cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Effect of Integrated Use of L-Tryptophan and Chemical Fertilizer on Growth and Yield Performances of Radish ( Rhaphanus sativus L.)

L-Tryptophan (L-TRP) is an essential amino acid that performs as a physiological precursor of auxins in higher plants. A pot experiment was conducted at the Agro Technology Park, Eastern University of Sri Lanka to find out the effect of integrated use of L-Tryptophan (L-TRP) and chemical fertilizer on growth and yield performance of Rhaphanus sativus L. There were six treatments with three replicates laid out in a Completely Randomized Design in a factorial arrangement. The treatment combinations were rates of fertilizer (recommended fertilizer rate by the Department of Agriculture and half of that recommendation), and concentration of L-TRP (0 M, 10-3 M, 10-4 M). Measurements were taken at 45 days after sowing of radish. There was a significant interaction (p<0.05) between the concentration of L-TRP and fertilizer rate on tested parameters of radish. All the tested parameter were significantly increased at 10-4 M of L-TRP over the control at recommended fertilizer rate while at half of recommended fertilizer rate, all the parameters were significantly high at 10-3 M of L-TRP over the control. It can be concluded that the application of L-TRP as a phytohormone precursor can be used to increase the growth and yield performance in radish at different fertilizer rate.
Trends in oncologic hybrid imaging

Hybrid imaging plays a central role in the diagnosis and management of a wide range of malignancies at all stages. In this article, we review the most pertinent historical developments, emerging clinical applications of novel radiotracers and imaging technologies, and potential implications for training and practice. This includes an overview of novel tracers for prostate, breast, and neuroendocrine tumors, assessment of tumor heterogeneity, the concept of image-guided ‘biologically relevant dosing’, and theranostic applications. Recent technological advancements, including time-of-flight PET, PET/MRI, and ‘one-minute whole-body PET’, are also covered. Finally, we discuss how these rapidly evolving applications might affect current training curricula and how imaging-derived big data could be harnessed to the benefit of our patients.
The Principle of Least Action: History and Physics

The principle of least action originates in the idea that, if nature has a purpose, it should follow a minimum or critical path. This simple principle, and its variants and generalizations, applies to optics, mechanics, electromagnetism, relativity, and quantum mechanics, and provides an essential guide to understanding the beauty of physics. This unique text provides an accessible introduction to the action principle across these various fields of physics, and examines its history and fundamental role in science. It includes - with varying levels of mathematical sophistication - explanations from historical sources, discussion of classic papers, and original worked examples. The result is a story that is understandable to those with a modest mathematical background, as well as to researchers and students in physics and the history of physics.
“Empty Sella” and Benign Intracranial Hypertension: Endocrine and CSF Dynamic Study

Since the introduction of the CT scan, a clinical picture, mainly observed in female patients and represented by signs of intracranial hypertension (headache, visual disturbances with or without papilledema) and endocrinological disorders (obesity, hypertrichosis, irregular menses, sometimes galactorrhea), has been found, often associated with radiological findings of subarachnoid herniation into the pituitary fossa. Such an association, when noticed in subjects who have not received previous surgical and/or radiotherapeutic procedures on the sellar region, is defined as “primary empty sella syndrome” (PESS) (4).
The Role of Membrane Glycoproteins in Platelet Formation, Circulation, and Senescence

Circulating blood platelets are required to form an immediate hemostatic plug at the site of a vascular endothelial gap. The properties of the platelet membrane glycoproteins related to the specific functions of adhesion and aggregation during this hemostatic reaction have been the focus of the preceding chapters of this book. This chapter will review current knowledge and hypotheses on the broader and less defined phenomena of platelet production from megakaryocytes and their appearance in the circulation, their lifespan and senescence, and finally their ultimate removal from the circulation. Each of these events seems to involve membrane contact phenomena that are unique to the platelet: (1) within the bone marrow the megakaryocyte occupies a special position adjacent to the sinusoidal wall; (2) platelets are released from fragmenting megakaryocyte cytoplasm either within the marrow sinuses or later within the pulmonary capillaries; (3) circulating platelets undergo reversible adhesion encounters during their lifespan, losing fragments of their surface membrane in the process; and (4) finally an unknown senescent change on the surface membrane signals the ultimate sequestration of the platelet. This entire process may be viewed as a sequence of reversible contact interactions among platelets as well as between platelets and the vessel wall resulting in surface glycoprotein changes and membrane fragmentation.
Backup Protection of Multi-Terminal HVDC Grids Based on Quickest Change Detection

Protection against dc faults is one of the main technical challenges for the operation of converter-based HVdc systems. Protection becomes even more challenging when the HVdc systems are expanded to multi-terminal dc (MTdc) grids with more than two terminals/converter stations. Similar to their ac counterparts, proper protection of the MTdc grids necessitates both primary and backup protection schemes in which, in case of malfunctioning/failure of primary protection, backup protection trips as fast as possible. Although several backup relaying algorithms, such as current threshold- and classifier-based methods, have been proposed, none of them offers sufficient speed, robustness, and scalability. In this paper, a novel backup protection algorithm based on quickest change detection technique is proposed, which offers fast and robust backup protection functionality for the primary relay. The performance and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm are evaluated and verified with time-domain simulation studies in the PSCAD/EMTDC environment. The study results confirm satisfactory performance of the proposed algorithm in terms of accuracy, robustness, and speed under various fault scenarios. The proposed method is applicable to different grid configurations and is able to cooperate with different primary protection algorithms and breaker configurations.
Practice Makes Perfect: Experiential Learning as a Method for Financial Socialization

Most financial socialization research focuses on two methods of learning: modeling and discussion. The purpose of this study is to qualitatively explore experiential learning as a third potential m...
AndroParse - An Android Feature Extraction Framework and Dataset

Android malware has become a major challenge. As a consequence, practitioners and researchers spend a significant time analyzing Android applications (APK). A common procedure (especially for data scientists) is to extract features such as permissions, APIs or strings which can then be analyzed. Current state of the art tools have three major issues: (1) a single tool cannot extract all the significant features used by scientists and practitioners (2) Current tools are not designed to be extensible and (3) Existing parsers can be timely as they are not runtime efficient or scalable. Therefore, this work presents AndroParse which is an open-source Android parser written in Golang that currently extracts the four most common features: Permissions, APIs, Strings and Intents. AndroParse outputs JSON files as they can easily be used by most major programming languages. Constructing the parser allowed us to create an extensive feature dataset which can be accessed by our independent REST API. Our dataset currently has 67,703 benign and 46,683 malicious APK samples.
Pediatric Robotic Surgery

Pediatric robotic-assisted surgery is quickly gaining traction in pediatric surgical disciplines but presents unique challenges as compared to adult robotic surgery. Small abdominal and thoracic cavities limit working space and operative indications differ from the adult population. This article describes the development of pediatric robotic-assisted surgery, discusses technical limitations and benefits, and reviews training considerations particular to robotic surgery. Applications and published outcomes of common procedures in urology, general and thoracic surgery, otolaryngology, and pediatric surgical oncology are described. Finally, costs and the anticipated future direction of pediatric robotic-assisted surgery are discussed.
Hardware Fault Tolerance for Binary RRAM Crossbars

Resistive random-access memory (RRAM)-based computing systems (RCS) are being advocated for neural network acceleration. The memristor is the unit cell of an RCS and it is susceptible to process variations and manufacturing defects. Therefore, it is essential to tolerate faulty memristors to ensure intended system operation. We present the architecture of a novel processing element to tolerate both stuck-at and undefined-state faults in binary RRAM cells. We also describe a 4T1R reconfigurable cell-based crossbar design with an ancillary 3T mesh to provide 100% hardware fault tolerance for random and clustered fault distributions for up to 50% fault density. The proposed 4T1R cell is 2.04× smaller than the state-of-the-art neuromorphic SRAM cell. Evaluation results for binary pattern-matching and digit recognition applications demonstrate the effectiveness of our fault tolerance methodology.
Power scaling of mid-IR optical refrigeration and radiation balanced lasers

The latest efforts in performing high-power mid-IR optical refrigeration in Tm-doped crystals are reported. A Thuliumdoped fiber amplifier (TDFA) seeded by a mid-IR Continuous Wave Optical Parametric Oscillator (CW-OPO) and diodepumped at 793 nm is developed to obtain a high-power source in the mid-IR for laser cooling and RBL experiments. Using the TDFA, experiments are underway for implementing a Herriott cell geometry for laser cooling to low temperatures, as well as demonstrating the first mid-IR RBL in Tm and Ho-doped crystals.
Possible signatures of mixed-parity superconductivity in doped polar SrTi O 3 films

Superconductors that possess both broken spatial inversion symmetry and spin-orbit interactions exhibit a mix of spin singlet and triplet pairing. Here, we report on measurements of the superconducting properties of electron-doped, strained $\mathrm{SrTi}{\mathrm{O}}_{3}$ films. These films have an enhanced superconducting transition temperature and were previously shown to undergo a transition to a polar phase prior to becoming superconducting. We show that some films show signatures of an unusual superconducting state, such as an in-plane critical field that is higher than both the paramagnetic and orbital pair breaking limits. Moreover, nonreciprocal transport, which reflects the ratio of odd versus even pairing interactions, is observed. Together, these characteristics indicate that these films provide a tunable platform for investigations of unconventional superconductivity.
Atomic column heights detection in metallic nanoparticles using deep convolutional learning

Abstract The physico-chemical and mechanical properties of metallic (e.g., Au, Pt) nanoparticle complexes highly depend on the order and the distribution of their atomic structure. While transmission electron microscopy (TEM) provides the highest spatial resolution to an image of the nanoparticle’s atomic structure, it is time consuming and cumbersome to estimate the atomic column height from the two-dimensional projected TEM images. With continued progress of in-situ or operando TEM techniques in discovery of nanoscale science, it is paramount to develop artificial intelligence approaches that can be integrated with real-time TEM imaging. In this work, we present a modeling framework based upon deep learning approach (i.e., convolutional neural network – CNN) for the detection of the atomic column heights in the experimental high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) images of gold nanoparticles of different sizes. For this purpose, we propose a method for the generation of the training dataset based on the Wulff construction, in order to bring a physically realistic treatment to the network’s learning process. Moreover, we introduce a model based on the regression scheme, as a valid alternative to a classification approach reported in the prior literature. In addition to counting atoms in verity of columns and nanoparticles, the model also provides insights concerning the experimental conditions suitable for the appropriate identification of atomic column heights by the neural network. Thus, the developed modeling approach establishes a basis for accelerated or ‘on-the-fly’ analysis of nanoparticles as well as a framework for extending deep learning models to broad applications in nanoscience.
Storytelling in the Higher Education Classroom: Why It Matters

Life stories, while a powerful method in social sciences and humanities scholarship, are still not widely accepted and used in the higher education classroom. This commentary encourages college and...
The NRL100 GHz carm oscillator experiment

The design of a 10-20 MW, 40 nsec cyclotron autoresonance maser is presented. The basic components of the CARM are a novel 600 kV, 200 A. field emission gun and a “whispering gallery” mode rippled wall cavity.
Cesarean effects on adolescents' birth experiences: counterfactual analysis.

Abstract Introduction The birth experience of adolescents is understudied even though they are a particularly vulnerable population to experience a negative birth event, given that they exhibit many known risk factors. Objective To ascertain whether a cesarean birth mediates the impact of infant complications on the birth experience of adolescent mothers. Methods Using a secondary analysis of data collected from 303 postpartum adolescents previously evaluated for depression and post-traumatic stress, we employed counterfactual causal analysis to determine if delivery type mediated the birth experience at different levels of depression. Noted limitations pertain to methodological assumptions and computational feasibility as well as potential sample bias. Results We found that the mediating effect of delivery mode depended on the adolescent’s depression level as well as on the specific operationalization of the birth experience. At low levels of depression, the odds of a negative birth appraisal were reduced by around 30% when operationalized as a single item subjective rating. In contrast, at high levels of depression, the odds of a negative birth experience increased by 80% when operationalized as an Impact of Event Scale (IES) subconstruct. Conclusion Depression level plays a pivotal role in moderating how delivery mode mediates the birth experience. The direction of impact also depends on how the birth experience is operationalized.
Mortality, Health, and Substance Abuse by Religious Attendance Among HIV Infected Patients from the Veterans Aging Cohort Study

Religion and spirituality have been associated with higher survival and improved biological markers among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWH). Prior results have largely been among small cohort studies. We examined the association using a larger sample and longitudinal data from the Veterans Aging Cohort Study (VACS) years 2002–2012 (n = 3,685). Attending services at least monthly was associated with higher social support (80% vs 75%, p = 0.002), less unhealthy alcohol use (35% vs 39%, p = 0.006), less marijuana use in the past year (23% vs 32%, p < 0.001), less overall drug use within the past year (27% vs 31%, p = 0.01), and lower depression (20% vs 24%, p = 0.004). Attending services monthly was associated with a reduced mortality risk adjusting for age, race, gender, education, MSM, HCV, VL, CD4, and adherence to ARV (adjusted HazardRatio [aHR] = 0.89, 0.80–0.99). However, after controlling for smoking status, this association of mortality and religious attendance became non-significant (aHR = 0.93, 0.84–1.04).
Millisecond dynamics of an unlabeled amino acid transporter.

Excitatory amino acid transporters (EAATs) are important in many physiological processes and crucial for the removal of excitatory amino acids from the synaptic cleft. Here, we develop and apply high-speed atomic force microscopy line-scanning (HS-AFM-LS) combined with automated state assignment and transition analysis for the determination of transport dynamics of unlabeled membrane-reconstituted GltPh, a prokaryotic EAAT homologue, with millisecond temporal resolution. We find that GltPh transporters can operate much faster than previously reported, with state dwell-times in the 50 ms range, and report the kinetics of an intermediate transport state with height between the outward- and inward-facing states. Transport domains stochastically probe transmembrane motion, and reversible unsuccessful excursions to the intermediate state occur. The presented approach and analysis methodology are generally applicable to study transporter kinetics at system-relevant temporal resolution. Excitatory amino acid transporters (EAATs) are crucial for the removal of excitatory amino acids from the synaptic cleft. Here authors combined high-speed atomic force microscopy line-scanning with automated state assignment for the determination of transport dynamics of GltPh, a prokaryotic EAAT homologue, with millisecond temporal resolution.
UMBRAL DEFORMATIONS ON DISCRETE SPACE–TIME

Given a minimum measurable length underlying space–time, the latter may be effectively regarded as discrete, at scales of order of the Planck length. A systematic discretization of continuum physics may be effected most efficiently through the umbral deformation. General functionals yielding such deformations at the level of solutions are furnished and illustrated, and broad features of discrete oscillations and wave propagation are outlined.
Patterns and Trends of Gun Violence Against Women in the United States.

Objective To examine patterns and trends of firearm injuries in a nationally representative sample of US women. Summary background data Gun violence in the United States exceeds rates seen in most other industrialized countries. Due to the paucity of data little is known regarding demographics and temporal variations in firearm injuries among women. Methods Data was extracted from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (2001 - 2017) for women 18 years and older. Number of non-fatal firearm assaults and homicide per year were extracted and crude population-based injury rates were calculated. Sub-stratification by age-group and time period were performed. Results Between 2001 and 2017, there were 88,823 non-fatal firearm assaults involving women and 29,106 firearm homicides. There were 4,116 victims of non-fatal firearm assault in 2001 (3.8 per 10) and 12,959 by 2017 (10.0 per 10). Homicide rates were 1.5 per 10 in 2001 and 1.7 per 10 in 2017. Sub-stratification by age-group and time period showed that there were no significant changes in non-fatal firearm assault rates between 2001 and 2010 (P-trend = 0.132 in 18 - 44 yo; 0.298 in 45 - 64 yo). However between 2011 and 2017, non-fatal assault rates increased from 7.10 per 10 to 19.24 per 10 in 18 - 44 yo (P-trend = 0.013) and from 1.48 per 10 to 3.93 per 10 in 45 - 64 yo (P-trend = 0.003). Similar trends were seen with firearm homicide among 18 - 44 yo (1.91 per 10 to 2.47 per 10 in 2011-2017, P-trend = 0.022). However, the trends among 45 - 64 yo were not significant in both time periods. Conclusions Female victims of gun violence are increasing and more recent years have been marked with higher rates of firearm injuries, particularly among younger women. These data suggest that improved public health strategies and policies may be beneficial in reducing gun violence against US women.
Pioneering Women in American Mathematics

More than 14 per cent of the PhD's awarded in the United States during the first four decades of the twentieth century went to women, a proportion not achieved again until the 1980s. This book is the result of a study in which the authors identified all of the American women who earned PhD's in mathematics before 1940, and collected extensive biographical and bibliographical information about each of them. By reconstructing as complete a picture as possible of this group of women, Green and LaDuke reveal insights into the larger scientific and cultural communities in which they lived and worked.The book contains an extended introductory essay, as well as biographical entries for each of the 228 women in the study. The authors examine family backgrounds, education, careers, and other professional activities. They show that there were many more women earning PhD's in mathematics before 1940 than is commonly thought. Extended biographies and bibliographical information are available from the companion website for the book. The material will be of interest to researchers, teachers, and students in mathematics, history of mathematics, history of science, women's studies, and sociology. The data presented about each of the 228 individual members of the group will support additional study and analysis by scholars in a large number of disciplines.
Nonparametric and Semiparametric Regression for Dependent Data

We are honored to include this article to celebrate the publication of Ray’s collected works by Springer. These collected works mark another milestone in Ray’s distinguished career, as evident by the wide range of statistics publications he has contributed to the literature over the years. The enclosed papers have had far-reaching impacts on the field of statistics, in addition to other disciplines, including AIDS research, cancer studies, finance, image analysis, proteomics, and genomics. We anticipate future new applications of the methods and theory Ray developed that are represented in these papers. We appreciate this opportunity to discuss Ray’s contributions to non- and semiparametric longitudinal and functional data analysis.
Federal Farm Programs

The question why a federal farm program is needed for agriculture is explored, and a summary of the twisting farm policy path is presented. Alternative policies for the future of agriculture are discussed, showing that commercial farm policy options are far from settled.
ROLE OF FERREDOXIN IN THE METABOLISM OF MOLECULAR HYDROGEN.

Valentine, R. C. (University of Illinois, Urbana) and R. S. Wolfe. Role of ferredoxin in the metabolism of molecular hydrogen. J. Bacteriol. 85:1114–1120. 1963.—The metabolism of molecular hydrogen by Clostridium pasteurianum, Micrococcus lactilyticus (Veillonella alcalescens), and several other anaerobic bacteria was studied. Oxidation of hydrogen, using several electron-accepting substrates including triphosphopyridine nucleotide, uric acid, xanthine, nitrite, and hydroxylamine, required ferredoxin in conjunction with hydrogenase. Evolution of hydrogen from pyruvate, α-ketoglutarate, hypoxanthine, and dithionite was mediated by ferredoxin. On the basis of these findings, a unitary hypothesis for biological hydrogen evolution is proposed in which ferredoxin plays a key role.
A Goal Directed Theorem Prover

The modified problem reduction format of Plaisted [87] has been implemented in C Prolog and compiled in Quintus Prolog. This complete first-order strategy is based on a sequent-style proof system which does not require contrapositives of clauses to be used. This strategy is implemented in a back chaining manner with caching of solutions to avoid repeated work on the same subgoal. The prover also permits forward chaining and term rewriting. Paramodulation is simulated by unification and term rewriting using a special representation for the input. The C Protog source code is about 35,000 bytes long and has been distributed to probably over 100 sites together with some example files. One of the main advantages of this prover is that it is compact and relatively easy to understand at a high level. This has made it possible to perform numerous experiments and test numerous modifications rapidly. This also makes the prover suitable for instructional use, The prover has been tested on a wide variety of problems and has obtained automatic proofs in set theory, combinatory logic, ternary Boolean algebra, and many other areas. We are now studying the addition of a priority mechanism to the basic depth-first iterative deepening search strategy used by the prover. This has reduced the running time of many problems, often by an order of magnitude or more.
REFORMAS DE LAS POLITICAS ECONOMICAS DE LA AGRICULTURA CHILENA Y LA RESPUESTA DE LA OFERTA AGREGADA: OTRO PUNTO DE VISTA*

In a recent paper Quiroz et al., conclude that the aggregate agricultural supply response varied significantly over the period 1965-86, in response to changes in the coherence of macroeconomic policy, the structural changes brought about by land reform, and the availability of agricultural credit. They argue that price response was lower during 1965-1970 and 1976-1980 than in the years 1981-1986. Using their data, an econometric model is estimated in this paper. The results provide support for a different interpretation of the effects of agricultural policy. It appears, in particular, that land reform had a positive effect on agricultural output.
Ocular toxicities of chemotherapy.

T HE INCREASED use of chemotherapeutic agents for hematologic and oncological diseases, combined with longer patient survival, has led to a higher incidence and recognition of ophthalmologic side effects.1-4 The clinical manifestations and pathophysiology associated with ocular toxicity of common chemotherapeutic agents will be reviewed. Clinicians should be aware of the potential ocular side effects of chemotherapeutic agents and perform an appropriate baseline ophthalmologic examination prior to the initiation of chemotherapy.
Improved tagging strategy for protein identification in mammalian cells

The tagging strategy enables full-length endogenous proteins in mammalian cells to be expressed as green fluorescent fusion proteins from their authentic promoters. We describe improved genetic tools to facilitate protein tagging in mammalian cells based on a mobile genetic element that harbors an artificial exon encoding a protein tag. Insertion of the artificial exon within introns of cellular genes results in expression of hybrid proteins consisting of the tag sequence fused in-frame to sequences of a cellular protein. We have used lentiviral vectors to stably introduce enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) tags into expressed genes in target cells. The data obtained indicate that this strategy leads to bona fide tripartite fusion proteins and that the EGFP tag did not affect the subcellular localization of such proteins. The tools presented here have the potential for protein discovery, and subsequent investigation of their subcellular distribution and role(s) under defined physiological conditions, as well as for protein purification and protein-protein interaction studies.
Dilution Protocols for Detection of Hook Effects/Prozone Phenomenon

The prozone or (high-dose) hook effect, documented to cause false-negative assay results >50 years ago (1), still remains a problem in one-step immunometric assays (2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9), immunoturbidimetric assays (10), and immunonephelometric assays (11) for immunoglobulins. To detect the prozone effect, samples are often tested undiluted and after dilution (9). If the result on dilution is higher than for the undiluted sample, then the undiluted sample most likely exhibited the prozone effect. Unfortunately, this approach increases labor and reagent costs for assays that may only rarely encounter extremely high analyte concentrations. An alternative approach involves pooling patient samples and measuring the pool and a 10-fold dilution of the pool (12). If one or more of the samples in the pool is falsely low because of the prozone effect, then the results from the undiluted and diluted pools (after correcting for the 10-fold dilution) will differ significantly (12). Other approaches to eliminate the prozone effect include using two-step immunoassays that have a wash step between the addition of …
The discursive construction of the social stratification order in reforming China

This article examines the discursive reconfiguration of the social stratification order in reforming China. Applying the two notions of metadiscourse and entextualization from the natural history of discourse (NHD) perspective (Silverstein a Urban 1996), I argue that the missing link between the discursive and the social is forged through the metadiscourses (Urban 1996) originated by the top leaders of the Communist Party of China, and that their ongoing entextualizations play a crucial role in establishing the stratificational status quo. They set the tone for dismantling the pre-reform hierarchical pattern and constructing an evolving system in light of the growing market economy. The analysis of their entextualizations is based on period texts (1978–2008), primarily speeches of the three party leaders Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao. Combining the discursive insights of critical discourse theory and the NHD perspective, this study intends to break new ground in applying the NHD approach to analyzing the reforming Chinese state socialism where social stratification is necessarily subject to ongoing transformations.
Improving Disadvantaged Families' Educational Skills: Changes in Children and Caregivers

Summary.-The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects for three famiLies, each with a fifth-gade child at risk, of training in skills such as communicating with teachers and administrators, providing a quiet place for their child to work, and praising their child's appropriate changes in academic and social behaviors. The caregivers were trained by a university smdent in these skills and evaluated in an AB time series design. All three families showed increased involvement in the school. Two of the three children improved performance both at school and at home. Schools and persons in the community may assist students at risk by training parents in educational skds designed to help children complete work at school and at home and to increase the parents' contacts with the schools (Vacha & McLaughlin, 1992, 1993). The present study evaluated the effectiveness of training families with fifth-grade children who were at risk for school failure. Three 10-yt-old children, two mothers, and one grandmother participated. Each child had been identified by the fifth grade teacher as being at risk for school failure on the basis of classroom behavior, academic performance, and home environment. In two families on public assistance, fathers were terminally ill and not at home. In the third family a grandmother was raising a child with fetal alcohol syndrome. Weekly home and school visits were made to follow-up each week's activities. The objectives of home visits were to help caregivers learn to seek answers concerning the children's school performance and to help design home programs to aid parents in establishing control of children's behaviors. Target behaviors selected by these caregivers included homework completion, chore completion, showing consideration for other students, and helping each other in the classroom. Each task was individualized and consequences (books and materials that could be used to reward the children) were provided caregivers. At the end of each day, the student and caregiver and the student and teacher reviewed and graphed each child's perfoi-ma~ce. During baseline, Child 1 completed 50.0% of the homework and Children 2 and 3 0.0%. After two visits, Child 1 completed 96.4% of his homework, and Child 2 completed 71.0% of his homework. After Week 3, Child 3 completed no homework assignments. Baseline data for completion
Conspecific sperm precedence in sister species of Drosophila with overlapping ranges.

Barriers to gene flow that act after mating but before fertilization are often overlooked in studies of reproductive isolation. Where species are sympatric, such "cryptic" isolating barriers may be important in maintaining species as distinct entities. Drosophila yakuba and its sister species D. santomea have overlapping ranges on the island of Sao Tome, off the coast of West Africa. Previous studies have shown that the two species are strongly sexually isolated. However, the degree of sexual isolation observed in the laboratory cannot explain the low frequency (approximately 1%) of hybrids observed in nature. This study identifies two "cryptic" isolating barriers that may further reduce gene flow between D. yakuba and D. santomea where they are sympatric. First, noncompetitive gametic isolation has evolved between D. yakuba and D. santomea: heterospecific matings between the two species produce significantly fewer offspring than do conspecific matings. Second, conspecific sperm precedence (CSP) occurs when D. yakuba females mate with conspecific and heterospecific males. However, CSP is asymmetrical: D. santomea females do not show patterns of sperm usage consistent with CSP. Drosophila yakuba and D. santomea females also differ with respect to remating propensity after first mating with conspecific males. These results suggest that noncompetitive and competitive gametic isolating barriers may contribute to reproductive isolation between D. yakuba and D. santomea.
Thrombin activates mitogen-activated protein kinase in primary astrocyte cultures

Thrombin is known to evoke numerous inflammatory and proliferative responses in a wide variety of its target cells. Recent studies have demonstrated morphoregulatory and mitogenic effects of thrombin on astroglial cells (astrocytes). The present study deals with thrombin-induced activation of mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase in primary cultures of rat astrocytes. Treatment of serum-starved astrocytes with thrombin resulted in a rapid activation of tyrosine (Tyr) phosphorylation of a set of proteins including a prominent one with a molecular mass of 42 kDa (p42). The identity of p42 with MAP kinase was confirmed by MAP kinase-immunoreactivity of isolated [i.e., immunoprecipitated with anti-phosphotyrosine (PY) antibodies] p42 and by increased myelin basic protein (MBP) kinase activity present in MAP kinase immunoprecipitates of thrombin-treated cultures. Pertussis toxin (PTX) pretreatment failed to inhibit thrombin stimulation of p42 phosphorylation, indicating the lack of involvement of PTX sensitive G proteins in the mechanism of activation of MAP kinase by thrombin. Chronic exposure of cultures to phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate to down-regulate PKC resulted in an attenuation of thrombin-induced p42 Tyr phosphorylation, although H-7, a known PKC inhibitor, failed to block thrombin effect. However, staurosporine, a nonspecific protein kinase inhibitor, prevented the activation of p42 phosphorylation. It is concluded that thrombin induces MAP kinase activation in astrocytes by a mechanism involving a staurosporine-sensitive pathway.
SU‐FF‐J‐54: Evaluation of Ultrasound Image Guidance Accuracy for Prostate by Comparison to Calypso Body GPS Data

Purpose:Ultrasoundimage guidance accuracy for prostate is evaluated by comparison to Calypso body GPS data Method and Materials: The Calypso localization system is a real time monitoring system with a precision of better than 0.5mm. Twenty (20) patients with a total of 661 fractions are included in this comparative evaluation of the accuracy of US alignment of prostate using the Calypso Body GPS as the gold standard. The sequence of the localization is as following. 1) patient is aligned to a setup isocenter based on skin tattoos. 2) BAT alignment is performed and the treatment couch is shifted accordingly. 3) Calypso localization is then used to align the patient. Thus, the shifts reported by Calypso can be interpreted to represent the residual uncertainty of the BAT alignment. Results: For the 661 fractions evaluated here, BAT residual uncertainty had mean ± standard deviation (SD) of −1.1 ± 2.7 mm (L/R), 0.3 ± 3.6 mm (I/S), 1.5 ± 4.5 mm (A/P). Our results agree well with a recent study published from Heidelberg University. 3D scatter plot of mean BAT residual uncertainty for each of the 20 patients studied here shows the majority of patients clustering within a bounding box of roughly ∼3 mm or less as compared to Calypso alignment position. We note that data from alignments presented here was performed by relatively new US operators with (initially) limited and widely ranging US training experience, early in the clinical training and implementation process. Conclusion: The BAT residual uncertainty averaged over 661 fractions is less than 2 mm in all three directions when evaluated using Calypso as a gold standard and it has the largest standard deviation in the A/P direction.
Antigen-driven helper cell-independent cloned cytolytic T lymphocytes

Cellular interactions between alloreactive cytolytic T lymphocytes (CTLs) and helper T cells have been suggested by the results of experiments in which lymphocyte subpopulations were defined by antisera against cell-surface markers1 or by differential response to antigenic stimulation2,3. The development of T-cell cloning technology has allowed the isolation of alloreactive cloned helper and cytolytic cells, and the demonstration of collaboration between them in the generation of cytotoxicity4,5. Whereas some types of alloantigen-specific cloned T cells, including helper cells, proliferate in tissue culture in response to antigenic stimulation4–6, CTLs isolated thus far do not and require for proliferation the addition of exogenous T-cell growth factors (TCGFs) or helper cells which produce TCGF in response to antigenic stimulation4,5,7–10. We demonstrate here, at the clonal level, the existence of another type of CTL which proliferates in response to allogeneic stimulating cells without the overt addition of TCGF; it produces helper-like factor and thus can be characterized as a helper cell-independent CTL.
Managing a labor strike at a maquiladora industry ‐ A case study

ABC Consumer Electronics is headquartered in the USA, with major operations in Mexico. During the Mexican peso devaluation and economic crisis of late 1994, the company faced the greatest labor problem of its long history. The workers’ purchasing power was reduced to nearly one‐half of its value before the crisis. Other underlying and un‐addressed problems at ABC were brought to surface by workers who found themselves incapable of providing the basic necessities of life for themselves and their families. This paper explores the manner in which ABC handled the strike, how the strike affected ABC’s operations and strategies; and the impact of ABC’s decisions on other maquiladoras in Juarez, Mexico is fully explained and delineated. The case’s arguments are supported by the collection of field‐based data, the company’s archival records, numerous interviews, and the US and Mexican statistical abstracts.
Mission operations technology

Developments in the area of spacecraft operations are examined that can be utilized in mission and spacecraft designs to enhance the efficiency of planetary and other mission operations. The technology enhancements described address four major systems: the spacecraft, the tracking and data system, the spaceflight operations center, and the flight projects. Specific technological advances are detailed in the areas of telemetry monitoring and fault analysis, scheduling systems, and scientific data analysis. The Spacecraft Health Automated Reasoning Prototype and the Engineering Analysis Subsystem Environment can provide real-time monitoring and analysis with limited workforce resources. The Multimission Automation for Real-time Verification of Spacecraft Engineering Link, the Operation Mission Planner, and the Sky Image Classification and Archiving Tool are other examples of systems developed by NASA that enhance operations technology by reducing the need for human input.
Integrating general purpose planners and specialized reasoners: case study of a hybrid planning architecture

Many real-world planning problems involve substantial amounts of domain-specific reasoning that is either awkward or inefficient to encode in a general purpose planner. A hybrid planning architecture for such domains is proposed. It utilizes a set of specialists to complement both the overall expressiveness and the efficiency of a traditional hierarchical planner. Such an architecture promises to retain the flexibility and generality of a classical planning framework while allowing deeper and more efficient domain-specific reasoning through specialists. The architecture has several ramifications on the internal operations of the planner as well as its interactions with the specialists. Continual interactions between the planner and the specialists necessitate an incremental, interactive, and least-commitment oriented approach to planning. As the planner and the specialists in such a model may use heterogeneous reasoning mechanisms and representations, a complete understanding of the operations of one by the other is not possible. >
Eye-specification genes in the bacterial light organ of the bobtail squid Euprymna scolopes, and their expression in response to symbiont cues.

Abstract The squid Euprymna scolopes has evolved independent sets of tissues capable of light detection, including a complex eye and a photophore or ‘light organ’, which houses the luminous bacterial symbiont Vibrio fischeri . As the eye and light organ originate from different embryonic tissues, we examined whether the eye-specification genes, pax6 , eya , six , and dac , are shared by these two organs, and if so, whether they are regulated in the light organ by symbiosis. We obtained sequences of the four genes with PCR, confirmed orthology with phylogenetic analysis, and determined that each was expressed in the eye and light organ. With in situ hybridization (ISH), we localized the gene transcripts in developing embryos, comparing the patterns of expression in the two organs. The four transcripts localized to similar tissues, including those associated with the visual system ∼1/4 into embryogenesis (Naef stage 18) and the light organ ∼3/4 into embryogenesis (Naef stage 26). We used ISH and quantitative real-time PCR to examine transcript expression and differential regulation in postembryonic light organs in response to the following colonization conditions: wild-type, luminescent V. fischeri ; a mutant strain defective in light production; and as a control, no symbiont. In ISH experiments light organs showed down regulation of the pax6 , eya , and six transcripts in response to wild-type V. fischeri . Mutant strains also induced down regulation of the pax6 and eya transcripts, but not of the six transcript. Thus, luminescence was required for down regulation of the six transcript. We discuss these results in the context of symbiont-induced light-organ development. Our study indicates that the eye-specification genes are expressed in light-interacting tissues independent of their embryonic origin and are capable of responding to bacterial cues. These results offer evidence for evolutionary tinkering or the recruitment of eye development genes for use in a light-sensing photophore.
Weisskopf–Ewing and Hauser–Feshbach calculations of photonuclear cross sections used for electromagnetic dissociation

Abstract The Weisskopf–Ewing (WE) and Hauser–Feshbach (HF) theory are statistical methods, which are often used to calculate photonuclear cross sections for compound nucleus reactions. In our past work, WE methodology was presented and photonuclear reaction cross sections for nucleon emission were calculated using WE theory. Here, our previous results, which neglect pre-equilibrium emissions and do not include multiple particle emission, are compared to those calculated with HF theory and experimental data. For the reactions considered herein, it is found that the WE theory and HF method are in reasonable agreement below the two neutron separation energy assuming an energy dependent branching ratio for intermediate and heavy nuclei. In addition, qualitative confidence of WE theory for electromagnetic dissociation (EMD) cross section calculations was found.
Homogenization of tensor TL metamaterials

Abstract We present a method for homogenizing tensor transmission-line (TL) metamaterials. These are metamaterials consisting of loaded transmission-line networks, that can possess magnetically anisotropic (tensor) effective material parameters. The homogenization employs a local field averaging procedure to compute the effective material parameters. These effective material parameters can be dispersive or non-dispersive. For the tensor metamaterials possessing dispersive effective material parameters, the homogenization method takes advantage of the circuit topology of tensor transmission-line metamaterials to predict material parameters over a frequency range.
Two-Photon Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging for Metabolic Profiling of Cochlear Dysfunction

More than 120,000 individuals treated with lifesaving antibiotics develop hearing or balance disorders annually. Although research has shown that of the two cochlear cell types, sensory and supporting cells, sensory cells are readily damaged due to age-related hearing loss, acoustic trauma and ototoxins, the reason for this remains unknown. Furthermore, cochlear sensory hair cells can be divided into two types, inner and outer hair cells (IHCs, OHCs). OHCs in the high-frequency region of the cochlea exhibit the greatest sensitivity to the above conditions. To determine if variations in sensory and supporting mitochondrial metabolism account for these differences, two-photon fluorescence lifetime microscopy (FLIM) was used to measure changes in the metabolic reporter molecule NADH in sensory and supporting cells from explanted murine cochleae. Mitochondrial uncouplers, inhibitors and an ototoxic antibiotic, gentamicin (GM), were used to assess high- and low-frequency IHC, OHC and supporting cell mitochondrial metabolism. Chemically induced changes in metabolic state resulted in a reorganization of specific NADH lifetimes into altered subcellular fluorescence lifetime pools. Variations in NADH intensity and average NADH lifetime were greatest in high-frequency OHCs. Pretreatment with GM significantly increased NADH intensity in high-frequency sensory cells but not supporting cells. Treatment with GM significantly increased the average NADH fluorescence lifetime within IHCs but not OHCs. GM also caused a significant increase of NADH concentration in OHCs, not IHCs. These results demonstrate: differences between sensory and supporting cell metabolism; GM alters mitochondrial metabolism; and IHCs and OHCs display differing metabolic effects when exposed to GM. Such fundamental differences between sensory and supporting cell mitochondrial metabolism indicate differing metabolic changes during antibiotic exposure. Understanding these antibiotic-induced metabolic changes may explain the ototoxic effects of these drugs which is crucial for preventing and treating numerous auditory deficits and diseases.