cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Spectroscopic characterization of Co(II)-, Ni(II)-, and Cd(II)-substituted wild-type and non-native retroviral-type zinc finger peptides

The nucleocapsid protein (NCP) from Mason-Pfizer monkey virus (MPMV) contains two evolutionary invariant Cys-X2–Cys-X4–His-X4–Cys retroviral-type zinc finger structures, where the Cys and His residues provide ligands to a tetrahedrally coordinated Zn(II) ion. The N-terminal zinc finger (F1) of NCP from MPMV contains an immediately contiguous Cys in the –1 position relative to the start of this conserved motif: Cys-Cys-X2–Cys-X4–His-X4–Cys. Metal complexes of 18-amino acid peptides which model the native zinc finger sequence, SER-Cys-X2–Cys-X4–His-X4–Cys (F1_SC), and non-native Cys-SER-X2–Cys-X4–His-X4–Cys (F1_CS) and SER-SER-X2–Cys-X4–His-X4–Cys (F1_SS) sequences have been spectroscopically characterized and compared to the native two-zinc-finger protein fragment, MPMV NCP 21–80. All Co(II)-substituted peptide complexes adopt tetrahedral ligand geometries and have S–→Co(II) ligand-to-metal charge-transfer (LMCT) transition intensities consistent with three Co(II)-S bonds for F1_SC and F1_CS. The non-native F1_CS peptide binds Co(II) with K Co=1.5×106 M–1, comparable to that of the native complex, and ≈100-fold tighter than F1_SS. Like the Co(II) derivative, the absorption spectrum of Ni(II)-substituted NCP 21–80 is most consistent with tetrahedral Ni(II) complexes with multiple thiolate donors. In contrast, Ni(II) complexes of F1_SC and F1_CS exhibit a single absorption band in the 400–550 nm region (e≈200–300 M–1 cm–1), distinct in the two complexes, assignable to a degenerate d-d transition envelope characteristic of non-native square-planar coordination geometry, and an intense LMCT transition in the UV (e255≈14,000 M–1 cm–1). Cd(II) complexes have intense absorption in the UV (λmax=233 nm), with absolute intensities consistent with ≈5000 M–1 cm–1 per Cd(II)-S bond. 113Cd NMR spectroscopy of 113Cd MPMV NCP gives δ=649 ppm, consistent with S3N coordination. Co(II) and Cd(II) complexes of non-native F1_CS peptides are more sensitive to oxidation by O2, relative to F1_SC, suggestive of a higher lability in the non-native chelate. The implications of these findings for the evolutionary conservation of this motif are discussed.
A survey of positive airway pressure therapy preparedness and outcomes following Hurricane Irma in patients with obstructive sleep apnea.

Study Objectives:Clinical benefit from positive pressure therapy is dependent on treatment adherence. Extreme weather events, such as floods, hurricanes, and tornadoes, can contribute to nonadheren...
Beauty and Mercy in José Jiménez Lozano’s Impresiones provinciales

This essay describes Impresiones provinciales, Jose Jimenez Lozano’s seventh ‘dietario’, as attentive to the everyday life of the human person and concerned with the lack of spiritual health in the...
Ammonia recovery from simulated anaerobic digestate using a two-stage direct contact membrane distillation process.

Ammonia is a key inorganic contaminant in wastewater and an important nutrient element for agriculture. Herein, a two-stage direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) system was developed and investigated for ammonia recovery from a synthetic anaerobic digestate. In the 1st stage DCMD (DCMD-1), both ammonia and water moved across MD membrane to realize ammonia separation, while in the 2nd stage (DCMD-2), only water migrated and as a result ammonia was concentrated. It was found that increasing the initial feed solution pH could enhance ammonia removal in the DCMD-1 from 16.0 ± 2.0% (no pH adjustment) to 84.2 ± 1.9% (pH 12). A higher feed solution temperature increased both ammonia flux and water flux. The optimal condition was determined as an initial feed pH of 12, a feed temperature of 60°C, and the 0.6 M H2 SO4 adsorption solution. With the addition of the DCMD-2, the ammonia concentration was improved from 3 g L-1 to 7.8 ± 0.2 g L-1 , which was further enhanced to 26.3 ± 3.0 g L-1 after five batches of operation. These results have demonstrated the feasibility of a two-stage DCMD system for ammonia recovery from anaerobic digestate and warrant further investigation of several key issues that may advance this technology. PRACTITIONER POINTS: A two-stage membrane distillation system is developed to remove and recover ammonia from anaerobic digester effluents. The system uses ammonia/ammonium equilibrium to separate ammonia in the 1st stage and then concentrate it in the 2nd stage. A high initial pH of the feed solution plays a key role in achieving high ammonia removal. Minimizing the volume of permeate solution can increase the ammonia concentration.
School Punishment, Deterrence, and Race: A Partial Test of Defiance Theory:

Rather than serving as a deterrent, exclusionary discipline tends to lead to a host of short and long-term negative outcomes. The mechanisms which propel students from exclusionary discipline towar...
Radiative Contributions Dominate Plasmon Broadening for Post-Transition Metals in the Ultraviolet

We use classical electrodynamics calculations to investigate the plasmonic properties of the post-transition metals Al, Bi, Ga, In, and Sn, which are active in the ultraviolet, focusing in particular on the material- and resonance-dependent origins of plasmon broadening. Analytic Mie theory, the modified-long wavelength approximation, and the quasistatic dipole approximation together show that radiative processes dominate plasmon dephasing and damping in small (5–25 nm radius) Al, Bi, Ga, In, and Sn spheres. For Al, Ga, In, and Sn, the radiative contribution (~0.1–0.2 eV) to the plasmon linewidth is 100-fold greater than the non-radiative contribution (0.001–0.02 eV) derived from the bulk dielectric function. This is significantly different than what is observed for Ag spheres, where non-radiative contributions (~0.1 eV) are the primary source of broadening up to a radius of 25 nm. Overall, these data suggest that the plasmonic properties, dephasing, and lifetimes for Al, Ga, In, and Sn —and to a lesser extent Bi— spheres are qualitatively similar. To develop a more general understanding of the relationship between plasmon energy and linewidth, we use a model for ideal free-electron Drude metals. It is seen that the linewidth increases at higher energies even for lossless Drude metals, suggesting that the increased broadening observed in UV-active metals is a generalizable observation. These data have important implications for the use of these metals for ultraviolet plasmonics. The increased importance of radiative damping for post-transition metals could influence the ability to harvest photons, generate hot carriers, and enhance spectroscopy in the ultraviolet while providing new opportunities for manipulating high-energy photons.
Gender differences in trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder.

BACKGROUND: Research on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has focused primarily on Vietnam War veterans. A handful of recent studies have been conducted on samples of the general population. OBJECTIVE: We sought to examine gender differences in exposure to traumatic events and in the emergence of PTSD following exposure in the general population. SUBJECTS: A representative sample of 2181 persons in the Detroit metropolitan area, ages 18-45 years. METHODS: Subjects were interviewed to assess history of traumatic events and PTSD using Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Fourth Edition) criteria. The risk of PTSD was assessed in relation to a representative sample of traumas experienced in the population. RESULTS: Lifetime prevalence of traumatic events was slightly higher in men than in women. The risk for PTSD following traumatic experiences was twofold higher in women than in men. This gender difference was primarily due to women's greater risk of PTSD following events that involved assaultive violence. The probability of PTSD in women versus men exposed to assaultive violence was 36% versus 6%. Prior exposure to assaultive violence was associated with an increased risk of PTSD from a subsequent trauma; the gender difference in the vulnerability for PTSD is not explained by prior exposure. Duration of PTSD was longer in women than in men. CONCLUSION: The burden of PTSD in U.S. communities is greater in women than in men, chiefly due to the greater effect of assaultive violence on women. Language: en
Simulation analysis of the United States Military Academy Reception Day

Each June approximately 1200 new cadets (NCs) are welcomed to the United States Military Academy (USMA) during Reception Day (R-Day). Amid the mass shuffling of bodies and the yelling of the upper-class cadet cadre, all 1200 NCs must process completely. Changes are made to the in processing system in attempt to make it more efficient. However, the effect of these changes can only be gauged once a year during the following R-Day. In an attempt to expedite the refinement process, the R-Day administrators approached our design team to create a simulation model that could be used to analyze the effect of proposed changes to the system prior to R-Day 2002. Using ProModel/spl reg/ simulation software, our team created a simulation of the in processing system and conducted a statistical analysis of the results in order to recommend improvements to the structure of the system.
Conformational and connotational heterogeneity: A surprising relationship between protein structural flexibility and puns

Protein structures are often thought of as static objects, and indeed, the bulk of a protein's sequence forms α-helices, β-sheets, and other generally well-ordered substructures. These portions of the molecule pre-pay the entropic price of maintaining a globally unique fold, freeing other regions to adopt multiple alternative conformations. In many cases, this localized flexibility is biologically interesting: it may be important for catalytic turnover or for conformational selection before forming an intermolecular complex, for example. Similarly, most of written language is carefully tuned to avoid ambiguity and convey a singular meaning, a cohesive message. This linguistic scaffolding in some sense pre-pays a rhetorical price, paving the way for punctuated instances in which a given word or phrase can simultaneously adopt multiple alternative connotations-in other words, for puns.
The metabolic rate of cultured muscle cells from hybrid Coturnix quail is intermediate to that of muscle cells from fast-growing and slow-growing Coturnix quail

Growth rate is a fundamental parameter of an organism’s life history and varies 30-fold across bird species. To explore how whole-organism growth rate and the metabolic rate of cultured muscle cells are connected, two lines of Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica), one that had been artificially selected for fast growth for over 60 generations and a control line were used to culture myoblasts. In line with previous work, myoblasts from the fast growth line had significantly higher rates of oxygen consumption, glycolytic flux, and higher mitochondrial volume than myoblasts from the control line, indicating that an increase in growth rate is associated with a concomitant increase in cellular metabolic rates and that mitochondrial density contributes to the differences in rates of metabolism between the lines. We reared chicks from two hybrid lines with reciprocal parental configurations for growth rate to explore the effect of maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA on rates of growth and metabolism. Growth rates of chicks, cellular basal oxygen consumption, glycolytic flux, and mitochondrial volume in myoblasts from chicks from both reciprocal crosses were intermediate to the fast and control lines. This indicates that genes in the nucleus have a strong influence on metabolic rates at the cellular level, compared with maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA.
Event-driven control, communication, and optimization

The time-driven paradigm for modeling, sampling, estimation, control, and optimization is based on centuries of theoretical underpinnings and was further promoted by the digital technological advances of the 1970s. In a world increasingly networked, wireless, and consisting of large-scale distributed systems, the universal value of this paradigm has understandably come to question. For example, time-driven sampling and communication with energy-constrained wireless devices can be inefficient, unnecessary, and sometimes infeasible. The event-driven paradigm offers an alternative complementary look at control, communication, and optimization. The key idea is that a “clock” should not be dictating actions simply because a time step is taken; rather, an action should be triggered by an “event” which may be a well-defined condition on the system state (including a simple time step) or a random state transition. We focus on two areas where event-driven control and optimization have been well-developed and justify the research activity recently seen in the systems and control community in this direction. First, in distributed systems, it is shown how event-driven, rather than synchronous, communication can guarantee convergence in cooperative distributed optimization while provably maintaining optimality. Second, when modeling stochastic systems with complex dynamics, systematic abstraction methods can generate hybrid models where well-defined events decompose system operation into discrete states. This facilitates the use of analytical tools which are robust with respect to modeling details, thus allowing them to be safely omitted. A case in point is that of gradient estimation techniques which boil down to a set of event-driven Infinitesimal Perturbation Analysis equations (an “IPA calcul
Dual-antenna applicator for hyperthermia of tumours at intermediate depth.

A dual-antenna applicator with 21 ±26 cm2 aperture, that is fully loaded and operates at 74 MHz, was developed at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology. By placing two antennas into an applicator capable of propagating TE10 mode, a significant enlargement of heating pattern was achieved without an increase in applicator dimensions. When antennas are placed symmetrically about a parallel to the antenna axis of symmetry, the sensitivity of the applicator input impedance to variations of load impedance reduces. Stable coupling of the RF power to the treatment area may be provided. Twenty patients with eccentrically located tumours were treated using this device.
Gas phase copper(I) ion affinities of valine, lysine, and arginine based on the dissociation of Cu+-bound heterodimers at varying internal energies

Abstract The Cu+ affinities of the amino acids valine (Val), lysine (Lys), and arginine (Arg) are determined in the gas phase based on the dissociations of Cu+-bound dimers [A + Bi]Cu+, in which A represents one of the three amino acids studied and Bi a set of different amino acids of known Cu+ affinity (kinetic method). In order to deconvolute entropic contributions from experimentally measured free energies, the decompositions of [A + Bi]Cu+ are assessed as a function of internal energy using angle-resolved mass spectrometry. The Cu+ affinities deduced for Val, Lys, and Arg are 283, 355, and 364 kJ mol−1, respectively. Lysine and arginine are found to have substantially larger entropies of Cu+ attachment when compared to valine. The combined affinity and entropy data are consistent with participation of the flexible side chain substituents of lysine and arginine in the coordination of Cu+, yielding multidentate complexes of markedly higher stability than the aliphatic amino acid valine.
Mechanical features of the electrostatic deflector for the Berkeley 88-inch cyclotron†

The mechanical features of the electrostatic deflector are described. The deflector channel starts as close as possible to the dee. It must deflect the particles enough to clear the leg of the magnet. The channel width at entrance is 5/32 in. (0.4 cm) and at exit is 1/2 in. (1.3 cm). The nominal voltage is 63 kV. The deflector is 108 deg long. It is built of four segments, two in the outer high-voltage element and two in the inner ground element. The channel elements are water-cooled welded Inconel. Each of the two high-voltage elements is separately cantilevered from an insulating bushing. The whole assembly is built like a drawer. The floor of the drawer is a 1/2-in. sheet of K-Monel. Bearings throughout are Teflon-impregnated sintered bronze. A moving 1/4-scale model of the deflector elements is installed in the control room. It reproduces automatically all motions of the deflector in the cyclotron. The initial deflector is equipped with a standard metal fixed septum. A sawmill septum is being developed to replace the standard septum when and if desired. This sawmill septum consists of two metal rotating disks.
Three-dimensional, time-resolved (4D) relative pressure mapping using magnetic resonance imaging.

We describe here a method for generating relative pressure maps from magnetic resonance velocity data in three spatial and one temporal dimension (4D). The relative pressure map calculated for pulsatile flow in a compliant phantom was shown to be consistent with independent pressure transducer measurements. The feasibility of performing 4D pressure mapping in vivo is also demonstrated. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2000;12: 321‐329. © 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
SU‐E‐T‐807: Measured Data Set for Validation of Bolus Electron Conformal Therapy

Purpose: To measure sample planes of two 3D dose distributions that can be used to evaluate the accuracy of planning and delivery of bolus electron conformal therapy (ECT). Method: The planning target volumes (PTV) from a parotid and a chest wall patient were modified to a CTimage set of a cylindrical polystyrene phantom. A bolus ECT plan for each PTV was developed using .decimal p.d software to design a custom bolus and dose was calculated using Pinnacle. Once acceptable, .decimal fabricated the bolus from machinable wax. Approximately 45 cGy given dose was delivered for each bolus ECT plan, and planar dose measurements were taken in the mid‐sagittal and five transverse phantom planes (±5cm, ±2.5cm, 0cm) using Kodak XV radiographic film sealed within the in‐phantom cassettes. Films were developed and digitized to (0.5mm pixels) using a Vidar DosimetryPRO Advantage, and converted to dose using a film calibration curve created at the time of measurement. Four film measurements were taken in each plane, with the mean dose and standard error being determined at each pixel. The precision of the data was quantified in the low gradient regions (Dose > 90% and Dose Dose > 10%) by the mean distance to dose agreement. Results: The percent average standard errors in the low gradient, high dose region were less than 1.5% for parotid and chest wall measurements and less than 3% in the low gradient, low dose regions. Average distances to agreement in the high gradient region were less than 0.6 mm. Conclusions: For two PTVs bolus, ECT dose distributions in 6 planes were measured and their precision quantified for three dose regions. These data are well‐suited for comparison with calculated electron dose distributions. This work was supported in part by a research grant from .decimal, Inc.
Simulating the Creation of a New International Human Rights Treaty: Active Learning in the International Studies Classroom

This article details a simulation of formulating a new international human rights treaty designed for an introductory international studies course. Student understanding and interest in a range of international relations topics—including diplomacy, two-level games, international law, human rights, and group decision making—are reinforced by actively engaging the students in policy formulation and state-to-state negotiations. The article is structured around the four key components of active learning approaches—educational objectives, design parameters, procedures, and assessment and debriefing—in order to provide a full understanding of the goals, set-up, process, and advantages of the simulation. The simulation has been successfully run multiple times at both a large state university and a small liberal arts institution. Supportive student feedback and an interesting variety of outcomes indicate that this simulation is a positive addition to the course and reinforces the use of active learning approaches in the international studies classroom.
An ontology-based approach to support decision-making for the design of ETO (Engineer-To-Order) products

Abstract Most of the facility projects have Engineer-To-Order (ETO) products. One of the major problems associated with ETO products is their long lead-time. Previous studies show that the long lead-time has more than half of its causes associated directly or indirectly with the design phase, in which many project participants are involved. This paper explores approaches to better support the ETO product design process by improving information sharing among project participants and collaborating information systems. This paper proposes to use ontology as a technical solution to integrate heterogeneous systems. Subsequently, an ontological framework of electrical products for supporting decision-making is developed. The ontology supports the generation, analysis, sharing and reuse of domain knowledge as required by ETO business processes, thus providing information to support many information intensive business processes such as the evaluation of design alternatives. This paper also presents a case study, i.e., the selection of transformers, to demonstrate the use of the ontology. In addition, limitations of the study have also been discussed.
Safety and Efficacy of Triplet Regimens in Newly Diagnosed Light Chain Amyloidosis

Abstract Background The prognosis of patients with systemic light chain (AL) amyloidosis, particularly cardiac, is poor. Treatments have been derived from multiple myeloma, but there are few studies that use triplet regimens in AL amyloidosis because of concern of greater toxicity than seen in myeloma. Patients and Methods We conducted a retrospective review of patients with newly diagnosed AL amyloidosis who were initially treated with a triplet regimen. Results For the 9 patients included, the median age was 64 years, and 8 were ineligible for stem cell transplantation. At least 2 organs were involved in 4 patients, including 7 with kidney and 4 with heart involvement, 2 of whom had New York Heart Association class 3 heart failure. All the patients received bortezomib, cyclophosphamide or lenalidomide/thalidomide, and dexamethasone. With a median follow-up of 13 months, 8 of 9 patients had a hematologic response, including 2 who achieved complete response, with a median time to response of 2.7 months. An organ response was seen in 7 of 9 patients, including all 4 patients with cardiac involvement. There were no deaths, and only 1 patient had progressive disease. The major toxicity observed was fluid overload and syncope, seen only in patients with heart failure, who eventually achieved a partial or complete response. Conclusions Dose-attenuated triplet regimens achieved rapid hematologic responses with manageable and reversible toxicity in patients with newly diagnosed AL amyloidosis.
Hypertonicity Following Selective Angiocardiography

Plasma osmolality and serum sodium concentrations were studied in 30 children with a variety of cardiac abnormalities who underwent selective angiocardiography. A significant increase of osmolality occurred, but there were no significant changes in sodium concentration. The pathologic effects of hypertonic solutions including contrast media are discussed and it is concluded that hypertonicity is a preventable factor in serious reactions seen after angiocardiography.
On electrophysiological activity of the normal heart

Abstract The heart is divided into eleven components, each being modeled by a dipole of known and fixed location and direction; these dipoles are shown to result from the propagation of the transmembrane potentials over the surface of the myocardial cells. The components of the left ventricular wall are composed of “Durrer layers”, and these in combination with the “contiguity effect” result in a positive ventricular gradient and T-wave. Electrocardiograms generated by the eleven dipoles yield high-fidelity 12-lead ECG's.
A new scheme to evaluate the accuracy of knowledge representation in automated breast cancer diagnosis

In the field of breast cancer diagnosis, computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) systems can provide doctors important second opinions, relying on the advanced computation ability and artificial intelligence of computing systems. The collaboration between doctors and CAD systems can help reducing the false diagnosis rate. Knowledge representation is an important chain for any artificial intelligence system, including automated breast cancer diagnosis. The breast cancer experts' knowledge of distinguishing benign and malignant lesions is well described by Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BIRADS). Many digital formulas have been proposed to quantify BIRADS features. However, there is no direct evaluation scheme for these digital features. A common way that people evaluate digital features is using them as the input for classifiers, such as machine learning methods, and then evaluating the performance of classifiers, which indirectly serves as the evaluation of digital features. The performance of a classifier is affected by the digital features, but also affected by other factors. It is inaccurate to use only the performance of classifiers as the metric to evaluate digital features. The vision of this work is to separate the evaluation of digital features from the evaluation of classifiers, with the purpose of providing an accurate feature measurement procedure and improving the quality of knowledge representation. An independent feature evaluation scheme without using any automatic classifier is proposed. Such a scheme can directly evaluate how precisely experts' knowledge is represented in computerized systems. Several commonly used digital features and newly proposed digital features in this work are evaluated using this scheme on a breast ultrasound image database. Pathological results and radiologist's opinions serve as the ground truth for evaluation purpose.
Volume changes accompanying the thermal denaturation of deoxyribonucleic acid. I. Denaturation at neutral pH

Dilatometric measurements were made to determine the change in apparent specific volume φ of DNA resulting from thermal denaturation in neutral solution, φ increased continuously with temperature in the range 10–85°C. No deviations from a monotonically rising curve were observed in the φ versus temperature profile in the region of the melting temperature. The results are interpreted in terms of a partial loss of the preferentially bound DNA hydration shell. The nature of the well known buoyant density difference between native and denatured DNA was investigated by evaluating the densities in a series of cesium salt gradients at constant temperature. Extrapolation of the results to zero water activity indicates that the partial specific volumes of anhydrous native and denatured DNA are equal. The density difference at nonzero water activities is attributed to decreased hydration in the denatured state. The absence of a related change in φ accompanying the denaturation in the dilatometric experiments suggests that the probable volume change associated with loss of bound water during denaturation is accompanied by other compensatory volume effects. The possible nature of these volume effects is discussed.
Community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in surgically treated hand infections.

Purpose An increase in the incidence of community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) infections has been observed. The purpose of this study is to determine the change in proportion of surgically treated CA-MRSA hand infections over the last decade and to identify associated risk factors. Methods A retrospective review was performed of all 159 hand infections treated in the operating room over an 11-year period (1997–2007). Mean age overall was 40 years, mean inpatient length of stay was 4.9 days, and 115 of the 159 patients were male. Examined data included known risk factors for MRSA, including human immunodeficiency virus infection, diabetes mellitus, intravenous drug use, incarceration, and homelessness. Results Forty-eight patients had surgery for hand infections due to CA-MRSA. The yearly proportion of CA-MRSA increased over the study period, and the risk of having an MRSA infection was 41% higher with each progressive calendar year during the study period relative to the apparent incidence of non-MRSA hand infections. Other factors associated with CA-MRSA were intravenous drug use, felon-type infection, and prior hand infection. Multivariable logistic regression identified intravenous drug use as a significant, independent risk factor for CA-MRSA hand infection. Conclusions The proportion of surgically treated hand infections due to CA-MRSA has increased during the last decade. Intravenous drug use was the only independent risk factor for CA-MRSA infections treated in the operating room at our institution.
Surface interpolation in three-dimensional structure-from-motion perception

Although it is appreciated that humans can use a number of visual cues to perceive the three-dimensional (3-D) shape of an object, for example, luminance, orientation, binocular disparity, and motion, the exact mechanisms employed are not known (De Yoe and Van Essen 1988). An important approach to understanding the computations performed by the visual system is to develop algorithms (Marr 1982) or neural network models (Lehky and Sejnowski 1988; Siegel 1987) that are capable of computing shape from specific cues in the visual image. In this study we investigated the ability of observers to see the 3-D shape of an object using motion cues, so called structure-from-motion (SFM). We measured human performance in a two-alternative forced choice task using novel dynamic random-dot stimuli with limited point lifetimes. We show that the human visual system integrates motion information spatially and temporally (across several point lifetimes) as part of the process for computing SFM. We conclude that SFM algorithms must include surface interpolation to account for human performance. Our experiments also provide evidence that local velocity information, and not position information derived from discrete views of the image (as proposed by some algorithms), is used to solve the SFM problem by the human visual system.
The Step Stress method of accelerated life testing

Abstract Recent experiments using Step Stress techniques on various types of semiconductor devices have shown that these techniques can be of great use in the evaluation of a device, and in the determination of failure modes and reliability.
Revision of the genus philactis (Compositae)

Philactis (Compositae-Heliantheae) is a genus of three species, all of limited distribution. A revision is presented, based upon herbarium specimens and field work. Cytological data are from bud material fixed in the field, and from root tips of seedlings. The basic chromosome number appears to be 14.P. nelsonii andP. liebmannii are tetraploid (2n = 56), andP. zinnioides is hexaploid (2n = 84).
Intermolecular forces involving the water molecules in lithium sulfate monohydrate

A study of the low‐temperature infrared spectra of varyingly deuterated mulls of lithium sulfate monohydrate has afforded information as to the nature of vibrations of water molecules causing infrared absorptions. Using intra‐ and intermolecular force constants, obtained from the data of doublet spectra, spectra of intermolecularly coupled species were predicted and compared with experiment. The agreement between calculated and observed spectra is good, but not perfect. This indicates that nonneighbor interactions are weak but significant in determining the nature of the stretching modes involving water molecules in Li2SO4⋅H2O. Furthermore, it is shown that the intermolecular interactions involving water molecules are mostly dipolar in origin.
Agricultural Legislation's Potential in Reducing Discharge of Pollutants

: Agricultural lands (including most forest lands) make up almost four-fifths of the total land area of the United States and include, or are traversed by, perhaps an equal proportion of our ground and surface waters. Therefore, a very large part of our environment is directly “agriculture-related” in any consideration of the discharge of pollutants. Several important Federal and State laws relate to the control or abatement of agriculture-related pollution. Existing legislation generally mandates the control or abatement of pollution (from point or nonpoint sources) or authorizes the use use of public funds or other resources for such purposes. Some of these laws can be effective instruments in keeping pollutants from being discharged into surface or ground waters or into the air, but the degree to which some pollutants originating from agricultural lands and operations constitute a serious environmental hazard in waters remains controversial. Although most of the technology exists to reduce greatly the movement of these pollutants, investments are often required which benefit the nonfarm public without economic returns to the farmer. Whether a zero discharge is either an environmentally or economically feasible alternative to more limited or selective control, is explored. However, if the public is willing to bear its reasonable share of the cost for clean air and water, the needed basic legislation already largely exists. Under it, agricultural land holders may apply program standards and use their own and available program resources to bring about effective control or abatement of pollutants.
Towards self-healing smartphone software via automated patching

Frequent app bugs and low tolerance for loss of functionality create an impetus for self-healing smartphone software. We take a step towards this via on-the-fly error detection and automated patching. Specifically, we add failure detection and recovery to Android by detecting crashes and ``sealing off'' the crashing part of the app to avoid future crashes. In the detection stage, our system dynamically analyzes app execution to detect certain exceptional situations. In the recovery stage, we use bytecode rewriting to alter app behavior as to avoid such situations in the future. When using our implementation, apps can resume operation (albeit with limited functionality) instead of repeatedly crashing. Our approach does not require access to app source code or any system (e.g., kernel-level) modification. Experiments on several real-world, popular Android apps and bugs show that our approach manages to recover the apps from crashes effectively, timely, and without introducing overhead.
ALEXIS experiment: current status and performance

The Array of Low Energy X-ray Imaging Sensors (ALEXIS) experiment consists of a mini-satellite containing six wide angle EUV/ultrasoft X-ray telescopes. Its purpose is to map out the sky in three narrow ({approximately}5%) bandpasses around 66, 71, and 93 eV. The mission will be launched on the Pegasus Air Launched Vehicle in 1992 into a 400 nautical mile, high inclination orbit. The project is a collaborative effort between Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratory, and the University of California-Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory. The six telescopes are arranged in three pairs in such a manner that as the satellite spins twice a minute they scan the entire antisolar hemisphere. Each f/1 telescope consists of a spherical multilayer coated mirror with a spherical microchannel plate detector located at the prime focus and a thin aluminum or lexan/boron filter in front of the detector. The multilayer coatings determine the bandpasses of the telescopes. Each telescope has a field of view of 33 degrees. Unlike grazing incidence x-ray telescopes, the point spread function is uniform over the entire field of view with a FWHM of {approximately}0.5 degrees determined by spherical aberration. In this paper we present the status of the project as ofmore » July 1992 as well as summary results from the pre-flight telescope calibration procedures.« less
Template-controlled face-to-face stacking of olefinic and aromatic carboxylic acids in the solid state.

A rigid 1,8-dipyridylnaphthalene template for supramolecular organization of unsaturated dicarboxylic acids in the solid state has been developed. Self-assembly of the template and aromatic dicarboxylic acids generates nondistorted paracyclophane and pyridinophane architectures with perfectly superimposed π-systems. The dipyridyl template can be used to promote stereoselective solid-state dimerization of olefinic dicarboxylic acids.
Threshold effects and asymmetric price adjustments in U.S. dairy markets.

Recent volatility in food prices and the growing disparity between prices at various stages of the marketing channel has generated much interest among agricultural producers, consumers, and policy makers. This study examines the effect of nonlinear threshold dynamics on asymmetric price transmission for three U.S. dairy products (butter, cheese, and fluid milk) using threshold error correction models. The empirical result suggests that price transmission of changes between producer and retail stages of the marketing chain is asymmetric for butter and fluid milk, but not for cheese prices. Also, this paper's findings indicate that conclusions about price asymmetries depend on the model specification assumptions made about symmetry and threshold effects. Thus, previous studies that assumed symmetric behavior and ignored threshold effects may be misleading. La recente volatilite des prix des produits alimentaires et la disparite croissante entre les prix observes aux divers echelons du reseau de distribution ont suscite l'attention des producteurs agricoles, des consommateurs et des decideurs. La presente etude examine l'effet d'une dynamique non lineaire avec seuil sur la transmission asymetrique des prix dans le cas de trois produits laitiers aux Etats-Unis (le beurre, le fromage et le lait de consommation), a l'aide de modeles a correction d'erreur avec seuil. Les resultats empiriques montrent que la transmission des variations de prix entre les producteurs agricoles et les detaillants est asymetrique dans le cas du beurre et du lait de consommation, mais ne l'est pas dans le cas du fromage. D'apres les resultats de la presente etude, les conclusions concernant l'asymetrie des prix dependent des hypotheses posees sur la symetrie et les effets de seuil. Par consequent, les etudes anterieures dans lesquelles on a suppose un comportement symetrique et ignore les effets de seuil pourraient induire en erreur.
The transport of mass, energy and momentum in physiologic systems

Abstract A generic equation is developed to define the flux, Φ, of mass, energy and momentum in physiologic systems. This equation is written in terms of the concentration, ρ , of the quantity to be transported, the force driving it, a corresponding kinematic transport coefficient, α, and the path and mobility associated with the transport process. Driving forces are expressed in terms of the gradient of some intensive property, o, of the system, such that: Φ=−β ρα(∇o) (2o) 2 , where n =0 for energy, n= 1 2 for momentum and n =1 for mass; β is a nondimensional coefficient of proportionality. Values of φ and α are tabulated for various scenarios typical of transport processes occuring in physiologic systems.
A correlation between iodine permeability and the gram characteristic of cells.

Kaplan and Kaplan1 demonstrated that the addition of iodine to the alcohol used as a decolorizer in the Gram procedure resulted in retardation of the rate of decolorization. If the concentration of iodine was sufficiently high, no decolorization occurred. They also found that much higher concentrations of iodine in the alcohol were necessary to prevent the decolorization of Gram-negative bacteria than for Gram-positive bacteria. In their opinion these results indicated that differences in permeability to iodine in alcoholic solution contributed to the mechanism of Gram differentiation. In confirmation of the above work, Mittwer, Bartholomew and Kallman2 demonstrated that iodine in alcoholic solution stained Gram-negative cells much faster than Gram-positive cells. No such difference was demonstrable for iodine in aqueous solutions. The nature of the proof presented by the above workers, however, lacked accurate and objective results, and could not be considered as conclusive. When the methods of filter paper chromatography are applied to this problem, accurate and objective results can be obtained easily.
Three independent genetic systems that control initiation of a fungal fruiting body

The initiation of monokaryotic fruiting in the basidiomycetous fungus Schizophyllum commune has been observed to occur spontaneously, in response to biochemical substances, and following mechanical injury. The responses to these three stimuli are genetically separable and under polygenic control.
Functional assay of the alternative complement pathway of rat serum

Abstract Two functional assays of the alternative pathway of complement activation in rat serum were developed. In the first assay, conditions were established for titration of alternative pathway activity by use of the 50% hemolytic end-point of rabbit red blood cells (RaRBC) in serum treated with ethyleneglycol-bis-(beta-aminoethyl ether)-N, N 1 -tetraacetic acid (EGTA). Under the conditions of the assay the 50% hemolytic end-point could be determined from a single value in the region of partial lysis of RaRBC by use of the Von Krogh equation. The second assay of alternative pathway activity was based on the opsonization of heat-killed radiolabeled pneumococci of serotype 25 (Pn 25). Opsonization of Pn 25 was shown to proceed entirely via the alternative pathway in rat serum. Both the Pn 25 opsonization test and the RaRBC lysis test were more sensitive than measurement of hemolytic C3-C9 for detecting activation of the alternative pathway. There was excellent correlation between the results obtained with the RaRBC lysis test and those obtained with the opsonization test. Because of its technical simplicity, the RaRBC lysis test appeared to be the single most useful test of alternative pathway activity in rat serum.
Endothelium-dependent relaxation to hydrogen peroxide in canine basilar artery: a potential new cerebral dilator mechanism

Abstract In prostglandin F 2α (PGF 2α )-precontracted isolated canine basilar arterial rings, hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) produced endothelium-dependent relaxations at concentrations of from 4.4 × 10 −7 –∼4.4 × 10 −5 M. Removal of extracellular Ca 2+ ([Ca 2+ ] 0 ) attenuated the relaxant effects of H 2 O 2 . Complete inhibition of H 2 O 2 relaxant action was obtained after buffering intracellular Ca 2+ ([Ca 2+ ] i ), in the endothelial cells, with 10 μM 1,2-bis (2-aminophenoxy) ethane-N,N,N′,N′-tetraacetic acid (BAPTA-AM). The H 2 O 2 -induced relaxations could be abolished completely by 1200 u/ml catalase and was suppressed significantly by 0.5 μM atropine, 150 μM N G -monomethyl-arginine (L-NMMA), 50 μM N G -nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME), 1 μM Fe 2+ , or 5 μM methylene blue. These inhibitory effects of L-NMMA, L-NAME, or atropine could be reversed partly by 50 μM L-arginine. The Fe 2+ inhibition of H 2 O 2 -stimulated relaxation was reduced significantly by either 1 mM deferoxamine (a Fe 2+ chelator) or 100 μM dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO, a • OH scavenger). Such relaxant effects of H 2 O 2 were enhanced, significantly, by an acetylcholinesterase antagonist, neostigmine. A variety of pharmacological antagonists (of diverse vasodilator agents) could not inhibit the relaxant action of H 2 O 2 . Our observations suggest that at suitable pathophysiological concentrations, H 2 O 2 could induce release of an endothelium-derived relaxing factor (EDRF), probably nitric oxide (NO), from endothelial cells of the canine cerebral artery. The H 2 O 2 relaxant effects are clearly Ca 2+ -dependent, require formation of cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP), and may be associated with release of endogenous acetylcholine (ACh).
Millimeter High Power Sources for High Gradient Accelerators

The potential for achieving high accelerator gradients with high power rf sources is evaluated.
Radiative and convective transfer in a cylindrical enclosure for a gas/soot mixture

Energy units such as boilers, gas turbines, and steam generators have gas flows resulting from combustion of hydrocarbon fuels with combustion products of water vapor, carbon dioxide, and soot particles, all of which are strong absorbers and emitters of thermal radiation. At high temperatures and with the presence of these products, radiative heat transfer dominates conductive and convective heat transfer. Due to the size and complexity of these units, experimental data are difficult and costly to obtain, and mathematical models are sourght. Several investigators have studied radiant exchange in combustion products, but very limited results are available that incorporate the effects of soot particles in fully developed laminar or turbulent flow of a gas/soot mixture through a circular duct. Soot particles play a dominant role in the radiative heat transfer and may augment the radiant emission of absorbing gases. The purpose of this study is to examine the interaction of radiative heat transfer with convective and conductive heat transfer for flow of a radiatively participating absorbing gas and soot particle mixture. Axial and radial mixture temperature profiles along with wall heat fluxes and Nusselt numbers are sought.
Digestibility and associative effects of protected tallow.

Abstract Two Guernsey heifers were fed three mixtures: corn silage and a wheat-corn-soy bean concentrate at 35 or 55% dry matter or this concentrate at 35% plus a protected tallow product (HE, Alta Lipids, Boise, ID) at 18%. Food intakes and fecal outputs were measured daily for 5-day periods, then pooled for analysis. Digestibilities were calculated for each of the rations, then digestibilities of each ingredient were solved by simultaneous equations. For protected tallow, digestibilities were dry matter 78%, energy 83%, fat 91%, protein 86%, nitrogen-free extract 83%, acid-detergent fiber −24%, calcium −76%, and magnesium −5%. Gross energy of protected tallow was calculated from analysis, 6.34Mcal/kg, so digestible energy was 5.28 Mcal/kg. The heifers were weighed at the start and finish of each period, and changes in body weight were related to intakes of digestible energy above maintenance, 7.1±3.3 Meal digestible energy per kilogram change in body weight. The negative associative effects on fiber, calcium, and magnesium warrant further investigation because they may determine the upper limit of protected tallow in ration formulation.
Ultrafast All-optical Switches Based on Intersubband Transitions in GaN/AlN Multiple Quantum Wells for Tb/s Operation

Theoretical and experimental results on ultra-fast all-optical switches based on intersubband transitions for Tb/s operation are presented. Designs for engineering intersubband transitions (ISBT) in GaN/AlN quantum wells near communication wavelengths (~1.55 µm) and for realizing all-optical switches requiring small pulse energies are discussed. Optimized designs show all-optical switching at Tb/s data rates with pulse energies as small as 200 fJ. Experimental realization of narrow line-width ISBT in GaN/AlN superlattices is also demonstrated.