cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Large Area Plasmonic Photoconductive Emitters for Generating High Power Broadband Terahertz Radiation

We present a novel design of large area photoconductive emitters based on plasmonic contact electrodes. A record-high-power radiation of 3.6 mW over 0.1-3 THz frequency range is demonstrated at 150 mW optical pump power.
Maternal-Fetal Attachment in Twin Pregnancies

Objective To describe maternal attachment to twin fetuses and determine whether such attachment differs between the twins. Design A descriptive, correlational, nonexperimental design was used to collect data on a convenience sample of high-risk and low-risk women pregnant with twins. Setting Questionnaires were distributed or mailed by presidents of parents of multiples clubs to interested participants. Participants mailed the questionnaires back to the researcher via stamped return envelope. Participants During a 14-month period, 214 eligible women from 41 states and the District of Columbia completed the survey instruments. Main Outcome Measure The Prenatal Attachment Inventory. Results Pregnant women reported greater attachment to Twin B than to Twin A. Conclusion Pregnant women may be more attached to Twin B (typically the nonpresenting fetus) because this twin may be easier to see and touch. While the mean attachment scores between twins differed, the size of the difference was small. Further study is needed to determine the predictive value and clinical significance of this finding for future mother-infant relationships.
Respiratory medication prescriptions before and after bariatric surgery.

Background Increased body mass index is associated with asthma and frequent respiratory complaints. Bariatric surgery often results in rapid weight loss associated with an improved respiratory status. Objective To assess whether patients undergoing bariatric surgery would have fewer respiratory symptoms after surgery as evidenced by decreases in respiratory prescription drug claims. Methods A retrospective cohort of 320 patients continuously enrolled in a large, southeast Michigan health maintenance organization were studied for 1 year before and 1 year after bariatric surgery. The health maintenance organization claims database was used to compare respiratory prescriptions filled before and after surgery. Respiratory medications included bronchodilator inhalers, inhaled corticosteroids, oral corticosteroids, theophylline, and leukotriene antagonists. Results Of 320 surgical patients, 64 (20%) filled at least 1 respiratory medication prescription for a total of 468 prescriptions during the 2-year observation period. Of the prescriptions filled, 35% were β-agonists, 38% inhaled corticosteroids, 12% oral corticosteroids, 15% leukotriene antagonists, and less than 1% theophylline. Total respiratory medication prescription fills decreased by 49% (from 314 to 154 prescriptions) in the postsurgical year, with only 43.1% of patients filling prescriptions in the year before surgery also filling a prescription in the postsurgical surveillance period. Analyses restricted to 40 patients with physician-diagnosed asthma revealed mean (SD) presurgical prescription fills of 7.0 (6.9) per year, decreasing to 3.8 (6.1) per year in the postsurgical year ( P = .002). Conclusion Respiratory medication use decreases significantly after bariatric surgery. A secondary benefit of bariatric surgery may include a decrease in respiratory symptoms and concomitant medication use.
Determination of the relative energies of activation for the dissociation of aromatic versus aliphatic phosphopeptides by ESI-FTICR-MS and IRMPD

Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometry (ESI-FTICR-MS) coupled with infrared multiphoton dissociation (IRMPD) is potentially a powerful method for rapid phosphopeptide mapping of complex proteolytic digests. The dissociation of deprotonated phosphopeptides by IRMPD is energetically favorable over unmodified deprotonated peptides because of a lower energy of activation and a higher internal energy under identical irradiation conditions. The energies of activation for dissociation are determined for model peptides phosphorylated on an aliphatic side chain (serine) and an aromatic side chain (tyrosine). The determination of phosphorylation location provides important biochemical information identifying the kinase involved in specific phosphorylation mechanisms. The data presented in this manuscript also support the theory that for phosphopeptides, the phosphate moiety’s P-O stretch is in direct resonance with the infrared laser (10.6 µm), thus increasing the relative absorptivity of the modified species. A greater extinction coefficient affords more extensive photon absorption and subsequently a greater internal energy at the rapid exchange limit.
Least-squares-based fitting of paraboloids

A technique for reconstructing a class of quadric surfaces from 3D data is presented. The technique is driven by a linear least-squares-based fitting mechanism. Previously, such fitting was restricted to recovery of central quadrics; here, extension of that basic mechanism to allow recovery of one commonly-occurring class of non-central quadric, the elliptic paraboloids, is described. The extension uses an indirect solution approach that involves introducing a variable to the basic mechanism that is a function of a quadric surface invariant. Results from fitting real and synthetic data are also exhibited.
Strengthening academic generalist departments and divisions

Academic departments of family medicine and divisions of general internal medicine and general pediatrics exist in the majority of medical schools in the United States and have important roles in generalist medical education. The major organizational issues facing these units concern institutional influence, faculty development, role in medical education, research productivity, financial stability, and clinical responsibilities. These issues must be understood in order for medical schools and teaching hospitals to achieve the societal goal of producing necessary generalist physicians.
Perpetual currency options

Abstract This paper explores the properties of perpetual currency options and their uses. Perpetual currency options could be highly useful in controlling the uncertainties of foreign currency flows of unknown timing. Yet they are not traded in any market at the time of the present writing. Nonetheless, they have several interesting uses in both theoretical and trading environments. As American-style options, perpetual options provide boundary conditions as the limiting cases of short-lived traded options. They possess the theoretical advantage that valuation equations, hedge ratios, and related quantities may be written down, in contrast to their shorter-term American currency option counterparts. Due to their relative simplicity, there is also a nomogram which graphically depicts their exercise boundaries. By replication techniques, perpetual currency options may be produced even in the absence of actual markets in the instrument.
Reducing Morbidity of Pelvic and Retroperitoneal Lymphadenectomy

Lymphadenectomy is utilized in both pelvic and retroperitoneal oncological surgery as a means to eradicate locoregional disease, improve staging accuracy and guide adjuvant therapy. However, pelvic and retroperitoneal lymphadenectomy have the potential for morbidity including lymphatic injury, vascular injury, thromboembolic events and neurologic injury. Across the spectrum of urologic malignancies, the evidence supporting both the necessity and the extent of lymphadenectomy varies considerably. Awareness of the potential for injury and ways to avoid and manage the most common complications is necessary to decrease the morbidity associated with these procedures.
Relationships between Economic Benefit and Sport-Fishing Effort on West Point Reservoir, Alabama-Georgia

Abstract A roving creel survey was used to collect information on county of origin and fishing-trip expenses for anglers visiting West Point Reservoir, Georgia-Alabama, during the first five fishing seasons after impoundment, February-October, 1976–1980. Use-prediction models were developed to explain variation in attendance of various user-segments (bank, boat, bass, and crappie anglers) from participating counties on the basis of county population sizes and distances of counties from the reservoir. The models were used in conjunction with differential travel costs from the counties to the reservoir to estimate net economic benefit in the form of consumers' surplus. The average annual consumers' surplus for the fishery was estimated to be $1,913,000, which translates to $8.90 per angler-day. The percentage contribution of various user-segments to annual fishing effort was not, except for crappie anglers, an accurate indicator of relative contribution to annual consumers' surplus. Simple regression equati...
Liposome-encapsulated-gentamicin therapy of Mycobacterium avium complex infection in beige mice.

Efficacy of liposome-encapsulated amikacin and free amikacin against Mycobacterium avium complex was evaluated in the beige mouse (C57BL/6J-bgJ/bgJ) acute infection model. Approximately 10(7) viable M. avium complex serotype 1 cells for which the MIC of amikacin was 8 micrograms/ml were given intravenously. Treatment was started with encapsulated or free amikacin at approximately 110 or 40 mg/kg of body weight 7 or 14 days later. In the former experiment, treatment was given two or three times per week. In the latter experiment, treatment was given daily for 5 days. The animals were sacrificed 5 days after the last dose. Liver, spleen, and lung were homogenized, and viable cell counts were determined on 7H10 agar. An analysis of variance and subsequent Tukey HSD (honestly significant difference) tests indicated that both encapsulated and free amikacin significantly reduced viable cell counts in each of the organs compared with counts in the control group. Compared with free amikacin, encapsulated amikacin significantly reduced viable cell counts in the liver and spleen. Liposome encapsulation of an active agent appears to be a promising therapeutic approach to M. avium complex infection.
Additive Protective Effects of Donepezil and Nicotine Against Salsolinol-Induced Cytotoxicity in SH-SY5Y Cells

Although the etiology of Parkinson’s disease (PD) remains elusive, a number of toxins including elevated salsolinol, an endogenous metabolite of dopamine may contribute to its pathology. It was reported recently that nicotine may have protective effects against salsolinol-induced toxicity in human neuroblastoma derived SH-SY5Y cells and that these effects of nicotine are mediated by nicotinic receptors. Donepezil (Aricept) is a reversible non-competitive acetylcholinesterase inhibitor that is approved for use in mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease. The increase in acetylcholine concentrations is believed to be the major contributory factor in donepezil’s therapeutic efficacy. However, cholinesterase inhibitors may also directly interact with nicotinic receptors and possess neuroprotective properties. In this study, we sought to determine whether donepezil may have protective effects against salsolinol-induced toxicity in SH-SY5Y cells and whether the combination of donepezil and nicotine may result in additive protection. Moreover, it was of interest to elucidate the role of nicotinic receptors as well as cell cycle and apoptosis in mechanism of action of these compounds. SH-SY5Y cells were exposed to 0.6 mM salsolinol with and without various drug pretreatments for 48 h. Nicotine (50 μM) resulted in approximately 54% protection and donepezil (5 μM) resulted in approximately 40% protection, and the combination of the two resulted in an additive (approximately 93%) protection against salsolinol-induced toxicity. Salsolinol caused an arrest of the cells in G1-phase of cell cycle and an increase in apoptotic indices that were blocked by the combination of donepezil and nicotine. Mecamylamine, a non-selective nicotinic receptor antagonist completely blocked the effects of nicotine and partially attenuated the effects of donepezil. A combination of atropine, a muscarinic receptor antagonist and mecamylamine completely blocked the effects of donepezil, indicating involvement of both nicotinic and muscarinic receptors in donepezil’s actions. The findings suggest a therapeutic potential for the combination of donepezil and nicotine in PD.
Intrinsically Disordered Proteins: An Update

Just over 10 years ago, in June, 1997, in the Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Neural Networks, we published our first predictor of intrinsically disordered protein. Since then, we have substantially improved our predictors, and more than 20 other laboratory groups have joined in efforts to improve the prediction of protein disorder. At the algorithmic level, prediction of protein intrinsic disorder is similar to the prediction of secondary structure, but, at the structural level, secondary structure and intrinsic disorder are entirely different. The secondary structure class called random coil or irregular differs from intrinsic disorder due to very different dynamic properties, with the secondary structure class being much less mobile than the region of disorder. At the biological level, unlike the prediction of secondary structure, the prediction of intrinsic disorder has been revolutionary. That is, for many years, experimentalists have provided evidence that some proteins lack fixed structure or are disordered (or unfolded) under physiological conditions. Experimentalists further are showing that, for some proteins, functions depended on the unstructured rather than structured state. However, these examples have been mostly ignored. To our knowledge, not one disordered protein or disorder-associated function is discussed in any biochemistry textbook, even though such examples began to be discovered more than 50 years ago. Disorder prediction has been important for showing that the few experimentally characterized examples represent a very large cohort that is found all across all three domains of life. We now know that many significant biological functions depend directly on, or are importantly associated with, the unfolded or partially folded state. In this paper, we will briefly review some of the key discoveries that have occurred in the last decade, and, furthermore, will make a few highly speculative projections.
RegionSpeak: Quick Comprehensive Spatial Descriptions of Complex Images for Blind Users

Blind people often seek answers to their visual questions from remote sources, however, the commonly adopted single-image, single-response model does not always guarantee enough bandwidth between users and sources. This is especially true when questions concern large sets of information, or spatial layout, e.g., where is there to sit in this area, what tools are on this work bench, or what do the buttons on this machine do? Our RegionSpeak system addresses this problem by providing an accessible way for blind users to (i) combine visual information across multiple photographs via image stitching, em (ii) quickly collect labels from the crowd for all relevant objects contained within the resulting large visual area in parallel, and (iii) then interactively explore the spatial layout of the objects that were labeled. The regions and descriptions are displayed on an accessible touchscreen interface, which allow blind users to interactively explore their spatial layout. We demonstrate that workers from Amazon Mechanical Turk are able to quickly and accurately identify relevant regions, and that asking them to describe only one region at a time results in more comprehensive descriptions of complex images. RegionSpeak can be used to explore the spatial layout of the regions identified. It also demonstrates broad potential for helping blind users to answer difficult spatial layout questions.
Unsymmetrical symmetric instability

A northward component of the earth's rotation (b-effect) is included in a set of linearized, non-hydrostatic equations to study symmetric instability. The results show that the b-effect can be important if the perturbations are functions of the latitude. In comparison with the conventional symmetric instability, results also show that, in the northern hemisphere, when the temperature increases with latitude, the growth rate can be enhanced by the b-effect, and the growth rate decreases when the temperature decreases with latitude. We also find that when the perturbations are independent of latitude, the b-effect disappears. The physical explanation is provided.
Lasiodiplodia theobromae as a cause of keratomycoses.

Four cases of human keratitis caused by the tropical fungus Lasiodiplodia theobromae have been encountered in Miami, Florida bringing to 8 the number of cases reported in the world literature. Two of the ulcers were mild. Three patients recovered without severe impairment of vision after topical polyene treatment, but 1 patient with a severe ulcer required therapeutic keratoplasty after 11 days of topical natamycin. Histopathology revealed fungus deep in the cornea, invading Descemet's membrane. L. theobromae appeared to have collagenase activity in vitro.Inoculation of L. theobromae into the corneas of rabbits produced progressive ulcers. The fungus was endemic in Miami on home grown and imported bananas. Polyene antimycotic antibiotics were fungicidal for L. theobromae in vitro. Thiabendazole was effectively fungistatic but varied in fungicidal effect. Clotrimazole and miconazole were only incompletely fungistatic. Of 7 strains of L. theobromae tested, 4 were relatively resistant to 5-fluorocytosine.
Incidence of type 1 diabetes mellitus in the 0- to 17-yr-old Israel population, 1997-2003.

Background: Recent reports from different countries have shown an increased incidence of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). A national juvenile diabetes register was established by the Israel Pediatric Endocrine Society and the Israel Center for Disease Control (ICDC) in 1997. Objective: This article reports the epidemiology of T1DM in children in the age-group 0–17 yr in Israel during 1997–2003. Methods: The Israel juvenile diabetes register is a population-based anonymous registry. Newly diagnosed cases of all types of diabetes in children and adolescents are reported to the ICDC by all the endocrinologists in all the pediatric diabetes centers. Overall incidence rates and rates by sex, age, and population group are presented. Comparisons are made by year, sex, age, and population group. Results: During 1997–2003, 1485 children and adolescents with T1DM were reported in the age-group 0–17 yr. The annual incidence rate of T1DM increased by 34% during 1997–2003, from 8.0 per 100 000 [95% confidence interval (CI) 6.8–9.3] to 10.7 per 100 000 (95% CI 9.4–12.1). Incidence rates were higher for Jews than for Arabs. Among Jews, children of Yemenite origin had the highest incidence rate (26.1 per 100 000; 95% CI 13.3–38.9). Incidence peaked at an earlier age in girls. A first-degree family history of T1DM was found in 9.1% of the cases. Conclusions: The incidence of T1DM is increasing in the Israeli population, particularly in the Arab population. The culturally varied composition of the Israeli population provides important areas for future studies based on data collected in this national register.
Control of Zn diffusion in InP/InAlGaAs-based heterojunction bipolar transistors and light emitting transistors

Zn diffusion behavior in InP/InAlGaAs heterojunction bipolar transistors and light emitting transistors grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition was investigated. Using secondary ion mass spectrometry, the Zn doping profiles in the epitaxial structures were studied in relation to their growth conditions. Migration of Zn atoms from the base layer was found to be a combined result of three mechanisms, i.e. the generation of excess group III interstitials during the n-type InP subcollector growth, the generation of Zn interstitials in the Zn-doped InAlGaAs base, and the presence of strong electric field at the emitter-base n–p junction. By choosing the growth conditions either to suppress or to enhance the effects of each mechanism, Zn is able to diffuse either in both directions into the adjacent emitter and collector, or forward only into the emitter, or backward only into the collector. An abrupt junction profile, with the suppression of Zn diffusion, in the InP:Si/In(Al0.25Ga0.75)As:Zn/InAlAs:ud/InP:Si light emitting transistor structure has been achieved by low Si doping in the InP subcollector, low temperature growth of the InAlGaAs base, and slightly high Si doping in the InP emitter.
Sweeping up after the parade : professional, ethical, and patient care implications of turfing

"Turfing" denotes a patient transfer or triage from one physician to another when the care of that patient feels more troublesome than it is worth. A widespread phenomenon in medical training programs, turfing appears to allocate patient care to meet physicians' rather than patients' needs. Although turfing reportedly causes inter-physician discord and inter-specialty stereotyping, its deeper consequences are poorly understood. Turfing is an interpersonal conflict masquerading as a medical issue. After examining turfing alongside other patient-related slang, I analyze the distinction between "the turf," a person, and "to turf," a practice. Several explanatory models from medical practice are explored in order to illuminate turfing's implications for medical professionalism, ethics, and patient care. I suggest that a physician's medical specialty or practice type--that is, professional culture--may link to that physician's degree of altruism. If so, then what it means fundamentally to be a physician might vary across medical specialties. Such a link calls for a new notion of cultural competence, one that physicians may apply not to patients but to each other.
Association of glycosphingolipids with intermediate filaments of human umbilical vein endothelial cells.

Abstract Our previous studies of glycosphingolipids (GSLs) of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) established that globoside and ganglioside GM3 are the most abundant GSLs of HUVECs. Both compounds are located intracellularly, as well as on the cell surface. In this study, we demonstrate that the intracellular globoside and GM3 antigens are associated with the vimentin intermediate filaments of the HUVEC cytoskeleton. Immunofluorescence staining of fixed, permeabilized HUVECs showed colocalization of globoside and GM3 with vimentin but not with tubulin or actin. Both GSLs remained associated with intermediate filaments after perinuclear collapse of the filaments induced by colcemid. Indirect evidence that the globoside epitope is present on a GSL is the loss of staining by anti-globoside after methanol fixation and the absence of anti-globoside reactivity with HUVEC proteins on immunoblots. Colocalization of anti-globoside and anti-vimentin was also demonstrated in cryosections of endothelial cells, which indicates that the observed association was not an artifact induced by exposure of cells to detergent or organic solvent. Association of globoside with intermediate filaments was confirmed by immunoelectron microscopy, which demonstrated the presence of antigen along intermediate filaments, as well as on the cell surface and on lipid vesicles. Interferon-γ decreased the ratio of surface to filamentous globoside staining, but had the opposite effect on GM3 distribution. Less abundant HUVEC GSLs, including Gb3, nLc4, IV2FucnLc4, and IV3NeuAcnLc4, were not detected along filaments. This is the first report of the association of GSLs with intermediate filaments. We suggest that intermediate filaments may play a role in the transport of GSLs.
Single-molecule kinetics with time-dependent rates: a generating function approach.

A theoretical strategy for calculating the statistical properties of time series generated by single molecule measurements is presented. Emphasis is placed on the case where observable states interconvert via rate ``constants'' exhibiting stochastic time dependence. Such is the case for measurements of single fluorophores coupled to biomolecules undergoing conformational fluctuations [H. P. Lu, L. Xun, and X. S. Xie, Science 282, 1877 (1998)]. In contrast to previous studies, we focus on the number of fluorophore blinking events occurring within a given amount of time as our stochastic variable. This formulation allows for an elementary analysis within the generating function framework.
Leukocyte function in the aging immune system.

Review of the current understanding of age-dependent changes in leukocyte function and their contribution to aging-related disease processes.
Phonon Damping in Disordered HTSC Crystals

It is shown that high levels of crystal disorder profoundly damp phonon modes, and it is suggested that crystal disorder is the parameter which determines whether a crystal becomes superconducting or insulating as temperature is lowered to T c .
Wavy Ribbons of Carbon Nanotubes for Stretchable Conductors

Wavy ribbons of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are embedded in elastomeric substrates to fabricate stretchable conductors that exhibit excellent performance in terms of high stretchability and small resistance change. A CNT ribbon with a thin layer of sputtered Au/Pd film is transferred onto a prestrained poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) substrate and buckled out-of-plane upon release of the prestrain. Embedded in PDMS, the wavy CNT ribbon is able to accommodate large stretching (up to the prestrain) with little change in resistance. For a prestrain of 100%, the resistance increases only about 4.1% when the wavy CNT ribbon is stretched to the prestrain. A simple stretchable circuit consisting of a light-emitting diode and two wavy ribbons is demonstrated and shows constant response on significant twisting, folding, or stretching. Fabricated with a simple buckling approach, the wavy CNT-ribbon-based stretchable conductors (e.g., interconnects and electrodes) could play an important role in stretchable electronics, sensors, photovoltaics, and energy storage.
The Impact of Gender on Caries Prevalence and Risk Assessment

Dental caries remains a common disease worldwide. There is evidence indicating that many caries risk factors provide a gender bias, placing women at a higher caries risk. Generally, dental caries disproportionally affects the poor and racial or ethnic minorities worldwide, with women suffering more from the disease. Differences in access to care as reflected by untreated caries rates also reflect gender disparities. There is a lack of evidence in regard to gender differences and dental caries. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop the evidence necessary to meet the oral health needs of both women and men worldwide.
TU-C-330A-01: The History (and Future) of MRI Physics

The history of MRI is now a little over 30 years old. It's impact on the scientific, and in particular medical, community has been immense, and shows no sign of slowing. From the first demonstration in 1973 of the spatial encoding of proton density information in the nuclear magnetic resonance signal, via the application of pulsed magnetic field gradients, a succession of technological developments now makes MRI the modality of choice for a wide range of cross sectional biomedical imaging applications. This talk will offer some insights into the origins of MRI, the rapid development of spin echo and gradient recalled echo, 2D and 3D, imaging and the birth of faster and faster imaging involving multiple echoes (RARE and echo planar imaging). Additionally, interpretation of MRI‐accessible contrasts emerged, offering specific insights into physiology via NMR relaxation time constants and such MRI “flavors” as diffusion weighted imaging. In parallel, MRI‐specific contrast media (“magnetic dyes”) were introduced in the 1980's offering both “enhancement” of MRI signal as well as the opportunity to study dynamic processes (such as bolus tracer passage, with concomitant estimation of perfusion and, later, microvascular permeability). The 1990's saw the continued clinical adoption of MRI as well as the commitment to physiologically‐specific imaging and the introduction of blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) contrast and the birth of “functional magnetic resonance imaging, fMRI”, for the spatial mapping of brain functional organization. More recently yet further acceleration in image acquisition speed has been offered by the introduction of multiple (parallel) receiver coil elements and the adoption of the principles of sensitivity encoding. Presently, acceleration factors of ×2 are routine, ×4 are commonplace and ×9 or more are in development. The future offers the possibility of massively parallel acquisitions with effectively single‐shot temporal resolution of the order of milliseconds. While the contrast resolution of MRI is transitioning from anatomy through physiology towards biochemical processes, the speed of MRI is accelerating from static to real‐time, hurdling successive physical and physiological boundaries (such, as involuntary motion, breath‐hold, cardiac cycle and ultimately towards the speed of neuronal processes). The overall vision of this talk is to convey the ongoing development of MRI towards both increasing spatial and temporal resolution as well as towards increasingly specific biological interpretation. Educational Objectives: 1. To understand the origins and background of today's MRI. 2. To understand the rapid development of MRI acquisition speed. 3. To understand the use of tailored MRI to derive physiologically specific imagecontrast. 4. To anticipate the continued acceleration of both imaging speed and biological application of MRI.
A Proposal for a Novel Hybrid Interconnect Technology for the End of Roadmap

To suppress the impact of size effects on sub-20 nm wide wires, a novel aluminum-copper hybrid interconnect architecture is proposed and its potential performance has been quantified. Al wires offer lower resistivities at nanoscale dimensions because they do not need diffusion barriers, and size effects are less prominent in them due to their smaller bulk mean free path. However, their current conduction capacity is substantially lower than that of Cu wires. To get around this limitation, this letter proposes a hybrid interconnect technology to replace only short narrow local signal wires by Al wires. This scheme takes advantage of the fact that signal wires conduct bi-directional currents and are therefore virtually immune to electromigration. The improvement in chip clock frequency is predicted to be between 50% and 100% for the 7 nm technology node.
Seismic expression of Quarternary climatic cycles in the peri-platform carbonate ooze of the northern Bahamas

Stratigraphic, physical, and acoustic properties of peri-platform carbonate sediments in an 18-m-long piston core (core 2218, 655 m) from Northwest Providence Channel, Bahamas, have been investigated. The sediments range in age from recent to about 1 m.y. old. There is a close correlation between changes of compressional wave velocity and Quaternary climate as indicated by δ 18 O. Velocity correlates negatively to aragonite content, water content, and porosity, whereas it correlates positively to grain size, saturated bulk density, and observed degree of cementation. Changes in the degree of cementation exert a particularly strong influence on velocity variations. All parameters correlate to Quaternary climate/sea-level fluctuations. During glacial/low-sea-level stages, the aragonite content, water content, water content, and porosity decrease, but grain size, saturated bulk density, and the degree of cementation increase; all of these increase velocity. In general, water content, porosity, and the aragonite content decrease slightly with core depth, but grain size, saturated bulk density, degree of cementation, and velocity increase slightly. Two processes may contribute to these trends: (1) shallow subsurface diagenesis upon burial and (2) variations of both the interglacial production of bank-top sediments and the intensity of glacial sea-floor diagenesis. Major changes in velocity are associated with transitions from glacial to interglacial stages. Acoustic reflectors correlate one-to-one with the velocity changes occurring at isotopic stage boundaries 7-8, 9-10, and 11-12. At the site of core 2218, deeper reflectors have an interference origin because velocity changes are more closely spaced. The reflectors that correlate with isotopic stage boundaries can be used to study the detailed history of Quaternary peri-platform carbonate deposition and place it into the context of global climate/sea-level cycles.
Inter-brand comparison of online auction markets

A methodology for studying brand variations in online auction markets is presented. A topological model for such market is a simultaneous graphical display of all the dimensions of its relevant database, which provides a geometrical shape as a descriptive, visual statistics of the market at any particular instance of its development. In particular, various dimensions were identified for constructing a multi-attribute dichotomy that can help discern relative advantages to buyers and sellers using only available, operational data, and without expert knowledge of the items involved or the prices attained. Using a reference subset of diverse cases, the configuration of the dimensions and the angles among them can be optimized for a topology that maximizes the resolution of such dichotomies. The approach is illustrated in a comparative study of four brands of digital cameras on eBay.com. It can be a useful data mining tool in market research, product positioning, and strategic analysis in e-commerce.
Depth profile of sulfate-reducing bacterial ribosomal RNA and mercury methylation in an estuarine sediment

The community structure of complex anaerobic microbial communities has been difficult to elucidate because of an inability to cultivate most of the contributing populations. In this study, the distribution of sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) in anaerobic sediments was determined using oligonucleotide probes complementary to the 16S ribosomal RNAs of major phylogenetic groups. Sediment cores were collected from Santa Rosa Sound in northwest Florida, and sectioned by depth into 1 to 2 cm fractions. Nucleic acids were extracted from each fraction and hybridized with the SRB-specific ribosomal RNA probes. SRB ribosomal RNAs accounted for almost 5% of the microbial community ribosomal RNA pool in the 3–4 cm depth fraction and were dominated by Desulfovibrionaceae ribosomal RNA. The SRB ribosomal RNA peak coincided with mercury methylation, an activity attributed to SRB. Profiles of the ribosomal RNAs indicate that SRB populations in sediments are stratified by depth.
Viscous relaxation on comets

Three Jupiter family comets have now been observed by spacecraft with the surprising result that these comets lack unambiguous impact craters. Large-scale topography generally appears to be softened on these comets, although sharp topography is preserved at small scales. We find that viscous relaxation of water ice may explain these observations, given reasonable assumptions about ice grain size and temperatures attained in the interiors. We suggest that both the shapes and the cratering records of Jupiter family comets may be substantially modified and no longer reflect cometary formation processes or collisional evolution in the Kuiper Belt.
Space-time dynamics of wide-gain-section lasers

The space-time behavior of a wide-gain-section, single-longitudinal-mode laser is investigated. Analysis of the full Maxwell-Bloch model in one transverse spatial dimension identifies a traveling-wave solution beyond the first laser threshold, for positive detuning from resonance, which appears to be a globally attracting state of the laser. On the negative-detuning side we observe an initial bifurcation to a homogeneous plane-wave state. A second instability threshold can be identified by linearizing about the respective solutions for both positive and negative detuning. We also find that the standard approach to adiabatic elimination, whereby the polarization equation is adiabatically eliminated, can lead to a spurious high-transverse-wave-number instability in the reduced equations. The derivation of an adiabatically reduced set of equations to remove the instability on the positive-detuning side is a nontrivial matter.
Widening Sesame Street.

ABSTRACT This paper traces the developmental history of Sesame Street from the initial efforts to obtain funding and set goals to present day importation of programs to other countries. The author argues that while the original objectives were necessary and appropriate for the late 1960's, a revised approach is called for now. Specifically, Sesame Street producers should answer critics who point to research findings which show Sesame Street to be ineffectual in producing significant learning gains and in narrowing the academic achievement gap between advantaged and disadvantaged children. It is recommended that Sesame Street producers incorporate Piagetian theories on cognitive development in order to realize learning gains.
Erratum to: The origins and early years of the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology

From the Department of Internal Medicine, Section of Cardiovascular Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, CT; and Department of Cardiology, Berkshire Medical Center, Pittsfield, MA The online version of the original article can be found under doi: 10.1007/s12350-012-9651-5. Reprint requests: Frans J. Th. Wackers, Department of Internal Medicine, Section of Cardiovascular Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, CT; frans.wackers@yale.edu. J Nucl Cardiol 2013;20:172. 1071-3581/$34.00 Copyright 2012 American Society of Nuclear Cardiology. doi:10.1007/s12350-012-9665-z
40 Gbit/s silicon optical modulator for highspeed applications

A high-speed silicon optical modulator based on the free carrier plasma dispersion effect is presented. It is based on carrier depletion of a pn diode embedded inside a silicon-on-insulator waveguide. To achieve high-speed performance, a travelling-wave design is used to allow co-propagation of the electrical and optical signals along the length of the device. The resulting modulator has a 3 dB bandwidth of ~30 GHz and can transmit data up to 40 Gbit/s.
Apoptosis and acute kidney injury.

Improved mechanistic understanding of renal cell death in acute kidney injury (AKI) has generated new therapeutic targets. Clearly, the classic lesion of acute tubular necrosis is not adequate to describe the consequences of renal ischemia, nephrotoxin exposure, or sepsis on glomerular filtration rate. Experimental evidence supports a pathogenic role for apoptosis in AKI. Interestingly, proximal tubule epithelial cells are highly susceptible to apoptosis, and injury at this site contributes to organ failure. During apoptosis, well-orchestrated events converge at the mitochondrion, the organelle that integrates life and death signals generated by the BCL2 (B-cell lymphoma 2) protein family. Death requires the ‘perfect storm’ for outer mitochondrial membrane injury to release its cellular ‘executioners’. The complexity of this process affords new targets for effective interventions, both before and after renal insults. Inhibiting apoptosis appears to be critical, because circulating factors released by the injured kidney induce apoptosis and inflammation in distant organs including the heart, lung, liver, and brain, potentially contributing to the high morbidity and mortality associated with AKI. Manipulation of known stress kinases upstream of mitochondrial injury, induction of endogenous, anti-apoptotic proteins, and improved understanding of the timing and consequences of renal cell apoptosis will inevitably improve the outcome of human AKI.
Constraints Among Molecular and Systemic Properties: Implications for Physiological Genetics

Physiological genetics attempts to relate the molecular genetic properties of an organism--the genotype--to its integrated or physiological behavior--the phenotype. There has been relatively little progress in this field when compared to the neighboring fields of molecular and population genetics. This is due in part to the large number of highly non-linear interactions that characterize such systems. Biochemical Systems Theory is one approach that shows promise in dealing with the large number of non-linear interactions in a systematically structured manner. A variant of this approach has stressed the use of specific mathematical constraints, called summation and connectivity relationships, among molecular and systemic properties. In particular, the summation relationship has been used to argue that the predominance of recessive mutations is the inevitable consequence of the kinetic structure of enzyme networks and need not be attributed to natural selection. In order to put in broader perspective the implications of such constraints for physiological genetics, we have presented in this paper the outlines of the larger theory and the set of generalized steady state constraints that follow from first principles within this theory. The results show that the summation relationship suffers from a number of fundamental limitations that make it invalid for analyzing realistic biological systems. It also is shown that the more general constraint relationships, while valid, provide nothing new that cannot be obtained directly from the explicit solutions that are available within the larger theory. Thus, one can conclude that approaches based directly on the underlying equations of the system are superior to those based upon constraint relationships as a foundation for the development of physiological genetics.
Video caching in Radio Access Network: Impact on delay and capacity

In this paper, we introduce distributed caching of videos at the base-stations of the Radio Access Network (RAN) as a way to reduce the need to bring requested videos from Internet CDNs, thereby reducing backhaul transmission, improving video quality of experience — delay and video stalling — and increasing overall network capacity to support more number of simultaneous video requests. Unlike Internet CDNs that can store millions of videos in a relatively few large sized caches, our proposed caching architecture consists of a very large number of micro-caches, with each base-station micro-cache being able to store only 1000s of videos, and hence may not be able to have high cache hit ratio. To address this challenge, we propose two new caching policies based on the User Preference Profile (UPP) of users in a cell: R-UPP (Reactive UPP) and P-UPP (Proactive UPP). Further, for videos that result in cache misses and need to be fetched from Internet CDNs, we develop a video scheduling approach that allocates the RAN backhaul resources to the video requests so as to reduce video latency and increase network capacity. We develop a discrete event statistical simulation framework using MATLAB to study the performance of RAN caching. Our simulation results show that RAN micro-caches with the proposed UPP-based caching policies, together with the proposed scheduling approach, can improve the probability of video requests that can meet initial delay requirements by almost 60%, and the number of concurrent video requests that can be served by up to 100%. The results also show that UPP based policies can enhance network capacity by up to 30% compared to conventional caching policies.
Detecting Speculations and their Scopes in Scientific Text

Distinguishing speculative statements from factual ones is important for most biomedical text mining applications. We introduce an approach which is based on solving two sub-problems to identify speculative sentence fragments. The first sub-problem is identifying the speculation keywords in the sentences and the second one is resolving their linguistic scopes. We formulate the first sub-problem as a supervised classification task, where we classify the potential keywords as real speculation keywords or not by using a diverse set of linguistic features that represent the contexts of the keywords. After detecting the actual speculation keywords, we use the syntactic structures of the sentences to determine their scopes.
Distribution of Axonal And Glial Elements in the Rhesus Optic Nerve Head Studied by Electron Microscopy

Quantitative measurements of the composition of axonal bundles were made from electron micrographs for six levels within the intraocular portion of the optic nerve head of the rhesus moneky. The proportion of the areas occupied by axonal cytoplasm, glial cytoplasm, mitochondria, and myelin was calculated. Average axonal diameters were determined at each location. Axonal bundles acquired progressively more interaxonal glial tissue as they passed posteriorly from the region of the optic disk toward the optic nerve. Mitochondria were present within axons in increased numbers in the lamina choroidalis and lamina scleralis, and there may be focal expansions and constrictions of axons in the same regions. The overall cross-sectional area of the intraocular portion of the optic nerve expanded posterior to Bruch's membrane in part because of the addition of the interaxonal glial tissue.
Effect of vitamin B6 deficiency on the composition of yeast lipids

Abstract When the yeast Hanseniaspora valbyensis was grown in a vitamin B 6 -deficient medium, striking changes occurred in certain lipids. Although both control and deficient cells contained the same fatty acids, the amount of palmitoleic acid, the principal monounsaturated fatty acid component, decreased dramatically. Saturated fatty acid levels remained relatively constant. Deficient cells contained only about 60% as much total lipid as control cells; the phytosphingosine content also was substantially lowered. Lipid phosphorus levels, however, were unchanged. An indication of the specificity of these lipid changes was obtained by a comparison with lipids of the same microorganism depleted of pantothenic acid or of nicotinic acid. Nicotinic acid deficiency increased the total lipid content; pantothenic acid deficiency decreased it. Unlike vitamin B 6 deficiency, pantothenate deficiency affected both chain length and degree of saturation of the fatty acids, whereas vitamin B 6 deficiency altered degree of saturation alone. These results support previous postulates of a role for vitamin B 6 in synthesis of unsaturated fatty acids and show that this role extends to synthesis of monounsaturated compounds.
Infrared spectroelectrochemical study of cyanide adsorption and reactions at platinum electrodes in aqueous perchlorate electrolyte

In-situ IR spectroelectrochemistry was used to investigate the behavior of cyanide (CN−) at polycrystalline platinum surfaces in aqueous perchlorate (ClO4−) electrolyte. IR spectroelectrochemical data reveal the existence of a number of surface, as well as solution, cyanide species in the interfacial region. Within the double-layer potential region, there is IR evidence for several forms of adsorbed cyanide CNads− (νmax ≈ 2070 cm−1, ν′max ≈ 2145 cm−1, and ν″max ≈ 2170 cm−1). When the potential is made sufficiently positive, cyanide is oxidized to form cyanate (OCN−) (νmax = 2171 cm−1). Other solution cyanide species which may be formed at the platinum cyanide solution interface include hydrogen cyanide (HCN) (νmax ≈ 2095 cm−1) and the square-planar platinum cyanide complex Pt[CN]42−(νmax = 2133 cm−1) (IR-active Eu mode). The interfacial electrochemistry of the Pt | CN− + ClO4− system was found not only to be influenced by the applied electrode potential, but also to be driven by changes in the interfacial pH, which is potential-dependent. In-situ IR spectroelectrochemistry reveals details of the potential-dependent surface chemistry of the Pt / CN − system, the complexities of which cannot easily be studied by other techniques.