cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Discrete N-Dimensional Entropy of Behavior: DNDEB

Shared control for human-robot teams—where both the human and the robot’s autonomy provide commands to the hardware—offers advantages over fully teleoperated or fully autonomous systems by utilizing the unique skill sets of both the human and robot’s autonomy simultaneously. However, the mechanism by which control is shared is often static and many teams could benefit from adjusting this mechanism, such that the human or autonomy alternatively receive more control authority in different scenarios. The question then is: how do we know when these scenarios occur? In this paper, we present a method to estimate the performance of human-robot teams using a novel metric called Discrete N-Dimensional Entropy of Behavior (DNDEB). DNDEB utilizes knowledge of a high-performing human-robot team to build a model of how the team should operate. The model is used to predict the human’s command. The error between the prediction and actual command is tracked and after a certain number of samples, entropy is estimated. A higher level of entropy corresponds to deviations from the high-performance model, which can be interpreted as poor performance by the human-robot team (e.g., long task time or a collision). Our formulation offers several advantages: it (1) accepts discrete inputs of any size, (2) does not require additional sensors, and (3) is tunable to the specific application. To validate this, we conduct a 15person study where subjects operated a powered wheelchair under three different shared-control paradigms. We find that entropy is higher for cases with longer task durations and cases where there is a collision. Moreover, we use DNDEB thresholds as a mechanism to predict the performance of the human-robot team online and find an average accuracy of 91% with a prescience rate of 72%.
Contest competition for fruit and space among wild chimpanzees in relation to the vertical stratification of metabolizable energy

Variance in the quality of food sites exploited by group-living animals should allow dominant individuals to gain feeding advantages. In some cases of eating in large patches, however, the amount of agonism can be puzzlingly low. We studied this problem in wild adult chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes, eating ripe fruits in large tree crowns, a context in which little aggression has previously been recorded. Observations were conducted from within the same tree crown as feeding chimpanzees, which allowed us to obtain high-quality data on food distribution, feeding behaviour and aggression. We assessed energy availability and chimpanzee behaviour in relation to their feeding depth. Deeper food sites were associated with less metabolizable food energy (kcal/m3) and lower energy intake rates (kcal/min). Energy availability also varied by tree type (higher in drupe trees than in fig trees) and fruit ripeness (higher in riper fruits). Males were dominant to females, and within both sexes aggressive interactions conformed to a linear hierarchy. Overall higher-ranking individuals used aggression and dominance to access superior feeding sites and achieve higher rates of energy intake, but the effects of dominance varied according to tree type, sex and party composition. Our study shows that covert contest competition over feeding sites gave dominant individuals an important advantage even in very large patches.
Power Harmonic Elimination Technique for Using Non-linear Ceramic Capacitors under Large Voltage Swings for Single-Phase Active Power Decoupling

To reduce the required capacitance for twice-line frequency power ripple buffering in single-phase conversion, active power decoupling methods in general increase the voltage swings on the main energy buffering capacitors to improve the energy utilization of the capacitor. For capacitor types with constant capacitance, the required capacitor voltage can be derived using the fundamental capacitor voltage/current differential equation. However, if non-linear ceramic capacitors are used in the same scenario to increase the power density of the buffer, the buffer power will contain strong high-order harmonic distortion due to the non-linear capacitance that depends on the voltage bias. In this work, a control technique is proposed to eliminate higher order harmonics in the power waveform when non-linear ceramic capacitors are used in active buffers. Ceramic capacitors with different voltage dependant characteristics are discussed. The proposed control technique is verified with a bipolar multilevel active buffer hardware at kilowatt level and 400 V dc-bus.
Hierarchical Hybrid Error Correction for Time-Sensitive Devices at the Edge.

Computational storage, known as a solution to significantly reduce the latency by moving data-processing down to the data storage, has received wide attention because of its potential to accelerate data-driven devices at the edge. To meet the insatiable appetite for complicated functionalities tailored for intelligent devices such as autonomous vehicles, properties including heterogeneity, scalability, and flexibility are becoming increasingly important. Based on our prior work on hierarchical erasure coding that enables scalability and flexibility in cloud storage, we develop an efficient decoding algorithm that corrects a mixture of errors and erasures simultaneously. We first extract the basic component code, the so-called extended Cauchy (EC) codes, of the proposed coding solution. We prove that the class of EC codes is strictly larger than that of relevant codes with known explicit decoding algorithms. Motivated by this finding, we then develop an efficient decoding method for the general class of EC codes, based on which we propose the local and global decoding algorithms for the hierarchical codes. Our proposed hybrid error correction not only enables the usage of hierarchical codes in computational storage at the edge, but also applies to any Cauchy-like codes and allows potentially wider applications of the EC codes.
Correction: Protecting-group-free S-glycosylation towards thioglycosides and thioglycopeptides in water

Correction for ‘Protecting-group-free S-glycosylation towards thioglycosides and thioglycopeptides in water’ by Gao-Lan Zhang et al., Green Chem., 2021, DOI: 10.1039/d1gc00098e.
Symmetrical filters in convolutional neural networks

Symmetry is present in nature and science. In image processing, kernels for spatial filtering possess some symmetry (e.g. Sobel operators, Gaussian, Laplacian). Convolutional layers in artificial feed-forward neural networks have typically considered the kernel weights without any constraint. We propose to investigate the impact of a symmetry constraint in convolutional layers for image classification tasks, taking our inspiration from the processes involved in the primary visual cortex and common image processing techniques. The goal is to determine if it is necessary to learn each weight of the filters independently, and the extent to which it is possible to enforce symmetrical constraints on the filters throughout the training process of a convolutional neural network by modifying the weight update preformed during the backpropagation algorithm and to evaluate the change in performance. The symmetrical constraint reduces the number of free parameters in the network, and it is able to achieve near identical performance. We address the following cases: x/y-axis symmetry, point reflection, and anti-point reflection. The performance is evaluated on four databases of images representing handwritten digits. The results support the conclusion that while random weights offer more freedom to the model, the symmetry constraint provides a similar level of performance while decreasing substantially the number of free parameters in the model. Such an approach can be valuable in phase-sensitive applications that require a linear phase property throughout the feature extraction process.
Developing Software Using Agile and Design Thinking Framework

There are several software companies that develop several products. Are all of them used? Even after software companies following Agile framework methodology to develop their software’s, many software’s still fail to meet the requirements and eventually customers end up not using them. This is usually because the software teams fail to completely understand the user requirements. Agile framework and Design Thinking framework can be used together to gain customer empathy and to overcome this problem. This study discusses how Agile framework and Design Thinking supports the same principles and can be used to reduce software development failures. A Flashcard application was developed to validate Agile framework Design Thinking framework. The results are discussed in the validation and result section.
Interpretable deep learning for chromatin-informed inference of transcriptional programs driven by somatic alterations across cancers

Cancer is a disease of gene dysregulation, where cells acquire somatic and epigenetic alterations that drive aberrant cellular signaling. These alterations adversely impact transcriptional programs and cause profound changes in gene expression. Ultimately, interpreting patient somatic alterations within context-speci[fi]c regulatory programs will facilitate personalized therapeutic decisions for each individual. Towards this goal, we develop a partially interpretable neural network model with encoder-decoder architecture, called Chromatin-informed Inference of Transcriptional Regulators Using Self-attention mechanism (CITRUS), to model the impact of somatic alterations on cellular states and further onto downstream gene expression programs. The encoder module employs a self-attention mechanism to model the contextual impact of somatic alterations in a tumor-specific manner. Furthermore, the model uses a layer of hidden nodes to explicitly represent the state of transcription factors (TFs), and the decoder learns the relationships between TFs and their target genes guided by the sparse prior based on TF binding motifs in the open chromatin regions of tumor samples. We apply CITRUS to genomic, mRNA sequencing and ATAC-seq data from tumors of 17 cancer types profiled by The Cancer Genome Atlas. Our computational framework enables us to share information across tumors to learn patient-specific TF activities, revealing regulatory program similarities and differences between and within tumor types. We show that CITRUS not only outperforms the competing models in predicting RNA expression, but also yields biological insights in delineating TFs associated with somatic alterations in individual tumors. We also validate the differential activity of TFs associated with mutant PIK3CA in breast cancer cell line and xenograft models using a panel of PI3K pathway inhibitors.
Onset of Turbulence

First of all, we have to accept that turbulence, however confused, must be governed by the laws of mechanics. It should be possible to write down equations that describe conservation of mass, momentum and energy for a fluid continuum.
Chapter 7 Monocyclic βt-Lactam Antibiotics

Publisher Summary The monocyclic β -lactams constitute a subclass of β -lactam antibiotics that contains two structural types—the nocardicins and the monobactams. The discovery of both these types depended on highly selective screening methodology, specifically the use of mutants that are hypersensitive to β -lactam antibiotics and the use of bacterial strains with inducible β -lactamase to signal agents of interest. Despite the fact that certain nocardicins are therapeutically effective and exhibit very low toxicity, high levels needed for protection have discouraged commercial development. Contrary to the experience with synthetic monobactams, extensive exploration of synthetic nocardicins has produced no agent with substantially improved antimicrobial properties. The simple nucleus of the monobactams and substituted variants are conveniently accessible by synthesis and many analogues have been prepared, including analogues with alternative “activating” substituents at the 1-position of the azetidinone. These synthetic investigations have led to a number of agents with excellent antimicrobial activity. Two of them—aztreonam and carumonam—are currently being marketed.
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS ON CARCINOMA OF THE CERVIX TREATED WITH 5-FLUOROURACIL.

A D v A N c E D carcinoma of the cervix that is no longer controllable by conventional operative or radiologic techniques presents a therapeutic challenge. This challenge frequently can be met only with analgesics or sedative drugs or with heroic operative measures designed, hopefully, to ameliorate one or another of the intolerable symptoms. Among the most troublesome of these complaints is pain, which is a manifestation of the infiltration of the nerves traversing the posterolateral walls of the pelvis and which usually demands increasing amounts of narcotics for relief. I f the carcinoma is locally uncontrolled, there is profuse and foul vaginal discharge found which is very difhcult to manage by the usual hygienic measures. Neither symptom is amenable to direct operative attack although the occasional patient who is a suitable candidate for spinothalamic tractotomy may obtain gratifying relief of pain by this major operative procedure. Not infrequently, however, little or no benefit results or, which is worse, there is paralysis of the lower extremity or inter-
Genetic distinction of pallid, shovelnose, and Alabama sturgeon: emerging species and the US Endangered Species Act

The sturgeon genus Scaphirhynchus consists of threerecognized species. Pallid and shovelnose sturgeon (S. albusand S. platorynchus, respectively) are sympatric in theMissouri and lower Mississippi Rivers of the central United States. TheAlabama sturgeon (S. suttkusi) is endemic to the nearby MobileRiver drainage and is isolated geographically from the other twospecies. Pallid sturgeon and the extremely rare Alabama sturgeon arelisted as endangered under the US Endangered Species Act (ESA).In contrast, shovelnose sturgeon are relatively common and are notlisted. Despite these taxonomies and morphological evidence, somebiologists have questioned the genetic and taxonomic distinctions of thethree species, thus raising doubts concerning the validity of protectingpallid and Alabama sturgeon under the ESA. To investigate thesequestions, we compared a 436 base-pair sequence of the mitochondrial DNA(mtDNA) control region among the three species. We observed 16 mtDNAhaplotypes defined by 27 single base-pair substitutions (transitions)and one single base-pair insertion/deletion (indel) among 78individuals examined. The maximum sequence divergence among thosehaplotypes (2.06%) was less than values usually observed betweenfish species. However, Alabama sturgeon (n = 3) weredistinguished from the other two taxa (n = 75) by aunique base-pair substitution and haplotype, and pallid and shovelnosesturgeon at their northern range of natural sympatry (upper MissouriRiver) did not share any haplotypes. On the other hand, only frequencydifferences among shared haplotypes distinguished (P < 0.01)pallid and shovelnose sturgeon at their southern range of naturalsympatry (Atchafalaya River), and genetic distances between northern andsouthern localities for each species were nearly as large as thedistances between species. These latter results are consistent withseveral hypotheses, including reports (based on morphology) of putativenatural hybrids in the Atchafalaya River but not in the upper MissouriRiver. Overall, these mtDNA results indicate significant reproductiveisolation between pallid and shovelnose sturgeon in areas of naturalsympatry, and recent evolutionary divergence of Alabama sturgeon. ThesemtDNA results provide the first molecular genetic evidence fordistinguishing the three Scaphirhynchus species and, coupledwith morphological and biogeographic data, indicate that pallid andAlabama sturgeon should be evaluated as distinct species under theESA.
A 1.8 V 14 b 10 MS/s pipelined ADC in 0.18 /spl mu/m CMOS with 99 dB SFDR

A 1.8 V, 14 b pipelined ADC using passive capacitor error-averaging and nested CMOS gain boosting achieves 99 dB SFDR for signal frequencies up to 5.1 MHz without trimming or calibration. With a 1 MHz analog input, DNL is 0.31 LSB, INL is 0.58 LSB, and SNDR is 73.6 dB. The chip occupies 15 mm/sup 2/ in 0.18 /spl mu/m CMOS and dissipates 112 mW.
Signalling by TGF-β

First page of article Keywords: transforming growth factor-β; tumour suppressor; angiogenesis; metastasis; growth arrest; transcription; immunosuppression; autocrine; TGF-β receptor; Smad
KNOWLEDGE BASED AUTOMATED SCHEDULING AND PLANNING TOOLS FOR IUE

The International Ultraviolet Explorer has been successfully operated as a real time user-interactive space observatory for twelve years. It is expected to continue operation for up to five additional years, but under increasing constraints. The option to operate IUE in a more automated, non user-interactive mode is under consideration. A sophisticated software system to support such an operation is a clear requirement. The conceptual framework of such a system is described. Results of a preliminary tests are presented for which a hypothetical four day schedule of space-craft activities at a time resolutions as low as ten minutes was generated.
Preoperative Assessment and Perioperative Management of the Surgical Patient With Diabetes Mellitus

Patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) are more likely than patients without diabetes to undergo surgery and may be at higher than average risk to suffer perioperative complications, usually because of frequent concomitant cardiovascular disease (CVD). The manifestations of CVD in patients with diabetes are often atypical, making identification and management more difficult (1,2). The role of the physician asked to provide preoperative consultation is to work with the surgical team in assessing and reducing the risk of complications in the perioperative period, and to identify opportunities to make a favorable impact on long-term health. In caring for the patient with diabetes perioperatively, heightened awareness of the higher incidence of coronary artery disease (CAD), silent ischemia, and increased predisposition to postoperative complications of infection, hyperglycemia, and hypoglycemia is necessary to permit the best outcomes to occur.
Dialysis: A 5-Year Perspective

The view of dialysis in the next 5 years will, by requirement, deal with ideas presently in the laboratories of industry and academics. The healthcare environment is heavily cost constrained and will likely only yield to more expensive therapies if one measures them in pharmacoeconomic terms and shows that they reduce the life costs for a patient with end-stage renal disease. The technologies of hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis appear to be moving toward one another in terms of generating sterile pyrogen-free dialysis fluid online and moving toward customization of therapy for the individual patient. Sensors will provide closed loop feedback to modulate therapy prescription intradialytically for hemodialysis and on an exchange-to-exchange basis for continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis. Hemodialysis will, in part, move back into the home as new, smart, and smaller equipment prospectively designed for that purpose becomes available. Renewed interest in vascular access will provide alternatives to the present shunt and fistula. The recognition of middle molecule toxicity may require selective removal of identified toxins by immunoadsorption. Patient, rather than physician, quality of life will largely dictate the acceptance of technical innovation over the next 5 years.
Time-lapse imaging of the early avian embryo.

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the time-lapse imaging of the early avian embryo. Time-lapse analysis records a series of still images of a developing embryo over time. When aligned and assembled into an animated sequence, time-lapse imaging reveals surprisingly dynamic events, which could be captured with no other methods. Filming the development of the early chick embryo has a long history, starting with the filming of gastrulation in ovo. By combining live imaging with molecular experiments and microdissection, it is possible to experimentally address the role of given molecules or cell types in morphogenesis. The early avian embryo (blastula and gastrula) is well suited for time-lapse imaging because it is relatively transparent, flat as it develops quickly outside the mother. Quail embryos lend themselves to time-lapse imaging, as they look very similar to chick embryos at all stages, although they develop slightly faster than chick embryos. All of the labeling approaches that work in chick work well in quail, including infection with virus particles modified to drive the expression of various fluorescent markers, lipophilic dye labeling, and electroporation. Capturing the development of the live embryo has benefited from key technical advances in three domains—namely, image-recording hardware and software, culturing techniques, and tissue labeling methods. The current technology in those three domains has made time-lapse imaging of the avian embryo more accessible and effective.
Traffic Sensitivity of Long-term Regional Growth Forecasts

We estimate the sensitivity of the regional growth forecast in the year 2002 due to expected changes in the travel time (TT) matrix. We use a dynamic panel model with spatial effects where the spatial dimension enters the explanatory variables in different ways. The spatial dimension is based on geographical distance between 227 cells in central Europe and the travel time matrix based on average train travel times. The regressor variables are constructed by a) the average past growth rates, where the travel times are used as weights, b) the average travel times across all cells (made comparable by index construction), c) the gravity potential variables based on GDP per capita, employment, productivity and population and d) dummy variables and other socio-demographic variables. We find that for the majority of the cells the relative differences in growth for the year 2020 is rather small. But there are differences as how many regions will benefit from improved train networks: GDP, employment, and population forecasts respond differently.
Pore pressure sensitivities to dynamic strains: Observations in active tectonic regions

Triggered seismicity arising from dynamic stresses is often explained by the Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion, where elevated pore pressures reduce the effective strength of faults in fluid-saturated rock. The seismic response of a fluid-rock system naturally depends on its hydromechanical properties, but accurately assessing how pore fluid pressure responds to applied stress over large scales in situ remains a challenging task; hence, spatial variations in response are not well understood, especially around active faults. Here I analyze previously unutilized records of dynamic strain and pore pressure from regional and teleseismic earthquakes at Plate Boundary Observatory (PBO) stations from 2006 to 2012 to investigate variations in response along the Pacific/North American tectonic plate boundary. I find robust scaling response coefficients between excess pore pressure and dynamic strain at each station that are spatially correlated: around the San Andreas and San Jacinto fault systems, the response is lowest in regions of the crust undergoing the highest rates of secular shear strain. PBO stations in the Parkfield instrument cluster are at comparable distances to the San Andreas Fault (SAF), and spatial variations there follow patterns in dextral creep rates along the fault, with the highest response in the actively creeping section, which is consistent with a narrowing zone of strain accumulation seen in geodetic velocity profiles. At stations in the San Juan Bautista (SJB) and Anza instrument clusters, the response depends nonlinearly on the inverse fault-perpendicular distance, with the response decreasing toward the fault; the SJB cluster is at the northern transition from creeping-to-locked behavior along the SAF, where creep rates are at moderate to low levels, and the Anza cluster is around the San Jacinto Fault, where to date there have been no statistically significant creep rates observed at the surface. These results suggest that the strength of the pore pressure response in fluid-saturated rock near active faults is controlled by shear strain accumulation associated with tectonic loading, which implies a strong feedback between fault strength and permeability: dynamic triggering susceptibilities may vary in space and also in time.
Wideband True-Time-Delay Microwave Lenses Based on Metallo-Dielectric and All-Dielectric Lowpass Frequency Selective Surfaces

We present a new technique for designing microwave lenses with broadband, true-time-delay response types. The lenses examined in this work are planar structures with circular apertures populated with numerous spatial time-delay units (TDUs). Each TDU is the unit cell of an appropriately designed lowpass frequency selective surface (FSS) that provides a desired time delay over a wide frequency range. The lowpass FSSs used in this paper are either metallo-dielectric or all-dielectric type multi-layer structures. A metallo-dielectric lowpass FSS is composed of a number of capacitive patch layers separated from each other by thin dielectric substrates. An all-dielectric lowpass FSS, on the other hand, is composed of high- er and low-er dielectric substrates cascaded sequentially. Two metallo-dielectric lowpass FSS-based true-time-delay (TTD) lens prototypes and one all-dielectric lowpass FSS-based TTD lens prototype with focal length to aperture diameter ratios (f/D) of 1, 1.5 and 1.3 are designed, fabricated, and experimentally characterized. They respectively operate over a bandwidth of 30%, 50% and 40% without any chromatic aberrations. This is demonstrated experimentally by characterizing the responses of these lenses both in frequency domain and in time domain. Moreover, all of these lenses demonstrates excellent scanning performances with fields of views of ±60°.
Significance of Polymers in Drug Delivery System

In the recent past, there has been advancement in state-of-the-art therapies utilizing biopharmaceuticals, like proteins, peptides, nucleic acids and bioactive molecules, as therapeutics for diagnosing diseases. These novel drugs require refined drug delivery system which can be used to improve their pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamic properties as well as enhance cell/tissue specificity and biocompatibility. In this regard, the development of new drug delivery systems and mechanisms to control them is mandatory which has led to the progress in the next generation of drug delivery system [1]. The development in the biomedical sciences has substantially influenced the design and growth of novel and smart drug delivery systems for more controlled and target-based drug usage. The high-tech drug delivery system is one of the fastest emerging sectors of the pharmaceutical market costing around $ 134.3 billion in 2008 and approximately $ 196.4 billion in 2014. The chief section of it is controlled and target-based drug delivery which has reached $ 50.9 billion in 2009 [2].
Thermoregulatory Function During the Marathon

Marathon races are performed over a broad range of environmental conditions. Hyperthermia is a primary challenge for runners in temperate and warm weather, but hypothermia can be a concern during cool-wet or cold conditions. Body temperature during the marathon is a balance between metabolic heat production and exchange with the environment described by the heat balance equation. During exercise, core temperature is proportional to the metabolic rate and largely independent of a wide range of environmental conditions. In temperate or cool conditions, a large skin-to-ambient temperature gradient facilitates radiant and convective heat loss, and reduces skin blood flow requirements, which may explain the tolerance for high core temperature observed during marathons in cool conditions. However, in warmer environments, skin temperatures and sweating rates increase. In addition, greater skin blood flow is required for heat loss, magnifying thermoregulatory and circulatory strain. The combined challenge of exercise and environment associated with marathon running can substantially challenge the human thermoregulatory system.
Individual differences in category learning: Sometimes less working memory capacity is better than more

We examined whether individual differences in working memory influence the facility with which individuals learn new categories. Participants learned two different types of category structures: rule-based and information-integration. Successful learning of the former category structure is thought to be based on explicit hypothesis testing that relies heavily on working memory. Successful learning of the latter category structure is believed to be driven by procedural learning processes that operate largely outside of conscious control. Consistent with a widespread literature touting the positive benefits of working memory and attentional control, the higher one's working memory, the fewer trials one took to learn rule-based categories. The opposite occurred for information-integration categories - the lower one's working memory, the fewer trials one took to learn this category structure. Thus, the positive relation commonly seen between individual differences in working memory and performance can not only be absent, but reversed. As such, a comprehensive understanding of skill learning - and category learning in particular - requires considering the demands of the tasks being performed and the cognitive abilities of the performer.
Determination of oxygen atomic positions in a Ga-In-Sn-O ceramic using direct methods and electron diffraction

Abstract Direct methods using dynamical transmission electron diffraction (TED) intensities is applied to the solution of (Ga,In) 2 SnO 5 . Dynamical diffraction effects in the TED data lead to an emphasis of oxygen positions in the structure. Application of direct methods to dynamical diffraction intensities represents a valuable new technique for obtaining approximate atom positions of light elements in ceramics using an experiment which is simple to perform and does not require a single crystal.
Quantitative structure-activity relationships and ecological risk assessment: an overview of predictive aquatic toxicology research

In the field of aquatic toxicology, quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSARs) have developed as scientifically credible tools for predicting the toxicity of chemicals when little or no empirical data are available. A fundamental understanding of toxicological principles has been considered an important component to the acceptance and application of QSAR approaches as biologically relevant in ecological risk assessments. As a consequence, there has been an evolution of QSAR development and application from that of a chemical-class perspective to one that is more consistent with assumptions regarding modes of toxic action. In this review, techniques to assess modes of toxic action from chemical structure are discussed, with consideration that toxicodynamic knowledge bases must be clearly defined with regard to exposure regimes, biological models/endpoints and compounds that adequately span the diversity of chemicals anticipated for future applications. With such knowledge bases, classification systems, including rule-based expert systems, have been established for use in predictive aquatic toxicology applications. The establishment of QSAR techniques that are based on an understanding of toxic mechanisms is needed to provide a link to physiologically based toxicokinetic and toxicodynamic models, which can provide the means to extrapolate adverse effects across species and exposure regimes.
Stress-mediated quality of life outcomes in parents of childhood cancer and brain tumor survivors: a case–control study

Purpose To determine if caring for a child with cancer or a brain tumor affects parental health and mental health and if and to what extent stress mediates the relationship between case status and parental quality of life.
Kinklike solutions of fourth-order differential equations with a cubic bistable nonlinearity

For the equation y(4)+2y(y2−1) = 0, we suggest an analytic construction of kinklike solutions (solutions bounded on the entire line and having finitely many zeros) in the form of rapidly convergent series in products of exponential and trigonometric functions. We show that, to within sign and shift, kinklike solutions are uniquely characterized by the tuple of integers n1, …, nk (the integer parts of distances, divided by π, between the successive zeros of these solutions). The positivity of the spatial entropy indicates the existence of chaotic solutions of this equation.
Efficiency of Hot Carrier Trapping by Outer-Sphere Redox Probes at Quantum Dot Interfaces

The action spectra of the colloidal TiO_2-photosensitized oxidations of bifunctional aromatics in 1 mM phosphate colloidal media provide firm evidence that electron transfer from outer-sphere donors can compete with excited hole relaxation at nanoparticle interfaces. The possibility and extent of the competition are largely determined by the dependence of Marcus nuclear factors on the donors' reversible redox potentials E°_(D/D^(+•)) relative to the valence band edge. Good electron donors are degraded by OH radicals produced in the oxidation of water by thermal holes, whereas direct electron transfer into excited holes (the pathway favored by less oxidizable substrates) leads to enhanced quantum efficiencies at short wavelengths. The ultimate decline of the quantum efficiency for the oxidation of phthalate (the most endoergic donor of the set) by λ ≤ 320 nm photons indicates that the relaxation of highly excited carriers takes place in discrete steps commensurate with electron transfer reorganization energies. The latter observation is consistent with the opening of low order multiphonon channels for the disposal of kinetic energy quanta larger than the depth of surface ν_(O-H) ∼ 3700 cm^(-1) vibrational sinks.
Thermal inactivation of thyroxine-binding globulin for direct radioimmunoassay of triiodothyronine in serum.

ABSTRACT A new radioimmunoassay procedurefor triiodothyronine (T3) is described. The methoduses unextracted serum at a 1:4 dilution. The novel feature of the process is that preincubation and incubation with isotope take place at 60 C. At this temperature the binding capacity of thyroxine-binding globulin (TBG) is virtually eliminated and the antigen-antibody reaction is greatly accelerated.Separation of antibody-bound hormone from freehormone is effected by polyethylene glycol solution. By plotting the standard curve on Probability × logarithmic paper, the curve is linear. Logit × log plots give the same results and facilitate calculation of data by a simple computer program. Sera of 31 normal individuals showed a meanvalue (±sd) of 189 ± 30 ng per 100 ml. Fourteen clinically thyrotoxic individuals had T3 values of 838 ± 398 ng per 100 ml and 19 clinically myxedematous patients had T3 values of 47 ± 39 ng per100 ml. These values were confirmed by using several different antisera and by performing the rad...
Characteristics of Transcellular Water Permeability in Adult and Immature Rabbit Juxtamedullary Proximal Tubules

Characteristics of Transcellular Water Permeability in Adult and Immature Rabbit Juxtamedullary Proximal Tubules
Chronic intragastric infusion produces tolerance to ethanol in LS and SS mice

Tolerance to ethanol's effects is seen after chronic injections and after chronic treatment with ethanol-containing liquid diets. However, tolerance associated with injections is often associated with environmental cuing (learned tolerance) and liquid diets do not allow for careful control of dose. The studies reported here demonstrate that chronic (3 g/kg every 6 h for 7 days) intragastric infusion of ethanol produces tolerance to ethanol in both LS and SS mice, as measured by sleep time and effects on open field activity and body temperature. LS mice developed more tolerance for all measures than the SS. The rate of ethanol elimination was increased slightly in both the LS and SS mouse lines following chronic ethanol infusion, which suggests that both lines developed a modest metabolic tolerance to ethanol. In contrast, the waking blood ethanol levels were altered only in the LS mice, which argues that some of the tolerance to ethanol seen in the LS mice is pharmacodynamic tolerance. Thus, chronic intragastric infusion of ethanol is a reliable method for treating animals chronically with ethanol that allows for the precise control of dose and dose interval, oral administration of ethanol, and minimal animal handling that can be associated with drug delivery, thereby reducing the risk of developing learned tolerance to ethanol.
Nanostructured titanium aluminides

Abstract Binary TiAl and ternary TiAlNb alloys were mechanically alloyed in a Szegvari attritor or in a SPEX mill, to produce an amorphous phase and a B2/b.c.c. phase respectively. Consolidation of these powders by hot pressing, explosive compaction or hot isostatic pressing resulted in transformation of the as-milled phases; however, the product had retained nanometer-sized grains. The microhardness of the consolidated compacts is about 1000 kg mm −2 and clearly demonstrated that the Hall-Petch equation is applicable.
Leaf cavity CO2 concentrations and CO2 exchange in onion, Allium cepa L.

Onion (Allium cepa L.) plants were examined to determine the photosynthetic role of CO2 that accumulates within their leaf cavities. Leaf cavity CO2 concentrations ranged from 2250 μL L−1 near the leaf base to below atmospheric (<350 μL L−1) near the leaf tip at midday. There was a daily fluctuation in the leaf cavity CO2 concentrations with minimum values near midday and maximum values at night. Conductance to CO2 from the leaf cavity ranged from 24 to 202 μmol m−2 s−1 and was even lower for membranes of bulb scales. The capacity for onion leaves to recycle leaf cavity CO2 was poor, only 0.2 to 2.2% of leaf photosynthesis based either on measured CO2 concentrations and conductance values or as measured directly by 14CO2 labeling experiments. The photosynthetic responses to CO2 and O2 were measured to determine whether onion leaves exhibited a typical C3-type response. A linear increase in CO2 uptake was observed in intact leaves up to 315 μL L−1 of external CO2 and, at this external CO2 concentration, uptake was inhibited 35.4±0.9% by 210 mL L−1 O2 compared to 20 mL L−1 O2. Scanning electron micrographs of the leaf cavity wall revealed degenerated tissue covered by a membrane. Onion leaf cavity membranes apparently are highly impermeable to CO2 and greatly restrict the refixation of leaf cavity CO2 by photosynthetic tissue.
P and S wave tomography of the mantle beneath the United States

Mantle seismic structure beneath the United States spanning from the active western plate margin to the passive eastern margin was imaged with teleseismic P and S wave traveltime tomography including USArray data up to May 2014. To mitigate artifacts from crustal structure 5–40 s, Rayleigh wave phase velocities were used to create a 3-D starting model. Major features of the final P and S models include two distinct low-velocity anomalies at depths of ~60–300 km beneath the central and northern Appalachians and passive margin. The central Appalachian low-velocity anomaly coincides with Eocene basaltic magmatism, and the northern anomaly is located along the Cretaceous track of the Great Meteor hot spot. At depths of ~300–700 km beneath the central and eastern U.S. large high-velocity anomalies are inferred to be remnants of the Farallon slab that subducted prior to ~40 Ma during the Laramide orogeny.
Parallel Functional Changes in the Digestive RNases of Ruminants and Colobines by Divergent Amino Acid Substitutions

A morphological or physiological trait may appear multiple times in evolution. At the molecular level, similar protein functions may emerge independently in different lineages. Whether these parallel functional changes are due to parallel amino acid substitutions has been a subject of debate. Here, I address this question using digestive ribonucleases (RNases) of two groups of foregut-fermenting mammals: ruminant artiodactyls and colobine monkeys. The RNase1 gene was duplicated twice in ancestral ruminants at least 40 MYA, and it was also duplicated in the douc langur, an Asian colobine, approximately 4 MYA. After duplication, similar functional changes occurred in the ruminant and monkey enzymes. Interestingly, five amino acid substitutions in ruminant RNases that are known to affect its catalytic activity against double-stranded (ds) RNA did not occur in the monkey enzyme. Rather, a similar functional change in the monkey was caused by a different set of nine substitutions. Site-directed mutagenesis was used to make three of the five ruminant-specific substitutions in the monkey enzyme. Functional assays of these mutants showed that one of the three substitutions has a similar effect in monkeys, the second has a stronger effect, and the third has an opposite effect. These results suggest that (1) an evolutionary problem can have multiple solutions, (2) the same amino acid substitution may have opposite functional effects in homologous proteins, (3) the stochastic processes of mutation and drift play an important role even at functionally important sites, and (4) protein sequences may diverge even when their functions converge.
Interfacial processes in the dye-sensitized solar cell

Interfacial energetics and kinetics are far more important in dye-sensitized solar cells than in conventional solar cells. The huge interfacial area of the nanoporous semiconductor device, with electrolyte permeation throughout the bulk, results in a number of unusual physical characteristics. For example: dark currents can no longer be quantitatively compared to photocurrents; both equilibrium and photoinduced electric fields are rapidly screened throughout the bulk of the cell; the energetics for the crucial processes of electron injection, charge separation and charge recombination are not fixed but depend on a number of dynamic variables; and the open circuit photovoltage is controlled by the photoinduced interfacial chemical potential gradient instead of the built-in equilibrium potential difference. Surface states induced by UV illumination can enhance the photoconversion process in contrast to their detrimental role in conventional cells. Finally, recombination rates can be substantially decreased by modifying the semiconductor/electrolyte interface, rather than by optimizing bulk properties. These effects are described and explained.
Universal land acquisition 14 years later

Universal land acquisition means that we are no longer forced to commit to a final processing and/or interpretation sampling grid during the acquisition process, but have the ability to change the processing/interpretation bin dimensions at various later times, depending upon the sampling requirements for the particular processing/interpretation objective under consideration. Ongkiehong et al. (1988) called this “uncommitted acquisition”.
Shielding effectiveness measurements using mode-stirred chambers: a comparison of two approaches

Two methodologies for performing shielding effectiveness measurements using mode-stirred chambers are presented. The first method, which utilizes the traditional single (discrete) frequency approach, in use at the US Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) for several years, is referred to as the discrete frequency method. The discrete frequency method, as the name implies, involves testing only one frequency at a time. By contract, the second method utilizes broadband noise sources and can measure shielding effectiveness over large bandwidths with high resolution in short periods of time. The second method is referred to as the noise method. >
A History of Aboriginal Futures

This article addresses the paradox of the persistence, growth, and increasing circulation of work in indigenous media and acrylic painting in Aboriginal Australia, despite the alarming political turn against gains made by indigenous Australians over the last decade, not only by right-wing politicians but intellectuals as well. Indigenous people in settler nation-states have faced a range of dilemmas in imagining their futures. In Australia, debates about the significance of an indigenous presence and history continue to rage. This article reviews the range of policies extended toward Australia’s Aboriginal people (ranging from pastoral care in the face of expected dying out to assimilation to self-determination and beyond), the cultural and political projects through which Aboriginal urban activists and remote communities have attempted to construct their futures, and a consideration of the media through which these futures are imagined.
Transport Development and Building Cycles

Introduction, 90. — I. Innovations in transport technology and geographic location, 91. — Effect upon population movements, 93. — Upon building, 93.— The timing of innovations in transportation, 94. — Influence of rate structures, 95. — Effects upon consumer behavior, 96. — Influence of monetary conditions, 97. — II. Character of the statistical data, 98. — Six cycles in building and in transport development revealed, 101. —III. The impact of transport development upon building in Ohicago,107. — IV. Implications for future transport developments and building booms, 111.
Neuroimaging: Multimodality treatment of acoustic tumors

MR imaging offers a high-resolution technique for examining the structures of the internal auditory canal and cerebellopontine angle. Vestibular schwannoma may be detected sensitively with contrast-enhanced or three-dimensional T2-weighted MR sequences. This review examines the imaging findings of primary and residual vestibular schwannomas and their mimics.
Secular Trends in Nosocomial Bloodstream Infections in a 55-Bed Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Unit

Abstract Background . Although bloodstream infections (BSIs) occur more frequently in intensive care unit patients than in ward patients, most studies of nosocomial BSIs in critically ill patients have not distinguished between intensive care unit populations beyond surgical, medical, and pediatric patients. Methods . The primary objective of this study was to characterize the secular trends in rates of nosocomial BSIs for all pathogens among patients admitted to a busy cardiothoracic intensive care unit in a single tertiary care institution between January 1986 and December 1995. Patients with nosocomial BSIs were identified through continual prospective surveillance. Results . A total of 40,207 patients were admitted to the cardiothoracic intensive care unit during the 10-year study period, and 804 episodes of nosocomial BSIs among 681 patients were identified. The mean crude BSI infection rate was 6.0 per 1,000 patient-care days and increased linearly during the study period (range, 4.4 to 8.1 per 1000 patient-care days), and approached statistical significance ( p value=0.07). The most common organisms causing BSIs were Staphylococcus aureus (12%), coagulase-negative staphylococci (11%), Candida albicans (11%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (10%), and Enterococci (9%). The leading sources of nosocomial BSIs were primary BSIs (33%), intravascular devices (27%), lower respiratory tract infections (17%), and surgical wound infections (12%). The etiologic fraction or the proportion of deaths in cardiothoracic intensive care unit patients with BSIs was 15-fold higher than those patients without BSIs (37% versus 2.5%, p Conclusions . Rates of nosocomial BSIs among patients in our cardiothoracic intensive care unit have increased linearly during the past decade and patients with nosocomial BSIs have an increased risk of in hospital mortality.