cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Re-evaluation of reproductive cycle and fecundity of finetooth sharks Carcharhinus isodon (Valenciennes 1839) from the Northwest Atlantic Ocean, with new observations on ovarian cycle and reproductive endocrinology of biennially reproducing sharks.

To provide updated information on life history for improved fishery management, the reproductive cycle of the finetooth shark Carcharhinus isodon from Northwest Atlantic (NWA) populations was investigated by examining temporal changes in morphology and histology of reproductive organs. Changes in plasma concentrations of gonadal sex hormones in relation to reproductive stage were also examined. Increases in testis width, epididymis head width, plasma testosterone concentrations and occurrence of mature spermatozoa were observed in male sharks between December and April, suggesting a seasonal pattern in reproduction that culminates with copulatory activity in May. Increases in maximum follicular diameter, oviducal gland width, plasma 17β-estradiol concentrations and occurrence of vitellogenic follicles were observed in non-pregnant female sharks during the same time period along with the occurrence of newly pregnant females in May, demonstrating strong synchronicity between male and female reproductive cycles. Pregnant females bearing full-term embryos were also observed in May, indicating that parturition occurs between mid-May and early June and gestation requires 12 months. Only transient temporal changes in follicle size and oviducal gland width were observed in pregnant females, indicating that reproductive periodicity is biennial; nonetheless, a single female exhibiting signs of concurrent vitellogenesis and pregnancy was observed. Mean brood size ± S.D. was 3.9 ± 0.9 offspring/female. Fecundity was not significantly correlated with female size, in part due to an unexpectedly high rate of early embryo mortality, which occurred in 11% of pregnant females, and was more common in larger individuals. Changes in ovarian activity during mid-pregnancy were observed, suggesting possible roles for the ovary in regulating some aspects of early to mid-gestation. This study confirms that earlier characterizations of the reproductive cycle and fecundity in NWA finetooth sharks remain valid for use in fishery management. This study also highlights unusual features of finetooth shark pregnancy (e.g., early embryo death, mid-pregnancy changes in ovarian function) that may have broader relevance to understanding elasmobranch reproduction.
Thermal Characterization of Tl₂LiYCl₆:Ce (TLYC)

Tl2LiYCl6:Ce (TLYC) is a new dual-detection elpasolite scintillator that can detect and distinguish between gamma rays and neutrons using pulse shape discrimination (PSD). It has a higher density and $Z$ -number than the more mature and well-known elpasolite Cs2LiYCl6:Ce (CLYC), causing it to have a significantly better gamma-ray stopping power. These properties make TLYC an attractive alternative to CLYC for resource-constrained applications where size and weight are important, such as space or national security applications. Such applications may be subjected to a wide range of temperatures, and therefore, TLYC’s performance was characterized for the first time over a temperature range of −20 °C to +50 °C in 10 °C increments. TLYC’s thermal response effects on light-output linearity with energy, gamma-ray photopeak energy resolution, detected neutron energy, pulse shapes, and figure of merit (FOM) is analyzed and reported. The light output of TLYC was found to be linear with energy over the tested temperature range and was observed to decrease with increasing temperature. The decay time of the scintillation light output was observed to decrease with decreasing temperature at short times, leading to a decreasing PSD FOM. The gamma-ray photopeak energy resolution was also observed to degrade with decreasing temperature, due to an asymmetric broadening of the photopeak at low temperatures.
Veiled futures? Debt burdens, the Belt Road Initiative, and official Chinese lending after coronavirus:

This article examines China's role in the emerging markets debt crisis as a result of the explosion of its lending followed by the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. Specifically, we focus on China's offic...
NASA Resources for Educators and Public

A variety of NASA Classroom Activities, Educator Guides, Lithographs, Posters and more are available to Pre ]service and In ]service Educators through Professional Development Workshops. We are here for you to engage, demonstrate, and facilitate the use of educational technologies, the NASA Website, NASA Education Homepage and more! We are here for you to inspire you by providing in-service and pre- service training utilizing NASA curriculum support products. We are here for you to partner with your local, state, and regional educational organizations to better educate ALL! NASA AESP specialists are experienced professional educators, current on education issues and familiar with the curriculum frameworks, educational standards, and systemic architecture of the states they service. These specialists provide engaging and inspiring student presentations and teacher training right at YOUR school at no cost to you! Experience free out-of-this-world interactive learning with NASA's Digital Learning Network. Students of all ages can participate in LIVE events with NASA Experts and Education Specialists. The Exploration Station provides NASA educational programs that introduce the application of Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics, to students. Students participate in a variety of hands-on activities that compliment related topics taught by the classroom teacher. NASA KSC ERC can create Professional Development Workshops for teachers in groups of fifteen or more. Education/Information Specialists also assist educators in developing lessons to meet Sunshine State and national curriculum standards.
Comparison of the Lunar Prodigy and iDXA Dual-Energy X-ray Absorptiometers for Assessing Total and Regional Body Composition

The objective of the study was to assess the agreement of the Lunar Prodigy with the newer Lunar iDXA dual-energy X-ray absorptiometer for determining total body and regional (arms, legs, trunk) bone mineral density (BMD), bone mineral content (BMC), fat mass (FM), lean tissue mass (LTM), total body mass, and percent fat. Ninety-two healthy adult males (n = 36) and females (n = 56) were scanned consecutively on the iDXA and the Prodigy dual-energy X-ray absorptiometers. For iDXA, relative to Prodigy, paired t tests indicated significantly lower estimates for total body and regional BMD and BMC (p < 0.001). Measures of total body and trunk FM, LTM, and percent fat did not differ between the instruments. In regional analyses, estimates of FM and percent fat were greater, and that of LTM was lower, in the arms (p < 0.001). In contrast, iDXA estimates of LTM were higher in the legs (p < 0.001). All body composition measures were significantly correlated (p < 0.001). Bland-Altman analyses indicated that significant bias existed between iDXA and Prodigy for total body and regional BMD estimates (p < 0.001) such that iDXA underestimated BMD to a greater extent in persons with higher values. In addition, iDXA overestimation bias existed for FM in total body, arms, and legs, and the overestimation was primarily observed in participants with greater body fat (p < 0.001). When combining or comparing data from iDXA with those from Prodigy, investigators should be aware that certain total body and regional estimates are significantly different. The greatest percent differences were observed for arm BMD, FM, and percent fat.
Dynamic 3D illustrations with visibility constraints

Illustrations are pictures that are intended to convey specific information to their viewers; dynamic illustrations adjust their design in response to user interaction. We have developed a set of techniques that make possible dynamic illustrations that maintain a set of visibility constraints as a user modifies the viewing specification. The visibility constraints that we support allow objects to be specified as unoccludable; these constraints are maintained by having the system automatically identify and render obscuring objects using transparency and cutaway effects modeled after those exploited by technical illustrators. As the user navigates through an illustration, the system updates visibility changes smoothly to avoid visual discontinuities. We discuss several approaches that exploit modern z-buffer-based 3D graphics hardware to make possible near real-time performance. These techniques have been implemented as part of the IBIS Intent-Based Illustration System, a research testbed for the automated design and rendering of technical illustrations.
The Optimization Complexity of Constraint Satisfaction Problems

In 1978, Schaefer considered a subclass of languages in NP and proved a ``dichotomy theorem'''' for this class. The subclass considered were problems expressible as ``constraint satisfaction problems'''', and the ``dichotomy theorem'''' showed that every language in this class is either in P, or is NP-hard. This result is in sharp contrast to a result of Ladner, which shows that such a dichotomy does not hold for NP, unless NP=P. We consider optimization version of the dichotomy question and show an analog of Schaefer''s result for this case. More specifically, we consider optimization version of ``constraint satisfaction problems'''' and show that every optimization problem in this class is either solvable exactly in P, or is MAX SNP-hard, and hence not approximable to within some constant factor in polynomial time, unless NP=P. This result does not follow directly from Schaefer''s result. In particular, the set of problems that turn out to be hard in this case, is quite different from the set of languages which are shown hard by Schaefer''s result.
Towards Precision Robotic Maneuvering, Survey, and Manipulation in Unstructured Undersea Environments

This paper reports recent advances in the precision control of underwater robotic vehicles for survey and manipulation missions. A new underwater vehicle navigation and control system employing a new commercially available 1,200 kHz doppler sonar is reported. Comparative experimental trials compare the performance of the new system to conventional 12 kHz and 300 kHz long baseline (LBL) acoustic navigation systems. The results demonstrate a hybrid system incorporating both doppler and LBL to provide superior tracking in comparison to doppler or LBL alone.
Physical activity and risk of colorectal cancer in Singapore Chinese

3092 Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in the U.S. In Singapore, the rate of colorectal cancer incidence has doubled in the past 20-30 years. Physical activity has been shown to significantly reduce colorectal cancer risk possibly through influences on body fatness, insulin resistance, endogenous steroid hormones, and gut transit time. However, most of the data are from U.S. and European white populations. We assessed here the relation between physical activity and colorectal cancer risk in Singapore Chinese. We examined if sex and stage of disease modulate the association between physical activity and colorectal cancer. Subjects were participants in a prospective cohort study of 61,321 Chinese men and women aged 45-74 years and cancer-free at recruitment in 1993-1998 in Singapore. At baseline, subjects were interviewed by a trained interviewer using validated questionnaires asking for lifetime tobacco use, physical activity profile, family history of cancer, and dietary practices. Identification of incidence of cancer and death was completed through record linkage analysis of the cohort file to the databases of the population-based cancer and death registries. Proportional hazards (Cox) regression methods were used to assess the association between physical activity and risk of colorectal cancer. The potential confounders included in the Cox regression models were: age at baseline, year of interview, dialect group, level of education, body mass index, cigarette smoking, alcohol intake, history of diabetes, and family history of colorectal cancer. The strength of the physical activity-colorectal cancer association was measured by hazard ratio (HR) and corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI). By December 31, 2005, 961 participants developed colorectal cancer. Vigorous work or strenuous sports on a weekly basis was associated with reduced risk of colorectal cancer overall (HR = 0.77, 95% CI = 0.61-0.97) and in a dose-response manner with number of hours/week (0,
Possible coexistence of rotational and ferroelectric lattice distortions in rhombohedral PbZr x Ti 1 − x O 3

The competitions between ferroelectric and rotational instabilities in rhombohedral ${\mathrm{PbZr}}_{x}{\mathrm{Ti}}_{1\ensuremath{-}x}{\mathrm{O}}_{3}$ near $x=0.5$ are investigated using first-principles density-functional supercell calculations. As expected, we find a strong ferroelectric instability. However, we also find a substantial R-point rotational instability, close to but not as deep as the ferroelectric one. This is similar to the situation in pure ${\mathrm{PbZrO}}_{3}.$ These two instabilities are both strongly pressure dependent, but in opposite directions so that lattice compression of less than 1% is sufficient to change their ordering. Because of this, and local stress fields due to B-site cation disorder may lead to coexistence of both types of instability are likely present in the alloy near the morphotropic phase boundary.
The output distribution of good lossy source codes

This paper provides a necessary condition good rate-distortion codes must satisfy. Specifically, it is shown that as the blocklength increases, the distribution of the input given the output of a good lossy code converges to the distribution of the input given the output of the joint distribution achieving the rate-distortion function, in terms of the normalized conditional relative entropy. The result holds for stationary ergodic sources with subadditive distortion measures, both for fixed-length and variable-length compression. A similar necessary condition is given for lossy joint source-channel coding.
Cysteine as a ligand platform in the biosynthesis of the FeFe hydrogenase H cluster

Hydrogenases catalyze the redox interconversion of protons and H2, an important reaction for a number of metabolic processes and for solar fuel production. In FeFe hydrogenases, catalysis occurs at the H cluster, a metallocofactor comprising a [4Fe–4S]H subcluster coupled to a [2Fe]H subcluster bound by CO, CN–, and azadithiolate ligands. The [2Fe]H subcluster is assembled by the maturases HydE, HydF, and HydG. HydG is a member of the radical S-adenosyl-l-methionine family of enzymes that transforms Fe and l-tyrosine into an [Fe(CO)2(CN)] synthon that is incorporated into the H cluster. Although it is thought that the site of synthon formation in HydG is the “dangler” Fe of a [5Fe] cluster, many mechanistic aspects of this chemistry remain unresolved including the full ligand set of the synthon, how the dangler Fe initially binds to HydG, and how the synthon is released at the end of the reaction. To address these questions, we herein show that l-cysteine (Cys) binds the auxiliary [4Fe–4S] cluster of HydG and further chelates the dangler Fe. We also demonstrate that a [4Fe–4S]aux[CN] species is generated during HydG catalysis, a process that entails the loss of Cys and the [Fe(CO)2(CN)] fragment; on this basis, we suggest that Cys likely completes the coordination sphere of the synthon. Thus, through spectroscopic analysis of HydG before and after the synthon is formed, we conclude that Cys serves as the ligand platform on which the synthon is built and plays a role in both Fe2+ binding and synthon release.
Prospective long-term follow up of children with anorectal malformation: growth and development until 5years of age.

Abstract Background/purpose To evaluate growth and development in children with anorectal malformations and to analyze effects of type of malformation and comorbidities. Methods Non-syndromal children with anorectal malformations were prospectively evaluated at 0.5, 1, 2, and 5years. Biometrics were obtained at all visits. Mental and psychomotor function development was determined. Results 108 children (59% male) were included. 49% had a high malformation, and 46% had ≥1 additional major comorbidity. All growth parameters were below the norm at all ages (p Conclusion Non-syndromal children with anorectal malformations are at risk for growth impairment, especially those with additional major comorbidity. Mental development is normal. Motor development is slightly impaired. Supportive care should focus on growth, dietary management, and motor development besides defecation problems.
Managing Parent Involvement during Crisis.

Parents define student crises every day. Communicating with parents during a crisis and responding to their concerns are critical skills when managing their involvement.
Fast atom bombardment mass spectrometry of intact phospholipids and related compounds

Fast atom bombardment mass spectra of a series of phospholipids are reported. Abundant molecular ions are noted together with fragment ions which provide structural information about the acyl and phosphate ester groupings. The application of fast atom bombardment mass spectrometry to the analysis of complex phospholipid(phosphatidylcholine) mixtures is discussed.
Thermal Microwave Emission from a Three-Layer Random Medium with Three-Dimensional Variations

The radiative transfer theory has been used to study the thermal microwave emission from a three-layer random medium. The random medium is characterized by correlation functions that are Gaussian in the horizontal direction and exponential in the vertical direction. Gaussian quadrature methods are used to solve for the brightness temperatures. The spectral and angular dependence of the brightness temperature are illustrated numerically. In particular we compare the case of a two-layer random medium whose brightness temperature decreases with frequency with the case of a three-layer random medium whose brightness temperature increases with frequency.
Vibrational energy transfer in collisions between diatomic molecules

Abstract Numerically exact calculations of collisional energy transfer probabilities show the marked difference of transitional to vibrational and vibrational to vibrational transitions in a collinear model for diatom on diatom collisions.
A CaMKII-NeuroD signaling pathway specifies dendritic morphogenesis

The elaboration of dendrites is fundamental to the establishment of neuronal polarity and connectivity, but the mechanisms that underlie dendritic morphogenesis are poorly understood. We found that the genetic knockdown of the transcription factor NeuroD in primary granule neurons including in organotypic cerebellar slices profoundly impaired the generation and maintenance of dendrites while sparing the development of axons. We also found that NeuroD mediated neuronal activity-dependent dendritogenesis. The activity-induced protein kinase CaMKII catalyzed the phosphorylation of NeuroD at distinct sites, including endogenous NeuroD at Ser336 in primary neurons, and thereby stimulated dendritic growth. These findings uncover an essential function for NeuroD in granule neuron dendritic morphogenesis. Our study also defines the CaMKII-NeuroD signaling pathway as a novel mechanism underlying activity-regulated dendritic growth that may play important roles in the developing and mature brain.
Reconsidering power management

Power-management approaches have been widely studied in an attempt to conserve idling energy by allowing nodes to switch to a low-power sleep mode. However, due to the inherent inability of current approaches to match sleep schedules to different traffic patterns, energy is wasted switching needlessly from sleep to idle or large delays in traffic delivery are incurred due to being in the sleep state too long. In this paper, we explore such effects of various traffic patterns on current power management protocols. Our results show the importance of traffic information to obtain larger benefits from power management. While some proposals that exploit traffic information exist, they rely primarily on individual sender traffic patterns to develop sleep schedules, ignoring aggregate traffic observed by receivers. This deficiency motivates the design of a new power management protocol that use traffic information at the receivers to adapt sleep schedules.
Luminescence energy transfer studies of C-reactive protein. Binding of terbium (III) ions in C-reactive protein.

The acute phase of inflammation is characterized by numerous changes in blood composition, perhaps the most dramatic of these being the elevation of C-reactive protein levels. C-reactive protein (CRP) is known to bind to molecules containing phosphocholine-substituents following reaction with Ca2+ ions. Luminescence energy transfer (LET) has been used effectively to study the Ca2+ and Mg2+ binding properties of many proteins by employing appropriate lanthanides (III). We have used Tb3+ as an isomorphous analogue to study Ca2+ binding to CRP. Energy transfer occurs effectively and demonstrates the importance of aromatic residues (viz., tyrosine and tryptophan) in the binding of Tb3+. The binding of Tb3+ is remarkably dependent on the pH and indicates the requirement of a deprotonated residue in the pH range 6.4 ± 0.2 for effective Tb3+ binding. A 50-fold molar excess of Ca2+ is sufficient to displace the Tb3+ suggesting that Tb3+ is bound with greater affinity to CRP than the natural analogue Ca2+. We prop...
Enhancer-specific modulation of E protein activity.

Abstract Homodimeric complexes of members of the E protein family of basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factors are important for tissue-specific activation of genes in B lymphocytes (Bain, G., Gruenwald, S., and Murre, C. (1993) Mol. Cell Biol. 13, 3522–3529; Shen, C. P., and Kadesch, T. (1995)Mol. Cell Biol. 15, 4518–4524; Jacobs, Y., et al. (1994)Mol. Cell Biol. 14, 4087–4096; Wilson, R. B., et al. (1991) Mol. Cell Biol. 11, 6185–6191). These homodimers, however, have little activity on myogenic enhancers (Weintraub, H., Genetta, T., and Kadesch, T. (1994) Genes Dev. 8, 2203–2211). We report here the identification of a novelcis-acting transcriptional repression domain in the E protein family of bHLH transcription factors. This domain, the Rep domain, is present in each of the known vertebrate E proteins. Extensive mapping analysis demonstrates that this domain is an acidic region of 30 amino acids with a predicted loop structure. Fusion studies indicate that the Rep domain can repress both of the E protein transactivation domains (AD1 and AD2). Physiologically, the Rep domain plays a key role in maintaining E protein homodimers in an inactive state on myogenic enhancers. In addition, we demonstrate that Rep domain mediated repression of AD1 is a necessary for the function of MyoD-E protein heterodimeric complexes. These studies demonstrate that the Rep domain is important for modulating the transcriptional activity of E proteins and provide key insights into both the selectivity and mechanism of action of E protein containing bHLH protein complexes.
Asymmetric author-topic model for knowledge discovering of big data in toxicogenomics.

The advancement of high-throughput screening technologies facilitates the generation of massive amount of biological data, a big data phenomena in biomedical science. Yet, researchers still heavily rely on keyword search and/or literature review to navigate the databases and analyses are often done in rather small-scale. As a result, the rich information of a database has not been fully utilized, particularly for the information embedded in the interactive nature between data points that are largely ignored and buried. For the past ten years, probabilistic topic modeling has been recognized as an effective machine learning algorithm to annotate the hidden thematic structure of massive collection of documents. The analogy between text corpus and large-scale genomic data enables the application of text mining tools, like probabilistic topic models, to explore hidden patterns of genomic data and to the extension of altered biological functions. In this paper, we developed a generalized probabilistic topic model to analyze a toxicogenomics dataset that consists of a large number of gene expression data from the rat livers treated with drugs in multiple dose and time-points. We discovered the hidden patterns in gene expression associated with the effect of doses and time-points of treatment. Finally, we illustrated the ability of our model to identify the evidence of potential reduction of animal use.
Responsibility for the End of Nature: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Global Warming

Global warming has aroused profound concerns about the future of humanity and the planet as a whole. Indeed, Bill McKibben has argued that anthropogenic climate change is tantamount to the very end of nature and articulates a sense of deep anxiety that many people share. I argue that this feeling of anxiety cannot be fully accounted for either by appeal to the consequences of global warming or the associated injustices. I locate its source with our recognition that human beings are now responsible for some of the basic conditions supporting all life on Earth. I argue that if we are to assume such an awesome responsibility (and we must), it's good that we do so anxiously. While some have criticized the "I have a nightmare" global warming rhetoric of environmentalists, I identify a particular feature of our nightmare and claim that in it we can find a source for hope.
Accurate, efficient, and adaptive calling context profiling

Calling context profiles are used in many inter-procedural code optimizations and in overall program understanding. Unfortunately, the collection of profile information is highly intrusive due to the high frequency of method calls in most applications. Previously proposed calling-context profiling mechanisms consequently suffer from either low accuracy, high overhead, or both. We have developed a new approach for building the calling context tree at runtime, called adaptive bursting. By selectively inhibiting redundant profiling, this approach dramatically reduces overhead while preserving profile accuracy. We first demonstrate the drawbacks of previously proposed calling context profiling mechanisms. We show that a low-overhead solution using sampled stack-walking alone is less than 50% accurate, based on degree of overlap with a complete calling-context tree. We also show that a static bursting approach collects a highly accurate profile, but causes an unacceptable application slowdown. Our adaptive solution achieves 85% degree of overlap and provides an 88% hot-edge coverage when using a 0.1 hot-edge threshold, while dramatically reducing overhead compared to the static bursting approach.
Droplet evaporation and solute precipitation during spray pyrolysis

Abstract The process of spray pyrolysis was investigated theoretically using a model that describes the evolution of the droplet size, solvent vapor concentration in the carrier gas, and both droplet and gas temperatures along the reactor axis. The model also accounts for solute concentration profiles and solute precipitation in the solution droplets. The model was used to describe the evaporation of sodium chloride aqueous solution droplets in diffusion dryers and hot-wall reactors as a function of reactor residence time, droplet size (a few microns), solution molality (up to 2 M), droplet concentration (10 6 –10 7 cm −3 ), relative humidity of the carrier gas (0–50%) and reactor wall conditions. Decreasing initial droplet size and solution molality accelerated droplet evaporation and resulted in smaller droplets at the onset of solute nucleation. Decreasing droplet concentration and carrier gas inlet relative humidity as well as increasing wall temperature (up to 350°C) or axial wall temperature gradient (up to 100°C cm −1 ) increased the droplet evaporation rate, but did not change appreciably the droplet size at the point of precipitation for a given droplet size and solute concentration. Thus, control of droplet size at the onset of solute nucleation by varying process parameters other than the solution concentration and initial droplet size is limited.
Temporospatial Coordination of Meiotic DNA Replication and Recombination via DDK Recruitment to Replisomes

It has been long appreciated that, during meiosis, DNA replication is coordinated with the subsequent formation of the double-strand breaks (DSBs) that initiate recombination, but a mechanistic understanding of this process was elusive. We now show that, in yeast, the replisome-associated components Tof1 and Csm3 physically associate with the Dbf4-dependent Cdc7 kinase (DDK) and recruit it to the replisome, where it phosphorylates the DSB-promoting factor Mer2 in the wake of the replication fork, synchronizing replication with an early prerequisite for DSB formation. Recruiting regulatory kinases to replisomes may be a general mechanism to ensure spatial and temporal coordination of replication with other chromosomal processes.
Odds of fault and factors for out-of-state drivers in crashes in four states of the USA

Drivers outside their country of residence are at a safety disadvantage when compared to native counterparts. This research aimed to (1) investigate if out-of-state drivers in the United States experienced the same vulnerabilities as foreign drivers, and (2) examine the relations of out-of-state crashes to various human and environmental factors. Crash data from Florida, Maine, Minnesota, and Nevada was analyzed to model fault using logistic regressions. Univariate regressions showed that out-of-state drivers had increased odds of fault, ranging from 17% to 92%, for a single-vehicle crash compared to in-state drivers in all states except Florida, where there was no difference between groups. Odds were elevated for out-of-state drivers in two-vehicle crashes by 3% to 19% in all states except Florida and Minnesota, where, again, there was no difference between groups. Human and environmental factors such as age, sex, driving conditions, and seasons were examined with multivariate regressions for in- and out-of-state groups separately, and their odds ratios were compared. For single-vehicle crashes age, sex, road grade, surface condition, light conditions, and day of week were factors that increased at least one of the two groups’ odds of fault in all states. Sex, surface condition, and light conditions increased the odds of fault for at least one of the groups in two-vehicle crashes in all four states. Factors that consistently increased odds of fault for both single- and two-vehicle crashes were males, non-vehicle owners, curves, and inclement weather. Although there were several factors in each state that increased odds of fault for out-of-state drivers, no factors consistently increased odds of fault for out-of-state drivers across all four states.
Acoustic remote sensing of benthic activity: A statistical approach

Acoustic backscatter at 40 kHz was recorded from a circular area of silt 75 m in radius every 0.1 d at a water depth of 91 m off the coast of northern California for 49 d in winter 1988-1989. Data were resolved into pixels that extended 7.5 m radially and 5° azimuthally. We analyzed the relatively small change in backscatter intensity and phase from a given pixel. In a time-series analysis, this change in backscatter was decomposed into three components putatively due to large, rare, transient nekton and epibenthos; more abundant benthopelagic organisms that caused volume reverberation; and more sedentary benthos. Benthic change in backscatter was presumed due to movement of animals and other biogenic modifications of sound speed in the sediment-water medium. Patterns of benthic activity and volume backscatter near the seabed changed abruptly twice, with the middle interval showing highest levels. During this middle interval, winter storms disturbed surficial sediments, offshore transport occurred near the seabed, and the benthic component was dominated by activity perfectly in phase with and linearly proportional to median, local, downwelling irradiance. We suspect that this circadian pattern was due to the burrowing urchin Brisaster latifrons that is known from previous studies at this site to emerge on the sediment surface at night when food resources are available there and to reburrow during the lighted part of the day. Extensive correlative physical data collected at the site as part of interdisciplinary studies (CODE and STRESS) allowed us to exclude other physical forcings as likely explanations for diurnal change in backscatter. In a spatial analysis, the transient component was removed explicitly pixel by pixel, and volume reverberation was removed implicitly to leave a benthic remainder that could be analyzed for spatial variation. Benthic activity showed distinct patchiness with coherence scales of roughly 5-10 m and negative spatial autocorrelation in activity levels near the largest spatial lag available (∼ 140 m). Patches did not move appreciably during the study.
On the Edge of Life, I: Assessment of, Reaction to, and Management of the Terminally Ill Recorded in an Intensive Care Unit Journal.

Background: In a general hospital, few clinical settings match the intensity of the intensive care unit (ICU) experience. Clinical rotations in ICUs elicit and emphasize the struggles house officers face on a daily basis throughout their training. Method: These struggles were recorded by hundreds of residents in a journal maintained in the Massachusetts General Hospital's Medical ICU for the past 20 years. We systematically reviewed these unsolicited entries to define and to illustrate how house officers respond to caring for terminally ill patients. The 3 overarching topics that surfaced repeatedly were assessment of terminally ill patients, reaction to their prognosis, and management of their disease or their eventual demise. Results: House officers record affective reactions and cognitive assessments to cope with the stress and dysfunction associated with the care of the critically ill and to facilitate their management of these patients. Journal entries by residents reveal a deep concern for the welfare of their patients, conflict about the technological advances and limitations of the system, and reflection on how involved physicians should become with their patients. Conclusion: House officer journal entries reflect a combination of newly gained medical knowledge and coping strategies in managing terminally ill patients. House officers also demonstrate a deep concern for the welfare of their patients. Insight from years of reflection from past house officers can help prepare trainees and residency programs for the breadth and intensity of the ICU experience and for work in clinical practice settings that follow completion of training.
Oxygen-diffused titanium as a candidate brake rotor material

Abstract Titanium alloys are one of several candidate materials for the next generation of truck disk brake rotors. Despite their advantages of lightweight relative to cast iron and good strength and corrosion resistance, titanium alloys are unlikely to be satisfactory brake rotor materials unless their friction and wear behavior can be significantly improved. In this study, a surface engineering process – oxygen diffusion (OD) – was applied to titanium rotors and has shown very encouraging results. The oxygen-diffused Ti–6Al–4V (OD-Ti64) was tested on a sub-scale brake tester against a flat block of commercial brake lining material and benchmarked against several other Ti-based materials, including untreated Ti–6Al–4V (Ti64), Ti-based metal matrix composites (MMCs), and a thermal spray-coated Ti alloy. With respect to friction, the OD-Ti64 outperformed all other candidate materials under the imposed test conditions with the friction coefficient remaining within a desirable range of 0.35–0.50, even under the harshest conditions when the disk surface temperature reached nearly 600 °C. In addition, the OD-Ti64 showed significantly improved wear-resistance over the untreated Ti64 and was even better than the Ti-based composite materials.
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO GEOGRAPHIC CARTOGRAPHY

The relative decline of geographic cartography in the past several decades is based more on convenience and circumstance than on theoretical justification. Contemporary split-brain studies reveal much about brain lateralization in human beings and shed dramatic new light on the essential role visualization plays in creative, productive thought. Opportunities made possible by recent developments in remote sensing and computer mapping suggest that geographers would gain a powerful new research tool by returning to geographic cartography in its modern form.
THE ELECTRON–ANTINEUTRINO ANGULAR CORRELATION IN FREE NEUTRON DECAY

Free neutron beta decay is the simplest nuclear beta decay and the prototype charged-current semileptonic decay. It has some theoretical advantage over other nuclear decay systems in that there are no nuclear structure corrections, and it is the only mixed Fermi/Gamow–Teller beta decay for which the relative matrix elements can be directly calculated. The status of the electron–antineutrino angular correlation (a-coefficient) in neutron beta decay and its role in elucidating fundamental properties of the weak interaction are reviewed, with an emphasis on experiments. A new generation of experiments intended to reduce the uncertainty in the a-coefficient to less than 1% is described.
Infection of Pseudomonas aeruginosa spheroplasts by RNA from a pilus phage

Abstract Lysozyme-EDTA treatment rendered Pseudomonas aeruginosa cells susceptible to infection by RNA which had been phenol extracted from the P. aeruginosa pilus phage PP7. The efficiency of lysozyme-EDTA conversion was one competent spheroplast from every 10 5 bacteria. Competence rapidly decayed after 20 min at either 25 ° or 4 °. When spheroplasts were challenged with different concentrations of RNA, the infected spheroplast yield was directly proportional to the RNA concentration over a 10-fold range. The efficiency with which infectious RNA was extracted and assayed was one infected spheroplast from every 10 6 plaque-forming phage particles. This low efficiency was partially due to the presence of a contaminating RNase in the assay system. Three sequential steps in the infection of spheroplasts by phage RNA were differentiated. In the first step, RNA was rapidly bound to competent spheroplasts to form RNA-spheroplast complexes which were sensitive to pancreatic RNase. The first order rate constant describing the inactivation of these complexes by RNase was 12.5 log 10 units sec −1 (μg RNase per ml) −1 . In the second step, which occurred when the complexes were subjected to a positive osmotic shock, the RNA of the complexes became resistant to pancreatic RNase. The time required for this step was calculated to be 0.56 sec. In the third step, which required 1 min of incubation after the second step had occurred, the complexes became resistant to an unidentified inactivating agent in bovine serum albumin.
Endoscopic Gastrocnemius Release

Endoscopic gastrocnemius release (EGR) is a recently developed procedure that is a reliable option for surgical management of ankle equinus contracture. Comfort with endoscopic equipment and surgical anatomy, especially the sural nerve, is of paramount importance for performing the procedure safely, effectively, and efficiently. The primary advantage of the procedure is improved cosmesis and decreased wound complications of the smaller surgical scars. The current body of literature of clinical outcomes for EGR consists of limited level IV case series with broad variations in study rigor, author training background, and the surgical technique itself.
Impaired phagocytosis by heterophils from chickens during aflatoxicosis.

Abstract The effects of graded concentrations of dietary aflatoxin (0, 0.625, 1.25, 2.5, 5.0, and 10.0 ppm) on the in vitro phagocytic and bactericidal abilities of heterophils from chickens were investigated. The mean, percentage, and rate of phagocytosis were reduced. There were several populations of heterophils in our experimental system; 10% were unable to phagocytize (0 ppm), 15% were very sensitive to aflatoxin (0.625 ppm), 30% were resistant to aflatoxin (5 and 10 ppm), and about 45% were of intermediate sensitivity (1.25 and 2.5 ppm). Crossover experiments demonstrated that both cellular and serum factors required for optimal phagocytosis were impaired during aflatoxicosis and that the serum factor had the heat sensitivity of complement. Both spontaneous and chemotactic locomotion by heterophils were impaired. The heterophils from birds with aflatoxicosis which phagocytized bacteria had a reduced ability to kill the bacteria. Thus, a representative of the circulating phagocytes responsible in part for nonspecific host resistance has impaired function during aflatoxicosis.
Linoleic acid and tumor necrosis factor-α increase manganese superoxide dismutase activity in intestinal cells

Manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) protects mitochondria from oxidative damage. Alterations in the regulation of MnSOD plays an important role in the development of many types of cancer. Activity of this enzyme is induced by inflammatory cytokines and other conditions that increase oxygen radical production. High levels of dietary lipid have been shown to decrease MnSOD activity. This study was designed to define the effect of various type of fatty acids on MnSOD activity and MnSOD induction. IEC-6 cells were treated with 40 μmol/l of either linoleic acid (LA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), or oleic acid (OA) in the presence or absence of 10 ng/ml tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α). Fatty acid supplementation increased MnSOD activity. MnSOD activity was greater in the LA group than in the EPA or OA groups. TNF-α induced MnSOD activity equally in all fatty acid-supplemented groups. High levels of MnSOD activity may be an indicator of chronic inflammation resulting from fatty acid, particularly LA, supplementation.
The Relationships Between Number of Male Sexual Partners of Male Adolescents, Victimization, Use of Violence, and Drug Use at School, and Other Violence and Victimization • 6

OBJECTIVE: This study examined the relationship between the number of male sexual partners of sexually active males and the frequency they had been a victim of violence at school, missed school due to fear, used drugs at school, and had engaged in fighting and weapon carrying both in and out of school.
Energy metabolism, fuel selection and body weight regulation

Energy homeostasis is critical for the survival of species. Therefore, multiple and complex mechanisms have evolved to regulate energy intake and expenditure to maintain body weight. For weight maintenance, not only does energy intake have to match energy expenditure, but also macronutrient intake must balance macronutrient oxidation. However, this equilibrium seems to be particularly difficult to achieve in individuals with low fat oxidation, low energy expenditure, low sympathetic activity or low levels of spontaneous physical activity, as in addition to excess energy intake, all of these factors explain the tendency of some people to gain weight. Additionally, large variability in weight change is observed when energy surplus is imposed experimentally or spontaneously. Clearly, the data suggest a strong genetic influence on body weight regulation implying a normal physiology in an ‘obesogenic’ environment. In this study, we also review evidence that carbohydrate balance may represent the potential signal that regulates energy homeostasis by impacting energy intake and body weight. Because of the small storage capacity for carbohydrate and its importance for metabolism in many tissues and organs, carbohydrate balance must be maintained at a given level. This drive for balance may in turn cause increased energy intake when consuming a diet high in fat and low in carbohydrate. If sustained over time, such an increase in energy intake cannot be detected by available methods, but may cause meaningful increases in body weight. The concept of metabolic flexibility and its impact on body weight regulation is also presented.
Cell surface membrane organization revealed by freeze-drying.

Replicas of freeze-dried cells from various murine monolayer and suspension cultures revealed an external cell surface morphology characterized by randomly distributed heterogeneous particles when viewed by transmission electron microscopy. On the surfaces of Rauscher leukemia virus-infected JLSV 9 (JLSV 9 -RLV) cells, a population of prominent particles can be attributed to virus-specific membrane alterations on the basis of: (i) the large number of particles similar in size to projections on the virus envelope surface; (ii) the paucity of similar particles on the surfaces of uninfected JLSV 9 cells; and (iii) specific reduction of this particle population by antibody-induced displacement of the major viral glycoprotein (gp69/71) on the JLSV 9 -RLV cell surface. Cell surface particulation was demonstrated on various monolayer-and suspension-cultured cells as well as on freshly isolated mouse thymocytes. Particulation appears somewhat less prominent on thymocytes and suspension-cultured cells than on cells grown in monolayers, and the particulation on primary isolates of HSFS/N mouse fibroblasts in monolayer becomes progressively enhanced with extended culturing. Particulation was negligible on erythrocyte membranes and could not be induced by treatments that resulted in lateral aggregation of intramembranous particles. Analysis of the surfaces of protein-free membrane liposomes and of unfixed and trypsin-treated cells and comparison of the effects of glutaraldehyde and osmium tetroxide as fixatives suggest that the observed particulation is related to cell surface membrane proteins and may represent molecular oligomers.
Lipid composition of the pelagic crab Pleuroncodes planipes, its feces, and sinking particulate organic matter in the Equatorial North Pacific Ocean☆

Abstract Fecal pellets from the pelagic crab Pleuroncodes planipes were a substantial portion of the particulate organic matter in a sediment trap deployed at the bottom of the mixed layer in the eastern tropical North Pacific Ocean. The lipids of fresh P. planipes feces were compared to lipids of the sediment trap material, of mixed zooplankton which may comprise part of the diet of the crab, and of the crab itself in order to elucidate the source of organic compounds found in the trap. Hydrocarbons, wax esters, triacylglycerols, steroidal alcohols, steroidal ketones, and fatty acids were determined by capillary gas chromatography and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Significant input of lipids via sedimentation of crab fecal material is indicated, and modification of dietary lipid within the gut of the crab is inferred. Labile dietary fatty acids are depleted and sterols enriched in the fecal pellets and trap material relative to the zooplankton and crab. Nuclear saturated and unsaturated 3-ketosteroids and unsaturated steroidal hydrocarbons were detected in the crab, its feces, and in the sediment trap particulate material.