cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Artificial intelligence systems that understand

From its beginnings, artificial intelligence has borrowed freely from the vocabulary of psychology. The use of the word "intelligence" to label our area of research is a case in point. Other terms referring originally to human mental processes that have consider able currency in AI are "thinking," "comprehending," and, with increasing frequency in the past five years, "understanding." Infact, these terms are probably used more freely in AI than in experimental psychology, where a deep suspicion of "mentalistic" terminology still lingers as a heritage of behaviorism.
Approximating optimal policies for partially observable stochastic domains

The problem of making optimal decisions in uncertain conditions is central to Artificial Intelligence If the state of the world is known at all times, the world can be modeled as a Markov Decision Process (MDP) MDPs have been studied extensively and many methods are known for determining optimal courses of action or policies. The more realistic case where state information is only partially observable Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes (POMDPs) have received much less attention. The best exact algorithms for these problems can be very inefficient in both space and time. We introduce Smooth Partially Observable Value Approximation (SPOVA), a new approximation method that can quickly yield good approximations which can improve over time. This method can be combined with reinforcement learning meth ods a combination that was very effective in our test cases.
Localizing planning with functional process models

In this paper we describe a compromise between generative planning and special-purpose software. Hierarchical functional models are used by an intelligent system to represent its own processes for both acting and reasoning. Since these models are custom-built for a specific set of situations, they can provide efficiency comparable to special-purpose software in those situations. Furthermore, the models can be automatically modified. In this way, the specialized power of the models can be leveraged even in situations for which they were not originally intended. When a model cannot address some or all of a problem, an off-the-shelf generative planning system is used to construct a new sequence of actions which can be added to the model. Thus portions of the process which were previously understood are addressed with the efficiency of a specialized reasoning process, and portions of the process which were previously unknown are addressed with the flexibility of generative planning. The REM reasoning shell provides both the language for encoding functional models of processes and the algorithms for executing and adapting these models.
When life gives you lemons: Frank Meyer, authority, and credit in early twentieth-century plant hunting:

In the early twentieth century, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) funded international expeditions with the aim of finding plant specimens for introduction into the agricultural landscape and the new experimental projects in hybridization. One such agricultural explorer, noted for his eponymous lemon, was Frank Nicholas Meyer, an immigrant from the Netherlands whose expeditions in Asia have brought to the United States celebrated fruit and toxic weeds. Neither professional botanists nor farmers, plant hunters like Meyer worked by taking advantage of historical allegiances to academic programs, while leaning on the authority of their newer national institutions. In addition to plants, through photographs that transposed Chinese landscapes to U.S. environmental counterparts, Meyer contributed to the imagination of the agricultural promise of the American West. The era of these plant explorers has ended but their material trace remains in a variety of spaces and modes of existence that have hitherto been disregarded. Reading Meyer's letters shows the authority and discipline behind his transformation from gardener's apprentice to professional plant collector. I argue that photographs and plants are understudied material traces that enable historians to re-examine the means by which credit was received, given, and exchanged. By drawing together these traces, I chart the continued importance of exploration and collection in the twentieth century and show the epistemic continuity between nineteenth-century natural history and twentieth-century experimental science.
Customer Participation in New Product Development: The Crucial Role of a Firm’s Absorptive Capacity: An Abstract

Our specific focus in this paper is on customer participation in the NPD process (i.e., customer involvement as co-developers). Within this collaborative NPD process, customers are engaged in idea generation, selecting various attributes of a new product offering and acting as co-developers of new products and services (Fang 2008). Our research contends that customer participation’s effectiveness in regard to new product performance and commercializing innovative new products is dependent on the level of absorptive capacity (ACAP) of the firm. ACAP is a dynamic capability that can help utilize the firm’s knowledge structure to acquire, transform, assimilate, and exploit external knowledge and apply it to commercial means (Zahra and George 2002). Substantively, we suggest that without a high level of ACAP, customer participation in NPD is rendered wholly ineffective in regard to the innovativeness and performance of new products.
Social Identity and Drinking: Dissecting Social Networks and Implications for Novel Interventions

Drinking among young adults has been consistently associated with perceptions of prevalence and approval of varying levels of drinking among broadly defined similar others (e.g. other female college students). Few works have considered influences in terms of actual group members comprising individuals' social networks. We proposed two overlapping groups would differentially influence drinking (important others; drinking buddies; and members of both groups). Furthermore, we expected that specific individuals (e.g. romantic partners and family members) would be associated with less drinking. Data were provided from 372 drinkers who logged daily drinking and the presence of network members on MTurk. Results indicated consistent support for the number of network members present as a predictor of the number of drinks consumed per drinking day, regardless of member characteristics. Only important others who were not drinkers and romantic partners failed to demonstrate unique positive associations with drinks per drinking day.
The effect of estrone and estradiol treatment on endometrial total protein, uteroferrin, and retinol-binding protein secretion during midpregnancy or midpseudopregnancy in swine

It has been hypothesized that conceptus estrogens influence endometrial protein secretion during pregnancy in swine. To test this hypothesis, the effect of estrone and estradiol treatment from d 30 to 60 of pregnancy or pseudopregnancy on endometrial protein secretion was investigated. Pregnant (P ; n = 16) and pseudopregnant (PP) gilts (n = 18) received either sham treatment or estrone or estradiol implants (5 mg/d release rate ; 60 d release) on d 30 of P or PP. Blood samples were collected on d 30, 40, 50, and 60 to measure estrone and estradiol. On d 60, gilts were hysterectomized. For P gilts, endometrium in apposition to one placenta from each uterine horn was collected. For PP gilts, each uterine horn was flushed with 40 mL of leucine-deficient minimal essential medium (MEM), and endometrial tissue was collected from each horn. Endometrial tissues were incubated in MEM in the presence of 50 μCi of [ 3 H]leucine to examine protein secretion. Estrone and estradiol treatments increased both plasma and endometrial concentrations of estrone ( P <.01 except endometrium for P gilts) and estradiol (P <.01, respectively). Endometrium from P gilts secreted more nondialyzable macromolecules (NDM), acid phosphatase activity (AP, a measure of uteroferrin), and retinol-binding protein (RBP) in culture than did endometrium from PP gilts. Estrone treatment increased (P <.01) endometrial NDM from P gilts but not that from PP gilts ; estradiol had no effect. Both estrone and estradiol increased ( P =.069) endometrial secretion of AP of PP but not of P gilts. Endometrial secretion of RBP was not affected by either estrone or estradiol treatment. Neither estrone nor estradiol affected total protein or AP and estrone treatment decreased (P < .05) RBP in uterine flushings from PP gilts. These data indicate that endometrium from P pigs secretes more protein than endometrium from PP pigs but neither estrone nor estradiol completely mimics the effect of pregnancy.
Exclusion and Extraction: Criminal Justice Contact and the Reallocation of Labor

In the United States, almost seven million people are under correctional control. This includes 2.3 million held in the nation’s jails, prisons, detention centers, and involuntary commitment facilities. It also includes 4.5 million people in community corrections—3.7 million on probation and
Phylogenetic Permulations: a statistically rigorous approach to measure confidence in associations between phenotypes and genetic elements in a phylogenetic context

The wealth of high-quality genomes for numerous species has motivated many investigations into the genetic underpinnings of phenotypes. Comparative genomics methods approach this task by identifying convergent shifts at the genetic level that are associated with traits evolving convergently across independent lineages. However, these methods have complex statistical behaviors that are influenced by non-trivial and oftentimes unknown confounding factors. Consequently, using standard statistical analyses in interpreting the outputs of these methods leads to potentially inaccurate conclusions. Here, we introduce phylogenetic permulations, a novel statistical strategy that combines phylogenetic simulations and permutations to calculate accurate, unbiased p-values from phylogenetic methods. Permulations construct the null expectation for p-values from a given phylogenetic method by empirically generating null phenotypes. Subsequently, empirical p-values that capture the true statistical confidence given the correlation structure in the data are directly calculated based on the empirical null expectation. We examine the performance of permulation methods by analyzing both binary and continuous phenotypes, including marine, subterranean, and long-lived large-bodied mammal phenotypes. Our results reveal that permulations improve the statistical power of phylogenetic analyses and correctly calibrate statements of confidence in rejecting complex null distributions while maintaining or improving the enrichment of known functions related to the phenotype. We also find that permulations refine pathway enrichment analyses by correcting for non-independence in gene ranks. Our results demonstrate that permulations are a powerful tool for improving statistical confidence in the conclusions of phylogenetic analysis when the parametric null is unknown.
Outbreeding depression as a selective force on mixed mating in the mangrove rivulus fish, Kryptolebias marmoratus

Mixed mating, a reproduction strategy utilized by many plants and invertebrates, optimizes the cost to benefit ratio of a labile mating system. One type of mixed mating includes outcrossing with conspecifics and self-fertilizing ones own eggs. The mangrove rivulus fish (Kryptolebias marmoratus) is one of two vertebrates known to employ both self-fertilization (selfing) and outcrossing. Variation in rates of outcrossing and selfing within and among populations produces individuals with diverse levels of heterozygosity. I designed an experiment to explore the consequences of variable heterozygosity across four ecologically relevant conditions of salinity and water availability (10{per thousand}, 25{per thousand}, and 40{per thousand} salinity, and twice daily tide changes). I report a significant increase in mortality in the high salinity (40{per thousand}) treatment. I also report significant effects on fecundity measures with increasing heterozygosity. The odds of laying eggs decreased with increasing heterozygosity across all treatments, and the number of eggs laid decreased with increasing heterozygosity in the 10{per thousand} and 25{per thousand} treatments. Increasing heterozygosity also was associated with a reduction liver mass and body condition in all treatments. My results highlight the fitness challenges that accompany living in mangrove forests ecosystem and provide the first evidence for outbreeding depression on reproductive and condition-related traits.
MBNL1 and RBFOX1 co-regulate alternative splicing events transcriptome-wide through a conserved buffering mechanism

Abstract Alternative splicing (AS) is controlled by cis-regulatory elements recognized by networks of trans-acting factors. Here we investigate modes and mechanisms of AS co-regulation by MBNL1 and RBFOX1, two RNA binding proteins (RBPs) critical for developmental AS transitions. We generated two cell models that express each RBP under separate inducible promoters. Transcriptome-wide categorization of the impacts of RBFOX1 expression on MBNL1 splicing revealed a common co-regulatory mode through which RBFOX1 buffers MBNL1 dose-dependent splicing regulation by reducing the total range of exon inclusion or exclusion. Minigene mutational analysis and in vitro binding experiments suggest that this buffering mechanism occurs through a shared cis-regulatory element previously unidentified as critical for MBNL1-dependent activity. Overall, our studies define a conserved co-regulatory mechanism through which RBFOX1 and MBNL1 can fine-tune and provide redundancy for AS outcomes. These studies indicate overlapping use of RNA motifs with potential implications for when activity of RBPs is disrupted.
Borrowing to Save? The Impact of Automatic Enrollment on Debt

Does automatic enrollment into a retirement plan increase financial distress due to increased borrowing outside the plan? We study a natural experiment created when the U.S. Army began automatically enrolling newly hired civilian employees into the Thrift Savings Plan. Four years after hire, automatic enrollment increases cumulative contributions to the plan by 4.1% of annual salary, but we find little evidence of increased financial distress. Automatic enrollment causes no significant change in credit scores (point estimate = +0.001 standard deviations), debt balances excluding auto debt and first mortgages (point estimate = -0.6% of annual salary), or adverse credit outcomes such as late balances or balances in collection, with the possible exception of increased first mortgage balances in foreclosure.
Reliable Method for the Measurement of Diffusion Capacitance in Solar Photovoltaic Cells

The dynamic parameters of solar photovoltaic (PV) cells, especially the intrinsic diffusion capacitance, are important when they are connected to switched-mode converters or are used in switched-capacitor structures. Furthermore, the dynamic parameters can be used for the minority carrier lifetime measurement of solar PV cells. Among the different small-signal measurement methods suggested in the literature, voltage-biased methods are common. However, diffusion capacitance is an exponential function of the cell voltage over the temperature. Thus, for a given voltage, the diffusion capacitance varies greatly by temperature. In this paper, a current-biased small-signal measurement method is investigated which can not only measure the diffusion capacitance of solar PV cells, but also the parasitic inductance, and the quality factor of the cells. Additionally, different external inductors are used to resonate the solar PV cell at different test frequencies. As a result, the diffusion capacitance, the parasitic inductance, and the quality factor are measured at different frequencies. The method is demonstrated through a hardware prototype.
Nebular Density Distributions; A Critical Look

The symmetry of planetary nebulae demands an explanation. Underlying previous attempts to explain these objects is the inferred density distribution based on spatio-kinematic models such as those of Weedman (1968), Reay et al. (1983) and others. Although some observations suggest a linear velocity-radius relationship for planetaries, plausible hypothetical examples may be constructed which greatly violate a linear relationship, and hydrodynamic theory (Schmalz 1986) suggests it may not hold even when observations may be most easily interpreted as supporting a linear relationship. Therefore, an independent assessment of the nebular density distribution is needed.
Wireless local area network positioning

The ability to determine the location of a mobile device is a challenge that has persistently evaded technologists. Although solutions to this problem have been extensively developed, none provide the accuracy, range, or cost-effectiveness to serve as a solution over a large urban area. The Global Positioning System (GPS) does not work well indoors or in urban environments. Infrared based systems require line-of-site, are costly to install and do not perform well in direct sunlight [1]. Cellular network-based positioning systems are limited by cell size and also do not work well indoors [23]. The list goes on. With the rise of Wireless Internet, or WiFi as it is commonly dubbed, the best infrastructure for location awareness to date has been created. WiFi is standardized, inexpensive to deploy, easy to install and a default component in a wide-range of consumer devices. These characteristics are the drivers behind WiFi's most significant trait: increasing ubiquity. By developing within the existing 802.11 infrastructure, developers can leverage WiFi to create wide-spread context-aware services.
A Literature Review: How Language Parameter Deficits Impact Social Interaction in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders during Middle Childhood, and Intervention Strategies

Years of popular discontent with the Venezuelan government allowed Hugo Chavez to win the presidential election in 1998. Since then Venezuela has undergone dramatic changes and deviated sharply from the dominant two-party system that had previously governed the nation. Chavez’s polemical new policies have affected virtually all aspects of Venezuelan life and are founded on his interpretations of the revered South American “Liberator,” Simon Bolivar. By drawing upon the legacy of Bolivar, Chavez has been successful in exciting the masses and adding a sense of legitimacy to his “revolutionary” movement. This research will examine the correlation between these two historical figures by analyzing the histories and documents of both Chavez and Bolivar. The goals of which are to discover how closely the ideologies and actions of President Hugo Chavez coincide with those of his historical predecessor Simon Bolivar and to demonstrate how the Chavez government has appropriated the myth of Bolivar to gain legitimacy and maintain popular support in Venezuela.
Improving machine virtualization with 'hotplug memory'

Machine virtualization has emerged as a key technology for server consolidation and on-demand server provisioning. To support this trend, it is essential to improve the performance of virtualization software and hence enable the efficient running of many virtual machines. We present a virtualization system that can dynamically extend the real memory of its guest virtual machines. We describe an implementation of dynamic memory extension for Linux guests running on the IBM zVM virtualization environment. Our implementation for the Linux extension is based on device drivers for accessing these dynamic memory extensions. Moreover, we show that this new capability can improve utilization and performance of the Linux guests in our virtualization environment. Specifically, memory management is improved and more virtual machines can run at a given moment. We study the utilization of dynamic memory extension of a Linux guest for a JVM heap. Running Specjbb2000 benchmark on a small virtual machine extended with dynamic memory to host the heap, we measured an improvement in transaction throughput and a 23.23% reduction in paging activity compared to an initially large machine. We further studied the implication of our experiments on the number of virtual machines that can run efficiently.
Overpayments in Acquisitions, Preannouncement Insider Trading, and Executive Compensation

Casual observations suggest that bidder managers sometimes pay more than the economic value of target in mergers and acquisitions. This paper provides two empirical findings associated with overpayments in acquisitions among publicly traded U.S. firms during the period of 2003-2011 using the purchase price allocation data under ASC 804 (SFAS 141). First, we document that bidder managers exploit their information advantage about the pricing implications of overpaid acquisitions by increasing their stock sales on their personal accounts above normal sales level prior to the public announcement of those acquisitions. Second, we document that bidder managers pay more than the economic value of targets not due to managerial hubris or executive compensation but to strategic reasons such as negative externality or supply chain management.
Effect of overhead lifting on neck and shoulder muscle activity and upper extremity joint angles

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of varying amount of lifted weight on upper extremity joint angles and muscle activity of the neck and shoulder. Two-dimensional elbow and shoulder kinematics of overhead lifting were determined, and simultaneously surface electromyographic (EMG) data from the upper trapezius and sternocleidomastoid muscles were collected. Results show that as lifted weight increased, the EMG activity of both muscles increased accordingly. Increasing the weight also resulted in increased maximum elbow joint angle and decreased maximum shoulder joint angle, but the effects were not significant. Shoulder angle and muscle activity were highly correlated. The correlation coefficients ranged from 0.39 to 0.75 for the trapezius muscle and from 0.38 to 0.42 for the sternocleidomastoid muscle. The elbow joint angle had low to no influence on shoulder and neck muscle activity.
Incorporation by blood platelets of adenosine diphosphate labelled with carbon-14.

THE addition of adenosine diphosphate (ADP) in low concentration to platelet-rich plasma results in aggregation of the platelets1, a phenomenon which seems to be important in formation of a haemostatic platelet plug and in thrombosis2,3. The mechanism by which ADP produces this effect is not understood. It is known that ADP-induced platelet aggregation is inhibited by adenosine and adenosine monophosphate (AMP)4 and by certain α-amino-acids substituted on the carboxyl group, such as arginine methyl ester (AME)5. The reaction is not inhibited by heparin or citrate but is blocked by EDTA.
Nonlinearity and computation: implementing logic as a nonlinear dynamical system

Abstract Recently, Sinha and Ditto [Phys. Rev. Lett. 81 (1998) 2156] demonstrated the computational possibilities of an array of coupled maps. We generalize this nonlinear dynamical system to improve its computational usefulness. We then consider a second nonlinear system, a parameterized map, and use it to illustrate why logic requires nonlinearity.
Market expansion versus cost reduction: a financial analysis of foreign direct investment advantages for multinational enterprises

Abstract By testing a large sample of US-based multinational enterprises (MNEs), we attempt to microscope the relations between FDI advantages and excess market value created thereby. Two most commonly pursued FDI advantages—market expansion and cost reduction—come under the analysis. We find that the overseas divisions of US-based MNEs have significant market expansion advantage over the domestic divisions, but do not have significant cost reduction advantage. The cross-sectional variation in excess market value of US-based MNEs finds an explanation in the market expansion advantage when firm equity risk is held constant, but it cannot be explained by the cross-sectional variation in the cost reduction advantage. Given the result of our study, we also deliberate on the relations of FDI advantages with the degree of international involvement by MNEs.
New Concepts of Guillain-Barré Syndrome:

Guillain-Barre syndrome is an acute autoimmune polyradiculoneuropathy with a clinical presentation of flaccid paralysis with areflexia, variable sensory disturbance, and elevated cerebrospinal fluid protein without pleocytosis. Although Guillain-Barre syndrome previously had been viewed as a unitary disorder with variations, it currently is viewed as a group of syndromes with several distinctive subtypes. These include the principal subtype prevalent in the Western world (acute inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy, and others, each with distinctive electrodiagnostic and pathologic features, including acute motor axonal neuropathy), acute motor-sensory axonal neuropathy, Miller Fisher syndrome, and perhaps others. The clinical and pathologic features of these Guillain-Barre syndrome subtypes are reviewed, and the role of antecedent infections, particularly Campylobacter jejuni gastroenteritis, and the role of antiganglioside antibody responses are reviewed with respect to pathogenesis. Treatment of Guillain-Barre syndrome includes both important supportive measures and immunotherapies, specifically high-dose intravenous immunoglobulin and plasma exchange.
Performance Technology: A New Perspective for the Public Schools

A decade of criticism has been aimed at the American public school system for failing to provide an adequate education for our children. There is indeed much to improve. However, this article laments the prevalent tendency of both educators and legislators to implement stop-gap, temporary, quick-fix measures in an effort to solve problems in a system of education. In the long run, this finger-in-the-dike approach does little more than place band-aids on the symptoms of a problem which has serious cones quences for the social and economic future of this great country. Systemic problems require systemic and systematic solutions. This article proposes that human performance technology, which by its very nature addresses the systematic analysis, design, and evaluation of interventions that create worthwhile performances and changes in people, does indeed offer a viable framework in which to review the current educational system and seek real solutions to its problems.
Riding the Wave of Trade: The Rise of Labor Regulation in the Golden Age of Globalization

The received view pins the adoption of labor regulation before 1914 on domestic forces. Using directed dyad-year event history analysis, we find that trade was also a pathway of diffusion. Market access served as an important instrument to encourage the diffusion of labor regulation. The type of trade mattered as much as the volume. In the European core, states emulated the labor regulation of partners because intra-industry trade was important. The New World exported less differentiated products and pressures to imitate were weak.
Fuel deposition rates of montane and subalpine conifers in the central Sierra Nevada, California, USA

Abstract Fire managers and researchers need information on fuel deposition rates to estimate future changes in fuel bed characteristics, determine when forests transition to another fire behavior fuel model, estimate future changes in fuel bed characteristics, and parameterize and validate ecosystem process models. This information is lacking for many ecosystems including the Sierra Nevada in California, USA. We investigated fuel deposition rates and stand characteristics of seven montane and four subalpine conifers in the Sierra Nevada. We collected foliage, miscellaneous bark and crown fragments, cones, and woody fuel classes from four replicate plots each in four stem diameter size classes for each species, for a total of 176 sampling sites. We used these data to develop predictive equations for each fuel class and diameter size class of each species based on stem and crown characteristics. There were consistent species and diameter class differences in the annual amount of foliage and fragments deposited. Foliage deposition rates ranged from just over 50 g m −2 year −1 in small diameter mountain hemlock stands to ∼300 g m −2 year −1 for the three largest diameter classes of giant sequoia. The deposition rate for most woody fuel classes increased from the smallest diameter class stands to the largest diameter class stands. Woody fuel deposition rates varied among species as well. The rates for the smallest woody fuels ranged from 0.8 g m −2 year −1 for small diameter stands of Jeffrey pine to 126.9 g m −2 year −1 for very large diameter stands of mountain hemlock. Crown height and live crown ratio were the best predictors of fuel deposition rates for most fuel classes and species. Both characteristics reflect the amount of crown biomass including foliage and woody fuels. Relationships established in this study allow predictions of fuel loads to be made on a stand basis for each of these species under current and possible future conditions. These predictions can be used to estimate fuel treatment longevity, assist in determining fuel model transitions, and predict future changes in fuel bed characteristics.
Enhanced photoacoustic neuroimaging with gold nanorods and PEBBLEs

Photoacoustic (PA) imaging provides excellent optical contrast with decent penetration and high spatial resolution, making it attractive for a variety of neural applications. We evaluated optical contrast agents with high absorption in the near infrared (NIR) as potential enhancers for PA neuroimaging: optical dyes, gold nanorods (GNRs) and PEBBLEs loaded with indocyanine green. Two PA systems were developed to test these agents in excised neural tissue and in vivo mouse brain. Lobster nerves were stained with the agents for 30 minutes and placed in a hybrid nerve chamber capable of electrical stimulation and recording, optical spectroscopy and PA imaging. Contrast agents boosted the PA signal by at least 30 dB using NIR illumination from a tunable pulsed laser. Photobleaching may be a limiting factor for optical dyes-the PA signal decreased steadily with laser illumination. The second setup enabled in vivo transcranial imaging of the mouse brain. A custom clinical ultrasound scanner and a 10-MHz linear array provided near real-time images during and after an injection of 2 nM gold nanorods into the tail vein. The peak PA signal from the brain vasculature was enhanced by up to 2 dB at 710 nm. Temporal dynamics of the PA signal were also consistent with mixing of the GNRs in the blood. These studies provide a baseline for enhanced PA imaging in neural tissue. The smart contrast agents employed in this study can be further engineered for molecular targeting and controlled drug delivery with potential treatment for a myriad of neural disorders.
Delayed and Sustained Activation of p42/p44 Mitogen‐Activated Protein Kinase Induced by Proteasome Inhibitors Through p21ras in PC12 Cells

Proteolysis by the ubiquitin/proteasome pathway regulates the intracellular level of several proteins, some of which control cell proliferation and cell cycle progression. To determine what kinds of signaling cascades are activated or inhibited by proteasome inhibition, we treated PC12 cells with specific proteasome inhibitors and subsequently performed in-gel kinase assays. N-Acetyl-Leu-Leu-norleucinal and lactacystin, which inhibit the activity of the proteasome, induced the activation of p42/p44 mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinases [extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERKs) 1 and 2]. In contrast, N-acetyl-Leu-Leu-methional, which inhibits the activity of calpains, but not of the proteasome, failed to induce ERK activation. Uniquely, the kinetics of MAP kinase activation induced by proteasome inhibitors are very slow compared with those resulting from activation by nerve growth factor; ERK activation is detectable only after a 5-h treatment with the inhibitors, and its activity remained unchanged for at least until 27 h. Proteasome inhibitor-initiated ERK activation is inhibited by pretreatment with the ERK kinase inhibitor PD 98059, as well as by overexpression of a dominant-negative form of Ras. Thus, proteasome inhibitors induce sustained ERK activation in a Ras-dependent manner. Proteasome inhibitor-induced neurite outgrowth, however, is not inhibited by PD 98059, indicating that sustained activation of ERKs is not the factor responsible for proteasome inhibitor-induced morphological differentiation. Our data suggest the presence of a novel mechanism for activation of the MAP kinase cascade that involves proteasome activity.
Resonant photon-catalyzed predissociation and autoionization: Fragment yield, rate constant, and rotational line strengths

General theory and analytic results are given for calculating the fragment yield and the rate constant of bound-to-continuum decompositions of atoms or molecules induced by a multiphoton effect called the resonant photon-as-catalyst effect (PCE). In this effect the rate constant of the reaction is increased due to the presence of the photons while the total number $N$ of photons in a given mode of the electromagnetic field is conserved. The decomposition processes include (1) photon-catalyzed (PC) predissociation from excited states of molecules in general, as well as from ground states in some cases of polyatomic molecules: $AB+N\ensuremath{\hbar}\ensuremath{\omega}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}A+B+N\ensuremath{\hbar}\ensuremath{\omega}$; and (2) PC autoionization of atoms or molecules: $A+N\ensuremath{\hbar}\ensuremath{\omega}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{A}^{+}+{e}^{\ensuremath{-}}+N\ensuremath{\hbar}\ensuremath{\omega}$. Both pulsed and continuous-wave laser irradiation are studied. Optimization of the yield and the rate constant by the lifetimes of the molecular states are studied for the first time. Resonant enhancement [Lau, Phys. Rev. Lett. 43, 1009 (1979)] and coherent saturation [Lau, Phys. Rev. A 22, 614 (1980)] in this effect are further elaborated. Laser-stimulated decays and optical Stark shifts due to the continua and other nonresonant discrete states are included in the theory. The rotational line strengths for symmetric top molecules predissociated by resonant PCE using linear-polarized laser radiation are also given.
Fibrous neoplasms of the adult larynx.

Fibrous neoplasms of the adult larynx are uncommon and can be benign, locally aggressive, or malignant. From January 1, 1987 to December 31, 1991, 189 adult patients underwent partial or total laryngectomy for laryngeal neoplasms at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center-affiliated hospitals. During this period, three (1.6%) patients were treated for fibrous neoplasms of the larynx. All three lesions arose in the true vocal fold. In one patient, a local recurrence within 6 months following partial laryngeal resection necessitated total laryngectomy. All three patients are alive and disease-free 1 to 4 years following definitive surgery. We present these cases and discuss computed tomographic (CT), histopathologic, and electron microscopic (EM) findings. Based on this experience, surgical treatment of these lesions is recommended, the extent of which is guided by clinical, radiologic, and pathologic evaluation. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Effects of Intensive Reading Remediation for Second and Third Graders and a 1-Year Follow-Up.

Second- and 3rd-grade children with poor word-level skills were randomly assigned to 8 months of explicit instruction emphasizing the phonologic and orthographic connections in words and text-based reading or to remedial reading programs provided by the schools. At posttest, treatment children showed significantly greater gains than control children in real word and nonword reading, reading rate, passage reading, and spelling, and largely maintained gains at a 1-year follow-up. Growth curve analyses indicated significant differences in growth rate during the treatment year, but not during the follow-up year. Results indicate that research-based practices can significantly improve reading and spelling outcomes for children in remedial programs.
Efficient implementation algorithm for a homogenized energy model with thermal relaxation

In this paper, we present a new algorithm to implement the homogenized energy hysteresis model with thermal relaxation for both ferroelectric and ferromagnetic materials. The approach conserves most of the accuracy of the original algorithm, but enables all erfc and exp functions to be calculated in advance, thereby requiring that only basic mathematical operations be performed in real time. This is done without a signicant increase in memory usage. Using this approach, execution time of the model has been seen to improve by a factor of 70 for some applications, whereas the error only increases by five ten thousandths (0.05%) of the saturation polarization/magnetization. The model with negligible relaxation is also given, as it is used to illustrate some optimizations. Emphasis is placed on the ecient computation of these models, and theoretical development is left to the references.© (2005) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Selective preservation of protein kinase C-ζ in the chemoprevention of azoxymethane-induced colonic tumors by piroxicam

While nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs have been shown to exert preventive effects against the development of colonic tumors in humans and in chemically-induced tumors in animal models, the mechanism(s) involved in this phenomenon is unclear. We have recently demonstrated that one such agent, piroxicam, when supplemented (75 ppm) in the diets of rats administered azoxymethane, reduced the incidence of rats bearing tumors. To date, the effects of piroxicam on protein kinase C, a family of serine/threonine kinases which may be intimately involved in the colonic malignant transformation process, have not been examined. It was, therefore, of interest to determine whether piroxicam altered the expression of one or more isoforms of this kinase in these tumors. The present studies demonstrate that dietary piroxicam selectively preserved the expression of protein kinase C-ζ in azoxymethane-induced tumors; suggesting that this is at least one mechanism involved in this agent's chemopreventive actions in this organ.
UNIT ROOTS: A SELECTIVE REVIEW OF THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF PETER C. B. PHILLIPS

Peter C. B. Phillips has made fundamental contributions to unit root econometrics. This paper provides a selective review of Peter’s contribution to unit roots, with a focus on unit root asymptotics, unit root tests, and testing for stationarity against the unit root alternative. The discussion puts a relatively heavier weight on Peter’s most recent work.
The Feasibility of Randomized Controlled Trials for Early Arthritis Therapies (EARTH) Involving Acute Anterior Cruciate Ligament Tear Cohorts

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a leading cause of disability for which disease-modifying treatments are lacking. Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear provides opportunities to study potential interventions from the initiation of heightened OA risk at the time of injury. This institutional review board (IRB)–approved prospective cross-sectional study (level of evidence: 2) was performed to test the hypothesis that adequate sample sizes of ACL-injured subjects to support randomized controlled trials (RCT) of early intervention strategies can be achieved. A total of 307 ACL-injured patients were entered into the database from 3-month collection periods at 7 clinical sites, with 65 subjects aged 18 to 30 years passing the inclusion/exclusion criteria. From sites that were IRB approved to ask, 89 of 96 (93%) subjects were willing to participate in an RCT. Extrapolating the 3-month data to a 1-year recruitment period would potentially yield 242 subjects aged 18 to 30 years willing to undergo randomization. This study ...
Mechanical response of a soft rubber compound compressed at various strain rates

Rate-dependent material constitutive behavior models are needed in numerical simulations of shock-mitigation structures. In this research, compressive stress–strain response of a soft rubber compound is obtained experimentally at quasi-static, intermediate and high strain rates under uniaxial-stress and uniaxial-strain loading states. Kolsky bars with modifications for characterizing soft materials and a long Kolsky bar are used to conduct the dynamic experiments, while an MTS load frame is used for conducting experiments at quasi-static rates. Compression experiments are conducted at each decade in the strain-rate scale without any gap typically seen in the intermediate range. The experimental results show significant strain-rate effects on the mechanical behavior of this soft material, which are summarized via a rate-dependent constitutive model.
Staphylococcus aureus: the new adventures of a legendary pathogen

Nosocomial infections with strains of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) began to emerge in the 1960s, are increasing in frequency, and tend to have worse outcomes than infections due to methicillin-susceptible S aureus. Community-associated MRSA infections emerged in the 1990s. Community-associated MRSA strains have up to now been epidemiologically and bacteriologically distinct from hospital-associated MRSA strains, but in a new twist, MRSA strains that have so far been only community-associated are invading the hospital. Another worrisome trend is increasing resistance to vancomycin (Vancocin).
Changes in plasma catecholamines and behavior of rats during the anticipation of footshock.

Abstract A chronic catheter was inserted into the ventral caudal artery of male Sprague-Dawley rats to allow for sampling of blood and measurement of blood pressure and heart rate in conscious animals without handling. The day after surgery, one group of rats was transferred individually from the home cage to a shock chamber and after 5 min received 60 footshocks (2.5 mA, 0.4 sec in duration, at 5-sec intervals). This procedure was repeated two additional times during the same day. Control animals were handled in an identical manner but were not shocked. Previous experience with footshock had no effect on basal plasma levels of norepinephrine (NE) and epinephrine (EPI) or on resting blood pressure and heart rate as measured 2 days after surgery. When transferred to the shock chamber, previously shocked rats had greater increases in plasma NE and EPI and heart rate. In addition, previously shocked rats were less active and defecated more frequently than did control rats. However, there were no differences in the responses of previously shocked and control rats to 5 min of intermittent footshock. Results of this study demonstrate an activation of the sympatho-adrenal medullary system and attendant changes in the cardiovascular system and behavior of rats during the anticipation of footshocks. This suggests that the functioning of sympathetic nervous system and the adrenal medulla provides a sensitive measure of arousal and fear in rats.
Crosslinked urethane doped polyester biphasic scaffolds: Potential for in vivo vascular tissue engineering

In vivo tissue engineering uses the body as a bioreactor for tissue regeneration, thus placing stringent requirements on tissue scaffolds, which should be mechanically robust for immediate implantation without a long in vitro cell culture time. In addition to mechanical strength, vascular grafts fabricated for in vivo tissue engineering approach must have matching mechanical properties to the target tissues to avoid compliance mismatch, which is one of the reasons for graft failure. We recently synthesized a new generation of strong and elastic biodegradable crosslinked urethane-doped polyesters (CUPE) to address the challenge of developing soft, elastic yet strong biodegradable polymers. This study evaluated the tensile strength, burst pressure, and suture retention of CUPE biphasic scaffolds to determine if the scaffolds met the requirements for immediate implantation in an in vivo tissue engineering approach. In addition, we also examined the hemocompatibility and inflammatory potential of CUPE to demonstrate its potential in serving as a blood-contacting vascular graft material. Tensile strength of CUPE biphasic scaffolds (5.02 ± 0.70 MPa) was greater than native vessels (1.43 ± 0.60 MPa). CUPE scaffolds exhibited tunable burst pressure ranging from 1500 mmHg to 2600 mmHg, and adequate suture retention values (2.45 ± 0.23 N). CUPE showed comparable leukocyte activation and whole blood clotting kinetics to poly(L-lactic acid) PLLA. However, CUPE incited a lesser release of inflammatory cytokines and was found to be non hemolytic. Combined with the mechanical properties and previously demonstrated anti-thrombogenic nature, CUPE may serve as a viable graft material for in vivo blood vessel tissue engineering.
Pyrithiobac sorption on reference sorbents and soils

The paucity of information available on the behavior of the new herbicide pyrithiobac [sodium 2-chloro-6-(4,6-dimethoxypyrimidin-2-ylthio)benzoate], prompted an evaluation of the sorption of pyrith...
Hybridizing S3D into an exascale application using OpenACC: an approach for moving to multi-petaflops and beyond

Hybridization is the process of converting an application with a single level of parallelism to an application with multiple levels of parallelism. Over the past 15 years a majority of the applications that run on High Performance Computing systems have employed MPI for all of the parallelism within the application. In the Peta-Exascale computing regime, effective utilization of the hardware requires multiple levels of parallelism matched to the macro architecture of the system to achieve good performance. A hybridized code base is performance portable when sufficient parallelism is expressed in an architecture agnostic form to achieve good performance on a range of available systems. The hybridized S3D code is performance portable across today's leading many core and GPU accelerated systems. The OpenACC framework allows a unified code base to be deployed for either (Manycore CPU or Manycore CPU+GPU) while permitting architecture specific optimizations to expose new dimensions of parallelism to be utilized.
The renal effect of intravenous adenine in humans.

The purine base, adenine, improves the posttransfusion viability of liquid stored blood. However, adenine in high doses may cause kidney damage because of the precipitation in renal tubules of its insoluble metabolite, 2,8-dioxyadenine. Adenine is not licensed for use in the United States because it may be nephrotoxic. In a controlled, randomized, double-blind study, eight human subjects received 10 mg/kg of adenine infused intravenously over one hour, four subjects received 5 mg/kg, and four subjects received no adenine. Renal function tests were performed on each subject before adenine infusion and one day and one week following the infusion. Tests included an assessment of glomerular function (serum creatinine, creatinine clearance, protein excretion), proximal tubular function (amino acid and glucose excretion), and distal tubular function (maximal acidifying and concentrating ability). Plasma and urine levels of adenine and 2,8-dioxyadenine were measured. Renal function tests showed no evidence of kidney damage secondary to adenine.