cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Dynamic simulation of the flow of suspensions of two-dimensional particles with arbitrary shapes

A boundary-element method is implemented for simulating the motion of two-dimensional rigid particles with arbitrary shapes suspended in a viscous fluid in Stokes flow. The numerical implementation results in a system of linear equations for the components of the hydrodynamic traction over boundary elements distributed over the particle surfaces, and for the velocity of translation and angular velocity of rotation of the particles about designated centers. The linear system is solved by the method successive substitutions based on a physically motivated iterative procedure that involves decomposing the influence matrix into diagonal blocks consisting of physical particle clusters, and performing updates by matrix-vector multiplication using the inverses of the diagonal blocks. The iterations are found to converge as long as the particles are separated by a sufficiently large distance that depends on the particle shape and level of discretization. The stiffness of the governing equations due to lubrication forces developing between intercepting particles is removed by preventing the particles from approaching one another by less than a specified distance. Simulations are carried out for doubly-periodic suspensions of circular and elliptical particles in simple shear flow. The simulation algorithm is found to be successful for particles with moderate aspect ratios, and for small and moderate areal fractions up to 0.25. Higher areal fractions require long simulation times due to the large size of spontaneously forming particle clusters. The results illustrate the performance of various aspects of the boundary-element method and provide insights into the effect of the particle areal fraction and aspect ratio on the rheological properties of the suspension and on the geometrical properties of the evolving microstructure.
The role of carboxyl groups in the function of endo-β-1, 4-glucanase from Schizophyllum commune

The endo-β-1, 4-glucanase from Schizophyllum commune was purified to homogeneity by a modified procedure that employed concanavalin A – Sepharose. The catalytic site of the enzyme has previously been proposed to consist of Glu-33 and Asp-50 that act in a manner analogous to lysozyme [Yaguchi, M., Roy, C., Rollin, C. F., Paice, M. G. & Jurasek, L. (1983) Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 116, 408–411]. The role of carboxyl groups in the mechanism of action was delineated through kinetic and chemical modification studies. The rate of endoglucanase-catalysed hydrolysis of CM-cellulose was determined viscometrically at 30°C, 0.06 M ionic strength and pH 2.5–9.0. The pH profile for maximum velocity gave the kinetic apparent pK values 3.8 and 6.6 and for initial velocity the pK values 3.7 and 6.1. Treatment of the endoglucanase with diethylpyrocarbonate resulted in the modification of all the four histidyl residues present in the enzyme with the retention of 95% of the original enzymatic activity. A water-soluble carbodiimide completely inactivated the cellulase and kinetic analysis indicated that at least one molecule of carbodiimide binds to the enzyme for inactivation. The pH dependence of the inactivation is consistent with the modification of carboxyl groups. The binding of an inhibitor, cellobiose, prior to carbodiimide modification protected the enzyme from rapid inactivation. Titration of the enzyme with dithiobis(2-nitrobenzoic acid) indicated the absence of free thiol groups. Reaction of the endoglucanase with tetranitromethane resulted in the modification of six of the fourteen tyrosyl residues of the enzyme with approximately 35% diminution in activity.
Heat pipe and surface mass transfer cooling of hypersonic vehicle structures

The problem of determining the feasibility of cooling hypersonic vehicle leading-edge structures exposed to severe aerodynamic surface heating using heat pipe and mass transfer cooling techniques is addressed. A description is presented of a numerical finite-difference-based hypersonic leading-edge cooling model incorporating poststartup liquid metal heat pipe cooling with surface transpiration and film cooling to predict the transient structural temperature distributions and maximum surface temperatures of hypersonic vehicle leading edge. An application of this model to the transient cooling of a typical aerospace plane wing leading-edge section. The results of this application indicated that liquid metal heat pipe cooling alone is insufficient to maintain surface temperatures below an assumed maximum level of 1800 K for about one-third of a typical aerospace plane ascent trajectory through the earth's atmosphere.
An Appreciation of Dina St Johnston (1930–2007) Founder of the UK's First Software House

In the 1950s there was no software industry. Dina St Johnston, who had learned to program whilst working for the computer manufacturer Elliott-Automation, founded Vaughan Programming Services in 1959. The company began to specialise in on-line systems for digital process control at a time when industrial automation was in its infancy. In due course the company developed its own platform-independent, timesharing, mini-operating system (MACE) and, in 1970, the Vaughan 4M microprocessor. Vaughan went on to become specialists in the supply of real time controllers for passenger railways. Dina St Johnston remained an active programmer until 1996.
Gene expression changes in mouse brain after exposure to low-dose ionizing radiation.

Purpose: To characterize the cellular functions associated with the altered transcript profiles of mouse brain exposed to low‐dose in vivo gamma‐irradiation.Materials and methods: Cerebral RNA was ...
Prediction of Pharmacokinetics and Drug–Drug Interactions When Hepatic Transporters are Involved

Hepatobiliary transport mechanisms have been identified to play a significant role in determining the systemic clearance for a number of widely prescribed drugs and an increasing number of new molecular entities (NMEs). While determining the pharmacokinetics, drug transporters also regulate the target tissue exposure and play a key role in regulating the pharmacological and/or toxicological responses. Consequently, it is of great relevance in drug discovery and development to assess hepatic transporter activity in regard to pharmacokinetic and dose predictions and to evaluate pharmacokinetic variability associated with drug–drug interactions (DDIs) and genetic variants. Mechanistic predictions utilizing physiological-based pharmacokinetic modeling are increasingly used to evaluate transporter contribution and delineate the transporter–enzyme interplay on the basis of hypothesis-driven functional in vitro findings. Significant strides were made in the development of in vitro techniques to facilitate characterization of hepatobiliary transport. However, challenges exist in the quantitative in vitro–in vivo extrapolation of transporter kinetics due to the lack of information on absolute abundance of the transporter in both in vitro and in vivo situations, and/or differential function in the holistic in vitro reagents such as suspended and plated hepatocytes systems, and lack of complete mechanistic understanding of liver model structure. On the other hand, models to predict transporter-mediated DDIs range from basic models to mechanistic static and dynamic models. While basic models provide conservative estimates and are useful upfront in avoiding false negative predictions, mechanistic models integrate multiple victim and perpetrator drugs parameters and are expected to provide quantitative predictions. The aim of this paper is to review the current state of the model-based approaches to predict clinical pharmacokinetics and DDIs of drugs or NMEs that are substrates of hepatic transporters.
Evaluation of primary lung cancer with indium 111 anti‐carcinoembryonic antigen (type ZCE‐025) monoclonal antibody scintigraphy

A study was undertaken to test whether indium 111 (111In)-labeled anti-carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) (type ZCE 025) monoclonal intact antibody (MoAb) would concentrate in primary lung cancer enabling its detection and localization by scintigraphy. The scintigraphic results were correlated with chest radiograph, computed tomograph (CT), bronchoscopy, surgical resection, and tumor CEA analysis. Twenty adult male patients with clinical suspicion of primary lung cancer were studied. Each subject was infused with 4 to 5 mCi of 111In anti-CEA ZCE 025 MoAb, and planar and tomographic scintiphotos were obtained on days 3 and 6 or 7 postinfusion. The scintigraphy was true-positive in 12 of 16 patients with primary lung cancer, eight of nine patients with squamous cell carcinoma, and four of seven with adenocarcinoma; it was true-negative in three of four patients with benign lung disease with an overall accuracy of 75%. In seven patients with confirmed primary lung cancer, but with negative bronchoscopic findings, the scintigraphy was true-positive in four. In 11 patients with definitely positive or suspicious malignancy by bronchoscopy the monoclonal scintigraphy was positive in eight. In true-positive cases, the location and size of the lesion by 111In anti-CEA ZCE 025 MoAb imaging correlated well with CT findings and alsomore » tumor mass at surgery. Only one of 12 tumors stained positive for CEA had serum CEA levels greater than 10 ng/ml, indicating nonleakage of the tumor antigen into general circulation in early lung cancer. It is concluded that 111In anti-CEA ZCE 025 MoAb planar and tomographic imaging shows potential to serve as a noninvasive diagnostic test in the evaluation of primary lung cancer. The lung lesion is likely to be malignant if it concentrates 111In anti-CEA ZCE 025 MoAb and benign if it does not.« less
Modifying the retail classification system for more timely marketing strategies

New retail problems and developments necessitate new and complete retail classification systems which can be used to formulate basic strategies. Ten common retail characteristics can be used to classify retailers into five categories perceived as occupying different places on the same continuous scale. As the retailer gradually moves from the end of the scale concerned with basically tangible products to the other end related to basically intangible products, the retail strategies in terms of product, place, promotion, price, and inventory control will also change gradually and accordingly. *** DIRECT SUPPORT *** A00BV026 00004
Multiperipheral approach to photon-meson-Pomeron couplings

A multiperipheral model is used to calculate the full spin dependence of the photon-$\ensuremath{\rho}$-Pomeron Regge vertex function. Inclusion of both natural-parity ($\ensuremath{\omega}$) and unnatural-parity ($\ensuremath{\pi}$) intermediate states at the top of the ladder leads to a pattern of approximate helicity conservation. The model also predicts an anomalous refractive term. The predictions of the model for the differential cross section are too small when compared to experiment, however. Photoproduction of $\ensuremath{\omega}$, $\ensuremath{\varphi}$, and $\ensuremath{\psi}$ are briefly considered as well.
Emergencies in Early Pregnancy

First-trimester vaginal bleeding and abdominal pain are common complaints in the emergency department. The differential diagnosis is broad, ranging from benign conditions to life-threatening complications. This is a difficult topic because it is charged not only with immediate emotional connotations but also with potential long-term effects on the patient's ability to become pregnant again. This article reviews the presentation, diagnosis, and management of implantation bleeding, subchorionic hemorrhage, spontaneous abortion, ectopic pregnancy, heterotopic pregnancy, anembryonic pregnancy, hyperemesis gravidarum, gestational trophoblastic disease, and round ligament syndrome.
Fighting the system? Populist radical right parties and party system change

This article assesses the impact of populist radical right parties on national party systems in Western Europe. Has the emergence of this new party family changed the interaction of party competiti...
Nuclear behaviour and evolution of two populations of the western gall rust fungus.

Peridermium harknessii, cause of western gall rust of pines, comprises two populations of multilocus electrophoretic types (zymodemes) in the western United States. When stained with a DNA-specific fluorochrome, mature, ungerminated aeciospores from zymodeme I were found to be predominantly binucleate (70%), as were those of the related macrocyclic species, Cronartium quercuum (74%), whereas aeciospores from zymodeme II were predominantly uninucleate (93%). Within each zymodeme, aeciospores with two nuclei had significantly (P = 0.01) more DNA than spores with one nucleus, and numbers of nuclei in germlings increased arithmetically over time. These data suggest that aeciospore nuclei in both zymodemes I and II divide mitotically, not meiotically, as is consistent with an asexual life cycle. Photometric measurements also indicated that the amount of DNA in one nucleus of a uninucleate zymodeme II aeciospore was similar to the total amount of DNA in a binucleate zymodeme I aeciospore. These data, coupled with recent isozyme studies, suggest either that zymodeme II evolved after karyogamy of zymodeme I and an unidentified zymodeme, or that zymodeme I evolved after haploidization of zymodeme II.
Full-band particle-based simulation of SOI and GOI MOSFETs

In this work we report on the 2D simulation of fully depleted Germanium-On-Insulator FET structures coupled with a high-κ dielectric using a full-band simulator. This simulator, based on the Cellular Monte Carlo method, provides an accurate transport model at the high electric fields present in the ultra-small devices considered in this work. Simulations of similar Germanium- and Silicon-On-Insulator devices have been performed to quantitatively analyze the predicted increase in performance of Germanium-On-Insulator technology. A characterization and comparison of the static behavior of these devices is presented for 50 nm MOSFETs.
Family Functioning in Families with Older Institutionalized Retarded Offspring.

Psychological distress, marital satisfaction, family adaptability, and cohesion are explored in 31 families with mentally retarded (MR) institutionalized offspring (late adolescence and young adulthood) and 38 comparison families. Multivariate analyses indicate no differences between the groups, although univariate analyses point to higher levels of cohesion in the families with MR offspring and the importance of the construct of adaptability in understanding family functioning. The results are discussed in terms of the adaptive coping mechanisms of the families with MR offspring and the implications of this for intervention, research, and policy.
Parts per Million Water in Gaseous Vapor Streams Dramatically Accelerates Porous Silicon Oxidation

Substantial research has focused on exploiting and understanding porous silicon (pSi) photoluminescence (PL) for applications in areas ranging from chemical sensing to solid-state lighting. At ambient temperature, pure H2O is well-known to slowly (over a time scale of hours to days) and irreversibly oxidize as-prepared pSi (ap-pSi) to form oxidized pSi (ox-pSi). In this paper, we report that the apparent ap-pSi to ox-pSi oxidation rates can be orders of magnitude faster in the presence of nonaqueous vapor streams that contain just ppm H2O levels. When H2O is removed from the nonaqueous vapor stream, ap-pSi oxidation ceases. The nonaqueous analyte vapors serve as a vehicle to transport H2O directly into the hydrophobic, ap-pSi matrix where the H2O then oxidizes the ap-pSi leading to ox-pSi, permanently changing the pSi PL and surface chemistry. The ap-pSi oxidation rate is much faster in the presence of nonaqueous vapors because H2O transport into the pSi matrix is no longer limited by H2O slowly percolati...
The familial aggregation of adolescent suicide attempts

The objective of this study was to determine whether the familial aggregation of suicidal behaviour is explained by the familial aggregation of personality disorder and aggression. The relatives of 62 clinically referred adolescent suicide attempters were compared with 70 never-suicidal psychiatric controls. The first-degree relatives of the suicide attempters had a higher rate of suicide attempts/completion than those of the psychiatric controls. This rate remained significantly higher after controlling for Axis I and II differences in the probands and the relatives, but familial personality disorder was significantly associated with suicidal risk in probands. Among the adolescent attempters, high scores on a measure of assaultiveness were associated with significantly higher familial rates of suicide attempts/completion. Our results support the hypothesis that suicidal behaviour may be transmitted as a trait independent of Axis I and II psychopathology but that, in addition, personality disorder has a role in the transmission of suicidal behaviour. An interrelationship between proband assaultiveness and the familial aggregation of suicidality was noted.
A review of occupational preference and choice research using expectancy theory and decision theory

Expectancy theory and decision theory are described as models that can be used to predict occupational preference and choice. The empirical research using these models is reviewed and found to be highly supportive. Every investigation showed considerable support for the model being tested. The implications for practice and further research are discussed.
Implementing College and Career Standards in Math Methods Course for Early Childhood and Elementary Education Teacher Candidates.

This study is purposed to measure the efficacy of implementing College and Career Readiness Standards (CCRS) math standards into math methods courses for early childhood and elementary education teacher candidates at an urban university located in the Dallas and Fort Worth metroplex area. A total of 161 college seniors (teacher candidates) enrolled in the mathematics methods courses for early childhood and elementary education participated in this study. The results showed that incorporating CCRS into the math methods courses was successful as shown by the significant findings between pre- and post-assessments in both skills- and knowledge-associated items. Although only two items were found to be significant between pre- and post-assessments on disposition, teacher candidates showed higher scores in pre-assessments on disposition compared to skills- and knowledge-associated items.
Liberation and Economic Marginalization: A Reformulation and Test of (Formerly?) Competing Models

This study reconceptualizes and tests liberation and economic marginality hypotheses as complementary explanations for female offending patterns. Both explanations are relevant in explaining female crime, but need to be reframed as interacting forces not opposing theories. It is suggested that economic marginality is in part a consequence of liberation, where the expectation of women’s independence may not be consistent with their actual social circumstances. This study also assesses the explanatory power of this model for both male and female conviction rates. Results from a pooled time series, least squares with dummy variables, cross-national analysis supports this reformulated model. Although this model is a good predictor of female conviction rates, it does not appear to be good a predictor of male conviction rates. Female conviction rates are significantly affected by male employment status, indicating that social conditions that are linked to female crime are a function of the economic and social position of both sexes.
Participation behavior and distributional consequences under a multiple constrained housing program

Abstract A distinguishing feature of supply-side housing subsidy programs is that potential participants must jointly accept the multiple constraints imposed by the programs in order to get the subsidy. This paper investigates how information about this feature and the characteristics of the participants can be used to model the conditional probability of participation and to determine the sources of equity/inequity in the distribution of benefit from such programs. The benefit is explicitly estimated in terms of the Hicksian consumer surplus measure using data from the Section 8 New Construction program. Among other findings, it is shown that the probability of participation is a positive function of the perceived benefit but a negative function of the participants' income.
Academic Research Productivity: Reply, Still Further Results.

Abstract In this reply to Golden and Carstensen [1992, Econ. Educ. Rev. 11(2), 153–160], we extend our earlier research on faculty research productivity by (a) employing a superior proxy measure of longterm research performance and (b) considering two additional inputs in the production of research. We find that research performance is enhanced by department size (at a diminishing rate), private organization, grant support, a larger pool of graduate students and a quality research library.
Evidence of High Tolerance to Ecologically Relevant Lead Shot Pellet Exposures by an Upland Bird

ABSTRACT Upland birds that display grit ingestion behavior are potentially at risk of detrimental effects and death from lead poisoning at trap and skeet ranges and other areas where vast quantities of spent lead shot pellets abound. Because commonly cited force-feeding pellet exposure studies deviate from true field conditions, their results may not reflect true risks faced by upland birds. In particular, studies that use new shot pellets and administer more pellets than would be reasonably ingested, critically interfere with the understanding of actualized pellet exposures. In this study, northern bobwhites (Colinus virginianus), a frequent test species in shot pellet research, were dosed in an ecologically-relevant manner (i.e., with spent shot and with no more than three pellets). Notably, the 56-day post-dosing observation period, during which a battery of physiological measures were recorded, exceeded that of related studies. Despite a sustained suppression of a lead poisoning indicator, the data su...
Ribosomes from fig fruits: physical properties and the occurrence of transient dimers.

Abstract 1. Ribosomes isolated from fig fruits were fractionated on sucrose density gradients into subunits, monomers, dimers, and higher polymers. Sedimentation coefficients of these fractions were 39±1 and 60±2 S for the subunits, and 80±2, 120±3, and 146±2 S for the monomer, dimer and trimer fractions, respectively. The identity of each fraction was confirmed by electron microscopy. 2. The ribosomes were characterized according to ultraviolet absorption spectrum, sensitivity to deoxyribonuclease and ribonuclease, and hyperchromicity. 3. Ribosomes were isolated during all three phases of the double sigmoid growth curve characteristic of fig fruits. Two significant qualitative changes were observed: (a) the transient predominance of dimers at early stages of growth; and (b) a progressive decline in polysomes associated with senescence. 4. Identity of the dimer fraction was confirmed with the use of dual-labeled precursors, co-sedimentation with labeled Escherichia coli ribosomes and electron microscopy.
Tunable bandpass and bandstop filter cascade for dynamic pole allocation

In this paper, a highly dynamic filter cascade is presented with the capability of creating very high isolation regions in close spectral proximity to the received signal of interest. The cascade consists of 10 widely tunable resonators that can be combined to form advanced filtering functions. Two of the resonators are tasked to create a second-order Butterworth bandpass filter, while the other eight are used in a bandstop configuration to manipulate the stopband and form either very deep isolation, wide band isolation, or multiple isolation regions. This device consists of substrate-integrated, evanescent-mode cavities that are created using traditional circuit board technology as an example. 120 dB of isolation over a bandwidth of 21 MHz is achieved 16% away from the passband of the bandpass filter.
When prosody fails to cue syntactic structure: 9-month-olds' sensitivity to phonological versus syntactic phrases

According to prosodic bootstrapping accounts of syntax acquisition, language learners use the correlation between syntactic boundaries and prosodic changes (e.g., pausing, vowel lengthening, large increases or decreases in fundamental frequency) to cue the presence and arrangement of syntactic constituents. However, recent linguistic accounts suggest that prosody does not directly reflect syntactic structure but rather is governed by independent prosodic units such as phonological phrases. To examine the implications of this view for the prosodic bootstrapping hypothesis, infants in Experiment 1 were presented with sentences in which pauses were inserted either between the subject noun phrase (NP) and verb or after the verb. Half of the infants heard sentences with lexical NP subjects, in which prosodic structure is consistent with syntactic structure. The other half heard sentences with pronoun subjects, in which prosodic structure does not mirror syntactic structure. In a preferential listening paradigm, infants in the lexical NP condition listened longer to materials containing pauses between the subject and verb, the main syntactic constituents. However, in the pronoun NP condition, infants showed no difference in listening times for the two pause locations. To determine if other sentence types containing pronoun subjects potentially provide information about the syntactic constituency of these elements, infants in Experiment 2 heard yes-no questions with pronoun subjects, in which the prosodic structure reflects the constituency of the subject. Infants listened longer when pauses were inserted between the subject and verb than after the verb. Taken together, our results suggest that the prosodic information in an individual sentence is not always sufficient to assign a syntactic structure. Rather, learners must engage in active inferential processes, using cross-sentence comparisons and other types of information to arrive at the correct syntactic representation.
Long-term course of lung clearance index between infancy and school-age in cystic fibrosis subjects

Multiple breath washout (MBW) measurements have recently been shown to be sensitive for detection of early cystic fibrosis (CF) lung disease, with the lung clearance index (LCI) being the most common measure for ventilation inhomogeneity. The aim of this observational study was to describe the longitudinal course of LCI from time of clinical diagnosis during infancy to school-age in eleven children with CF. Elevated LCI during infancy was present in seven subjects, especially in those with later clinical diagnosis. Tracking of LCI at follow-up was evident only in the four most severe cases. We provide the first longitudinal data describing the long-term course of LCI in a small group of infants with CF. Our findings support the clinical usefulness of MBW measurements to detect and monitor early lung disease in children with CF already present shortly after clinical diagnosis.
A Micromechanics-Based Elastoplastic Model for Amorphous Composites With Nanoparticle Interactions

A constitutive model is proposed to investigate the strengthening mechanism and the relationship between nanostructures and effective mechanical properties of the aluminum-based amorphous nanocomposites. A continuum micromechanics-based, three-phase composite model comprises ofAl particles, rare-earth enriched interlayers, and the amorphous aluminum matrix. The local stress field and deformation are formulated based on the concept of eigenstrain and equivalent inclusion method with consideration of both the particle-interlayer-matrix interaction and the particle-particle interaction. An ensemble-volume averaging technique is conducted to obtain the overall elastoplastic constitutive behavior for amorphous nanocomposites with randomly distributed spherical nanoparticles. Explicit expressions of the effective elastic stiffness and yield function in terms of the constituent properties and nanostructures are obtained. The effective elastoplastic stress-strain curves for uniaxial loading and the initial yield surfaces for axisymmetric loading are calculated. Simulations are conducted to investigate the effects of the particle size and pairwise particle interaction on the effective mechanical properties.
A Numerical and Experimental Investigation of Neural Network-Based Intelligent Control of Molding Processes

The current investigation focused on the development of intelligent injection molding processes by utilizing a neural network based control unit. In this study, the emphasis was on the control of flow front progression during injection molding processes. The progression of a flow front into a mold, cavity is crucial since it dictates the locations of possible air voids and weld lines. It is desired that the flow front progresses towards the vent locations and that weld lines coincide with locations where their quality decreasing influence has a minimum impact on the overall part performance. The intelligent control scheme developed is based on a neural network that was trained with data obtained from a first-principles based process model rather than actual molding experimentation. The control strategy was developed such that one can specify a desired flow progression scheme and the controller will take corrective actions during the molding process to realize this scheme. This is done by controlling the inlet flow rate at various inlet gate locations. Experiments were conducted with a 2-D, complex shaped, mold cavity to test the performance of the control unit during actual injection molding processes. The mold had two inlet gates and three different desired flow progression schemes were considered. In all cases, the first principles model/neural network based control unit was able to steer the flow front along the corresponding desired flow progression path.
Reply to Ferreira and Culleton

To the Editor—We thank Ferreira and Culleton [1] for their insightful comments. These authors are interested in helping to explain our unexpected finding that therapy for Plasmodium falciparum malaria with artemether-lumefantrine selected in subsequent infections for key polymorphisms in pfmdr1 up to approximately 2 months after prior therapy, well beyond the period of selection predicted by the pharmacokinetics of artemether and lumefantrine. We suggested that clinical impacts might be seen well after the period of selection because new illnesses in semi-immune children may follow extended periods of asymptomatic infection. Ferreira and Culleton additionally offer a model to help explain our results, demonstrating increased selection over the course of a clinical trial, based on the impact of the trial itself on parasites in the study community. The authors suggest that researchers should consider the impact of study drugs on the selection of resistance-mediating polymorphisms over the course of a clinical trial. In our study, we compared genotypes between each initial and recurrent malaria infection, in contrast to comparison with prevalence at a set time; thus, secular trends leading to changes in population-wide prevalence of polymorphisms over time were expected to have a minor impact on our results. In addition, our cohort study enrolled only a small proportion of children living in the study area, and thus it is unlikely that the use of artemether-lumefantrine in the study children had a marked impact on the population of P. falciparum in the area. On the other hand, artemether-lumefantrine is now the first-line therapy for uncomplicated falciparum malaria in Uganda, and increased population-wide use of the drug might explain some of the selection of the pfmdr1 86N and 1246D genotypes in our study. However, as noted above, because our assessments of selection were over the course of a single recurrence, overall trends in population prevalence would be expected to play a minor role. In any event, we agree with Ferreira and Culleton that our results highlight the importance of long-term follow-up to assess selection of drug resistance mediators after treatment for malaria. Indeed, because selection was seen over a period of 2 months after a regimen containing lumefantrine, it would be expected to last even longer after a regimen containing amodiaquine, mefloquine, or piperaquine, all of which are artemisinin partner drugs with half-lives considerably longer than that of lumefantrine.
Temperature dependence of the neutralization of low energy K+ ions scattered from Au nanoclusters on SiO2

Abstract Neutralization during the scattering of 2.5 keV K+ from Au nanoclusters on SiO2/Si(1 1 1) is investigated as a function of post-deposition surface temperature. Small nanoclusters are formed by deposition at low temperature (115 K), as evidenced by a larger neutralization probability for singly scattered K+ as compared to scattering from Au metal. The neutralization probability in scattering from small clusters is found to reversibly decrease with increasing surface temperature. This contradicts the general understanding of charge exchange for alkali low energy ion scattering, however, which predicts that higher temperatures should increase the neutralization. Temperature-dependent changes in surface composition or structure are ruled out as causes, while additional experiments are proposed to resolve the discrepancy.
Separating the wheat from the chaff in cHL.

In this issue of Blood , Reichel and colleagues[1][1] combine two techniques—flow sorting and low-input sequencing—to show that the “elusive Reed-Sternberg cell”[2][2] of classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) can be captured and interrogated exomewide. Neither low-input sequencing nor flow
A Comparison of the Validity of the Test of Standard Written English (TSWE) and of the California State University and Colleges English Placement Test (CSUC-EPT) in the Prediction of Grades in a Basic English Composition Course and of Overall Freshman-Year Grade Point Average.

FOR a sample of more than 500 freshmen at California State University, Northridge (CSUN) who had elected to take the general English composition course (English 155) during their first semester as well as for male and female subsamples of comparable size, comparisons were made of the predictive validity of the California State University and Colleges English Placement Test (CSUC-EPT) (Educational Testing Service, 1977a, b), the Test of Standard Written English (TSWE) of the Admissions Testing Program of the College Board (Educational Testing Service, 1974-1978, 1978a, 1978b), and the Verbal and Mathematics portions of the College Board Scholastic Aptitude Test (CEEB—SAT—Verbal and CEEB-SAT—Mathematics) (Educational Testing Service, 1948-1978) with respect to each of four criterion measures: (a) Grades in Fall Semester 1977 English 155—Written Expression, (b) Fall Semester 1977 GPA, (c) Spring Semester 1978 GPA, and (d) 1977-1978 Academic Year (Total CSUN GPA. Statistical findings suggested these conclusio...
Is the DNA repair system involved in hepatitis-B-virus-mediated hepatocellular carcinogenesis?

A new model is proposed for the involvement of hepatitis B virus (HBV) in human liver cancer at the molecular level. The HBV X protein interacts with a cellular protein involved in DNA repair. Coupled with the effects of long-term chronic infection by HBV, this model suggests a novel mechanism for human tumor viruses that act indirectly.
The role of chemokines in the immunopathology of the liver

Chemokines are small protein inflammatory mediators that were classically known for their elicitation of inflammatory cells out of the vasculature. However, more contemporary studies show that these ubiquitous factors impinge on many facets of biology, including hematopoiesis, angiogenesis, and mitogeneis. The elucidation of mechanisms involved in the immunopathogenesis of liver disease has magnified the importance of chemokines in this organ. Accordingly, a number of in vitro and in vivo studies have highlighted the importance of chemokine biology in both acute and chronic liver disease, and a variety of liver diseases have been shown to involve chemokines and their receptors during the initiation and main tenance of liver pathology. A greater understanding of the role chemokines play during liver disease may permit the employment of therapies that target or enhance chemokines in the liver. This review will highlight the current clinical and experimental research in the immunopathogenesis of acute and chronic liver diseases.
Evaluating the Quality of a Link Resolver

Some important factors in selecting the right link resolver for an institution are the ease of use and management of the link resolver, the quality of the knowledgebase, and the vendors and services that they provide. The UT Southwestern Medical Library evaluated the performance of LinkSource to assess its effectiveness and efficiency as a link resolver based on the above criteria. The primary outcome of interest was the success rate of linking a citation from any of the Library's literature resources to the full text of the selected article, when the full text was available. A secondary outcome was the efficiency of the linking, as measured by the number of mouse-clicks it took to learn the result, regardless of access to the full text.
Developing Innovation Benchmarks: An Empirical Study

Benchmarking against industry averages or high performance organizations can be useful for most companies to improve products and processes, including strategic planning, forecasting marketing trends, and internal operation. Company innovation is also widely recognized as a critical process for company survival and growth. As business globalization and competition increase, company innovativeness has become essential for success. Analyses company innovativeness from a practical perspective, in terms of the activities and mechanisms necessary for companies to seek, evaluate, implement and foster the development of new ideas. The results provide strong empirical evidence that company innovation is a major determinant of company business performance. Because most benchmarking schemes are industry‐specific, focuses on the manufacturing industry. Provides a first attempt at developing an industry‐wide average for company innovativeness which business managers can use to gauge their company’s performance along ...
Cytokine-induced memory-like natural killer cells

The mammalian immune response to infection is mediated by 2 broad arms, the innate and adaptive immune systems. Innate immune cells are a first-line defense against pathogens and are thought to respond consistently to infection, regardless of previous exposure, i.e., they do not exhibit memory of prior activation. By contrast, adaptive immune cells display immunologic memory that has 2 basic characteristics, antigen specificity and an amplified response upon subsequent exposure. Whereas adaptive immune cells have rearranged receptor genes to recognize the universe of antigens, natural killer (NK) cells are innate immune lymphocytes with a limited repertoire of germ-line encoded receptors for target recognition. NK cells also produce cytokines such as IFN-gamma (IFN-γ) to protect the host during the innate response to infection. Herein, we show that cytokine-activated NK cells transferred into naive hosts can be specifically detected 7–22 days later when they are phenotypically similar to naive cells and are not constitutively producing IFN-γ. However, they produce significantly more IFN-γ when restimulated. This memory-like property is intrinsic to the NK cell. By contrast, memory-like NK cells do not express granzyme B protein and kill targets similarly to naive NK cells. Thus, these experiments identify an ability of innate immune cells to retain an intrinsic memory of prior activation, a function until now attributed only to antigen-specific adaptive immune cells.
Toward a model of false recall: experimental manipulation of encoding context and the collection of verbal reports.

The likelihood of false recall in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm was shown to depend on encoding context in two experiments. When fillers had been preselected to decrease the likelihood of encoding the critical lure’s semantic features, false recall was virtually eliminated. However, when the same words were presented rearranged in different presentation orders, levels of false recall that were found in earlier DRM studies (Robinson & Roediger, 1997) were replicated. The role of encoding processes in the DRM paradigm was further explored with additional participants completing the experiment while thinking aloud. During encoding of word lists, participants verbalized semantic elaboration of the critical lure while studying the word lists. A path analysis demonstrated that participants’ verbalization of critical lures during encoding reliably predicted their level of false recall.
Flicker sensitivity changes after subcortical visual system lesions in the rat

Abstract Sensitivity to sinusoidal flicker, as a function of flicker frequency, was measured behaviourally in hooded rats by reducing modulation depth in a two-choice flicker versus no-flicker discrimination until subjects could not perform at above 80% correct. Analogous methods were used to measure spatial contrast sensitivity. In both tasks the display area was 24 × 20°. Bilateral lesions were made in one of 4 structures; superior colliculus (SC), pretectum (PRT), posterior thalamus (PT), or ventral lateral geniculate nucleus (LGv). A fifth group served as sham operated controls. On the basis of histology the LGv group was subdivided according to presence or absence of optic tract damage. PT, PRT and LGv lesions produced a statistically significant depression in flicker sensitivity, the impairment in the LGv sub-group with optic tract damage being significantly greater than that in the LGv group with optic tract sparing. In the latter, post-operative sensitivity correlated significantly with amount of surviving tissue in the thalamic radiations but not with surviving LGv itself. PRT and LGv lesions that involved the optic tract also significantly depressed spatial contract sensitivity. The implications of the finding, that PT and LGv lesions may depress flicker sensitivity without affecting spatial vision, for interpretation of the effects of comparable lesions on suprathreshold discrimination are discussed.
Adsorption of a non-enveloped mammalian virus to functionalized nanofibers

Abstract In the pursuit of finding superior methods to remove pathogens from drinking water, this study examines the adsorption of a non-enveloped, mammalian virus to highly charged nanofibers. N-[(2-Hydroxyl-3-trimethylammonium) propyl] chitosan (HTCC) nanofibers were synthesized by the addition of a quaternary amine to chitosan. HTCC was blended with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) to produce nanofibers by electrospinning. The nanofibers were stabilized against water by crosslinking with glutaraldehyde. When studied in the range of 100–200 nm in diameter, larger fibers were able to adsorb about 90% more virus than smaller fibers. The kinetics of the adsorption was modeled with pseudo-first order kinetics and equilibrium was achieved in as little as 10 min. Equilibrium adsorption was modeled with the Freundlich isotherm with a Freundlich constant of 1.4. When the Freundlich constant deviates from 1, this demonstrates that there is heterogeneity at the adsorption surface. The heterogeneity likely occurs at the nanofiber surface since a polymeric blend of two polymers was used to electrospin the nanofibers. The model mammalian virus, porcine parvovirus (PPV), has a fairly homogeneous, icosahedral protein capsid available for adsorption. The fast adsorption kinetics and high capacity of the nanofibers make HTCC/PVA a potential filter material for the removal of pathogens from drinking water.
Should every child with epilepsy undergo a neuropsychological evaluation

Abstract Neuropsychological (NP) testing has always been an important part of the presurgical workup of patients with epilepsy. Yet, there is no agreement on the timing or circumstances in which NP testing should be ordered in the evaluation of children with epilepsy. This article addresses this controversial question. The early identification of learning or of mental health problems constitutes one of the arguments in support of NP testing. The relative unavailability and high cost of NP testing, the potential inappropriate labeling of children as “learning disabled,” and the risk of attached stigma are some of the arguments in support of limiting NP testing to children suspected of having cognitive or behavioral problems. Nevertheless, we concur that at the least, the need for NP testing should be considered by clinicians in the course of their evaluation of every child with epilepsy.
Forward and backward locomotion in individuals with dizziness

Abstract The vestibular system plays an important role in locomotion. Individuals with vestibular pathology present with gait abnormalities, which may increase their fall frequency. Backward walking (BW) has been suggested as a predictor of falls in other patient populations; however it has not been studied in individuals with dizziness. Our aims were: (1) to investigate the differences in forward walking (FW) and BW both between and within 3 groups: Healthy controls, individuals with dizziness and vestibular pathology, and individuals with dizziness without vestibular pathology, (2) describe differences in FW and BW between individuals that have fallen and those that have not. We studied 28 healthy controls (mean 53.8 ± 17 years), 21 individuals with pathophysiology of the vestibular system (mean 68.5 ± 13 years), and 18 individuals without a vestibular cause for their dizziness (mean 67.4 ± 17 years). Subjects performed 2 FW and 2 BW trials over the GAITRite walkway. Data on history of falls in the preceding year were collected. We found BW was different to FW within each group. When comparing between groups and correcting for age and gender, only BW velocity (beta = −11.390, p = 0.019), cadence (beta = −8.471, p = 0.021), step time (beta = 0.067, p = 0.007) and stride time (beta = 0.137, p = 0.005) were significantly affected by having dizziness, with no differences in FW characteristics. There were no differences between FW and BW between fallers and non-fallers. BW appears to be a better biomarker than FW for identifying individuals with symptoms of dizziness; though it does not appear to characterize those who fall.
Theorem of abstraction for equivalent controllers in hybrid systems

In the analysis and synthesis of controllers for hybrid systems, it is often required to verify whether two controllers for a given hybrid plant are equivalent. This is not easy to do because one needs to verify that the two controlled hybrid systems generate the same sequence of discrete events and the same trajectory for continuous variables for the given initial conditions. In this paper, we prove that under certain conditions, the verification of equivalence can be done at the abstract level of discrete event systems. More precisely, two controllers are equivalent if and only if the languages (that is, the sets of all possible sequences of discrete transitions) generated by two controlled systems are the same. This theorem of abstraction implies that many control problems of hybrid systems can be studied at the abstract level of discrete event systems. Therefore, it can be used in the control synthesis for decentralized controllers and partial observation controllers because techniques developed for discrete event systems can now be applied to hybrid systems.