cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Cerium oxide and platinum nanoparticles protect cells from oxidant-mediated apoptosis

Catalytic nanoparticles represent a potential clinical approach to replace or correct aberrant enzymatic activities in patients. Several diseases, including many blinding eye diseases, are promoted by excessive oxidant stress due to reactive oxygen species (ROS). Cerium oxide and platinum nanoparticles represent two potentially therapeutic nanoparticles that de-toxify ROS. In the present study we directly compare these two classes of catalytic nanoparticles. Cerium oxide and platinum nanoparticles were found to be 16±2.4 nm and 1.9±0.2 nm in diameter, respectively. Using surface plasmon enhanced microscopy, we find that these nanoparticles associate with cells. Furthermore, cerium oxide and platinum nanoparticles demonstrated superoxide dismutase catalytic activity, but did not promote hemolytic or cytolytic pathways in living cells. Importantly, both cerium oxide and platinum nanoparticles reduce oxidant-mediated apoptosis in target cells as judged by the activation of caspase 3. The ability to diminish apoptosis may contribute to maintaining healthy tissues.
Molecular Mechanisms of Cellular Cholesterol Efflux

Most types of cells in the body do not express the capability of catabolizing cholesterol, so cholesterol efflux is essential for homeostasis. For instance, macrophages possess four pathways for exporting free (unesterified) cholesterol to extracellular high density lipoprotein (HDL). The passive processes include simple diffusion via the aqueous phase and facilitated diffusion mediated by scavenger receptor class B, type 1 (SR-BI). Active pathways are mediated by the ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters ABCA1 and ABCG1, which are membrane lipid translocases. The efflux of cellular phospholipid and free cholesterol to apolipoprotein A-I promoted by ABCA1 is essential for HDL biogenesis. Current understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in these four efflux pathways is presented in this minireview.
Critical Review of Visual Perceptual Tests Frequently Administered by Pediatric Therapists

(1997). Critical Review of Visual Perceptual Tests Frequently Administered by Pediatric Therapists. Physical & Occupational Therapy In Pediatrics: Vol. 17, No. 3, pp. 39-61.
Why are carbon filaments tubular

Abstract Carbon whiskers (more commonly called filaments) grown above 900°C by decomposition of gaseous hydrocarbons on submicron catalytic particles are invariably tubular. Because the surface free energy of the (0001) basal plane of graphite is exceptionally low, the free energy required for filament growth is minimized when the outer surface is a curved basal plane. We consider the chemical potential of such an arrangement, and show that it is energetically favorable for the filament to create a hollow core rather than precipitate highly strained cylindrical planes of small diameter. Calculations based on this model give encouraging agreement with measured whisker inner diameters. Furthermore, the observed variation of the hollow core diameter along the whisker length may be a consequence of a weak maximum in the chemical potential.
Unconventional Central Access: Catheter Insertion in Collateral or in Recanalized Veins

Catheter hemodialysis is an unfortunate but necessary option for patients with end-stage kidneys. Patients on chronic catheter hemodialysis often slowly exhaust veins in the neck and chest, necessitating use of unconventional veins such as the femoral veins, translumbar inferior vena cava, hepatic veins, or recanalized or collateral veins. Recanalized or collateral veins are an attractive option because using these veins preserves the limited remaining access sites. Patients favor this approach because catheter care is simplified; catheters inserted in these veins appear identical to catheters inserted in the internal or external jugular veins.
Permanent versus Transitory Tax Effects and the Realization of Capital Gains

Recent empirical work on captial gains implies that realizations are highly sensitive to marginal tax rates. Because they are based on cross-section data, however, these estimates cannot distinguish between permanent responses to tax rate changes and the timing of realizations to take advantage of the normal fluctuations in any individual's tax rates over time. The purpose of this paper is to distinguish transitory from permanent tax effects by analyzing panel data for taxpayers. Controlling for permanent and transitory income and other variables, the estimates suggest both transitory and permanent effects, although the permanent tax rate effect is not significant in all cases.
The Relationships Between Religion and Mental Health

This article reviews the relationships between the means, end, and quest religious orientations as measures of religion (Batson & Ventis, 1982) and measures of mental health. Mental health is defined by seven criteria gleaned from the previous literature: (a) absence of mental illness, (b) appropriate social behavior, (c) freedom from worry and guilt, (d) personal competence and control, (e) self-acceptance and self-actualization, (f) unification and organization of personality, and (g) open-mindedness and flexibility (Batson, Schoenrade, & Ventis, 1993). The literature approached in this way reveals that the relationship depends on both the measure of religion and the measure of mental health. The means dimension shows predominantly negative relationships with mental health indices; the end dimension shows predominantly positive relationships; and the quest dimension (though less thoroughly researched) reveals mixed results. Applications to mental health of these religious orientations and the research findings are discussed.
7: Methodological Issues in the Study of School Effects:

Few areas of educational research have been the subject of as much debate in recent years as that identified by the term "educational effects." Sparked by the research of Coleman, Campbell, Hobson, McPartland, Mood, Weinfeld, & York (1966), which documented inequalities in the educational opportunities available to pupils from racial minorities, and fanned by a more recent concern for "accountability" in the light of rapidly rising per-pupil educational costs, the flames of this concern threaten to engulf the house of intellect. Legislators and laymen are demanding evidence that education makes a difference for all Americans, and they want to know the conditions under which it can be made more cost effective. Thus a heavy responsibility has been placed on educational researchers to develop and utilize the sophisticated conceptual and methodological tools that are necessary for such an effort. Although the following discussion is concerned primarily with methodological issues in the study of educational effects, such issues cannot be considered within a theoretical vacuum. Thus before turning to purely methodological concerns it is essential to view the problem of educational effects from a conceptual and historical framework. The reader accustomed primarily to a psychological perspective on educational phenomena may at first find our theoretical approach puzzling, for it emphasizes the systemic nature of American education. Although we have frequently turned to psychological literature for guidance (particularly on measurement and statistical issues), we have made a deliberate attempt to draw our insights from the literature of sociology, economics, and political science, since the perspectives of these disciplines have only recently been introduced into the study of educational effects. Re-
Predicting healthcare employees' participation in an office redesign program: Attitudes, norms and behavioral control

The study examined the extent to which components based on a modified version of the theory of planned behavior explained employee participation in a new clinical office program designed to reduce patient waiting times in primary care clinics. We regressed extent of employee participation on attitudes about the program, group norms, and perceived behavioral control along with individual and clinic characteristics using a hierarchical linear mixed model. Perceived group norms were one of the best predictors of employee participation. Attitudes about the program were also significant, but to a lesser degree. Behavioral control, however, was not a significant predictor. Respondents with at least one year of clinic tenure, or who were team leaders, first line supervisor, or managers had greater participation rates. Analysis at the clinic level indicated clinics with scores in the highest quartile clinic scores on group norms, attitudes, and behavioral control scores were significantly higher on levels of overall participation than clinics in the lowest quartile. Findings suggest that establishing strong norms and values may influence employee participation in a change program in a group setting. Supervisory level was also significant with greater responsibility being associated with greater participation.
Released Time for Faculty Advising: The Impact upon Freshmen

During the academic years 1964-65 and 1965-66, six Macalester College faculty members were given released time to devote to academic advising. One hundred-twenty “experimental group” freshmen were randomly selected from the classes entering Macalester in the fall of 1964 and 1965 and were assigned (10 men and 10 women) to each adviser. The remaining freshmen in each class comprised the “control group” and were assigned to advisers with full teaching loads. Data collected in the spring of 1966 indicated that the students in the experimental group were more satisfied with their faculty advisers, but there were no significant differences between the two groups on: (a) rate of retention; (b) grade point average; (c) level of aspiration; (d) satisfaction with college; (e) perception of the campus.
The association of gender with academic accountant salaries

Abstract This study investigates whether observed salary differences of accounting academics persist after controlling for personal differences in education, past academic employment, and professional achievement. We model salary as a function of gender, years worked, achieved rank, quality of both the individual's doctoral granting and current institutions, and individual productivity, as measured by both the quantity and quality of journal articles published. We calculate the unique explanatory effect and the indirect effect of gender in the salary model, arguing that if gender displays significant explanatory power, discrimination in hiring practices and/or in the subsequent allocation of rewards may exist. Our study contributes to the research on compensation and salary inequities in that we utilize publicly available data collected from the budgets of a large sample of public institutions as our measure of salary, thus enhancing the objectivity of the dependent variable. Also, the determinants of salary (specifically, research publication quality) are captured in a more accurate and comprehensive fashion than in previous studies. In contrast to previous research findings, our results suggest that gender is not associated with systematic differences in the salary of accounting faculty. Both research productivity and work experience vary across gender. Therefore, since males, on average, had a greater number of publications and more seniority, their salaries were higher than those of female faculty members. The results suggest that discrimination against either gender is not pervasive in the salary structure of the accounting academic comunity.
An interconnection-damping-assignment passivity-based controller for a DC-DC boost converter with a constant power load

This paper proposes an adaptive interconnection and damping assignment (IDA) passivity-based controller (PBC) with a complementary proportional integral (PI) controller for DC-DC boost converters with constant power loads (CPLs). Instead of deriving parameters of the IDA-PBC from computer simulations, a virtual circuit is introduced for determining the parameters of the IDA-PBC to make the system work in the under damping, critical damping, and over damping mode, respectively. Moreover, a complementary PI controller is designed for reducing the steady-state output voltage error of the IDA-PBC caused by the load variation. Simulation studies are carried out in MATLAB Simulink to validate the proposed control algorithm for a DC-DC boost converter with a CPL; results show that the proposed controller not only ensures the stability and fast response of the system in different modes but also is robust to load variations. Experimental results are provided to further validate the design and simulation of the proposed controller.
TGF-beta activated kinase-1: new insights into the diverse roles of TAK1 in development and immunity.

A number of recent publications have examined the role of TAK1 in model systems ranging from fly to mouse. Rather than fit into a clearly defined linear molecular pathway, TAK1 seems to act in a signaling nexus that responds to a variety of upstream signals, including inflammatory molecules and developmental cues. TAK1 then influences a number of downstream processes ranging from innate immune responses to patterning and differentiation via JNK, NFκB, and TCFβ-catenin signaling. These differences in function are not simply a matter of cell type. For example, NFκB signaling in a particular cell may or may not require TAK1 depending on the nature of the activating signal. Interestingly, the multi-task functionality of TAK1 is conserved between vertebrate and invertebrate species. Studies of TAK1 in multiple experimental systems is likely to reveal more roles for this kinase and also elucidate mechanisms by which other signaling molecules fulfill diverse signaling roles. Here we provide an overview of the da...
The capacity for a class of fractal functions

We present a formula for the capacity of the graphs of certain fractal functions. We show that this formula can also be obtained using the Lyapunov exponents of an associated dynamical system.
social and Behavioral Research on Risk: Uses in Risk Management Decisionmaking*

In response to rising concern about health and environmental risks, a concerted effort is being made to improve risk analysis methods and risk management approaches. As part of this effort, social and behavioral scientists have produced a substantial body of knowledge on public risk perceptions, attitudes, and behavior (see Covello. 1983). The purpose of this paper is to identify and describe five critical policy uses for such information (see Table 1). A basic assumption of that paper is that policy analysts and decisionmakers can benefit from a better understanding of how the public thinks and makes decisions about technological risks. Without such understanding, well-intended policies my be ineffective or even counterproductive.
What Is Meant by a Linguistic Approach to Reading and Spelling

Five basic principles for language therapy, with emphasis on the pattern and structure of language, are presented and discussed.
The cognitive processing of film and musical soundtracks

Previous research has demonstrated that musical soundtracks can influence the interpretation, emotional impact, and remembering of film information. The intent here was to examine how music is encoded into the cognitive system and subsequently represented relative to its accompanying visual action. In Experiment 1, participants viewed a set of music/film clips that were either congruent or incongruent in their emotional affects. Selective attending was also systematically manipulated by instructing viewers to attend to and remember the music, film, or both in tandem. The results from tune recognition, film recall, and paired discrimination tasks collectively revealed that mood-congruent pairs lead to a joint encoding of music/film information as well as an integrated memory code. Incongruent pairs, on the other hand, result in an independent encoding in which a given dimension, music or film, is only remembered well if it was selectively attended to at the time of encoding. Experiment 2 extended these findings by showing that tunes from mood-congruent pairs are better recognized when cued by their original scenes, while those from incongruent pairs are better remembered in the absence of scene information. These findings both support and extend the “Congruence Associationist Model” (A. J. Cohen, 2001), which addresses those cognitive mechanisms involved in the processing of music/film information.
Evolving visual routines

Traditional machine vision assumes that the vision system recovers a complete, labeled description of the world [10]. Recently, several researchers have criticized this model and proposed an alternative model that considers perception as a distributed collection of task-specific, context-driven visual routines [1, 12]. Some of these researchers have argued that in natural living systems these visual routines are the product of natural selection [11]. So far, researchers have hand-coded task-specific visual routines for actual implementations (e.g., [3]). In this article we propose an alternative approach in which visual routines for simple tasks are created using an artificial evolution approach. We present results from a series of runs on actual camera images, in which simple routines were evolved using genetic programming techniques [7]. The results obtained are promising: The evolved routines are able to process correctly up to 93% of the test images, which is better than any algorithm we were able to write by hand.
Persistent infection of HeLa-229 cells withChlamydia trachomatis

A persistent infection of HeLa-229 cells was established withChlamydia trachomatis strain B/TW-5/OT. A low multiplicity of infection (0.01) was used with no chemical or physical pretreatment of the cell cultures. Lymphogranuloma venereum straiN L2/434/BU did not establish a persistent infection under identical conditions.
Gluon enhancements in charmed-meson decays

We address tests of nonspectator diagrams in charmed-meson decays. In particular, we explore the consequences of a model in which such diagrams are enhanced by the emission of a single gluon. For a lifetime ratio tau(D/sup +/)/tau(D/sup 0/)=5, we predict (i) tau(F/sup +/)/tau(D/sup +/) approx. = 0.6, (ii) an enhanced ..delta..S=0 rate for D/sup +/, (iii) a substantial multipion branching fraction for the F/sup +/, (iv) an F/sup +/ ..-->.. tau/sup +/..nu.. branching fraction of order 10 --20%, and (v) restrictive bounds on the D/sup 0/ ..-->.. K-bar/sup 0/..pi../sup 0/ mode.
Identifying abdominal aortic aneurysm risk factors in postmenopausal women

Evaluation of: Lederle FA, Larson JC, Margolis KL et al.: Abdominal aortic aneurysm events in the Women’s Health Initiative: cohort study. Br. Med. J. 337, A1724 (2008). A linked cohort study of 161,808 postmenopausal women aged 50–79 years enrolled in the Women’s Health Initiative was conducted during which participants were followed for the incidence of abdominal aortic aneurysm repair or rupture. This study evaluated the association between potential risk factors and subsequent abdominal aortic aneurysm events in women. A total of 467 women reported a diagnosis of abdominal aortic aneurysm before entering the study or during participation, with 184 aneurysm-related events identified. Abdominal aortic aneurysm events were strongly associated with age and smoking and negatively associated with diabetes and baseline use of postmenopausal hormone supplementation. Previous studies investigating abdominal aortic aneurysm have focused primarily on men, with little reliable information available on women. This...
Farm-level adoption of sorghum technologies in Tigray, Ethiopia

Abstract Curtailing the effect of Striga weed, improving moisture availability and increasing soil fertility are essential strategies to increase the productivity of agriculture in the sorghum producing semi-arid areas of Ethiopia. The adoption of Striga resistant sorghum varieties and inorganic fertilizer on small subsistence farms in Tigray, Ethiopia was analyzed to identify the factors determining farmers’ adoption decisions. Separate Tobit regression models were estimated on survey data of a random sample of 90 farm households conducted in 2001. Results indicate that access to information, soil type, and farmers’ perceptions of technology characteristics and rainfall risk were the factors associated with the adoption of the new sorghum cultivars. In contrast, availability of adult family labour, farm size, manure use, and soil type were the major determinants of the adoption of inorganic fertilizers. Farm size is negatively related to fertilizer adoption as small farms are more pressured to adopt inorganic fertilizer and intensive production techniques. Instead of the over emphasis of on short cycle varieties as a means of coping with drought and Striga, breeders need to generate intermediate and longer season Striga resistant cultivars to increase productivity during moderate and good rainfall years. Varieties combining the desirable characteristics of higher grain and biomass yields of the traditional cultivars with Striga resistance are expected to be more successfully adopted.
Mechanism of the formation and proteolytic release of H2O2-induced dityrosine and tyrosine oxidation products in hemoglobin and red blood cells.

Oxyhemoglobin exposed to a continuous flux of H2O2 underwent oxidative modifications, including limited release of fluorescent fragmentation products. The main fragments formed were identified as oxidation products of tyrosine, including dopamine, dopamine quinone, and dihydroxyindol. Further release of these oxidation products plus dityrosine was only seen after proteolytic degradation of the oxidatively modified hemoprotein. A possible mechanism is proposed to explain the formation of these oxidation products that includes cyclization, decarboxylation, and further oxidation of the intermediates. Release of dityrosine is proposed as a useful technique for evaluating selective proteolysis after an oxidative stress, because dityrosine is metabolically stable, and it is only released after enzymatic hydrolysis of the oxidatively modified protein. The measurement can be accomplished by high performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection or by high efficiency thin layer chromatography. Comparable results, in terms of dityrosine release, were obtained using red blood cells of different sources after exposing them to a flux of H2O2. Furthermore, dityrosine has been reported to occur in a wide variety of oxidatively modified proteins. These observations suggest that dityrosine formation and release can be used as a highly specific marker for protein oxidation and selective proteolysis.
Purification, characterization and substrate specificity of rabbit lung phospholipid transfer proteins.

Abstract Three phospholipid transfer proteins, namely proteins I, II and III, were purified from the rabbit lung cytosolic fraction. The molecular masses of phospholipid transfer proteins I, II and III are 32 kilodaltons (kDa), 22 kDa and 32 kDa, respectively; their isoelectric point values are 6.5, 7.0 and 6.8, respectively. Phospholipid transfer proteins I and III transferred phosphatidylcholine (PC) and phosphatidylinositol (PI) from donor unilamellar liposomes to acceptor multilamellar liposomes; protein II transferred PC but not PI. All the three phospholipid transfer proteins transferred phosphatidylethanolamine poorly and showed no tendency to transfer triolein. The transfer of [14C]PC from unilamellar liposomes to multilamellar liposomes facilitated by each protein was affected differently by the presence of acidic phospholipids in the PC unilamellar liposomes. In an equal molar ratio of acidic phospholipid and PC, phosphatidylglycerol (PG) reduced the activities of proteins I and III by 70% (P = 0.0004 and 0.0032, respectively) whereas PI and phosphatidylserine (PS) had an insignificant effect. In contrast, the protein II activity was stimulated 2–3-times more by either PG (P = 0.0024), PI (P = 0.0006) or PS (P = 0.0038). In addition, protein II transferred dioleoylPC (DOPC) about 2-times more effectively than dipalmitoylPC (DPPC) (P = 0.0002), whereas proteins I and III transferred DPPC 20–40% more effectively than DOPC but this was statistically insignificant. The markedly different substrate specificities of the three lung phospholipid transfer proteins suggest that these proteins may play an important role in sorting intracellular membrane phospholipids, possibly including lung surfactant phospholipids.
Structure-function study of the N-terminal domain of exocyst subunit Sec3.

The exocyst is an evolutionarily conserved octameric complex involved in polarized exocytosis from yeast to humans. The Sec3 subunit of the exocyst acts as a spatial landmark for exocytosis through its ability to bind phospholipids and small GTPases. The structure of the N-terminal domain of Sec3 (Sec3N) was determined ab initio and defines a new subclass of pleckstrin homology (PH) domains along with a new family of proteins carrying this domain. Respectively, N- and C-terminal to the PH domain Sec3N presents an additional α-helix and two β-strands that mediate dimerization through domain swapping. The structure identifies residues responsible for phospholipid binding, which when mutated in cells impair the localization of exocyst components at the plasma membrane and lead to defects in exocytosis. Through its ability to bind the small GTPase Cdc42 and phospholipids, the PH domain of Sec3 functions as a coincidence detector at the plasma membrane.
Linoleic acid prevents chloride influx and cellular lysis in rabbit renal proximal tubules exposed to mitochondrial toxicants.

Abstract Despite many studies elucidating the mechanisms of necrotic cell death, the role of fatty acids released during necrosis remains to be determined. The goals of this study were to determine whether linoleic acid could protect rabbit renal proximal tubules (RPT) from necrotic cell death associated with mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative injury and to determine the mechanisms involved. Exposure to antimycin A (10 μM) for 1 h or hypoxia (perfusion with 95% N 2 /5% CO 2 ) for 1 or 2 h induced approximately 70% cellular lysis, as measured by lactate dehyrogenase release, versus 10% in controls. Preincubation with linoleic acid (100 μM) fully protected RPT from cellular lysis. RPT were also protected from lysis if linoleic acid was added 15 min after the addition of antimycin A. Measurements of free intracellular Ca 2+ concentrations showed that linoleic acid did not prevent the rise in intracellular Ca 2+ associated with a 30-min exposure to antimycin A. However, the influx of extracellular 36 Cl − following a 30-min exposure to antimycin A was ameliorated in the presence of linoleic acid. Linoleic acid did not prevent cellular lysis after exposure to hypoxia/reoxygenation (1 h/1 h) or t -butyl hydroperoxide (500 μM, 3 h). These data suggest that linoleic acid protects RPT during the late phase of cell death associated with inhibition of the electron transport chain but not oxidative injury. Several other fatty acids also protected RPT from lysis, and structure–activity relationship studies suggest that a free carboxyl terminus and at least one double bond are required for this action.
Conceptualizing the Everyday Life of Native Americans in the Distant Past

The daily lives of prehistoric Native Americans are often inappreciable to the contemporary researcher and sometimes overlooked by the professional archaeologist. The archaeological record is one s...
Observation of a Dip Due to I = 0 t -Channel Exchange in the Reaction π N → A 2 N at 4.5 and 6 GeV/ c

In the reaction ${\ensuremath{\pi}}^{\ensuremath{-}}p\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{{A}_{2}}^{\ensuremath{-}}p$, we observe a dip in the differential cross section at $t\ensuremath{\approx}1.2$ Ge${\mathrm{V}}^{2}$. Analysis in terms of $t$-channel contributions from isospin-0 and -1, natural- and unnatural-parity exchanges suggest that the dip is mainly due to natural-$\stackrel{\mathrm{`}}{\mathrm{p}}$arity, $I=0$ exchange.
Pressure Dependence of Self-Diffusion in Lithium and Sodium

The activation volume $\ensuremath{\Delta}{V}_{a}$ for self-diffusion in lithium and sodium has been measured using nuclear magnetic resonance spin-echo techniques. In the region where the resonance line shape is narrowed by diffusion, the nuclear dipole-dipole phase memory time ${({{T}_{2}}^{\ensuremath{'}})}_{d}$ is proportional to the self-diffusion coefficient $D$. Measurements of ${({{T}_{2}}^{\ensuremath{'}})}_{d}$ for lithium as a function of pressure at constant temperature have been made at five temperatures between 35\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{} and 80\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}C, and at pressures to 7000 atm. The phase memory time has been measured for sodium at three temperatures near -45\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}C at pressures to 3500 atm. Molar activation volumes of 3.6\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.3 ${\mathrm{cm}}^{3}$ and 9.6\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.5 ${\mathrm{cm}}^{3}$ have been obtained for lithium and sodium, respectively. These values are, respectively, 28 and 41% of the molar volumes of lithium and sodium, indicating that there occurs considerable relaxation inward on a vacancy by the nearest- and perhaps next-nearest-neighbor atoms of the vacancy. In addition, the experimental values are found to be in excellent agreement with a dynamical theory of diffusion which predicts that corresponding activation parameters for diffusion and melting are proportional. In both metals, the behavior of $\mathrm{ln}D$ is satisfactorily accounted for in terms of a single variable, the reduced melting temperature $\frac{{T}_{m}}{T}$.
Adaptive exploitation of cooperative relay for high performance communications in MIMO ad hoc networks

With the popularity of wireless devices and the increase of computing and storage resources, there are increasing interests in supporting mobile computing techniques. Particularly, ad hoc networks can potentially connect different wireless devices to enable more powerful wireless applications and mobile computing capabilities. To meet the ever increasing communication need, it is important to improve the network throughput while guaranteeing transmission reliability. Multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) technology can provide significantly higher data rate in ad hoc networks where nodes are equipped with multi-antenna arrays. Although MIMO technique itself can support diversity transmission when channel condition degrades, the use of diversity transmission often compromises the multiplexing gain and is also not enough to deal with extremely weak channel. Instead, in this work, we exploit the use of cooperative relay transmission (which is often used in a single antenna environment to improve reliability) in a MIMO-based ad hoc network to cope with harsh channel condition. We design both centralized and distributed scheduling algorithms to support adaptive use of cooperative relay transmission. Our algorithm effectively exploits the cooperative multiplexing gain and cooperative diversity gain to achieve higher data rate and higher reliability under various channel conditions. Our scheduling scheme can efficiently invoke relay transmission without introducing significant signaling overhead as conventional relay schemes, and seamlessly integrate relay transmission with multiplexed MIMO transmission. We also design a MAC protocol to implement the distributed algorithm. Our performance results demonstrate that the use of cooperative relay in a MIMO framework could bring in a significant throughput improvement in all the scenarios studied, with the variation of node density, link failure ratio, packet arrival rate and retransmission threshold.
Evaluating the Advantages and Disadvantages of Providing Lecture Notes: The Role of Internet Technology as a Delivery System and Research Tool

Relationships among patterns of access to online notes, examination performance, and student absenteeism were examined. Students who made more frequent use of online notes performed at a higher level on course examinations. Students most frequently accessed online notes while corresponding lecture content was being presented in class, but this pattern weakened to some extent during the semester. Students who attended class most consistently made greater use of online notes. Patterns of online note use were different for students with low and high rates of absenteeism.
An existence theory for pairwise balanced designs, III: Proof of the existence conjectures

Abstract Given positive integers k and λ, balanced incomplete block designs on v points with block size k and index λ exist for all sufficiently large integers v satisfying the congruences λ ( v − 1) ≡ 0 (mod k − 1) and λv ( v − 1) ≡ 0 (mod k ( k − 1)). Analogous results hold for pairwise balanced designs where the block sizes come from a given set K of positive integers. We also observe that the number of nonisomorphic designs on v points with given block size k > 2 and index λ tends to infinity as v increases (subject to the above congruences).
Gold-coated magnetic particles for solid-phase immunoassays : Enhancing immobilized antibody binding efficiency and analytical performance

The preparation and characterization of gold-coated magnetic particles are described for use as more efficient solid-phase materials in immunoassay development. A thin gold coating on commercial tosylated magnetic polystyrene particles (4.5 μm) is achieved via an electroless plating method involving initial reaction of the particles with Sn(II), followed by redox deposition of Ag0, that serves as a catalytic site for the subsequent reduction of Na3Au(SO3)2 in the presence of formaldehyde to yield the adhered gold layer. Scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray analysis, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy indicate the presence of the desired Au0 outer layer. To characterize the improved yield of antibody binding sites on such gold-coated phases, the modified particles are reacted with the free thiols of Fab‘ fragments of an anti-alkaline phosphatase (ALP) antibody to orient all the antigenic binding sites in a favorable direction. After equilibration with ALP, the amount of ALP bound to the ...
Four-Dimensional type ii Strings and their Extensions: Type iii Strings

Received 22 January 1987; revised manuscript received 6 March 1987 Four-dimensional type II string models and their generalizations are analyzed. In particular, models referred to as type III strings, with spin structures and world sheet supercurrents which are asymmetric between the left and right moving degrees of freedom, are analyzed. Models with N =8, 4, 2, and 1 supersymmetry as well as nonsupersymmetric models can be constructed. Furthermore, many of them have interesting gauge groups. Attempts to construct phenomenologically interesting models are outlined.
Ecological momentary interventions: incorporating mobile technology into psychosocial and health behaviour treatments.

Purpose Psychosocial and health behaviour treatments and therapies can be extended beyond traditional research or clinical settings by using mobile technology to deliver interventions to individuals as they go about their daily lives. These ecological momentary interventions (EMIs) are treatments that are provided to people during their everyday lives (i.e. in real time) and in natural settings (i.e. real world). The goal of the present review is to synthesize and critique mobile technology-based EMI aimed at improving health behaviours and psychological and physical symptoms. Methods Twenty-seven interventions using palmtop computers or mobile phones to deliver ambulatory treatment for smoking cessation, weight loss, anxiety, diabetes management, eating disorders, alcohol use, and healthy eating and physical activity were identified. Results There is evidence that EMI can be successfully delivered, are accepted by patients, and are efficacious for treating a variety of health behaviours and physical and psychological symptoms. Limitations of the existing literature were identified and recommendations and considerations for research design, sample characteristics, measurement, statistical analyses, and clinical implementation are discussed. Conclusions Mobile technology-based EMI can be effectively implemented as interventions for a variety of health behaviours and psychological and physical symptoms. Future research should integrate the assessment and intervention capabilities of mobile technology to create dynamically and individually tailored EMI that are ecologically sensitive.
Melanocortin signaling is decreased during neurotoxin-induced transient hyperphagia and increased body-weight gain.

Abstract Hypothalamic neuropeptides play critical roles in the regulation of feeding behavior and body weight (BW). Disruption of signaling in the ventromedial nucleus by microinjection of the neurotoxin, colchicine (COL), produces transient hyperphagia with corresponding BW gain lasting for 4 days. Because the melanocortin system exerts an inhibitory control on food intake, we hypothesized that hyperphagia in COL-treated rats is due to decreased melanocortin-induced restraint on feeding. Melanocortin restraint is exerted through α-melanocortin-stimulating hormone derived from proopiomelanocortin (POMC) and is antagonized by agouti-related peptide produced in neurons located in the arcuate nucleus (ARC). COL (4 μg/0.5 μl saline) or saline was microinjected bilaterally into the ventromedial nucleus of adult male rats. In conjunction with BW gain, blood leptin levels were elevated, whereas POMC mRNA in the ARC was significantly decreased in COL-injected rats. Levels of α-melanocortin-stimulating hormone were also decreased in the micropunched paraventricular nucleus, dorsomedial nucleus, and perifornical hypothalamus, sites implicated in the control of food intake. That diminution in melanocortin signaling underlies hyperphagia was supported by the observation that intracerebroventricular injection of the MC3/MC4 melanocortin receptor agonist, MTII, prevented the hyperphagia and BW gain. Surprisingly, however, mRNA levels of the orexigenic peptide agouti-related peptide in the ARC were decreased perhaps due to the action of elevated leptin. These results show that transient hyperphagia and BW gain induced by disruption of signaling in the ventromedial nucleus results from two neurochemical rearrangements: development of leptin resistance in POMC neurons and diminution in melanocortin signaling as reflected by decreased POMC gene expression in the ARC and decreased availability of α-melanocortin-stimulating hormone for release in feeding relevant sites.
Group 4 Transition Metal Sandwich Complexes: Still Fresh after Almost 60 Years†

Metal sandwich compounds, more commonly known as metallocenes, are some of the most enduring molecules in organometallic chemistry. Beginning with Wilkinson’s quest for titanocene, [(η5-C5H5)2Ti], the synthesis and exploration of the electronic structure and reactivity of group 4 metal sandwich complexes have been an ongoing story for almost six decades. This review recounts the historical origins of group 4 metallocenes and highlights synthetic efforts to observe and stabilize formally d2 metal sandwich compounds. Specific attention is devoted to recent developments in the field, including dinitrogen coordination by various substituted titanocene derivatives as well as our group’s interest in bis(indenyl)zirconium and -hafnium compounds.
Heterogeneous catalysis in organic chemistry. Part 10. Effect of the catalyst support on the regiochemistry of the heck arylation reaction

Abstract Data have been presented which show that dispersed metals can be considered as viable catalysts for synthetically useful organometallic reactions. In addition, the material used as the catalyst support has been shown to influence the regiochemistry of the reaction. In the Heck arylation an acidic support, such as silica, withdraws electrons from the palladium and this leads to predominant β enol ether formation. Palladium supported on a basic support, such as magnesia, which is electron donating, produces primarily the α product. Electron withdrawal also increases the rate of the reaction. As with a number of other synthetically useful reactions the heterogeneously catalyzed Heck arylation takes place on the coordinately unsaturated corner atoms and adatoms on the metal surface. These single atom active sites are the only ones having a sufficient number of orbitals available for interaction with both the aryl species and the enol ether at the same time, a procedure needed for the reaction to take place. A mechanism for the reaction on a tetrahedral corner atom is proposed. This is based on the Frontier Molecular Orbitals of this site and the corresponding mechanism established for the homogenously catalyzed reaction.
The case for sampling on very large file systems

Sampling has long been a prominent tool in statistics and analytics, first and foremost when very large amounts of data are involved. In the realm of very large file systems (and hierarchical data stores in general), however, sampling has mostly been ignored and for several good reasons. Mainly, running sampling in such an environment introduces technical challenges that make the entire sampling process non-beneficial. In this work we demonstrate that there are cases for which sampling is very worthwhile in very large file systems. We address this topic in two aspect: (a) the technical side where we design and implement solutions to efficient weighted sampling that is also distributed, one-pass and addresses multiple efficiency aspects; and (b) the usability aspect in which we demonstrate several use-cases in which weighted sampling over large file systems is extremely beneficial. In particular, we show use-cases regarding estimation of compression ratios, testing and auditing and offline collection of statistics on very large data stores.
Effect of Primary Molar Extraction on Gingival Emergence of Succedaneous Tooth

SYNOPSIS IN INTERLINGUALE EFFECTO DEL EXTRACTION DE MOLARES PRIMARI SUPER LE EMERGENTIA GINGIVAL DEL DENTES SUCCEDANEE.—Le tempore del emergentia gingival de dentes bicuspidal subjacente a bilateralmente comparabile pares de primari dentes molar, un del quales esseva extrahite durante que le altere se exfoliava naturalmente, esseva comparate a base de serial modulos dental e de roentgenogrammas in 20 juveniles norteamerican de racia blanc. Le tempore medie del eruption bicuspidal es ni accelerate ni retardate significativemente per le extraction del primari predecessor molar quando factores de pathologia (tendentia retardatori del eruption) e pulpotomia (tendentia acceleratori) es negligite. Le eruption bicuspidal intra 2 annos post le extraction molar occurreva significativemente plus tosto al latere del extraction.
Measurements of χ(3)(ω;ω,-ω,ω) in conducting polymers at λ=620 nm

Abstract We have measured the third-order susceptibility constant χ(3) for various π-conjugated polymers using the degenerate four-wave mixing (DFWM) technique at 2 eV with 100 fs resolution. χ(3) was found to be in the range 10−11 − 10−8 e.s.u. for all polymers studied. The effects of resonant and non-resonant excitations are clearly manifested in the temporal response and magnitude of χ(3). The ultrafast transient component in the DFWM signal was compared to the dephasing time measured directly by the self-diffraction method. We found that the photoexcited carrier dephasing time for the polymers studied is shorter than 60 fs. The sign and magnitude of n2 at 2 eV were directly measured using the Z-scan technique. From n2 and |χ(3)| we obtained separately Re(χ(3)) and Im(χ(3)), and show that Re(χ(3)) is still the dominant component even for near-resonant excitation.
SHAPESET: A process to reduce sidewall curl springback in high-strength steel rails

High-strength steel rails for structural members can reduce vehicle weight, but sidewall curl springback in these rails causes assembly difficulties with adjacent parts. A process to greatly reduce curl springback, known as SHAPESET, was investigated for a variety of high-strength steels, including two dual-phase steels. Gridded blanks were stamped by the two-step SHAPESET process and by conventional methods. The SHAPESET process nearly eliminated sidewall curl and was not sensitive to material strength. The first step of SHAPESET stamps a preform to eliminate the shock line, which restricts the spread of strain in the sidewall. The second step firmly clamps the preform flanges, in order to strain the part to the final shape. In comparison, the curl springback could only be reduced in a conventional stamping process by increasing the drawbead restraining force, which tended to produce failure by splitting.
Ethics and Top-Level Sport - A Paradox?:

The apparent crisis in top-level sport with its "winning-at-all-cost-mentality" stands in contrast to ethical and moral behavior. It is argued that the so-called "unethical" practices (i.e. doping, cheating, violence) are an expected outgrowth of top-level sport in modern society. Since sport is interwoven with the socio-cultural norms and values of a given society, generic sport ethics cannot help to solve the problems in top-level sport. Rather, codes of ethical conduct have to take into account the particular social and cultural framework.
Prior infection of pigs with a genotype 3 swine hepatitis E virus (HEV) protects against subsequent challenges with homologous and heterologous genotypes 3 and 4 human HEV

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is an important human pathogen. At least four recognized and two putative genotypes of mammalian HEV have been reported: genotypes 1 and 2 are restricted to humans whereas genotypes 3 and 4 are zoonotic. The current experimental vaccines are all based on a single strain of HEV, even though multiple genotypes of HEV are co-circulating in some countries and thus an individual may be exposed to more than one genotype. Genotypes 3 and 4 swine HEV is widespread in pigs and known to infect humans. Therefore, it is important to know if prior infection with a genotype 3 swine HEV will confer protective immunity against subsequent exposure to genotypes 3 and 4 human and swine HEV. In this study, specific-pathogen-free pigs were divided into 4 groups of 6 each. Pigs in the three treatment groups were each inoculated with a genotype 3 swine HEV, and 12 weeks later, challenged with the same genotype 3 swine HEV, a genotype 3 human HEV, and a genotype 4 human HEV, respectively. The control group was inoculated and challenged with PBS buffer. Weekly sera from all pigs were tested for HEV RNA and IgG anti-HEV, and weekly fecal samples were also tested for HEV RNA. The pigs inoculated with swine HEV became infected as evidenced by fecal virus shedding and viremia, and the majority of pigs also developed IgG anti-HEV prior to challenge at 12 weeks post-inoculation. After challenge, viremia was not detected and only two pigs challenged with swine HEV had 1-week fecal virus shedding, suggesting that prior infection with a genotype 3 swine HEV prevented pigs from developing viremia and fecal virus shedding after challenges with homologous and heterologous genotypes 3 and 4 HEV. The results from this study have important implications for future development of an effective HEV vaccine.