cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Topical timolol for recalcitrant wounds.

Patient 1 A woman in her 80s with a history of venous insufficiency based on clinical presentation and vascular studies presentedwithmultiplepainfululcerationsonthebilateral ankles. She developed wounds in 1972 with subsequent trauma that led to repetitive skin breakdown.Her currentwounds began 1 year ago. The patient was initially treated with multilayered elastic compression bandages (Profore; Smith & Nephew), which were changed weekly, and various foam dressings (Allevyn; Smith & Nephew; Mepilex Ag; Molnlycke Health Care).When herwound failed to heal, adjuvant therapies, including serial applications of porcine small intestine submucosa (Oasis;HealthpointBiotherapeutics), bilayered living skin equivalent (Apligraf; Organogenesis) and an autologous splitthickness graft from the thighwere used but did not result in complete closure. After 6months, thewoundwas 3.2 cm2 and a β2-adrenergic receptor (B2AR) antagonist, topical timolol, 0.5% (Timoptic;AtonPharma),was instilled, 1dropevery2 cm of wound edge weekly, then covered with silicone foam and 3-layer compression. All wounds, including her target ulcer, were fully epithelialized after 8 weeks of treatment, and the patient was prescribed a compression apparatus (JuxtaCure; CircAid Medical Products) to prevent recurrence.
Dichloroacetate enhances myocardial functional and metabolic recovery following global ischemia

This study was undertaken to determine the effect of dichloroacetate (DCA) on myocardial functional and metabolic recovery following global ischemia. Sixteen isolated rabbit hearts were subjected to 120 minutes of mildly hypothermic (34 degrees C) cardioplegic arrest with multi-dose, modified St. Thomas' cardioplegia. Following ischemia, hearts were reperfused with either a physiologic salt solution (PSS) as controls, (CON, N = 10), or PSS containing DCA (DCA, N = 6) at a concentration of 1 mmol/L. Functional and metabolic indices were determined at baseline and at 15, 30, and 45 minutes of reperfusion. Results were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA, Sheffe F test) and significance was defined as P < 0.05. Functional recovery was significantly better in hearts reperfused with DCA. Developed pressure (DP) recovered to 62 +/- 4% of baseline in DCA hearts, compared to 37 +/- 8% in CON hearts. Recovery of dP/dt was also improved in DCA versus CON hearts (67 +/- 5 v 43 +/- 10%). Coronary blood flow was not different between groups either at baseline or during reperfusion, but myocardial oxygen consumption (MVO2) was increased in the DCA versus CON hearts (71 +/- 10% of baseline, v 51 +/- 19%). Diastolic compliance during reperfusion was improved in those hearts receiving DCA, as was myocardial mechanical use efficiency (DP/MVO2). Correction of myocardial tissue pH to baseline values was similar in both groups, indicating that the beneficial effect on functional recovery seen with DCA was not solely related to amelioration of acidosis.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Transport and Metabolism of Radiolabeled Choline in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Altered choline (Cho) metabolism in cancerous cells can be used as a basis for molecular imaging with PET using radiolabeled Cho. In this study, the metabolism of tracer Cho was investigated in a woodchuck hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell line (WCH17) and in freshly derived rat hepatocytes. The transporter responsible for [(11)C]-Cho uptake in HCC was also characterized in WCH17 cells. The study helped to define the specific mechanisms responsible for radio-Cho uptake seen on the PET images of primary liver cancer such as HCC. Cells were pulsed with [(14)C]-Cho for 5 min and chased for varying durations in cold media to simulate the rapid circulation and clearance of [(11)C]-Cho. Radioactive metabolites were extracted and analyzed by radio-HPLC and radio-TLC. The Cho transporter (ChoT) was characterized in WCH17 cells. WCH17 cells showed higher (14)C uptake than rat primary hepatocytes. [(14)C]-Phosphocholine (PC) was the major metabolite in WCH17. In contrast, the intracellular Cho in primary hepatocytes was found to be oxidized to betaine (partially released into media) and, to a lesser degree, phosphorylated to PC. [(14)C]-Cho uptake by WCH17 cells was found to have both facilitative transport and nonfacilitative diffusion components. The facilitative transport was characterized by Na(+) dependence and low affinity (K(m) = 28.59 ± 6.75 μM) with partial energy dependence. In contrast, ChoT in primary hepatocytes is Na(+) independent and low affinity. Our data suggest that transport and phosphorylation of Cho are responsible for the tracer accumulation during [(11)C]-Cho PET imaging of HCC. WCH17 cells incorporate [(14)C]-Cho preferentially into PC. Conversion of [(14)C]-PC into phosphatidylcholine occurred slowly in vitro. Basal oxidation and phosphorylation activities in surrounding hepatic tissue contribute to the background seen in [(11)C]-Cho PET images.
More solutions means more problems: Resolving kinematic redundancy in robot locomotion on complex terrain

This paper addresses the open challenge of planning quasi-static walking motions for robots with kinematically redundant limbs. Focusing on RoboSimian, a quadrupedal robot developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), we develop a practical method for generating statically stable walking motions by pre-computing a reduced dimensional inverse kinematics (IK) lookup table with certain uniqueness and smoothness properties. We then use that lookup table to generate IK solutions at the beginning and end of walking phases (e.g., swing, body shift, etc), and connect these waypoints using the Rapidly exploring Random Tree Connect (RRTConnect) algorithm [1]. Thus, we avoid arbitrarily choosing an IK solution at the goal (that may turn out to be difficult to reach from the start) by setting this choice through design and use of a task-specific lookup table, which can be analyzed offline. Our approach also introduces a complementary formulation of the RRT-Connect configuration space that addresses contact and closure constraints by using the forward kinematics of one stance leg to determine the body pose while treating additional stance limbs as dependent on the body pose and solving their inverse kinematics with IK table lookup. We demonstrate an implementation of some of this framework on RoboSimian and discuss generalizations and extensions.
Semi-Supervised Polarity Lexicon Induction

We present an extensive study on the problem of detecting polarity of words. We consider the polarity of a word to be either positive or negative. For example, words such as good, beautiful, and wonderful are considered as positive words; whereas words such as bad, ugly, and sad are considered negative words. We treat polarity detection as a semi-supervised label propagation problem in a graph. In the graph, each node represents a word whose polarity is to be determined. Each weighted edge encodes a relation that exists between two words. Each node (word) can have two labels: positive or negative. We study this framework in two different resource availability scenarios using WordNet and OpenOffice thesaurus when WordNet is not available. We report our results on three different languages: English, French, and Hindi. Our results indicate that label propagation improves significantly over the baseline and other semi-supervised learning methods like Mincuts and Randomized Mincuts for this task.
High Density Lipoprotein (HDL) Particle Uptake Mediated by Scavenger Receptor Class B Type 1 Results in Selective Sorting of HDL Cholesterol from Protein and Polarized Cholesterol Secretion

High density lipoprotein (HDL) mediates reverse transport of cholesterol from atheroma foam cells to the liver, but the mechanisms of hepatic uptake and trafficking of HDL particles are poorly understood. In contrast to its accepted role as a cell surface receptor, scavenger receptor class B type 1 (SR-BI) is shown to be an endocytic receptor that mediates HDL particle uptake and recycling, but not degradation, in both transfected Chinese hamster ovary cells and hepatocytes. Confocal microscopy of polarized primary hepatocytes shows that HDL particles enter both the endocytic recycling compartment and the apical canalicular region paralleling the movement of SR-BI. In polarized epithelial cells (Madin-Darby canine kidney) expressing SR-BI, HDL protein and cholesterol undergo selective sorting with recycling of HDL protein from the basolateral membrane and secretion of HDL-derived cholesterol through the apical membrane. Thus, HDL particles, internalized via SR-BI, undergo a novel process of selective transcytosis, leading to polarized cholesterol transport. A distinct process not mediated by SR-BI is involved in uptake and degradation of apoE-free HDL in hepatocytes.
Stochastic blockmodels: First steps

Abstract A stochastic model is proposed for social networks in which the actors in a network are partitioned into subgroups called blocks. The model provides a stochastic generalization of the blockmodel. Estimation techniques are developed for the special case of a single relation social network, with blocks specified a priori. An extension of the model allows for tendencies toward reciprocation of ties beyond those explained by the partition. The extended model provides a one degree-of-freedom test of the model. A numerical example from the social network literature is used to illustrate the methods.
Matrix based computation of floating-point roundoff noise

A matrix-based procedure is presented for computing the output roundoff power for filters implemented with floating-point arithmetic. The filter's computational structure is represented in terms of a product of matrices, known as a factored state variable description. The quantities needed to compute the output roundoff noise power are obtained from the factored state variable description by matrix manipulation. The expression for output roundoff noise power is shown to be of the same form as that for fixed-point arithmetic roundoff noise. Comparison indicates that, under very general conditions, fixed-point arithmetic provides better roundoff noise performance than floating-point arithmetic. Several examples are provided. >
In vitro activities of novel 4-HPR derivatives on a panel of rhabdoid and other tumor cell lines

Background Rhabdoid tumors (RTs) are aggressive pediatric malignancies with poor prognosis. N-(4-hydroxy phenyl) retinamide (4-HPR or fenretinide) is a potential chemotherapeutic for RTs with activity correlated to its ability to down-modulate Cyclin D1. Previously, we synthesized novel halogen-substituted and peptidomimetic-derivatives of 4-HPR that retained activity in MON RT cells. Here we analyzed the effect of 4-HPR in inhibiting the growth of several RT, glioma, and breast cancer cell lines and tested their effect on cell cycle, apoptosis and Cyclin D1 expression.
The prevalence of hypertension in children with spina bifida.

Aim: To determine whether children with spina bifida (SB) have a higher prevalence of hypertension (HTN) than population-based controls. Methods: Charts of all patients (n = 123) seen in the Spina Bifida Clinic at Shriners Hospital in Houston, Texas, were reviewed for age, gender, ethnicity, type and level of neural tube defect, height, weight and blood pressure (BP). HTN was defined as a systolic blood pressure or diastolic blood pressure ≥95th percentile for age, gender and height on ≥3 occasions. Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and from a Houston-based study were used for comparison. Results: Fifty-one (41.5%) patients were hypertensive. This was significantly higher than the 3% prevalence in the national controls, p < 0.001 and the 4.5% prevalence in the Houston controls, p < 0.001. Maximum body mass index increased the risk for HTN [odds ratio, 1.018; 95% confidence interval (1.005, 1.031); and p = 0.005]. Conclusion: Children with SB have a significantly higher prevalence of HTN than children in the general population. Age-, gender-, and height-based norms are important for the early identification and treatment of HTN in children.
Giving anesthesiologists what they want: How to write a useful preoperative consult

Anesthesiologists are the primary users of preoperative medical consultations (consults), but the information in consults is often of limited usefulness to anesthesiologists and the rest of the surgical and perioperative team. The purpose of a consult is not to "clear" a patient for surgery but rather to optimize a patient's underlying disease states before they are compounded by the insult of surgery. Too often consults provide advice on subjects that are in the realm of expertise of the anesthesiologist--such as the type of anesthesia to administer or what intraoperative monitoring to use--and thus risk being ignored. Consults should instead provide specific data about the patient that are pertinent to the surgery, as well as guidance on preoperative and postoperative disease management.
The protein threading problem with sequence amino acid interaction preferences is NP-complete

In recent protein structure prediction research there has been a great deal of interest in using amino acid interaction preferences (e.g. contact potentials or potentials of mean force) to align («thread») a protein sequence to a known structural motif. An important open question is whether a polynomial time algorithm for finding the globally optimal threading is possible. We identify the two critical conditions governing this question: (i) variable-length gaps are admitted into the alignment, and (ii) interactions between amino acids from the sequence are admitted into the score function
Interleukin (IL)-15Rα–deficient Natural Killer Cells Survive in Normal but Not IL-15Rα–deficient Mice

Natural killer (NK) cells protect hosts against viral pathogens and transformed cells. IL-15 is thought to play a critical role in NK cell development, but its role in the regulation of peripheral NK cells is less well defined. We now find that adoptive transfer of normal NK cells into mice lacking the high affinity interleukin (IL)-15 receptor, IL-15Rα, surprisingly results in the abrupt loss of these cells. Moreover, IL-15Rα–deficient NK cells can differentiate successfully in radiation bone marrow chimera bearing normal cells. Finally, adoptively transferred IL-15Rα–deficient NK cells survive in normal but not IL-15Rα–deficient mice. These findings demonstrate that NK cell–independent IL-15Rα expression is critical for maintaining peripheral NK cells, while IL-15Rα expression on NK cells is not required for this function.
Motivating Students to Do Homework

How do you motivate students to do their homework? Some instructors make students' homework scores a significant percentage of the final course grade. In that case, how much course credit is required? Some instructors do not grade homework at all, instead relying on students' intrinsic motivation to learn the course material. Will this actually work? Some instructors might motivate students by having quiz and/or exam problems closely match the assigned homework problems. In this article, we report on the effectiveness of grade incentives, homework-based quiz problems, and intrinsic motivation for 16 semesters of introductory mechanics and introductory electricity and magnetism (E&M) courses at the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) between fall 2008 and spring 2012.
Hypertension control, predictors for medication adherence and gender differences in older Chinese immigrants

Title. Hypertension control, predictors for medication adherence and gender differences in older Chinese immigrants Aim. This paper is a report of a study to explore the relationship between demographic and cultural factors and antihypertensive medication adherence in older Chinese immigrants. Background. Hypertension is a well-known controllable risk factor for cardiovascular diseases worldwide, but only 20–80% of patients who take antihypertensive medications adhere adequately to their treatment regimen. Methods. A cross-sectional study was conducted between 2002 and 2003, with a convenience sample of 75 older men and 69 older women (n = 144, response rate 80%). Medication adherence was defined as ≥80% of the total score on the Morisky scale. Findings. Age (75·2 ± 5·7 vs. 75·9 ± 7·0 years, P = 0·51) and length of stay in the United States of America (12·7 ± 6·4 vs. 12·7 ± 6·6 years, P = 0·97) were similar for men and women. More men were married (85% vs. 46%, P < 0·01). A smaller proportion of men were poor (39% vs. 65%, P < 0·01), believed in religion (49% vs. 70%, P = 0·01), and could speak no English (32% vs. 57%, P < 0·01). Fewer men used Chinese herbs to treat hypertension (4% vs.13%). Hypertension control was low for men and women (53% and 48%, P = 0·51). Adherence in men and women was 69% and 75% (P = 0·42) respectively. For men, shorter length of stay in the United States of America was negatively associated with non-adherence (OR = 0·16; 95% CI: 0·05, 0·57). No association between length of stay and non-adherence was found for women. Conclusion. More research, including gender-specific studies, is needed to understand better how to develop an effective and culturally sensitive strategy to help older Chinese immigrants manage their hypertension.
Recollections of Mrs. Hughes's Student

At the top of the detailed introduction to Dylan Thomas's poetry that Sylvia Plath prepared for her freshman English class at Smith College in the spring of 1958, she added a note to return her student Ellen Bartlett's essay. 1 When I met Ellen on September 4, 2006 in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, I learned in the course of our conversation that Plath had selected Ellen's exam response analyzing James Joyce's novel Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1917) to read to the class as an example. In preparation for our interview, Ellen had composed the following memoir of her year as a student in Sylvia Plath's class. – AG ***
The lattice of full regular subsemigroups of a regular semigroup

Although the regular subsemigroups of a regular semigroup S do not, in general, form a lattice in any naturalway, it is shown that the full regular subsemigroups form a complete sublattice LF of the lattice of all subsemigroups; moreover this lattice has many of the nice features exhibited in (the special case of) the lattice of full inverse subsemigroups of an inverse semigroup, previously studied by one of the authors. In particular, LF is again a subdirect product of the corresponding lattices for each of the principal factors of S. A description of LF for completely 0-simple semigroups is given. From this, lattice-theoretic properties of LF may be found for completely semisimple semigroups. For instance, for any such combinatorial semigroup, LF is semimodular.
Unsupervised Object-Based Video Segmentation Using Color And Texture

A new method for the temporal segmentation of video sequences into real-world objects is proposed. First, each frame undergoes a color quantization step by matching like colors extracted from the previously processed frame. JSEG's color variance feature and texture features from the gray-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) are both extracted from each color-quantized frame and combined to obtain a more optimal image segmentation. Finally, a validation step is performed between the segmented regions of the currently processed frame and those in the previous frame, thus matching existing objects between frames and automatically detecting new objects upon their entrance into the scene. The new algorithm is tested on various video segments (pans, zooms, close-ups, and multiple-object motion) with results included
Metalloproteinase inhibition prevents acute respiratory distress syndrome.

Background. The acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) occurs in patients with clearly identifiable risk factors, and its treatment remains merely supportive. We postulated that patients at risk for ARDS can be protected against lung injury by a prophylactic treatment strategy that targets neutrophil-derived proteases. We hypothesized that a chemically modified tetracycline 3 (COL-3), a potent inhibitor of neutrophil matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and neutrophil elastase (NE) with minimal toxicity, would prevent ARDS in our porcine endotoxin-induced ARDS model. Methods. Yorkshire pigs were anesthetized, intubated, surgically instrumented for hemodynamic monitoring, and randomized into three groups: (1) control (n = 4), surgical instrumentation only; (2) lipopolysaccharide (LPS) (n = 4), infusion of Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide at 100 μg/kg; and (3) COL-3 + LPS (n = 5), ingestion of COL-3 (100 mg/kg) 12 h before LPS infusion. All animals were monitored for 6 h following LPS or sham LPS infusion. Serial bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) samples were analyzed for MMP concentration by gelatin zymography. Lung tissue was fixed for morphometric assessment at necropsy. Results. LPS infusion was marked by significant (P < 0.05) physiological deterioration as compared with the control group, including increased plateau airway pressure (P plat ) (control = 15.7 ± 0.4 mm Hg, LPS = 23.0 ± 1.5 mm Hg) and a decrement in arterial oxygen partial pressure (P a O 2 ) (LPS = 66 ± 15 mm Hg, Control = 263 ± 25 mm Hg) 6 h following LPS or sham LPS infusion, respectively. Pretreatment with COL-3 reduced the above pathophysiological changes 6 h following LPS infusion (P plat = 18.5 ± 1.7 mm Hg, P a O 2 = 199 ± 35 mm Hg; P = NS vs control). MMP-9 and MMP-2 concentration in BAL fluid was significantly increased between 2 and 4 h post-LPS infusion; COL-3 reduced the increase in MMP-9 and MMP-2 concentration at all time periods. Morphometrically LPS caused a significant sequestration of neutrophils and monocytes into pulmonary tissue. Pretreatment with COL-3 ameliorated this response. The wet/dry lung weight ratio was significantly greater (P < 0.05) in the LPS group (10.1 ± 1.0 ratio) than in either the control (6.4 ± 0.5 ratio) or LPS+COL-3 (7.4 ± 0.6 ratio) group. Conclusions. A single prophylactic treatment with COL-3 prevented lung injury in our model of endotoxin-induced ARDS. The proposed mechanism of COL-3 is a synergistic inhibition of the terminal neutrophil effectors MMPs and NE. Similar to the universal practice of prophylaxis against gastric stress ulceration and deep venous thromboses in trauma patients, chemically modified tetracyclines may likewise be administered to prevent acute lung injury in critically injured patients at risk of developing ARDS.
Cystatin C Deficiency Promotes Inflammation in Angiotensin II–Induced Abdominal Aortic Aneurisms in Atherosclerotic Mice

An imbalance between cysteinyl cathepsins and their principal endogenous inhibitor cystatin C (CystC) may favor proteolysis in the pathogenesis of human abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA), yet a direct role of CystC in AAA remains unproven. This study used CystC and apolipoprotein E (ApoE) compound mutant (CystC−/−ApoE−/−) mice to examine directly the role of cysteine protease/protease inhibitor imbalance in AAA formation in angiotensin II–induced AAA. CystC-deficiency increased lumenal diameter and lesion size compared with control mice. CystC−/− ApoE−/− lesions also demonstrated enhanced inflammatory cell accumulation, more severe elastin fragmentation, and fewer smooth muscle cells in the tunica media. Macrophage content, measured as percent positive area (23.2 ± 1.4% versus 11.2 ± 1.4%; P = 0.0003) and number of the CD4+ T cells (ninefold; P = 0.048), increased significantly in CystC−/−ApoE−/− lesions. CystC deficiency increased cathepsin activity (5.5 fold; P = 0.001) in AAA, yielding greater elastin degradation and proangiogenic laminin-5 γ2 peptide production, which may account for increased microvascularization in CystC−/−ApoE−/− compared with ApoE−/− lesions. Increased leukocyte adhesion molecule VCAM-1 expression and leukocyte proliferation might also promote inflammation in CystC-deficient AAA. These data indicate that CystC contributes to experimental AAA pathogenesis and that enhanced cysteine protease activity, due to the lack of CystC, favors inflammation in AAA lesions induced in atherosclerotic mice by promoting microvascularization and smooth muscle cell apoptosis as well as leukocytes adhesion and proliferation.
A new formulation for the ionospheric cross polar cap potential including saturation effects

Abstract. It is known that the ionospheric cross polar cap potential (CPCP) saturates when the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) B z becomes very large. Few studies have offered physical explanations as to why the polar cap potential saturates. We present 13 events in which the reconnection electric field (REF) goes above 12mV/m at some time. When these events are examined as typically done in previous studies, all of them show some signs of saturation (i.e., over-prediction of the CPCP based on a linear relationship between the IMF and the CPCP). We show that by taking into account the size of the magnetosphere and the fact that the post-shock magnetic field strength is strongly dependent upon the solar wind Mach number, we can better specify the ionospheric CPCP. The CPCP (Φ) can be expressed as Φ=(10 -4 v 2 +11.7 B (1- e -M a /3 )sin 3 (θ/2)) { r ms /9 (where v is the solar wind velocity, B is the combined Y and Z components of the interplanetary magnetic field, M a is the solar wind Mach number, θ=acos( B z / B ), and r ms is the stand-off distance to the magnetopause, assuming pressure-balance between the solar wind and the magnetosphere). This is a simple modification of the original Boyle et al. (1997) formulation.
U.S. Government Health Literacy Tools Related to Healthy Eating and Physical Activity

Health literacy tools that provide information about healthy eating and physical activity can be found at LetsMove.gov. The “Let’s Move” initiative, which was created by Michelle Obama, aims to educate children and parents about healthy eating and physical activity. The tools at LetsMove.gov may increase the likelihood of users understanding the connection between a healthy lifestyle and healthy outcomes. Additionally, the tools may empower users to make informed decisions regarding healthy eating and physical exercise, which will ultimately result in lower obesity rates, improved health outcomes, and decreased health are costs.
A comparison of inhibitory effects of neuropeptide Y on rat urinary bladder, urethra, and vas deferens

The effects of human and porcine neuropeptide Y (NPY) on electrically induced contractions of smooth muscle strips from rat urinary bladder, urethra, and vas deferens were investigated. NPY (10 nM-10 microM) inhibited to the contractile response in all preparations. The magnitude of inhibition by NPY was dependent on frequency of stimulation in each organ, the inhibition being in general much greater (80-100%) at low frequencies (2-5 Hz) than at high frequencies (30-40% at 10-100 Hz). The vas deferens and urethra exhibited nearly maximal inhibition (90-100%) over a broader range of stimulus frequencies (1-20 Hz), while the bladder exhibited a more prominent inhibition at frequencies of stimulation below 2 Hz. When tested at 20 Hz stimulation the urethra and vas deferens were very sensitive (70-90% inhibition) to both types of NPY, whereas bladder strips were much less sensitive to NPY and the effect differed with the two types of NPY (16% inhibition with human NPY and 39% inhibition with porcine NPY). In the urinary bladder, NPY inhibited the cholinergic component of the contractile response, while in the urethra adrenergic transmission was primarily affected. These studies suggest that NPY, which is present in both cholinergic and adrenergic neurons in the pelvic ganglia, may have an important role in the neural control of the lower urinary tract by participating in autoinhibition at autonomic nerve terminals as well as in the heterosynaptic interactions between the cholinergic and adrenergic pathways.
Mycoplasma (PPLO) strains with lytic activity for murine lymphoma cells in vitro.

SummaryPreliminary characterization of a group of mycoplasma that are cytocidal for L5178Y and P388D1 cells, but not for many other tissue culture cells, is presented. Lysis of these murine malignant lymphoblasts is a property not shared by many other mycoplasma including such agents as Campo, T-5, and Eaton mycoplasma.
Utilizing design intent information to aid in the synthesis of multi-domain systems

ABSTRACTThe IDEAS (Iterative DEsign of Alternative Solutions) application is presented as a prototype engineering tool that enables design space exploration during the transition from problem clarification to concept generation based on initial form and fit design conceptualizations. The goals met through development of the application prototype are to demonstrate the feasibility of form and fit based design space exploration for engineered systems and to demonstrate the feasibility of abstracting functional design intent from a form and fit based engineering design paradigm. Meeting these goals is the first step toward developing a computational system that allows functional design intent to be captured and archived during conceptual design for use later in an existing suite of computational function-based design tools.
CHAPTER 55 – Diabetic Vascular Disease

This chapter focuses on several key issues regarding endothelial cell function during diabetes mellitus, including the role of the endothelium in maintaining the basal tone of blood vessels, the role of the endothelium in vascular reactivity and permeability, and potential cellular mechanisms that may contribute to vascular dysfunction during diabetes mellitus. Endothelium plays a critical role in vascular homeostasis and regulation of many physiological events, including inflammation, platelet aggregation/adhesion, angiogenesis, mechanoreception, and metabolism of circulating compounds. In addition to these physiological events, the endothelium appears to regulate vascular reactivity and permeability by the synthesis/release of various important vasoactive substances, including nitric oxide. Diabetes mellitus produces impairment of endothelium-dependent responses in large and small blood vessels in animal models and in human subjects. While the precise mechanism by which diabetes mellitus impairs vascular reactivity and permeability is not entirely clear, it appears that the formation of oxygen-derived free radicals may play a prominent role. Thus, inhibition of cellular pathways that account for the formation of oxygen-derived free radicals may prove to be a useful therapeutic approach for the prevention of cardiovascular abnormalities in diabetic subjects.
Quantum cognition and rational choice

Of the three faculties of subjectivity, the empirical case for quantum cognition is the strongest. In the past decade a rapidly growing body of scholarship has emerged at the intersection of mathematical psychology and physics that not only models cognition in explicitly quantum terms, but has rigorously tested these models as well. While it remains to be seen how mainstream psychologists will respond, “quantum decision theory” has clearly come of age. Moreover, at the same time an almost completely independent literature has emerged on quantum game theory as well. This work is more in a purely formal vein and thus less well tested against real data, although its predictions about how people should behave in quantum games appear to conform to what experimental game theorists have found. I briefly take up quantum game theory at the end of this chapter, but my main focus will be on its decision-theoretic cousin. Quantum consciousness theory suggests that human beings are literally walking wave functions. Most quantum decision theorists would not go that far, and indeed – perhaps wary of controversy – they generally barely mention quantum consciousness, and then only to emphasize that they are making no claims about what is going on deep inside the brain (much less about consciousness), but are only interested in behavior. Instead, they have motivated their work in two other ways. First, they have highlighted the intuitive fit between quantum theory's indeterminism and the probabilistic character of human behavior. If we were founding the social sciences today and started – without metaphysical prejudice – by looking for useful models in physics, then quantum models would be a much more obvious import than classical ones. Second, quantum decision theorists have argued that their model can explain long-standing anomalies in human behavior under uncertainty. Beyond that they have remained agnostic about quantum consciousness, which makes quantum decision theory a form of what is called “weak” or “generalized” quantum theory, in which the formalism is detached from its physical basis and used simply as a tool to describe phenomena.
Getting Creative on What Will Do: Cyber Espionage, Conflict and Covert Action

Cyber attacks represent a new set of tools in international relations and conflict. Employment of cyber attacks is attractive because the means necessary for subverting or compromising networked information systems are low and can yield significant impact, often with a reasonably low degree of confidence for attribution. We are likely witnessing a blending of cyber tactics into low-intensity and economic forms of conflict. The capacity to launch cyber attacks is increasingly desired by non-state actors and participants in terror or insurgent campaigns. At the same time, cyber combatants have come to be viewed as legitimate targets for kinetic military action. An important complicating factor of incorporating cyber tools into international conflict is how the opportunities presented by vulnerabilities throughout the cyber ecosystem at the tactical level fit into strategic decision-making by the United States and other states as well as non-state actors. Bridging this gap is an important and necessary step for both achieving the aspirational goals for cyber espionage and covert action, while at the same time deepening understanding of ancillary effects and externalities. Provided here is a narrative of the development of cyber conflict as well as several guideposts for assessing the utility of cyber attack as policy. Among the topics covered are: Internet-based intelligence activities; the role of encryption in the privacy-security debate; cyber economic warfare; the connection between cyber and kinetic action; and lastly the role of information and strategic influence in cyber conflict.
Characterization of the tryptophanase operon of Proteus vulgaris : cloning, nucleotide sequence, amino acid homology, and in vitro synthesis of the leader peptide and regulatory analysis

The tryptophanase (tna) operon of Proteus vulgaris was cloned and characterized and found to be organized similarly to the tna operon of Escherichia coli. Both operons contain two major structural genes, tnaA and tnaB, that encode tryptophanase and a tryptophan permease, respectively. tnaA of P. vulgaris is preceded by a transcribed leader region, encoding a 34-residue leader peptide, TnaC, that contains a single tryptophan residue. The tnaC coding region also has a boxA-like sequence. Regulatory studies performed in P. vulgaris, and with a plasmid carrying the P. vulgaris tna operon in E. coli, established that expression of the Proteus operon was induced by tryptophan and was subject to catabolite repression. Site-directed mutagenesis studies established that translation of the tnaC coding region was essential for induction. Synthesis of the P. vulgaris leader peptide was demonstrated in an in vitro coupled transcription-translation system. Interestingly, the 5 amino acid residues of the TnaC peptide surrounding the sole tryptophan residue are identical in P. vulgaris and E. coli. We conclude that the tna operon of P. vulgaris is also regulated by tryptophan-induced transcription antitermination. Homology of tryptophanase and tryptophan permease of P. vulgaris to related proteins from other species is described.
Adaptive Learning in Psychology: Wayfinding in the Digital Age

This paper presents the results of a pilot study investigating the use of the Realizeit adaptive learning platform to deliver a fully online General Psychology course across two semesters. Through mutual cooperation, UCF and vendor (CCKF) researchers examined students’ affective, behavioral, and cognitive reactions to the system. Student survey results indicated that students found the system easy to use and were generally positive about their seamless transition to adaptive learning. While the majority of students were successful, learning outcome metrics utilizing Realizeit indices indicated a potential for early prediction of students who are likely to be at risk in this environment. Recommendations are presented for the benefits of cooperative research between users and vendors.
Buckle of the bariatric surgery belt: an analysis of regional disparities in bariatric surgery

Abstract Background Surgical options have emerged as effective treatments to mitigate obesity-associated co-morbidities leading to reduced mortality risk. Despite the benefits of bariatric surgery, a low portion of the eligible population undergoes weight loss procedures. Objectives To determine if regional disparities exist among bariatric patients in the United States and potential effects of any difference Setting National Inpatient Sample (NIS). Methods We performed a retrospective, cross-sectional analysis of the NIS database from 2003–2010. We identified 4 regions of the United States; Northeast, Midwest, West, and South. Endpoints included race, payor status, co-morbidities, urban/rural areas, institutional academic status, surgeon, and institutional volume. The sample was analyzed using χ 2 tests, linear regression, and multivariate logistical regression analysis. Results A total of 132,342 cases and 636,320 controls were studied. A majority of the study population was female (62.5%) and white (70.0%) with private insurance (42.0%). The highest prevalence of obesity was identified in the South (39.7%) and the lowest in the Midwest (17.1%). The greatest numbers of bariatric procedures are performed in the Northeast (24.4%) compared with the South (13.9%) and Midwest (13%). After controlling for demographic characteristics, the proportion of procedures performed in the Northeast compared with the South (odds ratio .52, confidence interval .40–.66; P P Conclusion Significant disparities in bariatric procedures performed were identified in the South and Midwest regions compared with the Northeast. Although the South has a higher prevalence of obesity, thus it could be suggested by outreach programs.
Functional Validation of an Alpha-Actinin-4 Mutation as a Potential Cause of an Aggressive Presentation of Adolescent Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis: Implications for Genetic Testing

Genetic testing in the clinic and research lab is becoming more routinely used to identify rare genetic variants. However, attributing these rare variants as the cause of disease in an individual patient remains challenging. Here, we report a patient who presented with nephrotic syndrome and focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) with collapsing features at age 14. Despite treatment, her kidney disease progressed to end-stage within a year of diagnosis. Through genetic testing, an Y265H variant with unknown clinical significance in alpha-actinin-4 gene (ACTN4) was identified. This variant has not been seen previously in FSGS patients nor is it present in genetic databases. Her clinical presentation is different from previous descriptions of ACTN4 mediated FSGS, which is characterized by sub-nephrotic proteinuria and slow progression to end stage kidney disease. We performed in vitro and cellular assays to characterize this novel ACTN4 variant before attributing causation. We found that ACTN4 with either Y265H or K255E (a known disease-causing mutation) increased the actin bundling activity of ACTN4 in vitro, was associated with the formation of intracellular aggregates, and increased podocyte contractile force. Despite the absence of a familial pattern of inheritance, these similar biological changes caused by the Y265H and K255E amino acid substitutions suggest that this new variant is potentially the cause of FSGS in this patient. Our studies highlight that functional validation in complement with genetic testing may be required to confirm the etiology of rare disease, especially in the setting of unusual clinical presentations.
Characterization of basic immune function parameters in the fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas), a common model in environmental toxicity testing.

The fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas) is an environmental sentinel species, commonly used in toxicity testing. However, there is a lack of data regarding basic immune function in this species. To improve the usefulness of the fathead minnow as a model for basic immune function and immunotoxicity, this study sought to 1) compare the differential expression of immune function genes in naive fathead minnows and 2) determine the effects of pathogen exposure on immune gene expression and spleen index. To accomplish this, kidney, spleen and liver tissue were collected three days post injection (dpi) from adult male fathead minnows from each of the following groups: 1) uninjected control 2) sham-injected (Hank's balanced salt solution) and 3) pathogen-injected (Yersinia ruckeri). Spleen tissue was also collected at seven and 14 dpi. Differential tissue expression of immune function genes was evaluated in naive minnows and expression patterns were similar to those found in other fish species, with liver tissue generally having the highest amount of expression. Following pathogen injection, the expression of complement component 3 (c3) (4.4-fold, kidney; 2.5-fold, liver), interleukin 11 (il11) (4.8-fold, kidney; 15.2-fold, liver) and interleukin 1β (il1β) (8.2-fold, kidney; 17.2-fold, spleen; 2.6-fold, liver) were significantly upregulated. Elastase 2 (elas2) was significantly downregulated (5.8-fold) in liver tissue. A significant increase in spleen index at seven dpi was also observed in pathogen-injected minnows. This study has identified endpoints that are part of the normal response to pathogen in fathead minnows, an essential step toward the development of the fathead minnow as a model for immunotoxicity evaluations.
Mining readme files to support automatic building of Java projects in software repositories: poster

Automatic building of software projects provides a desirable foundation to support a large variety of software engineering research tasks based on open software repositories. In this paper, we propose the first technique to automatically extract software build commands from software readme files and Wiki pages, and combine the extracted commands for software building. Specifically, we leverage the Named Entity Recognition (NER) technique for build-command extraction, and prioritize the extracted build commands to identify which one should be used in software build. Our experiment on top Java projects from GitHub reveals that, the proposed technique can correctly identify more than 90% of build commands, and can successfully build 84% of the projects that can be built successfully through manual inspection of software support documents.
Recycling methods: the value of replicated research in the classroom

Reusing datasets and research methods defined from students in prior Digital Humanities (DH) courses is an effective means to quickly introduce new students to methods-driven research projects. The pedagogical strategy along with two specific assignments are explained in the article. The first assignment uses the open source application ImagePlot to visualize 398 comic book covers for color values such as hue and saturation. The second project uses the open source tool MALLET to render topic models of essays published in the online literary journal Brevity. Coursework prepares technical communication students to contend with complexity and indeterminacy in the workplace. Information design is a valuable skill for technical communicators and the strategies outlined here demonstrate to students the importance of a well-defined, or methods-driven approach to collecting, analyzing, and displaying data.
Loss of Sympathetic Nerves in Spleens from Patients with End Stage Sepsis.

The spleen is an important site for central regulation of immune function by noradrenergic sympathetic nerves, but little is known about this major region of neuroimmune communication in humans. Experimental studies using animal models have established that sympathetic innervation of the spleen is essential for cholinergic anti-inflammatory responses evoked by vagal nerve stimulation, and clinical studies are evaluating this approach for treating inflammatory diseases. Most data on sympathetic nerves in spleen derives from rodent studies, and this work has established that remodeling of sympathetic innervation can occur during inflammation. However, little is known about the effects of sepsis on spleen innervation. Our primary goals were to i) localize noradrenergic nerves in human spleen by immunohistochemistry for tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), a specific noradrenergic marker, ii) determine if nerves occur in close apposition to leukocytes, and iii) determine if splenic sympathetic innervation is altered in patients who died from end stage sepsis. Staining for vesicular acetylcholine transporter (VAChT) was done to screen for cholinergic nerves. Archived paraffin tissue blocks were used. Control samples were obtained from trauma patients or patients who died after hemorrhagic stroke. TH+ nerves were associated with arteries and arterioles in all control spleens, occurring in bundles or as nerve fibers. Individual TH+ nerve fibers entered the perivascular region where some appeared in close apposition to leukocytes. In marked contrast, spleens from half of the septic patients lacked TH+ nerves fibers and the average abundance of TH+ nerves for the septic group was only 16% of that for the control group (control: 0.272 +/- 0.060 % area, n=6; sepsis: 0.043 +/- 0.026 % area, n=8; P<0.005). All spleens lacked cholinergic innervation. Our results provide definitive evidence for the distribution of noradrenergic nerves in normal human spleen and the first evidence for direct sympathetic innervation of leukocytes in human spleen. We also provide the first evidence for marked loss of noradrenergic nerves in patients who died from sepsis. Such nerve loss could impair neuroimmunomodulation and may not be limited to the spleen.
Reflectivity modeling of signals of opportunity for remote sensing of snow and soil moisture

This paper provides a theoretical basis for retrieving snow water equivalent (SWE) and root zone soil moisture (RZSM) by using the coherent reflected signal from the communication satellite at P-band signals of opportunity. Based on theoretical modeling, the wave propagation constant in the snow is proportional to the snow density. It is shown that the phase change of reflected signal from snowpack has a quasi-linear dependence on SWE. The model has been extended to multilayer to accommodate the various vertical snow profiles. In addition, the P-band reflectivity is also sensitive to the change of root zone soil moisture. In the paper, we also shown the reflectivity calculated using coherent wave approach has excellent sensitivity to the change of soil moisture for moderate range of incidence angles. In order to validate the theoretical results, a proof of concept ground-based experiment is conducted at Fraser, CO since 2015.