cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
New methods for monitoring mitochondrial biogenesis and mitophagy in vitro and in vivo.

Removal of damaged mitochondria through mitophagy is critical for maintaining cellular homeostasis and functions. Increasing evidence implicates mitophagy in red blood cell differentiation, neurodegeneration, macrophage-mediated inflammation, ischemia, adipogenesis, drug-induced tissue injury, and cancer. Considerable progress has been made toward understanding the biochemical mechanisms involved in mitophagy regulation. However, few reliable assays to monitor and quantify mitophagy have been developed, particularly in vivo. In this review, we summarize the recent development of three assays, MitoTimer, mt-Keima and mito-QC, for monitoring and quantifying mitophagy in cells and in animal tissues. We also discuss the advantages and limitations of these three assays when using them to monitor and quantify mitophagy.Impact statementRemoval of damaged mitochondria through mitophagy is critical for maintaining cellular homeostasis and functions. However, reliable quantitative assays to monitor mitophagy, parti...
Dual-Energy Computed Tomography in Genitourinary Imaging

Reignited by innovations in scanner engineering and software design, dual-energy computed tomography (CT) has come back into the clinical radiology arena in the last decade. Possibilities for noninvasive in vivo characterization of genitourinary disease, especially for renal stones and renal masses, have become the pinnacle offerings of dual-energy CT for body imaging in clinical practice. This article renders a state-of-the-art review on clinical applications of dual-energy CT in genitourinary imaging.
Expression levels of PARP1 and phospho-p65 protein in human HER2-positive breast cancers.

601 Background: Previous studies have shown that basal breast cancers, which may have an inherent “BRCAness” phenotype and sensitivity to inhibitors of poly (ADP-Ribose) polymerase (PARP), express ...
Connecting Refugees in a Nontraditional Resettlement Destination: The Role of Social Institutions

Transportation serves as the linchpin that enables refugees to enter the job market, find gainful employment, and both receive necessary services and access useful goods and services, essential to ...
Reinforcing Value of Caffeinated and Noncaffeinated Beverages After Acute Exposure in Children and Adolescents

Background: When caffeine is added to beverages, it increases beverage liking and the relative reinforcing value (RRV) of these beverages after repeated exposure. The purpose of this study was to t...
Modeling the orientational and positional behavior of polyhedral nanoparticles at fluid-fluid interfaces

Using molecular dynamics simulations to explicitly model fluid molecules, we study the effect of solvent wetting on the behavior of polyhedral nanoparticles at a fluid-fluid interface. First, we quantify the positional and orientational free-energy characteristics of an isolated nanoparticle. Our results suggest that the structure of the interface can introduce nontrivial effects on the preferential particle orientations. A continuum model is proposed to account for the finite-interfacial mixing region, and a qualitative comparison with the molecular simulation results is presented. We examine the effect on the free energy of the system of changes in the particle's solvation preference towards one fluid, and the degree of miscibility between the two fluids. By tuning these interaction parameters, we can potentially access and favor different orientations for the particle shapes examined. Further, we extend the insights gained from single-particle behavior to the attachment of two particles. Our results reveal conditions that could drive the assembly of cuboctahedra into either two-dimensional puckered honeycomb lattices or linear rodlike structures.
Identification of snow from GPM-DPR observations and cross validation with S-band ground radar dual polarization measurements

The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission Core Observatory is equipped with a dual-frequency precipitation radar (DPR) operating at frequency channel of 13.6 GHz (Ku-band) and 35.5 GHz (Ka-band). In this paper, GPM-DPR's simultaneous observations at these two frequencies are used to study the characteristics of vertical profile of reflectivity of snow. An algorithm to identify falling snow is considered. Its performance is also evaluated by cross validation with dual polarization measurements from ground radar.
Semantically Based Programming Tools (Summary)

It is one of our fundamental theses that major improvements in software engineering practice will come about only through the development and use of software development tools. This thesis is based on our belief that formal methods will ultimately have a far more profound effect on software engineering productivity than management based methods, programming language design, or fast hardware. But we also believe that formal methods, by their nature, are suitable for practical use only in mechanized systems. This is not to say that everything is to be automated; the point is that the actual formal steps must be automated even if most of the guidance for their use is to come from the user. This is the same kind of observation that prompted the developers of LCF to introduce the ML type structure to protect the notion of “theorem,” together with formal deductive structure that defines it, from the surrounding heuristic apparatus. It must be expected that heuristics will be under continual development, but a deductive system is fragile and will change only infrequently.
Discovery of Potent and Selective Periphery-Restricted Quinazoline Inhibitors of the Cyclic Nucleotide Phosphodiesterase PDE1.

We disclose the discovery and X-ray cocrystal data of potent, selective quinazoline inhibitors of PDE1. Inhibitor (S)-3 readily attains free plasma concentrations above PDE1 IC50 values and has restricted brain access. The racemic compound 3 inhibits >75% of PDE hydrolytic activity in soluble samples of human myocardium, consistent with heightened PDE1 activity in this tissue. These compounds represent promising new tools to probe the value of PDE1 inhibition in the treatment of cardiovascular disease.
Recombination in Teams

Several scholars have shown that teams are not only becoming more common in the process of recombining knowledge and developing innovation, but that they are also more likely than individuals to de...
Characterization of Metabolically Unhealthy Overweight/Obese African American Women: Significance of Insulin-Sensitive and Insulin-Resistant Phenotypes

BACKGROUND Obesity is often associated with high cardiovascular disease risk factors. Obesity is common in African American women. We investigated the characteristics of metabolically healthy and metabolically unhealthy overweight/obese African American women based on the presence of insulin resistance. MATERIALS/METHODS We studied 196 apparently healthy overweight/obese African American women with family history of type 2 diabetes. Waist circumference, fasting glucose, insulin, c-peptide, lipids and lipoproteins, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure were obtained in each subject. In addition, insulin sensitivity was calculated using Bergman's Minimal Model Method. We defined insulin-sensitive metabolically healthy African American women as individuals with insulin sensitivity greater than 2.7 x 10(-4) x min(-1) (uU/ mL)(-1) and insulin resistant, metabolically unhealthy as insulin sensitivity less than 2.7 x 10(-4) x min(-1) (uU/mL)(-1). RESULTS Thirty-three percent of our subjects were metabolically healthy African American women, while 67% were metabolically unhealthy African American women. The metabolically healthy subjects were significantly younger and less obese than the metabolically unhealthy subgroup. Mean fasting serum glucose, insulin, and c-peptide were significantly lower (P = .001) in the metabolically healthy than in metabolically unhealthy subjects. However, the mean blood pressures were within normal in both subgroups. Mean serum cholesterol (p < .05) and triglyceride (p < .001) levels were significantly lower, whereas high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (p < .03) was significantly higher in the metabolically healthy than in the metabolically unhealthy subjects. We found 25.5% of our subjects had metabolic syndrome (30.3% metabolically unhealthy and 15.6% metabolically healthy). CONCLUSION We concluded that: (1) despite obesity, metabolically healthy African American women appear to be less prone to type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease and (2) in view of the higher prevalence of metabolic syndrome, metabolically unhealthy African American women should be targeted for primary prevention of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
What Went Wrong: Prudent Management of Endowment Funds and Imprudent Endowment Investing Policies

Most colleges and universities of all sizes have an endowment, a fund that provides a stream of income and maintains the corpus of the fund in perpetuity. Organizations with large endowments, such as colleges, universities, and private foundations, all finance a significant part of their operations through the return received from the investment of this capital. This article examines the legal framework for endowment investing, endowment investing policies, their evolution to more sophisticated and riskier strategies, and the consequences evinced during the financial crisis of 2008 and beyond. It traces the approaches to endowment investing and chronicles the rise and, if not the fall, the challenges to modern portfolio management. It examines the impact of endowment losses on colleges and universities and their constituencies, as well as the problem of trustee deference to boards' investment committees. This article concludes that universities have learned little from the financial crisis and are more invested in illiquid, nontransparent assets than before the financial crisis. Finally, this article recommends the establishment of board level risk management committees to evaluate endowment investing policies.
Assessment of detailed conformations suggests strategies for improving cryoEM models: Helix at lower resolution, ensembles, pre-refinement fixups, and validation at multi-residue length scale.

Abstract We find that the overall quite good methods used in the CryoEM Model Challenge could still benefit greatly from several strategies for improving local conformations. Our assessments primarily use validation criteria from the MolProbity web service. Those criteria include MolProbity's all-atom contact analysis, updated versions of standard conformational validations for protein and RNA, plus two recent additions: first, flags for cis-nonPro and twisted peptides, and second, the CaBLAM system for diagnosing secondary structure, validating Cα backbone, and validating adjacent peptide CO orientations in the context of the Cα trace. In general, automated ab initio building of starting models is quite good at backbone connectivity but often fails at local conformation or sequence register, especially at poorer than 3.5 A resolution. However, we show that even if criteria (such as Ramachandran or rotamer) are explicitly restrained to improve refinement behavior and overall validation scores, automated optimization of a deposited structure seldom corrects specific misfittings that start in the wrong local minimum, but just hides them. Therefore, local problems should be identified, and as many as possible corrected, before starting refinement. Secondary structures are confusing at 3–4 A but can be better recognized at 6–8 A. In future model challenges, specific steps being tested (such as segmentation) and the required documentation (such as PDB code of starting model) should each be explicitly defined, so competing methods on a given task can be meaningfully compared. Individual local examples are presented here, to understand what local mistakes and corrections look like in 3D, how they probably arise, and what possible improvements to methodology might help avoid them. At these resolutions, both structural biologists and end-users need meaningful estimates of local uncertainty, perhaps through explicit ensembles. Fitting problems can best be diagnosed by validation that spans multiple residues; CaBLAM is such a multi-residue tool, and its effectiveness is demonstrated.
Intensity, not emotion: The role of poverty in emotion labeling ability in middle childhood.

Abstract Poverty exposure has been linked to difficulties in emotion expression recognition, which further increases risks for negative emotional outcomes among children. The current study aimed to investigate whether the difficulties in emotion expression recognition among children experiencing poverty may be emotion specific or expression intensity specific. Thus, the current study investigated the relationship between poverty exposure and emotion labeling ability in an ethnically and economically diverse sample of children (N = 46) in middle childhood. A novel experimental design measured emotion labeling ability at different valences of emotion (fearful, angry, and happy) and at varying intensities (0–100%) of emotion presentation. Using a hierarchical logistic regression, we found a significant interaction between the percentage of time since birth a child has lived in poverty and the intensity of the emotional stimulus in affecting correct emotion identification. Children who lived longer in poverty gained less accuracy for equivalent increases in intensity compared with children who had not lived in poverty. On average, children who chronically lived in poverty required emotional intensity set at 60% in order to reach levels of accuracy observed at 30% intensity among children who were never exposed to poverty. We found no significant emotion-specific effect. These findings demonstrate that children who experience chronic poverty require more intense expressions to recognize emotions across valences. This further elaborates the existing understanding of a relationship between poverty exposure and emotion recognition, informing future studies examining expression recognition as a mechanism involved in developing psychopathology.
Carbon emissions and climate policy support by local governments in California: a qualitative comparative analysis at the county level

Drawing from the existing social science literature, we examine the relationship between fossil fuel use and the adoption of policy to address climate change at the local level. In our analysis, we incorporate direct measures of fossil fuel use in a manner that allows us to distinguish carbon emissions from consumption-based and production-based activities. Focusing on the 36 most populous and urbanized counties within the state of California, we merge these emissions, along with other political and economic measures, with an indicator of extensive policy support derived from climate agreement signatories. We then use fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to examine conditions that are sufficient for broad adoption of climate policy within a given county. Based on the results, we frame consumption-based and production-based emissions as distinctive in the way that their relationship with climate policy adoption depends on other favorable political and economic conditions. In particular, we identify several routes to extensive adoption for counties that have a combination of low emissions and a favorable political environment. In the conclusion, we discuss the QCA findings and elaborate on the theoretical and practical implications for efforts to understand and to promote carbon reduction efforts at the local level.
Experimental thermal characterization of timber frame exterior wall using reed straws as heat insulation materials

The research presented in this paper proposes structures of timber frame exterior walls using reed straws as insulation materials. Having thicknesses of 175 mm and designed for exterior building walls, the proposed structures are composed of 12-mm-thick oriented strand board, 150-mm-thick insulation material with and without air layers, a vapour barrier foil and 12.5-mm-thick gypsum board for the interior face of the wall. The insulation materials used as reference for the proposed structures are polystyrene and rock wool. Reed straws used as insulation material for the tested wall structures formed insulation layers of 150 mm thickness in five configurations: 150-mm loose-fill reed straws without air layer and other four variants with loose-fill reed straws and 100-, 50-, 20- and 10-mm-thick air layers, respectively. The air layer was placed at the contact with gypsum board for all configurations. The reference structures (rock wool and polystyrene as insulation materials) followed three of the configurations set-up, namely 150-mm-thick insulation material (rock wool or polystyrene) only and insulation materials with air layers thicknesses of 100 and 50 mm, respectively. The eleven tested structures were subjected to thermal conductivity coefficient (λ) measurements. The tests were performed on HFM436 Lambda equipment. The structures were tested for an entire cycle of temperatures varying between − 10 and 30 °C and thus simulating summer and winter climate conditions. The thermal conductivity coefficient of the exterior walls filled with loose reed straws as insulation material was recorded between mean values of 0.076 and 0.077 W m−1 K−1, except the structure with an air layer of 100 mm, for which a value of 0.120 W m−1 K−1 was registered.
hood2vec: Identifying Similar Urban Areas Using Mobility Networks.

Which area in NYC is the most similar to Lower East Side? What about the NoHo Arts District in Los Angeles? Traditionally this task utilizes information about the type of places located within the areas and some popularity/quality metric. We take a different approach. In particular, urban dwellers' time-variant mobility is a reflection of how they interact with their city over time. Hence, in this paper, we introduce an approach, namely hood2vec, to identify the similarity between urban areas through learning a node embedding of the mobility network captured through Foursquare check-ins. We compare the pairwise similarities obtained from hood2vec with the ones obtained from comparing the types of venues in the different areas. The low correlation between the two indicates that the mobility dynamics and the venue types potentially capture different aspects of similarity between urban areas.
Epidemiology of Clostridioides difficile Infection in Long-Term Care Facilities

Clostridioides difficile infection is one of the predominant causes of infectious diarrhea in elderly residents living in long-term care facilities. The epidemiology of C. difficile infection has changed significantly worldwide over the past two decades in all healthcare settings including nursing homes. In addition to describing the incidence and prevalence of C. difficile infection, this chapter focuses on strain diversity, colonization, and transmission of C. difficile in long-term care setting. A review of risk factors of C. difficile colonization and infection and mortality among nursing home residents due to this infection is also included.
Disrupted blood-brain barrier in 5×FAD mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease can be mimicked and repaired in vitro with neural stem cell-derived exosomes

Abstract Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a devastating neurodegenerative disease and is associated with blood-brain barrier (BBB) disruption. AD mice and cell culture models play an essential role in understanding AD pathogenesis and validation of therapeutic reagents. One of the commonly used AD mice is the 5 × FAD mouse and previous studies have shown that BBB leakage occurs at 9 months of age in the mice. However, it remains unknown whether disrupted BBB also occurs in young animals and whether AD-caused BBB impairment can be replicated and further corrected in a cell culture model. Here, we examine BBB breakdown in the 5 × FAD mouse model at different ages including both pre-symptomatic and post-symptomatic ages and test an in vitro BBB model established with the 5 × FAD primary cerebral endothelial cells. Moreover, with the BBB in vitro model, we also examined the therapeutic effect of human neural stem cells (NSCs)-derived exosomes on AD-caused BBB leakage. Our result indicated that BBB breakdown in the 5 × FAD mice occurred at 4 months of age, which could be mimicked with an in vitro BBB model. Importantly, we further demonstrated that treatment of the in vitro BBB model with NSCs-derived exosomes reversed AD-caused BBB deficiency. The information should be useful for researchers to determine which ages of the AD mice should be employed in specific in vivo and in vitro studies and the data also suggest that AD-caused BBB disruption can be corrected at least by NSC-derived exosomes.
Venetoclax and BCR-ABL Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor Combinations: Outcome in Patients with Philadelphia Chromosome-Positive Advanced Myeloid Leukemias.

Background: Philadelphia chromosome-positive (Ph+) advanced leukemias, including acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in myeloid blast phase (MBP), have poor outcomes. Venetoclax has shown synergism with BCR-ABL1 tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) in preclinical studies. However, clinical activity of venetoclax and TKI-based regimens is unknown. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study on patients with Ph+ AML (n = 7) and CML-MBP (n = 9) who received venetoclax combined with TKI-based regimens at our institution. Results: Median patient age was 42 years, and the median number of prior therapy cycles was 5 (range 2–8). Nine patients received decitabine-based, and 7 received intensive chemotherapy-based regimens. Ten patients (63%) received ponatinib. The overall response rate (ORR) in 15 evaluable patients was 60% (1 complete remission [CR], 6 CR with incomplete hematologic recovery [CRi], 1 morphologic leukemia-free state, and 1 partial response). The ORR was 43% in Ph+ AML and 75% in CML-MBP. The median overall survival (OS) for all patients was 3.6 months, for AML OS was 2.0 months, and for CML-MBP OS was 10.9 months. The median relapse-free survival for AML and CML-MBP was 3.6 and 3.9 months, respectively. Compared to nonresponders, patients achieving CR/CRi had higher baseline Ph+ metaphases and BCR-ABL1 PCR. Conclusions: Combination therapy of venetoclax with TKI-based regimens shows encouraging activity in very heavily pretreated, advanced Ph+ leukemias, particularly CML-MBP.
Correlations between thermal history and keyhole porosity in laser powder bed fusion

Abstract Additive manufacturing has the potential to revolutionize the production of metallic components as it yields near net shape parts with complex geometries and minimizes waste. At the present day, additively manufactured components face qualification and certification challenges due to the difficulty in controlling defects. This has driven a significant research effort aimed at better understanding and improving processing controls – yielding a plethora of in-situ measurements aimed at correlating defects with material quality metrics of interest. In this work, we develop machine-learning methods to learn correlations between thermal history and subsurface porosity for a variety of print conditions in laser powder bed fusion. Un-normalized surface temperatures (in the form of black-body radiances) are obtained using high-speed infrared imaging and porosity formation is observed in the sample cross-section through synchrotron x-ray imaging. To demonstrate the predictive power of these features, we present four statistical machine-learning models that correlate temperature histories to subsurface porosity formation in laser fused Ti-6Al-4V powder.
Effect of ethanol, glycerol, glucose/fructose and tartaric acid on the refractive index of model aqueous solutions and wine samples.

Abstract The refractive index is a basic optical property of materials. This study explores the effect of ethanol, glycerol, tartaric acid and glucose/fructose on the refractive index in model aqueous solutions and in dry white wines. Various model aqueous solutions consisting of these components were prepared and the refractive index was measured at 20 °C and each component was studied both alone and in mixtures with the others. The refractive index of white dry wines samples was also measured. A linear regression analysis was performed and linear multi-dependence equations were derived. The resulting regression models had a coefficient of determination over 97.3%. Glucose/fructose was found to have the greatest effect on the refractive index, followed by tartaric acid and glycerol while ethanol had the smallest effect. The knowledge of the correlation of the concentration of each wine component to the refractive index can be of value for the estimation of fermentation kinetics.
Hole antidoping of oxides

In standard doping, adding charge carrier to a compound results in a shift of the Fermi level towards the conduction band for electron doping and towards the valence band for hole doping. We discuss the curious case of antidoping, where the direction of band movements in response to doping is reversed. Specifically, $p$-type antidoping moves the previously occupied bands to the principal conduction band resulting in an increase of band gap energy and reduction of electronic conductivity. We find that this is a generic behavior for a class of materials: early transition and rare-earth metal (e.g., Ti, Ce) oxides where the sum of composition-weighed formal oxidation states is positive; such compounds tend to form the well-known electron-trapped intermediate bands localized on the reduced cation orbitals. What is less known is that doping by a hole annihilates a single trapped electron on a cation. The latter thus becomes electronically inequivalent with respect to the normal cation in the undoped lattice, thus representing a symmetry-breaking effect. We give specific theoretical predictions for target compounds where hole antidoping might be observed experimentally: Magn\'eli-like phases (i.e., $\mathrm{Ce}{\mathrm{O}}_{2\text{\ensuremath{-}}x}$ and $\mathrm{Ti}{\mathrm{O}}_{2\text{\ensuremath{-}}x}$) and ternary compounds (i.e., $\mathrm{B}{\mathrm{a}}_{2}\mathrm{T}{\mathrm{i}}_{6}{\mathrm{O}}_{13}$ and $\mathrm{B}{\mathrm{a}}_{4}\mathrm{T}{\mathrm{i}}_{12}{\mathrm{O}}_{27}$), and note that this unique behavior opens the possibility of unconventional control of materials conductivity by doping.
Prenatal cigarette smoking as a mediator between racism and depressive symptoms: The Biosocial Impact on Black Births Study

Objective This study examined whether cigarette smoking mediated the association of racial discrimination with depressive symptoms among pregnant Black women. Design Cross-sectional. Sample Two hundred Black women at 8-29 weeks gestation. Measurements Women completed questionnaires including the Experiences of Discrimination and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression (CES-D) scales, as well as questions about sociodemographic characteristics and cigarette smoking. Results The mean age of the sample was 26.9 ± 5.7 years and the mean gestational age at data collection was 15.6 ± 5.7 weeks. Approximately 17% of women reported prenatal cigarette smoking; 27% had prenatal CES-D scores ≥23, which have been correlated with depression diagnoses; and 59% reported ever (lifetime) experiencing discrimination in at least one situation (e.g., at work). Path analysis results indicated that the standardized indirect effect of experiences of racial discrimination on CES-D scores through prenatal smoking was statistically significant (standardized indirect effect = 0.03; 95% CI: 0.001, 0.094; p = .042). Conclusion Cigarette smoking during pregnancy partially mediated the association between lifetime experiences of racial discrimination and prenatal depressive symptoms among pregnant Black women. Smoking cessation programs should focus on identifying and treating depressive symptoms among pregnant Black women.
A precise geochemical volcano-stratigraphy of the Deccan traps

Abstract This geochemical study is based on 69 volcanic rocks representing the entire volcano-stratigraphy of the 12 lava formations of the Deccan Traps (DT) of the Indian peninsula. The DT constitutes one of the largest continental flood basalt province (CFB) in the world. More than 90% of the lavas of this province are considered to have erupted in less than one million years by plume volcanism, coinciding with the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary, leading to the speculation that this volcanism had a major role in the end-Cretaceous mass extinction. The current study was undertaken to fully geochemically characterize the DT plume with respect to major-trace element composition as well as their correlated Sr-Nd-Pb and Hf isotope geochemistry of each lava formation in step-by-step sampling the entire Deccan vertical stratigraphy of over 60 samples mostly on the Western Ghat Escarpment as collected by Beane (1988) . The upper lava formations from Poladpur to Panhala-Desur, the Wai subgroup, are sharply distinguishable geochemically by all the geochemical parameters from the lower lava formations of the Lonavala and Kalsubai subgroups. This distinction is remarkable as they are on samples in a continuous supposedly vertical sequence in space and time. The Wai subgroup shows restricted range in FeO/MgO ratios at a given MgO wt% but indicating a more Fe-rich mantle source than many other CFB (average Mg# 46.7 as opposed to the 53.3 Mg# for the lower subgroups) province; the lower subgroups show a widely variable FeO/MgO ratios, interpreted as results of partial melting of subducted eclogitic slab. This interpretation is supported by the trace elements including the rare earths, and the isotopic ratios of Nd, Sr, Pb and Hf that were all measured in the same lava samples. Our high precision Pb isotopic measurements reveal the gist of the Deccan plume characteristics as Pb content in the mantle is low in contrast with their higher abundance in the continental crust. The Wai subgroup demonstrates a relatively consistent initial 206Pb/204Pb ratios as opposed to their heterogeneous compositions in the lower formations of Lonavala and Kalsubai. In addition, the Pb isotopes in a 206Pb/204Pb vs 207Pb/204Pb plot define an age of 2604 ± 140 Ma that we interpret as the “provenance” age of the subducted slab that sourced the lower formation lavas. Interestingly, this “errorchron” is also consistent with the “Dupal anomaly” concept developed on the sub Indian Oceanic mantle derived basalts. The combined multiple isotopic volcano-stratigraphy shows the geochemical contrast more dramatically than any other previous study on the Deccan. This high precision multiple isotopic study of the Deccan is consistent with recent U-Pb and Ar-Ar geochronologic studies on the rapid eruption of the Deccan, mostly the plume head, interpreted here constituting the upper lava formations of the Wai subgroup as without much interaction with the continental crust.
Sex-specific effect of prenatal alcohol exposure on N-Methyl-D-Aspartate Receptor function in orbitofrontal cortex pyramidal neurons of mice

BACKGROUND Alcohol consumption during pregnancy can produce behavioral and cognitive deficits that persist into adulthood. These include impairments in executive functions, learning, planning, and cognitive flexibility. We have previously shown that moderate prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) significantly impairs reversal learning, a measure of flexibility mediated across species by different brain areas that include the orbital frontal cortex (OFC). Reversal learning is likewise impaired by genetic or pharmacological inactivation of GluN2B subunit-containing N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs). In the current study, we tested the hypothesis that moderate PAE persistently alters the number and function of GluN2B subunit-containing NMDARs in OFC pyramidal neurons of adult mice. METHODS We used a rodent model of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders and left offspring undisturbed until adulthood. Using whole-cell, patch-clamp recordings, we assessed NMDAR function in slices from 90- to 100-day-old male and female PAE and control mice. Pharmacologically isolated NMDA receptor-mediated evoked excitatory postsynaptic currents (NMDA-eEPSCs) were recorded in the absence and presence of the GluN2B antagonist, Ro25-6981(1 µM). In a subset of littermates, we evaluated the level of GluN2B protein expression in the synaptic fraction using Western blotting technique. RESULTS Our results indicate that PAE females show significantly larger (~23%) NMDA-eEPSC amplitudes than controls, while PAE induced a significant decrease (~17%) in NMDA-eEPSC current density of pyramidal neurons recorded in slices from male mice. NMDA-eEPSC decay time was not affected in PAE-exposed mice from either sex. The contribution of GluN2B subunit-containing NMDARs to the eEPSCs was not significantly altered by PAE. Moreover, there were no significant changes in protein expression in the synaptic fraction of either PAE males or females. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that low-to-moderate PAE modulates NMDAR function in pyramidal neurons in a sex-specific manner, although we did not find evidence that the effect is mediated by dysfunction of synaptic GluN2B subunit-containing NMDARs.
Defining length stability in paediatric femoral shaft fractures treated with titanium elastic nails

Abstract Introduction Optimal paediatric femoral shaft fracture patterns or lengths amenable to titanium elastic nail stabilization have not been well defined. The purpose of this study is to ident...
SHEAR TRANSFER MODEL FOR REINFORCED CONCRETE

A functional model is constructed for the shear stiffness of cracks in reinforced concrete under monotonic and cyclic loading. The model is in satisfactory qualitative agreement with the available experimental results and it incorporates more parameters than those, the effects of which have been studied by testing. Therefore it provides guidance for future experimental investigations in studying the effect of significant parameters. Supplemented by test results and by the help of a statistcial analysis the functional model is turned into a simple predictive monotonic model that can be used both for refined finite element analysis and for establishing a basis for improved design methods for reinforced concrete. /ASCE/
THERMAL MANAGEMENT OF LEAD-ACID BATTERIES FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLES

A Globe Battery Division EV-3000 electric vehicle battery with its in-cell electrolyte circulation pumps was instrumented with temperature sensors and subjected to singular and repetitive deep discharge cycles while being cooled by natural and forced air convection. Temperature excursions within the battery became severe with repetitive cycling and natural convection cooling. The EV-3000's in-cell electrolyte pumps were shown to be a definite aid to battery thermo-regulation by i) allowing the charging process to be more energy efficient and thus generating less total heat, ii) reducing peak cell temperature, iii) producing a more uniform temperature distribution within the cells, and iv) transporting the elevated temperature, dense electrolyte produced during charge from the cell stack area to a more active heat transfer surface. Experiments have shown that forced air convection on the external surfaces of the battery can provide effective cooling when the battery is operated under moderate duty cycles and ambient temperatures. It is anticipated, however, that high energy density batteries may require more elaborate thermal management when subjected to elevated duty cycles or extreme external temperatures.
The semimicro distillation of ammonia into 4% boric acid solution

Abstract 1. A number of determinations of ammonia were made by the hemnnicro distillation of aminonia into boric acid. The average deviation, standaid deviation and average enois are reported. 2. An all glass apparatus offers no advantage in accuracy over the conventional apparatus. 3. For semimicro titrations involving 7–21 mg of nitrogen, 0.02 N hydrochloric acid is to be preferred over 0.05 N acid although the end-point colour matching is more difficult. 4. A fifteen fold excess of caustic is sufficient for rapid and complete distillation of ammonia. 5. Steam distillation prevents bumping in the presence of filter paper and is more rapid than distillation by direct heating.
Equilibrium and Extinction in a Trisexual Diploid Mating System: An Investigation

In order to study the dynamics of a three-sex (trisexual) mating system, we have chosen to extend the heterogametic sex-determining mechanism, used in many species, to include three sexes: XX, XY and YY. In this model, non-like types may mate, but like-types may not mate. Yeasts and fungi are known to have multiple mating types (sometimes numbering in the thousands), but the mechanics of these sex-determining systems are markedly different from the heterogametic system we are interested in studying [5]. Our motivation for using this scheme stems from the knowledge that in some species, such as most fish, XX is female, and XY is male [1]. Under certain conditions, a YY individual may be produced, and in the case of fish, this usually develops into a male. Our goal is to discover the emergent behavior of a hypothetical “diploid trisexual mating system” (DTMS) where the YY type is its own distinct “mating type”, in order to shed light on why such a system is not observed in nature today.
Auto-tuning the Matrix Powers Kernel with SEJITS

The matrix powers kernel, used in communication-avoiding Krylov subspace methods, requires runtime auto-tuning for best performance. We demonstrate how the SEJITS (Selective Embedded Just-In-Time Specialization) approach can be used to deliver a high-performance and performance-portable implementation of the matrix powers kernel to application authors, while separating their high-level concerns from those of auto-tuner implementers involving low-level optimizations. The benefits of delivering this kernel in the form of a specializer, rather than a traditional library, are discussed. Performance of the matrix powers kernel specializer is evaluated in the context of a communication-avoiding conjugate gradient (CA-CG) solver, which compares favorably to traditional CG.
Conformational Structure and Dynamics from Single-Molecule FRET

Various ways of extracting information on the conformational structure, dynamics and correlations between them from single-molecule measurements of orescence resonance energy transfer are surveyed. The information obtained via those various ways is then analyzed in detail in the case of an off-lattice model of a two-stranded coiled-coil polypeptide that follows Langevin dynamics. The analysis includes a consideration of the cases of a freely diffusing and surface-immobilized polypeptide as well as the effect of different types of surface and denaturation conditions.
A framework for estimating the adverse health effects of contamination events in water distribution systems and its application.

Intentional or accidental releases of contaminants into a water distribution system (WDS) have the potential to cause significant adverse health effects among individuals consuming water from the system. A flexible analysis framework is presented here for estimating the magnitude of such potential effects and is applied using network models for 12 actual WDSs of varying sizes. Upper bounds are developed for the magnitude of adverse effects of contamination events in WDSs and evaluated using results from the 12 systems. These bounds can be applied in cases in which little system-specific information is available. The combination of a detailed, network-specific approach and a bounding approach allows consequence assessments to be performed for systems for which varying amounts of information are available and addresses important needs of individual utilities as well as regional or national assessments. The approach used in the analysis framework allows contaminant injections at any or all network nodes and uses models that (1) account for contaminant transport in the systems, including contaminant decay, and (2) provide estimates of ingested contaminant doses for the exposed population. The approach can be easily modified as better transport or exposure models become available. The methods presented here provide the ability to quantify or bound potential adverse effects of contamination events for a wide variety of possible contaminants and WDSs, including systems without a network model.
Enhanced frequency response in buried ridge quantum well intermixed SGDBR laser modulators

We have studied the effects of various proton implant profiles on the performance of buried-ridge-stripe electro-absorption modulators monolithically integrated with SG-DBR lasers. Two implant profiles weie performed adjacent to the buried ridge, enhancing the bandwidth. 0 2003 Optic,d Society of Amenca
Large-scale, full-wave scattering phenomenology characterization of realistic trees

Scattering characterization of realistic tree structures is performed to facilitate the development of low-frequency (P-band) foliage penetration radars. The full-wave analysis approach employs a parallelized three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) algorithm deployed on high performance computer systems to simulate the far-field electromagnetic responses of foliage scenes. The scattering behavior of a single tree is first considered as a function of frequency, polarization, signal incidence angle, and structural fidelity, and then large-scale simulations are carried out to examine the responses of a forest stand in both the frequency and imaging domains. The results featured are from the first phase of an ongoing study to investigate the feasibility of applying large-scale electromagnetic simulations to support airborne-based sensing of obscured ground targets.
Identification of the protein C/activated protein C binding sites on the endothelial cell protein C receptor. Implications for a novel mode of ligand recognition by a major histocompatibility complex class 1-type receptor.

The endothelial cell protein C receptor (EPCR) is an endothelial cell-specific transmembrane protein that binds both protein C and activated protein C (APC). EPCR regulates the protein C anticoagulant pathway by binding protein C and augmenting protein C activation by the thrombin-thrombomodulin complex. EPCR is homologous to the MHC class 1/CD1 family, members of which contain two α-helices that sit upon an 8-stranded β-sheet platform. In this study, we identified 10 residues that, when mutated to alanine, result in the loss of protein C/APC binding (Arg-81, Leu-82, Val-83, Glu-86, Arg-87, Phe-146, Tyr-154, Thr-157, Arg-158, and Glu-160). Glutamine substitutions at the four N-linked carbohydrate attachment sites of EPCR have little affect on APC binding, suggesting that the carbohydrate moieties of EPCR are not critical for ligand recognition. We then mapped the epitopes for four anti-human EPCR monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), two of which block EPCR/Fl-APC (APC labeled at the active site with fluorescein) interactions, whereas two do not. These epitopes were localized by generating human-mouse EPCR chimeric proteins, since the mAbs under investigation do not recognize mouse EPCR. We found that 5 of the 10 candidate residues for protein C/APC binding (Arg-81, Leu-82, Val-83, Glu-86, Arg-87) colocalize with the epitope for one of the blocking mAbs. Three-dimensional molecular modeling of EPCR indicates that the 10 protein C/APC binding candidate residues are clustered at the distal end of the two α-helical segments. Protein C activation studies on 293 cells that coexpress EPCR variants and thrombomodulin demonstrate that protein C binding to EPCR is necessary for the EPCR-dependent enhancement in protein activation by the thrombin-thrombomodulin complex. These studies indicate that EPCR has exploited the MHC class 1 fold for an alternative and possibly novel mode of ligand recognition. These studies are also the first to identify the protein C/APC binding region of EPCR and may provide useful information about molecular defects in EPCR that could contribute to cardiovascular disease susceptibility.
Oral immunotherapy for food allergy

Food allergy is an increasingly prevalent disorder with potentially life-threatening complications that requires life-altering changes in dietary habits and psychosocial interactions. The standard of care presently includes strict dietary elimination of the implicated allergen and ready access to injectable epinephrine; however, no active, definitive therapeutic options exist for food-allergic patients. Although the detailed immunologic mechanisms underlying the development of food allergy are still being fully defined, food allergy appears to be the direct result of a breakdown in oral tolerance. Thus, current therapeutic approaches to food allergy are focused on modulating the immunologic response to food proteins to promote induction of oral tolerance. In this review, we examine gastrointestinal mucosal immunity and the mechanisms of oral tolerance, as well as the breakdown in oral tolerance that promotes food allergy, and we also explore novel therapeutic interventions for treatment of food allergy.
Market Mavens in Social Media: Examining Young Chinese Consumers' Viral Marketing Attitude, eWOM Motive, and Behavior

A paper survey of 835 Chinese college students was conducted to examine young Chinese consumers' social media use, market mavenism, viral marketing attitude, and product recommendation behavior. Structural model testing results showed that young Chinese consumers' perceived pleasure, affection outcome expectation, and subjective norm of viral marketing affected their market mavenism while their subjective norm and pleasure influenced their viral marketing attitude. More importantly, young Chinese consumers' frequency of product recommendations on social networking websites was determined by their social media use, viral marketing attitude, and electronic word of mouth motive to help the company and market mavenism.
Preferential sputtering of Ni/Cr(110)

Compositional changes of Ni/Cr alloy surfaces during ion-bombardment were studied using AES. As the sputtering temperature increased, the steady-state Cr/Ni ratio increased continuously from 200 to 400°C. Above 400°C, the steady-state Cr/Ni ratio decreased with increasing temperature. Compositional changes result from preferential sputtering of Ni caused by the surface segregation of Ni assisted by radiation-enhanced diffusion. From a temperature increment experiment, the composition of the second layer not only depends upon the atomic jumping frequencies for segregation and dissolution between the first and second layers, but also depends upon the composition below the second layer.
Testing the validity of kinship microsimulation

Computer microsimulation is capable of generating detailed reconstructions and forecasts of the numbers of living kin that members of a population have. The available detail, specificity, and consistency of vital rates for the past and the accuracy of vital rates projected for the future necessarily limit the accuracy of the kinship estimates that can be produced. This study is an external validity test of Reeves' 1982 reconstruction and forecast of U.S. kin counts with the SOCSIM microsimulation program [1]. The external standard is provided by estimates from the 1987-1988 wave of the National Survey of Families and Households, the first detailed information on numbers and ages of kin for the United States. We compare forecasts with estimates for average numbers of living grandchildren, living full-siblings, and living half-siblings as functions of age. We find remarkably close agreement for some of the predictions, along with several instances of systematic discrepancies. The discrepancies most likely stem from errors in the forecasts rather than in the survey estimates. Interacting rather than isolable errors appear to be responsible. Our validity tests provide a basis for qualified faith in the effectiveness of kinship microsimulation.