cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Cryptic plumage signaling in Aphelocoma Scrub-Jays

Recent studies of avian vision and plumage coloration have revealed a surprising degree of cryptic sexual dimorphism, with many examples of male–female differences in UV reflectance that are invisible to humans. We examined the potential for male–female and adult–subadult differences in plumage coloration in the genus Aphelocoma. This group of jays comprises 10 phylogenetic species, which are found across southern and central North America and include cooperatively breeding species, as well as species that form socially monogamous pair-bonds typical of most species of birds. Our goal was to determine whether male–female and adult–subadult differences in plumage coloration were more common in species with complex social systems (i.e., cooperative breeders). We collected a series of reflectance measurements from hundreds of museum specimens and analyzed the results using a model of an avian visual system. We found that age- and sex-related differences were not more frequent in species that practice cooperative breeding. Hence, plumage signaling relating sex and age may not be strongly associated with complex social systems. Rather, the relative lack of a stable and familiar social environment, as well as other selective pressures and constraints (e.g., habitat use and plumage complexity), may have favored a greater degree of age- and sex-related differences in plumage coloration in jays that practice simple biparental care.
MUNICIPAL FINANCE PROBLEMS OF THE CITY OF GLENDALE, CALIFORNIA—AN ANALYSIS OF THEIR NATURE, TRENDS, AND PROSPECTS†

THE CHIEF PURPOSE of this analysis was to examine the expenditure and revenue behavior and, in lesser degree, the debt behavior of one city, Glendale, California, in order to compare it with the larger patterns of American municipal finance behavior. The analyst reviewed the expenditures, revenues, and debt payments of the city over a period of years ranging from five to twenty. Questionnaire material, largely furnished by the City Controller's Office, provided the core of raw data. Interpretation was guided by the opinions of public administrators interviewed and authoritative writers. Expenditures, revenues, and debts of the Glendale Unified School District were analyzed briefly and appended. All city finance trends were examined against the economic characteristics of the city. The standards of municipal services demanded by Glendale's citizenry are relatively high and there is little evidence to suggest the desirability or likelihood of any immediate diminution in such standards. The expenditures for maintaining those standards have been rising recently. Numerous causes have contributed to the rise in this city's expenditures: (1) growth of population requiring services, (2) rise in costs of personnel, materials, and equipment, (3) rise in costs of more intensive land use, (4) resumption of postponed construction and building programs. The provision of municipal services in Glendale tends to be a process with increasing unit cost character. Glendale's property tax does not furnish as great a proportion of total municipal revenue as it did twenty years ago, but it is still the most substantial single source of city income and is characterized by relatively high yields and relatively assured general stability. The property tax in Glendale, despite all criticisms and despite acknowledged weaknesses, has proved its worth as a tested fiscal instrument conducive to good budgeting and effective planning.
Ambient temperature characteristics of Schottky contacts on 4H-SiC aged in air at 350 °C

Abstract A metallization scheme suitable to explore the capability of 4H–SiC for high temperature applications was designed and fabricated on Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs). The device electrical characteristics measured at room temperature were monitored over 1500 h cumulative annealing in air at 350 °C. Schottky barrier device parameters were stable over the annealing period. Good and stable adhesion properties of the protective metallization stack on SiC and on SiO 2 were reported as a function of duration of annealing as well. It was observed that platinum layer that was sputter-deposited at 250 °C as part of the metallization stack improved the adhesion properties of the metallization remarkably.
Intranucleolar dense particles in rat hepatic cell nucleoli.

Dense particles ranging in size between 70 and 300 A were observed in the hepatic cell nucleoli of normal rats when the tissue was fixed in s -collidine buffered osmium tetroxide. The particles appeared in clusters of varying numbers and were embedded in the confined areas of amorphous matrix adjacent to the fibrillar component of nucleolonema. When tissue was fixed in phosphate-buffered osmium tetroxide or s -collidine-buffered glutaraldehyde the appearance of these particles was not consistent. However, the nucleoli showed distinct spherical areas of amorphous matrix which appeared to correspond to the areas of particle deposition in s -collidine-buffered osmium-fixed tissue. Dense particles of an identical nature were also found in the simplified forms of the nucleoli which were seen during the phase of adenine-induced or spontaneous recovery after ethionine injury. The identification of these particles was much easier in these latter nucleoli than in controls because of the simplicity of their configuration. Particles and areas of particle deposition appear to be distinct components of the nucleoli of rat hepatic cells, though the chemical nature and the functional significance of these particles remains unclear.
A Feasibility Study of Ribbon Architecture for PEM Fuel Cells

The feasibility of an alternative fuel cell architecture, called a ribbon membrane electrode assembly (MEA), is demonstrated for low-temperature polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells used in portable power applications by comparing it to a traditional bipolar "stack" architecture. A ribbon MEA consists of adjacent PEM cells sharing a common gas diffusion layer to allow for lateral electrical current flow and an integral gas-tight, conductive interconnect/seal, where adjacent cells meet to prevent reactant gas leakage. The resulting lateral arrangement of MEAs can be used to supply all MEAs simultaneously instead of individual bipolar plates with flow fields for a stack. A pair of two-cell ribbon MEAs, with and without an interconnect/seal, were designed, prototyped, and sealed by thermal pressing. The MEAs were clamped in a two-piece box fixture to provide reactant gases on the anode and cathode sides, hooked to a fuel cell (FC) test stand and yielded an open circuit voltage (OCV) of 1.43 V with an interconnect/ seal and 0.6 V without. A two-cell bipolar stack PEMFC with identical MEA specifications had an OCV of 1.86 V. Polarization curves for the ribbon MEA with interconnect/ seal showed the sensitivity of performance to clamping pressure and positioning of the copper current collectors. The ribbon MEA polarization curve was also shifted downward by 0.42 V as compared with that of the traditional stack, and suspected causes (e.g., gas leaking) are attributable to the nonoptimal test fixture design. Hence, the ribbon MEA architecture is shown to be feasible. Future work suggested includes improvements to the test fixture design, development of automated manufacturing capabilities for high volume production, and demonstration of a multicell (>2) ribbon MEA PEMFC design.
Magnetic field effect on dielectric properties of Pb(Fe1/2Nb1/2)O3 single crystal

Abstract Single crystal was grown by precursor flux-melt method. It was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and was found perovskite and the surface index of the crystal is (2 1 0). Scanning electron microscopic image also confirms no explicit defect on the crystal surface. The dielectric response as a function of temperature and frequency was measured in a frequency range from 100 to 10 6 Hz with temperatures varying from 25 to 300 °C without and with an applied magnetic field up to 14 T. The directions of applied magnetic field with respect to the direction of the applied electric field and the crystal orientation are in two configurations and three rotation angles, about the electric field direction, 0, 45, and 90°. We carefully analyzed the data and believe that the magnetic field affects on the dielectric properties of the PFN single crystal.
Accessing functionalized porous aromatic frameworks (PAFs) through a de novo approach

Methyl-, hydroxymethyl-, and phthalimidomethyl-functionalized versions of the porous organic polymer PAF-1 have been obtained through de novo synthesis. The CO2 adsorption capacity of PAF-1–CH2NH2, obtained through the post-synthesis deprotection of PAF-1–CH2–phthalimide, has been shown to exceed that of PAF-1.
Modeling the Neurovascular Niche: Unbiased Transcriptome Analysis of the Murine Subventricular Zone in Response to Hypoxic Insult

Premature infants often experience chronic hypoxia, resulting in cognitive & motor neurodevelopmental handicaps. These sometimes devastating handicaps are thought to be caused by compromised neural precursor cell (NPC) repair/recovery resulting in variable central nervous system (CNS) repair/recovery. We have identified differential responses of two mouse strains (C57BL/6 & CD1) to chronic hypoxia that span the range of responsiveness noted in the premature human population. We previously correlated several CNS tissue and cellular behaviors with the different behavioral parameters manifested by these two strains. In this report, we use unbiased array technology to interrogate the transcriptome of the subventricular zone (SVZ) in these strains. Our results illustrate differences in mRNA expression in the SVZ of both C57BL/6 and CD1 mice following hypoxia as well as differences between C57BL/6 and CD1 SVZ under both normoxic and hypoxic conditions. Differences in expression were found in gene sets associated with Sox10-mediated neural functions that explain, in part, the differential cognitive and motor responsiveness to hypoxic insult. This may shed additional light on our understanding of the variable responses noted in the human premature infant population and facilitate early intervention approaches. Further interrogation of the differentially expressed gene sets will provide a more complete understanding of the differential responses to, and recovery from, hypoxic insult allowing for more informed modeling of the ranges of disease severity observed in the very premature human population.
Micro/nano-fabrication technologies for cell biology

Micro/nano-fabrication techniques, such as soft lithography and electrospinning, have been well-developed and widely applied in many research fields in the past decade. Due to the low costs and simple procedures, these techniques have become important and popular for biological studies. In this review, we focus on the studies integrating micro/nano-fabrication work to elucidate the molecular mechanism of signaling transduction in cell biology. We first describe different micro/nano-fabrication technologies, including techniques generating three-dimensional scaffolds for tissue engineering. We then introduce the application of these technologies in manipulating the physical or chemical micro/nano-environment to regulate the cellular behavior and response, such as cell life and death, differentiation, proliferation, and cell migration. Recent advancement in integrating the micro/nano-technologies and live cell imaging are also discussed. Finally, potential schemes in cell biology involving micro/nano-fabrication technologies are proposed to provide perspectives on the future research activities.
Does Attitudinal Consensus Lead to Neighborhood Collaboration? An Exploratory Analysis of an Urban Community

This article examines whether high levels of attitudinal consensus on community needs and civic responsibilities among a community's residents are associated with effective collaborative efforts among that community's neighborhood associations. Drawing upon both quantitative and qualitative data from an evaluation of an umbrella organization in an urban community, the authors found only a weak connection between attitudinal consensus, which was strong to moderate on most issues, and effective neighborhood association collaboration. The authors conclude that attitudinal consensus may be a necessary first step toward building effective collaboration but is far from sufficient to foster meaningful and stable partnerships. The authors explore the reasons for the lack of effective collaboration, offer suggestions for addressing barriers to collaboration, and discuss the implications of the findings for community building initiatives that aim to build social capital, particularly across “difference,” in distres...
Combined lineage mapping and fate specification profiling with NLOM-OCM using sub-10-fs pulses

We have developed a combined NLOM-OCM method using ultrashort sub-10-fs pulses to study cell lineages and their gene expression profiles in zebrafish. First, time-lapse NLOM is used to capture embryo morphology (broadly excited autofluorescence) and cell lineage dynamics (eGFP reporter). The embryo is then fixed and an in situ hybridization performed, depositing NBT/BCIP precipitate where a gene of interest is actively expressed. Combined NLOM-OCM is then used to capture the gene expression pattern with 3-D resolution and these two data sets acquired from the same embryo are merged using morphological landmarks. We have used this approach to study the dynamics of the wnt1 lineage at the midbrain-hindbrain boundary (MHB) in normal and in fgf8a(ace) morphant embryos. We show that with fgf8a knock-down, the MHB constriction begins to form but subsequent failure of the constriction causes the incorporation of a transient cerebellar structure into caudal tectum. Concomitantly, this morphological distortion in the dorsal MHB causes anterior displacement in a ventral subpopulation of the wnt1 lineage at the MHB. NLOM-OCM confirms the displaced wnt1 MHB lineage stops expressing the wnt1 reporter, and with further experiments we can investigate markers such as wnt4 or ascl1a, which have been shown to be expanded caudally in ace mutants, to understand the transformed molecular fate of this displaced tissue. We conclude this approach of co-registering dynamic lineage tracing and in situ hybridization data sets using morphological context will help shed light on developmental mechanisms by integrating established analysis techniques at the morphological, cellular, and molecular levels.
Man determines the distribution of elephants in the rain forests of northeastern Gabon

Summary Dropping counts were used to assess elephant abundance in the remote forests of northeastern Gabon where there are few people and no logging. Elephants prefer the secondary forest which grows on abandoned villages and plantations, but avoid roads and villages. Thus elephant distribution is governed by the distribution of both past and present human settlement, even in the remotest and least disturbed forests of equatorial Africa. Resume On a evalue l'abondance des elephants en comptant les excrements, dans les forets reculees du nord-est du Gabon, la ou il n'y a que peu de gens et aucun abattage d'arbres. Les elephants preferent les forets secondaires qui poussent dans les villages et les plantations abandonnes, mais evitent routes et villages. Donc, la distribution des elephants est regie par la repartition des installations humaines presentes et passees, meme dans les forets les plus reculees et les moins troublees d'Afrique equatoriale.
Psychosocial factors associated with urban adolescent female suicide attempts

ABSTRACT This study identified psychosocial factors that differentiated 19 adolescent female suicide attempters from 21 demographically similar nonattempters in a low income, urban area. Adolescents and their parents independently completed questionnaires and participated in structured and semistructured interviews. Attempters expressed significantly higher levels of suicidal ideation and were described by their parents as displaying higher levels of depressed mood and delinquent behavior problems than nonattempters. Attempters also identified fewer support persons, were less likely to be living with their mothers, were less likely to describe confiding relationships with parents/guardians, and had less active and affectionate relationships with mother figures than nonattempters. Finally, attempters reported more undesirable life stresses than nonattempters.
Introduction: Culture and sleep in children.

At some fundamental level, sleep-related behaviors and sleep problems in children represent a complex interpolation of biological, psychologic/developmental/environmental, and social influences, the relative contributions of which are oftentimes difficult, if not impossible, to separate out. Biological determinants of sleep, including sleep homeostatic mechanisms and chronobiological principles,1,2 and the ways in which culture and biology interact both play a major role in the establishment of sleep patterns.3,4 In addition, children are also active participants in shaping sleep practices through such individual characteristics as temperament and social relatedness5 as well as an emerging understanding of their own individual cultures.6 As an inherently biopsychosocial phenomenon, sleep is embedded in its sociocultural context and thus is impacted on by such variables as cultural beliefs about the perceived function and meaning of sleep, cultural norms for sleep practices, and social interactions, networks, and relationships, to name a few. The biology of sleep architecture and regulation notwithstanding, there is unlikely to be one universally applicable “right way” (or time or place) to sleep. Ultimately, cross-cultural comparisons among societies of different political, economic, ideological, and historical backgrounds are invaluable in providing the opportunity to better understand the neurobiology and chronobiology of sleep itself, as well as to delineate the respective roles of culture and biology on sleep behavior and its interpretation.7 Sleep disorders and sleep practices in children are uniquely suited to serve as the focus for an examination of the interplay between the biological and the sociocultural, because so many of the variables that affect sleep problems, patterns, and practices are highly culturally based. Furthermore, because sleep problems are almost universally present in childhood and have negative health and well-being effects common to all children, the impact of sleep problems on children and families transcends all cultures. … Address correspondence to Judith A. Owens, MD, MPH, Department of Pediatrics, Potter Building, Suite 200, Rhode Island Hospital, 593 Eddy St, Providence, RI 02903. E-mail: owensleep{at}aol.com
Defect controlled diffusion in the epitaxial growth of germanium on Si(1 0 0)

Abstract The growth of germanium films on Si(1 0 0) substrates prepared by two different methods is studied using atomic force microscopy and reflection high energy electron diffraction. The first method uses a brief Ar+ sputter followed by annealing to desorb the remaining oxide, resulting in a flat substrate. The second method involves the pre-treatment of the sample with an oxygen plasma discharge before annealing. Pre-treating the Si(1 0 0) surface with an oxygen plasma discharge can sometimes result in etch pits that dramatically affect the growth of the germanium film. The diffusion length of germanium on the pre-treated sample at 750 K is estimated to be ≥700±100 nm by measuring the size of island-free terraces surrounded by etch pits.
High-definition differential ion mobility spectrometry with resolving power up to 500.

As the resolution of analytical methods improves, further progress tends to be increasingly limited by instrumental parameter instabilities that were previously inconsequential. This is now the case with differential ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS), where fluctuations of the voltages and gas pressure have become critical. A new high-definition generator for FAIMS compensation voltage reported here provides a stable and accurate output than can be scanned with negligible steps. This reduces the spectral drift and peak width, thus improving the resolving power (R) and resolution. The gain for multiply-charged peptides that have narrowest peaks is up to ~40 %, and R ~400–500 is achievable using He/N2 or H2/N2 gas mixtures.
Further studies on the potentiometric salicylate response of polymeric membranes doped with tin(IV)-tetraphenylporphyrins

Abstract The chemistry leading to the selective potentiometric response toward salicylate of polymer membranes doped with 5,10,15,20-tetraphenyl(porphyrinato)tin(IV) dichloride (Sn(TPP)Cl 2 ) is examined via 119 Sn NMR, 3 H 2 O uptake, spectrophotometric, and solution conductometric techniques. The response properties of ion-selective electrodes prepared with such membranes suggest a complex mechanism of anion binding within the membrane phase. In the pure organic phase, spectroscopic data indicate that salicylate binds directly to one or both axial coordination sites of Sn(IV), displacing the initial chloride ligands. In the presence of water, however, both chloride and salicylate are displaced by water molecules, resulting in a dipositively charged metalloporphyrincation. Furthermore, conductance measurements point to the formation of salicylate—porphyrin complexes with greater than 2:1 stoichiometry. The results of these studies are discussed in conjunction with the anomalous cationic emf response of Sn(TPP)Cl 2 -based membranes at high concentrations of salicylate. A response mechanism is proposed which involves outer-sphere coordination of salicylate to a diaquo ligated metalloporphyrin as a key step in the observed anion extraction/equilibrium with the membrane phase.
MO-F-16A-04: Case Study: Estimation of Peak Skin Dose Following a Physician Reported “High Dose” Case and Sentinel Event Considerations

Purpose: This work offers as a teaching example a reported high dose fluoroscopy case and the workflow the institution followed to self-report a radiation overdose sentinel event to the Joint Commission. Methods: Following the completion of a clinical case in a hybrid OR room with a reported air kerma of >18 Gy at the Interventional Reference Point (IRP) the physicians involved in the case referred study to the institution's Radiation Safety Committee (RSC) for review. The RSC assigned a Diagnostic Medical Physicist (DMP) to estimate the patient's Peak Skin Dose (PSD) and analyze the case. Following the DMP's analysis and estimate of a PSD of >15 Gy the institution's adverse event committee was convened to discuss the case and to self-report the case as a radiation overdose sentinel event to the Joint Commission. The committee assigned a subgroup to perform the root cause analysis and develop institutional responses to the event. Results: The self-reporting of the sentinel event and the associated root cause analysis resulted in several institutional action items that are designed to improve process and safety. A formal reporting and analysis mechanism was adopted to review fluoroscopy cases with air kerma greater than 6 Gy at the IRP.more » An improved and formalized radiation safety training program for physicians using fluoroscopy equipment was implemented. Additionally efforts already under way to monitor radiation exposure in the Radiology department were expanded to include all fluoroscopy equipment capable of automated dose reporting. Conclusion: The adverse event review process and the root cause analysis following the self-reporting of the sentinel event resulted in policies and procedures that are expected to improve the quality and safe usage of fluoroscopy throughout the institution.« less
An electro-mechanical limb shaker for fruit thinning

Mechanizing the fruit thinning operation will result in considerable cost savings for growers. This investigation has been conducted to improve mechanical thinning by exciting individual branches at a precise frequency and duration to achieve a superior distribution of fruit remaining on the tree. A unique and precise electromagnetic limb shaker that requires no branch clamping has been developed and evaluated under field conditions. Finite element analysis was performed on simulated limbs with the top free and restrained using Abaqus^(R) to evaluate solutions for improving fruit distribution and to explain field results. Extensive tests have been performed with this proposed limb shaker in nectarine, peach and prune orchards within Northern California. A force coupling manipulator allows our thinner to shake the branch without clamping to it, thus facilitating automation of the process. A powerful three-phase servo controlled linear motor drives a force coupler that shakes the tree branch. The size distribution of thinned fruit was determined for multiple shakes on the same limbs. This allowed quantification of the fruit thinning distribution. The innovative concept of holding the top of the limb avoided excessive removal of fruit from the tree top. High-speed video analysis enabled measurement of limb and fruit position as a function of time. Detachment accelerations were obtained in the video image plane. This precise limb shaker shows great potential for use in deciduous fruit orchards but further study is required in order to design a more automated prototype.
Application of remote terminal emulation in the procurement process

The procurement of communications-oriented computer systems in the Federal Government has recently embraced a technological concept which will significantly affect the trend of such activities for many years to come. This concept, generally referred to as Remote Terminal Emulation, provides the potential customer with a means of testing and evaluating a proposed system under loading conditions that closely approximate the intended live environment but without the logistical problems that have plagued such attempts in the past. This capability takes on added significance when viewed in the context of the federal procurement process which usually involves the execution of a benchmark by all participating vendors at some point in the procurement cycle. In order to be equitable among all vendors, as well as provide meaningful results for subsequent evaluation, the benchmark must not only be representative of the anticipated workload but must also exhibit one very important characteristic---repeatability. Until recently, this latter requirement reduced most benchmarks to essentially batch-oriented exercises, with but a smattering of interactive processing that did little more than establish the functional capability. With the use of Remote Terminal Emulation, the situation has changed. Potential customers are now able to test and evaluate proposed systems with benchmarks that provide significant workload levels (benchmarks with over one hundred emulated terminals are not uncommon) such that meaningful evaluation data can be obtained. This paper documents the experience of the U. S. Geological Survey in using Remote Terminal Emulation during a recent procurement of a nationwide communications-oriented computer system.
Thermal resistance models of packed‐bed effective heat transfer parameters

Simple thermal resistance models of packed-bed heat transfer can be used to derive predictive formulas for the effective axial and radial thermal conductivities and apparent wall heat transfer coefficient. In particular, the behavior of the heat transfer parameters over the entire range of Reynolds number can be explained by considering the two asymptotic cases of low Re (solid phase dominant) and high Re (fluid phase dominant).
A new resonator for high efficiency wireless power transfer

This paper presents a new resonance structure for high efficiency near-field coupling wireless power transfer. This design can be directly matched to the frontend circuitry without any extra matching components. The new coupler uses a single turn wide strip resonator, which has been proven has the best coupling efficiency, as a resonator. The full-wave simulation results shows 50% coupling efficiency for a distance three times larger than the diameter of the coupler.
Reproducing kernel hierarchical partition of unity, Part II—applications

In this part of the work, the meshless hierarchical partition of unity proposed in [1], referred here as Part I, is used as a multiple scale basis in numerical computations to solve practical problems. The applications discussed in the present work fall into two categories: (1) a wavelet adaptivity refinement procedure; and (2) a so-called wavelet Petrov–Galerkin procedure. In the applications of wavelet adaptivity, the hierarchical reproducing kernels are used as a multiple scale basis to compute the numerical solutions of the Helmholtz equation, a model equation of wave propagation problems, and to simulate shear band formation in an elasto-viscoplastic material, a problem dictated by the presence of the high gradient deformation. In both numerical experiments, numerical solutions with high resolution are obtained by inserting the wavelet-like basis into the primary interpolation function basis, a process that may be viewed as a spectral p-type refinement. By using the interpolant that has synchronized convergence property as a weighting function, a wavelet Petrov–Galerkin procedure is proposed to stabilize computations of some pathological problems in numerical computations, such as advection–diffusion problems and Stokes' flow problem; it offers an alternative procedure in stablized methods and also provides some insight, or new interpretation of the method. Detailed analysis has been carried out on the stability and convergence of the wavelet Petrov–Galerkin method. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Excimer Laser Surface Treatment of Sheet Molding Compound for Adhesive Bonding

Abstract High-strength adhesive bonding of polymer composites can be achieved by treating surface with an excimer laser. A sheet molding compound (SMC) was used for the laser surface treatment for adhesive bonding. By subjecting the SMC surface to excimer laser source, the epoxy matrix was selectively removed by ablation, where upon the glass fibers stood exposed, without any inherent damage to their surface. The controllability is proved to be admirable by optimizing processing parameters. A significant improvement of the joint strength was found in the excimer laser treatment. The selective ablation of polymer matrix resulted in a maximized surface roughness, and an interlocking effect: of glass fibers at the joints. It is also possible that capillary effect draws the adhesive between the mating surfaces. This investigation shows that a high quality adhesive joint of polymer composites can be obtained from the excimer laser treatment.
XRootd, disk-based, caching proxy for optimization of data access, data placement and data replication

Following the success of the XRootd-based US CMS data federation, the AAA project investigated extensions of the federation architecture by developing two sample implementations of an XRootd, disk-based, caching proxy. The first one simply starts fetching a whole file as soon as a file open request is received and is suitable when completely random file access is expected or it is already known that a whole file be read. The second implementation supports on-demand downloading of partial files. Extensions to the Hadoop Distributed File System have been developed to allow for an immediate fallback to network access when local HDFS storage fails to provide the requested block. Both cache implementations are in pre-production testing at UCSD.
Cholinergic alteration of ethanol-induced sleep and death in mice.

In order to determine whether ethanol antagonizes central cholinergic pathways, the effects of anticholinesterase and anticholinergic drugs on ethanol-induced sleeping time and death were studied in mice. Physostigmine, in an optimum dose of 0.1 mg/kg given at the same time as 4.5 g/kg ethanol, significantly shortened sleeping time when compared to controls given saline and ethanol. A physostigmine dose of 0.5 mg/kg combined with the sublethal dose of ethanol produced death in a large percentage of mice. Studies with neostigmine, atropine, and methyl atropine nitrate provided evidence that the cholinergic-ethanol antagonism of sleeping time is a central phenomenon, whereas the cholinergic-ethanol lethality is a peripheral phenomenon. The apparent central cholinergic antagonism of ethanol sleeping time strongly suggests that at least part of ethanol's central depressant action may be concerned with inhibition of acetylcholine release or function.
Laser applications in integrated circuits and photonics packaging

Laser processing has large potential in the packaging of integrated circuits (IC). It can be used in many applications such as laser cleaning of IC mold tools, laser deflash to remove mold flash from heat sinks and lead wires of IC packages, laser singulation of BGA (ball grid array) and CSP (chip scale packages), laser reflow of solder ball on GBA, laser peeling for CSP, laser marking on packages and on Si wafers. Laser nanoimprinting of self-assembled nanoparticles has been recently developed to fabricate hemispherical cavity arrays on semiconductor surfaces. This process has the potential applications in fabrication and packaging of photonic devices such as waveguides and optical interconnections. During the implementation of all these applications, laser parameters, material issues, throughput, yield, reliability and monitoring techniques have to be taken into account. Monitoring of laser-induced plasma and laser induced acoustic wave has been used to understand and to control the processes involved in these applications. Numerical simulations can provide useful information on process analysis and optimization.
Role of dietary lipids in cold survival and changes in body composition in white mice

Abstract 1. 1. Sixty day old Swiss-Webster mice were acclimated to 22°C and fed rat chow with either saturated (triastearin) or unsaturated (safflower oil) fat for 42 days. 2. 2. Resistance times in minutes at -18°C were; control 59, saturated fat fed 48, and unsaturated fat fed 79. 3. 3. When mice were acclimated at 0°C for 42 days, resistance times increased over the 22°C acclimated animals by 325% for the control group, 354% for those animals fed saturated fat and 513% for mice fed unsaturated fat. 4. 4. The fastest growth rate and increase in basic weight was found in cold acclimated animals fed an unsaturated fat diet. 5. 5. Animals kept at room temperature had similar gains in body lipids on all three diets while cold acclimated animals fed saturated fats or control diets sustained significant losses in lipid index which stabilized after 3–4 weeks. The lipid index of mice fed unsaturated fat in the cold remained stable throughout the experimental feeding period. 6. 6. In conclusion, the composition rather than quantity of dietary fat is more important for inducing cold resistance in cold and room temperature environments.
Aspergillus flavus Endophthalmitis and Retinitis in an Intravenous Drug Abuser A Therapeutic Success

Endogenous Aspergillus flavus endophthalmitis with layering of inflammatory cells in the subretinal space and vitreous infiltration developed in a 35-year-old female intravenous drug abuser. The patient underwent a diagnostic and therapeutic vitrectomy within 48 hours of presentation, receiving intravitreal amphotericin B. Intravenous amphotericin also was administered several days later. Despite extensive retinal and vitreous involvement, the patient recovered useful vision because of the aggressive diagnostic and therapeutic approach.
Sorafenib-Associated Facial Acneiform Eruption

Introduction Sorafenib is an oral multikinase inhibitor that targets tumor cell angiogenesis and proliferation. Drug-associated cutaneous adverse events, such as alopecia and hand–foot skin reaction, occur frequently. Sorafenib-related side effects affecting hair, nails, and skin are summarized and the characteristics of sorafenib-treated patients who developed acneiform facial lesions are reviewed to present the clinical features of these individuals.
Totally implantable hearing aids: the effects of skin thickness on microphone function.

With the advent of totally implantable hearing aids, the question of the impact of the choice of implantation site on microphone function has yet to be fully addressed. We investigated the effects of skin thickness on microphone function over a 2-week period in a porcine model. Sound attenuation was found to be directly proportional to skin thickness within the range of 0.5 to 3.0 mm. A decrease in resonant frequency of 500 Hz was noted after implantation under a skin thickness of 3.0 mm. The general shape of the frequency response curves was maintained across all thicknesses tested. Attenuation (dB loss) across the range of 500 to 8,000 Hz appeared to be linear over the various skin thicknesses measured, with a regression coefficient (r = .99 at 1 kHz and r = .99 at 3 kHz). To minimize attenuation and exploit the sound-collecting qualities of the external ear, the deep meatal skin appears to be a favorable position for implantation.
Digital music services: consumer intention and adoption

In recent years, the popular channel to obtain record albums has shifted from purchasing compact discs to downloading MP3 files. In fact, digital music service (DMS), the industry that sells MP3 songs, has seen tremendous successes and is making hundreds of millions of dollars every year. However, few attempts have been made to understand the consumption behavior of this newly emerging market because it has its own characteristics that have made other behavioral models inapplicable. In this study, we surveyed college students, who are the most active in this market, concerning their DMS subscription behavior. A modified theory of planned behavior (TPB) model was used as the framework. This new model incorporates the technology acceptance model and a new construct, the perceived service quality, into the original TPB model. Based on the survey results, the present study depicts a model that explains subscription behavior and indicates that subjective norm has the most significant effect on the intention to...
Estimating the Heckscher–Ohlin model: Inverting the inverse matrix

Abstract This paper estimates the Heckscher–Ohlin model with annual US data from 1949 to 2006 for outputs of manufactures and services with inputs of fixed capital assets and the labor force. Difference equation and error correction regressions provide estimated coefficients for the comparative static system. Tariffs on manufactures primarily raise the capital return in the estimated Stolper–Samuelson results. Factor price equalization does not hold for labor and capital. Inverting the estimated system inverse matrix provides evidence on production. The suggestions are capital biased production of manufactures, strong substitution of capital for labor, and strong labor substitution in manufactures.
Event pool structures for PDES on many-core Beowulf clusters

Multi-core and many-core processing chips are becoming widespread and are now being widely integrated into Beowulf clusters. This poses a challenging problem for distributed simulation as it now becomes necessary to extend the algorithms to operate on a platform that includes both shared memory and distributed memory hardware. Furthermore, as the number of on-chip cores grows, the challenges for developing solutions without significant contention for shared data structures grows. This is especially true for the pending event list data structures where multiple execution threads attempt to schedule the next event for execution. This problem is especially aggravated in parallel simulation, where event executions are generally fine-grained leading quickly to non-trivial contention for the pending event list. This manuscript explores the design of the software architecture and several data structures to manage the pending event sets for execution in a Time Warp synchronized parallel simulation engine. The experiments are especially targeting multi-core and many-core Beowulf clusters containing 8-core to 48-core processors. These studies include a two-level structure for holding the pending event sets using three different data structures, namely: splay trees, the STL multiset, and ladder queues. Performance comparisons of the three data structures using two architectures for the pending event sets are presented.
T-wave abnormalities during hyperventilation and isoproterenol infusion

Abstract We studied the effects of three types of hyperventilation (HV) on the ECG, arterial blood gases, and plasma electrolyte concentration in twelve patients without heart disease in whom HV produced T-wave abnormalities, and in eleven healthy volunteers. The T-wave abnormalities produced by HV could not be attributed to alkalosis, changes in plasma Na, K, Ca, or Mg concentrations, or changes in heart position. In ten of eleven subjects in whom the T wave became inverted during HV, isoproterenol infusion at a rate of 3 to 6 μg per minute also produced T-wave inversion. In all subjects the T-wave inversion during HV and isoproterenol infusion was transient, occurred at the onset of tachycardia, and was associated with prolongation of the Q-T c interval, attributed to the hysteresis of the Q-T interval. We have postulated that the transient T-wave abnormalities during HV and isoproterenol infusion may be due to asynchronous shortening of repolarization.
Growth-mediated, density-dependent inhibition of endocytosis in cultured arterial smooth muscle cells.

The effects of cell density and growth upon fluid phase endocytosis were investigated in quiescent and growing cultures of monkey arterial smooth muscle cells. Cells were maintained in a quiescent state of growth in 5% plasma-derived serum. Subsequent exposure of subconfluent cultures to the specific mitogens, platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), epidermal growth factor (EGF), fibroblast growth factor (FGF), or to whole blood serum, resulted in up to 4-fold increases in the rate of fluid endocytosis/cell. The changes began several hours after entry into G1 phase of the cell cycle and continued through S. The fraction of cells entering the growth cycle was variable (PDGF=FGF>EGF) and a close correlation existed between the rate of endocytosis and the fraction of [3H]thymidine-labelled cells (r = 0.929, p<0.01). At a range of cell densities, the rate of fluid endocytosis/cell was similar in sparse, confluent and post-confluent cultures of quiescent cells; in contrast, in growing cells there was density-dependent inhibition of endocytosis. Furthermore, when quiescent cells were in contact with each other and were then exposed to mitogens, the growth response was diminished and there was only a 25–50% increase in the rate of endocytosis, even in the presence of high concentrations of growth factors. These studies indicate that the influence of cell density upon fluid endocytosis in arterial smooth muscle cells is indirect in that it represents a secondary effect of decreased mitogenic response to specific growth factors.
Reduced-order robust adaptive control design of uncertain SISO linear systems

In this paper, a stability and robustness preserving adaptive controller order-reduction method is developed for a class of uncertain linear systems affected by system and measurement noises. In this method, we immediately start the integrator backstepping procedure of the controller design without first stabilizing a filtered dynamics of the output. This relieves us from generating the reference trajectory for the filtered dynamics of the output and thus reducing the controller order by n, n being the dimension of the system state. The stability of the filtered dynamics is indirectly proved via an existing state signal. The trade-off for this order reduction is that the worst-case estimate for the expanded state vector has to be chosen as a suboptimal choice rather than the optimal choice. It is shown that the resulting reduced-order adaptive controller preserves the stability and robustness properties of the full-order adaptive controller in disturbance attenuation, boundedness of closed-loop signals, and output tracking. The proposed order-reduction scheme is also applied to a class of single-input single-output linear systems with partly measured disturbances. Two examples are presented to illustrate the performance of the reduced-order controller in this paper. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The inhibitory effect of water on the Co2+ and Cu2+ catalyzed decomposition of methyl linoleate hydroperoxides.

The inhibitory effect of water on the decomposition of methyl linoleate hydroperoxides (MLHP) catalyzed by Co2+ and Cu2+ was studied in a model system using proton nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. MLHP were prepared by photoxidation and purified by chromatographic methods. Proton NMR spectroscopy was used to measure reaction rates by monitoring changes in the intensity of the OOH signal. The rate constant of the reaction was obtained by plotting the natural logarithm of MLHP concentrationvs time. In the first part of the study, no transition metals were added to the model system, so that the effect of water could be attributed to the interaction between water and MLHP only. The rate constant of the reaction (K) was found inversely proportional to the concentration of water. There was a downfield chemical shift of both hydroperoxide and water peaks in the NMR spectra when water was added. As temperature increased to 40°C, the difference in K between the systems with 0% and 2% water disappeared. It is proposed that the hydroperoxides were solvated with water which retarded their decomposition. When Co2+ was added to the model system, K decreased as the concentration of water increased from 0% to 1.5%. As temperature increased from 18°C to 40°C, differences between the K for 0% and 2% water disappeared. A similar phenomenon was observed in reactions catalyzed with Cu2+. These findings would support a mechanism in which the protective effect of water involves both the solvation of OOH and hydration of the metal catalyst.
Quantification of Fusarium solani f. sp. glycines isolates in soybean roots by colony-forming unit assays and real-time quantitative PCR.

Fusarium solani f. sp. glycines (FSG; syn. F. virguliforme Akoi, O’Donnell, Homma & Lattanzi) is a soil-borne fungus that infects soybean roots and causes sudden death syndrome (SDS), a widespread and destructive soybean disease. The goal of this study was to develop and use a real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (QPCR) assay to compare the accumulation of genomic DNA among 30 FSG isolates in inoculated soybean roots. Isolates differed significantly (P ≤ 0.05) in their DNA accumulation on a susceptible soybean cultivar when detected and quantified using a FSG-specific probe/primers set derived from the sequences of the nuclear-encoded, mitochondrial small subunit ribosomal RNA gene. QPCR results that were normalized as the fold change over the sample collection times after inoculation were significantly (P ≤ 0.001) correlated with the log10 transformed colony-forming unit (CFU) values of FSG obtained from plating of inoculated ground roots on FSG semi-selective agar medium. Several isolates were identified that accumulated more FSG DNA and had higher CFU values than the reference isolate FSG1 (Mont-1). Compared to other isolates, FSG5 was the most aggressive root colonizer based on DNA accumulation and CFU values in infested roots. The described QPCR assay should provide more specificity, greater sensitivity, and less variability than alternatives to the culturing-dependent and time-consuming plating assays. Evaluation of isolate relative DNA differences on host plants using the QPCR approach provides useful information for evaluating isolates based on the extent and/or degree of colonization on soybean roots and for selecting isolates for breeding SDS-resistant soybean lines.