cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Automated segmentation of neuroanatomical structures in multispectral MR microscopy of the mouse brain.

Abstract We present the automated segmentation of magnetic resonance microscopy (MRM) images of the C57BL/6J mouse brain into 21 neuroanatomical structures, including the ventricular system, corpus callosum, hippocampus, caudate putamen, inferior colliculus, internal capsule, globus pallidus, and substantia nigra. The segmentation algorithm operates on multispectral, three-dimensional (3D) MR data acquired at 90-μm isotropic resolution. Probabilistic information used in the segmentation is extracted from training datasets of T2-weighted, proton density-weighted, and diffusion-weighted acquisitions. Spatial information is employed in the form of prior probabilities of occurrence of a structure at a location (location priors) and the pairwise probabilities between structures (contextual priors). Validation using standard morphometry indices shows good consistency between automatically segmented and manually traced data. Results achieved in the mouse brain are comparable with those achieved in human brain studies using similar techniques. The segmentation algorithm shows excellent potential for routine morphological phenotyping of mouse models.
Impact of vibrational excitation on ionospheric parameters and artificial airglow during HF heating in the F region

[1] Vibrational excitation by the impact of electrons on molecular nitrogen in the energy range of 1.8-3.2 eV is well known. Electrons heated by high-power HF radio waves can effectively lose energy due to this vibrational excitation, which, in turn, creates a sharp energy barrier. Electrons must overcome this barrier in order to reach higher energies. A model for this vibrational barrier has been developed, and deviations of the electron energy distribution from a Maxwellian distribution have been estimated under different conditions. The depletion of electrons with energy higher than 2 eV decreases the excitation rate of the optical emissions (for example, 630.0 nm airglow) observed during HF heating. We show that the vibrational barrier can explain why the 630 nm airglow reported by Gustavsson et al. [2001] was only slightly enhanced during HF heating, in spite of the measured electron temperature being higher than 3000 K. In some cases, vibrationally excited molecules can accumulate in the ionosphere due to slow deactivation. These species increase the recombination coefficient, which, in turn, may result in the decrease of electron density. This effect can also contribute to the saturation of the optical emission strength as a function of heater power, as reported by Pedersen et al. [2003].
Reactive oxygen metabolites, neutrophils, and the pathogenesis of ischemic-tissue/reperfusion

Considerable research effort has been directed at elucidating the mechanisms underlying the pathophysiologic alterations associated with reperfusion (reoxygenation) of ischemic (hypoxic) tissues. As a consequence of this intensive effort, a large body of evidence has accumulated, implicating a role for reactive oxygen metabolites and activated granulocytes in the genesis of postischemic cellular dysfunction. Figure 1 summarizes a hypothesis that has been proposed to explain the interaction of xanthine oxidase-derived oxidants, granulocyte infiltration, and the microvascular and parenchymal cell dysfunction that occurs in postischemic tissues.1–4 According to this scheme, xanthine oxidase-derived oxidants, produced at reperfusion, initiate the formation and release of proinflammatory agents, which subsequendy attract and activate granulocytes. The activated neutrophils adhere to the microvascular endothelium, extravasate, and release cytotoxic oxidants and proteases, which contribute to tissue dysfunction. The aim of this review is to summarize the evidence that we and others have accumulated in support of this hypothesis.
Use of Hair Tubes to Detect Small-Mammal Winter Activity in a Northern Forest Habitat

Abstract We used hair tubes to examine the winter activity of small mammals in relation to coarse woody debris and snow cover in a deciduous forest woodlot in western New York State during the winters of 2006 and 2007. Hairs trapped on sticky tapes in baited hair tubes were used to identify mammal species. During the winter of 2006, a higher proportion of baits was removed from hair tubes sites 2 m away from logs, relative to hair tubes adjacent to logs, while significantly more baits were removed from hair tubes adjacent to logs in 2007. A significantly greater proportion of baits was removed from log and open sites combined in 2006 than in 2007. However, in 2007, a higher proportion of hair tubes with baits removed also had mammal hairs on their tapes. The higher proportion of baits removed from hair tubes in 2006, and the increased proportion of baits removed from sites near logs in 2007, was most likely due to reduced snow cover in 2006. Hair tubes offer several advantages relative to live traps in th...
Alpha1 Antitrypsin Levels in Sarcoidosis: Relationship to Disease Activity

Alpha 1 antitrypsin levels measured by the trypsin inhibitory capacity method were increased in a group of 23 patients with active sarcoidosis not under treatment when compared with a group of 17 patients, with inactive sarcoidosis, or age and sex matched healthy controls. Twelve of these patients and two of the control subjects were also studied by the radial immunodiffusion method and cellulose acetate serum electrophoresis methods for measuring a 1 antitrypsin. Obstruction of larger airways was present in 10 of 40 sarcoidosis patients, while the remainder had either a restrictive or normal pattern. In eight patients, measurement of diffusing capacity and a closer assessment for airways obstruction was obtained with measurements of specific airway conductance, thoracic gas volumes, and static and dynamic lung compliance at several respiratory frequencies. Disease of smaller airways was present in six patients as determined by frequency dependence of their dynamic lung compliance. Since three were nonsmokers, airways obstruction was thought to be due to mechanical effects of granulomas. a 1 antitrypsin levels may be another useful determinant of disease activity and may be used to supplement other clinical and laboratory indices of activity.
Performance of Common Clinician- and Self-Report Measures in Assessing the Function of Community-Dwelling People With Metastatic Breast Cancer

Abstract Cheville AL, Basford JR, Troxel AB, Kornblith AB. Performance of common clinician- and self-report measures in assessing the function of community-dwelling people with metastatic breast cancer. Objective To characterize the performance of common clinician- and self-report measures of function in assessing community-dwelling people with metastatic breast cancer. Design Cross-sectional study. Setting A tertiary medical center outpatient cancer clinic. Participants A consecutive sample of community-dwelling patients (N=163) with stage IV breast cancer. Interventions Not applicable. Main Outcome Measures Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short-Form Physical Functioning (PF-10) and Role Physical subscales; the Older Americans Resource Study (OARS) activities of daily living (ADL) and instrumental ADL subscales; Karnofsky Performance Scale (KPS); and the FIM Total and FIM Mobility scores. Results With the exception of the PF-10 and Role Physical subscales, which demonstrated floor effects, ceiling effects were detected in all the measures and were particularly persistent in the OARS ADL subscale. Instrument and item score distributions varied markedly across KPS-defined subgroups with FIM Mobility, FIM Total, and OARS subscale score distributions deviating least from the normal in the lowest performing (KPS 40–50) participants. Correlations between self-reported (Role Physical subscales, PF-10, OARS ADL subscales) and the clinician-rated (KPS and FIM scales) scales were moderate to high ( r =.55–.82); however, clinician-reported scores were more consistently associated with the presence of physical impairments. Conclusions In this population with stage IV breast cancer, ceiling effects limit the discriminatory capacity of the common functional scales assessed in this study. Instruments and items, particularly when ADL based, tend to perform better at lower levels of function (KPS 40–50) and less well at higher levels. Clinician-rated outcomes may have greater capacity to discriminate the presence of physical impairments.
Codelivery of NF-κB Decoy-Related Oligodeoxynucleotide Improves LPD-Mediated Systemic Gene Transfer

Abstract A systemic gene delivery vector for LPD (cationic liposome–polycation–DNA) has been reported previously to transfect the pulmonary endothelium and holds promise for treating pulmonary diseases. However, the uptake of LPD by immune cells triggers a strong inflammatory response that is toxic to animals and limits transgene expression. In this study, LPD was used to codeliver phosphorothioate oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs) containing an NF-κB consensus binding sequence with plasmid DNA carrying a reporter gene. Codelivery of a single-stranded κB ODN inhibited TNF-α induction by LPD-plasmid delivery and increased transgene expression in the lung in a dose-dependent manner. A similar effect was observed with the double-stranded ODN of the same sequence at twice the dose, and the complementary ODN (antisense) had no effect. Sequence mutation study suggested that the effect was sequence specific and these ODNs may achieve their effect through interaction with NF-κB family proteins in a decoy manner. In addition to enhancing gene transfer, these single-stranded ODNs formulated in LPD may be explored as anti-inflammatory agents.
Sintering of Si3N4 Under High Nitrogen Pressure

A graphite resistance furnace was used. Si/sub 3/N/sub 4/ specimens were sintered at 1800 to 1950/sup 0/C under N/sub 2/ pressures of 250 to 300 psi with only minimal degradation and 1 to 2% weight loss. CeO/sub 2/ was used as sintering additive. Modulus-of-rupture values up to 63 ksi were obtained. (DLC)
Improvement in American Board of Surgery In-Training Examination Performance With a Multidisciplinary Surgeon-Directed Integrated Learning Platform

Background The American Board of Surgery In-Training Examination (ABSITE) is a predictor of resident performance on the general surgery–qualifying examination and plays a role in obtaining competitive fellowships. A learning management system (LMS) permits the delivery of a structured curriculum that appeals to the modern resident owing to the ease of accessibility and all-in-one organization. This study hypothesizes that trainees using a structured surgeon-directed LMS will achieve improved ABSITE scores compared with those using an unstructured approach to the examination. Study Design A multidisciplinary print and digital review course with practice questions, review textbooks, weekly reading assignments, and slide and audio reviews integrated within an online LMS was made available to postgraduate year (PGY)-3 and PGY-4 residents in 2008 and 2009. Surveys were emailed requesting ABSITE scores to compare outcomes in those trainees that used the course with those who used an unstructured approach. Statistical analysis was conducted via descriptive statistics and Pearson chi-square with p Results Surveys were mailed to 508 trainees. There was an 80% (408) response rate. Residents who used structured approaches in both the years achieved the highest scores, followed by those who adopted a structured approach in PGY-4. The residents using an unstructured approach in both the years showed no significant improvement. Conclusion Residents who used a structured LMS performed significantly better than their counterparts who used an unstructured approach. A properly constructed online education curriculum has the potential to improve ABSITE scores.
Graduated exposure plus feedback in the treatment of speech anxiety

This study investigated the effectiveness of a graduated exposure procedure, combined with peer feedback, in the treatment of speech anxiety. Subjects were assigned to one of two conditions: (a) graduated exposure/shaping plus feedback or (b) no-treatment control. Results indicated that the graduated exposure/shaping plus feedback treatment group demonstrated significantly greater speech anxiety reduction than the no-treatment control group at post- and follow-up assessment.
Prospects of vaccines for medically important fungi

The development of a useful Candida vaccine is a distinct possibility despite the fact that individuals with a lifetime of commensal sensitization do not develop sterile immunity to the organism. An effective Candida vaccine would be invaluable in preventing hematogenously disseminated candidiasis, as well as mucocutaneous disease. This review is a discussion of our current understanding of the interplay between commensal and pathogenic forms of Candida albicans and approaches toward active and passive immunoprevention against candidiasis.
An artificial neural network for predicting the incidence of radiation pneumonitis.

A method to predict radiation-induced pneumonitis (RP) using an artificial neural network (ANN) was investigated. A retrospective study was applied to the clinical data from 142 patients who have been treated with three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy for tumors in the thoracic region. These data were classified, based on their treatment outcome, into two patient clusters: with RP ( N p = 26 ) and without RP ( N p = 116 ) . An ANN was designed as a classifier. To perform the classification, a patient-treatment outcome with RP was assigned a value of 1, and a patient treatment outcome without RP was assigned a value of −1. The input of the ANN was limited to the patient lungdose-volume data only. A volume vector ( V D ) that describes patient lung subvolumes receiving more than a set of threshold doses was used as the network input variable. A zero value was used as the threshold to set the output value into −1 or 1. Three ANNs (ANN_1, ANN_2, and ANN_3), each with three layers, were trained to perform this classification function and to show the effect of training data on the ANN performance. Radial basis function was applied as the hidden layer neuron activation function and a sigmoid function was selected as the output layer neuron function. Backpropagation with a conjugate gradient algorithm was used to train the network. ANN_1 was trained and tested by using the leave-one-out method. ANN_2 was trained by randomly selecting 2/3 of the patient data, and tested by the remaining 1/3 of the data. ANN_3 was trained by a user selecting 2/3 of the patient data, and tested by the remaining 1/3 of the data. The predictive accuracy was verified as the area under a receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve. The correct classification rates of 73% for RP cases, and 99% for non-RP cases were obtained from ANN_1. The corresponding correct classification rates of 44% for RP cases, and 89% for non-RP cases were obtained from ANN_2. From the ANN_3 test phase, the corresponding correct classification rates of 55% for RP cases, and 95% non-RP cases were achieved. The area under ROC curve was 0 .85 ± 0 .05 , 0.68 ± 0.10 , and 0.81 ± 0.09 for ANN_1, ANN_2, and ANN_3, respectively, within its asymmetric 95% confidence interval. The sensitivity was 95%, 57%, and 71%, and the specificity was 94%, 88%, and 90% for ANN_1, ANN_2, and ANN_3, respectively. Preliminary results suggest that the ANN approach provides a useful tool for the prediction of radiation-induced lung pneumonitis, using the patient lungdose-volume information.
Amyloid status and neuropsychological profiles in early-onset, late-onset and very late-onset dementia due to probable Alzheimer's disease

including Ab1-42, T-tau and P-tau, Ab1-42/P-tau ratio and AD profile were not different between MCI and DAT subgroups. Based on CSF biomarkers, 25% (n1⁄47) MCI patients showed biomarkers of neurodegeneration without positive markers of amyloid accumulation. Conclusions: After one year of recruitment efforts, this is the first Arg-ADNI report. Arg-ADNI is a growing sample with ongoing recruitment of MCI and AD patients and controls. Follow-up of this important sample, particularly related to CSF and brain biomarkers, will allow better characterization of AD in Argentina, and perhaps point to unique environmental factors influencing brain health in South America. For example, clinical and biochemical follow up of MCI patients with neurodegenerative profiles and without amyloid accumulation may provide important insights.
SHREC, an Effector Complex for Heterochromatic Transcriptional Silencing

Summary Transcriptional gene silencing (TGS) is the mechanism generally thought by which heterochromatin effects silencing. However, recent discovery in fission yeast of a cis -acting posttranscriptional gene-silencing ( cis -PTGS) pathway operated by the RNAi machinery at heterochromatin challenges the role of TGS in heterochromatic silencing. Here, we describe a multienzyme effector complex (termed SHREC) that mediates heterochromatic TGS in fission yeast. SHREC consists of a core quartet of proteins—Clr1, Clr2, Clr3, and Mit1—which distribute throughout all major heterochromatin domains to effect TGS via distinct activities associated with the histone deacetylase Clr3 and the SNF2 chromatin-remodeling factor homolog Mit1. SHREC is also recruited to the telomeres by multiple independent mechanisms involving telomere binding protein Ccq1 cooperating with Taz1 and the RNAi machinery, and to euchromatic sites, via mechanism(s) distinct from its heterochromatin localization aided by Swi6/HP1. Our analyses suggest that SHREC regulates nucleosome positioning to assemble higher-order chromatin structures critical for heterochromatin functions.
Metabasin approach for computing the master equation dynamics of systems with broken ergodicity

We propose a technique for computing the master equation dynamics of systems with broken ergodicity. The technique involves a partitioning of the system into components, or metabasins, where the relaxation times within a metabasin are short compared to an observation time scale. In this manner, equilibrium statistical mechanics is assumed within each metabasin, and the intermetabasin dynamics are computed using a reduced set of master equations. The number of metabasins depends upon both the temperature of the system and its derivative with respect to time. With this technique, the integration time step of the master equations is governed by the observation time scale rather than the fastest transition time between basins. We illustrate the technique using a simple model landscape with seven basins and show validation against direct Euler integration. Finally, we demonstrate the use of the technique for a realistic glass-forming system (viz., selenium) where direct Euler integration is not computationally...
Assays for functional binding of plasminogen to viral proteins.

Cleavage of the hemagglutinin (HA) molecule by proteases is a prerequisite for the infectivity of influenza A viruses. Plasminogen binds to the viral glycoprotein neuraminidase (NA), and NA-bound plasminogen is activated to plasmin, which cleaves the HA of influenza A/WSN/33 (WSN) (H1N1) virus. Here we present assays for detecting functional plasminogen binding to the influenza virus NA.
Large-angle light scattering at large size parameters

The generalized eikonal amplitude for light scattering at large size parameters by a dielectric sphere is modified to account more rigorously for the phase-change difference caused by the presence of the medium. The resulting amplitude is shown to work well for scattering at large angles. It accurately predicts the positions of maxima and minima for scattering angles up to 60° for perpendicularly polarized light.
Kinase cascades and ligand-directed signaling at the kappa opioid receptor.

Background and Rationale The dynorphin/kappa opioid receptor (KOR) system has been implicated as a critical component of the stress response. Stress-induced activation of dynorphin-KOR is well known to produce analgesia, and more recently, it has been implicated as a mediator of stress-induced responses including anxiety, depression, and reinstatement of drug seeking.
Geology of the Ketcherside Mountain area, southeastern Missouri, and the source of Grassy Mountain Ignimbrite

The St. Francois Mountains igneous complex is a shallow batholith about 1,500 m.y. old which has intruded a roof formed by its own volcanic ejecta. It is similar to other shallow-roofed batholiths such as the Boulder batholith. However, it has been tilted and beveled by erosion so that the roof is available for study at a wide range of stratigraphic levels. The volcanic roof is composed mostly of ash-flow tuff sheets, implying that caldera-collapse eruptions were the major mechanism of formation of the roof. Only two calderas have been proposed in the St. Francois Mountains thus far, the Taum Sauk caldera and the Butler Hill caldera. The southern ring fault of the Taum Sauk caldera is located in the Ketcherside Mountain area of southeastern Missouri. The fault is nearly vertical, strikes about N50°E, and is intruded by a small body of porphyritic granite with vertical flow foliation. Rocks in the down-dropped block are broken by high-angle faults as much as 3 km from the ring fault, but extracaldera units are little deformed. Associated with the ring fault are bedded tuffs and volcaniclastic sedimentary units, some of which are mineralized. These data support the hypothesis that the Taum Sauk caldera is a trap-door caldera with major faulting along the eastern and southern walls. There is little evidence of faulting along the western wall. The Butler Hill caldera occurs in the eastern St. Francois Mountains and is centered approximately on the Butler Hill Granite. The caldera, one of the earliest features to develop, has been obscured by later structural modification, but the major collapse ash-flow tuff of the caldera, the Grassy Mountain Ignimbrite, is well exposed. Analysis of flow directions of the ignimbrite indicates a source for the unit in the eastern St. Francois Mountains, as predicted by the Butler Hill caldera model.
RIEVL: recursive induction learning in hand gesture recognition

Presents a recursive inductive learning scheme that is able to acquire hand pose models in the form of disjunctive normal form expressions involving multivalued features. Based on an extended variable-valued logic, our rule-based induction system is able to abstract compact rule sets from any set of feature vectors describing a set of classifications. The rule bases which satisfy the completeness and consistency conditions are induced and refined through five heuristic strategies. A recursive induction learning scheme in the RIEVL algorithm is designed to escape local minima in the solution space. A performance comparison of RIEVL with other inductive algorithms, ID3, NewID, C4.5, CN2, and HCV, is given in the paper. In the experiments with hand gestures, the system produced the disjunctive normal form descriptions of each pose and identified the different hand poses based on the classification rules obtained by the RIEVL algorithm. RIEVL classified 94.4 percent of the gesture images in our testing set correctly, outperforming all other inductive algorithms.
PYRAMID-a hierarchical, rule-based approach toward proximity effect correction. II. Correction

For pt. I see ibid., vol. 11, no. 1, p. 108-16 (1998). One of the major limiting factors with electron beam lithography in the production of high resolution patterns is the distortion of the exposed region by electron scattering. This distortion (known as the proximity effect) imposes a severe limitation on the ultimate resolution attainable with electron beam lithography. It is therefore important to examine ways in which the proximity effect can be reduced, we are currently developing a novel proximity effect correction scheme called PYRAMID which takes a hierarchical, rule-based approach toward correction. In Part I, our fast and accurate exposure estimation scheme is presented. In this paper (Part II), we present the correction hierarchy employed in PYRAMID and analyze its accuracy using both simulation and experimental results demonstrating PYRAMID's ability to correct circuit patterns with minimum feature sizes down to 0.1 /spl mu/m on homogeneous substrates successfully.
Fat-water separated delayed hyperenhanced myocardial infarct imaging.

Fat deposition associated with myocardial infarction (MI) has been reported as a commonly occurring phenomenon. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has the ability to efficiently detect MI using T1-sensitive contrast-enhanced sequences and fat via its resonant frequency shift. In this work, the feasibility of fat-water separation applied to the conventional delayed hyperenhanced (DHE) MI imaging technique is demonstrated. A three-point Dixon acquisition and reconstruction was combined with an inversion recovery gradient-echo pulse sequence. This allowed fat-water separation along with T1 sensitive imaging after injection of a gadolinium contrast agent. The technique is demonstrated in phantom experiments and three subjects with chronic MI. Areas of infarction were well defined as conventional hyperenhancement in water images. In two cases, fatty deposition was detected in fat images and confirmed by precontrast opposed-phase imaging. Magn Reson Med 60:503–509, 2008. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Extended x-ray absorption fine-structure experiments with a laser- imploded target as a radiation source

The feasibility of using extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) for characterizing metals shocked to megabar (1 bar = 0.1 MPa) pressures by a laser has been studied. High-contrast K-edge modulations for an unshocked Ti-foil absorber were obtained with a laser-imploded spherical target as a source. The high intensity and relative smoothness of the source spectrum enable us to work with thick Ti foils, which increases the relative modulation in the measured signal. Using a semiempirical model to describe the shock-compressed foil, we show that, because of the rise in Debye temperature with density, the compression extends the temperature range at which EXAFS modulations can be observed.
IC design in high-cost nanometer-technologies era

Nanometer IC technologies are on the horizon. They promise a lot, but will cost a lot as well. Therefore, we need to ask today: how may the billions of dollars, that we will have to spent on nanometer-fablines, affect the IC design domain? This paper attempts to address the above question by analyzing the design-manufacturing interface. A partial answer is derived from a simple transistor cost model proposed in the body of the paper.
Sensorless rotor position estimation of PMSM by full-order and sliding mode EMF observers with speed estimate

The paper discusses the problem of rotor position estimation for the nonsalient PMSM and presents a Full-Order (FO) observer and a Sliding Mode (SM) observer; both are constructed using a speed estimate. The observers are developed using the PMSM model in the stationary reference frame and use the motor voltages, currents and speed as inputs. The PMSM is treated as a time-varying plant. Convergence is analysed assuming that the speed signal is inaccurate - this corresponds to the situation when a speed estimate is used to obtain a sensorless observer. Under improper speed, the FO observer gives errors; however, the SM observer can be forced to converge by increasing the gains. The SM structure proposed allows design of a variety of sensorless observers.
Ecological correlates of achene mass variation in Chrysothamnus nauseosus (Asteraceae).

Chrysothamnus nauseosus (Asteraceae) is a complex polymorphic shrub species widely distributed in western North America. In a study of 86 populations belonging to 15 subspecies, achene mass varied among populations over a sevenfold range. Achene mass was closely correlated with capitulum size at the subspecies level, varied little between wild-growing and common-garden-grown members of a population, and was under strong genetic control. Subspecies with the heaviest achenes are restricted to specialized edaphic environments (dunes and badlands) or late seral montane riparian communities, while subspecies that are widely distributed and that occur in early seral habitats have less heavy achenes. Selection on achene mass has apparently been a notable feature of the adaptive radiation of Chrysothamnus nauseosusinto the wide array of habitats it currently occupies. Within a wild population, achene mass was greater for plants fruiting in midautumn than for plants fruiting early or late in the autumn, and this same trend was observed within individual plants in garden populations, indicating environmental control, perhaps through resource limitation. Highly significant between-plant differences in achene mass were found in both wild and garden populations, suggesting that within-population genetic variation is sufficient to permit continuing selection. The adaptive significance of variation in seed size has been the subject of intensive investigation for over two decades, starting with the provocative synthesis of Harper, Lovell, and Moore (1970), who suggested that selection on seed size has been an important aspect of angiosperm evolution. Baker (1972) found trends in the flora of California for increasing seed size as a function of increasing aridity and for decreasing seed size with increasing elevation. Salisbury (1974) noted a trend for increasing seed size with increasing competitiveness of the matrix vegetation in the flora of the United Kingdom. Venable and Brown (1988) considered seed size in combination with dispersal and dormancy as means of coping with environmental uncertainty. They equated seed size with seedling quality and concluded that increased seed size could increase survival over a range of environmental conditions and that it represented an alternative to escape in space (dispersal) or time (dormancy). The positive relationship between seed size and absolute seedling growth rate is well established (e.g., Black, 1957; Schaal, 1980; Stanton, 1984), but initial relative growth rate is usually faster in small-seeded species, especially in the absence of competition (Fenner, 1983; Gross, 1984; Jurado and Westoby, 1992). In a classic study with Solidago, Werner and Platt (1976) showed a pattern of increasing achene size along a gradient of increasing aridity. Old-field populations had
The biostatistician in medical research: Allocating time and effort

Biostatisticians in research juggle many responsibilities: short-term consulting; long-term collaboration; teaching/training, and statistical research. In an institutionally-supported service group, the biostatistician frequently faces allocation of limited resources (time and effort) over multiple projects, none of which individually supports the biostatistician. In addition to the level of support provided by a specific project, there are several major issues with resource allocation: the quality of the science and data in the project; the possibility that long-term support develops from the work; personal and institutional considerations that involve the specific investigator or project. In this paper, we discuss these considerations along with some examples. We present guidelines for making decisions about allocation of time and effort and the possible implications of setting such priorities.
Bayesian Alignment Model for LC-MS Data

A Bayesian alignment model (BAM) is proposed for alignment of liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) data. BAM is composed of two important components: prototype function and mapping function. Estimation of both functions is crucial for the alignment result. We use Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods for inference of model parameters. To address the trapping effect of local mode, we propose a block Metropolis-Hastings algorithm that led to better mixing behavior in updating the mapping function coefficients. We applied BAM to both simulated and real LC-MS datasets, and compared its performance with the Bayesian hierarchical curve registration model (BHCR). Performance evaluation on both simulated and real datasets shows satisfactory results in terms of correlation coefficients and ratio of overlapping peak areas.
Hypothesis: Grandiosity and Guilt Cause Paranoia; Paranoid Schizophrenia is a Psychotic Mood Disorder; a Review

Delusional paranoia has been associated with severe mental illness for over a century. Kraepelin introduced a disorder called "paranoid depression," but "paranoid" became linked to schizophrenia, not to mood disorders. Paranoid remains the most common subtype of schizophrenia, but some of these cases, as Kraepelin initially implied, may be unrecognized psychotic mood disorders, so the relationship of paranoid schizophrenia to psychotic bipolar disorder warrants reevaluation. To address whether paranoia associates more with schizophrenia or mood disorders, a selected literature is reviewed and 11 cases are summarized. Comparative clinical and recent molecular genetic data find phenotypic and genotypic commonalities between patients diagnosed with schizophrenia and psychotic bipolar disorder lending support to the idea that paranoid schizophrenia could be the same disorder as psychotic bipolar disorder. A selected clinical literature finds no symptom, course, or characteristic traditionally considered diagnostic of schizophrenia that cannot be accounted for by psychotic bipolar disorder patients. For example, it is hypothesized here that 2 common mood-based symptoms, grandiosity and guilt, may underlie functional paranoia. Mania explains paranoia when there are grandiose delusions that one's possessions are so valuable that others will kill for them. Similarly, depression explains paranoia when delusional guilt convinces patients that they deserve punishment. In both cases, fear becomes the overwhelming emotion but patient and physician focus on the paranoia rather than on underlying mood symptoms can cause misdiagnoses. This study uses a clinical, case-based, hypothesis generation approach that warrants follow-up with a larger representative sample of psychotic patients followed prospectively to determine the degree to which the clinical course observed herein is typical of all such patients. Differential diagnoses, nomenclature, and treatment implications are discussed because bipolar patients misdiagnosed with schizophrenia are severely misserved.
Multiple Scattering Theory

In this first section, which should take about two lectures, I hope to lay the ground work for my later lectures and those of Professors’ Moniz and Kisslinger. I am starting from basics and must necessarily cover some topics rather rapidly. However, I hope that when I finish you will have at least a familiarity with most of the vocabulary. I have tried to provide a few references if you should need more information on a given subject.
Effects of throughfall manipulation on soil nutrient status: results of 12 years of sustained wet and dry treatments

To investigate the potential effects of changing precipitation on forest ecosystems, the Throughfall Displacement Experiment (TDE) was established on Walker Branch Watershed, Tennessee, in 1993. Three different throughfall amounts were tested: -33% (DRY); ambient (no change, AMB); and + 33% (WET). Throughfall manipulations had no statistically significant effects on total C, N, exchangeable Ca 2+ , Mg 2+ , bicarbonate-extractable P, or extractable SO 2- 4 in soils after 12 years of sustained treatments. Increased K + inputs in the WET treatment resulted in relative increases in exchangeable K + compared with the AMB and DRY treatments. Soil C, N, and extractable P declined in all treatments over the 12-year study, and the declines in N were inexplicably large. Field observations contrasted with earlier simulations from the Nutrient Cycling Model (NuCM), which predicted greater decreases in exchangeable K + , Ca 2+ , Mg 2+ , and extractable P in the order WET>AMB> DRY, and no change in C, N, and extractable SO 2- 4 . The failure of the NuCM model to accurately predict observed changes is attributed to the lack of mechanisms for deep rooting and the transfer of throughfall K + from one plot to another in the model. Measurements of element availability using resin membranes during the final years showed higher values in wet and lower values in dry treatments compared with ambient conditions for mineral N, K, Mn, Zn, and Al, but the opposite for B, Ca, and Mg. In the cases of Ca and Mg, the patterns in resin values were similar to those at the soil exchange sites (greatest in the dry treatment) and appeared to reflect pretreatment differences. This study showed that while longer term changes in soil nutrients are likely to occur with changes in precipitation, potential changes over this 12-year interval were buffered by ecosystem processes such as deep rooting.
Free energy calculation of a soft sphere solid using an adaptive, importance sampling Monte Carlo algorithm

Using an adaptive, importance sampling Monte Carlo algorithm, the free energy and equation of state of a soft sphere solid are calculated. The Monte Carlo integration technique to be described is unlike standard methods in that it can evaluate directly the partition function and consequently the free energy of a solid. The results for a soft sphere solid are compared with data obtained from a thermodynamic integration method due to Hoover et al.7 The equation of state obtained from Monte Carlo integration is in agreement with Hoover's method while the free energy calculations compare favorably only at densities greater than that of the freezing transition.
Caregiver Perspectives of Stigma Associated With Sickle Cell Disease in Adolescents

Purpose Patients and families affected by various medical conditions report experiencing health-related stigma, which contributes to detrimental physical, psychological, and social outcomes. Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a genetic disorder that affects 89,000 individuals in the United States and is often associated with negative stereotypes and incorrect assumptions. The present study explored the perception of stigma as reported by caregivers of adolescents with SCD. Design and Methods Focus groups were conducted with 20 caregivers of patients with SCD. Focus groups were audio recorded and transcribed. The data were coded independently by two authors, and then reviewed conjointly until consensus was reached. Results Caregivers reported the perception of stigma in academic, medical, community, and family settings. They also reported internalized stigma including negative feelings toward having a child with SCD, feeling upset with others, and seeing negative emotions in their child due to SCD. Caregivers reported a general lack of knowledge about SCD across settings. Conclusion These results demonstrated that stigma may affect individuals with SCD across multiple settings. These results also highlighted areas for intervention, with a focus on increasing communication and education toward medical providers, schools, and communities. Practical Implications Interventions can utilize technology, social media, and advertisement campaigns. Additionally, support groups for patients with SCD may help decrease stigma and validate patients' experiences.
Paternal experience suppresses adult neurogenesis without altering hippocampal function in Peromyscus californicus.

Paternal care is rare among mammals, occurring in � 6% of species. California mice (Peromyscus californicus) are unusual; fathers participate extensively in raising their young and display the same components of parental care as mothers, with the exception of nursing. Parenting is a complex experience, having stressful and enriching aspects. The hippocampus is sensitive to experience and responds to both stress and environmental enrichment with changes in structure and function. In rats, where females care exclusively for offspring, parenting is associated with suppressed hippocampal adult neurogenesis. Since this effect has been causally linked to lactation, it is unlikely that fathers would show a similar change. To investigate this issue, we examined adult neurogenesis in the hippocampus of California mouse fathers compared to males without pups and observed reduced adult neurogenesis. Similar effects were found in California mouse mothers. Next, we investigated whether behaviors linked to the hippocampus, namely, object recognition and novelty-suppressed feeding, were altered in fathers, and observed no substantial changes. During caregiving, suppressed adult neurogenesis does not appear to be related to changes in behaviors associated with the hippocampus, although it is possible that there are other effects on hippocampal function. J. Comp. Neurol. 519:2271–2281, 2011.
An Integrated Real-Time Closed-Loop Controller for Normal and Emergency Operation of Power Systems

The development of an IRCC (Integrated Real-time Closed-loop Controller) which performs the functions of Economic Load Dispatch (ELD) and Automatic Generation Control (AGC) as well as alleviates the system overloads is discussed. The objective of the IRCC is to adjust the system variables and Lagrange multipliers so as to satisfy the Kuhn-Tucker conditions of optimality, thereby steering the system to a new optimal operating state. The IRCC performs this task on a real-time basis using SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) measurements. The performance of the IRCC is tested under normal as well as contingency operation by simulating the long-term dynamics of a multi-area power system.
Spider and Leafhopper (Erythroneura spp.) Response to Vineyard Ground Cover

Ground cover is used in some vineyards to improve soil structure and help manage insect pests; previous studies have shown lower leafhopper (Erythroneura spp.) densities on vines grown with ground cover. We undertook a 2-yr study to determine why ground cover is associated with reduced leafhopper densities. Ground cover consisted of a fall-planted cover crop of purple vetch (Vicia benghalensis) and barley (Hordeum vulgare), which senesced in May and was replaced by a complex of resident vegetation comprised primarily of the grasses Echinochloa spp., Digitaria sanguinalis, and Setaria spp., as well as common knotweed (Polygonum aviculare). We compared three treatments during the growing season: Cover, No Cover, and Cover/Exclusion. Cover/Exclusion was similar to Cover treatment but with barriers to impede arthropod movement between ground cover and vines. We measured leafhopper density and egg parasitism, spider density and diversity, and grapevine vigor, and found that mid- and late-season leafhopper densities were significantly lower in Cover versus No Cover. Neither leafhopper egg parasitism nor spider density on the vines or ground cover could explain these differences; however, grapevine vigor was significantly lower in Cover than No Cover, and provides the best correlation to leafhopper density. Late-season leafhopper density was highest in the Exclusion treatment but cannot be explained by changes in grapevine vigor. Individual spider species composition and density on the grapevine canopy varied significantly among treatments: Trachelas pacificus (Chamberlin and Ivie) was higher in the Cover treatment, Hololena nedra Chamberlin and Ivie, Cheiracanthium inclusum (Hentz), and Neoscona oaxacensis (Keyserling) were lower in the Exclusion treatment, and Oxyopes spp. was higher in the Exclusion treatment. We suggest the lower densities of leafhoppers in the Cover treatment resulted from poorer host plant quality because of the competition between ground cover and grapevines. The higher late-season leafhopper densities in the Exclusion treatment may be due to changes in spider species composition, and subsequently, differences in rates of predation on leafhopper nymphs.
Topological Rough Algebras

It is known ([15]) that the propositional aspect of rough set theory is adequately captured by the modal system S5. A Kripke model gives the approximation space (A,R) in which well formed formulas are interpreted as rough sets. Banejee and Chakraborty ([1]) introduced a new binary connective in S5, the intended interpretation of which was the notion of rough equality, defined by Pawlak in 1982. They called the resulting Lindenbaum-Tarski like algebra a rough algebra. We show here that their rough algebra is a particular case of a quasi-Boolean algebra (as introduced in [4]). It also leads to a definition of the new classes of algebras, called topological quasi-Boolean algebras2 and topological rough algebras. We introduce, following Rasiowa and Bialynicki-Birula’s representation theorem for the quasi-Boolean algebras ([4], [20]), a notion of quasi field of sets and generalize it to a new notion of a topological quasi field of sets. We use it to give the representation theorems for the topological quasi-Boolean algebras and topological rough algebras, and hence to provide a mathematical characterization of the rough algebra.
Anxiety and Performance on the Tour de France and Tour de France Feminin

AbstractWe examined the predictive relationship between pre-competition state anxiety and subsequent race performance among male and female professional athletes participating in the Tour de France and Tour de France Feminin bicycle races. Our results differed for men and women. Male cyclists reporting high self-confidence and low state anxiety performed better than their competitors reporting high state anxiety and low self-confidence. Female cyclists who reported high self-confidence performed worse than their competitors reporting low self-confidence. Departure of pre-race state anxiety, from a self-reported anxiety level experienced prior to a previous best performance, was predictive of poorer performance independently of each female athlete's absolute level of pre-race anxiety. Our results are partly consistent with a relaxation model of enhanced performance for the men and Hanin's Individual Zones of Optimal Functioning model for the women. Experimental and applied interventions for managing anxiet...
Contested Questions, Current Trajectories: Feminism in Political Theory Today

I once mentioned to a prominent feminist scholar that I was using one of her books in my course on feminism and political theory. She looked at me blankly for a moment and then replied, “Feminism and political theory? I thought feminism is political theory.” She was right of course; in some sense, everything that is feminist theory is also political theory. Feminism illuminates gendered relations of power in politics and social life, after all, and it contributes (however indirectly) to the larger project of transforming them. Moreover, since the rise of “second wave” feminism in the 1970s, feminist theorists have significantly reshaped political theory as a discipline, moving crucial questions from the margins of the field to its center, questions about gender equity and justice, the constitution of the political subject, the demands of difference, the intersecting dynamics of domination, the differential effects of globalization, and the conditions of freedom, among other things. As a result, much of what we think of as “mainstream” political theory is now also feminist theory. This is often true even of work that does not make women or gender its sole subject matter, as the leading voices in the field increasingly are scholars whose work has been shaped by literatures central to feminism and who think about politics in ways that are informed by a critical consciousness of the gendered quality of power relations.
The Accounting and Application of Environment Accumulated Cost of Resource Chain

Abstrcat From the relation between resource chain and environment accumulated load, the paper describes the composing of environment accumulated cost of Resource chain which include the cost of energy and resource consume, environment pollution and the recycle of trash. The paper discusses the cost calculating and the application of environment calculating cost of Resource chain in the social environment management. The creativity of the paper lies in the concept and accounting of environment accumulated cost of resource chain being put forward in the first time, which enrich the research of environment cost.