cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Human dihydrolipoamide dehydrogenase gene transcription is mediated by cAMP-response element-like site and TACGAC direct repeat.

Abstract Dihydrolipoamide dehydrogenase is a common component of four multienzyme complexes which are involved in oxidation of carbohydrates, lipids and amino acids. To better understand the regulation of human DLD gene expression, we have analyzed the proximal promoter region of this gene. DNase I footprinting analysis of the promoter region (−322 to +47 bp) revealed four major protein-binding domains (termed P1–P4). Nested deletions and site-specific mutations of ≈100 bp proximal promoter region identified two elements, TACGAC direct repeat sequence and cAMP-response element (CRE)-like site, which are localized in the P2 and P1 domains, respectively, and mediate basal transcription of the DLD gene. Electrophoretic mobility supershift assays showed that the CRE-like site is associated with CRE binding protein. Interestingly, when DLD promoter constructs (−1.8 kb to +47 bp and −78 to +47 bp) fused with the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) reporter gene were transiently transfected into human HepG2 cells either in the presence or absence of 0.5 mM 8-Br-cAMP, the levels of CAT expression remained unaffected. In addition, endogenous DLD mRNA levels in HepG2 cells also remained unaffected by treatment with 0.5 mM 8-Br-cAMP. These results indicate that the CRE binding protein is essential for basal transcription of the human DLD promoter, but does not confer cAMP-dependent gene regulation.
Evaluation of Strut Strength in Open Cell Ceramics

The strength of cellular materials is dependent on the strength of the solid making up the cellular structure, but this parameter is often difficult to quantify. In order to better evaluate these materials, a technique has been developed to measure the strength ofthe cell struts in open-cell ceramics. The strut strength was measured in two commercially available, open-cell ceramics and evaluated in terms of a two parameter Weibull distribution. The strut strength distribution was found to be very wide with the Weibull modulusin the range 1 to 3. In addition, it was found that the strut strength was invariant withdensity (at constant cell size) but could be dependent on cell size. This behavior was inqualitative agreement with the failure statistics of brittle materials, once the variations in the microstructural geometry are understood. Based on these data and the observations of flaws within the struts, it is clear that careful processing of these materials could significantly improve the strut strength distribution, in terms of reducing its width and increasing its magnitude. Such microscopic improvements would lead to similar benefits in the strength and toughness of the bulk cellular ceramics.
The Global Portability of Pneumatic Christianity: Comparing African and Latin American Pentecostalisms

This article argues that Pentecostal Christianity is able to spread so quickly across the globe because it provides its adherents with the conceptual tools to deal with desire and materialism in a world of limited means and lack. It thus offers adherents an authentic belonging that is located globally as well as in the afterlife, rather than bound by geographical territory. This is particularly relevant for poor migrants – such as the African migrants in South Africa – who are faced with misfortune and lack of success. The Pentecostal imagination of what it means to be human offers them tools by which to remake their self and on which to build their hopes for a better future. It allows adherents to deal with the tension of a globalised world economy that imposes systems of exclusion and lack in third world areas.
The psychobiology of anxiety

Abstract When the basic survival mechanism of fear goes awry, the result is often an anxiety disorder. The activation and modulation of the fear system in animals and humans has thus been an active subject of investigation. Neuroimaging studies have attempted to outline which areas of the brain are activated during anxiety-related phenomena; and the amygdala, known for its processing of emotions, has been considered the central relay point for the so-called fear circuit. The amygdala offers ‘upwind’ connections to the higher-order cognitive/psychological modifications of the cortex and subcortex, and ‘downwind’ connections to the physiological HPA neuroendocrine axis. Neurotransmitters assist in the communication and control along this fear circuit. Variations in anatomical activation and/or neurotransmitter action/sensitivity may be responsible for the different types of anxiety disorders, and these variations may partly result from genetic phenotypes and/or neuroendocrine stressors resulting from trauma. Further investigation of this fear system will hopefully lead to various entry points for therapeutic interventions, including medications that work with neurotransmitter systems and/or the HPA axis, as well as therapy that can address cortical fear activation by re-modulating behavioral contexts and psychological interpretations that cause anxiety.
Early eutrophication in the lower great lakes

New Evidence from Biogenic Silica in Sediments New evidence from studies of biogenic silica and diatoms in sediment cores indicates that eutrophication in the lower Great Lakes resulted from nutrient enrichment associated with early settlement and forest clearance. Diatom production peaked from 1820 to 1850 in Lake Ontario, at about 1880 in Lake Erie, but not until 1970 in Lake Michigan. This is the first reported sediment record of the silica-depletion sequence for the Great Lakes.
Relationship of Phosphate Administration to Serum and Red Cell Phosphate Concentration, Erythrocyte 2,3-Diphosphoglycerate (2,3-DPG) and Blood P50 in the Hyperglycemic Dog

In vitro studies indicate that acute increases in intracellular phosphate concentration decrease red blood cell 2,3-diphosphoglycerate levels (G. Momsen, B. Vestergaard-Bogind, Arch Biochem Biophys 190:67, 1978). We have examined the relationship in vivo of serum phosphate concentration, red cell phosphate, 2,3-DPG and blood P50 in hyperglycemic dogs infused alternately with phosphate or chloride (control) solutions. During the 8-hr insulin infusion, serum phosphate (Pi) fell 40% in the chloride-treated animals and rose 71% in the phosphate-treated dogs (P < 0.001, phosphate vs. control). RBC Pi concentration declined in the controls and rose significantly in the phosphate-infused dogs (P < 0.02). Serum Pi and RBC Pi were correlated in the phosphatemanaged animals (r = 0.76, P < 0.02), but not in the controls. RBC 2,3-DPG failed to rise in either group during insulin infusion and regression analysis showed a negative correlation between serum Pi and 2,3-DPG (r =-0.90, P < 0.005) and between RBC Pi concent...
Association of HPC2/ELAC2 genotypes and prostate cancer.

HPC2/ELAC2 has been identified as a prostate cancer (CaP) susceptibility gene. Two common missense variants in HPC2/ELAC2 have been identified: a Ser→Leu change at amino acid 217, and an Ala→Thr change at amino acid 541. Tavtigian et al. reported that these variants were associated with CaP in a sample of men drawn from families with hereditary CaP. To confirm this report in a sample unselected for family history, we studied 359 incident CaP case subjects and 266 male control subjects that were frequency matched for age and race and were identified from a large health-system population. Among control subjects, the Thr541 frequency was 2.9%, and the Leu217 frequency was 31.6%, with no significant differences in frequency across racial groups. Thr541 was only observed in men who also carried Leu217. The probability of having CaP was increased in men who carried the Leu217/Thr541 variants (odds ratio = 2.37; 95% CI 1.06–5.29). This risk did not differ significantly by family history or race. Genotypes at HPC2/ELAC2 were estimated to cause 5% of CaP in the general population of inference. These results suggest that common variants at HPC2/ELAC2 are associated with CaP risk in a sample unselected for family history or other factors associated with CaP risk.
Coherent excitations of nuclei in crystals by synchrotron radiation pulses

Abstract Synchrotron pulses will excite low lying nuclear levels, and in crystals they will create nuclear exciton states which are spatially coherent superpositions of the various excited state hyperfine levels of all the nuclei in the crystals. The subsequent radiative decay is radically affected by coherence, exhibiting both a speed-up due to “coherent enhancement“, and a quantum beat modulation of the decay rate which gives a periodic speed-up/slow-down of the rate for photon decay into the coherent channels. For a nuclear exciton in an antiferromagnet, the quantum beat modulation will result in an interesting “temporal pendulosung“ effect.
Predicting Learning in Tutoring with the Landscape Model of Memory

A Landscape Model analysis, adopted from the text processing literature, was run on transcripts of tutoring sessions, and a technique developed to count the occurrence of key physics points in the resulting connection matrices. This point-count measure was found to be well correlated with learning.
Functional analyses of amino acid substitutions Arg883Ser and Asp905Tyr of protein phosphatase-1 G-subunit.

Abstract The PPP1R3 gene encoding the G-subunit of protein phosphatase-1 has three polymorphisms in linkage disequilibrium in the Pima Indians: an mRNA-destabilizing element in the 3′-untranslated region (ARE1/ARE2 alleles), Arg883Ser, and Asp905Tyr substitutions. The ARE2 allele, Arg883, and Asp905 variants are associated with insulin resistance and higher prevalence of type 2 diabetes in the Pima Indians. The ARE2 allele is associated with lower PPP1R3 transcript and protein levels in muscle tissue. Here we determined the functional contribution of the amino acid substitutions independent of the ARE alleles to insulin-stimulated glycogen synthesis by adenoviral-mediated gene expression in L6 myotubes. Similar overexpression levels of the G-subunit variants increased glycogen synthase fractional activity in the presence (∼1.5-fold) of insulin compared to control myotubes transduced with adenovirus encoding β-galactosidase. The glycogen synthesis rate of myotubes overexpressing the G-subunit variants also increased by ∼1.7-fold over the control with and without insulin. However, these measures were not significantly different among the variants. This study does not support a role for Arg883 and Asp905 variants independent of the ARE2 allele in the impaired insulin-stimulated glycogen synthesis in the muscle of Pima Indians.
Evaluation of a desensitizing dentifrice

In a double-blind study, evaluations for changes in cervical hypersensitivity in 20 subjects were made at 30 and 60 days by a thermoelectric tooth stimulator and by a mechanical stimulating device. Ten of the subjects used Thermodent dentifrice for 60 days, whereas the other ten sub­ jects used placebo of Thermodent for 30 days and then the active dentifrice for 30 days. There were no significant altera­ tions o f cervical hypersensitivity to m e­ chanical or thermal stimuli after the use of Therm odent for 30 or 60 days.
Radial Artery Catheterization

Cardiac catheterization is a minimally invasive procedure commonly used to diagnose and treat heart conditions. During catheterization, small tubes (catheters) are inserted into the circulatory system under x-ray guidance in order to obtain information about blood flow and pressures within the heart and to determine if there are obstructions within the blood vessels feeding the heart muscle (coronary arteries). Obstructions of the arteries are caused by plaque buildup, and when severe they can cause a variety of symptoms including chest pain and shortness of breath. A catheterization may be recommended on an elective basis if the symptoms are stable or on an emergency basis if the symptoms are sudden and the treating physician is concerned that they may represent an active or impending heart attack. On the basis of the location and number of obstructions, the treatment plan will include the use of specialized medications and possibly the placement of a stent or referral for bypass surgery to improve blood flow to the heart muscle and alleviate symptoms. The catheters necessary for cardiac catheterization can be inserted either into the femoral artery (in the groin), or into the radial artery (in the wrist). The femoral artery is a larger vessel and provides a more direct route to the heart. Because of these advantages, the femoral artery has become the standard entry site for catheterization procedures. However, there has been a recent increase in …
Analysis of the chromaticity of near-field binary beam shapers

The chromatic properties of binary beam shapers inducing a spatially dependent transmission on the near field of an optical source after far-field filtering and imaging are derived. Beam shapers using pixels with two transmission states are highly versatile and have been experimentally realized with distributions of amplitude pixels, phase pixels, or polarization pixels that can be designed using a half-toning algorithm. The amplitude of the shaped beam in an image plane has a precisely controlled continuous profile given by the local density of the two pixel types in the object plane. The wavelength dependence of the field transmission corresponding to the full range of design transmission between 0 and 1 is studied analytically to assess the general performance of the corresponding beam shapers for broadband sources, with an example of a specific 2D transmission profile relevant to laser engineering. Amplitude beam shapers have no significant chromaticity, but have low damage threshold. The high-damage-threshold twisted nematic liquid crystal and phase shapers induce a wavelength-dependent transmission and phase on the shaped beam.
QD VCSELs with InAs/InGaAs short period superlattice QW injector

Structures with tunnel-coupled pairs consisting of InGaAs quantum wells (QWs) grown on top of self-assembled InAs quantum dots (QDs) were used previously as a gain medium for vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) to eliminate problems with QD-limited maximum saturated gain. Conventional molecular beam epitaxy of tunnel-coupled QDs with slow InAs growth rate and InGaAs solid solution QW injector with high InAs growth rate required a long delay in growth process for changing indium source temperature/flux. This leads to non-intentional doping of tunnel barrier and reproducibility issues. To overcome these problems, structures of tunnel-coupled QDs-QW pairs consisting of InAs/InGaAs short period superlattice (SPSL) QW injector with compatible slow InAs growth rate (QDs-SPSL) were developed and compared with traditional InAs-InGaAs (QDs-InGaAs). Photoluminescence (PL) and electroluminescence were used to study the properties of the "well-on-dots" active medium with InAs/InGaAs SPSL QW and with InGaAs QW. The optimized tunnel triple pair QDs-SPSL structure with 2x reduction of growth time has demonstrated a 2x enhanced PL efficiency as compared with traditional QDs-InGaAs structures. A novel tunnel-coupled triple QDs InAs-SPSL was successfully employed as a gain medium of VCSELs with doped all-epitaxial distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs). Room temperature CW lasing wavelengths in the range from 1100 nm to 1150 nm were measured in VCSELs with attuned DBRs. These QDs-SPSL VCSELs demonstrated minimum threshold current value Ith = 0.85 mA and maximum differential efficiency of 0.16 W/A.
A Stochastic Approach to the Measurement and Analysis of Leadscrew Drive Kinematic Errors

Approche stochastique pour la mesure et l'analyse des erreurs cinematiques d'une transmission vis-ecrou
Differential localization of ErbB2 in different tissues of the rat female reproductive tract: implications for the use of specific antibodies for ErbB2 analysis.

ErbB2 has been implicated in numerous functions, including normal and aberrant development of a variety of tissues. Although no soluble ligand has been identified for ErbB2, we have recently shown that ASGP-2, the transmembrane subunit of the cell surface glycoprotein Muc4 (also called sialomucin complex, SMC), can act as an intramembrane ligand for ErbB2 and modulate its activity. Muc4/SMC is abundantly expressed at the apical surface of most epithelia of the rat female reproductive tract. Since Muc4/SMC can interact with ErbB2 when they are expressed in the same cell and membrane, we investigated whether these two proteins are co-expressed and co-localized in tissues of the female reproductive tract. Using an anti-ErbB2 antibody from Dako, we found moderate staining at the basolateral surface of the oviduct and also around the cell membrane of the most superficial and medial layers of the stratified epithelia of the vagina. In contrast, Neomarkers neu Ab1 antibody intensely stained the apical surface of the epithelium of the oviduct and the medial and basal layers of the stratified epithelia of the vagina, substantially overlapping the distribution of Muc4/SMC. Furthermore, Muc4/SMC and ErbB2 association in different tissues of the female reproductive tract was demonstrated by co-immunoprecipitation analysis. Interestingly, phosphorylated ErbB2 detected by anti-phospho-ErbB2 is primarily present at the apical surface of the oviduct. Thus, our results show that differentially localized forms of ErbB2 are recognized by different antibodies and raise interesting questions about the nature of the different forms of ErbB2, the mechanism for differential localization, and possible functions of ErbB2 in the female reproductive tract. They also raise a cautionary note about the use of different ErbB2 antibodies for expression and localization studies. © 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Sensitization for anticancer drug-induced apoptosis by the chemopreventive agent resveratrol

Current attempts to improve the survival of cancer patients largely depend on strategies to target tumor cell resistance. Naturally occurring dietary compounds such as resveratrol have gained considerable attention as cancer chemopreventive agents. Here, we report that resveratrol acts as potent sensitizer for anticancer drug-induced apoptosis by inducing cell cycle arrest, which in turn resulted in survivin depletion. Concomitant analysis of cell cycle and apoptosis revealed that pretreatment with resveratrol resulted in cell cycle arrest in S phase and apoptosis induction preferentially out of S phase upon subsequent drug treatment. Likewise, cell cycle arrest in S phase by cell cycle inhibitors enhanced drug-induced apoptosis. Resveratrol-mediated cell cycle arrest sensitized for apoptosis by downregulating survivin expression through transcriptional and post-transcriptional mechanisms. Similarly, downregulation of survivin expression using survivin antisense oligonucleotides sensitized for drug-induced apoptosis. Importantly, downregulation of survivin and enhanced drug-induced apoptosis by resveratrol occurred in various human tumor cell lines irrespective of p53 status. Thus, this combined sensitizer (resveratrol)/inducer (cytotoxic drugs) concept may be a novel strategy to enhance the efficacy of anticancer therapy in a variety of human cancers.
The aftermath of public housing relocations: relationships between changes in local socioeconomic conditions and depressive symptoms in a cohort of adult relocaters.

USA is experiencing a paradigm shift in public housing policy: while policies used to place people who qualified for housing assistance into spatially concentrated housing complexes, they now seek to geographically disperse them, often to voucher-subsidized rental units in the private market. Programs that relocate residents from public housing complexes tend to move them to neighborhoods that are less impoverished and less violent. To date, studies have reached conflicting findings about the relationship between public housing relocations and depression among adult relocaters. The present longitudinal multilevel analysis tests the hypothesis that pre-/postrelocation improvements in local economic conditions, social disorder, and perceived community violence are associated with declines in depressive symptoms in a cohort of African-American adults; active substance misusers were oversampled. We tested this hypothesis in a cohort of 172 adults who were living in one of seven public housing complexes scheduled for relocation and demolition in Atlanta, GA; by design, 20 % were dependent on substances and 50 % misused substances but were not dependent. Baseline data captured prerelocation characteristics of participants; of the seven census tracts where they lived, three waves of postrelocation data were gathered approximately every 9 months thereafter. Surveys were administered at each wave to assess depressive symptoms measured using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), perceived community violence, and other individual-level covariates. Participants' home addresses were geocoded to census tracts at each wave, and administrative data sources were used to characterize tract-level economic disadvantage and social disorder. Hypotheses were tested using multilevel models. Between waves 1 and 2, participants experienced significant improvements in reported depressive symptoms and perceived community violence and in tract-level economic disadvantage and social disorder; these reductions were sustained across waves 2–4. A 1 standard deviation improvement in economic conditions was associated with a 1-unit reduction in CES-D scores; the magnitude of this relationship did not vary by baseline substance misuse or gender. Reduced perceived community violence also predicted lower CES-D scores. Our objective measure of social disorder was unrelated to depressive symptoms. We found that relocaters who experienced greater pre-/postrelocation improvements in economic conditions or in perceived community violence experienced fewer depressive symptoms. Combined with past research, these findings suggest that relocation initiatives should focus on the quality of the places to which relocaters move; future research should also identify pathways linking pre-/postrelocation changes in place characteristics to changes in mental health.
Self-propelling endoscopes

Self-propelling endoscopes offer exciting possibilities for improving access to colon cancer screening, safety of colonoscopy, and efficiency in endoscopy. From an operational perspective, efficiency in endoscopy may be increased or decreased by the introduction of a self-propelling endoscope, depending on the instrument's technical performance characteristics and capabilities, its safety profile, ease of use, the physician time required to review the endoscopic findings, and requirements for sedation, if any. In addition, patient acceptance of such new technology will be a driving force determining its potential for success in the competition for a niche in the diagnostic armamentarium of colon cancer screening.
Passive micromixer with break-up obstructions

In this paper, we report on design and fabrication of a passive microfluidic mixer capable of mixing at low Reynolds numbers ( Re ). Passive mixers typically use channel geometry to mix fluids, and many previously reported designs that work only at moderate to high Reynolds numbers and are often difficult to fabricate. Our design uses diamond-shaped obstructions inside the microchannel to break up and laminate the flow, thus enhancing mixing. Both numerical and experimental studies show that the mixer is efficient at mixing fluids at low Reynolds numbers. We benchmarked our mixer design against a conventional T-mixer. Results show that the new design exhibits rapid mixing at Re < 0.1. The new mixer has a planar design which is easy to fabricate and thus will benefit a wide range of lab-on-a-chip applications.
Hadronic atoms and effective interactions

We examine the problem of hadronic atom energy shifts using the technique of effective interactions and demonstrate equivalence with the conventional quantum mechanical approach.
Process analysis via waste minimization: Using DuPont's methodology to identify process improvement opportunities

Waste is an expense, and thus costs money. Traditional problem-solving approaches often miss process improvement opportunities, resulting in unnecessary wastes. This leads to less profitable businesses. DuPont has developed a methodology that identifies the technologies and practices that reduce waste generation. The methodology examines the process starting with the waste streams, and works back to the source of these wastes, asking questions about how it can be eliminated or minimized. This technique asks different questions about the same process information, so new improvement opportunities are identified. This paper defines waste and waste minimization, and how it impacts chemical processes. Case studies are included that show how this approach saves money and develops ideas for improving existing processes.
Diagnosis, natural history, and treatment of primary hyperparathyroidism

Primary hyperparathyroidism, one of the most common endocrine disorders, is characterized by hypercalcemia in the presence of elevated parathyroid hormone levels. The disease today bears little resemblance to the severe disorder of ‘stones, bones and groans’ described by Fuller Albright and others in the 1930s [1–6]. Osteitis fibrosa cystica was the hallmark of classic primary hyperparathyroidism. This skeletal condition was characterized by brown tumors of the long bones, subperiosteal bone resorption, distal tapering of the clavicles and phalanges, and a‘salt and pepper’ appearance of the skull on radiograph [7]. Nephrocalcinosis was present in 80% of patients, and neuromuscular dysfunction with muscle weakness was common. With the advent of the automated serum chemistry autoanalyzer in the 1970s, diagnosis of primary hyperparathyroidism became commonplace in the complete absence of symptoms [8–10].
Post-Acute Services to Older Patients With Heart Disease:

This article describes the assistance provided to 209 elderly patients with heart disease who received discharge planning before returning home from the hospital. Telephone interviews at two weeks postdischarge focused on their needs and the assistance received. The findings reveal that patients are very needy in the posthospital period and that families provide the bulk of care. Formal service use is most frequent in nursing care, bathing, and grooming but limited in areas of highest need-transportation, housekeeping, and shopping. Of the patients interviewed, 30% report insufficient help with personal care Patients rate the quality of care provided by formal sources higher than care provided by informal sources Questions are raised about the ability of families to meet the demands of post-acute care.
Allopurinol-induced melanism in the tiger salamander (Ambystoma tigrinum nebulosum).

The enzyme, xanthine dehydrogenase (XDH), has been examined in Ambystoma tigrinum nebulosum with respect to its role in pigmentation. It now seems probable that the melanoid gene (m) either codes directly for XDH or is somehow intimately connected with the normal function of this enzyme. Inhibition of XDH using the drug, allopurinol, results in animals which appear to be phenocopies of melanoid mutants as described for the Mexican axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum). The effects of allopurinol in terms of specific pigmentary alterations were examined, and a new method for analyzing heterogeneous extracts of skin pigments (e.g., purines and pteridines) is presented. The significance of the link between XDH and melanism is discussed with emphasis on possible mechanisms of pigment induction and general applicability to biological systems.
White matter integrity and reaction time intraindividual variability in healthy aging and early-stage Alzheimer disease

Aging and early-stage Alzheimer disease (AD) have been shown to be associated with increased RT intraindividual variability (IIV, as reflected by the coefficient of variation) and an exaggeration of the slow tail of the reaction time (RT) distribution in attentional control tasks, based on ex-Gaussian analyses. The current study examined associations between white matter volume, IIV, and ex-Gaussian RT distribution parameters in cognitively normal aging and early-stage AD. Three RT attention tasks (Stroop, Simon, and a consonant-vowel odd-even switching task) in conjunction with MRI-based measures of cerebral and regional white matter volume were obtained in 133 cognitively normal and 33 early-stage AD individuals. Larger volumes were associated with less IIV and less slowing in the tail of the RT distribution, and larger cerebral and inferior parietal white matter volumes were associated with faster modal reaction time. Collectively, these results support a role of white matter integrity in IIV and distributional skewing, and are consistent with the hypothesis that IIV and RT distributional skewing are sensitive to breakdowns in executive control processes in normal and pathological aging.
The effect of three alternative keyboard designs on forearm pronation, wrist extension, and ulnar deviation : A meta-analysis

The growth of computer keyboard use in the workplace is believed to be one important determinant of the increased prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders of the upper extremity (MSD-UE). One possible contributing factor to the development of MSD-UE is the flat standard keyboard, which places the forearm and wrist in biomechanically awkward postures. This meta-analysis examines the efficacy of three alternative keyboard designs, adjustable slope (AS), split fixed-angle (FA), and adjustable open-tented (AT), in reducing forearm pronation, wrist extension, and ulnar deviation. Analyses of pooled effect size from six studies indicated that the AT had a large effect on pronation (r= 0.85) and ulnar deviation whereas the FA had a large effect only on ulnar deviation (r= 0.79). The AS was found to have a large effect (r= 0.66) on wrist extension. The FA had a moderate effect on pronation (r= 0.33) and wrist extension (r= 0.30). None of these keyboards were found to have a significant effect on all three postures. This meta-analysis has implications for clinicians by providing objective information that may assist with the selection of an alternative keyboard that best reduces an identified problematic posture.
ON THE NEED FOR FICTITIOUS INITIAL CONDITIONS IN EFFECTIVE MEDIUM THEORIES OF TRANSIENT NONCONSERVATIVE TRANSPORT PHENOMENA. SOME ELEMENTARY UNSTEADY-STATE HEAT CONDUCTION EXAMPLES

Several elementary heat conduction examples are given demonstrating the need to employ a fictitious initial condition in place of the true initial condition in homogenized, effective medium descriptions of transient thermal phenomena for systems where the boundary conditions are such that the heat originally present in the system is not conserved. The need arises as a consequence of the spatial inhomogeneity of the local rate of heat transfer towards the boundaries during the period existing prior to that at which the effective medium description of the system becomes a faithful macroscale model of the transient micro-scale phenomena. While the illustrations are confined for simplicity to pure conduction problems, the need to use fictitious initial conditions extends to broader classes of problems, including those for which forced convection plays a major role in the thermal transport process.
Type I IL-4Rs selectively activate IRS-2 to induce target gene expression in macrophages.

Although interleukin-4 (IL-4) and IL-13 participate in allergic inflammation and share a receptor subunit (IL-4Rα), they have different functions. We compared cells expressing type I and II IL-4Rs with cells expressing only type II receptors for their responsiveness to these cytokines. IL-4 induced highly efficient, γC-dependent tyrosine phosphorylation of insulin receptor substrate 2 (IRS-2), whereas IL-13 was less effective, even when phosphorylation of signal transducer and activator of transcription 6 (STAT6) was maximal. Only type I receptor, γC-dependent signaling induced efficient association of IRS-2 with the p85 subunit of phosphoinositide 3-kinase or the adaptor protein growth factor receptor–bound protein 2. In addition, IL-4 signaling through type I IL-4Rs induced more robust expression of a subset of genes associated with alternatively activated macrophages than did IL-13. Thus, IL-4 activates signaling pathways through type I IL-4Rs qualitatively differently from IL-13, which cooperate to induce optimal gene expression.
Potency of 3,3′,4,4′,5‐pentachlorobiphenyl (PCB 126), alone and in combination with 2,3,7,8‐tetrachlorodibenzo‐p‐dioxin (TCDD), to produce lake trout early life‐stage mortality

Newly fertilized lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) eggs were exposed to 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), 3,3′,4,4′,5-pentachlorobiphenyl (PCB 126), or their combination, and sac fry mortality was used to determine toxic potencies. The toxic equivalency factor (TEF) for PCB 126 was 0.0030. The dose-response curve for the PCB 126/TCDD mixture based on TCDD toxic equivalents was not significantly different from that for TCDD alone, suggesting additivity between the two congeners in causing sac fry mortality.
Structure of two thermophilic bacteriophages and their DNA genomes during heat inactivation

Abstract The thermal characteristics of two heat-resistant bacteriophages of the actinomycete, Thermomonospora fusca , were studied by infectivity assay, UV light absorbance, electron microscopy, and circular dichroic (CD) spectroscopy. The stability of both phages was enhanced in a high-magnesium, low-sodium buffer designed for spectroscopy use. Loss of nucleic acid accompanied thermal inactivation. The structure of the released DNA from Tf3, the less thermophilic phage, remained basically indistinct from that in situ , often exiting the capsid end in a condensed form. Tf2, the more thermophilic phage, had higher percentage G + C DNA, a more stable capsid, and less hypochromicity on heating than Tf3. Melting temperatures of the DNAs were significantly increased in magnesium buffer and differences were reduced to approximately 1°C. However, differences in phage thermal inactivation and structural integrity remained. Tf2 DNA structure showed change within the phage head without loss of activity or integrity. The results suggest that the more thermophilic phage possessed a highly resistant protein coat which allowed some change in DNA structure within its confines and that certain proposed protein-nucleic acid interactions inside the phage head were either reduced or released only with the initiation of DNA melting.
A preliminary look into the use of named entity information for bioscience text tokenization

Tokenization in the bioscience domain is often difficult. New terms, technical terminology, and nonstandard orthography, all common in bioscience text, contribute to this difficulty. This paper will introduce the tasks of tokenization, normalization before introducing BAccHANT, a system built for bioscience text normalization. Casting tokenization / normalization as a problem of punctuation classification motivates using machine learning methods in the implementation of this system. The evaluation of BAccHANT's performance included error analysis of the system's performance inside and outside of named entities (NEs) from the GENIA corpus, which led to the creation of a normalization system trained solely on data from inside NEs, BAccHANT-N. Evaluation of this new system indicated that normalization systems trained on data inside NEs perform better than systems trained both inside and outside NEs, motivating a merging of tokenization and named entity tagging processes as opposed to the standard pipelining approach.
Normal aging and forgetting rates on the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised.

Abstract The deleterious effects of aging on various cognitive abilities are widely recognized, yet little is known regarding what constitutes “normal” memory test performance in individuals over the age of 74. In this study, forgetting rates for verbal and nonverbal material from the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised (WMS-R) were examined in groups of older healthy individuals, age 50–70 and 75–95. Despite equivalent scores on measures of global cognitive status and attention/ concentration, the older group demonstrated significantly more rapid forgetting rates on the Visual Reproduction, Verbal Paired Associates, and Visual Paired Associates subtests of the WMS-R. Although patients with Alzheimer's disease also evidence very rapid forgetting on some subtests, the severity and pattern of losses appears useful in differentiating “abnormal” forgetting from that exhibited by normal elderly subjects. Preliminary normative data for normal elderly subjects on the WMS-R are presented, and the need for appropriate norms for elderly individuals is discussed.
Supplemental Use of Ergotamine in Eliciting Transient Disturbances of Rhythm in Acute Rheumatic Fever

Conclusions1. It is suggested, from a limited experience with the method, that the supplemental administration of ergotamine tartrate may be useful in increasing the precision of the electrocardiograph as a diagnostic aid in acute rheumatic fever. 2. It is considered that the rationale of this procedure depends on the elevation of a subordinated or “latent” hypervagotonia by a suppression of activity of the normal antagonist of the vagus, so that “cholinergigenic” disturbances in rhythm are thus made manifest in the electrocardiogram. 3. The procedure is simple, can be standardized easily and is without any harmful effects.
Flexible Nerve Stimulation Electrode With Iridium Oxide Sputtered on Liquid Crystal Polymer

Current electrode designs require flexible substrates that absorb little moisture and provide large charge injection capability. Sputtered iridium oxide films have superior charge injection capabilities versus noble metals and can adhere to various substrates. Liquid crystal polymers (LCPs) have very little water absorption compared to other flexible substrates. Therefore, the combination of sputtered iridium oxide film on LCP substrate was studied using 50 Hz, 100 mus duration, and 10 mA biphasic current waveforms for 700 h at 67degC in bicarbonate buffer saline. Scanning electron micrograph analysis showed no delamination and approximately 1% of electrode material was lost to the bicarbonate buffer. The charge injection limit and the cathodic charge storage capacity within the water window were 4.6plusmn1.0 and 31.5plusmn6.6 mC/cm2, respectively. Additional electrochemical analysis revealed significant charge imbalance attributed to oxygen reduction within the water window. These results, along with the flexible, chemically inert, and biocompatible substrate, indicate that sputtered iridium oxide films on LCP could become the method of choice for flexible substrate nerve electrodes.
In vivo phase variation of MR/P fimbrial gene expression in Proteus mirabilis infecting the urinary tract

Proteus mirabilis, associated with complicated urinary tract infection, expresses mannose-resistant/Proteus-like (MR/P) fimbriae. Expression of these surface structures, which mediate haemagglutination and have a demonstrated role in virulence, undergoes phase variation. By DNA sequence analysis, a 252 bp invertible element was found in the intergenic region between mrpl, the putative site-specific recombinase gene, and mrpA, the primary structural subunit gene. The invertible segment is flanked by identical 21 bp inverted repeats and the presumptive half-sites for recombinase binding show homology to those recognized by FimB and FimE encoded by the Escherichia coli fim (Type 1 fimbriae) gene cluster. When amplified by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) from static broth cultures expressing MR/P fimbriae, the switch region was found in both ON and OFF positions. When PCR was used to amplify agar cultures which do not express the fimbriae, the switch region was OFF only. A canonical sigma 70 promoter inside the invertible element drives the transcription of mrpA when in the ON position; in the OFF position it is directed away from mrpA but does not appear to drive expression of mrpI. The mrpI gene was able to confer inversion of the mrp switch region in trans from both ON to OFF and OFF to ON. To examine the position of the switch in vivo, urine, bladder, and kidneys from mice transurethrally infected with P. mirabilis were used to prepare template DNA for PCR amplification. In the absence of urolithiasis (urease-mediated stone formation), the switch was found 100% in the ON position, a condition never observed following in vitro culture. We conclude that MR/P phase variation is regulated at the transcriptional level by the action of MrpI on an invertible element and that there is strong selective pressure for the expression of MR/P fimbriae in vivo.
Theory of the DX center in AlxGa1-xAs and GaAs crystals.

It is argued that (1) the so-called ``DX center'' is a simple substitutional donor which is displaced from its normal, centered, lattice position, (2) its deep state is derived from a triplet of symmetry ${T}_{2}$, not ${A}_{1}$ as is generally assumed, and (3) the donor displacement, driven by the energy of an occupied antibonding orbital, resembles a strong Jahn-Teller effect but differs because of the large potential barrier between the centered (${T}_{2}$) donor state and the distorted deep state. This model provides a natural explanation for the bulk of the data published on DX centers, especially the large barrier for thermal capture and the far-infrared absorption spectra reported by Theis et al. for the 1s-2p transition in Si-doped ${\mathrm{Al}}_{\mathrm{x}}$${\mathrm{Ga}}_{1\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}\mathrm{x}}$As. The far-infrared absorption spectra indicate that the lowest state of symmetry ${A}_{1}$ lies where it is expected, about 70 meV below the L conduction-band edge, or nearly 100 meV above the deep ``DX'' level.
Collegiate Misuse of Prescription Stimulants: Examining Differences in Self-Worth

Background: Prescription stimulant medication is commonly used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, stimulant medication misuse is a prevalent problem among the college population. There is limited research on psychological factors associated with collegiate nonmedical stimulant misuse. Objectives: To examine the association between college students’ self-worth and stimulant medication misuse. Methods: A quantitative study implemented during the 2013–2014 academic year in which we utilized a convenience sample of undergraduate students at a public university. College students (N = 3,038) completed an electronic survey packet including a stimulant use index and the Contingencies of Self-Worth Scale. We conducted descriptive discriminant analysis (DDA) to measure the associations between four groups: Nonusers, Appropriate Users, Nonprescribed Misusuers, and Prescribed Users. Results: Significant differences in contingencies of self-worth existed between the four groups of stude...
A Review of: “Protecting Our Own: Race, Crime, and African Americans”

Katheryn Russell-Brown's attention-grabbing book, Protecting Our Own: Race, Crime and African Americans, is a contemporary approach to understanding a unique social phenomenon found in the African ...
Benders decomposition and an IP-based heuristic for selecting IMRT treatment beam angles

Abstract In this paper, two Benders decomposition algorithms and a novel two-stage integer programming-based heuristic are presented to optimize the beam angle and fluence map in Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) planning. Benders decomposition is first implemented in the traditional manner by iteratively solving the restricted master problem and then identifying and adding the violated Benders cuts. We also implemented Benders decomposition using the “lazy constraint” feature included in CPLEX. In contrast, the two-stage heuristic first seeks to find a good solution by iteratively eliminating the least used angles in the linear programming relaxation solution until the size of the formulation is manageable. In the second stage of the heuristic, the solution is improved by applying local branching. The various methods were tested on real patient data to evaluate their effectiveness and runtime characteristics. The results indicated that implementing Benders using the lazy constraint usually led to better feasible solutions than the traditional approach. Moreover, the LP rounding heuristic was seen to generate high-quality solutions within a short amount of time, with further improvement obtained with the local branching search.
C 12 ( γ , n ) C 11 Cross Section to 65 MeV

The cross section for the reaction ${\mathrm{C}}^{12}(\ensuremath{\gamma},n){\mathrm{C}}^{11}$ has been measured from threshold to 65 MeV using least-structure analysis of yield curves. The giant resonance was resolved into a predominantly triplet structure with peaks at 22.1, 22.75, and 23.6 MeV. No structure was resolved about 40 MeV. The cross section integrated to 65 MeV is 77\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}6 MeV mb.
Effectiveness and toxicity of high-dose cyclophosphamide in obese versus non-obese patients receiving allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant.

PurposeTo determine if there is a difference in toxicity and effectiveness between obese and non-obese patients who receive high-dose cyclophosphamide (Cy) prior to allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (allo-HCT).MethodsPatients were included in this study if they were at least 18 years of age and received high-dose Cy in combination with total body irradiation (CyTBI) or busulfan (BuCy) prior to allo-HCT between 1 January 2008 and 29 February 2012. The primary endpoint was the difference in overall toxicity between obese and non-obese patients. Secondary objectives examined differences in effectiveness between groups assessed by relapse at day +100, relapse at 1 year, death at 1 year, chimerisms at days +30, +60, and +90, and incidence of acute graft versus host disease (aGVHD).ResultsSixty-one patients met the inclusion criteria, 28 obese and 33 non-obese. Overall toxicity was greater in obese patients compared to non-obese patients (82% vs. 52%, OR 4.3 [95% CI 1.3–14.1]; p = 0.01), which was d...
Disaster, disruption to family life, and intimate partner violence: the case of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti

Natural disasters have inherently social dimensions because they exacerbate preexisting inequalities and disrupt social norms and institutions. Despite a growing interest in the sociological aspects of disasters, few studies have quantitatively explored how disasters alter intrahousehold family dynamics. In this article, we develop and test a conceptual framework that explicates how natural disasters affect an important component of family life: intimate partner violence (IPV). We combine two waves of geocoded Demographic and Health Surveys data, collected before and after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, with spatial data on variation in the earthquake's destruction. Our findings indicate that exposure to earthquake devastation increased the probability of both physical and sexual IPV one to two years following the disaster. These increases were accompanied by substantial changes in family functioning, the household economy, and women's access to their social networks. Select household-level experiences during and after the earthquake, such as displacement, were also positively associated with IPV. These findings provide new insights into the multidimensional effects of disasters on family life and have important theoretical and policy implications that extend beyond the particular case of Haiti. Language: en