cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Separation and identification of neisserial lipooligosaccharide oligosaccharides using high-performance anion-exchange chromatography with pulsed amperometric detection

We determined the optimal conditions for high-performance anion-exchange chromatography with pulsed amperometric detection (HPAE-PAD) of oligosaccharides (OS) released from neisserial lipooligosaccharides (LOS) by mild acid hydrolysis. We efficiently obtained detailed composition, sequence, and linkage information about high Mr LOS. We found that HPAE-PAD can discriminate isobaric (same Mr) molecules of different structure, for example, nLc4 and Gb4, distinguish alpha from beta chain extensions, and determine the number of phosphoethanolamine (PEA) substituents. HPAE-PAD provided quantitative information that could be used to compare the relative abundances of OS. We used HPAE-PAD to identify all of the known LOS alpha chain antennae. When used with antibody-binding profiles and exoglycosidase digestion results, HPAE-PAD can provide nearly complete structures rapidly.
Eradicating acute myeloid leukemia in a MllPTD/wt:Flt3ITD/wt murine model: a path to novel therapeutic approaches for human disease

The coexpression of the MLL partial tandem duplication (PTD) and the FLT3 internal tandem duplication (ITD) mutations associate with a poor outcome in cytogenetically normal acute myeloid leukemia (AML). In mice, a double knock-in (dKI) of MllPTD/wt and Flt3ITD/wt mutations induces spontaneous AML with an increase in DNA methyltransferases (Dnmt1, 3a, and 3b) and global DNA methylation index, thereby recapitulating its human AML counterpart. We determined that a regulator of Dnmts, miR-29b, is downregulated in bone marrow of dKI AML mice. Bortezomib exerted a dose-dependent increase in miR-29b expression in AML blasts ex vivo, followed by decreased Dnmts, reduced proliferation, and increased apoptosis. In vivo, bortezomib was not active against dKI AML, yet liposomal-encapsulated bortezomib, as a single agent, reversed downregulation of miR-29b in vivo and induced a long-term (90-day) disease-free remission in 80% of dKI AML mice that exhibited high leukemic burden at the start of therapy, yet showed no signs of relapse at autopsy. Taken together, these data support that liposomal bortezomib, as a single agent, eradicates MllPTD/wt:Flt3ITD/wt AML in mouse and may represent a powerful and potentially curative approach to high-risk human disease.
Prevention and treatment of Candida infections in neonates

Invasive Candia infections have become the third most common cause of late-onset infection among very low birth weight infants in most neonatal intensive care units. Significant risk factors include birth weight less than 1000 g, exposure to more than two antibiotics, third generation cephalosporin exposure, parenteral nutrition including lipid emulsion, central venous catheter, and abdominal surgery. The majority of neonatal Candida infections are caused by C. albicans and C. parapsilosis, although other nonalbicans species are being reported more frequently. Standard therapy has been amphotericin B; however, successful use of fluconazole as a single agent has also been reported and a small comparison trial demonstrated similar efficacy. The addition of new antifungal agents, including voriconazole and the echinocandins may further improve our ability to effectively treat these infections and possibly reduce the development of complications. Antifungal chemoprophylaxis has been studied in single-center and cohort studies, primarily using fluconazole. Although it is clear that fluconazole prophylaxis decreases the risk of fungal colonization and infection, identification of potential harm, particularly the development of or selection for resistant strains, requires further investigation with multicenter trials before widespread use is recommended outside of the clinical trial setting.
Analysis and design of the Multimission Modular Spacecraft hydrazine propulsion module

The translational velocity increment, stabilization and control requirements, vehicle weight, and geometric considerations of the Multimission Modular Spacecraft (MMS) provided the basic data on which to initiate the analysis and design of the hydrazine propulsion modules. The Landsat D was used as the mission model. Tradeoff studies were conducted on thrust level, thruster location, and clustering arrangement together with tankage volume and location. The impact of the use of single and dual seat thruster valves on plumbing configuration, reliability, and overall system cost was studied in detail. Conceptual designs of a recommended propulsion module configuration for both the Delta 3910 and Shuttle were prepared.
Mojave rattlesnake (Crotalus scutulatus scutulatus) venom: enzyme activities and purification of arginine ester hydrolases.

Abstract Venom from the Mojave rattlesnake was fractionated on DEAE Sephadex into 12 fractions (MD-1–12). Each fraction was assayed for five enzymatic activities, all known to occur in crotalid venoms. Phosphomonoesterase activity was not present in either the crude venom or any of the fractions. l -Amino acid oxidase activity was found in several fractions (MD-4–9), being eluted from the column as a broad peak of activity. Phosphodiesterase activity was found in MD-1–2, eluting from the column as a single peak of activity. Phospholipase activity was fractionated into three peaks of activity in MD-2–4, MD-7 and MD-9. The phospholipase activity in MD-9 was associated with Mojave toxin. Arginine ester hydrolase activity was distributed as several peaks of activity throughout MD-1–9. Two arginine ester hydrolases (AAEI, AAEII) were isolated from Mojave venom by fractionation on DEAE Sephadex followed by chromatofocusing chromatography and affinity chromatography. They were purified to specific activities of 60 U/mg (AAEI) and 36.1 U/mg (AAEII) with BAEE as substrate at pH 7.5. This procedure showed per cent yields of 5.0% for AAEI and 1.0% for AAEII. The two proteins were homogeneous by PAGE, narrow range isoelectric focusing and SDS gel electrophoresis. Both proteins were acidic, with pI values equal to 4.7 (AAEI) and 4.4 (AAEII). The molecular weights as determined by SDS gel electrophoresis were 33,200 for AAEI and 34,700 for AAEII.
Risk sensitivity in distribution channel partnerships: implications for manufacturer return policies

Abstract The manufacturer return policy is widely regarded as a means for channel partners to share risk. However, existing studies of this popular institutional practice use frameworks that assume risk-neutrality of all parties. This report analyzes how sensitivity to risk affects both sides of the manufacturer-retailer relationship under various scenarios of strategic power, and how these dynamics are altered by a return policy. A key finding is that the penalty for ignoring risk sensitivity can be substantial. This will suggest an informational motive affecting the use of return policies, a consequence of the potential difficulty of inferring another party’s risk sensitivity and the positive incentive for deception.
Effect of Surgical Guide Design and Surgeon's Experience on the Accuracy of Implant Placement

Implant position is a key determinant of esthetic and functional success. Achieving the goal of ideal implant position may be affected by case selection, prosthodontically driven treatment planning...
Resonance behavior of internally electroded PZT devices

Abstract Preparation and resonant properties of hard and soft internally electroded PZT bars are described. The presence of cofired platinum internal electrodes is shown to have little effect on the resonance behavior of hard PZT. Piezoelectric transformers having internally electroded primaries and secondaries are compared with conventional devices and show improved transformer ratio and power handling capability.
Classical versus Bridged Allyl Ligands in Magnesium Complexes: The Role of Solvent

Magnesium allyl complexes are regularly isolated with classical, σ-bonded ligands, and this has been thought to be their preferred mode of bonding. Density funtional theory calculations confirm that such bonding is the most stable mode when coordinated bases are present, but in their absence, π-bonded forms are expected to be lower in energy. The isolation of the unsolvated [Mg{C3(SiMe3)2H3}2]2 complex supports this prediction, as it is a dinuclear species in which two allyl ligands bridge the metals and display cation−π interactions with them.
Effects of midbrain reticular formation, hippocampal, and lateral hypothalamic stimulation upon recovery from neophobia and taste aversion learning

Abstract In a neophobia paradigm midbrain reticular formation (MRF) electrical stimulation applied after consumption of a novel flavor produced a time-dependent disruption in recovery from neophobia (learned safety), while hippocampal and lateral hypothalamic stimulation had no disruptive effects. In a learned aversion paradigm neither MRF nor hippocampal or lateral hypothalamic stimulation applied after the illness experience produced a disruptive effect. In conjunction with previously reported effects of amygdala stimulation [12] the data support the existence of separate information processing systems mediating learned aversion and learned safety.
Parametric Study of Low-Swirl Injector Geometry on its Operability

The low swirl injector (LSI) is a combustion technology being developed for low-emissions fuel-flexible gas turbines. The basic LSI configuration consists of an annulus of swirl vanes centered on a non-swirled channel, both of which allow for the passage of premixed reactants. LSIs are typically designed by following a general guidance of achieving a swirl number between 0.4 and 0.55. This paper aims to develop a more specific guideline by investigating the effects of varying geometry, i.e. vane angle, vane shape, and center channel size, on the LSI performance. A well-studied LSI provides a baseline for this investigation. Nine LSI variations from this baseline design have been evaluated. All LSI are tested with CH4 fuel at bulk flow velocity of 8 to 20 m/s firing into the open atmosphere. Performance metrics are the lean blowoff limit, the pressure drop, flowfield characteristics and emissions. Results show that the lean blow-off limit and NOx and CO emissions are insensitive to LSI geometric variations. The flowfields of seven LSIs exhibit self-similarity implying their turndown ranges are similar. Reducing the center channel size and/or the use of thin vanes instead of thickened vanes can reduce pressure drop across the LSI. Additionally, all ten LSI share a common feature in that 70% to 80% the premixture flows through the vane annulus. These findings are used to develop a more specific engineering guidelines for designing the LSI for gas turbines.Copyright © 2012 by ASME
Inhibition of Glycogen-synthase Kinase 3 Stimulates Glycogen Synthase and Glucose Transport by Distinct Mechanisms in 3T3-L1 Adipocytes

Abstract The role of glycogen-synthase kinase 3 (GSK3) in insulin-stimulated glucose transport and glycogen synthase activation was investigated in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. GSK3 protein was clearly present in adipocytes and was found to be more abundant than in muscle and liver cell lines. The selective GSK3 inhibitor, LiCl, stimulated glucose transport and glycogen synthase activity (20 and 65%, respectively, of the maximal (1 μm) insulin response) and potentiated the responses to a submaximal concentration (1 nm) of insulin. LiCl- and insulin-stimulated glucose transport were abolished by the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3-kinase) inhibitor, wortmannin; however, LiCl stimulation of glycogen synthase was not. In contrast to the rapid stimulation of glucose transport by insulin, transport stimulated by LiCl increased gradually over 3–5 h reaching 40% of the maximal insulin-stimulated level. Both LiCl- and insulin-stimulated glycogen synthase activity were maximal at 25 min. However, insulin-stimulated glycogen synthase activity returned to basal after 2 h, coincident with reactivation of GSK3. After a 2-h exposure to insulin, glycogen synthase was refractory to restimulation with insulin, indicating selective desensitization of this pathway. However, LiCl could partially stimulate glycogen synthase in desensitized cells. Furthermore, coincubation with LiCl during the 2 h exposure to insulin completely blocked desensitization of glycogen synthase activity. In summary, inhibition of GSK3 by LiCl: 1) stimulated glycogen synthase activity directly and independently of PI3-kinase, 2) stimulated glucose transport at a point upstream of PI3-kinase, 3) stimulated glycogen synthase activity in desensitized cells, and 4) prevented desensitization of glycogen synthase due to chronic insulin treatment. These data are consistent with GSK3 playing a central role in the regulation of glycogen synthase activity and a contributing factor in the regulation of glucose transport in 3T3-L1 adipocytes.
Comparison of Visual and Vibrotactile Feedback Methods for Seated Posture Guidance

We introduce a novel posture guidance office chair and evaluate the effectiveness of vibrotactile and visual feedback methods for guiding seated postures. For visually dominant office work such as typing on the computer, it is possible that delivering posture feedback visually may overload the visual sense while haptic feedback may be a viable alternative. We performed two experiments to compare vibrotactile and visual feedback-posture compliance and dual-task cognitive workload assessment. In the first experiment, our results showed no statistically significant difference in effectiveness between using vibrotactile and visual feedback to obtain postural compliance to a reference posture. In the second experiment, participants experienced typing performance and response time degradations from both types of feedback. However the differences in performance degradation were not statistically significant between the two feedback methods. We conclude that vibrotactile and visual feedback are similarly effective for guiding quasistatic postures in routine tasks such as seated office work.
Wear — an entropy production model

Abstract The universal occurrence of wear has led to consideration of the wear process from a thermodynamic point of view. The intent was to characterize the nature of the wear process and material behavior by defining the thermo-dynamic conditions under which such processes are possible. The sliding of two surfaces, one of which wears at a much greater rate than the other, was idealized as a single body to which heat and work are supplied and from which mass transfer is allowed. The condition that for an isolated system undergoing some process entropy production must be non-negative was used to develop a constraint for allowable wear processes. This constraint relates heat, work, chemical potential and surface energy and limits the processes and material behavior possible in the model system.
Electron microscopy of extracellular materials during the development of a sea star, Patiria miniata (Echinodermata: Asteroidea)

The fine structure of conspicuous extracellular materials during the life history of a sea star (Patiria miniata) is described. The outer surface of the developing sea star is covered by two morphologically different cuticles that appear sequentially during ontogeny. The primary cuticle, which is about 120 nm thick and two-layered, is present from mid-blastula through the end of the larval stage. The secondary cuticle, which is about 1 µm thick and three-layered, first appears on the epidermis of the rudiment region of the larva and, after metamorphosis, covers the entire epidermis of the juvenile and adult stages. During ontogeny, there are only two conspicuous gut cuticles: the first lines the newly invaginated archenteron at the start of the gastrula stage, and the second lines the esophagus during the larval stage. A blastocoelic basal lamina first appears at mid-blastula and persists as subectodermal and subendodermal basal laminae. Ruthenium red-positive granules are detectable between the lateral surfaces of adjacent ectodermal cells during part of the gastrula stage; this transient intercellular material may possibly aid in lateral adhesion between cells.
Transferring Classroom Knowledge to Real-World Accounting: The Savings and Loan Crisis

Abstract A topic of concern to accounting educators is whether accounting students can apply knowledge learned in the classroom to complex decisions. A timely example of such an issue is the use of regulatory accounting principles (RAP) versus generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) by savings and loan institutions (S&Ls) in preparing their financial statements. Sixty-five accounting students and 105 other students at a public university participated in an experiment to determine their preference for two substantially identical S&Ls, one using RAP to inflate its reported net worth and the other using GAAP. Subjects allocated 100 points between the two S&Ls in a simulated deposit decision. Both subject groups exhibited similar preferences in their choice of S&Ls, indicating that accounting students could not distinguish between the two types of accounting principles better than nonaccounting students. Implications of this finding for accounting education are discussed.
Short-term changes in-stream macroinvertebrate communities following a severe fire in the Lake Tahoe basin, California

Large and severe wildfires can dramatically alter terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. We documented changes in benthic macroinvertebrate communities and physical habitat at two sites along Angora Creek, CA, USA for 2 years following a severe fire. Although post-fire years had low precipitation, canopy cover and bank stability declined dramatically following the wildfire (canopy cover: 88% pre-fire, 22% post-fire; stable bank: 93% pre-fire, 11% post-fire). Substrate also changed substantially, with fine sediment 8× more abundant post-fire and cobble 7× less abundant post-fire. We found no consistent changes in taxonomic richness or diversity following the fire, but post-fire densities and percentage of sensitive taxa were significantly reduced. We observed large reductions in relative abundances of shredder and scraper taxa, while collector-gatherer abundances increased. Community composition shifted away from pre-fire configurations, and continued to diverge in the second year following the fire. Scores from a regionally derived index of biotic integrity (IBI) were variable but overall much lower in post-fire samples and did not show recovery after 2 years. Overall, our study demonstrated substantial post-fire effects to aquatic ecosystems even in the absence of large flooding or scouring events, and showed that these effects can be transmitted downstream into unburned reaches.
Future technologies supporting the convergence of mobile, wearables, and IoT

The next wave in computing is the convergence of Mobile, Wearables, a IoT. This talk presents technologies from IBM Research enabling this transformation, and give use-cases from various industries: 1) describe integration technologies for tying together mobile devices, wearables, sensors, and cloud, as well as equipping mobile devices with the ability to sense and control the physical environment, 2) illustrate new analytic models for leveraging the vast amounts of data generated, off-line and in real-time, to optimize processes, 3) address privacy requirements by allowing users control over their information, and (4) show new tools for building, securing, and optimizing the applications that run across this heterogeneous infrastructure. In addition we shall take a peek into, the next wave in computing that will need to exploit data and computing at the edge of the network. For example, contextual programming is emerging as the next significant change in way we develop Mobile apps, where real-time pro-active decisions are made based upon the mobile context (e.g., Location, time of day, current user task) of a specific user or group of users. To meet the needs of such use-cases, a new paradigm, which we call Adhoc computing, is emerging. This paradigm needs to deal with massive amounts of devices, sensors, and data, both at the edge and in business systems, and must be able to react context in close to real-time. Furthermore, it must handle the heterogeneity in devices/OSs, as well as the lack of reliability, security and/or trust of these devices, and must be able to learn and improve over time. In this collaborative session, we give vertical industry and cross-industry use-cases, and describe IBM technologies and solutions for this new class of computing.
Brachiopod Biostratigraphy of Hueco Group (Wolfcamp), Franklin Mountains, Texas and New Mexico: ABSTRACT

The Franklin Mountains are located in the extreme western tip of Texas and extend northward into south-central New Mexico, approximately 23 mi (37 km) from El Paso which is built around the southern end of the range. The outcrops of Permian strata in the Franklin Mountains consist of small outliers on the western edge which are separated from the main range. The Permian is represented by the Hueco Group (Wolfcampian) which is divided into three formations, in ascending order: the Hueco Canyon, Cerro Alto, and Alacran Mountain Formations. The 1,350-ft (411.5 m) thick Hueco Canyon Formation contains 22 genera and 23 species of brachiopods. These are Orthotichia sp., Accosarina sp., Acritosia silicica Cooper & Grant, Rhipidomella hessensis R. E. King, Derbyia sp., Chonetinella sp., Kozlowskia capaci (d'Orbigny), Reticulatia huecoensis (R. E. King), Dasyaria undulata Cooper & Grant, Dasyaria wolfcampensis (R. E. King), Cancrinella parva Cooper & Grant, Linoproductus cora (d'Orbigny), Pontisia franklinensis Cooper & Grant, Stenocisma sp., Hustedia huecoensis R. E. King, Rhynchopora sp., Crurithyris tumbilis Cooper & Grant, Cleiothyridina rectimarginata Cooper & Grant, Composita cracens Cooper & Grant, Beecheria bovidens (Morton), Chondronia obesa Cooper & Grant, Dielasma sp. 1, and Dielasma p. 2. The 350 to 425-ft (106.7 to 129.5 m) thick Cerro Alto Formation contains 8 genera and 9 species of brachiopods. These are Derbyia sp., Chonetinella sp., Squamaria moorei Muir-Wood & Cooper, Cancrinella altissimia R. H. King, Linoproductus cora (d'Orbigny), Pontisia franklinensis Cooper & Grant, Crurithyris quadalupensis (Girty), Composita cracens Cooper & Grant, and Composita mexicana (Hall). The 315 to 739-ft (96 to 225.2 m) thick Alacran Mountain Formation contains 24 genera and 27 species of brachiopods. These are Crania modesta White & St. John, Meekela sp., Enteletes sp., Derbyia sp., Pseudoleptodus sp., Micraphelia sp., Costellarina costellata (Muir-Wood & Cooper), Hystriculina convexa Cooper & Grant, Kutorginella sp., Nudauris sp., Kozlowskia capaci (d'Orbigny), Dasysaria undulata Cooper & Grant, Dasysaria wolfcampensis (R. E. King), Linoproductus sp., Pontisia franklinensis Cooper & Grant, Stenocisma hueconians (Girty), Hustedia hessensis R. E. King, Hustedia huecoensis R. E. King, Crurithyris sp., Neophricadothyris sp., Composita cracens Cooper & Grant, Composita mexicana (Hall), Reticulariina heuconiana Cooper & Grant, Gypospirifer nel oni Cooper & Grant, Beecheria bovidens (Morton), Chondronia obesa Cooper & Grant, Dielasma sp. Other faunal taxons present in the Hueco Group of the Franklin Mountains include Foraminifera, Fusulinida, Porifera, Coelenterata, Bryozoa, Polyplacophora, Gastropoda, Cephalopoda, Bivalvia, Scaphopoda, Crustacea, Trilobita, Annelida, Crinoidea, Echinoidea, Conodonta, and Vertebrata. End_of_Article - Last_Page 769------------
Social Components of Fitness in Primate Groups

There is much interest in the evolutionary forces that favored the evolution of large brains in the primate order. The social brain hypothesis posits that selection has favored larger brains and more complex cognitive capacities as a means to cope with the challenges of social life. The hypothesis is supported by evidence that shows that group size is linked to various measures of brain size. But it has not been clear how cognitive complexity confers fitness advantages on individuals. Research in the field and laboratory shows that sophisticated social cognition underlies social behavior in primate groups. Moreover, a growing body of evidence suggests that the quality of social relationships has measurable fitness consequences for individuals.
Present and future applications of lasers in neurosurgery

The applications of laser in both adults and pediatric neurosurgery are being steadily refined today. For many routine tumor removals, contemporary lasers do not add to ultrasonic aspiration or suction resection. However, there are some tumors in which one CO2 laser is invaluable; brain stem astrocytomas, skull base tumors, and intraspinal tumors are examples. Similarly, in resections of spinal lipomas they are useful to vaporize lipomas from the roots. Laser welding of vessels is technically possible but has generally not been useful. Perhaps the most exciting application is a combination of laser energy transfer with stereotactic technology. The MRI can be used to visualize structural changes in cerebral tissue. We have used this technology in 40 rats with gliomas and have been able to demonstrate destruction.
A Semiparametric Regression Cure Model for Interval-Censored Data

Motivated by medical studies in which patients could be cured of disease but the disease event time may be subject to interval censoring, we presents a semiparametric non-mixture cure model for the regression analysis of interval-censored time-to-event datxa. We develop semiparametric maximum likelihood estimation for the model using the expectation-maximization method for interval-censored data. The maximization step for the baseline function is nonparametric and numerically challenging. We develop an efficient and numerically stable algorithm via modern convex optimization techniques, yielding a self-consistency algorithm for the maximization step. We prove the strong consistency of the maximum likelihood estimators under the Hellinger distance, which is an appropriate metric for the asymptotic property of the estimators for interval-censored data. We assess the performance of the estimators in a simulation study with small to moderate sample sizes. To illustrate the method, we also analyze a real data set from a medical study for the biochemical recurrence of prostate cancer among patients who have undergone radical prostatectomy. Supplemental materials for the computational algorithm are available online.
Counterfeiting the Family Jewels

In art and literature, originals are revered and copies frowned upon. But do men use germline stem cell copies to pass traits to their children? In Science , Nakagawa et al. (2010) show that new stem cell copies regularly arise in mouse testes by fragmentation of downstream germ cell clusters.
SEISMIC-SOURCE ENERGIES OF UNDERGROUND NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS.

Abstract Records of particle velocity in the free-field geological environment near underground nuclear explosions may be interpreted to yield the energy flux at a measuring station near or within the region of elastic response of the rock. Such data from 21 events in several types of rock have yielded energy fluxes. Total energies associated with the motion propagated into the seismic region have been derived from all but seven of these. The total energies are a measure of the seismic-source strength, and the ratios of these energies to those released by the explosion are measures of the energy coupled into the Earth as seismic motion. Explosions in granite, dolomite, or wet tuff produce seismic sources of the order of 2 per cent of the explosively released energy. Similar explosions in porous rocks such as dry tuff and desert alluvium provide seismic sources an order of magnitude weaker than those in hard or wet rock.
A fast simultaneous input vector generation and gate replacement algorithm for leakage power reduction

The Input vector control (IVC) technique is based on the observation that the leakage current in a CMOS logic gate depends on gate input state, and a good input vector is able to minimize leakage when the circuit is in sleep mode. The gate replacement technique is a very effective method to further reduce the leakage current. In this article, we propose a fast heuristic algorithm to find a low-leakage input vector with simultaneous gate replacement. Results on MCNC91 benchmark circuits show that our algorithm produces 14p better leakage current reduction with several orders of magnitude speedup in runtime for large circuits compared to the previous state-of-the-art algorithm. In particular, the average runtime for the ten largest combinational circuits has been dramatically reduced from 1879 seconds to 0.34 seconds.
The Total Irradiance Monitor Design and On-Orbit Functionality

The solar Total Irradiance Monitor (TIM) on NASA's SORCE mission began taking data in early 2003. This instrument continues the 25-year record of space-borne, total solar irradiance (TSI) measurements, with improved precision from its new technologies and calibration methods. We present an overview of the TIM instrument, including the design features enabling its high precision, and we present preliminary on-orbit TSI data.
Tarmac: a language system substrate based on mobile memory

Tarmac, a language system substrate on which systems for distributed parallel programming can be built, is described. A model of shared global state, called mobile memory, which is provided by Tarmac, is discussed. The basic unit of state in this model can be viewed both (1) as a block of memory that can be directly accessed by machine instructions and (2) as a logical entity with a globally unique name that may be efficiently located, copied, and moved. To support higher level synchronization models, the movements of a memory unit may optionally enable computations. The implementation and performance of Tarmac are discussed. Tarmac is contrasted with other systems for parallel distributed programming. >
Biomimetic microbeads containing a chondroitin sulfate/chitosan polyelectrolyte complex for cell-based cartilage therapy

Articular cartilage has a limited healing capacity that complicates the treatment of joint injuries and osteoarthritis. Newer repair strategies have focused on the use of cells and biomaterials to promote cartilage regeneration. In the present study, we developed and characterized bioinspired materials designed to mimic the composition of the cartilage extracellular matrix. Chondroitin sulfate (CS) and chitosan (CH) were used to form physically cross-linked macromolecular polyelectrolyte complexes (PEC) without the use of additional crosslinkers. A single-step water-in-oil emulsification process was used to either directly embed mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) in PEC particles created with a various concentrations of CS and CH, or to co-embed MSC with PEC in agarose-based microbeads. Direct embedding of MSC in PEC resulted in high cell viability but irregular and large particles. Co-embedding of PEC particles with MSC in agarose (Ag) resulted in uniform microbeads 80-90 μm in diameter that maintained high cell viability over three weeks in culture. Increased serum content resulted in more uniform PEC distribution within the microbead matrix, and both high and low CS:CH ratios resulted in more homogeneous microbeads than 1:1 formulations. Under chondrogenic conditions, expression of sulfated GAG and collagen type II was increased in 10:1 CS:CH PEC-Ag microbeads compared to pure Ag beads, indicating a chondrogenic influence of the PEC component. Such PEC-Ag microbeads may have utility in the directed differentiation and delivery of progenitor cell populations for cartilage repair.
Long Term Experience With WHO Grade III Meningiomas at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation

Results: From the time of primary surgery, overall median survival was 3.4 years, 5 year survival was 47.2%, and median time to recurrence was 9.6 months. Patients who received adjuvant radiotherapy after their first surgery had median survival of 5.4 years (n = 3) whereas those not receiving radiotherapy survived to a median of 2.5 years (n = 10); this difference was not statistically significant. No other variable affected survival or time to recurrence including age, KPS at diagnosis, prior diagnosis of lower grade meningioma, degree of resection, or mode of salvage therapy. Notably, a single individual whose tumor has not recurred for 105 months had gross total resection with adjuvant radiotherapy to 5900 cGy. Conclusions: Our results are consistent with published data for malignant meningiomas that report 5 year survival from 32 to 64%. We found that half of 18 meningiomas diagnosed as malignant prior to 2000 failed to satisfy the new criteria for grade III tumors. This finding suggests that the new definition is substantially different than the prior one. Patient outcome remains unsatisfactory for malignant meningiomas. More studies are necessary to develop more effective interventions.
Geology in China

During the International Geological Congress in Sydney, Australia, August 1977, The People9s Republic of China (PRC) was admitted to membership in the International Union of Geological Sciences, and the way was open for earth scientists in China to take part in international activities sponsored by the IUGS and its affiliated and associated organizations for the first time since 1949. To understand better how they might take part in some of these activities, the Geological Society of. China invited the President of IUGS, Professor Rudolph Trumpy to lead a mission to visit China for a month and to explain to them how international research was organized and how they might participate. The mission represented IUGS and its Commissions and Committees; International Geological Congress, Commission for the Geological Map of the World, the International Geological Correlation Programme, International Geodynamics Project, and it included the Geological Society of London, and the Geological Society of. America. It soon became apparent that to understand the activities in the geological sciences in the PRC. now and in the past, one must view them in the context of the political climate and bureaucratic fashions, a phenomenon not completely unknown to us in the West. Thus there have been peaks and valleys in geological activity that correspond to the current political philosophy.
Design Commonality to Reduce Multi-Item Inventory: Optimal Depth of a Product Line

The problem of commonality is posed as a problem of economic balance. It involves the disutility of refusing to provide each segment of customers with an item fitting its exact requirements versus economies of scale achieved in producing and inventorying each item. The depth of the product line the optimal number of items to produce is determined by finding the minimum concave cost flow through a network. An efficient dynamic program developed in production smoothing is used to find this flow. Many products consist of interacting subassemblies; such multistage problems of finding the number of types of each subassembly can also be solved; a computational procedure is developed and an example presented. Along with modularity and cannibalization, multistage commonality is an essential component of a theory of efficient engineering design.
Bactericidal activities of selected organic N-halamines.

Abstract The bactericidal efficacies of three organic N,N'-dihalamine disinfectants in the class of compounds termed imidazolidinones were determined for combinations of pH, temperature, and water quality treatments by using Staphylococcus aureus and Shigella boydii as test organisms. The compound 1,3-dibromo-4,4,5,5-tetramethyl-2-imidazolidinone was found to be the most rapidly acting bactericide, especially under halogen-demand-free conditions. The mixed N,N'-dihalamine 1-bromo-3-chloro-4,4,5,5-tetramethyl-2-imidazolidinone was found to be intermediate in terms of rate of disinfection, while the compound 1,3-dichloro-4,4,5,5-tetramethyl-2-imidazolidinone was observed to be the slowest acting bactericide. When overall effectiveness was judged on the basis of stability of the disinfectants along with rates of disinfection, the mixed halamine was considered to exhibit great potential for use as a disinfectant in an aqueous solution.
Improving Supply Chain Management: a model for Collaborative Quality Control

This paper aims to address the gap of quality control in current Supply Chain Management (SCM) system in the semiconductor industry. The purpose of this study is to enhance the SCM system and practices for overall product quality assurance of an outsourced process physically located in different geographic areas. Without visibility and quality control, the supply continuity of the outsourced production line could be at risk. In this paper, we outline the IDM outsourcing demands different requirements from traditional fabless outsourcing, address the issues to meet those new requirements and develop the building process of our Collaborative Quality Control (CQC) model. Our four-year implementation of CQC model indicates that product quality through outsourcing using this upgraded SCM system for quality is as good as internally producing the product. With the CQC model to help secure the supply continuity gives enormous advantages to IDM outsourcing to leverage external resources the same as internal resources. Better capital efficiency, extra virtual capacity, huge surge capability, high flexibility, better cost structure are all critical to improve ROE in such a competitive business environment today.
Environmental technologies and competitive advantage

In this decade and the coming century, the natural environment will be an important arena for economic, competition. Ecological issues regarding energy, natural resources, pollution, and waste offer both competitive opportunities and constraints, and are changing the competitive landscape in many industries. Corporations can gain competitive advantage by managing ecological variables. This paper explains the concept of ‘environmental technologies’ as a competitive force and a tool for competitive advantage. Environmental technologies offer a new substantive orientation and a management process for minimizing ecological impacts of economic production while enhancing Competitiveness of firms. The practical application of environmental technologies is illustrated using a mini case example of 3M Corporation. Strategic implications of environmental technologies for competitiveness are explored.
Michel Hersen and the Administration of Professional Psychology Programs

From 1997 until his retirement in 2011, Michel Hersen served as the dean of the School of Professional Psychology (SPP) at Pacific University in Oregon. Through teaching, supervision, and modeling, Michel promoted his vision of a professional school that could compete on the national stage. He grew the program from a regional focus to one with a strong national presence through careful faculty hires and by anticipating national trends in diversity issues and interprofessional education. His decisions as an administrator were sometimes counterintuitive and challenged the status quo, but they often were correct and advanced the program. His footprint as an administrator was quite large and will be difficult to fill. The SPP benefited greatly from his leadership, and it will continue to grow by following the plans he set in place for us.
Mood and modality: out of theory and into the fray

The topic of mood and modality (MOD) is a difficult aspect of language description because, among other reasons, the inventory of modal meanings is not stable across languages, moods do not map neatly from one language to another, modality may be realised morphologically or by free-standing words, and modality interacts in complex ways with other modules of the grammar, like tense and aspect. Describing MOD is especially difficult if one attempts to develop a unified approach that not only provides cross-linguistic coverage, but is also useful in practical natural language processing systems. This article discusses an approach to MOD that was developed for and implemented in the Boas Knowledge-Elicitation (KE) system. Boas elicits knowledge about any language, L, from an informant who need not be a trained linguist. That knowledge then serves as the static resources for an L-to-English translation system. The KE methodology used throughout Boas is driven by a resident inventory of parameters, value sets, and means of their realisation for a wide range of language phenomena. MOD is one of those parameters, whose values are the inventory of attested and not yet attested moods (e.g. indicative, conditional, imperative), and whose realisations include flective morphology, agglutinating morphology, isolating morphology, words, phrases and constructions. Developing the MOD elicitation procedures for Boas amounted to wedding the extensive theoretical and descriptive research on MOD with practical approaches to guiding an untrained informant through this non-trivial task. We believe that our experience in building the MOD module of Boas offers insights not only into cross-linguistic aspects of MOD that have not previously been detailed in the natural language processing literature, but also into KE methodologies that could be applied more broadly.
The role of skeletal-muscle-based thermogenic mechanisms in vertebrate endothermy

Thermogenesis is one of the most important homeostatic mechanisms that evolved during vertebrate evolution. Despite its importance for the survival of the organism, the mechanistic details behind various thermogenic processes remain incompletely understood. Although heat production from muscle has long been recognized as a thermogenic mechanism, whether muscle can produce heat independently of contraction remains controversial. Studies in birds and mammals suggest that skeletal muscle can be an important site of non-shivering thermogenesis (NST) and can be recruited during cold adaptation, although unequivocal evidence is lacking. Much research on thermogenesis during the last two decades has been focused on brown adipose tissue (BAT). These studies clearly implicate BAT as an important site of NST in mammals, in particular in newborns and rodents. However, BAT is either absent, as in birds and pigs, or is only a minor component, as in adult large mammals including humans, bringing into question the BAT-centric view of thermogenesis. This review focuses on the evolution and emergence of various thermogenic mechanisms in vertebrates from fish to man. A careful analysis of the existing data reveals that muscle was the earliest facultative thermogenic organ to emerge in vertebrates, long before the appearance of BAT in eutherian mammals. Additionally, these studies suggest that muscle-based thermogenesis is the dominant mechanism of heat production in many species including birds, marsupials, and certain mammals where BAT-mediated thermogenesis is absent or limited. We discuss the relevance of our recent findings showing that uncoupling of sarco(endo)plasmic reticulum Ca(2+)-ATPase (SERCA) by sarcolipin (SLN), resulting in futile cycling and increased heat production, could be the basis for NST in skeletal muscle. The overall goal of this review is to highlight the role of skeletal muscle as a thermogenic organ and provide a balanced view of thermogenesis in vertebrates.
Tunneling in a time-dependent setting.

A standard approach to analyzing tunneling processes in various physical contexts is to use instanton or imaginary time path techniques. For systems in which the tunneling takes place in a time-dependent setting, the standard methods are often applicable only in special cases, e.g., due to some additional symmetries. We consider a collection of time-dependent tunneling problems to which the standard methods cannot be applied directly, and present an algorithm, based on the WKB approximation combined with complex time path methods, which can be used to calculate the relevant tunneling probabilities. This collection of problems contains, among others, the spontaneous nucleation of topological defects in an expanding universe, the production of charged particle-antiparticle pairs in a time-dependent electric field, and false vacuum decay in field theory from a coherently oscillating initial state. To demonstrate the method, we present detailed calculations of the time-dependent decay rates for the last two examples.
Subversive Sound: Transnational Radio, Arabic Recordings, and the Dangers of Listening in French Colonial Algeria, 1934–1939

In November of 1934, Algerian Governor General Jules Carde asked the Algiers Police Prefecture to investigate a rumor circulating through the French bureaucracy that “natives” in the Arab cafes (cafe maures) of the city were tuning in to biweekly Arabic broadcasts transmitted by an unspecified Italian radio station that featured “commentaries unfavorable to France” and “openly attacked France's Muslim policy.” As the governor of three overseas French departements, Carde had already received notification that the airwaves over North Africa were becoming dangerous. A few months earlier, Jean Berthoin, the director of national security, or Surete, in France's Interior Ministry, warned regional prefects, “In a number of cities a large portion of the radio-electric industry—sales and the construction of devices—is in the hands of foreigners.” Berthoin feared that the dominance of France's radio-electric market by large, multinational firms would allow enemy agents to mask radio transmitters beneath the cover of radio sales and report clandestinely on troop maneuvers and defense preparations. He therefore instructed prefects to begin “discreet investigations” into the civil status, political affiliation, and nationality of radio merchants and their personnel. While ostensibly directed at metropolitan prefects, these Surete directives resonated in Algeria—a strategic periphery of “Greater France” and home to a sizeable European population of German and Italian descent and to multiple garrisons of France's indigenous-based African Army (Armee d'Afrique). By 1935, rumors about radio espionage and subversive auditory propaganda circulating through the Algerian colonial bureaucracy compelled Governor Carde to construct a colony-wide surveillance web to monitor radio sales, investigate Algerian listening habits, and assess the effects of radio propaganda on the “native mentality.”
Developing a Cooperative Intra-institutional Approach to EAD Implementation: The Harvard/Radcliffe Digital Finding Aids Project

The Harvard/Radcliffe Digital Finding Aids Project (DFAP) was established in 1995 to explore options for making finding aids available remotely over the Internet. This paper reports on why SGML/EAD became the delivery medium of choice; the process of selection of SGML authoring software; the ongoing development of cross-Harvard standards and guidelines for application of EAD; plans for cross-repository indexing and development of a search engine; and implementation challenges faced by the eight Harvard/Radcliffe repositories participating in the project. Also discussed are the development of an EAD template for future Houghton Library finding aids and problems with retrospective conversion of existing finding aids.
Impacts of market behavior on distributed energy: a multi-disciplinary, hybridized modeling and simulation approach

Renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and micro-hydro have significantly advanced in recent years. They are more efficient, more easily acquired by the general public, and increasingly more economically feasible as energy alternatives. As their penetration into the energy marketplace increases, they present both potential complications for the management of the energy distribution system as well as potential benefits. Previous studies are largely a "top down" analysis of methods to cope with presumed behavior, on an aggregate basis, of the energy consumers. This paper outlines a proposed hybrid simulation system, using both agent-based and systems dynamics simulation techniques to examine the impacts of consumer behavior on the energy system from the "bottom up." By combining a system model of the electrical energy infrastructure with a heterogeneous consumer model, our simulation is designed to provide output to aid the development of new energy policies.