cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Multichannel multiphoton imaging of metal oxides nanoparticles in biological system

Near-IR ultrafast pulse laser and confocal microscope are combined to create a multiphoton multichannel non-linear imaging technique, which allows in situ 3-D characterization of nonfluorescent nanoparticles in biological systems. We observed intense CARS signals generated from various metal oxides due to their high third-order nonlinear susceptibilities (Chi(3)), which do not depend on the vibrational resonance but on the electronic resonance. We show that fine and ultrafine particles of metal oxides in alveolar macrophage cells may be imaged in vitro using CARS and multiphoton fluorescence microscopy with highest optical resolution for extended periods without photobleaching effects. The advantage of the epi-detection over the forward detection for imaging sub-micron particles has been investigated.
A penalized likelihood approach to joint modeling of longitudinal measurements and time-to-event data

Recently joint models for longitudinal and time-to-event data have attracted a lot attention. A full joint likelihood approach using an EM algorithm or Bayesian methods of estimation not only eliminates the bias in naive and twostage methods, but also improves efficiency. However, both the EM algorithm and a Bayesian method are computationally intensive, limiting the utilization of these joint models. We propose to use an estimation procedure based on a penalized joint likelihood generated by Laplace approximation of a joint likelihood and by using a partial likelihood instead of the full likelihood for the event time data. The results of a simulation study show that this penalized likelihood approach performs as well as the corresponding EM algorithm under a variety of scenarios, but only requires a fraction of the computational time. An additional advantage of this approach is that it does not require estimation of the baseline hazard function. The proposed procedure is applied to a data set for evaluating the effect of the longitudinal biomarker PSA on the recurrence of prostate cancer.
SU-D-134-03: Design Considerations for a Dose-Reducing Region of Interest (ROI) Attenuator Built in the Collimator Assembly of a Fluoroscopic Interventional C-Arm

Purpose: ROI fluoroscopy involves the use of an x‐ray beam attenuator with higher attenuation in the periphery than the center thus allowing for dose reduction to the patient. This study presents the design considerations for placing an x‐ray ROI attenuator made of copper inside the collimator assembly of an angiographic c‐arm. Methods: The two important considerations for the design of the attenuator are the size of the ROI and the attenuation (and hence thickness of the material) needed outside the ROI. An attenuation of 80% outside the ROI, and none inside the ROI was assumed. To calculate the thickness, exposures were measured for different thicknesses of copper at various kVp's and different inherent filtration of the system. Attenuation percentage was calculated from these readings and the thickness of copper was determined. The field‐of‐view (FOV) requirement depends on the type of procedure: smaller for a neurovascular intervention and larger for a cardiac procedure. An average FOV of 33% of 21cm × 21cm at 100cm SID with a circular ROI was assumed to calculate the diameter of the ROI in the attenuator. Results: For kVp's ranging from 80 to 90, with an added filtration of 0.2mm copper, to get an average attenuation of 80%, 0.7mm of copper was needed for the thickness of the attenuator. The attenuator was placed 13cm from the focal spot and the diameter of the ROI at this distance was calculated to be 10mm. Conclusion: The ROI attenuator can be mounted inside the beam limiting mechanism of the c‐arm. This allows for the flexibility in the usage of this technique during fluoroscopic interventions, thus achieving patient‐dose reduction. Since the attenuation for copper varies with varying kVp, different masks for different kVp's are to be used for brightness equalization.
THE THERMAL REGIME OF LAKE LANAO (PHILIPPINES) AND ITS THEORETICAL IMPLICATIONS FOR TROPICAL LAKES1

A study of temperature profiles, climatic records, and chemical data for Lake Lanao, a low-altitude tropical lake, over 14 months shows that the annual pattern of heat distribution depends partly on a’seasonal air temperature minimum and py its maximum depth is 112 m; mean depth, 60.3 m; area, 357 km2; replacement time, 6.5 years. Lanao is a first-class lake in the sense of Birgc (lW, since its morphometry permits LIMNOLOGY AND OCEANOGRAPHY 200 MARCH 1973, V. 18(2)
Meson radiation from a quark-gluon plasma by fission of chromoelectric flux tubes

Abstract The chromoelectric flux tube model is used to obtain a dynamical description of the evaporation of mesons from a quark-gluon plasma. The radiation pressure is computed to assess whether this process is an important mode for the disassembly of a compressed plasma. A new result for the rate of q q pair creation, which is the mechanism for fission of the tube, is employed.
The ecology of host immune responses to chronic avian haemosporidian infection

Host responses to parasitism in the wild are often studied in the context of single host–parasite systems, which provide little insight into the ecological dynamics of host–parasite interactions within a community. Here we characterized immune system responses to mostly low-intensity, chronic infection by haemosporidian parasites in a sample of 424 individuals of 22 avian host species from the same local assemblage in the Missouri Ozarks. Two types of white blood cells (heterophils and lymphocytes) were elevated in infected individuals across species, as was the acute-phase protein haptoglobin, which is associated with inflammatory immune responses. Linear discriminant analysis indicated that individuals infected by haemosporidians occupied a subset of the overall white blood cell multivariate space that was also occupied by uninfected individuals, suggesting that these latter individuals might have harbored other pathogens or that parasites more readily infect individuals with a specific white blood cell profile. DNA sequence-defined lineages of haemosporidian parasites were sparsely distributed across the assemblage of hosts. In one well-sampled host species, the red-eyed vireo (Vireo olivaceus), heterophils were significantly elevated in individuals infected with one but not another of two common parasite lineages. Another well-sampled host, the yellow-breasted chat (Icteria virens), exhibited no differences in immune response to different haemosporidian lineages. Our results indicate that while immune responses to infection may be generalized across host species, parasite-specific immune responses may also occur.
Efficient global register allocation for minimizing energy consumption

Data referencing during program execution can be a significant source of energy consumption especially for data-intensive programs. In this paper, we propose an approach to minimize such energy consumption by allocating data to proper registers and memory. Through careful analysis of boundary conditions between consecutive blocks, our approach efficiently handles various control structures including branches, merges and loops, and achieves the allocation results benefiting the whole program. The computational cost for solving the energy minimization allocation problem is rather low comparing with known approaches while the quality of the results are very encouraging.
Cell culture attenuation eliminates rMd5ΔMeq-induced bursal and thymic atrophy and renders the mutant virus as an effective and safe vaccine against Marek's disease.

Abstract Marek's disease virus (MDV) encodes a basic leucine zipper oncoprotein, Meq , which structurally resembles jun/fos family of transcriptional activators. It has been clearly demonstrated that deletion of Meq results in loss of transformation and oncogenic capacity of MDV. The rMd5ΔMeq virus provided superior protection than CVI988/Rispens vaccine in 15 × 7 chickens when challenged with a very virulent plus (vv+) strain of MDV, 648A. The rMd5ΔMeq construct was also shown to be an effective vaccine in commercial chickens that were challenged under field conditions by exposure to seeder chicken inoculated with MDV strain 686, a vv+ and arguably the most pathogenic strain of MDV. Although deletion of Meq gene renders the virus non-oncogenic, it still induces lymphoid organ atrophy like that of the parental rMd5, in highly susceptible MDV maternal antibody negative (MAb−) chickens. We have generated 50 cell culture passages of attenuated rMd5ΔMeq viruses and found no significant lymphoid organ atrophy beginning at 40 th passage onward when compared with the normal control chickens. The protective ability of these attenuated Meq null viruses against challenge with vv+ MDV strain 686 is similar to the original virus at 19 th passage in maternal antibody negative chickens. The data indicate that attenuation of these Meq null viruses has no influence on their protective efficacy, but eliminated lymphoid organ atrophy and rendered them safe to use even in MAb− chickens, a characteristic that should facilitate commercialization and licensing by vaccine manufacturers.
Temperature-induced neural adaptations motoneuron discharge in the alaskan beetle Pterostichus brevicornis (Carabidae)

Abstract 1. 1. The motoneuron firing patterns recorded from the trochanter of the last leg of the carabid beetle, Pterostichus brevicornis , were studied during varying states of temperature acclimatization and acclimation. 2. 2. Individual units were found to vary in both the range of temperature-dependent discharge and extinction points. Absolute neural extinction varied with previous thermal conditioning: i.e. 0°C during warm adaption to −11·7°C during cold adaptation. 3. 3. Coordinated neuromuscular activities were observed above extinction temperature.
A review of the use of risk factor modification in the management of atherosclerotic arterial disease

Based on current knowledge, it appears that atherosclerosis is a multifactorial disease. There are differences in the effects of atherosclerotic risk factors between the various vascular beds. More than one risk factor is found in the majority of the patients and, often there is atherosclerotic involvement of several vascular territories. In order to prevent or retard atherosclerotic complications and improve patient survival, it is prudent that all the major modifiable risk factors should be corrected in patients with cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and peripheral vascular disease.
Solar Neutrino Results and Future Opportunities with Borexino

Abstract Borexino started operations in 2007 with background conditions that were low enough for measurements of 7 Be neutrinos, 8 B neutrinos with low threshold energy, pep neutrinos, and a new upper limit on CNO neutrinos. These data provided the first direct probe of neutrino oscillations in the energy range covering the MSW transition from vacuum oscillations to matter-effect oscillations. Lower backgrounds will improve the accuracy of current measurements and provide an opportunity for possible measurement of pp and CNO neutrinos. The first effort to reduce background by scintillator re-purification using water extraction started in 2010 with a successful campaign that lowered 85 Kr and 210 Bi backgrounds. Data for a possible measurement of pp neutrinos are being analyzed. Recent improvements in scintillator re-purification have been identified that could reduce backgrounds to yet lower levels for a possible measurement of CNO neutrinos. The current results, the scintillator purification methods, and the future scientific opportunities for solar neutrino research will be discussed.
ISOLATED PERFORATION OF LEFT CORONARY CUSP AFTER BLUNT CHEST TRAUMA

Left coronary cusp perforation is an extremely rare consequence of blunt chest trauma. A 22-year-old male presented after a motor vehicle accident with dyspnea. Transthoracic echocardiogram (TTE) and transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE) showed moderate to severe aortic regurgitation with prolapsing right coronary cusp. In the operating room he was found to have a left coronary cusp tear near the annulus and an enlarged right cusp. The patient recovered well after successful aortic valve replacement with a mechanical valve. Traumatic aortic regurgitation with left cusp perforation is serious and surgical intervention may be lifesaving if performed timely.
In situ observation of deformation-induced interface migration in a fully-lamellar TiAl alloy

It has been reported previously that the mobility of interfacial dislocations plays a dominant role in the creep deformation behavior of a fully-lamellar (FL) TiAl alloy fabricated by powder metallurgy (P/M). Since the motion of lattice dislocations within the {gamma} lamellae is largely restricted by a refined lamellar spacing within the P/M alloy, the deformation strain is mainly accommodated by the motion of the interfacial dislocations. The creep resistance of the P/M alloy significantly increases when the motion of interfacial dislocations in the twin ({gamma}/{gamma}{sub T}) or interphase ({gamma}/{alpha}{sub 2}) interface is effectively hindered by a well developed deformation substructure such as mechanical (deformation) twins. In parallel to this study, other investigation reported in the literature have also suggested that the lamellar interfaces of TiAl are glissile. It is possible that the lamellar interfaces in TiAl, under certain circumstances, could migrate (advance) directly through the cooperative motion of interfacial dislocations. That is, the {gamma}/{gamma}{sub T} or {gamma}/{alpha}{sub 2} interface can migrate through the cooperative motion of interfacial dislocations and lead to the growth or shrinkage of the {gamma} or {alpha}{sub 2} lamellae. Therefore, a deformation-induced interfacial instability in fully-lamellar TiAl alloys could result in a weakening effect when the alloysmore » are employed for engineering applications. Although it is anticipated that the interface migration is prevalent at elevated temperatures, the present study, in fact, addresses the influence of deformation on the stability of lamellar interfaces at room temperature. An in situ straining experiment in a transmission electron microscope was incorporated for the investigation.« less
Primary care physicians' attitudes regarding follow-up care for children with positive newborn screening results.

BACKGROUND. Although primary care physicians are responsible for providing follow-up care after a positive newborn screen, little is known about their willingness or ability to do so. METHODS. A national mail survey of a random sample of 350 general pediatricians and 350 family physicians was conducted from April to June 2006. RESULTS. The response rate was 63% among pediatricians and 50% among family physicians. Most pediatricians (89.7%) and nearly one half of family physicians (44.1%) had had a patient with a positive newborn screen within the past 5 years. Most respondents thought that primary care physicians should be responsible for informing families about a positive newborn screen (73.2%), arranging confirmatory testing (66.0%), and coordinating subspecialty referral (85.3%). However, more than one half (56.2%) would prefer newborn screening programs to provide the initial evaluation of positive newborn screening results. Some respondents (but fewer pediatricians than family physicians) reported that they were not competent to discuss conditions included in newborn screening panels (eg, 22.6% of pediatricians and 53.2% of family physicians for phenylketonuria and 8.8% of pediatricians and 40.4% of family physicians for congenital hypothyroidism). More than one half (58.3%) thought that families with a child diagnosed as having congenital hypothyroidism should receive formal genetic counseling. Respondents were less likely to think that families with a child with sickle cell trait, compared with families with a child who is a cystic fibrosis carrier, should receive formal genetic counseling (69.3% vs 84.1%). CONCLUSIONS. Many primary care physicians are not prepared to manage the follow-up care of children with a positive newborn screen, including initial counseling, diagnosis, and subspecialty referral. New strategies are needed to ensure appropriate and equitable health care delivery.
The roles of user motivation to perform a task and decision support system (DSS) effectiveness and efficiency in DSS use

The purposes of this study are to: (1) obtain measures of actual decision support system (DSS) use that include the three elements of DSS use proposed by Burton-Jones and Straub (Burton-Jones, A., & Straub, D.W., Jr., (2006). Reconceptualizing system usage: An approach and empirical test. Information Systems Research, 17(3), 228-246), and (2) identify an important psychological construct - a user's motivation to perform a task - and examine how it interacts with two DSS characteristics - effectiveness and efficiency - to affect actual DSS use. As predicted, the findings indicated that individuals who used a more effective DSS to work on a task that they were motivated in increased usage of the DSS, while DSS use did not differ between individuals who used either a more or less effective DSS to complete a task that they were less motivated in. The results also showed significant difference for two measures of DSS use (i.e., STEP and TIME) and no significant difference for one measure of DSS use (i.e., USE) between individuals who used either a more or less efficient DSS to perform a task that they were more motivated in. As expected, significant differences were found for individuals who used either a more or less efficient DSS to complete a task that they were less motivated in. Finally, the results showed that DSS use increased when perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of the DSS were high; therefore, these results corroborate the findings of prior research in the context of actual DSS use.
What Rhetoric Can Contribute to an Ethnopoetics of Narrative Performance in Teaching: The Significance of Parallelism in One Teacher's Narrative.

Abstract This article employs rhetoric to examine the poetic dimensions of one performed narrative in teaching. The analysis stems from a larger study of oral narratives in classroom talk during a Holocaust unit in a middle school language arts classroom. A corpus of seventy-five teacher and student narratives was transcribed and analyzed for the broader study. Focusing on the poetic dimensions of one narrative performance from that study, this analysis illustrates what rhetoric can contribute to the study of oral narrative in teaching. This rhetorical analysis is situated within an ethnopoetic approach to narrative study, attending to parallelism of sound, word, syntax, stanza, and theme in the teacher's narrative performance. Analysis of this multi-layered parallelism reveals this teacher's construal – through narrative – of a tightly coherent poetic text which may cue processes of identification during a lesson about Kristallnacht. The discussion elaborates some pedagogical implications of analytic attention to the textual coherence and structure of oral narrative in teaching—especially to “poetic” performance keys. Treating teaching as a rhetorical practice, the discussion further illuminates new questions about the pedagogical and moral significance of narrative performances in classrooms.
DEVELOPMENT OF A METHOD FOR EARLY PREDICTION OF THE ASPHALT CONTENT OF HOT-MIX ASPHALT BY IGNITION TEST

The ignition test, developed by the National Center for Asphalt Technology, has proved to be a fast, pollution-free, automated, and inexpensive method for determining the asphalt content of a hot-mix asphalt (HMA) sample. The time required to perform this test is about 30 to 40 min, which is significantly less than the time required to perform a solvent extraction test procedure. However, having the ability to determine asphalt content in 10 to 15 min would allow the technician to identify any problem in mix production much earlier and thus save a significant amount of time and money. Presented are the results of a study carried out to develop a method for estimating the asphalt content of an HMA sample within 10 to 15 min after testing begins. The method consists of determining the prediction factor on the basis of test results from two samples and then predicting the asphalt content of additional samples on the basis of the prediction factor and the asphalt content loss at 10 to 15 min of test. Use of this method is expected to provide a good estimate of the measured asphalt content in less than half the test time. This shortcut method should be used for quality control only and should not be used for acceptance or rejection of the mixtures.
Hyperamylinemia is associated with hyperinsulinemia in the glucose-tolerant, insulin-resistant offspring of two Mexican-American non—insulin-dependent diabetic parents

Several investigations have presented evidence that amylin inhibits insulin secretion and induces insulin resistance both in vitro and in vivo. However, basal and postmeal amylin concentrations proved similar in non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) patients and controls. Since hyperglycemia may alter both amylin and insulin secretion, we examined basal and glucose-stimulated amylin secretion in eight glucose-tolerant, insulin-resistant Mexican-American subjects with both parents affected with NIDDM (offspring) and correlated the findings with the insulin sensitivity data acquired by an insulin clamp. Eight offspring and eight Mexican-Americans without any family history of diabetes (controls) underwent measurement of fat free mass (3H2O dilution method), 180-minutes, 75-g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), and 40-mU/m2, 180-minute euglycemic insulin clamp associated with 3H-glucose infusion and indirect calorimetry. Fasting amylin was significantly increased in offspring versus controls (11.5 +/- 1.4 v 7.0 +/- 0.8 pmol/L, P < .05). After glucose ingestion, both total (3,073 +/- 257 v 1,870 +/- 202 pmol.L-1.min-1, P < .01) and incremental (1,075 +/- 170 v 518 +/- 124 pmol.L-1.min-1, P < .05) areas under the curve (AUCs) of amylin concentration were significantly greater in offspring. The amylin to insulin molar ratio was similar in offspring and controls at all time points. Basal and postglucose insulin and C-peptide concentrations were significantly increased in the offspring. No correlation was found between fasting amylin, postglucose amylin AUC or IAUC, and any measured parameter of glucose metabolism during a euglycemic-hyperinsulinemic clamp (total glucose disposal, 7.21 +/- 0.73 v 11.03 +/- 0.54, P < .001; nonoxidative glucose disposal, 3.17 +/- 0.59 v 6.33 +/- 0.56, P < .002; glucose oxidation, 4.05 +/- 0.46 v 4.71 +/- 0.21, P = NS; hepatic glucose production, 0.29 +/- 0.16 v 0.01 +/- 0.11, P = NS; all mg.min-1.kg-1 fat-free mass, offspring v controls). In conclusion, these data do not support a causal role for amylin in the genesis of insulin resistance in NIDDM.
Observation of a Burst of High-Velocity Dust from α Herculis

Interferometric observations of α Herculis at a wavelength of 11.15 μm over the period 1989-2004 show large visibility variations. These variations are interpreted as an ejection of approximately 10-6 M☉ of material in 1990 that has subsequently expanded and dissipated. The expansion rate is approximately 75 km s-1, much larger than previous observations. No substantial material has been emitted during the subsequent 14 years.
Job satisfaction and job performance: A meta-analysis.

Etude meta-analytique faisant le point sur la question des relations entre la satisfaction vis-a-vis du travail et la performance professionnelle
Steroidogenic enzyme gene expression in the human brain.

Abstract mRNA, protein and activity for the enzymes required for the synthesis of adrenal corticosteroids have been demonstrated in rat brains by several laboratories. In this study real-time RT-PCR was used to determine whether mRNA for these enzymes are expressed in the human amygdala, caudate nucleus, cerebellum, corpus callosum, hippocampus, spinal cord, and thalamus. Published sequences for the human adrenal enzymes were used to construct primers. Results: mRNAs encoding cholesterol side-chain cleavage enzyme (CYP11A gene), 17β-hydroxylase (CYP17), 3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (3β-HSD), 21-hydroxylase (CYP21), 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (11β-HSD2) and glucocorticoid and mineralocorticoid receptors were detectable in all anatomical regions evaluated. The 11β-hydroxylase mRNA was detected in all except cerebellum and hippocampus. The aldosterone synthase mRNA was not found in amygdala, cerebellum or hippocampus. Levels of transcripts were 10 −1 –10 −7 -fold lower than those in the adrenal, with corpus callosum and spinal cord having the highest concentrations. Enzyme activity or relevance is yet unknown.
The effects of inhibition of development in Dictyostelium discoideum on changes in plasma membrane composition and topography.

Abstract Previous experiments have demonstrated that during the development of the cellular slime mold, Dictyostelium discoideum, the macromolecular composition of the plasma membrane changes dramatically. In addition, the exposure on the external face of the plasma membrane of some developmentally conserved polypeptides varies during development. When development and differentiation were prevented with cycloheximide or mutation, the bulk of the changes in composition were prevented. These treatments also prevented the disappearance of macromolecules and were particularly effective in preventing changes of glycoprotein composition. Similarly, the program of developmental changes of exposure of polypeptide was disrupted by both treatments. Cycloheximide, but not the mutation, stimulated the premature disappearance of six external polypeptides. This may reflect a rapid turnover of these polypeptides, which cannot be replaced in the absence of protein synthesis.
Modeling of moisture migration in an FRP reinforced masonry structure

The study of moisture migration in a layered structure made of distinct building materials is of great importance for the understanding of its hygrothermomechanical response and for the design consideration of long-term structural integrity and durability. Modeling of moisture migration in an fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composite upgraded masonry structure is particularly necessary, since the interfacial adhesive between the reinforcing FRP laminate and the host masonry can be susceptible to moisture damages. In this study, a generic theoretical formulation based on the framework of the Fourier moisture diffusion model was developed for a layered structure. The resulting governing equation was expressed in terms of humidity potential state variable whose relation with the moisture content state variable of the constituent material was defined in the sorption isotherm material property. Finite element implementation of the humidity potential formulation was also carried out. The finite element humidity migration modeling scheme was then utilized to perform two case studies. It was shown that the moisture migration processes in a concrete slab with a reinforcing FRP laminate partially covering one surface as well as in an FRP reinforced URM unit with air cavity can be captured in details when these structures are subjected to outdoor/indoor isothermal humidity gradients.
SU‐FF‐T‐337: Clinical Implementation of Proton Monte Carlo Dose Calculation

Purpose: Clinical use of Monte Carlo dose calculation to support routine treatment planning and delivery at the Northeast Proton Therapy Center. Method and Materials: The Monte Carlo code GEANT4 was used to model the treatment heads. More than 1000 objects were considered in the geometry. This includes a time dependent simulation of the modulator wheel (broad beam modulation) and the magnetic field settings (beam scanning). The code was benchmarked against phantom measurements. Further, the capability of using CT data information was implemented in GEANT4. Different Hounsfield unit to material conversion methods were tested. The standard GEANT4 tracking algorithm was modified to allow time‐efficient dose calculation. A software link of the Monte Carlo dose engine to the patient database and the commercial planning system was established. Results: The setup for Monte Carlo dose calculation is automated via a user interface. Information from the commercial treatment planning system and the treatment machine control software is imported to generate Monte Carlo input files. Dose calculations have been performed for radiosurgery and for breast, paranasal sinus, spine, and lung malignancies. Monte Carlo dose distributions can be imported into the planning system for analysis. Differences to the planning program could be identified. Due to the detailed model of the treatment head, Monte Carlo is also being used for absolute dosimetry. The reading of the segmented parallel plate ionization chamber in the treatment head was simulated with 1.4 % accuracy. Output factors can thus be simulated using the patient geometry. Conclusion:ProtonMonte Carlo dose calculation for treatment planning support can be efficiently done using GEANT4 based software. Re‐calculated plans can be used for decision making in the planning process. Simulated output factors allow the use of Monte Carlo for absolute dosimetry. This is the first clinically implemented complete Monte Carlo for proton therapy.
Xenopus laevis cellular retinoic acid-binding protein: temporal and spatial expression pattern during early embryogenesis.

Abstract There is increasing evidence that retinoic acid (RA) has a role in establishing normal axial patterns during Xenopus laevis embryogenesis. Several types of retinoid binding proteins are thoughtto mediate the effects of RA. We report the isolation of a cDNA, named xCRABP-b, which encodes a X. laevis cellular retinoic acid-binding protein (xCRABP). This cDNA hybridises to a transcript in gastrular stage embryos of approximately 3 kb, much larger than those CRABP transcripts expressed in mice. The expression of the xCRABP mRNA is generally restricted to tissues which are sensitive to the teratogenic effects of excess RA. It is likely, that during normal X. laevis embryogenesis, concentrations of RA in RA-responsive cells are modulated by the xCRABP gene product.
Aldolase-B knockout in mice phenocopies hereditary fructose intolerance in humans

Abstract The rise in fructose consumption, and its correlation with symptoms of metabolic syndrome (MBS), has highlighted the need for a better understanding of fructose metabolism. To that end, valid rodent models reflecting the same metabolism as in humans, both biochemically and physiologically, are critical. A key to understanding any type of metabolism comes from study of disease states that affect such metabolism. A serious defect of fructose metabolism is the autosomal recessive condition called hereditary fructose intolerance (HFI), caused by mutations in the human aldolase B gene ( Aldob ). Those afflicted with HFI experience liver and kidney dysfunction after fructose consumption, which can lead to death, particularly during infancy. With very low levels of fructose exposure, HFI patients develop non-alcoholic fatty acid liver disease and fibrosis, sharing liver pathologies also seen in MBS. A major step toward establishing that fructose metabolism in mice mimics that of humans is reported by investigating the consequences of targeting the mouse aldolase-B gene ( Aldo2 ) for deletion in mice ( Aldo2 −/− ). The Aldo2 −/− homozygous mice show similar pathology following exposure to fructose as humans with HFI such as failure to thrive, liver dysfunction, and potential morbidity. Establishing that this mouse reflects the symptoms of HFI in humans is critical for comparison of rodent studies to the human condition, where this food source is increasing, and increasingly controversial. This animal should provide a valuable resource for answering remaining questions about fructose metabolism in HFI, as well as help investigate the biochemical mechanisms leading to liver pathologies seen in MBS from high fructose diets.
Strong coupling expansions for the string tension at finite temperature

Abstract The SU(2) euclidean lattice gauge theory is formulated at finite temperature. Previous hamiltonian derivations of the deconfining phase transition are reproduced in the euclidean formalism. Corrections to infinite coupling are calculable, and expansions for the string tension are obtained. It is shown that the string tension is always in a rough phase for any non-zero temperature. The zero in the string tension is therefore trustworthy in the strong coupling regime. Using these results and comparing them with Monte Carlo simulations yields an estimate for the critical temperature of about 230 MeV.
Using profile analysis for assessing need in domestic violence courts

This study utilizes profile analysis to evaluate the social and economic justice impacts of domestic violence court processes. Data were gathered from all cases involved in a Domestic Violence Unified Family Court in one Florida county from January 1 through December 31, 2003. Findings suggest domestic violence courts are not responding equitably to victims (petitioners), which means that some petitioners may be revictimized by the system. Furthermore, in cases involving criminal behavior, the court system’s focus on criminality may not be having an impact on reducing the recurrence of domestic violence.
A constructive proof of the Fefferman-Stein decomposition of BMO (Rn)

Let $$ S_{\vec R} \left\{ {\left( {f, - R_1 f, \cdots , - R_n f} \right):f \in H^1 \left( {{\text{R}}^n ,{\text{R}}} \right)} \right\} \subset H^1 \left( {{\text{R}}^n ,{\text{R}}^{n + 1} } \right) $$ (22.1) $$ \begin{gathered} S_{\vec R} \left\{ {\vec g = \left( {g_j } \right)_{j = 0, \cdots ,n} } \right. \in {\text{BMO}}\left( {{\text{R}}^n ,{\text{R}}^{n + 1} } \right): \\ \sum\limits_{j = 0}^n {\vec R_j } g_j = 0{\text{ in BMO}}\left( {{\text{R}}^n ,{\text{R}}^{n + 1} } \right)\left. {/{\text{R}}} \right\} \\ \end{gathered} $$ (22.2) . j=0
Gating of retinal transmission by afferent eye position and movement signals

Vision in most vertebrates is an active process that requires the brain to combine retinal signals with information about eye movement. Eye movement information may feed forward from the motor control areas of the brain or feed back from the extrinsic eye muscles. Feedback signals elicited by passive eye movement selectively gate retinal outflow at the first relay, the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus. The gating predominantly facilitates retinogeniculate transmission immediately after eye movement and inhibits transmission when a new steady-state eye position is achieved. These two gating effects are distributed in a complementary fashion across the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus such that the spatiotemporal activity profile could contribute to object detection and localization.
Influence of pH on the precursors of phospholipid tubules in methanolic solution

Abstract Quasielastic light scattering measurements are reported for a 4 mg/ml solution of 1,2-bis(10,12-tricosadiynoyl)- sn -glycero-3-phosphocholine in an 85:15 (by vol.) methanol/water mixture as a function of temperature and pH. We find that the tubule-liposome phase transition temperature is relatively insensitive to pH, whereas the transition from liposome to the high temperature clear phase varies strongly and nonmonotonically with temperature. The hydrodynamic radius of the liposome was measured as a function of pH, temperature and time after cooling from the clear phase. In addition, the average wall thickness of the liposomes is estimated from sedimentation data and found to be considerably greater than that of the tubule.
Gender and rural reforms in China: A case study of population control and land rights policies in northern Liaoning

Abstract Based on ethnographic fieldwork, this paper explores the gender dimensions of population control and land tenure policies in a rural village in Northeast China. Gender bias was explicit in the implementation of both policies in the village between 1980 and the mid-1990s. Since that time, explicit gender bias has been reduced and both policies have stressed market incentives more, reflecting China's modernization goals and accession to the WTO. Yet the policies are not gender neutral in their implementation, effects, and interactions. Women remain the target of the eased population policy, and they are more likely to become “landless” at marriage. The policies work together to reinforce traditional and emerging forms of gender bias, though at times they offset each other. They impact women's bargaining power within the home, status in the community, and social security. Together they provide a richer view of the gendered experience of living in the village.
Dislocation and degradation from the ER are regulated by cytosolic stress

Akey step in ER-associated degradation (ERAD) is dislocation of the substrate protein from the ER into the cytosol to gain access to the proteasome. Very little is known about how this process is regulated, especially in the case of polytopic proteins. Using pulse-chase analysis combined with subcellular fractionation, we show that connexins, the four transmembrane structural components of gap junctions, can be chased in an intact form from the ER membrane into the cytosol of proteasome inhibitor–treated cells. Dislocation of endogenously expressed connexin from the ER was reduced 50–80% when the cytosolic heat shock response was induced by mild oxidative or thermal stress, but not by treatments that instead upregulate the ER unfolded protein response. Cytosolic but not ER stresses slowed the normally rapid degradation of connexins, and led to a striking increase in gap junction formation and function in otherwise assembly-inefficient cell types. These treatments also inhibited the dislocation and turnover of a connexin-unrelated ERAD substrate, unassembled major histocompatibility complex class I heavy chain. Our findings demonstrate that dislocation is negatively regulated by physiologically relevant, nonlethal stress. They also reveal a previously unrecognized relationship between cytosolic stress and intercellular communication.
Supersensitivity due to uncertain boundary conditions

SUMMARY We study the viscous Burgers’ equation subject to perturbations on the boundary conditions. Two kinds of perturbations are considered: deterministic and random. For deterministic perturbations, we show that small perturbations can result in O(1) changes in the location of the transition layer. For random perturbations, we solve the stochastic Burgers’ equation using different approaches. First, we employ the Jacobi-polynomial-chaos, which is a subset of the generalized polynomial chaos for stochastic modeling. Converged numerical results are reported (up to seven significant digits), and we observe similar ‘stochastic supersensitivity’ for the mean location of the transition layer. Subsequently, we employ up to fourth-order perturbation expansions. We show that even with small random inputs, the resolution of the perturbation method is relatively poor due to the larger stochastic responses in the output. Two types of distributions are considered: uniform distribution and a ‘truncated’ Gaussian distribution with no tails. Various solution statistics, including the spatial evolution of probability density function at steady state, are studied. Copyright 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The Psychological Impact of Rape

The purpose of the present article is to review the literature on the psychological impact of rape on adult female victims. Typical patterns of recovery, types of symptoms, and variables affecting recovery are all reviewed. Among the problems discussed are fear and anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, poor self-esteem, social adjustment issues, and sexual dysfunctions. The moderating variables that are reviewed are preassault variables such as prior psychological functioning and life stressors; within-assault variables such as acquaintanceship status, level of violence, and within-crime victim reactions; and postassault variables such as social support and participation in the criminal justice system.
Projections of the ventral premammillary nucleus

The projections of the ventral premammillary nucleus (PMv) have been examined with the Phaseolus vulgaris leucoagglutinin (PHAL) method in adult male rats. The results indicate that the nucleus gives rise to two major ascending pathways and a smaller descending pathway. One large ascending pathway terminates densely in most regions of the periventricular zone of the hypothalamus, with the notable exception of the suprachiasmatic, suprachiasmatic preoptic, and median preoptic nuclei. This pathway is in a position to influence directly many cell groups known to regulate anterior pituitary function. The second large pathway ascends through the medial zone of the hypothalamus and densely innervates the ventrolateral part of the ventromedial nucleus and adjacent basal parts of the lateral hypothalamic area, medial preoptic nucleus, principal nucleus of the bed nuclei of the stria terminalis, ventral lateral septal nucleus, posterodorsal part of the medial nucleus of the amygdala, posterior nucleus, and immediately adjacent regions of the posterior cortical nucleus of the amygdala. It is already known that these regions are major components of the sexually dimorphic circuit, and, interestingly, that they provide the major neural inputs to the PMv. The smaller descending projection from the PMv seems to innervate preferentially the posterior hypothalamic nucleus, although a small number of fibers appear to end in the tuberomammillary nucleus, supramammillary nucleus, specific regions of the medial mammillary nucleus, interfascicular nucleus, interpeduncular nucleus, periaqueductal gray, dorsal nucleus of the raphe, laterodorsal tegmental nucleus, Barrington's nucleus, and locus coeruleus. Relatively sparse terminal fields associated with ascending fibers were also observed in the dorsomedial nucleus of the hypothalamus; in the nucleus reuniens, parataenial nucleus, paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus, and mediodorsal nucleus; in the central nucleus of the amygdala, anterodorsal part of the medial nucleus of the amygdala, posterior part of the basomedial nucleus of the amygdala; and in the ventral subiculum and adjacent parts of hippocampal field CA1, and the infralimbic and prelimbic areas of the medial prefrontal cortex. Taken as a whole, the evidence suggests that the PMv receives two major inputs--one from the sexually dimorphic circuit, and the other from the blood in the form of gonadal steroid hormones--and gives rise to two major outputs: one (perhaps feed-forward) to the neuroendocrine (periventricular) zone of the hypothalamus, and the other (perhaps feed-back) to the sexually dimorphic circuit.
A strategy for the dissection and analysis of social structures

Recent attempts to formalize and/or generalize the types of social structural analyses which have long been associated with anthropological kinship studies have not generally been successful, and efforts to make this kind of structural analysis applicable to non-kinship relations have been almost totally unproductive. Much research along these lines falls under the general rubric of social network analysis and has been graph-theoretic in its formalism. A formal method is proposed which retains the discrete structural orientation of kinship methods but which is far more general. Analysis rests on identification of graph theoretically defined ‘basic structural units’, focusing on the way in which their intrinsic and positional properties interact and combine to form global social structures. The core of the procedure is a graph-theoretic reduction technique according to which a reduced graph can be induced by the basic structural units in the original graph and by any relation on the set of entities represented by the points of the original graph. Use of the concepts is illustrated by a brief examination of the problem of defining and classifying forms of domestic units.
A Machine Learning Approach to Predict Chemical Reactions

Being able to predict the course of arbitrary chemical reactions is essential to the theory and applications of organic chemistry. Previous approaches are not high-throughput, are not generalizable or scalable, or lack sufficient data to be effective. We describe single mechanistic reactions as concerted electron movements from an electron orbital source to an electron orbital sink. We use an existing rule-based expert system to derive a dataset consisting of 2,989 productive mechanistic steps and 6.14 million non-productive mechanistic steps. We then pose identifying productive mechanistic steps as a ranking problem: rank potential orbital interactions such that the top ranked interactions yield the major products. The machine learning implementation follows a two-stage approach, in which we first train atom level reactivity filters to prune 94.0% of non-productive reactions with less than a 0.1% false negative rate. Then, we train an ensemble of ranking models on pairs of interacting orbitals to learn a relative productivity function over single mechanistic reactions in a given system. Without the use of explicit transformation patterns, the ensemble perfectly ranks the productive mechanisms at the top 89.1% of the time, rising to 99.9% of the time when top ranked lists with at most four nonproductive reactions are considered. The final system allows multi-step reaction prediction. Furthermore, it is generalizable, making reasonable predictions over reactants and conditions which the rule-based expert system does not handle.
Distributed Word Clustering for Large Scale Class-Based Language Modeling in Machine Translation

In statistical language modeling, one technique to reduce the problematic eects of data sparsity is to partition the vocabulary into equivalence classes. In this paper we investigate the eects of applying such a technique to higherorder n-gram models trained on large corpora. We introduce a modification of the exchange clustering algorithm with improved eciency for certain partially class-based models and a distributed version of this algorithm to eciently obtain automatic word classifications for large vocabularies (>1 million words) using such large training corpora (>30 billion tokens). The resulting clusterings are then used in training partially class-based language models. We show that combining them with wordbased n-gram models in the log-linear model of a state-of-the-art statistical machine translation system leads to improvements in translation quality as indicated by the BLEU score.