cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Photosensitizer delivery to vulnerable atherosclerotic plaque: comparison of macrophage-targeted conjugate versus free chlorine(e6)

We have previously shown that a conjugate MA-ce6 between maleylated serum albumin and the photosensitizer chlorine6ce6 is targeted in vitro to macrophages via class A scavenger receptors. We now re- port on the ability of this conjugate to localize in macrophage-rich atherosclerotic plaques in vivo. Both the conjugate and the free photosensitizer ce6 are studied af- ter injection into New Zealand White rabbits that are ren- dered atherosclerotic by a combination of aortic endothe- lial injury and cholesterol feeding into normal rabbits. Rabbits are sacrificed at 6 and 24 h after injection and intravascular fluorescence spectroscopy is carried out by fiber-based fluorimetry in intact blood-filled arteries. Sur- face spectrofluorimetry of numbered excised aortic seg- ments together with injured and normal iliac arteries is carried out, and quantified ce6 content by subsequent ex- traction and quantitative fluorescence determination of the arterial segments and also of nontarget organs. There is good agreement between the various techniques for quan- tifying ce6 localization, and high contrast between arteries from atherosclerotic and normal rabbits is obtained. Fluo- rescence correlates with the highest burden of plaque in the aorta and the injured iliac artery. The highest accumu- lation in plaques is obtained using MA-ce6 at 24 h. Free ce6 gives better accumulation at 6h compared to 24 h. The liver, spleen, lung, and gall bladder have the highest uptake in nontarget organs. Macrophage-targeted photo- sensitizer conjugates may have applications in both de- tecting and treating inflamed vulnerable plaque. © 2006 So- ciety of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers. DOI: 10.1117/1.2186039
Straightforward and general method for coupling alcohols to solid supports

Abstract A new method for attaching alcohols to solid supports has been developed employing dihydropyranfunctionalized resin. High loading levels are obtained for primary and secondary as well as functionalized alcohols. The attachment functionality is stable to both strongly basic and nucleophilic reagents. However, the alcohols can readily be cleaved from the support with PPTS in 1:1 butanol/1,2-dichloroethane.
Asymmetric synthesis of epicylindrospermopsin via intramolecular nitrone cycloaddition. Assignment of absolute configuration

A synthesis of (-)-epicylindrospermopsin (2) was completed that establishes its absolute configuration and corroborates the corrected structural assignment previously made to this toxin by Weinreb et al. The hydroxylamine 3, prepared from 4-bromobenzyloxyacetaldehyde, was condensed with aldehyde 4, obtained in nine steps from (R)-methionine, to give nitrone 16. Intramolecular cycloaddition of 16 proceeded stereoselectively to yield the oxazabicyclo[2.2.1]heptane 17, which after reduction and deprotection afforded piperidine 18. The latter was transformed via cyclic urea 19 to the inverted C12 alcohol 20, and the derived azide 22 was cyclized to produce the guanidine moiety of 25. Final sulfation of the C12 hydroxyl group furnished (-)-2.
Immigration and Religion

AbstractThis review synthesizes research about religion in the lives of post-1965 immigrants to the United States. Such research consists primarily of case studies, published since 1990, focused on individual religious organizations started and attended by immigrants. We analyze these case studies to demonstrate the different ways religion influences immigrants’ adaptation in the United States. We then consider how religion informs immigrants’ ethnic and gender-based identities, their experiences of civic and political life, and the lives of the second generation. We argue that current research is more descriptive than analytic overall, and we highlight a series of research questions and comparisons to enrich theoretical thinking. In particular, we advocate a comparative approach to examining immigrants’ religious organizations and increased attention to a “lived religion” perspective, which takes seriously the ways religion is important for immigrants outside of religious organizations in social institut...
Scans and Narrow-Band Photometry of Late-Type Stars in the One-Micron Region

A summary is given of the molecular bands occurring in the near-infrared spectra of cool stars, especially those having sufficient strength and freedom from contamination to be measurable by narrow-band photometry. In some cases useful indices of both temperature and luminosity can be obtained from such measurements. Several bands remain unidentified, including the 9910 A band in late M dwarfs and at least nine bands in cool S stars.
Equidistant Functions for Medial Axis Extraction

The medial axis of a planar shape is the loci of all inscribed disks of the shape. In this paper, we discuss functions that are equidistant from pairs of boundary elements when using line segments and arcs in shape boundary description. These equidistant functions can be used for medial axis extraction.
Problems and Prospects in the Study of Physician-Patient Interaction: 30 Years of Research

Working within the functionalist perspective that he did so much to develop, Parsons (1951) conceptualized the physician-patient relationship according to a normative framework defined by the pattern variable scheme. As Parsons clearly recognized, this normative conceptualization was one that empirical reality at best only approximates. In the 1970s, two major studies established doctor-patient interaction as a viable research domain. In the present review, we consider approaches to the medical interview developing from these initiatives and that have a primary focus on observable features of doctor-patient interaction. Within this orientation, we consider literature dealing with social, moral, and technical dilemmas that physicians and patients face in primary care and the resources that they deploy in solving them. This literature embodies a steady evolution away from a doctor-centered emphasis toward a more balanced focus on the conduct of doctors and patients together.
Multitasking a three-dimensional Navier-Stokes algorithm on the Cray-2

A three-dimensional computational aerodynamics algorithm has been multitasked for efficient parallel execution on the Cray-2. It provides a means for examining the multitasking performance of a complete computational fluid dynamics (CFD) application code. An embedded zonal multigrid scheme is used to solve the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations for an internal flow model problem. The explicit nature of each component of the method allows a spatial partitioning of the computational domain to achieve a well-balanced task load for multiple-instruction, multiple-data-stream (MIMD) computers with vector-processing capability. Experiments have been conducted with both two- and three-dimensional multitasked cases. The best speedup attained by an individual task group was 3.54 on four processors of the Cray-2, while the entire solver yielded a speedup of 2.67 on four processors for the three-dimensional case. The multiprocessing efficiency of various types of computational tasks is examined, performance on two Cray-2s with different memory access speeds is compared, and extrapolation to larger problems is discussed. >
TITAN'S LATITUDINAL TEMPERATURE DISTRIBUTION AND SEASONAL CYCLE

Voyager IRIS brightness temperature measurements of Titan at a wavelength of 530/cm are crudely indicative of ground or lower tropospheric temperatures and indicate 93 K for the equator and 91 K for both northern and southern high latitudes. The symmetry between north and south is unexpected for the time of Voyager encounter (Northern Titan spring). It is shown that this near-symmetry can arise naturally in a model where the poles are 'pinned' year-round at the dew point of CH4-N2 lakes or, more probably, a CH4-N2 rich surface layer on a deep ethane-rich ocean. For a polar temperature of 91 K, the model implies that the atmosphere contains somewhat less than 8 percent mole fraction of CH4.
High Connectivity and Minimal Genetic Structure Among North American Boreal Owl (Aegolius Funereus) Populations, Regardless of Habitat Matrix

Abstract Habitat connectivity and corridors are often assumed to be critical for the persistence of patchily distributed populations, but empirical evidence for this assumption is scarce. We assessed the importance of connectivity among habitat patches for dispersal by a mature-forest obligate, the Boreal Owl (Aegolius funereus). Boreal Owls demonstrated a lack of genetic structure (θ = 0.004 ± 0.002 [SE]) among subpopulations, regardless of matrix type and extent, which indicates that unforested matrix does not act as a barrier to dispersal for this vagile species. We found only slightly higher genetic distances (Cavalli-Sforza chord distances ranged from 0.015 to 0.025) among patchily distributed Rocky Mountain subpopulations as compared with largely contiguous boreal-forest subpopulations (0.013 to 0.019) and no evidence of a genetic split across the expansive high plains of Wyoming. Even the most isolated subalpine patches are connected via gene flow. As northern boreal forests continue to experience ...
Experimental and Computational Study of a New Wheel-Shaped {[W5O21]3[(UVIO2)2(μ-O2)]3}30– Polyoxometalate

A new wheel-shaped polyoxometalate {[W5O21]3[(UVIO2)2(μ-O2)]3}30– has been synthesized and structurally characterized. The calculated electrostatic potential reveals the protonation of several μ-ox...
Consensus Building: Clarifications for the Critics:

Many critiques of consensus building have been uninformed about the nature of this practice or the theory on which it was built, though there is extensive literature on both. It is grounded in the theory and practice of interest-based negotiation and mediation. It is not grounded in Habermas’ concept of communicative rationality, though theorists have found useful illumination in his ideas. Claims are often made about pathologies of consensus building based on cases where the conditions for authentic dialogue recognized by both practitioners and theoreticians were not met. Documentation of cases shows that when these conditions are met, many desirable outcomes occur. The article examines the various critiques, including the claims that external power differentials are deterministic, that lowest common denominator solutions are the outcomes, that valuable tensions are lost in the process, and that agreements are fleeting at best. It shows how and why each of these is not borne out by experience. Consensus ...
On the Notion of Economic Justice in Contemporary Islamic Thought

In the massive contemporary literature that has come to be known as “Islamic economics,”1 the claim is repeatedly made that an Islamic economic system would achieve a greater degree of economic justice than existing capitalist and socialist systems. An Islamic system, it is said, would be free, on the one hand, of the exploitation and severe inequalities that characterize capitalism, and on the other, of the class struggles and intolerable restrictions that are the hallmarks of socialism.2
Two-User Interference Channels With Local Views: On Capacity Regions of TDM-Dominating Policies

We study the limits of reliable communication in two-user interference channels where each of the two transmitters knows a different subset of the four channel gains characterizing the network state. In order to systematically analyze this problem, we introduce two concepts. First, we define a local view model for network state information at each transmitter, wherein each transmitter knows only a subset of the four channel gains. This subset may be mismatched from that of the other transmitter, limiting the ability of the two transmitters to coordinate transmission decisions. Second, we define a notion of maximal rate regions achievable by transmission policies that dominate time-division multiplexing (TDM). Specifically, these “TDM-dominating capacity regions” characterize rates achievable when transmission schemes must, for every possible realization of network state, achieve rates at least as good as what can be achieved through TDM. We consider a set of seven symmetric local views based on an assumption that each transmitter uses the same mechanism to gather its local view. For five out of the seven local views, we show that TDM is sufficient to achieve the full TDM-dominating capacity region for the linear deterministic interference channel. For these five local views, our result implies that no single policy can achieve a rate point outside the TDM region without inducing sub-TDM performance in another network state. The common traits shared by the two remaining local views (those with better performance than TDM) are: first, each transmitter knows its outgoing interference channel gain, and second, there exists at least one channel gain known to both transmitters. For these two local views, transmitters can use their knowledge to achieve opportunistic rate gains beyond TDM. Using the relationship between the linear deterministic channel and the Gaussian channel, we extend our conclusions to bounded gap characterizations of the TDM-dominating capacity region for the Gaussian interference channel with local views.
Kinetics and Optical Properties of the Strongly Driven Gas Medium of Interacting Atoms

This paper investigates stimulated emission and absorption near resonance for a driven system of interacting two-level atoms. Microscopic kinetic equations for the density matrix elements of N-atom states including atomic motion are built, taking into account atom-field and atom-atom interactions. Analytical solutions are given for the resulting macroscopic equations in different limits, for a system composed of a strong coherent “pump” field and a weak counter-propagating “probe” field. It was shown that the existence of a dipole-dipole (long-range) interaction between atoms separated by distance less than the pump wave-length can cause the formation of periodic polarization and population structures (gratings in time and space) in the pumped medium without a probe field. The magnitude of pump induced population grating can have a strong dependence on the relation between the pump field detuning and the polarization decay rate. The “interaction” between pump and probe induced polarization/population gratings through a dipole-dipole interaction mechanism causes the absorption line shape asymmetry. Under certain conditions, this asymmetry is revealed in increasing probe gain for the “red”-shifted (relative to pump) probe and suppressing the gain for the “blue”-shifted probe field when pump is “red”-shifted relative to the ensemble averaged resonant frequency. The theoretical results are consistent with experimental data for the probe gain or absorption as the function of frequency and the dependance of the gain on atomic density for sodium vapor when the pump laser is tuned near the D 2 line. Here the dependance of gain on particle density was explained in the terms of the long-range interaction between the atoms.
Can reforming global institutions help developing countries share more in the benefits from globalization

Globalization could significantly expand trade, international investment, and technological advances, but the gains from global integration have been unevenly distributed across and within nations. Greater global interdependence has also brought greater macroeconomic volatility, resulting in several serious financial crises in the second half of the 1990s. The global matrix of Bretton Woods and United Nations institutions that developed starting in the 1940s, formed under a different balance of power, in a world of fixed exchange rates and limited capital mobility. Since the 1960s regional financial institutions have emerged because of the greater autonomy of different regions and the greater financial needs of development. The author reviews different proposals for reform of the international financial institutions and changes in the roles of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. He highlights the implications for developing countries of (1) Policy conditionality. (2) The countercyclical role of multilaterals' lending. (3) Greater lending to middle-income than to low-income developing countries. (3) Access to liquidity at times of crisis. (4) Mechanisms for giving low-income countries a greater voice in IMF and World Bank decisionmaking. The author streses the overlapping responsibilities of the Bretton Woods and regional financial institutions and the need to reassess the allocation of responsibilities and to develop better coordination mechanisms between these institutions. Those designing institutional reform must consider the corporate capabilities of each type of institution. The corporate cultures of global and regional institutions differ. So does the kind of knowledge they generate and disseminate, and so do patterns of interactions with, and mechanisms for representation of, client countries.Finally, the author calls attention to the need to harmonize national and global growth-oriented policies in a way that reduces volatility and promotes social equity.
Three-dimensional place and route for FPGAs

We present timing-driven partitioning and simulated-annealing (SA)-based placement algorithms together with a detailed routing tool for three-dimensional (3-D) field-programmable gate array (FPGA) integration. The circuit is first divided into layers with a limited number of interlayer vias, and then placed on individual layers, while minimizing the delay of critical paths. We use our tool as a platform to explore the potential benefits, in terms of delay and wire length (WL), that 3-D technologies can offer for FPGA fabrics. Experimental results show, on average, a total decrease of 25% in WL and 35% in delay can be achieved over traditional two-dimensional chips, when ten layers are used in 3-D integration
Trust in Others: Does Religion Matter?

Though the recent literature offers intuitively appealing bases for, and evidence of, a linkage among religious beliefs, religious participation and economic outcomes, evidence on a relationship between religion and trust is mixed. By allowing for an attendance effect, disaggregating Protestant denominations, and using a more extensive data set, probit models of the General Social Survey (GSS), 1975 through 2000, show that black Protestants, Pentecostals, fundamentalist Protestants, and Catholics, trust others less than individuals who do not claim a preference for a particular denomination. For conservative denominations the effect of religion is through affiliation, not attendance. In contrast, liberal Protestants trust others more and this effect is reinforced by attendance. The impact of religion on moderate Protestants is only through attendance, as frequency of attendance increases trust of others while the denomination effect is insignificant.
Regenerative gasification systems operating on farm-waste and bioenergy-crop feedstocks

This work investigates the feasibility of using an advanced gasifier to convert dairy-farm animal wastes and biomass willow wood into fuel gas that could be utilized for power production. In our energy conversion scheme, a high-temperature air-blown, regenerative gasification system is used to convert the biomass to synthetic fuel gas. The preheated gasification air is supplied by a ceramic heater. The syngas produced by the gasifier can be utilized on the farm for generating electricity or for other energy needs, thus helping to reduce the operating cost of the farm. Microturbines, modified to operate on low-BTU gas, are used to generate electrical power. For the manure-fueled gasifier, preliminary calculations indicate gasification conversion efficiencies of 65 to 85 percent could be achieved, depending on the gasifier operating configuration. Implementation of a gasification system on the dairy farm provides both economic and environmental benefits. In a case study, using information collected from an upstate New York dairy farm, the results showed that gasification of dairy animal wastes would allow this particular farm to exceed energy self-sufficiency by over two times its requirement. Gasification also provides an economical means of disposing excess animal wastes. The disposal/utilization of excess animal wastes is a serious problem facing the dairy industry. Willow wood, a dedicated bioenergy crop, makes an excellent fuel for ash-rejection gasifiers because of its low ash content and high ash-softening temperature. Although there has been success in cofiring willow with coal in utility power plants, gasification offers another method of converting willow biomass to energy. The predicted gasification efficiency of the willow-fueled gasifier is about 85 percent Adopting a method to cogasifying willow biomass with various amounts of farm wastes can be an excellent way to reduce the overall fuel cost. In addition, this will assist in addressing the problem of seasonal variations in the supply of willow biomass.
Intellectual Property Rights and the Evolution of Scientific Journals as Knowledge Platforms

Abstract The objective of this paper is to evaluate the role that formal intellectual property rights (IPR) play in shaping the downstream demand for knowledge that is initially disclosed through scientific publication in fields where research is generated and utilized across different institutional settings (i.e., academia versus industry). For scientific discoveries with potential commercial applicability, researchers (or their funders) may also seek to establish formal intellectual property protection (e.g., patents); choosing to establish a “patent–paper pair” allows researchers to influence follow-on access to knowledge disclosed in a given scientific journal. This paper evaluates the relationship between scientific journal publication and patenting in research communities with significant public and private authorship by examining the incidence and impact of patent–paper pairs in two journals founded in the late 1990s/early 2000s, Nature Biotechnology and Nature Materials. Using a differences-in-differences framework that exploits the delay between publication and patent grant, we document a range of findings about the impact of patent grant across time and across research populations. First, we find that the negative impact of patent grant is concentrated in the first few years after a journal's founding and eventually becomes positive. Second, patent grant positively impacts follow-on citations from private authors more than from public authors. Finally, we observe an assortative matching pattern where intellectual property grant increases forward citations from authors sharing the same institutional affiliation (e.g., public authors citing public papers) more than research across institutional lines (e.g., public authors citing private papers).
Combinatorial auctions with restricted complements

Complements between goods--where one good takes on added value in the presence of another--have been a thorn in the side of algorithmic mechanism designers. On the one hand, complements are common in the standard motivating applications for combinatorial auctions, like spectrum license auctions. On the other, welfare maximization in the presence of complements is notoriously difficult, and this intractability has stymied theoretical progress in the area. For example, there are no known positive results for combinatorial auctions in which bidder valuations are multi-parameter and non-complement-free, other than the relatively weak results known for general valuations.To make inroads on the problem of combinatorial auction design in the presence of complements, we propose a model for valuations with complements that is parameterized by the "size" of the complements. The model permits a succinct representation, a variety of computationally efficient queries, and non-trivial welfare-maximization algorithms and mechanisms. Specifically, a hypergraph-r valuation v for a good set M is represented by a hypergraph H = (M,E), where every (hyper-)edge e -- E contains at most r vertices and has a nonnegative weight we. Each good j -- M also has a nonnegative weight wj. The value v(S) for a subset S ⊆ M of goods is defined as the sum of the weights of the goods and edges entirely contained in S.We design the following polynomial-time approximation algorithms and truthful mechanisms for welfare maximization with bidders with hypergraph valuations. (1) For bidders whose valuations correspond to subgraphs of a known graph that is planar (or more generally, excludes a fixed minor), we give a truthful and (1 + ∈)-approximate mechanism. (2) We give a polynomial-time, r-approximation algorithm for welfare maximization with hypergraph-r valuations. Our algorithm randomly rounds a compact linear programming relaxation of the problem. (3) We design a different approximation algorithm and use it to give a polynomial-time, truthful-inexpectation mechanism that has an approximation factor of O(logrm).
Charge transfer in molecular conductors—oxidation or reduction?

We discuss the nature of charge transfer in molecular conductors upon connecting to two metallic contacts and imposing a voltage bias across them. The sign of the charge transfer (oxidation vs. reduction) depends on the position of the metal Fermi energy with respect to the molecular levels. In addition, the charge transfer depends on the strength of the coupling (chemisorption vs. physisorption) with the contacts. A convenient way to establish the nature and onset of the charge transfer and the corresponding features in the I–V is to draw an energy level diagram for each spin species. Starting from such a level diagram, we argue that transport in the Tour–Reed switching molecules, which consist of a central phenyl ring with a nitroamine redox center, involves the oxidation of a HOMO level. 2002 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.
Time-division optical communications in multiprocessor arrays

An optical communication structure is proposed for multiprocessor arrays which exploits the high communication bandwidth of optical waveguides. The structure takes advantage of two properties of optical signal transmissions on waveguides, namely, unidirectional propagation and predictable propagation delays per unit length. Because of these two properties, time-division multiplexing (TDM) of messages has the same effect as message pipelining on optical waveguides. Two TDM approaches are proposed, and the combination of the two is used in the design of the optical communication structure. Analysis and simulation results are given to demonstrate the communication effectiveness of the system. A clock distribution method is proposed to address potential synchronization problems. Feasibility issues with current and future technologies are discussed. >
Baylis–Hillman chemistry: synthesis of cis- and trans-α-methylene-γ-lactones

syn-Homoallylic alcohols prepared from Baylis–Hillman adducts react with CBr4/PPh3 to give trans-α-methylene-γ-lactones. Notably, the same alcohols yield the cis-α-methylene-γ-lactones in the presence of traces of p-toluenesulfonic acid.
Electrochemical Nucleic Acid Biosensors

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the electrochemical avenues for generating the hybridization signal. The electrochemical detection of DNA hybridization usually involves monitoring of a current response resulting from the Watson–Crick base-pair recognition event, under controlled potential conditions. The major steps involved in electrochemical bio-sensing of DNA hybridization are—the design of the nucleic acid recognition layer, the actual hybridization event, and the transformation of this recognition event into an electrical signal. It also illustrates that the success of such devices requires a proper combination of synthetic, organic and surface chemistries, DNA recognition, and electrical detection protocols. The development of electrochemical DNA biosensors requires proper attention to experimental variables affecting the hybridization event at the transducer–solution interface. These include salt concentration, temperature, viscosity, the presence of accelerating agents, contacting time, and length of probe sequence. The instrumentation for electrochemical DNA detection is significantly cheaper and smaller than that of comparably sensitive non-electrochemical methods. In addition to excellent economic prospects, such devices offer innovative routes for interfacing the DNA-recognition and signal-transduction elements.
Hsp90 Promotes Kinase Evolution

Heat-shock protein 90 (Hsp90) promotes the maturation and stability of its client proteins, including many kinases. In doing so, Hsp90 may allow its clients to accumulate mutations as previously proposed by the capacitor hypothesis. If true, Hsp90 clients should show increased evolutionary rate compared with nonclients; however, other factors, such as gene expression and protein connectivity, may confound or obscure the chaperone’s putative contribution. Here, we compared the evolutionary rates of many Hsp90 clients and nonclients in the human protein kinase superfamily. We show that Hsp90 client status promotes evolutionary rate independently of, but in a small magnitude similar to that of gene expression and protein connectivity. Hsp90’s effect on kinase evolutionary rate was detected across mammals, specifically relaxing purifying selection. Hsp90 clients also showed increased nucleotide diversity and harbored more damaging variation than nonclient kinases across humans. These results are consistent with the central argument of the capacitor hypothesis that interaction with the chaperone allows its clients to harbor genetic variation. Hsp90 client status is thought to be highly dynamic with as few as one amino acid change rendering a protein dependent on the chaperone. Contrary to this expectation, we found that across protein kinase phylogeny Hsp90 client status tends to be gained, maintained, and shared among closely related kinases. We also infer that the ancestral protein kinase was not an Hsp90 client. Taken together, our results suggest that Hsp90 played an important role in shaping the kinase superfamily.
Synthesis and evaluation of two 18F-labeled imidazo[1,2-a]pyridine analogues as potential agents for imaging β-amyloid in Alzheimer’s disease

Two new fluorinated imidazo[1,2-a]pyridine derivatives, 6-(2'-fluoroethyl)-2-(4'-dimethylamino)phenylimidazo[1,2-a]pyridine (FEPIP) and 6-(3'-fluoropropyl)-2-(4'-dimethylamino)phenylimidazo[1,2-a]pyridine (FPPIP), were synthesized. The binding affinity for FEPIP and FPPIP to amyloid plaques in human AD cortical tissues was determined. Radiolabeling, in vitro film autoradiography, and micro-PET study were performed with [18F]FPPIP to determine its utility as a radioligand for amyloid plaque imaging in the brain of AD patients.
Down–Regulation of Human Deoxyuridine Triphosphate Nucleotidohydrolase (dUTPase) Using Small Interfering RNA (siRNA)

A small interfering double stranded RNA molecule (siRNA, 21 bp) corresponding to a portion (nucleotides 337 to 357) of domain 3 of the human dUTPase was synthesized and used to determine whether it could down‐regulate dUTPase activity in human cells. Transfection of the siRNA into HeLa and HT29 cells resulted in a 56 ± 3.6% decrease in dUTPase activity, while transfection of SW620 cells resulted in a 27 ± 6% decrease in dUTPase activity when compared to non‐treated controls.
Multiobjective Optimal Power Plant Coordinated Control through Pressure Set-Point Scheduling

Coordinated control schemes, at fossil fuel power plants, drive units as a whole through a variable pressure operating policy. Ordinarily, the pressure control loop set point is obtained from the unit load demand through a fixed nonlinear mapping that does not allow for process optimization under operating conditions different from the originals. This paper presents a procedure to optimally design the power-pressure mapping by defining and solving a multiobjective optimization problem. Both procedure and mapping are realized as a supervisory set-point scheduler. The optimization problem is solved with the nonlinear goal programming method, which provides a single solution from the set of all multiobjective optimal solutions based on the assignment of relative preference values to the objective functions. This approach provides a way to specify the operating policy to accommodate a great diversity of operating scenarios. The procedure is presented through a case study and its feasibility is demonstrated via simulation experiments.
Lattice Boltzmann Method for Simulation of Shale Gas Transport in Kerogen

Fluid mechanics of natural gas in organic-rich shale involves nanoscale phenomena that could lead to potential non-Darcy effects during gas production. In general, these are low-Reynoldsnumber and noncontinuum effects and, more importantly, porewall-dominated multiscale effects. In this study, we introduce a new lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) to investigate these effects numerically in simple pore geometries. The standard method was developed in the 1980s to overcome the weaknesses of lattice gas cellular automata and has emerged recently as a powerful tool to solve fluid dynamics problems, in particular in the areas of microand nanofluidics. The new approach takes into account molecularlevel interactions by use of adsorptive/cohesive forces among the fluid particles and defining a Langmuir-slip boundary condition at the organic pore walls. The model allows us to partition mass transport by the walls into two components: slippage of free gas molecules and hopping (or surface transport) of the adsorbed gas molecules. By use of the standard 2D D2Q9 lattice, lowReynolds-number gas dynamics is simulated in a 100-nm model organic capillary and later in a bundle of smaller-sized organic nanotubes. The results point to the existence of a critical Knudsennumber value for the onset of laminar gas flow under typical shale-gas-reservoir pressure conditions. Beyond this number, the predicted velocity profile shows that the mechanisms of slippage and surface transport could lead to molecular streaming by the pore walls, which enhances the gas transport in the organic nanopores. The work is important for development of new-generation shale-gas-reservoir flow simulators, and it can be used in the laboratory for organic-rich-shale characterization.
Coupled and k-sided placements: generalizing generalized assignment

In modern data centers and cloud computing systems, jobs often require resources distributed across nodes providing a wide variety of services. Motivated by this, we study the Coupled Placement problem, in which we place jobs into computation and storage nodes with capacity constraints, so as to optimize some costs or profits associated with the placement. The coupled placement problem is a natural generalization of the widely-studied generalized assignment problem, which concerns the placement of jobs into single nodes providing one kind of service. We also study a further generalization, the k-Sided Placement problem, in which we place jobs into k-tuples of nodes, each node in a tuple offering one of k services. For both the coupled and k-sided placement problems, we consider minimization and maximization versions. In the minimization versions (MinCPand Min $$k$$kSP), the goal is to achieve minimum placement cost, while incurring a minimum blowup in the capacity of the individual nodes. Our first main result is an algorithm for Min $$k$$kSP that achieves optimal cost while increasing capacities by at most a factor of $$k+1$$k+1, also yielding the first constant-factor approximation for MinCP. In the maximization versions (MaxCP and Max $$k$$kSP), the goal is to maximize the total weight of the jobs that are placed under hard capacity constraints. Max $$k$$kSP can be expressed as a k-column sparse integer program, and can be approximated to within a factor of O(k) factor using randomized rounding of a linear program relaxation. We consider alternative combinatorial algorithms that are much more efficient in practice. Our second main result is a local search based combinatorial algorithm that yields a 15-approximation and $$O(k^2)$$O(k2)-approximation for MaxCP and Max $$k$$kSP respectively. Finally, we consider an online version of Max $$k$$kSP and present algorithms that achieve logarithmic competitive ratio under certain necessary technical assumptions.
Adults with poor reading skills: How lexical knowledge interacts with scores on standardized reading comprehension tests

Millions of adults in the United States lack the necessary literacy skills for most living wage jobs. For students from adult learning classes, we used a lexical decision task to measure their knowledge of words and we used a decision-making model (Ratcliff's, 1978, diffusion model) to abstract the mechanisms underlying their performance from their RTs and accuracy. We also collected scores for each participant on standardized IQ tests and standardized reading tests used commonly in the education literature. We found significant correlations between the model's estimates of the strengths with which words are represented in memory and scores for some of the standardized tests but not others. The findings point to the feasibility and utility of combining a test of word knowledge, lexical decision, that is well-established in psycholinguistic research, a decision-making model that supplies information about underlying mechanisms, and standardized tests. The goal for future research is to use this combination of approaches to understand better how basic processes relate to standardized tests with the eventual aim of understanding what these tests are measuring and what the specific difficulties are for individual, low-literacy adults.
Global Health Equity: Cancer Care Outcome Disparities in High-, Middle-, and Low-Income Countries

Breakthroughs in our global fight against cancer have been achieved. However, this progress has been unequal. In low- and middle-income countries and for specific populations in high-income settings, many of these advancements are but an aspiration and hope for the future. This review will focus on health disparities in cancer within and across countries, drawing from examples in Kenya, Brazil, and the United States. Placed in context with these examples, the authors also draw basic recommendations from several initiatives and groups that are working on the issue of global cancer disparities, including the US Institute of Medicine, the Global Task Force on Expanded Access to Cancer Care and Control in Developing Countries, and the Union for International Cancer Control. From increasing initiatives in basic resources in low-income countries to rapid learning systems in high-income countries, the authors argue that beyond ethics and equity issues, it makes economic sense to invest in global cancer control, especially in low- and middle-income countries.
Cultivating admiration in brands: Warmth, competence, and landing in the “golden quadrant”

Although a substantial amount of research has examined the constructs of warmth and competence, far less has examined how these constructs develop and what benefits may accrue when warmth and competence are cultivated. Yet there are positive consequences, both emotional and behavioral, that are likely to occur when brands hold perceptions of both. In this paper, we shed light on when and how warmth and competence are jointly promoted in brands, and why these reputations matter.
The Synthesis of Phenols and Quinones via Fischer Carbene Complexes

Fischer carbene complexes can be broadly defined as those transition-metal carbene complexes that have a low oxidation state, have an electrophilic carbene carbon , and usually have a heteroatom-stabilizing substituent on the carbene carbon. Fischer complexes were the first examples of any type of transition metal carbene complexes to be reported. The reaction of Fischer carbene complexes with alkynes is facile, occurring just above ambient temperature, and resulting in the assembly of a benzene ring from the three carbons of the alpha, beta-unsaturated carbine complex, the two carbons of the alkyne, and the carbon of a carbon monoxide ligand. The synthetic value of this reaction stems from its broad scope, the generally high yields for the process, and the fact that that the products can function as intermediates for the synthesis of a variety of aromatic compounds including para-quinones. It is the most synthetically valuable of the large number of Fischer carbene complexes that have been developed for applications in synthetic organic chemistry. This chapter is the first comprehensive review that is limited to the synthesis of phenols and quinones from the reactions of Fischer carbene complexes with alkynes. Keywords: Fischer carbene complexes; phenols; quinones; mechanisms; ligands; benzannulation; heteroannulation; cyclohexadienone; alkynes; method comparisons; experimental conditions
‘Ferroelectric’ metals reexamined: fundamental mechanisms and design considerations for new materials

The recent observation of a ferroelectric-like structural transition in metallic LiOsO3 has generated a flurry of interest in the properties of polar metals. Such materials are thought to be rare because free electrons screen out the long-range electrostatic forces that favor a polar structure with a dipole moment in every unit cell. In this work, we question whether long-range electrostatic forces are always the most important ingredient in driving polar distortions. We use crystal chemical models, in combination with first-principles Density Functional Theory calculations, to explore the mechanisms of inversion-symmetry breaking in LiOsO3 and both insulating and electron-doped ATiO3 perovskites, A = Ba, Sr, Ca. Although electrostatic forces do play a significant role in driving the polar instability of BaTiO3 (which is suppressed under electron doping), the polar phases of CaTiO3 and LiOsO3 emerge through a mechanism driven by local bonding preferences and this mechanism is ‘resistant’ to the presence of charge carriers. Hence, our results suggest that there is no fundamental incompatibility between metallicity and polar distortions. We use the insights gained from our calculations to suggest design principles for new polar metals and promising avenues for further research.
Cryptography Using Captcha Puzzles

A Captcha is a puzzle that is easy for humans but hard to solve for computers. A formal framework, modelling Captcha puzzles (as hard AI problems), was introduced by Ahn, Blum, Hopper, and Langford ([1], Eurocrypt 2003). Despite their attractive features and wide adoption in practice, the use of Captcha puzzles for general cryptographic applications has been limited.
FPTAS for counting monotone CNF

A monotone CNF formula is a Boolean formula in conjunctive normal form where each variable appears positively. We design a deterministic fully polynomial-time approximation scheme (FPTAS) for counting the number of satisfying assignments for a given monotone CNF formula when each variable appears in at most 5 clauses. Equivalently, this is also an FPTAS for counting set covers where each set contains at most 5 elements. If we allow variables to appear in a maximum of 6 clauses (or sets to contain 6 elements), it is NP-hard to approximate it. Thus, this gives a complete understanding of the approximability of counting for monotone CNF formulas. It is also an important step towards a complete characterization of the approximability for all bounded degree Boolean #CSP problems. In addition, we study the hypergraph matching problem, which arises naturally towards a complete classification of bounded degree Boolean #CSP problems, and show an FPTAS for counting 3D matchings of hypergraphs with maximum degree 4.Our main technique is correlation decay, a powerful tool to design deterministic FPTAS for counting problems defined by local constraints among a number of variables. All previous uses of this design technique fall into two categories: each constraint involves at most two variables, such as independent set, coloring, and spin systems in general; or each variable appears in at most two constraints, such as matching, edge cover, and holant problem in general. The CNF problems studied here have more complicated structures than these problems and require new design and proof techniques. As it turns out, the technique we developed for the CNF problem also works for the hypergraph matching problem. We believe that it may also find applications in other CSP or more general counting problems.
Tourism and business model innovation: The case of US wine makers

The tourism sector – already one of the fastest growing industries in the world – is currently undergoing extensive change thanks to strong market growth and a transition to more experience-based products. The capacity for firms to innovate and adapt to market developments is crucial to their success, but research-based knowledge on innovation strategies in tourism remains scarce. This pioneering Handbook offers timely, original research on innovation within the tourism industry from a number of interdisciplinary and global perspectives.
Bidenticity-Enhanced Second Harmonic Generation from Pb Chelation in Pb3Mg3TeP2O14

A new ultraviolet nonlinear optical (NLO) material, Pb3Mg3TeP2O14 (PMTP), has been synthesized and characterized. The chiral material exhibits a large second harmonic generation (SHG) response of 13.5 × KDP (600 × α-SiO2), and the shortest absorption edge (250 nm) of reported materials with a strong SHG response (>10 × KDP). PMTP has a three-dimensional crystal structure of corner-shared MgO4, PO4, and TeO6 polyhedra, which form a [TeMg3P2O14]∞ framework. Electronic structure calculations revealed that the stereoactive lone pair on the Pb2+ cation is critical to producing the substantial NLO response and that the NLO activity is further enhanced by the presence of triply bidentate Te6+ cations found in Te–O–O–Pb rings.
BELLMAN FUNCTION APPROACH TO THE SHARP CONSTANTS IN UNIFORM CONVEXITY

We illustrate Bellman function technique in finding the modulus of uniform convexity of L p spaces. 1. UNIFORM CONVEXITY Let I be an interval of the real line. For an integrable function f over I, we seth fiI def 1 jIj R I f(s)ds, andk fkp def =hj fj p i 1=p I. We recall the definition of uniform convexity of a normed space (X;kk ) (see (2)). Definition 1. (Clarkson '36) X is uniformly convex if 8e > 0,9d > 0 s.t. ifkxk =kyk = 1 and kx yk e, then x+y 2 1 d . Modulus of convexity of the normed space X is defined as follows: dX(e) = inf 1 k f + gk 2 : k fk = 1;kgk = 1;k f gk e :
Some Misconceptions About Public Investment Efficiency and Growth

We reconsider the macroeconomic implications of public investment efficiency, defined as the ratio between the actual increment to public capital and the amount spent. We show that in standard neoclassical and endogenous growth models, increases in public investment spending in inefficient countries do not generally have a lower impact on growth than in efficient countries. This apparently counterintuitive result, which contrasts with earlier papers and policy analyses, follows from the standard assumption that the marginal product of public capital declines with the capital/output ratio. The implication is that efficiency and scarcity of public capital are likely to be inversely related across countries. Both efficiency and the rate of return thus need to be considered together in assessing the impact of increases in investment, and blanket recommendations against increased public investment spending in inefficient countries need to be rethought.
Life expectancy, schooling and lifetime labor supply: the Ben-Porath mechanism revisited

Hansen and LA¸nstrup [Journal of Population Economics, 2012] construct a three-period, life-cycle model to study the famed Ben-Porath mechanism and attempt to reconcile it with the empirical findings in Hazan [Econometrica, 2009]:increased life expectancy has a positive effect on schooling but a negative effect on expected lifetime labor supply. This paper shows that within the framework of Hansen and LA¸nstrup (2012), as life expectancy increases, expected lifetime labor supply may not decline even when labor supplies at the two end stages of life do. I fully characterize the conditions under which the model in Hansen and LA¸nstrup (2012) can produce the empirical findings in Hazan (2009).