cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Impact of dust and foliage on signal attenuation in the millimeter wave regime

This paper discusses the phenomena associated with signal attenuation through dust and foliage and quantifies the impact of these environments on signal propagation. Specifically, models used to characterize dust and foliage attenuation are developed and experimental data presented. Based on the model's results, conclusions are drawn concerning the relative impact of dust versus foliage on current satellite communications (SATCOM) links. Geopolitical events of recent years have given rise to an increased likelihood of operations requiring communications in these environments. Thus, the importance of these findings in today's world cannot be overstated.© (1993) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Identification of essential catalytic residues of the cyclase NisC involved in the biosynthesis of nisin.

Nisin is a post-translationally modified antimicrobial peptide that has been widely used in the food industry for several decades. It contains five cyclic thioether cross-links of varying sizes that are installed by a single enzyme, NisC, that catalyzes the addition of cysteines to dehydroamino acids. The recent x-ray crystal structure of NisC has provided the first insights into the catalytic residues responsible for the cyclization step during nisin biosynthesis. In this study, the conserved residues His212, Arg280, Asp141, and Tyr285 as well as the ligands to the zinc in the active site (Cys284, Cys330, and His331) were substituted by site-directed mutagenesis. Binding studies showed that all mutants had similar affinities for NisA. Activity assays showed that whereas His212 and Asp141 were essential for correct cyclization as judged by the antimicrobial activity of the final product, Arg280 and Tyr285 were not. Mutation of zinc ligands to alanine also abolished the enzymatic activity, and these mutant proteins were shown to contain decreased levels of zinc. These results show that the zinc is essential for activity and support a model in which the zinc is used to activate the cysteines in the substrate for nucleophilic attack. These findings also argue against an essential role of Arg280 and Tyr285 as an active site general acid/base in the mechanism of cyclization.
Thermally induced currents in coaxial signal cables

Polymer-insulated coaxial signal cable can produce thermally induced signals in service, known as pyroelectric response. The source of such pyroelectric signals was studied extensively over a wide range of cables with various dielectrics, including one inorganic material. Our results indicate that the pyroelectric response of polymer-insulated coaxial signal cables under standardized conditions can vary by several orders of magnitude with variation in cable structure and dielectrics. Such pyroelectric signals are generated by rapid inhomogeneous thermal expansion of the cable dielectrics in conjunction with polarization (space charge and/or dipolar polarization) in one or more cable insulation layers. The variation of the magnitude of pyroelectric signal with cable structure and dielectric is explained based on the physical properties of cable dielectrics and on the variation of manufacturing processes. This study provides a basis for qualitative prediction of pyroelectric error signals from coaxial signal cables in service, as well as a basis for predicting pyroelectric response during cable design.
Deep Blue Retrievals of Asian Aerosol Properties During ACE-Asia

During the ACE-Asia field campaign, unprecedented amounts of aerosol property data in East Asia during springtime were collected from an array of aircraft, shipboard, and surface instruments. However, most of the observations were obtained in areas downwind of the source regions. In this paper, the newly developed satellite aerosol algorithm called "Deep Blue" was employed to characterize the properties of aerosols over source regions using radiance measurements from the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). Based upon the Aringngstroumlm exponent derived from the Deep Blue algorithm, it was demonstrated that this new algorithm is able to distinguish dust plumes from fine-mode pollution particles even in complex aerosol environments such as the one over Beijing. Furthermore, these results were validated by comparing them with observations from AERONET sites in China and Mongolia during spring 2001. These comparisons show that the values of satellite-retrieved aerosol optical thickness from Deep Blue are generally within 20%-30% of those measured by sunphotometers. The analyses also indicate that the roles of mineral dust and anthropogenic particles are comparable in contributing to the overall aerosol distributions during spring in northern China, while fine-mode particles are dominant over southern China. The spring season in East Asia consists of one of the most complex environments in terms of frequent cloudiness and wide ranges of aerosol loadings and types. This paper will discuss how the factors contributing to this complexity influence the resulting aerosol monthly averages from various satellite sensors and, thus, the synergy among satellite aerosol products
Effects of Nonequilibrium Chemistry and Darcy—Forchheimer Pyrolysis Flow for Charring Ablator

The fully implicit ablation and thermal response code simulates pyrolysis and ablation of thermal protection materials and systems. The governing equations, which include energy conservation, a three-component decomposition model, and a surface energy balance, are solved with a moving grid.This work describes new modeling capabilities that are added to a special version of code. These capabilities include a time-dependent pyrolysis gas flow momentum equation with Darcy-Forchheimer terms and pyrolysis gas species conservation equations with finite rate homogeneous chemical reactions. The total energy conservation equation is also enhanced for consistency with these new additions. Two groups of parametric studies of the phenolic impregnated carbon ablator are performed. In the first group, an Orion flight environment for a proposed lunar-return trajectory is considered. In the second group, various test conditions for arcjet models are examined. The central focus of these parametric studies is to understand the effect of pyrolysis gas momentum transfer on material in-depth thermal responses with finite-rate, equilibrium, or frozen homogeneous gas chemistry. Results indicate that the presence of chemical nonequilibrium pyrolysis gas flow does not significantly alter the in-depth thermal response performance predicted using the chemical equilibrium gas model.
Mitigating Amdahl's Law through EPI Throttling

This paper is motivated by three recent trends in computer design. First, chip multi-processors (CMPs) with increasing numbers of CPU cores per chip are becoming common. Second, multi-threaded software that can take advantage of CMPs will soon become prevalent. Due to the nature of the algorithms, these multi-threaded programs inherently will have phases of sequential execution; Amdahlýs law dictates that the speedup of such parallel programs will be limited by the sequential portion of the computation. Finally, increasing levels of on-chip integration coupled with a slowing rate of reduction in supply voltage make power consumption a first order design constraint. Given this environment, our goal is to minimize the execution times of multi-threaded programs containing nontrivial parallel and sequential phases, while keeping the CMPýs total power consumption within a fixed budget. In order to mitigate the effects of Amdahlýs law, in this paper we make a compelling case for varying the amount of energy expended to process instructions according to the amount of available parallelism. Using the equation, Power=Energy per instruction (EPI) * Instructions per second (IPS), we propose that during phases of limited parallelism (low IPS) the chip multi-processor will spend more EPI; similarly, during phases of higher parallelism (high IPS) the chip multi-processor will spend less EPI; in both scenarios power is fixed. We evaluate the performance benefits of an EPI throttle on an asymmetric multiprocessor (AMP) prototyped from a physical 4-way Xeon SMP server. Using a wide range of multi-threaded programs, we show a 38% wall clock speedup on an AMP compared to a standard SMP that uses the same power. We also measure the supply current on a 4-way SMP server while running the multi-threaded programs and use the measured data as input to a software simulator that implements a more flexible EPI throttle. The results from the measurement-driven simulation show performance benefits comparable to the AMP prototype. We analyze the results from both techniques, explain why and when an EPI throttle works well, and conclude with a discussion of the challenges in building practical EPI throttles.
UWB Dielectric Resonator Antenna Having Consistent Omnidirectional Pattern and Low Cross-Polarization Characteristics

A new simple compact monopole type dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) for ultrawideband (UWB, 3.1-10.6 GHz) applications is presented. The design combines the advantages of small size DRA and thin planar monopole antennas. The design provides high-radiation efficiency, consistent omnidirectional characteristics, and low cross polarization within the entire band. The antenna size is 15 × 33 mm2 with 5.08 mm thickness. The dielectric resonator (DR) is shaped to house the excitation feed and the dielectric substrate is cut to house the DR. The coplanar waveguide is used to feed the antenna.
FLAVOR ATTRIBUTES AND MICROBIAL LEVELS OF FRESH BEEF ROASTS COOKED WITH VARYING FOODSERVICE METHODOLOGY1

Effects of cooking rate, fat trim level, endpoint temperature, and postcooking holding time on the flavor and microbial population of beef roasts were evaluated when cooked in four types of ovens to develop cooking guidelines for foodservice. Desirable flavor notes were not affected by cooking rate or postcooking holding time. When cooked to any desired degree of doneness, only minimal levels of external fat were required to attain desirable flavor. Cooked temperature end-point and oven type played the largest roles in flavor development. Production of flavor compounds associated with mouthfeel scores (metallic and astringent) can be controlled by management of cooking methodologies. Most microorganisms were destroyed during cooking, but increased fat trim levels produced higher aerobic plate counts, and endpoint temperatures in excess of 54.4C were required to assure adequate kill percentages. Of 192 roasts held after cooking for 8 h (54.4C), only four contained detectable C. perfringens.
Continuous Holter monitoring of patients with bifascicular block complicating anterior wall myocardial infarction

Abstract Fourteen patients with acute anterior wall myocardial infarction complicated by bifascicular block were studied. In addition to clinical evaluation, all patients had continuous Holter monitoring of their electrocardiogram throughout their hospital course. Seven patients died in the hospital (hospital mortality rate 50 percent). Five of the seven died with cardiogenic shock. In four of these patients the terminal electrocardiographic event was a slow idioventricular rhythm with failure of pacemaker capture and in one, ventricular fibrillation. Primary ventricular fibrillation was the terminal event in only one patient. The seventh patient died on the 25th day with sudden complete heart block. Review of the Holter tapes of the 14 patients revealed episodes of the following arrhythmias: complete heart block in three patients (21 percent), atrial fibrillation in two, accelerated ventricular rhythm in two, fast ventricular tachycardia in two and ventricular fibrillation in one. All patients had ventricular premature beats. We conclude that the incidence of documented primary complete heart block when myocardial infarction is complicated by bifascicular block is large enough to warrant prophylactic temporary pacemaker insertion. Temporary pacing is also of value in treating the frequently observed ventricular arrhythmias.
Use of a shooting method to compute eigenvalues of fourth-order two-point boundary value problems

Abstract The shooting method for solving regular two-point boundary value problems (TPBVPs) can also be used to solve eigenvalue problems of that type. The method in the past has been used to solve eigenvalue problems related to partial differential equations as in the Helmholtz equation for example. The present new application to computing eigenvalues related to fourth-order ordinary differential equations is shown to be quite straightforward and solutions are obtained in a few seconds on modern workstations.
Positive Behavior Support: Evolution of an Applied Science

Positive behavior support (PBS) is an applied science that uses educational and systems change methods (environmental redesign) to enhance quality of life and minimize problem behavior. PBS initial...
FPGA correlator architecture using random-pulse data representation

This paper discusses design issues for the FPGA implementation of parallel, serial-parallel and serial correlator architecture using random-pulse representation.
Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Laves Phase-strengthened Fe-Cr-Zr Alloys

Laves phase-reinforced alloys have shown some preliminary promising performance at room temperatures. This work aims at evaluating mechanical properties of Laves phase-strengthened alloys at elevated temperatures. Three Fe-Cr-Zr alloys were designed to favor the formation of eutectic microstructures containing Laves and body-centered cubic phases with the aid of thermodynamic calculations. Microstructural characterization was carried out on the alloys in as-processed and aged states using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction. The effect of thermal aging and alloy composition on microstructure has been discussed based on microstructural characterization results. Mechanical properties have been evaluated by means of Vickers microhardness measurements, tensile testing at temperatures up to 973.15 K (700.15 °C), and creep testing at 873.15 K (600.15 °C) and 260 MPa. Alloys close to the eutectic composition show significantly superior strength and creep resistance compared to P92. However, their low tensile ductility may limit their applications at relatively low temperatures.
Quality attributes of a heart healthy yogurt

Abstract The objective was to study the effect of heart healthy nutrients on the physico-chemical, microbiological and sensory characteristics of yogurt. Thiamine (vitamin B1), riboflavin (vitamin B2), niacin (vitamin B3), folic acid (vitamin B9), manganese and magnesium were added during mix preparation at 0%, 30%, 60% and 90% of their respective recommended dietary allowance (RDA). Fiber (Ceolus Fiber DF-17) was added at a constant rate of 176 g/7.570 kg yogurt mix in all the treatments. Total solids in the control were kept constant with non-fat dry milk. Incorporation of the heart healthy nutrients at the 30%, 60% and 90% RDA significantly decreased syneresis, pH, L*, a* values but significantly increased b* value. Product viscosity was significantly increased by the incorporation of the nutrients at 60% of their respective RDA's. The incorporation of the above heart healthy vitamins and minerals at any of the studied rates in yogurts did not significantly affect flavor, appearance, body and texture and microbial counts of the product. Although there were subtle yet significant changes in instrumental color and viscosity these slight changes could not be detected by sensory evaluation. Yogurts can successfully be manufactured with the above heart healthy nutrients.
The digital designer's complete lossy transmission line model

Presents a technique for simulation of the lossy behavior of transmission line elements that addresses the most common problems that digital designers encounter when called upon to simulate links operating above 500 Mb/sec. Models that seek to represent the distributed losses of the transmission lines with a multiple section RLC network run into complexity related problems when the number of sections exceeds about 100. The SPICE integration routine begins to insert its own oscillations and may fail to converge, yielding no answer or at best a loss of time when the user tries various methods to achieve convergence. In addition, the time to evaluate the SPICE model can become an annoyance or a real time sink for the designer. Alternative methods using S-parameters or Laplace transforms are often compute intensive as well. The model presented addresses the above problems by reducing the number of elements to a minimum with innovative circuit design, and by using appropriate approximations. It can be implemented in any SPICE version, and it works unchanged in both AC and transient modes.
Yeast Life Span Extension by Depletion of 60S Ribosomal Subunits Is Mediated by Gcn4

In nearly every organism studied, reduced caloric intake extends life span. In yeast, span extension from dietary restriction is thought to be mediated by the highly conserved, nutrient-responsive target of rapamycin (TOR), protein kinase A (PKA), and Sch9 kinases. These kinases coordinately regulate various cellular processes including stress responses, protein turnover, cell growth, and ribosome biogenesis. Here we show that a specific reduction of 60S ribosomal subunit levels slows aging in yeast. Deletion of genes encoding 60S subunit proteins or processing factors or treatment with a small molecule, which all inhibit 60S subunit biogenesis, are each sufficient to significantly increase replicative life span. One mechanism by which reduced 60S subunit levels leads to life span extension is through induction of Gcn4, a nutrient-responsive transcription factor. Genetic epistasis analyses suggest that dietary restriction, reduced 60S subunit abundance, and Gcn4 activation extend yeast life span by similar mechanisms.
Estimating The Cost Of New Drug Development: Is It Really $802 Million?

This paper replicates the drug development cost estimates of Joseph DiMasi and colleagues (“The Price of Innovation”), using their published cost estimates along with information on success rates and durations from a publicly available data set. For drugs entering human clinical trials for the first time between 1989 and 2002, the paper estimated the cost per new drug to be $868 million. However, our estimates vary from around $500 million to more than $2,000 million, depending on the therapy or the developing firm.
Phenology, Life Tables, and Reproductive Biology of Tetraleurodes perseae (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) on California Avocados

Tetraleurodes perseae Nakahara (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) is an exotic whitefly in California that is a minor pest of avocados, Persea americana Miller (Lauraceae). Field monitoring over a 4.5-yr period (1997–2002) in a commercial avocado orchard in southern California indicated that T. perseae is probably univoltine, and adult densities show single distinct peaks each year around August. The only hymenopteran parasitoid found attacking T. perseae in California was an aphelinid, Cales noacki Howard, and parasitism over February–April each year ranged from 30 to 100%. Partial life tables constructed from cohorts of T. perseae in the field indicated that survivorship from settled first and second instars to emerged adult whiteflies ranged from 34 to 37%. There were no significant differences in marginal mortality rates by life stage for whitefly cohorts enclosed in sealed mesh bags, open mesh bags, or on unenclosed avocado leaves. Survivorship curves constructed from field phenology data indicated that average egg-to-adult survivorship was around 3.5%, which is substantially lower than that suggested from the life table analyses. Laboratory studies conducted at 25°C on excised avocado leaves indicated that ≈43–46 d is needed by T. perseae to complete development from egg to adult. Demographic analyses of laboratory data indicate that T. perseae has a high reproductive potential with net reproductive rate and intrinsic rate of increase estimates being 21.15 ± 1.39 and 0.07 ± 0.001, respectively.
HOST SELECTION BY GRASSHOPPERS (ORTHOPTERA: ACRIDIDAE) INHABITING SEMI-AQUATIC ENVIRONMENTS

Through laboratory choice tests involving 19 plant species, we assessed the host selection behavior of six grasshopper species: Stenacris vitreipennis (Marschall) (glassywinged toothpick grasshopper), Leptysma marginicollis (Serville) (cattail toothpick grasshopper), Gymnoscirtetes pusillus Scudder (little wingless grasshopper), Paroxya clavuliger (Serville) (olivegreen swamp grasshopper), Paroxya atlantica Scudder (Atlantic grasshopper), and Romalea microptera (Beauvois) (eastern lubber grasshopper). This grasshopper assemblage is commonly associated with semi-aquatic habitats in the southeastern United States. These poorly studied species display both graminivorous (S. vetreipennis and L. marginicollis) and mixed graminivorous-forbivorous feeding habits (the remaining species), the nature of which are fairly predictable based on examination of mouthpart morphology, but not entirely consistent with the tendency of cyrtacanthacridine species to feed on forbs.
Gene Therapy for Leukemia and Lymphoma

With the advancement of knowledge in immunology and virology, technological improvement in the transduction efficiency of existing viral vectors, and the development of new viral vectors in the past two decades, gene therapy targeting diseases at a molecular level has emerged as an exciting and promising strategy for treating hematolymphoid malignancies. Gene therapy is aimed to correct disease processes by introducing a functional gene into target cells to restore or modify cellular functions. Unlike conventional therapies for treating cancers, gene therapy, in theory, could deliver precise, malignancy-specific treatment with minimal side effects on normal cells and biological processes. For many patients with hematolymphoid malignancies who cannot benefit from the therapies available today, gene therapy may hold the promise of future treatment.
Species reactivity to staphylokinase.

SummaryFibrinolytic tests are described which clearly demonstrate differences in the species reactivity of plasmas to the staphylokinase and streptokinase activation of the protease system. Whereas streptokinase acts only on human materials, staphylokinase works on plasma (or serum) of dog, guinea-pig, and rabbit also, but gives negative results with bovine and other species tested. Staphylokinase differs from streptokinase also in requiring an incubation period of many minutes before reaching optimal activation of the serum proenzyme.
Abstract 4621: EMP2 regulates the tumor microenvironment and is a novel therapeutic target for triple negative breast cancer

Breast cancer remains the most common malignancy in women, with the aggressive triple negative subtype accounting for nearly half of all breast cancer deaths. In this abstract, we describe a novel tetraspan protein, epithelial membrane protein-2 (EMP2) that is highly expressed in the majority of breast cancer tumors examined compared to healthy mammary epithelium. In particular, high levels of EMP2 were observed in over 70% of triple negative breast cancer cases examined. In tumor cells, EMP2 altered the integrin expression profile as well as promoted endothelial cell migration and tube formation through upregulation of VEGF. We produced a fully human intact IgG1 to test their effect on EMP2 expressing breast cancer cell lines. In vitro treatment with anti-EMP2 IgG1 decreased Src and FAK activation and resulted in cell death. Moreover, cultured supernatant from treated cells reduced endothelial cell migration and capillary-like tube formation. To determine the in vivo efficacy of EMP2 treatment, we first characterized potential toxicity from systemic administration. Anti-EMP2 IgG1 produced no observable toxicity (weight, CBC counts, tissue pathology) when administered at 10mg/kg over 7 weeks. Using similar conditions in preclinical xenograft and syngeneic mouse models, anti-EMP2 IgG1 decreased tumor growth with induction of necrosis. This effect was specific as no difference in tumor size was observed in EMP2 negative (Ramos) cell tumors. As in vitro and in vivo cytotoxicity was observed in both triple negative cell lines as well as cells expressing estrogen and progesterone receptors and/or Her-2/neu, these results present compelling evidence that EMP2 is a novel therapeutic target in triple negative breast cancers as well as other variants. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4621. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-4621
p16/MTS1/INK4A suppresses prostate cancer by both pRb dependent and independent pathways

Tumor suppressor gene p16 is a cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor and an important negative cell cycle regulator. The inactivation of p16 appears to be a common event in prostate cancer. Replacement of p16 inhibits prostate tumor cell growth, but the mechanism is not known. Human prostate cancer cell lines PPC-1, which has an inactivated p16, and DU145, which has a nonfunctional retinoblastoma Rb protein (pRb), were used to determine the possible mechanism of p16 mediated growth inhibition. PPC-1 cells treated with 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine (5-aza-dC), a demethylating agent, induced p16 expression, inhibited cell growth, and induced senescence. Similarly, PPC-1 cells transduced by an adenoviral vector containing the p16 gene (AdRSVp16) produced a p16 protein that suppressed cellular proliferation and induced senescence. Co-staining of AdRSVp16-transduced PPC-1 cells by p16 immunohistochemistry and by beta-galactosidase substrate X-gal showed that the morphologically enlarged cells expressed both p16 and senescence-associated beta-galactosidase. In contrast, AdRSVp16 did not induce senescence in DU145 cells, but did inhibit its growth. However, when wild-type pRb was introduced in DU145 cells, AdRSVp16 was able to induce senescence. Thus, the mechanism by which p16 suppressed prostate cancer was dependent on the pRb functional status of cells whereby p16 caused pRb+ cells to undergo inhibition by senescence, whereas pRb- cells were also inhibited, but not by senescence.
Role of the Locus Coeruleus-Norepinephrine System in Attention and Behavioral Flexibility

The ability to respond selectively to certain aspects of the environment, and filter-out others that are irrelevant to the current behavioral plan, is critical for goal-directed behavior. At the same time, behavior must be flexible and adaptive, so as to quickly adjust to new imperative, or unexpected events. Thus, successful behavior in both animals and humans requires the capacity for both selective responding in a stable environment, and rapid adaptive responding in a changing environment. Our recent work on the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine (LC-NE) system has led us to hypothesize that it plays a central role in regulating this balance between focused vs. flexible responding.
In vitro and long-term in vivo immune dysfunction after infection of BALB/c mice with mouse hepatitis virus strain A59

Mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) is a pervasive pathogen in most mouse colonies worldwide. Infection with this virus, which is often inadvertent and unrecognized, has previously been correlated in numerous anecdotal reports with immune modulation seriously affecting the outcome of biomedical experiments. Studies using experimental models to examine the effects of MHV infection have demonstrated that the virus can both stimulate and depress immune function in vitro. We have used intranasal infection of MHV-susceptible BALB/c mice with MHV strain A59 to examine the effects of this virus on lymphoid tissue composition as well as immune function both in vitro and in vivo. We observed that the thymus, spleen, and lymph nodes underwent a transient period of marked cellular depletion. During that time, the percentages of T and B cells in the spleen remained normal. However, within 1 week after inoculation, splenic lymphoid cell proliferation was significantly decreased in response to the T-cell stimuli, concanavalin A and anti-CD3 monoclonal antibody. This continued through day 35 but was resolved by 102 days postinoculation. Notably, at days 35 and 102, mice infected with MHV-A59 were unable to reject skin grafts at a rate comparable to normal animals. These results support a basis for in vitro and, importantly, long-term in vivo immune dysfunction after infection with MHV.
The local black hole mass function derived from the M_{BH}-P and the M_{BH}-n relations

We present a determination of the supermassive black hole (SMBH) mass function for early- and late-type galaxies in the nearby universe (z<0.0057), established from a volume-limited sample consisting of a statistically complete collection of the brightest spiral galaxies in the southern hemisphere. The sample is defined by limiting luminosity (redshift-independent) distance, D_L=25.4 Mpc, and a limiting absolute B-band magnitude, M_B=-19.12. These limits define a sample of 140 spiral, 30 elliptical (E), and 38 lenticular (S0) galaxies. We established the Sersic index distribution for early-type (E/S0) galaxies in our sample. Davis et al. (2014) established the pitch angle distribution for their sample, which is identical to our late-type (spiral) galaxy sample. We then used the pitch angle and the Sersic index distributions in order to estimate the SMBH mass function for our volume-limited sample. The observational simplicity of our approach relies on the empirical relation between the mass of the central (SMBH) and the Sersic index (Graham et al. 2007) for an early-type galaxy or the logarithmic spiral arm pitch angle (Berrier et al. 2013) for a spiral galaxy. Our SMBH mass function agrees well at the high-mass end with previous values in the literature. At the low-mass end, while inconsistencies exist in previous works that still need to be resolved, our work is more in line with expectations based on modeling of black hole evolution.
Current Discussions of Hobbesian Rights. The Distorting Lens of Hohfeld

If I am right that Hobbes’s theory of rights should not be categorised as a theory of natural rights then it remains to be seen what kind of theory of rights it is. I have established that Hobbes does describe some substantive political rights for subjects in his theory, as given to us in Leviathan, but I have yet to slot these Hobbesian rights into an appropriate theoretical context. I have been hinting that there are shortcomings to the Hohfeldian analysis, and the inadequacy of that approach now needs to be spelled out in order to clear the way for an attempt to see what theoretical underpinning there might be to a Hobbesian theory of rights.
Addictive Behavior-Nonsubstance Abuse

Bach, P., & Hayes, S. C. (2002). The use of acceptance and commitment therapy to prevent the rehospitalization of psychotic patients: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 70, 1129–1139. Bond, F. W., & Bunce, D. (2000). Mediators of change in emotion-focused and problem-focused worksite stress management interventions. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 5, 156–163. Hayes, S. C., Masuda, A., Bissett, R., Luoma, J., & Guerrero, L. F. (2004). DBT, FAP, and ACT: How empirically oriented are the new behavior therapy technologies? Behavior Therapy, 35, 35–54. Strosahl, K. D., Hayes, S. C., Bergan, J., & Romano, P. (1998). Assessing the field effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: An example of the manipulated training research method. Behavior Therapy, 29, 35–64.
The DataFetch library of functions for the retrieval and interpretation of thermophysical data from the TRC SOURCE database

The DataFetch library is a collection of functions which may be compiled and linked to user-written application programs. They extract information from a local version of the TRC SOURCE Database. The database is an extensive archive of experimental values of thermodynamic, thermochemical, and transport properties of pure compounds, chemical reactions, and binary and ternary mixtures. Application programs may call the library functions with parameters which specify the kind of data to be retrieved. The results are returned in a series of memory-resident buffers. The library functions operate at a series of processing levels. The lowest level returns the direct experimental values, along with associated information which identifies the components, properties, phases, literature references, sample descriptions, estimated uncertainties, etc. Higher levels return groups of related properties, normalized values of properties, selections of the most accurate values, and fits to smoothing functions. The library functions are written in C++ and interact with a local version of the SOURCE database. They are compatible with any platform which supports a C++ compiler in either a stand-alone or a client-server mode.
Thermodynamically consistent phase field theory of phase transformations with anisotropic interface energies and stresses

The main focus of this paper is to introduce, in a thermodynamically consistent manner, an anisotropic interface energy into a phase field theory for phase transformations. Here we use a small strain formulation for simplicity, but we retain some geometric nonlinearities, which are necessary for introducing correct interface stresses. Previous theories have assumed the free energy density (i.e., gradient energy) is an anisotropic function of the gradient of the order parameters in the current (deformed) state, which yields a nonsymmetric Cauchy stress tensor. This violates two fundamental principles: the angular momentum equation and the principle of material objectivity. Here, it is justified that for a noncontradictory theory the gradient energy must be an isotropic function of the gradient of the order parameters in the current state, which also depends anisotropically on the direction of the gradient of the order parameters in the reference state. A complete system of thermodynamically consistent equations is presented. We find that the main contribution to the Ginzburg-Landau equation resulting from small strains arises from the anisotropy of the interface energy, which was neglected before. The explicit expression for the free energy is justified. An analytical solution for the nonequilibrium interface and critical nucleus has been found and a parametric study is performed for orientation dependence of the interface energy and width as well as the distribution of interface stresses.
Arachidonic Acid Stimulates Renal Kallikrein Release in Isolated Rat Kidney

1. The effect of arachidonic acid on kallikrein release was studied in an isolated rat kidney perfused with a modified Krebs-Henseleit solution. 2. Kallikrein activity was measured in both venous and urinary effluents, after DEAE-Sephadex chromatography with D-Val-Leu-Arg-p-nitroanilide as a substrate. 3. Arachidonic acid (AA) (30 nmol/ml) induced a threefold increase in kallikrein activity in the venous effluent (control = 131 ± 9 kallikrein amidase μ-units/ml vs AA = 411 ±49 kallikrein amidase μ-units/ml, P 4. The stimulatory effect of arachidonic acid on kallikrein release is mediated by prostaglandins, since it can be prevented by the addition of indomethacin (1 μg/ml). 5. Our results demonstrate that kallikrein is released by the perfused kidney into the renal venous effluent, and that this release can be hormonally regulated by a mechanism involving prostaglandin synthesis.
Animal Models: Cerebral Hemorrhage

Spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is a devastating type of stroke associated with 50% of mortality by 1 month and high morbidity for most survivors. Preclinical ICH models have advanced our understanding and broadened our knowledge of pathophysiology and have helped to identify potential therapeutic targets and strategies. Currently, however, no cure is available for treating patients with ICH. Two animal models are commonly used to investigate ICH pathology and test novel therapies: the collagenase injection model and the blood injection model. In this chapter, we describe the basic surgical protocol for these models, explain the pathological changes that occur, and compare their advantages and disadvantages.
Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis with Iron-Cobalt Alloy Catalysts

Both iron and cobalt catalyze the production of hydrocarbons from H 2 -CO mixtures, but they produce characteristically different product distributions. We have examined the catalytic properties of three ordered alloys, Fe 3 Co, FeCo, and FeCo 3 in the temperature range from 498 to 623 K, and have determined their surface compositions. We observe a maximum in C2 − and C3 − hydrocarbon selectivity for the catalyst having the equiatomic bulk composition, FeCo. The surface compositions of the alloy catalysts, measured by AES, demonstrate considerable enrichment with iron. Temperature-programmed desorption spectra, obtained after CO adsorption on the catalysts, tend to support the AES data. To account for the observed trend toward an iron-enriched surface, we postulate a model in which a random solid solution of the alloy components is formed at the surface of the bulk ordered alloy. The catalytic selectivity of such surfaces is determined by the preponderant composition of atom clusters of iron and cobalt.
Data-Driven Stream Processing at the Edge

The popularity and proliferation of the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm is resulting in a growing number of devices connected to the Internet. These devices are generating and consuming unprecedented amounts of data at the edges of the infrastructure, and are enabling new classes of data-drivenapplications, however, current approaches typically rely on cloud platforms located at the core of the infrastructure to process data. As the number of devices and the amount of data they generate and consume increases, such core-centric approaches are becoming increasingly inefficient as they need to transfer data back and forth between the edge and the core. Furthermore, the latencies associated with such data transfer may not be able to support applications involving time-critical data-driven decision making. In this paper, we propose an edge-based programming framework that allows users to define how data streams are processed based on the content and the location of the data. This enables the definition of data-driven reactive behaviors that can effectively exploit data patterns to dynamically drive stream processing, leveraging resources located at the edges of the infrastructure. We have implemented a prototype of the proposed approach and performed several experiments to evaluate its scalability and efficiency against a more typical single-cloud approach. Using a smart-city application usecase, we illustrate that the presented programming system can support data-driven stream processing using edge resources. In terms of scalability, our experiments show that the system can scale to hundreds of nodes while keeping overheads low. Our experiments also show that our approach can perform up to 56% better than a single cloud approach that does not consider data and user locality.
A Renewed Focus on Maternal Health in the United States.

High maternal mortality in the United States as compared with other high-income countries and continued increases in deaths and severe pregnancy-related morbidity highlight gaps in our care for reproductive-age women.
Assessment of Pharmacy Department Patient Safety Culture with the Use of Validated Work Environment Survey Indices.

CONTEXT Patient safety culture (PSC) improvement is a strategy that can foster patient well-being. Measuring PSC without using a validated instrument has been proposed. OBJECTIVE To assess the strengths of correlations between the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's validated Community Pharmacy Survey on Patient Safety Culture (CPSPSC) composites and nonvalidated People Pulse (PP) work environment indices. DESIGN This was a cross-sectional, anonymous, voluntary survey. METHODS This survey was conducted online in an ambulatory pharmacy department that had approximately 900 staff members within an integrated health care delivery system. All pharmacy department staff were asked to participate. CPSPSC composites and PP indices were calculated as percent-positive scores (PPS). Thirty-six correlations between PP index and CPSPSC composite PPS were assessed with the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient. Correlation strengths were interpreted as very weak (± 0.00 to 0.19), weak (± 0.20 to 0.39), moderate (± 0.40 to 0.59), strong (± 0.60 to 0.79), and very strong (± 0.80 to 1.0). RESULTS A total of 429 (47.4%) pharmacy staff participated. Overall, correlations between CPSPSC composites and PP indices' PPS varied widely. Although all correlations were positive and the majority of correlations were statistically significant, no correlations were identified as very strong. Ten correlations were strong, 16 were moderate, 4 were weak, and 3 were very weak. CONCLUSION Although health care system personnel may prefer to measure PSC with a survey instrument that assesses a variety of workplace environment measures, these findings suggest that use of nonvalidated work environment indices will not provide accurate assessment of PSC in a pharmacy department.
Evolution of molecular packing and rheology in asphalt binder during rejuvenation

Abstract Effective rejuvenators that restore the thermo-mechanical properties of aged asphalt would extend pavement service life and increase utilization of recycled material, cutting material and environmental costs. However, the efficacy and mechanism of action need to be characterized in order to optimize rejuvenator formulation and dosage. This study introduces the RIPS method (Rejuvenation Index based on Polydispersity and Stiffness) which applies rheological characterization to build a simple model for examining and predicting the effect of rejuvenation on the rheology, polydispersity, and microstructure of aged asphalt binder. RIPS showed that addition of a specific bio-rejuvenator significantly improved the low-temperature properties of highly aged binder. The method accurately predicted the binder relaxation modulus and could calculate the exact rejuvenator dosage needed to restore the performance grade to specification. The rejuvenation mechanism was further examined using DSC, FTIR, and quantum level computational modeling, which found that polar chemical groups in the bio-rejuvenator could be responsible for solubilizing similar polar groups in aged binder leading to reduced molecular aggregate size and restoration of the thermo-mechanical properties of aged binder. These results provide insight into the molecular mechanisms of rejuvenation and offer a path towards more rational design and deployment of rejuvenator formulations.
Ethnically heterogeneous friendships and symptoms of depression and anxiety among Filipino Americans.

Author(s): Samson, Frank L | Abstract: Ethnically heterogeneous friendships may be characterized by interactional discord and other challenges, but the potential risks for minority status groups, namely, Filipino Americans, have been overlooked. The present study examined whether ethnically heterogeneous friendships are associated with depressive and anxiety symptoms and whether friendship discord mediates these relationships after adjusting for covariates. Analyses focused on data from the Filipino American Community Epidemiological Study, involving 2,305 Filipino American adult respondents in San Francisco and Honolulu. Participants completed measures of depressive and anxiety symptoms, ethnically heterogeneous friendships, friendship discord, ethnic identity, everyday discrimination, and sociodemographics. Compared with their Filipino counterparts who reported two or less close non-Filipino friends, Filipino Americans who reported three or more very good non-Filipino friends endorsed depressive and anxiety symptoms to a greater extent. Friendship discord also partially mediated these associations between ethnically heterogeneous friendships and symptoms of depression and anxiety. These results suggest that friendship discord may potentially mitigate the benefits of ethnically heterogeneous friendships and contribute to depressive and anxiety symptoms among Filipino Americans.
Molecular detection and quantification of viable probiotic strains in animal feedstuffs using the commercial direct fed microbial Lactobacillus animalis NP51 as a model.

Abstract Lactobacillus animalis NP51 is a direct-fed microbial strain (DFM) extensively used as a pre-harvest food safety mitigation in feedlot cattle due to its antagonistic effects against human foodborne pathogens such as Salmonella and Escherichia coli O157:H7. NP51 not only promotes overall gut health but interferes with the ability of these pathogens to colonize the gastrointestinal tract of cattle. As a result, NP51 reduces fecal shedding of Salmonella and E. coli O157:H7 in cattle presented for harvest and the load of these pathogens that enter the human food chain. Cattle are administered a high dose (1 × 109 CFU/head/day) of NP51 to reduce fecal shedding of foodborne pathogens. Ensiled animal feedstuffs naturally contain a high load of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and it is not possible to detect and quantify the level of a specific LAB strain ( e.g., NP51) in this matrix using traditional microbiological culture. The purpose of this study was to develop a molecular method to detect and quantify viable populations of a specific LAB strain (e.g. , NP51) in cattle feedstuffs. The NP51 whole genome sequence was aligned with closely related LAB clustering within the same well-supported clade in a LAB phylogeny derived from 30 conserved amino acid encoding sequence to identify orthologs. A sequence encoding recombinational DNA repair protein RecT was found to be unique to NP51 and used to design primers and a probe for molecular detection and quantification of NP51. The primers and probe were confirmed to be specific to NP51 in vitro . Total RNA was extracted from silage samples, including samples naturally inoculated in the field and control samples that were artificially spiked with a range of NP51 concentrations in the laboratory. Reverse-transcriptase quantitative real-time (RT-qRTi) PCR was used to quantify cDNA copies in samples and cycle threshold (Ct) values were compared to a standard curve to estimate NP51 concentrations. Our results indicate this novel molecular method is suitable to confirm the presence and estimate the concentration of a specific LAB strain in animal feedstuffs containing high background levels of LAB.
Animal' s Defenses: Fighting in Predator-Prey Relations

This chapter deals with a special case of fighting among animals. It deals with fighting and associated behaviors when a prey animal is attacked by a predator. An analysis of these behaviors serves at least two purposes. On one hand, it leads to the examination of defensive behaviors that probably have different evolutionary and functional meanings from defensive behaviors involving conspecifics. On the other hand, it permits comparison between these two types of fighting behaviors—the behaviors of fighting predators and fighting conspecifics. Investigators of each process may learn from the other. For example, investigators have their attention drawn to questions such as: the similarity in fighting with a predator and fighting with a member of the same species, the uses of threat displays in the two situations, and the sequences of defensive reactions in the two situations.