cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Human preovulatory oocytes have a higher sperm-binding ability than immature oocytes under hemizona assay conditions: evidence supporting the concept of "zona maturation".

Objective The purpose of this study was to investigate the sperm-binding potential of human oocytes at different stages of nuclear maturation under hemizona assay (HZA) conditions. Design This was a prospective study designed in a blinded fashion. Setting Academic research environment approved by the Institutional Review Board. Patients Surplus oocytes, donated by patients undergoing in vitro fertilization therapy after gonadotropin stimulation, were analyzed. Semen from a fertile donor was used in all assays. Interventions Five groups of oocytes were considered: (1) immature, prophase I; (2) metaphase I; (3) metaphase II; (4) inseminated, unfertilized metaphase II; and (5) immature, prophase I oocytes matured in vitro to metaphase II. Oocytes were stored in salt solution (pH 7.2) and microbisected before assay. Main Outcome Measure(s) Tight binding of sperm to the zona pellucida under HZA conditions was evaluated after 4 hours of gametes coincubation. Results Metaphase II oocytes (groups 3 and 4) had significantly higher binding than other groups (P = 0.0001). The mean value of the difference between the two halves (hemizona) was not significant, thus showing a small intra-assay variation for all maturational stages. Conclusions Full meiotic competence of human oocytes is associated with an increased zona pellucida-binding potential.
KCa channel antagonists reduce NO donor-mediated relaxation of vascular and tracheal smooth muscle.

Electrophysiological studies suggest that activation of large-conductance Ca-activated K channels (KCa) with nitric oxide (NO) causes hyperpolarization and relaxation of smooth muscle. We determine...
Derivation of Human Embryonic Stem Cells (hESC)

Stem cells are characterized by their absolute or relative lack of specialization their ability for self-renewal, as well as their ability to generate differentiated progeny through cellular lineages with one or more branches. The increased availability of embryonic tissue and greatly improved derivation methods have led to a large increase in the number of hESC lines.
Status of High-Tc Superconductors

AbstractHigh temperature superconductor (HTS) technology is considered essential for competitiveness in the 21st century. Development of HTS will make possible the design and fabrication of smaller, lighter, and more efficient electrical power devices. The global superconductivity market is projected to be $45 billion by 2010. To expedite the commercial development of high temperature superconductors the U.S. government has formed multidisciplinary teams comprising various government agencies, universities, national laboratories, and industries. The universities and national laboratories will be responsible for basic research and will play a key role in developing the fundamental technology necessary for HTS applications. The industry will be responsible for development, cost-benefit analysis, and commercialization of various products. The success of the multidisciplinary program is evident from the progress it has made since its inception in the development of various bulk and microelectronics applicatio...
Teaching Power Cycles by Comparative First- and Second-Law Analysis of Their Evolution

The teaching of power cycles in courses of thermodynamics or thermal engineering was traditionally based on first-law analysis. Second-law analysis was typically taught later, and not integrated wi...
An Integrated Environment For the Development of Parallel Applications

The development of parallel applications is becoming increasingly important to a broad range of industries. Traditionally, parallel programming was a niche area that was primarily exploited by scientists trying to model extremely complicated physical phenomenon. It is becoming increasingly clear, however, that continued hardware performance improvements through clock scaling and feature-size reduction are simply not going to be achievable for much longer. The hardware vendor’s approach to addressing this issue is to employ parallelism through multi-processor and multi-core technologies. While there is little doubt that this approach produces scaling improvements, there are still many significant hurdles to be overcome before parallelism can be employed as a general replacement to more traditional programming techniques. The Parallel Tools Platform (PTP) Project was created in 2005 in an attempt to provide developers with new tools aimed at addressing some of the parallel development issues. Since then, the introduction of a new generation of peta-scale and many-core systems has highlighted the need for such a platform. We describe the current state of PTP, and discuss how a new generation of tools is going to be required to meet the needs of these architectures.
Achieving ventricular rate control in patients taking chronic beta-blocker therapy.

Abstract Study Objective. The objective of this study is to evaluate the difference in response to ventricular rate control with intravenous (IV) metoprolol compared to IV diltiazem in patients taking chronic beta-blocker therapy who present to the emergency department (ED) in atrial fibrillation (AF) with rapid ventricular rate (RVR). Methods This was a single-center, retrospective study of adult patients taking chronic oral metoprolol. Chronic metoprolol therapy was defined as patients prescribed and taking oral metoprolol within 5 days of study inclusion. Rate control was defined as either a decrease in ventricular rate Results A total of 332 patients were included, with 16 patients in the IV diltiazem group and 316 patients in the IV metoprolol group. In the diltiazem arm, 68.8% of patients achieved successful rate control compared to 42.4% of patients in the metoprolol group (p = 0.067). Treatment with IV metoprolol resulted in more hospital admissions (58% vs. 6.25% with diltiazem, p Conclusions The use of IV diltiazem was associated with a higher rate of successful response to rate control compared to IV metoprolol in patients in AF with RVR on chronic beta-blocker therapy, however the difference between groups was not statistically significant.
Determining the Risk Factors and Clinical Features Associated With Severe Gastrointestinal Dysmotility in Systemic Sclerosis.

OBJECTIVE A subset of patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) develop severe gastrointestinal (GI) dysmotility. We sought to determine predictors of severe SSc GI dysmotility and to identify distinct features associated with this phenotype. METHODS Patients with SSc who required supplemental nutrition (enteral or parenteral tube feeding) were compared to SSc patients with mild GI symptoms in a cross-sectional analysis. The association between severe GI dysmotility and clinical and serologic features was examined using logistic regression. Baseline data were examined to determine predictors of developing severe GI dysfunction using Cox regression. RESULTS SSc patients with severe GI dysmotility (n = 66) were more likely than those patients with mild GI symptoms (n = 1,736) to be male (odds ratio [OR] 2.47 [95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.34-4.56]; P = 0.004), and to have myopathy (OR 5.53 [95% CI 2.82-10.82]; P < 0.001), and sicca symptoms (OR 2.40 [95% CI 1.30-4.42]; P = 0.005), even after adjustment for potential confounders. Baseline features that were associated with the future development of severe GI dysfunction included male sex (hazard ratio [HR] 2.99 [95% CI 1.53-5.84]; P = 0.001) and myopathy (HR 5.08 [95% CI 2.21-11.67]; P < 0.001). CONCLUSION Distinct clinical features are present in SSc patients who are at risk of developing severe GI dysmotility. This finding is not only important clinically but also suggests that a unique pathologic process is at work in these patients.
Data Cleaning in the Evaluation of a Multi-Site Intervention Project.

Context: The High Value Healthcare Collaborative (HVHC) sepsis project was a two-year multi-site project where Member health care delivery systems worked on improving sepsis care using a dissemination & implementation framework designed by HVHC. As part of the project evaluation, participating Members provided 5 data submissions over the project period. Members created data files using a uniform specification, but the data sources and methods used to create the data sets differed. Extensive data cleaning was necessary to get a data set usable for the evaluation analysis. Case Description: HVHC was the coordinating center for the project and received and cleaned all data submissions. Submissions received 3 sequentially more detailed levels of checking by HVHC. The most detailed level evaluated validity by comparing values within-Member over time and between Member. For a subset of episodes Member-submitted data were compared to matched Medicare claims data. Findings: Inconsistencies in data submissions, particularly for length-of-stay variables were common in early submissions and decreased with subsequent submissions. Multiple resubmissions were sometimes required to get clean data. Data checking also uncovered a systematic difference in the way Medicare and some members defined intensive care unit stay. Conclusions: Data checking is a critical for ensuring valid analytic results for projects using electronic health record data. It is important to budget sufficient resources for data checking. Interim data submissions and checks help find anomalies early. Data resubmissions should be checked as fixes can introduce new errors. Communicating with those responsible for creating the data set provides critical information.
Future Hydrologic Extremes of the Red River Basin

AbstractHydrologic extremes of drought and flooding stress water resources and damage communities in the Red River Basin, located in the south-central U.S. For example, the summer of 2011 was the third driest summer in Oklahoma state history and the driest in Texas state history. When the long-term drought conditions ended in the spring of 2015 as El Nino brought record precipitation to the region, there were also catastrophic floods that caused loss of life and property. Hydrologic extremes, such as these, have occurred throughout the historical record; however, decision makers need to know how the frequency of these events is expected to vary in a changing climate so that they can mitigate for these impacts and losses. Therefore, the goals of this study focus on how these hydrologic extremes impact water resources in the Red River Basin, how the frequency of such events is expected to change in the future, and how this study can aid local water resource managers and decision makers. Heavy precipitation ...
Action of liproprotein lipase on apoprotein-depleted chylomicrons.

1. Rat lymph chylomicrons were exposed to soluble and to immobilized trypsin. This treatment caused no detectable changes in the chylomicron structure or lipid composition, but did result in virtually total depletion of all their tetramethylurea-soluble apoproteins. 2. The capacity of these apoprotein-depleted chylomicrons to act as substrate for lipoprotein lipase in vitro and in situ (i.e. isolated perfused rat heart) was decreased by about 90 and 75% respectively, compared with intact chylomicrons. 3. On incubation with rat plasma high-density lipoproteins, trypsin-treated chylomicrons readily acquired a full apoprotein complement. This resulted in the complete restoration of their capacity to act as substrate for lipoprotein lipase both in vitro and in situ. 4. It is suggested that with the use of try,sin-treated chylomicrons it is now possible for the first time to investigate the physiological role that individual apoproteins play in the catabolism of triacylglycerol-rich lipoproteins by lipoprotein lipase.
Predator odor stress blunts alcohol conditioned aversion

Abstract Alcohol use disorder is highly co-morbid with traumatic stress disorders in humans, and dually diagnosed individuals cite negative affective symptoms as a primary reason for drinking alcohol. Therefore, it is reasonable to hypothesize that traumatic stress history increases the rewarding properties and/or blunts the aversive properties of alcohol. We used a place conditioning procedure to test the rewarding/aversive properties of alcohol in adult male Wistar rats with or without a traumatic stress (i.e., predator odor exposure) history, and with or without an alcohol drinking history. Because extended amygdala regions have documented roles in stress, reward, and stress-induced changes in reward, we also tested the effect of acute alcohol on CREB phosphorylation (pCREB) and striatal-enriched protein tyrosine phosphatase (STEP) expression in central amygdala (CeA) and bed nucleus of stria terminalis (BNST). Our results show that a moderate alcohol dose (1.0 g/kg) produces conditioned place aversion (CPA) that is blunted by stress history but is not affected by alcohol drinking history, and this effect differed in pair-housed versus single-housed rats. Stress history reduced pCREB expression in BNST of rats with and without an alcohol drinking history. Finally, acute alcohol effects on pCREB and STEP expression in CeA were positively associated with preference for the alcohol-paired chamber. These data suggest that stress history reduces the aversive properties of moderate alcohol doses, and that alcohol aversion is associated with acute alcohol effects on pCREB and STEP expression in the extended amygdala.
The Shape and Density Evolution of Snow Aggregates

AbstractSnow aggregates evolve into a variety of observed shapes and densities. Despite this diversity, models and observational studies employ fractal or Euclidean geometric measures that are assu...
In defence of Australian foreign policy: common themes, assumptions, and challenges

While interrelated issues and challenges can only expand, the study of foreign policy in Australia is not a very healthy discipline. While not wholly wedged on life-support, there are genuine groun...
Towards Wearable Electrochemical Lactate Sensing using Osmotic-Capillary Microfluidic Pumping

Sweat analysis has received significant attention recently because collection of sweat is minimally-invasive, and it contains a panel of physiologically relevant biomarkers. While there is a significant progress in engineering sensor systems for sweat analysis, a few major challenges remain unaddressed, e.g. contamination due to skin surface, old sweat mixing with new sweat, loss of sweat due to evaporation, and dilution of analytes on excessive sweating. To address some of these challenges, we present a wearable biosensor patch for biofluid extraction, sampling, and quantitative sensing. The wearable biosensor patch consists of (1) a hydrogel and paper-based microfluidic device for combined osmotic and capillary pumping of sweat coupled with (2) screen-printed electrodes for analysis of lactate concentration in sweat. In this report, we present our benchtop characterization of the proposed device towards the development of a continuous and wearable lactate monitoring system. This wearable biosensor patch advances the continuous, non-invasive monitoring of human biochemistry at low sweat rates.
Abstract 315: Community Characteristics Associated With Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest Mortality: The Intersection of Urbanicity, Poverty, and Race

Introduction: Variation in survival for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) has been described, but the intersection of urbanicity, race, and poverty and the impact on OHCA outcomes remains uncle...
A multi-level stakeholder-centered approach to investigate unnecessary readmissions in emergency departments

Unnecessary readmissions have become a recurring problem in the Emergency Departments (ED) across the United States. While the current knowledge on the contributors to this problem is dominated by ...
Subjective Well-Being of Immigrants in Europe

This Chapter analyses the growing importance taken by subjective well-being in the social sciences in the last fifteen years. It provides a definition of subjective well-being and of its main components, paying particular attention to the different concepts they represent. Moreover, it illustrates how subjective well-being is acquiring centrality in migration and integration studies. To this end, I outline some key studies, initiatives, and publications in the field of subjective well-being, which highlight the necessity of employing subjective indicators, along with objective ones, in order to assess policy success, select policy goals, and provide an encompassing picture of well-being. I argue that analysing subjective well-being is especially important when dealing with immigrants’ integration. In fact, subjective well-being can be used as a subjective measure of immigrant integration in the receiving country. However, researchers and practitioners alike must be aware of some differences that characterise investigating immigrants’ subjective well-being, compared to the general population’s. The Chapter ends by illustrating the main research approaches migration scholars have developed to study immigrants’ subjective well-being.
Corythaica bellula Torre-Bueno (Hemiptera: Tingidae): Scribner's Panicgrass, Dichanthelium oligosanthes subsp. Scribnerianum, as a Host Plant in the Nebraska Sandhills

The lace bug Corythaica bellula Torre-Bueno is one of four North American species in this mainly Neotropical genus. All species known from Canada and the United States are seldom collected and their bionomics little known. Adults and nymphs of C. bellula were collected from Scribner's panicgrass (Dichanthelium oligosanthes subsp. scribnerianum [Nash] Freckmann and Lelong; Poaceae) in 12 counties of the Nebraska Sandhills. Its collection in South Dakota from this host represents a new state record. The panicoid grass is the tingid's second host plant identified to species level. All adult males (n = 51) were brachypterous, as were 90 of 91 females; the single macropter was collected in mid-July. The collection of nymphs in May and July suggests bivoltinism. Nymphs and adults of a congener, C. venusta (Champion), were syntopic with C. bellula at a site in Grant County, Nebraska, which is the first specific locale recorded for C. venusta in the state. Corythaica bellula, whose adults are only 1.98 (brachypters) to 2.20 mm long (macropters), is part of the hidden biodiversity of the vast Nebraska Sandhills.
Social Capital, Entrepreneurship, and Family Businesses

This chapter addresses the issue of entrepreneurship in family businesses (and business-owning families) through the lens of social capital, which generally represents the value embedded in the social relationships of individuals or collectives. We discuss how social networks can be utilized to develop and sustain entrepreneurship in family businesses by providing conduits for social capital in the form of information, knowledge, financial capital, and other resources. Some practical examples are given that may help families and family business leaders foster an environment that builds and supports the pursuit of opportunities.
The Market(s) Left Behind: Price Formation in Municipal Secondary Trades

This study addresses the determinants of municipal secondary trade prices for state general obligation bonds issued during 2005-2010. I find that a two-component finite mixture model, as postulated in the hypothesis of price dispersion under market opacity, remains the best specification for the municipal secondary market. There are distinct pricing regimes that persist even after controlling for the effects of illiquidity, market segmentation, fixed costs, and market fundamentals. Consistent with the theory of information economics, some municipal transactions (predominantly smaller household trades) are facing inferior prices in the municipal OTC market. Moreover, trades in the more informed price regime appear to be facing prices that became even more favorable during and after the Great Recession, while trades in the less informed price regime appear to be worse-off during the same period.
Level-rank duality of SU(2)k Chern-Simons theory, and of hypergraph and magic states

The level-rank duality of SU(2)k Chern-Simons theory is discussed, and applied to graph, hypergraph, and magic states.
Effective social post classifiers on top of search interfaces

Applying text classification to find social media posts relevant to a topic of interest is the focus of a substantial amount of research. A key challenge is how to select a good training set of posts to label. This problem has traditionally been solved using active learning. However, this assumes access to all posts of the collection, which is not realistic in many cases, as social networks impose constraints on the number of posts that can be retrieved through their search APIs. To address this problem, which we refer as the training post retrieval over constrained search interfaces problem, we propose several keyword selection algorithms that, given a topic, generate an effective set of keyword queries to submit to the search API. The returned posts are labeled and used as a training dataset to train post classifiers. Our experiments compare our proposed keyword selection algorithms to several baselines across various topics from three sources. The results show that the proposed methods generate superior training sets, which is measured by the balanced accuracy of the trained classifiers.
ALK Gene Rearrangements in Lung Adenocarcinomas: Concordance of Immunohistochemistry, Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization, RNA In Situ Hybridization, and RNA Next-Generation Sequencing Testing.

Abstract Introduction The 2018 updated molecular testing guidelines for patients with advanced lung cancer incorporated ALK immunohistochemistry (IHC) analysis as an equivalent to fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) method recommended in 2013. Nevertheless, no specific recommendation for alternative methods was proposed owing to insufficient data. The aim of this study was to compare the results of ALK IHC, FISH, RNA next-generation sequencing (NGS), and RNA in situ hybridization (ISH) with available clinical data. Methods A search for lung carcinomas with ALK testing by greater than or equal to one modality (i.e., ALK IHC, FISH, NGS) was performed; a subset underwent RNA ISH. When available, clinical data were recorded. Results The results were concordant among all performed testing modalities in 86 of 90 cases (95.6%). Of the four discordant cases, two were ALK positive by FISH but negative by IHC, RNA NGS, and RNA ISH. The remaining two cases failed RNA NGS testing, one was IHC negative, FISH positive, RNA ISH negative and the second was IHC positive, FISH positive, RNA ISH equivocal. RNA NGS identified one rare and one novel ALK fusion. Sufficient therapy data were available in 10 cases treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors; three had disease progression, including one with discordant results (FISH positive, RNA NGS negative, IHC negative, RNA ISH negative) and two with concordant ALK positivity among all modalities. Conclusions Our results reveal high concordance among IHC, RNA NGS, and RNA ISH. In cases of discordance with available RNA NGS, FISH result was positive whereas IHC and ISH results were negative. On the basis of our data, multimodality testing is recommended to identify discrepant results and patients (un)likely to respond to tyrosine kinase inhibitors.
Rhinoceros and Tiger Conservation Fund

Publisher Summary The US Congress authorized the Rhinoceros and Tiger Conservation Act in 1994. It is one of several acts now known collectively as the Multinational Species Conservation Acts administered by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). The Rhinoceros and Tiger Conservation Act authorized use of funds appropriated to it by the US Congress to provide financial assistance for conservation of five tiger subspecies in Asia. The Rhinoceros and Tiger Conservation Fund (RTCF) seeks proposals for projects that meet high priority conservation needs with rapid, on-the-ground benefits to tiger conservation. Grants are awarded for a wide variety of projects including law enforcement, surveys, habitat protection, conservation education, awareness, applied research, and capacity building. Requirements of the program include a letter of government endorsement to assure the supported activities are consistent with programs of the range country governments, and matching funds or in-kind contributions from the recipient or their partners to demonstrate there are stakeholders other than the US Government committed to these conservation projects. The RTCF and the financial resources it conveys are tangible evidence that the US recognizes the global importance of wild tigers and their habitats. This program, along with similar programs of other countries and organizations, makes clear to tiger range countries that their resources are valued internationally, important to global biodiversity conservation, part of the appeal of their country, and are important to conserve.
Las Casas and His Amerindian Nurse: Tropes of Lactation in the French Colonial Imaginary (c.1770-1815)

This article investigates Marmontel's reworking of the ancient legend of Pero and Cimone in his bestselling novel Les Incas (1777). According to an anecdote in Valerius Maximus's Memorable Doings and Sayings (c.30 CE), Pero saves her father, condemned to death by starvation, by breastfeeding him in prison. In Les Incas, it is Bartolome de las Casas who is being cured from a fatal illness through the milk of an Amerindian princess. Jean-Michel Moreau the Younger illustrated this lactation scene in the first edition of Marmontel's novel; his engraving inspired Louis Hersent to render the topic in oil three decades later. My article explores the ways in which French Enlightenment writers and artists employed lactation imagery to propose a utopian reform of colonial relations – the voluntary offering of America's riches to benevolent white patriarchs – at a time when the nature of government authority, paternity, maternity, race and kinship were being redefined. In 1808, Hersent's painting of ‘Las Casas Cured by Savages’ appears curiously anachronistic in the context of contemporary novels and paintings that portray colonial relationships as inundated by death and bloodshed. In Chateaubriand's Atala (1801), lactation imagery is employed to signify white men's necrophilic desire, genocide and loss.
Characterization of the High Molecular Weight Form of Epidermal Growth Factor

Abstract In crude homogenates of the submaxillary gland of the male mouse, epidermal growth factor activity is found almost entirely in a high molecular weight complex. The complex has a molecular weight of about 74,000 and appears to be composed of 2 molecules of epidermal growth factor (6,045 molecular weight) and 2 molecules of a binding protein (29,300 molecular weight). The complex is stable only in the range of pH 5.0 to 8.0, and its behavior during isoelectric focusing, gel filtration, and ultracentrifugation suggests that it may be in a slow equilibrium with its subunits. In addition, the complex appears to undergo a concentration-dependent aggregation. The biological activity of the high molecular weight complex is proportional to its fractional content of the low molecular weight factor. No evidence was found which indicated that the binding protein might affect the biological activity of the low molecular weight epidermal growth factor. It is postulated that the high molecular weight form of epidermal growth factor is an enzyme-product complex. The substrate is presumed to be the epidermal growth factor precursor which is recognized by a specific arginine esterase, the binding protein.
Leverage and Audit Firm Mergers

We study what a simulated market of pure price competition reveals about market shares and per-partner profits in Big Six audit firm mergers for 1997. In the model of audit production we use, leverage (staff-to-partner ratio) reflects the productivity of an audit partner and is key to analyzing productivity changes that arise from merger. We model price competition among 270 firms and find that post-merger leverage improvement leads to increases both in market share and in per-partner profits. The rank of a merger on market-share increase is sensitive to alternative estimates of leverage, but the rank on per-partner profit increase is not. A merger involving Arthur Andersen generally ranks highest. Absent Arthur Andersen, we find that the 1998 merger between Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand produces higher per-partner profit increases than the failed merger between Ernst & Young and KPMG Peat Marwick.
Data Mining: Fast Algorithms vs. Fast Results

Exploratory data analysis is typically an iterative, multi-step process in which data is cleaned, scaled, integrated, and various algorithms are applied to arrive at interesting insights. Most algorithmic research has concentrated on algorithms for a single step in this process, e.g., algorithms for constructing a predictive model from training data. However, the speed of an individual algorithm is rarely the bottleneck in a data mining project. The limiting factor is usually the difficulty of understanding the data, exploring numerous alternatives, and managing the analysis process and intermediate results. The alternatives include the choice of mining techniques, how they are applied, and to what subsets of data they are applied, leading to a rapid explosion in the number of potential analysis steps.
Characterization of two psychrophilic Pseudomonas bacteriophages isolated from ground beef

Characterization studies were performed on two psychrophilic phages which were isolated from ground beef samples. Phage inactivation by exposure to heat, low pH, osmotic shock conditions, and freezing showed that these two isolates were different. One-step growth experiments indicated that one isolate had a burst size five times as large (500) and a latent period two times as long (4 hr) as the other when tested at 7 C. Nucleic acid type was 2-deoxyribonucleic acid for both. Electron micrographs showed one to belong to Bradley's phage group A and the other to phage group C.
Dynamics of Multibody Systems: MECHANICS OF DEFORMABLE BODIES

Thus far, only the dynamics of multibody systems consisting of interconnected rigid bodies has been discussed. In Chapter 2, methods for the kinematic analysis of the rigid frames of reference were presented and many useful kinematic relationships and identities were developed. These kinematic equations were used in Chapter 3 to develop general formulations for the dynamic differential equations of motion of multi-rigid-body systems. In rigid body dynamics, it is assumed that the distance between two arbitrary points on the body remains constant. This implies that when a force is applied to any point on the rigid body, the resultant stresses set every other point in motion instantaneously, and as shown in the preceding chapter, the force can be considered as producing a linear acceleration for the whole body together with an angular acceleration about its center of mass. The dynamic motion of the body, in this case, can be described using Newton–Euler equations , developed in the preceding chapter. In recent years, greater emphasis has been placed on the design of high-speed, lightweight, precision mechanical systems. These systems, in general, incorporate various types of driving, sensing, and controlling devices working together to achieve specified performance requirements under different loading conditions. In many of these industrial and technological applications, systems cannot be treated as collections of rigid bodies and the rigid body assumption is no longer valid. In such cases, a mechanical system can be modeled as a multibody system that consists of two collections of bodies. One collection consists of bulky compact solids that can be modeled as rigid bodies, while the second collection consists of relatively elastic bodies, such as rods, beams, plates, and shells, that may deform.
Facial affect recognition and social anxiety in preschool children

Research relating anxiety and facial affect recognition has focused mostly on school‐aged children and adults and has yielded mixed results. The current study sought to demonstrate an association among behavioural inhibition and parent‐reported social anxiety, shyness, social withdrawal and facial affect recognition performance in 30 children, ages four to five years. Children performed significantly more accurately when labelling child faces than adult faces, t(29) = −2.70, p < .05 and were most accurate in labelling happy faces, t(29) = −2.05, p < .05. Behavioural inhibition, social anxiety, shyness and social withdrawal accounted for a significant portion of variance in children’s labelling of child facial affect, r 2 = .31, F(4,24) = 2.74, p = .05. Findings suggest that children with social anxiety may be highly adept at facial affect interpretation in peers. Future research is needed to more clearly elucidate the role of hypervigilance to social cues in development of anxiety.
Movement of thallous ion across the ascites cell membrane

The movement of thallous ion (Tl+ across the ascites cell membrane has been characterized. Analogous to previous findings for86Rb+ (used as a tracer for K+),204Tl+-influx could be resolved into three components: a ouabain-inhibitable “pump” flux, a passive flux, and a furosemide- or NO 3 − -sensitive “exchange” flux. Although Tl+ moved approximately nine times faster across the membrane than K+, the pump/leak ratio was equal for the two ions. This suggests that the pump- and leak-pathways share a common rate-limiting step. The exchange mechanism was shown to provide close coupling between the Tl+- and K+-gradients.
In Silico Molecular Modeling of Collagen Crosslink Loading

Collagens strengthen tissues throughout the body and are generally resistant to degradation, except by a small number of collagenolytic enzymes. As structural proteins, collagens often experience mechanical forces in vivo including expansion and contraction of blood vessels, tension on tendons and ligaments, and compression of cartilage.© 2011 ASME
Topological mechanisms involved in the formation of clathrin-coated vesicles

By examining the basic characteristics of clathrin lattices, we discover that simple topological rules impose strict constraints on clathrin lattice transformations. These constraints require that internal bond rearrangements take place in conjunction with the addition or removal of pairs of clathrin triskelions within the interior of existing clathrin lattice patches. Similar constraints also are relevant to coated-vesicle shape changes and their budding-off from pit lattices. Via specific illustrations, successive vesicles with hexagonal-barrel and other coats are shown to grow out from the interior of a initially flat clathrin-coated pit so long as free triskelions are available from cytoplasm. Concomitantly, we present mathematical derivations of several simple and useful topological equations. These equations govern the numbers of nonhexagonal clathrin lattice facets and their variations during internal shape transformations and justify the proposed mechanisms of triskelion pair insertion and removal.
Protective role of bradykinin in cardiac anaphylaxis : coronary-vasodilating and antiarrhythmic activities mediated by autocrine/paracrine mechanisms

Cardiac anaphylaxis, an acute ischemic dysfunction comprising coronary vasoconstriction and arrhythmias, is a model of clinically recognized immediate hypersensitivity reactions affecting the heart. Bradykinin, a mediator of hypersensitivity, is also a potent coronary vasodilator, acting via nitric oxide and prostacyclin production. Because ischemia increases bradykinin outflow from the heart, we questioned whether bradykinin might mitigate anaphylactic coronary vasoconstriction. Antigen challenge of hearts isolated from presensitized guinea pigs was associated with an approximately 30% increase in bradykinin overflow. Furthermore, (1) when the half-life of bradykinin was prolonged with the kininase II/angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors captopril and enalaprilat, anaphylactic coronary vasoconstriction was attenuated and reversed, and arrhythmias were alleviated; (2) the bradykinin B2-receptor antagonist HOE 140 prevented these effects; and (3) HOE 140 exacerbated both anaphylactic coronary vasoconstriction and arrhythmias. During cardiac anaphylaxis, the coronary overflow of cGMP, a marker of nitric oxide production, and 6-ketoprostaglandin F1 alpha, a stable prostacyclin metabolite, increased two-fold and fourfold, respectively. Because neither enalaprilat nor HOE 140 affected these changes, the enhanced overflow of cGMP and 6-ketoprostaglandin F1 alpha is likely to reflect the actions of other hypersensitivity mediators (eg, histamine and leukotrienes). We postulate that bradykinin plays a protective role in cardiac anaphylaxis by accumulating at the luminal surface of the coronary endothelium and promoting, in an autocrine mode, a B2-receptor-mediated production of nitric oxide and prostacyclin in concentrations sufficient to elicit a paracrine effect on coronary vascular smooth muscle, thus opposing the vasoconstricting effects of other anaphylactic mediators.
A comprehensive framework to simulate network attacks and challenges

Communication networks have evolved tremendously over the past several decades, offering a multitude of services while becoming an essential critical infrastructure in our daily lives. Networks in general, and the Internet in particular face a number of challenges to normal operation, including attacks and large-scale disasters, as well as due to the characteristics of the mobile wireless communication environment. It is therefore vital to have a framework and methodology for understanding the impact of challenges to harden current networks and improve the design of future networks. In this paper, we present a framework to evaluate network dependability and performability in the face of challenges. This framework uses ns-3 simulation as the methodology for analysis of the effects of perturbations to normal operation of the networks, with a challenge specification applied to the network topology. This framework can simulate both static and dynamic challenges based on the failure or wireless-impairment of individual components, as well as modelling geographically-correlated failures. We demonstrate this framework with the Sprint Rocketfuel and synthetically generated topologies as well as a wireless example, to show that this framework can provide valuable insight for the analysis and design of resilient networks.
Barriers to Interorganizational Information Sharing in e-Government: A Stakeholder Analysis

Government agencies often face trade-offs in developing initiatives that address a public good given competing concerns of various constituent groups. Efforts to construct data warehouses that enable data mining of citizens' personal information obtained from other organizations (including sister agencies) create a complex challenge, since privacy concerns may vary across constituent groups whose priorities diverge from agencies' e-government goals. In addition to privacy concerns, participating government agencies' priorities related to the use of the information may also be in conflict. This article reports on a case study of the Integrated Non-Filer Compliance System used by the California Franchise Tax Board for which data are collected from federal, state, and municipal agencies and other organizations in a data mining application that aims to identify residents who under-report income or fail to file tax returns. This system pitted the public good (ensuring owed taxes are paid) against citizen concerns about privacy. Drawing on stakeholder theory, the authors propose a typology of four stakeholder groups (data controllers, data subjects, data providers, and secondary stakeholders) to address privacy concerns and argue that by ensuring procedural fairness for the data subjects, agencies can reduce some barriers that impede the successful adoption of e-government applications and policies. The article concludes that data controllers can reduce adoption and implementation barriers when e-government data mining applications rely on data shared across organizational boundaries: identify legitimate stakeholders and their concerns prior to implementation; enact procedures to ensure procedural fairness when data are captured, shared, and used; explain to each constituency how the data mining application helps to ensure distributive fairness; and continue to gauge stakeholders' responses and ongoing concerns as long as the application is in use.
Typical activities of health educators in public and private settings in california

Some typical activities of health educators employed in public and private settings in California are reported. These reports are based upon interviews with a number of directors of health education programs and the chairpersons of two university programs. Typical activities include the generalist role of rural health educators, the emphasis of urban health educators on health promotion programs, patient education as a major activity of health educators in medical care settings, and the continued commitment of health educators in occupational settings to community health education. The diversity of activities in which health educators in California are engaged suggests the outlook for the eighties is for many arenas for the practice of health education.
Norumbega and Harmonia Mundi in sixteenth‐century cartography

Abstract For more than a century after Giacomo Gastaldi placed the country of Nurumberg on his map of northern America (1548), Europeans were drawn to the mythical land of Norumbega. Norumbega came to be associated with the area around the Penobscot River, Maine, which was first explored by Estevao Gomes in 1525. The name itself, however, evolved from oranbega, a place indicated by Girolamo da Verrazzano on the two maps he produced to illustrate his brother Giovanni's voyage to North America in 1524. In this paper, the cosmographical, anecdotal and cartographical development of Norumbega (Nuremberg) is explored. The connection between Gastaldi and Sebastian Munster, their Neoplatonic ideas, the written and cartographical reports of Gomes's and Verrazzano's voyages, and the origin of the name oranbega are analysed. The significance of Norumbega as a New World paradigm for Noricum and Nuremberg is also discussed.
In Situ Particle Size Reduction and the Effect of Particle Size on Degradation of Crude Protein and Dry Matter in the Rumen of Dairy Steers

Abstract The contribution of rumen microbes to particle size reduction was examined and the influence of particle size on in situ degradation rates of crude protein and dry matter in the rumen of dairy steers fed ad libitum was determined. In addition to rumination and mastication, microbial action is of major importance in particle size reduction of some feed-stuffs in ruminants. Rates of crude protein degradation differed among feed-stuffs but were not significantly affected by particle size within feed samples. Primary and secondary rates of dry matter degradation were observed for wheat bran, linseed meal, and cottonseed meal. Soybean meal and formaldehyde-treated soybean meal data displayed only primary degradation rates for dry matter. Differences in primary rates of dry matter degradation among various particle sizes were significant only for linseed meal. Absence of a consistent pattern to the influence of particle size on rates of dry matter and crude protein degradation within a feed indicates the importance of other factors.
The role of phosphagen specificity loops in arginine kinase

Phosphagen kinases catalyze the reversible transfer of a phosphate between ATP and guanidino substrates, a reaction that is central to cellular energy homeostasis. Members of this conserved family include creatine and arginine kinases and have similar reaction mechanisms, but they have distinct specificities for different guanidino substrates. There has not been a full structural rationalization of specificity, but two loops have been implicated repeatedly. A small domain loop is of length that complements the size of the guanidino substrate, and is located where it could mediate a lock-and-key mechanism. The second loop contacts the substrate with a valine in the methyl-substituted guanidinium of creatine, and with a glutamate in the unsubstituted arginine substrate, leading to the proposal of a discriminating hydrophobic/hydrophilic minipocket. In the present work, chimeric mutants were constructed with creatine kinase loop elements inserted into arginine kinase. Contrary to the prior rationalizations of specificity, most had measurable arginine kinase activity but no creatine kinase activity or enhanced phosphocreatine binding. Guided by structure, additional mutations were introduced in each loop, recovering arginine kinase activities as high as 15% and 64% of wild type, respectively, even though little activity would be expected in the constructs if the implicated sites had dominant roles in specificity. An atomic structure of the mismatched complex of arginine kinase with creatine and ADP indicates that specificity can also be mediated by an active site that allows substrate prealignment that is optimal for reactivity only with cognate substrates and not with close homologs that bind but do not react.
The hydrogen-ion equilibria of α-chymotrypsin, monoacetyl-α-chymotrypsin and diisopropylphosphoryl-α-chymotrypsin

Abstract Based on the titration curves, the hydrogen-ion equilibria of α-chymotrypsin (EC 3.4.4.5), monoacetyl-α-chymotrypsin and diisopropylphosphoryl-α-chymotrypsin are identical within experimental error. This finding rules out various mechanisms which require the masking or the release of an ionizing residue for catalytic activity. No evidence could be found for the stable acylation of an imidazoyl moiety.
Neue antithrombotische Therapieansätze bei koronarer Herzerkrankung – Perspektiven einer Gentherapie

Despite considerable progress, pharmacological therapies have not provided a complete solution for common cardiovascular problems, including recurrent thrombosis, restenosis, and vein graft deterioration. Optimal drug dosage, reproducing plasma concentrations achieved in animal studies establishing proof-of-principle, would often be too toxic to administer. Local gene therapy aims at overexpressing proteins that regulate the cell cycle of vascular smooth muscle cells, inhibit vascular smooth muscle cell migration, endow the endothelium with enhanced vasoprotective properties. Alternatively, some approaches tend to suppress gene expression of proteins believed to promote vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation and migration. In sharp contrast to drug treatments, local gene therapy limits expression of the beneficial agent to the injured vascular site, where it can extend the presence of this agent to weeks and, with some gene vectors, to many months. This review summarizes and discusses antithrombotic gene therapy approaches for the prevention of restenosis and late thrombosis after catheter-based revascularizations.
Simulation of secular trends in the middle atmosphere, 1950–2003

[1] We have used the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model to produce a small (three-member) ensemble of simulations of the period 1950–2003. Comparison of model results against available observations shows that for the most part, the model is able to reproduce well the observed trends in zonal mean temperature and ozone, both as regards their magnitude and their distribution in latitude and altitude. Calculated trends in water vapor, on the other hand, are not at all consistent with observations from either the HALOE satellite instrument or the Boulder, Colorado, hygrosonde data set. We show that such lack of agreement is actually to be expected because water vapor has various sources of low-frequency variability (heating due to volcanic eruptions, the quasi-biennial oscillation and El Nino–Southern Oscillation) that can confound the determination of secular trends. The simulations also reveal the presence of other interesting behavior, such as the lack of any significant temperature trend near the mesopause, a decrease in the stratospheric age of air, and the rare occurrence of an extremely disturbed Southern Hemisphere winter.