Anatomy, histology, and ontogeny of the sesamoid cartilage in the jaw muscles of the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) [abstract]

The cartilago transiliens is a characteristic cartilaginous nodule inside crocodilian jaw muscles. Encased by a fibrous sheath, the cartilago transiliens lies between the pterygoid buttress and the mandible, providing attachment sites for m. pseudotemporalis superficialis dorsally, and m. intramandibularis, ventrally. Previous research showed that the cartilago transiliens functions as a jaw-locking mechanism and bears sesamoid-like features, rather than those of a novel structure. Fibrocartilages often form inside portions of tendons that wrap around bone. These organized, incompressible sesamoid tissues prevent tendon flattening, increase mechanical advantage, and tend to ossify in mammals and reptile limbs, but not in most other instances. Here we investigate the gross anatomy and microstructure of the cartilago transiliens in the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis)

Archosaur hip joint anatomy and its significance in body size and locomotor evolution

Archosaurs (crocodylians, birds and their extinct relatives) underwent numerous evolutionary transitions in limb morphology and body size, reflecting a diverse suite of postural and behavioral adaptations. Among archosaurs, saurischians (sauropodomorph and theropod dinosaurs) evolved a wide diversity of hip joint morphology and locomotor postures, as well as spanning seven orders of magnitude in body size. The very largest saurischians possessed incongruent hip joints, in which the bony ends of the femur and the acetabulum (hip socket) differ in shape and size. This observation has led to the suggestion that gigantic saurischians built their joints using large volumes of soft tissues. Nevertheless, the lack of hip joint anatomical data in extant archosaurs and the general poor preservation of joint soft tissues in fossils hinder functional inferences of archosaur hip joints, thus complicating our attempts to understand the posture, locomotor behavior, ecology, and evolution of this diverse clade. This thesis investigates the anatomy and homology of articular soft tissue in the archosaur hip joint, reconstructs the evolutionary transition of hip joints in Saurischia, and infers the correlated evolution of hip joints and body size in the sauropod and theropod lineages. In the first study, I described the soft tissue anatomies and their osteological correlates in the hip joint of archosaurs and their sauropsid outgroups, and infer structural homology across extant sauropsids using dissection, imaging, and histology. This study provides new insight into soft tissue structures and their osteological correlates in the archosaur hip joint, allowing anatomical inferences of once-present joint soft tissues in fossil archosaurs. In the second study, I used maximum likelihood ancestral state reconstruction and osteological correlates to infer major trends in hip joint soft tissue transitions within sauropodomorphs and theropods, and tested the integration between femoral and acetabular structures. Results of this study indicate that sauropodomorph hip joints underwent few concerted transitions, followed by subsequent stasis in soft tissue anatomy throughout Sauropoda. In contrast, the theropod hip joint is characterized by mosaic evolution within the stem lineage, such that bird-like hip joints independently evolved in multiple theropod clades. In the final study, I used 3D imaging techniques and phylogenetically correlated correlations to test the relationship among hip joint dimensions, morphological characters, and body size of saurischian dinosaurs. Giant theropods and sauropods convergently evolved highly incongruent bony hip joints. In sauropods, the femoral head was capped a thick layer of hyaline cartilage, which functioned to resist massive axial compressive loads. In contrast, theropods covered their femoral head and neck with thinner hyaline cartilage, and maintained the femoral neck-antitrochanter articulation to accommodate shear forces during femoral abduction and axial rotation. These results indicate that the archosaur hip joint underwent divergent transformations in soft tissue morphology reflective of body size, locomotor posture, and joint loading. Moreover, these studies provides the basis for reconstructing hip joint function, hindlimb posture, and locomotor evolution of archosaurs, as well as expanding the body of comparative knowledge on vertebrate joint and cartilage biology

The Trademark/Domain Name Protection War: A Comparative Study of the U.S., UDRP and Taiwanese Law, 12 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 350 (2013)

Trademarks have ancient origins, and a long developmental history that has informed and shaped modern approaches to trademark disputes. Many of these disputes are familiar. Yet others are a product of technological developments, such as the threats modern trademark owners face as a result of young and vibrant domain names. The United States Congress and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) have each attempted to address conflicts between trademarks and domain names, while Taiwan has not. After surveying the U.S. and ICANN attempts, and comparing each to existing Taiwanese law, this Article provides a set of recommendations for the government of Taiwan to adopt similar approaches to address domain name disputes and cybersquatting

Asian Americans respond less favorably to excitement (vs. calm)-focused physicians compared to European Americans

OBJECTIVES: Despite being considered a model minority, Asian Americans report worse health care encounters than do European Americans. This may be due to affective mismatches between Asian American patients and their European American physicians. We predicted that because Asian Americans value excitement (vs. calm) less than European Americans, they will respond less favorably to excitement-focused (vs. calm) physicians. METHOD: In Study 1, 198 European American, Chinese American, and Hong Kong Chinese community adults read a medical scenario and indicated their preference for an excitement-focused versus calm-focused physician. In Study 2, 81 European American and Asian American community college students listened to recommendations made by an excitement-focused or calm-focused physician in a video, and later attempted to recall the recommendations. In Study 3, 101 European American and Asian American middle-aged and older adults had multiple online encounters with an excitement-focused or calm-focused physician and then evaluated their physicians\u27 trustworthiness, competence, and knowledge. RESULTS: As predicted, Hong Kong Chinese preferred excitement-focused physicians less than European Americans, with Chinese Americans falling in the middle (Study 1). Similarly, Asian Americans remembered health information delivered by an excitement-focused physician less well than did European Americans (Study 2). Finally, Asian Americans evaluated an excitement-focused physician less positively than did European Americans (Study 3). CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that while physicians who promote and emphasize excitement states may be effective with European Americans, they may be less so with Asian Americans and other ethnic minorities who value different affective states

A novel hydroxyfuroic acid compound as an insulin receptor activator - structure and activity relationship of a prenylindole moiety to insulin receptor activation

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Diabetes Mellitus is a chronic disease and many patients of which require frequent subcutaneous insulin injection to maintain proper blood glucose levels. Due to the inconvenience of insulin administration, an orally active insulin replacement has long been a prime target for many pharmaceutical companies. Demethylasterriquinone (DMAQ) B1, extracted from tropical fungus, <it>Pseudomassaria </it>sp., has been reported to be an orally effective agent at lowering circulating glucose levels in diabetic (<it>db/db</it>) mice; however, the cytotoxicity associated with the quinone moiety has not been addressed thus far.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A series of hydroxyfuroic acid compounds were synthesized and tested for their efficacies at activating human insulin receptor. Cytotoxicity to Chinese hamster ovary cells, selectivities over insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), epidermal growth factor (EGF), and fibroblast growth factor (FGF) receptors were examined in this study.</p> <p>Result and Conclusion</p> <p>This study reports a new non-quinone DMAQ B1 derivative, a hydroxyfuroic acid compound (D-410639), which is 128 fold less cytotoxic as DMAQ B1 and as potent as compound 2, a DMAQ B1 synthetic derivative from Merck, at activating human insulin receptor. D-410639 has little activation potential on IGF-1 receptor but is a moderate inhibitor to EGF receptor. Structure and activity relationship of the prenylindole moiety to insulin receptor activation is discussed.</p

Subacute necrotizing encephalomyelopathy (Leigh syndrome) in pediatric patients: a retrospective study

Background: The clinical manifestations of Leigh Syndrome (LS) are heterogeneous and its diagnosis is often based on information acquired from multiple levels of inquiry. To identify LS, Oral Glucose Lactate Stimulation Test (OGLST) and Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) have been used as additional tools for evaluation of this metabolic disorder. The objective of the study was to report the clinical manifestations, neuroimaging assessments, and multidisciplinary approaches of lactate in pediatric patients with LS.Methods: We performed a retrospective charts review of pediatric patients with LS, which underwent the investigations using laboratory tests and Magnetic Resonance Images (MRI)/MRS of the brain.  Results: The distributions of the lesions on the MRI of the brain studies were as the following: basal ganglia (7/8), brainstem (7/8), and cortex (3/8). Despite all of the patients showed disorient neurological manifestations and symmetrical lesions over the basal ganglion and brainstem on MRI, elevated levels of serum lactate were detected in 6 of 8 patients by either random serum sample obtained for lactate or OGLST. Subsequently, the remaining 2 cases were demonstrated with lactate peak over the affected areas by MRS. Cranial MRS showed lactate duplex and decreased N-acetylaspartate/creatine ratio over the affected areas in the 5 of 6 patients.Conclusions: The study shows the importance of multidisciplinary approaches in the diagnosis of LS. Approach of LS may not only depend on the elevation of the value of random serum lactate but also can be further aided by OGLST or MRS to evaluate metabolic disorder in such patients.

The role of phonological and orthographic awareness in learning to read among Grade 1 and 2 students in Taiwan

The role of phonological and orthographic awareness on Chinese character reading from Grade 1 to 2 was investigated with 112 Taiwanese children. Phonological awareness (onset, rime, and tone), rudimentary orthographic awareness (character configuration and structure knowledge), and character reading were assessed in each grade. The strategy of learning to read novel characters using regular or sophisticated orthography-to-phonology correspondence rules or character mapping was tested in Grade 2. Our results suggested that (a) phonological and orthographic awarenesses are important in Grade 1, and tone awareness in Grade 1 uniquely predicts character reading in Grade 2; and (b)the use of sophisticated orthography-to-phonology correspondence rules and mapping strategy are crucial for character reading in Grades 1 and 2. In addition, phonological and rudimentary orthographic awarenesses are important for using sophisticated orthographic strategy when learning to read novel characters

TITAN code development for application to a PWR steam line break accident : final report 1983-1984

Modification of the TITAN computer code which enables it to be applied to a PWR steam line break accident has been accomplished. The code now has the capability of simulating an asymmetric inlet coolant temperature transient by employing different temperature transient forcing functions for different core inlet regions. Up to ten regions of the core can be considered and each region can have at most 50 channels. A total inlet coolant mass flow rate boundary condition option has been added to the code. Flow/coolant temperature transient and control rod transient can be simulated simultaneously by the code as necessary for a steam line break accident simulation. Also, the transient restart capability has been fixed which allows users to change core conditions during a transient calculation for various purposes. All these modifications have been tested by a ten-channel test calculation.Three steam line break accident simulations (YA-1, YA-2, and YA-3) with different pressure forcing functions have been performed. Each simulation included both closed and open-channel calculations. The steady-state results show that a 1-D thermalhydraulic analysis gives accurate results.Case YA-1 employed a pressure forcing function taken from a Yankee Atomic report. No boiling during the whole calculation was observed. Also, no significant difference between closed and open-channel calculations was found.Case YA-2 employed a reduced pressure forcing function with constant pressure after 45 seconds (because of the limitation of W-3 correlation data base). Boiling was observed around 42 seconds after the beginning of the transient. The MCHFR dropped to a value below 6 after boiling. The MCHFR went back to a high value ("30) at 50 seconds for the open-channel calculation while the MCHFR for the closed-channel case still remained below 6. The open-channel model provided a better condition of flow mixing among channels.Case YW-3 had the same pressure forcing function as that of case YA-2 except the pressure kept decreasing after 45 seconds. The MCHFR was about equal for open-and closed-channels. It is concluded that the closed-channel calculations may produce conservative core power values, but the effect on MCHFR is not always conservative

Monoclonal antibodies targeting the synthetic peptide corresponding to the polybasic cleavage site on H5N1 influenza hemagglutinin

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Avian influenza H5N1 virus is highly pathogenic partially because its H5 hemagglutinin contains a polybasic cleavage site that can be processed by proteases in multiple organs.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Monoclonal antibodies (mAb) specific to the synthetic peptide of hemagglutinin polybasic cleavage site of H5N1 virus were raised and tested for their neutralizing potential.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Purified mAb showed suppression of H5N1 pseudovirus infection on Madin-Darby Canine Kidney (MDCK) cells but the efficacy was less than 50%. Since those mAb are specific to the intact uncut polybasic cleavage site of hemagglutinin, their efficacy depends on the extent of hemagglutinin cleavage on the viral surface.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Proteolytic analysis suggests the low efficacy associated with those mAb may be due to proteolytic cleavage already present on the majority of hemagglutinin prior to the infection of virus.</p

Communications and Interfaces in Implementation of e-Bid System: A Case Study for Governmental Procurement in EC

While the computer network is very popular in many applications, anything is always electronically rebuilt to pursue higher value. This is an era of information technology, computers and networks are linked together to reform the society, all fields of business administration are generally reengineering through the adoption of information and technology. One of the new requirements is the bid system operated in Internets. Because the huge cost and inconvenience in managing paper-based bid system, e-bid system is then required. A research team of professors is formed and get the grant from National Science Council (NSC) to design and implement the e-bid system for three years. The objective is to develop an e-bid system with features of fairness, justice and opening. This paper explains overall design of the e-bid system; all tasks in development of e-bid system are partitioned to five subprojects. The functions of interfaces and communications are in charge by us, we have the primary concern to design and implement an easy and friendly operational interfaces and secure communications for external users. With three basic characteristics of the proposed e-bid system, we hope that the proposed e-bid system may be applicable for all governmental procurements