cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Representation of binary pheromone blends by glomerulus-specific olfactory projection neurons

An outstanding challenge in olfactory neurobiology is to explain how glomerular networks encode information about stimulus mixtures, which are typical of natural olfactory stimuli. In the moth Manduca sexta, a species-specific blend of two sex-pheromone components is required for reproductive signaling. Each component stimulates a different population of olfactory receptor cells that in turn target two identified glomeruli in the macroglomerular complex of the male’s antennal lobe. Using intracellular recording and staining, we examined how responses of projection neurons innervating these glomeruli are modulated by changes in the level and ratio of the two essential components in stimulus blends. Compared to projection neurons specific for one component, projection neurons that integrated information about the blend (received excitatory input from one component and inhibitory input from the other) showed enhanced ability to track a train of stimulus pulses. The precision of stimulus-pulse tracking was furthermore optimized at a synthetic blend ratio that mimics the physiological response to an extract of the female’s pheromone gland. Optimal responsiveness of a projection neuron to repetitive stimulus pulses therefore appears to depend not only on stimulus intensity but also on the relative strength of the two opposing synaptic inputs that are integrated by macroglomerular complex projection neurons.
"Crazy Brained": Mental Illness in Colonial America

L'A. decrit comment les maladies mentales etaient percues, comprises et interpretees par les colons en Amerique au XVII e siecle
Effect of processing conditions on physical properties of a milk fat model system : Microstructure

The effect of processing conditions on the microstructure of three blends of 30, 40, and 50% high-melting fraction [Mettler dropping point (MDP)=47.5°C] in the lowmelting fraction (MDP=16.5°C) of milk fat was studied. The effect of cooling and agitation rates, crystallization temperature, chemical composition of the blends, and storage time on crystalline microstructure (number, size, distribution, etc.) was investigated by confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). To improve resolution, a mix of Nile blue and Nile red dyes was dissolved in the melted samples in proportions that did not modify the nucleation kinetics. Samples were then crystallized by cooling (0.2 or 5.5°C/min) to crystallization temperature (25, 27.5, and 30°C). After 2 h at crystallization temperature, a slurry was placed on a microscope slide and samples were stored 24 h at 10°C. During this period, more material crystallized. Slowly crystallized samples (0.2°C/min) formed different structures from rapidly crystallized samples (5.3°C/min). Crystals were sometimes diffuse and hard to distinguish from the liquid. Samples were darker as a result of this solid-mass distribution. However, rapidly crystallized samples had well-defined crystals and seemed to be separated by a distinct liquid phase. These crystals were not in touch with each other as was the case for slowly crystallized samples. Higher agitation rates led to smaller crystal size due to enhanced nucleation. Larger crystals were formed when crystallization occurred at higher temperatures. Storage time resulted in an increase of crystal size. Larger crystal size and structures with more evident links had a more elastic behavior with higher elastic modulus E’.
Mantle mixing and continental breakup magmatism

Abstract The frequent formation of large igneous provinces during the opening of the Atlantic Ocean is a surface manifestation of the thermal and chemical state of convecting mantle beneath the supercontinent Pangea. Recent geochemical and geophysical findings from the North Atlantic igneous province all point to the significant role of incomplete mantle mixing in igneous petrogenesis. On the basis of a whole-mantle convection model with chemical tracers, I demonstrate that sublithospheric convection driven by surface cooling can bring up dense fertile mantle without a thermal anomaly. When small-scale convection in the upper mantle breaks down into the lower mantle, strong counter upwelling takes place, entraining a large amount of dense crustal fragments accumulated at the base of the mantle transition zone. This multi-scale mantle mixing could potentially explain a variety of hotspot phenomenology as well as the formation of both volcanic and non-volcanic rifted margins, with a spatially and temporally varying distribution of fertile mantle.
Precautionary Savings in the Great Recession

Heightened uncertainty since the onset of the Great Recession has materially increased saving rates, contributing to lower consumption and GDP growth. Consistent with a model of precautionary savings in the face of uncertainty, the paper finds for a panel of advanced economies that greater labor income uncertainty is significantly associated with higher household savings. These results are robust to controlling for other determinants of saving rates, including wealth-to-income ratios, the government fiscal balance, demographics, credit conditions, and global growth and financial stress. The estimates imply that at least two-fifths of the sharp increase in household saving rates between 2007 and 2009 can be attributed to the precautionary savings motive.
The corporate context of private prisons

This article deals with the growing interest in the privatization of correctional institutions. It focuses on the corporate context of this trend because modern privatization is being done by corporations which have been formed specifically for this purpose or are specialized subsidiaries of large conglomerates. The article reviews the theoretial, legal, political, regulatory, economic, management, and labor issues involved in corporate privatization, taking into consideration the aspects of organizational climate and corporate deviance. Finally, the article points out that corporate involvement in the private management of correctional facilities should be analyzed carefully and taken into consideration in the privatization debate.
Polyaminoacid-Induced Growth of Metal Nanoparticles on Layer-by-Layer Templates

We report on preparation of redox-active nanoscale layer-by-layer (LbL) films with polyaminoacid-decorated surfaces that serve for both nucleation and growth of uniformly distributed gold nanoparticles at ambient conditions. We found that a poly-l-tyrosine (pTyr), a synthetic polyaminoacid, was able to direct nanoparticle formation to solid, flexible, and patterned surfaces preventing particle agglomeration. The gold particles were 8 ± 2 nm in diameter, surrounded by 3−6 nm polyaminoacid shell, and confined to the topmost polyaminoacid layer. The reported results on bioinspired gold formation can be readily expanded to any inorganic-selective surface and provide a simple, robust, and nontoxic method to obtain nonaggregated inorganic nanoparticles at ambient conditions.
Semi-active control of seismically excited base-isolated building model with friction pendulum systems

In this paper, effectiveness of various semi-active friction control strategies in protecting the base-isolated benchmark building model with friction pendulum systems as isolators and subject to various prescribed near-field ground motions has been investigated. These friction control strategies include semi-active discontinuous pulse filter (SADPF) controller, semi-active continuous pulse filter (SACPF) controller and visco-elastic friction (VEF) controller. In addition, the linear passive viscous (LPV) damper is also considered for comparison. Both the SACPF and SADPF controllers are designed by using the augmented structure-pulse filter model recently proposed by the authors. Simulation results indicate that all these controllers are effective in mitigating the base displacements, although the reduction in base displacement may be accompanied by an increase in superstructure response quantities. The SACPF controller is found to be the most effective among semi-active controllers, including Sample Lyapunov controller, in the sense that (i) increase in superstructure response quantities is quite minimal or these response quantities are decreased as the base displacement is reduced, (ii) there is no amplification in peak base acceleration and (iii) the control force does not have chattering-type characteristics and control force is applied only when peak base displacement is significant. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Achieving Organizational Learning Through Team Competition

Abstract:This article contributes insights that engineering managers can use to cultivate organizational learning through competition. Contemporary firms face the challenge of successfully translating quality improvements into sustainable competitive advantages. Organizational learning is crucial to making quality improvements sustainable. This case study examined the mechanisms used to achieve organizational learning in a large-scale quality improvement competition. Thirty-four project teams from an international electronics company were included in this study. The results show that benchmarking and retrieval of electronic information were the most common methods used to acquire learning inputs. Knowledge transfer was most frequently achieved through training and adoption of internal specifications. Finally, learning was most frequently applied through formal changes to manufacturing methods and project management procedures.
Membrane and Morphological Changes in Apoptotic Cells Regulated by Caspase-Mediated Activation of PAK2

Apoptosis of Jurkat T cells induced the caspase-mediated proteolytic cleavage of p21-activated kinase 2 (PAK2). Cleavage occurred between the amino-terminal regulatory domain and the carboxyl-terminal catalytic domain, which generated a constitutively active PAK2 fragment. Stable Jurkat cell lines that expressed a dominant-negative PAK mutant were resistant to the Fas-induced formation of apoptotic bodies, but had an enhanced externalization of phosphatidylserine at the cell surface. Thus, proteolytic activation of PAK2 represents a guanosine triphosphatase-independent mechanism of PAK regulation that allows PAK2 to regulate morphological changes that are seen in apoptotic cells.
On concealed dimensions of Third World involvement in international economic organizations

International economic organizations once identified as Western have evolved in some cases to the extent that their survival depends importantly on forging symbiotic links with Third and Fourth World clients. Such national governments often derive net gains from membership in those organizations, for example, the World Bank. These gains may be as much political as economic. Thus the Government of India, influential in World Bank policy generally, has used Bank agricultural projects to overcome states' resistance to central priorities. Mobilizing domestic political resources is an important dimension of membership in the international economy. Where this occurs, it argues for a view of the governments of poor countries as active, rather than passive, and as agents of domestic social transformation.
Electrophysiological evidence for rod and cone-based vision in the nocturnal flying squirrel

The flying squirrel (Glaucomys volans) is a strongly nocturnal rodent. Previous anatomical observations suggested that the retina of this animal contains some cone-like receptors in addition to large numbers of rods. Evidence for duplicity of function in this visual system was obtained from an examination of three indices of visual activity: the electroretinogram (ERG), the isolated PIII retinal response, and the visually evoked cortical potential (VECP). The spectral sensitivity of the dark-adapted flying squirrel is similar to that of other mammals — it has a 500 nm peak (Figs. 3, 8). Responses of the ERG and isolated PIII to flickering light indicate the operation of two processes (Figs. 4, 7), one of which is unable to follow flickering light at repetition rates above 10–15 Hz. Spectral sensitivity measurements reveal that these two processes have different spectral sensitivities. The photopic mechanism in the flying squirrel visual system has peak sensitivity at about 520 nm (Figs. 5, 7, 9). The effects of steady light adaptation are much more obvious in the cortical potentials than they are in the retinal potentials.
Ion-Regulated Assembling Of The G-Quadruplex Aptamer - A Nanopore Single-Molecule Study

Guanine-rich DNA and RNA can form high order G-quadruplexes through guanine-guanine base-pairs. G-quadruplexes in genome actively participate in gene regulation; and synthetic G-quadruplexes in vitro are potent pharmaceuticals, biosensors and bricks of nanostructures. Here we report on the development of a nanopore encapsulating single-molecule method for exploring how cations regulate the folding and unfolding of the G-quadruplex formed by the thrombin-binding aptamer (GGTTGGTGTGGTTGG). The signature blocks in the nanopore revealed that the G-quadruplex formation is cation-selective. The selectivity sequence is K+ > NH4+ ∼ Ba2+ > Cs+ ∼ Na+ > Li+, and G-quadruplex was not detected in Mg2+ and Ca2+. Ba2+ can form a long-lived G-quadruplex with TBA, but the capability is affected by the cation-DNA interaction. This cation-selectivity is correlated with the G-quadruplex volume, which varies with cation species. Although the Na+- and Li+-quadruplexes feature similar equilibrium properties, they undergo radically different pathways. The Na+-quadruplex folds and unfolds most rapidly, while the Li+-quadruplex performs both reactions at the slowest rates. This research is beneficial for constructing fine-tuned G-quadruplex-based biosensors. The methodology in this work is also useful for investigating protein-G-quadruplex interactions.View Large Image | View Hi-Res Image | Download PowerPoint Slide
Arginine and urea biosynthesis in the land planarian: its significance in biochemical evolution.

Arginine and Urea Biosynthesis in the Land Planarian: Its Significance in Biochemical Evolution
Controlled release of NFκB decoy oligonucleotides from biodegradable polymer microparticles

Abstract The objective of this study was to evaluate a poly( dl -lactic- co -glycolic acid)/poly(ethylene glycol) (PLGA/PEG) delivery system for nuclear factor-kappa B (NF κ B) decoy phosphorothioated oligonucleotides (ODNs). PLGA/PEG microparticles loaded with ODNs were fabricated with entrapment efficiencies up to 70%. The effects of PEG contents (0, 5, and 10 wt%), ODN loading densities (0.4, 4, and 40 μg/mg), and pH of the incubation medium (pH 5, 7.4, and 10) on ODN release kinetics from the PLGA/PEG microparticles were investigated in vitro for up to 28 days. The release profiles in pH 7.4 phosphate buffered saline (PBS) were characterized by an initial burst during the first 2 days, a linear release phase until day 18, and a final release phase for the rest of the period. Up to 85% of the ODNs were released after 28 days in pH 7.4 PBS regardless of the ODN loading density and PEG content. Higher ODN loading densities resulted in lower entrapment efficiencies and greater initial burst effects. The bulk degradation of PLGA was not significantly affected by the PEG content and ODN loading density, but significantly accelerated at acidic buffer pH. Under acidic and basic conditions, the aggregation of microparticles resulted in significantly lower cumulative mass of released ODNs than that released at neutral pH. The effects of pH were reduced by the incorporation of PEG into PLGA microparticles. Since the PLGA degradation products are acidic, PLGA/PEG microparticles might provide a better ODN delivery vehicle than PLGA microparticles. These results suggest that PLGA/PEG microparticles are useful as delivery vehicles for controlled release of ODNs and merit further investigation in cell culture and animal models of glioblastoma.
Related base sequences in the DNA of simple and complex organisms. III. Variability in the base sequence of the reduplicated genes for ribosomal RNA in the rabbit

A comparative study has been made of the arrangement of base sequences in the ribosomal RNA cistrons of Escherichia coliand rabbit DNA. This was accomplished by examination of the thermal stability profiles of DNA/RNA hybrids formed by the two types of ribosomal RNA under various conditions. The thermal stabilities of ribosomal RNA hybrids of rabbit origin are more dependent on the conditions of reaction during the formation and are always lower than those of E. coli RNA. It is concluded that the rabbit ribosomal RNA hybrids are formed mainly from mismatching between RNA molecules and DNA sites other than those from which they were transcribed. Thus, the cluster of ribosomal RNA cistrons in a mammalian DNA, representing a historical series of tandem duplications, exhibits intercistronic base sequence divergence.
The Anabaptist Vision

“Judged by the reception it met at the hands of those in power, both in Church and State, equally in Roman Catholic and in Protestant countries, the Anabaptist movement was one of the most tragic in the history of Christianity; but, judged by the principles, which were put into play by the men who bore this reproachful nickname, it must be pronounced one of the most momentous and significant undertakings in man's eventful religious struggle after the truth. It gathered up the gains of earlier movements, it is the spiritual soil out of which all nonconformist sects have sprung, and it is the first plain announcement in modern history of a programme for a new type of Christian society which the modern world, especially in America and England, has been slowly realizing—an absolutely free and independent religious society, and a State in which every man counts as a man, and has his share in shaping both Church and State.”
Plastic flow and fracture of thin flat plate under uniform stress

Abstract The behaviour of a thin flat plate under a uniform stress in one direction is studied. The plate consists of a homogeneous, isotropic, elastic-plastic material obeying the Hencky stress-strain equations with the von Mises yield criterion. The conditions of plane stress are assumed to hold throughout the material. It is shown that θ, the angle of inclination of the slip plane with a direction perpendicular to the applied force, is less than θ0 for tensile forces and greater than θ0 for compressive forces, ( θ 0 = cos −1 2 3 1 2 is the value of θ for an incompressible material). Finally it is proved that the slip plane is a surface of instability and hence a possible surface of shear fracture.
Demonstration of anomalous symmetry breaking in 3HeA

Abstract A global U(1) symmetry of the classical Bogoliubov quasi-particle Lagrangian is shown to be broken when the classical theory is quantized. This leads to unexpected terms in the continuity equation and commutation relations of the would-be Noether current, and in the Ward identity for the proper vertex.
Towards an Integrated View of the Necessity of Human Interdependence: Perspectives From Theology, Philosophy, and Psychology

In this article, we attempt to formulate an integrated view of the necessity of human interdependence from the disciplines of theology, philosophy, and psychology. First, we discuss the social personalist model of the Trinity so as to understand the utility of relatedness from a theological perspective. Next, we review the philosophical concept of phenomenology in order to make sense of the relationship between humans and the world in which they interact and live. Finally, we explicate the psychoanalytic concept of intersubjectivity so as to offer Christian therapists a relational heuristic for working with Christian clients in psychotherapy. Overall, we suggest that drawing from these three disciplines can better elucidate the lifelong, legitimate need that humans have for intimate connection with, and nurturance from, one another in order to ameliorate the shame attached to the necessity of human interdependence in Western societies that commonly promote increased individualism and autonomy.
A More Effective Ceff for Slew Estimation

Accurate chip level timing analysis requires a careful modeling of interaction between logic drivers and interconnect wires. Existing static-timing analysis methodologies translate the actual loading and interconnect parasitics into a single effective capacitance. However, previous approaches to perform that translation capture the delay information only. They are not able to capture the slew information at the output of logic drivers, which results in unnecessary inaccuracy for static timing analysis. This paper presents a new accurate and simple closed-form approach to compute the effective capacitance and model the slew rate at the signal output more accurately. Our approach is especially suitable for the chip level timing analysis at the early stage of design.
Diffusions of mobile cellular phones in Sub Sahara Africa

It is widely believed that mobile cellular phones will play critically important roles for economic developments of countries in Sub Sahara Africa. This paper will examine the patterns of diffusion in mobile cellular phones of the Sub Sahara region as a whole and the individual countries in Sub Sahara Africa from several different perspectives: (1) its relative positions to that of fixed line phones have changed at different points in time, (2) the behavior of the ratios of the these two variables at different points in time, (3) growth patterns of mobile phone uses in individual countries in Sub Sahara Africa, (4) the observed usage patterns for the countries in the western and the southern Sub Sahara Africa compare to the countries in the central and the eastern Sub Sahara Africa, and (5) findings of the regression models with the usual explanatory variables such as GDP-PPP, fixed line phones per 100, literacy rates, PC per 100 at different points in time during the study period covered in this paper.
Improved Synthesis of 5-Benzyl-2-thiouracils

Abstract Improved methodology for the synthesis of 5-benzyl-2-thiouracils from ethyl phenylpropanoates is reported.
Flow in a symmetrically branched tube simulating the aortic bifurcation: the effects of unevenly distributed flow.

The effects of unevenly distributed flow were investigated in a symmetrically branched tube with an angle of branching and branch-to-trunk area ratio that were comparable to the human descending aorta. Profiles of velocity were measured at the vertex of the bifurcation with a laser Doppler anemometer during pulsatile flow as well as steady flow. The mean Reynolds numbers were 500, 1000, and 1500. When flow in the branches was equal, reversals were present along the outer wall during the minimal phase of the flow cycle at a Reynolds number of 500. Such reversals were absent at higher Reynolds numbers. When flow in the branches was unequal, reversals occurred only in the branch with the lower flow. Such reversals occurred at all of the Reynolds numbers studied. Pulsatile flow separation, however, did not occur at any Reynolds number when the flow in the branches was equal. Pulsatile flow separation occurred in the partially occluded branch when flow in the branch was ≤8% of the total flow only at Reynolds numbers of 1000 and 1500. A prominent difference between pulsatile and steady flow was that reversals along the outer wall occurred during pulsatile flow at percentages that were prominently higher than the percentage of flow in the branch that produced reversals during steady flow. These observations may be pertinent to understanding the potential of characteristics of flow in the genesis of atherosclerosis in the region of the bifurcation of the aorta.
Highly efficient solid phase synthesis of oligonucleotide analogs containing phosphorodithioate linkages

A triester method for the synthesis of deoxynucleoside phosphorodithioate dimers is described. The phosphorodithioate linkage is introduced using a new dithiophosphorylating reagent DPSE-SP(S)Cl 2 where DPSE = 2-diphenylmethylsilylethyl. This group is removed quickly using tetra-butylammonium fluoride leading to the quantitative formation of phosphorodithioate diesters uncontaminated with the corresponding phosphorothioates. The utility of this group is demonstrated by the synthesis of a pentadecathymidylic acid, [T(PS 2 )T(PO 2 )] 7 T, which contains alternating phosphorodithioate/phosphate diester internucleotide linkages. Modified oligodeoxynucleotides have recently received much attention due to their therapeutic applications (1–3). Among the more interesting nucleic acid analogs are the phosphorodithioates in which both non-bridging oxygen atoms of the internucleotide linkage are replaced by sulfur. Deoxynucleoside phosphorodithioate dimers have been prepared in several ways using H-phosphonate (4–11), phosphordiamidite (12), phosphoramidite (13–15) and thiophosphoramidite (16–18) chemistries. Reports have also appeared on the synthesis of oligonucleotides with alternating phosphate and phosphorodithioate linkages (19), as well as one on ribonucleoside dimers (20). Of the above methods, the thiophosphoramidite method has been applied successfully to the preparation of mixed base oligonucleotides containing contiguous phosphorodithioate linkages. However, this method gives products which contain varying amounts of phosphorothioate linkages (2–10%) due to factors associated with the involvement of trivalent thiophosphorus compounds (21). In addition, the thiophosphoramidite synthons are difficult to purify on silica gel columns and have a tendency to dismutate in the presence of acidic catalysts such as tetrazole (15). The thiophosphite intermediate which is formed is also unstable to tetrazole. Similarly in thio- and dithio-H-phosphonate methodologies, the primary coupling
Overfitting and neural networks: conjugate gradient and backpropagation

Methods for controlling the bias/variance tradeoff typically assume that overfitting or overtraining is a global phenomenon. For multi-layer perceptron (MLP) neural networks, global parameters such as the training time, network size, or the amount of weight decay are commonly used to control the bias/variance tradeoff. However, the degree of overfitting can vary significantly throughout the input space of the model. We show that overselection of the degrees of freedom for an MLP trained with backpropagation can improve the approximation in regions of underfitting, while not significantly overfitting in other regions. This can be a significant advantage over other models. Furthermore, we show that "better" learning algorithms such as conjugate gradient can in fact lead to worse generalization, because they can be more prone to creating varying degrees of overfitting in different regions of the input space. While experimental results can not cover all practical situations, our results do help to explain common behavior that does not agree with theoretical expectations. Our results suggest one important reason for the relative success of MLPs, bring into question common beliefs about neural network training regarding training algorithms, overfitting, and optimal network size, suggest alternate guidelines for practical use, and help to direct future work.
Numerical study of axisymmetric dielectric resonators

In this paper, we present an effective approach to study the behavior of axisymmetric dielectric resonators. This approach is based on the finite-difference time-domain method and two accompanying techniques in order to increase the accuracy and decrease the computational cost. These two techniques are the fast-Fourier-transform approach and the Pade method. This method is used to obtain the resonant frequencies and quality factors for several resonators. Comparisons are made to show the utility of the method.
Rapid Isothermal Gas Chromatography‐Mass Spectrometry Method for Validating a Small Ion Mobility Spectrometer Sensor

Abstract A fast and reproducible isothermal gas chromatographic‐mass spectrometric method for validating a small ion mobility spectrometer (IMS) sensor for detection of gaseous volatile organic compounds (VOCs) is presented. This method utilizes an automated cyclic valving (CV) sampling technique coupled to a gas chromatograph‐mass spectrometer (GC/MS) in selected ion monitoring (SIM) mode (CV/GC/MS/SIM). The sampling time is considerably reduced by operating the GC isothermally at 300°C. This approach provides rapid measurements with 15 times more data points than the conventional GC/MS methods in which the column temperature is ramped, then cooled before the next sample can be injected. With the mass spectrometer operated in SIM mode, pre‐selected ions that represent the primary quantitation and secondary ions of toluene and a BTX (benzene, toluene, o‐, m‐, and p‐xylene) mixture were monitored and their corresponding breakthrough curves for flow through partially saturated soil columns were generated. T...
Good System Structure Features: Their Complexity and Execution Time Cost

This paper describes a multistep technique that can be applied to improve system structure and to improve performance when necessary. The technique begins with the analysis of system structure via the structured design guidelines of coupling and cohesion. Next, manual system structure improvement transformations are applied. The effect of the transformations on execution time is then determined. Finally, vertical migration is used on the restructured system to improve its performance. Using the results of this paper, system programmers can identify specific cases where both good system structure and good performance are attainable, and others where tradeoffs must be made. The technique is most applicable during the maintenance phase of the software life cycle.
Detection of receptors for hepatitis B virus on cells of extrahepatic origin.

Abstract Receptors for hepatitis B virus (HBV; subtype adw ) were identified on the surface of human hepatoma HepG2 cells in earlier studies. The cell receptor binding site on HBV was assigned to the preS(21–47) region of the preS1 sequence of the envelope protein. Studies presented here show that (1) amino acid residue replacements within the preS(21–47) sequence distinguishing HBV subtypes adw and ayw , preserve the binding capacity of the HBV env protein for HepG2 cell receptors; (2) the inhibition of binding between HepG2 cells and preS1-specific ligands by antibodies is effective only if the subtype specificity of anti-preS1-specific antibodies and of the preS1-specific ligands are matched; (3) receptors for HBV were present on the surface of human cells of nonhepatic origin, including peripheral blood B-lymphocytes, some hematopoietic cell lines of the B-cell lineage, neuroblastoma, amnion, and embryonic carcinoma cell lines. Receptors for HBV on these cells appeared similar to the receptor on HepG2 cells by the following criteria: (a) recognition by antibodies raised against the receptor on HepG2 cells; (b) inhibitory activity of lysates prepared from these cells on the interaction between HepG2 cells and preS1-specific ligands; and (c) the inhibitory effect of lysates from HepG2 cells on the reaction of these cells with HBsAg- and preS(21–47)-cellulose. The presence of receptors for HBV on some cells of extrahepatic origin is in accordance with earlier observations indicating that hepadnaviruses are not strictly hepatotropic.
Bioavailability of transdermal methimazole in a pluronic lecithin organogel (PLO) in healthy cats.

The antithyroid drug methimazole is widely used for the medical management of feline hyperthyroidism. Recently, custom veterinary pharmacies have offered methimazole in a transdermal gel containing pluronic and lecithin (PLO), with anecdotal evidence of efficacy. The purpose of this study was to determine the bioavailability, relative to i.v. and oral routes of administration, of transdermal methimazole in a PLO gel in cats. Six healthy adult cats were assigned to receive 5 mg of methimazole by the i.v., oral, or transdermal routes, in a randomized triple crossover protocol with 1 week washout between doses. Blood samples were taken for high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) determination of serum methimazole, at 0, 5, 15, 30, 60 min, and 2, 4, 6, 12 and 24 h after dosing. Methimazole absorption following transdermal administration was poor and variable, with only two of six cats achieving detectable serum methimazole concentrations at any time point following transdermal administration. Area under the concentration-time curve (AUC), maximum concentration (Cmax), and absolute bioavailability were all significantly lower for the transdermal route (0.39 +/- 0.63 microg h/mL, 0.05 +/- 0.09 microg/mL, and 11.4 +/- 18.7%, respectively) than for either i.v. (7.96 +/- 4.38 microg h/mL, 3.34 +/- 2.00 microg/mL, 100%) or oral routes (2.94 +/- 1.24 microg h/mL, 0.51 +/- 0.15 microg/mL, 40.4 +/- 8.1%). The results of this study indicate generally low to undetectable bioavailability of methimazole in a lecithin/pluronic gel given as a single transdermal dose to healthy cats, although one individual cat did achieve nearly 100% transdermal bioavailability relative to the oral route.
Scanning Thermal Microscopy for Fast Multiscale Imaging and Manipulation

Multiscale resolution imaging and manipulation are essential for applications ranging from defect screening in circuits to nanoscale manipulation, patterning, and lithography. In this paper, we introduce a variant of scanning thermal microscopy to image surfaces at both the micro- and nanoscale. Electrothermal imaging at the microscale is performed in a completely out-of-contact, i.e., “noncontact” or “off-contact,” mode with a microscale heater, followed by higher resolution nanoscale imaging in contact mode with a nanoscale probe tip. Using this methodology, the imaging and manipulation functions of a single probe can be decoupled completely. This off-contact imaging mode is useful for avoiding tip wear and can be performed safely at high velocities. We demonstrate imaging of microscale features at speeds of up to 2 mm/s. The lateral resolution is determined by the dimensions of the heater used for imaging. For the flying heights and heater dimensions used here, the 1-σ lateral spatial resolution limit in the off-contact mode is less than 10 μm for 10-nm-tall features. A silicon nanowire attached to microscale electrodes is imaged to demonstrate the efficacy of this scheme.
Urban health educators' perspectives and practices regarding school nutrition education policies

Although nutrition-related health education policies exist at national, state and local levels, the degree to which those policies affect the everyday practices of health education teachers who are charged with executing them in schools is often unclear. The purpose of this study was to examine the nutrition-related health education policy matrix that affected one urban school district, the health education teachers’ awareness of those policies, the impact of nutrition policies on teachers’ instruction and challenges teachers perceived in executing comprehensive nutrition education. The study used interpretive ethnography to examine the educational contexts and perspectives of 27 health educators from 24 middle schools in one urban district in the Midwestern United States. Data were collected through school observations, interviews with key personnel and document collection. We found that a network of nutrition-related education policies governed health education teachers’ instruction, but that teachers were uniformly unaware of those policies. Without institutional coherence and clear directives, health education teachers taught little nutrition content, primarily due to poor training, professional development, instructional resources and administrative accountability. The results are discussed in light of the enormous challenges in many urban schools and the need for nutrition education professional development.
Total quality management as competitive advantage: A review and empirical study

Total Quality Management (TQM) has become, according to one source, ‘as pervasive a part of business thinking as quarterly financial results,’ and yet TQM's role as a strategic resource remains virtually unexamined in strategic management research. Drawing on the resource approach and other theoretical perspectives, this article examines TQM as a potential source of sustainable competitive advantage, reviews existing empirical evidence, and reports findings from a new empirical study of TQM's performance consequences. The findings suggest that most features generally associated with TQM—such as quality training, process improvement, and benchmarking—do not generally produce advantage, but that certain tacit, behavioral, imperfectly imitable features—such as open culture, employee empowerment, and executive commitment—can produce advantage. The author concludes that these tacit resources, and not TQM tools and techniques, drive TQM success, and that organizations that acquire them can outperform competitors with or without the accompanying TQM ideology.
Mentoring and being mentored: The story of a novice music teacher's success

Abstract This qualitative study examined the growth of Jelani, a failing novice teacher who successfully received tenure following his third year of teaching. His progress seemed related to the quality of his relationships with different mentors. An unanticipated factor in Jelani's success was his participation in a university-based program for children, where he served, under supervision, as a mentor for two preservice teachers. In what became a mutually beneficial relationship, Jelani reinforced his new-found knowledge and skills and learned to better describe and assess his own teaching. Among those who worked with Jelani, additional reciprocal mentoring relationships developed.
Kilo-scale droplet generation in three-dimensional monolithic elastomer device (3D MED)

Droplet-based microfluidics has led to transformational new approaches in diverse areas including materials synthesis and high-throughput biological assays. However, the translation of droplet microfluidics technology into commercial applications requires scale-up of droplet generation from the laboratory ( 1 L h−1) scale. To address this challenge, we develop a three-dimensional monolithic elastomer device (3D MED) for mass production of monodisperse emulsion droplets. Using double-sided imprinting, 3D microchannels are formed in a single elastomer piece that has 1000 parallel flow focusing generators (k-FFGs). Compared to previous work that parallelizes droplet generation, the 3D MED eliminates the needs for alignment and bonding of multiple pieces and thus makes it possible to achieve the high flow rates and pressure necessary for the kilo-scale generation of droplets. Using this approach, we demonstrate mass production of water-in-oil (W/O) emulsion droplets at production rates as high as 1.5 L h−1 (>30 billion 45 μm diameter droplets per hour), with a coefficient of variation of droplet diameter of only 6.6%. Because of the simplicity, robustness, and manufacturability of our 3D MED architecture, it is well suited to bridge the gap between the continuously growing library of promising microfluidic technologies to generate microparticles that have been demonstrated in laboratory settings and their successful application in industry.
Anthropology and the inchoate intimacies of power

Much of what anthropologists explore is discounted by other observers as obvious and as “mere” detail. This perceived lack of importance, compounded by the inherent indistinctness of many of the processes anthropologists observe, suggests how invisibility serves the interests of power—of the big picture, in short, that the discipline's detractors accuse it of ignoring. The tiny details and palpable evasions that illuminate a group's collective cultural secrets also reveal the dynamic that makes them embarrassing by today's globalized but vaguely defined values. Drawing on fieldwork in Greece, Italy, and Thailand, I argue—in a modality inspired by the thought of Giambattista Vico—that it is this capacity to probe beyond the obvious structures of authority and to find alternative realities in detail that renders anthropology both threatening to the sources of power and a necessary vehicle for the recovery of knowledge about the human condition.
Spatial patterns of precipitation and topography in the Himalaya

Spatial variability in precipitation has received little attention in the study of connections between climate, erosion, and tectonics. However, long-term precipitation patterns show large variations over spatial scales of ~10 km and are strongly controlled by topography. We use precipitation rate estimates from Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite radar data to approximate annual precipitation over the Himalaya at a spatial resolution of 10 km. The resulting precipitation pattern shows gradients across the range, and from east to west along the range, and fivefold differences between major valleys and their adjacent ridges. Basin-wide average precipitation estimates correlate well with available measured mean runoff for Himalayan rivers. Estimated errors of 15%–50% in TRMM-derived annual precipitation are much smaller than the spatial variability in predicted totals across the study area. A simple model of orographic precipitation predicts a positive relationship between precipitation and two topographically derived factors: the saturation vapor pressure at the surface and this pressure times the slope. This model captures significant features of the pattern of precipitation, including the gradient across the range and the ridge-valley difference, but fails to predict the east-west gradient and the highest totals. Model results indicate that the spatial pattern of precipitation is strongly related to topography and therefore must co-evolve with the topography, and suggest that our model may be useful for investigation of the relationships among the coupled climate-erosion-tectonic system.
In a warmer Arctic, mosquitoes avoid increased mortality from predators by growing faster

Climate change is altering environmental temperature, a factor that influences ectothermic organisms by controlling rates of physiological processes. Demographic effects of warming, however, are determined by the expression of these physiological effects through predator-prey and other species interactions. Using field observations and controlled experiments, we measured how increasing temperatures in the Arctic affected development rates and mortality rates (from predation) of immature Arctic mosquitoes in western Greenland. We then developed and parametrized a demographic model to evaluate how temperature affects survival of mosquitoes from the immature to the adult stage. Our studies showed that warming increased development rate of immature mosquitoes (Q10 = 2.8) but also increased daily mortality from increased predation rates by a dytiscid beetle (Q10 = 1.2-1.5). Despite increased daily mortality, the model indicated that faster development and fewer days exposed to predators resulted in an increased probability of mosquito survival to the adult stage. Warming also advanced mosquito phenology, bringing mosquitoes into phenological synchrony with caribou. Increases in biting pests will have negative consequences for caribou and their role as a subsistence resource for local communities. Generalizable frameworks that account for multiple effects of temperature are needed to understand how climate change impacts coupled human-natural systems.
Effects of wall roughness on turbulent junction flow characteristics

Global measurements of turbulent flows at wall–cylinder junctions are employed to quantify the effects of wall roughness on the behavior of the horseshoe vortex system (HVS). Two laboratory setups were considered: one with an impermeable smooth wall and a second characterized by a porous hydraulically rough bed. The measurements were obtained using planar particle image velocimetry. Time-averaged flow topology, turbulence statistics, and instantaneous fields associated with the streamwise and wall-normal velocity components are emphasized. Proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) is also applied on the velocity signals to probe into the characteristics of the energetic flow structures. For the Reynolds numbers studied here and the specific differences in the roughness geometry of the bed, a clear trend for the increase in flow incoherence due to the rough wall is documented. It is also demonstrated that, in the presence of roughness, vorticity and turbulence spread more evenly throughout the junction. On the other hand, qualitative and quantitative agreement between the smooth and rough bed tests is found in the structure of the downflow and the near-wall jet opposing the bulk flow. The efficiency of POD in analyzing turbulent junction flows is justified based on its results and metrics of modal energy distribution. POD verified in an objective way the role of integral components of the HVS dynamics such as the vortices comprising the system and their interplay with the wall. The decomposition furnishes new evidence about energetic structures that were not captured with the other data analysis methodologies. It also confirms the aperiodic behavior of the HVS for the investigated Reynolds numbers.
Who Is Helping the Homeless? Local, State, and Federal Responses

This article examines the sources of support for services for the homeless. It delineates the extensive role of the private sector in both funding and actually delivering shelter, meal, and other services for the homeless. It also indicates the extent to which certain states are providing financial support for homeless services, and the relation of new federal efforts through programs funded by the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act to state and private activities.
Older Adults’ Perceptions of Home Safety

Date Presented 4/17/2015 Results of a qualitative study aimed at understanding how low-income older adults conceptualize “home safety” are presented. An understanding of older adults’ point of view can facilitate communication about the benefits and outcomes of interventions to improve safety and function.
Studying the Effects of Modified Tubulin C-Terminal Tails on Katanin Severing Activity

Microtubule severing enzymes are AAA+ enzymes that sever microtubule filaments in order to regulate the organization of the cytoskeleton of cells. We have recently shown that katanin, the first identified sever enzyme, is inhibited by free tubulin dimers. Further, we showed that inhibition is specific for the carboxy-terminal tail and is isotype and post-translationally specific. Further, the inhibition of katanin is more potent than has been observed for spastin, a second severing enzyme, and has different reactions to different isotypes and post-translational modifications. This implies that katanin is regulated through different paths than spastin. We are currently investigation the inhibitory effects of numerous carboxy-terminal tail types. We perform in vitro reconstitution assays using wholly purified proteins and polypeptide carboxy-terminal tails of tubulin. This work provides a view into how katanin recognition of the CTT of tubulin regulates microtubule severing. A further understanding of this interaction is needed in order to understand how microtubule regulation is performed at the molecular level.
Taxonomy of Trachipterus (Lampriformes: Trachipteridae) in China

Two species of Trachipterus are reported in China, one of which was collected in East China Sea and is described as a first record. Four specimens of the new species are kept in Zhejiang Museum of Natural History.