cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Continuous culture of the microalgae Schizochytrium limacinum on biodiesel-derived crude glycerol for producing docosahexaenoic acid.

Abstract Crude glycerol is a major byproduct of the biodiesel industry; previous research has proved the feasibility of producing docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6 n − 3) through fermentation of the algae Schizochytrium limacinum on crude glycerol. The objective of this work is to investigate the cell growth kinetics, substrate utilization efficiency, and DHA production of the algae through a continuous culture. Steady-state biomass yield, biomass productivity, growth yield on glycerol, specific glycerol consumption rate, and fatty acid composition were investigated within the range of dilution rate ( D ) from 0.2 to 0.6 day −1 , and the range of feed crude glycerol concentration ( S 0 ) from 15 to 120 g/L. The maximum specific growth rate was determined as 0.692 day −1 . The cells had a true growth yield of 0.283 g/g but with a relatively high maintenance coefficient (0.2216 day −1 ). The highest biomass productivity of 3.88 g/L-day was obtained at D = 0.3 day −1 and S 0 = 60 g/L, while the highest DHA productivity (0.52 g/L-day) was obtained at D = 0.3 day −1 and S 0 = 90 g/L due to the higher DHA content at S 0 = 90 g/L. The biomass and DHA productivity of the continuous culture was comparable to those of batch culture, while lower than the fed-batch culture, mainly because of the lower DHA content obtained by the continuous culture. Overall, the results show that continuous culture is a powerful tool to investigate the cell growth kinetics and physiological behaviors of the algae growing on biodiesel-derived crude glycerol.
Effect of Heating Rate and Protein Concentration on Gel Strength and Water Loss of Muscle Protein Gels

The effects of heating rates (17, 38 and 85°C/hr) and protein concentration (10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 mg/mL) on gels made of extracted salt-soluble proteins were evaluated. Gel strength decreased when heating rate was increased. A greater water loss from compressed gels occurred at protein concentrations of 10 and 20 mg/mL than at 30 to 50 mg/mL Protein loss in the expelled water, after compression, was less for the slower heating rates while the total amount of protein in the expelled water increased with increasing protein concentration in the system. SDS gel electrophoresis demonstrated a change in some of the expelled proteins at different heating rates.
Quantitative genetics of human skin color

Skin color has long been of interest to human geneticists and often used as an example of a human quantitative trait under relatively wellunderstood genetic control. Although the basic biology of melanin production and the method of measurement are areas in which skin color studies are fairly well advanced, compared to other quantitative traits, the evolutionary significance and mode of inheritance are still being debated. In view of the many steps involved in the production and dispersion of melanin and the large number of loci involved in coat color of laboratory animals, it is suggested that genetic control of human skin color must be fairly complex. Studies that have found evidence for relatively few loci effecting the differences between racial groups may either be using inappropriate methods, or they may be concentrating attention on only that portion of genetic variability that distinguishes between major world groups, particularly blacks and whites. Genetic analysis of intermediate groups and pedigree analysis of rare pigmentation conditions may yield more information on skin color genetics.
Ambient Air Quality Assessment via Comprehensive Evaluation through Automatic Weight Determining

A mathematical model is built for air quality evaluation, which has taken PM2.5, PM10, SO2, NO2, CO and O3 six parameters into consideration. The comprehensive air quality evaluation is carried out via standard deviation method and principle component analysis method; automatic weight determining has been discussed. Correlations of the factors are considered and a preprocess procedure is issued to eliminate the effects. Ambient air quality data of eleven cities are taken as an example and the comprehensive evaluation results are compared, which shows the mathematical model provides a viable approach to environmental assessment.
Synthesis and Characterization of Carbon Nanotube−Nanocrystal Heterostructures

Oxidized single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) have been reacted with cadmium selenide (CdSe) nanocrystals, capped with mercaptothiol derivatives, as well as with titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanocrystals, functionalized with 11-aminoundecanoic acid to form nanoscale heterostructures, characterized by transmission electron microscopy and infrared spectroscopy. The reaction with acid-terminated CdSe nanocrystals and acid-terminated tubes was facilitated with the aid of intermediary linking agents, such as ethylenediamine and semicarbazide, in an amide-forming reaction in the presence of 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide hydrochloride, EDC. Based on electronic absorption spectroscopy, charge transfer is thought to proceed from the nanocrystal to the nanotube in the CdSe−nanotube system, whereas in the TiO2−nanotube system, charge transfer is expected to occur from the nanotube to the nanocrystal.
Acquired resistance in snails. Induction of resistance to Schistosoma mansoni in Biomphalaria glabrata.

Abstract Acquired resistance to Schistosoma mansoni PR-I strain has been induced in Biomphalaria glabrata 442132 strain by infecting the snails with irradiated homologous miracidia. Present and previous results support the hypothesis that acquired resistance to trematodes in snails is an enhancement of the host's natural resistance to the parasite.
An overview of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway

When the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway of Mississippi and Alabama opened to commercial and recreational traffic on January 16, 1985—some 21 months ahead of schedule—it signaled the completion of the largest Army Corps of Engineers Civil Works project ever undertaken, and perhaps the last of its kind After more than a century of studies and re-studies and major funding battles in Congress, the Tennessee-Tombigbee construction faced, predictably, great opposition on environmental grounds The first major project to be completed under the National Environmental Policy Act, it brought environmental design to the same level of prominence as engineering design.
Task-evoked substantia nigra hyperactivity associated with prefrontal hypofunction, prefrontonigral disconnectivity and nigrostriatal connectivity predicting psychosis severity in medication naïve first episode schizophrenia

The widely cited prefrontal dysfunction - excess subcortical dopamine model of schizophrenia posits that prefrontal deficits give rise to cognitive impairments and the disinhibition of subcortical dopamine release underlying psychosis. While this has been one of the most influential schizophrenia models, only a handful of studies have provided evidence supporting it directly in patients with schizophrenia. We previously demonstrated task-evoked substantia nigra hyperactivity in the context of prefrontal hypofunction and prefrontonigral functional disconnectivity. In addition, nigrostriatal functional connectivity was identified as a potential marker of psychosis. Because patients in this prior study had chronic schizophrenia and were treated with antipsychotics, in the present study we tested whether these findings were confounded by illness chronicity and medication effects by seeking to reproduce these findings in an independent sample of antipsychotic naive, first episode (FE) patients. We compared event-related fMRI activations from 12 FE patients with 15 demographically matched healthy control subjects during cognitive testing. We found substantia nigra hyperactivity associated with prefrontal hypofunction and prefrontonigral functional disconnectivity, as well as the magnitude of nigrostriatal functional connectivity positively correlating with severity of psychosis. This study adds to the body of evidence supporting the prefrontal-dopamine model of schizophrenia and further validates nigrostriatal functional connectivity as a marker of psychosis.
Shapes and gravitational moments of satellites and asteroids

Abstract The shapes and gravitational moments of tidally and rotationally distorted satellites with nonuniform internal density distributions are calculated. Spacecraft determinations of the radii and (a) the gravitational moments of some satellites of Jupiter and Saturn, particularly Io, Ganymede and Titan or (b) the shapes of some others, particularly Mimas and Tethys, could provide unambiguo3s evidence of either internal differentiation or orbital evolution. The shapes of rotationally distorted asteroids are discussed briefly.
The β-induced drift of separated boundary currents

Abstract Western boundary currents flow poleward from low latitudes until they ultimately separate from the coast and turn eastward into the ocean interior. The separation is mainly due to either: (i) the variation of the Coriolis parameter with latitude (β) which causes vanishing of the near-wall depth; (ii) vanishing wind stress curl over the ocean interior which forces zero meridional transport; or (iii) opposing currents that flow toward the equator and force the northward flowing currents to turn offshore ( Agra and Nof , Deep Sea Research I, 40, 2259–2282). Here, we focus on the third kind of separated currents and show that, due to β, such separated currents migrate along the wall. A nonlinear “reduced gravity” one-and-a-half layer model is used to compute the desired migration speed. Solutions of the primitive equations are constructed analytically assuming that the translation rate is steady. It is found that the migration rate along the wall is given by βRd2 cosα/2 sinγ, where Rd is the Rossby radius, α an angle that measures the inclination of the joint offshore currents relative to the north, and γ is the angle between the axis of the joint offshore currents and the wall. The migration meridional component can be either northward or southward (depending on the inclination of the wall) but the zonal component is always westward. When the separated joint offshore flow is in the east-west direction (i.e. α = π/2 or 3π/2 so that the separated flow is zonal) no migration is taking place. It turns out that the above migration formula is so robust that it is also describes the migration rate in a two-and-a-half layer model where one current is allowed to, at least partially, dive under the other. For most separated currents the computed migration rate is a few centimeters per second. Possible application of this theory to the Confluence zone in the South Atlantic (where significant seasonal movement of the separation latitude has been observed) is discussed.
Nonvolatile Holographic Storage with Two-Step Recording in Lithium Niobate using cw Lasers

We have demonstrated nonvolatile holographic storage with two-photon, two-step recording in nominally pure lithium niobate. An energy level slightly below the conduction band with lifetime 10--100 ms was found to be the intermediate state in the two-step electron ionization. The long lifetime allowed the use of cw lasers with moderate intensity at near infrared wavelengths. Nonvolatile readout of volume holographic images stored at near infrared wavelength was demonstrated.
The Relationship of Anger Expression to Health Problems Among Black Americans in a National Survey

This study examined the relationship between anger expression, other psychosocial measures, and health problems in a nationally representative, cross-sectional sample of 1277 black adults. Subjects indicating a high level of outwardly expressed anger during a period in which they experienced a severe personal problem had a significantly higher number of health problems than their counterparts who expressed low and moderate levels of anger. Anger expression also significantly interacted with a measure of life strain (employment status) to predict health problems. Blacks who were unemployed were more likely to have a higher number of health problems if anger was expressed outwardly at a high level. The relationship was found to be independent of age, gender, urbanicity, smoking, and drinking problems. The overall pattern of the findings suggests that blacks who are at increased risk for health problems may be identified by how often anger is experienced and expressed during periods of emotional distress.
Spanish origins of American Empire: Hispanism, history, and commemoration, 1898–1915

Abstract Since the end of the cold war, and with particular urgency since the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, historians and pundits have searched for parallel cases that make sense of the United States' military and economic predominance in the current international order. Many have chosen the British empire in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as the most telling. As Dane Kennedy argues in an article recently published in The International History Review: ‘The United States' immediate predecessor was the British empire, and it should be the first case to which we turn for meaningful historical comparisons.’1 For Kennedy, the United States, despite coming into existence by breaking away from the British empire, retained many of its institutions and doctrinal traditions. Having marshalled them to new purposes while expanding across the continent, the United States turned its attention abroad. Kennedy shows that, despite the different worlds of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, both Bri...
Observations of Two Stratospheric Dust Events

Abstract Two recent volcanic eruptions (Volcan del Fuego in Guatemala, October 1974, and Ngauruhoe in New Zealand, 19 February 1975) may have populated the stratosphere with sufficient ash to create large-scale stratospheric dust veils. Optical effects on twilight sky radiance, apparently created by the eruption of Fuego, were observed at College, Alaska, three months after the eruption. In lower latitudes the Fuego dust veil effects were observed to peak and then decline one or two months following the eruption. Based on these observations, it is surmised that the Fuego dust veil underwent northerly meridional transport in winter and spring. On 20 March 1975, however, a strong volcanic twilight was observed at Mauna Loa, Hawaii. Lidar echoes showed the presence of a two-layer dust cloud. It is suggested that this episode may have been caused by dust from Ngauruhoe that was mixed across the Hadley cell circulation system from the Southern Hemisphere.
Gated Intensifier Video For Ballistic Instrumentation

Gated intensified video cameras offer advantages of realtime imagery, short exposure times, compact size and cost savings over conventional film cameras for synchro ballistic photography. A video system including event sensor, programmable delay timer, and gated intensified camera is described which was used to record video images of 20 mm, 30 mm and 5 inch gun fired projectiles in flight. Reproductions of representative video images are included.
Interleukin-12 delivered by biodegradable microspheres promotes the antitumor activity of human peripheral blood lymphocytes in a human head and neck tumor xenograft/SCID mouse model.

Background The role of cytokines in tumor regression is now well established. The major limitation for the clinical use of cytokines is the lack of a simple and effective protocol for the local and sustained delivery of cytokines to the tumor milieu. This study reports suppression of human head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) by human peripheral blood lymphocytes (HuPBL) following local, sustained delivery of interleukin-12 (IL-12) to tumors with biodegradable microspheres in a human/SCID mouse chimeric model. Materials and Methods Nondisrupted biopsy pieces (120 mg) of primary HNSCC were implanted s.c. into severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mice and were expanded by serial passage in mice. Tumors were then titrated with different doses of allogeneic HuPBL by coengraftment of tumor pieces and HuPBL into the subcutis of SCID mice to determine whether the HuPBL possessed antitumor activity (the SCID/Winn model). The lymphocyte subsets that were responsible for the suppression of tumor engraftment were identified by selective depletion of the CD4+, CD8+, and CD56+ cells from the HuPBL prior to engraftment into mice. Attempts were then made to augment the antitumor activity of the HuPBL either by repeated intralesional bolus injections of recombinant human IL-12 (0.5 μg × 10 doses) or with a single dose of IL-12-loaded microspheres (∼1.65 μg IL-12/mg microspheres, 2 mg microspheres/mouse). Results Successful engraftment of HNSCC was observed in 12 of 19 different patient samples. Normal histological architecture of tumor was maintained up to four serial passages in the SCID mice. After the first tumor engraftment, but not in subsequent passages, human immunoglobulin produced by plasma cells present in the tumor infiltrating lymphocyte population was detected in the mouse sera. Allogeneic human PBL displayed antitumor cytotoxic activity in a cell dose-dependent fashion when coengrafted with the tumors passaged in SCID mice. Lymphocyte subset depletion studies established that tumor suppression was dependent on both the CD8+ T lymphocytes and the CD56+ natural killer cells. Treatment of tumors with a single intralesional injection of IL-12-loaded microspheres was highly effective, resulting in the complete suppression of tumor engraftment in 50% of the mice. In contrast, treatment of tumors with repeated bolus IL-12 injections suppressed tumor engraftment only transiently and did not result in complete tumor rejection in any of the mice. Conclusion The coengraftment of HNSCC and allogeneic lymphocytes into SCID mice provides a viable model with which to evaluate immunotherapeutic strategies for human cancer. The use of biodegradable microspheres for local sustained delivery of cytokines to augment lymphocyte mediated antitumor immunity within the tumor microenvironment provides a safer and simpler alternative to current cytokine immunotherapy protocols. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Head Neck 22: 57–63, 2000.
Converting My Course Converted Me: How Reinventing an On‐campus Course for an Online Environment Reinvigorated My Teaching

. The challenge of learning to teach online leads a junior faculty person to achieve greater levels of teaching satisfaction and proficiency overall. For this professor transitioning an on-campus pastoral liturgy course to an online environment brings about serendipitous discoveries that allow him to do more than survive as a frustrated teacher. The transition creates a revolution in one professor's whole approach to teaching.
Dangling chain elastomers as repeatable fibrillar adhesives.

This work reports on repeatable adhesive materials prepared by controlled grafting of dangling hetero chains from polymer elastomers. The dangling chain elastomer system was prepared by grafting poly(n-butyl acrylate) (PBA) chains from prefunctionalized polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) elastomer networks using atom transfer radical polymerization. To study the effects of chain growth and network strain as they relate to network adhesion mechanics, various lengths of PBA chains with degree of polymerizations (DP) of 65, 281, 508, and 1200 were incorporated into the PDMS matrix. PBA chains with a DP value of 281 grafted from a flat PDMS substrate showed the highest (∼3.5-fold) enhancement of nano- and macroscale adhesion relative to a flat raw (ungrafted and not prefunctionalized) PDMS substrate. Moreover, to study the effect of PBA dangling chains on adhesion in fibrillar elastomer structures inspired by gecko foot hairs, a dip-transfer fabrication method was used to graft PBA chains with a DP value of 296 from...
A New Method for the Electronic and Chemical Passivation of GaAs Surfaces Using CS2

A new GaAs surface passivation method, CS2 treatment at moderate temperature was developed for effective passivation of GaAs surfaces. The CS2 treatment of GaAs surfaces at 350 °C and 10 atm leads to deposition of a homogeneous film, with a thickness of several hundred angstroms. The passivation layer thus produced causes a significant enhancement in room temperature photoluminescence intensity and the passivation effect of the sulfide film was confirmed by Raman spectroscopy. The passivation layer remained electrically and chemically stable over a period of nine months under ambient atmospheric conditions. In-depth Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) revealed that the carbon and oxygen content in the film was negligible, whereas sulfur was uniformly distributed throughout the film. A metal-insulator-semiconductor diode whose insulating layer is produced by the CS2 treatment shows well-defined accumulation and depletion regions in its capacitance-voltage (C-V) characteristics with low hysteresis.
A global load balancing strategy for a distributed computer system

A load-balancing strategy is described for a computer systems connected by a multiaccess broadcast network. The strategy uses the existing broadcast capability of these networks to implement an efficient search technique for finding stations with the maximum and the minimum workload. The overhead of distributing status information in the proposed strategy is independent of the number of stations, eliminating the primary source of overhead in load balancing. An implementation of the strategy on a network of Sun workstations is presented. It consists of two modules that are executed at all participating computers: the distributed-search module that isolates the maximally and minimally loaded computers, and the job-migration module that places a job on the basic of the load extremes. >
ENDOCRINE FACTORS IN THE RESPONSE OF THE HYPOTHYROID RAT TO COLD

FOLLOWING either thyroidectomy or adrenalectomy the rat fails to survive exposure to conditions of low environmental temperature that are tolerated indefinitely by the intact animal. Leblond and Gross (1943) noted that thyroidectomy reduced, but did not prevent, the increase in adrenal weight exhibited by normal rats exposed to cold. Ershoff (1948) described the failure of adrenal cortical extract to prolong the survival of thiouracil-treated rats in cold, in which experiments thyroxin, in microgram quantities, allowed 100% survival. These findings suggest that the decrease in adrenal cortical activity (Leblond and Hoff, 1944; Baumann and Marine, 1945; Freedman and Gordon, 1950) plays a secondary role to the thyroid in the response of the hypothyroid rat to cold. Zarrow and Money (1949) found a direct correlation between adrenal size and survival time in thiouracil-treated rats. Blockage of the formation of 11-oxycorticosteroids, either through a lack of ACTH or because of an inability of the adrenal cort...
Mission visualization for planning and training

The question often arises whether virtual reality serves any purpose other than for games and entertainment. We believe VR can provide unique benefits to one problem domain: training for operations where classroom instruction is insufficient but "hands-on" practice is dangerous, expensive, logistically complex, or limited in the possible range of experience. Examples of such applications include law enforcement, emergency response, and rapid deployment military operations. Our research focuses specifically on the use of VR to train people for small-team, close-quarters operations. Our interest is in training a person to handle a specific situation or set of scenarios, rather than to perform a given task. >
Energy proportionality for storage: impact and feasibility

This paper highlights the growing importance of storage energy consumption in a typical data center, and asserts that storage energy research should drive towards a vision of energy proportionality for achieving significant energy savings. Our analysis of real-world enterprise workloads shows a potential energy reduction of 40-75% using an ideally proportional system. We then present a preliminary analysis of appropriate techniques to achieve proportionality, chosen to match both application requirements and workload characteristics. Based on the techniques we have identified, we believe that energy proportionality is achievable in storage systems at a time scale that will make sense in real world environments.
On constructing k-connected k-dominating set in wireless networks

An important problem in wireless networks, such as wireless ad hoc and sensor networks, is to select a few nodes to form a virtual backbone that supports routing and other tasks such as area monitoring. Previous work in this area has focused on selecting a small virtual backbone for high efficiency. We propose to construct a k-connected k-dominating set (k-CDS) as a backbone to balance efficiency and fault tolerance. Three localized k-CDS construction protocols are proposed. The first protocol randomly selects virtual backbone nodes with a given probability p/sub k/, where p/sub k/ depends on network condition and the value of k. The second protocol is a deterministic approach. It extends Wu and Dai's coverage condition, which is originally designed for 1-CDS construction, to ensure the formation of a k-CDS. The last protocol is a hybrid of probabilistic and deterministic approaches. It provides a generic framework that can convert many existing CDS algorithms into k-CDS algorithms. These protocols are evaluated via a simulation study.
Effect of topology on the thermodynamic limit for a string gas.

We discuss the thermodynamic limit for a gas of strings at high energy densities. This is defined by studying the statistical properties of the gas in a compact space and taking the size of the space to infinity keeping the energy density finite. We obtain a behavior that is different from earlier treatments where the gas is considered at the same energy density but living in a noncompact space. In particular we show that the gas is not dominated by a single energetic string above the Hagedorn energy density, but instead the number of energetic strings is ln{ital R}/ {radical}{alpha}{prime} where {ital R} is the radius of the universe and {alpha}{prime} the slope parameter. The reason for the thermodynamic behavior being sensitive to topology is the existence of winding modes that can sense the large-scale structure of the space.
Molecular dynamics simulations of PNIPAM-co-PEGMA copolymer hydrophilic to hydrophobic transition in NaCl solution

Classical molecular dynamics simulations were carried out to investigate the hydrophilic to hydrophobic transition of PNIPAM-co-PEGMA close to its lower critical solution temperature (LCST) in 1 M NaCl solution. PNIPAM-co-PEGMA is a copolymer of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) and poly(ethylene glycol) methacrylate (PEGMA). The copolymer consists of 38 monomer units of NIPAM with two PEGMA chains attached to the PNIAPM backbone. The PNIPAM-co-PEGMA was observed to go through the hydrophilic−hydrophobic conformational change for simulations at temperature slightly above its LCST. Na+ ions were found to bind strongly and directly with amide O, even more strongly with the O atoms on PEGAMS chains, whereas Cl− ions only exhibit weak interaction with the polymer. Significantly a novel caged stable metal-organic complex involving a Na+ ion coordinated by six O atoms from the copolymer was observed after the PNIPAM-co-PEGMA copolymer went through conformational transition to form a hydrophobic folded structure. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys, 2011
Modifications of Testosterone-Dependent Behaviors by Estrogen Receptor-α Gene Disruption in Male Mice1

The role of the α form of estrogen receptor (ERα) gene expression in the regulation of testosterone-dependent male reproductive behaviors was investigated using ER knockout mice (ERKO), which are specifically deficient in functional ERα, but not ERβ, gene expression. Previous studies in gonadally intact ERKO mice revealed that male aggressive behavior was greatly reduced by the lack of a functional ERα gene. In the present study the almost complete suppression of male-typical offensive attacks was further confirmed in ERKO mice that had been singly housed since weaning. Regarding aggression, it was also found that ERα gene disruption virtually abolished the propensity to initiate offensive attacks, even though ERKO mice could elicit attacks from resident C57BL/6J mice as wild-type (WT) and heterozygous littermates. Daily injection of testosterone propionate (TP) was completely ineffective in inducing aggressive behavior in gonadectomized ERKO mice, whereas it successfully restored aggression in WT mice. I...
Cetuximab Shows Activity in Colorectal Cancer Patients With Tumors That Do Not Express the Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor by Immunohistochemistry

Purpose To establish evidence of activity, or lack thereof, of cetuximab-based therapy in patients with refractory colorectal cancer with tumors that do not demonstrate epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) expression by immunohistochemistry (IHC). Patients and Methods Pharmacy computer records were reviewed to identify all patients who received cetuximab at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in a nonstudy setting during the first 3 months of cetuximab's commercial availability. Medical records of these patients were then reviewed to identify colorectal cancer patients who had experienced failure with a prior irinotecan-based regimen and who had a pathology report indicating an EGFR-negative tumor by IHC. Pathology slides from these patients were reviewed by a reference pathologist to confirm EGFR negativity, and computed tomography scans during cetuximab-based therapy were reviewed by a reference radiologist. Response rates were reported using WHO criteria. Results Sixteen chemotherapy-refractory, ...
The Syntenic Relationship of the Zebrafish and Human Genomes

The zebrafish is an important vertebrate model for the mutational analysis of genes effecting developmental processes. Understanding the relationship between zebrafish genes and mutations with those of humans will require understanding the syntenic correspondence between the zebrafish and human genomes. High throughput gene and EST mapping projects in zebrafish are now facilitating this goal. Map positions for 523 zebrafish genes and ESTs with predicted human orthologs reveal extensive contiguous blocks of synteny between the zebrafish and human genomes. Eighty percent of genes and ESTs analyzed belong to conserved synteny groups (two or more genes linked in both zebrafish and human) and 56% of all genes analyzed fall in 118 homology segments (uninterrupted segments containing two or more contiguous genes or ESTs with conserved map order between the zebrafish and human genomes). This work now provides a syntenic relationship to the human genome for the majority of the zebrafish genome.
Evolution of enzyme activities and fibrin formation after contact of plasma with glass.

At least ten proteins play a role in normal blood coagulation. Nine of these are important in coagulation promoted by contact with glass, and are probably involved in coagulation triggered by other surfaces. These proteins have been established as separate entities by the existence of human mutants who lack, on an inherited basis, the ability to synthesize one of them. They have been assigned Roman numerals until their chemistry and mode of catalysis are better understood. Several of them have been substantially purified. Experiments with purified preparations indicate that they interact in pairs. Thrombin (activated factor II) converts fibrinogen (factor I) to fibrin by controlled partial proteolysis; the same mechanism probably operates in the conversion of factor IX to activated factor IX by activated factor XI, and gel filtration experiments are presented here which support this view. Similarly, partial proteolysis is probably the mechanism whereby thrombin converts factor XIII to activated factor XIII. Activated factor XIII converts fibrin from a urea-soluble form to a urea-insoluble form by transpeptidation between a glutamine residue on one fibrin strand and a lysine e-amino residue on an adjacent fibrin strand. In general, when a pair of coagulation proteins interacts, one of them, the enzyme, converts the second from enzyme, which then catalyzes yet another similar reaction. The probable exceptions to this rule are factors VIII and V, which interact with phospholipid and another protein in a more complex manner.
Mathematical and Physical Modeling of Actin Dynamics in Motile Cells

Mathematical modeling has been very instrumental in aiding traditional experimental methods in uncovering the mysteries of actin dynamics. Here we review recent quantitative models of actin dynamics focusing on ATP hydrolysis effects, force generation by single actin filaments and networks, self-organization and dynamics of actin networks, dynamics of lamellipodia , filopodia and lamella, and integrative mechanochemistry of whole motile cells. We discuss both modeling methods and specific insights from modeling that helped answering biological questions.
Initial Development of a Temporal-Envelope-Preserving Nonlinear Hearing Aid Prescription Using a Genetic Algorithm

Most hearing aid prescriptions focus on the optimization of a metric derived from the long-term average spectrum of speech, and do not consider how the prescribed values might distort the temporal envelope shape. A growing body of evidence suggests that such distortions can lead to systematic errors in speech perception, and therefore hearing aid prescriptions might benefit by including preservation of the temporal envelope shape in their rationale. To begin to explore this possibility, we designed a genetic algorithm (GA) to find the multiband compression settings that preserve the shape of the original temporal envelope while placing that envelope in the listener’s audiometric dynamic range. The resulting prescription had a low compression threshold, short attack and release times, and a combination of compression ratio and gain that placed the output signal within the listener’s audiometric dynamic range. Initial behavioral tests of individuals with impaired hearing revealed no difference in speech-in-noise perception between the GA and the NAL-NL2 prescription. However, gap detection performance was superior with the GA in comparison to NAL-NL2. Overall, this work is a proof of concept that consideration of temporal envelope distortions can be incorporated into hearing aid prescriptions.
The duration of physiological icterus neonatorum.

Summary. A study is made of the duration of physiological icterus neonatorum in a group of apparently healthy children. The investigation is based on 946 children in all, 476 boys and 470 girls. Of these, 607 (64.16 ± 1.56%) exhibited jaundice. Jaundice of longer duration than 48 hours and of rather distinct character occurred in a total of 291 children (30.70 ± 1.50%). Statistically, this rather pronounced jaundice was more common in children with a low birth-weight than in children with normal birth-weight. Among children with a birth-weight below 2500 grams it thus occurred in 82.05 ± 6.15% of cases, among those with a birth-weight above 2500 grams in 28.56 ± 1.49% Jaundice appears somewhat earlier in children with a low birth-weight than in those with normal birth-weight The average duration of physiological jaundice lasting in general more than 48 hours has beeen 11.37 ± 0.36 days in the present material. Children with a low birth-weight show, on an average, a longer duration of jaundice than children with birth-weights above 3000 grams Icterus neonatorum prolongatus, i.e. icterus with a duration of at least 14 days, occurred in 80 cases out of the 946, which gives a frequency of 8.46 ± 0.90%. Here, too, the frequency is incomparably highest in children with a birth-weight below 2500 grams (48.72 ± 8.00%). In children with birth-weights above 2500 grams the corresponding frequency was 6.73 ± 0.83%. Among children with a low birth-weight, below 2500 grams, jaundice lasted between 14 and 20 days in 7 cases and between 20 and 30 days in the remaining 12. Infants with birth-weights above 2500 grams showed a duration of between 14 and 20 days in 35 cases, of between 20 and 30 days in 24 cases, and of more than 30 days in 2 instances. The longest duration observed was 37 days Children having a distinct and rather long-standing jaundice showed a, statistically verified, greater initial fall in weight than a control series with normal birth-weight and without visible jaundice A study of the behaviour of the prothrombin index after prophylactic administration of vitamin K on the second or third day of life showed no difference between eases with or without long-standing or distinct jaundice.
Beyond interdisciplinary: how sustainability creates opportunities for pan-university efforts

In many universities, sustainability is gaining currency in the classroom, in research, and in practice. This paper will examine how George Washington University has crafted sustainability education as a pan-university program. We briefly discuss the origins GW’s sustainability efforts, then explain how the vision of a pan-university approach was developed. GW’s Academic Program in Sustainability does not reside in any one school—instead it sits under the Office of the Provost. As such, Sustainability belongs to all schools. We next discuss the development of a pan-university sustainability minor, open to all students, and featuring courses and faculty from all schools at the university. As universities undertake efforts to integrate sustainability into the curriculum, an important element is team-teaching. Because sustainability is inherently trans-disciplinary, courses that are team-taught generate multiple perspectives on the same issues, leading to dynamic and engaging discussions with faculty and students. We examine the success of the Introduction to Sustainability course that uses five faculty from five different schools at GW to provide students the exposure to how different disciplines problem solve around sustainability, and how a team approach lends itself well to the learning outcomes of the course. There is also tremendous value in student experiential learning around sustainability. GW requires Sustainability minors to complete an internship or service project around sustainability, and we discuss how this is structured. We also highlight how the process of creating a pan-university program in sustainability provided an opportunity for faculty collaboration, creativity, and “thinking outside the box” approaches. Finally, by positioning sustainability as pan-university, we have met with challenges. We address the challenges and obstacles to creating a genuinely pan-university effort that seeks to escape the traditional “silos” of schools and departments and to move beyond interdisciplinarity as well.
State Income Migration and Border Tax Burdens

Citizens are departing high tax US states for low tax rates. These effects are particularly strong among bordering states. Each positive 1 percentage point tax burden differential between states decreases the ratio of income migration into the high tax state by 6.78 percent in a given year. This paper highlights the states which are regionally competitive (Texas and Tennessee), regionally non-competitive (California, Florida, and New Jersey), and those states on the edge of being non-competitive on all borders (Illinois and New York).
Evidence Engineering

The costs of computing have decreased a billion times over half a century. The focus of software engineering has consequently transformed from trying to squeeze as much as possible from every compute cycle and of every bit of memory, to improving developer productivity, and, as of late, to engineering user experiences and behaviors. As computing becomes a commodity, software is omnipresent in all parts of life and, therefore, it either helps end users make decisions or it makes decisions for them. Because most users are not able to understand software systems or articulating their needs, software systems have both to collect massive amounts of operational data related to user activities and to analyze and use that data to provide user experiences that lead to desired outcomes, e.g., increasing sales revenue or the quality of software (if the user happens to be a software developer). It no longer suffices to deliver software that requires, for example, an entry field for a specific piece of data. Instead, the software has to ensure that users can and will enter the relevant data or it has to obtain the data by observing user behavior. Moreover, the software has to ensure that the resulting data reflects the intended quantities, and that the quality of that data is sufficient to make important decisions either automatically of with human support. Such software is engineered to provide accurate and actionable evidence and, therefore, it requires novel approaches to design, implement, test, and operate it. The criteria for success demand much more than performing a well-defined task according to specification. Software has to provide evidence that is both accurate and also leads to the intended user behavior. In contexts where the desired user behaviors are relatively well defined, some existing software systems achieve these goals through detailed measurement of behavior and massive use of AB testing (in which two samples of users provided slightly different versions of software in order to estimate the effect these differences have on user activity). It is not clear if and how these approaches could generalize to the setting where the desired behaviors are less clearly defined or vary among users. As operation and measurement are becoming increasingly a part of software development, the separation between the software tools and end-user software are increasingly blurred. Similarly, the measurement associated with testing and use of software is increasingly becoming an integral part of the software delivered to users. Software engineering needs to catch up with these realities by adjusting the topics of its study. Software construction, development, build, delivery, and operation will become increasingly critical tools and an integral part of the software system. Simply concerning ourselves with architectures and languages to support scalable computation and storage will not be enough. Software systems will have to produce compelling evidence, not simply store or push bits around. Software engineering will, therefore, need to become evidence engineering.
Existential Authenticity Exploratory Factor Analyses

One hundred three research participants completed questionnaires pertaining to four propensities for existential authenticity: the propensity to question the meaning of existence, the propensity to...
Oita International Electrocardiology Symposium 2000 “Electrophysiology and Management of Lethal Arrhythmias in the New Millennium: From Genes to Bedside”

Transgenic overexpression of Gαq or calcineurin (CLN) in the mouse heart leads to cardiac hypertrophy and failure. We examined L-type Ca2+ currents (ICa) in left ventricular myocytes isolated from Gαq and CLN mice and compared with those from non transgenic (NTG) littermates. Myocytes from both transgenic hearts were larger than NTG myocytes. Although voltage-dependence of ICa in Gαq and CLN mice did not differ from NTG, Gαq mice exhibited slower ICa inactivation without change in ICa density, while CLN mice showed increased ICa and faster inactivation. The kinetic differences in ICa inactivation were abolished when the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca2+ was depleted by ryanodine or Ba2+ was used as the charge carrier, suggesting that Ca2+-dependent inactivation is altered due to abnormal SR Ca2+ release. When CLN mice were treated with cycrosporin A, myocyte size and ICa density were normalized. These results suggest that changes in cellular Ca2+ handling are determined by the trigger of hypertrophy, not simply the exsitence of myocyte hypertrophy.
The discordant histology of grafted fat: A systematic review of the literature

Background:All combinations of harvesting, processing, and injection have been attempted to maximize fat graft take following transplantation. Two theories behind fat transplantation have been proposed: cell survival and host replacement. Although the cell survival theory states that fat cells survi
Stable Stress‐Drop Measurements and their Variability: Implications for Ground‐Motion Prediction

We estimate the a rms‐stress drop, ![Graphic][1] , (Hanks, 1979) using acceleration time records of 59 earthquakes from two earthquake sequences in eastern Honshu, Japan. These acceleration‐based static stress drops compare well to stress drops calculated for the same events by Baltay et al. (2011) using an empirical Green’s function (eGf) approach. This agreement supports the assumption that earthquake acceleration time histories in the bandwidth between the corner frequency and a maximum observed frequency can be considered white, Gaussian, noise. Although the ![Graphic][2] is computationally simpler than the eGf‐based ![Graphic][3] ‐stress drop, and is used as the “stress parameter” to describe the earthquake source in ground‐motion prediction equations, we find that it only compares well to the ![Graphic][4] at source‐station distances of ∼20 km or less because there is no consideration of whole‐path anelastic attenuation or scattering. In these circumstances, the correlation between the ![Graphic][5] and ![Graphic][6] is strong. Events with high and low stress drops obtained through the eGf method have similarly high and low ![Graphic][7] . We find that the inter‐event standard deviation of stress drop, for the population of earthquakes considered, is similar for both methods, 0.40 for the ![Graphic][8] method and 0.42 for the ![Graphic][9] , in log10 units, provided we apply the ∼20 km distance restriction to ![Graphic][10] . This indicates that the observed variability is inherent to the source, rather than attributable to uncertainties in stress‐drop estimates. Online Material: Earthquake catalog including additional source parameters. [1]: /embed/inline-graphic-1.gif [2]: /embed/inline-graphic-2.gif [3]: /embed/inline-graphic-3.gif [4]: /embed/inline-graphic-4.gif [5]: /embed/inline-graphic-5.gif [6]: /embed/inline-graphic-6.gif [7]: /embed/inline-graphic-7.gif [8]: /embed/inline-graphic-8.gif [9]: /embed/inline-graphic-9.gif [10]: /embed/inline-graphic-10.gif
Percutaneous cardiopulmonary bypass and innovations in clinical counterpulsation.

This article describes innovative techniques with circulatory support, and new techniques for precutaneous cardiopulmonary bypass.
Puppet: Introduction, Implementation, & the Inevitable Refactoring

Puppet is configuration management software that lets you define the desired state for a computer and enforce that state on scheduled periodic executions of the Puppet agent on that computer. About a year and a half after implementing Puppet on our campus, we had a functional but inflexible and poorly organized Puppet configuration code base. We refactored it multiple times before settling on our current layout based on the roles/profiles strategy and Hiera. We will share a brief introduction to Puppet, how it is useful to us and, most importantly, what we learned over 3 years of implementing it on our campus.