cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Possible Role of Pineal Melatonin in the Mechanisms of Aging

The pineal gland has captured man's attention as early in recorded history as the Greeks when philosophers considered it the "seat of the soul". Descartes, in the Middle Ages, furthered this concept naming it "esprits animaux" or, in current language, the psychic and somatic activating principle. These notions about the pineal gland were initially purely speculative and unsupported by scientific facts. However, with the development of a sound knowledge base concerning the pineal gland over the past twenty years, evidence has accumulated to suggest a pivotal role for the pineal in the 'fine tuning' and integrating of various neural and endocrine functions. The secretion of pineal melatonin has been shown to decline progressively with age. Recent hypotheses of aging have suggested that cumulative neuronal insults associated with free radical production may be associated with the process of aging. There is evidence to suggest that melatonin may protect against the age processes in part by attenuating the effects of free radical-induced neuronal damage. Other studies derived mainly from observations on pinealectomized rats also suggest that diminished melatonin secretion may be associated with acceleration of the aging process. Thus, pineal melatonin may be a natural anti-aging hormone.
Moderate deviations for deconvolution kernel density estimators with ordinary smooth measurement errors

In this paper, we establish the pointwise and uniform moderate deviations limit results for the deconvolution kernel density estimator in the errors-in-variables model, when the measurement error possesses an ordinary smooth distribution. The results are similar to the moderate deviations theorems for the classical kernel density estimators, but a factor related to the ordinary smooth order is needed to account for the measurement errors.
Gluten ataxia: an important treatable etiology of sporadic ataxia.

ABSTRACTBackground: Gluten ataxia is a known cause of sporadic ataxia. Case: We report the case of a patient with imbalance and no abdominal symptoms diagnosed with gluten ataxia. Her neurological symptoms responded to gluten-free diet. Conclusion: Gluten ataxia should be considered in all patients with sporadic ataxia with or without abdominal symptoms, as early diagnosis and treatment may result in neurological improvement.
Chronic pain patients and the nonorganic physical sign of nondermatomal sensory abnormalities (NDSA).

The nonorganic physical sign of nondermatomal sensory abnormalities (NDSA) is frequently found in chronic pain patients. The presence of NDSA qualifies the patient for a potential DSM-III diagnosis of conversion disorder. DSM-III (Axis I and II) diagnoses and personality styles were assigned to 283 mixed chronic pain patients. Discriminant analysis was used to identify diagnoses and personality styles significantly related to NDSA. The demographic variables of workers’ compensation (WC) status, age, sex, and race were used as control variables. The discriminant function comprised all control variables, and psychiatric diagnoses accounted for only 22.1% of the variance. Age and WC status, i.e., the demographic variables, explained most of the variance (16.8%), with psychiatric diagnoses adding little (5.3%). The vast majority of the variance is unexplained, indicating the presence of “unexplained” factors for the presence of NDSA in chronic pain patients.
Evidence for Spatial Proximity of Two Distinct Receptor Regions in the Substance P (SP)·Neurokinin-1 Receptor (NK-1R) Complex Obtained by Photolabeling the NK-1R withp-Benzoylphenylalanine3-SP

Substance P (SP) belongs to the tachykinin family of bioactive peptides and exerts its many biological effects through functional interaction with its cell-surface, G protein-coupled neurokinin-1 receptor (NK-1R). Previous studies from our laboratory have shown that 125I-Bolton-Hunter reagent-labeled p-benzoylphenylalanine8-SP (Bpa8SP) covalently attaches to Met181, whereas 125I-Bolton-Hunter reagent-labeled Bpa4SP covalently attaches to Met174, both of which are located on the second extracellular loop (EC2) of the NK-1R. In this study, evidence has been obtained that at equilibrium, the photoreactive SP analogue125I-[d-Tyr0]Bpa3SP covalently labels residues in two distinct extracellular regions of the NK-1R. One site of125I-[d-Tyr0]Bpa3SP photoinsertion is located on EC2 within a segment of the receptor extending from residues 173 to 177; a second site of125I-[d-Tyr0]Bpa3SP photoinsertion is located on the extracellular N terminus within a segment of the receptor extending from residues 11 to 21, a sequence that contains both potential sites for N-linked glycosylation. Since competition binding data presented in this study do not suggest the existence of multiple peptide·NK-1R complexes, it is reasonable to assume that the receptor sequences within EC2 and N terminus identified by peptide mapping are in close proximity in the equilibrium complex.
Counterion Condensation and Phase Separation in Solutions of Hydrophobic Polyelectrolytes

We have developed a theory of counterion condensation in solutions of hydrophobic polyelectrolytes. In the framework of Oosawa's two-zone model we demonstrate that solutions of necklaces can be unstable with respect to phase separation. This phase separation is triggered by the concentration-induced counterion condensation. For the range of parameters at which the polyelectrolyte solution is stable, we predict nonmonotonic dependence of the chain size on polymer concentration. This nonmonotonicity in the chain size manifests itself in the dramatic increase in solution viscosity at the crossover to concentrated polyelectrolyte solution. There is also a possibility of two peaks in the scattering function of qualitatively different physical nature observed in different concentration regimes. The scattering intensity at the peak position increases with polymer concentration in low concentration (necklace) regime and decreases with concentration in concentrated polyelectrolyte solutions.
Interferometric microring-resonant 2 x 2 optical switches.

We present modeling and simulation results on a new family of waveguided interferometric 2×2 optical routing switches actuated by electro-optic or thermo-optic or all-optical control. Two pairs of coupled microring resonators provide two 3dB coupling regions within a compact Mach-Zehnder geometry. An index perturbation Δn of 2×10-3 is sufficient to produce 100% 2×2 switching. This perturbation can be applied to one arm of the MZI or to the four rings in the device or to an additional ring that is coupled to one arm. We find that push-pull control is effective for switching: for example, when carriers are injected in one region and depleted in a corresponding second region. An optical transfer-matrix technique is employed to determine the electromagnetic response (the 1550-nm switching characteristics) of the three device-types. Microdisks can be employed instead of microrings, if desired.
Decoupled load balancing

Modern scientific simulations divide work between parallel processors by decomposing a spatial domain of mesh cells, particles, or other elements. A balanced assignment of the computational load is critical for parallel performance. If the computation per element changes over the simulation time, simulations can use dynamic load balance algorithms to evenly redistribute work to processes. Graph partitioners are widely used and balance very effectively, but they do not strong scale well. Typical SPMD simulations wait while a load balance algorithm runs on all processors, so a poorly scaling algorithm can itself become a bottleneck. We observe that the load balance algorithm is separate from the main application computation and has its own scaling properties. We propose to decouple the load balance algorithm from the application, and to offload the load balance computation so that it runs concurrently with the application on a smaller number of processors. We demonstrate the costs of decoupling and offloading the load balancing algorithm from a Barnes-Hut application.
Goodbye to all that

A ccording to the Duke of Wellington, the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton. Whether or not the great duke ever made this oftquoted statement, the fact remains that the chivalrous code of the British gentleman ruled supreme in the century between Waterloo in 1814 and the battle of the Somme in 1916, when on one day, July 1, the British army suffered 60,000 casualties--20,000 officers and 40,000 men. Old Etonians carried more than their share in making the ultimate sacrifice on that terrible summer day (equal to 40 percent of all Americans killed in eight years of war in Vietnam). On July 22 of the same year, the later-famous poet and classicist, Robert Graves, was reported to have died in a letter sent to his mother by his commanding officer. Actually Graves miraculously survived his severe wounds and wrote Goodbye to All That, a classic autobiography that records both the end of his own innocence and the decline of the chivalrous code of his class in post-war England. In France, a few days after the Armistice in November 1918, an American aviator and squadron commander, Captain Hobey Baker, was killed while testing one of his squadron's Spad bi-planes. He was a legendary hero in his days at St. Paul's School and Princeton and is today the only athlete in the Ice Hockey Hall of fame, in Canada, as well as the Football Hall of fame, in the United States. Arthur Mizener, a biographer of F. Scott Fitzgerald, once wrote of Hobey Baker ' s sporting code:
High field conduction in native cellulose and its structural implications

It is shown that the conductivity of native cellulose in vacuo increases rapidly with voltage gradient; it is given by a sum of two exponential terms. While the conductivity of this material is ionic, as evidenced by the development of H2 in approximate agreement with Faraday's law, it is proposed that the increase of conductivity with voltage is caused by local electronic conduction in transient thermally-generated defects in the form of voids. These defects have essentially the same basis in statistical mechanics as the defects on which the theory of ionic conduction in crystals is based (Frenkel and Schotky defects); they should be present in a concentration proportional to a Boltzmann factor. They give mobility to the ions generated by the thermal dissociation of the molecules. In order to explain the voltage dependence it is proposed that negative ions tend to collect in small excess on one side of a defect or gap and positive on the other. The unoccupied levels in the positive ions are above the occupied levels in the negative ions, but when an adequate electric field is applied they can be brought into coincidence, and wave-mechanical transport of an electron occurs, as in the Gurney theory of electrolysis. Developing this quantitatively leads to the relation g = (dlnσ/dV)kTe−1, where g is the width of the gap, σ the conductivity, k Boltzmann's constant, T the temperature in °K, and e the electronic charge. The values of g calculated from the data cluster around two mean values: g = 19.5A and g = 34.9A, the first corresponding to the higher, the second to the lower part of the range of voltage gradients. This model indicates that H2 and O2 should be generated in the defects or voids by this type of internal electrolysis. Experimentally H2 and CO are generated at a rate increasing with voltage, such that at 0.5 × 106 V/cm the yield is about 2 moles/f, i.e., too large for an electrode effect. Thus the model explains both the voltage-dependence of conductivity and that of the electrochemical yield (of H2), using properties already needed for the explanation of conduction and electrolysis. The presence of transient defects (or voids) in thermodynamic equilibrium can also be used in the model for the explanation of the conductivity/water-content relationship. It is proposed that the conductivity is proportional to the probability of simultaneous adsorption of single water molecules at nine discrete sites, characteristic of each transient defect.
Evaluation of the impact of surface residue cover on single and dual crop coefficient for estimating soybean actual evapotranspiration

Abstract Single and dual crop coefficient methods are used in conjunction with grass reference evapotranspiration ( ET o ) to estimate actual crop evapotranspiration ( ET c ). However, the impact of soil surface residue cover on the accuracy of ET c estimated with these methods is not well understood. The objective of this study is to evaluate and compare the accuracy of the FAO-56 single crop coefficient (single- K c ) and dual crop coefficient (dual- K c ) methods for estimating soybean [ Glycine max (L.) Merr.] ET c in a partially residue covered field. The study was conducted at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, South Central Agricultural Laboratory (SCAL), Nebraska, during the 2007 and 2008 growing seasons. The field was under reduced-tillage (ridge till) on a silt loam soil and irrigated using a subsurface drip irrigation system. Evapotranspiration flux ( ET m ) above the crop canopy was measured using a deluxe version of a Bowen ratio energy balance system (BREBS) and ET o was calculated with the Penman–Monteith method. The single- K c and dual- K c -estimated ET c values, both unadjusted for residue cover, were compared to ET m . The unadjusted FAO-56 K c values performed poorly as the single- K c underestimated ET m during the initial crop growth stage by 21% in 2007 and 33.6% in 2008 while the dual- K c overestimated ET m during the same growth stage by 16.8% in 2007 and 16.5% in 2008. Extended simulations were conducted to determine the magnitude by which ET c is reduced for each 10% of soil surface covered with crop residue. Downward adjustments in soil water evaporation ( E s ) for every 10% of the soil surface covered with crop residue improved the accuracy of ET c estimated by the dual- K c method. The largest changes in ET c due to adjustments in E s occur during the initial stage of the growing season. The best estimates for seasonal ET c were obtained by reducing E s by 5% for every 10% of surface covered with residue in 2007 ( R 2 = 0.77, RMSD = 0.87 mm d −1 , E = 0.94) and 2008 ( R 2 = 0.83, RMSD = 0.84 mm d −1 , E = 0.95). Greater improvements in the accuracy of estimated seasonal ET c were obtained by reducing E s by 2.5% for each 10% of surface covered with residue during the initial stage and by 5% during the rest of the crop growth stage. These results suggest that the more computationally-involved dual- K c method with adjustments in E s for each 10% of surface covered with residue improves the prediction of ET c in fields with soil surface residue cover, especially during the initial growth stage. Inaccurate selection of percentage reduction in E s can result in substantial overestimation or underestimation of seasonal ET c by the dual- K c method.
Performance comparison of a DS/CDMA system using a successive interference cancellation (IC) scheme and a parallel IC scheme under fading

Overcoming near/far effects and fading is imperative for satisfactory performance of DS/CDMA systems. Commercial digital cellular systems based on CDMA use stringent power control to combat near/far effects and fading. Another approach which has a fundamental potential in not only eliminating near/far problems, but also in significantly raising capacity, is multiuser detectors and interference cancellers. The authors compare the performance of a serial (successive) interference cancellation (IC) scheme and a parallel IC scheme for a coherent BPSK, DS/CDMA system under flat Rayleigh fading channels. Though the performance of the parallel IC scheme was found to be superior under equal received powers, the successive IC scheme outperformed it for a realistic fading environment. Both outperformed the conventional detector in both cases. >
Four to ten milliseconds per year: age-related slowing of visual word identification.

Routine screening by mammography and physical examination can detect breast cancers earlier at all ages. In women over age 65 the sensitivity of mammography is increased, and the positive predictive value for mammography is higher than in younger women. There are no direct data that can be used to determine at what age screening is no longer of value. This question must be evaluated on an individual basis and should take into account the quality of life and competing causes of death. The medical benefit from screening for a given individual should be considered separately from society's cost/benefit goal to reduce health care expenditures, because the two are likely to produce contradictory recommendations.
The use of vibrating wire technique for precise positioning of CESR Phase III super-conducting quadrupoles at room temperature

A vibrating wire technique has been used for the precise positioning of the CESR Phase III quadrupole magnets into cryostats at room temperature. The alignment was performed in a 8 /spl times/ 10/sup -2/ T/m quadrupole magnetic field gradient. The position of the quadrupole magnetic center was measured to 0.03 mm precision. The magnets were aligned with a cryostat centerline with better than 0.2 mm precision. The measurement setup, instruments and the procedure are described.
Development progress on a microelectronic tactile facsimile reading aid for the blind

Progress is described on a reading aid for the blind which is intended to give the blind direct access to ordinary printed material. Operation principles and construction of the device are described. Recent reading performance of a subject on typed reading material is presented.
Simple setup for hybrid coherent Raman microspectroscopy

Wedemonstrateafemtosecond-oscillator-basedsystemforcoherentanti-Stokes/StokesRamanscatteringmicroscopy,whereinimpulsive Raman excitation is combined with narrowband, time-delayed, and therefore, background-free probing. We showthatthissimpletechniquecan be usedfor microscopic imagingwith chemicalcontrast. Copyright
A 68-year-old woman with recurrent cystitis.

Case presentation A 68-year-old Hispanic woman presented with a third episode of cystitis. She complained of multiple episodes of dysuria, frequency and suprapubic discomfort for the past six months. She denied fevers, chills, hematuria and flank pain. There was no history of nephrolithiasis and she had no other complaints. Her symptoms responded to oral levofloxacin, administered for 14 days after each episode of infection; however, they recurred a few weeks thereafter. Her medical history was significant for diabetes mellitus that was well controlled on oral hypoglycemic agents. She did not smoke, had immigrated to the United States 45 years previously and had a negative purified protein derivative test on intake. She was married with three healthy children, was a homemaker and had no contact with animals. On examination, the patient was afebrile, with a temperature of 37.6°C. Her blood pressure was 126/78 mmHg, heart rate was 82 beats/min and her oxygen saturation was 97% on room air. She was awake, alert and not in acute distress. Her skin was intact with no rashes or lymphadenopathy. She had clear lung fields, regular heart sounds without murmurs and soft nontender abdomen with no organomegaly. She had no renal angle tenderness and no lymphadenopathy. Her neurological examination was nonfocal. Blood tests revealed a hemoglobin level of 97 g/L and white blood cell count of 8.4×109 cells/L. She had chronic kidney disease with a creatinine level of 133 μmol/L. Her liver function tests were normal. Urinalysis revealed a white blood cell count of >100 cells per highpower field, with hematuria and proteinuria. Routine urine culture was negative. A computed tomography scan of the abdomen and pelvis showed normal kidney size with no stones, and a thickened urinary bladder wall with no ascites or lymphadenopathy. The patient underwent cystoscopy and biopsy (Figures 1 and 2). What is your diagnosis?
Fast Handover over Micro-MPLS-Based Wireless Networks

Recently, there has been increasing interest in applying MPLS to IP-based wireless access networks [1]. During a handover on Mobile MPLS-based networks, a registration update message is sent from the Foreign Agent (FA) to the Home Agent (HA). This update message results in a handover delay because of the distance the registration update message must travel from the FA to the HA. To decrease frequent registration handover delays, a micro-mobility approach over MPLS-based networks (also known as Hierarchical Mobile MPLS (H-MPLS)) [2] method was proposed to overcome the limitations of the Mobile MPLS protocol. Studies have shown that with H-MPLS, the Mobile Node (MN) experiences considerably lower handover delays when compared with the delay incurred with conventional mobile MPLS [2], [3]. In this paper we propose to extend the use of H-MPLS by introducing Intermediate Label Information Base (I-LIB) on a Label Switching Router (LSR), which uses the MPLS forwarding and localized signaling. Our simulations demonstrate that with an I-LIB, the end-to-end delay is reduced as a result of a decrease in the handover latency during the establishment of a new Label Switched Path (LSP). With increasing usage of wireless devices supporting delay sensitive traffic (such as voice and video over IP), it is essential to provide lower end-to-end by minimizing handover delays since large delays cause Quality of Service (QoS) degradations.
TOXIC HAZARD EVALUATION OF PLENUM CABLES .

Code provisions covering the installation of low voltage cables in plenum spaces above suspended ceilings used for environmental air are reviewed. A calculation procedure which could be used to estimate the potential toxicity of the decomposition products from these cables relative to the toxicity of the compartment fire necessary to decompose the cable insulation is presented. These estimates are used in a four-step procedure for estimating Smoke Toxicity Hazard proposed by the NFPA Toxicity Advisory Committee which is described. Example calculations for some typical cases and a discussion of their limitations are included.
Angiotensin Converting Enzyme Inhibitors (ACEI) and doxorubicin pharmacokinetics in women receiving adjuvant breast cancer treatment

Doxorubicin (DOX) chemotherapy can cause cardiac complications. Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEI) may protect against these complications. We performed a pharmacokinetics (PK) study to determine whether DOX levels are altered in the presence of ACEI. In this randomized, cross-over, single-blinded drug-drug interaction study, 19 women with breast cancer prescribed DOX and cyclophosphamide every 14 days received one cycle of DOX chemotherapy with ACEI enalapril 10 mg daily and another cycle of DOX with placebo. Blood samples for DOX and doxorubicinol were drawn at baseline, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 4.0, 24.0 and 48.0 hours after infusion with and without ACEI enalapril. Correlative laboratories were also obtained. PK data was analyzed using non compartmental methods and DOX and doxorubicinol area under the curve (AUC) 0 to infinity, Cmax and half-life were estimated. Paired t-tests were used to determine whether DOX and its metabolite were altered with the use of enalapril (P < 0.05). 17 women (median age 45 years) received 60 mg/m2 DOX every two weeks for four cycles. Mean (SD) AUC0- ∞ for DOX and doxorubicinol with enalapril exposure was 1185.56 (44.64) hr*ng/ml and 1040 (80.6) hr*ng/ml, respectively. AUC0- ∞ for DOX and doxobubicinol without enalapril was 1167.73 (45.26) hr*ng/ml and 1056.32 (92.03) hr*ng/ml, respectively. There is no interaction between DOX and enalapril. Enalapril was tolerated (33% grade 1 dizziness). ACEI, enalapril, does not appear to alter the PK of DOX. Ongoing efforts to determine the effectiveness of ACEI as a cardioprotective agent in women receiving DOX chemotherapy should be continued.
On the Sensitivity of the Drake Passage Transport to Air–Sea Momentum Flux

An eddy-permitting state estimate and its adjoint are used to analyze the influence of wind stress perturbations on the transport of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) system through Drake Passage. The transport is found to be sensitive to wind stress perturbations both along the ACC path and also in remote regions. The time scale of influence of wind stress perturbations is on the order of 100 days. Regarding spatial scales, the sensitivity of transport to wind stress is relatively smooth in regions offlat topography. In boundary regions and regions with complex topography, however, the sensitivity is enhanced and characterized by shorterlengthscalesoforder100 km.PositiveperturbationstothezonalwindstressusuallyincreasetheACC transport, though the wind stress curl is of primary influence where the currents are steered by topography. Highlighting locations where the ACC is especially responsive to air‐sea momentum fluxes reveals where an accurate determination of atmospheric winds may best enhance ocean modeling efforts.
Toxicity of particulate matter from incineration of nanowaste

Disposal of some nanomaterial-containing waste by incineration and the subsequent formation of particulate matter (PM) along with hazardous combustion by-products are inevitable. The effect of nanomaterials on the toxicity of the PM is unknown. We assessed the oxidative potential (OP) and toxicity of PM resulting from the incineration of pure nanomaterials and of paper and plastic wastes containing Ag, NiO, TiO2, ceria, C60, Fe2O3, or CdSe/ZnS quantum dots (CdSe QD) at mass loadings ranging from 0.1 wt% to 10 wt%. We measured reactive oxygen species (ROS) using the dichlorofluorescein assay, and we also measured consumption of ascorbic acid, dithiothreitol (DTT), glutathione (GSH), or uric acid antioxidants from raw and solvent-extracted PM, denoted “cleaned PM”. We determined cytotoxicity and genotoxicity of PM to A549 human lung epithelial cells with the WST-1 cell viability and histone immunofluorescence assays, respectively. In most cases, the presence of nanomaterials in the waste did not significantly affect the OP of PM; however, PM derived from waste containing Ag, TiO2, and C60 had elevated ROS response in the GSH and DTT assays. The ratio of reduced to oxidized glutathione was significantly higher for cleaned PM compared to raw PM for almost all nanomaterials at almost all concentrations, indicating that combustion by-products adsorbed on raw PM play an important role in determining OP. The presence of nanomaterials did not significantly modify the cytotoxicity or genotoxicity of the PM. Different antioxidants used to assess OP had varying sensitivity towards organic compounds v. metals in PM. The presence of these seven nanomaterials at low concentrations in the waste stream is not expected to exacerbate the hazard posed by PM that is produced by incineration.
Phylogenetic analysis of ecomorphological divergence, community structure, and diversification rates in dusky salamanders (Plethodontidae: Desmognathus).

An important dimension of adaptive radiation is the degree to which diversification rates fluctuate or remain constant through time. Focusing on plethodontid salamanders of the genus Desmognathus, we present a novel synthetic analysis of phylogeographic history, rates of ecomorphological evolution and species accumulation, and community assembly in an adaptive radiation. Dusky salamanders are highly variable in life history, body size, and ecology, with many endemic lineages in the southern Appalachian Highlands of eastern North America. Our results show that life- history evolution had important consequences for the buildup of plethodontid-salamander species richness and phe- notypic disparity in eastern North America, a global hot spot of salamander biodiversity. The origin of Desmognathus species with aquatic larvae was followed by a high rate of lineage accumulation, which then gradually decreased toward the present time. The peak period of lineage accumulation in the group coincides with evolutionary partitioning of lineages with aquatic larvae into seepage, stream-edge, and stream microhabitats. Phylogenetic simulations dem- onstrate a strong correlation between morphology and microhabitat ecology independent of phylogenetic effects and suggest that ecomorphological changes are concentrated early in the radiation of Desmognathus. Deep phylogeographic fragmentation within many codistributed ecomorph clades suggests long-term persistence of ecomorphological features and stability of endemic lineages and communities through multiple climatic cycles. Phylogenetic analyses of com- munity structure show that ecomorphological divergence promotes the coexistence of lineages and that repeated, independent evolution of microhabitat-associated ecomorphs has a limited role in the evolutionary assembly of Des- mognathus communities. Comparing and contrasting our results to other adaptive radiations having different biogeo- graphic histories, our results suggest that rates of diversification during adaptive radiation are intimately linked to the degree to which community structure persists over evolutionary time.
Kinematics and Mechanics of Large Elastic Deformations

“The perfectly elastic material is a particular kind of ideal material. It has a single preferred or natural configuration. We think a portion of this material in a certain configuration with material coordinates X, which we choose as specifying the reference configuration. However this material is deformed, into whatever configuration it is brought, it always remembers precisely its preferred or natural configuration and attempts to get back to it. When the forces that maintain it its present configuration are released, it will return precisely to initial configuration.
Building a more perfect beast: APP transgenic mice with neuronal loss.

While there have been a number of successful attempts to develop transgenic mice that express mutant amyloid precursor protein (APP) and develop amyloid deposits that have features similar to those in aging and Alzheimer’s disease (AD),1 until now there has been either no neuronal loss or less than convincing evidence in favor of neuronal loss. In this issue of The American Journal of Pathology, Schmitz and colleagues2 provide compelling evidence for age-dependent neuronal loss in the hippocampus of bigenic transgenic mice expressing a double mutation in APP (Swedish APP mutation APPK670N, M671L (APPsw) and APPV717I, under the mouse Thy1 promoter) and mutant presenilin-1 (PS-1 M146L under the pHMG promoter). The neuronal loss was ascertained by unbiased stereologic methods on Nissl-stained sections. The animals showed significant (30 to 35%) neuronal loss in the hippocampal pyramidal layer compared to controls, which was disproportionate to the degree of amyloid deposition. No neuronal loss was detected in the dentate fascia of the hippocampus, the only other region assessed for neuronal loss. While the regions analyzed are of interest, if the model is to have relevance to AD, it will be important in future studies to extend neuronal counts to limbic and association cortical regions, which are especially vulnerable to amyloid deposition in humans. The behavioral consequences, if any, of neuronal loss in this model are not described in this report or other descriptions of this model3 and are left to future work.
Land Banking as Metropolitan Policy

Stable neighborhoods are key to urban prosperity, and the recent upswing in foreclosed and abandoned properties has destroyed stability in many areas. One potential solution is land banking, a process by which local governments can take title to and repurpose abandoned and vacant properties. This article argues in favor of land banking as a solution to neighborhood instability and suggests that federal support of local governments - through direct funding and tax code reform - is an important element of land banking implementation.
Proprioceptive Feedback and Preferred Patterns of Human Movement

During cyclical tasks, humans often prefer stereotyped movement patterns. Although minimization of metabolic energy expenditure commonly is proposed as an underlying motor control goal, the mechanism by which humans choose their preferred movement pattern is not clear. We hypothesize that humans use proprioceptive feedback, which provides information about body mechanics in the identification of the preferred pattern of movement.
Is Current Trade Pattern Between the Developed and Developing Countries Environmentally Sustainable

This study examines global environmental sustainability in an open economy with international trade by studying the pattern of trade between the developed country and the developing country. Assuming that both economies are productive enough to grow and regulate pollution emissions optimally over time via emission tax, it is found that the developing country is bound to specialize in producing the pollution-intensive goods in a growing economy as long as there exists a sufficiently great technology gap in the production of environmentally friendly goods between the developed country and the developing country. The conclusion holds even if the marginal valuation of environmental improvement increases rapidly in the developing country. The developing country needs to export pollution-intensive goods where it has a comparative advantage in producing to finance imports of environmentally friendly goods that it values more over time. It is suggested that global cooperation for technological development to reduce pollution in the dirty manufacturing industry is needed to prevent ever-worsening environmental degradation in developing countries.
Analysis of environmental health and disinfection results monitored in hospitals

Objective To evaluate the quality of the environment in hospitals correctly,and guide each department of the hospital to carry out disinfection and sterilization work,take active measures to prevent and control hospital infection.Method According to "disinfection technology standard","hospital disinfection hygiene standards" made by the Ministry of Health,for monitoring the quality of the environment in hospitals and the disinfection effect,we carried out random sampling from the level of first-class hospital,the level 2nd class hospital,the family planning service station and the maternity and child care centers and private hospitals etc..Results we collect a total of 403 copies of all kinds of testing samples.the total qualified rate was 94.3%,among which air was 77.3%,the object surface was 95.9%,medical staff's hands was 95.1%,the qualified rate of the disinfectant in use was 100%,high pressure steam sterilization was 95.8%,aseptic goods was 94.2%,dialysate was 100.0%.There was significant disinfection effect between ppublic hospitals and privoite hospitals(χ2=5.038,P0.05).Conclusion Of all the 22 medical and health care units,the overall qualified rate of disinfection and sterilization quality was higher.But of,disinfection effect three civilian hospitals was poor.We still need strengthen the supervision.
Plastic surgical conditions in infancy and childhood.

A number of operations, if mastered, will produce excellent results in repair of cleft lip. The optimal age is between the first and second months of life.Correction of cleft palate is highly specialized and technically difficult. A good age for repair is between 14 and 18 months.Protruding ears can be corrected before the child enters school.Surgical separation of syndactylous fingers may be postponed until the age of four or five years unless normal growth and development are prevented or the thumb is involved.A transplant operation using the gracilis muscle has been successful in many cases of rectal incontinence and has also been used to correct urinary incontinence. Five to six years seems to be the best age for the operation.
Abstract 1966: Automated miRNA purification without the use of organic solvents

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenous small non-coding RNAs 18-24 nucleotides in size that play important roles involving gene regulation associated with cancer, disease control and gene silencing. Because of the impact on disease progression, miRNA research is rapidly shifting towards biomarker discovery. Many of the commercially available miRNA purification methods involve organic extraction during pre-processing. Here, we describe a novel chemistry that enables total RNA purification including smaller RNA such as miRNA. This chemistry offers significant advantages with a simple automated workflow, no organic extraction and minimal pre-processing. In this study, we successfully show purification of miRNAs from a range of solid and liquid sample types including frozen tissue, whole blood, plasma, exosomes, mammalian cell lines, saliva, bone and FFPE samples. Absorbance yield, absorbance ratios, RINs, and amplification of miRNA show equivalence with organic solvent-based purification methods. The miRNA studied included miR-21, let-7a, miR-141, and miR-125b, depending on starting sample type. Next generation sequencing (NGS) analysis shows equivalent sequence diversity when compared pairwise with a manual, organic pre-processing method. This novel chemistry and method enables purification of small and large RNA from a range of sample types. The purified RNA has little or no detectable DNA contamination and does not require phenol extraction, thus improving safety. Also, the automation of this workflow decreases manual hands on time, saving scientist time and reducing the risk of RNase contamination. Citation Format: Jami D. English, Doug Horejsh, Chris Moreland, Marjeta Urh. Automated miRNA purification without the use of organic solvents. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 1966.
AUTOIMMUNE POLYGLANDULAR SYNDROME TYPE 2 IN A PATIENT WITH PERIPARTUM CARDIOMYOPATHY

ABSTRACT Objective: To present a case of concomitant peripartum cardiomyopathy and autoimmune polyglandular syndrome type 2 during pregnancy. Methods: Clinical presentation during pregnancy and literature review. Results: A 32-year-old woman at 34 weeks gestational age was referred to our hospital out of concern for pre-eclampsia. She had been diagnosed with autoimmune hypothyroidism during pregnancy. During induction of labor, the patient was intubated for impending respiratory failure. An echocardiogram performed that day revealed a reduced ejection fraction (EF) of 45% and global cardiomyopathy. Post-partum, the patient was noted to be hypotensive and hypoglycemic. Random serum cortisol was 1.2 μg/dL. The patient improved clinically after a course of corticosteroids. Subsequently, a cosyntropin stimulation test confirmed adrenal insufficiency. Plasma adrenocorticotropic hormone was elevated >1,250 pg/mL, confirming primary adrenal insufficiency. Conclusion: Despite its rarity, adrenal insufficiency dur...
Process and Approaches

Chapter 3 presents the EBED process of an EBED initiative and is intended to help guide policymakers and practitioners in designing and implementing EBED initiatives. The first three steps—stakeholder engagement; goal identification; and asset, needs, and gaps identification—are essential for ensuring the framework is used effectively. The remaining steps are selection of an approach, development of metrics, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation. Each step is described in detail and provides information for EBED stakeholders to tailor an approach so that it is most conducive to local needs, assets, and circumstances. This chapter concludes with a description of three fundamental factors that shape the design of an EBED project: the point of intervention, geographic scale, and the degree of transformation that the project requires relative to the status quo.
Selective Protein Kinase C β Inhibition Induces Apoptosis and Arrests Cell Cycle in AIDS-Related Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Cell Lines.

Abstract Abstract 4807 AIDS-related Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (AIDS-NHL) constitutes an aggressive variety of lymphomas characterized by increased extranodal involvement, relapse rate and resistance to chemotherapy. In the present era of target-specific therapy, PKCβ targeting showed promising results in preclinical studies, as well as phase II clinical trials involving a wide variety of cancers. Studies describing the role of PKCβ in AIDS-NHL are primitive if not lacking, and HIV infection has been considered an exclusion criterion in clinical studies involving PKCβ inhibition in NHL patients. In the present study, we measured the sensitivity of a variety of AIDS-NHL cell lines to PKCβ inhibition. Three cell lines were studied: 2F7 (AIDS-Burkitt's Lymphoma), BCBL-1 (AIDS-Primary Effusion Lymphoma) and UMCL01-101 (AIDS-Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma). Cells were tested for PKCβ1 and PKCβ2 expression by immunoblot. Cell viability was measured in the presence of a PKCβ-specific inhibitor at concentrations of 5, 10, 20 and 30 μM for 48 hours in the presence of 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS). The IC50 at 48 hours was determined for each cell line, and cells were cultured in the presence of the correspondent IC50 for 24 and 72 hours. MTS assay was performed to quantify cell viability, and TUNEL assay with propidium iodide staining was used to detect apoptotic induction and effect on cell cycle. Results showed that 2F7 and UMCL01-101 cell lines express PKCβ1 and PKCβ2, while BCBL-1 expresses only PKCβ1 and lacks PKCβ2 expression. 2F7 and BCBL-1 were sensitive to PKCβ inhibitor with IC50 of 14 and 15 μM of inhibitor, respectively. UMCL01-101 showed relative resistance to PKCβ inhibition with an IC50 of 28 μM. Incubation in the presence of the correspondent IC50 induced significant apoptosis in all cell lines starting after 2 hours of treatment; UMCL01-101 cell line was not significantly affected when incubated in the presence of 14 μM. Our results also showed cell cycle inhibition in 2F7 and BCBL-1 starting respectively after 2 and 8 hours of incubation with the correspondent IC50; UMCL01-101 showed no features of cell cycle inhibition when cultured in the presence of high concentration (IC50) or low concentration (14 μM) of the inhibitor. BCBL-1 cell line findings were unexpected in the absence of PKCβ2 expression and implicate PKCβ1 as a regulator in these cells. These results indicate that PKCβ plays an important role in AIDS-related NHL survival, and suggest that PKCβ targeting should be considered in a broader spectrum of NHL. Ongoing studies will detail the mechanism of PKCβ inhibition and uncover the underlying mechanism of resistance in PKCβ expressing UMCL01-101 cells. This mechanism may be considered for exclusion from treatment. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.
Contact Problem on the Interaction of Two Lap Plates, Absolutely Rigid in Tension and Flexible in Bending, with a Thin Circular Sector

Using the Fourier method, a solution is constructed for the boundary-value problem of elasticity theory for a circular sector whose radial sides are reinforced by two lap plates absolutely rigid in tension and flexible in bending. On the arc part of its contour, external conditions are given. The stress singularity in the vicinity of top of the circular sector and the behavior of coefficients of the singularity are investigated. It is established that stresses in this vicinity have a singularity of the type r −1+e (e > 0; e → 0 at α → π or α → 2π), whose coefficients, in the general case of loading of the arc part of the sector, differ from zero, which is inadmissible from the viewpoint of the mechanics of brittle fracture. However, an appropriate selection of external conditions on the arc part of sector allows one to equate these coefficients to zero.
A phase II study of capecitabine-oxaliplatin and cetuximab in patients (pts) with advanced/metastatic gastric cancer (G) or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) adenocarcinoma.

4096 Background: There have been limited advances in the treatment (tx) of pts with metastatic G or GEJ adenocarcinoma. The combination of fluroropyrimidines and platinums are standard regimens for...
Asylum for Sale: A Market between States that is Feasible and Desirable

The asylum system faces problems on two fronts. States undermine it with populist politics, and migrants use it to satisfy their migration preferences. To address these problems, asylum services should be commodified. States should be able to pay other states to provide determination and protection-elsewhere. In this article, I aim to identify a way of implementing this idea that is both feasible and desirable. First, I sketch a policy proposal for a commodification of asylum services. Then, I argue that this policy proposal is not only compatible with the right to asylum, but also supported by moral considerations. Despite some undesirable moral features, a market in asylum facilitates the provision of asylum to those who need it.
Transforming Sudan: Decolonization, Economic Development, and State Formation

Following the conclusion of the Second World War, the nature of inequality in Africa was dramatically altered. In this book, Alden Young traces the emergence of economic developmentalism as the ideology of the Sudanese state in the decolonization era. Young demonstrates how the state was transformed, as a result of the international circulation of tools of economic management and the practice of economic diplomacy, from the management of a collection of distinct populations, to the management of a national economy based on individual equality. By studying the hope and eventual disillusionment this ideology gave to late colonial officials and then Sudanese politicians and policymakers, Young demonstrates its rise, and also its shortfalls as a political project in Sudan, particularly its inability to deal with questions of regional and racial equity, not only showing how it fostered state formation, but also civil war.
Analysis of Wind Power Ramping Behavior in ERCOT

This report analyzes the wind power ramping behavior using 10-minute and hourly average wind power data from ERCOT and presents statistical properties of the large ramp events.
Functional Entity Relationship Model and Update Operations (Extended Abstract)

A data model called FERM (Functional Entity Relationship Model) is introduced in order to improve the semantic modeling capability of database systems [Matsuo84]. FERM is an integration and extension of the Functional Data Model and the Entity Relationship Model [Chen76]. FERM consists of a small number of primitive elements such as entity sets, attribute types, and database storage functions together with a set of integrity constraints called Domain-Range Constraints. Functional relationships between entities and attributes of an entity are represented in FERM by database storage functions. High-level semantics such as ISA relationships, existence dependencies, mandatory relationships, case and disjointness relationships are all expressed in FERM in terms of Domain-Range Constraints on database storage functions. Thus, consistent database storage states with respect to such high-level semantics can be studied by analyzing the effect of database update operations on Domain-Range Constraints.