cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
DETECTION OF SINGLE AND DOUBLE STRAND DNA BREAKS DURING EXCITOTOXIC OR APOPTOTIC NEURONAL CELL DEATH

Excitotoxins have been implicated in a number of neurodegenerative diseases.1,2 These excitatory amino acids can cause neuronal death by several mechanisms, but their effect on the genome is not well defined. Damage of the genomic as well as mitochondrial DNA may appear during chronic excitotoxicity leading to a gradual and progressive accumulation of long term macromolecular damage.3,4 Until now, two major categories of genomic DNA degradation have been distinguished in cells. Apoptotic DNA damage results from a specific molecular and biochemical program mediating a cellular death without the manifestations of cytoplasmic alterations such as swelling and lysosomal activation found in the more commonly described necrotic death.5–7 In most cases, apoptotic cell death involves a specific endonucleic cleavage of double stranded DNA and the cell nuclei adopt a characteristic morphology with fragmentation and perinuclear condensation of chromatin.5,6,8–10 Aside from apoptosis, less specific DNA strand breaks have many possible causes such as radiation,11,12 free radicals and other chemical agents.13–16 Defects in one or more DNA repair enzyme can also lead to the accumulation of DNA damage.17–19
Current Use of Steroid Hormone Receptor Assays in the Treatment of Breast Cancer

The current status of the use of estrogen receptor protein assays in the management of patients with breast cancer is reviewed. The use of other biochemical techniques to improve further the accuracy of this assay, and antiestrogens, a group of drugs useful to the oncologist, are also discussed.
Code Frame Switching

Code-switching is the shifting between two or more languages within a sentence or conversation by bi- or multilingual individuals. Examples include interjecting a Cantonese phrase into an English statement or alternating between French and Dutch sentences during a verbal exchange. Keywords: language
Debugging operating systems with time-traveling virtual machines

Operating systems are difficult to debug with traditional cyclic debugging. They are non-deterministic; they run for long periods of time; they interact directly with hard-ware devices; and their state is easily perturbed by the act of debugging. This paper describes a time-traveling virtual machine that overcomes many of the difficulties associated with debugging operating systems. Time travel enables a programmer to navigate backward and forward arbitrarily through the execution history of a particular run and to replay arbitrary segments of the past execution. We integrate time travel into a general-purpose debugger to enable a programmer to debug an OS in reverse, implementing commands such as reverse breakpoint, reverse watchpoint, and reverse single step. The space and time overheads needed to support time travel are reasonable for debugging, and movements in time are fast enough to support interactive debugging. We demonstrate the value of our time-traveling virtual machine by using it to understand and fix several OS bugs that are difficult to find with standard debugging tools. Reverse debugging is especially helpful in finding bugs that are fragile due to non-determinism, bugs in device drivers, bugs that require long runs to trigger, bugs that corrupt the stack, and bugs that are detected after the relevant stack frame is popped.
Polarization of the prompt gamma-ray emission from the gamma-ray burst of 6 december 2002

Observations of the afterglows of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have revealed that they lie at cosmological distances, and so correspond to the release of an enormous amount of energy. The nature of the central engine that powers these events and the prompt gamma-ray emission mechanism itself remain enigmatic because, once a relativistic fireball is created, the physics of the afterglow is insensitive to the nature of the progenitor. Here we report the discovery of linear polarization in the prompt gamma-ray emission from GRB021206, which indicates that it is synchrotron emission from relativistic electrons in a strong magnetic field. The polarization is at the theoretical maximum, which requires a uniform, large-scale magnetic field over the gamma-ray emission region. A large-scale magnetic field constrains possible progenitors to those either having or producing organized fields. We suggest that the large magnetic energy densities in the progenitor environment (comparable to the kinetic energy densities of the fireball), combined with the large-scale structure of the field, indicate that magnetic fields drive the GRB explosion.
The unified programming environment: unobtrusive support

A key to significantly improving the productivity of programmers is the construction of a unified environment that collects and manages all information needed by the programmer and automates many of the programming tasks, both creative and mundane. Much early progress can now be made working only on the mundane tasks while pursuing AI research to develop the technology needed to automate more creative tasks.
Phototoxicology. 2. Near-ultraviolet light enhancement of Microtox assays of trinitrotoluene and aminodinitrotoluenes.

Abstract Coexposure of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT), 2-amino-4,6-dinitrotoluene (2A), or 4-amino-2,6-dinitrotoluene (4A) to near-ultraviolet (nuv) light (λmax−354 nm) significantly enhanced their toxicity toward Photobacterium phosphoreum (Microtox bioassay) during 30 min but not 15 min. Based on the slopes of the dose-response lines, the nuv coexposure and dark toxic mechanisms of action for TNT, 2A, and 4A appeared to be similar. nuv coexposure of binary mixtures significantly enhanced (supraadditivity) the toxicity of these compounds to P. phosphoreum. Under normal laboratory lighting, the toxicity of TNT + 2A and 2A + 4A mixtures were supraadditive but the toxicity of TNT + 4A mixtures could be explained by simple addition. Supporting these conclusions, the response curves of α-terthienyl, a compound known not to require nuv for toxicity, were similar in the dark and with nuv coexposure. In contrast, angelicin and psoralen, compounds known to require nuv coexposure to damage DNA, gave response curves having different slopes in the dark and with nuv coexposure. The nuv coexposure Microtox assay was able to detect and quantify phototoxicity in psoralen, angelicin, α-terthienyl, anthracene, TNT, and aminodinitrotoluenes.
Full authority lateral-directional flight control system design using a reconfigurable control and adaptive learning network: a design proposal

Advanced aircraft capable of high angle of attack maneuverability, tight coupling along the lateral axes, and asymmetric configurations present many challenges for the design of fast, accurate, and computationally robust flight control systems (FCSs). The new generation of digital signal processing integrated circuits affords an opportunity to develop a multiprocessor approach that would provide for parallel connectionist implementation of flight control laws, fast computation and sampling speeds, IEEE standard 32-b floating point accuracy, and the increased memory access capabilities required in the next generation of FCSs. A preliminary design for an autonomous lateral-directional flight control system utilizing a multiprocessor reconfigurable control and adaptive learning network for the monitoring of control surface compliance, control law synthesis, and system attribute learning is presented. >
Genetic Mapping of Mutations Affecting Phosphoglucose Isomerase and Fructose Diphosphatase in Escherichia coli

The loci on the Escherichia coli genome of mutations affecting phosphoglucose isomerase (pgi) and fructose diphosphatase (fdp) have been determined by conjugation and transduction experiments, chiefly three-factor crosses. The loci for these two constitutive enzymes of central intermediary metabolism lie in the same region of the chromosome, but they are not cotransducible. The order of some markers in this region of the chromosome is arg(ACFH) metA pgi malB uvrA fdp pyrB thr.
Fabrication of Superhydrophobic Surfaces

Superhydrophobicity has recently drawn a great deal of attention from both fundamental and practical application points of view. This paper summarizes the basic principles involved in creation of superhydrophobicity and reviews the diverse methods recently developed to make superhydrophobic surfaces and coatings. The hydrophobic property of materials can be amplified through the surface roughness. This was first addressed theoretically in the 1930s and 1940s. Although there have been significant advances made in superhydrophobicity theories, the basic design principles to fabricate superhydrophobic surfaces and coatings remain essentially the same. Recent developments in fabrication of superhydrophobic surfaces can be categorized in three different strategies — (1) roughening hydrophobic surfaces, (2) creating rough topographic features on substrates followed by application of hydrophobic surface modification methods and (3) depositing hydrophobic materials with rough surface textures. Various methods fou...
SDH5 Mutations and Familial Paraganglioma: Somewhere Warburg is Smiling

Paragangliomas have been linked to mutations affecting the succinate dehydrogenase complex. In a recent issue of Science, Rutter and coworkers showed that SDH5 is required for the flavination of SDHA, which is necessary for SDH assembly and function. Moreover, they detected SDH5 mutations in a large kindred with familial paraganglioma.
A quantum Monte Carlo method for non-parabolic electron bands in semiconductor heterostructures

We present a many-body computational technique for simulating interacting electrons in non-parabolic semiconductor bands. The technique uses an imaginary time propagator for a non-parabolic electron band that is described by an energy dependent effective mass. This derivation exploits a mathematical analogy between the kinetic energy with effective mass corrected to first order in energy and the relativistic kinetic energy. The propagator can be used in ground state and finite temperature quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) algorithms. We give a demonstration of this path integral QMC technique applied to interacting electrons in a self-assembled InGaAs quantum dot.
Ultrafast holographic nanopatterning of biocatalytically formed silica

Diatoms are of interest to the materials research community because of their ability to create highly complex and intricate silica structures under physiological conditions: what these single-cell organisms accomplish so elegantly in nature requires extreme laboratory conditions to duplicate1,2—this is true for even the simplest of structures. Following the identification of polycationic peptides from the diatom Cylindrotheca fusiformis, simple silica nanospheres can now be synthesized in vitro from silanes at nearly neutral pH and at ambient temperatures and pressures3,4. Here we describe a method for creating a hybrid organic/inorganic ordered nanostructure of silica spheres through the incorporation of a polycationic peptide (derived from the C. fusiformis silaffin-1 protein) into a polymer hologram created by two-photon-induced photopolymerization. When these peptide nanopatterned holographic structures are exposed to a silicic acid, an ordered array of silica nanospheres is deposited onto the clear polymer substrate. These structures exhibit a nearly fifty-fold increase in diffraction efficiency over a comparable polymer hologram without silica. This approach, combining the ease of processability of an organic polymer with the improved mechanical and optical properties of an inorganic material, could be of practical use for the fabrication of photonic devices.
A Criterion to Identify Multivariable Processes Sensitive to Modeling Errors

A simple multivariable control design procedure is first to decouple the multivariable system and then design each controller separately. Decoupled systems may show high sensitivity to process modeling errors. A criterion indicating the sensitivity of the control structure to modeling errors will be presented. The criterion is based on the variation of the eigenvalues of the Gp*Gp (Gp is the process transfer matrix) with frequency. Stiff process models are highly sensitive to modeling errors. Simulation results demonstrate that the criterion provides a good estimate of the sensitivity of processes with or without time delays.
The nitrate symmetry in metallic nitrates

Abstract An examination of the infrared spectra of metallic nitrates has shown that in progressing from a monovalent metallic nitrate to a tetravalent metallic nitrate and increased lowering of the nitrate symmetry, and a transition from a point group D3h symmetry to a point group C2v symmetry occurs. The degree of dissymmetry arising in these nitrates appears to be related in part to the ionic potential of the cation.
Conformation and sandwiching of bases by azido groups in the crystal structure of 3'-azido-3'-deoxy-thymidine (AZT), an antiviral agent that inhibits HIV reverse transcriptase.

Summary The crystal structure of 3′-azido-3′-deoxy-thymidine (AZT), an antiviral agent that inhibits HIV reverse transcriptase, has been determined from three-dimensional x-ray diffractometer data. The crystal structure contains two independent molecules of AZT forming a hydrogen bonded dimer but exhibiting different conformations. These conformations are different from those theoretically calculated by molecular mechanics methods. The azido groups associate with each other and interrupt the base stacking, forming a sandwich of two stacked bases. The close conformational similarity of AZT to thymidine explains why AZT is a good substrate for thymidine kinase. The selective inhibition of reverse transcriptase by AZT is not due to any conformational restrictions imposed by the azido group but likely due to their stereoelectronic properties.
Synthesis of Deactoxycephalosporin C by a Mutant of Cephalosporium acremonium

Abstract A number of Cephalosporium acremonium mutants blocked in the synthesis of cephalosporin C were investigated for accumulation of other β-lactam compounds. The non-cephalosporin C producers were isolated after exposing the superior cephalosporin C-producing strain M8650-4 to ultraviolet light (268 nm). One of the blocked mutants, MH63, accumulated deacetylcephalosporin C (0.4 mg/ml), deacetoxycephalosporin C (1.5 mg/ml), and penicillin N (2.7 mg/ml). In contrast, the parent of MH63 produced high levels of cephalosporin C as well as deacetylcephalosporin C (2.2 mg/ml) and penicillin N (1.0 mg/ml), but only traces of deacetoxycephalosporin C (about 0.1 mg/ml). Deacetoxycephalosporin C was isolated from the mutant strain and identified by ultraviolet light, nuclear magnetic resonance, bioactivity spectrum, and co-migration with authentic standard in three chromatography systems.
Ion polarizability additivity rule and its application on HTSC substrate materials

Abstract An ion polarizability additivity rule (R. D. Shannon)1 was applied to calculate the dielectric constants of a large family of substrate materials (for HTSC films) and to compare with the measured dielectric constant values. The applicability and the limitations of the model were examined in light of experimental results of new substrate materials. The suitability and the limitations of the ion polarizability additivity rule in predicting dielectric constants of ionic materials were discussed. Possible causes of discrepancies found between the calculated and experimental values of the dielectric polarizabilities and dielectric constants were examined and modifications on the current additivity approach were proposed.
Primary care office policies regarding care of uninsured adult patients

OBJECTIVE: To describe primary care office policies regarding care of uninsured patients. DESIGN: Telephone survey of all adult primary care sites advertising in the area telephone directory. Sites were defined by ownership status, number of physicians, use of physician-extenders, and location. Policies assessed were whether the site was accepting new uninsured patients, billing policies, the availability of free or discounted care, and payment plans. SETTING: Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. PARTICIPANTS: Of the 359 sites identified, 240 (66.9%) responded, representing 794 physicians. Survey respondents included receptionists (40.4%), office managers (36.2%), and physicians (22.9%). RESULTS: While the majority of all sites reported accepting new patients without health insurance (87.5%), policies regarding these patients varied significantly by ownership status and the number of physicians. Sites with 3 or fewer physicians were more likely to accept uninsured patients. Selfowned practices were more likely to require payment at the time of service, and provide discounted care, free care, and payment plans compared with hospital/health system practices or multisite group practices. CONCLUSIONS: Willingness to accept uninsured patients does not always equate to affordable or accessible care. Office policies have the potential to be substantial obstacles to primary care.
Amphetamine-induced changes in behavior and caudate extracellular acetylcholine.

Abstract In vivo microdialysis was used to study the effects of amphetamine on caudate extracellular acetylcholine and to compare these effects to the drug-induced behavioral response profile. Consistent with an inhibitory dopamine/acetylcholine interaction, the dopamine receptor agonist, apomorphine, decreased acetylcholine concentrations, while the dopamine receptor antagonist, haloperidol, increased acetylcholine. In contrast, an intermediate dose of amphetamine (1.75 mg/kg), did not significantly alter acetylcholine levels. Furthermore, a higher dose of amphetamine (5.0 mg/kg) promoted a two-fold increase in acetylcholine levels, and the increase paralleled the appearance of oral stereo-typies in these animals. These results suggest that the effects of amphetamine on caudate acetylcholine, which may be implicated in the appearance of stereotyped behaviors, are not strictly dependent on caudate dopamine receptor activation.
Stratiform cloud formation in the marine boundary layer

Abstract Observations of stratiform clouds in a region several hundred kilometers west of the southern California coast were made from the NCAR Electra research aircraft in the summer of 1987 during the First ISCCP (International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project) Regional Experiment (FIRE). Examples are shown of how heating or cooling of air by the sea and the evaporation of precipitation affect the stability of the temperature profile above the surface layer, which in turn affects the vertical moisture transports and the resulting cloud formation. We expect that sea-surface heating leads to the formation of stratus layers, while sea-surface cooling or cooling from evaporation of precipitation may produce fields of cumuli. The observations lead to a conceptual model of the life cycle of a stratus layer, starting as a thin, rather homogeneous layer, which grows and becomes patchy with time, produces precipitation, followed by formation of small cumuli below, and finally disintegrates, leaving a field of...
Kupffer's vesicle is a ciliated organ of asymmetry in the zebrafish embryo that initiates left-right development of the brain, heart and gut.

Monocilia have been proposed to establish the left-right (LR) body axis in vertebrate embryos by creating a directional fluid flow that triggers asymmetric gene expression. In zebrafish, dorsal forerunner cells (DFCs) express a conserved ciliary dynein gene ( left-right dynein-related1 , lrdr1 ) and form a ciliated epithelium inside a fluid-filled organ called Kupffer9s vesicle (KV). Here, videomicroscopy demonstrates that cilia inside KV are motile and create a directional fluid flow just prior to the onset of asymmetric gene expression in lateral cells. Laser ablation of DFCs and surgical disruption of KV provide direct evidence that ciliated KV cells are required during early somitogenesis for subsequent LR patterning in the brain, heart and gut. Antisense morpholinos against lrdr1 disrupt KV fluid flow and perturb LR development. Furthermore, lrdr1 morpholinos targeted to DFC/KV cells demonstrate that Lrdr1 functions in these ciliated cells to control LR patterning. This provides the first direct evidence, in any vertebrate, that impairing cilia function in derivatives of the dorsal organizer, and not in other cells that express ciliogenic genes, alters LR development. Finally, genetic analysis reveals novel roles for the T-box transcription factor no tail and the Nodal signaling pathway as upstream regulators of lrdr1 expression and KV morphogenesis. We propose that KV is a transient embryonic `organ of asymmetry9 that directs LR development by establishing a directional fluid flow. These results suggest that cilia are an essential component of a conserved mechanism that controls the transition from bilateral symmetry to LR asymmetry in vertebrates.
Vanadium metabolism in tunicates: The coordination chemistry of V(III), V(IV), and V(V) with models for the tunichromes

Abstract Two isomeric tunichrome model compounds have been prepared from spermidine and trihydroxybenzoic acid. The coordination chemistry of these ligands with V(III), (IV), and (V) are reported. Vanadium(V) is found to undergo rapid reduction to V(IV) in the presence of these ligands, Vanadium(IV) complexes were characterized by optical and EPR spectroscopy as well as elemental analysis and magnetic measurements. Vanadium(III) also reacts rapidly with these ligands, producing what is thought to be a VOV dimer in acidic solution. The biological implications of the coordination chemistry reported herein with respect to vanadium metabolism in ascidians is discussed.
A Natural Language Processing-Based Active and Interactive Platform for Accessing English Language Content and Advanced Language Learning

Abstract SmartReader is a general-purpose “reading appliance” being implemented at Carnegie Mellon University (Qatar and Pittsburgh) - building upon an earlier prototype version. It is an artificial intelligence system that employs advanced language processing technologies and can interact with the reader and respond to queries about the content, words and sentences in a text. We expect it to be used by students in Qatar and elsewhere to help improve their comprehension of English text. SmartReader is motivated by the observation that text is still the predominant medium for learning especially at the advanced level and that text, being ``bland’’, is hardly a conducive and motivating medium for learning, especially when one does not have access to tools that enable one get over language roadblocks, ranging from unknown words to unrecognized and forgotten names, to hard-to-understand sentences. SmartReader strives to make reading (English) textual material, an “active” and an “interactive” process with the user interacting with the text using anytime-anywhere contextually-guided query mechanism based-on contextual user intent recognition. With SmartReader, a user can -inquire about the contextually correct meaning or synonyms of a word or idiomatic and multi-word constructions, -select a person's name, and then get an immediate ``flashback’’ to the first (or the last) time the person was encountered in text to remind herself the details of the person, -extract a summary of a section to remember important aspects of the content at the point she left off, and continue reading with a significantly refreshed context, -select a sentence that she may not be able to understand fully and ask SmartReader to break it down, simplify or paraphrase to comprehend it better. -test her comprehension of the text in a page or a chapter, by asking SmartReader to dynamically generate quizzes and answering them. -ask questions about the content of the text and get answers in addition to many other functions. SmartReader is being implemented as a multi-platform (tablet/PC) client-server system using HTML5 technology, with Unstructured Information Management Architecture -UIMA technology (used recently in IBM's Watson Q/A system in the Jeopardy Challenge) as the underlying language processing framework.
Fluidic adaptive zoom lens with high zoom ratio and widely tunable field of view

Abstract Zoom lenses consisting of two widely tunable fluidic lenses were fabricated. A theoretical model for zoom lens without changing relative lens location was also presented. Without varying the lens spacing, a zoom ratio higher than 4.0 was demonstrated. Unlike conventional zoom lenses having either a telephoto (concave–convex) or a reverse-telephoto (convex–concave) structure, the fluidic adaptive zoom lens incorporates both configurations into one system, leading to unique functionalities such as a tunable field of view from 6° to 74°.
Glial-restricted precursors are derived from multipotent neuroepithelial stem cells.

Abstract Neuroepithelial cells in the developing ventricular zone differentiate into neurons, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes. It is not known, however, whether this differentiation occurs in a single step or is a pathway utilizing intermediate more restricted precursor cells. To characterize the generation of glial cells from multipotent stem cells we have cultured neuroepithelial (NEP) cells from E10.5 rat embryos. Cultured NEP cells do not express any glial differentiation markers when grown on fibronectin/laminin under nondifferentiation conditions. NEP cells, however, differentiate into A2B5 immunoreactive cells which can subsequently give rise to oligodendrocytes and astrocytes. Clonal analysis of NEP cells demonstrates that the A2B5 immunoreactive cells arise in clones that contain neurons and astrocytes, indicating that A2B5+cells arise from multipotent NEP precursor cells. A2B5+cells, maintained as undifferentiated cells over multiple passages, can subsequently give rise to both oligodendrocytes and astrocytes. A2B5+cells, however, do not generate neurons. Thus A2B5+cells represent a restricted progenitor cell population that differentiates from a multipotent NEP cell. Based on our results we propose that differentiation of the multipotential NEP cells to terminally differentiated glial cells occurs via intermediate restricted precursors.
Patterning of diverse mammalian cell types in serum free medium with photoablation

Integration of living cells with novel microdevices requires the development of innovative technologies for manipulating cells. Chemical surface patterning has been proven as an effective method to control the attachment and growth of diverse cell populations. Patterning polyelectrolyte multilayers through the combination of layer-by-layer self-assembly technique and photolithography offer a simple, versatile, and silicon compatible approach that overcomes chemical surface patterning limitations, such as short-term stability and low-protein adsorption resistance. In this study, direct photolithographic patterning of two types of multilayers, PAA (poly acrylic acid)/PAAm (poly acryl amide) and PAA/PAH (poly allyl amine hydrochloride), were developed to pattern mammalian neuronal, skeletal, and cardiac muscle cells. For all studied cell types, PAA/PAAm multilayers behaved as a cytophobic surface, completely preventing cell attachment. In contrast, PAA/PAH multilayers have shown a cell-selective behavior, promoting the attachment and growth of neuronal cells (embryonic rat hippocampal and NG108-15 cells) to a greater extent, while providing little attachment for neonatal rat cardiac and skeletal muscle cells (C2C12 cell line). PAA/PAAm multilayer cellular patterns have also shown a remarkable protein adsorption resistance. Protein adsorption protocols commonly used for surface treatment in cell culture did not compromise the cell attachment inhibiting feature of the PAA/PAAm multilayer patterns. The combination of polyelectrolyte multilayer patterns with different adsorbed proteins could expand the applicability of this technology to cell types that require specific proteins either on the surface or in the medium for attachment or differentiation, and could not be patterned using the traditional methods.
The Phenotypic Spectrum of Contiguous Deletion of CYP21A2 and Tenascin XB: Quadricuspid Aortic Valve and Other Midline Defects

Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) due to 21-hydroxylase deficiency is an autosomal recessive disorder and is the most common cause of ambiguous genitalia in the newborn. The genes encoding 21-hydroxylase, CYP21A2, and tenascin-X (TNX), TNXB, are located within the HLA complex, in a region of high gene density termed the RCCX module. The module has multiple pseudogenes as well as tandem repeat sequences that promote misalignment during meiosis leading to complex gene rearrangements, deletions and gene conversion events. CYP21A2 mutations cause CAH, and TNX deficiency has been identified as a cause of hypermobility type Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS). Here we report on a three-generation family with a heterozygous deletion encompassing CYP21A2 and TNXB that initially came to medical attention due to the diagnosis of CAH in the proposita. Southern blotting and PCR-based analysis of the RCCX module revealed a CYP21A2 deletion extending into TNXB in one allele and a CYP21A2 point mutation in the other allele. Family history is notable for joint hypermobility. Additional radiological and clinical investigations showed a quadricuspid aortic valve, single kidney, bicornuate uterus and a bifid uvula in the proposita, and mitral valve prolapse in her mother. These findings further delineate the phenotype of the CAH-TNX contiguous gene deletion syndrome and point to an intersection of connective tissue dysplasias with a common gene-mediated endocrine disorder.
The intractability of the reliable assignment problem in split networks

The residual network reliability concerns networks with perfect edges and nodes that fail independently. It measures the probability that the network's operating nodes remain connected. The Assignment Problem deals with allocating given operating probabilities to the nodes of the network in such a way that the resulting residual network reliability is maximized. in this paper, we show that the Assignment Problem is computationally hard even for the restricted class of split networks, a generalization of threshold networks for which the problem is solvable in polynomial time.
Novel test of motor and other dysfunctions in mouse neurological disease models

Background Just like human neurological disorders, corresponding mouse models present multiple deficiencies. Estimating disease progression or potential treatment effectiveness in such models necessitates the use of time consuming and multiple tests usually requiring a large number of scarcely available genetically modified animals.
Simulation of a Multiagent System for Retail Inventory Control: A Case Study

The supply chain of a manufacturing enterprise is a worldwide network of suppliers, factories, warehouses, distribution centers, and retailers through which raw materials are acquired, transformed, and delivered to customers. Supply chain functions must operate in a coordinated manner to optimize performance. But the dynamics of the enterprise and the market make this difficult: materials do not arrive on time, production facilities fail, and employees are ill, causing deviations from the plans. In some cases, these events may be dealt with locally. In other cases, the problem cannot be locally contained, and modifications across many functions are required. This paper describes the use of agent technology to improve performance within important aspects of supply chain management. A supply chain model will be designed and implemented in ZUES. Through simulation on different configurations of the model, the impact of information sharing and coordination on supply chain performance will be analyzed.
Acoustic startle responses and temperament in individuals who stutter.

Fourteen individuals who stutter and 14 individuals who do not stutter were presented with 10 bursts of white noise to assess the magnitude of their eyeblink responses as a measure of temperament. Both the magnitude of the eyeblink response to the initial noise burst and the mean of the 10 responses were significantly greater for the stuttering group. The Taylor-Johnson Temperament Analysis (R. M. Taylor & L. P. Morrison, 1996) did not distinguish between the two groups, but informal follow-up statistics indicated that the Nervous subscale showed a significant group difference. Scores on this subscale were also significantly positively correlated with the magnitude of the startle response. A discriminant analysis demonstrated that although both the startle response and the nervous trait differentiated the two groups, the startle response measures were more powerful in making this differentiation.
Modulation spectroscopy as a tool for electronic material characterization

Modulation spectroscopy is an optical characterization tool that can be of great utility to the materials scientist. We present here numerous examples where a simple photo-reflectance and electroreflectance setup is used in our laboratory to determine such important material parameters as alloy composition and carrier concentration in a very short time. For determining alloy composition in semiconductors, contactless room temperature photoreflectance is nearly as sensitive as low temperature photoluminescence. Examples will be given on how to determine: the effects of surface preparation and implant damage; alloy composition and carrier homogeneity for large area wafers to better than 1%; the segregation coefficient of isoelectronic impurities in bulk semiconductors; the sub-band energies in quantum well structures; and the presence and homogeneity of built-in electric fields in MODFET structures. Particular emphasis will be placed on band edge and exciton effects on the photoreflectance and on the criteria used to distinguish between them. Materials studied included Si doped GaAs, AlxGa1-xAs for variousx grown by OMVPE and MBE, bulk InP doped with iso-electronic As and Sb, and MODFET structures.
The mechanism of methanol formation and other reactions following formaldehyde adsorption on Ni(110)

The adsorption/desorption and reactive behavior of formaldehyde was studied on clean single-crystal Ni(110) at adsorption temperatures down to 200 °K. For low exposures of the surface to formaldehyde, hydrogen and CO binding states were populated due to decomposition of the molecule upon adsorption. Higher exposures gave rise to a decomposition-limited hydrogen peak exhibiting an activation energy of 20 kcal/gmol and an apparent frequency factor of 1014 sec−1. At initial coverages of H2CO exceeding about 0.5, monolayer methanol was observed to form. The formation of methanol involved a hydrogen atom transfer between two adsorbed H2CO molecules and did not occur totally via surface hydrogen. Self-oxidation to form CO2 was also observed. The surface exhibited reaction heterogeneity, and the surface reactivity was observed to depend on the temperature of adsorption of reactants, suggesting strong adsorbate-induced surface “reconstruction.”
Feeding Activity, Growth, and Survival of Soybean Looper on Low-Nitrogen Nonnodulating Soybean

Feeding and larval development of several lepidopteran species are influenced by reduced foliage N of host plants. Nonnodulating soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] isolines have exhibited foliar symptoms typical of N deficiency in field plots in absence of supplemental N. Under these chlorotic conditions, reduced defoliation and larval development of soybean looper [Lepidoptera:Noctuidae, Pseudoplusia includens (Walker)] have been observed. This study was conducted to evaluate the influence of foliage N level of nodulating and nonnodulating soybean isolines on feeding and development of the soybean looper. Two feeding studies involving the soybean looper and foliage of nodulating and nonnodulating isolines of «Clark» soybean were conducted using foliage collected from plants in full bloom (R2) and in the beginning seed stage (R5). The foliage N level of the nonnodulating isoline was not significantly lower than that of the nodulating isoline when collected at R2 and, consequently, only slight effects on feeding and development were attributable to consumption of nonnodulating isoline foliage. However, chlorosis and a 43% reduction in the foliage N level of the nonnodulating isoline occurred by R5, resulting in limited compensatory feeding, extended larval development, and reduced survival when soybean loopers consumed this isoline. Foliage N concentrations of 40 mg g −1 leaf dry weight were sufficient for soybean looper development from the neonate to the adult stage, while concentrations of 23 mg g − leaf dry weight were inhibitory
Materials for noise reduction in food processing environments

Abstract Government standards for noise levels in industrial environments including the food processing industry have led to a program of materials selection for noise reduction. In addition to traditional architectural considerations, the constraints of sanitation and cost were factors. Primary materials systems studied were: (i) metal/polymer composites for impact noise reduction, (ii) polymer film/foam composites for sound absorption and (iii) transparent polymer barrier/enclosures. Of these three material systems, the third appears to be the most effective choice for reducing noise in the canneries.
Mutations in a Specific Human Serum Albumin Thyroxine Binding Site Define the Structural Basis of Familial Dysalbuminemic Hyperthyroxinemia

The familial dysalbuminemic hyperthyroxinemia (FDH) phenotype results from a natural human serum albumin (HSA) mutant with histidine instead of arginine at amino acid position 218. This mutation results in an enhanced affinity for thyroxine. Site-directed mutagenesis and a yeast protein expression system were used to synthesize wild type HSA and FDH HSA as well as several other HSA mutants. Studies on the binding of thyroxine to these HSA species using equilibrium dialysis and quenching of tryptophan 214 fluorescence suggest that the FDH mutation affects a single thyroxine binding site located in the 2A subdomain of HSA. Site-directed mutagenesis of HSA and thyroxine analogs were used to obtain information about the mechanism of thyroxine binding to both wild type and FDH HSA. These studies suggest that the guanidino group of arginine at amino acid position 218 in wild type HSA is involved in an unfavorable binding interaction with the amino group of thyroxine, whereas histidine at amino acid position 218 in FDH HSA is involved in a favorable binding interaction with thyroxine. Neither arginine at amino acid position 222 nor tryptophan at amino acid position 214 appears to favorably influence the binding of thyroxine to wild type HSA.
Compressibility of RbBr at elevated pressures

Abstract Compressibility data of RbBr measured by an in situ X-ray energy-dispersive diamond-anvil pressure cell are reported. Measurements of molar volumes were made at room temperature to greater than 15 GPa. The results obtained with a pressure transmitting medium were in agreement with those of previous workers (Bridgman ( 1 ) and Vaidya and Kennedy ( 2 )) using the piston-displacement technique at lower pressures. The results obtained without a pressure transmitting medium, but were probably hydroscopic, were systematically more compressible than those of previous workers. Measurements from this work, combined with Bridgman's ( 1 ) and Vaidya and Kennedy's ( 2 ) piston-displacement measurements to 40,000 kg/cm 2 and 45 kbar, respectively, yielded values of K ° T = 13.84 ± 1.03 GPa and K °′ T = 5.24 ± 0.29.
Molecular and Electronic Structures, Brönsted Basicities, and Lewis Acidities of Group VIB Transition Metal Oxide Clusters

The structures and properties of transition metal oxide (TMO) clusters of the group VIB metals, (MO3)n (M = Cr, Mo, W; n = 1−6), have been studied with density functional theory (DFT) methods. Geometry optimizations and frequency calculations were carried out at the local and nonlocal DFT levels with polarized valence double-ζ quality basis sets, and final energies were calculated at nonlocal DFT levels with polarized valence triple-ζ quality basis sets at the local and nonlocal DFT geometries. Effective core potentials were used to treat the transition metal atoms. Two types of clusters were investigated, the ring and the chain, with the ring being lower in energy. Large ring structures (n > 3) were shown to be fluxional in their out of plane deformations. Long chain structures (n > 3) of (CrO3)n were predicted to be weakly bound complexes of the smaller clusters at the nonlocal DFT levels. For M6O18, two additional isomers were also studied, the cage and the inverted cage. The relative stability of the ...
Preparation of bifunctonal catallysts

Abstract Catalyzed reactions are usually a combination of various reaction pathways that require Catalysts to possess more than one chemical function. These reaction types and Catalyst functions are reviewed and bifunctionality of Catalysts is exemplified in the ensemble control effect for oxidation of carbons to CO/CO2, double redox oxide Catalysts for partial oxidation of methane, base-hydrogenation Catalysts for methanol and higher alcohol synthesis as well as the water gas shift reaction, hydrogenation-CO insertion Catalysts for higher alcohol synthesis, and acid- hydrogenation Catalysts for the synthesis of ethers.
Tight gas sandstone seismic monitoring, Rulison Field, Colorado

Rulison Field is a basin-centered gas accumulation with a long production history dating back to the 1960s (Figure 1). Production is mainly from tight gas sandstones in the Williams Fork interval (Figure 2). Natural fractures significantly enhance the relative permeability to gas. Generally, fracture stimulation techniques have been applied to the tight gas sands, and yet their productivity is largely dependent on how the hydraulic fracture contacts natural fractures in the completion process.
The Anal Plates of Larval Hydrellia pakistanae (Diptera: Ephydridae)

Abstract The objective of this research was to describe the anal plates of the larval stages of the ephydrid fly, Hydrellia pakistanae Deonier, a biological control agent of hydrilla (Hydrilla verticillata (L.f.) Royle). This was accomplished using light microscopy coupled with a specialized staining technique; and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). AU 3 instars of H. pakistanae were collected from hydrilla cultured in outdoor concrete-lined ponds. To ascribe a function to the anal plates, a modified staining technique was employed that uses a 5% silver nitrate solution, which, upon ionization, binds with chloride ions suggesting an osmoregulatory function. Under light microscopy the two anal plates appeared smooth, flat crescent moon-shaped structures that encircled the anus of the larva. SEM revealed the anal plates to be relatively smooth with an undulating surface pattern possibly an artifact of the high vacuum conditions associated with the SEM. This may therefore indicate a difference in cuticle th...
Stratigraphical and geographical distribution of Mississippian (Lower Carboniferous) Crinoidea from England and Wales

SUMMARY Sixty genera of Mississippian crinoids, comprising 191 species, are evaluated from 83 localities in England and Wales, based on modern revisions from the literature, study of museum collections and new field work. These genera occurred through ten time units in the Mississippian (Tournaisian–Serpukhovian). Among the 191 species, 161 are considered valid with 28 requiring new combinations of genus and species names. Twelve species are considered nomina dubia, one species is considered a nomen nudum, three species cannot be assigned with certainty to a genus, and 14 can only be assigned at the generic level. Hastarian (Times 1 and 2) faunas have a very low generic richness with only one genus known. Ivorian (Time 3) faunas have a substantially higher generic richness with 21 genera known. Chadian faunas have the highest generic richness with 28 genera from the lower Chadian (Time 4) and 19 genera from the upper Chadian (Time 5). Post-Chadian faunas include those from the Arundian (Time 6), Holkerian (Time 7), Asbian (Time 8), Brigantian (Time 9) and Pendleian (Time 10); all have low generic richness with 0, 4, 7, 13 and 7 genera known, respectively. The dominant Mississippian crinoid faunas are on Ivorian carbonate ramps, Chadian Waulsortian and Waulsortian-related facies, and in the Pendleian marine beds that supported Woodocrinus. In comparable facies, the composition of faunas is similar in England and Wales and North America, although generic richness is commonly lower in England and Wales. The overall crinoid fauna has much lower generic richness in England and Wales than in North America because the stratigraphical record of England and Wales preserves a much lower diversity of crinoid-bearing facies. The critical Arundian-Holkerian interval for Palaeozoic crinoid history is poorly represented in England and Wales.
A Narrative Principle for Feminist Social Work With Survivors of Male Violence

Blame surrounds and embeds male violence against women, acting as oppressive propaganda that shapes survivors’ identities, which, in turn, reduce their options. This article challenges the notion that violence against women renders women passive and precludes their resistance. It describes a narrative practice principle—coconstructing women’s new identity stories—to guide social work in countering this propaganda with women survivors of male violence. Blame is addressed as a cultural narrative within which some women are targeted by male violence and all women construct their identities. As a feminist social work principle, coconstructing women’s new identity stories connects the political and the individual facets of male violence, expanding women’s options for action. Specifically, the article presents the principle and three processes for translating it into action.
The transition from adolescent to adult: a time of change in general and specific deviance

Background Change in the construct of General Deviance is examined across a 16-year period spanning the transition from adolescence into adulthood. General deviance comprises sub-components of licit and illicit drug use, criminal activity, and social conformity. Method Using latent growth curve modelling, the level, pattern and rate of change in both the overarching construct of General Deviance and the sub-components of deviance are examined. Results/Conclusions General Deviance and sub-components of deviance, with the exception of licit drug use, declined across this transition period. Level and rate of change in General Deviance and the social conformity sub-component were predicted primarily from family and attitudinal variables. Level and rate of change in illicit drug use and criminal activity were predicted primarily by peer influence variables. Copyright © 1999 Whurr Publishers Ltd.
Linguistic Trade-Offs in School-Age Children With and Without Language Disorders

Factors influencing the occurrence of trade-off effects among linguistic components were examined. Several linguistic measures were used to represent syntactic and phonological production in order to determine whether interrelationship patterns would vary across measures. Linguistic interactions present in imitated speech were compared to those from spontaneous speech. Group effects were explored by comparing data from children with language-learning disabilities, children with reading disabilities, and normally developing children. Results indicated trade-offs between some linguistic measures and positive relationships among others. More trade-offs were present in imitated speech than in spontaneous utterances. In general, interrelationship patterns were similar across groups. Interpretation of these results in reference to current models of sentence production is offered.