cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Enthalpies of formation and insights into defect association in ceria singly and doubly doped with neodymia and samaria

Abstract It has been suggested that co-doping ceria with two trivalent ions of different sizes to minimize lattice strain produces materials with better ionic conductivity. To investigate the thermodynamic basis of such behavior, enthalpies of formation at room temperature of samarium-doped ceria (Ce 1 − x Sm x O 2 − 0.5 x with 0 x 1 − x Nd x O 2 − 0.5 x with 0 x 1 − x Nd x /2 Sm x /2 O 2 − 0.5 x with 0 x x = 0.05, endothermic (destabilization) heat of formation is attributed to the dominance of size mismatch. Considerable energetic stabilization at x > 0.05 for singly doped ceria systems can be attributed to defect associates of trivalent cations coupled with charge-balancing oxygen vacancies. For co-doped Ce 1 − x Nd x /2 Sm x /2 O 2 − 0.5 x , there is less destabilization at low x compared to singly doped CeO 2 but less stabilization at high x and a shift in the composition of maximum (most endothermic) formation enthalpy toward higher dopant concentration. Enthalpies of defect association of Ce 1 − x Nd x /2 Sm x /2 O 2 − 0.5 x are less exothermic than those of singly doped materials.
A comparison of positron-emitting blood pool imaging agents.

Abstract Several agents are currently available for blood-pool imaging with positron scintigraphy. Haemoglobin may be labelled with 11 C (T 1 2 20 min ) either by administration of 11CCO by inhalation or by intravenous administration of a sample of the subject's whole blood previously labelled by exposure to 11CCO. Since labelling with 11C requires a particle accelerator, alternative agents labelled with generator-produced 68 Ga (T 1 2 68 min ) would be advantageous. Blood-pool images may be obtained with 68Ga-transferrin following intravenous administration of 68Ga-chloride at acid pH. Recently a method for the preparation of red cells labelled with 68Ga-oxine has been reported. We have compared the three agents, 11C-carboxyhaemoglobin, 68Ga-transferrin and 68Ga-labelled red cells in dogs to assess their relative merits for blood-pool imaging. For 1 h following administration of each agent, periodic blood samples were withdrawn for counting in a NaI (Tl) well counter while conventional two-dimensional images were obtained simultaneously on the Massachusetts General Hospital positron camera. Count rates in regions about the heart, liver and spleen were obtained for each image. The disappearance of blood activity as shown from the results of counting the blood samples and from the counting rate in regions about the heart was found to be identical within experimental error for the three agents. In the liver and spleen regions, the highest count rates were obtained with 68Ga-transferrin and the lowest with 68Ga-labelled red cells; count rates in these regions with labelled red cells were virtually constant throughout the 1 h study. It may be concluded that with the exceptions noted above, the three agents are approximately equivalent for blood-pool imaging.
Characterization of a class of cationic peptides able to facilitate efficient protein transduction in vitro and in vivo.

Protein transduction domains (PTDs), such as the third helix of the Drosophila Antennapedia homeobox gene (Antp) and the HIV TAT PTD, posses a characteristic positive charge on the basis of their enrichment for arginine and lysine residues. To determine whether cationic peptides are able to function as protein transduction domains, 12-mer peptide sequences from an M13 phage library were selected for synthesis on the basis of their varying cationic charge content. In addition, polylysine and polyarginine peptides were synthesized in order to assess the effect of charge contribution in protein transduction. Coupling of the biotinylated peptides to avidin–β-galactosidase facilitated transduction in a wide variety of cell lines and primary cells, including islet β-cells, synovial cells, polarized airway epithelial cells, dendritic cells, myoblasts, and tumor cells. Two of the peptides, PTD-4 and PTD-5, mediated transduction nearly 600-fold more efficiently than a random control peptide, but with an efficiency similar to the TAT PTD and the 12 mers of polylysine and polyarginine. Furthermore, confocal analysis of biotinylated peptide–streptavidin–Cy3 conjugates demonstrated that the internalized PTDs are found in both the nuclei and the cytoplasm of treated cells. When tested in vivo , the PTDs were able to facilitate efficient and rapid protein delivery into rabbit synovium and mouse solid tumors following intraarticular and intratumoral administration, respectively. These novel PTDs can be used to transfer therapeutic proteins and DNA for the treatment of a wide variety of diseases, including arthritis and cancer.
Computational study of the effect of geometric and flow parameters on the steady flow field at the rabbit aorto-celiac bifurcation.

Abstract Arterial hemodynamic forces may play a role in the localization of early atherosclerotic lesions. We have been developing numerical techniques based on overset or “Chimera” type formulations to solve the Navier-Stokes equations in complex geometries simulating arterial bifurcations. This paper presents three-dimensional steady flow computations in a model of the rabbit aorto-celiac bifurcation. The computational methods were validated by comparing the numerical results to previously-obtained flow visualization data. Once validated, the numerical algorithms were used to investigate the sensitivity of the computed flow field and resulting wall shear stress distribution to various geometric and hemodynamic parameters. The results demonstrated that a decrease in the extent of aortic taper downstream of the celiac artery induced looping fluid motion along the lateral walls of the aorta and shifted the peak wall shear stress from downstream of the celiac artery to upstream. Increasing the flow Reynolds number led to a sharp increase in spatial gradients of wall shear stress. The flow field was highly sensitive to the flow division ratio, i.e., the fraction of total flow rate that enters the celiac artery, with larger values of this ratio leading to the occurrence of flow separation along the dorsal wall of the aorta. Finally, skewness of the inlet velocity profile had a profound impact on the wall shear stress distribution near the celiac artery. While not physiological due to the assumption of steady flow, these results provide valuable insight into the fluid physics at geometries simulating arterial bifurcations.
Bone mineral density changes among HIV-uninfected young adults in a randomised trial of pre-exposure prophylaxis with tenofovir-emtricitabine or placebo in Botswana.

Background Tenofovir-emtricitabine (TDF-FTC) pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) has been found to be effective for prevention of HIV infection in several clinical trials. Two studies of TDF PrEP among men who have sex with men showed slight bone mineral density (BMD) loss. We investigated the effect of TDF and the interaction of TDF and hormonal contraception on BMD among HIV-uninfected African men and women.
Differentiation of canalicular cell processes in bone cells by basement membrane matrix components: Regulation by discrete domains of laminin

Abstract We have investigated the interaction of rat primary calvarial bone cells and a mouse osteoblast-like cell line MC3T3-E1 with basement membrane components. On a reconstituted gel of basement membrane, both cell types attached and formed isolated clusters that developed long interconnecting cell processes similar to the canalicular network observed in bone. The differentiation of the osteoblastic phenotype was stimulated as determined by increased alkaline phosphatase production and the deposition of mineral. Antibodies to laminin and to a 3267 kd laminin receptor blocked this differentiation. Cell morphology was altered by the addition of active laminin-derived synthetic peptides, YIGSR-NH 2 and CSRARKQAASIKVAVSADR-NH 2 , but not by an active RGD-containing peptide. When coated directly on plastic, all three peptides promoted cell adhesion, demonstrating that bone cells interact with specific molecular domains of laminin. These data demonstrate that basement membrane plays a key role in formation of a network of cytoplasmic processes resembling the osteocyte canalicular network in bone.
Low Temperature Hot Corrosion of Cobalt-Base Alloys: Part II. Reaction Mechanism

This paper presents a mechanism of low-temperature hot corrosion that is based on rapid dissolution of the more noble metal or metal oxide in liquid salts. It is proposed that the rapid degradation of cobalt-base alloys results from dissolution of cobalt or cobalt oxides on the surface, which prevents the formation of a protective Cr2O3 or A12O3 film. The reaction occurs in two stages: (a) an initial stage, during which an Na2SO4-CoSO4 liquid forms on the surface, and (b) a propagation stage, during which SO3 migrates inward and cobalt outward through the molten salt. At longer times, cobalt dissolves at the scale/salt interface and forms Co3O4 and/or CoSO4(s) in different regions of the reaction product. The mechanisms of transport of various reactants and products through the liquid salt and the effects of their relative transport rates on the reaction product morphology have been considered.
Opiate receptor development in midbrain and forebrain of posthatch chicks

Abstract Specific binding of [ 3 H]naloxone to midbrain and forebrain was examined from chicks which were either 1, 7, 14, 21 or 28 posthatch days of age. While there was a significant age-related increase in the total number of [ 3 H]naloxone binding sites in both brain regions, the increase was greater in magnitude in forebrain than in midbrain. In both brain regions, there was a concomitant age-related decrease in the density of receptor sites without any alteration in receptor affinity for naloxone. The decrease in receptor density was more rapid in onset and was greater in magnitude in midbrain than in forebrain.
Effects of CDPcholine and CDPethanolamine on the Alterations in Rat Brain Lipid Metabolism Induced by Global Ischemia

The fast turnover pool of rat brain lipids was labeled by intracerebral injection of [3H]acetate. Cerebral ischemia for a duration of 5 min after decapitation caused a 2.2-fold increase in radioactivity in the free fatty acids and loss of more than 20% of the radioactivity from choline and ethanolamine glycerophospholipids. An intracerebral injection of 0.6 mumol each of cytidine diphosphocholine (CDPcholine) and cytidine diphosphoethanolamine (CDPethanolamine) prevented the loss of radioactivity from the glycerophospholipids and decreased the amount of radioactivity in the free fatty acids by 59% as compared with control values and 82% as compared with ischemia values. By GLC assays of the mass of the free fatty acids there was a threefold increase of free fatty acids in ischemic brains. Pretreatment of ischemic brains with CDPcholine and CDPethanolamine reduced the levels of unesterified fatty acids to 60% of the control values. Thus, a prior injection of cytidine nucleotides prevented the release of free fatty acids observed in ischemic brains.
HIV and Medical Nutrition Therapy

Abstract In those who are infected with human immunodeficiency virus, poor nutritional status can result from numerous causes, including anorexia, catabolism, chronic infection, fever, poor nutrient intake, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, malabsorption, metabolic disturbances, lack of access to food, depression, and side effects of drug, radiation, and chemotherapy treatments. A compromised immune system may not be reversed by any medical treatments at this time, but malnutrition may be prevented and reversed by using current therapies, including medical nutrition therapy that includes nutrition assessment, the development of an individualized nutrition therapy plan, and implementation of the therapy. There is substantial evidence that medical nutrition therapy saves lives, reduces morbidity, improves health outcomes, reduces costs, and shortens hospital stays. J Am Diet Assoc. 1997;97(suppl 2):S161–S166 .
Regression of ventricular hypertrophy abolishes cardiocyte vulnerability to acute hypoxia.

Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) secondary to a pressure overload commonly leads to perfusion abnormalities that may limit oxygen delivery to the myocardium and, therefore, result in cardiocyte intracellular damage. We initiated this study to test the hypothesis that the increased vulnerability of the hypertrophied left ventricle to acute hypoxia is minimized when LVH regresses and maximal coronary flow returns to normal. Six-month-old spontaneously hypertensive (SHR) and normotensive Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats were divided into control or one of two antihypertensive treatment groups. A 3-month treatment consisted of captopril (75-100 mg/kg) or hydralazine (80-160 mg/L) with hydrochlorothiazide (500 mg/L) added to each therapy. At the conclusion of the treatment period, the rats were administered a 7% O2-93% N2 gas mixture for 20 minutes to induce acute hypoxic stress during which time hemodynamics, blood gases, and pH were monitored. The heart was then rapidly fixed by vascular perfusion and prepared for electron microscopy. Captopril and hydralazine were equally effective in lowering arterial pressure in both strains, but only captopril was efficacious in reducing heart mass. Hypoxia-induced changes in hemodynamics, blood gases, and pH were similar in all of the groups; PO2 was decreased by about 70%. The electron micrographs revealed that the hypertrophied left ventricle consistently showed morphologic evidence of hypoxic damage (as indicated by T-tubular swelling, intracellular edema, and mitochondrial alterations); in contrast hypoxia had little effect on the non-hypertrophied ventricle. Captopril treatment resulted in a disappearance of the lability to hypoxic damage while hydralazine caused a small reduction in the frequency of hypoxic damage. In conclusion, reversal of hypertension alone had little effect on cardiocyte vulnerability to acute hypoxia, but reversal of hypertension in conjunction with regression of LVH prevented the intracellular damage characteristic of hypoxia. Thus, LVH and its associated maximal perfusion decrement, rather than hypertension per se, underlie cardiocyte vulnerability to hypoxic stress.
Angular Distributions of Ground-State Protons from B 10 +D

The angular distributions of the ground-state protons resulting from the deuteron bombardment of ${\mathrm{B}}^{10}$ has been investigated at six energies in the 1- to 4-Mev interval. The reaction protons were recorded photographically at all angles from 5\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{} to 165\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{} and their distribution was determined by microscopic examination of the photographic emulsion. The resulting intensity variation with angle can be expressed within experimental error as a second-order Legendre polynomial series for all energies except the highest, for which a fourth-order series is required. $S$-wave deuterons predominate in producing this reaction, but $p$-wave effects occur even for the lowest energy distribution studied. $D$-wave contributions are noticed for deuteron energies above 3 Mev. The behavior of the coefficients in the series representation shows that several broad over-lapping resonance levels, of both even and odd parity, in the compound nucleus probably enter into this reaction.
LIGHT-INDUCED ABSORPTION-CHANGE TRANSIENTS IN SOME BLUE-GREEN ALGAE.

As reported recently1,2, in aged chloroplasts of spinach the decay of the light-induced absorption decrease at 430 mµ becomes biphasic when the system is coupled with ascorbic acid and an appropriate amount of the redox dye phenazine methosulphate. It was further found that the slowly decaying portion becomes saturated at a lower actinic intensity and the rapidly decaying portion starts to appear only when the actinic intensity exceeds the threshold-level. The biphasic decay was attributed to the re-reduction of two separate photo-oxidized species, possibly the chlorophyll complex P700 and cytochrome f.
In situ production and migration of 129I in the Stripa granite, Sweden☆

Abstract Concentrations of natural 129I and 36Cl in ground water from the Stripa granite, Sweden, were determined by accelerator mass spectrometry. The 129I values range from 1 × 106 to 2 × 108 atoms 1−1, orders of magnitude greater than the estimated background concentration in pre-1945 rainwater of 2 × 104atoms 1−1. Expressed as a ratio 129 I 127 I , values range from 3 × 10−12 to 2 × 10−10, compared to about 1 × 10−12 in pre-1945 rainwater. Ratios, as well as concentrations, generally increase with sample depth, which ranges from 360 to >1000 m below the surface. The accumulation of 129I in the water is attributed to subsurface production by spontaneous fission of 238U in micro-fractures in the granite matrix and subsequent transfer of this 129I by diffusion into fractures constituting the flow system of the granite. Uncertainties in the spontaneous-fission yield at mass 129 and in the assumption of steady-state mass flux prevent quantitative estimates of the rate of 129I transfer.
A Framework for Promoting Women's Career Intentionality and Work–Life Integration

Work–life integration is a major problem for today's working women, as the demands of full-time work conflict with the relational factors of family life. Women feel they have to make difficult decisions that sacrifice their career or family, with little understanding of the influences that affect decision making. Career counselors may not be discussing the strain of Work–life integration with female college students, leading them to believe “having it all” is attainable. A framework blending the Kaleidoscope Career Model with the Systems Theory Framework to help women understand the environmental, societal, and personal influences on Work–life integration is proposed as a solution. This framework allows college women to make decisions with an intentional background of how these systems interact and sway perception. Using this framework, career counselors may help students identify goals, research the benefits and challenges, and clarify their authentic selves in personal and work realms.
Abyssal pahoehoe with lava coils at the Galapagos rift

In the inner rift valley of the active spreading center within the Panama Basin, narrow lava plains occur between the axial ridge of pillow basalt (the central high) and the fault scarps of the inner walls. These nearly horizontal flows are decorated with small-scale forms typical of subaerial pahoehoe, although they are at a water depth of 2.5 km. In particular, large (1- to 4-m diameter) coils of ropy pahoehoe have been mapped during a deep-tow survey and are believed to mark shear zones at the edges of individual streams of mobile lava. Eruption of plain-forming pahoehoe probably modifies the magnetic signature as well as the geomorphology of the axial zone.
Koreans' use of medical services in Seoul, Korea and California.

This study assessed the types of health care services used by Korean immigrants, and differences in use between different countries, genders, health insurance status, acculturation status, and cardiovascular risk. Participant selection used probability sampling to represent the adult populations of California, United States, and Seoul, Republic of Korea. A telephone survey was administered to 2830 adult Korean-Californians and 500 adult Koreans living in Seoul. Female gender was significantly associated with higher use of outpatient services, ER usage, and hospitalization. Californian residence was significantly associated with higher outpatient usage and lower hospitalization rates. Health insurance was associated with higher allopathic health care utilization, and lower traditional health care usage, and acculturation with lower traditional health care usage. Higher self-reported cardiac risk factors were associated with lower allopathic and higher traditional health care. This suggests barriers to allopathic health care, but not traditional health care, for Koreans living in California without health insurance.
The use of porcine small intestinal submucosa to enhance the healing of the medial collateral ligament––a functional tissue engineering study in rabbits

Introduction: Small intestinal submucosa (SIS) from porcine has been successfully used as a collagen scaffold for the repair of various tissues, including those of the human vascular, urogenital, and musculoskeletal systems. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether SIS can be used to enhance the healing process of a medial collateral ligament (MCL) with a gap injury in a rabbit model. Methods: A 6 mm wide gap was surgically created in the right MCL of 20 skeletally mature, female New Zealand White rabbits. In 10 rabbits, a strip of SIS was sutured onto the two ends of the MCL, while for the other 10 animals their injured MCL remained untreated and served as a non-treated group. The left MCL of all animals was exposed and undermined serving as the sham-operated side. At 12 weeks post-healing, eight hind limbs from each group were used for mechanical testing. The cross-sectional areas (CSA) of the MCLs were measured. The femur–MCL–tibia complex (FMTC) was tensile tested to failure. The load–elongation curves representing the structural properties of the FMTC and the stress–strain curves representing the mechanical properties of the healing MCL were obtained. The remaining two animals from each group were prepared for histological evaluation. Results: The CSA between the SIS-treated and non-treated groups were not significantly different (p>0.05). Both treatment groups appeared to increase by nearly 40% compared to the sham-operated side, although statistical significance was not found for the non-treated group (p>0.05). The stiffness of the FMTC from the SIS-treated group was 56% higher than the non-treated group (45.7 ± 13.3 N/mm vs. 29.2 ± 9.2 N/mm, respectively, p<0.05) and the ultimate load also nearly doubled (117.434.5 N vs. 66.4 ± 31.4 N, respectively, p<0.05). These values were lower compared to the sham-operated side (89.7 ± 15.3 N/mm and 332.0 ± 50.8 N, respectively). The tangent modulus of the healing MCL (279.7 ± 132.1 MPa vs. 149.0 ± 76.5 MPa, respectively) and stress at failure (15.7 ± 4.1 MPa vs. 10.2 ± 3.9 MPa, respectively) both increased by more than 50% with SIS treatment (p<0.05). Yet, each remained lower compared to the sham-operated side (936.3 ± 283.6 MPa and 75.6 ± 14.2 MPa, respectively). Blinded histological comparisons between the SIS-treated MCL and the non-treated control demonstrated qualitatively that the SIS treated group had increased cellularity, greater collagen density, and improved collagen fiber alignment. Conclusion: Healing of a gap MCL injury was significantly enhanced with SIS. The improved mechanical properties and histological appearance of the MCL suggest that SIS treatment improves the quality of tissue and renders the possibility for future studies investigating functional tissue engineering of healing ligaments.
Does the Arctic sea ice have a tipping point

[1] Two IPCC fourth assessment report climate models have Arctic Ocean simulations that become sea-ice-free year around in 1%/year CO2 increase to quadrupling experiments. These runs are examined for evidence of accelerated climate change associated with the removal of sea ice, particularly due to increasing surface albedo feedback. Both models become seasonally ice-free at an annual mean polar temperature of −9°C without registering much impact on the surface albedo feedback or disturbing the linear relationship between Arctic Ocean climate change and that of the surrounding region. When the polar temperature rises above −5°C, however, there is a sharp increase in the surface albedo feedback of one of the models, driving an abrupt elimination of Arctic ice and an increase in temperature above that expected from warming of the surrounding region. The transition to ice-free conditions is more linear in the other model, with ocean heat flux playing the primary driving role.
Prototype Classification and User Interface Management during the Requirements Analysis Phase of System Acquistion

Much has been written about the value of prototyping during the requirements analysis phase of system acquisition. This paper focuses on the classification of prototypes as they impact the user int...
EVIDENTIAL SUPPORT, TRANSITIVITY, AND SCREENING-OFF

Is evidential support transitive? The answer is negative when evidential support is understood as confirmation so that X evidentially supports Y if and only if p(Y | X) > p(Y). I call evidential support so understood “support” (for short) and set out three alternative ways of understanding evidential support: support-t (support plus a sufficiently high probability), support-t* (support plus a substantial degree of support), and support-tt* (support plus both a sufficiently high probability and a substantial degree of support). I also set out two screening-off conditions (under which support is transitive): SOC1 and SOC2. It has already been shown that support-t is non-transitive in the general case (where it is not required that SOC1 holds and it is not required that SOC2 holds), in the special case where SOC1 holds, and in the special case where SOC2 holds. I introduce two rather weak adequacy conditions on support measures and argue that on any support measure meeting those conditions it follows that neither support-t* nor support-tt* is transitive in the general case, in the special case where SOC1 holds, or in the special case where SOC2 holds. I then relate some of the results to Douven’s evidential support theory of conditionals along with a few rival theories.
Does Exchange Rate Variability Depress Trade Flows ? Evidence From Error Correction Models

This paper examines the impact of exchange rate volatility on the trade flows of the G-7 countries in the context of a multivariate error-correction model. The error-correction models do not show any sign of parameter instability. The results indicate that the exchange rate volatility has a significant negative impact on the volume of exports in each of the G-7 countries. Assuming market participants are risk averse, these results imply that exchange rate uncertainty causes them to reduce their activities, change prices, or shift sources of demand and supply in order to minimize their exposure to the effects of exchange rate volatility. This, in turn, can change the distribution of output across many sectors in these countries. It is quite possible that the surprisingly weak relationship between trade flows and exchange rate volatility reported in several previous studies are due to insufficient attention to the stochastic properties of the relevant time series. Copyright 1993 by MIT Press.
Use of Community Based Social Services to Reduce Recidivism in Female Parolees

ABSTRACT As the political pendulum swings toward increased incarceration, low-risk, non-violent offenders arc being targeted for community punishment in order to make cell space available for serious offenders. Women are a logical constituency for many community punishment alternatives. The decarceration of low risk offenders however, is only a short term solution to the problem of the overuse of prisons. In order to effect a long term solution, rehabilitative components must be built into community punishment with the goal of reducing recidivism. The current study uses survival and discriminant analyses to explore therelationship between the use of community based social services by female parolees in Boston, Massachusetts and the subsequent reduction of recidivism.
Sucrose-udp glucosyltransferase of Zea mays endosperm

Abstract The synthetic and degradative activities toward sucrose of maize (Zea mays L.) endosperm sucrose-UDP glucosyltransferase preparations behave differently in several respects. Mg 2+ or Ca 2+ stimulate the synthetic activity but inhibit the degradative activity. Nueleotides have no effect on the synthetic activity but inhibit the degradative activity. The two activities have different pH optima, and ATP inhibits the degradative activity across the pH range tested. However, both activities exhibit identical patterns of heat inactivation, and various purification procedures employed have failed to separate these two activities. The K m values at pH 6.5 (degradation) and pH 8 (synthesis) are sucrose, 40 mM; UDP, 0.14 mM; ADP, 1,25 mM; UDPglucose, 1. 14 rnM; and fructose, 2.08 mM. In the developing endosperm, sucrose-6-P synthetase activity is only ca 1 % of the synthetic activity of sucrose-UDP glucosyltransferase.
Representational Tools and Conceptual Change: The Young Scientist's Tool Kit

We interpret the world and its regularities through representations and procedures that are a complex melange of formal experience, rules of thumb, and naive concepts that precede formal education. These representational tools give us the language in which we can think about science. Three propositions are argued: (a) that such tools are fundamental to scientific reasoning and science education; (b) that cognitive science has a great deal to say about how cognitive tools affect thinking and conceptual change, particularly how the representations intrinsic to ordinary language relate to the symbol systems of formal science and mathematics; and finally, (c) that cognitive science may play a role in developing representational tools that make scientific information more accessible.
Stiffness of desiccating insect wings

The stiffness of insect wings is typically determined through experimental measurements. Such experiments are performed on wings removed from insects. However, the wings are subject to desiccation which typically leads to an increase in their stiffness. Although this effect of desiccation is well known, a comprehensive study of the rate of change in stiffness of desiccating insect wings would be a significant aid in planning experiments as well as interpreting data from such experiments. This communication presents a comprehensive experimental analysis of the change in mass and stiffness of gradually desiccating forewings of Painted Lady butterflies (Vanessa cardui). Mass and stiffness of the forewings of five butterflies were simultaneously measured every 10 min over a 24 h period. The averaged results show that wing mass declined exponentially by 21.1% over this time period with a time constant of 9.8 h, while wing stiffness increased linearly by 46.2% at a rate of 23.4 µN mm−1 h−1. For the forewings of a single butterfly, the experiment was performed over a period of 1 week, and the results show that wing mass declined exponentially by 52.2% with a time constant of 30.2 h until it reached a steady-state level of 2.00 mg, while wing stiffness increased exponentially by 90.7% until it reached a steady-state level of 1.70 .
Vaccination for the prevention of pneumococcal meningitis.

Introduction: Streptococcus pneumoniae is the most common etiologic agent of community-acquired bacterial meningitis in the United States, and continues to be associated with an unacceptably high morbidity and mortality rate. Following introduction of the heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7) in 2000, the incidence of invasive pneumococcal disease decreased in children and adults. However, the effi cacy of this vaccine on the incidence of pneumococcal meningitis has not been defi ned.
“Listening” and “talking” to neurons: Implications of immune activation for pain control and increasing the efficacy of opioids

It is recently become clear that activated immune cells and immune-like glial cells can dramatically alter neuronal function. By increasing neuronal excitability, these non-neuronal cells are now implicated in the creation and maintenance of pathological pain, such as occurs in response to peripheral nerve injury. Such effects are exerted at multiple sites along the pain pathway, including at peripheral nerves, dorsal root ganglia, and spinal cord. In addition, activated glial cells are now recognized as disrupting the pain suppressive effects of opioid drugs and contributing to opioid tolerance and opioid dependence/withdrawal. While this review focuses on regulation of pain and opioid actions, such immune-neuronal interactions are broad in their implications. Such changes in neuronal function would be expected to occur wherever immune-derived substances come in close contact with neurons.
Paradoxical Inhibition of Insulin Secretion by Glucose in Human Diabetes Mellitus

Abstract Our previous studies suggested that iv glucose pulses paradoxically suppress insulin levels below basal in some diabetic subjects. To define further the prevalence and mechanism of this acute insulin decrement (AID), we studied a group of 28 noninsulin-treated, hyperglycemic diabetics. This group of patients as a whole lacked the acute insulin response (AIR) seen in normal subjects at 3–5 min after a 20-g glucose pulse ( Δ = 9 ± 6%of basal insulin; P Δ NS). However, 22 of the 28 subjects did have an AID at 5–10 min ( Δ = −15 ± 4% P < 0.001) after iv glucose. This AID was not due to either an osmotic or a dilutional effect of injecting a hypertonic solution, since 8 diabetics who received equivalent galactose pulses showed no AID ( Δ = 8 ± 6%) or AID ( Δ = 1 ± 4%), suggesting that the AID was evoked specifically by glucose. Those diabetics showing complete absence of the acute insulin release after glucose showed the AID most clearly ( Δ = −24 ± 5% n = 15; P < 0.001), suggesting that a preceding A...
Late effects risk profiles using the long-term follow-up guidelines in identical twin survivors of acute lymphoblastic leukemia

As the number of pediatric cancer survivors increases, the cost of cure (i.e., late effects) needs to be measured through a consistent mechanism. Through the use of the Children's Oncology Group's (COG) Long-Term Follow-Up (LTFU) guidelines, individualized risk profiles can be discerned for each off-therapy patient. These guidelines were used to compare and contrast risk profiles for identical twin females treated for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The first twin was treated for high-risk leukemia and the second for standard-risk leukemia, each with different ALL protocols. Timely use of the LTFU guidelines has aided in identifying and treating their adverse late effects.
The effects of dietary naringenin supplementation on physiological changes in molar crestal alveolar bone-cemento-enamel junction distance in young rats.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of dietary naringenin (NAR) supplementation on physiological molar crestal alveolar bone (CAB)–cemento-enamel junction (CEJ) distances in young male albino rats. The effects of diets supplemented with 0.09%, 0.18%, 0.36%, and 0.72% NAR, at the expense of dextrose, were tested on 40 young rats, divided equally into five groups, for a period of 42 days. Rat skulls were defleshed, and CAB–CEJ distance was scored according to the modified method of Keyes and Gold. Data were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance, post hoc Tukey's test, and Spearman's (R2) correlation. P < .05 was used to reject the null hypothesis. NAR showed a statistically significant inverse dose-dependent relationship on CAB–lingual alveolar bone distance (P < .05). In all cases lingual CAB–CEJ distance was larger than buccal CAB–CEJ distance. Thus dietary NAR supplementation was shown to significantly reduce molar CAB–CEJ distance (P < .001–.05) during alveolar development in...
Soot formation characteristics of laminar partially premixed flames

Soot volume fractions have been measured in laminar partially premixed flames in a jet flow geometry. These measurements show that initial addition of air to the fuel stream causes the overall soot emission to increase, meaning that addition of air can have adverse effects at high equivalence ratios on sooting behavior of partially premixed flames. For ethylene, soot level is brought below that of diffusion flames at equivalence ratio near 10. The soot volume fraction distributions in the flame, however, are similar to that of laminar diffusion flames for the range of equivalence ratio considered. Soot is first formed in the annular region, and at a downstream location soot is observed in the central region in laminar partially premixed flames.
Near real-time shaded display of rigid objects

Described is a visible surface algorithm and an implementation that generates shaded display of objects with hundreds of polygons rapidly enough for interactive use — several images per second. The basic algorithm, introduced in [Fuchs, Kedem and Naylor, 1980], is designed to handle rigid objects and scenes by preprocessing the object data base to minimize visibility computation cost. The speed of the algorithm is further enhanced by its simplicity, which allows it to be implemented within the internal graphics processor of a general purpose raster system.
Effects of neonatal testosterone treatment on pacing behaviors and development of a conditioned place preference.

Two experiments assessed the effects of neonatal testosterone treatment on paced mating behavior and conditioned place preference in female rats. In both experiments, females received s.c. injections of 5.0 microg testosterone propionate or oil vehicle at three days postpartum. As adults, females were ovariectomized and given s.c. injections of 10 microg estradiol benzoate and 500 microg progesterone, 48 and 4 h before mating, respectively. In Experiment 1, TP- and Oil-treated females exhibited similar high levels of lordosis responsiveness, but TP-treated females showed increased intervals between mounts and between intromissions in paced and non-paced mating conditions compared to control females. The effect was particularly pronounced during paced mating, when contact return latencies were increased approximately 2-fold by TP treatment. TP-treated females showed exaggerated pacing behavior, showing significantly greater return latencies after intromissions than Oil-treated females. In Experiment 2, TP- and Oil-treated groups were tested in a conditioned place preference paradigm to determine if the behavioral changes observed in Experiment 1 were in part a result of changes in the perceived reward produced by paced mating. TP treated and control females developed equivalent preferences for places associated with paced but not non-paced mating, indicating that neonatal TP treatment at this dosage does not disrupt or enhance the conditioned place preference induced by paced mating. The results of the two experiments demonstrate that neonatal TP treatment alters the display of pacing behavior but not the reward state induced by paced mating, and suggest that TP affects neural substrates involved in performance of paced mating without effects on those controlling lordosis or place preference conditioning.
Pseudoallosteric modulation by (+)-MK801 of NMDA-coupled phencyclidine binding sites.

Abstract Two high affinity phencyclidine (PCP) binding sites, labelled by [ 3 H] 1−[1−(2−thienyl) cyclohexyl]piperidine ([ 3 H]TCP), have been identified in guinea pig brain, with one site coupled to the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor (site 1) and the other site associated with the dopamine reuptake carrier complex (site 2). In this study, PCP enhanced the dissociation of [ 3 H]TCP from PCP site 1 and site 2, while (+)-MK801 only enhanced dissociation of [ 3 H]TCP from PCP site 1. Although additional studies will be required to determine the exact mechanism(s) of these effects, these data demonstrate that the interactions of PCP with both site 1 and site 2 are more complex than previously appreciated.
Bayesian and regression modeling of graduate admission policy

Abstract Four Ph.D.s in Biology made admissions judgments on 528 hypothetical applicants to their graduate program. Bayes' theorem and multiple regression analysis were compared as descriptive models of the judges. All four judges weighted grade point average very heavily, and showed relatively similar weighting strategies. Number of cues did not have a major effect on cue utilization, but cue inconsistency did. Judgments were conservative with respect to Bayesian predictions. It was argued that comparing Bayesian and regression models on the same data may prove fruitful, especially in understanding deviations from optimality.
Recognizing complex instrumental activities of daily living using scene information and fuzzy logic

Provides a unique and robust solution to the extremely challenging task of ADL modeling.Incorporates scene information to build ADL models.In the absence of manually labeled surfaces, can still generate high-level activity state summaries.We provide a dataset for the computer vision community that is described in this manuscript. We describe a novel technique to combine motion data with scene information to capture activity characteristics of older adults using a single Microsoft Kinect depth sensor. Specifically, we describe a method to learn activities of daily living (ADLs) and instrumental ADLs (IADLs) in order to study the behavior patterns of older adults to detect health changes. To learn the ADLs, we incorporate scene information to provide contextual information to build our activity model. The strength of our algorithm lies in its generalizability to model different ADLs while adding more information to the model as we instantiate ADLs from learned activity states. We validate our results in a controlled environment and compare it with another widely accepted classifier, the hidden Markov model (HMM) and its variations. We also test our system on depth data collected in a dynamic unstructured environment at TigerPlace, an independent living facility for older adults. An in-home activity monitoring system would benefit from our algorithm to alert healthcare providers of significant temporal changes in ADL behavior patterns of frail older adults for fall risk, cognitive impairment, and other health changes.
Quickest detection of drug-resistant seizures: an optimal control approach.

article i nfo Epilepsy affects 50 million people worldwide, and seizures in 30% of the cases remain drug resistant. This has increased interest in responsive neurostimulation, which is most effective when administered during seizure onset. We propose a novel framework for seizure onset detection that involves (i) constructing statistics from multichannel intracranial EEG (iEEG) to distinguish nonictal versus ictal states; (ii) modeling the dy- namics of these statistics in each state and the state transitions; you can remove this word if there is no room. (iii) developing an optimal control-based "quickest detection" (QD) strategy to estimate the transition times from nonictal to ictal states from sequential iEEG measurements. The QD strategy minimizes a cost function of detection delay and false positive probability. The solution is a threshold that non-monotonically decreases over time and avoids responding to rare events that normally trigger false positives. We applied QD to four drug resistant epileptic patients (168 hour continuous recordings, 26-44 electrodes, 33 seizures) and achieved 100% sensitivity with low false positive rates (0.16 false positive/hour).
Multidimensional Conflict and Organizational Performance

Conflict is part of every organization. Scholars have studied the effects of conflict on organization dynamics and their outputs. Literature suggests that not all conflict is detrimental for organizations—some conflict actually helps bolster and refresh organizations. One concern for organizations is the vertical strategic alignment of management strategies. Vertical cohesion or conflict impacts an organization’s ability to reach optimal performance. In the setting of English local governments, this study uses vertical strategic differences among two levels of management as the measure of conflict in organizations to examine, one, how it impacts organization performance, and two, if conflict has a nonlinear relationship with performance. Results indicate that conflict on single strategies has no bearing on organization performance. Total strategy or multidimensional conflict, however, negatively impacts performance. There is little support for a nonlinear relationship between conflict and performance. Fur...
U4 and U6 RNAs coexist in a single small nuclear ribonucleoprotein particle

U4 and U6 RNAs of mammalian cells possess extensive intermolecular sequence complementarity and hence have the potential to base pair. A U4/U6 RNA complex, detectable in nondenaturing polyacrylamide gels, is released when human small nuclear ribonucleoproteins (snRNPs) containing U1, U2, U4, U5, and U6 RNAs are dissociated with proteinase K in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate. The released RNA/RNA complex dissociates with increasing temperature, consistent with the existence of specific base-pairing between the two RNAs. Since U6 RNA is selectively released from intact snRNPs under the same conditions required to dissociate the U4/U6 RNA complex, the RNA-RNA interaction may be sufficient to maintain U4 and U6 RNAs in the same snRNP particle. The biological implications of these findings are discussed.
Evaluation of an intervention to increase realistic self-efficacy and interests in college women.

Abstract High self-efficacy expectations in Realistic activities have been related to the pursuit of careers in engineering, science, and technology, where women have been historically underrepresented. Fifty-four college women were studied to determine if interventions based on self-efficacy theory would increase their confidence and interests in “Realistic” (from Holland's theory) activities (e.g., using tools, assembling, building, operating machinery). Interest and confidence levels were measured pre- and posttreatments. Participants were prescreened to identify those with at least moderate interest in Realistic activities, but who were also low in Realistic confidence. At posttreatment, the 24 participants in the treatment group showed a statistically significant increase in Realistic confidence relative to the control group of 30 that received a neutral intervention. Ways to increase women's Realistic confidence, and the relationships of confidence to interests and career pursuits, are discussed.
Classifying ℵ 0 -categorical theories

Among the complete ℵ0-categorical theories with finite non-logical vocabularies, we distinguish three classes. The classification is obtained by looking at the number of bound variables needed to isolated complete types. In classI theories, all types are isolated by quantifier free formulas; in classII theories, there is a leastm, greater than zero, s.t. all types are isolated by formulas in no more thanm bound variables: and in classIII theories, for eachm there is a type which cannot be isolated inm or fewer bound variables. ClassII theories are further subclassified according to whether or not they can be extended to classI theories by the addition of finitely many new predicates. Alternative characterizations are given in terms of quantifier elimination and homogeneous models. It is shown that for each primep, the theory of infinite Abelian groups all of whose elements are of orderp is classI when formulated in functional constants, and classIII when formulated in relational constants.