cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Life cycle assessment comparison of wooden and plastic pallets in the grocery industry

Wooden and plastic pallets are used extensively in global trade to transport finished goods and products. This article compares the life cycle performance of treated wooden and plastic pallets through a detailed cradle‐to‐grave life cycle assessment (LCA), and conducts an analysis of the various phytosanitary treatments. The LCA investigates and evaluates the environmental impacts due to the resources consumed and emissions of the product throughout its life cycle. The environmental impacts of the pallets are compared on a one‐trip basis and a 100,000‐trips basis. Impact categories are chosen with respect to environmental concerns. The results show that on a one‐trip basis, wooden pallets with conventional and radio frequency (RF) heat treatment incur an overall carbon footprint of 71.8% and 80.3% lower, respectively, than plastic pallets during their life cycle; and in comparison with wooden pallets treated with methyl bromide fumigation, they incur 20% and 30% less overall carbon footprint. Theoretical calculations of the resource consumption and emissions of RF treatment of pallets suggest that dielectric technology may provide a lower‐carbon alternative to both current ISPM 15‐approved treatments and to plastic pallets. Methyl bromide fumigation (15.95 kg CO2 equivalent [eq.]) has a larger carbon footprint than conventional heat treatment (12.69 kg CO2 eq.) of pallets. For the 100,000‐trips basis, the differences are even more significant. The results recommend that wooden pallets are more environmentally friendly than plastic pallets, and conventional and RF heat treatment for wooden pallets is more sustainable than methyl bromide fumigation treatment.
Ethical Considerations in HIV eHealth Intervention Research: Implications for Informational Risk in Recruitment, Data Maintenance, and Consent Procedures.

Along with the benefits of eHealth HIV interventions are challenges to participant privacy and confidentiality inherent in the use of online strategies. This paper reviews current guidelines and recent publications to identify ethical issues and suggested solutions in recruitment, data management, and informed consent. Across eHealth HIV research, recruitment, data collection, and storage efforts to protect informational risk highlight the tension between the investigators’ ability to protect participant confidentiality and the evolving informational risk posed by the online platforms on which they are operating. Adequately addressing these challenges requires updating technical competencies and educating participants on their own responsibilities to guard against privacy violations. Additional protections are required when interventions involve peer or community support, especially with minors. The rapid progression of technology presents challenges in solidifying best practices for future interventions. This article draws on published works describing investigator experiences to contribute to the ongoing development of guidance in this area.
Game-Theoretical Model of Retroactive Hepatitis B Vaccination in China

Hepatitis B (HepB) is one of the most common infectious diseases affecting over two billion people worldwide. About one third of all HepB cases are in China. In recent years, China made significant efforts to implement a nationwide HepB vaccination program and reduced the number of unvaccinated infants from 30 to 10%. However, many individuals still remain unprotected, particularly those born before 2003. Consequently, a catch-up retroactive vaccination is an important and potentially cost-effective way to reduce HepB prevalence. In this paper, we analyze a game theoretical model of HepB dynamics that incorporates government-provided vaccination at birth coupled with voluntary retroactive vaccinations. Given the uncertainty about the long-term efficacy of the HepB vaccinations, we study several scenarios. When the waning rate is relatively high, we show that this retroactive vaccination should be a necessary component of any HepB eradication effort. When the vaccine offers long-lasting protection, the voluntary retroactive vaccination brings the disease incidence to sufficiently low levels. Also, we find that the optimal vaccination rates are almost independent of the vaccination coverage at birth. Moreover, it is in an individual’s self-interest to vaccinate (and potentially re-vaccinate) at a rate just slightly above the vaccine waning rate.
Civil Rights Laws and Freedom of Speech

The goal of civil rights legislation in the United States has been to ensure freedom from invidious or unjustified discrimination. Free speech has a long and positive association with the cause of civil rights, dating back to the movement for the abolition of slavery before the American Civil War. With advocacy of civil rights - and protest against discrimination - under threat at various times and places in the past, civil rights and free speech became intertwined as causes: for much of the twentieth century, support for the one seemed easily interchangeable with support for the other. Yet free speech can also mean the expression of ideas or attitudes or facts that are at odds with civil rights, or with the goals or feelings of those who consider themselves advocates of civil rights. Hence free speech, and even freedom of thought, can apparently or actually conflict with civil rights, or with causes that assume the mantle of civil rights. There has been growing pressure against freedom of speech, freedom of debate, and freedom of inquiry in recent years, on campus and off: and causes associated with civil rights are typically invoked to justify restriction or suppression. Civil rights laws, too, can impose restriction on free expression. This encyclopedia article reviews a variety of legal situations in which civil rights laws or judgments may conflict – perhaps justifiably in some cases - with free speech. The legal issues where conflict can arise include equal-employment law, including restrictions on workplace harassment; campus speech codes; laws seeking to punish hate crimes or hate speech; restrictions on freedom of association; and efforts on feminist grounds to restrict or prohibit pornography.
The Relationship Between Auditory-Perceptual Rating Scales and Objective Voice Measures in Children With Voice Disorders.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to determine concurrent validity of the Grade, Roughness, Breathiness, Asthenia, and Strain (GRBAS) and Consensus Auditory-Perceptual Evaluation of Voice (CAPE...
GPN-1/glypican and UNC-52/perlecan do not appear to function in BMP signaling to pattern the C. elegans postembryonic mesoderm

Heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) are diverse macromolecules consisting of a protein core modified with glycosaminoglycan (GAG) chains. HSPGs, including glypicans and perlecans, have been implicated in shaping the extracellular matrix (ECM) to affect growth factor signaling. Here, we tested if GPN-1/glypicanor UNC-52/perlecan plays a role in the bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling pathway in patterning the C. elegans postembryonic mesoderm. Using the suppression of sma-9(0) (Susm)assay, we found that animals carrying mutant alleles of gpn-1 or unc-52 do not exhibit any Susm phenotype. We also tested and found that the two glypicans GPN-1 and LON-2 do not share functional redundancy in the BMP pathway. Our results suggest that GPN-1/glypican and UNC-52/perlecan do not play a major role in the C. elegans BMP pathway, at least in patterning of the postembryonic mesoderm.
DISCOVERY OF THE CENTIPEDE SCOLOPOCRYPTOPS GRACILIS WOOD IN MONTANA (SCOLOPENDROMORPHA: SCOLOPOCRYPTOPIDAE)

The centipede Scolopocryptops gracilis Wood occupies 3 segregated areas in North America west of the Rocky Mountains (Shelley 2002): (1) an inverted triangularly shaped northern region in southeastern Washington, northeastern Oregon, and north central Idaho that extends southward to the vicinity of Boise; (2) an irregularly shaped main area that ranges from northern California to Lake Tahoe and southward west of the crest of the Sierra Nevada to Ensenada, Baja California Norte, with an eastward extension through the Mojave Desert into southwestern Utah and northwestern Arizona; and (3) an isolated site in Salt Lake County, Utah. The easternmost record of the “northern
Significant lexical relationships

Statistical NLP inevitably deals with a large number of rare events. As a consequence, NLP data often violates the assumptions implicit in traditional statistical procedures such as significance testing. We describe a significance test, an exact conditional test, that is appropriate for NLP data and can be performed using freely available software. We apply this test to the study of lexical relationships and demonstrate that the results obtained using this test are both theoretically more reliable and different from the results obtained using previously applied tests.
A License to Kill (Innovation)? Open Source Licenses and Their Implications for Innovation

This paper examines the implications of Open Source License (OSL) selection on software innovation, and suggests how modifying the Open Source Definition, or modifying certain provisions in OSLs that have become de-facto standard licenses in open source development, could better accommodate the competing needs and diverse motivations of different would-be software innovators. We make an important distinction between initial developers those developers who decide what license will apply to the code they write, and later developers - those developers who subsequently wish to use code that was previously released under a certain OSL (and are therefore affected by license terms selected by initial developers). This distinction facilitates the analysis of the effect OSL provisions have on the development of new independent code and, importantly, their effect on any subsequent use of code released under an OSL. The changes we propose could considerably increase the likelihood that a wider variety of developers (including commercial firms) would make use of code released under such revised OSLs, as well as the likelihood that code would be released under OSLs to begin with.
Myocardial injury caused by an anaphylactic reaction to ampicillin/sulbactam in a patient with normal coronary arteries

A 63-year-old woman presented with an exacerbation of her chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. While receiving an infusion of ampicillin/sulbactam, she developed anaphylaxis-induced myocardial injury. Subsequent coronary angiography revealed minimal atherosclerosis of her coronary arteries. The patient remained under continuous observation and cardiac monitoring throughout her reaction, thus providing unique insight into the pathophysiology of myocardial injury caused by anaphylaxis. The medical literature that pertains to this phenomenon is discussed.
Anthropogenic Activities and Resource Shortages: The Case of Darfur

Hermann continues his looks at Malthusian pressures as a contributing factor in the crisis at Darfur. This article focuses on ecological damage caused by human activity combined with rising populations in Darfur as the primary cause of resource shortages. Hermann recognizes additional procedures are required to improve the crisis in Darfur, but proposes more sustainable forms of living that is more suitable to the region along with improved population management can vastly improve the current situation. [Abstract by editor]
The Historical Evolution of PTSD Diagnostic Criteria

In the last quarter of this century, there has been a rapid proliferation of interest in traumatic stress syndromes, especially in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a diagnostic category of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third Edition-Revised (DSM-III-R) (American Psychiatric Association, 1987). Viewed from a historical perspective, the emergence of widespread interest in PTSD by the medical and behavioral sciences as well as in legal arenas of litigation is quite understandable perhaps, expectable when examined by a retrospective look at some major events of the 20th century: two world wars, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, scores of nationalistic and colonial wars, widespread civil violence, mass genocide, catastrophic disasters of human and natural origin, the growing awareness of domestic violence and childhood sexual abuse, technological disasters, famine, widespread diseases such as acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), and many more forms of catastrophic stress. When it is considered that hundreds of millions of human lives have been adversely effected by such traumatic events, it only stands to reason that sooner or later scientific inquiry would begin examining the multifaceted aspects of what traumatization means and its potential long-term impact to human lives of such events. Today there is a convergence of interest in PTSD. Such seemingly odd bedfellows as the neurosciences, experimental psychology, clinical psychiatry, and sociology are probing new areas of traumatic impact and discovering the complex psychobiological processes that control reaction patterns, symptom manifestation, and other aspects of coping and adaptation following a traumatic event (Wilson, 1989; Wilson & Raphael, 1993).
Three‐ and Four‐Dimensional Heteronuclear Magnetic Resonance

The basic concepts of 3-D and 4-D heteronuclear spectroscopy are presented and the application of these methods to resonance assignment and structure determination is discussed. Keywords: multimensional heteronuclear NMR; resonance assignment; structure determination; biological macromolecules; proteins
Terms of Connection: Mother-Talk About Female-to-Male Transgender Children

Abstract This article is based on a qualitative study of 18 mothers who learned that their daughters identified as transgender. The interviews reveal a process of reconciliation that included themes of initial devastation, daughter-loss, and recollections of early gender-variant behaviors. Turning points such as adjustment to a male presentation and a perceptual-cognitive shift enabled mothers to view their daughters as male and begin to respond to them as their son. A discussion of psychotherapeutic issues and techniques is also highlighted.
Thermodynamics of lattice QCD

Numerical calculation of the path integral is a nonperturbative approach well suited for the study of QCD at high temperatures. This approach is nonperturbative, and naturally gives the behavior at nonzero temperature. However, it is largely limited to the computation of equilibrium quantities at zero net baryon density. Within these limitations, much progress has been made. This talk will review what is known about the phase diagram of lattice QCD as a function of temperature and masses of the quarks. The author discusses the status and importance of scaling relations for a second order transition, and progress toward calculating the equation of state of QCD at zero chemical potential. Finally, the author discusses the systematic errors afflicting these calculations and the prospects for improving them.
A single server queue with cyclically indexed arrival and service rates

In this paper we consider a queueing model that results from at least two apparently unrelated areas. One motivation to study a system of this type results from a test case of a computer simulation factor screening technique calledfrequency domain methodology. A second motivation comes from manufacturing, where due to cyclic scheduling of upstream machines, the arrival process to downstream machines is periodic. The model is a single server queue with FIFO service discipline and exponential interarrival and service times where the arrival and/or service rates are deterministic cyclic functions of the customer sequence number. We provide steady state results for the mean number in the system for the model with cyclic arrival and fixed service rates and for the model with fixed arrival and cyclic service rates. For the model with both cyclic arrival and service rates, upper and lower bounds are developed for the steady state mean waiting time in the system. Throughout the paper various implications and/or insights derived from the results of this study are discussed for frequency domain methodology.
Support Systems Provided by Faith-Based Organizations to Families of Clients Undergoing Substance Use Disorder Treatment

We articulate the manner in which some faith-based organizations assist families to maintain or resume appropriate social functioning while their family members are undergoing substance use disorder (SUD) treatment. The application of systematic intervention methods by faith-based organizations to assist families is discussed. In addition, the roles that religion and spirituality play in overcoming the duo of substance use disorder and family dysfunction are delineated. Other interventional strategies that faith-based organizations deploy in ensuring family cohesion during SUD treatment for a family member are discussed. Implications for social work practice and identified knowledge gaps for further research are explored.
The pathology of non-functional pituitary adenomas.

Summary Pituitary adenomas encompass the endocrine, symptomatic or functionally active and the non-functional, null cell or functionally inactive. According to their sizes, they can be very small, also called microadenomas, or they can be very large, “invasive”, or macroadenomas usually without clinical evidence of hypersecretion. The “invasive” pituitary adenomas usually grow beyond the confines of the sella turcica. These adenomas are characterized anatomically by displacement, distortion and compression of the adjacent sellar structures. They may destroy bone and penetrate into the nasal cavity or into the cavernous sinuses. They may distend the diaphragm sella and compress the hypothalamus and the optic chiasm and optic tracts or they may distort the cerebral cortex or penetrate into the third ventricle. “Invasive” pituitary adenomas are characterized clinically by visual disturbances, headaches, seizures, diabetes insipidus and by hypothalamic dysfunction mimicking some endocrinologically active pituitary adenomas. The diagnosis of invasive pituitary adenomas can be suspected clinically and can be confirmed by radiological evidence of destruction of the sella turcica and its boundaries or by neurosurgical intervention and finally by necropsy findings of “invasion” of the parasellar and suprasellar structures.
Perceptual weighting of individual and concurrent cues for sentence intelligibility: Frequency, envelope, and fine structure

The speech signal may be divided into frequency bands, each containing temporal properties of the envelope and fine structure. For maximal speech understanding, listeners must allocate their perceptual resources to the most informative acoustic properties. Understanding this perceptual weighting is essential for the design of assistive listening devices that need to preserve these important speech cues. This study measured the perceptual weighting of young normal-hearing listeners for the envelope and fine structure in each of three frequency bands for sentence materials. Perceptual weights were obtained under two listening contexts: (1) when each acoustic property was presented individually and (2) when multiple acoustic properties were available concurrently. The processing method was designed to vary the availability of each acoustic property independently by adding noise at different levels. Perceptual weights were determined by correlating a listener’s performance with the availability of each acoustic property on a trial-by-trial basis. Results demonstrated that weights were (1) equal when acoustic properties were presented individually and (2) biased toward envelope and mid-frequency information when multiple properties were available. Results suggest a complex interaction between the available acoustic properties and the listening context in determining how best to allocate perceptual resources when listening to speech in noise.
Dynamic regulation of chloroplast transcription

This paper examines the coordinated expression of plastid and nuclear genes for chlorplast development and provides an opportunity to understand how plants sense and alter gene expression in response to light. Topic areas covered include the following: changing perspectives of plastid transcription; plastid genome organization; protein stoichiometry, mRNA abundance, and transcription rates; significance of plastid mRNA stability; overall dynamics of chloroplast transcription; differential transcription during chloroplast development;special role for a nuclear-encoded plastid-localized RNA polymerase. 27 refs., 1 fig., 1 tab.
Minicomputer labs that talk to maxicomputers

Limitations of the minicomputer system for performing large-scale data analysis are discussed.
Positron emission tomography detects metabolic viability in myocardium with persistent 24-hour single-photon emission computed tomography 201Tl defects.

BACKGROUNDFour-hour 201Tl redistribution images underestimate myocardial viability in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). Because 4-hour defects often redistribute late, delayed imaging may enhance assessment of tissue viability. Myocardial metabolic activity was therefore assessed with positron emission tomography (PET) in 26 CAD patients with impaired ventricular function (ejection fraction, 32.1 +/- 13.9%) and 24-hour single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) 201Tl defects.METHODS AND RESULTSOn circumferential profile analysis, PET ischemia was defined by preserved glucose metabolism in hypoperfused myocardium, and PET infarction was defined by concordant reductions in perfusion and metabolism. On 19 stress-redistribution and seven rest-redistribution SPECT studies, four observers visually scored 201Tl activity in eight segments on a scale from 0 (normal) to 3 (complete defect). Using an improvement in visual score > or = 0.75 to define redistribution, there were 100 fixed, 17 partial...
Intersectin-2L Regulates Caveola Endocytosis Secondary to Cdc42-mediated Actin Polymerization

Abstract Here we addressed the role of intersectin-2L (ITSN-2L), a guanine nucleotide exchange factor for the Rho GTPase Cdc42, in the mechanism of caveola endocytosis in endothelial cells (ECs). Immunoprecipitation and co-localization studies showed that ITSN-2L associates with members of the Cdc42-WASp-Arp2/3 actin polymerization pathway. Expression of Dbl homology-pleckstrin homology (DH-PH) region of ITSN-2L (DH-PHITSN-2L) induced specific activation of Cdc42, resulting in formation of extensive filopodia, enhanced cortical actin, as well as a shift from G-actin to F-actin. The “catalytically dead” DH-PH domain reversed these effects and induced significant stress fiber formation, without a detectable shift in actin pools. A biotin assay for caveola internalization indicated a significant decrease in the uptake of biotinylated proteins in DH-PHITSN-2L-transfected cells compared with control and 1 μm jasplakinolide-treated cells. ECs depleted of ITSN-2L by small interfering RNA, however, showed decreased Cdc42 activation and actin remodeling similar to the defective DH-PH, resulting in 62% increase in caveola-mediated uptake compared with controls. Thus, ITSN-2L, a guanine nucleotide exchange factor for Cdc42, regulates different steps of caveola endocytosis in ECs by controlling the temporal and spatial actin polymerization and remodeling sub-adjacent to the plasma membrane.
Fibronectin receptors of mononuclear phagocytes: Binding characteristics and biochemical isolation

Abstract Fibronectin receptors on mononuclear phagocytes are involved in the localization of monocytes at inflammatory sites and in the subsequent expression of macrophage-like phenotypes. In this study, we have investigated the hypothesis that proteolytically derived fragments of fibronectin may interfere with binding of fibronectin to monocytes in the extracellular matrix. We report on the reactivity of U937 cells with an 80-kDa tryptic fragment of fibronectin which contains the cell-binding domain but lacks the gelatin/collagen-binding domain. U937 cells attached to surfaces coated with the 80-kDa fragment as well as with intact fibronectin. Preincubation of the cells with the 80-kDa fragment inhibited attachment to both surfaces while intact fibronectin had little or no inhibitory effect. The K i for inhibition of attachment (0.5 μ M ) was consistent with the K d for binding of the 3 H-labeled 80-kDa fragment (0.34 μ M ) to U937 cells in suspension. There were 4–5 × 10 5 80-kDa binding sites per cell. The relatively high affinity of the 80-kDa fragment for the monocyte surface permitted the isolation and characterization of fibronectinbinding proteins from U937 cells and peripheral blood monocytes by affinity chromatography. When octylglucoside lysates of lactoperoxidase iodinated cells were applied to 80-kDa-Sepharose columns, a polypeptide complex of 152 125 kDa was eluted with the synthetic peptide GRGDSPC, but not with GRGESP. This complex resolved into a single diffuse band of 144 kDa upon reduction. Binding of the protein complex to the affinity column required divalent cations. The complex bound to wheat germ agglutinin and could be specifically eluted by N -acetylglucosamine. Similar cell-surface proteins were isolated from peripheral blood monocytes.
A model of retail job characteristics, employee role ambiguity, external customer mind-set, and sales performance

Abstract Based upon findings from the sales, retailing, marketing, management, and organizational behavior literatures, the authors develop and test a model of retail employee sales performance that differs from previous efforts by utilizing multi-dimensional conceptualizations of potential antecedents as well as a promising yet previously unexamined employee job attitude–external customer mind-set. The results indicate that the characteristics of the retail employee’s work environment, with one exception, are directly associated with enhanced job attitudes and reduced ambiguity. The exception is that greater amounts of job autonomy are associated with increased levels of ambiguity. Retail employee ambiguity regarding customers and external customer mind-set are both associated with sales performance.
Ankle Fusion for Degenerative Arthritis Secondary to the Collagen Diseases

This study reviews the arthritis clinic population of Rancho Los Amigos and a private practice limited to foot and ankle to determine the number of ankle fusions performed for collagen diseases. Rheumatoid arthritis was found to be the most common disease with ankle involvement severe enough to require fusion. From 8020 clinic visits in a 2-year period there were 61 total hip replacements, 56 total knee replacements, and no total ankle replacements. Three ankle fusions were performed. In a private practice out of 90 patients seen for ankles painful enough to require fusion, 6 were in rheumatoid arthritics. A successful ankle fusion was compatible with good function of the lower limb. Motion lost through fusion could be restored with a rocker-bottom shoe. Significant complications occurred with ankle fusion.
The role of reaction calorimetry in the development and scale-up of aromatic nitrations

Abstract A Mettler RC-1 reaction calorimeter was utilized to investigate the thermochemistry of two aromatic nitrations prior to their scaleup. The calorimetry provided data that enabled the evaluation of alternative modes of operation and ultimately to intrinsically safer processes than were originally proposed. The results from this study and how they were used for pilot plant scale-up are discussed.
An Inexpensive, Interdisciplinary, Methodology to Conduct an Impact Study of Homeless Persons on Hospital Based Services

Homelessness is a primary concern for community health. Scientific literature on homelessness is wide ranging and diverse. One opportunity to add to existing literature is the development and testing of affordable, easily implemented methods for measuring the impact of homeless on the healthcare system. Such methodological approaches rely on the strengths in a multidisciplinary approach, including providers, both healthcare and homeless services and applied clinical researchers. This paper is a proof of concept for a methodology which is easily adaptable nationwide, given the mandated implementation of homeless management information systems in the United States and other countries; medical billing systems by hospitals; and research methods of researchers. Adaptation is independent of geographic region, budget restraints, specific agency skill sets, and many other factors that impact the application of a consistent methodological science based approach to assess and address homelessness. We conducted a secondary data analysis merging data from homeless utilization and hospital case based data. These data detailed care utilization among homeless persons in a small, Appalachian city in the United States. In our sample of 269 persons who received at least one hospital based service and one homeless service between July 1, 2012 and June 30, 2013, the total billed costs were $5,979,463 with 10 people costing more than one-third ($1,957,469) of the total. Those persons were primarily men, living in an emergency shelter, with pre-existing disabling conditions. We theorize that targeted services, including Housing First, would be an effective intervention. This is proposed in a future study.
Phosphatidylinositol 4,5-Bisphosphate Alters Synaptotagmin 1 Membrane Docking and Drives Opposing Bilayers Closer Together

Synaptotagmin 1 (syt1) is a synaptic vesicle-anchored membrane protein that acts as the calcium sensor for the synchronous component of neuronal exocytosis. Using site-directed spin labeling, the position and membrane interactions of a fragment of syt1 containing its two C2 domains (syt1C2AB) were assessed in bilayers containing phosphatidylcholine (PC), phosphatidylserine (PS), and phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PIP(2)). Addition of 1 mol % PIP(2) to a lipid mixture of PC and PS results in a deeper membrane penetration of the C2A domain and alters the orientation of the C2B domain so that the polybasic face of C2B comes into the proximity of the bilayer interface. The C2B domain is found to contact the membrane interface in two regions, the Ca(2+)-binding loops and a region opposite the Ca(2+)-binding loops. This suggests that syt1C2AB is configured to bridge two bilayers and is consistent with a model generated previously for syt1C2AB bound to membranes of PC and PS. Point-to-plane depth restraints, obtained by progressive power saturation, and interdomain distance restraints, obtained by double electron-electron resonance, were obtained in the presence of PIP(2) and used in a simulated annealing routine to dock syt1C2AB to two membrane interfaces. The results yield an average structure different from what is found in the absence of PIP(2) and indicate that bilayer-bilayer spacing is decreased in the presence of PIP(2). The results indicate that PIP(2), which is necessary for bilayer fusion, alters C2 domain orientation, enhances syt1-membrane electrostatic interactions, and acts to drive vesicle and cytoplasmic membrane surfaces closer together.
Unnatural substrate repertoire of A, B, and X family DNA polymerases.

As part of an effort to develop unnatural base pairs that are stable and replicable in DNA, we examined the ability of five different polymerases to replicate DNA containing four different unnatural nucleotides bearing predominantly hydrophobic nucleobase analogs. The unnatural pairs were developed based on intensive studies using the Klenow fragment of DNA polymerase I from E. coli (Kf) and found to be recognized to varying degrees. The five additional polymerases characterized here include family A polymerases from bacteriophage T7 and Thermus aquaticus, family B polymerases from Thermococcus litoralis and Thermococcus 9°N-7, and the family X polymerase, human polymerase β. While we find that some aspects of unnatural base pair recognition are conserved among the polymerases, for example, the pair formed between two d3FB nucleotides is typically well recognized, the detailed recognition of most of the unnatural base pairs is generally polymerase dependent. In contrast, we find that the pair formed betwe...
Combatting the effects of underflow and overflow in determining real roots of polynomials

A new method, requiring no extended number range, is presented to prevent all harmful effects caused by both underflow and overflow when any polynomial equation with real coefficients is to be solved for real roots. Examples of polynomial equations are given having no conventional scaling possibility where replacing either overflowed numbers by the largest possible number or underflowed numbers by zero leads to badly erroneous results. The proposed method is capable to solve also these equations correctly. Also other successful methods, based on extended range of numbers, are discussed.
New class of primary-feed antennas for use with offset parabolic-reflector antennas

In many practical applications the performance of an offset parabolic-reflector antenna is limited by the offset reflectors' depolarising and beam-squinting properties. The letter describes a new class of primary-feed antennas which overcome these limitations. The new primary-feed types offer a significant improvement in the crosspolar and beam-squinting properties of the offset reflector antenna, without adding significantly to the complexity or mass of the primary-feed system.
Relative α-Tocopherol Deficiency in Cultured-Cells: Free Radical-Mediated Lipid Peroxidation, Lipid Oxidizability, and Cellular Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid Content

Abstract We propose that most cultured cells are deficient in vitamin E. Using our optimized assay for tocopherol, we find that L1210 lymphoblastic leukemia cells, cultured in standard growth media, contain only 2.3 ± 0.03 μg of tocopherol/108 cells, whereas when they are transplanted and grown for the same time in the ascites fluid of mice fed standard diets, this increases to 5.8 ± 0.6 μg of tocopherol/108 cells. This apparent tocopherol deficiency in cultured cells is likely due to the low concentrations of tocopherol contained in most tissue culture media, even with the addition of serum. To further study this apparent deficiency and the relationship of cellular tocopherol to membrane lipid bis-allylic hydrogen positions, we supplemented the growth media of L1210 lymphoblastic leukemia cells with α-tocopherol and compared the resultant cellular tocopherol content to the degree of unsaturation of cellular lipids. α-Tocopherol was incorporated by cells in a time- and concentration-dependent manner with plateaus at 24 h and 100 μM, respectively. A maximum 400% increase in cellular tocopherol was easily achieved. By experimentally modifying the fatty acid content of cellular lipids, we were able to determine that cellular tocopherol uptake and content is not a function of cellular lipid composition; cells enriched with polyunsaturated Lipids incorporated tocopherol to the same extent as those enriched with more saturated lipids, Thus, as the cellular polyunsaturated fatty acid content increases, the tocopherol:bis-allylic position ratio in the cells decreases, resulting in less antioxidant protection for each lipid double bond, Consequently, when polyunsaturated fatty acid-enriched cells are exposed to an oxidative stress, such as Fe2+, their tocopherol levels decline much faster than cells enriched with saturated fatty acids. This decline is consistent with their respective tocopherol:bis-allylic position ratio. These results provide a basis, at the cellular level, for investigators to consider vitamin E when studying cell response to oxidative stress.
Health behaviors of low-income pregnant minority women.

Preventive and health promoting behaviors in pregnant minority women can be used to develop approaches to encourage healthy lifestyle and optimal utilization of health services, and to obtain better outcomes of pregnancy. Using the Health Promotion Model as a theoretical framework, this study employed a cross-sectional survey design to investigate factors that related to health behaviors of low-income pregnant Mexican American and African American women in selected sites in the southeast portion of the state of Texas. Results showed that Mexican American women had a significantly higher mean on the Powerful Others Locus of Control measure than the African American women. For African American subjects, the strongest effect was exerted by the social support variable, which had a negative effect on the health behavior variable. Findings suggest that more studies are needed to identify specific determinants of health promoting activities during pregnancy in ethnic minority groups. Designing programs that woul...
Breaking the Ice: Early Clinical Results Using Hypothermic Machine Liver Preservation

Hypothermic machine preservation (HMP) remains investigational in clinical liver transplantation. It is widely used, however, to preserve kidneys for transplantation because it has demonstrated improved results over static cold storage (CS). As with other machine preservations methods, HMP provides continuous circulation of nutrients and metabolic substrates during the ex-vivo period. Over the last few years, several groups worldwide have been actively translating HMP into the clinical arena for liver transplantation. In particular, HMP has been used for livers of varying quality, including those recovered from extended criteria donors (ECD) and donation after cardiac death (DCD) donors. Reports to date have focused on recipient hospital based HMP during the latter portion of the cold ischemic period. While some variability exists in technique, all clinical series to date have reported improved outcomes with reductions in early allograft dysfunction, biliary complications and reduced hospital length of stay. These benefits, together with the development of innovative portable HMP devices and further adoption by more centers worldwide, have “broken the ice” for more widespread use of HMP and subsequent expanded elucidation of its benefits.
Reconstitution of the cell cycle-regulated Golgi disassembly and reassembly in a cell-free system

The Golgi apparatus undergoes extensive disassembly during mitosis and reassembly in post-mitotic daughter cells. This process has been mimicked in vitro by treating Golgi membranes with mitotic and interphase cytosol. To determine the minimal machinery that controls the morphological change, we have developed a defined Golgi disassembly and reassembly assay that reconstitutes this process using purified proteins instead of cytosol. Treatment of Golgi membranes with mitotic kinases and COPI coat proteins efficiently disassembles the membranes into mitotic Golgi fragments, whereas further incubation with p97 or N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor (two AAA ATPases involved in membrane fusion) and their cofactors, in combination with protein phosphatase PP2A, leads to reassembly of the membranes into new Golgi stacks. The whole process takes 3–4 d and is applicable for identification and determination of novel cytosolic and membrane proteins that regulate Golgi membrane dynamics in the cell cycle.
Activity recognition of the torso based on surface electromyography for exoskeleton control

Abstract This paper presents an activity mode recognition approach to identify the motions of the human torso. The intent recognizer is based on decision tree classification in order to leverage its computational efficiency. The recognizer uses surface electromyography as the input and CART (classification and regression tree) as the classifier. The experimental results indicate that the recognizer can extract the user's intent within 215 ms, which is below the threshold a user will perceive. The approach achieves a low recognition error rate and a user-unperceived latency by using sliding overlapped analysis window. The intent recognizer is envisioned to a part a high-level supervisory controller for a powered backbone exoskeleton.
The new fault diagnosis method of wavelet packet neural network on pump valves of reciprocating pumps

Two key issues of fault diagnosis for the pump valves of reciprocating pump are extracting the fault feature information of nonstationary time variation process efficiently from system feature signals and classifying the faults feature correctly. A new method of fault feature is proposed by ordinary pressure signal (pressure in pump cylinder) as system feature signals. A diagnosis method based on “frequency-energy-fault identification” pattern recognition diagnosis approach is introduced to the fault detection on pump valves of reciprocating pumps. The improved BP neural network is used to diagnose various faults of pump valves by the feature vectors constructed above. This approach deals with the primitive pressure signal simply and acquires fault feature vectors easily. And the pressures in different valve boxes have no influence each other.
p-channel modulation-doped GaSb field-effect transistors

GaSb p-channel modulation-doped field-effect transistors based on a p-AlSb0.9As0.1/p-AlSb/GaSb structure have been fabricated. Transconductances as high as 50 ms/mm at room temperature and 220 to 283 ms/mm at 77 K were obtained for 1 μm gate-length devices. These 77 K transconductances represent the highest values reported for any compound p-channel heterojunction field-effect transistors.
Stateless Cryptographic Protocols

Secure computation protocols inherently involve multiple rounds of interaction among the parties where, typically a party has to keep a state about what has happened in the protocol so far and then \emph{wait} for the other party to respond. We study if this is inherent. In particular, we study the possibility of designing cryptographic protocols where the parties can be completely stateless and compute the outgoing message by applying a single fixed function to the incoming message (independent of any state). The problem of designing stateless secure computation protocols can be reduced to the problem of designing protocols satisfying the notion of reset table computation introduced by Canetti, Goldreich, Gold wasser and Micali (FOCS'01) and widely studied thereafter. The current start of art in reset table computation allows for construction of protocols which provide security only when a \emph{single predetermined} party is reset table \cite{GoyalSa09}. An exception is for the case of the zero-knowledge functionality for which a protocol in which both parties are reset table was recently obtained by Deng, Goyal and Sahai (FOCS'09). The fundamental question left open in this sequence of works is, whether fully-reset table computation is possible, when:\begin{enumerate}\item An adversary can corrupt any number of parties, and\item The adversary can reset any party to its original state during the execution of the protocol and can restart the protocol. \end{enumerate}In this paper, we resolve the above problem by constructing secure protocols realizing \emph{any} efficiently computable multi-party functionality in the plain model under standard cryptographic assumptions. First, we construct a Fully-Reset table Simulation Sound Zero-Knowledge (ss-rs-rZK) protocol. Next, based on these ss-rs-rZK protocols, we show how to compile any semi-honest secure protocol into a protocol secure against fully resetting adversaries. Next, we study a seemingly unrelated open question: ``Does there exist a functionality which, in the concurrent setting, is impossible to securely realize using BB simulation but can be realized using NBB simulation ? & quot;. We resolve the above question in the affirmative by giving an example of such a (reactive) functionality. Somewhat surprisingly, this is done by making a connection to the existence of a fully reset table simulation sound zero-knowledge protocol.
Confinement effects on the low-field-high-field correspondences of hydrogenic impurity states in quasi-two-dimensional systems

Correspondences between low- and high-magnetic-field quantum-number assignments for hydrogenic impurity states in quasi-two-dimensional systems have been established. The apparent discrepancy between the assignments for three-dimensional and two-dimensional systems for excited states can be understood in terms of two different limiting cases. Far-infrared magneto-optical measurements have been carried out on well-center-doped Si donors in GaAs/${\mathrm{Al}}_{0.3}$${\mathrm{Ga}}_{0.7}$As multiple quantum wells with relatively narrow well width; the results show two-dimensional behavior, in agreement with the predictions in this well-width and magnetic-field region.
69: Comparing the effectiveness of second-trimester nasal bone hypoplasia (NB) and increased nuchal fold (NF) in down syndrome screening

HYPOPLASIA (NB) AND INCREASED NUCHAL FOLD (NF) IN DOWN SYNDROME SCREENING. ANTHONY ODIBO, SABRINA GERKOWICZ, HARISH M. SEHDEV, DAVID STAMILIO, GEORGE MACONES, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, Pennsylvania Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Obstetrics&Gynecology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania OBJECTIVE: To compare the effectiveness of second-trimester NB hypoplasia and increased NF in Down syndrome screening. STUDY DESIGN: A prospective multi-center cohort study of women undergoing an anatomic survey between 16 and 22 weeks= gestation. The fetal NB and other markers of fetal aneuploidy including NF were evaluated. Nasal bone hypoplasia was defined either as an absent NB or length 0.75 multiples of the median (MoM) for the gestational age. Two definitions of increased NF (NF 5mm and 6mm) were evaluated. Fetuses or infants with Down syndrome were compared with those without for the presence of NB hypoplasia and increased NF. Sensitivity, specificity, negative and positive predictive values (NPV, PPV) and likelihood ratios positive (LR ) and negative (LR ) were compared. ROC curve analysis was used to identify the best predictor of Down syndrome. RESULTS: Among 4373 pregnancies evaluated over a 5-year period, there were 50 cases of Down syndrome. NB evaluation was obtained in 3936/4373 (90%), and NF evaluated in all of the fetuses. Absent NB was seen in 14/49(29%), and NF 6mm in 7/50 (15%) cases with Down syndrome. The efficiency of detecting DS using different definitions of abnormal NB and NF are shown in the table. ROC curve analysis identified absent NB as the best predictor of Down syndrome. CONCLUSION: While NB and NF are efficient markers for Down Syndrome, NB appears to be a better predictor, particularly when absent. NB should be a standard marker for Down Syndrome when performing a second-trimester genetic sonogram.
“Ambulation” after Myocardial Infarction

The paper, "Value of Early Ambulation in Patients with and without Complications after Acute Myocardial Infarction," by Abraham and his colleagues, elsewhere in this issue of the Journal deserves careful scrutiny. A number of questions should be asked about every scientific article, including this one. The first is whether the investigators have precisely stated the problem that they wish to study. The authors state, "We now report a prospective, randomized, controlled investigation of early ambulation in all patients admitted to the hospital with acute myocardial infarction regardless of the presence or absence of complications, provided the patients survived for a . . .