cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Targeting mTOR complex 1 to treat neurological and psychiatric manifestations of tuberous sclerosis complex

While tuberous sclerosis complex is a genetic disorder with multiorgan involvement, it is the cerebral lesions and abnormal brain function that are responsible for the highest morbidity in affected individuals and for negatively impacting overall quality of life. Identification and effective treatment of the resultant neurological and psychiatric symptoms can be challenging, and evidence-based management techniques are often lacking to help the clinician provide optimal care for these patients. This article identifies the most significant neurological and psychiatric disorders associated with tuberous sclerosis complex and their current management, as well as exploring recent advances in the use of mTOR complex 1 inhibitors, such as sirolimus or everolimus, to treat these disorders.
The high-temperature corona associated with a loop prominence system

Flare-associated coronal loops were observed on the SE limb of the sun of 1972 February 9 by the Goddard X-ray and EUV spectroheliograph on board OSO 7. The loop structure is clearly visible in the lines of Mg VIII and Mg IX, whereas little or no detail is observed in Fe XV and Fe XVI. A looplike structure with a cloud of emission at the top is observed in soft X-rays. The temperature structure in the region has been calculated from the ratio Fe XVI/Fe XV. The isothermal contour plot is strikingly similar to the isointensity contour plots of the soft X-ray spectroheliograms. With these temperatures and the Fe XV intensity calculated from a calibration scheme developed by Chapman and Neupert, the emission measure has been estimated in the loops. Calculated energy losses suggest that continued deposition of energy is required over the observing period.
Correction of elemental analysis of soil‐grown wheat roots contaminated with soil

Abstract This study addresses the need to determine accurately mineral element concentrations in roots grown in soil so that valid measurements of element uptake and translocation can be made. Wheat (Triticum aestivum L., cv ‘Nugains') was planted in seven soils. Two seeds were planted in each soil and two seeds were planted in a Versapor bag that had been buried in the soil in the same 1.3‐L ceramic pot. The bag separated the roots from soil. The plants were harvested four weeks after planting. Tops and roots were analyzed separately for 12 elements. Estimates were made for the contribution of each element from soil particles contained in the sampled portion, by using the titanium (Ti) concentration in root sample as a measure of contamination by soil. Concentration corrections ranged from an increase of 14% for Na to a decrease of 131% for Al. Corrected estimates of Al and Fe concentrations in the sample portion were usually unreasonably high or low. In most cases, corrected concentration estimates appe...
First physics results from RHIC

The field of relativistic heavy ion physics is entering a new regime with the startup of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). RHIC commenced operation for physics in the Summer of 2000 in a short but successful run and continued in Fall 2001 delivering the highest center-of-mass energies for heavy ions ever reached in the laboratory. In this talk I give a brief overview of RHIC and its experiments, and discuss some of the many physics results obtained so far.
Personal monitoring for nitrogen dioxide exposure: Methodological considerations for a community study

Personal exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and time spent in various locations were measured for 66 family members from 19 homes in the Portage, WI area during March 1981. Passive diffusion NO2 monitors were placed outdoors, in the kitchen, and in one bedroom on each floor of the homes, and were worn by family members. Individuals from gas-cooking homes had significantly higher average NO2 exposures than those from homes using electricity for cooking (mean difference 19.37 μg/m3). Personal exposures were more closely related to bedroom levels than to kitchen or outdoor concentrations for both cooking fuel groups. Several preliminary models are presented which relate average personal NO2 exposure to indoor and ambient levels, and also to the proportion of time spent in different locations. These models are capable of explaining nearly 90% of the variation about the mean in personal exposure.
Mono- and Di-valent Salts as Modifiers of PEO-PPO-PEO Block Copolymer Interactions with Silica Nanoparticles in Aqueous Dispersions

Colloidal stabilization of nanoparticle dispersions is central to applications including coatings, mineral extraction, and dispersion of oil spills in oceanic environments, which often involves oil-mineral-aggregates (OMAs). We have an ongoing interest in the modulation of amphiphile micellization and adsorption behavior in aqueous colloidal dispersions in the presence of various additives. Here we evaluate the effect of added salts CaCl2, MgCl2, and NaCl on the micellization and adsorption behavior of the poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(propylene oxide)-poly(ethylene oxide) triblock copolymer Pluronic P105 (EO37PO56EO37). In 0.10 wt% silica nanoparticle (10.6 nm average diameter) dispersion, adsorbed block copolymer layer formation begins at a critical surface micelle concentration (csmc) of 0.02 wt%, well below the critical micellization concentration of Pluronic P105 in water. Dye solubilization experiments demonstrate an increase in the csmc upon addition of each salt. Each added salt reaches a level of max...
A brief review: history to understand fundamentals of electrocardiography

The last decade of the 19th century witnessed the rise of a new era in which physicians used technology along with classical history taking and physical examination for the diagnosis of heart disease. The introduction of chest x-rays and the electrocardiograph (electrocardiogram) provided objective information about the structure and function of the heart. In the first half of the 20th century, a number of innovative individuals set in motion a fascinating sequence of discoveries and inventions that led to the 12-lead electrocardiogram, as we know it now. Electrocardiography, nowadays, is an essential part of the initial evaluation for patients presenting with cardiac complaints. As a first line diagnostic tool, health care providers at different levels of training and expertise frequently find it imperative to interpret electrocardiograms. It is likely that an understanding of the electrical basis of electrocardiograms would reduce the likelihood of error. An understanding of the disorders behind electrocardiographic phenomena could reduce the need for memorizing what may seem to be an endless list of patterns. In this article, we will review the important steps in the evolution of electrocardiogram. As is the case in most human endeavors, an understanding of history enables one to deal effectively with the present. Keywords: history; electrocardiogram; electrocardiography (Published: 30 April 2012) Citation: Journal of Community Hospital Internal Medicine Perspectives 2012, 2 : 14383 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/jchimp.v2i1.14383
In praise of undercover research.

It is right to be wary of research conducted without the participants' consent. There is especially good reason to look closely when scientists try to answer questions that seem trivial or that involve substantial risk to the unaware participants. In the worst cases, we could imagine researchers
Case 3: Abdominal Pain and Chronic Constipation in a 14-year-old Girl.

1. Sonal Kalburgi, DO* 2. Allison Markowsky, MD* 1. *Children's National Health System, George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington DC. A previously healthy 14-year-old girl presents to the emergency department with 3 days of worsening left-sided abdominal pain. She reports multiple episodes of nonbloody, nonbilious emesis and constipation. She denies sexual activity, dysuria, or fevers and her last menstrual period was 2 weeks ago. She reports occasional constipation, which she treats with over-the-counter laxatives, but is otherwise healthy. Her past surgical history includes a splenectomy after sustaining a traumatic splenic rupture several years earlier. A subphrenic abscess that required surgical drainage complicated her postoperative course, and she had an appendectomy during that procedure. Physical examination reveals a well-appearing adolescent with a temperature of 36.7°C (98.1°F), heart rate of 113 beats/min, respiratory rate of 16 breaths/min, and blood pressure of 128/96 mm Hg. She has a well-healed midline abdominal scar. Her abdomen is soft and nondistended. She has tenderness to deep palpation but no guarding or rebound tenderness. The rest of her …
Excessive confidence in visually-based estimates

People exhibit excessive confidence in visually-based estimates, which in turn biases decision making. Three experiments support this assertion. Experiment 1 shows a strong impact of presentation format on estimation of proportions. Experiment 2 shows that people rely on these erroneous estimates to make incentive-compatible decisions even when objective information can be easily obtained. Experiment 3 demonstrates that the biased decisions disappear when confidence in visually-based estimates is called into question by the perceived complexity of the stimulus.
Inflammatory response in the early stages of wound healing after excimer laser keratectomy

Objective To evaluate the inflammatory response and its potential role in the early stages of corneal wound healing after excimer laser keratectomy. Materials and Methods Lewis rats underwent excimer keratectomy using a 193-nm excimer laser. The central corneas were ablated in 3 depths: group A, epithelium; group B, superficial stroma; or group C, deep stroma. Eyes were harvested 1, 12, 24, and 36 hours, and 1 week after the rats were killed. Immunohistochemistry was used to test frozen sections with monoclonal antibodies of various inflammatory cellular markers. Results Reepithelialization was observed at 12 hours in group A, and at 24 hours in groups B and C. Regenerated epithelium covered the denuded corneal surface in groups B and C after 1 week. The expression of major histocompatibility complex II antigen was detected in infiltrating cells, corneal epithelial cells, and endothelial cells 1 hour after surgery. Only a few macrophages and Langerhans cells were in the limbus at baseline. Macrophages migrated from the limbus to the corneal ablation zone and increased 2-fold after 36 hours in all 3 groups compared with baseline. Occasional lymphocytic infiltration was identified after 25 to 36 hours. Conclusion Macrophages play an active role in the wound healing after laser keratectomy and may contribute to transient corneal haze.
A UGO/EUTD solution for the scattering and diffraction from cubic polynomial strips

A combined uniform geometrical optics (UGO) and extended uniform geometrical theory of diffraction (EUTD) solution is developed for scattering and diffraction by perfectly conducting cubic polynomial strips. The new solution overcomes the difficulties of the classic GO/UTD solution near caustics and composite shadow boundaries. The approach for constructing the UGO/EUTD solution is based on a spatial domain physical optics (PO) radiation integral representation for the scattered field, which is then reduced using a uniform asymptotic procedure. New uniform reflection, zero-curvature diffraction, and edge diffraction coefficients are derived and involve the ordinary and incomplete Airy integrals as canonical functions. The UGO/EUTD solution is very efficient and provides useful physical insight into the various scattering and diffraction processes. It is also universal in nature and can be used to effectively describe the scattered fields from flat, strictly concave or convex, and concave-convex boundaries containing edges. Its accuracy is confirmed via comparison with some reference moment method (MM) results. >
Data recovery in a photo-digital storage system

A data-recovery feature has been developed for recovering electron-beam recorded information which is microscopic in dimension and has been partially obliterated by flaws in a photographic-film recording medium. This feature provides (1) backup procedures that exploit redundancies in the recording format for the synchronization and identification of data, (2) coding for error detection and correction of 5 independent characters in5 0 data character lines, (3) variation of machine parameters that affect reading performance, and (4) statistically optimized schedules for applying a variety of recovery techniques. Error rate is reduced from one error line in about 100 lines to less than one error line in 2.7 × 106 lines.
Transition-aware task scheduling and configuration selection in reconfigurable embedded systems

This paper presents a novel graph representation that captures the transition overhead due to runtime configuration of underlying hardware in reconfigurable embedded systems resulting from various configuration schemes such as FPGA-like reconfiguration or dynamic voltage/frequency scaling (DVFS). We propose an intuitive heuristic to solve combined configuration selection and task scheduling problem on this graph. In addition, when applied to DVFS, our algorithm provides simultaneous task ordering and configuration selection of the system which outperforms the state-of-the-art DVFS methods applied after task ordering.
Shortwave feedbacks and El Niño-Southern Oscillation: Forced ocean and coupled ocean-atmosphere experiments

Changes in tropical sea surface temperature (SST) can produce changes in cloudiness that modify incoming solar shortwave (SW) radiation, which in turn affects SST. The effects of this negative feedback on Pacific interannual variability are examined in forced ocean model and hybrid coupled ocean-atmosphere model simulations. Two empirical schemes are used to model the large-scale, low-frequency response of surface SW to SST anomalies. The first scheme attempts to account for the nonlocal nature of the atmospheric response to SST based patterns of covariability analyzed through singular value decomposition. In the observations the primary coupled mode of variability is composed of a SW anomaly in the central Pacific that covaries with anomalous SST in the eastern Pacific. This is applied in the model as a nonlocal feedback. The second scheme examines the effects of a purely local feedback with a spatially varying coefficient of magnitude chosen similar to the first scheme. In almost all cases the second scheme behaved similarly to the first, presumably because the correlation scale of SST is large enough for El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) dynamics that there is little sensitivity to the local approximation in the SW feedback. In simulations forced by time series of observed wind stress the SW feedback induced very minor SST damping. Results for a simpified heat budget analysis showed that while the SW feedback increased the local heat flux damping on SST, it also induced a mean shallowing of the mixed layer. The resulting changes in both the local mean vertical temperature gradient and the zonal velocity response to the wind stress acted to oppose the local heat flux damping effects. When the observed SW anomalies were applied to forced simulations, the simulated SST anomalies were modified as expected, and agreement with observed SST improved. In coupled simulations the SW feedbacks had greater impact than in the case of specified stress. The main effects were to decrease the magnitude of the warm and cold SST anomalies in the central Pacific, while leaving the pattern and evolution of ENSO anomalies essentially unchanged elsewhere. The SW feedbacks thus produce a modest improvement of the model ENSO SST pattern compared with observations, although they tended to shorten the period of the model ENSO cycle. Overall the results suggest that large-scale SW feedbacks are of quantitative importance to simulating some aspects of the ENSO cycle but are not critical to the overall occurrence of the phenomenon.
Financial Performance of Major Pharmaceutical Firms

SUBJECT AREAS: financial ratios; financial statement analysis; valuation, pharmaceutical industry. CASE SETTING: U.S. & U.K., 1997 REQUEST FOR COPIES: Please contact the Thunderbird Case Series, phone (602) 978-7385, or email MAILTO:cases@tbird.edu. Synopsis: This cases focuses on evaluating the financial performance of seven large pharmaceutical firms. The case provides balance sheets, income statements, statements of cash flows, and common size income statements and balance sheets for 1995-1996. Students are asked to make time-series and cross-sectional comparisons with the data and to compute financial ratios. The case can be taught emphasizing a valuation perspective by linking the financial ratios to the cash flow components that are used in a discounted cash flow analysis. The case can be used to review financial ratios in the early part of a financial statement analysis course, to introduce ratios in an introductory financial accounting course or to emphasize financial decisionmaking in a strategy course. It has been used in executive education programs to discuss financial statements form the perspective of creating and enhancing shareholder value.
A Fokker—Planck/Transport Model for Neutral Beam-Driven Tokamaks

This chapter deals with the transport simulation of neutral beam-driven tokamaks using a model which describes the background plasma by a set of fluid equations, and the energetic ions by means of Fokker—Planck equations. Section 4.1 describes this Fokker—Planck/Transport Code. Section 4.2 discusses applications to the Princeton large torus (PLT), the tokamak fusion test reactor (TFTR) and the divertor injection tokamak experiment (DITE). It should be noted that the discussion of applications to TFTR was compiled prior to the actual running of the experiment and is based on the design parameters. Comparison with the present experimental data is underway and preliminary results may be found in the work of Mirin et al (1985).
A 0.7- $\mu$ m BiCMOS Electrostatic Energy-Harvesting System IC

Self-powered microsystems like wireless microsensors and biomedical implants derive power from in-package minibatteries that can only store sufficient energy to sustain the system for a short life. The environment, however, is a rich source of energy that, when harnessed, can replenish the otherwise exhausted battery. The problem is harvesters generate low power levels and the electronics required to transfer the energy to charge a battery can easily demand more than the power produced. This paper presents how a 1 × 1 mm2 0.7-μm BiCMOS vibration-supplied electrostatic energy-harvesting system IC produces usable energy. The IC charges and holds the voltage across a vibration-driven variable capacitor CVAR so that ambient kinetic energy can induce CVAR to generate current into the battery when capacitance decreases, as the plates separate. The precharger, harvester, monitoring, and control microelectronics draw enough power to operate, yet allow the system to yield (experimentally) 1.27, 2.14, and 2.87 nJ per vibration cycle for battery voltages at 2.7, 3.5, and 4.2 V, which at 30 Hz produce 38.1, 64.2, and 86.1 nW. Experiments further show that the harvester system prototype charges 1 μF (emulating a small thin-film Li Ion) from 3.5 to 3.81 V in 35 s.
CpG Motifs in Bacterial DNA Activate Leukocytes Through the pH-Dependent Generation of Reactive Oxygen Species

B cells and monocytes endocytose DNA into an acidified intracellular compartment. If this DNA contains unmethylated CpG dinucleotides in particular base contexts (CpG motifs), these leukocytes are rapidly activated. We now show that both B cell and monocyte-like cell line responses to DNA containing CpG motifs (CpG DNA) are sensitive to endosomal acidification inhibitors; they are completely blocked by bafilomycin A, chloroquine, and monensin. The specificity of these inhibitors is demonstrated by their failure to prevent responses to LPS, PMA, or ligation of CD40 or IgM. Acidification of endosomal CpG DNA is coupled to the rapid generation of intracellular reactive oxygen species. The CpG DNA-induced reactive oxygen species burst is linked to the degradation of IκB and the activation of NFκB, which induces leukocyte gene transcription and cytokine secretion. These studies demonstrate a novel pathway of leukocyte activation triggered by CpG motifs.
How Hard is Partitioning for the Sporadic Task Model

Partitioning n independent sporadic real-time tasks among m identical processors is known to be an NP-hard in the strong sense (by transformation from bin-packing). Therefore, current research on partitioning has focused on developing and analyzing various heuristics and approximation algorithms. However, currently only ``loose'' fundamental limits of approximation (trivially based on the known limits for bin packing and partitioning periodic tasks) are known for partitioning sporadic tasks. In this position paper, we briefly summarize known resource-augmentation approximation ratio results for sporadic task systems and argue for further theoretic investigation of approximation schemes and lower bounds for this problem. We believe the results of such an investigation will be invaluable (beyond their theoretic implications) to the real-time multicore system designer; such results will inform the system designer on the relative benefits and disadvantages of various task allocation strategies.
An experimental study of ideal and nonideal behavior in styrene emulsion polymerization

An experimental investigation was conducted to relate the average number of radicals per particle, n to the dimensionless parameter α, as suggested by Stockmayer. Seed emulsion polymerizations of polystyrene were run over a wide range of particle sizes and initiator levels in the 50−70°C temperature range. The seed polymerization technique removed the question of particle formation behavior and allowed a straightforward determination of n. Alpha was varied more than three orders of magnitude and resulted in measured values of n in the range 0.5−1.3. These data are in good agreement with Stockmayer's relationship as long as the value of the termination rate constant is taken at the monomer/polymer ratios found in emulsion polymerization. For polystyrene at a monomer/polymer ratio of 60/40 this value is an order of magnitude lower than that found for infinitely dilute polystyrene solutions.
Challenges and Successes in Linking HIV-Infected Women to Care in the United States

Women currently account for 27% of new human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections in the United States, the majority of which are acquired through heterosexual transmission. In the United States, black and Latino persons are disproportionately affected by the HIV epidemic, a disparity that is most dramatically present among HIV-infected women. Many of these women face significant discrimination as a result of race or ethnicity and sex, and they suffer disproportionately from poverty, low health literacy, and lack of access to high-quality HIV care. As a consequence, despite the availability of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), women with HIV often have delayed entry into care and experience poor outcomes. This article reviews risk factors for HIV infection in women, barriers to engagement in care, and strategies to improve linkage to HIV-related medical and social care.
Functional properties of electrical synapses between inhibitory interneurons of neocortical layer 4

The existence of electrical synapses between GABAergic inhibitory interneurons in neocortex is well established, but their functional properties have not been described in detail. We made whole cel...
Longitudinal histories as predictors of future diagnoses of domestic abuse: modelling study

Objective To determine whether longitudinal data in patients’ historical records, commonly available in electronic health record systems, can be used to predict a patient’s future risk of receiving a diagnosis of domestic abuse. Design Bayesian models, known as intelligent histories, used to predict a patient’s risk of receiving a future diagnosis of abuse, based on the patient’s diagnostic history. Retrospective evaluation of the model’s predictions using an independent testing set. Setting A state-wide claims database covering six years of inpatient admissions to hospital, admissions for observation, and encounters in emergency departments. Population All patients aged over 18 who had at least four years between their earliest and latest visits recorded in the database (561 216 patients). Main outcome measures Timeliness of detection, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive values, and area under the ROC curve. Results 1.04% (5829) of the patients met the narrow case definition for abuse, while 3.44% (19 303) met the broader case definition for abuse. The model achieved sensitive, specific (area under the ROC curve of 0.88), and early (10-30 months in advance, on average) prediction of patients’ future risk of receiving a diagnosis of abuse. Analysis of model parameters showed important differences between sexes in the risks associated with certain diagnoses. Conclusions Commonly available longitudinal diagnostic data can be useful for predicting a patient’s future risk of receiving a diagnosis of abuse. This modelling approach could serve as the basis for an early warning system to help doctors identify high risk patients for further screening.
Obesity and Self-Reported Short Sleep Duration: A Marker of Sleep Complaints and Chronic Psychosocial Stress

The prevalence of obesity has reached such levels to be considered epidemic and a major public health problem. In addition to the well-established contributing factors of diet and exercise, more recently chronic sleep restriction has been identified as a novel factor that may explain the increasing prevalence of obesity. Self-reported sleep duration may serve to detect subjective sleep complaints, psychosocial stress, and unhealthy behaviors, whereas objective measures of sleep may play a promising role in predicting cardiometabolic morbidity among patients with sleep complaints.
Three-Dimensional Display Of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Images

We report on the results of a collaboration between two independent research projects. In one, we have been developing a software system for the detection and display of surfaces of organs and organ systems from three-dimensional reconstructions; in the other, we have been developing hardware and software for the three-dimensional reconstruction of objects using nuclear magnetic resonance zeugmatographic imaging. The merging of these two modalities gives us a truly powerful tool for three-dimensional visualization. This is demonstrated by frames from movies illustrating the external and internal three-dimensional structure of organs, such as the brain and the heart, produced by applying the display programs to the nuclear magnetic resonance reconstructions.
Measuring Consumer Brand Preference

A model is presented which quantifies the brand preferences motivating consumer purchases from supermarket displays. This method of studying brand preference uses the supermarket display as a laboratory for conducting controlled experiments. Price, quality of display space, point-of-sale merchandising, and display allocation are controlled to isolate the effect of brand preference upon consumer purchases. Quantitative estimates of the percentage of brand-motivated sales and the proportion of brand-motivated customers with allegiance to each brand are developed. The effect of price differentials upon the brand-preference pattern is also investigated. The model is applied to fluid milk sales through supermarkets in a midwestern metropolitan market.
The Role of the Clock in Controlling Phototactic Rhythms

A short review of the general properties and ideas concerning the possible mechanism of biological clocks in unicellular microorganisms is given. Phototactic rhythms are reviewed briefly, and a preliminary report describing mutant phototactic behavioral mutants in Chlamydomonas reinhardi is included.
Picosecond Measurements of Radiative and Radiationless Relaxation Processes in Aromatic Molecules

Recently, measurements of subnanosecond transients in a number of carbonyl and heteroaromatic compounds, such as benzophenone, fluorenone and acridine have begun to yield useful information about the effects of solvents on radiationless relaxation processes. Picosecond techniques based on solid-state lasers have been used extensively for these types of measurement in a number of different laboratories. In our laboratory, several experimental approaches not in wide use elsewhere have permitted us a greater degree of experimental freedom.
Unbiased Identification of Patients with Disorders of Sex Development

Disorders of sex development (DSD) represent a collection of rare diseases that generate substantial controversy regarding best practices for diagnosis and treatment. A significant barrier preventing a better understanding of how patients with these conditions should be evaluated and treated, especially from a psychological standpoint, is the lack of systematic and standardized approaches to identify cases for study inclusion. Common approaches include “hand-picked” subjects already known to the practice, which could introduce bias. We implemented an informatics-based approach to identify patients with DSD from electronic health records (EHRs) at three large, academic children’s hospitals. The informatics approach involved comprehensively searching EHRs at each hospital using a combination of structured billing codes as an initial filtering strategy followed by keywords applied to the free text clinical documentation. The informatics approach was implemented to replicate the functionality of an EHR search engine (EMERSE) available at one of the hospitals. At the two hospitals that did not have EMERSE, we compared case ascertainment using the informatics method to traditional approaches employed for identifying subjects. Potential cases identified using all approaches were manually reviewed by experts in DSD to verify eligibility criteria. At the two institutions where both the informatics and traditional approaches were applied, the informatics approach identified substantially higher numbers of potential study subjects. The traditional approaches yielded 14 and 28 patients with DSD, respectively; the informatics approach yielded 226 and 77 patients, respectively. The informatics approach missed only a few cases that the traditional approaches identified, largely because those cases were known to the study team, but patient data were not in the particular children’s hospital EHR. The use of informatics approaches to search electronic documentation can result in substantially larger numbers of subjects identified for studies of rare diseases such as DSD, and these approaches can be applied across hospitals.
Management of Megacopta cribraria (Hemiptera: Plataspidae) at Different Stages of Soybean (Fabales: Fabaceae) Development.

The invasive plataspid Megacopta cribraria (F.) is now distributed throughout much of the southeastern United States. While it readily feeds and develops on the invasive weed kudzu, Puereria montana (Loureiro) Merrill var. lobata (Willdenow), M. cribraria is an economic pest of soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merrill. Differences in the susceptibility of soybean to M. cribraria -induced yield reductions based on plant phenology were assessed using two experimental protocols in Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina from 2011 to 2013 in which soybeans were protected from M. cribraria using insecticides during different stages of plant phenology. In the first protocol, where insecticide applications were initiated at progressively later stages in soybean development depending on treatment, yields in the untreated plots were reduced by an average of 13% compared with plots that were protected beginning at full flowering (R2). Soybean plots that were protected beginning at 4 wk after full flowering or earlier did not suffer yield reductions from M. cribraria . In the second protocol, where insecticide applications began at R2 and were discontinued at progressively later stages in soybean development depending on treatment, yields in the untreated plots were reduced by an average of 12% compared with plots that were protected until 8 wk after R2. Plots in which protection was discontinued beginning at 4 wk after full flowering or later did not suffer yield reductions. The period from two to 6 wk after R2 (generally coinciding with pod and seed development – stages R3-R5) was identified as critical for management of M. cribraria .
Childhood Abuse, Religious Involvement, and Substance Abuse Among Latino-American Men in the United States.

Childhood abuse/victimization and subsequent substance abuse are significant behavioral health problems among developed countries. In the United States (U.S.), however, few studies have examined whether this early trauma exacerbates adulthood substance abuse, viewed as a negative coping strategy, among Latino-American men. Furthermore, little is known about how collectivist cultural factors (i.e., ethnic identity, social support, and religious involvement), indicating potentially positive coping resources, were related to substance abuse in this largest minority-male population. We investigated Latino-American men (N = 1127) in a nationally representative U.S. sample, using logistic regression analysis adjusting known demographic and acculturation correlates. The results identified considerably elevated rates of childhood physical abuse/victimization (35.7 %) and lifetime substance abuse (17.3 %). Childhood physical (not sexual) abuse/victimization was positively associated with lifetime substance abuse, alongside age, being U.S.-born, and perceived discrimination. Latino-American men with lifetime substance abuse reported more religious coping. Findings may contribute to the design of culturally competent behavioral care.
Spinal Deformity in Metabolic Disorders

Children with metabolic bone disease and congenital problems such as osteogenesisimperfecta may develop spinal deformity, particularly scoliosis, unlike in adults where kyphosis is more common. Bracing is unlikely to be effective in these disorders since it must push on the ribs which suffer from the same disorder as the vertebra and cannot bear corrective force without deformation. Treating the underlying disease to strengthen the bone is important both for the deformity and any necessary surgical treatment. Patients with osteogenesisimperfecta may develop very severe early onset scoliosis and basilar invagination. Children with storage disease are prone to developing odontoid hypoplasia, atlantoaxial instability, and thoracolumbar kyphosis similar to patients with spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia but with the added problem of soft tissue hypertrophy from the storage products.
Study on treatment measures of cracks in lining of existing railway tunnel

Existing railway tunnel disease has become a bottleneck restricting the increase of railway speed and single transport capacity.Based on the statistical results of the existing tunnels lining crack status in the railway,the paper analyzed the reasons of geology,design,construction and maintenance,and proposed the treatment measures of anhydrous-crack and leakage-crack according to the concurrent diseases of lining crack and water leakage.Meanwhile,the material control,construction process control and final acceptance should be given enough attention in order to ensure the treatment effect.
Efforts toward treatments against aging of organophosphorus-inhibited acetylcholinesterase

Aging is a dealkylation reaction of organophosphorus (OP)-inhibited acetylcholinesterase (AChE). Despite many studies to date, aged AChE cannot be reactivated directly by traditional pyridinium oximes. This review summarizes strategies that are potentially valuable in the treatment against aging in OP poisoning. Among them, retardation of aging seeks to lower the rate of aging through the use of AChE effectors. These drugs should be administered before AChE is completely aged. For postaging treatment, realkylation of aged AChE by appropriate alkylators may pave the way for oxime treatment by neutralizing the oxyanion at the active site of aged AChE. The other two strategies, upregulation of AChE expression and introduction of exogenous AChE, cannot resurrect aged AChE but may compensate for lowered active AChE levels by in situ production or external introduction of active AChE. Upregulation of AChE expression can be triggered by some peptides. Sources of exogenous AChE can be whole blood or purified AChE, either from human or nonhuman species.
Chapter 6 – Log and Exponential Functions

This chapter discusses various projects with log and exponential functions. The canary resurrected project is discussed; this project is to try to experimentally verify Newton's law of cooling: the rate of cooling is proportional to the difference between the object temperature and ambient temperature. Drug concentration and bioexponential functions are also dealt with in the chapter. Exponential functions arise in the study of the dynamics of drugs in the body. Such projects use these formulas to understand the behavior of such a drug in the body. Numerical derivatives of exponentials are also discussed in the chapter and it demonstrates the use of drug data for the measurement of kidney function.
HIV-1 Tat Inhibits Autotaxin Lysophospholipase D Activity and Modulates Oligodendrocyte Differentiation.

White matter injury has been frequently reported in HIV+ patients. Previous studies showed that HIV-1 Tat (transactivator of transcription), a viral protein that is produced and secreted by HIV-infected cells, is toxic to young, immature oligodendrocytes (OLGs). Adding Tat to the culture medium reduced the viability of immature OLGs, and the surviving OLGs exhibited reduced process networks. OLGs produce and secrete autotaxin (ATX), an ecto-enzyme containing a lysophospholipase D (lysoPLD) activity that converts lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC) to lysophosphatidic acid (LPA), a lipid signaling molecule that stimulates OLG differentiation. We hypothesized that Tat affects OLG development by interfering with the ATX-LPA signaling pathway. Our data show that Tat treatment leads to changes in the expression of OLG differentiation genes and the area of OLG process networks, both of which can be rescued by LPA. Tat-treated OLGs showed no change in LPA receptor expression but significantly decreased extracellular ATX levels and lysoPLD activity. In Tat transgenic mice, expression of Tat in vivo leads to decreased OLG ATX secretion. Furthermore, co-immunoprecipitation experiments revealed a potential physical interaction between Tat and ATX. Together, these data strongly suggest two functional implications of Tat blocking ATX's lysoPLD activity. On one hand, it attenuates OLG differentiation, and on the other hand it interferes with the protective effects of LPA on OLG process morphology.
Hierarchical Autoassociative Polynimial Network (HAP Net) for pattern recognition

Extensive research and evaluations have been conducted on neural networks to improve classification accuracy and training time. Many classical architectures of neural networks have been modified in several different ways for advancement in design. We propose a new architecture, the hierarchical autoassociative polynomial neural network (HAP Net), which is a formulation of different neural network concepts. HAP Net is a combination of polynomial networks, which provides the network with nonlinear weighting, deep belief networks, which obtains higher level abstraction of the incoming data, and convolutional neural networks, which localizes regions of neurons. By incorporating all of these concepts together along with a derivation of a standard backpropagation algorithm, we produce a strong neural network that has the strengths of each concept. Evaluations have been conducted on the MNIST Database, which is a well-known character database tested by many state of the art classification algorithms, and have found the HAP Net to have one of the lowest test error rates among many leading algorithms.
Self-healing polymers and composites for extreme environments

Self-healing polymers and composites utilizing the Diels–Alder reaction have received considerable attention due to the intrinsic healing capability of this crosslink. However past research focused on chemistries that cleave at low temperatures, which places limitations on the polymer's use temperature. Here, it is demonstrated that the crosslinking Diels–Alder (DA) reaction between anthracene and maleimide moieties can be used to achieve healing efficiencies greater than 94% for polymers and 69% for carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites while remaining stable beyond 240 °C. It is shown that the self-healing behavior can be obtained purely through the reformation of mechanically cleaved DA adducts since the cleaving temperature is beyond the decomposition temperature. The self-healing polymer reported here is obtained from liquid monomers allowing the polymerization of bulk polymer samples and its infusion into continuous fiber reinforced composites. It is shown that the polymer can yield thermally stable composites with mechanical properties comparable to those of other engineering polymers and structural composites.
Locally Sourced Restaurant: Consumers Willingness to Pay

ABSTRACTThis study tested (1) the theory of planned behavior to identify factors influencing customers’ willingness to pay more when visiting a locally sourced restaurant, and (2) assesses the effect of health consciousness and community attachment on willingness to pay more through attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control in visiting a locally sourced restaurant. A total of 423 responses were analyzed using a two-step approach of structural equation modeling. The findings indicated that health consciousness and community attachment positively influences attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control in visiting a locally sourced restaurant, which ultimately influence willingness to pay more.
Physician knowledge of a rare foot condition - influence of diabetic patient population on self-described knowledge and treatment.

Charcot neuroarthopathy (CN), a rare foot and ankle condition usually complicating diabetes mellitus, leads to deformity, poor quality of life, and increased mortality and morbidity. The prevalence of this condition in the diabetic patient population is not currently known but has been reportedly misdiagnosed in up to 95% of cases. We sought to evaluate general knowledge regarding CN in non-foot specialist clinical faculty at a large academic institution and to understand their practice habits. Our survey emphasizes the necessity of better education surrounding CN to improve outcomes in a preventative fashion. This will enable us to determine how to focus educational forums surrounding this topic in the future. Seven hundred eighty-nine faculty members were sent the survey while 400 completed the survey for a response rate of 50.7%. The respondents were representative of academic rank at the institution and were comprised of endocrinologists, internal medicine physicians and family medicine physicians. We found that 67.6% of responders had a self-described poor or complete lack of knowledge of this condition. Clinicians with self-described better knowledge of CN were more likely to provide a correct initial management of CN (p < 0.001; r = 0.3639). In this large tertiary institution, a majority of providers among internal medicine, endocrinologists, and family medicine physicians demonstrated minimal or no knowledge of this rare, but potentially devastating diabetes complication. However, those providers who are knowledgeable of CN, performed better in the initial management of this condition. Also, respondents who treated more diabetic patients demonstrated an association with correct management. Education, and the development of better understanding amongst clinicians, is crucial to limit the devastating effects of this condition in the future.
Abstract 345: Dramatic ATP Depletion Without Concomitant Declines in ATP Synthesis Rates Suggests Impaired Energy Metabolism Mechanisms in Adrenergic-Deficient Mouse Embryos

High cardiac energy demands increase during embryonic development, requiring oxidative phosphorylation converting ADP to ATP in mitochondria to meet these demands. We have recently shown that adrenergic hormones are required to maintain sufficient cardiac energy metabolism during embryonic development, but the specific mechanism(s) underlying this regulation are not known. Mouse embryos lacking adrenergic hormones, norepinephrine (NE) and epinephrine (EPI), due to targeted loss of the essential dopamine β-hydroxylase ( Dbh ) gene, have remarkably decreased steady-state ATP/ADP ratios. To determine if ATP synthesis was affected, we examined the rate of ATP formation in adrenergic-deficient and control embryonic hearts. Our rate data have shown that despite > 50-fold decrease of steady-state ATP concentrations in Dbh-/- embryos, the rate of ATP synthesis was not significantly different in adrenergic-competent and deficient embryos. This indicates that respiratory complexes in mitochondria are capable of producing ATP in adrenergic-deficient embryos, and suggest that ATP is either consumed at a faster rate than it is produced or its production is limited in vivo due to limited access to metabolic substrates (“starvation”). These findings reveal new mechanistic insights about how adrenergic hormones regulate energy metabolism during embryonic development. ![][1] [1]: /embed/graphic-1.gif
Trust and Knowledge Sharing in Organizations

This paper explores elements of a favorable environment or climate for knowledge Management (KM) based primarily on collaboration and trust. It focuses on knowledge sharing aspects of knowledge management practices, and it demonstrates why there must be a climate of trust before organizational activity can support knowledge sharing. Trust is explored from the standpoint of ethical practices and the desire to create a learning organization. Evidence from the qualitative data resulting from a study of knowledge management in large organizations in New Jersey is used to support the arguments made in the first part of the paper.
Taking control of a volatile situation

A 3D microscale model of the human bronchiole reveals volatile-mediated communication between Aspergillus, Pseudomonas, and host.
Autocorrelation of Diatoms as a Function of Depth of Focus

The use of matched spatial filters in the identification of diatoms on 35mm transparencies has been previously reported [1,2]. In these papers the diatoms were said to play an important role in water pollution monitoring. Also that their identification by humans requires a trained taxonomist and is a tedious process. While the use of spatial filtering has been shown to work, one would like to avoid, if possible, the use of transparencies as input to the hybrid optical processor and, instead, work directly with the microscope slides. This method, however, introduces new problems. One problem being speckle. That is, the coherent illumination of a microscope slide introduces a speckle-noise background that degrades the diatom image. Preliminary results on the speckle problem have already been obtained and reported [3]. Another problem is that of depth of focus. A study of this problem and how the autocorrelation signal changes as a function of depth of focus is now presented.