cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Speech and language skills in children who required neonatal intensive care. I. Spontaneous speech at 6.5 years of age.

Spontaneous speech at age 6.5 years was studied separately in a follow-up of speech and language skills in a regional cohort of 284 children requiring neonatal intensive care and in 40 controls, Eight aspects of spontaneous speech were evaluated in a conversation: Al, information; A2, speech motor function; A3. sound pattern; A4, word finding; A5, word selection; A6, grammar; A7, interaction; and A8, motivation. The children were grouped by gestational age. Most children had well developed spontaneous speech. The different groups showed very few differences in types of deviations in spontaneous speech. All groups differed from the controls in speech motor function and formal language (A2-A6), but only one child, born at <32 weeks, had a pronounced deviation in one of these aspects. Obvious deviations in one or more aspects of spontaneous speech were more common among children born at 28-31 weeks and in those born fullterm (≥37 weeks) than among extremely preterm children born at 23-27 weeks.
Dentinal Bonding Reaches the Root Canal System

Several factors can contribute to the achievement of success with endodontic therapy. After an effective microbial-control phase, an adequate canal and coronal filling will guarantee a high probability of success. Gutta-percha has for many years been widely used as a solid material in root fillings associated with different types of sealers. Even associated with a sealer, this material it is not capable of preventing leakage, as has been shown in many studies. In fact, because of gutta-percha's limitations, the seal of a coronal restoration may be as important as the gutta-percha fill in preventing reinfection of the root canal. Although sealers can form close adhesion to the root canal wall, none is able to bond to the gutta-percha core material. Upon setting, the sealer pulls away from the gutta-percha core, leaving a gap through which bacteria may pass. This article describes a new thermoplastic, synthetic root canal filling material, whose design is based on polyester chemistry, that looks and handles like gutta-percha. It is used in the same manner as most bonding systems. After the usual preparation of the root canal, a self-etch primer is used to condition the canal walls and prepare them for bonding to the resin. The resin sealant is introduced in the root canal. It bonds to the primer and to the resin core material; thus, a "monoblock" is formed without the gaps typical in gutta-percha fillings. Studies have shown that leakage of bacteria with this material is significantly reduced compared with gutta-percha.
SO(2,1) Algebra and the Large $N$ Expansion in Quantum Mechanics

Abstract We discuss the large N expansion in quantum mechanics using an algebraic procedure based on a Holstein-Primakoff representation of the well-known SO(2, 1) algebra. Both spherically and axially symmetric potentials are studied. The method is explicitly illustrated for the family of potentials V = ω 0 2 r 2 2 + 2νr 2ν as well as the hydrogen atom in a uniform magnetic field. In the latter case, the first non-trivial iteration of the present perturbative scheme yields accurate results for the energy levels, even for strong magnetic field intensities. Further generalizations and applications are outlined.
Diastolic dysfunction in sickle cell

In adults with sickle cell disease (SCD), echocardiographic evidence of diastolic dysfunction is an independent risk factor for death that is additive to pulmonary hypertension.[1][1] In this issue of Blood , Johnson and colleagues describe echocardiography and polysomnography results from 44
Mach 6 flow-field and boundary-layer surveys beneath the forebody of an airbreathing missile

A wind tunnel investigation has been conducted to determine the flow characteristics of the shock layer beneath the forebody of a hypersonic, airbreathing missile incorporating an aft-mounted inlet. In the inviscid part of the flow field, the measured parameters were in agreement with those predicted by a three-dimensional Method of Characteristics theory. At test conditions matching full scale Mach and Reynolds numbers at an altitude for maximum L/D cruise, boundary layer transition occurred downstream of the inlet face. While this means that a full size vehicle would have a more easily separated boundary layer, it is noted that the Reynolds number discrepancy between wind tunnel and actual flight conditions may result in a movement of the transition point to somewhere upstream of the inlet.
The role of uncertainty in nuclear winter modelling

inherent in models of the nuclear winter phenomenon, with specific reference to the nuclear winter base term. The ‘base term’ refers to the amount of smoke injected into the atmosphere from fires ignited in a hypothetical nuclear exchange. The author examines the implications of uncertainty for estimating inputs to atmospheric circulation models used to assess the magnitude of the nuclear winter phenomenon. This is achieved through a set of experiments designed to assess the effects of variations in the spatial distribution of combustible materials on the dynamics of large urban fires. These experiments are based on an urban fire model applied to a dataset depicting the spatial distribution of combustible materials in urban areas, as derived from air photo interpretation techniques. Results indicate that the use of realistic models of the spatial distribution in place of the more common uniform and stepfunction models introduces additional uncertainty into base term estimates, due to an increase in variability in the amount of material available for ignition and an enhanced capability for fire spread in a spatially heterogeneous environment. This study shows that, paradoxically, the incorporation of more detailed information into nuclear winter base term models may introduce additional uncertainty into model outputs.
Instruction fetch energy reduction using loop caches for embedded applications with small tight loops

A fair amount of work has been done in recent years on reducing power consumption in caches by using a small instruction buffer placed between the execution pipe and a larger main cache. These techniques, however, often degrade the overall system performance. In this paper, we propose using a small instruction buffer, also called a loop cache, to save power. A loop cache has no address tag store. It consists of a direct-mapped data array and a loop cache controller. The loop cache controller knows precisely whether the next instruction request will hit in the loop cache, well ahead of time. As a result, there is no performance degradation.
Mother Country: Discussion of Hazel Ipp's “Nell—A Bridge to the Amputated Self”

Ipp's clinical narrative is examined for the ways in which the social, as it builds the psyche, is met by the psyche as it builds the social. Ipp reminds us that no matter where you find yourself, no matter where you are going, you begin at home (as Winnicott might have it); and, although home is a mother (also, as Winnicott might have had it), it is not only a mother. Home is a mother country; hence, the psyche–social. Home is also a place from whence one leaves. How mourning makes history, and how that history is socially shaped and reshaped, is also considered, as it underscores the therapeutic action of Ipp's clinical account.
Analytic solutions of a multi-interface transmission problem and crack approximation

Analytic solutions to the Laplace equation in annulus and disc are combined with transmission conditions to find analytic solutions for transmission problems with multiple concentric circular interfaces. Coefficients are found rapidly by solving 2 × 2 linear systems for each interface. This makes them very suitable as test cases for inverse problem solvers. The special case of two very close interfaces is used to quantitatively test crack jump conditions which result from combining transmission conditions at the two interfaces into approximate conditions at a single interface. The quality of the approximation depends on whether the crack is resistive or conductive.
Health-related quality of life following blind rehabilitation

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of residential blind rehabilitation on patients’ vision-targeted health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and general physical and mental function. The National Eye Institute 25-item Visual Function Questionnaire (NEI VFQ) plus appendix questions, the 12-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-12), Hope Scale and Coopersmith self-esteem inventory were administered to 206 legally blind veterans prior to their entering a residential (in-patient) blind rehabilitation program and again to 185 and 176 of the original cohort at 2 and 6 months after completion of the rehabilitation program, respectively. Data on visual acuity, visual field extent, contrast sensitivity and scanning ability were also collected. The duration of the in-patient rehabilitation programs ranged from 11 to 109 days. Questionnaire scores were compared pre-rehabilitation and post-rehabilitation. Following rehabilitation there was a significant improvement in nine of 11 NEI VFQ subscales and in a composite score at both the 2- and 6-month post-rehabilitation intervals. Mental health (SF-12) and self esteem also improved significantly although physical health ratings declined over the course of the study (approximately 10 months). Residential blind rehabilitation appears to improve patients’ self-reported vision-targeted HRQOL, self-esteem and mental health aspects of generic HRQOL.
Demonstration of a mobile Flux Laboratory for the Atmospheric Measurement of Emissions (FLAME) to assess emissions inventories.

The advancement of air quality science and the development of effective air quality management plans require accurate estimates of emissions. In response to the need for new approaches to quantifying emissions, we have designed a mobile Flux Lab for the Atmospheric Measurement of Emissions (FLAME) that uses eddy covariance for the direct measurement of anthropogenic emissions at the neighborhood scale. To demonstrate the FLAME's capabilities, we have deployed it in the Huntington-Ashland region at the borders of Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia. This area routinely experiences high ozone and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations and is home to a significant amount of industrial activity, including coal storage and transport. Experiments focused on carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5). Spikes in CO2 and NOx concentrations were correlated with the passage of trains and barges through the FLAME's footprint. Calculated barge emission factors ranged from 49 to 76 kg NOx tonne−1fuel and agreed well with previously published values. Fluxes measured at three sites in the town of Worthington were mainly positive. They ranged between −6.5 to 29 mg m−2 s−1 for CO2 and −9.7 × 10−5 to 9.1 × 10−5 mg m−2 s−1 for PM2.5. We illustrate how the measurements can be compared to emissions inventories on a per capita basis for greenhouse gases and countywide for other pollutants. The results show that a mobile eddy covariance system can be used successfully to measure fluxes of multiple pollutants in a variety of settings. This alternative method for estimating emissions can be a useful tool for assessing uncertainties in emissions inventories and for improving their accuracy.
The spatial analysis of activity stop generation

Travel demand analysis is intrinsically spatial; yet spatial analysis considerations are seldom recognized and accommodated in travel modeling. The objective of this paper is to identify the spatial issues that need to be recognized in demand modeling, and to propose a multi-level, mixed logit, formulation to address these spatial issues in the context of activity stop generation. The multi-level model is estimated using the maximum simulated likelihood method. Empirical results obtained from applying the model to study shopping activity stop generation in the Boston Metropolitan area are presented and discussed.
Coherent ultrafast nonlinear optical processes in semiconductor quantum wells

Abstract This article reviews recent experiments where, for the first time, the dynamics of both the amplitude and the phase of ultrafast coherent emission from semiconductor quantum well structures have been investigated.
The clinical course of nonsmall cell lung carcinoma in survivors of Hodgkin disease

BACKGROUND The objective of this study was to document the natural history of second lung carcinomas, common second tumors that arise in survivors of Hodgkin disease (HD). METHODS The data bases of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center were searched to retrieve those patients who were listed with a diagnosis of both lung carcinoma and HD. Information was extracted regarding their HD (including age at diagnosis and treatment received) and their lung carcinoma (including smoking history, latency from HD, histology, disease stage, treatment received, treatment response, and survival). RESULTS Twenty-one lung carcinomas were diagnosed in 19 patients, with a median latency of 13 years from the time of diagnosis of HD. Only five patients underwent complete resection, and four patients were alive and disease free at the last follow-up. In contrast, the median survival of 14 patients with unresectable disease was 3 months. No major objective responses were documented after chemotherapy. Poor performance status and prior thoracic radiotherapy limited treatment in patients with advanced disease. All patients had either received radiotherapy to the chest for HD or had a history of smoking; 74% of patients had both risk factors for the development of lung carcinoma. CONCLUSIONS In patients with a history of HD, survival after the development of lung carcinoma is poor. Because surgical resection can lead to long-term survival, early detection is crucial. HD survivors, especially those with a history of smoking, should undergo careful surveillance for second primary lung carcinomas and other diseases. Patients who are diagnosed with HD should abstain from smoking. Physicians should assess specifically the smoking status of all HD patients and prescribe a smoking cessation program. Cancer 2002;95:119–26. © 2002 American Cancer Society. DOI 10.1002/cncr.10628
Solid-state foaming of titanium by hydrogen-induced internal-stress superplasticity

Titanium foam was produced by expansion of pressurized argon-filled pores within titanium at 860 � C. Alternating atmospheres of pure Ar and Ar/4% H2 resulted in cyclical hydrogen alloying/de-alloying. The associated internal-stress plasticity enhanced pore expansion, volume fraction and size, as compared to foams expanding by creep without composition change. � 2003 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Wildland fire emissions, carbon and climate: Characterizing wildland fuels

Abstract Smoke from biomass fires makes up a substantial portion of global greenhouse gas, aerosol, and black carbon (GHG/A/BC) emissions. Understanding how fuel characteristics and conditions affect fire occurrence and extent, combustion dynamics, and fuel consumption is critical for making accurate, reliable estimates of emissions production at local, regional, national, and global scales. The type, amount, characteristics, and condition of wildland fuels affect combustion and emissions during wildland and prescribed fires. Description of fuel elements has focused on those needed for fire spread and fire danger prediction. Knowledge of physical and chemical properties for a limited number of plant species exists. Fuel beds with potential for high impact on smoldering emissions are not described well. An assortment of systems, methods, analytical techniques, and technologies have been used and are being developed to describe, classify, and map wildland fuels for a variety of applications. Older systems do not contain the necessary information to describe realistically the wildland fuel complex. While new tools provide needed detail, cost effectiveness to produce a reliable national fuels inventory has not been demonstrated. Climate change-related effects on vegetation growth and fuel distribution may affect the amount of GHG/A/BC emissions from wildland fires. A fundamental understanding of the relationships between fuel characteristics, fuel conditions, fire occurrence, combustion dynamics, and GHG/A/BC emissions is needed to aid strategy development to mitigate the expected effects of climate change.
Studies on Tryptophan Metabolism in Male Subjects Treated with Hydrocortisone

ABSTRACT The influence of hydrocortisone on urinary excretion of metabolites of the kynurenine pathway of tryptophan metabolism has been studied in male subjects. Hydrocortisone caused increased urinary excretion of tryptophan metabolites (i.e., kynurenine, acetylkynurenine, kynurenic acid, 3-hydroxykynurenine, and xanthurenic acid) after a loading dose of 2 g l-tryptophan, whereas urinary excretion of anthranilic acid metabolites was unchanged. The conversion of tryptophan to nicotinic acid metabolites was inhibited. Vitamin B6 supplementation normalized urinary excretion of tryptophan metabolites and caused an increase in urinary excretion of anthranilic acid metabolites. These results indicate that the capacity of the kynurenine pathway is exceeded by a loading dose of 2 g l-tryptophan when tryptophan pyrrolase, the first step of the kynurenine pathway, is induced by hydrocortisone. On the other hand, hydrocortisone seems to inhibit the extent to which tryptophan enters the NAD pathway.
An infinitely summable series implementation of interior point methods

We consider an alternative implementation of the interior point methods. In the popular implementations, a variant of sparse Cholesky factorization is integrated with a conjugate gradient type iterative method. In contrast, we set up the problem as an infinitely summable series of vectors. This series is then, iteratively, summed. At each iteration, a procedure based on “least squares” is used to obtain an estimate of the “tail” of the series. In addition, using Chebychev approximations, we show how to accelerate the convergence of this procedure. In this alternative approach, besides finding Cholesky factors of some simpler matrices, only multiplications by some matrix are involved. This may be an advantage since in the later part of these methods, the linear system to be solved has a tendency to become ill conditioned. We present some evidence for the case of the dual affine scaling method applied to the assignment problem which supports this conclusion.
Prediction of die wear during hot-extrusion of engine valves

Abstract Automotive exhaust valves are conventionally manufactured in North America by an extrusion-forging process. Abrasive and adhesive wear during the valve stem extrusion operation shorten die life markedly under the high-pressure, high-temperature conditions. It is desired to reduce this die wear by developing simulation software to predict wear based on process conditions, and then optimizing the process. This paper describes the procedures and results obtained using a computer modeling method developed at the ERC for Net Shape Manufacturing. Results obtained to date indicate that accurate abrasive and adhesive wear prediction of steel and ceramic extrusion dies is feasible in cases where plastic deformation is not significant.
Method for the study of ventricular fibrillation

Abstract By means of perfusion with barium chloride, the “fibrillation level,” or tendency of the heart to fibrillate, may be measured, and the effects of drugs on this level may be studied.
A Nazi Diplomat Turned Apologist for Apartheid: Gustav Sonnenhol, Vergangenheitsbewältigung and West German Foreign Policy towards South Africa

This article examines continuities in the personnel of the German foreign office by focusing on the case of Dr Gustav Adolf Sonnenhol, a German diplomat before and after 1945. A member of the Nazi Party and the SS, Sonnenhol served as German vice-consul in North Africa and headed the department Inland II B of the Auswartiges Amt (in charge of liaison with the SD). Exonerated by denazification, he continued his career in government, first in the ministry of the Marshall Plan, then once again in the foreign service. By 1968 he had become the West German ambassador to South Africa. The article analyses how Sonnenhol represented West Germany at the Cape at a time when international protests against the policy of apartheid forced West Germany to modify its policy toward South Africa in the late 1960s. While the process of social liberalization and generational change was in full swing in West Germany, the country embarked on a process of confrontation with Germany's colonial past and racism toward black Africa. Changing attitudes toward (South) Africa resulted in social and political conflict. Sonnenhol, like many Germans of his generation, remained trapped in colonial stereotypes, exacerbating the generational tensions within the foreign ministry. Ultimately, the foreign ministry of Willy Brandt could not free itself of an old guard of Nazi diplomats. As chancellor, Brandt was also unwilling to take a strong stand against the apartheid regime, which had powerful supporters in West Germany.
Earthquake analysis of arch dams including dam–water interaction, reservoir boundary absorption and foundation flexibility

The available substructure method and computer program for the steady-state, harmonic response analysis of arch dams, including the hydrodynamic effects, are extended to consider flexibility of the foundation rock and to include Fourier synthesis of harmonic responses to obtain the earthquake response of arch dams. By efficient evaluation of hydrodynamic terms, interpolation of frequency response functions and more efficient computer programming, the computational costs for analysing arch dams have been reduced by an order of magnitude relative to the available procedure.
Image-guided esophageal anastomosis in esophageal atresia

Infants with tracheoesophageal fistulas may present with complex cardiac disease that may obviate or disrupt a safe operative repair. Here we present a case of an infant who developed cardiac instability during esophageal atresia repair, precluding formal anastomosis after approximation of the distal and proximal esophageal segments. Postoperatively, anastomosis of the esophagus was achieved using an image-guided technique with subsequent dilation. This approach may provide an alternative approach for establishment of esophageal continuity in patients who are high-risk operative candidates.
Taming the dynamic behavior of JavaScript

JavaScript is widely used in Web applications because of its flexibility and dynamic characteristics. However, the latter (e.g., runtime code generation and dynamic object behavior) pose challenges for program understanding, security, etc. We have designed the JavaScript Blended Analysis Framework, a program analysis framework that combines dynamic and static analyses. JSBAF expands the capability of static analysis for the dynamically generated code and variadic functions. We also present a novel context-sensitive points-to analysis that more precisely models JavaScript objects. Empirical results on popular JavaScript websites show that our analyses are substantially more accurate than existing approaches.
An Experimental Investigation of Gender Bias in the Use of Management Information

ABSTRACT In a previous study (Estes & Hosseini, 1988), we found that women report lower confidence than men in their investment decisions. As a continuation of that research, this study investigated the effect of gender (management and staff) on management confidence in forecasts prepared by corporate staff. An experiment was administered in a large manufacturing firm to 122 managers who use forecast information. Forecaster gender, age, education, and experience were varied between control and test groups. Manager confidence in forecast information was not affected by the gender of the forecaster or by other forecaster characteristics. Confidence was affected by manager education and experience but not by other personal manager characteristics including gender.
Contested Realities: Feral Horses in Outback Australia

Prior to 1980, feral horse numbers in the Northern Territory of Australia were thought to be low, between 40,000 and 60,000. Based on research done by an American geographer, these estimates should have been critically scrutinized by Australian scientists. They were, however, accepted uncritically. Then in the early 1980s, helicopter censuses showed that the feral horse population was more than 200,000, a figure that, when adjusted upward to 238,000, became the basis for urging pastoralists to join with the Territory's conservation commission to sharply reduce the number of horses. But because of public outcry, the unwillingness of pastoralists to participate in a horse-reduction program, and a slow-footed conservation commission, virtually nothing was done. By the late 1980s, the “problem” of feral horses had been redefined. Without supporting data or good reason to believe that large numbers of horses had died through drought or other means, the estimate of horse numbers was adjusted downward to 70,000. The reasons for this redefinition are social and political, and were unrelated to new biological knowledge or the available technical means to dramatically reduce horse populations. While this narrative of contested realities might be seen by some as exemplary of these postmodernist times, this would be an inappropriate inference.
Implementation of Brackish Groundwater Desalination Using Wind-Generated Electricity: A Case Study of the Energy-Water Nexus in Texas

Abstract: Growing populations and periodic drought conditions have exacerbated water stress in many areas worldwide. In response, some municipalities have considered desalination of saline water as a freshwater supply. Unfortunately, desalination requires a sizeable energy investment. However, renewable energy technologies can be paired with desalination to mitigate concern over the environmental impacts of increased energy use. At the same time, desalination can be operated in an intermittent way to match the variable availability of renewable resources. Integrating wind power and brackish groundwater desalination generates a high-value product (drinking water) from low-value resources (saline water and wind power without storage). This paper presents a geographically-resolved performance and economic method that estimates the energy requirements and profitability of an integrated wind-powered reverse osmosis facility treating brackish groundwater. It is based on a model that incorporates prevailing natural and market conditions such as average wind speeds, total dissolved solids content, brackish well depth, desalination treatment capacity, capital and operation costs of wind and desalination facilities, brine disposal costs, and electricity and water prices into its calculation. The model is illustrated using conditions in Texas (where there are counties with significant co-location of wind
Malignant liver lesions: Comparison of spiral CT arterial portography and MR imaging for diagnostic accuracy, cost, and effect on patient management

We compared two imaging techniques, spiral CT arterial portography (CTAP) and MR imaging, for diagnostic accuracy, procedural cost, and effect on management of 26 patients referred for hepatic surgery for suspected limited malignant liver disease. CTAP and MR imaging were done within a 1-week period (19 within 24 hours); the results of the studies were interpreted prospectively by separate reviewers. Surgical data were evaluated in conjunction with imaging data in 10 patients. Lesion detection and segmental involvement were determined and sensitivity and specificity were calculated. Procedural cost was determined from hospital billing codes. Effect on patient management was determined by the referring oncologic surgeon. CTAP and MR imaging showed 185 and 176 true-positive malignant lesions, 15 and zero false-positive malignant lesions, zero and 18 true-negative malignant lesions, and 13 and 22 false-negative malignant lesions, respectively. CTAP and MR imaging showed 107 and 105 true-positive segments, 11 and zero false-positive segments, 80 and 91 true-negative segments, and four and six false-negative segments, respectively. There was a significant difference in specificity of segmental involvement between MR imaging (1.0 +/- 0) compared with CTAP (0.88 +/- 0.05), P = .03. Total procedural cost was $3,499 for CTAP and $1,224 for MR imaging. CTAP findings did not change patient management over MR imaging findings in any patient, whereas MR imaging findings resulted in a change in patient management over CTAP findings in seven patients (P = .015). The results of our study suggest that MR imaging has higher diagnostic accuracy and greater effect on patient management than CTAP does and is 64% less expensive.
Description of Machine Tool Errors Using Screw Coordinates

The kinematic behavior of a mechanism may be modeled using a number of different formalisms. In this paper, the description of machine tool errors is examined using screw coordinates. The six components of error associated with each axis motion, three rotational errors about the three coordinate axes and three translational errors of the origin along the coordinate axes, are shown to be identically the six components of an “error twist,” or screw displacement. This “error twist” is a motor, and the six components of the motor are, in general, functions of the axis position. Thus, the “error twist” is a motor valued function of a scalar variable which describes axis errors in an extremely compact form. Furthermore, this approach allows clearer insights into errors which arise due to the Abbe effect. Using screw-coordinates to describe the machine errors, it becomes clear that the so-called Abbe errors cannot be eliminated in the general case, even if the tool point is collinear with the machine scale. However, the relative importance of these errors can be easily determined since the location of the instantaneous axis of rotation is easily found. Expressions are developed which allow the translational components of the errors to be measured at any convenient points on the body, including differing points for each component, and properly transformed into error motions of any desired point. Finally, a method for determining the total error at the tool point due to the individual error components of each of the members is presented.
Differential Spatial Approximation between Cholecystokinin Residue 30 and Receptor Residues in Active and Inactive Conformations

Understanding the structures of active and inactive agonist- and antagonist-bound receptor complexes is of great interest. In this work, we focus on position 30 of cholecystokinin (CCK) and its spatial approximation with the type A CCK receptor. For this, we developed two photoaffinity labeling probes, replacing the naturally occurring tryptophan with p-benzoyl-l-phenylalanine (Bpa) or p-nitro-phenylalanine (NO(2)-Phe). The Bpa probe was shown to represent an antagonist, whereas the NO(2)-Phe probe stimulated intracellular calcium as a fully efficacious agonist (EC(50) = 81 +/- 15 nM). Both ligands bound to the receptor specifically, although with lower affinity than CCK (K(i) values: Bpa probe, 270 +/- 72 nM; NO(2)-Phe probe, 180 +/- 40 nM). Both probes covalently labeled the receptor in an efficient manner. The Bpa antagonist labeled the receptor in two distinct regions as identified by cyanogen bromide cleavage, with labeled bands migrating at M(r) = 25,000 and 4500. The former represented the glycosylated amino-terminal fragment, with the site of attachment further localized by endoproteinase Lys-C cleavage to the region between Asn(10) and Lys(37). The latter was shown to represent the first extracellular loop using further cleavage and sequencing of the wild-type and a mutant receptor. Following the same approach, the NO(2)-Phe agonist probe was shown to also label the first extracellular loop region. Radiochemical sequencing identified that the Bpa antagonist probe labeled receptor residue Lys(105), whereas the NO(2)-Phe agonist probe labeled residue Leu(99). These data extend our understanding of the molecular basis of binding and the conformational states of this important receptor.
Lifestyle and Risk of Chronic Prostatitis/Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome in a Cohort of United States Male Health Professionals

Purpose: Although chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome is a prevalent urological disorder among men of all ages, its etiology remains unknown. Only a few previous studies have examined associations between lifestyle factors and chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome, of which most were limited by the cross-sectional study design and lack of control for possible confounders. To address these limitations we performed a cohort study of major lifestyle factors (obesity, smoking and hypertension) and chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome risk in the HPFS (Health Professionals Follow-up Study), a large ongoing cohort of United States based male health professionals.Materials and Methods: The HPFS includes 51,529 men who were 40 to 75 years old at baseline in 1986. At enrollment and every 2 years thereafter participants have completed questionnaires on lifestyle and health conditions. In 2008 participants completed an additional set of questions on recent chronic prostatitis/chro...
The glass temperature of semicrystalline polymers

This study focuses attention on the relation between the glass transition temperature, Tg, of the amorphous phase of semicrystalline polymers and the morphological state of the polymer. By use of dynamic mechanical and thermal distortion tests, the influence of stereospecificity; crystallinity; and, orientation in the absence and presence of crystallinity, has been assessed for crystallizable polystyrene (CPS). These results, together with some analogous data on crystallizable polypropylene (CPP), are compared to published information on other polymers. Studies of quenched, oriented CPS by thermal distortion tests under load indicate that the retractive stress and external load are the prime factors in determining the glass temperature as measured by this type of test. The influence of Tg of the configurational state, sorted out from the other two factors, is shown to be small. For CPS, an increase in Tg of 5–15°C., depending on the method of test, is observed to accompany crystallization. An increase of 15–25°C. in Tg, relative to amorphous CPS, is noted for samples annealed in the stretched condition. The combined effect of crystallinity and orientation is significantly greater than the sum of the individual effects; a mechanism is postulated for this synergistic behavior. The breadth of the transition of oriented, annealed samples appears to depend on the direction of test relative to the direction of stretch. Stereo-specificity in polystyrene and polypropylene appears to have a negligible influence on Tg.
Community Determinants of Volunteer Participation: The Case of Japan

Follow this and additional works at: http://wesscholar.wesleyan.edu/div2facpubs Part of the Administrative Law Commons, Asian Studies Commons, Community Engagement Commons, Comparative Politics Commons, Health Policy Commons, Law and Society Commons, Other Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration Commons, Public Administration Commons, Public Policy Commons, Social Policy Commons, Social Welfare Commons, Social Welfare Law Commons, Social Work Commons, State and Local Government Law Commons, Urban Studies Commons, and the Urban Studies and Planning Commons
Reversal of Angiogenesis In Vitro, Induction of Apoptosis, and Inhibition of Akt Phosphorylation in Endothelial Cells by Thromboxane A2

Abstract—Thromboxane A2 (TxA2) causes platelet aggregation, vasoconstriction, and inhibition of endothelial cell (EC) migration and prevents vascular tube formation via its specific receptors (TP), of which there are two isoforms (TPα and TPβ), both expressed in human ECs. In this study, we demonstrate that the TxA2 mimetic IBOP increases apoptosis of human ECs and inhibits the phosphorylation of Akt kinase, an intracellular mediator required for cell survival. Treatment with IBOP destroyed EC networks formed on a basement membrane matrix in vitro. To distinguish the role of the TP isoforms, each isoform was expressed in TP-null ECs to create TPα and TPβ ECs. IBOP induced apoptosis and inhibited phosphorylation of Akt kinase in both TPα and TPβ. IBOP increased cAMP levels in TPα but not in TPβ. Apoptosis induced by IBOP in TPα was not affected by either the adenylyl cyclase activator forskolin or the protein kinase A inhibitor 14-22 amide or H-89, whereas that in TPβ was suppressed by forskolin and enhanc...
A liquid-filled microrelay with a moving mercury microdrop

A micromechanical relay that switches by moving a mercury microdrop is introduced. While microrelays have been introduced to MEMS on several occasions, all are based on solid-solid contacts, making them subject to contact wear, signal bounce, and general loss of performance with use. The goal of our device is to use mercury to eliminate the common problems of solid-contact switches. Descriptions of the design and fabrication of a micromechanical mercury-contact relay, including the technique for formation of microscale mercury droplets, are presented. The deionized (DI) water-filled microrelay has a mercury droplet, 5-25 /spl mu/m in diameter, placed near a disconnected set of electrodes in a V-groove throat. The throat connects two reservoirs containing suspended heaters. By turning on one heater, we grow a vapor bubble in one reservoir and induce a momentary water flow along the throat, forcing the mercury droplet to move and create the signal conduction path. Heating of the second reservoir can drive the mercury drop back to its original position. A microgasketing technique along with UV-curing epoxy sealing method is introduced to seal a chip containing many microdevices, each filled with liquid, at room temperature. Initial test results of the relay are also provided.
Optics of Water Cloud Droplets Mixed with Black-Carbon Aerosols

We use the recently extended superposition T-matrix method to calculate scattering and absorption properties of micrometer-sized water droplets contaminated by black carbon. Our numerically exact results reveal that, depending on the mode of soot-water mixing, the soot specific absorption can vary by a factor exceeding 6.5. The specific absorption is maximized when the soot material is quasi-uniformly distributed throughout the droplet interior in the form of numerous small monomers. The range of mixing scenarios captured by our computations implies a wide range of remote sensing and radiation budget implications of the presence of black carbon in liquid-water clouds. We show that the popular Maxwell-Garnett effective-medium approximation can be used to calculate the optical cross sections, single-scattering albedo, and asymmetry parameter for the quasi-uniform mixing scenario, but is likely to fail in application to other mixing scenarios and in computations of the elements of the scattering matrix.
Streamware: programming general-purpose multicore processors using streams

Recently, the number of cores on general-purpose processors has been increasing rapidly. Using conventional programming models, it is challenging to effectively exploit these cores for maximal performance. An interesting alternative candidate for programming multiple cores is the stream programming model, which provides a framework for writing programs in a sequential-style while greatly simplifying the task of automatic parallelization. It has been shown that not only traditional media/image applications but also more general-purpose data-intensive applications can be expressed in the stream programming style.In this paper, we investigate the potential to use the stream programming model to efficiently utilize commodity multicore general-purpose processors (e.g., Intel/AMD). Although several stream languages and stream compilers have recently been developed, they typically target special-purpose stream processors. In contrast, we propose a flexible software system, Streamware, which automatically maps stream programs onto a wide variety of general-purpose multicore processor configurations. We leverage existing compilation framework for stream processors and design a runtime environment which takes as input the output of these stream compilers in the form of machine-independent stream virtual machine code. The runtime environment assigns work to processor cores considering processor/cache configurations and adapts to workload variations. We evaluate this approach for a few general-purpose scientific applications on real hardware and a cycle-level simulator set-up to showcase scaling and contention issues. The results show that the stream programming model is a good choice for efficiently exploiting modern and future multicore CPUs for an important class of applications.
Time-shift imaging condition in seismic migration

Seismic imaging based on single-scattering approximationisintheanalysisofthematchbetweenthesourceandreceiver wavefields at every image location. Wavefields at depth are functions of space and time and are reconstructed from surface data either by integral methods Kirchhoff migration or by differential methods reverse-time or wavefieldextrapolationmigration.Differentmethodscanbeused toanalyzewavefieldmatching,ofwhichcrosscorrelationisa popular option. Implementation of a simple imaging condition requires time crosscorrelation of source and receiver wavefields, followed by extraction of the zero time lag. A generalized imaging condition operates by crosscorrelation in both space and time, followed by image extraction at zero time lag. Images at different spatial crosscorrelation lags are indicators of imaging accuracy and are also used for imageangle decomposition. In this paper, we introduce an alternative prestack imaging condition in which we preserve multiple lags of the time crosscorrelation. Prestack images are described as functions of time shifts as opposed to space shifts betweensourceandreceiverwavefields.Thisimagingcondition is applicable to migration by Kirchhoff, wavefield extrapolation, or reverse-time techniques. The transformation allows construction of common-image gathers presented as functionsofeithertimeshiftorreflectionangleateverylocationinspace.Inaccuratemigrationvelocityisrevealedbyangle-domain common-image gathers with nonflat events. Computational experiments using a synthetic data set from a complex salt model demonstrate the main features of the method.
Modeling interface signs for the systematic analysis of text, image and sound in interactive systems

This paper seeks to present standard descriptive structures for the systematic analysis of the visual and audio tracks in interactive systems. Semiotic theory provides an array of analytical frameworks concerned with the study of complex symbolic communications and the social and cultural aspects of their use and interpretation. The model structures introduced here employ structuralist formal descriptive methods for describing and quantifying the visual and audio tracks of interactive systems for semiotic investigations. Quantitative data may be extracted by analysts for research projects that explore viewer interaction from semiotic, ethnographic, and psychological, perspectives. The proposed model structures may prove invaluable for populating various behavioral, cognitive, or social models used in advanced social science investigations, applied semiotic research, or dynamic computational applications including AI, neural network, and other predictive modeling techniques.
Exclusion from the social contract

Does rational bargaining yield a social contract that is efficient and so inclusive? A core allocation, that is, an allocation that gives each coalition at least as much as it can get on its own, is efficient. However, some coalitional games lack a core allocation, so rationality does not require one in those games. Does rationality therefore permit exclusion from the social contract? I replace realization of a core allocation with another type of equilibrium achievable in every coalitional game. Fully rational agents coordinate the pursuit of incentives so that equilibria of this type are efficient. They adopt a social contract that is efficient and inclusive.
Experimental investigation of the acousto-electromagnetic sensor for locating land mines

A hybrid technique is presented that simultaneously uses both electromagnetic and acoustic waves in a synergistic manner to detect buried land mines. The system consists of an electromagnetic radar and an acoustic source. The acoustic source causes both the mine and the surface of the earth to be displaced. The electromagnetic radar is used to detect these displacements and, thus, the mine. To demonstrate the viability of this technique, experimental models have been constructed. The models use an electrodynamic transducer to generate an acoustic surface wave, a tank filled with damp sand to simulate the earth, simulated mines, and a radar to measure the vibrations. The technique looks promising; we have been able to measure the interactions of the acoustic waves with both simulated antipersonnel mines and antitank miens buried in damp sand. We have measured strong resonance in some of the mines; these resonances are shown to help differentiate the mine from clutter.
Differential Toxicity of Nuclear RNA Foci versus Dipeptide Repeat Proteins in a Drosophila Model of C9ORF72 FTD/ALS

Dipeptide repeat (DPR) proteins are toxic in various models of FTD/ALS with GGGGCC (G4C2) repeat expansion. However, it is unclear whether nuclear G4C2 RNA foci also induce neurotoxicity. Here, we describe a Drosophila model expressing 160 G4C2 repeats (160R) flanked by human intronic and exonic sequences. Spliced intronic 160R formed nuclear G4C2 sense RNA foci in glia and neurons about ten times more abundantly than in human neurons; however, they had little effect on global RNA processing and neuronal survival. In contrast, highly toxic 36R in the context of poly(A)(+) mRNA were exported to the cytoplasm, where DPR proteins were produced at >100-fold higher level than in 160R flies. Moreover, the modest toxicity of intronic 160R expressed at higher temperature correlated with increased DPR production, but not RNA foci. Thus, nuclear RNA foci are neutral intermediates or possibly neuroprotective through preventing G4C2 RNA export and subsequent DPR production.
An Efficient Intermodulation Product Computing Technique for Broadband Active Transmit Systems

The determination of intermodulation products is an ever pervasive problem to the radar and satellite community - its eminence will continue to manifest itself as data rates increase, as transmitters are required to handle increasing numbers of multiple carriers, and as amplifiers are pushed to operate closer to their nonlinear regions (to circumvent the need of adding the extra weight and cost of a more linear amplifier). To study the intermodulation effects, fast Fourier transform (FFT)-based techniques are often employed. By definition, defines the frequency resolution for the discrete Fourier transform (DFT). It is typically desired to design to be as small as possible to allow for a very fine frequency resolution. Doing this requires that be minimized and/or be selected as large as possible. Minimizing has its pitfalls since high-order harmonics may violate the Nyquist criteria. Selecting to be as large as possible introduces unreasonably long simulation times. This may be the case when large values of are very near or exceed the maximum allowable array size of a digital computer. Breaking this nexus is the focus of this paper, which introduces a computationally efficient technique that will allow the frequency and amplitude of the intermodulation terms to be precisely computed.