cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Factors associated with Seroprevalence of Anaplasma marginale in Kentucky cattle.

Abstract Bovine anaplasmosis (BA) is tick-borne disease of cattle caused by Anaplasma marginale and it remains an economically important disease in the United States (U.S.). We have anecdotal information that Veterinary Feed Directive prescriptions in Kentucky (KY) are written most often for treatment and prevention of BA. However, there are no recent prevalence estimates of this disease in KY. Thus, this study was aimed at determining the seroprevalence of and factors associated with BA in KY. Data were obtained from an active slaughter survey (n = 232) performed between May and July 2013 as well as from reviewing The University of Kentucky Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (UKVDL) records of specimens submitted for BA testing from 2002–2012 (n = 2,573). With competitive ELISA, the apparent prevalence of BA in KY was 10.78% (95% CI: 7.41–15.42%) and 11.58% (95% CI: 10.31–12.98%) for the slaughter survey and laboratory records, respectively. Whereas the estimated true prevalence was 9.44% (95% CI: 5.65–14.48%) and 10.3% (95% CI: 8.92–11.8%), respectively. From the laboratory records, factors associated with positive BA results were age, breed, whether specimens were submitted singularly or as a group, year and quarter of the year the specimens were submitted. The odds of the outcome were 5 times as high when cattle were adults (vs juvenile) and almost 4 times as high when specimens were submitted singularly (vs group). In comparison to Holstein breed, the odds of the outcome were 3.5 and 2.5 times higher in Angus and mixed breeds, respectively. The odds of a diagnosis of BA varied in an undulating pattern by year of sample submission. When compared to 2011, the odds of a diagnosis of BA was approximately 3 times as high in 2005, 2008, and 2009 and approximately 5 times as high in 2004, 2006, and 2012. In comparison to the duration from January to March, the odds of the outcome were almost 20 times as high from July to September but 10 times as high from October to December durations. Counties with specimen submissions for BA testing had a significantly greater cattle population and number of cattle farms than counties without specimen submissions. Future prevention and control measures for BA should target these factors and should be weighted more on counties with higher cattle population. Furthermore, current records from the UKVDL appear sufficient for the surveillance of BA in KY.
Type-Directed Bounding of Collections in Reactive Programs

Our aim is to statically verify that in a given reactive program, the length of collection variables does not grow beyond a given bound. We propose a scalable type-based technique that checks that each collection variable has a given refinement type that specifies constraints about its length. A novel feature of our refinement types is that the refinements can refer to AST counters that track how many times an AST node has been executed. This feature enables type refinements to track limited flow-sensitive information. We generate verification conditions that ensure that the AST counters are used consistently, and that the types imply the given bound. The verification conditions are discharged by an off-the-shelf SMT solver. Experimental results demonstrate that our technique is scalable, and effective at verifying reactive programs with respect to requirements on length of collections.
Integrating Project-Based Learning in Mobile Development Course to Enhance Student Learning Experience

In the 21st century workplace and in academia, success requires more than basic knowledge and skills. In a project, students learn how to take initiative and responsibility, build their confidence, solve problems, work in teams, communicate ideas, and manage themselves more effectively. Project-Based Learning (PBL) is an instructional pedagogy that helps to build all these standards. Hence, we choose to integrate PBL in an undergraduate Mobile Development course that can play a significant role in creating the next-generation workforce equipped with mobile application development skills and other required skills mentioned above. In this paper, we report on our experience with integrating PBL in an upper-level mobile development course that achieves our teaching goals, helps motivate student learning, and increases student satisfaction. Here, we present an overview of our approach, course outline, course module design, outcomes, and student feedback. The focus group discussions described here highlight the positive experience of using PBL, lessons learned by the instructor, limitations, and few pitfalls.
An Architecture for a Cyber-Physical Healthcare Delivery System with Human Agents

The traditional monolithic hospital focused health-care system organically developed to address acute conditions. In recent years, healthcare needs have shifted from treating acute conditions to meeting an unprecedented chronic disease burden. The long-term complex nature of chronic diseases imposes requirements on 1.) the individual: to actively participate in their healthcare rather than only passively receive treatment(s) and 2.) the healthcare system: to evolve towards a Smart City enabled, intelligent, cyber-physical system capable of smart data acquisition both within and outside the clinic to provide care when and where the individual requires it. This presents a formidable systems challenge where the state of the healthcare delivery system must be coordinated over many years or decades with the health state of each individual that seeks care for their chronic conditions. This paper architects a system model for personalized healthcare delivery and managed individual health outcomes. To ground the discussion, the work builds upon recent structural analysis of mass-customized production systems as an analogous system and then highlights the stochastic evolution of an individual’s health state as a key distinguishing feature. Architecting a coordinated system model such as this one opens several avenues for future work to develop and detail the effects of the cyber-physical nature and the latest data acquisition systems of the healthcare system on health outcomes and cost.
Genetic regulation of longevity and age-associated diseases through the methionine sulfoxide reductase system

Methionine sulfoxide reductase enzymes are a protective system against biological oxidative stress in aerobic organisms. Modifications to this antioxidant system have been shown to impact the lifespan of several model system organisms. In humans, methionine oxidation of critical proteins and deficiencies in the methionine sulfoxide reductase system have been linked to age-related diseases, including cancer and neurodegenerative disease. Substrates for methionine sulfoxide reductases have been reviewed multiple times, and are still an active area of discovery. In contrast, less is known about the genetic regulation of methionine sulfoxide reductases. In this review, we discuss studies on the genetic regulation of the methionine sulfoxide reductase system with relevance to longevity and age-related diseases. A better understanding of genetic regulation for methionine sulfoxide reductases may lead to new therapeutic approaches for age-related diseases in the future.
Institutional Effects of Higher Education Acquisitions: The Case of Texas A&M School of Law:

This study analyzes the acquisition of the Texas Wesleyan University School of Law by Texas A&M University. In particular, institution-level effects are examined by measuring selectivity, tuition p...
Capturing the Diversity of Subsurface Microbiota – Choice of Carbon Source for Microcosm Enrichment and Isolation of Groundwater Bacteria

Improved and innovative enrichment/isolation techniques that yield to relevant isolates representing the true diversity of environmental microbial communities would significantly advance exploring the physiology of ecologically important taxa in ecosystems. Traditionally, either simple organic carbon (C) or yeast extract is used as C source in culture medium for microbial enrichment/isolation in laboratory. In natural environment, however, microbial population and evolution are greatly influenced by the property and composition of natural organic C. In this study, 8 types of organic C sources were fed to intrinsic groundwater microbes collected at Oak Ridge Reservation Field Research Center (ORR-FRC) background site for a 30-day incubation period to investigate the response of indigenous bacterial communities to different C sources. The tested C sources included simple organic C (glucose, acetate, benzoate, oleic acid, and cellulose) that are either traditionally used as C source in bacterial culture medium or present in natural environments; naturally occurring undefined complex C (bacterial cell lysate and sediment-derived natural organic matter (NOM)); as well as vitamin mixture which is a commonly used ingredient in culture medium. Our results clearly indicate that natural complex C substrates served better in enriching diverse bacteria compared to other C sources. Microcosms amended with small organic C (glucose, acetate, benzoate, or oleic acid) showed significantly lower biodiversity than control groups, dominated by only a few phyla of bacteria such as Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes which are commonly isolated and already have diverse representative isolates, while those amended with natural complex C (cell lysate or NOM) displayed significantly higher biodiversity than control groups, in which three phyla (Verrucomicrobia, Planctomycetes, and Armatimonadetes) that are poorly represented in published culture collections were abundantly enriched. Further isolation of pure bacterial strains from complex C-amended enrichments led to 51 species representing 4 phyla, 13 orders. Furthermore, 5 isolates with low similarities to published strains were considered to be novel. Results from this study will aid in the design of better cultivation and isolation strategy for maximize the diversity of organisms recovered from subsurface environment.
VENTRICULAR FIBRILLATION DURING PREGNANCY: A CASE OF CARDIAC SARCOIDOSIS

Cardiac sarcoidosis (CS) can present as any number of arrhythmias, including ventricular fibrillation. A 33-year-old female, 30-weeks pregnant with recent episodes of syncope, was found unconscious. She required cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and shocks before return of spontaneous circulation
Identifying features of dialogic interaction in EFL teacher discourse: A literature review

Instructional conversation (Tharp & Gallimore, 1988) is an approach to dialogic interaction (Hall, 1993) between teacher and student intended to co-construct meaning and foster learner comprehension. Despite the potential impact dialogic interaction can have on learner outcomes in language education, the current research has adopted an input/output orientation that quantifies language rather than assesses the effectiveness of meaning-making processes in the classroom. To that effect, this paper aims to inductively recognize features of dialogic interaction in the contemporary research on English as a foreign language (EFL). Analysis of research from 26 qualitative studies on university EFL classroom contexts highlights how various discourse strategies among language educators such as questioning, scaffolding, and L1 usage satisfy the imperatives of instructional conversation defined by Goldenberg (1992). W hile discrete elements of instructional conversation can be found in the research , the overall cognitiv ist orientation in the field poses challenges for holistic observation of instructional conversation, warranting further research into dialogic interaction in language education .
Are LEED-ND developments catalysts of neighborhood gentrification?

LEED v4 for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) is a neighborhood sustainability assessment tool developed through a collaborative effort between the United States Green Building Council, the Congre...
Single-muscle fiber contractile properties in lifelong aerobic exercising women

This is the first investigation to examine the effects of lifelong exercise on single-muscle fiber physiology in women. Nearly 50 yr of moderate to vigorous aerobic exercise training resulted in en...
Cocrystals and Salts of Tetrazole-Based Energetic Materials

Many energetic materials are unsuitable for practical purposes due to unacceptable sensitivity toward heat, impact, shock, or friction. In addition, chemical reactivity can also be of concern from ...
New and emerging pharmacotherapy for duchenne muscular dystrophy: a focus on synthetic therapeutics.

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is the result of X-chromosome-linked mutations to the dystrophin protein gene that prevent the normal development and repair of muscles leading to muscle deteriora...
Dense, Nano-grained, Multi-Phase Ceramic Coatings By Dry Aerosol Deposition of Lunar Regolith Simulant

Abstract Dry Aerosol Deposition (DAD) is a ceramic coating process with the ability to build films and low profile 3D structures layer by layer and is therefore a promising additive manufacturing technique. DAD is unique because it uses kinetic energy rather than thermal energy for densification, and the result is a nearly theoretically dense, nano-crystalline ceramic. The main objectives of this work were to demonstrate the fabrication of adherent ceramic thick films onto a variety of substrates using lunar regolith simulant as feedstock, and to investigate the compositional relationships between feedstock and resultant films. Thick films were successfully deposited onto glass, steel and polyimide substrates via DAD. Using a sequential two-step deposition, films up to (but not limited to) 25 μm thickness were deposited onto steel. Surface roughness increased with thickness and with some influence from substrate material. Utilizing the DAD process, a very heterogeneous mixture of silicate and titanate mineral phases was transformed in a single step to a fully dense, nano-grained coating with spatially homogeneous composition at the micro-scale. The final composition of the coatings was found to deviate slightly from the feedstock powder, becoming richer in ilmenite (FeTiO3) and poorer in plagioclase (feldspar) content. This work demonstrates the potential of DAD for in-space manufacturing and lunar In Situ Resource Utilization.
Association of molecular characteristics with survival in advanced non-small cell lung cancer patients treated with checkpoint inhibitors.

Objectives Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have changed the landscape of lung cancer therapy. However significant proportions of patients have primary or acquired resistance to ICIs. Molecular characterization is critical for patient selection and overcoming resistance to checkpoint inhibitors. The purpose of this study is to investigate the molecular characteristics associated with ICIs outcomes in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Materials and methods All advanced stage NSCLC patients at City of Hope who received ICIs (pembrolizumab, nivolumab, atezolizumab, and durvalumab) were identified retrospectively. Overall survival (OS, from the start of the ICIs), Pathology and information on genomic alterations (GAs) including next-generation sequencing (NGS) data, tumor mutation burden (TMB), and Programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) levels were collected. Chi-square and Fisher's exact test, Log-rank test were used for comparison of demographics, and survival curves respectively. Univariate and multivariate COX proportional hazards model was used for survival analysis. Results 346 NSCLC patients were identified. Univariate and multivariate analysis found the association of OS with PD-L1 level ≥50% (Hazard ratio [HR], 0.19; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.06-0.59; P Conclusions We described the clinical and molecular features of NSCLC patients treated with ICIs. The association of GAs in TET2 with longer OS and its mutual exclusivity with FANCA GAs were insightful for developing novel therapeutic strategies to improve ICIs outcomes in NSCLC.
The bond dissociation energy of VO measured by resonant three-photon ionization spectroscopy.

The predissociation threshold of VO has been measured using resonant three-photon ionization (R3PI) spectroscopy. Given the high density of electronic states in the molecule, it is argued that the molecule dissociates rapidly as soon as the thermochemical bond dissociation energy (BDE) is exceeded, allowing the measured predissociation threshold to be assigned as the BDE. This is the first time a BDE has been measured using the R3PI method. The first photon is provided by an optical parametric oscillator (OPO) laser that promotes VO into a high-energy, discrete vibronic state. A tunable dye laser then excites the molecule further to a resonant state close to the dissociation limit where there is a quasi-continuum of states. A second photon from the same dye laser pulse ionizes the molecule, generating VO+ ions. The dye laser is then scanned to higher energies, and when the energy of one OPO photon plus one dye photon exceeds the BDE, the molecule dissociates before another dye photon can be absorbed to induce ionization. The combined photon energy at the sharp drop in the ion signal is assigned as the BDE. The experiment has been repeated using four different intermediate states, all yielding the same BDE, D0(VO) = 6.545(2) eV. Using thermochemical cycles, a revised value for the BDE of cationic VO is obtained, D0(V+–O) = 6.053(2) eV. The 0 K enthalpy of formation for VO(g) is also derived as ΔfH0K0VO(g) = 128.6(1.0) kJ mol−1. Previous spectroscopic and thermochemical studies of VO are reviewed.
Simplified bioreactor processes for recombinant butyrylcholinesterase production in transgenic rice cell suspension cultures

Abstract Metabolically regulated transgenic rice cell suspension culture has been developed aiming to be an efficient and cost-effective platform for production of rice-recombinant butyrylcholinesterase (rrBChE) that could be used as a bioscavenger enzyme against organophosphate nerve agents. In two-stage batch cultures, switching between growth and induction phases by exchanging media, the maximum active rrBChE levels were comparable among the bioreactor runs with controlled dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations from 10–40% DO and without controlled DO at constant aeration rate. For a single-stage batch operation with no media exchange at 40% DO, production of rrBChE is triggered simply through sugar depletion due to the uptake of sugar by the cells, showing similar maximum active cell-associated rrBChE level compared to two-stage batch operations. However, the bioreactor process using uncontrolled DO, no media exchange, and half-concentration of sucrose resulted in a 1.4-fold increase in the maximum total active rrBChE (77 μg/g fresh weight) and 1.6-fold increase of total active rrBChE specific productivity (86 μg (g dry weight)−1 day−1) compared to the two-stage batch cultures. We found that monitoring the culture pH is a simple non-invasive technique that can help identify the start and progress of the induction phase in a single-stage culture. Altogether, we demonstrate a simplified, efficient, economical, and scalable bioreactor process for rrBChE production in metabolically regulated transgenic rice cell cultures.
Comparative Study of Persistently Secure Non-Volatile Processors Towards Designing Secure IoT Devices

While it's crucial to secure a non-volatile memory-based computer system with data encryption, it's challenging to recover data from a crash and maintain integrity. Existing work employs counter mode encryption and Merkle Tree authentication to solve the problem and focuses on either reducing the performance overhead, the energy consumption, or the recovery time after a crash, for powerful processors with large memory. Unfortunately, without redesign or optimization, the existing security techniques can't be applied to IoT devices ranging from comparatively large devices such as smartphones and tablets to small IoT devices such as sensing devices. Otherwise, those techniques will result in a significant decrease in the NVM lifetime with high write overhead, takes a long time to recover after a crash, or introduce cumbersome hardware that's too expensive to be implemented on IoT devices. By analyzing all the state-of-the-art solutions on designing secure and persistent non-volatile processors, this paper proposes lightweight design mechanisms specifically for IoT devices and paves a path to implementing the encryption and authentication techniques on IoT devices in both time and energy-efficient way.
Thermogenesis and aging

Abstract Since the rediscovery of brown adipose tissue (BAT) in adult humans, researchers in the metabolism field have been trying to hijack BAT to improve metabolism, decrease obesity, and decrease obesity-associated comorbidities. Intriguingly, many obesity-associated comorbidities such as cancer, dementia, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease are also age-related disease. This, of course, opens up the possibility that through obesity-dependent and -independent mechanisms, increased thermogenesis (or an overall improvement in energy metabolism) may delay age-associated diseases and possibly extend lifespan. Owing to the fact that energy utilization is deeply intertwined with all life processes, this becomes a somewhat intuitive hypothesis. Therefore this review aims to give a brief overview of thermogenic adipose tissue and thermogenesis, and delve deeper into how energy metabolism and aging are interrelated.
Modeling and simulation studies of 100 cc motor cycle engine cylinder with groove and perforated fin design using different materials

Abstract The modeling and simulation studies of 100 cc motor cycle engine cylinder with fins are carried out to analyze the heat transfer rate of the engine block. The engine cylinder with fins is modeled using Autodesk Fusion360 having different groove widths of 10 mm, 7.5 mm, 5 mm and 2.5 mm size and different perforation diameters in the fins such as 4 mm, 3 mm and 2 mm. The materials used for modeling in these studies are aluminium cast alloy A356, AA 1060, AA2014-T6, cast iron with 2% nickel, magnesium alloy AM60A-F and Sintered Aluminium Powder (SAP). It is observed that engine cylinder made of cast iron with fins having groove width of 2.5 mm and cylindrical perforation diameter of 4 mm in the fins is most suitable for better heat transfer rate compared to other materials used in this study.
Synthesis and Conclusions

Abstract Streams are vital components of landscapes, serving as important ecosystems for nutrient processing, habitats of high biodiversity, and providing numerous ecosystem services. Streams, however, are being assaulted by numerous environmental changes. At the heart of furthering our understanding of the impacts of environmental change is advancing our conceptual and mathematical models of the hydrologic and geomorphic systems to incorporate the response to climate change and increasing water demands. The hydrologic and geomorphic systems, in turn, affect stream ecosystem functioning and rates of primary production, respiration, and solute transformation. Ultimately, streams are important components of the broader landscape, and impacted by changes such as conversion of land to agriculture, expansion of urban areas, and increased use of fertilizers, pesticides, and other contaminants. Collectively, these changes have the potential to produce long-lasting legacies, which may limit stream ecosystem resiliency, lead to regime shifts, and impact the ecosystem services provided by streams.
Multi-organ auto-delineation in head-and-neck MRI for radiation therapy using mask scoring regional convolutional neural network.

MRI allows accurate and reliable organ delineation for many disease sites in radiation therapy due to its superior soft-tissue contrast. Manual organ-at-risk (OAR) delineation is labor-intensive, time-consuming and subjective. This study aims to develop a deep learning-based automated multi-organ segmentation method to release the labor and accelerate the treatment planning process for head-and-neck (HN) cancer radiotherapy. We propose a novel regional convolutional neural network (R-CNN) architecture, namely, mask scoring R-CNN, where, a deep attention feature pyramid network is used as backbone to extract the coarse features given MRI, followed by the feature refinement using R-CNN. The final segmentation is obtained through mask and mask scoring networks taking those refined feature maps as input. With the mask scoring mechanism incorporated into conventional mask supervision, the classification error can be highly minimized in conventional mask R-CNN architecture. A retrospective study was carried out on a cohort of 60 HN cancer patients receiving external beam radiation therapy. Five-fold cross validation was performed for the assessment of our proposed method. The Dice similarity coefficients of brain stem, left/right cochlea, left/right eye, larynx, left/right lens, mandible, optic chiasm, left/right optic nerve, oral cavity, left/right parotid, pharynx, and spinal cord are 0.89±0.06, 0.68±0.14/0.68±0.18, 0.89±0.07/0.89±0.05, 0.90±0.07, 0.67±0.18/0.67±0.10, 0.82±0.10, 0.61±0.14, 0.67±0.11/0.68±0.11, 0.92±0.07, 0.85±0.06/0.86±0.05, 0.80±0.13, and 0.77±0.15, respectively. After the model training, all OARs can be segmented within 1 minute. We have proposed and investigated a novel deep learning-based fully automatic HN multi-organ segmentation algorithm for MRI of HN cancer patients. The accurate HN OAR delineation enables further development of MRI-only based radiotherapy workflow for HN cancer.
Kinetic Factors Control Efficiencies of Cell Entry by HIV-1

In order to understand HIV-1 inactivation by entry inhibitors and neutralizing antibodies, we quantitatively examined the factors that limit viral entry into cultured cells. Previous results suggested that only a minute proportion of HIV-1 virions (c.a., 10-3–10-4) are infectious and that the remainder are defective. Experiments will be described showing that this is incorrect and that newly made HIV-1 virions are almost completely infectious. Following their attachment onto cells that contain CD4 and appropriate coreceptors, a race ensues between successful viral entry by membrane fusion and a competing process(es) of viral inactivation. Many entry inhibitors reduce virus titers kinetically, simply by slowing the pathway for membrane fusion and thereby enhancing the efficiency of spontaneous inactivation. In contrast, neutralizing monoclonal antibodies appear to cause a true viral inactivation by a non-kinetic mechanism. The membrane fusion pathway requires assembly of a reversible complex containing multiple coreceptors, which lowers the activation energy barrier for a slow rate-limiting conformational change in the gp41 envelope subunits. Evidence will be described showing how this slow entry step is affected by mutations in coreceptors and by compensating adaptive mutations in HIV-1 envelope glycoproteins. This kinetically determining step of entry is critically influenced by the gp120 V3 loop and and by a gp120 N-linked oligosaccharide. In addition to its proposed role in association with coreceptors, our results suggest that the gp120 V3 loop has a major kinetic influence on the slow step in entry. We propose that this may explain why viral adaptations in cell cultures including resistances to entry inhibitors frequently involve changes in the V3 loop. from 2005 International Meeting of The Institute of Human Virology Baltimore, USA, 29 August – 2 September 2005
The photochemical reactions of sensory rhodopsin I are altered by its transducer

The sopI gene, which encodes the phototaxis receptor sensory rhodopsin I (SR-I), was expressed in Halobacterium salinarium strains with chromosomal deletions of (i) sopI only or of (ii) the region containing sopI and htrI. The htrI gene encodes a transducer protein for SR-I signals. Transformation of the sopI deletion mutant containing the htrI gene by a multicopy expression plasmid for sopI results in normal physiological and photochemical properties of SR-I. Transformation by the same plasmid of the mutant lacking the htrI gene as well as sopI results in production of pigment with a normal absorption spectrum but altered photochemical properties, and no phototaxis by the transformants. Analysis of flash-induced absorbance changes shows that the transducer protein increases light-induced production of the photocycle intermediate S373, the SR-I signaling conformation, and modulates the rate of S373 return to the prestimulus state, rendering this return pH-independent. These effects are interpreted in terms of receptor/transducer interactions that influence proton transfer reactions occurring in the photoactive site.
Incremental Support Vector Machine Classification.

Using a recently introduced proximal support vector machine classifier [4], a very fast and simple incremental support vector machine (SVM) classifier is proposed which is capable of modifying an existing linear classifier by both retiring old data and adding new data. A very important feature of the proposed single-pass algorithm , which allows it to handle massive datasets, is that huge blocks of data, say of the order of millions of points, can be stored in blocks of size (n + 1), where n is the usually small (typically less than 100) dimensional input space in which the data resides. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the algorithm we classify a dataset of 1 billion points in 10-dimensional input space into two classes in less than 2.5 hours on a 400 MHz Pentium II processor.
Examining rates and patterns of nucleotide substitution in plants

Driven by rapid improvements in affordable computing power and by the even faster accumulation of genomic data, the statistical analysis of molecular sequence data has become an active area of interdisciplinary research. Maximum likelihood methods have become mainstream because of their desirable properties and, more importantly, their potential for providing statistically sound solutions in complex data analysis settings. In this chapter, a review of recent literature focusing on rates and patterns of nucleotide substitution rates in the nuclear, chloroplast, and mitochondrial genomes of plants demonstrates the power and flexibility of these new methods. The emerging picture of the nucleotide substitution process in plants is a complex one. Evolutionary rates are seen to be quite variable, both among genes and among plant lineages. However, there are hints, particularly in the chloroplast, that individual factors can have important effects on many genes simultaneously.
Lexical Access for Phonetic Ambiguities

Phonetic ambiguities, such as ice cream/I scream, have been described as perceptually indeterminate. These ambiguous forms have been used to illustrate the requirement of multiple levels of processing (analysis of surrounding syntax and semantics) in the determination of word perception. In examining that requirement, we found both in perception (31 listeners) and in generation (129 college students) that phonetically ambiguous pairs were not confusingly reversible. Listeners of clearly presented tokens were unable to identify pair members (89% failure) except when the alternatives were made explicit (67% and 69% success). Readers took over a minute to locate and identify the alternative segmentations to presented tokens, and language-context effects were negligible. The results support unitary rather than exhaustive processing, and the concepts of word frequency and listener expectations provided a more comprehensive interpretation than did top-down multiple levels of analysis.
An analysis of predictor variables for adjuvant treatment of breast cancer

Modern computer-based statistical analysis of a well-documented data base can facilitate the selection of breast cancer patients for adjuvant chemotherapy. Traditional selection criteria are dominated by the number of positive axillary lymph nodes found by pathologic examination. However, patients of the same nodal status (0+, 1–3+, 4–7+, >7+) are still heterogeneous with regard to risk of metastatic recurrence and benefits of adjuvant treatment. A pilot study of 103 patients of similar nodal status (1–3+) followed for up to 10 years was undertaken to determine whether data already in the patient's record at the time of pathologic examination and derived from the patient's history as well as from clinical, surgical and pathologic examination could supplement nodal status in predicting disease recurrence. Preliminary processing and screening for promising variables were performed with CLINFO; maximum-likelihood procedures were then used to relate the probability of disease recurrence to those variables that appeared to be significant. Parametric models of hazard rate for the individual patient were employed corresponding to both exponential and Wiebull distributions of disease-free interval. The hazard rate was related log-linearly to a set of prognostic variables, and model parameters were determined by fitting to the data. Factors that favor longer disease-free intervals (in quantitative order of importance) are: (1) Nipple involved clinically at presentation; (2) Lesion had soft or rubbery consistency on palpation; (3) Disease discovered by physician; (4) Homolateral lymph nodes not involved clinically; (5) Margin from tumor to fascia >1 cm; (6) No maternal history of breast cancer; (7) Increasing age of patient; (8) Presence of specialized histology.
Hot Literacy in Cold Societies: A Comparative Study of the Sacred Value of Writing

The argument that the presence or absence of widespread literacy constitutes the central criterion to distinguish "savage" from "domesticated" society, presented by Goody in a number of works (1968, 1977, 1986, 1987), makes close associations between alphabetic literacy and the growth of knowledge and between restricted literacy and traditional societies. In this essay, I will challenge these associations by presenting material from medieval Europe, in which the milieu of restricted literacy is creative, and from Muslim Africa, in which widespread literacy does not lead to criticism or the revision of basic religious tenets. Second, I will deal with some of the reasons for the vitality of Islamic reform in West Africa, concerning myself principally with the impact of Western education on village society and the response of reformers through the promotion of Arabic literacy. A consideration of Western education and acculturation is vital for an understanding of scriptural reformed Islam's appeal. The latter issue will emerge from the material to be presented, but I will deal exclusively with the literacy debate for the moment. LITERACY: THE GROWTH OF KNOWLEDGE AND
Assessing the impact of in utero exposure to famine on fecundity: Evidence from the 1959–61 famine in China

This study identifies a significant increase in sterility among rural, but not urban, Chinese women who were conceived and born during the 1959–61 famine that resulted from the Great Leap Forward. Applied to data from two large-scale, nationally representative, sample surveys of Chinese women of childbearing age conducted in 1997 and 2001 by the State Family Planning Commission, difference-in-differences analysis revealed that exposure to the famine while in the womb caused an increase in the risk of sterility amongst the adult women surveyed of 1.1 per cent. This is a substantial increase given that the overall prevalence of primary and permanent sterility is only slightly over 1 per cent in China. These findings support the hypothesis that a woman exposed to acute malnutrition while in the womb may experience a long-term negative impact on her reproductive system, which could result in permanently impaired fecundity.
Kinetic inhibition of CO and N2 reduction in the solar nebula

It is shown that the conversion of CO to methane and of N2 to ammonia in the primitive solar nebula was probably so slow relative to radial mixing rates or nebula evolutionary rates that only small amounts of NH3 and CH4 could have been present. Thus most of the nitrogen was present as N2 and most of the carbon as CO and CO2 throughout the nebula. The consequences of this kinetic effect upon the composition of cometary ices and of the Jovian planets, the melting and outgassing behavior of ice rich planetary satellites, and the abundance of carbon in the terrestrial planets are briefly discussed.
The relationship between stem-galling wasps and mycorrhizal colonization of Quercus turbinella

While numerous studies have examined the relationship between herbivory and mycorrhizal colonization, few studies have been undertaken on plant species such as oaks that can be dually colonized by both arbuscular mycorrhizas (AM) and ectomycorrhizas (EM). We examined the relationship between insect herbivory by a stem-galling wasp (Cynipidae) and the mycorrhizal colonization of shrub live oaks (Quercus turbinella Greene). We found that oaks with high numbers of galls had 2.4 times higher levels of branch die-back and were 2.3 times more water stressed than oaks with low numbers of galls. Oaks with high numbers of galls supported 21% higher levels of AM colonization but had 53% lower levels of EM colonization than oaks with low numbers of galls. In addition, AM colonization was positively correlated with the number of galls per tree, while EM colonization was negatively correlated with the number of galls per tree. These findings suggest that there is a dynamic relationship between stem-galling wasps and t...
Strain gradient solution for a finite-domain Eshelby-type anti-plane strain inclusion problem

Abstract A solution for the finite-domain Eshelby-type inclusion problem of a finite elastic body containing an anti-plane strain inclusion of arbitrary cross-sectional shape prescribed with a uniform eigenstrain and a uniform eigenstrain gradient is derived in a general form using a simplified strain gradient elasticity theory (SSGET). The formulation is facilitated by an extended Betti’s reciprocal theorem and an extended Somigliana’s identity based on the SSGET and suitable for anti-plane strain problems. The disturbed displacement field is obtained in terms of the SSGET-based Green’s function for an infinite anti-plane strain elastic body. The solution reduces to that of the infinite-domain anti-plane strain inclusion problem when the boundary effect is not considered. The problem of a circular cylindrical inclusion embedded concentrically in a finite cylindrical elastic matrix undergoing anti-plane strain deformations is analytically solved by applying the general solution, with the Eshelby tensor and its average over the circular cross section of the inclusion obtained in closed forms. This Eshelby tensor, being dependent on the position, inclusion size, matrix size, and a material length scale parameter, captures the inclusion size and boundary effects, unlike existing ones. It reduces to the classical linear elasticity-based Eshelby tensor for the circular cylindrical inclusion in an infinite matrix if both the strain gradient and boundary effects are suppressed. Numerical results quantitatively show that the inclusion size effect can be quite large when the inclusion is small and that the boundary effect can dominate when the inclusion volume fraction is high. However, the inclusion size effect is diminishing with the increase of the inclusion size, and the boundary effect is vanishing as the inclusion volume fraction becomes sufficiently low.
Cortical undercuts in the rat produce asymmetrical behavioral response without altering catecholamine concentrations

Baseline spontaneous activity of male Sprague-Dawley rats was established in home running wheel cages 3 weeks prior to cortical undercutting. Rats received unilateral 2-mm-diameter circular lesions undercutting layer VI of either the left or right frontal cortex. The right hemisphere lesion group showed a 63% increase in spontaneous activity and rats with left hemisphere lesions were no more active than sham-operated controls. No significant intergroup differences in norepinephrine concentrations were noted in the frontal or posterior cortex or locus ceruleus either ipsilateral or contralateral to the lesion site. In addition, there were no significant group differences in dopamine content of the caudate nucleus. Results suggest that the lateralized neural substrates controlling locomotor asymmetry are probably postsynaptic to cortical norepinephrine fibers and may involve glutamatergic corticostriatal projections.
"Nestor" and the Nightmare: The Presence of the Great War in Ulysses

In a recent account of the rise of English studies, Terry Eagleton has energetically claimed that literature, for the English ruling class of the years following the Great War, became "at once a solace and reaffirmation, a familiar ground on which Englishmen would regroup both to explore, and to find some alternative to, the nightmare of history."' Ulysses is a work too complex to be readily quotable, but it has contributed this single memorable phrase, "the nightmare of history," to our growing thesaurus of crisis. Actually, the phrase occurs nowhere in the pages of Joyce's novel, for Stephen's remark to Mr. Deasy in the "Nestor" episode runs: "History . . . is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake" (34.22-23; 2.377).2 What is arresting about Eagleton's use of the popular distillation of these words is the way he has appropriated it from its fictive historical context-June 16, 1904-and reinserted it in a wholly different, nonfictive context-the period which many Britons still call the Great War. Even more striking is the appositeness of his appropriation. The nightmare metaphor, with its associations of oppression and helplessness, of predatory descent upon the innocently slumbering, came easily to those who experienced the breaking of war upon the unusually beautiful summer of 1914. D. H. Lawrence gave the title "The Nightmare" to the long digressive chapter on the war in Kangaroo, first published in 1923. Yeats, in "Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen," complained that "Now days are dragon-ridden, the nightmare / Rides upon sleep."3 As early as August 5, 1914, one day after the British
Guidelines for Diagnosing Osteoporosis

Women who are estrogen deficient have an increased risk of osteoporosis and future fractures. In recent years, improving technology and a consensus on the definition of osteoporosis have made it easier to measure bone density and assess the risk of osteoporosis. Density should be measured at two sites, the lumbar spine and the femoral neck. If only one measurement is possible, the site should be the lumbar spine in women younger than 65 and the femoral neck in women 65 and older. Treatment is recommended if a woman's bone density is more than one standard deviation below the young adult reference value.
Cold, Northern Winters: The Importance of Temperature to Overwinter Mortality of Age-0 White Crappies

Abstract Survival during the first winter of life can influence the recruitment of many fishes. We used field sampling and laboratory experiments to explore the mechanisms underlying first winter growth and survival of white crappie Pomoxis annularis, which exhibits variable recruitment. We sampled age-0 white crappies from four Ohio reservoirs before winter to evaluate whether large individuals had a greater energy density (kJ/g) than small ones and whether mean energy density differed among reservoirs. Energy density increased with fish size in all reservoirs, suggesting that small fish could die earlier if energy stores become limiting during winter. Mean energy density varied among reservoirs as well, suggesting that prewinter energy reserves could influence recruitment variability across reservoirs through their effects on winter starvation. Our laboratory experiment evaluated how fish size (small or large), feeding level (starved or fed), and winter severity (mild or severe) interact to influence th...
Room-Temperature Single-photon level Memory for Polarization States

An optical quantum memory is a stationary device that is capable of storing and recreating photonic qubits with a higher fidelity than any classical device. Thus far, these two requirements have been fulfilled for polarization qubits in systems based on cold atoms and cryogenically cooled crystals. Here, we report a room-temperature memory capable of storing arbitrary polarization qubits with a signal-to-background ratio higher than 1 and an average fidelity surpassing the classical benchmark for weak laser pulses containing 1.6 photons on average, without taking into account non-unitary operation. Our results demonstrate that a common vapor cell can reach the low background noise levels necessary for polarization qubit storage using single-photon level light, and propels atomic-vapor systems towards a level of functionality akin to other quantum information processing architectures.
The Choice of the Reduced-Model Order

The order of an equivalent for a large scale system is a very important issue. Different methods for choosing the order are presented. A comparison between these methods is given. It is shown that the methods retain some of the system modes are similar to each other. The advantages and disadvantages of each method are given.
Natural modes of vibration of linear viscoelastic circular plates with free edges

Abstract In this paper we consider an extension of the classical bending theory of thin plates including the effects of mechanical dissipation. The resulting differential equation is solved for the case of circular plates with free edges. We obtain results giving the attenuation coefficients and frequencies of the natural modes of vibration of the plates. The results indicate, in particular, that when the instantaneous and equilibrium Poisson's ratios are different the values of the attenuation coefficients depend on the mode shapes, which we believe are consistent with physical notions. Otherwise, the values of the attenuation coefficients are the same for all mode shapes for a given set of material parameters.
Solution Processing of Calcium Zirconate Titanates, Ca(ZrxTi1-x)O3: An X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy and Powder Diffraction Study

The preparation of perovskite calcium zirconate titanates (Ca[ZrxTi1-x]O3) via an acetic-acid-modified sol−gel process, two different alkoxide sol−gel routes, and the direct reaction of oxides and ...
Fast and Effective Placement Refinement for Routability

In this brief, we propose congestion refinement of placement (CROP) for improving the congestion of mixed-size placement solutions. CROP consists of a congestion-driven module shifting technique and a congestion-driven detailed placement (CDDP) technique. The shifting technique is proposed for better allocation of routing resources. We shift modules based on the shifting of G-cell boundaries. Shifting in each direction can be formulated as a linear program (LP) for resizing each cell in the global routing grid (i.e., G-cell). We degenerate and solve the LP by a very efficient longest path computation. Then the CDDP technique is proposed for distributing the routing demands better. Congestion reduction is realized by weighting the half-perimeter wirelength with the congestion factor during detailed placement. Theoretically, our tool is capable of handling most mixed-size placement benchmarks with movable and/or fixed macro (FM) blocks. In order to better analyze its performance, the ISPD-GR benchmark suite (ISPD05/06 derived global routing benchmarks) with FM modes is developed. The experimental results show that CROP effectively alleviates congestion for unroutable placement solutions in short runtimes for different placers.