cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Agile Contracting: Managing Incentives Under Uncertain Needs

Despite the popularity of agile methodologies for software development, there is a lack of understanding on the types of contracts that are most suitable for this environment. Several contracting formats have been used in practice. Among them, the most popular is the time-and-material contract. Under this contract, the firm pays a fixed hourly rate for the number of hours that the vendor worked, subject to incremental delivery of user stories (tasks). The less popular contract formats include but are not limited to fixed-price per sprint (iteration), and fixed-price per story. In this paper, we use a principal-agent framework in which a firm outsources an agile software development project to a vendor. Our framework captures key features of an agile software development project -- namely, the project is technically complex; the project can be modularized via a set of independent stories which can be developed in sprints; the stories deliver incremental business value to the firm; and the requirements of the project can change over time depending upon the firm's priorities (needs). Our contributions are three fold: We characterize an optimal contract for the firm in closed-form. We also generate managerial insights on how the vendor's incentive to work changes, and consequently how the optimal contracting terms offered by the principal change, depending upon the business environment. Finally, we identify conditions under which the time-and-material contract can perform poorly relative to the optimal contract. Overall, our results provide both prescriptive and qualitative guidance to firms outsourcing agile software development projects.
Functionalized Buckyballs for Visualizing Microbial Species in Different States and Environments

To date, in situ visualization of microbial density has remained an open problem. Here, functionalized buckyballs (e.g., C60-pyrrolidine tris acid) are shown to be a versatile platform that allows internalization within a microorganism without either adhering to the cell wall and cell membrane or binding to a matrix substrate such as soil. These molecular probes are validated via multi-scale imaging, to show association with microorganisms via fluorescence microscopy, positive cellular uptake via electron microscopy, and non-specific binding to the substrates through a combination of fluorescence and autoradiography imaging. We also demonstrate that cysteine-functionalized C60-pyrrolidine tris acid can differentiate live and dead microorganisms.
Spreadsheet simulation of a queue with arrivals from a finite population

Demonstrates the application of spreadsheets in simulating queuing systems with arrivals from a finite population. The problem is referred to as the machine repair problem where the members of the queue are machines that are breaking down and the servers are the technicians repairing the broken machines. The total number of machines are finite and pre‐specified. The technique for the development of the simulation is illustrated with six machines. Describes the approach for developing a generalized simulation model with any number of machines.
Oblique Derivative Problem

Having proved in Chapter 9 that the Dirichlet problem on a spherical chip subject to a normal derivative condition on the flat portion of the boundary and a Dirichlet type condition on the remaining portion has a solution, it is shown that such a solution can be morphed onto a local solution of an elliptic equation on a neighborhood of a boundary point satisfying mixed boundary conditions. The Perron-Wiener-Brelot method is then used to prove the existence of a global solution on a bounded open subset of \(R^n\) that satisfies an oblique derivative boundary condition on a relatively open subset of the boundary and Dirichlet type condition on the remainder of the boundary. The usual criteria for regularity at points of the latter part of the boundary apply but the border points of the two types of subsets require a more restrictive “wedge condition” rather than a Zaremba cone condition. The chapter concludes with a theorem that establishes that the range of the resolvent of the elliptic operator is sufficient for applying the Hille-Yosida Theorem in the next chapter.
Application of Conformal and Quasiconformal Mappings and Their Properties in Approximation Theory

This is a survey of some results in the constructive theory of functions of a complex variable, obtained by the author and his collaborators during the last 15–20 years by an application of methods and results from modern geometric function theory and the theory of quasiconformal mappings.
A Fast Modified CORDIC--Implementation of Radial Basis Neural Networks

This paper describes how the real-time bandwidth of a radial basis neural network (RBNN) can be improved by the use of a field programmable gate array (FPGA). Accelerated performance is gained by moving the time-consuming RBNN exponential calculations from a general purpose processor to a dedicated FPGA that implements an optimized CORDIC-algorithm. The design methodology is presented and illustrated with a speech recognition application.
Cooperative DNA-protein interactions. Effects of changing the spacing between adjacent binding sites.

Abstract Cooperative binding of specific DNA-binding proteins plays crucial roles in gene regulatory circuitry, and is a model system for interactions between proteins bound to DNA. We have studied coliphage HK022 repressor, which binds to two adjacent operators with a cooperativity parameter of ≈ 2000. We examined the effect of changing the spacing between these two operators on cooperativity and on the conformation of the complex. Maximum cooperativity was seen with the wild-type spacing; considerable cooperativity was retained for most spacing variants, but was abolished when the operators lay on opposite faces of the DNA helix. Most spacing variants conferred changes in the conformation of the DNA-protein complex. Our data indicate that the pairwise cooperativity observed with the wild-type spacing results from a conformation that prevents protein-protein contacts with flanking bound dimers. We conclude that protein-DNA complexes involving the same specific binding sites and the same protein molecules can adopt many different conformations, depending on the spacing between the binding sites. This conclusion may be broadly applicable to protein-DNA interactions in other systems.
Carbon building materials from coal char: Durable materials for solid carbon sequestration to enable hydrogen production by coal pyrolysis

The pyrolysis of coal can produce hydrogen-rich gases for clean fuel. It also produces cokelike coal char. Rather than using the coal char as a fuel, it could provide the basis for carbon building materials which sequester the carbon in the solid state while performing an essential function. Data is presented on the properties of prototype of coal-char based solid carbons, which is stronger and lighter than conventional fired clay or concrete masonry. A technoeconomic analysis shows co-production of hydrogen fuels and carbon building materials from coal can be cost competitive with steam reforming of natural gas. The environmental benefits are analyzed in terms of carbon dioxide emissions and land spoilage for substituting carbon building materials for Portland cement concrete.
REPRESSION OF THE KLEBSIELLA AEROGENES NAC PROMOTER

Transcription of the nitrogen-regulated nac promoter of Klebsiella aerogenes requires sigma54 RNA polymerase, is activated by the phosphorylated form of the transcription factor nitrogen regulator I (NRI) (NtrC), and is repressed by the product of the nac gene, Nac. Nac protects a large portion of the nac control region, extending from positions -130 to -70, from digestion by DNase I. This site(s) lies immediately upstream from the site at which sigma 54 RNA polymerase binds, is downstream of a high-affinity binding site for the transcriptional activator NRI approximately P, and partially overlaps a low-affinity NRI approximately P-binding site. Binding of Nac to the DNA resulted in bending of the DNA but did not interfere with the binding of sigma 54 RNA polymerase to the promoter or with the binding of NRI approximately P to either the high-affinity site or low-affinity site. Furthermore, transcription assays with various wild-type and mutant templates suggested that Nac did not exclude NRI approximately P from either the low- or high-affinity sites, nor did Nac interfere with the ability of the polymerase to form the open complex when the binding sites for NRI approximately P were moved to different locations upstream from the promoter. Rather, Nac seemed to repress by an antiactivation mechanism in which the interaction of the NRI approximately P, bound at its normal sites, with sigma 54 RNA polymerase, bound to the promoter, was prevented.
The Judges and the Vigilant State

The title of this paper needs a little explanation. When I was approached on the possibility of giving it, I was kindly given a free hand in the choice of a subject, which could be related to any research I was doing, so long as this could, in some way or other, be related to the Glorious Revolution, and the Bill of Rights of 1689. Now for some time I have been doing research into the detention of British citizens without trial under Regulation 18B of the Defence Regulations during the 1939-45 war. Indeed I used some of this research for a Child lecture I gave in Oxford in 1987.I Of course I could not simply repeat this lecture, but it seemed to me that other parts of the material I have so far unearthed might be related to the required theme of this paper. Let me try to explain how. Outside Ulster the Glorious Revolution of 1688-89, and the constitutional settlement which followed upon it, has long ceased to have any emotional hold on the British people generally, or on lawyers in particular. I should be surprised if many people in this room have, in the last ten years, if indeed ever, actually read in full the three constitutional documents which it generated: the Heads of Grievances of 2 February 1689, the Declaration of Right of 12 February2 and the Bill of Rights itself.3 Let me assume that at least some of you are a little rusty on the matter, and simply quote to you a vision of what happened from a popular though scholarly book on the subject, written by G. M. Trevelyan, and first published in 1938:
Ensemble polling strategies for increased paging capacity in mobile communication networks

The process of finding a unit in a mobile communications system is called paging and requires the use of limited network resources. Although it is understood how to minimize the use of network resources and satisfy delay constraints when paging a single unit, optimal policies for paging multiple units are difficult to derive. Here we adapt single unit polling methods to obtain simple ensemble polling schemes for use with multiple units which can greatly increase the rate at which page requests can be processed while maintaining acceptable average delay.
The Chemistry of Carbidocarbonyl Clusters

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the chemistry of carbidocarbonyl clusters. The rapid expansion in carbidocarbonyl cluster chemistry has enabled the chemistry of these compounds to be addressed in its own right rather than as a subgroup of cluster chemistry as a whole. The first carbidocarbonyl transition metal cluster to be recognized was Fe 5 C(CO) 15 ,which was isolated in very low yield from the reaction of tri-iron dodecacarbonyl with methylphenylacetylene and characterized by X-ray diffraction by Dahl and coworkers. The lowest nuclearity carbidocarbonyl clusters of ruthenium and osmium are Ru 5 C(CO) 15 and Os 5 C(CO) 15 . The chemistry of the carbidocarbonyl clusters of cobalt and rhodium is predominantly the work of Italian school of the late Paolo Chini and colleagues. Pyrolysis of Et 4 N[ReH 2 (CO)] at 250°C in n-tetradecane yields a mixture of polynuclear products from which two carbidocarbonyl clusters of rhenium have been isolated. The application of spectroscopic techniques familiar in organometallic chemistry to the unique features of carbidocarbonyl clusters has become more evident since the previous review of this field. Since the completion of this review (mid 1982), the chemistry of carbidocarbonyl clusters has continued to expand rapidly.
Putting Humpty Dumpty Back Together Again: The Dilemmas of the African Post-Colonial State

This article argues that the African post-colonial state is a normatively and inherently flawed institution that is prone to failure. It examines a number of collapsed states and concludes that new map-making and normative re-orientation of the internal polities may be the only way to salvage more states from failure and to put back together those that have already failed. It concludes that the reconstruction of the African state is a tall order that will require imagination and cooperation.
Combining Art And Science In "Arts and Sciences" Education

Two of this article's authors—an art professor and a biology professor—shared a project for advanced biology, art, nursing, and computer science majors involving scientific research that used digital imaging of the brain of the zebrafish, a newly favored laboratory animal. These contemporary and innovative teaching and learning practices were a success for the participating art and science majors and led to an awardwinning student conference presentation. This article shares the authors' ideas and experiences associated with the project, presenting it as a possible model in modern liberal arts education. This is done in light of renewed recognition that a liberal arts education is a necessity even in preparation for professional studies.
Operation Allied Force: handmaiden of independent Kosovo

This article challenges the historical amnesia surrounding the whirlwind of international recognition of the state of Kosovo. It explores three theses concerning the role of international intervention and local politics in state formation. First, the article contends that Kosovar Albanians were ‘backed into’ the independent state option. Second, it makes a distinction between ‘parallel states’ and ‘parallel societies’, and explores the inadequacy of the thesis that, in the case of Kosovo, a parallel entity was waiting in the wings, prepared to step up and assume the mantle of a fully operational independent state. Third, it argues that Operation Allied Force was central to the eventual recognition of the independent State of Kosovo.
The FDA panel advises approval of the first continuous glucose sensor.

203 ON FEBRUARY 26, 1999, an FDA advisory panel recommended the approval of the Minimed Continuous Glucose Monitoring System (CGMS) after certain additional studies are performed. This is a landmark recommendation with important ramifications for patients with diabetes and their health care providers. The recommendation, however, is not binding on the FDA. The CGMS will be a prescription device, to be used by physicians to understand the pattern of glucose control in patients with diabetes over three days. It is a needle sensor that measures interstitial fluid glucose continuously, but captures the values every five minutes. It does not report the values to the patient, but rather memorizes the values for download to a computer by a physician after the 3-day usage period. The device uses a retrospective calibration (least squares fit) requiring at least four blood glucose values per day. The higher the number of calibrations, the better the data, and the company suggested that as many as 11 finger-stick blood glucose values would be used by some patients. Although the exact accuracy of the device was not presented at the panel meeting, it was clear that the device was not as accurate as selfmonitoring of blood glucose (SMBG). Thus, the panel agreed with the recommended labeling: that the individual values of glucose produced by the CGMS should not be used to make therapeutic decisions, but rather should be used to establish a pattern of high and low values and provide indications of the best times to do SMBG. Actual changes in insulin regimen should be based upon the values from the SMBG. In clinical practice, the device is likely to be used intermittently in patients with diabetes to establish a pattern of blood glucose. Some,1 however, suggest that patients may vary too much from day to day for this to be useful. For those patients with reproducible patterns of blood glucose, it will be a very valuable clinical tool. It will also allow patients to understand the effect of food and exercise on their blood glucose control. Its real value, however, lies in its research potential. It will allow us to study patients with diabetes under natural conditions, and to understand the effect of meals, exercise, and insulin on glucose control in a way that we have been unable to do previously. The recommendation of the panel is a milestone event in glucose monitoring. This is the first suggested approval of a device that measures glucose in subcutaneous fluid, that provides clinical information on continuous glucose and that remains in the body for three days. Numerous studies in humans have shown the value of measuring glucose in interstitial fluid (ISF). Most studies suggest that the ISF glucose values are slightly lower than blood values and preliminary studies suggest that ISF seems to lag by a few minutes when
Development of New Antitumor Anthracyclines

Abstract A short and efficient synthesis of a C-7 CH2 analog of 4-demethoxyadriamycin-9-one as a nearly equimolar mixture of diastereomers is described. The Diels-Alder cycloaddition, deoxygenation and concomitant enolization-tautomerization can be done in a single pot.
P1-03-07: Subtype-Specific Gene Expression Signatures in Peritumoral Non-Neoplastic Breast Tissue.

Tumors and histologically normal-tissue adjacent to cancer share many biological features with healing wounds. We previously described that the majority of cancer-adjacent normal (CN) tissues show activation of wound response gene expression signatures. However, CN tissue also shows considerable heterogeneity across patients. Therefore, to characterize interindividual variation in CN tissues, we performed unsupervised clustering on gene expression data from women with invasive breast cancer or ductal carcinoma in situ of the breast. Two distinct classes of CN tissue were identified, one of which showed gene expression consistent with epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), a process that is well known to be activated in healing wounds. Activation of this signature was present in ∼40% of cancer-adjacent normal specimens and it was also correlated with poor outcome among ER-positive patients. We next hypothesized that gene expression changes in cancer-adjacent normal tissue would be associated with breast cancer subtype and/or estrogen receptor status. To test this, we performed supervised analysis to identify subtype-associated gene expression profiles in CN. We observed that more aggressive tumor subtypes had distinct gene expression profiles in the adjacent normal tissue in supervised analysis. Specifically, Basal-like and luminal B tumors were characterized by reduced expression of claudins and cell adhesion genes, while also exhibiting higher expression of transcription factors associated with migration. These characteristic changes were validated in independent datasets by evaluating the ability of these signatures to predict subtype. It is possible to predict tumor subtype using just adjacent normal gene expression. Thus, our findings show that cancer-adjacent tissue may have value in identifying tumor subtype for cases where tumors are too small to allow genomic analyses. Furthermore, genomic field effects may have clinical implications if, as our data suggests, subtypes with higher local recurrence rates (e.g. basal-like and luminal B breast cancers) have widespread genomic alterations, even in non-neoplastic tissue. Widespread genomic changes may indicate a need for mastectomy rather than breast conserving therapy. Ongoing work is (1) assessing these signatures in association with relapse outcomes in the Polish Women9s Breast Cancer Study, where more than 10 years of follow up data have been accrued on more than 200 patients, and (2) using co-culture models systems to study paracrine communication between breast cancer cells and stroma according to breast cancer subtypes. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2011;71(24 Suppl):Abstract nr P1-03-07.
Extending Blender: Development of a Haptic Authoring Tool

In this paper, we present our work to extend a well known 3D graphic modeler - Blender - to support haptic modeling and rendering. The extension tool is named HAMLAT (haptic application markup language authoring tool). We describe the modifications and additions to the Blender source code which have been used to create HAMLAT. Furthermore, we present and discuss the design decisions used when developing HAMLAT, and also an implementation "road map" which describes the changes to the Blender source code. Finally, we conclude with discussion of our future development and research avenues.
Solar and stellar seismology

This article reviews solar and stellar seismology, with emphasis on the enormous progress which has been made recently in the observation and understanding of solar p-modes. Precision measurements of p-mode frequencies and frequency splittings allow a greater understanding of the structure of the solar interior, while p-mode amplitudes and linewidths shed light on the mode excitation mechanism, which is probably stochastic excitation by turbulent convection. The prospects for making similar measurements on other stars are also discussed.
Cascade Showers and Mesotron-Produced Secondaries in Lead

A study has been made of cascade showers in lead and also of electron secondaries accompanying mesotrons in lead. The cloud chamber that was used for the observations contained four lead plates and was placed in an 1100-gauss magnetic field. In the case of showers, comparison with theory was made in terms of: (a) the average shower curve for 11 showers with initiating energies of about 200 Mev; (b) the energy distribution near the shower maximum of 17 showers; (c) the ratio of height to area of the shower curve of 44 showers; and (d) the fluctuation in number of particles in the showers of (a). The theory agrees with the experiment for (b) and (d) but not for (a) and (c). It is likely that errors arising from known physical approximations in the theory account for the discrepancies. In the case of electron secondaries accompanying mesotrons, a study was made of the number of electrons with energy greater than E relative to the number of mesotrons. For small values of $E$, the theoretical values are too large by a factor of two, but as $E$ increases the discrepancy becomes smaller.
Changes in cardiac vibrational intensity in response to physiologic stress.

Abstract 1. 1. Low frequency (0 to 20 cycles per second) vibrations are present in the heart vibration spectrum in both health and disease, and can be picked up at the chest wall by suitable apparatus. 2. 2. The contribution of individual frequencies to the total intensity varies in rhythmic fashion during each separate heart beat and, under influence of the respiratory cycle, from beat to beat. 3. 3. Physiologic stress, such as change of posture, graded exercise, or exposure to toxic chemicals, changes the distribution of intensity among frequencies, and the degree and direction of change can be an index of the ability of the cardiovascular system to respond to stress. 4. 4. The change of distribution of intensity of vibration over frequencies during the heart beat may be related to the rate of change of ventricular volume and is affected by those physiologic factors which control the speed and extent of ventricular volume change. 5. 5. Suitable apparatus has been devised to demonstrate these changes in a manner applicable to frequent routine study of human subjects, well or ill.
HIV risk in adolescents with severe mental illness: literature review.

The purpose of this review is to summarize research that has been conducted with severe mental illness (SMI) adolescents regarding the risk for infection with HIV. In so doing it examines studies conducted with related populations discusses the context of HIV risk for SMI youths and suggests topics for future research to help prevent the spread of HIV among adolescents with SMI. It begins by placing the HIV risk of SMI youth in its broader context by examining research on HIV risk behaviors in the general adolescent population youths who are already diagnosed with the virus and in adults with SMI. (authors)
Large-diameter biliary orifice balloon dilation to aid in endoscopic bile duct stone removal: a multicenter series

Background The utility and safety of endoscopic biliary orifice balloon dilation (EBD) for bile duct stone removal (with use of large-diameter balloons) after biliary endoscopic sphincterotomy (BES) is currently not well established. Objective Our purpose was to evaluate the efficacy and complications of BES followed by ≥12 mm diameter EBD for bile duct stone removal. Design Retrospective, multicenter series. Setting Five ERCP referral centers in the United States. Patients and Interventions Patients who underwent attempted removal of bile duct stones by BES followed by EBD with ≥12 mm diameter dilating balloons were identified by searching the prospectively recorded endoscopic databases from 1999 to 2007. Clinical parameters, endoscopic data, and outcomes were collected and analyzed. Results One hundred three patients, mean age 70 ± 17 years (range 23-98 years), with 56 (54%) women, underwent 107 procedures. Eleven patients (11%) had a prior history of acute pancreatitis. Pancreatogram was performed in 15 (14%) patients. Median stone size and median balloon diameter used was 13 mm. Complete stone removal in the first session of EBD was accomplished in 102 (95%) procedures, and mechanical lithotripsy was required in 29 (27%). Six patients (5.4%) had documented procedure-related complications including one patient with severe bleeding and one with severe cystic duct perforation. No acute pancreatitis occurred. Conclusion EBD with a large-diameter balloon in conjunction with BES for bile duct stone removal is effective and relatively safe. This technique appears to be a reasonable alternative option when standard BES and basket or balloon sweep are inadequate to remove bile duct stones.
In search of the right middleman

Abstract This paper shows that when traders go to a middleman only if they cannot get a better price somewhere else, the two popular evaluation criteria for middleman — low bid-ask spreads and low inventory holding costs — may be inconsistent.
Hygrothermally Stable Extension-Twist Coupled Laminates With Bending-Twist Coupling

The necessary and sufficient conditions for hygrothermal curvature stability of laminated composite plates have been derived in a prior publication and shown to be material independent. From within these conditions, various couplings are being investigated to determine any improvements over previously known optima. Extension-twist and bending-twist coupling have been investigated in previous work, and significant improvements over the previous state-of-the-art are demonstrated. In this work, the combined effect of extension-twist and bending-twist couplings is investigated to determine the level of twist achievable with a single laminate. Hygrothermal stability is taken to be a constraint. Results for laminates consisting of five through ten plies are presented. A Monte Carlo simulation investigates the robustness of the six-ply laminate to errors in ply angle stacking sequence.Copyright © 2010 by ASME
Knowing: how we know is as important as what we know

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show that more than ever than ever, businesses need to understand the nature of different concepts of knowledge and methods for producing them.Design/methodology/approach – Utilizing the philosophy of inquiry, the extreme importance and relevance of applied epistemology (theories of knowledge/inquiry) for business is demonstrated. It introduces and briefly explains five archetypal inquiry systems from Western philosophy. Each system defines “truth” and “knowledge” in completely different ways.Findings – The paper shows the strengths and the limitations of each system for “knowledge”, and especially for doing business in the systems age.Originality/value – The philosophy of inquiry has been greatly underutilized, even ignored, in schools of business. This paper attempts to correct this.
Localized states in discrete nonlinear Schrödinger equations.

A new 1D discrete nonlinear Schroedinger (NLS) Hamiltonian is introduced which includes the integrable Ablowitz-Ladik system as a limit. The symmetry properties of the system are studied. The relationship between intrinsic localized states and the soliton of the Ablowitz-Ladik NLS is discussed, including the role of discretization as a mechanism controlling collapse. It is pointed out that a staggered localized state can be viewed as a particle of a [ital negative] effective mass. It is shown that staggered localized states can exist in the discrete dark NLS. The motion of localized states and Peierls-Nabarro pinning are also studied.
Effect of dietary indole-3-carbinol on the induction of the mixed-function oxidases of rat tissue.

Abstract Indole-3-carbinol (IC), a compound present in cabbage and other cruciferous vegetables, was fed for 3 wk to young male Sprague-Dawley rats at dietary levels of 50, 500, 5000 and 7500 ppm. Because lower body weights were recorded in the animals fed the two highest levels of IC, pair-fed control groups of rats were used in a second experiment. Increased relative liver weights with enhanced activities of hepatic aminopyrine-N-demethylase, p-nitroanisole O-demethylase and aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylase (AHH) accompanied by higher cytochrome P-450 levels were observed only in the rats fed the two highest levels of IC either ad lib. or in the paired-feeding study. AHH activity increased also in the kidney, with enhanced glucuronide excretion, in the rats fed either of the two highest levels of IC. Intestinal AHH exhibited a significant induction only as a result of the 7500-ppm treatment. The dose-response relationships differed among the tissues. The induction of tissue mixed-function oxidases by only extremely high dietary levels of IC supports the conclusion that this indole is not the specific vegetable constituent that induces these enzymes in rats fed Cruciferae.
Treatment of recalcitrant atopic dermatitis with omalizumab

Atopic dermatitis is a common diagnosis that presents a therapeutic challenge. Although multiple therapeutic modalities exist, there is no single monotherapy that has proven exceptional in ameliorating the symptoms of this disease. Current topical and systemic therapeutic options offer benefit but carry varying degrees of adverse effects that often limit their application. We present 3 patients with severe, recalcitrant atopic dermatitis successfully treated with omalizumab.
GAMMA–2 MSH IS NATRIURETIC IN THE RAT

Previous reports suggest that peptides containing an amino acid sequence similar to that of ACTH–(4–10) increased Na excretion in the rat. Y2MSH contains such a sequence. An in vivo rat bioassay for natriuretic factors was employed to demonstrate the natriuretic action of Y2MSH. A significant natriuretic effect was observed, with a peak response 30–50 min following the bolus injections of 0.64, 6.4 or 64 pmol, but not with smaller or larger amounts of Y2MSH. A kaliuretic and diuretic action of Y2MSH was not consistently evident. Y2MSH may represent an endogenous compound involved in the physiological regulation of Na excretion.
Selection on Major Components of Angiosperm Genomes

Angiosperms are a relatively recent evolutionary innovation, but their genome sizes have diversified remarkably since their origin, at a rate beyond that of most other taxa. Genome size is often correlated with plant growth and ecology, and extremely large genomes may be limited both ecologically and evolutionarily. Yet the relationship between genome size and natural selection remains poorly understood. The manifold cellular and physiological effects of large genomes may be a function of selection on the major components that contribute to genome size, such as transposable elements and gene duplication. To understand the nature of selection on these genomic components, both population-genetic and comparative approaches are needed.
Hurricane storm surge and amphibian communities in coastal wetlands of northwestern Florida

Isolated wetlands in the Southeastern United States are dynamic habitats subject to fluctuating environmental conditions. Wetlands located near marine environments are subject to alterations in water chemistry due to storm surge during hurricanes. The objective of our study was to evaluate the effect of storm surge overwash on wetland amphibian communities. Thirty-two wetlands in northwestern Florida were sampled over a 45-month period to assess amphibian species richness and water chemistry. During this study, seven wetlands were overwashed by storm surge from Hurricane Dennis which made landfall 10 July 2005 in the Florida panhandle. This event allowed us to evaluate the effect of storm surge overwash on water chemistry and amphibian communities of the wetlands. Specific conductance across all wetlands was low pre-storm (<100 μS/cm), but increased post-storm at the overwashed wetlands ( $$ \bar{x} $$ = 7,613 μS/cm). Increased specific conductance was strongly correlated with increases in chloride concentrations. Amphibian species richness showed no correlation with specific conductance. One month post-storm we observed slightly fewer species in overwashed compared with non-overwashed wetlands, but this trend did not continue in 2006. More species were detected across all wetlands pre-storm, but there was no difference between overwashed and non-overwashed wetlands when considering all amphibian species or adult anurans and larval anurans separately. Amphibian species richness did not appear to be correlated with pH or presence of fish although the amphibian community composition differed between wetlands with and without fish. Our results suggest that amphibian communities in wetlands in the southeastern United States adjacent to marine habitats are resistant to the effects of storm surge overwash.
Dimensional changes induced in pyrolytic carbon by high-temperature fast-neutron irradiation☆

Abstract A variety of pyrolytic carbons with various densities, anisotropies, and microstructures, but with similar crystallite sizes, were irradiated at 600°, 1180°, 1330° and 1650°C to fast neutron exposures of 1.9, 2.6, 3.1 and 3.3 × 10 21 nvt ( E >; 0.18 MeV), respectively. Changes in linear dimensions, density, apparent crystallite height, layer spacing, and anisotropy were measured. Significant changes in preferred orientation resulting from irradiation at temperatures above 1100°C were measured. The Bacon anisotropy factor for many specimens increased more than 20 per cent due to the irradiation. The kinetics of densification at 600°C were found to be first order with respect to the density defect and independent of the microstructural appearance of the carbon. At irradiation temperatures above 1100°C, the densities of the carbons with initial densities less than about 2.06 g/cm 3 were increased by the irradiation, but the densities of those with initial densities greater than this value were decreased. The crystallite dimensional changes, ΔX c X c and ΔX a X a , produced by irradiation were derived from the measured dimensional changes parallel and perpendicular to the deposit and compared with the crystallite dimensional changes previously published for carbons and graphites with crystallite densities above 2.0 g/cm 3 . The data show no dependence on crystallite size below ~500°C, where the mobility of radiation-induced point defects is low. Above ~500°C, where the mean diffusion distance of the displaced atoms is large compared with the crystallite size, dimensional change rates are higher for carbons with smaller crystallite sizes.
Framework for investigating the impact of PHEV charging on power distribution system and transportation network

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) have received increasing attention because of their low pollution emissions, petroleum independence, and high fuel economy. The large market penetration of these vehicles is dramatically changing the view of the power distribution system. Unlike other power loads, these vehicles can be connected to power grids anywhere and anytime, which brings more spatial and temporal diversity and uncertainty. There is an urgent need to investigate the impact of PHEV/PEV charging on the power distribution system considering multidisciplinary complexities (e.g., driving behavior, route and departure time choice, charging station location, engineering, policy, economic, environment, technology, and social impact). This paper consolidates the modeling and simulation of power distribution system and transportation network in order to assess the emerging electric vehicle technologies. Moreover, this paper proposes a comprehensive co-modeling/simulation framework for investigating the impact of the electrification of transportation in the real world.
EPR™: A Reactor to Support Economical Fuel Cycles

The EPR™ reactor has been designed by AREVA to support economical fuel cycles. The progress in the reactor and systems design improves the reactor safety, and allows the EPRTM reactor to support the large range of high performance fuel management strategies covering cycle length from 12 to 24 months. Different fuel management strategies with 12, 18 and 24 month cycles are described. Economic analyses are performed to illustrate the low uranium consumption and the high fuel cycle performance compared with the fuel managements implemented in most current traditional PWR reactors.Copyright © 2010 by ASME
Effect of α-difluoromethylornithine on cardiac polyamine content and hypertrophy

Abstract Cardiac hypertrophy produced by treatment with thyroxine for 7 days was accompanied by a significant increase in polyamine content. Putrescine was elevated by 4- to 5-fold, spermidine by 1.6-fold and spermine 1.3-fold. Administration of α-difluoromethylornithine, a potent irreversible inhibitor of ornithine decarboxylase, prevented these increases provided that a high concentration of the drug was maintained by intraperitoneal injection of 200 mg/kg body wt every 12 h and supplementation of the drinking water with 3 g of the drug 100 ml . Such treatment with α-difluoromethylornithine prevented the rise in spermidine and spermine and reduced putrescine content to undetectable levels but did not prevent the increase in heart weight showing that the enhancement of polyamine concentration is not essential for thyroxine-induced cardiac hypertrophy.
The impact of radioimmunoassay on our understanding of human adrenal physiology

Abstract Radioimmunoassay has only been used for a relatively short time to study the human hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal system, but the findings have already contributed immeasurably toward a better understanding of the physiology of this system. In some instances classical concepts have been confirmed and extended. Other findings have led to revisions of old concepts and the formulation of new ones. These physiologic studies have produced new and better laboratory tests for the pituitary-adrenal function that are simple and reliable enough to be used not only in clinical research but in the routine practice of medicine. Even greater contributions from radioimmunoassay can be expected in the future.
Relation of duration of employment and prior respiratory illness to respiratory cancer among beryllium workers

Abstract A prospective study was conducted of white males employed in 1937–1948 in the two major companies extracting beryllium and followed to 1967. The study showed a relationship of duration of employment with specific causes of death. Workers who were employed for one to five quarters (of a year) had a higher lung cancer rate than those employed for six quarters or more. A subcohort of beryllium workers with prior chemical respiratory illness, observed for the same period of time, revealed that six of the eight lung cancer patients (one to five quarters) had prior respiratory illness in the 1940–1948 cohorts, and five of the six lung cancers in age 35–44 (as of 1940) in these cohorts. There was a much higher rate per 100,000 for lung cancer among the subcohort of cases with prior respiratory illness than among the total cohort. The data indicates that prior chemical respiratory illness influences the subsequent development of lung cancer among beryllium workers.
Serratia marcescens bacteremia after carotid endarterectomy and coronary artery bypass grafting

Abstract Serratia Marcescens is a common, water-borne hospital colonizer. Respiratory secretions, wounds, and urine are frequently recognized areas of Serratia colonization. Serratia bacteremias usually occur nosocomially and are associated with high mortality and morbidity rates. Serratia bacteremias may be primary or secondary from an identifiable source. Hospital-acquired S marcescens bacteremias have no known source in half of the cases. We present a case of nosocomial primary S marcescens bacteremia in a surgical patient successfully treated with levofloxacin. (Heart Lung ® 1999;28:293-4)
Effects of the Communities That Care Prevention System on Youth Reports of Protective Factors

Many interventions seeking to reduce problem behaviors and promote healthy youth development target both risk and protective factors, yet few studies have examined the effect of preventive interventions on overall levels of protection community wide. In a community-randomized controlled trial, this study tested the effect of Communities That Care (CTC) on protective factors in 24 communities across seven states. Data on protective factors were collected from a panel of 4407 youths in CTC and control communities followed from grade 5 through grade 8. Hierarchical linear modeling compared mean levels of 15 protective factors derived from the social development model in CTC and control communities in grade 8, adjusted for individual and community characteristics and baseline levels of protective factors in grade 5. Global test statistics were calculated to examine effects on protection overall and by domain. Analyses across all protective factors found significantly higher levels of overall protection in CTC compared to control communities. Analyses by domain found significantly higher levels of protection in CTC than control communities in the community, school, and peer/individual domains, but not in the family domain. Significantly higher levels of opportunities for prosocial involvement in the community, recognition for prosocial involvement in school, interaction with prosocial peers, and social skills among CTC compared to control youth contributed to the overall and domain-specific results. This is consistent with CTC’s theory of change, which posits that strengthening protective factors is a mechanism through which CTC prevents behavior problems.
Bringing Delivery into the Fold: A Discussion of Cross-Departmental Document Delivery Service Implementation in Academic Libraries

SUMMARY The provision of resource request and delivery services in libraries is being re-designed in response to a shift in patron needs and expectations. The design of these services needs to include definitions of patron needs/expectations, staffing and systems components, and local policies and capabilities. This article includes a review of literature on the use of delivery services, a survey of current practices in interlibrary loan departments, and a review of the policies implemented and technical decisions made at the Z. Smith Reynolds Library at Wake Forest University during the ILL/Document Delivery integration process.
Exploiting Space Syntax for Deployable Mobile Opportunistic Networking

Despite the plethora of opportunistic forwarding solutions offered by the research community, we revisit this domain from a new perspective by exploiting the concept of space syntax to enable deployable solutions in large scale urban environments. We present a set of algorithms that build upon space syntax, which predicts natural movement patterns by interacting with pre-built static environments. We design these algorithms for three assumption categories that represent the spectrum of assumptions regarding the underlying environment and node capabilities. We adopt a data-driven approach to evaluate the performance of our algorithms when compared to other state-of-the-art solutions within each representative category that make similar assumptions. Overall, our results show the great promise space syntax based algorithms have for efficiently guiding messages towards the destination. We show 5% to 20% success rate improvement compared to selected well known state-of-the-art forwarding algorithms within each assumption category while reducing the cost in terms of message replicas by up to 10%.
Laurence Stybel's Reaction to Edward J. Pavur's Comments

First, let me thank Dr. Pavur for his comments. One takeaway that I get from his piece is that job descriptions would be of greater value if there was more focus on the type teamwork skills require...
Hydrogenation of single-wall carbon nanotubes using polyamine reagents: Combined experimental and theoretical study

We combine experimental observations with ab initio calculations to study the reversible hydrogenation of single-wall carbon nanotubes using high boiling polyamines as hydrogenation reagents. Our calculations characterize the nature of the adsorption bond and identify preferential adsorption geometries at different coverages. We find the barrier for sigmatropic rearrangement of chemisorbed hydrogen atoms to be ∼1 eV, thus facilitating surface diffusion and formation of energetically favored, axially aligned adsorbate chains. Chemisorbed hydrogen modifies the structure and stability of nanotubes significantly and increases the inter-tube distance, thus explaining the improved dispersability in solvents like methanol, ethanol, chloroform, and benzene.
Monte Carlo simulations of large-scale composite random rough-surface scattering based on the banded-matrix iterative approach

Scattering of a TE incident wave from a perfectly conducting one-dimensional composite random rough surface is studied. A composite random surface contains roughness of more than one scale. With the recently developed efficient numerical technique known as the banded-matrix iterative approach, we are able to study large-scale composite roughness with two correlation lengths that are many times different from each other. It is shown that small-scale roughness, with its large rms slope, rather than large-scale roughness, with its small rms slope, can dominate bistatic scattering. It is also shown that backscattering enhancement can also exist in a composite rough surface.