cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Early detection of doxorubicin and daunorubicin cardiotoxicity by echocardiography: Diastolic versus systolic parameters

Doxorubicin and daunorubicin are effective anticancer agents in children, however, their therapeutic value is limited by myocardial cardiotoxicity. In 14 children (median age 5,0 years, range 3–12) prospective studies were performed using pulsed Doppler echocardiography to assess the changes in left ventricular systolic and diastolic filling dynamics. None of these children developed cardiomyopathy. M-mode echocardiographic systolic parameters and Doppler transmitral flow velocities were analysed at baseline, after a cumulative anthracycline dose of 138±26 mg/m2 (second examination) and after 240±15 mg/m2 (third examination). At the second examination the acceleration time/ejection time ratio was significantly reduced (P<0.01), but this was no longer evident at the third examination. There was no significant change of peak velocity over aortic valve, preejection period and change of velocity over time. In contrast, three diastolic parameters changed significantly; the late over early inflow velocity (P<0.05), mitral valve late time velocity integral (P<0.01 at the second andP<0.05 at the third examination) and the ratio A-TVI/TVI (P<0.025 andP<0.01). At the third examination the velocity of the A wave was also significantly increased.
Grafting from surfaces for "everyone": ARGET ATRP in the presence of air.

Atom-transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) is one of the controlled/living radical polymerizations yielding well-defined (co)polymers, nanocomposites, molecular hybrids, and bioconjugates. ATRP, as in any radical process, has to be carried out in rigorously deoxygenated systems to prevent trapping of propagating radicals by oxygen. Herein, we report that ATRP can be performed in the presence of limited amount of air and with a very small (typically ppm) amount of copper catalyst together with an appropriate reducing agent. This technique has been successfully applied to the preparation of densely grafted polymer brushes, poly(n-butyl acrylate) homopolymer, and poly(n-butyl acrylate)-block-polystyrene copolymer from silicon wafers (0.4 chains/nm2). This simple new method of grafting well-defined polymers does not require any special equipment and can be carried out in vials or jars without deoxygenation. The grafting for “everyone” technique is especially useful for wafers and other large objects and may ...
Species and tissue distribution of gholecystokinin/gastrin-like substances in some invertebrates

Twenty-six species of invertebrates representing eight phyla were surveyed for the presence of cholecystokinin/gastrin-like (CCK/gastrin-like) peptides by radioimmunoassay of various tissue extracts. This is the first report of the presence of CCK/gastrin-like peptides in representatives of the phylum Ectoprocta, the arthropodan classes Crustacea and Merostomata, and in the nervous systems of the gastropod mollusc Aplysia californica and the oligochaete annelid Lumbricus terrestris. It has been proposed that CCK/gastrin evolved in the invertebrates as a neural peptide and was subsequently exploited by the vertebrates as a regulatory peptide in both the nervous system and the gastrointestinal endocrine system. The present results indicate that some gastropod molluscs, a merostomatan arthropod, and an annelid have detectable CCK/gastrin in both nervous and gut tissue. However, extractable CCK/gastrin was found only in gut tissue and not in the central nervous system of a crustacean arthropod. The tissue origin of the extracted CCK/gastrin in Bugula (phylum Ectoprocta) was not determined. Final resolution of the question of the nervous versus gut endocrine cellular origin of CCK/gastrin in invertebrates awaits further investigation. CCK/gastrin-like peptides are widely distributed among the invertebrates, which thus provide a rich source of comparative material for study of these regulatory substances.
Internationalization of non‐capital cities in Europe: Aspects, processes and prospects

Abstract Starting with an analysis of the nature of economic internationalization in processes, this text tries to point out what effects these processes have on the development of large cities and on the restructuring of the hierarchy of urban networks. Based on a survey carried out in 18 European non‐capital cities, it attempts to highlight the common features of international cities. Some clearly differentiated processes and aspects of internationalization of these cities are described, leading to a dynamic typology of their profiles. The text also considers the question of planning strategies which municipalities can elaborate to adapt to new prospects of internationalization and analyses the limitations of such voluntary policies.
Developing SSU rDNA metagenomic profiles of aquatic microbial communities for environmental assessments.

Five water samples from three sources, two municipal reservoirs in central North Carolina and Toolik Lake in Alaska, were processed to conduct a comparative survey of microbial small subunit rDNA sequences. Genomic DNA was extracted and amplified by PCR using universal SSU rDNA primers to generate 16S and 18S rDNA clone libraries and 50 clones from each library were sequenced and placed in operational taxonomic units (OTUs). Through this recovery and analysis of SSU rRNA genes, a metagenomic profile of the microbial community emerged for each environmental sample. Analyses of these profiles, including species diversity estimates and rank-abundance curves, revealed that approximately 64% of prokaryotic OTUs and 80% of eukaryotic OTUs were novel. Diversity estimates were consistent with predicted ecosystem characteristics: they were greater for the mesotrophic to eutrophic temperate lakes, than for the oligotrophic arctic lake. Sample comparisons showed that community similarity declined as geographic distance between sites increased. Real-time quantitative PCR results showed that OTUs which had been recovered from only one library were actually present in other samples, but at much lower frequencies, suggesting that many, if not most, microorganisms are cosmopolitan. Together, these results support the potential value of using the microbial community as an indicator of local environmental conditions. In other words, it may be realistic to monitor water quality using a single, comprehensive suite of microorganisms by analyzing patterns of relative abundance.
Probability Values and Human Values in Evaluating Single-Sex Education

Around the globe, educational opportunities and outcomes have long varied in relation to student gender. Within the United States, a particularly intense and growing controversy concerns whether education should be delivered in single-sex contexts. This paper offers a broad framework for approaching this controversy. I review arguments made by historical and contemporary proponents of gender-differentiated education, concluding that these reveal a foundational commitment to gender essentialism (rather than to gender constructivism more commonly embraced by critics of single-sex schooling). I suggest that different gender conceptualizations and different professional traditions affect the kind of data one collects, weighs, and reports. Gender conceptualizations also affect the valence assigned to the amplification or attenuation of gender differences in educational, career, or personal student outcomes. I then propose that other kinds of human values are also relevant to the controversy. Given that in justifying their position, advocates of single-sex public education have recently been focusing less on gendered brain differences and more on the expansion of educational choice, I focus especially on the value of choice. Using arguments paralleling those found in critiques of the U.S. charter-school movement, I suggest that decisions about school choice necessarily entail judgments about a range of goals and human priorities. I close by suggesting that a resolution of the controversy about single-sex education cannot be reached through empirical data alone, but will require discussions of gender conceptualizations, what constitutes evidence, ideal educational outcomes, and broader human values.
WE-A-T-6E-01: Tools for IMRT QA

The intensity Modulated Radiation therapy (IMRT) is an advanced form of three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (3-D CRT) that not only uses 3-D imaging and treatment delivery, but allows for varying radiation beam intensities to produce much more conformal dose distributions than those possible with conventional 3-D CRT. The complex nature of IMRT planning and delivery impose new requirements for quality assurance (QA) process. A comprehensive QA for IMRT must address the issues involving the verification of pre-treatment, patient-specific, delivery and post-treatment. A complete set of tools, including detectors and phantoms, and techniques are necessary to accomplish the new QA tasks. Some of the detectors used for IMRT QA include films, TLDs, EPIDs, ion chambers and gel dosimeters. Each of them has distinct characteristics and limitations. Several phantoms are also available to accomplish the verification measurements, including cylindrical or a stack of solid water. Tools also have been developed for the dosimetric analysis of the measurements and calculations. Some of these tools include isodose overlay, dose difference histograms, distance-to-agreement and gamma evaluation. This presentation will review the QA tools and techniques that are currently in use for all aspects of IMRT process. Educational Objectives: 1. To identify the QA tasks involving IMRT 2. To identify the requirements for the QA tools 3. To describe the QA tools for all aspects of IMRT process 4. To explain the limitations of the QA tools 5. To compare the IMRT QA tools and techniques
Democracies and Transparency: Country Reports to the UN Register of Conventional Arms, 1992-2001

This study assesses participation in the UN Register of Conventional Arms (UNRCA) in its first decade (1992-2001) of operation to determine the effects of democracy on international transparency. First, the function of the UNRCA is discussed. Second, transparency is defined and then explained by democracy and factors recognized in two international politics theories: realism, which emphasizes the effects of state capabilities and interests, and liberal institutionalism, which stresses the facilitative role of international institutions. Third, preliminary judgments are offered based on the frequency and nature of participation in the UNRCA, the consistency between export and import reports to the register, and participation in the register by democracies and non-democracies. Fourth, a cross-sectional time-series logit model is specified and tested to determine the relative effects of democracy on participation in the UN register. The study concludes that existing international politics theories go a long way toward accounting for patterns of openness and deception in international politics but not the full extent that security policies owe to domestic structures and processes.
On a simplified radiative-conductive heat transfer equation

A simplified equation purported to represent the joint influence of radiative and turbulent transfers of heat in the atmosphere is derived by dividing the absorption spectrum of terrestrial radiation into strongly and weakly absorbed regions, classified according to the local scale of variation or to the local heating rate, and introducing two mean absorption coefficients for these two groups of regions. Assurning the validity of theK-theory of turbulent diffusion of heat, it is found that the temperature of the atmosphere is governed by a sixth-order partial differential equation in the heightz. This equation can be simplified to the second order if the mean absorption coefficient of the strongly absorbed regions is much larger while that of the weakly absorbed regions is much smaller than the local scale variation, and the influence of the former is equivalent to an added diffusion while that of the latter is a newtonian cooling, and these two influences are present simultaneously. The values of the two coefficients and their dependencies on the concentration of the absorbing material have been obtained. The equation has been applied to the problem of the thermal interaction between the atmosphere and the underlying earth, as related to the diurnal heat wave, and it was found that the temperature changes within the first few hundred meters from the earth can be predicted accurately by the model when the partition of the two groups is adjusted to the heating rate and the eddy transfer coefficient is allowed to increase very rapidly within the lowest 10 m.
Distribution of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) RNA in Whole Blood and Blood Cell Fractions: Plasma HCV RNA Analysis Underestimates Circulating Virus Load

Previous experiments using a cationic surfactant to detect hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA in whole blood (WB) suggested that WB was a more plentiful source of viral RNA than was plasma. The relative HCV RNA titers in WB, plasma, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), neutrophils, and red blood cells (RBC)/platelets from 10 patients with chronic HCV infection were compared. WB contained significantly more HCV RNA than plasma, which contained more HCV RNA than PBMC, neutrophils, or RBC/platelets (P < .001). To determine if this increased sensitivity was clinically relevant, results of WB and plasma HCV RNA assays were compared with commercial quantitative and qualitative plasma HCV RNA assay results obtained for patients receiving interferon therapy. WB was significantly more sensitive than commercial plasma reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction for detecting HCV RNA (P < .005). These data indicate that a significant proportion of HCV RNA in peripheral blood is not identified by standard plasma RNA detection methods.
Radiation Therapy as an Alternate Therapy for Locally Recurrent Acral Lentiginous Malignant Melanoma

REPORT OF A CASE An 87-year-old white woman who was diagnosed in 1980 with malignant melanoma (MM) on the plantar aspect of her right foot (invasion, Clark level II; thickness, 0.7 mm) was referred to the dermatology clinic at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, 10 years after undergoing the initial surgery. A nonpigmented 1.1 × 0.6-cm shallow erosion overlaying the metatarsophalangeal joint (Fig 1) was observed. Multiple 3-mm punch biopsy specimens of the erosion revealed an undifferentiated tumor adjacent to the epidermis that invaded the superficial dermis. Immunoperoxidase staining was positive for S100 protein and negative for keratin. The lymph nodes were not palpable, and no signs and symptoms of visceral metastatic disease were observed. Findings from her blood chemistry tests were within normal limits, except for borderline elevation of the alkaline phosphatase (279 U/L; normal, 68 to 243 U/L) and lactic dehydrogenase levels (207 U/L; normal, 109
A technique for visual threshold measurement in vampire bats

Abstract Two vampire bats, trained to lick tap water to receive small amounts of blood, were then conditioned with electric shock to stop licking whenever a light appeared. The bats were subjected to various intensities of light by the method of constant stimuli to measure the lower detection threshold. The mean threshold value for the bats was −7.288 log ft-L (1.60 × 10 −6 cd/m 2 ). The threshold measurement technique gave stable visual thresholds and could probably be used to evaluate other sensory systems in the vampire bat as well as other bat species.
Perceived Paternal and Maternal Involvement: Factor Structures, Mean Differences, and Parental Roles

This study was designed to compare the factor structures and means for mothering and fathering, as retrospectively perceived by young adult children. Three dimensions of perceived parenting were examined: nurturance, reported involvement, and desired involvement. We used the existing Nurturant Fathering and Father Involvement Scales, and the newly developed parallel Nurturant Mothering and Mother Involvement Scales. Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the originally validated factor structure of the fathering measures fit the data well and that the factor structures of paternal and maternal nurturance and involvement were isomorphic. These scales appear to index parenting functions that generalize across mothers and fathers. Meandifference analyses indicated that fathers were significantly less involved than mothers in all of the domains surveyed except providing income, and that the patterns of means for fathers (but not for mothers) were highly consistent with the seminal work of Parsons and Bales. Implications for the study of parenting are discussed.
Stratigraphic Variation in the Timing of First and Last Occurrences

Abstract With the exception of the Neogene, it is difficult in much of the fossil record to measure range offset; that is, the difference in age between the first or last occurrence of a species in a local section and its time of origination or extinction within the sedimentary basin. A coupled simulation that incorporates a model of sedimentary basin fill, a random-branching model of evolution, and a model of the ecological characteristics of species is used here to explore stratigraphic and ecologic controls on range offset. Median values of range offset in much of the fossil record are predicted to range from several hundred k.y. to a few m.y., for a wide variety of stratigraphic architectures and species ecologies. Higher than average values of range offset are favored by unconformities of long duration, rapid facies changes of large magnitude, persistent monotonic trends in facies change, increased facies specificity of species, and decreased species abundance. These model predictions can be used as ...
Implementing an ally development model to promote safer schools for LGB youth: a trans-disciplinary approach

Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) students experience ongoing bullying, harassment, and lack of safety in school. Specialized instructional support personnel (SISPs), such as school counselors, school social workers, and school psychologists, are in a unique position to advocate for LGB students and to implement an ally development model. The purpose of this article is to describe the current climate for LGB students, to discuss the current barriers facing SISPs in advocating for change, and to provide a model of ally development for use at each level of the K-12 system.
A SEMANTIC FRAMEWORK TO INTEGRATE HEALTHCARE AND CLINICAL KNOWLEDGE IN MEDICAL DEVICE INNOVATION AND DESIGN

Within the medical field, there has been significant progress in the development of ontologies and their subsequent use to represent and utilize knowledge more effectively. These have culminated in the creation of large, curated medical ontologies for use in a wide array of applications, as well as higher level frameworks to organize and mitigate conflicts between disparate ontologies. While the engineering field has not been a similar progress in developing and adopting curated ontologies, there has been extensive research into how to effectively use semantic frameworks in engineering knowledge management and design in general, and specifically for the effective creation and documentation of functional basis models. Functional models are a useful tool in the early phases of product design, as they can help more effectively define goals and represent how a product must behave to accomplish these goals. In the specific realm of medical device design however, this process is complicated by a number of factors, including the complexity of the healthcare system and clinical knowledge, as well as a lack of domain specific expertise in the engineering field. Because of these challenges, effective transfer of information from medical domain experts to an engineering context and subsequent utilization of this information are essential to the success of a medical device innovation project. Despite the magnitude and importance of this challenge, few tools exist to help designers record, contextualize, and utilize medical knowledge for the specific purpose of engineering design. In this paper, we present a framework for directly integrating clinical knowledge relating to medical science and practice into the early phases of the engineering process to assist in medical device innovation and design. To accomplish this, existing medical and engineering ontologies were researched, obtained, and interlinked so as to explicitly tie functional models of medical device designs to the underlying medical clinical knowledge and procedures that define a product’s operational environment. The result is a framework that unifies the knowledge embodied in large medical ontologies with the functional basis ontology. This integration facilitates the effective preservation and use of medical knowledge in functional model creation and in the engineering design innovation process in general. To demonstrate the potential usefulness of this framework, we present a simple example of how our framework can be used to associate a functional model with a deconstructed medical procedure, thus enabling the seamless integration of a medical perspective directly into an engineering model.© 2014 ASME
Accurate locations of nuclear explosions in Balapan, Kazakhstan, 1987 to 1989

Locations of 20 nuclear explosions from 1987 to 1989 at the Balapan test site, Kazakhstan, are derived with a precision of about 100 m from time-sequence SPOT satellite images combined with teleseismic epicenter estimates. For most events, there is little or no ambiguity in the association between seismic events and image features. The locations determined by JED are associated with formal error estimates (95% confidence ellipses) that are significantly too small. In 16 out of 19 cases, the events are found from satellite imagery to lie outside these ellipses. Possible causes are nonuniform observation, poor azimuthal coverage, and source region heterogeneity. Our results should prove valuable for studies of seismic waveforms, arrival time and amplitude tomography, event location, tectonic release, and seismic coupling at Balapan, and demonstrate the utility of combined seismic and satellite image analyses for seismic verification studies.
Differences in virion stability among Sindbis virus pathogenesis mutants.

Abstract The structure of closely related Sindbis virus strains, which differ in their virulence for neonatal mice, has been probed by measuring the sensitivity of virions to heat, varying concentrations of dithiothreitol (DTT), phenylglyoxal or low pH. Attenuated mutants (SB-RL and SB-FP) were much more sensitive to loss of infectivity after heat or DTT treatment than either the prototype virulent strain (SB) or same-site virulent revenants of SB-RL. Incubation of SB-RL virions in the presence of DTT increased their density and exposed sulfhydryl groups on both El and E2 glycoproteins as determined by [14C]iodoacetamide labeling. Incubation of SB-RL at pH 6.1 for 1 h at 37 ° C resulted in a 50% decrease in titer, whereas an equivalent decrease in SB titer was obtained at pH 6.O. Attenuated (SB-RL) and virulent (SB) strains could not be distinguished on the basis of phenylglyoxal sensitivity. Comparison of the nucleotide sequences of these strains and analysis of strains derived from recombinant full-length cDNA clones demonstrated that reduced virion stability under these conditions was a consequence of an arginine for serine substitution at position 114 of the surface glycoprotein E2. This same amino acid substitution is responsible for attenuation in neonatal mice. However, experiments with a second-site virulent revertant of SB-RL, which retained E2 arginine 114 and the reduced stability phenotype, indicated that virion instability in itself was not directly responsible for reduced virulence in vivo.
Differences in Perception of Strategic Decision-Making Processes: The Case of Physicians and Administrators:

Understanding the differences in perceptions among organization leaders of the strategic decision-making process and who participates in it can help leaders manage potential conflict. Although diff...
Pulsar Radio Emission by Conversion of Plasma Wave Turbulence: Nanosecond Time Structure

The plasma wave turbulence emission mechanism is studied to make predictions for the temporal characteristics of pulsar radio emission. The turbulent emission process consists of a cycle of electrostatic wave growth and modulational conversion into radiative modes. The onset of plasma wave turbulence is marked by explosive spatial collapse of regions of high electric field and bursts of radiation. Intrinsic time structure is found on subnanosecond to 10 ns timescales. The pulse exhibits an unusual spectral signature because of the coupling of the electromagnetic modes to the underlying electrostatic pump wave. This prediction can be tested with ultrashort timescale observations.
Effects of the intertrial interval on taste-aversion learning in rats

Abstract Variations in the intertrial interval (ITI) between two taste-aversion conditioning trials indicated that more saccharin-aversion learning occurs with longer ITIs (Experiments 1, 2 and 4). Two conditioning trials separated by 35 min did not produce stronger taste aversions than a single saccharin-lithium pairing; however, stronger conditioning was evident when the two trials were administered with a 3-day intertrial interval. Independent evaluation of saccharin and lithium exposure as possible sources of proactive and retroactive interference suggested that poor conditioning at short ITIs occurs because lithium treatment during Trial 1 interferes with conditioning during Trial 2 (Experiment 2). Assessments of the unconditioned suppression of activity (Experiments 3) and novel-fluid intake (Experiment 4) indicated that drug treatment was effective during both conditioning trials regardless of the intertrial interval. Furthermore, with a 35-min ITI (but not with a 3-day ITI) drug treatment in Trial 1 persisted long enough to summate with the unconditioned responses to drug treatment in Trial 2. These findings are consistent with the idea that with short ITIs the lingering effects of the US from Trial 1 overshadow or mask the CS flavor in Trial 2, and this interferes with the conditioning that Trial 2 would otherwise produce.
Abstract A132: S1PR5 structural model and its application in drug discovery.

Sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) is a bioactive lipid with diverse functions, including cell proliferation, differentiation, angiogenesis, chemotaxis, and migration. Many of these activities are mediated through five closely related G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCR) of the S1P receptor (S1PR) family. Because of the technical challenges in crystallization of membrane-bound proteins, S1PR structures have not become publicly available. Instead, homology models were built based on a theoretical model of the retina pigment rhodopsin, which is a GPCR with a covalently bound ligand (Parrill, A. L. et al. J. Biol. Chem. 2000, 275, 39379). Recently, new techniques in crystallization have made more GPCR structures available, including those in complex with their agonist, antagonist, or inverse agonist. These structures provide more realistic basis for building S1PR structural models, and at the same time raise a new question about which structure to use in drug design and virtual screening. In this presentation, two structural models of S1PR subtype 5 (S1PR5, Kothapalli, R, Kusmartseva I, and Loughran Jr T. P. et al. Biochim. Biophys. Acta 2002, 1579, 117) are constructed based on crystal structures of β2-adrenergic receptor (β2AR), one of the most extensively studied GPCR. A nanobody-stabilized active state of β2AR (Soren, G. F. et al. Nature 2011, 469, 175) and an inactive state of β2AR in complex with its partial inverse agonist (Cherezov, V. et al. Science 2007, 318, 1258; Hanson, M. A. et al. Structure 2008, 16, 897) are used in building the two models, which are subsequently tested by in silico docking of their known ligands. The models based on active and inactive β2AR are used in virtual screening to find potential activators and inhibitors, respectively. Results from the two models are compared and their different applications are discussed. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference: Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics; 2011 Nov 12-16; San Francisco, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Ther 2011;10(11 Suppl):Abstract nr A132.
Correlates of smoking during an economic recession among parents of children with asthma.

Objective. We describe the correlates of smoking among parents who have a child with asthma and examine whether the correlates changed from 2008 to 2010, when the United States experienced a severe recession and a sharp increase in unemployment, a stressor that could influence smoking behavior. Methods. Data are from the 2008 and 2010 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), a nationally representative survey of U.S. adults age 18 and older. Separate logistic regressions estimated the association between unemployment and smoking in 2008 and 2010, adjusting for sociodemographic and other characteristics of parents of a child with asthma. Results. Being unemployed was a significant predictor of smoking in 2010 (AOR = 1.80; 95% CI: 1.24–2.61), but was not a significant predictor in 2008 (AOR = 1.26, 95% CI: 0.82–1.95). One central component of well-being, as measured by being dissatisfied with one’s life, was significantly associated with parental smoking in 2010 (AOR = 2.06, 95% CI: 1.00–4.27), b...
Teaching Behavior Analysis and Psychology in Social Context: An Interview with Peter Harzem

William Buskist is Professor of Psychology at Auburn University (Auburn, AL). He teaches a large introductory psychology course in Auburn's core curriculum and a graduate-level course on the teachi...
Further studies of the biosynthesis of carnosine and anserine in vertebrates.

Abstract Carboxyl-labelled i -methylhistidine- 14 C was efficiently utilized for muscle anserine formation in the chick. This process did not involve prior demethylation, as judged by the absence of significant labelling in carnosine and in tissue proteins. The isotopic compound was not readily decarboxylated, but was largely recovered unchanged in the urine. Non-labelled methyhistidine was found to stimulate the incorporation of β-alanine- 14 C into anserine. Evidence was also obtained for an alternative independent pathway involving the transformation of β-alanyl-labelled carnosine into anserine, in both chicks and rats. The half-lives of the dipeptides were of the order of 3 weeks in the rat and 4 weeks in the chick. There was no indication that the liver is concerned in the synthesis of carnosine and anserine.
Clustering of primary afferent fibers in peripheral nerve fascicles by sensory modality.

Abstract The spatial organization of cutaneous afferent fibers in the cat saphenous nerve wes studied by recording from functionally identified units in split filaments. It was found that within each fascicle, fibers tend to be clustered together with others of like modality; they are not randomly distributed. These results suggest that the sensory modality of primary afferent neurons is determined prior to their innervation of the skin.
Updating a legacy PACS: experience with hardware and operational integration during transition to a new architecture.

The transition of the WVUH PACS to a new configuration that can support filmless radiology has been delayed by several “midcourse” corrections on the part of the primary PACS vendor. If the current product development time lines are reliable, then it will have been an 8 year process that will allow WVUH to be a filmless hospital in time for the next millennium.
Fetal H-2 odortypes are evident in the urine of pregnant female mice

The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) imparts to each mouse an individual urinary odor, called “odortype”, which reflects its MHC genotype. Perception of odortypes affects mate selection and embryonic implantation. Recent findings that odortypes tre expressed as early as one day of age suggested that they might already be expressed in utero. We now report that at 9–12 days of gestation, odortypes specified by paternal (non-maternal) MHC haplotypes become apparent in maternal urine. Thus, odortypes are expressed in utero, can be sensed even before birth, and may serve in familial identification and communication.
Comparison of Temperature Metrics of Heating-Induced Damage

The temperature dependence of the rate of denaturation of Type I collagen due to heating is described well by chemical kinetics via the Arrhenius equation or transition state theory (TST) [1, 2, 3], each of which requires two material parameters. Nevertheless, many have sought to find a single convenient metric, such as one with units of temperature, to describe thermal denaturation of collagen. Comparing the results of studies that measured denaturation and cell death for a variety of biological samples shows that the parameters for either the Arrhenius equation (i.e. activation energy Ea and the frequency factor A) appear correlated over the range of temperatures for which biological materials are tested [4]. It has also been suggested that denaturation is a first-order phase change (i.e., melting) and thus should be characterized by a melting or denaturation temperature Td [5].Copyright © 2002 by ASME
A Comparison of Autoregressive Univariate Forecasting Procedures for Macroeconomic Time Series

The actual performance of several automated univariate autoregressive forecasting procedures, applied to 150 macroeconomic time series, are compared. The procedures are the random walk model as a basis for comparison; long autoregressions, with three alternative rules for lag length selection; and a long autoregression estimated by minimizing the sum of absolute deviations. The sensitivity of each procedure to preliminary transformations, data, periodicity, forecast horizon, loss function employed in parameter estimation, and seasonal adjustment procedures is examined. The more important conclusions are that Akaike's lag-length selection criterion works well in a wide variety of situations, the modeling of long memory components becomes important for forecast horizons of three or more periods, and linear combinations of forecasts do not improve forecast quality appreciably.
Enhanced urinary excretion of leukotriene E4 in patients with mevalonate kinase deficiency.

In patients with mevalonate kinase deficiency, urinary excretion of the leukotriene LTE 4 was found to be elevated. A positive linear relationship between increased urinary excretion of mevalonate and LTE 4 (n=5) suggests that increased cysteinyl leukotriene synthesis is involved in the pathomechanisms of this disease.
The Impact of Fatigue on the Kinematics of Collegiate Baseball Pitchers

Background:Many factors are believed to contribute to throwing injuries in baseball pitchers, in particular overuse and poor throwing mechanics. The impact of fatigue on pitching biomechanics in li...
Epitaxial titanium silicide islands and nanowires

The growth of titanium silicide islands formed by reactive deposition of Ti on Si(1 1 1) at T � 850 C has been studied using atomic force microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The predominant shape is very long and narrow, and can be considered to be a nanowire (NW). Other flat-topped structures coexist with the NWs, including small equilateral triangles and large rectangular plates. Most NWs are oriented along Sih 220 i directions, with typical dimensions 20 nm wide, 10 nm high and several microns long. A minority of NWs are oriented along Sih 224 i. These latter tend to break up into chains of small segments with regular size and spacing. Growth at lower temperature or higher deposition rate results in smaller and more numerous NWs. Length appears to be limited by intersection with other NWs oriented 120 apart. The junction between NWs appears to be incoherent in most cases. The triangular islands are positively identified as fully relaxed C54 TiSi2, while the chains are relaxed C49 TiSi2. The dominant NW structure is incommensurate and is tentatively identified as C49 TiSi2. 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Rescue of protein splicing activity from a Magnetospirillum magnetotacticum intein-like element

The self-catalytic protein splicing mechanism is mediated by the intein plus the first amino acid following the intein C-terminus (termed the +1 residue). Although polymorphisms of conserved residues elsewhere in inteins have been widely reported, no splicing-competent intein has been observed without a Ser, Thr or Cys in this functionally essential +1 position. This residue is the nucleophile in two steps of the protein splicing pathway: ligation of the extein fragments during transesterification and formation of a peptide bond between the exteins by an acyl rearrangement. An intein-like element in a hypothetical protein (gene Magn8951) from Magnetospirillum magnetotacticum has all intein signature sequences except the +1 residue, where it has a Tyr. Although the Tyr side-chain hydroxyl can potentially mediate the transesterification reaction, an acyl shift has never been observed with this residue. When the activities of this bacterial intein-like element were studied, protein splicing was not observed and N-terminal cleavage predominated. Mutation of Tyr+1 to Phe or Ala indicated that the Tyr side-chain hydroxyl was not necessary for N-terminal cleavage. Protein splicing activity could be rescued by "reversion" of Tyr+1 to Cys.
Structural plasticity of the phage P22 tail needle gp26 probed with xenon gas

The tail needle, gp26, is a highly stable homo-trimeric fiber found in the tail apparatus of bacteriophage P22. In the mature virion, gp26 is responsible for plugging the DNA exit channel, and likely plays an important role in penetrating the host cell envelope. In this article, we have determined the 1.98 A resolution crystal structure of gp26 bound to xenon gas. The structure led us to identify a calcium and a chloride ion intimately bound at the interior of α-helical core, as well as seven small cavities occupied by xenon atoms. The two ions engage in buried polar interactions with gp26 side chains that provide specificity and register to gp26 helical core, thus enhancing its stability. Conversely, the distribution of xenon accessible cavities correlates well with the flexibility of the fiber observed in solution and in the crystal structure. We suggest that small internal cavities in gp26 between the helical core and the C-terminal tip allow for flexible swinging of the latter, without affecting the overall stability of the protein. The C-terminal tip may be important in scanning the bacterial surface in search of a cell-envelope penetration site, or for recognition of a yet unidentified receptor on the surface of the host.
The three-dimensional structure of H-2Db at 2.4 Å resolution: Implications for antigen-determinant selection

Solution at 2.4 A resolution of the structure of H-2Db with the influenza virus peptide NP366-374 (ASNEN-METM) and comparison with the H-2Kb-VSV (RGY-VYQGL) structure allow description of the molecular details of MHC class I peptide binding interactions for mice of the H-2b haplotype, revealing a strategy that maximizes the repertoire of peptides than can be presented. The H-2Db cleft has a mouse-specific hydrophobic ridge that causes a compensatory arch in the backbone of the peptide, exposing the arch residues to TCR contact and requiring the peptide to be at least 9 residues. This ridge occurs in about 40% of the known murine D and L allelic molecules, classifying them as a structural subgroup.
Twelve Practical Suggestions for Achieving Multicultural Competence

Multicultural competence can be defined as the ability to understand and constructively relate to the uniqueness of each client in light of the diverse cultures that influence each person’s perspective. Because the complexity of culture is often overlooked, multicultural research often inadvertently strengthens the stereotypes that it is intended to thwart. To avoid stereotypic thinking, clinicians must critically evaluate cross-cultural research and be thoughtfully creative in applying it to clinical practice. Twelve suggestions are offered for the use of multicultural research as a source of questions that enhance respect for clients’ cultural identities rather than as answers that foreclose it.
A Parallel Irregular Wavefront Algorithm for Importance Sampling of Probabilistic Networks on GPU

Importance sampling is a widely-used method for probabilistic inference with Bayesian probabilistic networks. Importance sampling is relatively easy to parallelize and parallel GPU implementations yield significant speedups over single-CPU implementations. However, because of physical limitations of GPU memory size and bandwidth, the maximum speedups that can be achieved are bounded by the high data transfer requirements of these algorithms. In this paper, we propose and evaluate a new parallel irregular wave front algorithm for importance sampling of probabilistic networks on GPU. Performance results show that the proposed parallel algorithm achieves greater speedups due to the optimal local memory access compared to simple parallel GPU implementations.
Tunable delivery of siRNA from a biodegradable scaffold to promote angiogenesis in vivo.

A system has been engineered for temporally controlled delivery of siRNA from biodegradable tissue regenerative scaffolds. Therapeutic application of this approach to silence prolyl hydroxylase domain 2 promoted expression of pro-angiogenic genes controlled by HIF1α and enhanced scaffold vascularization in vivo. This technology provides a new standard for efficient and controllable gene silencing to modulate host response within regenerative biomaterials.
Effect of Tannic Acid on Egg Production and Egg Yolk Mottling

Abstract THE incidence of egg yolk mottling has become somewhat of a problem in commercial flocks, and in most cases the cause can not be found. At the present time the recognized causes of this phenomenon are limited primarily to the presence in the diet of Nicarbazin, (Polin and Porter, 1956 and Baker et al., 1957), gossypol, (Heywang et al., 1955) and certain worming compounds, (Fry and Wilson, 1965). A brief report by McNally and Brant (1958) implicated tannic acid derivatives as possible causes of egg yolk mottling but details of their experimental work are lacking. The toxicity of dietary tannins and tannic acid per se for chicks was demonstrated by Chang and Fuller (1964), Vohra et al. (1966) and Fuller et al. (1967). During the course of studies at this laboratory, it was observed that tannic acid, added to the diet of laying hens at levels of two percent, caused . . .
Spatial variability in Florida Bay particulate organic matter composition: combining flow cytometry with stable isotope analyses

Long-term management plans for restoration of natural flow conditions through the Everglades increase the importance of understanding potential nutrient impacts of increased freshwater delivery on Florida Bay biogeochemistry. Planktonic communities respond quickly to changes in water quality, thus spatial variability in community composition and relationships to nutrient parameters must be understood in order to evaluate future downstream impacts of modifications to Everglades hydrology. Here we present initial results combining flow cytometry analyses of phytoplankton and bacterial populations (0.1–50 lm size fraction) with measurements of d 13 Ca ndd 15 N composition and dissolved inorganic nutrient concentrations to explore proxies for planktonic species assemblage compositions and nutrient cycling. Particulate organic material in the 0.1–50 lm size fraction was collected from five stations in Northeastern and Western Florida Bay to characterize spatial variability in species assemblage and stable isotopic composition. A dense bloom of the picocyanobacterium, Synechococcus elongatus, was observed at Western Florida Bay sites. Smaller Synechococcus sp. were present at Northeast sites in much lower abundance. Bacteria and detrital particles were also more abundant at Western Florida Bay stations than in the northeast region. The highest abundance of detritus occurred at Trout Creek, which receives freshwater discharge from the Everglades through Taylor Slough. In terms of nutrient availability and stable isotopic values, the S. elongatus population in the Western bay corresponded to low DIN (0.5 l MN H 4 ; 0.2 l MN O 3 ) concentrations and depleted d 15 N signatures ranging from +0.3 to +0.8&, suggesting that the bloom supported high productivity levels through N2-fixation. d 15 N values from the Northeast bay were more enriched (+2.0 to +3.0&), characteristic of N-recycling. d 13 C values were similar for all marine Florida Bay stations, ranging from )17.6 to )14.4&, however were more depleted at the mangrove ecotone station ()25.5 to )22.3&). The difference in the isotopic values reflects differences in carbon sources. These findings imply that variations in resource availability and nutrient sources exert significant control over planktonic community composition, which is reflected by stable isotopic signatures.
Vaginal eosinophils and IgE antibodies to Candida albicans in women with recurrent vaginitis

Eosinophils were identified in 31 of 121 (25.6%) vaginal smears obtained from women with recurrent vaginitis. The presence of eosinophils correlated (p less than 0.005) with the occurrence of IgE antibodies to Candida albicans in vaginal fluid. Localized allergic responses to C. albicans or other allergens may contribute to the pathogenesis of recurrent vaginitis in sensitized women.
Effects of Acetaminophen on Myocardial Infarct Size in Rats

Objective: Acetaminophen is widely prescribed as an analgesic agent in hospitals and clinics. However, acetaminophen theoretically could influence myocardial infarct size by reducing prostaglandin synthesis in vivo. To date, the effect of acetaminophen on myocardial infarct size is unknown. The present study investigated (1) whether acetaminophen has any effect on myocardial infarct size when given in an analgesic dose and (2) whether acetaminophen can affect the cardioprotective effect of the early phase of ischemic preconditioning in rats.Methods: Female Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly assigned to four groups (n = 12 each). Group 1 (no preconditioning): Vehicle (intravenous ethanol, 0.9 mL/kg) was given 39 minutes prior to ischemia. Group 2 (acetaminophen plus no preconditioning): intravenous acetaminophen (125 mg/kg) was given 39 minutes prior to ischemia. Group 3 (preconditioning): The heart was preconditioned before ischemia, and the vehicle (intravenous ethanol, 0.9 mL/kg) was given 39 minutes pri...
A review of the syndemic components of male same-sex intimate partner violence

14.00 800x600 Intimate partner violence is an underreported, stigmatized, and deleterious reality affecting a greater proportion of gay and bisexual men than their heterosexual counterparts. Syndemic theory suggests that many health conditions do not occur in a vacuum, but rather act synergistically, with factors reinforcing each other. Syndemic factors for those who experience male same-sex intimate partner violence (MSSIPV) include depression, sexual compulsivity, substance abuse, childhood sexual abuse (CSA), and HIV infection. This manuscript contains a review of the literature on syndemic factors of MSSIPV that increase negative health outcomes. Acknowledging and understanding the interrelation of these problems is a critical step in developing interventions to address this syndemic in the population of gay men. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE