cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Embedded System Design: Modeling, Synthesis and Verification

Embedded System Design: Modeling, Synthesis and Verification introduces a model-based approach to system level design. It presents modeling techniques for both computation and communication at different levels of abstraction, such as specification, transaction level and cycle-accurate level. It discusses synthesis methods for system level architectures, embedded software and hardware components. Using these methods, designers can develop applications with high level models, which are automatically translatable to low level implementations. This book, furthermore, describes simulation-based and formal verification methods that are essential for achieving design confidence. The book concludes with an overview of existing tools along with a design case study outlining the practice of embedded system design. Specifically, this book addresses the following topics in detail: . System modeling at different abstraction levels . Model-based system design . Hardware/Software codesign . Software and Hardware component synthesis . System verification This book is for groups within the embedded system community: students in courses on embedded systems, embedded application developers, system designers and managers, CAD tool developers, design automation, and system engineering.
Statistical feature-based steganalysis for pixel-value differencing steganography

Pixel-value differencing (PVD) steganography is a popular spatial domain technology. Several PVD-based studies have proposed extended PVD steganography methods. The majority of these studies have verified their security against the regular-singular (RS) analysis. However, RS analysis is aimed at the feature of the least significant bit substitution method, which is relatively less significant for PVD steganography. The pixel difference histogram (PDH) is generally utilized to attack PVD steganography. If the embedding capacity is high, then the features on the PDH are evident; otherwise, the features are less obvious. In this paper, we propose a statistical feature-based steganalysis technique for the original PVD steganography. Experimental results demonstrate that, compared with existing steganalysis technique with weighted stego-image (WS) method, the proposed method effectively detects PVD steganography at low embedding ratios, such that there is no need of using the original embedding parameters. Furthermore, the accuracy and precision of the method are better than those of existing PVD steganalysis techniques. Therefore, the proposed method contributes to the security analysis of the original PVD steganography as an alternative to the commonly used RS, PDH and WS attack techniques.
Medium Voltage Converter Inductor Insulation Design Considering Grid Insulation Requirements

Medium voltage SiC devices facilitate direct (without 50/60 Hz transformer) connection of the power electronics converter to the medium voltage grid using simple topology. Compared to the insulation design of medium voltage inductors that have been widely used in the power system, the insulation design of directly connected medium voltage converter filter inductors has more challenges. Although some works has been done discussing that, the grid insulation requirements on converter filter inductors are rarely discussed. This paper introduces the insulation design of a grid-side filter inductor for a 13.8 kV power conditioning system converter. The grid insulation requirements, including the short-duration power frequency overvoltage and the lightning impulse voltage, are considered in the design. To meet the requirements, the layer-to-layer insulation, winding-to-core/ground insulation, the air gap discharge between the winding and the core, as well as the local electrical field have been taken into consideration. Experimental tests are provided to validate the design.
Integrating Machine Learning with MATLAB and Simulink in an Introductory Robotics Class

The use of FPGA has brought a new dimension to classroom activities. One can configure a system-on-chip (SoC) to boot Linux or use it as platform to launch Simulink logic models. At Northeastern University, Electrical and Computer engineering students need to take a class titled Embedded Design: Enabling Robotics. The course's objective is to introduce students to the basic fundamentals of computer engineering. The authors decided to come up with a project in an effort to tie this class with an introductory concept of Machine Learning using MATLAB and Simulink models synthesized on a ZedBoard development board running Xilinx Zynq SoC. The paper talks about our approach in doing so for students who have little background in programming. The authors hope that this project would attract and retain students in the area of Electrical and Computer engineering program.
NF-κB Spiky Oscillations

NF-κB is a family of transcription factors that are involved in the regulation of important cellular processes, such as innate and adaptive immunity, inflammation, stress responses, and apoptosis. NF-κB is activated by many external stimuli, including bacteria, viruses, and various stresses and proteins, after which it initiates proper cell responses by regulating expression of various genes. The NF-κB signaling system is conserved to operate in many different cell types and species, and it has been suggested that the NF-κB family has evolutionarily conserved mediators of immune responses [1]. In addition to its important biological roles, NF-κB regulation produces a very interesting dynamic behavior that may play an important role in the temporal encoding of signals. Mathematical models that were successful in explaining the dynamic behavior of NF-κB are now used to demonstrate the power of mathematical modeling approaches in Biological Sciences.
A Review of “Children, Citizenship, and Environment: Nurturing a Democratic Imagination in a Changing World”

“Young citizens of today are growing up in a world that is very different from their parents and grandparents. It's a world in which they are confronted by four difficult and intersecting challenge...
Jacob v Shultz-Jacob, 923 A 2d 473, 2007 Pa Super Lexis 957 (Pa Super 2007)

THREE PARENTS? United States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia once famously opined that, “. . . law, like nature itself, makes no provision for dual fatherhood.” Of course, we know that many children today are being raised in households where their primary paternal figure is a stepfather, and their natural father, who is their legal father, may or may not exercise some quantum of visitation/access.2 Moreover, many American jurisdictions today allow same-sex couples to adopt, so that a child has either two mothers or two fathers.3 But the situation which Justice Scalia was addressing involved a child whose mother was married at the time of conception, who apparently was the product of her mother’s affair with another man, and where the mother’s husband had forgiven all and accepted the child as his own.4 Justice Scalia could not imagine that the law, or nature, would permit a child to have three parents, in that case a mother and two fathers. Indeed, in the typical same-sex adoption case, either there is no known father because one of the lesbian partners was inseminated by an anonymous donor,5 or a known donor has agreed to terminate his parental rights.6 In either of those scenarios, a child ends up with the normal number of parents: two.
Properties of liquid and solid He 4

A Monte Carlo method is used to compute the properties of the fluid and crystal phases of the Lennard-Jones model of $^{4}\mathrm{He}$ at absolute zero. The method yields exact results subject only to statistical sampling errors. The energy, structure factor, and momentum distribution are calculated at several densitites in both phases. In addition, in the crystal phase we have carried out a detailed study of the single-particle distribution function. The densities at which melting and freezing occurs are determined. In both phases perturbative estimates of the three-body Axilrod-Teller potential are computed. Overall the agreement with experiment is good to excellent. However there are significant discrepancies between the computed and experimental equations of state. We believe this is due to the inadequacy of the Lennard-Jones potential.
Neo-Classical Economic Theories, Methodology, and Praxis Optimize Criminogenic Environments and Produce Recurrent, Intensifying Crises

“Control frauds” are seemingly legitimate entities controlled by persons that use them as a fraud “weapon.” A single control fraud can cause greater losses than all other forms of property crime combined. This article focuses on the role of neo-classical economic theory, methodology, and praxis is optimizing criminogenic environments that hyper-inflate financial bubbles and produce recurrent, intensifying financial crises. Financial control frauds’ “weapon of choice” is accounting. Neoclassical theory, which dominates law & economics, is criminogenic because it assumes that control fraud cannot exist while recommending legal policies that optimize an industry for control fraud. Its hostility to regulation, endorsement of opaque assets that lack readily verifiable market values, and support for executive compensation that creates perverse incentives to engage in accounting control fraud and optimizes fraudulent CEOs’ ability to convert firm assets to the CEO’s personal benefit have created a nearly perfect crime. Neo-classical economics has also failed to develop a coherent theory of bubbles and financial crises. Neo-classical economists value econometrics as the only “scientific” research methodology. Reliance on econometrics, however, produces the worst possible policy advice during the expansion phase of a bubble. Fraudulent lenders produce guaranteed, exceptional short-term “profits” through a four-part strategy: extreme growth (Ponzi-like), lending to uncreditworthy borrowers, extreme leverage, and minimal loss reserves. Whatever business practices, e.g., not underwriting borrowers’ creditworthiness, allow a lender to make the largest quantity of bad loans will show a powerful, positive correlation with corporate income (or share price). It is only after the bubble collapses that the true sign of the correlation will emerge. Making bad loans, of course, leads to massive losses (not exceptional profits). The sign of the correlation reverses (becomes negative) if one studies the actual performance of the loans after the bubble bursts. Accounting control fraud’s exceptional “profits” render “private market discipline” perverse. It produces a Gresham’s dynamic in which CFOs that optimize accounting profit maximize their CEO’s compensation while honest CFOs report dramatically lower (but real) profits and their CEO’s receive far less compensation. The accounting control fraud optimization strategy hyper-inflates and extends the life of financial bubbles, which causes extreme financial crises.
Expression of the mitochondrial genome in HeLa cells. 13. Effect of selective inhibition of cytoplasmic or mitochondrial protein synthesis on mitochondrial nucleic acid synthesis.

Abstract The effect of selective inhibition of cytoplasmic or mitochondrial protein synthesis by cycloheximide or chloramphenicol, respectively, upon mitochondrial DNA and RNA synthesis in HeLa cells was investigated. Cells were treated with cycloheximide or chloramphenicol, and then pulsed with either a DNA or RNA precursor in the presence of the drug. The specific activities of the appropriate nucleoside triphosphate pools were determined to convert labeling rates into synthesis rates. Chloramphenicol-treated cells continue to grow with a normal 24-hour generation time for two generations, and show an additional half generation of growth at a reduced rate, entering a stationary phase after three days of growth. Synthesis of mitochondrial DNA and RNA continues at a normal or near normal rate, on a per cell basis, in HeLa cells grown in the presence of chloramphenicol for three days. The sedimentation profile of pulse-labeled mitochondrial DNA and RNA extracted from chloramphenicol-treated cells is normal, except for a reduced labeling of 4 s RNA after chloramphenicol treatment for three days. The rate of total cell DNA and RNA synthesis is normal or near normal after chloramphenicol treatment. Mitochondrial malate dehydrogenase activity per cell remains constant, or nearly so, during two-day growth in the presence of chloramphenicol, and increases by 30 to 60% in the third day, whereas cytochrome c oxidase activity per cell is diluted proportionally to growth. Synthesis of mitochondrial DNA and RNA is depressed gradually during a four-hour treatment of HeLa cells with cycloheximide, up to a 55 and 80% inhibition, respectively. Under the same conditions, total cell RNA synthesis is also progressively depressed, up to about 60% inhibition, whereas total cell DNA synthesis is inhibited almost completely already after 15 minutes of cycloheximide treatment. The synthesis of all sedimentation classes of mitochondrial RNA appears to be equally affected by cycloheximide treatment in vivo. Synthesis of presumptive oligomeric forms of mitochondrial DNA is less affected than that of other forms of mitochondrial DNA by the same treatment.
Reflex-arc latency measurements in newborn infants and children.

Measurements of biceps reflex latency were made in newborn infants, older infants, and children at the National Naval Medical Center and in infants and children at a child and youth clinic in the District of Columbia. Relating reflex latency to a standard skeletal measure, an average "reflex velocity" was calculated which reliably reflects the maturational changes reported for motor nerve conduction velocity. In newborn infants reflex velocity was found to be more closely related to gestational age than to birth weight. There were no differences found in the absolute values or rates of maturation of reflex velocity among the children in the two clinic populations.
Characterization of the Microstructure of Nb‐lwt.%Zr‐0.1wt.%C Tubes as Affected by Thermomechanical Processing

Microstructure of Nb‐lZr‐0.1C tubes were characterized as affected by extrusion temperature of the tube shell and its thermomechanical processing to tubing. Two tube shells of about 40‐mm outside diameter (OD) and 25‐mm inside diameter (ID) were extruded 8:1 from a vacuum arc‐melted ingot at 1900 and 1550 K. Two different OD tubes of ∼0.36‐mm wall thickness were fabricated from each tube shell by a series of 26 cold drawing operations with two in‐process anneals. The microstructure of tube shells and the tubing before and after a 2‐step heat treatment were characterized. Residue extracted chemically from each sample was also analyzed to identify the precipitates. The results concerning the effect of the initial extrusion temperature and subsequent processing on the microstructure of the tubes are presented together with a review of results from similar work on Nb‐lZr‐0.1C sheet stock.
Designing Expert Systems: A Guide to Selecting Implementation Techniques

Connecting evidence to hypotheses the arrival time of information the expert system's environment computational efficiency the nature of solutions knowledge representation pitfalls of the implementation techniques future applications of design guidelines.
Women Political Leaders: Past and Present

Abstract This article thoroughly examines women prime ministers and presidents (also referred to as women executives) rigorously comparing nearly all cases of women executives from 1960 through 2002. The numbers of women executives, countries they have led, and the types of governmental systems in which they came to power are analyzed. A main focus is their political and educational backgrounds. Findings suggest that the number of women making it to executive office is few but varied geographically. Women executives have diverse education and political backgrounds. An important springboard to office in Asia and Latin America has been women's familial ties to important political leaders. Even these women are more diverse than expected in terms of background and, in particular, political experience.
Four structurally distinct, non-DNA-binding subunits of human nuclear respiratory factor 2 share a conserved transcriptional activation domain.

Nuclear respiratory factor 2 (NRF-2) was previously purified to near homogeneity from HeLa cells on the basisofitsabilitytobindtandemrecognitionsitesintheratcytochromeoxidasesubunitIV(RCO4)promoter. It consisted offive subunits, a, b1, b2, g1, and g2. Sequencing of tryptic peptides from aand from mixtures of the two b or two g subunits revealed sequence identities with subunits of the mouse GA-binding protein (GABP), a ubiquitously expressed ETS domain activator composed of three subunits, a, b1, and b2 .T o understand the precise relationship between NRF-2 and GABP, cDNAs for allfive NRF-2 subunits have now been cloned and their products have been overexpressed. The results establish that the two additional NRF-2 subunits are molecular variants that differ from GABP b1 and b2 by having a 12-amino-acid insertion containing two serine doublets. PCR and RNase protection assays show that mRNAs for these variants are expressed in the human but not the rodent cells and tissues examined. The insertion did not alter the ability of the band gsubunits to associate with a, the DNA-binding subunit, nor did it affect the ability of NRF-2 b1 or b2to direct high-affinity binding of ato tandem sites in the RCO4 promoter. In addition, the four NRF-2 band gsubunits were equally proficient in activating transcription in transfected cells when fused to a GAL4 DNA-binding domain. The domain responsible for this transcriptional activation was localized by deletion mapping to a region of approximately 70 amino acids that is conserved in all four NRF-2 band gsubunits. Therepeatedglutamine-containinghydrophobicclusterswithinthisregionbearastrongresemblancetothose recently implicated in protein-protein interactions within the transcriptional apparatus.
Diet and Stroke Recent Evidence Supporting a Mediterranean-Style Diet and Food in the Primary Prevention of Stroke

Every year there are ≈795 000 incident strokes, a leading cause of long-term disability in the United States.1 The cost of stroke in 2010 was $36.5 billion and is projected to increase, with lost wages being the most substantial cost.1 Identifying targets for primordial prevention of stroke is critical to public health as the population in the United States is aging. Diet is often suggested as a stroke prevention option because diet quality has effects on weight maintenance and blood pressure control beyond directly reducing the risk of stroke.2 On the basis of impact of diet on blood pressure and cholesterol, a recent Cochrane Review estimated that dietary interventions may decrease stroke risk by 19%.3 In addition to blood pressure and cholesterol, diet may increase the risk of stroke through other mechanisms, including insulin resistance, inflammation, thrombosis, endothelial function, and oxidation.4 When describing diet and stroke risk, one can consider nutrients, foods, food groups, and dietary patterns.4–8 The multiple of methods used to quantify diet can lead to confusion in terms of dietary recommendations because many studies seem to conflict with one another. Recently, in an effort to simplify and clarify nutritional recommendations, dietary pattern approaches have been the focus of national recommendations for dietary change.9 In fact many are simply recommending a Mediterranean-style diet.10 The Mediterranean diet refers to the dietary patterns, which were found in the olive-growing areas of the Mediterranean region in the early 1950s and 1960s and has long been associated with better cardiovascular health.11,12 In the Seven Countries Study, Ancel Keys observed that the Greek island of Crete had the lowest rates of coronary heart disease of the 7 countries, sparking interest in the Mediterranean diet.11 Although details of this pattern …
Access to Health Care for the Uninsured: The American Academy of Family Physicians

To the Editor. —As a family physician, I am proud that my specialty society has publicly advocated quick legislative action to extend insurance coverage to those fellow citizens who now lack access to health care. 1 Primary care physicians have both a special responsibility and a unique opportunity for leadership in reforming our health care system. 2 Ordinarily, when physicians advocate a plan calling for increased expenditures for health care, the public may suspect that the principal motive is the lining of their own pockets. Primary care physicians' incomes over the past 20 years, in stark contrast to subspecialists' incomes, have not even kept pace with the rise in the cost of living. Even under the new resource-based relative value scale, only modest fee increases in the primary care field are now predicted. Primary care physicians can therefore act as advocates for our less fortunate patients with the least taint
Caffeine Interaction with Fluorescent Calcium Indicator Dyes

We report that caffeine, in millimolar concentrations, interacts strongly with four common calcium indicator dyes: mag-fura-2, magnesium green, fura-2, and fluo-3. Fluorescence intensities are either noticeably enhanced (mag-fura-2, fura-2) or diminished (magnesium green, fluo-3). The caffeine-induced changes in the fluorescence spectra are clearly distinct from those of metal ion binding at the indicator chelation sites. Binding affinities for calcium of either mag-fura-2 or magnesium green increased only slightly in the presence of caffeine. Caffeine also alters the fluorescence intensities of two other fluorescent dyes lacking a chelation site, fluorescein and sulforhodamine 101, implicating the fluorophore itself as the interaction site for caffeine. In the absence of caffeine, variation of solution hydrophobicity by means of water/dioxane mixtures yielded results similar to those for caffeine. These observations suggest that hydrophobic substances, in general, can alter dye fluorescence in a dye-specific manner. For the particular case of caffeine, and perhaps other commonly used pharmacological agents, the dye interactions can seriously distort fluorescence measurements of intracellular ion concentrations with metal indicator dyes.
Boats Against the Current: American Culture between Revolution and Modernity, 1820-1860

Lewis Perry is a leading American intellectual historian who was editor of the Journal of American History before going to Vanderbilt University as a full professor. He has been especially interested in the mid-19th Century and examining how American culture evolved from the rather sheltered, elitist world of the early 19th century into the more modern, uncertain, intellectual world that the Civil War helped to create. Among the `modern' tendencies that were in place by the Civil War, and that Perry focuses on in this book, were criticism of current forms of discourse and attempts to create new experimental ones, views of intellectuals and artists as solitary fugitives and prophets, recognition of inevitable change in society and religious doubts, fascination with `inner' psychological states, and intellectual friendships as the central focus of living. One part of the book, `Memory', links the cultural history of the period to earlier periods of American history, the second part, `Travellers', deals with people like Alexis de Tocqueville and Frederika Bremer and then with Americans travelling within the country, and ends with Thoreau's `travels' and his rejection of the progressive optimistic views of his age; the third part, `Life as a Masquerade', deals with people, travellers met on the road including pedlars and showmen, preachers and gamblers, and closes with Emerson the lecturer and major influence on the age; the fourth part, `Modernism', deals with people swimming against the intellectual `current' of the times, the place of women in American culture of the age, and in general a discussion of individuals who did not accept the values and standards of mid-19th century America.
Effects of central application of naloxone on the skin temperature response in morphine-dependent rats

Abstract This study was designed to identify if the surge in tail skin temperature (TST) observed following systemic administration of naloxone to morphine-dependent rats is mediated by a specific brain locus. Female rats were fitted with cannula located either in the preoptic area-anterior hypothalamus, locus coeruleus, or the frontal cortex. TST was monitored every 5 min for 60 min following central administration of naloxone (1–40 μg/0.4 μl), in morphine-dependent rats. Regardless of the central site of naloxone injection, TST was significantly increased 4–5°C. A threshold dose of 20 μg/0.4 μl (10 μg/0.2 μl, bilaterally) of naloxone was identified to produce this surge in TST in all three brain regions. These results suggest that morphine dependency sensitizes several brain regions to administration of naloxone such that the narcotic antagonist produces a similar change in TST as is observed following its systemic administration. These data further support the use of our morphine-dependent rat model to study the central mechanisms of the menopausal hot flush and provide additional evidence that the flush response is centrally mediated.
Triply resonant four-wave mixing in silicon-coupled resonator microring waveguides

Silicon photonic four-wave mixing (FWM) devices intended for telecommunications applications must satisfy three requirements: achieve conversion efficiencies close to the detection threshold of typical receivers, while keeping pump power requirements modest and providing enough bandwidth for typical signal formats. Here, we report a continuous-wave FWM efficiency of −21.3 dB at 100 mW pump power and demonstrate wavelength conversion at 10 Gbps in a coupled-resonator optical-waveguide device.
Unifying multi-class AdaBoost algorithms with binary base learners under the margin framework

Multi-class AdaBoost algorithms AdaBooost.MO, -ECC and -OC have received a great attention in the literature, but their relationships have not been fully examined to date. In this paper, we present a novel interpretation of the three algorithms, by showing that MO and ECC perform stage-wise functional gradient descent on a cost function defined over margin values, and that OC is a shrinkage version of ECC. This allows us to strictly explain the properties of ECC and OC, empirically observed in prior work. Also, the outlined interpretation leads us to introduce shrinkage as regularization in MO and ECC, and thus to derive two new algorithms: SMO and SECC. Experiments on diverse databases are performed. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms and validate our theoretical findings.
High sensitivity RNA pseudoknot prediction

Most ab initio pseudoknot predicting methods provide very few folding scenarios for a given RNA sequence and have low sensitivities. RNA researchers, in many cases, would rather sacrifice the specificity for a much higher sensitivity for pseudoknot detection. In this study, we introduce the Pseudoknot Local Motif Model and Dynamic Partner Sequence Stacking (PLMM_DPSS) algorithm which predicts all PLM model pseudoknots within an RNA sequence in a neighboring-region-interference-free fashion. The PLM model is derived from the existing Pseudobase entries. The innovative DPSS approach calculates the optimally lowest stacking energy between two partner sequences. Combined with the Mfold, PLMM_DPSS can also be used in predicting complicated pseudoknots. The test results of PLMM_DPSS, PKNOTS, iterated loop matching, pknotsRG and HotKnots with Pseudobase sequences have shown that PLMM_DPSS is the most sensitive among the five methods. PLMM_DPSS also provides manageable pseudoknot folding scenarios for further structure determination.
On the size extensivity of second-order Møller–Plesset perturbation theory based on a perfectly-paired generalized valence bond reference wavefunction

Abstract This paper examines the size extensivity property of second-order Moller–Plesset perturbation theory based on a spin-zero, perfectly-paired generalized valence bond reference wavefunction (GVB-MP2). Size extensivity is a desirable property of any approximate method. The GVB-MP2 energy can be evaluated using a contracted formulation or by using the uncontracted formulation. This paper shows that the contracted formulation of GVB-MP2 is size extensive, while the uncontracted implementation of the perturbation theory is not size extensive. The paper also shows that the uncontracted formulation of GVB-MP2 yields results in agreement with expectations based on the cluster expansion of the energy.
Unravelling Ras signals in cardiovascular disease.

The hyperplasia suppressor gene HSG, previously characterized for its function in mitochondrial fusion, has now been identified as a novel inhibitor of the Ras signalling pathway during smooth muscle cell proliferation. Because of the critical function of this process in atherosclerotic heart disease, these findings may have important clinical implications.
Career Placement Concerns of International Graduate Students: A Qualitative Study

This qualitative study investigates the career placement concerns of international graduate students returning to their home countries, heading to other countries, or remaining in the United States after their education. Using a phenomenological framework, structured interviews were conducted with 24 participants (i.e., 18 international students, 1 naturalized status student, 3 faculty members, and 2 career counselors). Assertions that emerged suggested that the students possess diverse career plans influenced by numerous unique factors. Major, gender, and geography were not salient factors affecting the students' career placement needs. Students used contacts in their academic fields far more than they used campus career services, due to negative perceptions of or limited services that the center could provide. Based on these findings, more outreach to the international student community and collaboration between the career counseling and placement center and other campus departments are recommended.
Synergistic effects of CTLA-4Ig and sirolimus on orthotopic lung-allograft survival and histology

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The combination of CTLA-4Ig with sirolimus can promote indefinite survival in allograft models for which CTLA-4Ig monotherapy is ineffective. We sought to determine whether a limited course of CTLA-4Ig and sirolimus would alter survival of rat orthotopic single-lung transplantations. METHODS: Left lungs of Brown Norway rats were transplanted into four groups of Lewis recipients (n=6 per group): group 1, no treatment; group 2, mCTLA-4Ig (250 microg/day for 4 days); group 3, sirolimus (3 mg/kg per day for 14 days); group 4, combined therapy with sirolimus and mCTLA-4Ig. Graft survival was determined by daily radiologic examination. Histologic grading of rejection and immunohistochemical staining for T and B lymphocytes were carried out at the time of radiologic graft loss. RESULTS: Rejection of lung allografts in group 1 occurred at a median of 6.5 days. Neither sirolimus nor mCTLA-4Ig monotherapy resulted in significant prolongation of graft survival (median 9.5 and 8.0 days, respectively). Graft survival in group 4 was significantly prolonged compared with all other groups (median 29.5 days), and a significant reduction in histologic grade of rejection was observed following combination therapy compared with all other groups. Infiltration by CD8+ve T cells at the time of rejection was proportionately greater than CD4+ve T-cell infiltration for groups 1, 2, and 3 but not for the combined-therapy group. CONCLUSIONS: A brief course of combined mCTLA-4Ig and sirolimus prolongs graft survival, reduces severity of rejection, and attenuates CD8+ve T-cell infiltration of fully major histocompatibility complex mismatched lung allografts.
Race/ethnicity, poverty status, and renal transplant outcomes.

Background. There are known racial disparities in renal graft survival. Data are lacking comparing associations of race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status with graft failure and functional status after transplantation. Our goal was to test if African-American and Hispanic race/ethnicity and poverty are associated with worse outcomes following renal transplantation. Methods. We performed a retrospective cohort study using a nationwide registry (United Network for Organ Sharing). We studied 4,471 adults who received renal transplants in 1990. Outcomes were graft failure and functional status over 10 years. Results. Cumulative incidence of graft failure was higher among African-Americans and Hispanics than whites (77% vs. 64% vs. 60 %; P<0.001) and among transplant recipients living in the poorest areas (70% vs. 58% in the richest; P<0.001). African-American and Hispanic race/ethnicity were independently predictive of graft failure (RR 1.8, 95% CI 1.6-1.9; RR 1.3, 95% CI 1.2-1.6, respectively) in multivariate analyses but poverty status was not (RR 1.0, 95% CI 0.9-1.1). Days with impaired functional status were higher for African-Americans compared to whites (RR 1.6, 95% CI 1.3-1.9) but not independent of poverty. Poverty was independently associated with impaired functional status (RR 1.3, 95% CI 1.0-1.6). Conclusions. African-Americans and Hispanics had higher rates of graft failure compared to whites after adjustment for poverty and other covariates whereas poverty, but not race/ethnicity, was related to functional status following renal transplantation. National datasets should include individual-level measures of socioeconomic status in order to improve evaluation of social and environmental causes of disparities in renal transplant outcomes.
Interaction of membrane aminophospholipids of E. coli with fluorodinitrobenzene and trinitrobenzenesulfonate

E. coli cells were reacted with TNBS in bicarbonate-NaCl buffer, pH 8.5 (buffer A) and in phosphate-NaCl buffer, pH 7.0 (buffer B). In buffer A, DNP-GPE is the major product when FDNB is used. DNP-PE and DNP-LPE are formed in lesser amounts. Phospholipase A activity is high in buffer A. When TNBS is used, the labeling of the lipid components is less than with FDNB and more TNP-PE is formed relative to TNP-GPE. This data suggests that the phospholipases which are located primarily on the outer L-membrane of the cell wall act to a lesser extent on TNP-PE than on DNP-PE. E. coli cells were prelabeled with TNBS and FDNB in buffer A, washed and incubated in buffer A. The endogenous labeled DNP-PE gradually decreased with time with a concomitant increase in DNP-LPE and DNP-GPE due to phospholipase A activity. In contrast, the endogenous labeled TNP-PE also decreased with time as did the endogenous labeled TNP-LPE but a new orange lipid was produced. This lipid is believed to be a derivative of TNP-PE in which one of the nitro groups has been reduced to an amino group by nitroreductase. E. coli cells were prelabeled with TNBS and FDNB in buffer A, washed and incubated in buffer B. Under these conditions with both TNBS and FDNB there is an increase in TNP-PE and DNP-PE with a concomitant decrease in TNP-LPE, TNP-GPE, DNP-LPE and DNP-GPE. These results show that at neutral pH acylation occurs to regenerate TNP-PE and DNP-PE. E. coli cells were incubated with exogenous DNP-GPE or TNP-GPE in buffer A. The DNP-GPE and TNP-GPE were rapidly hydrolyzed by a phosphodiesterase to DNP-ethanolamine and TNP-ethanolamine. An orange derivative was formed which was provisionally identified as a derivative of DNP-ethanolamine or TNP-ethanolamine in which a nitro group has been reduced to an amino group by nitroreductase. The phospholipases and acylating enzymes present in the cell wall of E. coli are active on the dinitrophenyl and trinitrophenyl derivatives of PE and LPE and may act in concert to model and repair the plasma membrane.
Flow-induced alignment of lamellar block copolymer melts

Toward the integrated synthesis and processing of functional block copolymer nanostructures, the physics of flow-induced alignment of block copolymers must be understood to predict the direction, rate and degree of alignment. In this review we focus on key issues regarding flow-induced alignment of lamellae. A three-dimensional mapping summarizes previous results on the selection of alignment directions (parallel or perpendicular) and their pathways in terms of three dimensionless parameters: frequency, temperature and strain amplitude. Trajectories, kinetics and structural evolution are explored in a fourth dimension (time). The challenge of developing adequate experimental methods for monitoring transient structure is discussed. A comprehensive experimental approach, which combines in-situ rheo-optical measurements and ex-situ structural characterization by electron microscopy and X-ray scattering, is presented as a new tool for tracking changes of microstructure and orientation during flow-induced alignment. Various mechanisms that have been proposed over the past two decades are reviewed and re-evaluated based on recent experimental results. Outstanding questions and new issues raised by ABC triblock copolymer nanstructures are discussed.
Governors in the Legislative Arena: The Importance of Personality in Shaping Success

traditions, emphasizing either characteristics of the incumbent orfeatures of the office. This article brings together these traditions. It draws upon the work of Winter to develop measures of three aspects of personality--the power, achievement, and affiliation drives--and hypothesizes that the power and achievement motives are exhibited in conjunction by successful chief executives. It then tests this hypothesis within the contexts of the American states, thus accounting for both the leaders as individuals and the features of the political and economic environments in which they lead. The primary hypothesis is affirmed. Governors who exhibit high levels of the power and achievement motives in tandem are substantially more likely to achieve their policy goals. In addition, governors who emphasize affiliation are less successful.
Power Stack Die Package Design, Simulation and Reliability Analysis

This paper presents a power stack die package design for a point of load buck converter. The buck converter system in package (SiP) consists of a lower side Mosfet and a high side Mosfet together with an IC controller. Its structure includes a premolded leadframe with an IC controller. The two Mosfets (both low side and higher side) are stacked on the premolded leadfrrame (LF) and IC controller. Solder balls are placed on the leadframe’s exposed lands, and together with the two drains of Mosfets, to form the stacked die power package. The thermal cycling simulations for the solder balls to connect the PCB and solder joints of the two Mosfet die to the leadframe pads are studied. The failure mechanism and reliability analysis of the power package in TMCL test are discussed.Copyright © 2010 by ASME
3PI algorithms for helical computer tomography

Proposed are two theoretically exact convolution-based filtered backprojection inversion algorithms for helical computer tomography. An important feature of the algorithms is that they operate in the 3PI mode, which allows use of redundant data for the purpose of improving image quality. Results of a numerical experiment are presented.
Maximizing the bandwidth of supercontinuum generation in As_2Se_3 chalcogenide fibers

We describe in detail a procedure for maximizing the bandwidth of supercontinuum generation in As2Se3 chalcogenide fibers and the physics behind this procedure. First, we determine the key parameters that govern the design. Second, we find the conditions for the fiber to be endlessly single-mode; the fiber should be endlessly single-mode to maintain high nonlinearity and low coupling loss. We find that supercontinuum generation in As2Se3 fibers proceeds in two stages — an initial stage that is dominated by four-wave mixing and a later stage that is dominated by the Raman-induced soliton self-frequency shift. Third, we determine the conditions to maximize the Stokes wavelength that is generated by four-wave mixing in the initial stage. Finally, we put all these pieces together to maximize the bandwidth. We show that it is possible to generate an optical bandwidth of more than 4 μm with an input pump wavelength of 2.5 μm using an As2Se3 fiber with an air-hole-diameter-to-pitch ratio of 0.4 and a pitch of 3 μm. Obtaining this bandwidth requires a careful choice of the fiber’s waveguide parameters and the pulse’s peak power and duration, which determine respectively the fiber’s dispersion and nonlinearity.
Normal and Lateral Force Calibration Techniques for AFM Cantilevers

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a useful tool, not only for imaging but also for quantification of normal and lateral forces exerted on the AFM tip while interacting with the surface of materials. In order to measure these forces, an accurate determination of the normal and lateral forces exerted on the AFM cantilever is necessary. To date, there is no generally accepted technique for the force calibration of AFM cantilevers. In this paper, we present a critical review of various techniques for measuring cantilever stiffness in the normal and lateral/torsional directions in order to calibrate the normal and lateral forces exerted on AFM cantilevers. The key concepts of each technique are presented, along with a discussion of their advantages and disadvantages. An understanding of the issues involved in the determination of the stiffness is needed for the proper choice and implementation of any given technique.
Expression of the Op18 gene is maintained by the CCAAT-binding transcription factor NF-Y.

Abstract Op18 (Oncoprotein 18, Stathmin) is a mitotic regulator that is highly expressed in many cancers. We have characterized four functional CCAAT boxes in the Op18 gene located at positions: − 980, − 745, − 599 and − 65, relative to the transcriptional start site. NF-Y is a ubiquitously expressed CCAAT-binding transcription factor that regulates a number of cell cycle controlled genes. We have used promoter–reporter assays and mobility shift assays to functionally examine these CCAAT boxes. All sites contribute to the basal expression of Op18, with the sites at − 980 and − 599 being repressive and the sites at − 745 and − 65 being stimulatory. Mobility shift assays indicate that all CCAAT box sites bind factors in nuclear extracts from Hek293. However, only the repressive site at − 599 and the stimulatory site at − 65 are competent to bind NF-Y, suggesting that NF-Y may play a role in promoting both activation and repression of Op18 expression. The NF-Y site at − 65 accounts for greater than 60% of the Op18 gene expression. EMSA competition studies indicate that NF-Y binds with a much higher affinity to the − 65 site than to the − 599 site, suggesting that in asynchronously growing cells NF-Y functions only to stimulate expression through the − 65 binding site. These data suggest that NF-Y is a major transcription factor promoting expression of Op18.
Optimal minimax designs for prediction in heteroscedastic models

We construct optimal designs for heteroscedastic models when the goal is to make efficient prediction over a compact interval. It is assumed that the point or points which are interesting to predict are not known before the experiment is run. Two minimax strategies for minimizing the maximum fitted variance and maximum predictive variance across the interval of interest are proposed and, optimal designs are found and compared. An algorithm for generating these designs is included.
Quantifying Spatial and Temporal Genotypic Changes in White Clover Populations by RAPD Technology

In established white clover (Trifolium repens L.) populations, seedling recruitment is rare and plants spread by clonal growth, which could lead to low intraspecific genetic diversity. To assess how populations of white clover maintain high genetic variability in grazed swards during a growing season, we examined spatial and temporal changes in white clover clones by identifying genotypes by RAPD (random amplified polymorphic DNA) profiles. Trifoliate leaf samples were taken from plants at up to 37 specific sampling points in each of four 2.8-m 2 permanent quadrats in a grazed pasture from April to October 1997. RAPD profiles (genotype) based on 28 markers were determined for genomic DNA prepared from leaf samples. The number of sampled clones per quadrat ranged from zero to 10 and the sampled members per clone ranged from two to 34 over the growing season. Some clones were found more than once. During the study, numbers of clonal members increased or decreased, clones were found on one to three dates, and clones were found in one to two quadrats. The clonal diversity index D (probability that any two sampled plants have different genotypes) ranged from 0.89 to 0.99 for the eight dates, showing that genotypic diversity of populations was affected by number of clones and number of donal members. We report here the first use of dominant RAPD markers to document dynamic changes of white clover population structure. These data show that white clover clones undergo dynamic spatial and temporal variability at a local scale, which accounts for much of the genetic diversity within field populations.
Binding of tryptophan to plasma proteins in several species.

Abstract 1. 1. The concentration of tryptophan was measured fluorometrically in whole plasma from several species and again after ultrafiltration to remove tryptophan bound to plasma proteins. 2. 2. The major portion of the tryptophan was protein-bound in all of the species, although the degree of binding decreased in the order: dog, rabbit > rat, cat, rhesus monkey > sheep > human > horse > green monkey > marmoset, cow > pig > guinea pig > mouse > turkey > chicken. 3. 3. Thus tryptophan binding to plasma proteins seems to be a characteristic of many warm-blooded animals, and the extent of the binding may have physiologic significance in all of these species.
An examination of procedural variables in flooding therapy

The present study attempted to examine the effectiveness of the therapist's presence, the use of audiotaped scene presentation, and the value of visual material keyed to auditory scence presentation in flooding for speech anxiety. Six experimental groups were compared to a no-treatment wait list group, with eight subjects per cell. Dependent measures included behavioral, self-report, and physiological indices. Results indicated that the therapist's presence had a facilitating effect on flooding. Live and audiotaped presentations were equally effective. Finally, the addition of slides specifically keyed to the flooding material did not significantly contribute to the impact of the procedure and, on one measure, had an antagonistic effect. Interpretation of these data with regard to the controversy in the literature concerning the theoretical basis of flooding, as well as the most effective procedures for implementing the technique, were discussed.
The Effects of Early Childhood Abuse and the Development of Resiliency

Recently, the number of young children who have suffered from the traumas of abuse and neglect has increased. There are negative cognitive, neurological, and psychological effects from this maltreatment which is described in this article. Interventions which can prevent neglect and abuse and further resiliency in the young victims are discussed. As concerned individuals, we need to advocate for preventive and therapeutic efforts which promote resiliency in maltreated children.