cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Female specific hyperactivity in S100β transgenic mice does not habituate in open-field

S100 beta, a calcium-binding brain specific protein, may affect brain development and long-term potentiation. Its gene maps to a region of chromosome 21 duplicated in Down's Syndrome (DS), and its levels are elevated in DS. To test the hypothesis that elevated S100 beta levels cause brain dysfunction in a mammalian system, transgenic mice carrying multiple copies of the human S100 beta gene have been generated and their locomotory patterns are analyzed in open field situations. Female-specific hyperactivity was observed in 2-month-old and in 12-month-old transgenic mice, which rules out the previous speculation that postmenopausal hormonal changes constitute a necessary factor in this behavioral abnormality. Analysis of temporal patterns of activity showed a profound abnormality in transgenic females: the initially elevated activity quickly habituated in males and in normal females, however, its level remained high in the transgenic females throughout the 9-min recording session. These observations are compatible with the suggestion that hippocampal function is abnormal in the females of S100 beta transgenic mice.
Identification and characterization of the murine Rag1 promoter

Rag1 and Rag2 are required for the somatic rearrangement of immunoglobulin genes and T-cell receptor genes and the subsequent development of B and T cells. We describe the pattern of DNase I hypersensitive sites surrounding the Rag1 gene that accompanies mouse B-cell development and show that one of these sites corresponds to the murine Rag1 promoter. Transcription initiates over a 30 bp region, with approximately 70% of the transcripts initiating within a 5 bp region. The promoter contains neither a consensus TATA box nor an initiator, but does contain an AT rich sequence that could serve as a non-consensus TATA box. The Rag1 promoter directs only negligible levels of expression in transient transfection assays, but when combined with a heterologous enhancer, it is capable of driving significant levels of expression in pre-B cells, pre-T cells, and mature B cells. Methylation interference and mutation analysis reveal that the Rag1 promoter contains binding sites for E-box binding proteins, NF-Y proteins, and Ikaros proteins. These findings are discussed with respect to B-cell development and regulation of differential Rag expression by the promoter in pre-B, pre-T, and CNS cells.
Beyond Receptor Expression Levels: The Relevance of Target Accessibility in Ligand-Directed Pharmacodelivery Systems

For development of a new ligand-directed pharmacology, it is critical to measure delivery of targeted drug ligands via molecular imaging or diagnostic readouts (termed theranostics). Combinatorial peptide libraries serve as unbiased functional screens that can identify specific peptides targeting cell-surface receptors accessible to the circulation. As candidate drug leads, such peptides provide motifs likely to modify ligand-receptor interactions and downstream signal transduction pathways. This strategy is synergistic with genomic and proteomic approaches and has yielded insights into the specialized nature of the target tissue microenvironment. However, for this vision to be realized, one must look, as recent literature suggests, beyond receptor levels and critically analyze ligand accessibility as a key determinant in pharmacodelivery systems.
Exploiting suspected redundancy without proving it

We present several improvements to general-purpose sequential redundancy removal. (1) We propose using a robust variety of synergistic transformation and verification algorithms to process the individual proof obligations. This enables greater speed and scalability, and identifies a significantly greater degree of redundancy, than prior approaches. (2) We generalize upon traditional redundancy removal and utilized the speculatively-reduced model to enhance bounded search, without needing to complete any proofs.
Rootstock and vineyard floor management influence on 'Cabernet Sauvignon' grape yeast assimilable nitrogen (YAN)

This is a study on the influence that two rootstocks (110R, high vigour; 420A, low vigour) and three vineyard floor management regimes (tilled resident vegetation - usual practise in California, and barley cover crops that were either mowed or tilled) had upon grape nitrogen-containing compounds (mainly ammonia and free amino acids recalculated as YAN), sugars, and organic acids in 'Cabernet Sauvignon' clone 8. A significant difference was observed for some of the free amino acids between rootstocks. In both sample preparation methods (juiced or chemically extracted), 110R rootstock grapes were significantly higher in SER, GLN, THR, ARG, VAL, ILE, LEU, and YAN than were 420A rootstock grapes. Differences in individual free amino acid profiles and concentrations were observed between the two sample preparations, which indicate that care should be taken when comparing values from dissimilar methods. No significant differences among vineyard floor treatments were detected, which suggests that mowing offers vineyard managers a sustainable practise, alternative to tilling, without negatively affecting grape nitrogen compounds, sugars, or organic acids.
Finite Element Modeling of Effective Dielectric Response and Dielectric Tunability in Ferroelectric Composite Materials

We have configured COMSOL Multiphysics to solve 2-D and 3-D transient non-linear electrostatic problems efficiently and have applied the program to model composite material consisting of Ba0.60Sr0.40TiO3 (BST 60/40) particles with field dependent dielectric response in a polymeric matrix. We use this methodology to analyze the overall dielectric response and dielectric tunability of these composites as a function of the volume fraction of BST.
Fluctuations in motor output during steady contractions are weakly related across contraction types and between hands.

The presence of differences in motor unit activity across contraction types and between hands suggests that the magnitude of fluc- tuations in motor output is only weakly related when these conditions are compared. Twenty right-handed young (24.1 5.3 years) and old (72.5 4.9 years) adults performed three levels (40% of maximal force) of iso- metric and anisometric contractions with the first dorsal interosseous muscle of each hand. The fluctuations in motor output were quantified by the coefficient of variation for force during isometric contractions, and as the standard deviations of acceleration and position during anisometric contrac- tions. There was no effect of age on fluctuations in motor output. The magnitude of the fluctuations in motor output was weakly related across contraction types (r 2 0.325) and between hands (r 2 0.262). Further- more, the standard deviations of acceleration and position during shortening and lengthening contractions were largely unrelated to one another. Be- cause the activity in a motor unit population differed across contraction types and hands during steady contractions, the central nervous system likely employed distinct strategies to accomplish these different tasks. Muscle Nerve 31: 741-750, 2005
Interacting with electronic mail can be a dream or a night: a user's point of view

Abstract Diffusion of electronic mail (e-mail) is not yet universal. So far, e-mail has been implemented successfully within organisations, but its implementation for communications between organisations has been rather limited. This situation is surprising, given the great potential of e-mail for interorganisational communication. E-mail encounters from a user's point of view, reviewed in this paper, suggest that users of BITNET, one of the predominant e-mail networks in the academic world, face difficulties while interacting with e-mail. These include addressing difficulties, unreliability issues, medium limitations, and interface problems. BITNET is just one of many interorganisational networks and may not be representative. Still, e-mail technology is unlikely to survive if human engineering and reliability are not uniformly satisfactory across all e-mail systems. Poorly engineered e-mail systems frustrate not only their users, but also users of other networks because of gateways between the networks. Therefore, e-mail users might resort to other communication media like facsimile or the telephone, and abandon e-mail altogether. For e-mail to be competitive in the communication arena, an interdisciplinary effort should be directed toward standardisation of features like better addressing conventions, international user directories, uniform user interfaces, and sophisticated management of e-mail messages.
Optimum error quantization for LMS adaptation

The authors remove restrictions upon the transition and reconstruction levels of an L-level quantizer and examine error quantization as a design variable. The authors present a general performance factor expressing the misadjustment ratio of the quantized error algorithm with respect to the infinite-precision least-mean-squares (LMS) adaptation for a given convergence rate for Gaussian inputs. It is shown that maximizing this performance factor an an L-level quantizer with arbitrary transition levels and reconstruction levels produces the nonlinear system of equations defining the optimum Lloyd-Max quantizer for the Gaussian error. Simulations verify the theoretical performance loss predicted. The optimum-scaled uniform quantizer is shown to perform at most 0.013 dB worse than the optimum Lloyd-Max quantizer, indicating that in terms of both minimizing complexity and performance loss, uniform error quantization is close to the best for Gaussian inputs. >
The Relevance of Social Epidemiology in HIV/AIDS and Drug Abuse Research

11 Emory University School of Medicine“For the fabric of this universe is like a labyrinth to the contemplative mind, wheredoubtful paths, deceitful imitations of things and their signs, winding and intricatefolds and knots of nature everywhere present themselves, and a way must constantlybe made through the forests of experience and particular natures, with the aid of theuncertain light of the senses, shining and disappearing by fits.”Francis Bacon, The Great Instauration of Human Controlin the Universe, 1620Relevance is no longer the issue for social epidemiology.Implicit in this chapter’s title is that social epidemiology is somehow different from“standard” (or “traditional” or “regular”) epidemiology. Perhaps it required recognition as itsearly ideas were developed,1–4 but, as Kawachi succinctly summarizes,5 the field is clearlyestablished. Questions of its relevance, like the endless discussions of its definition, are nolonger relevant. In fact, epidemiology, in its logistic lethargy, has been reenergized by theissues that “social” epidemiology brings to the fore: methods—the need to deal with differentlogical types of data in a single framework; 6–10 theory—the need for some guiding thoughtsthat provide testable hypotheses and logical syntheses;11,12 and philosophy—the meaningand role of causality in epidemiologic thinking.13–19 In other words, social epidemiologydiffers from traditional epidemiology only because it is harder. Consider for example, thefactors that conspire to give HIV special status among diseases, 20 shackling investigation andintervention, and an equally complex set of factors that contort the issue of drug abuse.In fact, the labyrinth and intricate folds are never more in evidence than when we try tounderstand the interacting intricacies of substance misuse and HIV transmission. For theformer, Galea and colleagues 21 provide a scholarly critique of nearly 100 recent publicationsthat deal with the role of social factors in substance use initiation, cessation, and relapse. Bytheir own admission, their review is not comprehensive and requires a valuation of what toinclude. (It is hard to imagine a comprehensive review. A quick look at PubMed fetches 15,858entries for “sexual orientation” and 12,481 for “personality” when either is combined with“HIV/AIDS” and “Drug Abuse”.) The field is already past the point where complexity is readilyencompassed.
Comparative Study of Vaginal, Abdominal, and Robotic Laparoscopic Hysterectomy: Clinical Outcome and Cost

Abstract Objective: To compare the effects of different hysterectomy methods on the length of hospital stay, postoperative outcome, and total hospital charges. Design: This is a retrospective clinical study of patients from the author's practice. Methods: Data were collected from the office and hospital electronic medical records (EMR), and questionnaires were used to determine patient's postoperative outcome. Patients were divided into three surgical groups: total vaginal hysterectomy (TVH), total abdominal hysterectomy (TAH), and robotic laparoscopic hysterectomy (RLH). Exactly 211 patients were reviewed, but only 203 had completed medical records. Of those, exactly 140 patient questionnaires were completed. Results: A retrospective study of all consecutive hysterectomy cases from January 1, 2008, to July 31, 2008, was performed. Patient's office and hospital EMRs were used to determine patient demographics, length of hospital stay, operative time, estimated blood loss (EBL), and total hospital charges....
The Nature of Diversified Business Groups: A Research Design and Two Case Studies

Diversified business groups dominate the private sectors of most of the world's economies. Several of these economies have undergone sudden policy changes that significantly increase domestic competitive intensity. The authors demonstrate how the changes in corporate scope that accompany such 'competitive shocks' can be used to weigh the importance of different explanations for the existence of diversified business groups. The authors illustrate their reasoning by studying the restructuring of two of India's largest business groups following a comprehensive post-1991 package of policy reforms. The case studies also elucidate aspects of the restructuring process that should inform larger-sample empirical analyses. Copyright 1998 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Hybrid Model Predictive Control for Stabilization of Wheeled Mobile Robots Subject to Wheel Slippage

This paper studies the problem of stabilizing wheeled mobile robots (WMRs) subject to wheel slippage to a predefined set. When slippage of the wheels can occur, WMRs can be modeled as hybrid systems. Model predictive control for such systems typically results in numerical methods of combinatorial complexity. We show that recently developed embedding techniques can be used to formulate numerical algorithms for the hybrid model predictive control (MPC) problem that have the same complexity as the MPC for smooth systems. We also discuss in detail the numerical techniques that lead to efficient and robust MPC algorithms. Examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the approach.
Discussion of "Self-Managed Learning Model for Civil Engineering Continuing Training" by S. T. Muench

In his paper, the author proposes a very thoughtful critique of the current approach to the continuing training of practicing engineers. He identifies some of the shortcomings of this approach, and suggests an attractive way to improve the situation. Even though it is difficult to argue against the soundness of the author’s general assessment, some aspects of his analysis seem to warrant further discussion. Terminology in the field of self-directed learning is notoriously confusing Candy 1991 . The same terms are routinely used by different people to mean different things, while different terms often mean the same thing. In that context, it is not surprising that the author uses the expressions “self-directed learning,” “selfmanaged learning,” or “self-paced learning” interchangeably, in spite of the very different connotation, these three expressions have relative to the level of control of the learner over what is learned and how the learning occurs. Toward the end of the paper, however, it becomes clear that the learning process the author is really referring to, involves only the selection by the learner of a prepackaged learning product and a decision as to the pace at which the learning occurs with that package. Perhaps the label of “self-managed learning” is appropriate for these activities, which amount to significantly less than what the term “self-directed learning” generally encompasses in the literature e.g., Candy 1991 . The extent of learning to which the author alludes requires the online availability of some prepackaged product, put together by the learner’s company’s training department or by a third party provider. One might wonder if the author does not, in effect, address only a very small part of the training needs of engineers; in other words, if he does not merely touch upon the emerged part of a very large iceberg. The discusser’s experience, based on interviewing scores of practicing engineers, is that in many cases, their learning needs are too individual, too specific, and often too constrained in time to be serviceable by educational software developers. This is particularly the case for learning needs in critical areas that are key to the competitiveness of their company. For example, some engineers at Ford or General Motors GM may have to constantly stay on top of the research on fuel cells or biofuels, and cannot afford to wait for some provider to put a package together on the latest developments in these areas. In situations like these, in the absence of any viable alternative, engineers have to try to learn autonomously or with the assistance of coworkers. To deal with this submerged and unfortunately rarely mentioned part of the training iceberg, i.e., the truly “self-
Characterizing rings by a direct decomposition property of their modules

A module M is said to satisfy the condition (p*) if M is a direct sum of a projective module and a quasi-continuous module. In an earlier paper, we described the structure of rings over which every (countably generated) right module satisfies (p*), and it was shown that such a ring is right artinian. In this note some additional properties of these rings are obtained. Among other results, we show that a ring over which all right modules satisfy (p*) is also left artinian, but the property (p*) is not left-right symmetric.
Social Networks and Disability Transitions Across Eight Intervals of Yearly Data in the New Haven EPESE

Objectives. There is considerable evidence that social networks are strongly related to survival and other health outcomes. However, findings regarding the effect of social networks on disability outcomes have been inconsistent. This study examines this relationship with respect to the risk of developing disability and recovering from disability. Methods. Data come from a community-based sample of the New Haven population aged 65 years and older, with nine annual interviews conducted between 1982 and 1991. Disability was measured by a 6-item index of activities of daily living (ADL), and a 3-item Rosow-Breslau index, with disability defined as impairment in one or more tasks on each measure. Social network variables were constructed for each of four domains of ties: children, relatives, friends, and a confidant, and a summary measure of total social networks. A Markov model was used to estimate one-year disability transitions averaged across all 8 intervals, after controlling for sociodemographic and health-related variables. Results. Total social networks was associated with a significantly reduced risk of developing ADL disability ((J = -0.009, p < .01), and a significantly increased likelihood of ADL recovery (f$ = 0.017,/; < .01). Emotional and instrumental support did not affect the protective effect of social networks against disability, but partially accounted for their effect on enhanced recovery. Network variables related to relatives and friends were significantly associated with disability and recovery risks, but those related to children or a confidant were not. The associations with disability transitions as measured by the Rosow-Breslau index were generally smaller and nonsignificant. Discussion. The findings lend further support for the role of social relationships in important health outcomes in old age. They suggest that being "embedded" in a social network of relatives and friends reduces risk for ADL disability, and enhances recovery from ADL disability.
Power combining techniques for RF and mm-wave CMOS power amplifiers

An overview of several CMOS RF Power Amplifiers (PA) using power combining techniques is given. It is clarified how this technique can alleviate some of the problems related to the aggressive CMOS scaling. The theory is supported by several design examples that cover a frequency range from the lower GHz as high as 60 GHz.
Differences in Tuberculin Reactivity as Determined in a Veterans Administration Employee Health Screening Program

In response to a difference in pricing, the San Diego Veterans Administration Medical Center changed its tuberculin preparation from Tubersol to Aplisol in the fall of 2006. Following the change, an increased number of employee skin test conversions was noted. Employee tuberculin skin test converters from 2006 were screened with the QuantiFERON Gold (QFT-G) gamma interferon release assay. Those employees who tested negative by QFT-G were asked to repeat their skin test with both Tubersol and Aplisol tuberculin preparations. Of the new purified protein derivative converters, 12 of 14 returned for repeat testing with QFT-G, and the assay was negative for 83% (10/12), positive for 8% (1/12), and indeterminate for 8% (1/12) of the individuals. Nine of the individuals who were QFT-G negative agreed to repeat skin testing with both tuberculin preparations, and 7/8 (87.5%) demonstrated reactivity with the Aplisol preparation, while 0/8 (0%) reacted to the Tubersol preparation. A change from Tubersol to Aplisol resulted in elevated tuberculin skin test conversion rates that may be due to false-positive reactions. The differences in skin test reactivity between preparations support CDC guidelines that recommend that institutions should not change tuberculin preparations, as doing so may falsely increase the number of positive reactions.
Reinforcement Learning with Hierarchies of Machines

We present a new approach to reinforcement learning in which the policies considered by the learning process are constrained by hierarchies of partially specified machines. This allows for the use of prior knowledge to reduce the search space and provides a framework in which knowledge can be transferred across problems and in which component solutions can be recombined to solve larger and more complicated problems. Our approach can be seen as providing a link between reinforcement learning and "behavior-based" or "teleo-reactive" approaches to control. We present provably convergent algorithms for problem-solving and learning with hierarchical machines and demonstrate their effectiveness on a problem with several thousand states.
Tornado-induced wind loads on a low-rise building

Current design wind loads for buildings and other structures are based upon model tests in low-speed boundary-layer wind tunnels that generate straight-line winds. Winds resulting from tornadoes that can occur during extreme weather events such as thunderstorms or hurricanes differ greatly from conventionally conceived atmospheric boundary-layer winds. This paper presents transient wind loads on a one-story, gable-roofed building in a laboratory-simulated tornado and compares them with the provisions of building standards. Tornadoes were simulated in smooth, open terrain with vortex core diameters from roughly five to twelve times the plan dimension of the building model (0.46 to 1.06 m). A 1:100 scale model of a building with dimensions of 9.1 m×9.1 m×6.6 m and gable roof angle of 35° was used for this study. Comparisons of peak loads measured in this study showed that tornado-like vortices can generate load coefficients greater than those prescribed by ASCE 7-05 for straight-line wind over open terrain....
Policy Mood and Political Sophistication: Why Everybody Moves Mood

This article presents evidence that both micro (individual level) and macro (aggregate level) theories of public opinion overstate the importance of political sophistication for opinion change. It is argued that even the least politically sophisticated segment of society receives messages about the economy and uses this information to update attitudes about political issues. To test this hypothesis, the authors have used General Social Survey data to construct a 31-item measure of policy mood, disaggregated by political sophistication, that spans from 1972 to 2004. They found that all the subgroups generally changed opinion at the same time, in the same direction, and to about the same extent. Furthermore, they show that groups at different sophistication levels change opinions for predominantly the same reasons.
Asymmetric Price Adjustment: Cross-Industry Evidence

Several studies document asymmetric price adjustment in gasoline and agricultural markets. Do these results extend to other subsectors of the economy? This paper investigates the existence of asymmetric price adjustment in 269 6-digit North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) industries using quarterly financial data from 1966-2006. Results, which are consistent with the previous literature, show that positive price asymmetry is frequent in nondurable goods and natural resource manufacturing. However, price asymmetry is not readily evident in mining, durable goods manufacturing, and service sectors. The differing results may best be explained by theoretical explanations of price asymmetry based on inventory management.
Androgens, Bilateral Oophorectomy, and Cardiovascular Disease Mortality in Postmenopausal Women With and Without Diabetes: The Study of Osteoporotic Fractures

OBJECTIVE Diabetes elevates cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk more markedly in women than in men. Because the high risk of CVD among women with type 2 diabetes (DM2) may be partly due to increased ovarian androgen production, we investigated whether a history of bilateral salpingo oophorectomy (BSO) is inversely associated with CVD mortality among women with DM2. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Data were obtained from 7,977 women (a random subset of 564 had measurements of sex-steroid hormones) enrolled in the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures (SOF), a community-based, multicenter study that monitored women aged ≥65 years for a mean of 15.1 years. Adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CIs were calculated using Cox proportional hazards regression. RESULTS The average age at baseline was 71.5 years, with 6.3% and 18% of participants reporting a history of diabetes or BSO, respectively. In the subset of the SOF cohort with sex-steroid hormone measurements, those with DM2 had 43.6% significantly higher levels of free testosterone that were partly explained by age and adiposity, whereas total and free testosterone levels were lower in women with BSO than in those with intact ovaries. CVD mortality was elevated in women with DM2 without BSO (HR 1.95, 95% CI 1.62–2.35) as well as in women with DM2 and BSO (HR 2.56, 95% CI 1.79–3.65; P = 0.190 for interaction). Overall, BSO was not associated with CVD mortality (HR 1.05, 95% CI 0.89–1.23). CONCLUSIONS The association of diabetes with CVD was not reduced by BSO, suggesting that ovarian hyperandrogenemia may not be a primary mechanism to explain the high risk for CVD among women with DM2.
The Enantiospecific, Stereospecific Total Synthesis of the Ring-A Oxygenated Sarpagine Indole Alkaloids (+)-Majvinine, (+)-10-Methoxyaffinisine, and (+)-Na-Methylsarpagine, as Well as the Total Synthesis of the Alstonia Bisindole Alkaloid Macralstonidine

The first stereospecific, enantiospecific total synthesis of the ring-A oxygenated sarpagine indole alkaloids (+)-Na-methylsarpagine (8), (+)-majvinine (14), and (+)-10-methoxyaffinisine (49), as well as the first total synthesis of the Alstonia bisindole alkaloid macralstonidine (9), has been accomplished. This approach employed the Schollkopf chiral auxiliary for the stereospecific construction of the desired d-(+)-tryptophan unit required for the asymmetric Pictet−Spengler reaction. In addition, the strategy was doubly convergent for the enolate-mediated Pd0 coupling process and the asymmetric Pictet−Spengler reaction can be employed to synthesize both macroline (2) and Na-methylsarpagine (8), the coupling of which provides macralstonidine (9). This approach to ring-A substituted alkoxyindole alkaloids should find wide application for the synthesis of other alkaloids for it is stereospecific and either enantiomer can be prepared with ease.
The histone demethylase KDM5 activates gene expression by recognizing chromatin context through its PHD reader motif

KDM5 family proteins are critically important transcriptional regulators whose physiological functions in the context of a whole animal remain largely unknown. Using genome-wide gene expression and binding analyses in Drosophila adults, we demonstrate that KDM5 (Lid) is a direct regulator of genes required for mitochondrial structure and function. Significantly, this occurs independently of KDM5's well-described JmjC domain-encoded histone demethylase activity. Instead, it requires the PHD motif of KDM5 that binds to histone H3 that is di- or trimethylated on lysine 4 (H3K4me2/3). Genome-wide, KDM5 binding overlaps with the active chromatin mark H3K4me3, and a fly strain specifically lacking H3K4me2/3 binding shows defective KDM5 promoter recruitment and gene activation. KDM5 therefore plays a central role in regulating mitochondrial function by utilizing its ability to recognize specific chromatin contexts. Importantly, KDM5-mediated regulation of mitochondrial activity is likely to be key in human diseases caused by dysfunction of this family of proteins.
Carotid and Vertebral Circulation: Clinical Applications

Magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) is a broad term referring to a plethora of techniques, all of which can be used to directly image flow in arteries and veins in the extra- and intracranial circulation. These techniques include 2D and 3D time of flight (TOF), 2D and 3D phase contrast (PC), newer techniques such as 3D TOF with multiple overlapping thin slab acquisition (MOTSA), as well as contrast-enhanced MRA (CEMRA). Although intra- and extracranial MRA is a relatively young technique, many of the above-mentioned techniques are mature enough to be a staple part of routine, clinical MR protocols. Hence, their clinical applications, the technical background and the various pitfalls require familiarity from the neuroradiologists. This chapter summarizes the various established as well as emerging clinical uses of these techniques. Understanding the inherent complementary nature of many of the techniques is essential to maximize the diagnostic information for every individual patient. As the physics and the technical background of these techniques have been discussed elsewhere in this book, we stress on their clinical applications.
Gas chromatographic detection of in vitro and in vivo activities of certain canine viruses.

The possibility that gas chromatographic techniques might be useful for the rapid detection or differentiation of microorganisms has attracted the attention of a number of investigators. In some instances, distinctive chromatographic patterns have been observed for each bacterium examined in studies of excreted substances which either are volatile or can be made volatile [1-3]. Distinctive chromatographic signatures have been observed also when certain cell constituents were examined directly [4, 5] or following pyrolysis [6, 7]. Recently we have reported that a gas chromatograph equipped with an electron capture detector (ECD) is extremely sensitive to certain typical microbial products [8], and the instrumentation, therefore, could be useful for detecting the presence of very low numbers of freeliving bacteria in culture media [9]. Because of the marked response of the ECD to certain metabolites produced by bacteria cultured in vitro, it was considered possible that the detector might be used also for the detection of metabolites elaborated by virus-infected cells during the course of infection in tissue culture or in the living host animal. Preliminary studies of infectious canine hepatitis (ICH) virus and equine infectious anemia virus indicated that gas chromatographic techniques indeed could be applied for the detection of these viral infections by examination of the sera of animals at various stages of illness [10,
High-Throughput Approaches to the Development of Molecular Imaging Agents

Molecular imaging allows for the visualization of changes at the cellular level in diseases such as cancer. A successful molecular imaging agent must rely on disease-selective targets and ligands that specifically interact with those targets. Unfortunately, the translation of novel target-specific ligands into the clinic has been frustratingly slow with limitations including the complex design and screening approaches for ligand identification, as well as their subsequent optimization into useful imaging agents. This review focuses on combinatorial library approaches towards addressing these two challenges, with particular focus on phage display and one-bead one-compound (OBOC) libraries. Both of these peptide-based techniques have proven successful in identifying new ligands for cancer-specific targets and some of the success stories will be highlighted. New developments in screening methodology and sequencing technology have pushed the bounds of phage display and OBOC even further, allowing for even faster and more robust discovery of novel ligands. The combination of multiple high-throughput technologies will not only allow for more accurate identification, but also faster affinity maturation, while overall streamlining the process of translating novel ligands into clinical imaging agents.
A top ten for science and society

One hundred years ago the mathematician David Hilbert compiled a list of his field's great unsolved problems. A century later, drawing up such lists has again become popular – even Physics World carried out a millennium survey last year and published articles on the ten "outstanding challenges" in physics (December 1999). Meanwhile a group of theoretical physicists drew up a list of ten millennium questions that included the lifetime of the proton, the cosmological constant and the supersymmetric nature of the universe (see feynman.physics.lsa. umich.edu/strings2000/millennium.html). Answering any one of these challenges would require a huge project that would consume enormous amounts of resources. The authors of these and other lists cheerfully seem to assume that society eventually will. I'm not so sure.
Far ultraviolet instrument technology

The Far Ultraviolet (FUV) spectral range (from about 115 nm to 180 nm) is one of the most useful spectral regions for characterizing the upper atmosphere (thermosphere and ionosphere). The principle advantages are that there are FUV signatures of the major constituents of the upper atmosphere as well as the signatures of the high latitude energy inputs. Because of the absorption by thermospheric O2, the FUV signatures are seen against a “black” background, i.e. one that is not affected by ground albedo or clouds and, as a consequence, can make useful observations of the aurora during the day or when the moon is above the horizon. In this paper we discuss the uses of FUV remote sensing, summarize the various techniques, and discuss the technological challenges. Our focus is on a particular type of FUV instrument, the scanning imaging spectrograph or SIS: an instrument exemplified by the DMSP SSUSI and NASA TIMED GUVI spectrographic imagers. The SIS combines spatial imaging of the disk with limb profiles as well as spectral information at each point in the scan.
Network architectures for multilingual speech representation learning

Multilingual (ML) representations play a key role in building speech recognition systems for low resource languages. The IARPA sponsored BABEL program focuses on building speech recognition (ASR) and keyword search (KWS) systems in over 24 languages with limited training data. The most common mechanism to derive ML representations in the BABEL program has been with the use of a two-stage network, the first stage being a convolutional network (CNN) from where multilingual features are extracted, expanded contextually and used as input to the second stage which can be a feed-forward DNN or a CNN. The final multilingual representations are derived from the second network. This paper presents two novel methods for deriving ML representations. The first is based on Long-Short Term Memory (LSTM) networks and the second is based on a very deep CNN (VGG-net). We demonstrate that ML features extracted from both models show significant improvement over the baseline CNN-DNN based ML representations, in terms of both speech recognition and keyword search performance and draw the comparison between the LSTM model itself and the ML representations derived from it on Georgian, the surprise language for the OpenKWS evaluation.
Competition in old growth Korean pine Forest

Korean pine (Pinus koraiensis) interspecific competition and intraspecific companioned with other species competition in old growth Korean pine forest in Northeast China were studied using Hegyi’s competition index model for individual tree. The results show that differences of competitive intensity exist in interspecific and intraspecific for Korean pine with an order of intraspecific >Abies nephrolepis Picea koraiensis Tilia amurensis Betula costala Acer mono Ulmus propinqua Populus davidiana, and that relationship of competitive index to individual size (in DBH) of objective tree follows closely multiplicate equation and that competitive intensity gradually reduces with increasing of individual size of objective tree, but it is tending towards stability after individual of objective tree increase to specified size (DBH about 20 cm).It provided a serviceable approach for researches of intraspecific relationship in population ecology.
The Psychobiology of Sexual Experience

A rich and complexly interwoven matrix of psychosocial and physiological variables influence those transformations of consciousness that we label sexual. Much more than for other “instinctive” behaviors, sexual activity manifestly involves a set of unique physiological correlates, interacting with a highly prized array of subjective experiences. The physiological, behavioral, and experiential events undergo slow shifts of intensity and quality as well as sharp transformations from one “state” to another. Furthermore, this is a realm of human experience directly accessible to all and obviously essential to the preservation of the species. For these reasons, sexual phenomena are of great potential interest to students of psychophysiology and can provide unique and important models for psychobiological research.
Controversial Before Entering My Classroom: Exploring Pre-service Teacher Experiences with Evolution Teaching and Learning in the Southeastern United States

Evolution continues to be a polarizing topic amongst the public as well as in K-12 and post-secondary classrooms. One issue that contributes to the polarization is the absence of accurate and meaningful instruction on evolution. The divide is especially pronounced in regions such as “The South”—Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Tennessee—where cultural underpinnings strongly align against scientific topics dealing with human origins and change. Research shows that acceptance or rejection of evolution provides a reference for teachers’ choice whether to teach controversial topics such as evolution as well as the depth, breadth and duration of instruction. In this chapter we take a deeper look at the lived experiences of pre-service science teachers at a teaching college in the Southeastern United States in an effort to frame a context within the region by which later choices regarding teaching are made. Furthermore, we provide suggestions for improvements to teaching and learning that have implications beyond this critical region. Although public controversy surrounding evolution is widely regarded as being defining of the United States, the implications of studies here have translational value to teaching and learning evolution around the world.
CONGENITAL RADIAL HEAD DISLOCATIONS

Congenital radial head dislocation is the most common congenital elbow abnormality. Patients generally remain asymptomatic until adolescence and, at that time, may benefit from radial head resection. Open reduction and ligament reconstruction may offer advantages over late radial head resection if performed before the age of 2 years. Further long-term studies are needed to determine if open reduction and ligament reconstruction are helpful.
Exciton-Optical Phonon Interaction in Reduced Dimensional Systems: Temperature Dependence of the Linewidth

The properties of the exciton-optical phonon interaction in reduced dimensional systems can be investigated by measuring the temperature dependence (thermal broadening) of the linewidth, Γ(T), of the fundamental absorption edge. This paper will review a number of recent experiments on Γ(T) of the fundamental excitonic transition in polar [group III-V (GaAs/GaAlAs and InGaAs/GaAs) and group II-VI (ZnCdSe/ZnSe and ZnCdTe/ZnTe)] and nonpolar [group IV (Ge/SiGe)] quantum well structures.
Hysteria in Neurological Practice

The Somatoform and Dissociative Disorders* of the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSMIV) are the current representation of a disease known of old, hysteria; they amount to “hysteria split asunder,” as one of the leaders of the nosological revolution in contemporary psychiatry put it (2). Although the current diagnostic formulation is arguably a pale reflection of previous conceptualizations (the argument is made below), the disorder is certainly still a clinical presence. It has, as Sir Aubrey Lewis said, “outlive [d] its obituarists” (3). In this chapter, I set the scene for understanding neurological presentations of Somatoform and Dissociative Disorders by pointing to a historical moment in the development of the understanding of hysteria; provide a review of the current diagnostic categories and describe the clinical features of patients fitting into those categories, with greatest emphasis on Conversion Disorder because of its importance in neurological practice; offer a summary of the known risk factors for somatization, as well as describing the limited information available on its neurobiology; and provide a set of recommendations for clinical management by the physician not specializing in psychological medicine.
N-P Capture and the Photo-Disintegration of the Deuteron

Recent experiments on n-p radiative capture at thermal energies, including the study of double-photon decay, and on the photo-disintegration of the deuteron are discussed. Comparisons between the results and contemporary theories are made whenever they are meaningful. Suggestions for some necessary experiments for the future are made.
Probing spatial coupling of resistive modes in porous intercalation electrodes through impedance spectroscopy

In porous intercalation electrodes, coupled charge and species transport interactions take place at the pore-scale, while often observations are made at the electrode-scale. The physical manifestation of these interactions from pore- to electrode-scale is poorly understood. Moreover, the spatial arrangement of the constituent material phases forming a porous electrode significantly affects the multi-modal electrochemical and transport interplay. In this study, the relation between the electrode specification, resultant porous microstructure, and electrode-scale resistances is delineated based on a virtual deconvolution of the impedance response. Relevant short- and long-range interactions are identified. Without altering the microstructural arrangement, if the electrode thickness is increased, the resistances do not scale linearly with thickness. This dependence is also probed to identify the fundamental origins of thick electrode limitations.
New roles of the Na+/H+ exchange regulatory factor 1 scaffolding protein: a review

Na+/H+ exchange regulatory factor 1 (NHERF1), a member of a PDZ scaffolding protein family, was first identified as an organizer of membrane-bound protein complexes composed of hormone receptors, signal transduction pathways, and electrolyte and mineral transporters and channels. NHERF1 is involved in the regulation of Na+/H+ exchanger 3, Na+-dependent phosphate transporter 2a, and Na+-K+-ATPase through its ability to scaffold these transporters to the plasma membrane, allowing regulation of these protein complexes with their associated hormone receptors. Recently, NHERF1 has received increased interest in its involvement in a variety of functions, including cell structure and trafficking, tumorigenesis and tumor behavior, inflammatory responses, and tissue injury. In this review, we highlight the evidence for the expansive role of NHERF1 in cell biology and speculate on the implications for renal physiology and pathophysiology.
Inactivation of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus for improved laboratory safety

Summary Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS), a tick-borne infectious disease with high mortality, is diagnosed by the serological testing of serum samples from patients in the acute and convalescent phases and/or by direct detection of the SFTS virus (SFTSV). Conventionally, heat and UV treatments have been used to inactivate the viruses present in serum samples before performing the serological assays. Here, we examined the inactivation conditions optimal for SFTSV-containing serum samples to ensure the safety of laboratory workers while maintaining the accuracy of serological assay results simultaneously. Heating human serum samples spiked with SFTSV to 60 °C for 30 min or exposing them to UV irradiation for 30 min, reduced the infectious virus titer below the limit of detection. SFTSV in sera from patients in the acute phase of SFTS was completely inactivated by heating to 60 °C for 30 min, followed by UV irradiation for 10 min. This inactivation procedure had minimal impact on the performance of SFTSV antibody detection tests. The data provided herein can serve as a guide for laboratory workers and researchers working with SFTS serological tests.
Laboratory Measurement Verification of Laser Hazard Analysis for MILES Weapon Simulators Used In Force on Force Exercises

Due to the change in the batteries used with the Small Arm Laser Transmitters (SALT) from 3-volts dc to 3.6-volts dc and changes to SNL MILES operating conditions, the associated laser hazards of these units required re-evaluation to ensure that the hazard classification of the laser emitters had not changed as well. The output laser emissions of the SNL MILES, weapon simulators and empire guns, used in Force-On-Force (FOF) training exercises, was measured in accordance to the ANSI Standard Z136.4-2005, ''Recommended Practice for Laser Safety Measurements for Hazard Evaluation''. The laser hazard class was evaluated in accordance with the ANSI Standard Z136.1-2000, ''Safe Use of Lasers'', using ''worst'' case conditions associated with these MILES units. Laser safety assessment was conducted in accordance with the ANSI Standard Z136.6-2005, ''Safe Use of Lasers Outdoors''. The laser hazard evaluation of these MILES laser emitters was compared to and supersedes SAND Report SAND2002-0246, ''Laser Safety Evaluation of the MILES and Mini MILES Laser Emitting Components'', which used ''actual'' operating conditions of the laser emitters at the time of its issuance.