anthracycline based treatments and correspondingly improve cardiac function in animal studies. Conclusions: Combined, these studies indicate that RB pathway status could be utilized in the clinic to direct combination treatments that would exploit the sensitivity of RB-deficient tumors to cytotoxic chemotherapies while simultaneously providing protection for normal tissues. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2011;71(24 Suppl):Abstract nr P2-02-10.
Musical robotic interactions for children with autism spectrum disorders

I propose that a system combining robots and music in an interactive game may provide effective therapy encouraging social skills in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. To provide objective measures of the participants' progress, I am also developing a monitoring system using the video cameras and motion detectors to determine the participants' emotional state and engagement level.
Physiological temperatures drive glutamate release onto trigeminal superficial dorsal horn neurons.

Trigeminal sensory afferent fibers terminating in nucleus caudalis (Vc) relay sensory information from craniofacial regions to the brain and are known to express transient receptor potential (TRP) ...
Abstract 113: Adherence to Antihypertensive Medication in the Jackson Heart Study (JHS)

Objectives: Adherence to antihypertensive medications is associated with increased blood pressure (BP) control and reduced cardiovascular disease and mortality. The Jackson Heart Study (JHS) is a longitudinal study of 5,301 adults recruited from the general population of the Jackson, Mississippi area designed to evaluate cardiovascular disease in African Americans. The goal of the current analysis was to develop a measure of adherence to antihypertensive medication from available JHS data to facilitate future research in this sample. Methods: JHS participants were asked to bring in all medications taken in the prior two weeks to the baseline interview and were asked if they had taken each medication in the past 24 hours. Non-adherence was defined as not taking all antihypertensive medications in the past 24 hours. The mean of two clinic BP measurements taken one minute apart with a Hawksley random zero sphygmomanometer was used for this analysis. The associations between non-adherence and systolic/diastolic BP and uncontrolled BP (systolic/diastolic BP ≥ 140/90 mm Hg) were examined using linear and Poisson regression. Analyses were adjusted for age, sex, smoking, years of education, income, cohabitation, diabetes, depressive symptoms, and weekly stress symptoms. Results: Of the 5,301 JHS participants, 2,415 who reported current use of antihypertensive medication and had valid clinic BP and 24-hour adherence data were included. The mean age was 54.9 (SD 12.9) years and 68.7% (n=1,660) were female. Overall, 25.3% of participants (n=612) were non-adherent to their antihypertensive medication. For adherent and non-adherent participants, the mean systolic BP was 130.0 (SD 17.2) and 135.2 (SD 19.8) mm Hg, respectively ( P <0.001), and the mean diastolic BP was 78.7 (SD 10.6) and 79.4 (SD 10.9) mm Hg, respectively ( P =0.15). After multivariable adjustment and compared to their adherent counterparts, non-adherent participants had 4.6 (SD 0.8) mm Hg higher systolic BP ( P <.001) and 1.1 (SD 0.4) mm Hg higher diastolic BP ( P =.01). The prevalence of uncontrolled BP was 31.3% among adherent participants and 41.7% among non-adherent participants. After multivariable adjustment, non-adherent participants were 1.28 times more likely to have uncontrolled BP (95% CI:1.14-1.43; P <.001). Conclusions: These findings suggest that 24-hour adherence to antihypertensive medications is a viable measure of medication adherence in the JHS. Implications: Evaluatingmedication adherence in patients with hypertension is important butchallenging. Valid and reliable self-report measures are needed when objectivemeasures are unavailable. If validated in future research, 24-hour adherence to antihypertensive medications may provide a parsimonious way of assessing medication adherence in epidemiological studies.
Advances on research of AMA-1 gene polymorphisms in Plasmodium falciparum

The apical membrane antigen-1(AMA-1) is highly expressed in the late schizont stage of the Plasmodium and plays an important role in the merozoite adhesion and invasion of erythrocytes.Recent researches for Plasmodium were carried on the molecular biology and immunology.These researches show that AMA-1 is a leading malaria vaccine candidate antigen.This article gave a detailed introduction about molecular structure and polymorphism of the Plasmodium falciparum AMA-1 genes and emphasisly analysed some important domains of AMA-1 gene,groups of gene families and the reason of polymorphism to provide the reference for the further study of polymorphism of AMA-1 gene.
[A descriptive study on the smoking pattern among general population in Xuzhou, 2008.].

Objective To understand the prevalence of smoking in different sub-populations in Xuzhou area so as to develop effective tobacco control policies. Methods Through multi-stage randomized cluster sampling,a face-to-face study with standard questionnaire was carried out among residents aged above 15 years,from June to December 2008,with descriptive nature. Results Totally,44 686 people,with 21 524 males and 23 162 females at age 15 and over were investigated,including 34 391 of them from rural areas and 10 295 from the urban population. Data regarding rates on ever smoked and current smoking,regular smoking,heavy smoking,and average numbers of cigarettes smoked per day,types of tobacco products smoked,rates on quitting smoking successfully,relapse,passive smoke exposure etc.,were 22.45%,21.40%,15.49%,9.49%,15.09/d,4.68%,5.91% and 14.12% respectively. There were no significant differences in the rates of overall smoking,current smoking and regular smoking among urban and rural residents (P>0.05). However,rates of successfully quitting smoking and passive smoke exposure in the urban areas were higher than those in the rural areas (P<0.05). Rates regarding relapse,heavy smoking and average numbers of cigarettes smoked per day in the rural areas were higher than those in the urban areas(P<0.05). Rates on smoking,current smoking,regular smoking,heavy smoking,relapse and average numbers of cigarettes smoked per day were higher in males than those in females (P<0.05). Rates of quitting smoking successfully and passive smoke exposure were higher in females than those in males (P< 0.05). The major types of tobacco products smoked by people aged 15 years old and above were cigarettes (85.17%),and Chinese pipes (3.24%). Conclusion Smoking was quite common in people from Xuzhou. Our data suggested that health education should be strengthened and sustainable intervention measures be developed and implemented to control the tobacco use in the area. Key words: Smoking; Smoking rate; Types of tobacco products smoked; Passive smoking
Effect of one-minute and five-minute step-ups on performance of simple addition.

Abstract Twenty-six subjects who were accustomed to step-ups were randomly assigned to three treatments: rest, 1-min. step-ups, and 5-min. step-ups. The same procedure was followed with 32 subjects who had not been performing bench-stepping regularly. Each subject took a 5-min. test of simple addition followed by an alternate form of the same test 7 min. later. During the 7 min. between tests the rest groups lay quietly on mats, the 1-min. group rested for 6 min. and stepped up 30 times in 1 min. on a 20-in. bench, and the 5-min. groups rested for 2 min. and stepped up for 5 min. at 30 steps per minute. Among the subjects accustomed to step-ups the 1-min. group performed significantly worse than the 5-min. and rest groups on speed of addition. No other significant differences between groups were found. However, was a tendency for the conditioned subjects to improve in accuracy of addition as a result of 5-min. step-ups whereas the unconditioned subjects tended to do more poorly following a 5-min. bout of ...
Epilogue: The First Boondoggle Wasn’t a Boondoggle—The New Deal as the Social Work of Desire and the Heart of Work

The epilogue also maintains that the blurring of private and public economies implicit in the New Deal characterizes ideas concerning postmodern government and society.
Mid-infrared dual-gas sensor for simultaneous detection of methane and ethane using a single continuous-wave interband cascade laser.

A continuous-wave (CW) interband cascade laser (ICL) based mid-infrared sensor system was demonstrated for simultaneous detection of atmospheric methane (CH4) and ethane (C2H6). A 3.337 µm CW ICL with an emitting wavenumber range of 2996.0−3001.5 cm−1 was used to simultaneously target two absorption lines, C2H6 at 2996.88 cm−1 and CH4 at 2999.06 cm−1, respectively. The sensor performance was first evaluated for single-gas detection by only targeting the absorption line of one gas species. Allan deviations of 11.2 parts per billion in volume (ppbv) for CH4 and 1.86 ppbv for C2H6 with an averaging time of 3.4 s were achieved for the detection of these two gases. Dual-gas detection was realized by using a long-term scan signal to target both CH4 and C2H6 lines. The Allan deviations increased slightly to 17.4 ppbv for CH4 and 2.4 ppbv for C2H6 with an averaging time of 4.6 s due to laser temperature and power drift caused by long-term wavelength scanning. Measurements for both indoor and outdoor concentration changes of CH4 and C2H6 were conducted. The reported single ICL based dual-gas sensor system has the advantages of reduced size and cost compared to two separate sensor systems.