cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The evolution of single-copy Drosophila nuclear 4f-rnp genes: Spliceosomal intron losses create polymorphic alleles

This study provides the first report in which spliceosomal intron losses within a single-copy gene create functional polymorphic alleles in a population. 4f-rnp has previously been shown to be a nuclear gene that is localized on the X chromosome in D. melanogaster and to have eight short spliceosomal introns. An insect species survey was done via polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification and sequencing of a 1028-bp gene fragment spanning introns 4–8, which are located in the 3? half of the gene. The results show that 4f-rnp and (thus far) introns 7 and 8 are at least as old as order Odonata (dragonflies), an early-diverging insect line. Unexpectedly, several species within the dipteran family Drosophilidae were found to contain two differently sized 4f-rnp gene sequence variants, owing to precise in-frame intron losses. Results of single-male D. melanogaster PCR analyses show that the two gene size variants are allelic and that the intron loss mechanism appears to be biased toward the 3? end of the gene. A stable potential stem–loop has been identified in D. melanogaster, predicted to fold the 4f-rnp mRNA 3? terminus into a natural primer for subsequent reverse transcription into cDNA. When results are displayed in a phylogenetic context, multiple independent intron loss events are identified. These observations support a model in which frequently occurring cDNAs have led to numerous independent intron losses via homologous recombination/gene conversion during 4f-rnp gene evolution. The results provide insights into the evolution of intron loss and may lead to improved understanding of the dynamics of this process in natural populations.
Identifying construction supervisor competencies for effective site safety

Construction supervisors are crucial to eventual site safety performance. In the United States, the OSHA 30-hour training is becoming the de facto standard for supervisor safety competence. A literature review of recommended supervisor safety competencies reveals gaps when compared to the OSHA 30-hour training contents. We address this gap by identifying the necessary knowledge-based safety competencies that are most important for the front-line construction supervisor and prioritizing them for the first time. A Delphi process confirmed that knowledge of pre job planning, organizing work flow, establishing effective communication, and of routine and non-routine work tasks are highly important competencies for the construction supervisor to possess. Construction organizations who utilize the 30-hour training for supervisor safety competence must recognize its limitations and ensure supervisors are equipped with these additional competencies to effectively manage site safety. Government agencies should also recognize the policy limitations of requiring the 30-hour training for supervisors.
Phosphorylation of glutathione-S-transferase by protein kinase C-α implications for affinity-tag purification

Expression and purification of proteins as fusions with glutathione S-transferase (GST) is a standard and widely employed system. In more than 2500 published studies, GST has been used to facilitate the purification of recombinant proteins, assess protein–protein interactions, and establish protein function. In this report, we provide evidence that GST can be phosphorylated in vitro by protein kinase C-α (PKC-α) at Ser-93. Therefore, since GST itself may be a target for a number of catalytic enzymes, failure to remove the GST tag from the recombinant protein may lead to inaccurate conclusions.
Is exchange rate volatility excessive? An ARCH and AR approach

Abstract Since the implementation of the floating exchange rate system in 1973, world leaders, policy makers and researchers have been seriously concerned with the volatility of foreign exchange rates. Financial crises in Mexico, Russia, and Asia renewed the debate about whether increased volatility may suppress international trade and what can be done to discourage currency speculation. The earlier literature using unconditional dispersion measures strongly suggested that exchange rate changes are less volatile than those of other asset prices. This paper shows that this result holds up under a battery of tests that try to elicit the statistically appropriate measure of conditional variance. While the discussion of the econometric issues is a major part of the paper, the readers are reminded that the issue is not that the hypothesized variance processes differ dramatically; rather the issue is that, even after applying the battery of tests, the conditional and unconditional results suggest similar conclusions.
The Expanding Social Network of Ionotropic Glutamate Receptors: TARPs and Other Transmembrane Auxiliary Subunits

Ionotropic glutamate receptors (iGluRs) underlie rapid, excitatory synaptic signaling throughout the CNS. After years of intense research, our picture of iGluRs has evolved from them being companionless in the postsynaptic membrane to them being the hub of dynamic supramolecular signaling complexes, interacting with an ever-expanding litany of other proteins that regulate their trafficking, scaffolding, stability, signaling, and turnover. In particular, the discovery that transmembrane AMPA receptor regulatory proteins (TARPs) are AMPA receptor auxiliary subunits that are critical determinants of their trafficking, gating, and pharmacology has changed the way we think about iGluR function. Recently, a number of novel transmembrane proteins have been uncovered that may also serve as iGluR auxiliary proteins. Here we review pivotal developments in our understanding of the role of TARPs in AMPA receptor trafficking and gating, and provide an overview of how newly discovered transmembrane proteins expand our view of iGluR function in the CNS.
Proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy of normal and edematous brain tissue in vitro: changes in relaxation during tissue storage.

Abstract Proton nuclear magnetic resonance relaxation times, T 1 and T 2 , of water in unfixed gray and white matter from normal and edematous rabbit brain tissues were measured in vitro at 23°C and 100 MHz to evaluate the effects of the temperature (−25°C to 37°C) and duration (0 to 96 h) of tissue storage on relaxation times. T 1 and T 2 tended to decrease during storage, probably from slow dehydration of the tissue. This effect was greatest in tissues stored at 37°C and least in those stored at 4 and −25°C; decreases in T 1 and T 2 were greater in white matter than in gray matter. Freezing brain tissue to −25°C caused a sudden decrease in the T 2 of normal white matter. Relaxation times were constant for 5 h in tissues stored at 23°C and for 40 h at 4°C. These results correlated well with corresponding tissue water loss.
Effect of Adjuvant on the Efficacy of Glyphosate Applied at Different Times of Day

Glyphosate was applied alone and with either ammonium sulfate (AMS) or RUSA 703 (a premix of hydroxypropyl guar and AMS). Herbicide treatments were applied at 3-h intervals starting at 6:00 am and ending at 9:00 pm. The efficacy of glyphosate was dependent on the application time of day for all weed species tested, except for common waterhemp in the greenhouse. In general, applications at 6:00 am and 9:00 pm resulted in the least control of all weed species. The efficacy of glyphosate was often improved with the addition of AMS when glyphosate was applied at a suboptimal time of day. RUSA 703 did not result in any benefit in glyphosate efficacy beyond AMS. The addition of RUSA 703 to glyphosate improved the efficacy of glyphosate as often as AMS in greenhouse studies, but not in field studies.
Optimal growth conditions for the determination of the antifungal susceptibility of three species of dermatophytes with the use of a microdilution method

As a prerequisite to standardization of dermatophyte susceptibility testing, conditions that support optimal growth of different dermatophyte species must be established. Eighteen isolates of Trichophyton spp. (T rubrum, T mentagrophytes, T tonsurans) were grown in 4 different media: RPMI 1640 with L-glutamine, without sodium bicarbonate and buffered at pH = 7.0; antibiotic medium #3 (Penassay); yeast nitrogen base with 0.5% dextrose buffered at pH = 7.0; and Sabouraud dextrose broth. Incubation for 6 days at 35 degrees C produced the following results: RPMI and Sabouraud dextrose supported equally sufficient growth for all strains tested; Penassay supported growth of only 33% of the isolates tested, and buffered yeast nitrogen base did not support growth of any isolates. RPMI was selected as the optimal medium, and organisms were tested at both 30 degrees C and 35 degrees C with a standardized inoculum density of 10(3) conidia/mL. No temperature differences were noted in the amount of growth of the dermatophytes tested. With RPMI at an incubation temperature of 35 degrees C, 3 inoculum sizes (10(3), 10(4), and 10(5) conidia/mL) were tested against 4 antifungal agents: griseofulvin, itraconazole, terbinafine, and fluconazole. Inoculum size did not affect minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) results for itraconazole or terbinafine, but a larger inoculum produced a slightly higher MIC for griseofulvin and a noticeably higher MIC for fluconazole. Our data support the use of RPMI 1640, 35 degrees C, and 4 days as an incubation temperature and time, respectively, and an inoculum of 10(3) conidia/mL as optimal conditions for the determination of the antifungal susceptibility of dermatophytes.
Influence of nitrogen fertilization, tillage, and residue management on a soil nitrogen mineralization index

Abstract Nitrogen, tillage, and residue management systems influence the ability of microorganisms to mineralize plant residues in soil. The objective of this research was to investigate the seasonal changes in autoclave extractable‐N (AN) as influenced by different N rates, tillage practices and residue management systems. A field study under a continuous corn rotation was initiated in 1980, with factorial combinations of 2 or 20 g N/m2, roto‐tillage or no‐tillage, and residue (corn stover) returned or removed treatments. Soil water, AN, and inorganic N were measured at regular intervals over a three‐year period (1984 to 1986). AN, as a soil N mineralization index, was shown to be sensitive to changes in the nitrogen, tillage, and residue management systems. Correlations between corn yields and the N mineralization index suggest that AN was sampling a biologically‐active N pool.
Application of NURBS in numerical grid generation

Abstract The application of nonuniform rational B-splines to grid generation involving complex industrial geometries is discussed. Geometrical entities are transformed and represented using NURBS with common data structures. Techniques for reparameterization are discussed in terms of various grid topologies and distribution requirements. Computational examples representative of practical computational fluid dynamics applications are presented to demonstrate the success of these methodologies.
Effects of phosphoroamides on ammonia volatilization and nitrite accumulation in soils treated with urea

We compared the effects of N-(n-butyl) thiophosphoric triamide (NBPT), N-(diaminophosphinyl)-cyclohexylamine (DPCA), phenylphosphorodiamidate (PPD), and hydroquinone on transformations of urea N in soils. The ability of these urease inhibitors to retard urea hydrolysis, ammonia volatilization, and nitrite accumulation in soils treated with urea-decreased in the order NBPT > DPCA ≫ PPD > HQ. When five soils were incubated at 30°C for 14 days after treatment with urea (1 mg urea N g−1 soil), on average, the gaseous loss of urea N as ammonia and the accumulation of urea N as nitrite were decreased from 52 to 5 % and from 11 to 1%, respectively, by addition of NBPT at the rate of 10 μg g−1 soil (0.47 parts of NBPT per 100 parts of urea). The data obtained support previous evidence that NBPT is more effective than PPD for reduction of the problems encountered in using urea as a fertilizer and deserves consideration as a fertilizer amendment for retarding hydrolysis of urea fertilizer in soil.
The Ultraviolet Spectrum of B-Type Supergiants

The broad, steep-sided absorption lines in B-type supergiant spectra are stronger than the absorption lines in main-sequence stars. In addition to lines from the second, third and fourth spectra of the light elements and the metals there is a broad, pointed feature at 1720 A which has constant strength in the B-type supergiants regardless of spectral type. The complete identification of this blend is not known. At high resolution the ultraviolet resonance lines of C iv, N v, Si hi and Si iv in the spectra of OB supergiants are shortward displaced by velocities up to 1800 km s-1 indicating the presence of an escaping atmosphere. At type B5 the expanding atmosphere is moving at about 120 km s-1 which means that the material is probably brought to rest before it escapes from the star. Evidence is presented of the presence of a stationary shell around the B5Ia supergiant q Canis Majoris as well as a slowly expanding atmosphere.
Any questions? Automatic question detection in meetings

In this paper, we describe our efforts toward the automatic detection of English questions in meetings. We analyze the utility of various features for this task, originating from three distinct classes: lexico-syntactic, turn-related, and pitch-related. Of particular interest is the use of parse tree information in classification, an approach as yet unexplored. Results from experiments on the ICSI MRDA Corpus demonstrate that lexico-syntactic features are most useful for this task, with turn-and pitch-related features providing complementary information in combination. In addition, experiments using reference parse trees on the Broadcast Conversation portion of the OntoNotes release 2.9 data set illustrate the potential of parse trees to outperform word lexical features.
Acquisition of disliking for persons associated with punishment.

Summary.-To determine whether disliking would be acquired for neutral persons associated with punishmenr, 17 male undergraduates were administered a bogus test of leadership skills and given feedback indicating poor performance in the presence of unknown test partners. A rewarded group of 17 Ss also took the same "test" and received feedback indicaung high performance. Attraction for test partners was assessed before and after feedback. Attraction decreased significantly among punished Ss (p < .005) but remained unchanged for rewarded Ss. Decreased attraction in the punished group was interpreted as a conditioned emotional response.
The plunging-mode response of an idealized airplane to atmospheric turbulent gusts

Abstract For the plunging-mode motion of an idealized airplane with pitch neglected, the response statistics have been formulated subject to atmospheric turbulence prescribed by the so-called Dryden's energy spectrum. The stationary input-response relation yields the following conclusions. (1) Atmospheric turbulent gusts should be modeled by incorporating not only the intensity modulation but also the time-varying energy spectrum. (2) The response exceedance curve can display convexity depending on the combination of gust intensity and spectrum parameter. (3) The integral length scale may be estimated alternately from the accelerometer data at the center of gravity and the gust intensity. As a consequence of conclusion (1), a discrete non-stationary gust model is proposed, consisting of a series of stationary processes, having different gust intensities and spectrum parameters. For such a modified Press' gust model, the response covariances of the plunging velocity and acceleration have been computed. Based on the elementary two-stationary-process gust model, sample calculations indeed produce convexity in the response exceedance curves, thereby substantiating (2). Finally, the implication of (3) is that one now has a means of checking consistency of the integral-length-scale measurements.
Survey of closed queueing networks with blocking

Closed queueing networks are frequently used to model complex service systems such as production systems, communication systems, computer systems, and flexible manufacturing systems. When limitations are imposed on the queue sizes (i.e., finite queues), a phenomenon called blocking occurs. Queueing networks with blocking are, in general, difficult to treat. Exact closed form solutions have been reported only in a few special cases. Hence, most of the techniques that are used to analyze such queueing networks are in the form of approximations, numerical analysis, and simulation. In this paper, we give a systematic presentation of the literature related to closed queueing networks with finite queues. The results are significant for both researchers and practitioners.
Additive hormonal therapy in women with advanced breast cancer

A great deal of work has been done over the last decade in the assessment of additive hormonal treatment approaches in women with advanced breast cancer. This work has been prompted by a number of factors which include: (1) the introduction of new hormonal agents, (2) increased knowledge of the physiologic actions of several hormonal agents, (3) the development of hormonal receptor assays to better predict the probability of hormonal responsiveness in a given patient, and (4) the apparent plateau in efficacy of cytotoxic chemotherapeutic approaches. The hormonal agents that have been studied most extensively in the recent past include tamoxifen (an antiestrogen), aminoglutethimide (an aromatase inhibitor), and medroxyprogesterone acetate (a progestin). In postmenopausal women, several agents exist that appear about equal in efficacy; but, currently, tamoxifen appears to be preferred as the initial hormonal treatment, primarily because of its low incidence of side effects. Studies involving combination hormonal therapy have produced interesting results, but further work is needed to establish superiority over tamoxifen alone. In premenopausal women, tamoxifen does have antitumor activity in some patients but has not been established as a replacement for oophorectomy. Properly conducted comparative trials will remain essential for the determination of the proper place of newer hormonal therapy approaches in clinical practice.
On the variation of the sun's X ray background flux and its relation to the sun's flaring rate, energetic event rate, and the solar cycle

Daily averages of the sun's X-ray background flux as measured by the GOES satellite are combined to yield monthly means and 'smoothed' monthly means (12-month moving averages) for the interval January 1986 through May 1992 (minimum rise, maximum, and initial decline of solar cycle 22). These averages are then compared directly to the sun's optical flaring rate, energetic event rate, and the usual markers of the solar cycle (e.g., sunspot number, total corrected sunspot area, and 10.7-cm solar radio flux, number of groups, and number of spots). The results of this analysis support previous findings that there exists a remarkably close positive relationship between the optical flaring rate and the X-ray background flux rate (the independent variable), and that the X-ray background flux rate can be used as a proxy for the solar cycle. Additionally, this study has found that a strong positive relationship exists between the energetic event rate and the X-ray background flux rate (the independent variable), and that the lag between the maxima of the rates of optical flaring and X-ray background flux reported for cycle 21 did not recur for cycle 22.
MINIMIZING FLOWS FOR THE MONGE-KANTOROVICH PROBLEM ∗

In this work, we formulate a new minimizing flow for the optimal mass transport (Monge-Kantorovich) problem. We study certain properties of the flow, including weak solutions as well as short- and long-term existence. Optimal transport has found a number of applications, includ- ing econometrics, fluid dynamics, cosmology, image processing, automatic control, transportation, statistical physics, shape optimization, expert systems, and meteorology. 1. Introduction. In this paper, we derive a novel gradient descent flow for the computation of the optimal transport map (when it exists) in the Monge-Kantorovich framework. Besides being quite useful for the efficient computation of the transport map, we believe that the flow presented here is quite interesting from a theoretical point of view as well. In the present work, we undertake a study of some of its key
Nephrology at the time of Nephron's Inception in 1964: an eye-opener on progress in the field.

Society of Nephrology (ISN), by Jean Hamburger in Paris. The new society decided to create an international journal of nephrology to be called Nephrologia . The publisher was to be Karger Editions of Basel, the current publisher of Nephron journals. After a few years of haggling, a name change to Nephron was agreed, and Gabriel Richet of Paris and George Schreiner in Washington, D.C., were to be its founding Editors-in-Chief. At the time of writing of this editorial, Professor Richet is alive and well and living in Paris. The ISN had held its first congress in 1960 in Evian, France, where the word ‘nephrology’ was used for the first time in a formal context. The proceedings of the Congress were published in a relatively large tome by S. Karger (Basel and New York) in 1961 [2] . The purpose of this editorial is to try to understand what was on the minds of the founders of the discipline of nephrology around the time when the first issues of Nephron started to roll off the press in 1964. Articles from the earliest issues of the journal were undoubtedly reflective of the key interests of the times, but to make the analysis more inclusive, I have referred to the proceedings of the first ISN Congress in 1960, when a broad range of topics was in evidence (individual contributions are not referenced separately). What follows is a personal view of Introduction
Aminoaciduria in epilepsy.

Summary Amino acid chromatograms of serum and urine were obtained from patients with epilepsy and encephalitis before, during, and after convulsions and were compared with those of normal children. Increased aminoaciduria with normal levels of amino acids in the serum was observed in 13 of 16 patients during periods of active convulsions and appears to be related to the severity of the seizures.
A preliminary study of the effectiveness of graduated prolonged exposure in the treatment of irrational fear

Female college students showing a high degree of fear of dead and bloody rats were treated in groups by either (1) Systematic Desensitization (SD), (2) Graduated Prolonged Exposure (GPE), an experimental extinction-based technique involving prolonged exposures to a graded hierarchy of fear-provoking stimuli, or (3) Cognitive Restructuring (CR), a rational discussion technique emphasizing “perceptual relearning” or relabeling of the fear-provoking stimuli. On a behavioral avoidance measure, only GPE resulted in significant fear reduction over a nontreated control group. On a subjective measure of fear, however, only CR produced significant improvement, with GPE showing a strong trend in the favorable direction. SD failed to approach significant improvement on either measure. The results were interpreted as supporting a combined treatment involving both GPE and CR for the type of irrational fear which involves feelings of disgust and nausea.
Role for the Nonessential N Terminus of FtsN in Divisome Assembly

FtsN, the last essential protein in the cell division localization hierarchy in Escherichia coli, has several peculiar characteristics, suggesting that it has a unique role in the division process despite the fact that it is conserved in only a subset of bacteria. In addition to suppressing temperature-sensitive mutations in ftsA, ftsK, ftsQ, and ftsI, overexpression of FtsN can compensate for a complete lack of FtsK in the cell. We examined the requirements for this phenomenon. We found that the N-terminal terminal region (cytoplasmic and transmembrane domains) is critical for suppression, while the C-terminal murein-binding domain is dispensable. Our results further suggest that FtsN and FtsK act cooperatively to stabilize the divisome.
Development of biosensors for cancer clinical testing

Biosensors are devices that combine a biochemical recognition/binding element (ligand) with a signal conversion unit (transducer). Biosensors are already used for several clinical applications, for example for electrochemical measurement of blood glucose concentrations. Application of biosensors in cancer clinical testing has several potential advantages over other clinical analysis methods including increased assay speed and flexibility, capability for multi-target analyses, automation, reduced costs of diagnostic testing and a potential to bring molecular diagnostic assays to community health care systems and to underserved populations. They have the potential for facilitating Point of Care Testing (POCT), where state-of-the-art molecular analysis is carried out without requiring a state-of-the-art laboratory. However, not many biosensors have been developed for cancer-related testing. One major challenge in harnessing the potential of biosensors is that cancer is a very complex set of diseases. Tumors vary widely in etiology and pathogenesis. Oncologists rely heavily on histological characterization of tumors and a few biomarkers that have demonstrated clinical utility to aid in patient management decisions. New genomic and proteomic molecular tools are being used to profile tumors and produce "molecular signatures." These signatures include genetic and epigenetic signatures, changes in gene expression, protein profiles and post-translational modifications of proteins. These molecular signatures provide new opportunities for utilizing biosensors. Biosensors have enormous potential to deliver the promise of new molecular diagnostic strategies to patients. This article describes some of the basic elements of cancer biology and cancer biomarkers relevant for the development of biosensors for cancer clinical testing, along with the challenges in using this approach.
A Survey of the Complications of Laser Laryngoscopy

• The laser has become a significant addition to the laryngologist's surgical armamentarium. A mail survey was undertaken to place difficulties with the use of the laser in perspective. A 91.7% response rate was obtained from 229 individuals. At least 81 complications were documented by 23.3% of the total number of physicians responding (32.2% of those physicians using the laser). The most frequent complication was endotracheal explosion, with facial burns the next most common untoward occurrence. Five cases of pneumothorax and two of subcutaneous emphysema were also reported. These and other complications are tabulated and discussed. ( Arch Otolaryngol 1984;110:31-34)
Drop out: a third chromosome maternal-effect locus required for formation of the Drosophila cellular blastoderm.

drop out (dop) is a recessive maternal-effect locus identified in a screen for female-sterile mutations in Drosophila polytene region 71C-F. Phenotypic analyses of the dop mutation indicate that the gene is required for proper formation of the cellular blastoderm. In embryos derived from either homozygous or hemizygous dop mothers, cytoplasmic clearing, nuclear migration and division, and pole cell formation appear normal. However, developmental defects are observed prior to and during cellularization of the blastoderm. At the beginning of nuclear cycle 14, the distinct separation of the internal yolk mass and the cortical cytoplasm breaks down. Subsequently, a population of somatic nuclei located at the periphery of the syncytial blastoderm becomes irregularly spaced and nonuniform in their distribution. Despite a somewhat regular formation of the cortical actin network, cellularizaiton in mutant embryos is extremely variable. Such embryos fail to gastrulate normally and produce variable amounts of defective cuticle. Overall, our analyses suggest that the dop gene functions in maintaining the separation of yolk and cortical cytoplasm and in stabilizing the distribution of somatic nuclei in the Drosophila syncytial blastoderm.
Dentures, inclined planes, and traumatic occlusion

Abstract Some aspects of a clinical evaluation and understanding of the effects of traumatic occlusion in dentures as related to inclined planes, denture base movement, tissue reactions, and patient symptoms have been explained.
Longitudinal structure function at small x: The effect of next-to-leading-order QCD corrections and heavy-flavor thresholds.

The longitudinal structure function {ital F}{sub {ital L}} at small {ital x} is a very direct probe of the gluon distribution. Studies have shown that measurements at the DESY {ital ep} collider HERA can distinguish various possible theoretical small-{ital x} behaviors. Phenomenological analyses to date have used leading-order expressions for the structure function. We use the recent {ital O}({alpha}{sub {ital s}}{sup 2}) calculation of Kazakov {ital et} {ital al}. to extend the analysis to next-to-leading order. We also investigate the effect of the {ital b}-quark threshold on the longitudinal structure function. We show that both these effects are numerically under control, and therefore do not change the conclusion that there is indeed a very direct connection between {ital F}{sub {ital L}} and the gluon.
Infrared Remote Sensing of Surf-Zone Eddies

Airborne infrared imagery is used for the first time to investigate characteristics of surf-zone eddies, occurring along an along-shore uniform beach. Eddies are found to have diameters of 100 to 150 m, an alongshore spacing of about 375 m (2.5 times the surf-zone width), and lifetimes of 40 min and longer. Eddies travel alongshore at speeds of ~ 0.3 to 0.5 m/s, at a distance from the shoreline of about 1.3 surf-zone widths. Eddies are also observed to move directly offshore, two surf-zone widths from the shoreline. Fine-scale thermal structure within an eddy includes ~ 6-m-wide cold patches, possibly the surface imprints of bottom-induced turbulence, and a small (<; 10-m wide) `cold core', likely from accumulation of surfactant by radially inward surface flow. Visualization of an eddy is enhanced through flow deformation of surfactant slicks. In particular, narrow slicks appear to be wound-up by an eddy into spirals similar in form to those of a free vortex. In this sense, these nearshore eddies resemble ocean sub-mesoscale `spiral eddies' as seen in synthetic-aperture radar and sunglint imagery.
Elastic response and Ward identities in stressed nematic elastomers

Nematic elastomers exhibit a rich elastic response to external stresses. Of particular interest is the semisoft response of elastomers with an anisotropy direction (z) frozen in by a double cross-linking process. This response is characterized by a stress-strain curve for stresses along x perpendicular to z that rises initially, exhibits a nearly flat plateau between two critical values of strain, and then rises again. This paper explores elastic response in semisoft elastomers as a function of externally applied strain. It derives general Ward identities for elastic moduli and shows that the elastic modulus measuring response to xz shears vanishes at the boundaries of the semisoft plateau whereas moduli measuring response to shears perpendicular to the xz plane do not. It then calculates all relevant moduli in a simple model of elastomers and verifies the general Ward-identity predictions.
A non-parametric approach for co-analysis of multi-modal brain imaging data: Application to Alzheimer's disease

We developed a new flexible approach for a co-analysis of multi-modal brain imaging data using a non-parametric framework. In this approach, results from separate analyses on different modalities are combined using a combining function and assessed with a permutation test. This approach identifies several cross-modality relationships, such as concordance and dissociation, without explicitly modeling the correlation between modalities. We applied our approach to structural and perfusion MRI data from an Alzheimer's disease (AD) study. Our approach identified areas of concordance, where both gray matter (GM) density and perfusion decreased together, and areas of dissociation, where GM density and perfusion did not decrease together. In conclusion, these results demonstrate the utility of this new non-parametric method to quantitatively assess the relationships between multiple modalities.
Immortalization of Human Mammary Epithelial Cells Is Associated with Inactivation of the p14ARF-p53 Pathway

Inactivation of the ARF-p53 tumor suppressor pathway leads to immortalization of murine fibroblasts. The role of this pathway in immortalization of human epithelial cells is not clear. We analyzed the functionality of the p14ARF-p53 pathway in human mammary epithelial cells (MEC) immortalized by human papillomavirus 16 (HPV16) E6, the p53 degradation-defective E6 mutant Y54D, or hTERT. E6-MEC or E6Y54D-MEC maintains high-level expression of p14ARF. Late-passage hTERT-immortalized MEC express p53 but down-regulate p14ARF. Enforced expression of p14ARF induces p53-dependent senescence in hTERT-MEC, while both E6-MEC and E6Y54D-MEC are resistant. We show that E6Y54D inhibits p14ARF-induced activation of p53 without inactivation of the p53-dependent DNA damage response. Hence, p53 degradation and inhibition of p14ARF signaling to p53 are independent functions of HPV16 E6. Our observations imply that long-term proliferation of MEC requires inactivation of the p14ARF-p53 pathway.
Determining physicians' performance. Continuing medical education and other interacting variables.

Participation informal continuing medical education (CME) is required by many organizations and state governments as the foremost means of assuring the quality of medical care. Analysis of the literature reveals that CME in all its forms is effective in improving competence, i.e., the ability to provide good care. However, that competence is not regularly reflected in physicians'habitual performance in the care of patients. A number offactors are known to narrow the gap between competence and performance, including clear specification of standards, individualfeedback on actual performance, and a professional environment conducive to the maintenance of high standards. In the presence of such factors, CMEcan improve physicians 'performance when directed to objectively identified def ciencies. However, public assurance of the quality of medical care can only be provided through certification that individual physicians'performance conforms to contemporary valid standards.
Mugshot database acquisition in video surveillance networks using incremental auto-clustering quality measures

Face recognition has primarily focused on recognizing and matching face images against large, controlled databases of frontal views. Many of these techniques perform well against databases that have been collected from a reduced set of viewpoints, under controlled lighting, and are normalized for scale. Acquisition of these databases, however, particularly in unconstrained environments, remains a challenge. We present a real-time technique to acquire a mugshot database automatically from a video surveillance network. Mugshot extraction is a twofold problem. First, faces are detected and tracked in all cameras of the network. Face targets are analyzed to determine which frames represent actual mugshots capable of supporting subsequent matching and recognition. Next, mugshot candidates are evaluated based on their ability to improve the quality of the incrementally constructed database. We introduce a database quality measure, which assigns high value to mugshots of previously unseen subjects or mugshots that do not decrease separability of existing clusters. The quality measure is discounted for mugshots that are redundant or increase the intra-cluster spread. Results demonstrate that automatic acquisition of a high-quality database from a twelve-camera network is feasible. The quality of these databases is demonstrated using traditional methods to match faces accurately against the acquired database.
Understanding the roles of strictly conserved tryptophan residues in O2 producing chlorite dismutases

The chlorite dismutases (Clds) degrade ClO2− to O2 and Cl− in perchlorate respiring bacteria, and they serve still poorly defined cellular roles in other diverse microbes. These proteins share 3 highly conserved Trp residues, W155, W156, and W227, on the proximal side of the heme. The Cld from Dechloromonas aromatica (DaCld) has been shown to form protein-based radicals in its reactions with ClO2− and peracetic acid. The roles of the conserved Trp residues in radical generation and in enzymatic function were assessed via spectroscopic and kinetic analysis of their Phe mutants. The W155F mutant was the most dramatically affected, appearing to lose the characteristic pentameric oligomerization state, secondary structure, and heme binding properties of the WT protein. The W156F mutant initially retains many features of the WT protein but over time acquires many of the features of W155F. Conversion to an inactive, heme-free form is accelerated by dilution, suggesting loss of the protein's pentameric state. Hence, both W155 and W156 are important for heme binding and maintenance of the protein's reactive pentameric structure. W227F by contrast retains many properties of the WT protein. Important differences are noted in the transient kinetic reactions with peracetic acid (PAA), where W227F appears to form an [Fe(IV)O]-containing intermediate, which subsequently converts to an uncoupled [Fe(IV)O + AA+˙] system in a [PAA]-dependent manner. This is in contrast to the peroxidase-like formation of [Fe(IV)O] coupled to a porphyrin π-cation radical in the WT protein, which decays in a [PAA]-independent manner. These observations and the lack of redox protection for the heme in any of the Trp mutants suggests a tendency for protein radical formation in DaCld that is independent of any of these conserved active site residues.
Ensuring operating system kernel integrity with OSck

Kernel rootkits that modify operating system state to avoid detection are a dangerous threat to system security. This paper presents OSck, a system that discovers kernel rootkits by detecting malicious modifications to operating system data. OSck integrates and extends existing techniques for detecting rootkits, and verifies safety properties for large portions of the kernel heap with minimal overhead. We deduce type information for verification by analyzing unmodified kernel source code and in-memory kernel data structures.High-performance integrity checks that execute concurrently with a running operating system create data races, and we demonstrate a deterministic solution for ensuring kernel memory is in a consistent state. We introduce two new classes of kernel rootkits that are undetectable by current systems, motivating the need for the OSck API that allows kernel developers to conveniently specify arbitrary integrity properties.
Transcriptome and Proteome Dynamics of a Light-Dark Synchronized Bacterial Cell Cycle

Background: Growth of the ocean’s most abundant primary producer, the cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus, is tightly synchronized to the natural 24-hour light-dark cycle. We sought to quantify the relationship between transcriptome and proteome dynamics that underlie this obligate photoautotroph’s highly choreographed response to the daily oscillation in energy supply. Methodology/Principal Findings: Using RNA-sequencing transcriptomics and mass spectrometry-based quantitative proteomics, we measured timecourses of paired mRNA-protein abundances for 312 genes every 2 hours over a light-dark cycle. These temporal expression patterns reveal strong oscillations in transcript abundance that are broadly damped at the protein level, with mRNA levels varying on average 2.3 times more than the corresponding protein. The single strongest observed protein-level oscillation is in a ribonucleotide reductase, which may reflect a defense strategy against phage infection. The peak in abundance of most proteins also lags that of their transcript by 2–8 hours, and the two are completely antiphase for some genes. While abundant antisense RNA was detected, it apparently does not account for the observed divergences between expression levels. The redirection of flux through central carbon metabolism from daytime carbon fixation to nighttime respiration is associated with quite small changes in relative enzyme abundances. Conclusions/Significance: Our results indicate that expression responses to periodic stimuli that are common in natural ecosystems (such as the diel cycle) can diverge significantly between the mRNA and protein levels. Protein expression patterns that are distinct from those of cognate mRNA have implications for the interpretation of transcriptome and metatranscriptome data in terms of cellular metabolism and its biogeochemical impact.
Comparing recovering efficiency of immunomagnetic separation and centrifugation of mycobacteria in metalworking fluids

The accurate detection and enumeration of Mycobacterium immunogenum in metalworking fluids (MWFs) is imperative from an occupational health and industrial fluids management perspective. We report here a comparison of immunomagnetic separation (IMS) coupled to flow-cytometric enumeration, with traditional centrifugation techniques for mycobacteria in a semisynthetic MWF. This immunolabeling involves the coating of laboratory-synthesized nanometer-scale magnetic particles with protein A, to conjugate a primary antibody (Ab), specific to Mycobacterium spp. By using magnetic separation and flow-cytometric quantification, this approach enabled much higher recovery efficiency and fluorescent light intensities in comparison to the widely applied centrifugation technique. This IMS technique increased the cell recovery efficiency by one order of magnitude, and improved the fluorescence intensity of the secondary Ab conjugate by 2-fold, as compared with traditional techniques. By employing nanometer-scale magnetic particles, IMS was found to be compatible with flow cytometry (FCM), thereby increasing cell detection and enumeration speed by up to two orders of magnitude over microscopic techniques. Moreover, the use of primary Ab conjugated magnetic nanoparticles showed better correlation between epifluorescent microscopy counts and FCM analysis than that achieved using traditional centrifugation techniques. The results strongly support the applicability of the flow-cytometric IMS for microbial detection in complex matrices.
Tracking aggregate vs. individual gaze behaviors during a robot-led tour simplifies overall engagement estimates

As an early behavioral study of what non-verbal features a robot tourguide could use to analyze a crowd, personalize an interaction and/or maintain high levels of engagement, we analyze participant gaze statistics in response to a robot tour guide's deictic gestures. There were thirty-seven participants overall split into nine groups of three to five people each. In groups with the lowest engagement levels aggregate gaze responses in response to the robot deictic gesture involved the fewest total glance shifts, least time spent looking at indicated object and no intra-participant gaze. Our diverse participants had overlapping engagement ratings within their group, and we found that a robot that tracks group rather than individual analytics could capture less noisy and often stronger trends relating gaze features to self-reported engagement scores. Thus we have found indications that aggregate group analysis captures more salient and accurate assessments of overall humans-robot interactions, even with lower resolution features.
Theoretical and Experimental (Electron-Impact) Studies of the Low-Lying Rydberg States in O 2

Theoretical studies of the n=3,4,and 5 Rydberg series in O2, converging to O2+(X 2Πg), are presented and correlated with electron energy-loss spectra of molecular oxygen, in the region from 7.0 to 10.5 eV. The energy-loss spectra have been studied as a function of the scattering angle for a incident electron energy of 45 eV. The angular dependence determined for various features in the energy-loss spectra have been correlated with the known behavior for transitions between electronic states of certain symmetry, and with the theoretical results, to identify the low-lying Rydberg states. Four vibrational levels of the (3s σg) 3Πg Rydberg state have been observed superposed on top of the maximum intensity portion of the Schumann-Range continuum with T00=8.145±0.020 eV. The theoretical results, combined with the energy-loss measurements and the high-resolution photon-absorption work, lead to the assignment of the lowest dipole-allowed 3Σu- and 3Πu Rydberg states at T00≤9.31 eV and T00=9.97 eV, respectively.
Low-complexity implementation of state-space structures in linear DSP synthesis

In recent times, we have seen that shift-and-add operations have replaced multiplication for efficient hardware implementation to achieve reduction in hardware and power. Previously, researchers have proposed methods combining architectural transformations and shift-and-add decompositions for hardware optimizations. In this paper, a highly efficient common subexpression elimination (CSE) algorithm based on the binary representation of the system matrices to optimize the hardware requirements in linear Digital Signal Processing (DSP) synthesis is proposed. The algorithm chooses the maximum number of frequently occurring subexpressions to eliminate redundant computations and hence reduces the number of adders required to implement the multiplications in the state space model. Design examples of systems show that the proposed method offers a hardware reduction of around 22% over the previously best known method [11].
Aggressive systemic mastocytosis mimicking lymphoma: description of an unusual presentation and review of the literature on current management strategies.

Systemic mastocytosis (SM) is a rare chronic myeloproliferative neoplasm characterized by the accumulation of morphologically and phenotypically abnormal mast cells in affected organs. The clinical...
Direct Titrimetric Determination of Aromatic Quaternary Ammonium Salts and Long Chain Aliphatic Sulfates and Sulfonates

Aromatic quaternary ammonium salts and long chain aliphatic sulfates and sulfonates can be assayed by a rapid, single phase aqueous titration. Sodium tetraphenylboron serves as a direct standard in the assay of the quaternaries and benzalkonium chloride as the tirrant for anionic detergents. Bromophenol blue indicator gives a purple to blue color change when the anionic substances are titrated in strongly alkaline solution. The results of this method show excellent agreement with the standard chloroform extraction titration.
Estimating visible through near-infrared spectral reflectance from a sensor radiance spectrum

We show that surface spectral reflectance can be separated from illumination effects in visible through near-infrared (350 nm-1740 nm) hyperspectral data by using only the information in a single radiance spectrum. The separation method exploits the fact that reflectance and illumination spectra typically lie in distinct subspaces. We present a comparison of a linear and a nonlinear algorithm for the separation. These algorithms compute an estimate of the spectral reflectance up to a scaling factor. In addition, we present an iterative method that is used to determine the starting point for the nonlinear algorithm. We also develop a method for selecting the dimension of the reflectance and illumination subspaces that is appropriate for material identification applications. The accuracy of the separation methods is quantified by application to noisy visible through near-infrared spectral data with a database of 107 materials and 3000 illumination spectra. The utility of the separation method for material identification is demonstrated with the same database. The results show that accurate reflectance recovery and material identification is possible by use of visible through near-infrared spectral data over the outdoor environmental conditions represented in this data set.