cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Mitigation of Solid Booster Ignition over Pressure by Water Aerosol Sprays

Interaction of acoustic waves with water aerosol layers is analyzed in the context of the problem of solid booster ignition overpressure suppression. In contrast to the conventional approach to ignition overpressure suppression, which aims at using water to quench the sources of the ignition overpressure waves, this study focuses on blocking the ignition overpressure wave propagation, using reflection and attenuation of the wave by the water aerosol layers. The study considers interaction of the waves with aerosol layers of large mass loading for varying sizes of the droplets. The size of the droplets is shown to substantially affect the mechanisms of interaction with the waves. The criteria for the crossover between different mechanisms are established as functions of the droplet size and the ignition overpressure wave parameters. The optimal parameters and designs for water aerosol sprays are proposed that maximize the ignition overpressure suppression. These results were obtained using the nozzle and t...
Commentary: Mid-20th Century Development of Brazilian Archaeology (1964–1985)

Two recent articles in the International Journal of Historical Archaeology provide a bit of light on the development of Brazilian archaeology in the middle 20th century. The first is one by Pedro Paulo de Abreu Funari entitled ‘Class Interests in Brazilian Archaeology’ (Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 209–216, 2002) and the second is a heated response to Funari, along with his rejoinder, by James A. Delle, Igor Chmyz, Ondemar Ferreira Dias, Tania Andrade Lima, Betty J. Meggers, and Pedro Paulo de Abreu Funari, entitled ‘On Collaboration, Class Conflict, and Archaeology in Brazil’ (Vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 223–237, 2003).
The Palmitoylation of Metastasis Suppressor KAI1/CD82 Is Important for Its Motility- and Invasiveness-Inhibitory Activity

The cancer metastasis suppressor protein KAI1/CD82 is a member of the tetraspanin superfamily. Recent studies have demonstrated that tetraspanins are palmitoylated and that palmitoylation contributes to the organization of tetraspanin webs or tetraspanin-enriched microdomains. However, the effect of palmitoylation on tetraspanin-mediated cellular functions remains obscure. In this study, we found that tetraspanin KAI1/CD82 was palmitoylated when expressed in PC3 metastatic prostate cancer cells and that palmitoylation involved all of the cytoplasmic cysteine residues proximal to the plasma membrane. Notably, the palmitoylation-deficient KAI1/CD82 mutant largely reversed the wild-type KAI1/CD82’s inhibitory effects on migration and invasion of PC3 cells. Also, palmitoylation regulates the subcellular distribution of KAI1/CD82 and its association with other tetraspanins, suggesting that the localized interaction of KAI1/CD82 with tetraspanin webs or tetraspanin-enriched microdomains is important for KAI1/CD82’s motility-inhibitory activity. Moreover, we found that KAI1/CD82 palmitoylation affected motility-related subcellular events such as lamellipodia formation and actin cytoskeleton organization and that the alteration of these processes likely contributes to KAI1/CD82’s inhibition of motility. Finally, the reversal of cell motility seen in the palmitoylation-deficient KAI1/CD82 mutant correlates with regaining of p130CAS-CrkII coupling, a signaling step important for KAI1/CD82’s activity. Taken together, our results indicate that palmitoylation is crucial for the functional integrity of tetraspanin KAI1/CD82 during the suppression of cancer cell migration and invasion.
Crash scene photography in motor vehicle crashes without air bag deployment.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether vehicle characteristics, measured using crash scene photography, are associated with anatomic patterns of injury and severity of injury sustained in motor vehicle crashes (MVCs) without air bag deployment. METHODS: A prospective observational study was conducted over 22 months, using 12 fire departments serving two hospitals. Two vehicle photographs (exterior and interior) were taken at each MVC. Vehicular variables were assigned by grading the photographs with a standardized scoring system, and outcome information on each patient was collected by chart review. RESULTS: Five hundred fifty-nine patients were entered into the study. Frontal crashes and increasing passenger space intrusion (PSI) were associated with head, facial, and lower-extremity injuries, while rear crashes were associated with spinal injuries. Restraint use had a protective effect in head, facial, and upper and lower extremity injuries, yet was associated with higher odds of spinal injury. Lack of restraint use, increasing PSI, and steering wheel deformity were associated with an increased hospital length of stay and hospital charges, yet only steering wheel deformity was associated with increasing injury severity when adjusting for other crash variables. CONCLUSIONS: Out-of-hospital variables, as obtained from crash vehicle photography, are associated with injury site, injury severity, hospital length of stay, and hospital charges in patients involved in MVCs without air bag deployment.
Survival, abundance, and capture rate of eastern cottontail rabbits in an urban park

Eastern cottontail rabbits (Sylvilagus floridanus) are common, conspicuous denizens of urban environments. They are associated with human-wildlife conflict due to vegetation damage. Prior to this study, population dynamics of this species in urban environments remained largely uncharacterized. For three consecutive winters, we used classic field ecology methods (mark-recapture and mark–resight surveys) to estimate demographic parameters of rabbits in a city park in Chicago, Illinois. Rabbits occurred in densities as high as 16.3 rabbits/ha, which is comparatively high for the Midwestern United States. An annual survivorship of 30.4 ± 12.9 % SE was similar to that observed in natural environments in similar climates. This result refuted our hypothesis that urban rabbits would have higher annual survival rates than rabbits in natural settings due to food subsidies supplied by landscaping in parks. Mean distance between trap locations for rabbits trapped three or more times was 43.14 ± 30.01 m SD, suggesting that rabbits in the urban study area had smaller home ranges than rabbits in non-human-dominated habitats. This study contributes to our understanding of population dynamics of a human-wildlife conflict species in urban environments and provides useful information for managers dealing with damage caused by rabbits. The mark-resight method employed here could be used by managers to estimate pre- and post-management population sizes of other conflict species, for example Canada geese (Branta Canadensis), in parks and green spaces, provided that the species is trappable, visible, and individuals have relatively small home ranges.
On the information content of the genetic code.

Abstract In living organsims 20 amino acids along with the terminator value(s) are encoded by 64 codons giving a degeneracy of the codons as described by the genetic code. A basic theoretical problem of genetic codes is to explain the particular distribution of degeneracies of partitions involved in the codes. In this work the degeneracy problem is considered in the framework of information theory. It is shown by direct numerical evaluation of a certain degeneracy information function associated with the genetic code that the degeneracy of the codes is observed to be related to the optimization of this function.
Defining milestones toward competency in mastoidectomy using a skills assessment paradigm

Objectives/Hypothesis: To establish milestones toward achievement of surgical competency by using an objective assessment tool designed to measure the development of mastoidectomy skills in the operating room (OR). Study Design: Prospective longitudinal validation study. Methods: Fifty-six evaluations were conducted in the OR on nine otolaryngology residents from PGY (postgraduate year) 2 to PGY 5 over a period of 3 years. Technical performance was measured over time using a task-based checklist developed for assessment of mastoidectomy skills. Results: Three sets of technical milestones represented achievement of competency for progressively more complicated procedural steps: the first set was achieved after a mean of 6 ± 4.3 cases, the second set after 9 ± 6.7 cases (range of mean = 8–10 cases), and the third set after 13 ± 6.4 cases (range of mean = 12–14 cases). Conclusions: The acquisition of mastoidectomy skills can be integrated into surgical teaching in the OR, and this approach yields information that can aid individual skill development and program improvement. The identification of milestones in particular can help establish training benchmarks toward achievement of competency and in identifying trainees in need of remediation.
Vehicle health management communications requirements for AeroMACS

As the development of standards for the aeronautical mobile airport communications system (AeroMACS) progresses, the process of identifying and quantifying appropriate uses for the system is progressing. In addition to defining important elements of AeroMACS standards, indentifying the systems uses impacts AeroMACS bandwidth requirements. Although an initial 59 MHz spectrum allocation for AeroMACS was established in 2007, the allocation may be inadequate; studies have indicated that 100 MHz or more of spectrum may be required to support airport surface communications. Hence additional spectrum allocations have been proposed. Vehicle health management (VHM) systems, which can produce large volumes of vehicle health data, were not considered in the original bandwidth requirements analyses, and are therefore of interest in supporting proposals for additional AeroMACS spectrum. VHM systems are an emerging development in air vehicle safety, and preliminary estimates of the amount of data that will be produced and transmitted off an aircraft, both in flight and on the ground, have been prepared based on estimates of data produced by on-board vehicle health sensors and initial concepts of data processing approaches. This allowed an initial estimate of VHM data transmission requirements for the airport surface. More recently, vehicle-level systems designed to process and analyze VHM data and draw conclusions on the current state of vehicle health have been undergoing testing and evaluation. These systems make use of vehicle system data that is mostly different from VHM data considered previously for airport surface transmission, and produce processed system outputs that will be also need to be archived, thus generating additional data load for AeroMACS. This paper provides an analysis of airport surface data transmission requirements resulting from the vehicle level reasoning systems, within the context of overall VHM data requirements.
Testing Time for Climate Science

On 31 March 2010, a British parliamentary committee exonerated Philip D. Jones, director of the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia, of personal wrongdoing in his conduct and management of research. Climate science fared less well. The Science and Technology Committee concluded in its report that the focus on a single individual had been misplaced: “we consider that Professor Jones's actions were in line with common practice in the climate science community” ( 1 ). Those practices included routine refusals to share raw data and computer codes. The committee judged that this had to change and that all future raw data and methodological work should be publicly disclosed.
Impact of implementation of the Surgical Care Improvement Project and future strategies for improving quality in surgery.

Abstract Background We present a comprehensive systematic review of the effect of Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP) measures on surgical site infections (SSIs) as related to SCIP compliance. Data Sources A systematic review of the peer-reviewed literature was performed on PubMed, Medline, and Cochrane database group using their own search engines. Keywords used were Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP), adherence, compliance, surgical site infection (SSI), infection bundle, antibiotics, perioperative antibiotics, and combinations thereof. Furthermore, reference lists of selected articles were cross-searched for additional literature. Papers published from January 1, 1998 to January 1, 2014 were included. Results A comprehensive analysis of these data demonstrated an 18% decrease in the odds of developing SSI and a cumulative 4% decrease in SSI. The largest increases in compliance for individual SCIP measures were reported between 2004 and 2006. However, compliance with multiple measures simultaneously had the sharpest increase between 2006 and 2009 without a definitive asymptote ascertained from the current data. Conclusions These results represent some positive progress toward the SCIP task force's 2006 goal of a 25% decrease in SSI by 2010. Suggestions for improved future papers in this area were also added.
Peltogynoids and homoisoflavonoids from Caesalpinia pulcherrima

Abstract From the stem part of Caesalpinia pulcherrima Swartz (Leguminosae) two new peltogynoids, pulcherrimin and 6-methoxypulcherrimin and two homoisoflavonoids, the recently reported compound bonducellin and a new derivative 8-methoxy-bonducellin, were isolated. The structures of these constituents were deduced by consideration of their spectral data. Also isolated were the known compounds, 2,6-dimethoxybenzoquinone and 4′-methylisoliquiritigenin, which displayed cytotoxic activity.
Foliar manganese application to soybeans

Abstract Manganese (Mn) deficiency symptoms in soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] frequently are apparent during early growth stages on Mn deficient soils. Foliar application is commonly used to correct Mn deficiency. Information on Mn sources, application rates, and methods of application is needed for Mn deficient soils. A 2‐year field study was conducted to determine the most effective Mn source (MnSO4 vs MnEDTA), total Mn rates (0, 1.12, 2.24, 4.48 kg/ha as MnSO 0, 0.28, 0.56, and 1.12 kg/ha as MnEDTA), and the best method of application (single vs multiple application) for soybeans grown on Olustee‐Leefield sand (Ultic Haplaquod‐Arenic Plinthaquic Paleudult). Foliar application of Mn as MnSO4 was as effective as MnEDTA, and multiple applications were more efficient than a single application. The Mn rates associated with 95% maximum yield (X) were 2.06 and 1.09 kg/ha total Mn as MnSO4 applied by single and multiple applications, respectively. For MnEDTA, the values were 0.20 and 0.42 kg Mn/ha for the si...
A Unified Approach to the Evaluation of a Class of Replacement Algorithms

The replacement problem arises in computer system management whenever the executable memory space available is insufficient to contain all data and code that may be accessed during the execution of an ensemble of programs. An example of this is the page replacement problem in virtual memory computers. The problem is solved by using a replacement algorithm that selects code or data items that are to be removed from executable memory whenever new items must be brought in and no more free storage space remains. An automaton theoretic model of replacement algorithms is introduced for the class of ``random partially preloaded'' replacement algorithms, which contain certain algorithms of practical and theoretical interest. An analysis of this class is provided in order to evaluate their performance, using the assumption that the references to the items to be stored are identically distributed independent random variables. With this model, it is shown that the well-known page replacement algorithms FIFO and RAND yield the same long-run page-fault rates.
Patterns of hybridization in plants

Abstract Hybridization plays an important role in the evolution of many taxonomic groups, but large-scale phylogenetic patterns of hybridization are poorly known. Here, we investigate patterns of hybridization in vascular plants. Our dataset included 282 families, 3212 genera and ≈37,000 species accounts from eight regional floras covering continental Europe, two island regions, and parts of North America and Australia. Interspecific hybrids were common in the wild, occurring in 40% of families and 16% of genera, with an overall frequency of 0.09 hybrids per nonhybrid species. Taxon species richness explained a large amount of variation in the number of hybrids, but taxon bias (study effort) did not. We accounted for species richness in calculating hybridization propensities, and found that both families and genera differed in hybridization propensity. Hybridization propensity of a given group was generally consistent across regions (with the exception of Hawaii), suggesting that hybridization behavior may be determined more by intrinsic properties of a group than by environmental conditions. We found evidence of a strong phylogenetic signal ( λ =0.93) in hybridization propensity as hybrids were not uniformly distributed across orders of vascular plants. Characterization of the hybridization behavior of groups should lead to increased predictive power regarding their traits and evolutionary trajectories, and will allow comparative tests of the traits driving differences in hybridization propensity.
A Theoretical Basis for Determining Heart-Lead Relationships of the Equivalent Cardiac Multipole

During the past few years, it has been proposed that the electrical behavior of the heart be represented more precisely by the addition of multipolar current singularities to the equivalent cardiac dipole. In this report, we have explored the factors which determine the relationship of each such multipolar component to the various electrocardiographic lead connections. Specifically, we have been able to amplify and generalize the concept of the ideal electrocardiographic lead field by showing that the electrocardiographic contribution of a given multipole component is related solely to the lead-field component of identical degree and order. Thus, the McFee-Johnston proposal for resolving lead fields is reintroduced, and the heart-lead property of each component is particularized. Finally, some brief, speculative remarks are made concerning possible biomedical applications of the generalized lead-field concept.
Implementation and Comparison of Three Neural Network Learning Algorithms

The performance of a welding process determines not only the cost, but also the quality of the product. How to control the welding process in order to ensure good welding performance with less cost and higher Productivity has become critical. The objective of this study is twofold: (1) developing artificial neural networks to predict welding performance using different learning algorithms: back propagation, simulated annealing and tabu search; (2) comparing and discussing the performance of neural networks trained using those algorithms. Statistical analysis shows that back propagation is able to make more accurate prediction than the other algorithms for this particular application. However, all three algorithms demonstrate impressive flexibility and robustness.
The management of hemangiomas of the eyelid and orbit

The growth of hemangiomas of the orbital region varies greatly; it is unpredictable. Most lesions never reach sufficient size to impair vision; a few, however, may grow sufficiently to cause disastrous complications. Nine children with complete or partial occlusion of the vision by hemangioma of one eye are reported. (Functional vision was preserved only in those patients who had early subtotal excision of the eyelid hemangioma.) Two children with complete occlusion developed amblyopia in the involved eye. One had optic nerve atrophy. One of the four children with partial occlusion of vision had a permanent decrease in visual acuity. Of the remaining three children with normal vision, two had been operatively treated early, and one had unusually rapid involution of the hemangioma. We recommend that when a child has complete or partial visual occlusion due to hemangioma, subtotal or total excision of the hemangioma should be carried out within 1 week of the onset of visual occlusion to prevent amblyopia.
Effects of pollen-synthesized green fluorescent protein on pollen grain fitness

Genetically engineered pollen with a visible marker gene could be useful to monitor the movement of transgenic pollen provided there are no negative physiological or fitness effects of expressing such a gene. In this study, we measured the fitness of Nicotiana tabacum cv. Xanthi pollen expressing the marker gene green fluorescent protein (GFP). Average pollen tube germination frequencies and pollen tube growth rates in vitro were measured in three different types of plants: (1) plants producing GFP in pollen cells only (LAT59-GFP), (2) plants synthesizing GFP under the control of a constitutive promoter (CaMV 35S) in which no GFP was produced in pollen, and (3) non-transgenic plants. Pollen synthesizing the GFP protein did not differ significantly in average pollen germination frequencies from pollen without GFP (P=0.65). Average pollen tube growth rates over a 5-h period did not differ significantly between transgenic and non-transgenic types (R 2=0.89, 0.98, and 0.95, respectively, for GFP-tagged, 35S-GFP, and wild type). Overall, GFP expression in pollen grains of tobacco was not found to have an effect on pollen fitness under the controlled experimental conditions of this study.
A toolkit for advanced performance analysis

Performance visualization is increasingly being considered a powerful approach for the analysis and debugging of parallel programs. Several performance analysis tools have already been developed for the analysis of program behavior. These tools have their specific advantages as well as limitations. A toolkit approach is presented that benefits from the advantages of conventional analysis tools, and also strives to overcome their limitations by giving a user the choice of a tool or analysis method that is most suitable in a particular situation. Various generic and commercially available data analysis tools contribute to the extensibility of the toolkit. One of the fundamental objectives of the toolkit is to practically implement multiple-domain analysis methods. Presently, the toolkit consists of Pablo, ParaGraph, AVS, and Matlab. >
Genome-wide mapping of Sox6 binding sites in skeletal muscle reveals both direct and indirect regulation of muscle terminal differentiation by Sox6

Sox6 is a multi-faceted transcription factor involved in the terminal differentiation of many different cell types in vertebrates. It has been suggested that in mice as well as in zebrafish Sox6 plays a role in the terminal differentiation of skeletal muscle by suppressing transcription of slow fiber specific genes. In order to understand how Sox6 coordinately regulates the transcription of multiple fiber type specific genes during muscle development, we have performed ChIP-seq analyses to identify Sox6 target genes in mouse fetal myotubes and generated muscle-specific Sox6 knockout (KO) mice to determine the Sox6 null muscle phenotype in adult mice. We have identified 1,066 Sox6 binding sites using mouse fetal myotubes. The Sox6 binding sites were found to be associated with slow fiber-specific, cardiac, and embryonic isoform genes that are expressed in the sarcomere as well as transcription factor genes known to play roles in muscle development. The concurrently performed RNA polymerase II (Pol II) ChIP-seq analysis revealed that 84% of the Sox6 peak-associated genes exhibited little to no binding of Pol II, suggesting that the majority of the Sox6 target genes are transcriptionally inactive. These results indicate that Sox6 directly regulates terminal differentiation of muscle by affecting the expression of sarcomere protein genes as well as indirectly through influencing the expression of transcription factors relevant to muscle development. Gene expression profiling of Sox6 KO skeletal and cardiac muscle revealed a significant increase in the expression of the genes associated with Sox6 binding. In the absence of the Sox6 gene, there was dramatic upregulation of slow fiber-specific, cardiac, and embryonic isoform gene expression in Sox6 KO skeletal muscle and fetal isoform gene expression in Sox6 KO cardiac muscle, thus confirming the role Sox6 plays as a transcriptional suppressor in muscle development. Our present data indicate that during development, Sox6 functions as a transcriptional suppressor of fiber type-specific and developmental isoform genes to promote functional specification of muscle which is critical for optimum muscle performance and health.
Individualism—Collectivism and Incentive System Design as Predictive of Productivity in a Simulated Cellular Manufacturing Environment

We respond to recent calls for a more inclusive behavioral as well as structural perspective on today's state-of-the-art manufacturing designs. Specifically, we empirically examine individualism—collectivism's productivity-related consequences for today's agile, cellular manufacturing designs across incentive systems. Findings indicate that, as hypothesized, the alignment of cell members' collectivistic orientation, a cooperative task structure, and equalitarian performance incentives resulted in one of the higher levels of productivity. However, the assumption that productivity will monotonically increase with the alignment of organizational components and worker orientation now appears questionable. While complete misalignment resulted in a productivity deficit averaging 7.6 percent, as long as one of the two major organizational design elements explored in this study (task structure and individual- versus group-based incentives) is aligned with the individualistic or collectivistic orientation of worke...
EFFECTS OF ACETATE ON THE GROWTH AND CHLOROPHYLL CONTENT OF GOLENKINIA1

SUMMARY Growth and chlorophyll synthesis by the green alga Golenkinia cease after approximately 60-hr incubation in 0.01 M sodium acetate. These effects are immediately preceded by a rapid rise of the pH of the medium to 8.6–8.8 due to acetate uptake. The pH kinetics are due to a gradual loss of the phosphate buffer, not to the induction or activation of acetate assimilatory enzymes. However, neither high pH nor sodium acetate alone is sufficient to inhibit cell division and bleach the algae; both must be present. Additional experiments support the hypothesis that acetate alters the cells so that they become sensitive to high concentrations of OH− ions.
Effects of cyclic AMP and theophylline on mitogen-induced RNA synthesis in human peripheral blood lymphocytes.

The effect of cyclic AMP and related drugs on mitogen-induced net RNA synthesis at 2 and 24 hours was investigated. The results at 24 hours are variable at a single concentration of mitogen, but when CAMP or theophylline is used with a wide dose range of phytohemagglutinin (0–2000 μg/ml), enhancement of RNA synthesis occurs at both 2 and 24 hours.
Molecular Pathways: Coexpression of Immune Checkpoint Molecules: Signaling Pathways and Implications for Cancer Immunotherapy

The expression of immune checkpoint molecules on T cells represents an important mechanism that the immune system uses to regulate responses to self-proteins. Checkpoint molecules include CTLA-4 (Cytotoxic T Lymphocyte Antigen-4), PD-1 (Programmed Death-1), LAG-3 (Lymphocyte Activation Gene-3), TIM-3 (T cell Immunoglobulin and Mucin protein-3) and several others. Previous studies have identified individual roles for each of these molecules, but more recent data show that co-expression of checkpoint molecules occurs frequently on cancer-specific T cells, as well as on pathogen-specific T cells in chronic infections. While the signaling pathways associated with each checkpoint molecule have not been fully elucidated, blocking multiple checkpoints with specific monoclonal antibodies results in improved outcomes in several chronic viral infections as well as in a wide array of pre-clinical models of cancer. Recent clinical data suggest similar effects in patients with metastatic melanoma. These findings support the concept that individual immune checkpoint molecules may function through non-overlapping molecular mechanisms. Here we review current data regarding immune checkpoint molecule signaling and co-expression, both in cancer and infectious disease, as well as the results of preclinical and clinical manipulations of checkpoint proteins.
Capacity enhancement in coherent optical MIMO (COMIMO) multimode fiber links

In this paper, we study a coherent optical MIMO (COMIEMO) multi-mode fiber link proposed for enhancing the fiber information capacity. We examine the statistical characterization of the equivalent MIMO channel and the improvement in the fiber capacity due to MIMO transmission. It is shown that the equivalent channel behaves similarly to a complex Gaussian MIMO channel, suggesting that the available results on wireless MIMO communication systems can be applied to optical fiber links for capacity enhancement.
Plasmonic characteristics of Ag/ZnO back-reflectors for thin film Si photovoltaics

Real time spectroscopic ellipsometry (RTSE) and ex-situ normal incidence reflectance and scattering spectroscopies have been applied to analyze the plasmonic characteristics of Ag/ZnO back-reflector (BR) structures used in triple junction thin film Si:H photovoltaics. The structure explored here is relevant to the substrate/BR/(n-i-p)**3 configuration and consists of opaque Ag followed by up to ∼ 3500 A of ZnO, both films prepared by sputtering onto Si wafers. The use of Si wafer substrates and RTSE enables controllability of the Ag final roughness layer thickness from ∼ 4 to 105 A, i.e., from microscopic (specular) to macroscopic (low texture), in order to investigate its role in Ag/ZnO interface formation and its effect on the interface plasmonic characteristics. The analysis in ex situ measurement modes has also been extended to the optimized BR structure (with full texture). For each BR, the dielectric functions ɛ = ɛ 1 + iɛ 2 of all layers have been determined, including the Ag/ZnO interface layer, and the latter has been fit using a model that includes localized plasmon resonances arising from free electron oscillations within Ag interface protrusions. These resonances shift to lower energy with increasing ZnO/Ag interface thickness due to dipolar interactions, and can account for both re-radiation and dissipation in fully textured BR structures. The operative mechanism of these optimized back-reflectors for triple junction a-Si:H-based solar cells is interference-enhanced localized plasmon coupling -- and subsequent re-radiation -- in the range of 1.4–1.5 eV. In fact, this mechanism appears to be up to ∼ 80% efficient in optimized BRs. Coupling efficiency to surface plasmons is limited to ≪ 15% for 1.4–1.5 eV due to dominant protrusions in fully textured BRs.
Revisiting optimal power control: Dual effects of SNR and contention

In this paper we study a transmission power-tune/control problem in the context of 802.11 Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) with multiple (and possibly densely deployed) access points (APs). Previous studies on power control tend to focus on one aspect of the control, either its effect on transmission capacity (PHY layer) assuming simultaneous transmissions, or its effect on contention order (MAC layer) by maximizing spatial reuse. We observe that power control has a dual effect: it affects both spatial reuse and capacity of active transmission; moreover, maximizing the two separately is not always aligned in maximizing system throughput and can even point in opposite directions. In this paper we introduce an optimization formulation that takes into account this dual effect, by measuring the impact of transmit power on system performance from both PHY and MAC layers. We show that such an optimization problem is intractable and develop an analytical framework to construct simple yet efficient solutions. Through numerical results, we observe clear benefits of this dual-effect model compared to solutions by trying to maximize spatial reuse and transmission capacity separately. This problem does not invoke cross-layer design, as the only degree of freedom in design resides with transmission power. It however highlights the complexity in tuning certain design parameters, as the change may manifest itself differently at different layers which may be at odds.
Determination of copper binding sites in peptides containing basic residues: a combined experimental and theoretical study

Abstract The energetics of monodentate Cu+ binding to model systems representing amino acid side chains and bidentate Cu+ binding in amino acid residues are investigated using electronic structure methods. Results from these calculations are compared with mass spectral data to determine Cu+ binding sites for gas-phase [M+Cu]+ peptide ions. Calculated monodentate Cu+ binding energies for amino acid models predict a relative Cu+ affinity ordering: arg > his > lys > cys > ser, whereas bidentate Cu+ binding energies give a relative Cu+ affinity ordering of arg > lys > his > gln > asn > glu > asp. Calculated results are in agreement with current and published experimental results.
The ‘obesity paradox’: a parsimonious explanation for relations among obesity, mortality rate and aging?

Current clinical guidelines and public health statements generically prescribe body mass index (BMI; kg m–2) categories regardless of the individual's situation (age, risk for diseases, and so on). However, regarding BMI and mortality rate, two well-established observations are (1) there is a U-shaped (that is, concave) association—people with intermediate BMIs tend to outlive people with higher or lower BMIs; and (2) the nadirs of these curves tend to increase monotonically with age. Multiple hypotheses have been advanced to explain either of these two observations. In this study, we introduce a new hypothesis that may explain both phenomena, by drawing on the so-called obesity paradox: the unexpected finding that obesity is often associated with increased survival time among people who have some serious injury or illness in spite of being associated with reduced survival time among the general population. We establish that the obesity paradox offers one potential explanation for two curious but consistently observed phenomena in the obesity field. Further research is needed to determine the extent to which the obesity paradox is actually an explanation for these phenomena, but if our hypothesis proves true the common practice of prescribing overweight patients to lower their BMI should currently be applied with caution. In addition, the statistical modeling technique used here could be applied in such other areas involving survival analysis of disjoint subgroups, to explain possible interacting causal associations and to determine clinical practice.
The road to elucidating the mechanism of manganese-bilirubin-induced cholestasis.

The article highlighted in this issue is Synergistic Role of 3-Hydroxy-3-Methylglutaryl Coenzyme A Reductase and Cholesterol 7a-Hydroxylase in the Pathogenesis of Manganese-Bilirubin-Induced Cholestasis in Rats, by Marie-Yvonne Akoume, Shahid Perwaiz, Ibrahim M. Yousef, and Gabriel L. Plaa (pp. 331-338).
Deus Machi de Jorge Guzmán

La novela que hoy nos interesa es Deus machi (Santiago: LOM Ediciones, 2010. 212 p. (Coleccion Narrativa), de Jorge Guzman.
A Purified Zinc Protease of Pea Chloroplasts, EP1, Degrades the Large Subunit of Ribulose-1,5-Bisphosphate Carboxylase/Oxygenase

A previously reported endopeptidase (EP1) from pea chloroplasts was purified over 11,000-fold using a four-step protocol involving ultrafiltration, sucrose gradient centrifugation, isoelectric focusing, and high performance liquid chromatography gel filtration. The enzyme was determined to be a metalloprotease requiring bound Zn2+ and added Mg2+ or Ca2+ for proper activity. Its localization in the stroma of pea chloroplasts was confirmed by demonstrating its insensitivity to thermolysin when the envelope was intact. A contaminating serine protease that attacks EP1 was found. The contaminating protease was inhibited by 4-(2-aminoethyl)-benzenesulfonyl fluoride, but not by o-phenanthroline, whereas EP1 sensitivities were the reverse. EP1 is able to hydrolyze the large subunit of native ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase under physiological conditions.
A case for virtual machine based fault injection in a high-performance computing environment

Large-scale computing platforms provide tremendous capabilities for scientific discovery. As applications and system software scale up to multi- petaflops and beyond to exascale platforms, the occurrence of failure will be much more common. This has given rise to a push in fault-tolerance and resilience research for high-performance computing (HPC) systems. This includes work on log analysis to identify types of failures, enhancements to the Message Passing Interface (MPI) to incorporate fault awareness, and a variety of fault tolerance mechanisms that span redundant computation, algorithm based fault tolerance, and advanced checkpoint/restart techniques. While there is much work to be done on the FT/Resilience mechanisms for such large-scale systems, there is also a profound gap in the tools for experimentation. This gap is compounded by the fact that HPC environments have stringent performance requirements and are often highly customized. The tool chain for these systems are often tailored for the platform and the operating environments typically contain many site/machine specific enhancements. Therefore, it is desirable to maintain a consistent execution environment to minimize end-user (scientist) interruption. The work on system-level virtualization for HPC system offers a unique opportunity to maintain a consistent execution environment via a virtual machine (VM). Recent work on virtualization for HPC has shown that low-overhead, high performance systems can be realized [7, 15]. Virtualization also provides a clean abstraction for building experimental tools for investigation into the effects of failures in HPC and the related research on FT/Resilience mechanisms and policies. In this paper we discuss the motivation for tools to perform fault injection in an HPC context. We also present the design of a new fault injection framework that can leverage virtualization.
Morphology, Shape and Phylogeny

Norman MacLeod and Peter L. Forey, eds., 2002, Taylor and Francis Inc., New York, 308 p. (Hardcover, US$ 125.00) ISBN: 0-415-24074-3. Anyone who has ever coded a character matrix for phylogenetic analysis has asked themselves questions such as: “Is this ambulacrum long or short?” or “Is this sulcus wide and shallow, or narrow and deep?” Issues with coding shape characters are further compounded when coding a taxon using another researcher’s character descriptions because their concept of “narrow and deep” may not fully overlap with one’s own. How we code continuous variables for use in phylogenetic analysis is one of the most fundamental problems facing the use of morphological character data. A new, fourteen-chapter edited volume, Morphology, Shape and Phylogeny addresses this and related issues by bringing together a diverse group of biologists and paleontologists whose research straddles the gap between morphometrics and phylogenetics. The book is written largely from the morphometrics perspective and is an interesting companion to a similar edited work, Phylogenetic Analysis of Morphological Data (Wiens, 2000), written primarily from the phylogenetic perspective. Interestingly, only three authors participated in both books, and they jointly authored a single, complimentary chapter in each. Morphology, Shape and Phylogeny questions the use of morphometric data in phylogenetic inference. Morphometrics and phylogenetics are both schools of inquiry that have at their root the use of large character sets, but utilize these data for quite different purposes. Morphometrics is concerned with discovering the distances between individuals in …
Zachary Reid’s Transoceanic Performance of White Gentility in Sea of Poppies

B‘Freedom, yes, exactly. Isn’t that what the mastery of the white man means for the lesser races?’^—Benjamin Burnham to Zachary in Sea of Poppies, p. 77 Roughly 90 % of free and enslaved African Americans worked on land in the antebellum USA. But that minority who did sail on whalers and merchant ships has taught scholars about the liberties of seafaring, and about the plantation as just one component of a global system of labor (Bolster 1997). 1 Amitav Ghosh further interrogates the history of these African American slaves and freemen at sea in his postcolonial and postmodern novel Sea of Poppies (2008a, b). I argue that the fictional plot of Sea of Poppies distinguishes itself from the autobiographical maritime narratives of Paul Cuffee, Oludah Equiano, Briton Hammon, and John Jea by imagining an alternate route: The novel features Zachary Reid, a free African American sailor passing as white, and a circulation of Asian migrants between the Black Atlantic and the Indian Ocean during Great Britain and China’s opium trade. Zachary’s voyage as second mate aboard the Ibis initiates our encounter with a multiplicity of subaltern cultures and languages which transform a former slave ship into the vessel for transporting coolies under the mast of Britain’s expansive imperialism of the early nineteenth century. J Afr Am St (2016) 20:120–132 DOI 10.1007/s12111-015-9321-1
Vagal withdrawal as a function of audience

This investigation examined the effects of psychosocial influences upon vagal cardiac activity. In this crossover, counter-balanced study, 15 subjects were assessed for vagal cardiac activity before and during a presentation in the presence and/or absence of an audience. Electrocardiograms (ECG) were collected throughout the epochs of interest, using a portable holter monitor system. Power spectral density analyses were used to decompose autonomic rhythmicities of heart rate variability. Significantly diminished vagal power was noted before and during presentation episodes with an audience compared with vagal power during a presentation without an audience (P < 0.05). Because respiration modulates autonomic outflow, ECG-derived respiration was derived and compared for all epochs, and no significant differences were noted. The real-life findings in the current investigation are strongly suggestive of the modulating effects of psychosocial interactions upon vagal cardiac electrophysiology and should be considered when assessing autonomic status.
Response of Earth Dams to Traveling Seismic Waves

The finite element method, previously used in earthquake analysis of earth dams assuming uniform base motion, is extended and a general theory is developed to account for spacial variations of earthquake ground motion along the dam base. A brief discussion of the causes of spacial variations in ground motion are given, and a general theory which can be used for dynamic analysis of structures of any type subjected to known non-uniform base motion is presented. The method is demonstrated by considering the horizontal component of Taft earthquake traveling across the base of a simple triangular cross section of a dam at an assumed propagation velocity. Results of analysis with different propagation velocities are presented in the form of plots showing the stress contours at selected instants of time and the time histories of stresses at selected points in the cross section. These results are compared with those obtained for uniform base motion. Relative differences between the rigid base and the traveling wave solutions are established, and it is shown that significant errors may be introduced by neglecting spacial variations in the ground motion.
The Butler County Geologic Map: A Case Study of the Map Production Process at the Kansas Geological Survey

This paper provides a typical example of the process for development of new county geologic maps in Kansas. Emphasis is placed on procedures used by the Automated Cartography Group at the Kansas Geological Survey for conversion of field maps to digital geologic databases and the production of finished maps. Techniques described in this paper cover preparation of source documents from geologic field maps, digital data capture, merging of data from separate source maps into a county map database, development of the map layout database and map design, conversion of the geologic map database to hardware specific plotfiles, and production of the finished map.
Abstract 2731: Serum prostate health index and biopsy tissue DNA content at the time of diagnosis predicts the need for treatment in men enrolled in an active surveillance program

Proceedings: AACR 101st Annual Meeting 2010‐‐ Apr 17‐21, 2010; Washington, DC Introduction and Objective: We assessed a novel application of the Prostate Health Index [Phi = (proPSA / free PSA) × (square root of PSA)] developed by Beckman-Coulter Inc. and DNA content measurements in benign-adjacent and cancer tissue areas to predict which patients would eventually require treatment for prostate cancer (PCa) in an active surveillance (AS) cohort. Methods: We identified 71 men at the Johns Hopkins Hospital AS program which had banked serum from the time of diagnosis available for the study. 39 developed an unfavorable biopsy (Gleason score >6, Gleason pattern 4/5, >2 cores positive for cancer, >50% of any core involved with cancer), while 32 have maintained favorable biopsies (median follow-up: 3.7 years). Serum total PSA, free PSA and [−2] proPSA were measured by the Beckman Coulter immunoassay. DNA content measurements of Feulgen-stained biopsy sections were performed with the AutoCyteTM imaging system. Cox proportional hazard regression and Kaplan-Meier plots were used to identify significant prognosticators for unfavorable biopsy conversion-free survival. Results: The ratio of Phi in serum was significantly higher (37.23 ± 15.76 vs. 30.60 ± 12.70 p=0.03) in men ultimately developing unfavorable biopsies. Serum Phi [HR(95%CI): 2.39 (1.26-4.52), p=0.007], BA excess of optical density (OD) [HR (95%CI): 2.58 (1.17-5.68), p=0.019] and CA standard deviation of OD [HR (95%CI): 5.36 (1.89-15.24), p=0.002] were significant predictors of an unfavorable biopsy conversion in both Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analysis. Patients with Phi >34.2 and CA standard deviation of OD >4.0 showed the highest risk for unfavorable biopsy conversion (p<0.0001). Conclusions: Measurement of the serum Phi and tissue DNA content at the time of diagnosis are able to predict which men enrolled in an AS cohort will ultimately require treatment for PCa. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 2731.
Old World Encounters: Cross-Cultural Contacts and Exchanges in Pre-Modern Times

This study examines cross-cultural encounters before 1492 AD, focusing on the major influences that transformed Asia and Europe during that period. The author examines the political, social, economic and cultural conditions that enabled one culture to influence or suppress another.
Paying the price: Executive demotion after stock option exercises in Chinese state-owned enterprises

In this study I investigate the individual consequences of stock option exercises in Chinese state-owned firms. The stock option exercise behaviors of executives in Chinese state-owned firms repres...