cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
True integrated weed management

Young SL (2012) True Integrated Weed Management. Weed Research 52, 107–111. Summary Using the simplest of definitions, integrated weed management has been described as ‘putting components [of weed control] together, not taking them apart’. Yet, weed science has stopped at the ‘field edge’ in assembling the components into a truly integrated approach. What is keeping weed scientists from developing real integrated weed control regardless of space and time? The answer to this question lies with our colleagues in the engineering and computer science fields, who have made significant advances in developing automated machinery for real-time detection and control of weeds in cropping systems. By using the latest technologies that can quickly identify weeds and react with precisely targeted applications, conceptually, weed control tools could be integrated for use at anytime and at any point in a field. This paper provides justification for using a single platform in the field that can instantaneously assess individual weeds and determine the most appropriate control method, simultaneously. In addition, I have modified an existing concept design to show the potential for a highly responsive weed management system that can transcend spatiotemporal restrictions and within-field variability.
Razões para otimismo

Apesar de o historico da industria de private equity e venture capital ainda ser recente no Brasil e apresentar poucos casos de sucesso, as perspectivas para seu crescimento sao animadoras. Em perspectiva ampla, esse crescimento dependera da capacidade da industria de atrair capital, de uma acurada formacao de gestores de venture capital e de uma cultura empreendedora. O artigo arrola outras razoes especificas para otimismo em relacao a essa industria nos proximos anos.
Paclitaxel: A Radiation Sensitizer of Human Cervical Cancer Cells

Abstract Paclitaxel is an exciting chemotherapeutic agent active in a variety of malignant tumors. This study was designed to explore the radiosensitizing potential of paclitaxel in human cervical cancer cell lines. The cell lines ME180, SiHa, and MS751 were evaluated. Experiments were performed in the proliferative phase of growth. Paclitaxel doses were treated at 0.01 x , 0.02 x , 0.03 x , 0.04 x , and 0.05 x peak plasma concentration (PPC) in ME180 and 0.001 x , 0.002 x , 0.003 x , 0.004 x , and 0.005 x PPC in SiHa and MS751. Radiation (RT) doses of cobalt-60 were 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 Gy. In the combination group RT was given 48 hr after paclitaxel treatment. To allow for median effect analyses, combination doses were kept at a fixed ratio: 0.01 x /2 Gy, 0.02 x /4 Gy, 0.03 x /6 Gy, 0.04 x /8 Gy, and 0.05 x /10 Gy for ME180 and 0.001 x /2 Gy, 0.002 x /4 Gy, 0.003 x /6 Gy, 0.004 x /8 Gy, and 0.005 x /10 Gy in MS-751 and SiHa. Adenosine triphosphate bioluminescence was performed on Day 7 after treatment and compared to untreated controls. Dose-response data were fit to the linear quadratic model and mean inactivation dose D was calculated. Data analysis with t test was performed. The median effect principle was used to evaluate the nature of the interaction between the two therapeutic modalities. Paclitaxel increased radiation cytotoxicity in all three cell lines. Mean inactivation D values for RT versus combination were 6.70 (±0.15) and 4.33 (±0.43) ( P = 0.004) in ME180, 6.08 (±0.70) and 4.54 (±0.093) ( P = 0.033) in MS751, and 7.03 (±0.46) and 5.97 (±0.51) ( P = 0.034) in SiHa. The interaction of paclitaxel and RT was found to be supraadditive in ME180 and SiHa and subadditive in MS751. We conclude that paclitaxel has modest radiation-sensitizing effects in cervical cancer cell lines and that further clinical trials should be considered.
Diffusion Barrier Selection from Refractory Metals (Zr, Mo and Nb) Via Interdiffusion Investigation for U-Mo RERTR Fuel Alloy

U-Mo alloys are being developed as low enrichment monolithic fuel under the Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactor (RERTR) program. Diffusional interactions between the U-Mo fuel alloy and Al-alloy cladding within the monolithic fuel plate construct necessitate incorporation of a barrier layer. Fundamentally, a diffusion barrier candidate must have good thermal conductivity, high melting point, minimal metallurgical interaction, and good irradiation performance. Refractory metals, Zr, Mo, and Nb are considered based on their physical properties, and the diffusion behavior must be carefully examined first with U-Mo fuel alloy. Solid-to-solid U-10 wt.%Mo versus Mo, Zr, or Nb diffusion couples were assembled and annealed at 600, 700, 800, 900 and 1000 °C for various times. The interdiffusion microstructures and chemical composition were examined via scanning electron microscopy and electron probe microanalysis, respectively. For all three systems, the growth rate of interdiffusion zone were calculated at 1000, 900 and 800 °C under the assumption of parabolic growth, and calculated for lower temperature of 700, 600 and 500 °C according to Arrhenius relationship. The growth rate was determined to be about 103 times slower for Zr, 105 times slower for Mo and 106 times slower for Nb, than the growth rates reported for the interaction between the U-Mo fuel alloy and pure Al or Al-Si cladding alloys. Zr, however was selected as the barrier metal due to a concern for thermo-mechanical behavior of UMo/Nb interface observed from diffusion couples, and for ductile-to-brittle transition of Mo near room temperature.
Student health. Medical care within institutions of higher education.

The field of student health care lacks a positive identity in medicine and is often not well understood by the higher education community. This article explores the history, organization, staffing, utilization, financing, and governance of student health centers (SHCs). Student health centers are available to approximately 10 million of the 12.5 million US university students. As many as 27 000 individuals, including probably more than 3000 physicians, work in SHCs. Sources and amount of funds expended for this care vary widely from campus to campus, as does the intensity of services offered. A survey of this nation's largest institutions suggests that an average of $102 per student per year is spent on SHCs. The total amount spent on student health care in this country may exceed $1 billion each year. Student health care faces opportunities and obstacles in the future as our ability to promote health and prevent disease improves, as institutions of higher education allocate their limited educational resources, and as society determines where to invest its limited medical resources. ( JAMA 1988;260:3301-3305)
Pigeons acquire multiple categories in parallel via associative learning: A parallel to human word learning?

Might there be parallels between category learning in animals and word learning in children? To examine this possibility, we devised a new associative learning technique for teaching pigeons to sort 128 photographs of objects into 16 human language categories. We found that pigeons learned all 16 categories in parallel, they perceived the perceptual coherence of the different object categories, and they generalized their categorization behavior to novel photographs from the training categories. More detailed analyses of the factors that predict trial-by-trial learning implicated a number of factors that may shape learning. First, we found considerable trial-by-trial dependency of pigeons' categorization responses, consistent with several recent studies that invoke this dependency to claim that humans acquire words via symbolic or inferential mechanisms; this finding suggests that such dependencies may also arise in associative systems. Second, our trial-by-trial analyses divulged seemingly irrelevant aspects of the categorization task, like the spatial location of the report responses, which influenced learning. Third, those trial-by-trial analyses also supported the possibility that learning may be determined both by strengthening correct stimulus-response associations and by weakening incorrect stimulus-response associations. The parallel between all these findings and important aspects of human word learning suggests that associative learning mechanisms may play a much stronger part in complex human behavior than is commonly believed.
Constitutive stress-strain relations for the myocardium in diastole

Abstract The importance of stress-strain myocardial constitutive relations is that they provide a criterion for behavior in vivo . Our purpose was to develop constitutive equations which are valid in diastole. The myocardium was assumed to be composed of a nonlinear viscoelastic, inhomogeneous, anisotropic (transversely isotropic) and incompressible material operating under adiabatic and isothermal conditions. The expressions contain five moduli. Two are fixed by the restriction of incompressibility, one is estimated, the remaining two refer to directions along and perpendicular to a fiber. Both possess a bimodal variation with intermodal switching occurring in late rapid filling and diastasis. They are functions of time and material constants. These constants can be observed. A dynamic test is suggested. Constitutive statements complete a set of equations sufficient for the solution of a class of boundary value problems. One type is formulated. They also permit the determination of stress from measured strain. Examples are given.
Depression, the mood disease

(Revised Edition). Francis Mark Mondimore, M.D. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995, 237 p. $15.95 paperback.
Expression of functional hepatitis B virus polymerase in yeast reveals it to be the sole viral protein required for correct initiation of reverse transcription.

Abstract Replication of hepatitis B viruses proceeds by reverse transcription of an RNA intermediate, a reaction catalyzed by the virus-encoded polymerase (P protein). The reaction product is a partially duplex DNA whose (-)-strand is covalently linked to the P protein. Efforts to understand the mechanism of the reaction have been severely retarded by an inability to express functional polymerase outside of viral particles. Here we report the successful expression of enzymatically active polymerase in yeast cells, by fusing the P gene to coding sequences of the retrotransposon Ty1. The enzyme initiates correctly on viral RNA in yeast cells in vivo, producing nascent DNA chains covalently linked to protein, exactly as found in virus-infected cells. Replication complexes isolated from these yeast are enzymatically active in vitro, synthesizing DNA in a reaction that is actinomycin D-resistant but sensitive to RNase pretreatment. These results indicate that P protein is the sole viral protein required for the correct priming of reverse transcription and establish a tractable system for the biochemical dissection of the reaction.
An initial investigation of photocurable three-dimensional lactic acid based scaffolds in a critical-sized cranial defect.

Abstract Degradable polymer networks formed by the photoinitiated polymerization of multifunctional monomers have great potential as in situ forming materials, especially for bone tissue engineering. In this study, one specific chemistry was analyzed with respect to bone formation in a critical-sized defect model with and without adsorbed osteoinductive growth factors present. The scaffolds degraded in ∼8 months and possessed an elastic modulus similar to that of trabecular bone. A porous scaffold fabricated with ∼80% porosity and pore diameters ranging from 45 to 150 mm was implanted in a critical-sized cranial defect in rats. When implanted alone, the scaffolds were filled primarily with fibrous tissue after 9 weeks with only mild inflammation at the defect site. When the scaffolds released osteoinductive growth factors, statistically more bone filled the scaffold. For instance, 65.8±9.4% (n=5) of the defects were filled with radiopaque tissue in the osteoinductive releasing scaffolds, whereas only 24.2±7.4% (n=5) of the defects were filled in the untreated defects 9 weeks after implantation. These results illustrate not only the benefits of delivering osteoinductive factors when developing synthetic bone grafts, but the potential of these materials for supporting the infiltration and development of bone in large defects.
Area coverage maximization in service facility siting

Traditionally, models for siting facilities in order to optimize coverage of area demand have made use of discrete space representations to efficiently handle both candidate facility locations and demand. These discretizations of space are often necessary given the linear functional forms of many siting models and the complexities associated with evaluating continuous space. Recently, several spatial optimization approaches have been proposed to address the more general problem of identifying facility sites that maximize regional coverage for the case where candidate sites and demand are continuously distributed across space. One assumption of existing approaches is that only demand falling within a prescribed radius of the facility can be effectively served. In many practical applications, however, service areas are not necessarily circular, as terrain, transportation, and service characteristics of the facility often result in irregular shapes. This paper develops a generalized service coverage approach, allowing a sited facility to have any continuous service area shape, not simply a circle. Given that demand and facility sites are assumed to be continuous throughout a region, geometrical properties of the demand region and the service facility coverage area are exploited to identify a facility site to optimize the correspondence between the two areas. In particular, we consider the case where demand is uniformly distributed and the service area is translated to maximize coverage. A heuristic approach is proposed for efficient model solution. Application results are presented for siting a facility given differently shaped service areas.
A Novel Synthetic Bivalent Ligand to Probe Chemokine Receptor CXCR4 Dimerization and Inhibit HIV-1 Entry

Chemokine receptor CXCR4 is one of two principal coreceptors for the entry of HIV-1 into target cells. CXCR4 is known to form homodimers. We previously demonstrated that the amino terminus of viral macrophage protein II (vMIP-II) is the major determinant for CXCR4 recognition, and that V1 peptide derived from the N-terminus of vMIP-II (1-21 residues) showed significant CXCR4 binding. Interestingly, an all-d-amino acid analogue of V1 peptide, DV1 peptide, displayed an even higher binding affinity and strong antiviral activity in inhibiting the replication of CXCR4-dependent HIV-1 strains. In this study, we synthetically linked two DV1 peptides with the formation of a disulfide bond between the two cysteine residues present in the peptide sequence to generate a dimeric molecule potentially capable of interacting with two CXCR4 receptors. DV1 dimer exhibited enhanced binding affinity and antiviral activity compared with those of DV1 monomer. Ligand binding site mapping experiments showed that DV1 dimer overlaps with HIV-1 gp120 on CXCR4 binding sites, including several transmembrane (TM) residues located close to the extracellular side and the N-terminus of CXCR4. This finding was supported by the molecular modeling of CXCR4 dimer-DV1 dimer interaction based on the crystal structure of CXCR4, which showed that DV1 dimer is capable of interacting with the CXCR4 dimeric structure by allowing the N-terminus of each DV1 monomer to reach into the binding pocket of CXCR4 monomer. The development of this bivalent ligand provides a tool for further probing the functions of CXCR4 dimerization and studying CXCR4 heterodimerization with other receptors.
Long-term outcomes of intravesical therapy for non-muscle invasive bladder cancer

The purpose of the current review was to evaluate the long-term outcomes of intravesical therapy for non-muscle invasive bladder cancer. A literature search was performed to identify studies documenting long-term outcomes of intravesical therapy for non-muscle invasive bladder cancer. Data from each study were collected using standardized forms that included information on author, date of study, journal, study type, intravesical therapy used, number of patients, length of follow-up, and outcome measures (recurrence, progression, and disease-specific and overall mortality). This information was then tabulated and summarized. Of 420 publications identified, 79 were chosen for data abstraction. The long-term impact of intravesical BCG, mitomycin, epirubicin (with or without maintenance/with or without immediate therapy), and transurethral resection alone demonstrated marginal impact on recurrence. However, BCG with or without maintenance appeared to reduce disease progression over the long term compared to other therapies. Data on mortality associated with intravesical therapy were limited. In general, the literature was limited by inconsistent reporting of outcomes and lack of standardization. Long-term outcomes after intravesical therapy for non-muscle invasive bladder cancer are difficult to asses due to the lack of quality long-term data and inconsistencies in reporting results. It is clear that better long-term data are needed to define the impact of intravesical therapy on the natural history of the disease.
Pneumococcal Disease in the Elderly What is Preventing Vaccine Efficacy

The effective prevention of Streptococcus pneumoniae infection has a renewed priority in an era in which the emergence of antibacterial-resistant strains has the potential to further compromise efforts to reduce early mortality from invasive pneumococcal infection. Although the 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide (PPS) vaccine was approved in the US to prevent respiratory and invasive infection in the elderly and other high-risk populations, the protective efficacy of this vaccine for the growing population of adults aged >65 years remains controversial. The apparent effectiveness of pneumococcal immunisation in clinical studies of elderly adults has varied depending upon whether a reduction in pneumococcal colonisation, pneumonia, bacteraemia or death was used as an outcome. Clinical studies of vaccine efficacy to date suggest that the current pneumococcal vaccine is 56 to 81% effective at preventing invasive pneumococcal infection, and may have additive benefit to influenza vaccine in preventing community-acquired pneumonia, particularly in elderly adults with an increased risk of serious pneumonia requiring hospitalisation. Possible reasons for incomplete protection from pneumococcal infection after immunisation include infection with non-vaccine serotypes, inadequate or ineffective antibody responses, waning of antibody responses, or compromised nonhumoral host defences. Further studies are needed to determine whether: (i) elderly adults who respond poorly to the 23-valent pneumococcal vaccine can be identified prior to immunisation and targeted for study with improved pneumococcal vaccines; (ii) specific nutrient deficiencies can be identified and corrected to improve the immune responsiveness of elderly adults to the PPS vaccine; (iii) newer protein-conjugate or DNA pneumococcal vaccines may be more uniformly immunogenic for elderly adults; and (iv) whether smoking cessation reduces the risk of invasive pneumococcal infection in elderly adults.
Time to first shock and clinical outcome in patients receiving an automatic implantable cardioverter-defibrillator.

Abstract The relation between time to first shock and clinical outcome was studied in 60 patients who received an automatic implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (AICD) from August 1983 through May 1988. The mean (±SD) patient age was 64 ± 10 years, 82% were men and the mean ejection fraction was 33± 13%. During follow-up, 38 patients (63%) had one or more shocks; there were no differences in age, gender distribution or ejection fraction at entry between the shock and no shock groups. Among 51 patients with coronary artery disease, 31 (61%) had one or more shocks, whereas all seven patients with cardiomyopathy had one or more shocks (p Of the 13 deaths, 12 occurred during post-hospital follow-up and 1 during the index hospitalization. Of the four sudden post-hospital deaths, only one was due to tachyarrhythmia in the absence of acute myocardial infarction. All four sudden deaths and five of eight post-hospital nonsudden deaths occurred in patients who had had one or more appropriate shocks during follow-up. Eight of the nine first appropriate shocks among patients who subsequently died occurred within the first 3 months of follow-up but, the actual deaths were delayed to a mean of 14.1 ± 13.9 months (p Among the 38 patients who had one or more shocks during follow-up, 20 (53%) had their first shock within the first 2 months of follow-up and 29 (76%) by the 6th month. By 1 year, 34 (89%) of the 38 had had one or more shocks; no patient had a first appropriate shock >16 months after AICD implantation. Those patients who died of any cause during follow-up had a shorter time to first shock (2.3 ± 2.0 months) than did those who continued as survivors (5.5 ± 6.1 months) (p It is concluded that the majority of patients who have any shocks after AICD implantation tend to have their first shock within the first few months after implantation, and the risk for a first shock is low if it has not occurred within the first 1.5 years. Ejection fraction does not discriminate risk of having shocks, but does discriminate risk of death during follow-up. The AICD appears to prolong duration of survival among those patients who will die during followup, although the magnitude of prolonged survival and impact on total death rate is less clear than is reduction of arrhythmic sudden death.
The Anti-Federalist Strand in Progressive Politics and Political Thought

In this article, the author argues that the Progressives can be as much characterized as the antistatists of the nineteenth century as the statists of the twentieth century because their overriding goal was the destruction of the party state and not, directly, the creation of the bureaucratic state. They found in Anti-Federalist political thought a general antistatist template that they used to articulate their specific objection to the nineteenth-century party state. This template comprised a mutual commitment to simple government, the common good as a preinstitutional reality, democracy, direct and responsive government, fear of elite rule, civic education, and cultural homogeneity.
Resource allocation in self-sustainable green wireless networks with combinatorial auction

A green-energy-powered, self-sustainable cellular network is studied in this paper. To address the problem of the energy variability in the green sources, a joint energy-traffic management mechanism is proposed based on game theory. The interaction between the cellular network and a microgrid power controller is modeled as a two-level Stackelberg game. On the network level, an iterative combinatorial auction mechanism is proposed to solve the joint power-subcarrier allocation problem. On the microgrid level, an adaptive pricing mechanism is adopted for the power controller to balance between the transmission demand and the energy supply. Simulation results show that the proposed resource allocation mechanism achieves a significant improvement in the network sustainability and throughput when compared with the conventional resource allocation method.
Youth at risk for obesity show greater activation of striatal and somatosensory regions to food

Obese humans, compared with normal-weight humans, have less striatal D2 receptors and striatal response to food intake; weaker striatal response to food predicts weight gain for individuals at genetic risk for reduced dopamine (DA) signaling, consistent with the reward-deficit theory of obesity. Yet these may not be initial vulnerability factors, as overeating reduces D2 receptor density, D2 sensitivity, reward sensitivity, and striatal response to food. Obese humans also show greater striatal, amygdalar, orbitofrontal cortex, and somatosensory region response to food images than normal-weight humans do, which predicts weight gain for those not at genetic risk for compromised dopamine signaling, consonant with the reward-surfeit theory of obesity. However, after pairings of palatable food intake and predictive cues, DA signaling increases in response to the cues, implying that eating palatable food contributes to increased responsivity. Using fMRI, we tested whether normal-weight adolescents at high- versus low-risk for obesity showed aberrant activation of reward circuitry in response to receipt and anticipated receipt of palatable food and monetary reward. High-risk youth showed greater activation in the caudate, parietal operculum, and frontal operculum in response to food intake and in the caudate, putamen, insula, thalamus, and orbitofrontal cortex in response to monetary reward. No differences emerged in response to anticipated food or monetary reward. Data indicate that youth at risk for obesity show elevated reward circuitry responsivity in general, coupled with elevated somatosensory region responsivity to food, which may lead to overeating that produces blunted dopamine signaling and elevated responsivity to food cues.
Physiological Ecology of Sulfide Metabolism in Hydrothermal Vent and Cold Seep Vesicomyid Clams and Vestimentiferan Tube Worms

SYNOPSIS. The primary ecosystem-structuring organisms at many hydrothermal vents and cold seeps are phylogenetically related and quite similar physiologically and anatomically. Vestimentiferan tube worms and Vesicomyid clams in particular all rely on chemoautotrophic sulfur-oxidizing symbionts and have blood which binds sulfide with high affinity and capacity. However, there are significant differences between cold seep and hydrothermal vent environments, including large differences in flow rate of the emitted fluid and the chemistry of that fluid. Here we review extant data on the hydrothermal vent species, present new data on the physiologically relevant chemical microhabitat of cold seep vestimentiferans and vesicomyids, and compare the physiological ecology of the seep species to their hydrothermal vent relatives
Functional impairment in progressive supranuclear palsy

Objective: The current study sought to describe the functional profiles of patients with early-stage progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) in a large prospective, multisite study. Methods: Using data from 202 individuals meeting criteria for clinically definite or probable PSP, 3 functional scales were examined. Functional scores were then compared to measures of motor, cognition, and psychiatric symptoms. Results: Functional disability was high in early-stage PSP, with 100% of patients having less than perfect scores on all functional scales. Whereas functional scores tended not to be related to cognition or psychiatric symptoms, they were strongly related to motoric ratings. Conclusions: Both clinically and in research settings, the definition of functional intactness/impairment has important implications. Future studies should examine if functional impairment is this high in PSP or if new scales of functional abilities need to be developed for this condition.
Two- and three-dimensional soil consolidation by BEM via particular integral

Abstract Particular integral formulations are presented for two- and three-dimensional soil consolidation (poroelasticity) analysis. The steady-state poroelasticity equation is used as the complementary solution and a set of global shape functions is considered to approximate the transient terms of the poroelasticity equation to obtain the required particular integrals. Some numerical results for four example problems are given and compared with their analytical solutions or the results from the convolution method developed earlier by Dargush and Banerjee [Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engng. 28 (1989) 2423, J. Appl. Mech. 58 (1991) 28].
Nanoporous Cu–C composites based on carbon-nanotube aerogels

Current synthesis methods of nanoporous Cu–C composites offer limited control of the material composition, structure, and properties, particularly for large Cu loadings of ≳20 wt%. Here, we describe two related approaches to realize novel nanoporous Cu–C composites based on the templating of recently developed carbon-nanotube aerogels (CNT-CAs). Our first approach involves the trapping of Cu nanoparticles while CNT-CAs undergo gelation. This method yields nanofoams with relatively high densities of ≳65 mg cm−3 for Cu loadings of ≳10 wt%. Our second approach overcomes this limitation by filling the pores of undoped CNT-CA monoliths with an aqueous solution of CuSO4 followed by (i) freeze-drying to remove water and (ii) thermal decomposition of CuSO4. With this approach, we demonstrate Cu–C composites with a C matrix density of ∼25 mg cm−3 and Cu loadings of up to 70 wt%. These versatile methods could be extended to fabricate other nanoporous metal–carbon composite materials geared for specific applications.
Russian Village Magic In The Late Soviet Period: One Woman's Repertoire Of "Zagovory"

This article gives a succinct introduction to the Russian verbal folk genre of the zagovor (spell, charm, or hex) and provides a set of seventeen zagovory given to the author’s informant in the early 1980s by an elderly village woman, accompanied by translations into English. The zagovor is at the heart of Russian folk healing, though it was suppressed in the Soviet period. This individual repertoire reflects the sources and uses of folk healing in the Soviet period and beyond.
Large-p I weak-boson production at the Fermilab Tevatron

Perturbative QCD calculations of the processes pp-bar..-->..W/sup +- /,Z+n jets (n = 1,2,3) with W..-->..e..nu.. and Z..-->..ee-bar decays are presented for comparison with forthcoming Fermilab Tevatron data at ..sqrt..s = 1.8 TeV. The W,Z+2-jet results are compared with the corresponding pp-bar..-->..WW, WZ, and ZZ electroweak cross sections.
Micromechanical models for carbon nanotube and cellulose nanowhisker reinforced composites

Different micromechanical models which account for the presence of dispersed and agglomerated nanofillers, specifically carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and cellulose nanowhiskers (CWs), in a polymeric matrix and consider the effect of a percolation threshold on the elastic modulus of the composite are derived and compared. We demonstrate that the critical filler volume fraction where a percolating network is forming marks a “turning point” in the reinforcement efficiency. The suitability of these models is verified by comparing simulated values with experimental data from literature. The results show that the models are able to predict mechanical properties over a wide range of testing conditions. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2013. © Society of Plastics Engineers
Effects of boundary scattering and optic phonon drag on thermal conductivity of a slab of rectangular cross-section

The lattice thermal conductivity of a slab of the rectangular cross-section is calculated. The approximate kinetic equation for acoustic phonons is derived from the exact kinetic equations for the binary phonon gas in restricted geometry. The approximation covers the effects of boundary phonon scattering and optic phonon drag. It is shown that a proper account for both these effects gives rise to the violation of the Matthiessen's rule. The coefficient of thermal conductivity is calculated in the general form and verified for the particular cases of the Einstein and Debye models. The material-specified examples of the considered effects are presented.
Supply Chain Analysis, Delivered Cost, and Life Cycle Assessment of Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch Biomass for Green Chemical Production in Malaysia

Financial, environmental, and supply chain analyses of empty fruit bunch (EFB) biomass are needed for the development of a sustainable green chemicals industry in Malaysia. Herein, holistic analysis of the supply system and EFB life cycle cradle-to-gate are analyzed in an effort to make recommendations for the commercial-scale collection and delivery of EFB from crude palm oil (CPO) extraction facilities to biorefineries in Malaysia. Supply chain modeling tracked inputs and outputs for financial analysis. The openLCA software was used for life cycle assessment (LCA). Allocation scenarios were used to explore the impact of accounting methodologies on the competitiveness of EFB compared to other feedstocks. Sensitivity analysis on the effect of transportation distance, emission flows, and allocation methods on resulting environmental impacts were conducted. The No Burden, Economic, and Mass allocation scenarios resulted in 17, -2.3, and -265 kg CO2-eq. BD tonne-1 EFB global warming impacts (GW), respectively. Delivered cost for EFB was calculated to be approximately 45 US$ BD tonne-1. Environmental burdens were sensitive to allocation scenario, covered area, and land use change. Delivered cost was sensitive to transport distance, covered area, and yield. It was shown that there is sufficient Malaysia EFB available for between 9 and 28 biorefineries, depending upon the scale of production.
Por los ojos de madres: Latina mothers’ understandings of college readiness

In this study, data from six focus groups with 30 Latina mothers in South Texas were analyzed utilizing a “funds of knowledge” approach to uncover their understandings of college readiness and their role in ensuring their children are college ready. Findings indicate that Latina mothers perceived college readiness in a holistic fashion, similar to the concept of educacion, in that being college ready encompasses academic preparation and other particular personal attributes that ensure success in college. Mothers also believed they had a shared responsibility in college readiness efforts by providing emotional, financial, and moral support while school personnel and students were responsible for other aspects. Such findings are crucial given that current college readiness research does not explicitly consider the role of parents in college readiness efforts or how parents perceive this notion.
Cost-effectiveness analysis of the Not On Tobacco program for adolescent smoking cessation.

Public health researchers and practitioners emphasize the need for effective, adoptable, and available youth smoking cessation interventions. Scarce resources demand that such interventions also be cost effective. This study describes a cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) of the American Lung Association’s Not On Tobacco (N-O-T) national and international teen smoking cessation program. N-O-T has been rigorously evaluated as an effective and adoptable program, and was recently found to be the most frequently-used teen smoking cessation program in the nation. N-O-T studies show intent-to-treat quit rates between 15% and 19%, among the highest reported in the literature. The current CEA resulted from a 2-year state-wide demonstration study in Florida, comparing the effectiveness of N-O-T with a 20-min brief intervention (BI). The CEA utilized a Markov transition model of decision analysis to explain stage progression of smoking cessation among participants from the age of 17 to 25 years. The Markov simulation predicted that out of a cohort of 100 N-O-T students, 10 will quit smoking and remain smoke-free at the age of 25 years and 14 will reduce smoking, resulting in 102.22 life years saved and a total of 20.11 years discounted life years (DLY) saved. Among BI youth, six will quit smoking and nine will reduce, indicating 64.31 life years saved and a total 12.65 DLY saved. The incremental DLY saved is 7.46 years. Results indicate that N-O-T is a very cost-effective option school-based smoking cessation, as cost effective as school-based primary tobacco prevention, and potentially more cost effective than adult tobacco use cessation.
ALL IN THE FAMILY: SEARCHING FOR SUCCESS IN INTERNAL PARTNERSHIPS

While external partnerships between different organizations have received a great deal of recent attention, the phenomenon of internal partnering between units of the same organization has not yet been addressed in the literature. Internal partnerships promise many of the same benefits as external arrangements, yet present a different set of problems and constraints for managers. This paper examines internal relationships between libraries and information services units in U.S. institutions of higher education. Hypothesized conditions for improved performance are developed based on existing literature on external partnering. The matched pairs are then compared and correlations with perceived performance of the relationship are presented to test the hypotheses.
Coupled Translocation Events Generate Topological Heterogeneity at the Endoplasmic Reticulum Membrane

Topogenic determinants that direct protein topology at the endoplasmic reticulum membrane usually function with high fidelity to establish a uniform topological orientation for any given polypeptide. Here we show, however, that through the coupling of sequential translocation events, native topogenic determinants are capable of generating two alternate transmembrane structures at the endoplasmic reticulum membrane. Using defined chimeric and epitope-tagged full-length proteins, we found that topogenic activities of two C-trans (type II) signal anchor sequences, encoded within the seventh and eighth transmembrane (TM) segments of human P-glycoprotein were directly coupled by an inefficient stop transfer (ST) sequence (TM7b) contained within the C-terminus half of TM7. Remarkably, these activities enabled TM7 to achieve both a single- and a double-spanning TM topology with nearly equal efficiency. In addition, ST and C-trans signal anchor activities encoded by TM8 were tightly linked to the weak ST activity, and hence topological fate, of TM7b. This interaction enabled TM8 to span the membrane in either a type I or a type II orientation. Pleiotropic structural features contributing to this unusual topogenic behavior included 1) a short, flexible peptide loop connecting TM7a and TM7b, 2) hydrophobic residues within TM7b, and 3) hydrophilic residues between TM7b and TM8.
Impact of regional ventricular function, geometry, and dobutamine stress on quantitative 99mTc-sestamibi defect size.

BACKGROUNDSerial myocardial perfusion imaging with 99mTc-sestamibi (MIBI) was used to evaluate infarct risk area and salvage after thrombolysis. The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether changes in MIBI defect size observed after reperfusion may result in part from distortion of regional and global left ventricular geometry.METHODS AND RESULTSTwenty-five open-chest dogs were subjected to either 15 minutes (groups 1A and 1B) or 3 hours (group 2) of left anterior descending coronary artery occlusion followed by 3 hours of reperfusion. MIBI was injected before occlusion (group 1A) or during occlusion (groups 1B and 2), and serial ECG-gated planar imaging was performed. Dobutamine was infused after 3 hours of reperfusion (groups 1B and 2) to transiently alter left ventricular size and function. Perfusion defect magnitude (DM) and extent (DE) were serially quantified with circumferential profile analysis of end-systolic (ES), end-diastolic (ED), and summed images. Flow was assessed with radiol...
Mark Mazzetti, The Way of the Knife: The CIA, a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth

According to this outstanding book by New York Times reporter Mark Mazzetti, which surveys the state of America's largely hidden war against global terrorism since 2001, the Central Intelligence Ag...
Poly a metabolism in sea urchin embryos

Abstract Three different methods for the detection and isolation of RNA that contains poly A sequences are compared. All three methods selectively bind poly A containing sequences. However only the poly dT cellulose technique gave reproducible results and did not modify the binding characteristics of the RNA initially bound to the poly dT cellulose. The proportion of the total cellular RNA that contains poly A is about the same in the blastula and gastrula stages and is lower at cleavage. The kinetics of accumulation of RNA containing poly A for the blastula stage indicates extensive turnover of poly A containing material. RNA containing poly A is characterized by its heterogeneous sedimentation. Some of the RNA containing poly A is as large as 0.5 × 106 Daltons.
Programmable power source

This paper discusses methods of generating high voltage waveforms (up to several thousand volts) at modest power levels (several ten's of watts). The circuit techniques and system configurations which involve Parallel Series Chains (PSC) of Light Triggered Bilateral Switches (LTBS) are new and employ all solid state components. The circuit and system techniques discussed show how small, light weight, highly efficient, programmable power systems can be built to satisfy a wide variety of applications and should be particularly interesting to those designing high performance and/or portable power systems.
Static and Dynamic Compressive Behavior of Aluminum Nitride under Moderate Confinement

An experimental technique for imposing lateral confinement on specimens subjected to dynamic or quasi-static uniaxial compression has been developed. Lateral confinement is provided by a shrink-fit metal sleeve installed on the lateral surface of a cylindrical ceramic specimen. Experiments using this technique were performed on sintered aluminum nitride (A1N). The results show that the failure mode changes from fragmentation by axial splitting under conditions of uniaxial stress to localized faulting under moderate lateral confinement. The compressive failure strength of the AlN increases with the increase of confinement pressure under both static and dynamic loading conditions. The effect of strain rate on the failure strength appears to be independent of the confinement pressure.
Room Temperature Solid Surface Water with Tetrahedral Jumps of 2H Nuclei Detected in 2H2O-Hydrated Porous Silicates

The nature of water adjacent to solid silicate surfaces in kanemite, rehydrated zeolite A, rehydrated highly porous glass, rehydrated high surface area silica gel, and the hydration products of tricalcium silicate has been investigated with 2H NMR techniques and calorimetry. The room temperature 2H NMR quadrupole echo spectra of all samples show a sharp central resonance that corresponds to 2H2O. The kanemite, porous glass, and silica gel spectra show in addition powder patterns that were assigned, based on previous findings for kanemite, to silanol −OH groups experiencing rapid 3-fold jumps or rotational diffusion about the Si−O bond. The spectrum of hydrated tricalcium silicate shows in addition to the aqueous peak a rigid powder pattern that is assigned to Ca(O2H)2. Spectra obtained at −120 and −150 °C for the kanemite sample show that the qcc values for the aqueous deuterons range from 180 to 210 kHz, as would be expected for the different water environments observed in the X-ray structure of kanemite...
Development and Application of Numerical Models to Estimate Fluxes through the Regional Aquifer beneath the Pajarito Plateau

Before recent drilling and characterization efforts in the vicinity of Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), conceptual models had been developed for recharge and discharge in the regional aquifer on the basis of sparse data. By integrating site-wide data into a numerical model of the aquifer beneath the plateau we provide new insight into large-scale aquifer properties and fluxes. This model is useful for understanding hydrologic mechanisms, assessing the magnitudes of different terms in the overall water budget, and, through sampling, for interpreting contaminant migration velocities in the overlying vadose zone. Modeling results suggest that the majority of water produced in well fields on the plateau, extracted at rates approaching 70% of total annual recharge, is derived from storage. This result is insensitive to assumptions about the percentage of total recharge that occurs in the near vicinity of water supply wells, because of strong anisotropy in the aquifer that prevents fast transport of local recharge to deeper units from which production occurs. Robust estimates of fluxes in the shallow portion of the aquifer immediately down gradient of LANL are important for contaminant transport simulations. Our model calculations show that these fluxes have decreased in the past 50 years by approximately 10% because of production in water supply wells. To explore the role of parameter uncertainty in flux prediction, a predictive analysis method was applied. Results showed that predicted flux through older basalts in the aquifer can vary by a factor of three because of uncertainty in aquifer properties and total recharge. We explored the impact of model parameter uncertainty on these results; however, the true uncertainty of our predictions, including the impact of possible conceptual model errors, is likely to be larger and is difficult to quantify.
Engineering ethics and the IEEE: An agenda

Although the IEEE made significant strides in the ethics area during the seventies, much remains to be done. The following items constitute a partial set of goals and tasks.
Simultaneous measurement of luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone and luteinizing hormone during estradiol-induced luteinizing hormone surges in the ovariectomized ewe.

Sequential bleeding and push-pull perfusion of the hypothalamus were used to characterize luteinizing hormone (LH) and LH-releasing hormone (LHRH) release in ovariectomized (OVX) ewes after injection of corn oil or estradio! benzoate (EB). Push-pull cannulae were surgically implanted into the stalk median eminences of 24 OVX ewes. Seven to 14 days later each of 20 animals was given an i.m. injection of 50 pg EB. Blood samples and push-pull perfusate were collected at 10-mm intervals for 6-12 h beginning 12-15 h after EB injection. Four OVX ewes were given i.m. injections of corn oil 7 days after implantation of push-pull cannulae. Blood samples and push-pull perfusate were collected at b-mm intervals for 4 h between 18 and 22 h after injection of corn oil. Luteinizing hormone remained below 2 ng/ml throughout most of the sampling periods in 9 of 20 EB-treated ewes. In 5 of these 9 LURU also was undetectable, whereas in 4 LHRH was detectable (1.84 ± 0.29 pg/b mm), but did not increase with time. Preovulatorylike surges of LH occurred in 11 EB-treated ewes, but LHRH was undetectable in 5. In 4 of 6 ewes showing LH surges and detectable LHRH, sampling occurred during the onset of the LH surge. Regression analysis of data from these 4 ewes showed that concentrations of LH and LHRH output increased during the initial portion of the LH surge, but mean concentrations of LHRH during the LH surge were not different from LHRH concentrations in OVX ewes treated with corn oil (2.63 ± 0.89 vs.1.82 ± 0.25 pg/b mm, P>0.1). These results suggest that there is a transitory LHRH secretion during an estrogen-induced LH surge in OVX ewes. However, output of LHRH during the surgedoesnotappeartobe greaterthan that of oil-treated OVX ewes.