cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
“My Country is the World!” Margaret Coghlan’s Revolutionary Memoirs

The Memoirs of Mrs. Coghlan has been neglected in many studies of “scandalous memoirs” due to uncertainty about the authorship. I authenticate Coghlan’s authorship and argue that she made a significant contribution to this subgenre. While previous women had alluded to politicians and national issues in their appeal memoirs, Coghlan integrates anecdotes and partisan commentary about both the American and French Revolutions into the structure of the subgenre, creating a hybrid: a political scandalous memoir. By tracing how the political context shaped her development and misfortunes, she personalizes the political and politicizes the personal. She therefore forged a path for later “scandalous” memoirists, mapping pitfalls as well as successful avenues for engaging political controversies.
An Ode to the Missive-Writer of the Law Review Rejection

Law and rejection go hand in hand. Litigators must explain to their clients why a claim failed and transaction attorneys describe why a deal fell through. Communicating failure has become a trade par excellence in the study of law. This short piece suggests that the rhetorical tradition of the love sonnet may be helpful in unpacking the mechanics of how communicating legal rejections can be improved. Drawing on exhaustive empirical study of the author’s personal law review rejection letter, for which the author has many, this short piece provides a detailed study of human cognitive emotions at the intersection of labor-based rejection.
Transvenous Lead Extraction in Chronic Kidney Disease and Dialysis Patients With Infected Cardiac Devices.

Background: Cardiac implantable electronic device infections have been on the rise. A high-risk population is that with renal disease, especially dialysis. We aimed to assess procedural profiles and clinical outcomes of transvenous lead extraction for cardiac implantable electronic device infection based on renal disease status. Methods and Results: In 1420 consecutive patients undergoing transvenous lead extraction of infected cardiac implantable electronic devices (1996–2012), we assessed procedural profiles and clinical outcomes in 3 groups: normal renal function (group 1, n=1159), renal dysfunction not requiring dialysis (group 2, n=163), and dialysis (group 3, n=98). A total of 3182 infected leads were extracted. Dialysis patients had shorter lead dwell times and were less likely to require transvenous lead extraction tools but as likely to require femoral workstations. There were higher overall rates of procedure-related complications in dialysis patients (12% versus ≈6% in nondialysis) with no difference in the major complication rates ( P =not significant). Complete procedural success rates were 94%, 96%, and 94% in groups 1, 2, and 3, respectively ( P =not significant). There were 4 intraprocedural deaths in group 1 versus none in groups 2 and 3. Mortality rates were significantly higher in dialysis patients both at 1 and 6 months ( P Conclusions: In patients with cardiac implantable electronic device infection, dialysis status did not seem to add complexity to transvenous lead extraction but was independently associated with increased mortality at 1 and 6 months.
Optimal energy storage siting and sizing: A WECC case study

The large-scale integration of grid-scale energy storage and the increasing penetration of renewable resources motivate the development of techniques for determining the optimal ratings and locations of storage devices. This paper proposes a method for identifying the sites where energy storage systems should be located to perform spatio-temporal energy arbitrage most effectively and the optimal size of these systems. This method takes a centralized perspective where the objective is to minimize the sum of the expected operating cost and the investment cost of energy storage. It has been tested on a realistic 240-bus 448-line model of the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC) interconnection. The influence on the results of the following parameters is analyzed: Maximum number of storage locations, maximum size of storage systems, capital cost of deploying storage, value assigned to spillage of renewable energy, marginal cost of conventional generation, and renewable generation capacity. These numerical results are used to characterize the benefits that energy storage can provide in prospective large-scale power systems with renewable generation.
Transient pausing by RNA polymerase II.

RNA polymerase II (Pol II) elongation control is utilized during transcription of most metazoan genes (1). Polymerases that successfully initiate must first break contacts with initiation factors and then interact with elongation factors including the DRB sensitivity-inducing factor (DSIF) and the negative elongation factor (NELF). This leads to a reduction of the elongation rate due to an increase in pausing. The stage is now set for positive transcription elongation factor b (P-TEFb) to phosphorylate DSIF, which, in turn, leads to the loss of NELF, association of the PAF1 complex, and the onset of productive elongation. Although it is clear that paused Pol II is found in promoter-proximal regions of most expressed genes in metazoan cells, a controversy has arisen concerning how long paused polymerases remain engaged. The prevailing view is that paused Pol II is relatively stable. However, the findings presented in PNAS by Steurer et al. (2) call this view into question. They generated a human cell line solely expressing GFP-tagged Pol II and then used fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) to identify and characterize four distinguishable kinetic states for Pol II. Besides the very rapid recovery due to diffusion of free Pol II, they found three bound states, each with about an order of magnitude slower recovery than the preceding one. These kinetic states were assigned to initiation, pausing, and productive elongation by observing how well-characterized compounds affected the FRAP measurements. Steurer et al. (2) used computational modeling of the FRAP data to calculate the residence time for Pol II in each of the three bound states, as well as the fraction of each state that progresses into the next state (Fig. 1). They found that in normal untreated cells, Pol II spends, on average, 2.4 s interacting with the promoter. About 90% of these polymerases dissociate because … [↵][1]1Email: david-price{at}uiowa.edu. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1
Clickable prodrugs bearing potent and hydrolytically cleavable nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase inhibitors

Purpose Our previous study indicated that carborane containing small-molecule 1-(hydroxymethyl)-7-(4'-(trans-3″-(3'″-pyridyl)acrylamido)butyl)-1,7-dicarbadodecaborane (hm-MC4-PPEA), was a potent inhibitor of nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (Nampt). Nampt has been shown to be upregulated in most cancers and is a promising target for the treatment of many different types of cancers, including breast cancers. Patients and methods To increase the selectivity of hm-MC4-PPEA toward cancer cells, three prodrugs were synthesized with different hydrolyzable linkers: ester, carbonate, and carbamate. Using click chemistry a fluorophore was attached to these prodrugs to act as a model for our conjugation strategy and to serve as an aid for prodrug stability studies. The stabilities of these drug conjugates were tested in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) at normothermia (37°C) using three different pH levels, 5.5, 7.5, and 9.5, as well as in horse serum at physiological pH. The stability of each was monitored using reversed-phase HPLC equipped with both diode array and fluorescence detection. The inhibitory activity of hm-MC4-PPEA was also measured using a commercially available colorimetric assay. The biological activities of the drug conjugates as well as those of the free drug (hm-MC4-PPEA), were evaluated using the MTT assay against the human breast cancer cell lines T47D and MCF7, as well as the noncancerous, transformed, Nampt-dependent human breast epithelium cell line 184A1. Results hm-MC4-PPEA showed to be a potent inhibitor of recombinant Nampt activity, exhibiting an IC50 concentration of 6.8 nM. The prodrugs showed great stability towards hydrolytic degradation under neutral, mildly acidic and mildly basic conditions. The carbamate prodrug also showed to be stable in rat serum. However, the carbonate and the ester prodrug release at various rates in serum presumably owing to the presence of several different classes of esterase. The biological activities of the drug conjugates correlate with the stability of their cleavable linkers observed in serum. Conclusion The targeted and selective delivery of potent Nampt inhibitors to cancer cells is a potentially new route for the treatment of many cancers. These prodrugs linked to small cancer-associated peptides may be optimum for their use as targetable Nampt inhibitors.
Cytodynamics of Rat Lung in Response to Freund's Adjuvant·

This study is part of a larger series related to the origin of the alveolar macrophage and the responsivity of alveolar cells to injected and inhaled stimuli. Alveolar epithelial proliferation has been measured by use of tritiated thymidine in rats which had received one or two injections of Freund’s adjuvant. An increase in the rate of DNA synthesis accompanied the proliferative response. Histological and ultrastructural observations are summarized briefly. A similar increase in numbers of alveolar epithelial cells entering mitosis is reported following inhalation of about 25 or 50 µg Fe2O3 dust.
New Insights into the Contribution of Arterial NCX to the Regulation of Myogenic Tone and Blood Pressure

Plasma membrane protein Na+/Ca2+ exchanger (NCX) in vascular smooth muscle (VSM) cells plays an important role in intracellular Ca2+ homeostasis, Ca2+ signaling, and arterial contractility. Recent evidence in intact animals reveals that VSM NCX type 1 (NCX1) is importantly involved in the control of arterial blood pressure (BP) in the normal state and in hypertension. Increased expression of vascular NCX1 has been implicated in human primary pulmonary hypertension and several salt-dependent hypertensive animal models. Our aim is to determine the molecular and physiological mechanisms by which vascular NCX influences vasoconstriction and BP normally and in salt-dependent hypertension. Here, we describe the relative contribution of VSM NCX1 to Ca2+ signaling and arterial contraction, including recent data from transgenic mice (NCX1smTg/Tg, overexpressors; NCX1sm−/−, knockouts) that has begun to elucidate the specific contributions of NCX to BP regulation. Arterial contraction and BP correlate with the level of NCX1 expression in smooth muscle: NCX1sm−/− mice have decreased arterial myogenic tone (MT), vasoconstriction, and low BP. NCX1smTg/Tg mice have high BP and are more sensitive to salt; their arteries exhibit upregulated transient receptor potential canonical channel 6 (TRPC6) protein, increased MT, and vasoconstriction. These observations suggest that NCX is a key component of certain distinct signaling pathways that activate VSM contraction in response to stretch (i.e., myogenic response) and to activation of certain G-protein-coupled receptors. Arterial NCX expression and mechanisms that control the local (sub-plasma membrane) Na+ gradient, including cation-selective receptor-operated channels containing TRPC6, regulate arterial Ca2+ and constriction, and thus BP.
‘Visages Villages: documenting creative collaboration’

Visages Villages (2017), co-directed by Agnes Varda and photographer JR, is a performative, poetic documentary structured around the pair’s creation of portraits of ordinary people in the far-flung...
Association of Peer Influence and Access to Tobacco Products With U.S. Youths' Support of Tobacco 21 Laws, 2015.

Abstract Purpose Tobacco 21 (T21) is a population-based strategy to prevent tobacco initiation. A majority of U.S. youths support T21; however, the extent to which individual, interpersonal, and community factors influence T21 support is uncertain. This study explored predictors of T21 support among U.S. youth. Methods We analyzed data from the 2015 National Youth Tobacco Survey (n = 17,683) to assess the association of peer influence and access to tobacco products on T21 support. We used multivariable logistic regression to calculate adjusted odds ratios (aORs) with 95% confidence intervals for T21 support. For tobacco nonusers, the model included peer influence along with covariates including sex, age, race/ethnicity, household tobacco use, and perceived harm. For tobacco users, the model included tobacco access sources (direct purchase, social sources, and other means), the aforementioned covariates, and tobacco product type. Results Among nonusers, students least receptive to peer influence (aOR = 2.5), those youngest in age (11–14 years, aOR = 2.3), and those who believe tobacco is dangerous (aOR = 2.5) had higher odds of T21 support. Among users, lower odds of T21 support were observed among those who purchased tobacco (aOR = .3) and accessed tobacco through social sources (aOR = .7) or other means (aOR = .6) in the past 30 days. Younger tobacco users (11–14 years, aOR = 2.2), black, non-Hispanic users (aOR = 3.8), e-cigarette users (aOR = 2.5), and users who believe that tobacco is dangerous (aOR = 2.8) had higher odds of T21 support. Conclusions Low receptivity to peer influence and lack of access to tobacco products are associated with T21 support. Results underscore that T21 implementation may require a social-ecological approach.
Neoadjuvant chemotherapy versus upfront resection in ampullary adenocarcinoma stratified by stage: A retrospective analysis using the national cancer database.

318Background: Outcomes of a neoadjuvant therapy (NAT) strategy to treat ampullary adenocarcinoma (AAC) are unclear. Upfront resection (UR) (typically pancreaticoduodenectomy) with or without adjuv...
The SIZ of Pain.

The site of action potential initiation in sensory neurons remains poorly understood. In this issue of Neuron, Goldstein et al. (2019) identified the location of the sodium-dependent spike initiation zone (Nav-SIZ) in nociceptive neurons, showing its plasticity under inflammatory conditions.
Mycobacterium tuberculosis LipE Has a Lipase/Esterase Activity and Is Important for Intracellular Growth and In Vivo Infection.

ABSTRACT Mycobacterium tuberculosis Rv3775 (LipE) was annotated as a putative lipase. However, its lipase activity has never been characterized, and its precise role in tuberculosis (TB) pathogenesis has not been thoroughly studied to date. We overexpressed and purified the recombinant LipE (rLipE) protein and demonstrated that LipE has a lipase/esterase activity. rLipE prefers medium-chain ester substrates, with the maximal activity on hexanoate. Its activity is the highest at 40°C and pH 9. We determined that rLipE hydrolyzes trioctanoate. Using site-directed mutagenesis, we confirmed that the predicted putative activity triad residues Ser97, Gly342, and His363 are essential for the lipase activity of rLipE. The expression of the lipE gene was induced under stressed conditions mimicking M. tuberculosis’ intracellular niche. The gene-disrupting mutation of lipE led to significantly reduced bacterial growth inside THP-1 cells and human peripheral blood mononuclear cell-derived macrophages and attenuated M. tuberculosis infection in mice (with ∼8-fold bacterial load reduction in mouse lungs). Our data suggest that LipE functions as a lipase and is important for M. tuberculosis intracellular growth and in vivo infection.
Is Immediate Lymphatic Reconstruction Cost-effective?

Mini We conducted a cost-utility analysis to evaluate the cost and quality of life of patients undergoing axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) and ALND with regional lymph node radiation (RLNR), with and without lymphatic microsurgical preventive healing approach (LYMPHA), in a node-positive breast cancer population. We found that the addition of LYMPHA to both ALND or ALND with RLNR is more cost-effective. Objective This manuscript is the first to employ rigorous methodological criteria to critically appraise a surgical preventative technique for breast cancer-related lymphedema from a cost-utility standpoint. Summary of Background Data Breast cancer-related lymphedema is a well-documented complication of breast cancer survivors in the US. In this study, we conduct a cost-utility analysis to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of the LYMPHA. Methods Lymphedema rates after each of the following surgical options: (1) ALND, (2) ALND + LYMPHA, (3) ALND + RLNR, (4) ALND + RLNR + LYMPHA were extracted from a recently published meta-analysis. Procedural costs were calculated using Medicare reimbursement rates. Average utility scores were obtained for each health state using a visual analog scale, then converted to quality-adjusted life years (QALYs). A decision tree was generated and incremental cost-utility ratios (ICUR) were calculated. Multiple sensitivity analyses were performed to evaluate our findings. Results ALND with LYMPHA was more cost-effective with an ICUR of $1587.73/QALY. In the decision tree rollback analysis, a clinical effectiveness gain of 1.35 QALY justified an increased incremental cost of $2140. Similarly, the addition of LYMPHA to ALND with RLNR was more cost-effective with an ICUR of $699.84/QALY. In the decision tree rollback analysis, a clinical effectiveness gain of 2.98 QALY justified a higher incremental cost of $2085.00. Conclusions Our study supports that the addition of LYMPHA to both ALND or ALND with RLNR is the more cost-effective treatment option.
Libraries, Lectures, and Talk Shows: Some Russian Internet Resources for Research, Teaching, and Learning

Ethnocentrism affects perception and choices, and scholars, teachers, and students may not see or seek the “global” in our “global information revolution,” especially in such vast monolingual socia...
HYPOXIA-INDUCED BRAIN ANGIOGENESIS Signals and Consequences

The energy requirements of the brain are large and immediate. The need to deliver adequate oxygen and glucose and to remove carbon dioxide specifies the vascular architecture. Taken as a whole, the metabolic demand of the brain is fairly constant during natural functions including wakefulness and sleep. Matched against this constant central demand is the varying cardiac output that serves the changing systemic needs that vary with physical activity. This major autoregulatory function occurs at the level of the larger brain vessels which act to keep brain blood flow constant despite wide systemic swings in cardiac output and blood pressure. Although overall brain blood flow is relatively constant, local and regional brain flow must be characterized as both spatially and temporally heterogeneous. An additional important constraint is that central nervous system neurons are vulnerable to oxidative damage from reactive oxygen species, and, therefore, lower exposure to oxygen is more compatible with long term continuance of function. Thus, normal brain function appears to occur with very low levels of tissue oxygen in brain regions that are not active. Once activated, however, blood flow to these regions becomes elevated while activity persists. The challenge for the cerebrovascular control mechanisms, then, is to maintain a low oxygen cellular milieu during quiescence, but rapidly provide a high oxygen supply during transient periods of neuronal activation. This latter task becomes more difficult in a low ambient oxygen environment.
An Application of Bayesian Regression in Ergonomics

Statistics plays an important part in almost all disciplines, including applied ergonomics and human factors. Majority of applied ergonomics literature uses the classical or frequentist statistical methods, and the applications of Bayesian statistical methods in applied ergonomics has been quite limited. This is possibly due to two reasons: (i) the discipline of applied ergonomics is relatively new, dating back to WWI, and (ii) computationally intensive nature of Bayesian solutions. In other disciplines, Bayesian statistical methods have become quite popular. The purpose of this article is to introduce Bayesian regression modeling to the research area of applied ergonomics, via a dataset from ergonomics research.
Acute Pulmonary Dysfunction Immediately After Cesarean Delivery Under General Anesthesia

A woman with known von Willebrand (vW) disease type 2b presented with vaginal bleeding at 38 and 2/7 weeks of gestation for repeat cesarean section. Prior to surgery she received exogenous, structurally normal vW factor in the form of Humate-P, which contains both factor 8 and vW factor. She was unintentionally overloaded with fluid prior to the induction of general anesthesia and suffered acute pulmonary dysfunction immediately after delivery, perhaps due to heart failure caused by fluid overload and light anesthesia. Incipient mainstem intubation was ruled out since it is often misdiagnosed as “bronchospasm.” She was treated with diuretics and by deepening the anesthesia and she rapidly recovered. vW disease types 1 and 3 involve an insufficient quantity of structurally normal vW factor, whereas type 2 disease involves structurally abnormal vW factor. DDAVP, which releases stored vW factor from vascular endothelium, should probably not be used in vW disease type 2.
Do Partisan Types Stop at the Water’s Edge?

A growing number of analyses presume that distinctive “partisan types” exist in the American public’s eyes in foreign policy, with implications for questions ranging from the ability of leaders to ...
Ab Initio Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Amorphous Calcium Carbonate: Interpretation of Pair Distribution Function and X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy Data

The structure and transformation of hydrous amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC) are the key to understanding mineralization pathways and their relationship with the properties of the final crystallin...
The Justice We Deserve: War Crimes Prosecutions in Guatemala

Despite persisting impunity, over the past several years Guatemala has made important strides in prosecuting war crimes committed during the internal armed conflict (1960–1996). This article provides an ethnographic account of the 2018 Molina Theissen trial, which resulted in the conviction of four senior military officials for crimes against humanity, aggravated sexual violence, and forced disappearance. An ethnographic study of this critical human rights trial can help us understand how a country with a relatively weak judicial system and well-organized spoilers has managed to hold the intellectual authors of wartime atrocities responsible for their acts. It also contributes to a richer understanding of the construction, meaning, and impact of human rights prosecutions for victims and the broader society, and what role they play in broader public debates over the historical memory of conflictual pasts. Resumen A pesar de la impunidad institucionalizada en Guatemala, en los ultimos anos ha habido importantes avances en el enjuiciamiento de los crimenes de guerra cometidos durante el conflicto armado interno (1960–1996). Este articulo ofrece un relato etnografico del juicio Molina Theissen, que en 2018 culmino con la condena de cuatro altos oficiales militares por crimenes de lesa humanidad, violencia sexual agravada y desaparicion forzada. Un estudio etnografico de este proceso judicial nos ayuda a comprender como un pais con un sistema judicial relativamente debil y spoilers bien organizados ha logrado condenar a los autores intelectuales de crimenes graves. Tambien contribuye a una mejor comprension de la construccion, el significado y el impacto de los juicios de derechos humanos para las victimas y la sociedad en general, y que papel juegan en debates publicos mas amplios sobre la memoria historica de pasados complicados.
On Entanglement Assisted Classical Optical Communications

Entanglement assisted communication is advocated by numerous authors as an alternative to classical communication offering significant improvement in channel capacity, in particular in noisy regime. In all those papers it is always assumed that entanglement can be distributed without any imperfections, except for attenuation. We demonstrate that under imperfect pre-shared entanglement distribution, assuming that entanglement distribution channel is modeled as a noisy and lossy Bosonic channel, the entanglement assisted communication can be inferior compared to the classical communication, depending on the parameters of the distribution channel. We identify the conditions under which entanglement assistance can still provide an advantage over the classical case. In particular, when both communication and entanglement distribution channels are not used for entanglement assisted communication but rather for classical transmission instead then the classical capacity is always higher than the entanglement assisted capacity. We also study the entanglement assisted communication under the strong atmospheric turbulence effects.
Pediatric rib pathologies: clinicoimaging scenarios and approach to diagnosis

Pathologies involving the ribs are diverse in nature, including entities specific to the pediatric population as well as shared pathologies with adults. These can be either localized within or adjacent to the rib, but may also cause rib alteration as a component of a systemic process. To better understand these disorders, we discuss several common rib pathologies in the context of their clinical presentation and pertinent imaging findings. In addition, we review the imaging modalities that may be used to evaluate the ribs. Encompassing both the clinical and imaging aspects of pediatric rib pathologies, this review aims to increase pediatric and musculoskeletal radiologists' awareness of the spectrum of disease and how to leverage a pattern-based approach.
Performance Analysis of Network Pruning for Deep Learning based Age-Gender Estimation

With the advance of visual AI technology, age-gender estimation plays a fundamental role in identifying individuals. As deep learning technologies are emerging, identification schemes show significant progress and can handle many challenges of unconstrained imaging conditions. Research on age-gender estimation has begun applying deep convolutional neural networks (CNN) as a framework. However, due to large memory footprints and computational workloads, deep neural networks are hard to apply to on-device training and inference for embedded devices which have limited hardware resources. To solve this issue, network model pruning has been proposed as an efficient approach to reduce the model redundancy without significant degradation of the performance. In this paper, we modeled and characterized several pre-training models with architecture variations on baseline age-gender estimation before applying pruning schemes. For each of the models, three types of pruning comprised of weight, layer and filter pruning are applied and the pruning results are analyzed in terms of complexity and accuracy to find optimal pruning conditions. Combined schemes of pre-training models and network pruning techniques are discussed, and their results are compared with the original model’s. Based on our experiments, the actual size of a fully trained prediction model can be reduced by as much as 90% with an accuracy loss of 2%~9%.
Therapeutic Targeting Regulatory T Cells in Tumor

Cancer cells express a range of tumor associated antigens (TAA) including self-antigens, which should engender TAA-specific immune response to dampen tumor progression and result in tumor eradiation. However, this is rarely happened in patients with cancer. It is thought that active immunosuppressive network in the cancer microenvironment hinders anti-tumor immunity. Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are an important component in the immune suppressive network, suppress TAA-specific T cell anti-tumor immunity and are one of the main obstacles tempering successful immunotherapy and active vaccination. In this chapter, we focus on Tregs, review their characteristics and suppressive mechanisms in the tumor microenvironment, and summarize recent development in the Treg-targeted immunotherapeutic regimens.
Pathogen-Initiated Inflammatory Response in Intestinal Epithelial Cells: Cross Talk with Neutrophils

This chapter considers the interactions of bacteria and their metabolites with the intestinal epithelium, how neutrophil-mediated inflammation results, and how perturbing microbes are cleared and homeostasis is restored. The chapter limits its focus to bacterially mediated pathways of activation. In contrast to most other cell types, intestinal epithelial cells are relatively unresponsive, in terms of proinflammatory gene expression, to large quantities of commensal bacteria and their products. Using molecular, pharmacologic, and biochemical approaches, the authors have characterized the intestinal adenosine receptor to be of the A2b subtype in both model intestinal epithelial cells and native intestinal epithelium. They have recently shown that adenosine, acting via the activation of the A2b receptor, causes substantial and polarized IL-6 secretion into the luminal compartment of intestinal epithelial cells. In addition to its effect on intestinal epithelial cells, adenosine has also been shown to interact with neutrophil adenosine receptors to downregulate neutrophil activation, adherence, and neutrophil-mediated inflammation in endothelial cells. Furthermore, recent studies have demonstrated that lipoxins not only block activation of proinflammatory pathways but also actively aid in the resolution of inflammation by stimulating nonphlogistic phagocytosis of apoptotic neutrophils by macrophages. Further knowledge of the basic mechanisms that regulate the activation of this and other proinflammatory transcription factors will be essential for improved understanding and subsequent pharmacological manipulation of intestinal inflammation.
Modification of conditional behavior by prior experience.

The effects of an aversive stimulus were assessed on subsequent conditioned behavior in rats. Operant conditioning began two weeks after the prior aversive stimulus (10 shocks, 1.0 mA, 5 seconds) was administered. The schedule was continuous reinforcement for food with a secondary light reinforcement. Once stable response rates had been achieved, a shock of 0.2 mA, 0.5 seconds was added to the reinforcement complex. Drugs were administered only at the time of exposure to the prior aversive stimulus (P.A.S.). A single dose of scopolamine, without P.A.S., interrupted the operant behavior long after the drug itself had been eliminated; when combined with P.A.S., the interruption was more prolonged. The peripheral component of scopolamine's action (muscarinic blockade) appears not to play a role in this experimental situation.
Generalizability and comparison of automatic clinical text de-identification methods and resources.

In this paper, we present an evaluation of the hybrid best-of-breed automated VHA (Veteran’s Health Administration) clinical text de-identification system, nicknamed BoB, developed within the VHA Consortium for Healthcare Informatics Research. We also evaluate two available machine learning-based text de-identifications systems: MIST and HIDE. Two different clinical corpora were used for this evaluation: a manually annotated VHA corpus, and the 2006 i2b2 de-identification challenge corpus. These experiments focus on the generalizability and portability of the classification models across different document sources. BoB demonstrated good recall (92.6%), satisfactorily prioritizing patient privacy, and also achieved competitive precision (83.6%) for preserving subsequent document interpretability. MIST and HIDE reached very competitive results, in most cases with high precision (92.6% and 93.6%), although recall was sometimes lower than desired for the most sensitive PHI categories.
Facilitating pharmacogenetic studies using electronic health records and natural-language processing: a case study of warfarin.

Objective DNA biobanks linked to comprehensive electronic health records systems are potentially powerful resources for pharmacogenetic studies. This study sought to develop natural-language-processing algorithms to extract drug-dose information from clinical text, and to assess the capabilities of such tools to automate the data-extraction process for pharmacogenetic studies. Materials and methods A manually validated warfarin pharmacogenetic study identified a cohort of 1125 patients with a stable warfarin dose, in which 776 patients were managed by Coumadin Clinic physicians, and the remaining 349 patients were managed by their providers. The authors developed two algorithms to extract weekly warfarin doses from both data sets: a regular expression-based program for semistructured Coumadin Clinic notes; and an advanced weekly dose calculator based on an existing medication information extraction system (MedEx) for narrative providers' notes. The authors then conducted an association analysis between an automatically extracted stable weekly dose of warfarin and four genetic variants of VKORC1 and CYP2C9 genes. The performance of the weekly dose-extraction program was evaluated by comparing it with a gold standard containing manually curated weekly doses. Precision, recall, F-measure, and overall accuracy were reported. Associations between known variants in VKORC1 and CYP2C9 and warfarin stable weekly dose were performed with linear regression adjusted for age, gender, and body mass index. Results The authors' evaluation showed that the MedEx-based system could determine patients' warfarin weekly doses with 99.7% recall, 90.8% precision, and 93.8% accuracy. Using the automatically extracted weekly doses of warfarin, the authors successfully replicated the previous known associations between warfarin stable dose and genetic variants in VKORC1 and CYP2C9 .
Just the FACS

Imagine sitting in a dark room for hours staring into a fluorescence microscope manually counting green cells in a field, changing the filter pack, and now recounting red cells in the field. And then moving the field and repeating the process, again, again, and again to score at least a hundred
Observations on the Healing of Gastric Lesions Produced by Gastroscopic Electrosurgery

This study demonstrates that experimental gastric ulcers can be induced by electrocoagulation through a fiberoptic gastroscope. Satisfactory agreement was shown between measurements through the gastroscope and measurements from microscopic sections. The mean healing time of lesions with an area of 88 mm2 produced in this manner was 15.9 days. Stool guaiac tests showed intermittent bleeding throughout the time of ulceration. One of the criteria of ulcer healing established prior to this study (considering a white lesion of less than 2 mm to be healed) was found to be inaccurate. When accurate estimations of ulcer healing are used this technique is more precise and has fewer complicating features than other experimental ulcer models.
An approach for evaluating open source projects for student participation

Student participation in free and open source software (FOSS) has potential to improve student learning in computing majors. Experiences contributing bug fixes, testing, writing documentation and developing new features can enable students to learn in a more authentic environment developing technical skills as well as teamwork and communication skills. However learning curves related to a large complex code base, use of development tools, understanding of community interactions, and scheduling of class deliverables with the FOSS calendar are only a few of the hurdles to education inherent in learning in a FOSS environment. One major roadblock to instructors desiring to support student involvement in FOSS projects is the difficulty in identifying FOSS projects suitable for student participation. This poster presents one attempt to address this problem by providing a framework of evaluation criteria that can be used to determine approachable FOSS projects for student involvement.
Hobbesian Right to Healthcare

Over the last few years we have had a debate regarding the role of government in providing healthcare. There has been a question as to whether or not the state's proper role requires protection of its subjects from the calamities associated with a lack of healthcare. In this article, I will argue that straightforward Hobbesian principles require the state to provide healthcare. It might seem odd (or, at the very least, anachronistic) that such a positive right can be justified by a philosopher who famously conceives of individuals as motivated by self-interest. Nonetheless, Hobbes's political theory provides the framework for such a right.
Isolation and characterization of the DNA replication complex from Escherichia coli

Abstract Previous efforts to isolate the Escherichia coli DNA replication complex have in-involved treatments such as pronase digestion or ionic detergents that precluded the subsequent characterization of the functional state of the complex. Using the non-ionic detergent Brij 58 and then controlled sonication of cell lysates we have been able to resolve by sucrose gradient sedimentation a unique complex enriched in nascent DNA more than 100-fold. The complex sediments more rapidly than bulk DNA fragments and ribosomes. It contains proteins and less than 1% of the total DNA. Its isoelectric point is at about pH 4.5. The complex is quite labile at an ionic strength of 0.15 in the presence of Mg 2+ , but much more stable in the absence of Mg 2+ . Although relatively insensitive to disruption by 1 m -urea, the complex decomposes rapidly in the presence of ionic detergents. The complex may include hydrophobic regions that could bind to membranes although no specific evidence for the presence of lipids in the complex was found. Only about 1% of the DNA polymerase activity was located at the position of the complex in sucrose gradients.
Orthotropic Thermoelastic Problem of Uniform Heat Flow Disturbed by a Central Crack

The linear thermoelastic problem of uniform heat flow disturbed by a central crack in an orthotropic plate is investigated using the techniques of Fourier Transforms and multiple integrations. The thermoelastic stresses and displacements in the crack plane are obtained in closed forms. The stress intensity factor is presented as a function of the material properties.
An evaluation method for the availability of a distributed database management system

Abstract The availability of a distributed database management system is defined as the fraction of transactions that are successfully executed out of all transactions that are submitted to the system over a given time interval. Several variables that determine availability are addressed. These determinants are categorized as transaction traffic, reliability measures, data distribution, concurrency control, and fault tolerance. An evaluation expression for availability is presented in terms of these determinants. The method proposed in this paper is shown to provide several advantages compared to previous methods.
A comparison of the analyses of EEG and evoked potentials using colored bars in place of colored heads

Multichannel EEG and evoked potentials can be re-represented as collections of colored bars, with each bar corresponding to a line of data. These colored bars can be assembled into montages, just like conventional lines of data. Changes in potentials can be followed over space and time by visual inspection of patterns of color. Analogous montages of colored bars can be made with power spectra of EEG and evoked potentials. Colored bars can be visually analyzed more quickly than collections of colored heads, whether or not the heads are cartooned.
On the fitness of geographic graph generators for modelling physical level topologies

The Internet topology has been studied extensively for decades. However, the emphasis of Internet topology research has been on logical level topologies. On the other hand, physical level topologies are necessary to study the resilience of networks realistically. In this paper, we analyse the structure of synthetic geographic topologies whose node locations are given by those of actual physical level graphs. Our results indicate that the synthetic Gabriel graphs capture the grid-like structure of physical level networks. Moreover, given that the cost of physical level topologies is an important aspect from a design perspective, we also compare the cost of several synthetically generated geographic graphs and find that the synthetic Gabriel graphs achieve the smallest cost among all of the graph models that we consider.
Diffraction properties studies of windshield-laminated photopolymer holograms

A windshield laminated hologram is an important application in automotive head-up displays. Properties of these holograms generally produce changes during processing. To predict changes accurately, the diffraction efficiency measurement etc. were apparently used to characterize their diffraction properties. This paper considers the actual structure of a windscreen which is composed of photopolymer hologram within the laminate. The photopolymer hologram, which was sandwiched between a polyvinylbutyral layer and glass ply, was treated at high temperature up to 140 degree(s)C and about 12.5 kg/cm2 pressure; as used in a standard windscreen production process. The fringe planes of laminated hologram are generally sensitive to external parameters during process, such as pressure effects. In this paper, the pressure effect on diffraction properties is investigated to characterize windshield laminated photopolymer holograms. A theoretical model was proposed to approach the pressure effect in fringe plane of laminated hologram. A comparison of nonslanted and slanted holograms are analyzed with experimental data.© (1996) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
5-hydroxytryptamine is a fast excitatory transmitter at 5-HT3 receptors in rat amygdala

A fast excitatory synaptic potential mediated by 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) was recorded in rat lateral amygdala neurons in brain slices. The synaptic potential has brief duration (tens of milliseconds), is mimicked by 5-HT, is potentiated by a 5-HT uptake inhibitor, and is blocked by selective 5-HT3 receptor antagonists. The underlying synaptic current reversed polarity at about 0 mV. This is an example of fast neurotransmission in the mammalian brain mediated by an amine rather than an amino acid. The antiemetic, anxiolytic, and perhaps antipsychotic actions of 5-HT3 antagonists might result from blockade of such synapses.
The cardiovascular response to intrapulmonary pressure inflation in dogs treated with reserpine, propranolol, and phenoxybenzamine.

ConclusionsReflex adrenergic responses to IPPI in anesthetized dogs were studied. Phase 4 arterial blood pressure overshoot was abolished by PBZ but not by propranolol indicating a major alpha-adrenergic contribution in the production of the overshoot. Phase 2 reflex tachycardia was blocked by propranolol, as a manifestation of beta-adrenergic blocking effect. PBZ also suppressed the response, although to a lesser degree. A marked myocardial NE depletion was associated with a significant reduction in phase 2 heart rate response and complete abolition of phase 4 arterial blood pressure overshoot to IPPI, when dogs were pretreated with reserpine more than 18 hr prior to the experiment. But reduction in reflex tachycardia was not as marked and the pressure overshoot was normal if the studies were carried out 4–5 hr following reserpine administration. Several possible factors are offered as possible explanations for the “time factor” and for the difference in δHR and δMBP responses in Group A dogs.
PIG-A mutations in normal hematopoiesis.

Paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) is caused by phosphatidylinositol glycan–class A (PIG-A) mutations in hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). PIG-A mutations have been found in granulocytes from most healthy individuals, suggesting that these spontaneous PIG-A mutations are important in the pathogenesis of PNH. It remains unclear if these PIG-A mutations have relevance to those found in PNH. We isolated CD34+ progenitors from 4 patients with PNH and 27 controls. The frequency of PIG-A mutant progenitors was determined by assaying for colony-forming cells (CFCs) in methylcellulose containing toxic doses of aerolysin (1 × 10-9 M). Glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)–anchored proteins serve as receptors for aerolysin; thus, PNH cells are resistant to aerolysin. The frequency of aerolysin resistant CFC was 14.7 ± 4.0 × 10-6 in the bone marrow of healthy donors and was 57.0 ± 6.7 × 10-6 from mobilized peripheral blood. DNA was extracted from individual day-14 aerolysin-resistant CFCs and the PIG-A gene was sequenced to determine clonality. Aerolysin-resistant CFCs from patients with PNH exhibited clonal PIG-A mutations. In contrast, PIG-A mutations in the CFCs from controls were polyclonal, and did not involve T cells. Our data confirm the finding that PIG-A mutations are relatively common in normal hematopoiesis; however, the finding suggests that these mutations occur in differentiated progenitors rather than HSCs.
Thermal Vestibulometry: A Preliminary Investigation

Thermal vestibulometry, using ampullopetal caloric stimuli and electro-oculographic recordings, was conducted on 10 normal subjects and 37 patients seen in a neuro-otological clinic. Results indicated that vestibular fatigue (a decrease in nystagmus response with stronger stimuli) is a feature of an abnormal vestibular apparatus. However, since the abnormal sample was almost exclusively composed of subjects with a peripherally-disordered vestibular sub-system, further studies are required to ascertain the precise value of the test for topographical diagnosis.
Respiratory Self-Gated Four-Dimensional Coronary MR Angiography: A Feasibility Study

The four-dimensional (4D) coronary MR angiography (MRA) approach has been developed to eliminate the need for accurate determination of the acquisition window and trigger delay time. Diaphragm navigator (NAV) has been the conventional respiratory gating method for free-breathing coronary MRA. However, NAV echo acquisition interrupts the continuous radiofrequency pulse application required for 4D steady-state free precession coronary MRA. The objective of this work was to investigate the feasibility of a respiratory self-gating (RSG) technique for 4D coronary MRA and its effectiveness by comparing with retrospective NAV gating. Data were acquired continuously throughout the cardiac cycle and retrospectively remapped to cardiac phases based on the electrocardiogram signal simultaneously recorded. An RSG signal extracted from a direct measurement of the heart position was used for retrospective respiratory gating and motion correction. In seven healthy volunteers, 4D MRA images were reconstructed, allowing retrospective assessment of the cardiac motion of the coronary artery and selection of the images with the best vessel delineation. Statistical analysis shows that 4D RSG provides coronary artery delineation comparable to mid-diastole images acquired using NAV. Respiratory self-gating is an effective method for eliminating respiratory motion artifacts and allows 4D coronary MRA during free breathing.
Equivalent automatic structures and their boundaries

Two (synchronous, asynchronous, or non-deterministic asynchronous) automatic structures on a group G are “equivalent” if their union is a non-deterministic asynchronous automatic structure. We discuss this relation, giving a classification of structures up to equivalence for abelian groups and partial results in some other cases. We also discuss a “boundary” of an asynchronous automatic structure. We show that it is an invariant of the equivalence class of the structure, and describe other properties. We describe a “rehabilitated boundary” which yields Sn−1 for any automatic structure on ℤn.