cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Seismic electric signals from displacement of charged dislocations

Abstract One possible mechanism for the generation of seismic electric signals is the displacement of segments of charged dislocations, responding to changes in the applied stress. Using information available from the study of simpler ionic crystals, a crude estimate is made of the voltage that could be generated from large blocks of the Earth's crust during a pre-earthquake stress adjustment. Within the many uncertainties of critical parameters, the results are consistent with the magnitudes of precursor signals that have been observed in Greece.
Doppler-free two-photon-excited fluorescence spectroscopy of atomic hydrogen in flames

We describe Doppler-free 205-nm two-photon excitation studies of atomic hydrogen performed using a single-mode pulsed dye-laser system in low-pressure flames. Excitation spectra confirm calculated line-strength ratios for transitions to the 3S and 3D states. Collisional broadening rates are obtained in several flames and compared with quenching rates measured in the same flames, using time-resolved fluorescence measurements.
Ouabain-sensitive 86Rb(K) influx is linked to transepithelial Na transport in pig kidney cell line.

Abstract The pig kidney cell line, LLC-PK1, exhibits rheogenic d -glucose coupled transepithelial Na+ transport that is inhibited by phlorizin. By measuring the difference in initial rates of influx of 86Rb+ with and without coupled Na+ transport, we can demonstrate an 86Rb+ uptake linked to Na+ transport. The simultaneous determination of phlorizin-inhibited Na coupled d -[3H]glucose uptake and 86Rb+ influx allows calculation of an Na+/Rb+ stoichiometry that is consistent with an electrogenic Na+ for Rb+ exchange.
Most of the story is missing: advocating for a more complete intervention story.

‘‘Citizen participation means a horizontal, equal relationship. It means relating with the other at the same level. One understands one’s usefulness as part of the solidarity produced within the relationship. Accepting the otherness involves admitting different modes of knowing and making possible the dialogue and the relation with the other in a plane of equality based on the acceptance of our own dif
Developmentalism: An Obscure but Pervasive Restriction

Despite continuing criticism of public education, experimentally demonstrated and field tested teaching methods have been ignored, rejected, and abandoned. Instead of a stable consensus regarding best teaching practices, there seems only an unending succession of innovations. A longstanding educational doctrine appears to underlie this anomalous state of affairs. Termed developmentalism, it presumes "natural" ontogenesis to be optimal and it requires experimentally demonstrated teaching practices to overcome a presumption that they interfere with an optimal developmental trajectory. It also discourages teachers and parents from asserting themselves with children. Instead of effective interventions, it seeks the preservation of a postulated natural perfection. Developmentalism's rich history is expressed in a literature extending over 400 years. Its notable exponents include Jean Jacques Rousseau, John Dewey, and Jean Piaget; and its most recent expressions include "developmentally appropriate practice" and "constructivism." In the years during which it gained ascendance, developmentalism served as a basis for rejecting harsh and inhumane teaching methods. Today it impedes efforts to hold schools accountable for student academic achievement.
Early antecedents of childhood impulsivity: the role of parent-child interaction, cognitive competence, and temperament

This prospective longitudinal investigation examined early mother-child interaction as a predictor of children's later self-control capabilities. Multimethod assessments of mother-child relationships, primarily focused on observed relationship qualities in the home, were conducted during the first 2 years and related to children's later impulse control capabilities. Child cognitive competence and temperament assessed during the 2nd year were also related to later impulsivity. Follow-up assessments of children's impulsivity were conducted at age 6 (N = 79), using a variety of laboratory measures. Findings indicated that responsive, cognitively stimulating parenttoddler interactions in the 2nd year modestly predicted later measures of cognitive nonimpulsivity and ability to delay gratification. Security of motherinfant attachment predicted the same outcomes, but only for boys and not for girls. Child cognitive competence in the 2nd year also consistently predicted children's later impulse control capabilities, although this was not true for measures of child temperament. Overall, the findings support a multidimensional and developmental conceptualization of the early antecedents of childhood impulsivity.
Increased body mass index predicts increased blood loss during radical cystectomy.

ABSTRACTPurpose: Historically obesity has been thought to impact negatively patients undergoing surgery. We evaluated the impact of body mass index (BMI), an objective measure of obesity, on operative and perioperative outcomes in patients undergoing radical cystectomy.Material and Methods: We reviewed the records of 304 consecutive patients who underwent radical cystectomy and urinary diversion between October 1995 and July 2000. Factors analyzed included BMI, clinical demographic characteristics, comorbidities, operative variables (eg estimated blood loss [EBL], transfusion requirement and operative time), length of stay and postoperative complications. Results were analyzed using the nonpaired heteroscedastic Student t test assuming unequal variances to determine statistical significance.Results: Of the patients 61% were overweight or obese (BMI 25 or greater). BMI did not correlate with type of urinary diversion, gender or race. On univariate analysis the preoperative variables age, American Society o...
Isomeric and quaternary properties of homogenous 33 kDa protein from the venom of chelonus near curvimaculatus

The 33,000 Dalton venom protein of Chelonus near curvimaculatus was characterized for structural properties of charge, quaternary associations, and relationship to polydnavirus encoded proteins. Homogenous isoforms of the protein were isolated from the venom by sequential steps of (1) microdissection, (2) separation based on charge (Mono-Q column HPLC or narrow-range electrofocusing), and (3) centrifugal filtration based on molecular weight using Centricon microconcentrators. The purified protein dimerized under native conditions, and this quaternary association became denaturation resistant under certain conditions. Chemical modification of lysine epsilon amino groups did not disrupt such dimerization. The cDNA for the protein did not possess high similarity to any sequence encoded in the polydnavirus, as indicated by results of Southern blotting, but does possess similarity in its repeats to the repeats of the immunologically protective surface glycoprotein of Leishmania amazonensis. © 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Quantification of Toxic Microcystis spp. during the 2003 and 2004 Blooms in Western Lake Erie using Quantitative Real-Time PCR

In August of 2003 and August of 2004, blooms of potentially toxic cyanobacteria Microcystis spp. persisted in western Lake Erie. Samples collected from the bloom were analyzed for the cyanobacterial toxin microcystin and the presence of Microcystis spp. cells. Estimates of microcystin toxicity exceeding 1 μg L-1 (microcystin−LR activity equivalents), the safety limit set by the World Health Organization, were found from the samples in both 2003 and 2004. The presence of Microcystis spp. in water samples was confirmed through standard polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using a combination of four primer sets. Quantification of Microcystis was accomplished by a real-time PCR assay utilizing specific primer-Taq-man probe sets targeted on a conserved, Microcystis-specific 16S rDNA fragment and a microcystin toxin synthetase gene mcyD. This approach allowed us to specifically study the distribution and abundance of toxic Microcystis in the lake in contrast to previous studies that have assessed Microcystis popula...
Surface segregation in an engineering alloy: Hastelloy C-276

We have examined the surface composition of a cold-worked nickel-base superalloy, HASTELLOY C-276, by Auger electron spectroscopy. The alloy was subjected to annealing cycles at temperatures between 100 and 900°C. A number of elements, including C, N, O, P, S, and Si, segregated to the sample surface. The segregation behavior appears to be quite complex. Yet it can be understood in terms of five fundamental effects: kinetic limitations, thermodynamic temperature effects, cold-work annealing, depletion of trace impurities, and solute interactions.
Species comparison of renal proteolytic activity for human myelin basic protein peptide 43–88

Abstract 1. 1. A species comparison was conducted on the proteolytic activity in human, dog, rabbit, guinea-pig and rat kidney which can degrade human myelin basic protein peptide 43–88. 2. 2. In rat kidney the degrading activity occurred over a pH range of 4–11.5 with the greatest activities at pH 5 and 9. The peptide degrading activity in human, dog, rabbit and guinea-pig kidney was considerably less than in the rat and occurred predominantly at pH 7 with lesser activity at pH 9. 3. 3. The effects of inhibitors of proteolytic enzymes indicated that the peptide degrading activities at the same two pH's of dog, rabbit and guinea-pig were similar to one another but differed from that of human. 4. 4. These results indicate that the activity for degrading a potential autoantigenic material is widespread in renal tissue among different species and that different enzymes are involved. More generally, these findings suggest that renal proteinases differ among commonly used laboratory animals and also differ from the human enzymes.
Application of production standards in complex organizations under uncertainty

Abstract This article explores the optimal determination of production (quantitative) standards under alternative assumptions concerning the ability of complex organizations to adjust variable inputs as the price of output becomes known. The model allows for transaction costs associated with ex ante and ex post input acquisitions (e.g., contracting for labor services). When such input transaction costs are not observable by top management, pecuniary incentive schemes based on ex post performance are considered. We show that standard-based compensation schemes can be built into the ex post optimization model so that the profit-maximizing production standards and the incentive designs are simultaneously determined.
Influence of Secondary Structure on Electronic Energy Relaxation in Adenine Homopolymers

Electronic energy relaxation in the adenine homopolymers poly(A) and poly(dA), as well as in the adenine mononucleotide, was studied by the femtosecond transient absorption technique and by steady-state absorption and emission spectroscopies in aqueous solution. The excited-state lifetime of the adenine mononucleotide was determined to be 370 ± 40 fs at room temperature. Strikingly, the singlet excited states formed in adenine homopolymers decay on time scales ranging from femtoseconds to nanoseconds, and three decay components are required to adequately describe their transient signals. Increasing the temperature decreases the amplitude of the two slowest decay components, indicating that the long-lived excited states are formed in base-stacked regions of the polymers. At room temperature and neutral pH, the two slowest decay components have significantly larger amplitudes in poly(dA) than in poly(A). No evidence is obtained for excited-state quenching of the adenine chromophore by the nonstandard base p...
Effects of obesity on balance recovery from small postural perturbations

Obesity is a major and growing health concern associated with a risk of falls. While obese individuals exhibit increased sway during quiet standing, most falls result from some type of postural perturbation. This study investigated effects of obesity on balance recovery from small forward postural perturbations. Altogether, 20 males, 10 normal weight (BMI: 21.9 ± 1.4) and 10 obese (BMI: 33.2 ± 2.3), received force (pendulum) and position (release from a static lean angle) perturbations. Obese individuals showed less centre of mass (COM) displacements and slower COM velocities than normal weight individuals following force perturbations. However, when force was normalised by body weight, and when released from identical lean angles, no differences in COM performance were found. Despite differences in quiet standing due to obesity in the absence of any externally applied perturbations, these results show no differences in balance recovery from small externally applied perturbations. Additional research is n...
Novel Chelate-Induced Magnetic Alignment of Biological Membranes

A phospholipid chelate complexed with ytterbium (DMPE-DTPA:Yb3+) is shown to be readily incorporated into a model membrane system, which may then be aligned in a magnetic field such that the average bilayer normal lies along the field. This so-called positively ordered smectic phase, whose lipids consist of less than 1% DMPE-DTPA:Yb3+, is ideally suited to structural studies of membrane proteins by solid-state NMR, low-angle diffraction, and spectroscopic techniques that require oriented samples. The chelate, 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid, which strongly binds the lanthanide ions and serves to orient the membrane in a magnetic field, prevents direct lanthanide-protein interactions and significantly reduces paramagnetic shifts and line broadening. Similar low-spin lanthanide chelates may have applications in field-ordered solution NMR studies of water-soluble proteins and in the design of new magnetically aligned liquid crystalline phases.
Firing pattern of neurons in the rostral and ventral part of nucleus reticularis thalami during EEG spindles.

Abstract The firing pattern of neurons in the rostral and ventral part of nucleus reticularis thalami during cortical EEG spindles was investigated in unanesthetized encephale isole cats. Spontaneous spindles as well as those induced by a single thalamic shock were accompanied by an increase in discharge frequency in 97% of the neurons in the rostral pole of the nucleus. In most cases the enhanced firing rate was tonically sustained throughout the duration of the spindles, although phasic bursts at EEG wave frequency were sometimes superimposed on the tonic cellular activation. Suppression of triggered spindles by conditioning fast-frequency stimulation in the mesencephalic reticular formation also abolished the rostral reticularis response. Intracellular recordings revealed a depolarizing shift of small amplitude which was sustained throughout the duration of triggered spindies. The majority of neurons in the ventral part of nucleus reticularis, in contrast, underwent a prolonged hyperpolarizing shift in membrane potential during cortical spindles, sustained for as long as 2 sec and interrupted by depolarizing waves. Both the prolonged membrane hyperpolarization and the depolarizing waves were reduced during the intracellular passage of polarizing currents, suggesting that the former was an inhibitory postsynaptic potential and the latter were disinhibitory potentials. Since neurons in dorsal thalamic nuclei, to which the reticularis axons project, are hyperpolarized concomitantly with cortical spindles, the results are viewed as being in agreement with the hypothesis that, during EEG spindles, neurons in the rostral pole but not in the ventral part of nucleus reticularis exert a tonic inhibitory influence on cells throughout the thalamus.
Pigeon breeder's disease. Antibody response of man against a purified component of pigeon dropping extract☆

Abstract A homogeneous component of pigeon dropping extract, one of the etiologic agents of pigeon breeder's disease (PBD), was used to evaluate some of the antibody responses using serum from patients with PBD. Their responses were compared with those of similarly exposed, but asymptomatic, pigeon breeders. As assessed by antigen-binding capacity, quantitative precipitation, and complement fixation, the responses from these two groups were qualitatively similar. In general, these results are in agreement with other studies using pigeon serum components. Since symptomatic and asymptomatic pigeon breeders are not readily discriminated by results of tests for humoral immunity, we suggest that other factors are important in the pathogenesis of PBD.
Predicting air quality: Improvements through advanced methods to integrate models and measurements

Air quality prediction plays an important role in the management of our environment. Computational power and efficiencies have advanced to the point where chemical transport models can predict pollution in an urban air shed with spatial resolution less than a kilometer, and cover the globe with a horizontal resolution of less than 50km. Predicting air quality remains a challenge due to the complexity of the governing processes and the strong coupling across scales. While air quality prediction is closely aligned with weather prediction, there are important differences, including the role of pollution emissions and their associated large uncertainties. Improvements in air quality prediction require a close integration of observations. As more atmospheric chemical observations become available chemical data assimilation is expected to play an essential role in air quality forecasting. In this paper advances in air quality forecasting are discussed with an emphasis on data assimilation. Applications of the four-dimensional variational method (4D-Var) and the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) approach are presented and the computation challenges are discussed.
Vibrational Properties and Structure of Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate

Geometry optimizations and normal-mode analyses of the pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) conformer belonging to the S4 molecular point group and comprising the crystalline solid were performed using density functional theory methods (B3LYP and B3PW91). The basis sets used in this study were 6-31G(d) and 6-311+G(d,p). The structural results are in good agreement with experimental X-ray diffraction data. The predicted bond lengths and bond angles are accurate to within ∼2.5% and ∼1.2%, respectively. Raman and infrared spectra of crystalline PETN were measured and compared with the calculated spectra. The calculated and measured spectra agree very well in the spectral region below 1100 cm-1; the agreement is satisfactory for frequencies higher than 1100 cm-1. On the basis of the calculations and analyses, normal mode assignments were made and mode symmetries determined.
The effects of a magnetic By component on geomagnetic tail equilibria

A two-dimensional linear magnetohydrostatic model of the magnetotail is developed here in order to investigate the effects of a significant B(y) component on the configuration of magnetotail equilibria. It is concluded that the enhanced B(y) values must be an essential part of the quiet magnetotail and do not result from a simple intrusion of the IMF. The B(y) field consists of a constant background component plus a nonuniform field existing only in the plasma sheet, where it is dependent on the plasma paramater beta and the strength of the magnetic B(z) component. B(y) is strongest at the neutral sheet and decreases monotonically in the + or - z direction, reaching a constant tail lobe value at the plasma sheet boundaries. The presence of a significant positive B(y) component produces currents, including field-aligned currents, that flow through the equatorial plane and toward and away from earth in the northern and southern halves of the plasma sheet, respectively.
Management of head injury

Incidence Head trauma accounts for one-third of all admissions to accident units. The annual incidence of head injury in the United States is approximately 0,2 per cent. t-5 Most head injuries occur and present to the emergency room between 4 p.m. and midnight. The frequency is highest between Friday and Saturday. Males outnumber females by three to o n e ) -5 Younger age groups are especially affected and, in New York, 39 per cent of injuries occur in patients under 15 years of age. 6 In most communities, traffic accidents cause over 50 per cent of injuries but in some urban areas, violence and falls predominate. Alcohol consumption has been associated with over 50 per cent of fatal vehicular accidents. 7 Detectable blood alcohol levels have been found in more than 50 per cent of head injured patients in emergency rooms. 8'9 The annual mortality rate averages 0.03 per cent. lo Over 60 per cent of deaths occur during a therapeutic vacuum, i.e., the time before the patient receives medical assistance. Comprehensive studies have indicated that 43 per cent of fatalities might have been avoided had medical aid been available within ten minutes. Respiratory obstruction is the primary cause of death in at least 15 per cent of the casualties. ~1 In a review of 116 patients who talked following head injury but subsequently died (a clinical situation encountered in 38 per cent of deaths), Rose and Jennett concluded that in 75 per cent, one or more avoidable factors were present and, in at least 54 per cent, these factors (hypoxia, hypotension, delay in treatment, sepsis, seizures and iatrogenic complications) contributed to death, t2 Intracranial injuries Head injury is not a homogeneous disease. Therapy and prognosis depend on the underlying pathology.
Structural correlates of high antibody affinity: three engineered amino acid substitutions can increase the affinity of an anti-p-azophenylarsonate antibody 200-fold.

Abstract The basis for the 200-fold difference in affinity between two hybridoma antibodies specific for the hapten p-azophenylarsonate (Ars) that have diversified by somatic hypermutation was examined. Oligonucleotide-directed mutagenesis was used to sequentially convert the nucleotide sequence of the lower-affinity antibody into that of the higher-affinity one, and the mutant antibodies generated by transfection of hybridoma cells were analyzed for affinity to Ars-tyrosine. The data showed that out of the 19 amino acid differences between the two hybridoma antibodies, the affinity increase could be reproduced by three heavy-chain substitutions that are present in the high-affinity antibody. The combined effect on affinity of amino acid substitutions was generally found to reflect their individual effects. Although the light chain of the high-affinity antibody did not seem to play a major role in the affinity increase, its contribution varied with the kind and number of heavy-chain substitutions. The results hold promise for antibody engineering and are consistent with a stepwise acquisition of somatic hypermutations in which the existing structural context of an antibody most likely influences the affinity-based selection of later substitutions. They further suggest that many substitutions may be tolerated in vivo during the antigen-driven selection process, even though they confer on the antibody no affinity increase.
Steady‐state opticohydrodynamic properties of DNA: Molecular weight dependence and the internal viscosity problem

Extinction angles, flow birefringence, and intrinsic viscosities are compared for linear, bihelical DNAs from viral and other sources that span a range in molecular weight from ∼105 to 1.3 × 108. This range effectively spans the region over which transition from rigid-rod to expanded-coil hydrodynamic property behavior occurs. All DNAs are in identical, phosphate–EDTA, neutral-pH buffers, 0.1M in NaCl. The extinction angle is a hydrodynamic property only and is thus particularly sensitive to effects of kinetic chain rigidity or internal viscosity. Our extinction angle results cannot be interpreted by any simple, single-function theoretical expression. Rather, they must be divided into distinct high- and low-molecular-weight domains. The low-molecular-weight region is typical of rigid-particle opticohydrodynamic property behaviour characterized primarily by particle orientation. The high-molecular-weight domain shows evidence for a finite internal viscosity effect, however, which can be interpreted as very nearly Kuhnian using Cerf's amplification of the Gaussian subchain model to include internal viscosity. It is found that the high-molecular-weight, monodisperse viral DNAs from T7, T5, and T2 bacteriophage show an internal viscosity contribution to the limiting extinction angle–shear rate ratio of ∼3 × 10−3 s. An effect of this magnitude may be marginally important in interpreting extinction angle and certain other hydrodynamic property data for high-molecular-weight DNA systems. Internal viscosity effects do not appear to be manifest in the ratio of flow birefringence to intrinsic viscosity, however, and the persistence length of the high-molecular-weight DNAs is found to be independent of molecular weight to within estimated experimental uncertainty.
Co-creation and Collaboration in a Virtual World: A 3D Visualization Design Project in Second Life

One of the most successful and useful implementations of 3D virtual worlds is in the area of education and training. This paper discusses the use of virtual worlds in education and describes an innovative 3D visualization design project using one of the most popular virtual worlds, Second Life. This ongoing project is a partnership between IBM and three universities in the United States: the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Iowa State University, and Wright State University. More than 400 MBA students have participated in this project by completing a creative design project that involves co-creation and collaboration in Second Life. The MBA students from the three universities worked in pairs to create designs to represent concepts related to IBM Power Systems, a family of IBM servers. The paper discusses observations and reflections on the 3D visualization design project. The paper concludes with a discussion of future research directions in applying virtual worlds in education.
Applications of computerized stochastic models of human reproduction and population growth in family planning evaluation

Abstract This paper reports on the results of a computer experiment demonstrating some of the capabilities of computerized versions of a stochastic model of population growth [4] and a stochastic model of human reproduction [5] in family planning evaluation. The paper is divided into five sections, with Sec. 1 being devoted to a discussion of some of the motivations underlying the paper and the limitations of the results. Section 2 contains the numerical specifications of the component distributions of the model, and in Sec. 3 an experimental design is defined whereby the interactions of two alternative family building schemes, late versus early marriage, and low versus high desired family size may be studied with respect to population growth. The experimental design consists of eight reproductive regimes, and in Sec. 4 graphs of the calculated net maternity functions of these regimes together with the corresponding Malthusian parameter, the crude birth rate, and the mean number of female offspring in a completed family are presented. Section 5 is devoted to two population projections designed to measure the impact on population growth of two experimental schemes of transition from a high reproductive regime to a lower one. The indicators of population change and distributions used to measure the impact of these two experimental transitions in reproductive regimes as a function of time in these projections were crude birth rate, annual rate of population growth, age-specific birth rates, age distribution, and mean total population size.
Engineering shapes and instability in thin structures: Towards self-assembling micro-robots

Helical structures are the basic building blocks in biological systems, and have inspired the design and manufacturing of helical devices with applications in nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) , bio-chemical sensing, magnetic field detection, optoelectronics, micro-robotics and drug delivery devices. Meanwhile, multi-stable structures, represented by the Venus flytrap and spring tape, have attracted increasing attention due to their applications in making artificial muscles, bio-inspired robots, deployable aerospace components and energy harvesting devices. Here we address the mechanical principles of self-assembly in spontaneous bending and twisting structures, which can be employed to manufacture self-assembling robotics at various scales. The established theoretical framework provides a means of guiding the on-demand design of self-assembling systems with potential actuating mechanisms. Experimental designs of such structures at both macroscopic and microscopic scales, supported by finite element modeling results, demonstrate the feasibility of creating self-assembled micro-robots with desirable mechano-sensing and actuating capability.
The Research Agenda of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for Antimicrobial Resistance

Antimicrobial resistance is an intrinsic and inevitable aspect of microbial survival that continually challenges human health. Research on antimicrobial resistance is central to the mission of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). In fiscal year 2007, NIAID invested more than USD800 million to support basic and translational research on antimicrobials, more than USD200 million of which is devoted to understanding the causes, consequences, and treatments of antimicrobial drug resistance. The complex process that facilitates the transformation of ideas into therapies requires a pipeline that runs from bench to bedside, and NIAID has leveraged the entire spectrum of conventional and biodefense resources. NIAID works in partnership with other federal agencies, industry, foundation partners, and foreign governments. The basic and clinical research supported by NIAID will, ideally, continue to yield profound rewards in terms of the understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of infectious diseases.
The model theory of differential fields with finitely many commuting derivations

In this paper we set out the basic model theory of differential fields of characteristic 0, which have finitely many commuting derivations. We give axioms for the theory of differentially closed differential fields with m derivations and show that this theory is ω-stable, model complete, and quantifier-eliminable, and that it admits elimination of imaginaries. We give a characterization of forking and compute the rank of this theory to be ωm + 1.
People Skills: Leading Virtual Teams—A Change Management Perspective

This is another in a series of articles about some of the most effective models, methods, and processes of organization development (OD), also known as change management, a discipline that offers much to professionals intent on solving real-world problems. Because it is based on a systemic view of organizations, OD includes the whole universe of fuzzy people issues that increasingly determine the success or failure of efforts to implement otherwise flawless technical solutions. This article examines the growing phenomenon of geographically distributed teams that interact primarily by using technology. The primary focus is on how modern leadership and change management principles and practices can enhance a leader's ability to overcome the challenges that such virtual teams present.
Kinetics of Chlorophyll Degradation to Pyropheophytin in Vegetables

Pyropheophytins a and b were determined as predominant chlorophyll derivatives in heat processed spinach. Chlorophylls a, b, pheophytins a, b and pyropheophytins a, b were quantitated in fresh, blanched and heat processed spinach at 116, 121 and 126°C. First order degradation rate constants were determined to calculate activation energies of 25.2 and 22.5 Kcal/mole for chlorophylls a and b and 20.7 and 15.7 Kcal/mole for pheophytins a and b, respectively. Based on the results, the suggested mechanism for the decomposition of chlorophyll during heat processing of vegetables is: Chlorophyll Pheophytin Pyropheophytin. Pyropheophytins a and b were major chlorophyll degradation products found in all commercially canned vegetable products surveyed.
The effect of tricyclic antidepressants on stress-induced heart rate changes in panic disorder patients.

: Eight panic disorder patients participated in a double-blind placebocontrolled infusion study designed to induce panic-anxiety in the laboratory both before and after treatment with tricyclic antidepressants. Pre-infusion heart rates for the first infusion were significantly higher than baseline both before and after treatment. The delta increase in pre-infusion heart rates from baseline and the ratios of pre-infusion heart rates to baseline values were not significantly different between before and after treatment conditions indicating similar levels of arousal during the two pre-infusion periods, while the pre-infusion anxiety ratings after treatment were significantly lower.
Channel coding with quadrature-quadrature phase shift-keying (Q/sup 2/PSK) signals

Channel coding due to trellis modulation has been proved to be useful for bandlimited channels. However, these modulations, mostly designed with n-use of 2D signals, are primarily aimed at coding gain only. It is pointed out that utilization of all available signal dimensions, which is limited by the time-bandwidth product, may improve the bandwidth efficiency and simultaneously bring an additional coding gain. Trellis coding with a spectrally efficient 4D signal set based on Q/sup 2/PSK is addressed. Without any expansion of the Q/sup 2/PSK signal set, a simple hand-designed 16-state trellis code provides a coding gain of 6.02 dB. With the same number of states in G. Ungergoeck's (1982) 8-PSK trellis, the gain is 4.1 dB. In low intersymbol interference situations, the bandwidth efficiency of this coded Q/sup 2/PSK is twice that of coded 8-PSK; if both operate at 2 b/s Hz and P/sub b/(E)=10/sup -5/, the coded Q/sup 2/PSK provides a saving of about 4 dB over the coded 8-PSK. Some fully connected trellises with an expanded signal due to 2-use of Q/sup 2/PSK signals are also presented. Two such codes ar rate-7/8 achieve a gain of 5.45 dB with only eight states. >
Genetic Analysis of Calmodulin and Its Targets in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

▪ Abstract Calmodulin, a small, ubiquitous Ca2+-binding protein, regulates a wide variety of proteins and processes in all eukaryotes. CMD1, the single gene encoding calmodulin in S. cerevisiae, is essential, and this review discusses studies that identified many of calmodulin's physiological targets and their functions in yeast cells. Calmodulin performs essential roles in mitosis, through its regulation of Nuf1p/Spc110p, a component of the spindle pole body, and in bud growth, by binding Myo2p, an unconventional class V myosin required for polarized secretion. Surprisingly, mutant calmodulins that fail to bind Ca2+ can perform these essential functions. Calmodulin is also required for endocytosis in yeast and participates in Ca2+-dependent, stress-activated signaling pathways through its regulation of a protein phosphatase, calcineurin, and the protein kinases, Cmk1p and Cmk2p. Thus, calmodulin performs important physiological functions in yeast cells in both its Ca2+-bound and Ca2+-free form.
Effects of Transcription Elongation Rate and Xrn2 Exonuclease Activity on RNA Polymerase II Termination Suggest Widespread Kinetic Competition

The torpedo model of transcription termination asserts that the exonuclease Xrn2 attacks the 5'PO4-end exposed by nascent RNA cleavage and chases down the RNA polymerase. We tested this mechanism using a dominant-negative human Xrn2 mutant and found that it delayed termination genome-wide. Xrn2 nuclease inactivation caused strong termination defects downstream of most poly(A) sites and modest delays at some histone and U snRNA genes, suggesting that the torpedo mechanism is not limited to poly(A) site-dependent termination. A central untested feature of the torpedo model is that there is kinetic competition between the exonuclease and the pol II elongation complex. Using pol II rate mutants, we found that slow transcription robustly shifts termination upstream, and fast elongation extends the zone of termination further downstream. These results suggest that kinetic competition between elongating pol II and the Xrn2 exonuclease is integral to termination of transcription on most human genes.
A Shannon-Theoretic Perspective on Fading Multihop Networks

We consider a frequency-flat fading multihop network with a single active source-destination pair terminals communicating over multiple hops through a set of intermediate relay terminals. We use Shannon-theoretic tools to analyze the tradeoff between energy efficiency and spectral efficiency (known as the power-bandwidth tradeoff) for a simple communication protocol based on time-division decode-and-forward relaying in meaningful asymptotic regimes of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) under a system-wide power constraint on source and relay transmissions. The impact of multi-hopping and channel fading on the key performance measures of the high and low SNR regimes is investigated to shed new light on the possible enhancements in power/bandwidth efficiency and link reliability. In contrast to the common belief that in fading environments communicating over multiple hops suffers significantly in performance due to the worst link limitation, our results indicate that hopping could significantly improve the outage behavior over slow-fading networks and stabilize links against the random channel fluctuations. In particular, we prove that there exists an optimal number of hops that minimizes the end-to-end outage probability and characterize the dependence of this optimal number on the fading statistics and target energy and spectral efficiencies.
Reducing garbage collector cache misses

Cache misses are currently a major factor in the cost of garbage collection, and we expect them to dominate in the future. Traditional garbage collection algorithms exhibit relatively little temporal locality; each live object in the heap is likely to be touched exactly once during each garbage collection. We measure two techniques for dealing with this issue: prefetch-on-grey, and lazy sweeping. The first of these is new in this context. Lazy sweeping has been in common use for a decade. It was introduced as a mechanism for reducing paging and pause times; we argue that it is also crucial for eliminating cache misses during the sweep phase.Our measurements are obtained in the context of a non-moving garbage collector. Fully copying garbage collection inherently requires more traffic through the cache, and thus probably also stands to benefit substantially from something like the prefetch-on-grey technique. Generational garbage collection may reduce the benefit of these techniques for some applications, but experiments with a non-moving generational collector suggest that they remain quite useful.
Induction of Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Phosphatase-1 During Acute Hypertension

Abstract Recently, we demonstrated that elevated blood pressure activates mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinases in rat aorta. Here we provide evidence that the vascular response to acute hypertension also includes induction of MAP kinase phosphatase-1 (MKP-1), which has been shown to function in the dephosphorylation and inactivation of MAP kinases. Restraint or immobilization stress, which leads to a rapid rise in blood pressure, resulted in a rapid and transient induction of MKP-1 mRNA followed by elevated MKP-1 protein expression in rat aorta. That the induction of MKP-1 by restraint was due to the rise in blood pressure was supported by the finding that several different hypertensive agents (phenylephrine, vasopressin, and angiotensin II) were likewise capable of eliciting the response, and sodium nitroprusside, a nonspecific vasodilator agent that prevented the acute rise in blood pressure in response to the hypertensive agents, abrogated MKP-1 mRNA induction. The in vivo effects could not be mimicked by treatment of cultured aortic smooth muscle cells with similar doses of the hypertensive agents. These findings support a role for MKP-1 in the in vivo regulation of MAP kinase activity during hemodynamic stress.
Synthesis of a spin-labeled anti-estrogen as a dynamic motion probe for the estrogen receptor ligand binding domain.

Abstract The preparation and characterization of a novel nitroxide spin probe based on a steroidal anti-estrogen is described. The probe 5 demonstrated very high binding affinity for both the alpha and beta isoforms of the estrogen receptor–ligand binding domain. EPR spectrometric studies demonstrate conformational constraints for the ligand, consistent with the nitroxyl moiety occupying a position just beyond the receptor-solvent interface.
Milk Lipoprotein Lipase Distribution in the Major Fractions of Bovine Milk

Abstract Raw, bovine bulk tank milk and milks from selected cows were separated by ultracentrifugation into four major fractions: casein, sloughed membrane material, serum, and milk fat globule membrane. Milk lipoprotein lipase activity was measured by the pH stat method and protein determinations were made by the Lowry procedure for each of the four fractions in order to calculate specific activity (units per milligram of protein). In six farm-cooled bulk milk samples stored ⩽ 24 h, casein had a significantly higher milk lipoprotein lipase total activity, 35.66 units/ml of milk, than all of the fractions. Serum had the next highest activity with 11.69 units/ml of milk. Fluff and milk fat globule membrane had activities of .80 and .41 units/ml of milk, respectively. The specific activity of the fluff was 3.3 milk lipoprotein lipase units/mg of protein, which was significantly higher than the casein and serum fractions in pooled milk. Milks from five cows in midlactation were assayed individually for milk lipoprotein lipase activity and protein content immediately after milking and after 12, 24, 48 and 72 h of cold (4°C) storage. Fresh warm milk was characterized by the absence of fluff. Casein had the highest mean activity (29.91 units/ml), followed by serum (10.25 units/ml) and milk fat globule membrane (.26 units/ml) in the warm milk from the individual cows. Upon cooling to 4°C, significant increases in enzyme activity in the fluff and milk fat globule membrane fractions were observed at 12 h. In the cooled milks, milk lipoprotein lipase units/mg of protein for casein, fluff, and milk fat globule membrane were not significantly different but were significantly higher than the serum fraction. The specific activity of the fluff following cooling and storage of fresh, raw individual cow's milk suggests an association of the enzyme with sloughed membrane material.
Does International Diversification Pay

Summary and Conclusions This paper examines the benefits of diversification achieved by investing in international markets. Monthly returns for four different indexes—the SP Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) World Index; Europe, Australia, and Far East (EAFE) Index; and the MSCI Europe Index - over a period of 22 years, from 1978 to 2000, are analyzed. In addition, portfolios of domestic and international indexes are created to determine whether international diversification would increase portfolio performance. Efficient frontiers are drawn and minimum-variance portfolios are determined. Furthermore, portfolio returns for the last 10 years of the period, 1991 to 2000, and the last five years, 1996 to 2000, are also analyzed. This is done to test the popular contention that the benefits of international diversification are steadily decreasing. The mean-variance framework and Sharpe measure are also used to determine which index or portfolio has the highest reward-to-variability ratio. Our major finding is that the benefits of international diversification are still present, but are decreasing with time. When the whole period is used, in portfolios with the S&P 500 and all three international indexes, the overall risk is reduced. The Sharpe ratio shows that an investor benefits from investing a part of the portfolio in the EAFE and Europe markets, but not in the world markets. This result is important, as individually the S&P 500 dominates both the EAFE and the Europe indexes. Results from the period’s last 10 years, as well as from the last five years, indicate that the benefits of international diversification are diminishing and that the correlations between the world markets are
Lamb wave based diagnostics of composite plates using a modified time reversal method

Lamb wave based diagnostics of composite plates using a time reversal method is investigated. Composite plates are impacted by a steel ball from various heights to cause increasing levels of damage. A transducer array, consisting of PZT patches, is used to send and receive A0 Lamb waves. Wavelet analysis is used to denoise and clean up the received signals. For each actuator-sensor pair, the time reversal procedure is conducted. Based on the comparison between the actuated signal and the signal received after time reversal, a damage index is computed and outlying damage index values are used as a basis for damage detection. Preliminary results show that the method can detect presence, location and intensity of damage. Fur- ther experiments are planned to investigate sensitivity and consistency of damage detection.
Use of multiresolution wavelet feature pyramids for automatic registration of multisensor imagery

The problem of image registration, or the alignment of two or more images representing the same scene or object, has to be addressed in various disciplines that employ digital imaging. In the area of remote sensing, just like in medical imaging or computer vision, it is necessary to design robust, fast, and widely applicable algorithms that would allow automatic registration of images generated by various imaging platforms at the same or different times and that would provide subpixel accuracy. One of the main issues that needs to be addressed when developing a registration algorithm is what type of information should be extracted from the images being registered, to be used in the search for the geometric transformation that best aligns them. The main objective of this paper is to evaluate several wavelet pyramids that may be used both for invariant feature extraction and for representing images at multiple spatial resolutions to accelerate registration. We find that the bandpass wavelets obtained from the steerable pyramid due to Simoncelli performs best in terms of accuracy and consistency, while the low-pass wavelets obtained from the same pyramid give the best results in terms of the radius of convergence. Based on these findings, we propose a modification of a gradient-based registration algorithm that has recently been developed for medical data. We test the modified algorithm on several sets of real and synthetic satellite imagery.
Fabrication and Properties of an Anisotropic TiO2 Dielectric Composite

Thermoplastic co-extrusion was employed to fabricate an anisotropic dielectric composite based on titanium dioxide with a microcellular architecture with 50 μm macropore channels aligned to create unidirectional porosity. The resulting channeled structure exhibits artificial anisotropic dielectric properties, with the dielectric relative permittivity being 9.6 transverse to the channels and 90 in the longitudinal direction.