cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Acute Effects of Smoked and Vaporized Cannabis in Healthy Adults Who Infrequently Use Cannabis: A Crossover Trial.

Importance Vaporization is an increasingly popular method for cannabis administration, and policy changes have increased adult access to cannabis drastically. Controlled examinations of cannabis vaporization among adults with infrequent current cannabis use patterns (>30 days since last use) are needed. Objective To evaluate the acute dose effects of smoked and vaporized cannabis using controlled administration methods. Design, Setting, and Participants This within-participant, double-blind, crossover study was conducted from June 2016 to January 2017 at the Behavioral Pharmacology Research Unit, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and included 17 healthy adults. Six smoked and vaporized outpatient experimental sessions (1-week washout between sessions) were completed in clusters (order counterbalanced across participants); dose order was randomized within each cluster. Interventions Cannabis containing Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) doses of 0 mg, 10 mg, and 25 mg was vaporized and smoked by each participant. Main Outcomes and Measures Change from baseline scores for subjective drug effects, cognitive and psychomotor performance, vital signs, and blood THC concentration. Results The sample included 17 healthy adults (mean [SD] age, 27.3 [5.7] years; 9 men and 8 women) with no cannabis use in the prior month (mean [SD] days since last cannabis use, 398 [437] days). Inhalation of cannabis containing 10 mg of THC produced discriminative drug effects (mean [SD] ratings on a 100-point visual analog scale, smoked: 46 [26]; vaporized: 69 [26]) and modest impairment of cognitive functioning. The 25-mg dose produced significant drug effects (mean [SD] ratings, smoked: 66 [29]; vaporized: 78 [24]), increased incidence of adverse effects, and pronounced impairment of cognitive and psychomotor ability (eg, significant decreased task performance compared with placebo in vaporized conditions). Vaporized cannabis resulted in qualitatively stronger drug effects for most pharmacodynamic outcomes and higher peak concentrations of THC in blood, compared with equal doses of smoked cannabis (25-mg dose: smoked, 10.2 ng/mL; vaporized, 14.4 ng/mL). Blood THC concentrations and heart rate peaked within 30 minutes after cannabis administration and returned to baseline within 3 to 4 hours. Several subjective drug effects and observed cognitive and psychomotor impairments persisted for up to 6 hours on average. Conclusions and Relevance Vaporized and smoked cannabis produced dose-orderly drug effects, which were stronger when vaporized. These data can inform regulatory and clinical decisions surrounding the use of cannabis among adults with little or no prior cannabis exposure. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03676166.
Abstract WP225: Exploring the Relationship between Sleep Duration and Stroke Severity in Mild/moderate Stroke and TIA patients: Evidence from the Discharge Educational Strategies for Reduction of Vascular Events (DESERVE) Study

Introduction: Prior research has shown that sleep duration is associated with risk of stroke and other cardiovascular events. However, evidence is sparse linking sleep duration with stroke severity...
Endothelial signaling by neutrophil-released oncostatin M enhances P-selectin-dependent inflammation and thrombosis.

In the earliest phase of inflammation, histamine and other agonists rapidly mobilize P-selectin to the apical membranes of endothelial cells, where it initiates rolling adhesion of flowing neutrophils. Clustering of P-selectin in clathrin-coated pits facilitates rolling. Inflammatory cytokines typically signal by regulating gene transcription over a period of hours. We found that neutrophils rolling on P-selectin secreted the cytokine oncostatin M (OSM). The released OSM triggered signals through glycoprotein 130 (gp130)–containing receptors on endothelial cells that, within minutes, further clustered P-selectin and markedly enhanced its adhesive function. Antibodies to OSM or gp130, deletion of the gene encoding OSM in hematopoietic cells, or conditional deletion of the gene encoding gp130 in endothelial cells inhibited neutrophil rolling on P-selectin in trauma-stimulated venules of the mouse cremaster muscle. In a mouse model of P-selectin–dependent deep vein thrombosis, deletion of OSM in hematopoietic cells or of gp130 in endothelial cells markedly inhibited adhesion of neutrophils and monocytes and the rate and extent of thrombus formation. Our results reveal a paracrine-signaling mechanism by which neutrophil-released OSM rapidly influences endothelial cell function during physiological and pathological inflammation.
Growing Inequality: What Can We Do?:

Growing inequality in the world is disturbing. For example, on average, the top 10 percent of the households hold 50 percent of total wealth. Inequality is even higher in emerging and developing co...
Effect of Distributor Structure on the Uniformity of Multiphase System in Fluidized Ironmaking Process

For the uneven gas–solid distribution in the process of fluidized bed ironmaking, the effect of the distributor on gas–solid homogeneity in fluidized bed was investigated by using physical simulation. Statistical analysis and spectral analysis were used to investigate the pressure fluctuations in the fluidized bed with the distributor of different perforated ratio, and the results were verified by optical analysis. The results reveal that the smaller perforated ratio of the distributor can reduce the bubble size of the whole bed and reduce the pressure fluctuation. Thus, the gas–solid dispersion is uniform, and the fluidization quality of the fluidized bed is improved. However, the distributor has a limited effect area, which has a great influence on the lower part of the fluidized bed. As the gas velocity and the height increase, the effect becomes weaker. Under the operating conditions of 100 L/min, the perforated ratio of 0.91% can reduce the pressure drop of the entire bed by 65%. It can also reduce the pressure drop deviation in the lower part of the bed by more than 79%.
Quantitative comparison of Drosophila behavior annotations by human observers and a machine learning algorithm

Automated quantification of behavior is increasingly prevalent in neuroscience research. Human judgments can influence machine-learning-based behavior classification at multiple steps in the process, for both supervised and unsupervised approaches. Such steps include the design of the algorithm for machine learning, the methods used for animal tracking, the choice of training images, and the benchmarking of classification outcomes. However, how these design choices contribute to the interpretation of automated behavioral classifications has not been extensively characterized. Here, we quantify the effects of experimenter choices on the outputs of automated classifiers of Drosophila social behaviors. Drosophila behaviors contain a considerable degree of variability, which was reflected in the confidence levels associated with both human and computer classifications. We found that a diversity of sex combinations and tracking features was important for robust performance of the automated classifiers. In particular, features concerning the relative position of flies contained useful information for training a machine-learning algorithm. These observations shed light on the importance of human influence on tracking algorithms, the selection of training images, and the quality of annotated sample images used to benchmark the performance of a classifier (the ‘ground truth’). Evaluation of these factors is necessary for researchers to accurately interpret behavioral data quantified by a machine-learning algorithm and to further improve automated classifications.
Robotic Hiatal Hernia Repair

Hiatal hernias present a clinical and anatomical entity that must be fully appreciated for safe and effective management. They are an uncommon form of hiatal hernia that present clinically in the population of patients over 65 years of age. The most common symptomatic presentations of a paraesophageal hernia (PEH) include dysphagia, regurgitation, gastroesophageal reflux, dyspnea, chest or epigastric pain or pressure, and anemia. Robotic repair of a paraesophageal hernia is an efficient and ergonomic approach to this challenging anatomical problem. Added precision and extended accessibility and visualization of the thorax from an abdominal approach makes the robotic repair a preferred surgical method. Paraesophageal hernia repair may be performed via a trans-thoracic or trans-abdominal approach. Open, laparoscopic, and robotic techniques may be applied.
Reduced Self-Doping of Perovskites Induced by Short Annealing for Efficient Solar Modules

Summary Controlling of doping in semiconducting light absorber can minimize the charge recombination and maximizing power output from solar cells; however, it is challenging for perovskites due to lack of controlled doping. Here, we report that a short post-annealing of less than 3 min for facilitating high-throughput manufacturing of perovskite solar modules in an ambient environment maintains the stoichiometric composition of perovskites, encouraging a spontaneous de-doping of perovskites during aging. The reduced self-doping results in less charge recombination and, thus, higher device efficiency. The stabilized open-circuit voltage of sub-cells in the CH3NH3PbI3 minimodules with an area >20 cm2 reaches 1.19 V on average. The aperture efficiency reaches 17.8% under one sun and 18.7% under a quarter sun illumination, deriving an averaged efficiency >20.0% for each sub-cell with an area >3 cm2, demonstrating the excellent uniformity of the films by this scalable process. The minimodule also works as uniform light-emitting devices.
Sympathetic nervous tone limits the development of myeloid-derived suppressor cells

Sympathetic nerves that innervate lymphoid organs regulate immune development and function by releasing norepinephrine that is sensed by immune cells via their expression of adrenergic receptors. Here, we demonstrate that ablation of sympathetic nervous system (SNS) signaling suppresses tumor immunity, and we dissect the mechanism of such immune suppression. We report that disruption of the SNS in mice removes a critical α-adrenergic signal required for maturation of myeloid cells in normal and tumor-bearing mice. In tumor-bearing mice, disruption of the α-adrenergic signal leads to the accumulation of immature myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) that suppress tumor immunity and promote tumor growth. Furthermore, we show that these SNS-responsive MDSCs drive expansion of regulatory T cells via secretion of the alarmin heterodimer S100A8/A9, thereby compounding their immunosuppressive activity. Our results describe a regulatory framework in which sympathetic tone controls the development of innate and adaptive immune cells and influences their activity in health and disease.
Concurrent functional regression to reconstruct river stage data during flood events

On October 4, 2015, the Cedar Creek gage at Congaree National Park stopped reporting stages, and the readings did not resume until approximately 2 weeks later because of record-breaking rainfall that led to some of the worst floodings in South Carolina history. Our goal is to reconstruct the Cedar Creek stage during this missing 2-week window. Our analysis uses a sample of ten historical flood events from the last 25 years. The Congaree River gage in Congaree National Park remained functioning throughout the October 2015 flood, when the stage reached its maximum recorded crest. The stages from the two gages are directly related during floods. We introduce a new method to objectively determine the start and end points of each flood event in the sample and then use these events to predict the missing Cedar Creek stage. We treat the stage as functional data and use a concurrent model to establish the relationship between the two locations during each timepoint of prior flood events. Once this relationship is found, the known Congaree stage is used to predict the missing Cedar Creek stage during the 2015 flood. The results show that there is a strong functional relationship between the two locations, and that the crest of Cedar Creek is a historic high, reaching stages above 17 feet, with a previous high of just over 16 feet.
Session details: Contributed articles

The last decade has witnessed revolutionary breakthroughs in biotechnology, accompanied with the rapid accumulation of genome-wide biological data as well as various types of biomedical or clinical data. At the same time, bioinformaticians have faced a great challenge; how to manage and mine such large-scale, complex data for significant knowledge discovery. Recent research in bioinformatics has highlighted the application of effective computational approaches to tackle this challenge.The section "Contributed Articles" on SIGBioinformatics Records presents high-quality research introducing new development of cutting-edge technology and demonstrating biologically influential results. The main purpose of this section is to address open issues in all computational aspects of bioinformatics and biomedicine including algorithms, modeling, simulation, databases and applications. In this issue, two recent research articles are presented.
Intrinsically disordered pathogen effector alters the STAT1 dimer to prevent recruitment of co-transcriptional activators CBP/p300

Signal transducer and activator of transcription (STATs) proteins signal from cell-surface receptors to drive transcription of immune response genes. The parasite Toxoplasma gondii blocks STAT1-mediated gene expression by secreting the intrinsically disordered protein TgIST that traffics to the host nucleus, binds phosphorylated STAT1 dimers, and occupies nascent transcription sites that unexpectantly remain silenced. Here we define a core repeat region within internal repeats of TgIST that is necessary and sufficient to block STAT1-mediated gene expression. Cellular, biochemical, mutational, and structural studies demonstrate that the repeat region of TgIST adopts a helical conformation upon binding to STAT1 dimers. The binding interface is defined by a groove formed from two loops in the STAT1 SH2 domains that reorient during dimerization. TgIST binding to this newly exposed site at the STAT1 dimer interface altered its conformation and prevented recruitment of co-transcriptional activators, thus defining the mechanism of blocked transcription.
The Lockean Proviso

Within Robert Nozick's theory of justice as presented in his Anarchy, State and Utopia^ does the Lockean proviso dovetail with the theory of entitlement? The main burden of this paper is to establish that far from dovetailing, there is a serious conflict between the two. Nozick's theory of justice consists of at least three principles, namely, the principle of justice in acquisition, the principle of justice in transfer, and the principle of rectification of injustice. These principles treat the topics of how unheld things came to be held, how they came to be transferred, and how injustice in respect to them came to be corrected or rectified. Although Nozick does not provide a detailed philosophical picture of these principles of justice, he says enough about each of them by way of examples and explanations to constitute a powerful, criticizable doctrine.
Goal-based action priors

Robots that interact with people must flexibly respond to requests by planning in stochastic state spaces that are often too large to solve for optimal behavior. In this work, we develop a framework for goal and state dependent action priors that can be used to prune away irrelevant actions based on the robot's current goal, thereby greatly accelerating planning in a variety of complex stochastic environments. Our framework allows these goal-based action priors to be specified by an expert or to be learned from prior experience in related problems. We evaluate our approach in the video game Minecraft, whose complexity makes it an effective robot simulator. We also evaluate our approach in a robot cooking domain that is executed on a two-handed manipulator robot. In both cases, goal-based action priors enhance baseline planners by dramatically reducing the time taken to find a near-optimal plan.
A low-power, programmable bandpass filter section for higher-order filter-bank applications

We present a programmable continuous-time bandpass filter with center frequencies ranging from 100 Hz to 10 MHz fabricated in 0.51 /spl mu/m CMOS processes operating at 3.3 V supply. This circuit is compact and low power (0.1 nW-15 /spl mu/W). SNR was 86 dB and 72 dB at 1 MHz for 2/sup nd/- and 4/sup th/-order sections with Qs up to 70 (4/sup th/-order). We fabricated a 6/sup th/- and 10/sup th/-order filter-bank chip. We present results for higher-order filters programmed at 1 MHz with Butterworth coefficients (passband ripple <0.5 dB).
Matrix Rings, Categories of Modules and Morita Theory

This last chapter offers an introduction to the basic categorical aspects of the theory of rings and modules. Since its introduction in the 1940s by Eilenberg and MacLane, the categorical viewpoint has been widely accepted by working mathematicians. For ring theorists especially, the convenient use of the categorical language in dealing with modules serves to provide a unifying force for the subject, and has subsequently become an indispensable tool in its modern study. In this chapter, we shall focus on two of the most important concepts in the application of category theory to rings and modules, namely, the equivalence and duality between two categories of modules. Both of these concepts come from the ground-breaking paper of K. Morita [58], which set in place the basic treatment of these topics pretty much as they are in use today.
Seal Monitoring System for an Explosive Containment Vessel

Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are developing high-performance explosive firing vessels to contain (one time) explosive detonations that contain toxic metals and hazardous gases. The filament-wound polymer composite vessels are designed to contain up to 80 lb (TNT equivalent) explosive in a 2-meter sphere without leakage. So far, two half-scale (1-meter diameter) vessels have been tested; one up to 150% of the design explosive limit. Peak dynamic pressures in excess of 280 MPa (40 Ksi) in the vessel were calculated and measured. Results indicated that there was a small amount of gas and particle leakage past the first two of the seven o-ring seals. However, the remaining five seals prevented any transient leakage of the toxic gases and particulates out of the vessel. These results were later confirmed by visual inspection and particulate analysis of swipes taken from the sealing surfaces.
Bridge Obstructions to Circular-Three Gate Matrix Layout

Gate matrix layout is an NP-complete combinatorial problem. The related fixed-parameter decision problem has been thoroughly studied for small values of k in recent years. We chose to investigate a more difficult circular version of the fixed-parameter decision problem. We have identified a major group of obstructions to the circular 3-track layout problem. These obstructions all contain a bridge which separates sufficiently large subgraphs; they are called the bridge obstructions. The complete set of circular-3-GML bridge obstructions contains 336 graphs.
GLYCA AND GLYCB, NOVEL NMR BIOMARKERS OF INFLAMMATION, STRONGLY PREDICT FUTURE CARDIOVASCULAR EVENTS, BUT NOT THE PRESENCE OF CORONARY ARTERY DISEASE (CAD), AMONG PATIENTS UNDERGOING CORONARY ANGIOGRAPHY: THE INTERMOUNTAIN HEART COLLABORATIVE STUDY

GlycA and GlycB are novel nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) signals in plasma arising from the glycosylation of circulating acute phase proteins, especially fibrinogen, a1-antichymotrypsin, haptoglobin-1, a1-antitrypsin, complement C3 and a1-acid glycoprotein. These acute phase proteins
Evaluation of microbial testing methods for the mutagenicity of quinoline and its derivatives

Using the “mutational enhancement” method and the Ames test, the mutagenicity and potential carcinogenicity of quinoline and its derivatives were determined and compared. Quinoline, 8-hydroxyquinoline, 5-hydroxyquinoline, 8-hydroxyquinoline sulfate, 6-nitroquinoline, 8-nitroquinoline, and 3-methylquinoline were mutagenic in the Ames direct plating test on TA 98 and TA 100 with activating system (S-9) from the rat liver. These compounds were not mutagenic in the “mutational enchancement” test onEscherichia coli HCR+ strain. 5,7-Dichloro-8-hydroxyquinoline, isoquinoline, and 2-chloroquinoline were nonmutagenic without or with S-9 in both the Ames and “mutational enhancement” test system. The compounds chloroquine, primaquine diphosphate, quinine hydrobromide, quinine hydrochloride, quinine lactate, quinine urea hydrochloride, quinine ethylcarbonate, quinine dihydrochloride, beta quinine quinine valerate, and quinine glycerophosphate were nonmutagenic with and without S-9 in the Ames test but mutagenic (20–60 μg/ml) in the “mutational enhancement” test method onEscherichia coli HCR+ strains. The observations reported here point out that the Ames test responds negatively to several quinoline derivatives that are positive in the “mutational enchancement” test method.
Energy-Band Structure of BeS, BeSe, and BeTe

A first-principles self-consistent orthogonalized-plane-wave energy-band calculation has been performed for cubic BeS, BeSe, and BeTe using a nonrelativistic formalism and Slater's free-electron-exchange approximation. These are the first energy-band solutions reported for these compounds. No experimental data are available concerning the energy bands or optical properties of these semiconducting compounds. The imaginary part of the dielectric constants, spin-orbit splittings, effective masses, and x-ray form factors (Fourier transforms of the electron charge density) have been calculated.
Derivation of the Aronsson equation for C1 Hamiltonians

It is proved herein that any absolute minimizer u for a suitable Hamiltonian H ∈ C(R × R× U) is a viscosity solution of the Aronsson equation: Hp(Du, u, x) · (H(Du, u, x))x = 0 in U. The primary advance is to weaken the assumption that H ∈ C, used by previous authors, to the natural condition that H ∈ C.
Nonstoichiometry and decomposition of Pr1+zBa2−zCu3Oy and comparison with Y123, La123 and Nd123

Abstract The temperature ( T ) and O 2 partial pressure ( p [O 2 ]) dependence of the oxygen content ( y ) in Pr 1+ z Ba 2− z Cu 3 O y (Pr123) were determined over the entire range of z and the data were represented by chemical thermodynamic models. Comparison of the results with those published previously for Y123, La123 and Nd123, indicated that the La123 system was the most atypical. Thermodynamic arguments suggest the presence of Pr +4 as y approaches its maximum value. The T - z - p [O 2 ] dependence of high-temperature decomposition was also determined. Resistivity, dc magnetization, and susceptibility measurements as low as 5 K revealed only paramagnetic and semiconducting behavior.
Development of an immunoassay for chlorinated dioxins based on a monoclonal antibody and an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)

Abstract A set of monoclonal antibodies to dioxin have been developed. These form the bases for a competition enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay capable of detecting 0.5 ng of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzodioxin.
Male and Female Recoveries in Medical Malpractice Cases

This study analyzes male and female recovery resulting from medical malpractice injuries to discern the importance to the recovery differential of gender differences in recoveries for medical malpractice injuries. We find that the pattern of recoveries follows one similar to that found in studying wage differentials between males and females. Differences in the relative magnitudes of foregone earnings and nonmarket loses are reflected in the composition of recoveries. In addition, we find a recovery gap in which females receive substantially less in recoveries when they receive male's average compensation for medical malpractice injuries. However, only a small portion of the male and female recovery differential is explained by the characteristics of the claims, leaving a substantial portion of the differential unexplained.
Bandwidth Extension in Noise Spectroscopy

Abstract Noise spectroscopy has previously been demonstrated to provide broad-bandwidth excitation with minimal applied RF field strengths. Nonetheless, its application to broadline solid-state NMR spectroscopy has appeared limited by the need to have unrealistically short probe- and receiver-recovery times after pulses. In this Communication, we explain theoretically and demonstrate experimentally that accurate lineshapes can be observed in 2 H solid-state NMR spectroscopy even where the probe ringdown time greatly exceeds the required time between sampled data points. Moreover, accurate lineshapes can be observed to ±125 kHz using RF fields as weak as a few hundred hertz.
Effects of stressor controllability on diurnal physiological rhythms

Abstract Disruptions in circadian and diurnal rhythms are associated with stress-related psychiatric disorders and stressor exposure can disrupt these rhythms. The controllability of the stressor can modulate various behavioral and neurochemical responses to stress. Uncontrollable, but not controllable, stress produces behaviors in rats that resemble symptoms of anxiety and depression. Whether acute stress-induced disruptions in physiological rhythms are sensitive to controllability of the stressor, however, remains unknown. To examine the role of controllability in diurnal rhythm disruption, adult male Sprague–Dawley rats were implanted with Data Sciences International (DSI) biotelemetry devices. Real-time measurements were obtained before, during and after exposure to a controllable or yoked uncontrollable stressor. Controllable and uncontrollable stress equally disrupted diurnal rhythms of locomotor activity and body temperature but not heart rate. The diurnal heart rate the day following stressor exposure was flattened to a greater extent and was significantly higher in rats with control over stress suggesting a relationship between stressor controllability and the heart rate response. Our results are consistent with the conclusion that acute stress-induced disruptions in diurnal physiological rhythms likely contribute little to the behavioral and affective consequences of stress that are sensitive to stressor controllability.
Tryptophan-associated eosinophilic connective-tissue disease. A new clinical entity?

Seven patients who developed a syndrome of eosinophilia, connective-tissue disease, and cutaneous abnormalities while ingesting tryptophan were examined. Other clinical manifestations commonly seen were pulmonary symptoms, fever, lymphadenopathy, and the development of myopathy. Laboratory features included mild elevations of aldolase and lactate dehydrogenase levels, with essentially normal creatine kinase levels, erythrocyte sedimentation rates, and C-reactive protein levels. Biopsy findings included features of scleroderma, small-vessel vasculitis, fasciitis, and myopathy. Discontinuation of tryptophan administration and implementation of corticosteroid therapy were of some benefit in relieving the intense myalgias and cutaneous findings that developed. Although temporally related to tryptophan ingestion, it is unclear whether this substance, a metabolite, or a contaminant were causal. We speculate that the pathogenesis of this syndrome may relate to abnormalities in tryptophan metabolism. (JAMA. 1990;263:1502-1506)
Art Theft in New York City

This exploratory study was conducted to examine the extent of art theft in New York City. The study includes secondary analyses of 229 police complaint reports and twelve completed investigative cases of the NYPD's Art and Antique Investigation Unit collected during the period from January 1985 to December 1988, and personal interviews with a randomly selected sample of forty-five art dealers in New York City. Results from the analysis of police data and the survey were compared, leading to the conclusion that contrary to popular belief, the majority of art theft losses are not substantial and that official records greatly underestimate the extent of this crime.
It can't happen here - can it?

If scientific advice is to have any value, it must come from sources that are not under obligation to any organization, public or private. In the United Kingdom, that advice generally comes from the Royal Society of London. In the United States, it comes from the National Academy of Sciences. And in much of the former Soviet Union, it comes from the Russian Academy of Sciences. You wouldn't necessarily think they would have similar ideas about the importance of independence, but they do.
The Cutter incident, 50 years later.

It was one of the worst pharmaceutical disasters in U.S. history, states Dr. Paul Offit. Scientists found that two production pools of the polio vaccine contained live poliovirus.
A Synthetic Approach to Oligomeric Phenylethynylsilylenes

Oligomers consisting of alternating phenylethynyl and monosilyl or disilanyl moieties were synthesized in 15–64% precipitated yields by the reactions of dilithiated ethynylbenzene with dichlorodimethylsilane, dichlorodiphenylsilane, and 1,2-dichloro-1,1,2,2-tetramethyldisilane. Degrees of polymerization were fairly low due to chain termination reactions involving the deprotonation of ethynyl groups by aryllithium species. The presence of butyl chain ends was confirmed by 1H and 29Si NMR spectroscopy. 29Si NMR spectroscopy was utilized to illustrate the random pattern of connectivity along the oligomer backbones. The oligomers exhibit fluorescent behavior in solution.
Luther and Shankara: Two Ways of Salvation in the Indian Context

: This article compares and contrasts the soteriology of Reformer Martin Luther with Advaita philosopher Shankara. Luther's emphasis on the communication of attributes (communicatio idiomatum) in the two natures of Christ gets doubled in faith, where the indwelling Christ takes on our human nature while giving the believer the fruits of his divine nature, such as eternal life. Conversely, our human finite history replete with suffering is taken up into the divine life, dignifying what is mundanely human. In the Indian tradition of the Upanishads and nonduality in philosophy, Shankara seeks the union of the Self (atman) with the highest reality, the Absolute (Brahman). The realization of the oneness of Self with Brahman requires the shedding of all historical or personal attributes. The result is that the suffering of oppressed untouchables and other lower castes is dubbed unreal. A healthy soteriology in the context of Indian spirituality—a Dalit soteriology—could benefit from Luther's exchange of attributes, because the mundane sufferings of humble people are dignitifed by receiving a place in God's reality.
The psychologizing of teacher education: Formalist thinking and preservice teachers’ beliefs

Abstract This study evaluates the assumption common to teacher education programs that, when preservice teachers’ subject matter knowledge is enhanced by a formal psychological understanding of learners and learning, superior instruction results. Preservice language arts teachers (N = 113) were asked to determine what they thought would constitute appropriate responses to a middle school student's request for feedback about his poem. The responses of the preservice teachers were such that formalist thinking predominated over instructional feedback intended to increase literary skills. The researchers argue that, if preservice teachers’ beliefs are hardy and often prove highly resistant to change, there is reason to be concerned with the educational perspectives that a formalistic understanding of psychology helps foster.
Stimulation of quiescent 3T3 cells by phosphatidic acid-containing liposomes

Liposomes containing phosphatidic acid were capable of stimulating DNA synthesis in quiescent Swiss 3T3 cells while liposomes composed of other phospholipids were not. These results show that liposomes, which are usually employed to deliver non-lipid molecules into cells, can themselves have profound effects on cell growth. The possible mechanism of phosphatidic acid-mediated cell stimulation and its relation to other growth factors are discussed.
Near-lossless image compression techniques

Methods of near-lossless image compression based on the criterion of maximum allowable deviation of pixel values are described in this paper. Predictive and multi resolution techniques for performing near-lossless compression are investigated. A procedure for near-lossless compression using a modification of lossless compression are investigated. A procedure for near-lossless compression using a modification of lossless predictive coding techniques to satisfy the specified tolerance is descried. Simulation results with modified versions of two of the best lossless predictive coding techniques known, CALIC and JPEG- LS, are provided. It is shown that the application of lossless coding based on reversible transforms in conjunction with pre-quantization is inferior to predictive techniques for near-lossless compression. A partial embedding two-layer scheme is proposed in which an embedded multi-resolution coder generates a lossy base layer, and a simple but effective context-based lossless coder codes the difference between the original image and the lossy reconstruction. Simulation results show that this lossy plus-lossless technique yields compression ratios very close to those obtained with predictive techniques, while providing the feature of a partially embedded bit-stream.© (1998) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Disaggregate Planning For Parallel Processors

Abstract Successful aggregate planning and effective production scheduling both rely heavily upon the availability of sound disaggregation procedures. This paper describes a large scale mathematical program that translates long range plans into operational assignments of labor, production and inventory among competing products and processes. The standard lot sizing problem, characterized by marginal tradeoffs between holding costs and setup costs, is constrained further as multiple processors compete for efficient assignments to individual products. The model's application in a major manufacturing corporation is described.
Discontinuous field-velocity relation for vortex rings in superfluid solutions

Abstract The simultaneous existence of two different ring velocities observed in dilute 3 He- 4 He solutions below 45 mK can be interpreted as evidence for the existence of rings with different quanta of circulation or a resonance in the ring- 3 He scattering cross section.
California's Fair-Share Housing 1967—2004: The Planning Approach

Fair-share housing in California has gone through six stages since the requirement was established as the housing element in the general plan. At first, each stage required greater rigor and care than the previous one in preparing the housing plan. After a while, the state also began reviewing local elements for compliance with state law, challenging cherished traditions of home rule. All the while, however, the focus was exclusively on housing. Most recently, planning implications of housing have forced a broader focus, now also beginning to consider other regional planning concerns dealing with transportation, air quality, and the environment.
The resonance peak in the high-Tc cuprates

I present a theory in which the resonance peak observed in inelastic neutron scattering experiments on YBa2Cu3O6+x and Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x arises from a dispersing spin mode. I argue that it is heavily damped in the normal state and becomes visible in the superconducting state due to a drastic decrease in the spin damping. I show that a spin-fermion model correctly describes the doping dependence of the peak position and of its integrated intensity. Finally, I derive a criterion for the existence of the resonance peak in other cuprate superconductors.
Making Room: A Place for Children's Spirituality in the Christian Church

A relatively uncharted territory until recently, the concept of children as innate spiritual beings has garnered significant attention among scholars over the past two decades. The more that is learned about children’s spirituality, the more apparent it becomes that the Christian church in the United States generally fails to provide sufficient space for children to explore, develop and share their spirituality. This potentially leads children to suppress or disconnect from their spirituality in later years and also deprives a Christian community of the ability to learn and grow from children’s unique experiences of God and spirituality. This paper examines the underlying theories that foster environments among Christian churches where the ennoblement of a ‘grown-up faith’ and the resulting power adults hold because of that, inhibit the ability for children to be regarded and approached as capable of spiritual and faithful beliefs and understanding apart from adult intervention.
Mycotic vascular infections of large arteries with Mycobacterium bovis after intravesical bacillus Calmette-Guérin therapy: case report.

Disseminated infection after intravesical bacille Calmette-Guerin instillation for bladder cancer is a rare but potential complication. Vascular infection is an additional serious complication but is seldom reported. We present the first report of a small series of patients with vascular infections after intravesical bacille Calmette-Guerin instillation, and we review the related literature.
Dynamic Allocation of Ragged Arrays Using C++: Potentiality for Finite-Element Method Software

A ragged array is an irregularly shaped data structure that is an extremely convenient and natural means of implementing storage schemes that exploit the symmetry and sparsity of the different stiffness matrices involved in the finite-element method. Ragged arrays have the potential for improving the programmer’s productivity as well as enhancing code maintainability. Additionally, no performance degradation was detected when ragged arrays were used; the performance of the Gauss elimination procedure, implemented in C++ using ragged arrays, was comparable to the performance of the same procedure implemented in FORTRAN using traditional data structures.
An Automated System for Testing LSI Memory Chips

This paper describes a software system for testing LSI memory chips. This system achieves complete automation by customizing test data for a given part number design and by creating an overall test program to be used by a computer-controlled tester in a manufacturing environment. This system encompasses DC testing of the memory product and test sites, AC testing under a variety of timing conditions, and generating a complete set of AC functional test patterns.
Numerical aspects of the boundary residual method

The boundary residual method is a powerful technique for solving EM boundary-value problems. This technique produces matrices difficult to solve using many of the standard numerical techniques. This paper discusses lesser-known numerical aspects of this method, and it shows efficient and well-conditioned methods to solve both the homogeneous and non-homogeneous boundary residual problem.
Maya Cultural Activism in Guatemala

Maya Cultural Activism in Guatemala. EDWARD F. FISCHER and MCKENNA BROWN, eds. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996. viii + 245 pp., maps, figures, tables, notes, bibliography, index.
Surface plasmon excitation of objects with arbitrary shape and dielectric constant

Abstract The electron energy-loss spectrum due to surface plasmon excitation is studied for objects with arbitrary shape and dielectric constant. Both classical and quantum-mechanical approaches are used. The results are useful for prediction of the energy loss spectrum obtained when using a highly convergent incident electron beam as is generally the case in scanning transmission electron microscopy.
Critical overview of radiation budget estimates from satellites

Abstract The progress of Earth radiation budget research has been due to the improvement of instrument accuracy and reliability, and also due to the vast progress in computer capability. The increase of instrument reliability and the resulting longer measurement records has brought the organizational support which is necessary for the improvement of analysis methods for generation of data products and to bring together the science teams which are needed to make good use of the data products. Computers today can process enough data so that we can bring in data streams from more than a single instrument and perform extensive computations. As a consequence, the field has progressed from producing monthly global maps at the top of the atmosphere to producing daily maps and producing radiation profiles through the atmosphere. Radiation data are now used together with other data types to study the weather and climate as a system. Scientific questions addressed by radiation data have evolved from monthly-mean zonal descriptions toward smaller time and space scales.
Corrigendum to “Synthesis and biological activity of some known and putative duloxetine metabolites”[Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 14 (2004) 3481]

Compound 2 had moderate to weak activity in all of the membranes; however, this compound is unstable so the values may not be accurate. Although compounds 2, 3, 4, and 7 showed some degree of in vitro affinity, these compounds do not appear to contribute to the in vivo activity of duloxetine, since they circulate in human plasma at such low concentrations. The circulating metabolites are in the conjugated forms and do not appear to be active. The conjugated metabolites tested (10, 11, 12, 13, 15) were devoid of any significant binding to any of the three transporters.
Properties of the hexose transport systems of Aspergillus nidulans

Abstract 1. 1. Systems for the transport of d -glucose, d -galactose, and d -fructose by young mycelium of Aspergillus nidulans were studied. Properties of the glucose system were determined by use of isotopic 2-deoxy- d -glucose, a nonutilizable glucose analog; the uptake of isotopic d -galactose and d -fructose were measured by mutants that could not metabolize these sugars. 2. 2. Systems for the transport of these three sugars, are constitutive and carrier-mediated, since they show saturation kinetics with respect to concentration, and are subject to competitive inhibition. 3. 3. The uptake of all three sugars takes place against a concentration gradient, and is energy dependent. 4. 4. The relationship between structure and affinity for the transport systems was studied by measurement of competitive inhibition exerted by various sugars and their derivatives on the uptake of 2-deoxy- d -[14C6]glucose and d -[14C6]galactose. Sugars could thus be ordered with respect to their affinities for the transport systems. 5. 5. In the case of both the d -glucose and d -galactose systems, no single substituent of the C1 pyranose ring was essential for carrier-binding activity; any single change was tolerated, with the exception of methylation of the anomeric hydroxyl group. Any two changes abolished activity. 6. 6. While d -galactose competes for the d -glucose system and vice versa, systems for the transport of these two sugars are distinct. 7. 7. d -Fructose is transported by a highly specific system, since no sugar tested competed with its uptake.
Document visual similarity measure for document search

Managing large document databases has become an important task. Being able to automatically compare document layouts and classify and search documents with respect to their visual appearance proves to be desirable in many applications. We propose a new algorithm that approximates a metric function between documents based on their visual similarity. The comparison is based only on the visual appearance of the document without taking into consideration its text content. We measure the similarity of single page documents with respect to distance functions between three document components: background, text, and saliency. Each document component is represented as a Gaussian mixture distribution; and distances between the components of different documents are calculated as an approximation of the Hellinger distance between corresponding distributions. Since the Hellinger distance obeys the triangle inequality, it proves to be favorable in the task of nearest neighbor search in a document database. Thus, the computation required to find similar documents in a document database can be significantly reduced.
Pervaporative enrichment of 2,3‐butanediol from its mixture with 1‐butanol using a polydimethylsiloxane and ZSM‐5 mixed matrix membrane: Effects of ethanol as a by‐product

A ZSM-5 filled polydimethylsiloxane membrane with 44.4 wt.% zeolite loading was used in the pervaporative removal of 1-butanol from its mixtures with 1-butanol. A small quantity of ethanol was added to the feed as a by-product to test the response of the membrane. It was found that the permeation behaviour of other feed components was changed and membrane selectivity decreased. This change was attributed to the frequently-observed inter-component coupled transport in multi-component feed systems. The impact of ethanol on recovery of 2,3-butanediol was evaluated using a simulated continuous operation, which enriched 2,3-butanediol to 99.5 wt.% from a feed containing 5 wt.% 2,3-butanediol and less than 1.0 wt.% ethanol. It was observed that membrane selectivity improves as ethanol concentration decreases in the stream due to its preferential removal. The final recovery of 2,3-butanediol was not significantly reduced as the concentration of ethanol was below 1.0 wt.%. © 2011 Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering
Differential Roles of AC2 and AC4 of Cassava Geminiviruses in Mediating Synergism and Suppression of Posttranscriptional Gene Silencing

Posttranscriptional gene silencing (PTGS) in plants is a natural defense mechanism against virus infection. In mixed infections, virus synergism is proposed to result from suppression of the host defense mechanism by the viruses. Synergistic severe mosaic disease caused by simultaneous infection with isolates of the Cameroon strain of African cassava mosaic virus (ACMV-[CM]) and East African cassava mosaic Cameroon virus (EACMCV) in cassava and tobacco is characterized by a dramatic increase in symptom severity and a severalfold increase in viral-DNA accumulation by both viruses compared to that in singly infected plants. Here, we report that synergism between ACMV-[CM] and EACMCV is a two-way process, as the presence of the DNA-A component of ACMV-[CM] or EACMCV in trans enhanced the accumulation of viral DNA of EACMCV and ACMV-[CM], respectively, in tobacco BY-2 protoplasts. Furthermore, transient expression of ACMV-[CM] AC4 driven by the Cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter (p35S-AC4) enhanced EACMCV DNA accumulation by ∼8-fold in protoplasts, while p35S-AC2 of EACMCV enhanced ACMV-[CM] DNA accumulation, also by ∼8-fold. An Agrobacterium-based leaf infiltration assay determined that ACMV-[CM] AC4 and EACMCV AC2, the putative synergistic genes, were able to suppress PTGS induced by green fluorescent protein (GFP) and eliminated the short interfering RNAs associated with PTGS, with a correlated increase in GFP mRNA accumulation. In addition, we have identified AC4 of Sri Lankan cassava mosaic virus and AC2 of Indian cassava mosaic virus as suppressors of PTGS, indicating that geminiviruses evolved differently in regard to interaction with the host. The specific and different roles played by these AC2 and AC4 proteins of cassava geminiviruses in regulating anti-PTGS activity and their relation to synergism are discussed.