cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Disabling surveillance: bacterial type III secretion system effectors that suppress innate immunity.

Summary Many Gram-negative bacterial pathogens of plants and animals are dependent on a type III protein secretion system (TTSS). TTSSs translocate effector proteins into host cells and are capable of modifying signal transduction pathways. The innate immune system of eukaryotes detects the presence of patho- gens using specific pathogen recognition receptors (PRRs). Plant PRRs include the FLS2 receptor kinase and resistance proteins. Animal PRRs include Toll- like receptors and nucleotide-binding oligomeriza- tion domain proteins. PRRs initiate signal transduc- tion pathways that include mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascades that activate defence- related transcription factors. This results in induction of proinflammatory cytokines in animals, and hall- marks of defence in plants including the hypersensi- tive response, callose deposition and the production of pathogenesis-related proteins. Several type III effectors from animal and plant pathogens have evolved to counteract innate immunity. For example, the Yersinia YopJ/P cysteine protease and the Pseudomonas syringae HopPtoD2 protein tyrosine phosphatase inhibits defence-related MAPK kinase activity in animals and plants respectively. Thus, type III effectors can suppress signal transduction path- ways activated by PRR surveillance systems. Under- standing targets and activities of type III effectors will reveal much about bacterial pathogenicity and the innate immune system in plants and animals.
Impact of the sampling rate on the estimation of the parameters of fractional Brownian motion

Fractional Brownian motion is a mean zero self-similar Gaussian process with stationary increments. Its covariance depends on two parameters, the self-similar parameter H and the variance C. Suppose that one wants to estimate optimally these parameters by using n equally spaced observations. How should these observations be distributed? We show that the spacing of the observations does not affect the estimation of H (this is due to the self-similarity of the process), but the spacing does affect the estimation of the variance C. For example, if the observations are equally spaced on [0,n] (unit-spacing), the rate of convergence of the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) of the variance C is p n. However, if the observations are equally spaced on [0,1] (1/n-spacing), or on [0,n 2 ] (n-spacing), the
From Groupthink to Teamthink: Toward the Creation of Constructive Thought Patterns in Self-Managing Work Teams:

Groups have been subject to a number of weaknesses and problems that interfere with their effectiveness. One notable destructive group tendency has been labeled "groupthink"-a defective decision-making process afflicting highly cohesive and conforming groups (Janis, 1972, 1983). One contemporary type of group that appears particularly vulnerable to groupthink is the self-managing or self-directing team (Manz & Sims, 1982). In this article we examine the vulnerability of self-managing teams to groupthink and propose a theory regarding the establishment of constructive synergistic team thinking and problem solving-"teamthink."
CONCEPTION, EMBRYONIC DEVELOPMENT AND CORPUS LUTEUM FUNCTION IN BEEF CATTLE OPEN FOR TWO CONSECUTIVE BREEDING SEASONS

High-fertility (control cows) and low-fertility (cows and heifers not pregnant after two consecutive breeding seasons -- twice-open) cyclic bovine females were treated with a single injection of 1000 IU of human chorionic qonadotropin (HCG)orlOO ng of gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) to enhance and/or hasten corpus luteum formation and progesterone secretion, and improve conception rate in the low-fertility females. Hormone treatments were administered to 38 parous control cows, 34 twice-open parous cows, and 27 twice-open nonparous heifers immediately after natural mating by a fertile bull. Blood samples were collected on Days 3, 6, 9, 12, and 18 after mating for determination of systemic progesterone concentrations. Pregnancy rate at necropsy approximately 33 days after mating (range 31-37) was higher in control cows (73.0%) than in twice-open cows (48.4%; P<O.O5) or twice-open heifers (34.6%; P<O.Ol). Pregnancy rate was not affected by the HCG or GnRH treatment. The HCG treatment increased plasma progesterone concentrations in twice-open heifers but not in control or twice-open cows. Progesterone was unaffected by the GnRH treatment. Systemic progesterone concentrations were higher in control than in twice-open females but did not differ between pregnant and nonpregnant females of Days 3, 6, 9 and 12 after mating. Enhanced gonadotropin stimulation at estrus by injection of either HCG or GnRH did not increase pregnancy rate or systemic progesterone concentrations (except in HCG-treated twice-open heifers) in low- or high-fertility females. Lower pregnancy rates in twice-open females were not associated directly with the lower systemic progesterone concentrations.
NEWS 2009 Machine Transliteration Shared Task System Description: Transliteration with Letter-to-Phoneme Technology

We interpret the problem of transliterating English named entities into Hindi or Japanese Katakana as a variant of the letter-to-phoneme (L2P) subtask of text-to-speech processing. Therefore, we apply a re-implementation of a state-of-the-art, discriminative L2P system (Jiampojamarn et al., 2008) to the problem, without further modification. In doing so, we hope to provide a baseline for the NEWS 2009 Machine Transliteration Shared Task (Li et al., 2009), indicating how much can be achieved without transliteration-specific technology. This paper briefly summarizes the original work and our reimplementation. We also describe a bug in our submitted implementation, and provide updated results on the development and test sets.
All-Cause Gastroenteritis and Rotavirus-Coded Hospitalizations Among US Children, 2000–2009

Background. Rotavirus vaccine was recommended for US infants in 2006. We estimated baseline prevaccine burden and monitored postvaccine trends in gastroenteritis-coded and rotavirus-coded hospitalizations among US children. Methods. We analyzed data from the State Inpatient Databases (SID) for 29–44 US states over a 10-year period (2000–2009) to calculate gastroenteritis and rotavirus-coded hospitalization rates by age group, sex, and region, among children <5 years of age. By extrapolating observed pre- and postvaccine gastroenteritis hospitalization rates to the US population <5 years and based on the 2009 cost of a diarrhea hospitalization, we estimated national reductions in diarrhea hospitalizations and associated treatment costs. Results. The prevaccine (2000–2006) annual average gastroenteritis-coded hospitalization rate among children <5 years of age was 74 per 10 000 (annual range, 71–82 per 10 000), and declined to 51 and 50 per 10 000 in 2008 and 2009, respectively (P < .001). The prevaccine (2000–2006) annual average rotavirus-coded hospitalization rate among children <5 years of age was 15 per 10 000 (annual range, 13–18 per 10 000), and declined to 5 and 6 per 10 000 in 2008 and 2009, respectively (P < .001). The decreases in rotavirus-coded hospitalization rates in 2008 and 2009 compared with rates in prevaccine years were observed among all age groups and US regions. Nationally, during 2008 and 2009 combined, we estimated a reduction of approximately 77 000 diarrhea hospitalizations and approximately $242 million in hospital costs. Conclusions. Since implementation of the US rotavirus vaccination program, a marked reduction in diarrhea hospitalizations and related hospital charges has occurred among US children.
Individual Differences in Adolescent Dating and Adjustment

Individual well-being is intimately bound to experiences in romantic relationships. For many, there is no greater source of happiness and disappointment than romantic relationships (Berscheid & Reis, 1998). Once considered unworthy of serious study because of their fleeting and inconsequential nature, scholars now recognize that early romantic relationships may make significant contributions to individual well-being (Collins, 2003). Adolescent dating involvement is positively associated with severity of mood swings (Larson & Richards, 1984), increases in externalizing problem behaviors (Zimmer-Gembeck, Siebenbruner, & Collins, 2001), and elevated rates of depression (Joyner & Udry, 2000). Paradoxically, there is also evidence that participation in romantic relationships is associated with feelings of positive self-worth (Connolly & Konarski, 1994) and an improved capacity for intimacy (Shulman, Levy-Schiff, Kedem, & Alon, 1997). Adolescents with romantic partners indicate that romantic relationships are one of their closest (Laursen & Williams, 1997) and most conflict-ridden relationships (Laursen, 1995). In their review of the literature, Furman and colleagues (this volume) conclude that romantic relationships proffer risks and benefits to adolescents: concurrent and over-time adjustment varies as a function of dating involvement and romantic experiences such that more short-term dating and earlier participation in romantic relationships predict increases in behavior problems and improvements in social competence. Based on this evidence, one might reasonably assume that romantic relationships uniquely predict adolescent outcomes, a conclusion we reached in the
Ash1 protein, an asymmetrically localized transcriptional regulator, controls filamentous growth and virulence of Candida albicans.

In response to a number of distinct environmental conditions, the fungal pathogen Candida albicans undergoes a morphological transition from a round, yeast form to a series of elongated, filamentous forms. This transition is believed to be critical for virulence in a mouse model of disseminated candidiasis. Here we describe the characterization of C. albicans ASH1, a gene that encodes an asymmetrically localized transcriptional regulatory protein involved in this response. We show that C. albicans ash1 mutants are defective in responding to some filament-inducing conditions. We also show that Ash1p is preferentially localized to daughter cell nuclei in the budding-yeast form of C. albicans cell growth and to the hyphal tip cells in growing filaments. Thus, Ash1p “marks” newly formed cells and presumably directs a specialized transcriptional program in these cells. Finally, we show that ASH1 is required for full virulence of C. albicans in a mouse model of disseminated candidiasis.
Necroptotic signaling in adaptive and innate immunity.

The vertebrate immune system is highly dependent on cell death for efficient responsiveness to microbial pathogens and oncogenically transformed cells. Cell death pathways are vital to the function of many immune cell types during innate, humoral and cellular immune responses. In addition, cell death regulation is imperative for proper adaptive immune self-tolerance and homeostasis. While apoptosis has been found to be involved in several of these roles in immunity, recent data demonstrate that alternative cell death pathways are required. Here, we describe the involvement of a programmed form of cellular necrosis called “necroptosis” in immunity. We consider the signaling pathways that promote necroptosis downstream of death receptors, type I transmembrane proteins of the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptor family. The involvement of necroptotic signaling through a “RIPoptosome” assembled in response to innate immune stimuli or genotoxic stress is described. We also characterize the induction of necroptosis following antigenic stimulation in T cells lacking caspase-8 or FADD function. While necroptotic signaling remains poorly understood, it is clear that this pathway is an essential component to effective vertebrate immunity.
Fat Shame to Fat Pride: Fat Women's Sexual and Dating Experiences

The fat female body is typically not considered attractive or sexual in Western culture. Not surprisingly, the scholarship about fat women's dating and sexual histories is deficient. To address this gap, 36 fat-identified women were interviewed about their body image, involvement in the size acceptance movement, and their dating and sexual histories. Results indicated that most participants felt intense body shame and had unsatisfying sex lives until they began to embody fat pride. Embodiment of fat pride has reportedly diminished feelings of body shame, helped most develop confidence and appreciation of their bodies, and has positively affected their sex lives.
A Phenomenological Approach to the Ego

Of late, the question of the real difference between philosophical analysis and phenomenology has received encouraging attention.18 There are those who think that the two are completely different ways of doing philosophy, phenomenology belonging essentially to the era before the ‘revolution in philosophy’. Others believe that the difference has been vastly exaggerated and that fundamentally there is no practical difference between the two. Personally, I am not ready to side with either view. Instead, I suggest putting the matter to a concrete test which could provide the basis for a meaningful comparison.
On optimal traffic grooming in elemental network topologies

We consider the problem of traffic grooming in WDM path, star, and tree networks. Traffic grooming is a variant of the well-known logical topology design problem, and is concerned with the development of techniques for combining low speed traffic components onto high speed channels in order to minimize network cost. Our contribution is two-fold. In the first part of the paper we settle the complexity of traffic grooming in path and star networks by proving that a number of variants of the problem are computationally hard. Since routing and wavelength assignment in these two topologies is trivial, these results demonstrate that traffic grooming is itself an inherently difficult problem. Our results have implications for ring and other more general topologies, which we explore. In the second part, we design practical grooming algorithms with provable properties. Specifically, for all three topologies, we obtain a series of lower and upper bounds which are increasingly tighter but have considerably higher computational requirements; the series of upper bounds form an algorithm for the traffic grooming problem with strong performance guarantees. We also present corresponding heuristics with good performance. Our work is a first step towards a formal and systematic approach to the grooming problem in general topologies that builds upon results and algorithms for more elementary networks.
Symptom report in detecting breast cancer-related lymphedema

Breast cancer-related lymphedema is a syndrome of abnormal swelling coupled with multiple symptoms resulting from obstruction or disruption of the lymphatic system associated with cancer treatment. Research has demonstrated that with increased number of symptoms reported, breast cancer survivors' limb volume increased. Lymphedema symptoms in the affected limb may indicate a latent stage of lymphedema in which changes cannot be detected by objective measures. The latent stage of lymphedema may exist months or years before overt swelling occurs. Symptom report may play an important role in detecting lymphedema in clinical practice. The purposes of this study were to: 1) examine the validity, sensitivity, and specificity of symptoms for detecting breast cancer-related lymphedema and 2) determine the best clinical cutoff point for the count of symptoms that maximized the sum of sensitivity and specificity. Data were collected from 250 women, including healthy female adults, breast cancer survivors with lymphedema, and those at risk for lymphedema. Lymphedema symptoms were assessed using a reliable and valid instrument. Validity, sensitivity, and specificity were evaluated using logistic regression, analysis of variance, and areas under receiver operating characteristic curves. Count of lymphedema symptoms was able to differentiate healthy adults from breast cancer survivors with lymphedema and those at risk for lymphedema. A diagnostic cutoff of three symptoms discriminated breast cancer survivors with lymphedema from healthy women with a sensitivity of 94% and a specificity of 97% (area under the curve =0.98). A diagnostic cutoff of nine symptoms discriminated at-risk survivors from survivors with lymphedema with a sensitivity of 64% and a specificity of 80% (area under the curve =0.72). In the absence of objective measurements capable of detecting latent stages of lymphedema, count of symptoms may be a cost-effective initial screening tool for detecting lymphedema.
Identification and removal of ribosomal RNA sequences from metatranscriptomes

Summary: Here, we present riboPicker, a robust framework for the rapid, automated identification and removal of ribosomal RNA sequences from metatranscriptomic datasets. The results can be exported for subsequent analysis, and the databases used for the web-based version are updated on a regular basis. riboPicker categorizes rRNA-like sequences and provides graphical visualizations and tabular outputs of ribosomal coverage, alignment results and taxonomic classifications. Availability and implementation: This open-source application was implemented in Perl and can be used as stand-alone version or accessed online through a user-friendly web interface. The source code, user help and additional information is available at http://ribopicker.sourceforge.net/. Contact:rschmied@sciences.sdsu.edu; rschmied@sciences.sdsu.edu Supplementary information:Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Fetal cardiac axis in non-anomalous pregnancies: does fetal gender or maternal body mass index (BMI) matter?

AbstractObjectives: To determine if cardiac axis obtained at an early ultrasound study (11–15 weeks) differs from that obtained at a late ultrasound study (18–22 weeks) in the same fetus and to evaluate the impact of fetal gender and/or maternal body mass index (BMI).Methods: Cardiac axes of 324 non-anomalous fetuses at 11–15 weeks gestation were measured, with follow-up measurements obtained at 18–22 weeks. Comparisons were performed based on gestational age period, fetal gender and obese/non-obese maternal status.Results: (1) Mean fetal cardiac axis did not change between 11 and 15 weeks; p = 0.8, (2) mean fetal cardiac axis was more levorotated at 11–15 weeks than measurements obtained at 18–22 weeks; 48.1 ± 7.1° versus 43.7 ± 8.9°; p < 0.0001, (3) male fetuses had less levorotated cardiac axis than female fetuses in late ultrasound studies but there was no difference between them at early ultrasound studies; 18–22 weeks male fetus, 42.7 ± 9.3° versus female fetus, 45.2 ± 8.3°; p = 0.02 and 11–15 weeks...
Stemodane diterpenoids from Stemodia chilensis

Abstract From the aerial parts of Stemodia chilensis a previously known diterpenoid, 2-deoxy stemodinone, and four new natural substances, 19-acetyloxy-stemodan-13α-ol, 17-acetyloxy-stemodan-13α-ol, stemodan-13α,14α-diol and stemodan-13α-17-diol, have been isolated. The structures of the compounds were elucidated by spectroscopic methods.
Design of a leucine zipper coiled coil stabilized 1.4 kcal mol−1 by phosphorylation of a serine in the e position

Using a dimeric bZIP protein, we have designed a leucine zipper that becomes more stable after a serine in the e position is phosphorylated by protein kinase A (delta delta GP = -1.4 kcal mol-1 dimer-1 or -0.7 kcal mol-1 residue-1). Mutagenesis studies indicate that three arginines form a network of inter-helical (i,i' + 5; i, i' + 2) and intra-helical (i, i + 4) attractive interactions with the phosphorylated serine. When the arginines are replaced with lysines, the stabilizing effect of serine phosphorylation is reduced (delta delta GP = -0.5 kcal mol-1 dimer-1). The hydrophobic interface of the leucine zipper needs a glycine in the d position to obtain an increase in stability after phosphorylation. The phosphorylated protein binds DNA with a 15-fold higher affinity. Using a transient transfection assay, we document a PKA dependent four-fold activation of a reporter gene. Phosphorylation of a threonine in the same e position decreases the stability by delta delta GP = +1.2 kcal mol-1 dimer-1. We present circular dichroism (CD) thermal denaturations of 15 bZIP proteins before and after phosphorylation. These data provide insights into the structural determinants that result in stabilization of a coiled coil by phosphorylation.
ANALYZE: a software system for biomedical image analysis

A comprehensive software package, called ANALYZE, which permits detailed investigation and evaluation of 3D and 4D biomedical images is described. This software can be used with any 3D imaging modality, including X-ray computed tomography, radionuclide emission tomography, ultrasound tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and both light and electron microscopy. The package is powerful in its synergistic integration of fully interactive modules for direct display, manipulation, and measurement of multidimensional image data. Several original algorithms that improve image display efficiency and quality are included. One of these is a versatile and powerful volume rendering algorithm. The inclusion of a variety of editing, quantitative mensuration, and macro design tools significantly extends the usefulness of the software. ANALYZE runs on standard Unix computers without special-purpose hardware. >
Integrated Multilevel Surveillance of the World's Infecting Microbes and Their Resistance to Antimicrobial Agents

Summary: Microbial surveillance systems have varied in their source of support; type of laboratory reporting (patient care or reference); inclusiveness of reports filed; extent of microbial typing; whether single hospital, multihospital, or multicountry; proportion of total medical centers participating; and types, levels, integration across levels, and automation of analyses performed. These surveillance systems variably support the diagnosis and treatment of patients, local or regional infection control, local or national policies and guidelines, laboratory capacity building, sentinel surveillance, and patient safety. Overall, however, only a small fraction of available data are under any surveillance, and very few data are fully integrated and analyzed. Advancing informatics and genomics can make microbial surveillance far more efficient and effective at preventing infections and improving their outcomes. The world's microbiology laboratories should upload their reports each day to programs that detect events, trends, and epidemics in communities, hospitals, countries, and the world.
Electrooxidation of urea at the ruthenium titanium oxide electrode

Urea adsorbs on the ruthenium titanium oxide electrode, depressing the observed current. For artificial kidney dialysate concentrations of urea and NaCl(0.50 kg/m/sup 3/ and 100 mol/m/sup 3/, respectively), the major electrolysis products are N/sub 2/, CO/sub 2/, O/sub 2/, and H/sub 2/, and the reaction mechanism is solution oxidation of urea by anodically generated active chlorine. A nitrogen-yielding direct electrode reaction is observed at high urea concentration (30 kg/m/sup 3/) and low NaCl concentration (10-100 mol/m/sup 3/).
Age considerations when vaccinating against HPV

Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines have been shown to be both highly effective and safe, and there is now considerable enthusiasm among healthcare providers to use the vaccines to reduce the burden of HPV-associated disease in women. When considering who should be vaccinated, it is important that providers understand the complex relationships between age and HPV infections. HPV infections and cervical cancer have a widespread impact on society. Cervical cancer is the cause of a significant amount of morbidity and mortality throughout the world, making it crucial to implement prophylactic HPV vaccines to prevent cervical cancer. Nationally, the target group for vaccination is pre-adolescent females who have not been sexually active or who have recently become sexually active. In the United States, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommends HPV vaccination for females aged 11 to 12 years. "Catch-up" vaccination of females aged 13 to 26 years who have not been previously vaccinated or who have missed a vaccination is also recommended, as females within this age group have the highest prevalence of HPV infection. Vaccination can still benefit females over the age of 26 years who have not been previously exposed to HPV 6, 11, 16, or 18 and those who may have new sexual partners in the future. This review discusses the various considerations that should be addressed when making recommendations of who should be vaccinated against HPV.
What Was the EEA Really Like

Evolutionary Anthropologists and Psychologists often say that humans evolved our characteristic adaptations in the Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness, those past environments that furnished the selection pressures that shaped our brains and bodies. This is true by definition, but when and where were these environments and what were they like are open questions. It is often said, carelessly, that the Pleistocene was the EEA and that human hunter-gatherers were shaped by “the” environment over the past 2 million years. Living hunter-gathers like the San, the Ache, and the Inuit are often taken to be representative of what the EEA produced. This conventional picture does not look much like what the Pleistocene and adaptations to it were really like, insofar as we can infer from what little paleoanthropologists and paleoecologists can tell us. First, Pleistocene environments were very variable and the pattern of variability changed dramatically over the course of the Pleistocene. Adaptations of Homo erectus and related Lower Pleistocene hominins might have been very different from later form in the Middle and Late Pleistocene. Second, even late Pleistocene H. sapiens populations mostly made fairly simple Middle Paleolithic stone tools not accompanied by any art or other symbolic artifacts. Third, H. sapiens populations in West Eurasia, and perhaps our H. neandertalensis relatives in the same region, began making fancy Upper Paleolithic toolkits about 40,000 years ago in the middle of the last glacial. Earlier H. sapiens populations in Africa very occasionally made intermediate toolkits in short episodes. But the African pioneers who swept eastward into Asia and Australia seemed to have made comparatively Middle Paleolithic simple tools until very late in time. Fifth, We know next to nothing about the social organization of any Pleistocene peoples. Sixth, Last Glacial people appear to have been highly carnivorous. In the Holocene, most human populations soon switched to plant intensive diets, leading in some populations to agriculture. Populations became denser and more highly organized socially. These changes gave rise to a number of genetic changes as people adjusted to an environment that had been transformed by culture. Seventh, contemporary modern civilization is probably leading to ongoing selection on genes. Welcome to the EEA! We’re still in it.
A Research Note on Post-Dating Relationships: The Social Embeddedness of Redefining Romantic Couplings

This is an exploratory, descriptive study of relationship redefinition. Using symbolic interaction theory, this paper examines the contours of post-dating relationships, asking the following questions: 1) how do people orient themselves to one another after a dating reltaionship ends?; and, 2) what is the power dynamic between one's social network and his or her post-dating relationship? Using a snowball sample (N = 30), interview data are analyzed as narratives about the respondents' construction of post-dating relationships. Until recently, research has focused on postdivorce relationships and has characterized these as maladaptive (Weiss 1975; Spanier and Casto 1979; Berman 1985). This study joins recent research which suggests that relationships between former spouses or lovers may satisfy legitimate needs such as friendship, shared history, and extended social networks (Metts, Cupach and Bejlovec 1989; Aydintug 1995).
PREFERRED SCHEMES FOR MULTIPLE ORBIT TRANSFER

A mathematical structure is formulated and used to obtain the preferred sequence of orbits visited for a multiple orbit maneuver between m given coplanar circular orbits. Various constraints are placed on the initial and final orbits visited, and it is assumed that each transfer mode is accomplished via a Hohmann maneuver. The criterion used to extract the class of preferred schemes from the totality of transfer schemes is that the velocity required to perform the maneuver be minimized; phasing considerations are neglected. Although under certain conditions a unique optimal procedure is obtained, in general, the class of possible transfer schemes between m orbits with typical constraints is reduced from m — 1! to 2~, preferred schemes. An example of the former arises when the initial orbit visited is the innermost; then all other orbits must be visited, and the final orbit is unconstrained. An example of the latter occurs when it is required to start at the innermost orbit, visit all the other orbits, and then return to the innermost orbit. The mathematical results obtained are developed as a series of theorems, lemmas, and corollaries in order to facilitate application to other problem areas.
Algebraic Function Fields on Complex Analytic Spaces

It has turned out that the theory of holomorphic mappings of complex spaces as developed by R. Remmert and K. Stein (see [13], [24], [25], [26], [27], [29], [34], [35], [36], [37], for a different approach see E. Bishop [6], H. Rossi [30]) is an excellent tool in exploring the relationship between algebraic and analytic dependence of meromorphic functions (see for instance [26], [27], [34], [37]). The purpose of the present paper is to describe some applications of the mapping theory in this direction.
Can We Survive Science? - Steve Fuller's Humanity 2.0 - Book Review

The founding fathers of sociology, such as Auguste Comte and Saint Simon, had a close engagement with debates and research in biology. Comte, for example, argued that it was by modeling itself on the holistic framework of biology that sociology could emerge as a scientific discipline and at the same time contribute to the revolutionary development of society. France was to be at the center of both revolutions in science and society (Gane 2006:3). Emile Durkheim (1951, 1958) and his generation thought in terms of medical metaphors such as “social pathology” to describe crime and deviance or the malfunctioning of social groups. In Suicide, the notion of anomie is an illustration of social pathology which he also developed in The Rules of Sociological Method. Ideas from evolutionary biology also entered into early sociology through the theories of Charles Darwin and primarily through the general impact of Herbert Spencer on early sociology. Spencer’s influence was fundamental to 19th-century sociology. The quest to create a science of society is neatly described by Daniel Breslau (2007:42–43) in his account of “The American Spencerians” when he notes that the “early sociologists were not interested in a sociology that looked like the natural sciences but in a natural science about society.” From these opening remarks, we can conclude that 19th-century sociologists closely followed developments in the natural sciences and that evolutionary biology provided an appropriate route toward “a natural science about society.”
Genetic Diagnosis of 120 Suspected Cases with Duchenne/Becker Muscular Dystrophy

Objective Genetic diagnosis of 120 cases of suspected Duchenne/Becker muscular dystrophy(DMD/BMD) were carried out to investigate the distribution of DMD gene deletion within populations in Yunnan province.Methods Multiplex polymerase chain reaction(mPCR) was applied for deletion analysis of 18 exons of DMD gene with higher deletion frequency in 120 cases of suspected DMD/BMD(male,aged from 1 month to 14 years) who visited the Genetic Diagnosis Center of the First People′s Hospital of Yunnan Province from Jan.2004 to Mar.2010.Distribution of DMD gene exon deletion was summarized consequently.Results Sixty-one of 120 cases had detected DMD exon deletions.Further analysis showed that 18.97% of gene exon deletions located in 5′-flanking region,81.03% located in central region.Thirty-two cases of 59 cases who had not been detected exon deletion were subjected to follow-up.Among them,24 cases were diagnosed as DMD according to clinical manifestation and laboratory data,DMD could be excluded for the rest 8 cases.Furthermore,27 cases of 59 cases who had not been detected exon deletion were unavailable for follow-up or could not be diagnosed as DMD.Conclusion Exon deletion occurred mostly in the central region of DMD gene within populations in Yunnan province.Clinical follow-up plays an important role in clinical diagnosis of suspected cases of DMD/BMD after genetic test.
Development of Antibiotic and Disinfectant Hand Cleaner with Skin-cared Effect

This article introduces the development of antibiotic and disinfectant hand cleaner with skin-cared effect, on the precondition of its disinfectant effect, by treating with contents of trace of copper sulfate, dramatically enhancing the effectiveness of disinfection in cationic surfactants with cetylpyridinium chloride, and avoiding treating with other special sterilizations for disinfection. By duplicating surfactants matching under mild conditions and restricting the amount of surfactants, it helps to reduce the harm that hand cleaner does to the skin, treated with skin-cared constituents of aloe extract for skin restoration moisture keeping. With the ideal effects including bacterium killing, skin cared and decontaminant, the hand cleaner can be universally applied and reliable for long term use.
Studies on Amphibian Metamorphosis: XVI. The Development of Forelimb Opercular Perforations in Rana temporaria AND Bufo bufo

(1) Opercular integument, homoplastically transplanted to the back and side of R. temporaria larvae, underwent a process of partial degeneration. The histolysis was not confined to any localized region of the transplant. (2) Autoplastic transplantation of opercular integument to the back and side produced a variety of results. Normal histological structure was maintained in certain transplants, generalized degeneration was observed in others, while in several instances localized histolysis resulting in perforation formation occurred. (3) Homoplastic and autoplastic transplantation of back and side skin to the opercular region resulted in histolysis and perforation formation in such transplants during larval involution. (4) The right forelimbs (in early stages of development) with attached portions of the shoulder girdle were extirpated in R. temporaria and B. bufo . During subsequent metamorphosis, normal opercular histolysis followed by perforation formation in many cases was observed. In most instances, serial sections of the peribranchial cavity revealed the absence of cutaneous glands. (5) Extirpation of the right forelimb only was made in the same two species. Opercular histolysis subsequently occurred in all instances, resulting in perforation formation in the great majority of cases during larval involution. In many of the B. bufo animals two separate perforations developed, one filled with limb stump and the other with gill tissue. (6) It is concluded that in R. temporaria a particular area of the operculum may in some individuals possess self-degenerative potentialities conducive to histolysis and perforation formation during metamorphosis. In both R. temporaria and B. bufo histolytic influences emanating from the atrophying gill tissue and the cutaneous glands of the forelimb are probably also responsible for opercular histolysis and perforation formation. Limb pressure must be considered a supplemental factor. (7) The results are discussed in general and attention called to the fact that opercular histolysis and perforation formation are "doubly assured" in some species and possibly even "triply assured" in others. Emphasis is placed on the evidently wide divergence between species as regards the particular combination of factors responsible for opercular histolysis and perforation formation. Apparently, no one explanation can serve to account for the phenomenon as it occurs in various species of anurans.
Preventing risky sexual behavior in adolescents

Preventing risky sexual health behavior in adolescents has become a critical focus among public health professionals, educators, and policy makers in the USA, and for good reason. Risky sexual behavior contributes to unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV/AIDS. Such outcomes are highly related to the overall physical, social/emotional, academic, and economic well-being of adolescents, children born to teens, and society as a whole. This chapter addresses the prevention of risky sexual health behavior in adolescents in four sections. In the first section, we summarize the epidemiology of risky sexual behavior among adolescents, focusing on statistics of adolescent pregnancy, STIs, and HIV/AIDS in the USA, and the economic and social costs of risky adolescent sexual behavior. In the second section, we discuss the relationship between risky sexual behavior and behavioral theory and why maintaining a focus on behavioral theory in prevention programming is critical. In the third section, we identify venues where interventions designed to prevent risky sexual behavior among adolescents can be implemented, including schools, community settings, and clinical settings, and provide examples of evidence-based programs designed to be implemented in each of these settings. In the fourth and final section, we present recommendations for future prevention programming, provide guidance on developing effective programs, and list helpful resources for planning prevention programs, including planning frameworks such as intervention mapping, RE-AIM, and PRECEDE-PROCEED.
Right Ventricular Pacing–Induced Hemodynamic Compromise in a Patient With a Left Ventricular Assist Device

A 56-year-old man with an end-stage ischemic cardiomyopathy and a HeartWare left ventricular assist device (VAD) presented to the hospital with multifocal pneumonia. His medical history was notable for paroxysmal atrial fibrillation, sinus node dysfunction, and ventricular tachycardia treated with a dual-chamber Boston Scientific implantable cardioverter defibrillator. His recent and current hospitalizations were notable for a series of alarms for inadequate VAD flows for which no explanation had been found. At baseline, the patient was pacemaker dependent because of sinus node dysfunction. While admitted to the cardiac intensive care unit, occasional ventricular ectopy was recorded that resulted in subsequent right ventricular (RV) pacing (Figure 1). These paroxysms of RV pacing were associated with significant hemodynamic compromise (Figure 2) including a decrease in the systemic blood pressure, pulse pressure, pulsatility index, and flow estimation recorded by the VAD control module and an increase in the central venous pressure with the development of prominent v waves. Transthoracic echocardiography performed during atrial and RV pacing demonstrated significant worsening of tricuspid regurgitation (TR). These hemodynamic metrics (including TR severity) improved with cessation of RV pacing. Figure 1. Atrial and ventricular pacing. A , Intracardiac implantable cardioverter defibrillator recordings of the atrial channel ( top ), ventricular channel ( middle ), and far-field …
MEMS applications in optical systems

We describe progress in the development of micro-optomechanical components which are compatible with MEMS and integrated circuit processing. Devices which have been developed include polygon and diffraction grating scanners, tunable laser diodes, tunable IR filters, and optical waveguides.
Hardware-in-the-loop model-less diagnostic test generation

Iterative scan diagnosis is often needed for both the first silicon and the hard-to-diagnose chips. The chips in question are extracted from wafers and re-tested on a debug platform to arrive at a reasonable number of probable defect candidates that can be physically analyzed. This requires a large setup time and multiple iterations of deterministic diagnostic test pattern generation and application. In every iteration, offline software tools are used to diagnose observed failures and generate the needed new patterns to prune the list of defect candidates. In this paper, we propose an online approach for generating additional diagnostic patterns for the hard-to-diagnose chips without moving them to the debug platform. We generate these patterns directly on the tester through a fault model independent hardware-in-the-loop evolutionary algorithm. This algorithm is guided by a lightweight fitness metric that is solely based on the mismatches observed by applying the newly generated patterns to a pair of circuits consisting of a known good die and the chip being diagnosed. We evaluated our technique by comparing our results against a state-of-the-art commercial diagnostic pattern generation tool. Using our generated patterns, we were able to match the diagnosis quality of the commercial tool, while incurring significantly less runtime than the commercial tool on average. Our technique also eliminates the setup and other overhead costs of offline iterative diagnosis, which amounts to additional time savings.
Evaluating Smartphone Pressure Observations for Mesoscale Analyses and Forecasts

AbstractSmartphone pressure observations have the potential to greatly increase surface observation density on convection-resolving scales. Currently available smartphone pressure observations are tested through assimilation in a mesoscale ensemble for a 3-day, convectively active period in the eastern United States. Both raw pressure (altimeter) observations and 1-h pressure (altimeter) tendency observations are considered. The available observation density closely follows population density, but observations are also available in rural areas. The smartphone observations are found to contain significant noise, which can limit their effectiveness. The assimilated smartphone observations contribute to small improvements in 1-h forecasts of surface pressure and 10-m wind, but produce larger errors in 2-m temperature forecasts. Short-term (0–4 h) precipitation forecasts are improved when smartphone pressure and pressure tendency observations are assimilated as compared with an ensemble that assimilates no ob...
The Nondiscrimination Obligation of Immigration and Nationality Act Section 202(A)(1)(A)

The nondiscrimination obligation of INA Sec 202(a)(1)(A) entered the law in 1965 as part of a larger Congressional repudiation of the executive branch's claim to flexibility and discretion in the issuance of immigrant visas. The administration had specifically claimed the discretion to direct immigrant visas to Western European countries potentially disadvantaged by the abolition of national origin quotas. Congress eliminated this discretion and, in the same substitute bill, reserved the power to create categories of immigrant admission to itself. Congress reinforced that power by directing the executive branch to administer visa categories without favoring countries or races. The nondiscrimination obligation thus rules out some of the more extravagant recent claims for executive authority unilaterally to alter immigration law.
Discovery of scmR as a global regulator of secondary metabolism and virulence in Burkholderia thailandensis E264.

Bacteria produce a diverse array of secondary metabolites that have been invaluable in the clinic and in research. These metabolites are synthesized by dedicated biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs), which assemble architecturally complex molecules from simple building blocks. The majority of BGCs in a given bacterium are not expressed under normal laboratory growth conditions, and our understanding of how they are silenced is in its infancy. Here, we have addressed this question in the Gram-negative model bacterium Burkholderia thailandensis E264 using genetic, transcriptomic, metabolomic, and chemical approaches. We report that a previously unknown, quorum-sensing-controlled LysR-type transcriptional regulator, which we name ScmR (for secondary metabolite regulator), serves as a global gatekeeper of secondary metabolism and a repressor of numerous BGCs. Transcriptionally, we find that 13 of the 20 BGCs in B. thailandensis are significantly (threefold or more) up- or down-regulated in a scmR deletion mutant ( ΔscmR) . Metabolically, the ΔscmR strain displays a hyperactive phenotype relative to wild type and overproduces a number of compound families by 18- to 210-fold, including the silent virulence factor malleilactone. Accordingly, the ΔscmR mutant is hypervirulent both in vitro and in a Caenorhabditis elegans model in vivo. Aside from secondary metabolism, ScmR also represses biofilm formation and transcriptionally activates ATP synthesis and stress response. Collectively, our data suggest that ScmR is a pleiotropic regulator of secondary metabolism, virulence, biofilm formation, and other stationary phase processes. A model for how the interplay of ScmR with pathway-specific transcriptional regulators coordinately silences virulence factor production is proposed.
The Visual Effects Arsenal: VFX Solutions for the Independent Filmmaker

Build your VFX arsenal with quick-access, step-by-step instruction on how to create today's hottest digital VFX shots. This essential toolkit provides techniques for creating effects seen in movies such as 300, Spiderman 3, Predator and others, with lessons on how-to:* splatter blood or digitally lop someone's arm off* create a scene with actors running from an explosion* create the "twin effect" (same actor, same location, 2 performances)* produce space-ship dog fightsOrganized in a 'cookbook' style, this allows you to reference a certain effect in the index and immediately access concise instructions to create that effect. Techniques are demonstrated in each of the most popular software tools- After Effects, Final Cut Studio, Photoshop, and Combustion are all covered. Brilliant, 4-color presentation provides inspiration and stimulating visual guidance to the lessons presented, while the companion DVD contains project media files enabling you to put concepts learned into immediate practice. * 4-color, step-by-step instruction for producing today's hottest digital VFX shots * VFX techniques are presented in each of the most popular software tools* Companion DVD features project media files allowing you to immediately implement techniques learned
An Investigation of “Bizarre” Imagery as a Mnemonic Device

The present study was designed to examine the role of bizarre mental imagery as a mnemonic device in the learning of 2 serial verbal lists. This was accomplished through the use of various instruction conditions, i.e., free learning (FL), paired-associate learning (PA), and mnemonic techniques (MN). In addition, number of stimulus lists and type of material to be learned were investigated. The instructions and test materials were presented in printed form to a group of 179 introductory psychology students. The results indicated that the mnemonic instruction condition facilitated performance when compared with the other conditions. No significant effects were found for number of stimulus lists or type of material. Support for the use of bizarre mental imagery in mnemonic systems for the learning of serial verbal lists is presented.
Mark Millar. Global Supply Chain Ecosystems: Strategies for Competitive Advantage in a Complex, Connected World. London, England: Kogan Page Limited (2015) pp. 288

Successfully managing distribution is a principal role of management and often considered the greatest way to achieve a competitive advantage. Two primary issues contribute to the importance of dis...