cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Amphipathic lipid metabolites and their relation to arrhythmogenesis in the ischemic heart

Myocardial ischemia is associated with profound electrophysiologic derangements which occur within minutes and are rapidly reversible with reperfusion, suggesting that subtle and reversible biochemical alterations within or near the sarcolemma contribute. Our efforts have concentrated on two structurally similar amphipathic metabolites, long-chain acylcarnitine and lysophosphatidylcholine. Studies performed in vitro in isolated tissue indicate that incorporation of either metabolite into the sarcolemma at concentrations of 1-2 mole %, as verified using electron microscopic (EM) autoradiography, elicits profound electrophysiologic derangements analogous to those seen in the ischemic heart in vivo. In isolated myocytes in vitro, the electrophysiologic derangements elicited by hypoxia are associated with a marked 70-fold increase in the endogenous sarcolemmal accumulation of long-chain acylcarnitine. Inhibition of carnitine acyltransferase I (CAT-I) not only prevents the accumulation of long-chain acylcarnitine in isolated myocytes exposed to severe hypoxia, but also markedly attenuates the electrophysiologic alterations. Several lines of experimental evidence, including measurements in venous effluents as well as cardiac lymph, indicate that lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC) accumulates to a large extent in the extracellular space during ischemia. This extracellular accumulation may be secondary to release from vascular endothelium, smooth muscle or blood cell elements. In crude homogenates of myocardial tissue, the total enzymic activity for catabolism of LPC far exceeds the total activity for synthesis of LPC mediated by phospholipase A2 (PLA2) catalyzed hydrolysis of phosphatidylcholine (PC). Therefore, inhibition of catabolism would be required for net accumulation of LPC to occur. Three enzymes responsible for the catabolism of LPC are inhibited by either long-chain acylcarnitine or acidic pH. Thus, accumulation of long-chain acylcarnitine and acidosis contribute to the increase in LPC observed in ischemic tissue. In this report, we provide evidence that accumulation of long-chain acylcarnitine occurs very rapidly in ischemic myocardium in vivo, coincident with the development of electrophysiologic alterations leading to malignant arrhythmias as verified using 3-dimensional cardiac mapping procedures. Following a brief, 2-min period of ischemia, long-chain acylcarnitine content increased four-fold in the ischemic region, concomitant with the development of electrophysiologic abnormalities observed during this period. Additionally, we demonstrate that modification of intracellular lipolysis by beta-adrenergic receptor stimulation or blockade does not influence long-chain acylcarnitine accumulation following this 2-min interval of ischemia. These results suggest that production of long-chain acylcarnitine is not limited by the intracellular free fatty acid concentration early in ischemia.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Nuclear estrogen receptor binding in microdissected brain regions of female rats during pregnancy: Implications for maternal and sexual behavior

Previously, we showed that changes in nuclear estrogen receptor (NER) concentrations within large dissections of the preoptic area and hypothalamus of pregnant rats might underlie changes in both maternal and sexual behaviors. To more precisely localize these biochemical changes, NER concentrations were measured in microdissected nuclei within the preoptic area and hypothalamus of pregnant rats on days 8, 16 and 22. Results indicated that NER levels changed significantly throughout pregnancy and that the magnitude and direction of change was site specific. Although a different pattern of change was found in each nucleus, NER levels in most preoptic area nuclei were significantly higher by the 16th day of pregnancy compared to those on day 8, while receptor levels in most hypothalamic nuclei did not increase until day 22 of pregnancy. The higher NER levels found in preoptic area nuclei of female rats as pregnancy advances can be correlated with growing maternal responsiveness during pregnancy, while elevated concentrations of NER in hypothalamic nuclei at the end of pregnancy may indicate preparation for postpartum estrus.
The influence of the lewis number on the dynamics of chemically reacting systems

Abstract The influence of Lewis number on stability and oscillations for stirred tanks, catalytic wires and gauzes, and catalyst particles is determined quantitatively. The mathematical structure is discussed and illustrated by example. Relaxation oscillations are found to be the natural asymptote to the bifurcating limit cycles as Le → 0.
Raised to Dissent: Family-of-Origin Family Communication Patterns as Predictors of Organizational Dissent

This article extends Kassing's (1997, 1998) model of organizational dissent by evaluating the extent to which family-of-origin communication predicts upward (i.e., to superior) and lateral (i.e., to peer) dissent. Specifically, building from Koerner and Fitzpatrick's theory of family communication schemas, we predicted that family communication patterns (i.e., conversation and conformity orientations) would serve as an individual factor that meaningfully predicts employee dissent. Significant findings emerged for upward dissent but not lateral dissent, with both a main effect for conformity orientation and interaction between conversation and conformity orientations. Decomposition of the interaction effect indicated that, as hypothesized, employees from pluralistic (high conversation, low conformity) families were more likely to express upward dissent than employees from consensual (high conversation, high conformity) families. This pattern of results informs both organizational practice and the theoretic...
Perinatal toxicity of endrin in rodents. III. Alterations of behavioral ontogeny

Abstract The behavioral development of rats and hamsters was observed following perinatal exposure to endrin, a central nervous system teratogen in the hamster but not the rat [1,2]. In the hamster, prenatal exposure to endrin at 1.5 mg/kg/day on days 5–14 of gestation produced a persistent elevation in the locomotor activity. Offspring of treated hamster ambulated 75% more than controls in the open field at 15 days and 45% more at 20 days of age. Long term observations of locomotor activity in the figure-8 mazes indicated that a significant elevation of this behavior was still present at 125 days of age. Non-locomotor behaviors of the offspring (including sexual, rearing and running wheel behaviors) were unaffected. The dams repeatedly exposed daily to endrin at 0.75 or 1.5 mg/kg/day were markedly hypoactive using the same testing conditions in which the pups were hyperactive. This dosing regime was toxic to the dams in the 1.5 mg/kg/day dose group, killing more than half of them. In the second experiment, rats exposed perinatally to endrin at 0.15 or 0.30 mg/kg/day were 30% more active than controls prior to weaning, but not as adults. These doses did not kill dams or affect the pup survival or growth. The similarity of the behavioral changes noted in the young of both species is suggestive of similar alterations of central nervous system function even though endrin produces gross morphological defects only in the hamster.
Translinear circuits: an historical overview

The concept of a translinear circuit is now widely appreciated and applied. This paper traces the history of the concept, delineates the original meaning of the term, explains the basic principles of this class of circuit and discusses recent, more general, interpretations of the term. It is recommended that the word translinear, used without further qualification, should be reserved exclusively for those cells invoking exponential device behaviour, which applies to all bipolar transistors, including heterojunction types, and to MOS transistors operated in the subthreshold, or weak inversion, domain, but does not apply to normal MOS operation in strong inversion. It is proposed that the theory and practice related to such ‘quadratic’ operation of MOS devices, where the transconductance is presumed to be linear with gate-source voltage, should be termed voltage-translinear, or VTL.
The effect of the secondary relaxations on the fracture toughness of nylon 6/amorphous nylon 6IcoT blends

The fracture toughness of semicrystalline nylon 6, amorphous nylon 6IcoT, and their blends can be represented as the inherent toughness plus the toughness due to the formation of the crack tip plastic zone. The inherent toughness originates mostly from the molecular alignment near the crack tip plus a small contribution from chain scission. The plastic zone contribution is determined by its size and the energy dissipated by irreversible plastic deformation. The inherent toughness and the energy dissipated in the process zone are temperature dependent and primarily determined by the stress-induced molecular movement, which is related to the operative secondary β or γ relaxation.
Brief review and critical examination of the use of hs-CRP for cardiac risk assessment with the conclusion that it is premature to use this test.

Abstract Background Inflammation appears to be an important ingredient in the process of atherosclerosis that leads to coronary artery disease. Some have designed an algorithm for assessing risk of coronary artery disease using the inflammatory marker hs-CRP in conjunction with lipoprotein lipid risk factors. Aim I contend that because of its poor discrimination for coronary risk in clinical trials, until its utility is better proven, hs-CRP should not be recommended for defining risk. Review Published articles and reassessment of papers previously published. Conclusions After adjustment for conventional risk factors, hs-CRP discriminates poorly between persons with coronary disease and those without over a range of from about 0.6 to 7 mg/L which includes most apparently well people. Nor does the evidence indicate that hs-CRP adds significant predictive value to the clinical traits that define metabolic syndrome.
Time-average control of martingale problems: the hamilton-jacobi-bellman equation

Martingale methods are used to extend the applicability of the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation to processes given as solutions of a martingale problem. Sufficient conditions are given for both upper and lower bounds on the optimal long-run average cost which are combined to give sufficient conditions under which the HJB equation yields optimality of the cost. Controlled diffusions and controlled queues provide examples of such processes
Small Airway Testing and Smoking in Predicting Risk in Surgical Patients

A prospective study was performed on 185 surgical patients without overt respiratory disease to determine whether three sensitive tests for early airway obstruction or cigarette smoking at the time of hospitalization were useful in identifying the patient at risk for a postoperative pulmonary complication. Subjects were evaluated by questionnaire. Pulmonary function testing consisted of the single breath nitrogen test (SBN2) to determine the closing volume (CV) and slope of the alveolar plateau, and a maximum expiratory flow volume curve (MEFV) to determine expiratory flow at low lung volumes. Fifty-five patients had upper abdominal surgery and 130 a major surgical procedure under general or spinal anesthesia upon another part of the body. Ninety-six (52%) of the 185 patients were smokers. Seventy-nine patients (43%) had one or more abnormal function parameters. The CV was abnormal in 59, alveolar plateau in 18, and MEFV in 12. Fifty-four percent of smokers and 30 percent of nonsmokers had abnormal small airway tests. Sixteen of 185 patients (8.6%) developed a postoperative respiratory complication determined by review of the hospital record. Eleven were in the 96 smokers, but 13 were in the 79 patients with abnormal small airway tests. The incidence was highest (38%) in smokers with an abnormal alveolar plateau who underwent upper abdominal surgery. Identification of the patient at risk was better served by tests of small airway abnormality than by smoking history alone.
Application Driven Software Development

Even in its very infancy computer technology has been seen as a collection of tools destined to solve problems of a given application domain (AD) 1. The problem solving process using computers is (and has been) carried out within the computer environment and requires the AD experts to formalize their problems in computer terms. The effort put forth so far toward making this process easier for AD experts has generated a rich and well-defined information technology (IT) domain, populated by computer artifacts such as programming languages and program generation tools. Successes of this approach to problem-solving led to the development of current computer technology whose complexity overwhelms computer experts themselves. Nevertheless, the usage of current IT for problem solving still requires AD experts to manipulate IT domain concepts and tools rather than AD concepts and tools. To further help this process, more and more complex IT tools are generated thus increasing software complexity to a level where only with formidable difficulties can AD experts manage to develop their application systems. Among the side effects of this situation are the lack of efficiency in application system development, poor performance in computer utilization, and even threat to the future evolution of computer technology itself. Our conjecture is that in order to break this vicious circle we need to rethink the problem solving process. We need to abandon the requirement that AD experts manipulate computer terms and to allow them to manipulate AD specific terms using AD specific languages. The recent advances created by computing research makes it feasible to move the problem solving process from the IT domain into the AD domain.
Abnormalities of Amphibian Development Following Exposure of Sperm to Golchicine.

SummaryEggs of the grass frog manifest various developmental abnormalities after fertilization with sperm previously exposed for 3 hours to 0.04% colchicine solutions. Experimental evidence is presented to show that this is not due to direct diffusion of colchicine into the egg from the sperm water nor to irreversible alteration of anything in the sperm prior to fertilization.
Imaging of acute pulmonary embolism

Acute pulmonary thromboembolism (PE) is a cardiovascular emergency associated with significant morbidity and a 5–35 % mortality for untreated pulmonary embolism. If promptly diagnosed and treated, the mortality rate can be significantly reduced. Diagnosis of acute PE continues to be a clinical challenge, with diagnostic imaging playing an important role. This review discusses the clinical challenges of diagnosing acute PE, presents an evidence-based review of the current tests and ever-evolving imaging technology, and highlights special considerations related to radiation dose, contrast media use, and pregnant patients.
Synthesis and V-ATPase Inhibition of Simplified Lobatamide Analogues

Simplified analogues of the lobatamides have been synthesized and evaluated for inhibition of bovine V-ATPase. The salicylate phenol, enamide NH, and the ortho-substitution of the salicylate ester have been shown to be important for V-ATPase inhibitory activity.
Association Between Objectively Measured Physical Activity and Depression Among a Nationally Representative Sample of U.S. Pregnant Women

Paper Presentation Objective Depression affects approximately 20% of pregnant women. Pregnant women who experience depression are at greater risk for postpartum depression and their offspring’s health may be compromised. Psychological and pharmaceutical therapy has been shown to reduce rates of depression; however, such treatments can be costly, time-intensive, and few medications have been established as unquestionably safe during pregnancy. Additional strategies that complement these therapies are needed, which may include regular engagement in physical activity. Empirical evidence indicates that physical activity is associated with reduced depression symptoms among pregnant women. However, all studies have used self-report measures, which are subject to item interpretation, recall bias, and social desirability effects. To provide an accurate understanding of the relationship between physical activity and depression among pregnant women, we examined this association while employing an objective measure of physical activity (i.e., accelerometry) among pregnant women.
Culturally Responsive Instruction: Application to Multiethnic Classrooms

Standards for literacy in developed nations have rapidly risen, fuelled by economic competition and globalisation. A danger in this rapid rise is the possibility of a further widening of the gap that exists between the literacy achievement of students of diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds and their mainstream peers. Culturally responsive instruction, or teaching that builds on the values and experiences students bring from the home, is a possible solution to eliminating the literacy achievement gap. A new formulation of culturally responsive instruction is proposed—one that is centered on hybridity and a diverse worldview rather than a duplication of home settings.
DAF-tly Depart Stinky Situations with elegans

During acute infection our behavior tends to change. Despite how common sickness behavior is, its molecular basis is not well understood. In a study published in Cell, Kim and colleagues (Meisel et al., 2014) implicate bacterial secondary metabolites as triggers of neural TGF-β signaling, which results in behavioral change during infection.
Analysis of Aircraft Attitude Control Systems Prone to Pilot-Induced Oscillations

An optimal control model of the human pilot is applied to the study of aircraft attitude control systems. Attention is focused upon documented examples where an aircraft's linear pitch attitude dynamics have led to the incidence of pilot-induced oscillations. In particular, the effects of control system time delays, or higherorder vehicle dynamics that can be represented by time delays, are examined. A simple criterion for determining an aircraft's susceptibility to pilot-induced oscillations is offered. The criterion is based upon the open-loop pilot/vehicle crossover frequency as predicted by the optimal control model. The modeling procedure offers insight into the manner in which higher-order vehicle dynamics effect pilot equalization requirements and closed-loop pilot/vehicle performance.
First-Generation College Student Dissertation Abstracts: Research Strategies, Topical Analysis, and Lessons Learned

First-generation college students are students whose parents or guardians did not obtain a four year collegedegree (Davis, 2012). As a group these students make up a large part of the college student population and areoften reported to encounter difficulties in their campus experience. While the topic of first-generation student hasreceived much attention over the past years, no research effort has been reported that examines dissertations onthe topic. This article utilizes a bounded qualitative synthesis study framework to examine the 133 dissertationabstracts found by searching the ProQuest Dissertation and Theses TM digital database for dissertations abstractsfrom 2009 through 2013 using the search terms “first-generation college students” and “higher education.” Theresearch question for this study was: What can we learn from the examination of doctoral dissertation abstractsthat focus on the experience of first-generation college students regarding research strategies, topics addressed,and lessons learned? The study’s findings provide an overview of researcher attributes and the characteristics ofthe research in terms of methodology and topical focus. “Lessons learned” from the abstracts as well as theomissions in the research are presented. A major finding of the investigation was that very few of thedissertations have entered the academic conversation regarding first generation students – major books on thetopic do not reference the dissertations and in a search of academic journals only three of the 133 dissertationswere found to have been published.
Reading of GB 9254-2008 and research on its affection for the construction of electromagnetic compatibility laboratory

The implement of GB 9254-2008 called out the higher and newer requirements for the construction of electromagnetic compatibility(EMC) laboratory. But currently, quite a lot of inland labs can't satisfy the requirements. Based on the analyzing of historically evolvement of GB 9254, this paper dedicatedly analyses the most updated desire for radio disturbance test of information technology equipment. Therefore, the requirements for the construction of EMC lab and the construction schemes according with GB 9254-2008 are produced. All the results of the research have significant effects on construction and upgrade of the satisfied EMC lab.
Travel times and body wave magnitude

Presently used\(\bar Q\)-charts for magnitude determinations have been obtained principally on the base of direct observations of ground motion amplitudes, and periods, of several components of seismic waves (such as PZ, PH, SH), as function of epicentral distance. However, observations alone can serve for the definition of a magnitude scale for events with only one particular focal depth. In order to make the magnitude concept applicable to all focal depths, it must be decided when two events with different focal depths should be assigned the same magnitude. Any respective decision, which will assure consistent magnitudes, must be based on the velocity vs. depth, and eventually the anelasticity vs. depth profiles of the Earth.
Quantum electrodynamic energy shifts of quarks bound in a cavity.

The lowest-order quantum electrodynamic corrections to the energy levels of quarks bound in a spherical cavity are evaluated over a wide range of values of the quark mass. It is found that the self-energy is positive for massless quarks and decreases smoothly as the quark mass increases. The interaction energy between quarks is also calculated and found to dominate the self-energy correction. For this model, the vacuum polarization correction vanishes.
Freedom's Witness: The Civil War Correspondence of Henry McNeal Turner. Jean Lee Cole, Editor. Morgantown: West Virginia University Press, 2013.

Freedom's Witness: The Civil War Correspondence of Henry McNeal Turner. Jean Lee Cole, Editor. Morgantown: West Virginia University Press, 2013.Freedom's Witness is a valuable addition to contemporary accounts of the Civil War. Cole's book draws exclusively on Henry McNeal Turner's contributions to The Christian Recorder, the denominational newspaper of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the longest-lived African American newspaper of its day. In choosing to focus on a religious newspaper, Cole at once enlarges and expands the notion of "texts" from which to glean black perspectives on what was an event with profound implications for individuals on both sides of racial divide. Unlike slave narratives, which had to operate within the constraints of a white abolitionist audience, the Recorder provided a blank slate on which to represent black experience because it was a newspaper written by and for black readers exclusively. In addition to supplying its readers with news about church events and his life as a soldier, Turner's pieces also engaged larger questions about how to create and position blacks inside the new world order that followed upon emancipation. In doing so, the Recorder performed important cultural work for its readers.The text Cole assembles here focuses on the years 1862-1865, when Turner served as a chaplain to the First Regiment of the United States Colored Troopsthe USCT. From his position, Turner was able to provide firsthand accounts not only of specific battles, but additionally, of the performance on the battlefield of the newly commissioned black troops to whom he ministered. However, as Cole notes, white soldiers, from General Sherman on down, were reluctant to use blacks as soldiers, Turner enters into the record a counter narrative detailing their fierce fighting at battles like Wilson's Landing (1864) and a few months later, in the assault on St. Petersburg, Virginia. He documents the growing esteem of whites for black troops, whose tenacity in fighting and skill in marksmanship frequently surpassed those of white soldiers. At the same time, Turner was astute enough to recognize that the support of whites for black soldiers was contingent on Union victories.It is clear from what Cole gathers for us here that Turner used his platform as a leading figure in the AME church to influence his black readership's views not only on the war effort but also on policy decisions which impacted them directly. …
Ontology-Driven Tour-Planning Systems: A Conceptual Framework

This study presents a two-level conceptual framework and a two-level ontology-mapping approach for ontology-driven on-line tour planning. The conceptual framework includes an abstract level and a representation level. The abstract level identifies two types of participants (a traveler and travel information providers), two types of information (internal and external information), and two types of processes (implicit and explicit process). Subsequently, at the representation level, the two types of participants are represented as two types of agents, the Internet agent for the traveler and the Internet agent for the travel-information providers, along with information and processes associated with them through an agent-based design. Corresponding to the two types of participants, two ontologies (ontology for the traveler and ontology for the travel-information providers) are used to represent their perspectives. The two ontologies are mapped at two levels: conceptual mapping and property-value match. Conceptual mapping uses formal concept analysis to identify equivalent or overlapping concepts between the two ontologies. Subsequently, the property values of mapped concepts are evaluated in order to create a tour plan that matches a traveler's preferences with the information provided at tourism websites. A hypothetical case study is used to illustrate the conceptual framework and ontology-mapping approach
X-ray-diffraction studies of the three-dimensional structure within iodine-intercalated poly(3-octylthiophene).

Comprehensive x-ray-diffraction data and structure factor calculations are presented for oriented poly(3-octylthiophene) films intercalated by iodine vapor to ${\mathrm{I}}_{3}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}}$ concentrations of 0, 4, 14, 26, and 45 mol wt. % per octylthiophene monomer. These data reconfirm previous reports that this polymer-iodine complex exhibits a continuous and reversible structural evolution. [M. J. Winokur, P. Wamsley, J. Moulton, P. Smith, and A. J. Heeger, Macromolecules 24, 3812 (1991); T. J. Prosa, M. J. Winokur, J. Moulton, P. Smith, and A. J. Heeger, Synth. Met. 55, 370 (1993); J. Moulton and P. Smith, ibid. 40, 13 (1991)]. Structure factor modeling calculations are used to fully specify the overall changes in the three-dimensional host polymer structure. This molecular restructuring involves both translational and rotational rearrangements of the host polymer. The fundamental lamellar base structure of the pristine host polymer is found to remain fully intact throughout the entire structural transformation. The large-scale changes in the observed interlayer repeat distances result from continuous variations in the angular orientation of the polymer backbone and in the average position of the alkyl side chains. Translational displacements of the polymer chains parallel to the main chain axes are found to occur within individual lamellae and this motion creates essentially one-dimensional intercalant channels perpendicular to the main chain axis. This latter process facilitates iodine intercalation and is, in part, responsible for the ability to achieve the very high iodine concentrations which have been measured experimentally. Scattering features are seen at the highest iodine concentrations which are indicative of additional structural ordering by the intercalant within the newly formed one-dimensional columns.
Robotic Router Formation in Realistic Communication Environments

In this paper, we consider the problem of robotic router formation, where two nodes need to maintain their connectivity over a large area by using a number of mobile routers. We are interested in the robust operation of such networks in realistic communication environments that naturally experience path loss, shadowing, and multipath fading. We propose a probabilistic router formation and motion-planning approach by integrating our previously proposed stochastic channel learning framework with robotic router optimization. We furthermore consider power constraints of the network, including both communication and motion costs, and characterize the underlying tradeoffs. Instead of taking the common approach of formation optimization through maximization of the Fiedler eigenvalue, we take a different approach and use the end-to-end bit error rate (BER) as our performance metric. We show that the proposed framework results in a different robotic configuration, with a considerably better performance, as compared with only considering disk models for communication and/or maximizing the Fielder eigenvalue. Finally, we show the performance with a simple preliminary experiment, with an emphasis on the impact of localization errors. Along this line, we show interesting interplays between the localization quality and the channel correlation/learning quality.
Organizational Ethics Development: Implications for Human Resource Professionals.

Abstract Recent organizational ethics development trends have expanded the responsibility of human resource professionals. Research findings support the following: (a) Large organizations are more likely to expand the human resource professional role by offering diverse ethics-related programs; (b) the use of the new ethical climate research tool, the Organizational Moral Development Profile (OMDP), confirms that human resource professionals are likely to face organizations operating at a conventional level of moral reasoning; and (c) human resource professionals that have institutionalized a wide range of ethics-related programs will be more likely to perceive a higher level of moral development in their organization. Finally, the multiple implications for human resource professionals are analyzed and discussed.
Study of three-dimensional cavity flow at transonic speeds

The present investigation of cavity flow in the subsonic and transonic speed regimes gives attention to the effect of Reynolds number on the flow inside the cavity. A rectangular, three-dimensional cavity was tested over Mach 0.3-1.05, and at Reynolds number/foot from 1 million to 4.2 million; two different cavity sizes were tested. For the deeper of the two cavities, at low Reynolds number, and for all conditions tested with the shallow cavity, the data showed much less steadiness. The results also show that the shallow cavity static pressure measurements were sensitive to the thickness of the boundary layer entering the cavity.
Experimental Investigation of Security Issues in O-CDMA

In this paper, two vulnerabilities that allow an eavesdropper to extract data from an isolated user in a two-code-keying spectrally phase-coded optical-code-division-multiple-access (O-CDMA) system are experimentally demonstrated. One of these vulnerabilities stems from spectral dips that result from phase-to-amplitude conversion in the encoding process, which allows eavesdropping by using a narrowband tunable optical filter and a simple energy detector. A modified O-CDMA transmitter scheme that masks this vulnerability is demonstrated. A second, especially serious, vulnerability allows eavesdropping by using a differential-phase-shift-keying receiver. Both of these vulnerabilities arise from a structure in the coding and signaling schemes that allow an eavesdropper to recover data, with relatively simple hardware and without attempting to learn the codes
Analysis of linear systems in the presence of actuator saturation and L2-disturbances

This paper presents a method for the analysis and control design of linear systems in the presence of actuator saturation and L"2-disturbances. A simple condition is derived under which trajectories starting from an ellipsoid will remain inside an outer ellipsoid. The stability and disturbance tolerance/rejection ability of the closed-loop system under a given feedback law is measured by the size of these two ellipsoids and the difference between them. Based on the above mentioned condition, the problem of estimating the largest inner ellipsoid and/or the smallest difference between the two ellipsoid is then formulated as a constrained optimization problem. All the constraints are shown to be equivalent to LMIs. In addition, disturbance rejection ability in terms of L"2 gain is also determined by the solution of an LMI optimization problem. By viewing the feedback gain as an additional free parameter, the optimization problem can easily be adapted for controller design. Numerical examples show that the proposed analysis and design methods significantly improve recent results on the same problems.
Acute effects of lead on the renal handling of zinc in dogs.

Abstract Urinary zinc excretion was monitored in anesthetized dogs before and during 4 hr after acute exposure to lead (doses: 0.3 mg Pb (as acetate)/kg as iv prime, followed by infusion of 0.057 mg Pb/min; 3mg Pb/kg, followed by 0.57 mg Pb/min as infusion; or equimolar sodium acetate in the control group). Zinc excretion in time controls was relatively constant over the 4 hr, but it rose above baseline values an average of 140 ng/min in 0.3 mg Pb/kg injected animals, and an average of 300 ng/min in 3 mg Pb/kg injected animals. Other indices of renal function, including excretion of protein, Na, K, and Mg, were relatively constant. Plasma Zn concentration was stable in time control and low Pb-administered animals, but rose significantly after the higher Pb dose. Clearance experiments using 65Zn and in vitro ultrafiltration of plasma were performed in another series of dogs under antidiuretic conditions. Zn excretion (monitored by 65Zn) was sevenfold higher in Pb-treated dogs; plasma Zn concentration was slightly, but not significantly, elevated. Ultrafiltrable Zn concentration was 2.5-fold higher and fractional Zn excretion was three times higher in Pb-treated dogs. The stop-flow pattern for Zn after Pb treatment showed no change in the distal tubular handling of Zn, but revealed prominent net proximal tubular secretion of Zn in all animals, a frequency statistically different from that observed in control animals. Thus, acute Pb treatment in dogs produced an increase in urinary Zn excretion which was related both to an increase in ultrafilterable plasma Zn and a change in renal tubular Zn transport. The plasma concentrations of insulin and glucagon were not altered by lead.
Interactions between the neuromodulatory systems and the amygdala: exploratory survey using the Allen Mouse Brain Atlas

Neuromodulatory systems originate in nuclei localized in the subcortical region of the brain and control fundamental behaviors by interacting with many areas of the central nervous system. An exploratory survey of the cholinergic, dopaminergic, noradrenergic, and serotonergic receptor expression energy in the amygdala, and in the neuromodulatory areas themselves was undertaken using the Allen Mouse Brain Atlas. The amygdala was chosen because of its importance in cognitive behavior and its bidirectional interaction with the neuromodulatory systems. The gene expression data of 38 neuromodulatory receptor subtypes were examined across 13 brain regions. The substantia innominata of the basal forebrain and regions of the amygdala had the highest amount of receptor expression energy for all four neuromodulatory systems examined. The ventral tegmental area also displayed high receptor expression of all four neuromodulators. In contrast, the locus coeruleus displayed low receptor expression energy overall. In general, cholinergic receptor expression was an order of magnitude greater than other neuromodulatory receptors. Since the nuclei of these neuromodulatory systems are thought to be the source of specific neurotransmitters, the projections from these nuclei to target regions may be inferred by receptor expression energy. The comprehensive analysis revealed many connectivity relations and receptor localization that had not been previously reported. The methodology presented here may be applied to other neural systems with similar characteristics, and to other animal models as these brain atlases become available.
Low frequency spin lattice relaxation in glycerol

Abstract The frequency dependence of T 1 in glycerol, at frequencies below 6 MHz, indicates that the major contribution to the frequency dependent relaxation is due to the intermolecular interaction. The self diffusion constant is determined to be (1.9 ± 0.1) × 10 −8 cm 2 /sec at 22.9°C.
In vitro metabolism and bioactivation of 1,2,3-trichloropropane.

Abstract In vitro studies using rat and human hepatic microsomes have shown that the halogenated hydrocarbon 1,2,3-trichloropropane (TCP) is bioactivated to the direct acting mutagen 1,3-dichloroacetone (DCA). The presence of DCA in microsomal incubations was confirmed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. DCA formation was totally dependent on the presence of NADPH. The rate of DCA formation using rat and human microsomes was 0.268 ± 0.029 and 0.026 ± 0.006 nmol/min/mg protein ± SE, respectively. When hepatic microsomes were isolated from rats pretreated with the cytochrome P-450 inducers, phenobarbital, and dexamethasone, 24- and 2.5-fold increases, respectively, in the rate of DCA production, were observed. Pretreatment with β-naphthoflavone resulted in a 50% inhibition in DCA formation. The inhibitors of cytochromes P-450, SKF 525-A and 1-aminobenzotriazol, produced 85 and 70% inhibitions of DCA formation, respectively. When alcohol dehydrogenase and NADH were added to microsomal incubations, two TCP-related alcohols, 1,3-dichloro-2-propanol and 2,3-dichloropropanol, were formed. These alcohols are products of the initial microsomal metabolites, DCA and 2,3-dichloropropanal. [ 14 C]TCP equivalents bound covalently to rat hepatic microsomal protein. This binding was increased 8-fold when hepatic microsomes from phenobarbital pretreated rats were used. The addition of either glutathione or N -acetylcysteine to the incubations completely inhibited this binding. In the presence of N -acetylcysteine, 1,3-(2-propanone)-bis- S -( N -acetylcysteine) (PDM) was the only N -acetylcysteine conjugate detected. It represented 87% of TCP microsomal metabolism. The formation of PDM implicates DCA as the major microsomal protein-binding metabolite of TCP. The formation of DCA, a direct-acting mutagen, may be responsible for the mutagenicity of TCP in systems using rat hepatic microsomes. Its role in the tumorigenicity and carcinogenicity of TCP remains to be established.
Catching the Really Bad Guys: An Assessment of the Efficacy of the U.S. Criminal Justice System

Abstract Purpose History shows that one of the most important institutions to a society is its criminal justice system. The current study offers an analysis of the criminal justice system’s effectiveness in identifying, apprehending, convicting, and punishing high-level/persistent offenders. Methods Data were drawn from all four waves of the Add Health study. Survey-corrected univariate statistics and logistic regression models were estimated to provide population parameter estimates of the frequency of arrest and punishment for a group of persistent offenders compared to non-persistent offenders. Results Findings indicated persistent offenders (as identified by self-reported crime) were much more likely to be arrested (63% vs. 26%), accounted for more arrests ( x ¯ = 1.71 vs. x ¯ = .53), were more likely to be convicted (39% vs. 11%), were more likely to be placed on probation (38% vs. 12%), and were more likely to be sent to jail (43% vs. 13%) compared to non-persistent offenders. These differences remained when levels of psychopathy, age, race, and sex were controlled in the logistic regression models. Conclusions These findings suggest the criminal justice system does a good job of identifying and punishing offenders who break the law more frequently.
Morphological plasticity of regeneration subject to different levels of canopy cover in mixed-species, multiaged forests of the Romanian Carpathians

Morphological plasticity was studied for advanced regeneration trees in different light environments of the mountainous, mixed-species forests in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania. The primary species in these mixtures were very shade tolerant silver fir (Abies alba Mill.) and European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.), and midtolerant Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst). Seedlings/saplings of these species were selected for measurements in different stands from two different geographical locations. Various morphological traits (specific leaf area, live crown ratio, crown width to length ratio, terminal to lateral ratio, number of internodal shoots, number of shoots in terminal whorl, stem symmetry, stem orientation, stem forking) for each regenerating tree were measured during summers of 2001 and 2002. Percentage of above canopy light and stand basal area measures were used to assess the available growing space for each seedling/sapling. Regression relationships were developed for the different morphological indicators as a function of these two variables. All species adapted their morphology along the gradient in light and basal area. Spruce seemed to be less adapted to low light conditions than both fir and beech. However, no significant differences in terms of shade tolerance were detected using the above indicators. In really dense stand conditions (less than 20% above canopy light and stand basal area above 36 m2 ha−1), probability for stem forking in beech increased. In open, all three species adapted their morphology for vigorous growth. Under such conditions, spruce was better adapted than fir.
Optimization techniques for real-time image processing

Real-time image-processing differs from 'ordinary' image-processing in that the logical correctness of the system requires both correct and timely outputs. And, although special real-time imaging architectures are available or can theoretically be constructed, there are no standard programming languages to support these architectures. Moreover, many applications cannot or do not take advantage of any special imaging architectures; they use standard processors instead. In this case, optimization of run-time code is necessarily done with hand-tuning or by trial-and-error. In this paper these optimization techniques are formalized and it is shown how they can be applied to imaging algorithms in real-time to improve run-time performance.© (1995) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
An Onocephalic Mask

The fourth oration of Libanius, an invective against a consularis Syriae of 389, contains a passage of unique interest (Or. iv,37). In the catalogue of this governor's misdeeds, not the least of which was that he had dubbed the celebrated rhetor of Antioch a “silly fool” (λῆρος), we read that Eutropius was unduly harsh in meting out punishment for minor criminal offenses. Specifically, he had not only permitted men to be flogged to death, but just the day before he had revived a refinement of indignity which had been long in abeyance because it was insulting to the regime: πληγῶν eἶδος πολὺν ἤδη χρόνον ἐξeληλαμένον ὡς ὑβρίζον τὸ σχῆμα τῆς πολιτeίας, ἀνeνeώσατο, κτλ. This consisted of placing an appliance of some sort—either a donkey's nose-bag, or else a mask resembling a donkey's face—over the face of the prisoner who was being flogged. The purpose was to arouse mirth and laughter at the expense of the culprit; to this end “the bell” contributed (ποιοῦντός τι καὶ τοῦ κώδωνος), and an incidental advantage was that the victim's tears were concealed, so that they won no pity from the onlookers.
Experience Patterns: Capturing the Dynamic Nature of a Recreation Experience

A recreation experience is not static, it varies over the course of an engagement. Yet, most recreation research operationalizes recreation benefits and outcomes as essentially static in nature (i....
Capillary zone electrophoresis-multiple reaction monitoring from 100 pg of RAW 264.7 cell lysate digest

Capillary zone electrophoresis-multiple/single reaction monitoring (CZE-MRM/SRM), which employed an electrokinetically driven sheath-flow electrospray interface, was used for the rapid and highly sensitive detection of protein analytes in complex tryptic digests. MRM channels were developed against a commercial exponential mixture of bovine proteins. Five proteins spanning four orders of magnitude concentration range were confidently detected from only 2.5 ng of the digest mixture; the mass detection limits (S/N = 3) of two detected proteins, alpha-casein and glutamate dehydrogenase were about 600 zmol and 30 amol, respectively. This technique was then applied to a RAW 264.7 cell lysate digest. Three proteins were confidently and reproducibly detected from 100 pg of this digest. The sample amount corresponds to the approximate protein content from a single cell, which suggests that CZE-MRM may be a useful analytical tool in chemical cytometry. In addition to providing highly sensitive detection of proteins in complex mixtures, this system is highly rapid; migration time of the protein digests was less than 10 min.
The molecular and electronic structure of N,N′-ethylenebis(acetylacetonylideiminato)oxovanadium(IV) and the electronic structure of its thio analogue

The electronic structures of the title complexes—VO(acen) and VS(acen)—and the free H2(acen) ligand are probed using gas-phase UV-photoelectron spectroscopy [acen = N,N � -ethylenebis(acetylacetonylideiminato)]. The effect of the different axial donors on the metal center is examined, as is the effect that the oxo and thio ligands have on the acen orbitals. We find that the oxo and thio donors primarily affect the metal center and that the ligand periphery remains mostly unchanged. © 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.