cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Structural principles of distinct assemblies of the human α4β2 nicotinic receptor

Fast chemical communication in the nervous system is mediated by neurotransmitter-gated ion channels. The prototypical member of this class of cell surface receptors is the cation-selective nicotinic acetylcholine receptor. As with most ligand-gated ion channels, nicotinic receptors assemble as oligomers of subunits, usually as hetero-oligomers and often with variable stoichiometries 1 . This intrinsic heterogeneity in protein composition provides fine tunability in channel properties, which is essential to brain function, but frustrates structural and biophysical characterization. The α4β2 subtype of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor is the most abundant isoform in the human brain and is the principal target in nicotine addiction. This pentameric ligand-gated ion channel assembles in two stoichiometries of α- and β-subunits (2α:3β and 3α:2β). Both assemblies are functional and have distinct biophysical properties, and an imbalance in the ratio of assemblies is linked to both nicotine addiction2,3 and congenital epilepsy4,5. Here we leverage cryo-electron microscopy to obtain structures of both receptor assemblies from a single sample. Antibody fragments specific to β2 were used to ‘break’ symmetry during particle alignment and to obtain high-resolution reconstructions of receptors of both stoichiometries in complex with nicotine. The results reveal principles of subunit assembly and the structural basis of the distinctive biophysical and pharmacological properties of the two different stoichiometries of this receptor. Cryo-electron microscopy structures of two stoichiometries of heteromeric acetylcholine receptors in complex with nicotine reveal principles of subunit assembly and the structural basis of the distinctive biophysical and pharmacological properties of the different stoichiometries.
A Statewide Survey of Stakeholders to Assess the Problem Weeds and Weed Management Practices in Nebraska

Stakeholders were surveyed across Nebraska to identify the problem weeds and assess common weed management practices. A total of 425 responses were returned across four Nebraska extension districts (Northeast, Panhandle, Southeast, and West Central). Collectively, 61.2% of total farmed or scouted areas in Nebraska were under no-till production, and corn and soybean were the major crops (82.3% of total farmed or scouted area). Common waterhemp, horseweed, and kochia were the most problematic weeds statewide. Widespread occurrence of glyphosate-resistant (GR) weeds such as common waterhemp, horseweed, kochia, and Palmer amaranth were a serious problem in GR crop production. Additionally, 60% of growers in Nebraska reported the presence of at least one GR weed species on their farms. The most commonly used preplant burndown herbicides were 2,4-D and glyphosate, followed by saflufenacil and dicamba. In Nebraska, 74% and 59% of corn and soybean growers, respectively, were using PRE herbicides; however, more than 80% of growers were using POST herbicides for in-crop weed management. Atrazine alone or in premix or tank mix with mesotrione, S-metolachlor, or acetochlor were the most widely applied PRE herbicides in corn and grain sorghum, whereas the most commonly used PRE herbicides in soybean were the inhibitors of acetolactate synthase (ALS) and protoporphyrinogen oxidase (PPO). Glyphosate was the most frequent choice of the survey respondents as a POST herbicide in GR corn and soybean; 2,4-D was the most commonly used POST herbicide in grain sorghum and wheat. In Nebraska, only 5.2% of total crop area was planted with glufosinate-resistant crops. Most of the respondents (89%) were aware of the new multiple herbicide–resistant crops, and 80% of them listed physical drift and volatility of the auxinic herbicides as their primary concern. Fortyeight percent of survey respondents identified herbicide-resistant weed management as their primary research and extension priority.Nomenclature: 2,4-D; acetochlor; atrazine; glufosinate; glyphosate; mesotrione; S-metolachlor; common waterhemp, Amaranthus rudis J.D. Sauer; horseweed, Conyza canadensis (L.) Cronq.; kochia, Kochia scoparia (L.) Schrad.; Palmer amaranth, Amaranthus palmeri S. Wats.; corn, Zea mays L.; grain sorghum, Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench ssp. bicolor; soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merr.; wheat, Triticum aestivum L.
Structural Properties of Proteins Predicted by Neural Networks

Structural properties of proteins are being analysed with the help of feed forward neural networks of the perceptron type with hidden layers of neurons. After being trained on known structures the networks can predict local properties of new proteins on the basis of their sequence. Of the structural properties that the networks could predict with reasonable success were the surface structure, H-bond occurrence and secondary structure content. Prediction of the local surface properties means that the networks assign a number to each residue in the sequence signifying whether that residue is deeply burried in the protein or positioned on the surface of the protein. The networks were up to 10 % correct in predicting surface structures of proteins novel to the trained network. A similar score was obtained for the prediction of H-bond occurrence, e.g. if a certain residue participated in forming an H-bond, and for the prediction of secondary structures, i.e. if a certain residue was part of a particular secondary structure. A theoretical model for protein dynamics from an informational processing viewpoint will also be presented.
Artificially Generated Data: Power and Model Specification Considerations

In this Chapter we discuss our estimates of the power of each test against a number of alternative data generating processes.1 Our goal is to answer the following questions: 1. Do one or more of the tests have high power against all of the alternative processes? 2. Is the pattern of power estimates across the alternative processes similar for all of the tests? 3. For a given generating process, are the results of all of the tests highly correlated across the simulations?
Empirical Comparisons of Descriptive Multi-objective Adversary Models in Stackelberg Security Games

Stackelberg Security Games (SSG) have been used to model defender- attacker relationships for analyzing real-world security resource allocation problems. Research has focused on generating algorithms that are optimal and efficient for defenders, based on a presumed model of adversary choices. However, relatively less has been done descriptively to investigate how well those models capture adversary choices and psychological assumptions about adversary decision making. Using data from three experiments, including over 1000 human subjects playing over 25000 games, this study evaluates adversary choices by comparing 9 adversary models both nomothetically and ideographically in a SSG setting. We found that participants tended to be consistent with utility maximization and avoid a target with high probability of being protected even if the reward or expected value of that target is high. It was also found in two experiments that adversary choices were dependent on the defender’s payoffs, even after accounting for attacker’s own payoffs.
Permeability of porous media from simulated NMR response

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) is an increasingly popular well-logging tool in petroleum industry because it is the only tool that attempts to estimate formation permeability. In this paper, spatially correlated porous media are generated. Permeabilities of these media are computed by the lattice Boltzmann method. NMR relaxation responses are simulated by a random walk technique and formation factors are computed by solving a Laplacian equation. The testing of commonly used NMR permeability correlations shows that three conditions should be met for the validity of these correlations. The surface relaxivity should not vary significantly. The formation factor should depend only on porosity. And the characteristic pore body radius should be proportional to the characteristic throat radius. The correlations are improved by including surface relaxivity and formation factor.
Structural evolution and electrical properties of metal ion-containing polydopamine

Polydopamine (PDA) is a biopolymer that can be synthesized under mild conditions. Thermal annealing can convert PDA into a conductive phase, the so-called carbonized PDA (cPDA). This work studied the effect of three metal ions, i.e., Cu2+, Mg2+, and Na+, on the synthesis of PDA and its conversion to cPDA. Both Cu2+ and Mg2+ could interact with PDA, which in turn influenced (1) the growth of PDA thin film, (2) morphology change of PDA particles upon thermal annealing, and (3) the electrical properties of heat-treated thin films. In contrast, the presence of Na+ ion during the synthesis of PDA did not show any effect. In this study, the morphology of PDA thin films and powder particles was examined using SEM and TEM; their chemical compositions were studied by EDS and ICP-MS; the structure was investigated using electron diffraction and Raman spectroscopy; and the properties were evaluated with respect to the electrical conductivity and thermoelectric Seebeck coefficient. The results from this work provide a potential approach to control the structure and properties of PDA and cPDA materials through metal ion doping.
Security of Emergent Automotive Systems: A Tutorial Introduction and Perspectives on Practice

Editor’s note: Emerging automotive systems are governed by various complicated hardware and software systems. Hence, security is an important issue in highly interconnected automotive systems. This article presents a survey of current automotive security research. — Partha Pratim Pande, Washington State University
Attending to inattention: Identification of deadweight loss under nonsalient taxes

Recent developments in behavioral public economics have shown that heterogeneous biases prevent point identification of deadweight loss. We replicate this result for an arbitrary (closed) consumption set, whereas previous results on heterogeneous attention focused on binary choice. We find that one can bound the efficiency costs of taxation based on aggregate features of demand. When individuals have linear demand functions, the bounds for deadweight loss are easy to calculate from linear regressions.
Energy Usage Reports: Environmental awareness as part of algorithmic accountability

The carbon footprint of algorithms must be measured and transparently reported so computer scientists can take an honest and active role in environmental sustainability. In this paper, we take analyses usually applied at the industrial level and make them accessible for individual computer science researchers with an easy-to-use Python package. Localizing to the energy mixture of the electrical power grid, we make the conversion from energy usage to CO2 emissions, in addition to contextualizing these results with more human-understandable benchmarks such as automobile miles driven. We also include comparisons with energy mixtures employed in electrical grids around the world. We propose including these automatically-generated Energy Usage Reports as part of standard algorithmic accountability practices, and demonstrate the use of these reports as part of model-choice in a machine learning context.
WASPP: Workflow Automation for Security Policy Procedures

Every day, university networks are bombarded with attempts to steal the sensitive data of the various disparate domains and organizations they serve. For this reason, universities form teams of information security specialists called a Security Operations Center (SOC) to manage the complex operations involved in monitoring and mitigating such attacks. When a suspicious event is identified, members of the SOC are tasked to understand the nature of the event in order to respond to any damage the attack might have caused. This process is defined by administrative policies which are often very high-level and rarely systematically defined. This impedes the implementation of generalized and automated event response solutions, leading to specific ad hoc solutions based primarily on human intuition and experience as well as immediate administrative priorities. These solutions are often fragile, highly specific, and more difficult to reuse in other scenarios.
Overcontrol and neural response to errors in pediatric anxiety disorders.

Abstract Multiple risk factors that may contribute to the development and severity of pediatric anxiety disorders, one of which is dimensional overcontrol. Overcontrol is a constellation of characteristics including heightened performance monitoring, inflexibility, perfectionism and aversion to making mistakes. In this study, we examined overcontrol in children with anxiety disorders and tested whether the underlying dimension of overcontrol specifically explains altered brain response to errors in pediatric anxiety disorders. Parent-reported scores of child overcontrol were collected in a sample of children (ages 8–12 years) with (n = 35) and without (n = 34) anxiety disorders and the relationship of overcontrol and anxiety symptoms to neural responding to errors during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was examined. Results indicated childhood overcontrol was elevated in pediatric anxiety disorders and was significantly associated with anxiety severity, even when controlling for comorbid depression and ADHD. Additionally, overcontrol was associated with reduced neural response to errors versus correct responses in the bilateral dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and insula, even when controlling for anxiety symptoms. Overcontrol may serve as an underlying mechanism associated with clinical pediatric anxiety that demonstrates significant associations with aberrant neural error responding. Overcontrol may be an underlying mechanism contributing to pediatric anxiety that could be targeted for early intervention.
Midterm evaluation of perigraft arterial sac embolization in endovascular aneurysm repair.

Abstract Objective Management of clinically significant endoleaks (ELs) remains costly, time-consuming, and morbid. Unresolved ELs can result in rupture and mortality after endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR). Perigraft arterial sac embolization (PASE) has been used to treat ELs diagnosed at the time of EVAR or during surveillance. Methods A retrospective review of prospectively maintained databases was conducted. The databases were compiled from two institutions between 2006 and 2016. PASE was performed for type I, type II, or type III EL with a thrombin, contrast medium, and Gelfoam (Pfizer, New York, NY) slurry prepared as previously described. PASE was administered either at the time of EVAR (primary) or during surveillance (secondary). Safety end points included nontarget embolization, defined as neurologic or enteric clinical sequelae from lumbar artery or visceral artery embolization, allergic reaction, peripheral embolization, or rupture. Efficacy end points included successful resolution of EL and cessation of aneurysm sac growth on computed tomography (CT) scans with contrast enhancement. Results A total of 66 patients included in the study were treated with PASE. Primary PASE was performed in 38 patients (58%) and secondary in 28 (42%). Within the total cohort, the average clinical and CT scan follow-up was 1.7 years (0.1-11.6 years). Four patients required open repair for residual high-pressure ELs (one type IIIB and three type I; 6%). Of the 95% of patients who did not require open conversion, aneurysm growth did not occur during the follow-up period. In the overall cohort, PASE was successful in 88% of type I EL and 73% of patients with type II EL. There was no evidence of recanalization after thrombosis of culprit vessel for EL. No patients suffered nontarget embolization, spinal ischemia, allergic reaction, post-EVAR rupture, or colonic ischemia. Conclusions Primary and secondary PASE proved to be a safe, effective, and durable tool in sac management in conjunction with EVAR. Treating ELs during or after EVAR with PASE has minimized the incidence of EL on CT scan and halted aneurysm growth in our cohort. Further studies are needed to confirm the long-term durability of PASE in reducing secondary interventions after EVAR.
Statistics of heart failure and mechanical circulatory support in 2020

Heart failure is increasing in prevalence, with approximately 26 million patients affected worldwide. This represents a significant cause of morbidity and mortality. Statistics regarding heart failure patient age, hospitalization likelihood, and mortality differ significantly by country. Heart failure patients are typically classified by ejection fraction, with distinct phenotypes associated with reduced ejection fraction (rEF) or preserved ejection fraction (pEF). Heart failure has a significant financial impact related to hospitalization, medication, and procedural expenses. The costs of heart failure also extend to the reduced quality of life conferred by heart failure symptoms. Management of heart failure includes a variety of interventions, including mechanical circulatory support (MCS). MCS, including left ventricular assist devices (LVADs), right ventricular assist devices (RVADs) and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), has been a means of managing end stage heart failure. Given the relative scarcity of transplant organs, the utilization of MCS, particularly as a bridge to transplantation (BTT) has grown significantly. In this review, we discuss statistics related to heart failure and MCS. We evaluate how patients are classified and examine global trends and regional differences. We then address MCS therapies, the costs associated with heart failure, the impact of heart failure on patient quality of life, and data regarding morbidity and mortality.
Citogenética: La búsqueda de la base física de los genes

In 1865 Mendel discovered the existence of constant numerical sequences in the heredity of characteristics in commom peas. In order to explain these observations he suggested to search for a mechanism governing the germinal cells. The hypothetical factors introduced by Mendel, later on termed gens, were considered mere computing units when his work was rediscovered in 1900. A few years later, however, the cytologists W. Sutton and Th. Bobery put forward the hypothesis that the chromosomes were the carriers of the heredity units. The further development of these ideas by T. H. Morgan and coworkers accomplished the consolidation of the chromosomal theory of Mendelian heredity. This research examines the process of locating the gens in the chromosomes and hence their acceptance as material entities, quite different from the abstract computing units meant as tooUs to systematize the results obtained from experimental crossbreeding.
The Bike Tour Leader's Dilemma: Talking About Supervision

This article explores the range of learning, teaching and managerial issues that lawyers encounter in supervisory relationships. While it appears that many think supervision is an essential skill, it is also regarded as something that is unteachable. The article, however, proposes a series of steps in aid of professional development that promote learning and satisfaction through effective supervisory relationships.
Rotaxane rings promote oblique packing and extended lifetimes in DNA-templated molecular dye aggregates

Molecular excitons play a central role in natural and artificial light harvesting, organic electronics, and nanoscale computing. The structure and dynamics of molecular excitons, critical to each application, are sensitively governed by molecular packing. Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) templating is a powerful approach that enables controlled aggregation via sub-nanometer positioning of molecular dyes. However, finer sub-Angstrom control of dye packing is needed to tailor excitonic properties for specific applications. Here, we show that adding rotaxane rings to squaraine dyes templated with DNA promotes an elusive oblique packing arrangement with highly desirable optical properties. Specifically, dimers of these squaraine:rotaxanes exhibit an absorption spectrum with near-equal intensity excitonically split absorption bands. Theoretical analysis indicates that the transitions are mostly electronic in nature and only have similar intensities over a narrow range of packing angles. Compared with squaraine dimers, squaraine:rotaxane dimers also exhibit extended excited-state lifetimes and less structural heterogeneity. The approach proposed here may be generally useful for optimizing excitonic materials for a variety of applications ranging from solar energy conversion to quantum information science. DNA templating is a useful strategy to control the positioning and aggregation of molecular dyes on a sub-nanometer scale, but sub-angstrom control is desirable for the precise tailoring of excitonic properties. Here, the authors show that templating squaraine dyes functionalized with rotaxane rings promotes an elusive oblique packing arrangement and extended excited-state lifetimes.
Abstract 2519: Targeting glucose metabolism in HER2+breast cancer

Primary and metastatic breast cancers are driven by oncogenic mutations to rely on glucose metabolism to support their rapid proliferation. Of these genetic changes, the increased activity of the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2/ErbB2) is observed in a third of all breast tumors. HER2 has been shown to activate downstream effectors (e.g. Ras, HIF-1α) that stimulate glycolysis - in part by activation of the 6-phosphofructo-2-kinase/fructose-2,6-bisphosphatase family of enzymes (PFKFB1-4). The PFKFBs produce fructose-2,6-bisphosphate (F26BP) which activates a key rate-limiting glycolytic enzyme, 6-phosphofructo-1-kinase (PFK1). In preliminary studies, we found that the PFKFB4 family member was highly expressed in a series of patient-derived HER2+ breast tumors relative to normal breast with markedly higher expression in their matched metastatic lymph nodes. We next determined that silencing PFKFB4 markedly reduced F26BP, glycolysis and cell survival in HER2+ breast cancer cells and inhibited tumor growth in vivo. Through virtual screening, we have discovered a first-in-class small molecule inhibitor of PFKFB4, termed 5MPN, that selectively inhibits PFKFB4 activity with a resultant decrease in F26BP, glycolysis and cancer cell growth. 5MPN also caused a significant decrease in the invasion and migration of HER2+ breast cancer cells in vitro, importantly at concentrations well below levels that affect cell viability and marked suppression in the growth of established tumors, without systemic toxicity. In additional studies, we have found that the related PFKFB3 isoform is also expressed in HER+ breast tumors. Our previous work found that the PFKFB4 enzyme localizes to the cytoplasm (where PFK1 and the glycolytic pathway function) indicating a possible dominant role for PFKFB4 in glycolytic regulation. PFKFB3 however largely localized to the nucleus where it serves an important function in proliferation via activation of cyclin-dependent kinases. Based on the different roles played by these enzymes in cancer cells, we next evaluated the effects of simultaneous administration of 5MPN ± a clinical candidate PFKFB3 inhibitor on survival and proliferation in HER2+ breast cancer and found that the combination synergistically and significantly decreased viability and growth in several examined HER2+ breast cancer cell lines. Our data indicate that targeting PFKFB4 may be a viable therapeutic option against breast cancer and strongly support the further exploration of co-targeting PFKFB4 and PFKFB3 as a potential therapeutic strategy for the successful treatment of HER2+ breast cancer. Citation Format: Simone Chang, Jason Chesney, John O. Trent, Sucheta Telang. Targeting glucose metabolism in HER2+breast cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2021; 2021 Apr 10-15 and May 17-21. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2021;81(13_Suppl):Abstract nr 2519.
Trends in and Characteristics of Buprenorphine Misuse Among Adults in the US

Importance There is a lack of empirical research regarding misuse of buprenorphine hydrochloride. Objective To identify prescription opioids that are most frequently misused, assess differences in motivations for misuse between buprenorphine and nonbuprenorphine prescription opioids, and examine trends in and factors associated with buprenorphine misuse among individuals with or without opioid use disorder (OUD). Design, Setting, and Participants This survey study used nationally representative data on past-year prescription opioid use, misuse, OUD, and motivations for the most recent misuse from the 2015-2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). Participants included 214 505 civilian, noninstitutionalized adult NSDUH respondents. Data were collected from January 2015 to December 2019 and analyzed from February 15 to March 15, 2021. Main Outcomes and Measures Buprenorphine use, misuse, and OUD. Misuse was defined as use “in any way that a doctor [physician] did not direct you to use them, including (1) use without a prescription of your own; (2) use in greater amounts, more often, or longer than you were told to take them; or (3) use in any other way a doctor did not direct you to use them.” Results The 214 505 respondents included in the analysis represented an estimated annual average 246.7 million US adults during 2015-2019 (51.7% [95% CI, 51.4%-52.0%] women; 13.9% [95% CI, 13.7%-14.1%] aged 18-25 y; 40.6% [95% CI, 40.3%-41.0%] aged 26-49 y; 45.5% [95% CI, 45.0-45.9%] aged ≥50 y). In 2019, an estimated 2.4 (95% CI, 2.2-2.7) million US adults used buprenorphine, and an estimated 0.7 (95% CI, 0.5-0.9) million misused buprenorphine compared with an estimated 4.9 (95% CI, 4.4-5.4) million and an estimated 3.0 (95% CI, 2.7-3.2) million who misused hydrocodone and oxycodone, respectively. Prevalence of OUD with buprenorphine misuse trended downward during the period from 2015 to 2019. “Because I am hooked” (27.3% [95% CI, 21.6%-33.8%]) and “to relieve physical pain” (20.5% [95% CI, 14.0%-29.0%]) were the most common motivations for the most recent buprenorphine misuse among adults with OUD. Adults who misused buprenorphine were more likely to report using prescription opioids without having their own prescriptions than those who misused nonbuprenorphine prescription opioids (with OUD: 71.8% [95% CI, 66.4%-76.6%] vs 53.2% [95% CI, 48.5%-57.8%],P Conclusions and Relevance These findings suggest that among adults with OUD, prevalence of buprenorphine misuse trended downward from 2015 to 2019. In 2019, nearly three-fourths of US adults reporting past-year buprenorphine use did not misuse their prescribed buprenorphine, and most who misused reported using prescription opioids without having their own prescriptions. These findings underscore the need to pursue actions that expand access to buprenorphine-based OUD treatment, to develop strategies to monitor and reduce buprenorphine misuse, and to address associated conditions (eg, suicide risk, co-occurring mental illness, and polysubstance use).
The Prediction of Morphemes Distribution at Surface Level and Abstract Level: The Case of Non-Finite Verbs in Pashto-English Bilingual Data

The present research explores the election of Embedded Language (EL) nonfinite verbs at surface level with respect to its activation at abstract level. It also investigate the argument that non-finite verbs are elected at lexical-conceptual level. The framework used in the present research is the 4-M model (Myers-Scotton, 2002) of morpheme classification for the prediction of distribution of the EL non-finite verbs at surface level in relation to abstract structure level. This research tries to answer the question: How the EL nonfinite verbs are elected at the abstract level in relation to surface level data?Approximately 8.49 hours bilingual data was collected from a sample of three groups is transcribed and only EL language verbs (nonfinite) are focused and discussed in the present research. According to the classification of 4-M model nonfinite verbs as content morphemes are salient only at lexical-conceptual level to its lemma specification of the speaker’s intended semantic-pragmatic meanings. The nature of the EL nonfinite verbs also suggest its activation as fast and easy with low cost at the abstract level because its integration is made possible by the ML inflection morphemes for tense, aspect and outsider morpheme for subject-verb agreement. On the other hand the EL finite verbs are hard to find in the present data also suggest its complicated morphosyntactic nature. This is the first attempt in Pashto-English bilingual data that the 4-M model of morpheme classification is used to predict a relationship of the empirical data and its election at abstract level. The present study suggest that the model of morpheme classification could also be extended to the morpheme activation (L1 and L2) in second language acquisition.
18FDG PET scan parameters in peer-reviewed literature: Need for standardization

2238 Objectives Analysis of consistency and completeness of 18FDG PET scan parameters described in peer-reviewed articles in top imaging journals. Methods Forty-four specific 18FDG PET scan parameters encompassing preparation, technique, and interpretation were defined and grouped into four categories: Instrumentation (13 parameters), Procedure (6 parameters), Patient (19 parameters), and Analysis (6 parameters). All 18FDG PET or PET/CT articles published in the top seven imaging journals during 2009 and 2010 were identified through PubMed. After excluding review articles and case reports, 240 papers were available for analysis. Each of the 44 parameters was searched for, and recorded as present or absent. Results At least one parameter within each category was reported in every article. Regarding Instrumentation, manufacturer and scanner model were most commonly described (227/240), whereas the size of the CT field of view was least commonly reported (23/240); mean number of missing parameters was 7.4 (+/- 2.4). Regarding Procedure, 18FDG dose was most common (215/240) and specific mention of respiratory gating, performed or not performed, least common (7/240) with mean of 4.2 (+/- 1.0) missing. Regarding Patient, 18FDG incubation time was most common (190/240); no paper specified attempts to quantify extravenous infiltration of 18FDG (if any); with mean of 14.4 (+/- 3.0) missing. Regarding Analysis, type of interpretation workstation was most common (164/240) and technique of image fusion least common (5/240); with mean of 5.2 (+/- 0.9) missing. Conclusions Considerable variability exists in the high impact imaging literature regarding the gamut of important methodological details of the 18FDG PET scan performed as a key element of the scientific study. Journals could provide their reviewers with guidelines to ensure completeness and consistency. More uniformity is desirable because it would facilitate reproducibility, particularly when comparing SUVs
Bcl-xL regulates CD1d-mediated antigen presentation to NKT cells (APP3P.114)

Natural killer T (NKT) cells are a unique subset of T cells that recognize glycolipid antigens presented by CD1d molecules. Once activated, NKT cells can mount strong anti-tumor responses. However, little is known about the regulation of CD1d-mediated antigen processing and presentation to NKT cells, particularly in the context of B cell lymphoma. Pro-survival factors of the Bcl-2 family, such as Bcl-xL are often upregulated in B cell lymphomas, and are associated with changes in the endocytic pathway, which is paramount for CD1d-mediated antigen presentation. We hypothesized that Bcl-xL regulates this process, and found that over-expression or induction of Bcl-xL led to increased antigen presentation to NKT cells. Conversely, inhibition or knockdown of Bcl-xL led to decreased NKT cell activation. Knockdown of Bcl-xL also resulted in the loss of CD1d trafficking to LAMP1+ compartments. Furthermore, Rab7, a late endosomal marker was upregulated following Bcl-xL knockdown, and CD1d molecules accumulated in the Rab7+ compartment. These results demonstrate that Bcl-xL regulates CD1d-mediated antigen presentation to NKT cells by altering the intracellular localization of CD1d. Thus, we have identified a new pathway involved in antigen presentation that can impact current therapies targeting the Bcl-2 family, as well as emerging NKT cell based cancer immunotherapeutic strategies.
Biochemical studies on the induction of chloroplast development in Euglena gracilis: II. Protein synthesis during induction

Abstract The formation of the photosynthetic apparatus requires the synthesis of many new enzymes and structural proteins in the plastids. When cells of Euglena gracilis were fed with [ 14 C]amino acids, under conditions of chloroplast induction, radioactivity was more or less equally distributed in both microsomal and chloroplast fractions. Isolated chloroplasts were also found to incorporate labeled amino acids into their acid-insoluble fractions, and this process differed from the normal ribosomal protein-synthesizing system in that it was not dependent on external co-factors such as pH-5 enzyme transfer RNA and only partly dependent on added ATP. However, the chloroplast system was found to depend upon the addition of all amino acids. The incorporation rate was approximately linear for the first 30 min, after which it gradually declined. Furthermore, it was found to be dependent upon the concentrations of the added chloroplasts, being linear up to 30 μg of chlorophyll per ml. Most of the activity was associated with the membrane fraction obtained after lysing the chloroplast. It is thus a possibility that the protein synthesized in the chloroplasts under our conditions were primarily structural proteins.
Zinc (II) coordination in Escherichia coli DNA topoisomerase I is required for cleavable complex formation with DNA.

Escherichia coli DNA topoisomerase I catalyzes relaxation of negatively supercoiled DNA. The reaction proceeds through a covalent intermediate, the cleavable complex, in which the DNA is cleaved and the enzyme is linked to the DNA via a phosphotyrosine linkage. Each molecule of E. coli DNA topoisomerase I has been shown to have three tightly bound zinc(II) ions required for relaxation activity (Tse-Dinh, Y.-C., and Beran-Steed, R.K. (1988) J. Biol. Chem. 263, 15857-15859). It is shown here that Cd(II) could replace Zn(II) in reconstitution of active enzyme from apoprotein. The role of metal was analyzed by studying the partial reactions. The apoenzyme was deficient in sodium dodecyl sulfate-induced cleavage of supercoiled PM2 phage DNA. Formation of covalent complex with linear single-stranded DNA was also reduced in the absence of metal. However, the cleavage of small oligonucleotide was not affected, and the apoenzyme could religate the covalently bound oligonucleotide to another DNA molecule. Assay of noncovalent complex formation by retention of 5'-labeled DNA on filters showed that the apoenzyme was not inhibited in noncovalent binding to DNA. It is proposed that zinc(II) coordination in E. coli DNA topoisomerase I is required for the transition of the noncovalent complex with DNA to the cleavable state.
Long‐term snow distribution observations in a mountain catchment: Assessing variability, time stability, and the representativeness of an index site

[1] This study presents an analysis of snow distribution heterogeneity and the factors affecting this variability. The analysis focuses on manually sampled data from 21 snow surveys covering 11 years at the drift-dominated Reynolds Mountain East catchment (0.36 km2) in southwestern Idaho, USA. Surveys were conducted midwinter and in early spring. Interseason and intraseason trends were examined along with the time stability of distributions, goodness-of-fit to theoretical distributions, and the representativeness of an index site as a measure of basin-wide snow water equivalent. The average snow depth coefficient of variation (CV) over the entire time period was 0.71, which is in accordance with broad regional assessments. Higher wind speeds during snow events and increased melt led to increased heterogeneity and higher CVs. Forested sites produced lower CVs presumably due to moderated winds at these sites. Consistent wind directions produced accumulation patterns that were very stable from year-to-year. Many previous studies have suggested that vital subgrid snow heterogeneity in large-scale models can be approximated with parametric distributions. Gamma distributions were preferred over lognormal distributions in describing the overall distribution while in tree-covered regions with less variability there was little difference between the two. It was also found that an index site, akin to the majority of North American mountain weather observation stations, provided a reasonable approximation of catchment-averaged SWE in most years. However, the reliability of this measure decreased in years that deviated from normal patterns.
Quantum phase transition in the multimode Dicke model

An investigation of the quantum phase transition in both discrete and continuum field Dicke models is presented. A series of anticrossing features following the criticality is revealed in the band of the field modes. Critical exponents are calculated. We investigate the properties of a pairwise entanglement measured by a concurrence and obtain analytical results in the thermodynamic limit.
Embryonic stem cell-derived cystic embryoid bodies form vascular channels: an in vitro model of blood vessel development

Murine embryonic stem cells can differentiate in vitro to form cystic embryoid bodies (CEB) that contain different structures and cell types. The blood islands are one such structure that consist of immature hematopoietic cells surrounded by endothelial cells, the first identifiable vascular cells. CEBs differentiated in vitro developed blood islands initially, and subsequently these blood islands matured to form vascular channels containing hematopoietic cells. Phase contrast microscopy demonstrated the presence of channels in mature CEBs grown in suspension culture, and high resolution light and electron microscopy showed that the cells lining these channels were endothelial cells. The channels appeared less organized than the vasculature of the mature yolk sac. The hematopoietic cells were occasionally seen 'flowing' through the CEB channels, although their numbers were reduced relative to the yolk sac. Analysis of primary CEB cultures showed the presence of cells with two characteristics of endothelial cells: approximately 30% of the cells labelled with fluorescent acetylated low density lipoprotein and a small number of cells were positive for von Willebrand's factor by immunostaining. Thus we conclude that a primitive vasculature forms in CEBs differentiated in vitro, and that not only primary differentiation of endothelial cells but also some aspects of vascular maturation are intrinsic to this cell culture system. CEBs are therefore a useful model for the study of developmental blood vessel formation.
Mobile Phone-Based Microscopy, Sensing, and Diagnostics

Mass production of consumer electronics devices and market competition have provided users with cost-effective, compact, and high-performance products with high-end components including digital cameras, graphics processing units, and various sensors. This opened up the opportunity for researchers, and even citizen scientists, to develop novel imaging, sensing, and diagnostics platforms using mobile phones as an underlying platform. Mobile phones’ hardware and software technical capabilities, wireless connectivity, and wide-spread use, in billions, have made them ideal, especially to address the global demand for accurate, sensitive, cost-effective, and field-portable measurement devices that can be used in remote and resource-limited settings around the world. This Review focuses on these recent advances in the use of mobile phone-based imaging and sensing techniques for point of care applications, including microscopy and diagnostic testing. The achievements demonstrated so far illustrate the potential to globally transform and democratize measurement science in general, with a significant impact for scientists, engineers, and educators.
Frame synchronization for noncoherent demodulation on flat fading channels

We consider the problem of locating a known periodically embedded synchronization pattern in random data, which is subject to flat fading and additive white Gaussian noise. We derive the maximum likelihood rule and its high-SNR approximation for the case of noncoherent demodulation and show experimental results for the slow-fading Rayleigh channel. It is shown that the well-known correlation rule performs substantially worse than maximum-likelihood rule derived here.
Effect of co-ordination number on lanthanide abundance variation.

Lanthanide abundance variation and coordination number, comparing abundances in terrestrial and meteoritic materials with average chondrite
Lymphotoxin/LIGHT, lymphoid microenvironments and autoimmune disease

Much of the efficiency of the immune system is attributed to the high degree of spatial and temporal organization in the secondary lymphoid organs. Signalling through the lymphotoxin (LT) pathway is a crucial element in the maintenance of this organized microenvironment. The effect of altering lymphoid microenvironments on immune responses remains relatively unexplored. Inhibitors of the LT and LIGHT pathways have been shown to reduce disease in a wide range of autoimmune models. This approach has provided a tool to probe the effect of manipulation of the microenvironment on both normal and pathological immune responses.
Differential Diagnosis of Pain Around the Hip Joint

The differential diagnosis of hip pain is broad and includes intra-articular pathology, extra-articular pathology, and mimickers, including the joints of the pelvic ring. With the current advancements in hip arthroscopy, more patients are being evaluated for hip pain. In recent years, our understanding of the functional anatomy around the hip has improved. In addition, because of advancements in magnetic resonance imaging, the diagnosis of soft tissue causes of hip pain has improved. All of these advances have broadened the differential diagnosis of pain around the hip joint and improved the treatment of these problems. In this review, we discuss the causes of intra-articular hip pain that can be addressed arthroscopically: labral tears, loose bodies, femoroacetabular impingement, capsular laxity, tears of the ligamentum teres, and chondral damage. Extra-articular diagnoses that can be managed arthroscopically are also discussed, including: iliopsoas tendonitis, "internal" snapping hip, "external" snapping hip, iliotibial band and greater trochanteric bursitis, and gluteal tendon injury. Finally, we discuss extra-articular causes of hip pain that are often managed nonoperatively or in an open fashion: femoral neck stress fracture, adductor strain, piriformis syndrome, sacroiliac joint pain, athletic pubalgia, "sports hernia," "Gilmore's groin," and osteitis pubis.
An Observational Method for Time Use Research: Lessons Learned from the Middletown Media Studies

Most social scientists operate from a variance-based logic, modeling the social world as entities with attributes; relationships between attributes determine social outcomes. Time use researchers, in contrast, operate from what Abbott (1984) calls a process-based logic of explanation, modeling the social world as events meaningfully ordered in sequences, in which the composition, duration and ordering of events shape outcomes. The challenges for process researchers are colligation of the stream of behavior (e.g., defining relevant events) and measurement (validly and reliably parsing and categorizing events). Colliga tion and measurement in time use research take many forms but, arguably, the dominant approaches are the time diary and retrospective interview. Much of what media industry researchers know of media-related time use comes from responses to telephone surveys or media diaries measuring a single medium. Electronic monitoring is part of "currency" measures used to establish pricing models for commercial television, radio and the Web. However, these are also typically limited to a single platform. Such measures no longer satisfy the needs of industry or media scholars facing expansion of media devices and channels. The need for a cross-platform, cross-location view of media exposure drove development of the observational method used in the Middletown Media Studies (Papper et al. 2004, 2005). In this article we describe our observational method and its advantages and disadvantages.
Soluble Trace Metals in Alkaline Stabilized Sludge Products

The application of alkaline sludge products as liming agents to agricultural soils is now commonplace. Laboratory investigations of water extracts from two alkali-stabilized sludge products used in New York State reveals that 40 to 50% of the total Cu, 15 to 25% of the total Ni, and 11 to 13% of the Mo dissolved out of the sludge product into water, whereas much smaller fractions of the Cd, Zn, Pb, Ag, and Hg were immediately water soluble. Speciation techniques, including differential pulse anodic stripping voltammetry (DPASV), electron spin resonance (ESR), and computer spedation calculations (MINEQL+), indicated that the high solubility of Cu and Ni was a result of complexation with dissolved amines or amino acids in the alkaline (pH12) water extracts. Because of the high affinity of both Cu 2+ and Ni 2+ for N-ligands in amines, these metals were mobilized much more than Pb, Zn, or Cd. The low solubilities of Ag and Hg may indicate that they were present in the sludge product as the insoluble metallic or sulfide forms. Prolonged exposure of the alkaline extracts to air caused CO 2 to gradually lower the solution pH to 8.1 forming a CaCO 3 precipitate. However, the dissolved Cu and Ni concentrations did not diminish with pH, indicating that the metal-organic complexes were sufficiently stable at pH 8.1 to inhibit metal precipitation with the CaCO 3 . The results suggest potential for the transport of certain heavy metals from land-applied alkaline sludges into surface waters and shallow groundwater in some situations.
Biological properties of staphylococcal α-toxin

Abstract The biological properties of staphylococcal α-toxin were examined. 1. 1. We have confirmed that α-toxin, at a concentration of 1 μg/ml, induced spastic paralysis of isolated mammalian smooth muscle, which was not released by isoproteranol and was not responsive to added Ca2+ or K+. 2. 2. α-Toxin had no effect at high concentration (20–100 μ/ml) on membrane ATPases, proton translocation in mitochondria, or Mycoplasma plasma membrane integrity. 3. 3. Artificial lipid spherules (liposomes) containing egg or beef lecithin or total extracted lipid from erythrocytes were disrupted by α-toxin at 15–30 μg/ml. No selectivity of toxin action was demonstrated for liposomes composed of rabbit erythrocyte lipid. α-Toxin released low-molecular-weight internal marker, and, at higher concentrations, it also released macromolecular marker from liposomes. 4. 4. It is suggested that α-toxin's action toward membranes may not be fully explained by a postulated interaction with membrane lipid.