cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Intersectin can regulate the Ras/MAP kinase pathway independent of its role in endocytosis.

Abstract We previously identified intersectin, a multiple EH and SH3 domain-containing protein, as a component of the endocytic machinery. Overexpression of the SH3 domains of intersectin blocks transferrin receptor endocytosis, possibly by disrupting targeting of accessory proteins of clathrin-coated pit formation. More recently, we identified mammalian Sos, a guanine-nucleotide exchange factor for Ras, as an intersectin SH3 domain-binding partner. We now demonstrate that overexpression of intersectin's SH3 domains blocks activation of Ras and MAP kinase in various cell lines. Several studies suggest that activation of MAP kinase downstream of multiple receptor types is dependent on endocytosis. Thus, the dominant-negative effect of the SH3 domains on Ras/MAP kinase activation may be indirectly mediated through a block in endocytosis. Consistent with this idea, incubating cells at 4 °C or with phenylarsine oxide, treatments previously established to inhibit EGF receptor endocytosis, blocks EGF-dependent activation of MAP kinase. However, under these conditions, Ras activity is unaffected and overexpression of the SH3 domains of intersectin is still able to block Ras activation. Thus, intersectin SH3 domain overexpression can effect EGF-mediated MAP kinase activation directly through a block in Ras, consistent with a functional role for intersectin in Ras activation.
Pigmented Free-floating Vitreous Cysts in Two Young Adults: Electron Microscopic Observations

Abstract Pigmented free-floating vitreous cysts were observed in two young adults. In both patients, the cyst was in the visual axis; however, the size and extent of pigmentation of the cyst wall compromised the visual acuity only in case 1. In this case, the vitreous cyst was aspirated through the pars plana and studied by light and electron microscopy. Histopathologically, the cyst was lined by a heavily pigmented layer of cuboidal cells intermixed with sheets of nonpigmented cells forming papillae. Ultrastructurally, the pigmented cells contained predominantly large, mature melanosomes (0.9–2.2 μm). Scattered immature melanosomes with a scarcity of mitochondria and other cytoplasmic organelles were present. Additionally, the cells were invested by a thin polarized basement membrane and displayed apical microvilli. Numerous microvillous processes were noted under the plasmalemmae and between adjacent cells. The results of the light and ultrastructural studies provide support for the hypothesis that the cyst in case 1 originated from the pigment epithelium. The possibility of a traumatic etiology is proposed for these pigmented vitreous cysts. If significant visual impairment is present, surgical removal of the cyst through a pars plana approach can be safely performed as in our case 1.
The lone S41 family C-terminal processing protease in Staphylococcus aureus is localized to the cell wall and contributes to virulence.

Staphylococcus aureus is a versatile pathogen of humans and a continued public health concern due to the rise and spread of multidrug-resistant strains. As part of an ongoing investigation into the pathogenic mechanisms of this organism we previously demonstrated that an intracellular N-terminal processing protease is required for S. aureus virulence. Following on from this, here we examine the role of CtpA, the lone C-terminal processing protease of S. aureus. CtpA, a member of the S41 family, is a serine protease whose homologues in Gram-negative bacteria have been implicated in a range of biological functions, including pathogenesis. We demonstrate that S. aureus CtpA is localized to the bacterial cell wall and expression of the ctpA gene is maximal upon exposure to conditions encountered during infection. Disruption of the ctpA gene leads to decreased heat tolerance and increased sensitivity when exposed to components of the host immune system. Finally we demonstrate that the ctpA − mutant strain is attenuated for virulence in a murine model of infection. Our results represent the first characterization of a C-terminal processing protease in a pathogenic Gram-positive bacterium and show that it plays a critical role during infection.
Electrode position effects on Frank lead electrocardiograms

Abstract Frank lead electrocardiograms were recorded from 149 normal and abnormal adult males using four different electrode placements. All chest electrodes were placed at: (1) the fourth intercostal space level, (2) the fifth intercostal space level, (3) the fourth intercostal space level with V 4 substituted for C, and (4) the fifth intercostal space level with V 4 substituted for C. Differences in mean values of many commonly used amplitudes and orientations were not statistically significant among the four recording methods, but amplitude differences for individual subjects were often large and difficult to predict. When V 4 is substituted for C, as commonly done in some laboratories, R x decreased and R z increased by more than 10 per cent in about 40 per cent of the cases. In about 70 per cent of the cases, R x and R z changed significantly when electrode level was shifted from the fifth to the fourth intercostal space. For these 70 per cent, it does not appear possible to accurately predict increase or decrease of R x , R z , or QRS m . Analysis programs which depend on individual amplitude measurements are likely to be significantly affected by electrode placement. It is suggested that criteria for analysis programs developed using a specified version of the Frank system should ideally be applied only to electrocardiograms recorded in the same manner.
Rigid body motion from depth and optical flow

Abstract Motion is an important cue that facilitates the perception of rigid bodies. This perception can be viewed as finding the correct values for the nine parameters necessary to describe rigid body motion. These parameters are computable in parallel from depth and optical flow information. When coupled to the flow computations, the rigid body computations can resolve difficult singularities in the flow calculations.
Epstein-Barr Virus-Related Lymphoproliferative Disorder Induced by Equine Anti-Thymocyte Globulin Therapy

Post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder (PTLD) is generally caused by an uncontrolled B-cell proliferation induced by Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in the setting of impaired EBV-specific T-cell immunity. PTLD has been described in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) and rarely in autologous HSCT. Anti-thymocyte globulin (ATG) is being increasingly utilized for acute rejection in organ transplantation, severe autoimmune diseases and aplastic anemia. Mainly, the use of rabbit ATG has been associated with PTLD, which is considered to be more immunosuppressive than equine ATG. The sole administration of equine ATG has rarely been associated with PTLD. Due to the increased use of these potent and novel immunosuppressive agents, it is paramount to be aware of these complications. We present a 55-year-old man with an autologous HSCT who presented with an unusual case of monoclonal plasmacytic PTLD. His lymphoproliferative disorder occurred 3 years after his HSCT and 1 month after the use of equine ATG administered for severe aplastic anemia. We review current concepts of EBV-PTLD, including risk factors, the potential for preemptive therapy and various management strategies.
The σ-game and cellular automata

1. SummaryIn an article in this journal Don Pelletier discussed the mathematics involved in a little battery operated toy called Merlin (see [3], and also the “Addenda” in this Monthly, Dec. 1987, page 994). Several years ago Stephen Wolfram, in another article that appeared in the Monthly, analyzed a number of simple cellular automata and the fractal patterns generated by some of these automata (see [6]). In this article we point out the close connection between MERLIN-type games and a class of cellular automata related to the ones described by Wolfram. We introduce a game played on directed graphs and give a detailed analysis of the special case where the graph is a rectangular grid. Our analysis uses linear algebra as well as ideas from the theory of cellular automata.
Color vision and contrast sensitivity testing after radial keratotomy.

Apres keratotomie radiale, la vision des couleurs demeure inchangee alors que la sensibilite au contraste peut etre diminuee
A Low-Subsidy Problem in Public Higher Education.

Abstract With an exogenous public subsidy and a break-even restriction on university net revenue, tuition discrimination supports a quasi-efficient departure from marginal-cost pricing. In contrast, when the legislature and university interact in their subsidy and tuition decisions, the public subsidy becomes endogenous. With an endogenous public subsidy, support by legislatures is affected by the same factors that influence tuition; this leads to a situation where higher tuition revenue is accompanied by a lower public subsidy. The welfare of students declines when this “low-subsidy” case develops. The university's ability to address this issue depends on its being able to commit to a tuition policy, and credible commitment appears consistent with existing institutional conditions.
Parallel multigrid solvers for 3D-unstructured large deformation elasticity and plasticity finite element problems

Multigrid is a popular solution method for the set of linear algebraic equations that arise from PDEs discretized with the finite element method. We discuss a method, that uses many of the same techniques as the finite element method itself, to apply standard multigrid algorithms to unstructured finite element problems. We present parallel algorithms, based on geometric heuristics, to optimize the quality of coarse grid point sets and the meshes constructed from them, for use in multigrid solvers for 3D-unstructured problems. We conduct scalability studies that demonstrate the effectiveness of our methods on a problem in large deformation elasticity and plasticity of up to 40 million degrees of freedom on 960 processor IBM PowerPC 4-way SMP cluster with about 60% parallel efficiency. We also investigate the effect of incompressible materials on a problem in linear elasticity.
Gender and Slum Culture in Urban Asia

This study of slum culture and gender relations compares two slums in Asia - Ratmalana, Colombo and Khlong Toey, Bangkok - and shows how the impact of urbanization, economic change and national politics in Sri Lanka and Thailand differ significantly, despite their common cultural background in Theravada Buddhism. The author draws on direct accounts from women in the slums to explore how these differences influence the lives of the very poorest men and women, and how they affect gender relations. The book discusses how gender identity is defined; the contradictions between culture as publicly expressed and as privately practised in women's daily activities; and how female identity may be understood in each country. It argues that gender has a vital impact on both local culture and political organization, and on how women understand their lives and opportunities.
Role of Hyaluronan and CD44 in in Vitro Branching Morphogenesis of Ureteric Bud Cells

Mutual interaction between the metanephric mesenchyme (MM) and the ureteric bud (UB) in the developing kidney leads to branching morphogenesis and the formation of the ureteric tree. A UB-derived cell line, stimulated by conditioned medium derived from an embryonic MM cell line (or, similarly, by 10% fetal calf serum), forms branching tubules under three-dimensional culture conditions (H. Sakurai et al., 1997, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 94, 6279-6284). The formation of branching tubules in this simple in vitro system for early nephrogenesis is highly sensitive to the matrix environment, a key component of which is the glycosaminoglycan hyaluronan (HA). Consistent with this, we found that HA in the extracellular environment markedly stimulated the formation of cellular processes and multicellular cords (early steps in branching morphogenesis) and also acted as a cell survival factor. Inhibition of HA binding to the cells by addition of blocking antibodies to CD44, the principal cell surface receptor for HA, or degradation of HA by the addition of Streptomyces hyaluronidase resulted in decreased cell survival and diminished morphogenesis, indicating that the HA-CD44 axis plays a central role in in vitro branching morphogenesis. Analysis of the expression of a large number of genes displayed on a cDNA array revealed that significant changes in gene expression in cells undergoing morphogenesis in the presence of HA were limited to a small subset of genes regulating apoptosis, proliferation, and morphogenesis. This included upregulation by HA of its receptor, CD44, which was found to largely localize to the tips of branching cellular processes. In the embryonic kidney, HA was found near the developing ureteric tree and CD44 was expressed basolaterally in UB-derived structures. In addition, both UB and MM appear to express HA synthase, suggesting their ability to secrete HA. We propose that HA promotes branching morphogenesis by creating a positive feedback loop that results in (1) enhanced interaction of HA-CD44 at branching tips (possibly leading to localization of HA binding morphoregulatory factors at the tips) and (2) an activated transcriptional program favoring cell survival/proliferation and migration/morphogenesis of cells through matrix by the expression of key morphoregulatory molecules. Furthermore, since HA, hyaluronidase, and CD44 have been functionally implicated in branching morphogenesis in this model, and since HA, CD44, and HA synthase are all expressed in an appropriate spatiotemporal fashion in the developing kidney, we propose that these molecules may, together, constitute a morphoregulatory pathway that plays a key role in sequential cycles of branching morphogenesis in the UB.
Thoracic chordoma with unusual radiographic features.

Abstract A case of chordoma involving the thoracic spine (T12) is reported. The plain film findings included lytic obstruction and partial collapse of a single vertebral body. Noncontrast CT and CT following Metrizamide myelography revealed vertebral body destruction with paravertebral and intraspinal soft tissue masses. Unusual findings in the case included a photon deficient area on nuclear medicine corresponding to the lesion and normal vascularity on spinal angiography. We know of no previous report describing chordoma as a “cold” defect on bone scanning.
The effect of the format of administration and the total dose of phenobarbital on altered hepatic foci following initiation in female rats with diethylnitrosamine

The effect of changing the format of administration as well as the total dose of the promoting agent phenobarbital (PB) on the development of altered hepatic foci (AHF) was determined in an initiation-promotion protocol with female rats fed the purified AIN-76 diet. Effects on the total number of AHF and the volume percentage of liver occupied by AHF were determined for four histochemical markers, the placental form of glutathione S-transferase, gamma-glutamyl-transpeptidase canalicular ATPase, and glucose-6-phosphatase after 16 and 60 weeks of promotion with varying doses and formats of PB, as well as for a further 16-week period in which no PB was administered. At the 16-week point, animals fed 0.1% PB continuously exhibited the largest number and volume percentage of AHF, whereas rats fed 0.1% PB for 4 days followed by 10 days of no PB with continuous repetition of this pattern during the 16-week treatment period exhibited no increase in the number of AHF over control and only a slight increase in volume percentage. Rats fed a continuous repetition of 0.2% PB for 2 days followed by 12 days of no PB exhibited an intermediate increase in the number of AHF as well as the volume percentage fraction after 16 weeks of this regimen. After 60 weeks of feeding PB by these three different formats, the numbers of AHF observed in these groups were equivalent and had increased above those seen after 16 weeks of feeding. The volume percentage occupied by the AHF in these three groups was also similar, although animals receiving 0.2% PB intermittently showed a significantly lower volume percentage than animals receiving 0.1% PB continuously for 60 weeks. When animals were maintained for an additional 16 weeks without PB feeding, the numbers of AHF decreased dramatically, much more so in animals fed PB intermittently, whereas the volume percentage fraction of AHF in livers of animals receiving 0.1% PB continuously for 60 weeks almost doubled. In contrast, the volume percentage fraction of AHF in livers of animals receiving PB intermittently for 60 weeks followed by 16 weeks of no PB was slightly less. Examination of the individual size classes of AHF showed little change in their distribution at 16 and 60 weeks, but after 16 weeks of PB withdrawal (76 weeks total time), the distribution of AHF in animals that had received 0.1% PB continuously for 60 weeks exhibited a decidedly greater shift to larger AHF than animals receiving PB intermittently for the 60-week period.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Receptor-Estrogen Complex in the Nuclear Fraction of Rat Uterine Cells during the Estrous Cycle

A quantitative method was used to determine the concentration of receptor-estrogen complex in the nuclear fraction of rat uterine cells throughout the estrous cycle. The concentrations of nuclear receptor-estrogen complex were: metestrus, 0.22; diestrus, 0.75; proestrus, 1.29; and estrus, 0.31 picomoles per milligram of DNA. This cyclic fluctuation in the nuclear complex closely parallels the secretion of ovarian estrogen during the estrous cycle, an indication that the accumulation of receptor-estrogen complex by the nuclear fraction of uterine cells may be of physiological significance, and under the control of endogenous estrogen.
Methylmalonic/β-hydroxy-n-valeric aciduria due to methylmalonyl-Coa mutase deficiency

Abstract A patient with methylmalonic and β-hydroxy-n-valeric aciduria, apparently due to deficiency of methylmalonyl-CoA mutase, is described. The excretion of β-hydroxy-n-valerate did not parallel that of β-hydroxypropionate and methylmalonate but was observed, together with β-keto-n-valerate, only during ketosis. β-Hydroxy-n-valerate excretion thus correlates primarily not with the pool size of propionyl-CoA but with that of acetyl-CoA, and may occur during ketosis in any disorder causing accumulation of propionyl-CoA.
Reliability-based design of blast-resistant composite laminates incorporating carbon nanotubes

Research efforts have reported on the ability of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to enhance the stiffness and strength of carbon fiber composites. Systematic design of blast-resistant composites requires considering CNTs–carbon composites characteristics and the uncertainty of blast events. This article suggests a systematic reliability-based design approach where system reliability is used to compute the probability of failure of a composite laminate. A case study for the design of a five-layer composite laminate incorporating CNTs and subjected to uncertain blast event is demonstrated. 0.5–1% CNTs contents by weight seem capable of significantly reducing the composite probability of failure during blast.
Electron transfer reactions within zeolites: Photooxidation of stilbenes

Oxidation of stilbenes included in zeolites is much more efficient than in isotropic organic solvent. Oxidation efficiency depends on the cation and the presence of intra-zeolite water. Electron transfer from the oxidant stilbene to the excited dye molecule is suggested to initiate a non chain oxidation process.
Biomechanical and anatomical effects of an external rotational torque applied to the knee: a cadaveric study.

BackgroundExternal rotational torque is one of the mechanisms that may occur during a pivoting or twisting injury to the knee.HypothesisSimulated external rotational injury by applying external rotational torque will increase knee laxity and cause soft tissue damage to the knee.Study DesignControlled laboratory study.MethodsSix cadaveric knees and a custom testing system were used to produce external rotational torque of 30°, 45°, and 60° with the knee at 30° of flexion. Anterior-posterior, valgus-varus, and rotational knee laxity were quantified. After sequential rotational torque to 60°, the specimens were dissected to identify injured structures.ResultsExternal rotational torque of 45° and 60° significantly increased knee joint laxity in all directions (P <. 05). Dissection showed that all posterior cruciate ligaments were intact; all medial collateral and anterior cruciate ligaments revealed either partial or complete tears. The lateral collateral ligaments were torn in all specimens. The popliteus te...
Surviving apoptosis: A possible mechanism of benzene-induced leukemia

Abstract The pathological consequences resulting from deregulation of the apoptotic program include cancer (too little apoptosis) or diseases of cell deprivation, such as Alzheimer's (too much apoptosis). We have identified an additional pathology whereby cells reaching the earliest stage of chromatin cleavage have the potential to suppress apoptotic execution and survive. One specific cleavage event associated with this process is restricted to a location within the mixed lineage leukemia ( MLL ) gene at 11q23. The site of cleavage is consistent with the location where large, ∼50 kbp loops of supercoiled DNA are attached to the nuclear matrix. Cells modified by this process generate MLL translocations, as shown by inverse PCR, that survive for days to weeks but which have no known relationship with clinical disease. Using a specific approach, cells stimulated by anti-CD95 antibody, a potent stimulator of the apoptotic program, facilitated creation of the MLL – AF9 fusion gene. Further, this rearrangement, which is commonly observed in patients with AML linked to exposure to cytotoxic agents, was efficiently transcribed in cells that were able to undergo cell division. These data are discussed in the context of benzene and benzene metabolite toxicity that impacts the process of apoptosis and is known to lead to leukemic disease.
Economic Libertarians and the Hyperlink: A Preliminary Investigation into an Ideological Practice

Use of the Internet by activists is part of contemporary politics, yet we understand little about the way in which this use is related to ideological production. This paper describes the basis for and discusses an on-going research project in its early stages that seeks to understand the use of hyperlinks to create meaning on the World Wide Web. It particularly focuses on the way in which economic libertarians in the U.S. have provided links to the web pages of likeminded individuals. I theorize these links as a social practice that is informing the way in which property rights are being understood by a highly influential group of lawyers and legal activists in the U.S. Through an analysis of the links found on the web pages of lawyers who have been working to advance a free market vision of property and economic rights, I speculate on a way to understand “hyperlinking” as meaning creation.
Level and Remedy in School Desegregation Research.

Marzell Smith University of Miami Miami, Florida It is the purpose of this paper to suggest the utility of an alternate level of data collection for desegregation research. There appears to exist an important disparity between the results generated by a large number of empirical studies and their application to segregation remedy at the classroom, school, and district level (Riffek, et al, 1976). It is our bias that the "numerical indicators" and correlates of desegregation which have been used in national level studies have had minimal impact in moving schools from the segregated to desegregated to the integrated stages. Added impetus for the desegregation of our public schools came in 1966 when James Coleman published Equality of Educational Opportunity. In that report Coleman stated that desegregation should be expected to have a positive effect on black achievement and he concluded that "the achievement of minority pupils depends more on the schools they attend than does the achievement of majority pupils" (p. 22). Willie (1976, p. 318) reported that:
Emotions and the Creative Process; Anxiety, Boredom, and Enjoyment as Predictors of Creative Writing:

Psychological research has shown that emotions and emotional arousal affect problem solving and other aspects of cognition. This article investigates the relationship between emotional states and the process of creation. High school students working on a major term paper reported their emotional states at four points in time. Analyses consider the relationship between these self-reported emotional states and qualities of the final paper as judged by the teacher and an independent rater. Boredom during work on the paper was found to be negatively correlated with the quality of the final product; enjoyment was positively correlated with the final outcome; and no relationship was found for anxiety. Regression analysis indicated that boredom but not enjoyment predicted the quality of students' work independently of other variables such as students' GPA's. These results indicate that emotional states are interrelated with creativity in this kind of task, but suggest that only boredom has a causal relationship ...
Transcriptional control: Repression by local chromatin modification

It is becoming increasingly clear that chromatin modification plays a fundamental part in transcriptional control. Recent studies provide new insights into how transcriptional repressors, in addition to blocking activators, may recruit repression complexes that include chromatin modification factors.
On perception of a partially occluded object in 6-month-olds

Abstract An Event Set x Event Set design used the occluded stick, solid stick, and divided stick stimulus events from Experiment 1 by Kellman and Spelke (1983). The design was analyzed using five different psychological models of the additive components of infant looking time in the nine cells of the design. Application of linear regression analysis to the data revealed that four of the models fit well. The best fitting model was shown to have two possible psychological interpretations. In one interpretation the infants represent the occluded stick as a solid stick but in the other the infants look longer in response to changes involving the divided stick. The fit of this model was greatly improved by assuming that some of the infants prefer looking at the novel stimulus but others prefer looking at the familiar stimulus. The implications of familiarity preference for the conduct and interpretation of other research are discussed.
Strain aging kinetics of vanadium or titanium strengthened high-strength low-alloy steels

The strain aging kinetics of two commercially available high-strength low-alloy (HSLA) steels were investigated. Strain aging was found to be caused by interstitial solutes and is thought to occur in two stages: Snoek rearrangement and “Cottrell atmosphere” formation. The latter phenomenon can be satisfactorily described by an Arrhenius relationship with an average activation energy of 34.5 kcal/mole. This high activation energy is believed to be the result of interactions between interstitial solutes and strain fields of the coherent precipitates which strengthen HSLA steels. Consequently, strain aging in HSLA steels is considerably slower than in plain carbon steel.
The Conjugate Residual Method for Constrained Minimization Problems

The method of conjugate gradients, a particular version of the general class of conjugate direction methods, was originally developed for solving a linear system of equations $$ Ax = b,$$ where $A$ is an $n \times n$ symmetric, positive definite matrix, $x$ is an unknown $n$-vector and $b$ is a fixed $n$-vector. The conjugate gradient method can be viewed as a descent procedure for the problem : Minimize $$(x , Ax) - 2(x, b);$$ and through this viewpoint the method can be generalized so as to apply to the solution of general unconstrained minimization problems. For these general problems conjugate gradient methods are among the most effective first order descent procedures.
The prevalence of influenza viruses in swine and the antigenic and genetic relatedness of influenza viruses from man and swine

Abstract Serological and virological surveillance of swine during 1976-77 showed that Hsw1N1 influenza viruses were prevalent throughout the swine population of the U.S., particularly in the northern states. A low incidence of H3N2 virus infections was detected serologically in pigs and confirmed by the isolation of a virus antigenically similar to A/Vic/3/75 from one herd. Both the hemagglutinin and neuraminidase antigens of the human New Jersey isolate, A/NJ/8/76, were indistinguishable from those of selected Hsw1N1 influenza viruses isolated from pigs from 1970 to 1977 and from man in 1976; these antigenically similar viruses were serologically separable from earlier swine viruses. The RNAs from Hsw1N1 viruses were separated by polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis and the RNA migration patterns among viruses from both species were noticeably different. The only viruses with identical RNA migration patterns were human and swine isolates from the same farm in Wisconsin.
Neuroscience: Crystal-clear brains.

An ingenious technique allows the monitoring of brain-wide patterns of neuronal activity in a vertebrate at the cellular level, while the animal interacts with a virtual environment. See Article p.471 Improvements in technology have allowed neuroscientists to dissect the relationship between behaviour and activity in specific neural circuits. However, in a model system such as the zebrafish, it is potentially possible to track neural activity in circuits on a much broader scale. Using a virtual-reality-based imaging system, Florian Engert and colleagues track the dynamics of adaptive locomotion at single-neuron resolution in navigating fish to derive candidates for functional elements that drive motor learning.
Spectral Iterative Technique for Analyzing Multiconductor Microstrip Lines

The spectral-iterative technique is used to analyze multiconductor microstrip lines. The iteration procedure is based upon the conjugate gradient technique applied in the spectral domain and employs the FFT algorithm for efficient computation. Numerical results are presented and compared with available data.
Effects of fuel load and moisture content on fire behaviour and heating in masticated litter-dominated fuels

Mechanical fuels treatments are being used in fire-prone ecosystems where fuel loading poses a hazard, yet little research elucidating subsequent fire behaviour exists, especially in litter-dominated fuelbeds. To address this deficiency, we burned constructed fuelbeds from masticated sites in pine flatwoods forests in northern Florida with palmetto-dominated understoreys and examined the effects of fuel load and fuel moisture content (FMC) on fire behaviour.Flamelengths(49-140cm)andfirelineintensity(183-773kJm � 1 s � 1 )increasedwithloading(10-30Mgha � 1 ) and were reduced by 40 and 47% with increasing FMC from 9 to 13%. Rate of spread was not influenced by fuel load, but doubledunderdrierFMC.Fuel consumptionwas.90% forallburns.Soiltemperatures wereinfluenced bybothfuelload and FMC, but never reached lethal temperatures (608C). However, temperatures of thermocouple probes placed at the fuelbed surface reached 274-5038C. Probe maximum temperature and duration at temperatures $608C (9.5-20.08Cmin) both increased with fuel load, but were unaffected by FMC. The fire behaviour observed in these unique litter-dominated fuelbeds provides additional insight into the burning characteristics of masticated fuels in general. Additional keywords: fire hazard reduction, flammability, mechanical fuel treatment, pine flatwoods, saw palmetto.
Future directions for research studies and clinical work on recovery from schizophrenia: questions with some answers

To promote recovery in larger numbers of persons with schizophrenia, considerable research will be required in generating and validating a variety of operational definitions of the construct of 'recovery'. Definitions will vary both in terms of the inclusiveness of their dimensions and their use of dimensional or categorical criteria.When categorical criteria are used, differences in quantitative thresholds for meeting the criteria for recovery will require long-term follow-up studies to choose from. A multi-modal approach to validation of criteria for recovery will likely be most desirable.There will be the need for research and development on instruments for measuring psychosocial functioning, including surveys and focus groups that can clarify the range of normative behavior in the general population using these instruments and their psychometric properties. Studies for identifying those who recover from schizophrenia will need to be longitudinal and prospective, including controlled clinical trials, e...
Anatomic and Functional Changes of the Upper Urinary Tract During Pregnancy

An appreciation of the maternal physiologic adaptations that occur in the renal system during pregnancy is fundamental to the understanding and proper clinical management of normal pregnancy, renal disorders in the gravid patient, and pregnancy-specific conditions such as pre-eclampsia. In this article, the authors first address the anatomic changes that occur in the upper urinary tract in normal pregnancy, followed by the dramatic alterations in maternal renal hemodynamics and glomerular filtration. They also briefly discuss renal handling of various substrates in pregnancy, including protein, uric acid, and glucose. An understanding of these changes is important and relevant to the clinician caring for pregnant women.
Direct Neural Dynamic Programming

This chapter is about approximate dynamic programming (ADP), which has been referred to by many different names, such as “reinforcement learning,” “adaptive critics,” “neuro-dynamic programming,” and “adaptive dynamic programming.” The fundamental issue under consideration is optimization over time by using learning and approximation to handle problems that severely challenge conventional methods due to their very large scale and/or lack of sufficient prior knowledge. In this chapter we discuss the relationships, results, and challenges of various approaches under the theme of ADP. We also introduce the fundamental principles of our direct neural dynamic programming (NDP). We demonstrate its application for a continuous state control problem using an industrial scale Apache helicopter model. This is probably one of the first studies where an ADP type of algorithm has been applied to a complex, realistic, continuous state problem, which is a major challenge in machine learning when dealing with scalability or generalization.
New Public Management And Service Science: Preparing Students For The 21st Century

This effort will seek to discover the foundations of public management and how it relates to information technology, specifically understanding E-government and other technologies in the public domain. Public Management is the development or application of methodical and systematic techniques, often employing comparison quantification, and measurement, that are designed to make the operations of public organizations more efficient, effective and increasingly responsive. This is a considerably crisper, concise, and narrow definition compared to other definitions of public administration, and its sharper focus is attributable to the larger fields encompassing of values in addition to those of efficiency, effectiveness and responsiveness.
A Novel Method for the Determination of Guanfacine in Urine by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry

Guanfacine (Tenex), an antihypertensive available since 1975, has recently been indicated for the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children (Intuniv). Because of this new usage, a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry method was developed and validated for the determination of guanfacine in urine. Guanfacine and 100 ng of protriptyline (internal standard) were extracted from 1.0 mL urine with 0.5 mL of saturated carbonate/bicarbonate buffer and 2 mL of ethyl acetate. The solvent extract was evaporated and derivatized with heptaflurobutyric anhydride in n-butyl chloride. Chromatographic separation was achieved using a DB-5 capillary column (30 m x 0.32 mm, 0.25 microm). Ions monitored for guanfacine were m/z 86.1, 272.1, and 274.1, and ions monitored for protriptyline were m/z 191.1 and 189.1. Concentrations were determined using calibrators over the range of 0.1-2.0 mg/L. The linear regression for all calibration curves had r2 values > or = 0.99. The limit of detection was 0.05 mg/L; limit of quantitation was 0.1 mg/L; and upper limit of linearity was 10.0 mg/L. Percent recovery of guanfacine at 0.1 and 2.0 mg/L was 93% and 71%, respectively. The method was found acceptable for routine quantitative analysis of guanfacine in urine.
Degradation of marine ecosystems and decline of fishery resources in marine protected areas in the US Virgin Islands

The large number of marine protected areas (MPAs) in the Caribbean (over 100) gives a misleading impression of the amount of protection the reefs and other marine resources in this region are receiving. This review synthesizes information on marine resources in two of the first MPAs established in the USA, namely Virgin Islands National Park (1962) and Buck Island Reef National Monument (1961), and provides compelling evidence that greater protection is needed, based on data from some of the longest running research projects on coral reefs, reef fish assemblages, and seagrass beds for the Caribbean. Most of the stresses affecting marine resources throughout the Caribbean (e.g. damage from boats, hurricanes and coral diseases) are also causing deterioration in these MPAs. Living coral cover has decreased and macroalgal cover has increased. Seagrass densities have decreased because of storms and anchor damage. Intensive fishing in the US Virgin Islands has caused loss of spawning aggregations and decreases in mean fish size and abundance. Groupers and snappers are far less abundant and herbivorous fishes comprise a greater proportion of samples than in the 1960s. Effects of intensive fishing are evident even within MPA boundaries. Although only traditional fishing with traps of ‘conventional design’ is allowed, commercial trap fishing is occurring. Visual samples of fishes inside and outside Virgin Islands National Park showed no significant differences in number of species, biomass, or mean size of fishes. Similarly, the number of fishes per trap was statistically similar inside and outside park waters. These MPAs have not been effective because an unprecedented combination of natural and human factors is assaulting the resources, some of the greatest damage is from stresses outside the control of park managers (e.g. hurricanes), and enforcement of the few regulations has been limited. Fully functioning MPAs which prohibit fishing and other extractive uses (e.g. no-take marine reserves) could reverse some of the degradation, allowing replenishment of the fishery resources and recovery of benthic habitats.
Fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy using near‐infrared contrast agents

Although single-photon fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) is widely used to image molecular processes using a wide range of excitation wavelengths, the captured emission of this technique is confined to the visible spectrum. Here, we explore the feasibility of utilizing near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent molecular probes with emission >700 nm for FLIM of live cells. The confocal microscope is equipped with a 785 nm laser diode, a red-enhanced photomultiplier tube, and a time-correlated single photon counting card. We demonstrate that our system reports the lifetime distributions of NIR fluorescent dyes, cypate and DTTCI, in cells. In cells labeled separately or jointly with these dyes, NIR FLIM successfully distinguishes their lifetimes, providing a method to sort different cell populations. In addition, lifetime distributions of cells co-incubated with these dyes allow estimate of the dyes’ relative concentrations in complex cellular microenvironments. With the heightened interest in fluorescence lifetime-based small animal imaging using NIR fluorophores, this technique further serves as a bridge between in vitro spectroscopic characterization of new fluorophore lifetimes and in vivo tissue imaging.
An improved estimator of Variance Explained in the presence of noise

A crucial part of developing mathematical models of information processing in the brain is the quantification of their success. One of the most widely-used metrics yields the percentage of the variance in the data that is explained by the model. Unfortunately, this metric is biased due to the intrinsic variability in the data. We derive a simple analytical modification of the traditional formula that significantly improves its accuracy (as measured by bias) with similar or better precision (as measured by mean-square error) in estimating the true underlying Variance Explained by the model class. Our estimator advances on previous work by a) accounting for overfitting due to free model parameters mitigating the need for a separate validation data set, b) adjusting for the uncertainty in the noise estimate and c) adding a conditioning term. We apply our new estimator to binocular disparity tuning curves of a set of macaque V1 neurons and find that on a population level almost all of the variance unexplained by Gabor functions is attributable to noise.
Kekulé, Butlerov, and the Historiography of the Theory of Chemical Structure

In 1858, August Kekule and Archibald Scott Couper independently published similar ideas regarding the tetravalence and self-linking ability of carbon atoms; three years later, the Russian chemist Aleksandr Mikhailovich Butlerov read a paper at the German Naturforscherversammlung in Speyer, which restated, clarified, and enlarged upon the ideas of Kekule and Couper. In 1958, the centenary of the structure theory was celebrated in Chicago, London, Heidelberg, and Ghent; the celebrations in Moscow, Frunze, and Kazan took place three years later. For over a century chemists and chemical historians have disputed the origins of structure theory. Sometimes this activity has been confined to occasional sniping, but at other times determined battles have been fought. The polemic has never been characterized by cool and dispassionate discourse. Western historians have in general been unwilling or unable to master the extensive Russian literature on the question; the arguments of Soviet historians have often been clothed in Marxist rhetoric or otherwise influenced by political considerations.
“Looking at the Other Side of the Coin”: Allyn Young and the Early Development Theory

This paper investigates the influence of Allyn Abbott Young's theoretical work on the groundbreaking contributions of early development theorists, Paul Rosenstein-Rodan and Ragnar Nurkse. The work of Allyn Young had a significant impact on early development theory as the above-mentioned pioneers of development economics built substantial portions of their theories—the “big push” and “vicious circle and balanced growth,” respectively—on the dynamic external economies, an integral part of the vision of self-sustaining growth, as described in Young (1928).
Characterization of Fe 3 O 4 and Fe 2 O 3 ferrogels prepared under uniform magnetic field

We compare the characteristics of ferrogels prepared with and without the presence of a uniform magnetic field using Fe3O4 and Fe2O3 nanoparticles immobilized in hydrogels of N-isopropylacrylamide. The spatial distribution and agglomeration of the nanoparticles within the ferrogels were investigated using ultra small angle x-ray scattering (USAXS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Hydrated ferrogels were also studied for magnetization using direct current superconducting quantum interference device (DC-SQUID). Volume size distribution resulting from USAXS data of the Fe3O4-ferrogel prepared under a uniform 225 G magnetic field showed a single broad peak appreciably different from that prepared without magnetic field with three distinct peaks. Volume size distributions resulting from USAXS data of the Fe2O3-ferrogel prepared with and without the presence of a uniform magnetic field both similarly show two peaks. Nanoparticle agglomeration was also determined by analyzing TEM images of ferrogel samples. DC-SQUID measurements of Fe3O4-ferrogel prepared in the presence of a uniform magnetic field showed 9% higher magnetization compared to the Fe3O4-ferrogel prepared without magnetic field. Similarly, DC-SQUID measurements of Fe2O3-ferrogel prepared in the presence of a uniform magnetic field showed 3% higher magnetization compared to the Fe2O3-ferrogel prepared without magnetic field. Thus, the presence of a uniform magnetic field during ferrogel polymerization can enabled the enhancement of the magnetoelastic property of the ferrogel.
Interaction diagrams: a visual language for controlling a visual program editor

A visual program editor is a graphics editor which has been specialized to support the creation of visual programs. Palette is a tool for constructing custom visual program editors from a generic editor and high-level specifications. One aspect of that customization is to specify the mapping from the actions of the user to the operations of the editor. Interaction diagrams are a visual notation for programming the direct manipulation aspects of the Palette editor. Interaction diagrams are based on finite state machines, with aspects of data-flow and objects, for defining overall control in the drawing interface. The author describes the initial version of the Indigo visual programming language, which is an implementation of interaction diagrams. >
Rapidly dissolving poly(vinyl alcohol)/cyclodextrin electrospun nanofibrous membranes

We electrospun supramolecular complexes of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin (HPβCD), and a poorly water soluble model drug (ketoprofen) to produce moisture-sensitive fibers for potential sublingual drug delivery applications. Fast dissolving/disintegrating membranes are of particular importance in sublingual delivery of drugs and other functional moieties, and materials such as nanofibers with a high specific surface area may be well-suited for such applications. Surprisingly, the concentrations of PVA and HPβCD required to produce uniform blend fibers are lower than the respective neat components. We find that PVA plays a synergistic role in facilitating fiber formation, enabling us to produce fibers with a high cyclodextrin (e.g. 90 wt%) content. We attribute the mechanism of fiber formation to the presence of HPβCD aggregates and PVA chain networks, analogous to depletion flocculation. Fibers with the highest HPβCD content release the most drugs in the shortest amount of time, and the amount of drug loading and the dissolution rate of the drug-containing fibers can be tuned by over two orders of magnitude by varying the HPβCD/PVA ratio.
An empirical examination of attitude consistency in complex cognitive structures

Though much consideration has been given to the problem of cognitive consistency in simple, triadic structures, very little empirical work has been done with complex cognitive structures. The formulations about structural balance first outlined by Cartwright and Harary are examined and the predictions stemming from their model are applied to an empirical case study. Subjects were measured on their orientations toward four value statements. They were then shown the orientations toward these same value statements by fictitious other students toward whom they were then asked to indicate their orientations. The results indicated that the structural balance model predicted effectively for cases where maximum balance would result from a positive orientation of the Subject to his paired Other; but results failed to support the model where negative attraction was predicted. The results are discussed in relation to the theoretical difference between F Heider and T. M. Newcomb over the effects of negative attraction.