cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Effect of Sodium Taurodeoxycholate on Biological Membranes: Release of Phosphorus, Phospholipid, and Protein from Everted Rat Small Intestine

Sodium taurodeoxycholate accelerates the release of total phosphorus, lipid phosphorus, and protein from isolated everted rat small intestinal sacs. The effect occurs at concentrations of the physiological surfactant above the CMC. The effect of sodium taurodeoxycholate on components of the biological membrane can be related to an increase in permeability of the everted intestine to phenol red in the presence of various concentrations of the surfactant. The interaction of the surfactant with the biological membrane may produce an acceleration of the loss of structural integrity of the preparation, resulting in an increased permeability to phenol red.
Whole mount nuclear fluorescent imaging: convenient documentation of embryo morphology.

Here we describe a relatively inexpensive and easy method to produce high quality images that reveal fine topological details of vertebrate embryonic structures. The method relies on nuclear staining of whole mount embryos in combination with confocal microscopy or conventional widefield fluorescent microscopy. In cases where confocal microscopy is used in combination with whole mount nuclear staining, the resulting embryo images can rival the clarity and resolution of images of similar specimens produced by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The fluorescent nuclear staining may be performed with a variety of cell permeable nuclear dyes, enabling the technique to be performed with multiple standard microscope/illumination or confocal/laser systems. The method may be used to document morphology of embryos of a variety of organisms, as well as individual organs and tissues. Nuclear stain imaging imposes minimal impact on embryonic specimens, enabling imaged specimens to be utilized for additional assays.
A theory of technological progress

Abstract A theory of the development of artifacts and their technologies is presented. This theory starts by establishing a hierarchy of artifacts and classifying them in a simple scheme. Then the growth of a new artifact in the absence of substantial competition is modeled and illustrated with realistic examples. The model is further developed to explain the substitution of one artifact technology for another. It is shown that substitution is a special case in a more general theory which is necessary when an attacker has a performance advantage over the defender as is usually the case. This is quantified in several real instances. Finally the important role of stochastic events is shown by defining five categories and some of their known effects.
Location of monitorial fluorophores inCandida utilis

The fluorescent spectra of whole broth, cell-free broth and resuspended cells were compared during the fermentation ofCandida utilis growing in ethanol for the purposes of identifying the location of monitorial fluorophores in cellular systems. Four cellular fluorophores, tryptophan, pyridoxine, NADH and riboflavin were examined. The results indicated that the fluorescence signal of tryptophan and NADH came mainly from intracellular fluorophores, and the fluorescence signal of pyridoxine and riboflavin mainly came from extracellular fluorophores. The contributions of intracellular and extracellular fluorophores to culture fluorescence signals were found to change during the fermentation.
iSTART 2: improvements for efficiency and effectiveness.

iSTART (interactive strategy training for active reading and thinking) is a Web-based reading strategy trainer that develops students’ ability to self-explain difficult text as a means to improving reading comprehension. Its curriculum consists of modules presented interactively by pedagogical agents: an introduction to the basics of using reading strategies in the context of self-explanation, a demonstration of self-explanation, and a practice module in which the trainee generates self-explanations with feedback on the quality of reading strategies contained in the self-explanations. We discuss the objectives that guided the development of the second version of iSTART toward the goals of increased efficiency for the experimenters and effectiveness in the training. The more pedagogically challenging high school audience is accommodated by (1) a new introduction that increases interactivity, (2) a new demonstration with more and better focused scaffolding, and (3) a new practice module that provides improved feedback and includes a less intense but more extended regimen. Version 2 also benefits experimenters, who can set up and evaluate experiments with less time and effort, because pre- and posttesting has been fully computerized and the process of preparing a text for the practice module has been reduced from more than 1 person-week to about an hour’s time.
Quenched monopoles in lattice gauge theory.

Monopole configurations are created by a relaxation method, for Abelian and non-Abelian lattice gauge theories. The difference between the density of quenched monopoles from the high- and low-energy phases, at the phase transition of the O(3) and O(2) gauge theories, is discussed.
The evaluation of the omentum in ovarian cancer

Little published data exists on omental evaluation in ovarian cancer. In a retrospective study we reviewed 334 consecutive operations for adnexal masses; 159 had ovarian cancer, and 119 omentectomies were performed, with complete information available on 109. Mean omentectomy was 203.5 cm2 (normal omentum = 792 cm2) and 190 g, with a significant correlation of weight to size. Secondary ovarian cancer was present in 66 omenta (61%). All 32 omenta examined in the pathology laboratories and described as grossly involved with tumor had ovarian cancer histologically. Of the 55 grossly negative omenta, 12 had histologically proven tumor (22%). Slide review of the grossly negative, histologically positive omenta revealed the mean tumor diameter to measure 6.7 mm. Lymph node dissection occurred in 16 patients and was positive in 10, with simultaneous absence of tumor in the omenta of 3 of these patients. Conversely, 2 patients with positive omenta had negative lymph nodes. The optimal extent of omental resection and histological examination remains undetermined.
Complicated acute type B aortic dissection: midterm results of emergency endovascular stent-grafting.

Objective This study assessed midterm results of emergency endovascular stent–grafting for patients with life-threatening complications of acute type B aortic dissection. Methods Between November 1996 and June 2004, 16 patients with complicated acute type B aortic dissections (mean age 57 years, range 16–88 years) underwent endovascular stent–grafting within 48 hours of presentation. Complications included contained rupture, hemothorax, refractory chest pain, and severe visceral or lower limb ischemia. Stent–graft types included custom-made first-generation endografts and second-generation commercial stent–grafts (Gore Excluder or TAG; W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc, Flagstaff, Ariz.). Follow-up was 100% complete, averaged 36 ± 36 months, and included postprocedural surveillance computed tomographic scans. Results Early mortality was 25% ± 11% (70% confidence limit), with no late deaths. No new neurologic complications occurred. According to the latest scan, 4 patients (25%) had complete thrombosis of the false lumen; the lumen was partially thrombosed in 6 patients (38%). Distal aortic diameter was increased in only 1 patient. Actuarial survival at 1 and 5 years was 73% ± 11%; freedom from treatment failure (including aortic rupture, device fault, reintervention, aortic death, or sudden, unexplained late death) was 67% ± 14% at 5 years. Conclusion With follow-up to 9 years, endovascular stent–grafting for patients with complicated acute type B aortic dissection conferred benefit. Consideration of emergency stent–grafting may improve the dismal outlook for these patients; future refinements in stent–graft design and technology and earlier diagnosis and intervention should be associated with improved results.
Grown-in microdefects, residual vacancies and oxygen precipitation bands in Czochralski silicon

Abstract A model of multi-step vacancy aggregation in dislocation-free silicon crystals is analyzed. In this model, voids are first nucleated (normally just below 1100°C). The vacancy loss to voids is retarded below some characteristic temperature (about 1020°C) as the vacancies become bound by oxygen into O2V complexes. These remaining vacancies control nucleation of oxide particles on further cooling. Some vacancies survive even this stage and control nucleation of oxygen clusters at still lower temperature (around 700°C). The oxygen clusters are major precipitation nuclei during subsequent heat treatments. It is through residual vacancies that the oxygen precipitation behavior is closely related to the grown-in microdefects (voids and particles). The microdefect properties and the residual vacancy concentration ( C res ) are computed in dependence of the starting vacancy concentration ( C 0 ). The C res (C 0 ) function is of a twin-peak type which results in a banded precipitation pattern if C 0 decreases gradually either in radial or axial direction. The model accounts for complicated (strongly banded) precipitation patterns, particularly those observed in halted and quenched crystals.
The Effects of Activating Peptides and Proteins on the Activity of Reconstituted Cholesterol Desmolase Systems

The kinetics of cleavage of both cholesterol and cholesterol sulfate by reconstituted cholesterol side-chain cleavage systems are profoundly modified by non-ionic detergents and phospholipids. The Km value for adrenodoxin is changed depending on whether cholesterol or cholesterol sulfate is used as the substrate and by the presence of detergents and phospholipids in the assay mixture. The activity of the enzyme sytstem is also affected by reducing agents such as dithiothreitol. All these factors must be considered when the effects of protein and peptide activators of the cholesterol side-chain cleavage system are interpreted.
Training in Pediatric Psychology—Current Perspectives and Future Opportunities: Introduction to the Special Section

The most personally and professionally gratifying of my activities in the field of pediatric psychology has involved training of undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral fellows (Drotar, 2003). I continue to be impressed by the intellectual curiosity, values, and compassion, and raw talent that are demonstrated by the remarkable cadre of graduate and fellowship level trainees who are attracted to pediatric psychology. The future of our field will be theirs. To ensure their and our future, we need to be the best possible stewards of the extraordinary promise of these careers in the making by creating the most optimal training opportunities, experiences, and career paths for our future practitioners, teachers, and researchers. This special issue on training in pediatric psychology was conceived to address this continuing need. Training in pediatric psychology has evolved in important ways since the founding of our field (LaGreca, Stone, Drotar, & Maddux, 1988; Roberts et al., 1998; Spirito et al., 2003). The Society of Pediatric Psychology Task Force Report (2003): Recommendations for the Training of Pediatric Psychologists considered issues related to breadth and depth of training, scope of practice, training paths, primary care, interdisciplinary training, and mentors (Spirito et al., 2003). Topic areas identified as most important for obtaining knowledge and expertise in pediatric psychology included life span development, developmental psychology and developmental psychopathology, child, adolescent, and family assessment, intervention strategies, research methods and systems, evaluation, professional ethical and legal issues, diversity, roles of multiple disciplines in service delivery, prevention, family support, and health promotion, social issues affecting children, adolescents, and families, consultant and liaison roles, and disease process and medical management. This report was an important milestone in the development of training in our field as it expanded on the prior survey results and recommendations for pediatric psychology (LaGreca et al., 1988) and clinical child psychology. Since the Task Force report (Spirito et al., 2003), training programs that focus on pediatric psychology or offer pediatric training as part of another program at graduate, internship, and postdoctoral levels have expanded significantly. However, training programs in pediatric psychology face a number of significant challenges: Recruiting graduate students and facilitating development of their core competencies in both specialized training and an increasing breadth of content areas, training students to meet the challenges of research careers, and promoting the development of mentors in our field. The manuscripts in this special section respond to these challenges of pediatric psychology training.
Grainyhead-like 2 regulates neural tube closure and adhesion molecule expression during neural fold fusion.

Summary Defects in closure of embryonic tissues such as the neural tube, body wall, face and eye lead to severe birth defects. Cell adhesion is hypothesized to contribute to closure of the neural tube and body wall, however potential molecular regulators of this process have not been identified. Here we identify an ENU-induced mutation in mice that reveals a molecular pathway of embryonic closure. Line2F homozygous mutant embryos fail to close the neural tube, body wall, face, and optic fissure, and they also display defects in lung and heart development. Using a new technology of genomic sequence capture and high-throughput sequencing of a 2.5 Mb region of the mouse genome, we discovered a mutation in the grainyhead-like 2 gene (Grhl2). Microarray analysis revealed Grhl2 affects the expression of a battery of genes involved in cell adhesion and Ecadherin protein is drastically reduced in tissues that require Grhl2 function. The tissue closure defects in Grhl2 mutants are similar to that of AP-2α null mutants and AP-2α has been shown to bind to the promoter of E-cadherin. Therefore, we tested for a possible interaction between these genes. However, we find that Grhl2 and AP-2α do not regulate each other’s expression, Ecadherin expression is normal in AP-2α mutants during neural tube closure, and Grhl2;AP-2α trans-heterozygous embryos are morphologically normal. Taken together, our studies point to a complex regulation of neural tube fusion and highlight the importance of comparisons between these two models to understand more fully the molecular pathways of embryonic tissue closure.
Presynaptic Dopamine in Schizophrenia

Presynaptic dopamine (DA) transmission has been measured in schizophrenia using different paradigms aimed at providing estimates of the integrity or the activity of the presynaptic dopaminergic neuron. RESEARCHERS HAVE MEASURED: (1) DA synthesis capacity with [(18) F]DOPA, a measure of the activity of dopa decarboxylase, (2) DA release with studies measuring the impact of a DA releasing stimulant challenge on the binding of a D(2) receptor radiotracer, (3) D(2) baseline occupancy by DA, a measure of baseline intrasynaptic DA, assessed by the changes in binding of D(2) radiotracer induced by DA depletion, and (4) the DA and the vesicular monoamine transporters, to assess the integrity of presynaptic terminals. The relationship between DA release and D(2) receptor occupancy at baseline by DA has also been assessed in the same patients. Overall, these different imaging modalities have converged to show a dysregulation of presynaptic dopaminergic activity in schizophrenia, leading to excessive DA release in the striatum, particularly in the projection to the associative striatum, an area of integration between cognitive and limbic cortical inputs. Excessive striatal presynaptic DA is linked to the emergence of acute psychotic symptoms and to their response to treatment in schizophrenia. Understanding the etiology of this dysregulation and its consequences on the rest of the circuitry is important for future drug development.
The molecular basis of skeletal muscle atrophy.

Skeletal muscle atrophy attributable to muscular inactivity has significant adverse functional consequences. While the initiating physiological event leading to atrophy seems to be the loss of musc...
Collider Scaling and Cost Estimation

The primary motivation for high energy physicists to study new acceleration mechanisms is to find a way to build colliders at energies above the SSC at costs less than the SSC. Cost considerations are, unfortunately, crucial. It is simply not useful to know how to build an accelerator that would cost 100 billion dollars. Although it is difficult to make cost estimates without knowing the technology, I believe the attempt is useful.
A Comprehensive Planning Model for Long-Range Academic Strategies

In this paper we describe a multiperiod linear programming model designed to aid the administrator of a school in planning and decision-making for a five-year horizon. The technique of goal programming is employed to accommodate the multiplicity of goals and the marginal trade-offs inherent in such a process. The model includes faculty staffing goals, career constraints, teaching and course loads, tenure constraints and budget constraints. A weighted sum of the deviations from the staffing goals make up the objective function of the prototype model considered. Several methods of estimating the various parameters of the model are discussed, and the results of a small example are also discussed.
Accelerated partial breast irradiation: keeping guidelines in step with evolving data.

Since the early 1990s, there has been the continued development of brachytherapy-based accelerated partial breast irradiation (B-APBI) as an alternative to external-beam whole-breast irradiation (WBI) after breast-conserving surgery. From interstitial lowdose-rate multiplanar catheter systems using I-125 for in-patients, to high-dose-rate Ir-192 multicatheter systems (1) for individuals treated as outpatients, to the Food and Drug Administration approval of the single-entry balloon applicator in 2002 (2)dthis evolution of B-APBI has been able to shorten treatment from 5-6.5 weeks down to just 4-5 days, making adjuvant radiation more accessible and available to patients with early-stage breast cancer. Indeed, the introduction of the single-entry afterloading applicator in 2002 opened the door to many investigators who wished to compare the efficacy and safety of APBI using this technique, and many such patients have been enrolled in large, multi-institutional, prospective, randomized trials such as the NSABP B-39/RTOG 0413 study. Over the past decade, the use of B-APBI and, in particular, the single-entry applicator, has seen a marked increase. At the same time, however, selection criteria have remained rather simple. Compiled from pioneering work of investigators such as those at Beaumont, Oshsner Clinic, and the RTOG 95-17 trial (3-5), these early, rudimentary criteria for treatment with B-APBI included an index lesion 2 mm, no more than 3 LN showing involvement, and biopsy-proven invasive ductal cancer with exclusion of DCIS and ILC. Because of the limited long-term clinical results available to guide clinicians as to which patients could safely receive B-APBI and which would be more appropriately treated with WBI, the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) formed an expert task force to formulate a set of patient appropriateness criteria for the use of APBI outside of a clinical
Visceromotor organization within descending spinal sympathetic pathways in the dog

The organization within the descending sympathetic pathways on the surface of the dorsolateral funiculus of the spinal cord was investigated in anesthetized dogs. Changes in heart rate and carotid, renal, and femoral resistances were calculated during electrical stimulation of the descending spinal sympathetic pathways; the location within the pathway of the maximum change in each of these parameters was then determined. Blood pressure increased at each stimulation point with the maximum increase at 3-3.5 mm ventrolateral to the dorsolateral sulcus (DLS). The maximum increases in carotid, renal, and femoral resistances occurred with stimulation at 0.5-1.5, 2, and 3 mm ventrolateral to the DLS, respectively. Maximum heart rate responses were elicited by stimulation 2 mm ventrolateral to the sulcus. These data demonstrate that the pathway is organized in a dorsal-to-ventral manner, with the most rostral parts of the body being represented most dorsally and the more caudal parts being represented more ventrally.
Piezoresistive pressure sensors in the measurement of intervertebral disc hydrostatic pressure.

Abstract Background context An implantable, freestanding, minimally invasive, intervertebral disc pressure sensor would vastly improve the knowledge of spinal biomechanics and the understanding of spinal disease. Additionally, it would improve clinical indications for surgical interventions in disc-related pathology. Adaptation of current commercially available materials, technology, and microfabrication techniques may now make the production of such a device feasible. Purpose To determine if piezoresistive pressure sensor (PPS) technology could be applied as the functional sensing element in an intervertebral disc microsensor. Methods Commercially available PPS chips were modified, producing sensor chips measuring 0.8cm 2 by 0.3cm with an internal sensing element measuring 0.15cm 2 by 0.1cm. A needle-mounted pressure sensor functionally identical to those used in discography procedures was also tested in parallel as a control. Both sensors were calibrated for hydrostatic pressure using a purpose-built pressure chamber and then tested in human functional spinal units. Methods were developed to implant the sensor and measure the intervertebral disc pressure in response to axial compressive loads. Results Modified commercially available PPS elements were functionally adapted to measure intervertebral disc pressures. Both the PPS and the needle-mounted sensor measured a linear increase in hydrostatic disc pressure with applied axial load. Fluctuations between the slopes of the output versus load curves were observed in the PPS sensor experimental trials. These fluctuations were attributed to the large size of our working model and its impact on the hydrostatic and mechanical properties of the disc. Conclusions It is hypothesized that future miniaturization of this working model will eliminate mechanical disruption within the disc and the fluctuations in the slope of sensor output that this induces. It should be possible to construct an implantable sensor for the intervertebral disc. This may provide valuable clinical and physiological data.
Multiprocessor DSP architectures that implement the FCT based JPEG still picture image compression algorithm with arithmetic coding

Several parallel pipelined digital signal processor (DSP) architectures that implement the fast cosine transform (FCT)-based Joint Photographers Expert Group (JPEG) still picture image compression algorithm with arithmetic coding for entropy coding are described. The extended JPEG image compression algorithm's average execution time, when compressing and decompressing a 256*256 pixel monochrome still image, varied from 0.61 s to 0.12 s in architectures that contained from one to six processors. A common bus DSP multiprocessor system capable of meeting the critical timing requirements of digital image compression/decompression applications is also presented. In an effort to maximize DSP utilization, a simple static load distribution method is provided for assigning the load to the individual DSPs. These parallel pipelined DSP architectures can be used for a wide range of applications, including the MPEG implementation for video coding. >
Bound consistency for binary length-lex set constraints

The length-lex representation has been recently proposed for representing sets in Constraint Satisfaction Problems. The length-lex representation directly captures cardinality information, provides a total ordering for sets, and allows bound consistency on unary constraints to be enforced in time O(c), where c is the cardinality of the set. However, no algorithms were given to enforce bound consistency on binary constraints. This paper addresses this open issue. It presents algorithms to enforce bound consistency on disjointness and cardinality constraints in time O(c3). Moreover, it presents a generic bound-consistency algorithm for any binary constraint S which requires O(c2) calls to a feasibility subroutine for S.
Three Faces of Eden: The Persistence of Competing Theories and Multiple Diagnoses in Organizational Intervention Research

Recently, three noted scholars in the field of organizational development and action research, Edgar Schein, Peter Senge, and Chris Argyris, decided to collaborate on research at the newly formed Center for Organizational Learning at MIT. This article presents an analysis of factors impeding this collaboration, drawing from the literature and from the author's experiences as a researcher at the center. The article compares the three strategies for intervention research, and explores the theories of organizational effectiveness implied by each. Core challenges for each approach are identified, followed by theoretical and temperamental factors that may contribute to the persistence of separate approaches. Finally, options for collaborative research are reviewed, along with a recommendation for an integrative approach.
Imperial Somatics and Genealogies of Religion: How We Never Became Secular

The narrative of Modernity is a fabulous retelling of colonialism and the cultural and ethnic devastation that came along with European imperialism. With the aid of Foucault's genealogical method, the author re-reads the story of alleged social, political, and epistemological advances that propel the West to world-historical pre-eminence as the formation of a complex “autotheodicy” aimed at justifying the depredations of the West on the rest. In particular, the author considers the case of the Inquisition in Spain, and its exportation to the “New World.” In the course of this process, “religion” turned into the form of (Western) “science,” but the operation remained much the same under either description: an education in self-regard and other-loathing. The supposed secularization of the West is, then, a fable. Religion is the mirror in which modern society must look at itself to discover its own otherness. But it is also in this mirror where its “others” look back.
Neurologic complications in renal transplantation.

Abstract Neurologic complications following kidney transplant are more common than in the general population with the reported incidence around 10–21%. Need for multiple drugs, decreased cellular immunity, accelerated atherosclerotic disease, and frequency of metabolic abnormalities are the most common predisposing factors for neurologic abnormalities. Neurologic side-effects of calcineurin inhibitors range from mild tremors to paraplegia or posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES) and are generally reversible by lowering the dose or complete discontinuation of the drug when possible. Clinical presentation of central nervous system infection in transplant recipients can be different from the normal population as the anti-inflammatory effects of immunosuppressive therapy may obscure signs of meningeal inflammation and changes in the level of consciousness may be subtle. Bacterial infections remain the most common infections but unusual pathogens figure prominently in the differential diagnosis. The most frequent malignancies of the brain are lymphomas and metastatic tumors which are for the most part, de novo malignancies from immunosuppression. Decreasing immunosuppression is almost always a part of treating malignancy. The prevalence of stroke is reported to be around 8% with age > 40 years, diabetic nephropathy as the underlying cause of end-stage kidney disease, and peripheral vascular disease being the strongest predictors.
Nebraska Legislative History

This article discusses the use of legislative history in Nebraska to determine the legislative intent of a statute. When confronted with an ambiguous statute, Nebraska appellate courts have often construed it by reference to the statute’s legislative history. Nebraska courts have repeatedly relied on such documents as the introducer’s statement of intent, the committee statement, the committee hearings, floor debates, bill versions, amendments, statements from the governor, and other information found in the Legislative Journals.
Expansions And Contractions: World-Historical Change And The Western Sudan World-System (1200/1000 B.C.-1200/1250 A.D.)*

Archaeological evidence from West Africa suggests a process of relatively autochthonous state formation involving unusual forms of urbanization, horse warrior aristocracies, craft status groups and commodified trade networks organized by merchant-scholars. The emergenceof a West African state system played a generative role in the world-historical development of universal rationality in Western Afroeurasia, as well as in the intensification of empire formation and monetary integration in the formative era before the rise of European hegemony.
Bacterial Meningitis in Infants

A retrospective study of 80 infantile patients (ages 30-365 days; 47 male, 33 female) with culture-proven bacterial meningitis seen over a 16 year period (1986-2001) is reported from Taiwan.
Molecular characterization of the Smyth chicken sublines and their parental controls by RFLP and DNA fingerprint analysis

The Smyth line (SL) chicken, a model for autoimmune human vitiligo, is characterized by a spontaneous posthatch epidermal pigment loss (vitiligo). Even though the immunological and morphological changes accompanying the vitiligo process have been well studied, the genetics of this phenomenon remains elusive. The SL lines have been maintained by nonpedigreed matings since their inception, and therefore, the inbreeding status is unknown. The present study was designed to provide an estimate of the inbreeding coefficients and the molecular genetic profiles of the SL sublines, each homozygous for a different MHC haplotype and their MHC-matched parental control (BL) sublines. The DNA fingerprint analysis revealed that there is a moderate level of inbreeding within the SL and BL parental sublines. Of the two SL sublines studied, SL101 had the highest level of inbreeding (0.948). Similarly, its parental control line (BL101) was more inbred than the parental subline of SL102 (BL102). The very high level of similarity between the SL sublines and their respective parental control lines is shown further by the similarity index (SI) estimates (SI between SL101 and BL101 was 0.949 and that between SL102 and BL102 was 0.932). Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of the endogenous viral genes (avian leukosis virus subgroup E, ALVE) showed that five ALVE-related BamH1 fragments were present in the SL101 and four in SL102 sublines, whereas the parental BL101 and BL102 sublines had five and six fragments, respectively. SL101 and SL102 shared two fragments, but the frequencies were different. Similarly, BL101 and BL102 shared two fragments. SL101 and BL101 shared three fragments, and SL102 and BL102 also shared three fragments.
An Un-Bleachable YFP-Based Chloride Sensor

Prestin (SLC26A5), the protein responsible for electromotility in the mammalian outer hair cell, remains incompletely characterized. We are interested in the protein's transporter/channel-like behavior. Clearly, the functional analysis of many chloride-related membrane proteins, such as channels/transporters/receptors, would benefit from a genetically encoded chloride sensor with reliable properties. Recently we developed an YFP-based chloride sensor, mCl-YFP (Sheng et al., PLoS ONE 2014, 9(6): e99095), with chloride Kd of 14 mM and pKa of 5.9, as well as 15-fold better photostability than wild-type EYFP. Using this chloride sensor, we demonstrated enhanced dynamic flux of chloride in the mM range into HEK cells expressing the fused protein of prestin and mCl-YFP. In order to avoid photobleaching interference during long exposure measurements, a new chloride sensor was developed with 80-fold better photostability than wild-type EYFP by stabilizing the chromophore structure via hydrogen-bond network. Other characteristics are similar to the original sensor we developed. We are currently testing the new sensor's sensitivity to other anions that typically exist in cells. We expect that this sensor will provide more detailed information on the transporter function of prestin, as well as other membrane proteins.
Evaluating carbon storage, timber harvest, and habitat possibilities for a Western Cascades (USA) forest landscape.

Forest policymakers and managers have long sought ways to evaluate the capability of forest landscapes to jointly produce timber, habitat, and other ecosystem services in response to forest management. Currently, carbon is of particular interest as policies for increasing carbon storage on federal lands are being proposed. However, a challenge in joint production analysis of forest management is adequately representing ecological conditions and processes that influence joint production relationships. We used simulation models of vegetation structure, forest sector carbon, and potential wildlife habitat to characterize landscape-level joint production possibilities for carbon storage, timber harvest, and habitat for seven wildlife species across a range of forest management regimes. We sought to (1) characterize the general relationships of production possibilities for combinations of carbon storage, timber, and habitat, and (2) identify management variables that most influence joint production relationships. Our 160 000-ha study landscape featured environmental conditions typical of forests in the Western Cascade Mountains of Oregon (USA). Our results indicate that managing forests for carbon storage involves trade-offs among timber harvest and habitat for focal wildlife species, depending on the disturbance interval and utilization intensity followed. Joint production possibilities for wildlife species varied in shape, ranging from competitive to complementary to compound, reflecting niche breadth and habitat component needs of species examined. Managing Pacific Northwest forests to store forest sector carbon can be roughly complementary with habitat for Northern Spotted Owl, Olive-sided Flycatcher, and red tree vole. However, managing forests to increase carbon storage potentially can be competitive with timber production and habitat for Pacific marten, Pileated Woodpecker, and Western Bluebird, depending on the disturbance interval and harvest intensity chosen. Our analysis suggests that joint production possibilities under forest management regimes currently typical on industrial forest lands (e.g., 40- to 80-yr rotations with some tree retention for wildlife) represent but a small fraction of joint production outcomes possible in the region. Although the theoretical boundaries of the production possibilities sets we developed are probably unachievable in the current management environment, they arguably define the long-term potential of managing forests to produce multiple ecosystem services within and across multiple forest ownerships.
Analysis on epidemiological characteristics of varicella outbreaks in middle schools and primary schools in Xicheng District of Beijing in 2007-2012

Objective To investigate the epidemiological characteristics of varicella outbreaks which occurred in middle schools and primary schools in Xicheng District of Beijing from 2007 and 2012, explore the occurrence regularity of varicella so as to provide a scientific basis for preventing and controlling varicella in Beijing. Methods We selected pupils' and middle school students' varicella outbreak cases, which occurred in Xicheng District of Beijing from 2007 to 2012, surveyed by Individual Questionnaire for Epidemiological Information of Varicella Case, and collected from EpiDatabase. Descriptive epidemiological method was used to analyze the time, regional and population distribution of varicella outbreaks and the incidence situation and clinical manifestations of the cases. Results There were 21 outbreaks of varicella reported in Xicheng District of Beijing from 2007 to 2012. The outbreaks had a double peak period and usually occurred in spring and autumn, especially during the beginning of winter, which showed significant seasonal distribution. The outbreak events regionally concentrated on Yuetan Avenue and Zhanlanlu Avenue. Most of the patients ranged in age from 6 to 12 years and had received 1 dose of varicella vaccine, and hence the majority of outbreak events were mild cases. Conclusions Primary schools in Xicheng District of Beijing are the main places occurring varicella outbreak events, and pupils are the key population in preventing and controlling varicella. Most of the patients show atypical clinical manifestations and are not easy to be found in time. Therefore, it is necessary to adjust the existing preventive and control measures and adopt effective countermeasures so as to control the epidemic spread of varicella.
Learning and inference in tractable probabilistic knowledge bases

Building efficient large-scale knowledge bases (KBs) is a longstanding goal of AI. KBs need to be first-order to be sufficiently expressive, and probabilistic to handle uncertainty, but these lead to intractable inference. Recently, tractable Markov logic (TML) was proposed as a non-trivial tractable first-order probabilistic representation. This paper describes the first inference and learning algorithms for TML, and its application to real-world problems. Inference takes time per query sublinear in the size of the KB, and supports very large KBs via parallelization and a disk-based implementation using a relational database engine. Query answering is fast enough for interactive and real-time use. We show that, despite the data being non-i.i.d. in general, maximum likelihood parameters for TML knowledge bases can be computed in closed form. We use our algorithms to build a very large tractable probabilistic KB from numerous heterogeneous data sets. The KB includes millions of objects and billions of parameters. Our experiments show that the learned KB outperforms existing specialized approaches on challenging tasks in information extraction and integration.
UTILITY AND PREFERENCE

Decision makers usually have certain objectives in mind when they choose a particular course of action. For example, sellers and producers of goods have profits foremost in their minds, and as such their behavior is consistent with the profit motive. Consumers consume to satisfy their needs and they normally select those goods and services which satisfy their needs and wants the most, that is, normal and rational consumers are expected to consume those combinations of goods and services within their reach that satisfy them the most, with respect to the future or the immediate present. Rational consumers, theoretically, calculate the benefits and costs of their actions and eventually choose the utility-maximizing combination of actions. Most people agree that it is very difficult to measure utility. If one could measure utility, it would then be a simple matter to test the accuracy of the utility-maximization hypothesis. Economists carry out utility analysis by two different approaches: (1) the ordinal utility method, and (2) the cardinal utility approach.
Phases and Interfaces from Real Space Atomically Resolved Data: Physics-Based Deep Data Image Analysis

Advances in electron and scanning probe microscopies have led to a wealth of atomically resolved structural and electronic data, often with ∼1-10 pm precision. However, knowledge generation from such data requires the development of a physics-based robust framework to link the observed structures to macroscopic chemical and physical descriptors, including single phase regions, order parameter fields, interfaces, and structural and topological defects. Here, we develop an approach based on a synergy of sliding window Fourier transform to capture the local analog of traditional structure factors combined with blind linear unmixing of the resultant 4D data set. This deep data analysis is ideally matched to the underlying physics of the problem and allows reconstruction of the a priori unknown structure factors of individual components and their spatial localization. We demonstrate the principles of this approach using a synthetic data set and further apply it for extracting chemical and physically relevant information from electron and scanning tunneling microscopy data. This method promises to dramatically speed up crystallographic analysis in atomically resolved data, paving the road toward automatic local structure-property determinations in crystalline and quasi-ordered systems, as well as systems with competing structural and electronic order parameters.
On the Feasibility of Distributed Sampling Rate Adaptation in Heterogeneous and Collaborative Wireless Sensor Networks

In this paper we develop a general framework for multi-sensor, heterogeneous sensing in collaborative wireless sensor networks (WSNs) that can be used in a variety of large scale monitoring applications. In order to achieve better tolerance against unstable wireless links and nodes with inadequate battery, it is important to consider distributed approaches for sampling rate adaptation. We show that the fully distributed mechanisms suffer from high convergence time, which make them difficult to implement in large-scale WSNs. To overcome this limitation, we next propose two alternate approaches. We perform extensive simulations to compare these schemes and argue their scalability and applicability in real world monitoring scenarios.
Extending AIT to the size of programs for computing infinite sets and to computations with oracles

A lot remains to be done! Hopefully this is just the beginning of AIT! The higher you go, the more mountains you can see to climb!
The Historical Canadian Setting

This chapter provides an historical overview offering the reader the contextual information necessary to better understand the successive waves of Hindu migration to Canada from South Asia and elsewhere in the diaspora. It describes the different types of Hindu religious organizations and temples established by Hindu communities in Toronto, and locates the Adhiparasakthi community within this rich and diverse urban landscape. This chapter also discusses the significance of immigrant communities in the formation of temple societies as a trend in the Canadian setting where many temples have been formed along regional-linguistic lines, respectively.
A Well-Defined Ni(II) α-Diimine Catalyst Supported on Sulfated Zirconia for Polymerization Catalysis

The reaction of (α-diimine)NiMe2 (α-diimine = (2,6-iPr2-C6H3)N═CMeMeC═N(2,6-iPr2-C6H3)) with partially dehydroxylated sulfated zirconia (SZO300) in MeCN results in the formation of [(α-diimine)NiMe(NCMe)][SZO300] ([1][SZO300]) and methane. Reactions in Et2O resulted in mixtures of [(α-diimine)NiMe(OEt2)][SZO300] ([2][SZO300]) and [(α-diimine)NiMe(OEt2)][MeSZO300] ([2][MeSZO300]), which were characterized by solid-state NMR spectroscopy. Contacting these solids with ethylene and monitoring the reaction by solid-state NMR showed that Ni–Me sites insert ethylene. [1][SZO300] and [2][SZO300]/[2][MeSZO300] are active ethylene polymerization catalysts and show properties similar to those of closely related homogeneous catalysts. [2][SZO300]/[2][MeSZO300] copolymerizes ethylene and methyl 10-undecenoate to form copolymers with up to 0.4% incorporation of the polar monomer.
Distribution and isotopic signature of ligand-leachable particulate iron along the GEOTRACES GP16 East Pacific Zonal Transect

Abstract Particles play an important role in the marine biogeochemical cycling of iron, an essential micronutrient. Particles of biogenic, lithogenic and authigenic origin can act as sources or sinks of dissolved iron and therefore influence its distribution and availability to phytoplankton. However, not all particulate iron (pFe) is readily accessible to phytoplankton and various treatments are used to estimate the bioavailable, or labile fraction of pFe. Here we report concentration and iron stable isotope data for the “ligand-leachable” fraction of pFe, following the application of a pH 8 oxalate-EDTA leach to 0.8–51 μm-sized particles collected during the US GEOTRACES East Pacific Zonal Transect (GP16). Across the GP16 section, we identified two regions of high labile pFe concentrations and differing δ 56 Fe labile . Within a hydrothermal plume originating from the East Pacific Rise, nearly all of the pFe was labile, with concentrations as high as 42 nM. Particulate δ 56 Fe labile within the hydrothermal plume averaged − 0.26 ± 0.14‰ ( n = 67), which is similar to both δ 56 Fe of hydrothermal plume dissolved Fe and the δ 56 Fe of primary vent fluids from previous studies, suggesting that vent fluid Fe is quantitatively precipitated as labile Fe oxyhydroxides and that the chemical form of hydrothermal dissolved and particulate Fe are the same, though they are found in different size classes. Elevated pFe concentrations were also observed over the Peruvian continental shelf and extending westwards, coincident with the secondary nitrite maximum at the top of the oxygen minimum zone (OMZ). Again, most of the pFe was within the labile fraction, but the δ 56 Fe labile associated with the OMZ was lighter than in the hydrothermal plume (− 0.68 ± 0.32‰, n = 41), reflecting its origin within reducing continental margin sediments. The open ocean away from these features was characterized by labile and total pFe concentrations of 56 Fe labile values, with 80% in the range of − 0.5‰ to + 0.2‰ ( n = 169). Below the hydrothermal and OMZ plumes, benthic nepheloid layer labile pFe had similar δ 56 Fe labile to particles in the overlying water column features, suggesting that Fe isotopes in surface sediments may be a tracer for the location of active hydrothermal venting and oxygen minimum zones in the past ocean.
Bottom-up perceptual organization of images into object part hypotheses

The demise of "segmentation-then-recognition" strategy led to a paradigm shift toward feature-based discriminative recognition with significant success. However, increased complexity in multi-class datasets reveals that local low-level features may not be sufficiently discriminative, requiring the construction and use of more complex structural features which are necessarily category independent. The paper proposes a bottom-up procedure for generating fragment features which are intended to be object part hypotheses. Suggesting that the demise of segmentation to generate a representation suitable for recognition was due to prematurely committing to a grouping option in the face of ambiguities, the proposed framework considers and tracks multiple alternate grouping options. This approach is made tractable by (i) using a medial fragment representation which allows for the simultaneous use of multiple cues, (ii) a set of transforms to effect grouping operations, (iii) a containment graph representation which avoids duplicate consideration of possibilities, and the estimation of the likelihood of a grouping sequence to retain only plausible groupings. The resulting hypotheses are evaluated intrinsically by measuring their ability to represent objects with a few fragments. They are also evaluated by comparison to algorithms which aim to generate full object segments, with results that match or exceed the state of art, thus demonstrating the suitability of the proposed mid-level representation.