cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
MicroRNAs and oncolytic viruses

MicroRNAs regulate gene expression in mammalian cells and often exhibit tissue-specific expression patterns. Incorporation of microRNA target sequences can be used to control exogenous gene expression and viral tropism in specific tissues to enhance the therapeutic indices of oncolytic viruses expressing therapeutic transgenes. Continued development of this targeting strategy has resulted in the generation of unattenuated oncolytic viruses with enhanced potency, broad species-tropisms and reduced off-target toxicities in multiple-tissues simultaneously. Furthermore, oncolytic viruses have been used to enhance the delivery, duration and therapeutic efficacy of microRNA-based therapeutics designed to either restore or inhibit the function of dysregulated microRNAs in cancer cells. Recent efforts focused on combining oncolytic virotherapy and microRNA regulation have generated increasingly potent and safe cancer therapeutics.
Aging modifies brain region-specific vulnerability to experimental oxidative stress induced by low dose hydrogen peroxide

Our previous studies demonstrated a significant decline in brain function and behavior in Fischer 344 (F344) rats with age. The present study was designed to test the hypothesis that dysregulation in calcium homeostasis (as assessed through 45Ca flux) may contribute to the increase in age-related vulnerability to oxidative stress in brain regions, and result in a deficit in behavior-mediated signaling. Crude membrane (P-2) and more purified synaptosomal fractions were isolated from the striatum, hippocampus, and frontal cortex of young (6 months) and old (22 months) F344 rats and were assessed for calcium flux and extracellular-regulated kinase activity 1 (ERK) under control and oxidative stress conditions induced by low dose hydrogen peroxide (final concentration 5 μM). The level of oxidative stress responses was monitored by measuring reactive oxygen species (ROS) and glutathione (GSH). The results showed a significant difference in oxidative stress responses between young and old rats in evaluated brain regions. Old rats showed higher sensitivity to oxidative stress than young rats. The present findings show the differential effects of oxidative stress on calcium flux in brain regions with age that are dependent upon the brain areas examined and the fraction assessed. The accumulation of ROS and the decrease in GSH in the frontal cortex were sufficient to decrease ERK activity in old rats. This is the first study, to our knowledge, that demonstrates age-related differential sensitivity to oxidative stress expressed as a function of behavior-mediated signaling and stress levels among different fractions isolated from brain regions controlling behavior.
Rebutting Arrow and Lind: why governments should use market rates for discounting

The radical proposition of Arrow and Lind (1970) – that governments should use risk-free rates instead of market rates to discount their risky investments – can best be understood by first consider...
Environment and development in the Republic of the Marshall Islands: Linking climate change with sustainable fisheries development

The Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) is a major custodian of one of the ocean's major natural resources: tuna. The commercial tuna fisheries sector is the most important economic sector in the RMI and is thus a substantial contributor to this tiny island nation's GDP. Tuna catch and its associated revenues has fluctuated in line with climatic events such as the El Nino/La Nina Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and, in the last decade, national fisheries development policies have begun to capitalize on the positive effects that ENSO warm events have had on the tuna populations. However, global warming is expected to have a significant impact on ENSO, and not necessarily in positive ways. This paper will focus on the relationship between environment and economic development in the RMI fisheries sector. In particular, the linkages between global warming and its effects on the tuna fisheries sector must be better understood and uncertainties accounted for so that impacts are appropriately addressed and integrated into sustainable fisheries development policies. Conclusions reached are that new fisheries development strategies that emphasize environmental-based planning are required. The emerging ecosystem-based approach to fisheries management is a start, as are the various international initiatives in furthering our understanding of the linkages between climate and ocean systems currently underway.
Fuzzy principal ideals and fuzzy simple field extensions

We examine minimal generating systems for certain fuzzy ideals. We use the concept of a minimal generating set for a fuzzy ideal to characterize principal ideal rings and to characterize their equivalent fuzzy ideals. We also use the concept of a minimal generating system to give a version of Luroth's Theorem for fuzzy intermediate fields and to characterize simple field extensions.
An introductory course in graphics

The purpose of this paper is to report on some experiences in the planning and implementation of an introductory course on computer graphics. The course focused on topics of concern to the computer science major interested in developing graphics system software.
Chloromethane and dichloromethane decompositions inside nanotubes as models of reactions in confined space

A combination of ab initio MP2 and molecular mechanics UFF calculations have been employed to study chloromethane and dichloromethane decomposition reaction inside carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The results suggest that the impact of the nanotubes on the mechanism of the reaction depends on the diameter of the nanotube. Nanotubes with a large diameter affect the reaction in a negligible way. On the other hand, most of the reactions taking place inside small nanotubes are considerably altered. The presence of the CNT may affect the geometries of the reactants, the reaction energy barriers, as well as the energetic outcome of the reactions. All the reactions have been described by means of energetic, thermodynamic, and vibrational analyses, which allowed us to form general conclusions concerning the reaction taking place in a confined space.
Iron acquisition from hydrous Fe(III)-oxides by an aerobic Pseudomonas sp.

Iron is a metabolic requirement of living systems, yet iron is very insoluble in aerobic, neutral environments. Therefore, the amount of iron in solution under these conditions is not sufficient to meet the nutrient requirements of microorganisms. It has been assumed that microorganisms acquire iron in these environments through the use of specific iron chelating compounds called siderophores. Interestingly, there is little quantitative data in the literature to support this hypothesis. Our studies were initiated to investigate the mechanism(s) used by an aerobic microorganism to acquire iron from a relatively insoluble iron oxide. When iron was supplied in the form of hematite, a Pseudomonas sp. was able to achieve moderate growth, as compared to growth on FeEDTA. Analysis using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) of the metabolic products of this species showed significant differences between growth on hematite as compared to FeEDTA. The results of these experiments will be discussed in terms of our current knowledge of microbial enhanced iron dissolution, and compared to abiotic dissolution rates.
Pulmonary function and exercise capacity for ELBW survivors in preadolescence: effect of neonatal chronic lung disease

Abstract Objective To assess pulmonary function and exercise capacity of apparently asymptomatic children who were born extremely preterm. Study design Pulmonary function and treadmill testing were performed on 50 children 9 to 15 years old who had birth weight t test. Secondary analysis was performed to assess significant influence of neonatal chronic lung disease (CLD) on outcome measures. Results Twenty percent of ELBW subjects but no subjects with NBW had clinically abnormal pulmonary function (>2 SD from norms, P =.026). All significant pulmonary function differences except peak expiratory flow rate percentages were accounted for by ELBW subjects who had CLD. Oxygen consumption measurements were significantly lower for subjects with ELBW (30.3±6.9 and 38.5±5.2 mL/kg/min, P =.000), independent of CLD status. Conclusion Pulmonary function abnormalities consistent with obstructive lung disease were more frequently detected in ELBW children who had neonatal CLD. Low oxygen consumption measurements suggest a lower level of fitness for ELBW children compared with children with NBW.
Insulin in the Drinking Water of Rats

AbstractThis work was supported by a grant from the Defiance Area Diabetes Club. We acknowledge with thanks the gift of human insulin from Novo-Nordisk, Denmark. We thank G. Colin Budd and Ben Pansky for their intellectual contributions and encouragement. We thank Robert J. Trumbly for his hospitality in his laboratory and for his financial support of FEW. We thank R. Birkhahn for the use of metabolic cages in this project and the personnel of the Laboratory Animal Research Facility for their expert care of the rats.A preliminary account of this work was presented at a Symposium of the Controlled Release Society in Dublin, 20–22 September 1995 [5].Normal and streptozotocin-diabetic female Sprague–Dawley rats were given solutions of insulin to drink instead of water. Tail vein blood glucose concentrations were monitored by Glucometer. Urine volume, food and water intake, and body weight were recorded daily. Diabetic rats exhibited decreased daily urinary output when more than 70 IU/mL of insulin was in the...
A highly linear 25dBm outphasing power amplifier in 32nm CMOS for WLAN application

An outphasing power amplifier (PA) is designed and implemented in a 32nm digital CMOS process. The PA uses a transformer power combining configuration with reduced losses at backoff power. In the range of 2.2–2.5GHz, this PA gives 25dBm peak CW power with 40% total efficiency (includes all drivers). The class-D PA takes advantage of 32nm switching speed to achieve good linearity performance. The PA delivers 18dBm average power with 18% total efficiency while meeting 64-QAM WLAN requirements, with no need for linearization.
Neurophysiological basis of swallowing

The neurophysiological control of swallowing involves three functionally distinct divisions: the oral preparatory phase, a pharyngolaryngeal phase and an esophageal phase. Both the pharyngeal and esophageal phases involve control by interneurons in different regions of the reticular formation of the medulla within the brain stem. The central neural control of the brain stem is triggered by specific patterns of sensory or descending cortical input. The threshold that will elicit swallowing depends upon the type of stimuli (i.e., specific fluids, touch, pressure). The threshold is higher if much of the pharyngeal mucosa is anesthetized and if salivation is inhibited. Sensory feedback does change the threshold and intensity of sequential muscle recruitment. Descending pathways that modify swallowing include the prefrontal cortex, the limbic-hypothalamic system, and specific regions of the pons.
The role of regulation of cell speed in the behavior of Physarum polycephalum amoebae.

Abstract Studies on the behavior of wild-type and mutant Physarum polycephalum amoebae have revealed that regulation of cell speed results in different patterns of cell dispersion in different environments and have shown that P. polycephalum can be used for genetic studies of the mechanisms responsible for this element of cell behavior. Colonies generated by clonal populations of amoebae growing on E. coli display alternate colony morphologies depending on the pH of the culture medium and the presence of live E. coli as a nutrient. In the larger ‘spreading colonies’ cells at the outside of a colony are dispersed over a wide band of bacteria while in the smaller ‘aggregate ring colonies’ most cells moving on bacteria are aggregated in a regularly shaped ring on a narrow band of bacteria at the border of the bacterial lawn created when amoebae completely consume the bacteria available in the colony center. Measurements of cell growth, the rate of colony expansion, and the rate of single cell movement show that cells in contact with bacteria move more slowly in aggregate ring than in spreading colonies. Moreover, since in aggregate ring colonies the rate of movement of cells in contact with bacteria is also reduced relative to that of cells moving on adjacent regions of the agar surface, inhibition of cell speed appears to be at least partially responsible for generating the aggregate ring morphology. Characterization of the behavior of a single locus mutant which generates spreading colonies under conditions where aggregate ring colonies are normally formed has provided additional evidence that a specific mechanism is involved in controlling the distribution of amoebae through regulation of cell speed. Furthermore, the studies of this mutant have shown that aberrant colony morphology can be used as an easily recognized phenotype for identifying and studying mutants with defects which affect the regulation of cell speed.
The effect of puromycin aminonucleoside on the incorporation of labeled precursors into rat-kidney RNA

Abstract 1. The effect of puromycin aminonucleoside (PA) on the incorporation of adenine, formate, and inorganic phosphate into rat-kidney RNA was studied. PA, administered in multiple doses of 15 mg/kg for 5 days, neither inhibited purine biosynthesis de novo, nor activated the salvage pathway, as evidenced by identical specific activity profiles of the purine nucleotides isolated from kidney RNA when both formate and adenine were used as tracers. 2. Since the incorporation of inorganic phosphate into RNA was not inhibited by PA, the data may be interpreted as a shift in the amount of rRNA relative to mRNA.
The relationship between current intensity for nerve stimulation and success of peripheral nerve blocks performed in pediatric patients under general anesthesia.

BACKGROUND: We evaluated the relationship between the lowest current amperage used to obtain a motor response, the success rate and the incidence of neurological complications with peripheral nerve blocks (PNB) in pediatric patients under general anesthesia. METHODS: We reviewed the regional anesthesia database at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and included all pediatric patients who received a single-injection PNB under general anesthesia with the aid of a peripheral nerve stimulator between October 2002 and July 2006. Data analyzed included age, sex, type of block, stimulation threshold, presence of sensory and motor blockade, and neurological complications. RESULTS: Six-hundred sixty patients received a PNB during the study period. The average age of the patients was 13.8 yr (range 2–18 yr). All the blocks were performed using a current ranging between 0.2 and 1 (median 0.5 mA, interquartile range: 0.45–0.55 mA). The overall success rate was 96%. There was no difference in success rate between blocks performed using a stimulation threshold of 0.5 or 0.5 mA (96.3% vs 95.9%; P 0.793). There was no correlation between the success rate and sex, type of block performed or intensity of current used. Two patients reported prolonged nerve blockade of the great toe and dorsum of the foot after a sciatic nerve block, which lasted for 72 h. No long-term sequelae were noted in our patients. CONCLUSION: In this study, a similar PNB success rate was observed with both a low (*0.5 mA) and a high stimulation threshold (0.5 mA). Therefore, it may not be necessary to perform needle manipulations to achieve a low stimulation threshold (0.5 mA), as this may increase the risk of intraneural injection.
Formation and x-ray crystal structure of the lithium aluminum alkoxide chloride complex LiAl(OCEt3)3Cl(THF)2

Abstract LiAl(OCEt3)3Cl(THF)2 has been obtained by the reaction of LiAl(OCEt3)3H with YCl3 and characterized by X-ray diffraction. It crystallizes from hexanes in the space group P21/c with a = 16.49(3), b = 10.65(1), c = 20.05(3) A, β = 106.97(11)°, V = 3367(7) A3 and Dcalc = 1.10 Mg m−3 for Z = 4. Least squares refinement of the model based on 2910 reflections (|Fo| > O) converged to a final RF = 5.5%. The aluminum atom is ligated by a terminal chloride and a terminal OCEt3 group and is connected to the Li(THF)2 moiety by two bridging OCEt3 ligands.
Radiofrequency ablation of Barrett's esophagus: short-term results.

Background The presence of Barrett's esophagus (BE) increases the risk of esophageal cancer. Total regression of BE is uncommon with medication or laparoscopic fundoplication, and endoscopic techniques to obliterate BE have varied results. This study evaluated the early results of a balloon-based catheter radiofrequency ablation (RFA) system in patients with medically refractory reflux symptoms and biopsy-proven BE. Methods The medical records of 27 consecutive patients who underwent RFA for BE from March 2005 through January 2007 were reviewed. Esophagogastroduodenoscopy was performed before ablation to document presence of BE and no cancer and at 8 weeks after the RFA to assess the presence of residual BE. Results Mean patient age was 53.6 ± 12.5 years; 16 (59%) were men. The average length of the Barrett segment treated was 4.6 ± 4.7 cm. Two patients (7.4%) had low-grade dysplasia. No patient had high-grade dysplasia and cancer. There was no periprocedural morbidity or at follow-up, no postprocedure dysphagia or stricture. In all patients, the BE was completely replaced with normal squamous epithelium. Symptoms regressed in 16 patients (60%) with RFA and proton pump inhibitor therapy. Eleven required an antireflux procedure for persistent symptoms. Conclusions Short-term results show that RFA for BE is safe and achieves 100% replacement of intestinal metaplasia. RFA of BE combined with fundoplication may be offered to patients with BE and medically refractory reflux symptoms. Long-term endoscopic surveillance is needed to determine if the risk of cancer is reduced with this bimodality therapy.
Resonant transfer and excitation in collisions of chlorinelike ions with H2 targets

The resonant transfer and excitation cross sections through the LMM transitions in collisions of chlorinelike ${\mathrm{Fe}}^{9+}$, ${\mathrm{Nb}}^{24+}$, and ${\mathrm{La}}^{40+}$ with ${\mathrm{H}}_{2}$ targets were calculated in impulse approximation using the multiconfiguration Dirac-Fock method. The effect of relativity reduces the total LMM resonance strength for ${\mathrm{La}}^{40+}$ by 29%. The angular distribution corrections at \ensuremath{\theta}=90\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{} increase the cross sections by an amount less than 10%. The present theoretical predictions for ${\mathrm{La}}^{40+}$ colliding with ${\mathrm{H}}_{2}$ are in reasonable agreement with the experimental observations.
Cellular imagery with total internal reflection holographic microscopy

ABSTRACT Evanescent wave phase profiling is incorporated with digital holography into a new surface imaging technique termed total internal reflection holographic microscopy (TIRHM). Quantitative images of tissue structures and profiles of cellular membranes are presented to demonstrate the meth ods performance capabilities. Applications of this technique include measurements of cellular membranes and their transport processes without the addition of fluorophores. The angular spectrum method to compensate for tilt anamorphism due to the inclined TIR plane is also discussed. Keywords: Evanescent, digital holography, TIR, motility, surface phase profile, tissue, membrane 1. INTRODUCTION Since the fight against cancer is a key feature in the improvement of human health, new research tools are constantly needed to answer the question of how the disease spreads, or metastasizes. To characterize the cell substrate interface of cancer and other cells, evanescent wave surface profiling is incorporated with digital holographic microscopy (DHM) into a new biomedical imaging technique termed Total Inter nal Reflection Holographic Microscopy (TIRHM). Total Internal Reflection Holographic Microscopy (TIRHM) us es a prism in TIR as a sensor head in the object arm of a Mach-Zehnder holographic microscope
Improvement of avalanche photodetectors through integration of InGaAs and Si

Near infrared avalanche photodetectors have been constructed by wafer fusing epitaxial layers of InGaAs to Si. This integration combines the light absorption properties of InGaAs with the avalanche multiplication properties of Si. We concentrate here on two of the advantages these detectors have: desirable gain sensitivity properties, and high gain- bandwidth-products which would make them ideal for optical communication applications. Measurements are shown that illustrate very gradual gain increases with increasing device voltages as well as gain-bandwidth-products of over 300 GHz.© (1997) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Forming a Discipline: Applied Linguists' Literacy in Research Methodology and Statistics

This article reports the results of a survey of 121 professionals in applied linguistics about their knowledge of and attitudes toward statistics and empirical research. Respondents were asked to rate their knowledge of statistical concepts and procedures, to react to statements about the role of statistics and the importance of quantitative methods, and to respond to research situations where statistics are often used. The survey results indicate a range of knowledge of the concepts and procedures associated with empirical research. Respondents also showed differing attitudes about the usefulness of statistics and techniques in research methodology and the need to be informed about such procedures. The results of this study are useful as a "gauge" of literacy in research methodology and statistics in our field and as evidence that a need for such literacy exists.
Chromatinization of the KSHV Genome During the KSHV Life Cycle.

Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) belongs to the gamma herpesvirus family and is the causative agent of various lymphoproliferative diseases in humans. KSHV, like other herpesviruses, establishes life-long latent infection with the expression of a limited number of viral genes. Expression of these genes is tightly regulated by both the viral and cellular factors. Recent advancements in identifying the expression profiles of viral transcripts, using tilling arrays and next generation sequencing have identified additional coding and non-coding transcripts in the KSHV genome. Determining the functions of these transcripts will provide a better understanding of the mechanisms utilized by KSHV in altering cellular pathways involved in promoting cell growth and tumorigenesis. Replication of the viral genome is critical in maintaining the existing copies of the viral episomes during both latent and lytic phases of the viral life cycle. The replication of the viral episome is facilitated by viral components responsible for recruiting chromatin modifying enzymes and replication factors for altering the chromatin complexity and replication initiation functions, respectively. Importantly, chromatin modification of the viral genome plays a crucial role in determining whether the viral genome will persist as latent episome or undergo lytic reactivation. Additionally, chromatinization of the incoming virion DNA, which lacks chromatin structure, in the target cells during primary infection, helps in establishing latent infection. Here, we discuss the recent advancements on our understating of KSHV genome chromatinization and the consequences of chromatin modifications on viral life cycle.
Erosion of woven polyester pubovaginal sling

Purpose: Various materials have been used for pubovaginal slings to correct female stress urinary incontinence. Use of synthetic materials provides a theoretical advantage in that no graft harvesti...
Conversion of testosterone and androstenedione to estrogens in vitro by the brain of female rats.

ABSTRACT. Different areas from brains of 7- day-old female rats were incubated with testosterone- 7-3H (T) or androstenedione- 1-23H (A). Hypothalami from 120-day-old females were also incubated with T. The conversion of these precursors to estradiol (E2) and estrone (E1) was studied using double isotope dilution technique. In addition, the conversion of E2 to E1 and E1 to E2 by brain of the immature females was studied. T was converted predominantly to E2 and A to E1. The yield of E2from T was greatest in incubations of hypothalamus and amygdala, less for the combined septal and preoptic areas and least for the cortex. Conversion of T to E2 by hypothalami of adult rats was less than by that from the immatures. The yield of E1 from A was also greater in hypothalamic than in cortical incubations. There was only minimal conversion less than 3%) of E2 to E1 and of E1, to E2.(Endocrinology 94: 616, 1974)
Computerized Multiangular Tomography

Radiographic diagnostic evaluation of numerous specific pathogenic entities in medicine and dentistry can be significantly enhanced through the use of recently developed mathematical data processing techniques. A method is described to non-destructively section a human organ, at any desired angle of orientation, using computer processed data derived from a series of ordinary radiographs.© (1974) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Utah State University Global Assimilation of Ionospheric Measurements Gauss-Markov Kalman filter model of the ionosphere: Model description and validation

[1] The Utah State University Gauss-Markov Kalman Filter (GMKF) was developed as part of the Global Assimilation of Ionospheric Measurements (GAIM) program. The GMKF uses a physics-based model of the ionosphere and a Gauss-Markov Kalman filter as a basis for assimilating a diverse set of real-time (or near real-time) observations. The physics-based model is the Ionospheric Forecast Model (IFM), which accounts for five ion species and covers the E region, F region, and the topside from 90 to 1400 km altitude. Within the GMKF, the IFM derived ionospheric densities constitute a background density field on which perturbations are superimposed based on the available data and their errors. In the current configuration, the GMKF assimilates slant total electron content (TEC) from a variable number of global positioning satellite (GPS) ground sites, bottomside electron density (Ne) profiles from a variable number of ionosondes, in situ Ne from four Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellites, and nighttime line-of-sight ultraviolet (UV) radiances measured by satellites. To test the GMKF for real-time operations and to validate its ionospheric density specifications, we have tested the model performance for a variety of geophysical conditions. During these model runs various combination of data types and data quantities were assimilated. To simulate real-time operations, the model ran continuously and automatically and produced three-dimensional global electron density distributions in 15 min increments. In this paper we will describe the Gauss-Markov Kalman filter model and present results of our validation study, with an emphasis on comparisons with independent observations.
Using seed particle composition to control structural and optical properties of GaN nanowires

The morphology, structure, and optical properties of gallium nitride (GaN) nanowires grown using metal–organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) on r-plane sapphire using gold and nickel seed particles were investigated. We found that different seed particles result in different growth rates and densities of structural defects in MOCVD-grown GaN nanowires. Ni-seeded GaN nanowires grow faster than Au-seeded ones, and they do not contain the basal plane stacking faults that are observed in Au-seeded GaN nanowires. We propose that stacking fault formation is related to the supersaturation and surface energies in different types of seed particles. Room temperature photoluminescence studies revealed a blue-shifted peak in Au-seeded GaN nanowires compared to the GaN near-bandgap emission. The blue-shifted peak evolves as a function of the growth time and originates from the nanowire base, likely due to strain and Al diffusion from the substrate. Our results demonstrate that seed particle composition has a direct impact on the growth, structure, and optical properties of GaN nanowires and reveal some general requirements for seed particle selection for the growth of compound semiconductor nanowires.
Modeling and Control of Underwater Pan/Tilt Camera Tracking System: Geometry Modeling and Tracking Control

Biologists study on the biological behavior of various marine creatures in situ using underwater observation systems. The darkness in an underwater environment is always one of the most difficult problems to overcome in order to clearly monitor the life cycle of underwater creatures. This illumination would be solved employing the Master-Slave (camera-light platform) coordination tracking structure. The control of underwater platform is a challenging issue due to the complex external forces in the underwater environment. Comparing of tracking control between linear proportional-derivative (PD) and nonlinear PD for the Pan/Tilt camera platform were conducted. The variable structure control (VSC), i.e., sliding mode control (SMC), was employed to the tracking control of the underwater Pan/Tilt camera platform. The disadvantage of SMC is that the discontinuous control signal would excite the high frequency unmodeled dynamic which produces the chattering. One of the methods which eliminate the chattering is to use the boundary layer (BL). However, the width of BL can introduce a trade off between the tracking performance and chattering elimination. Large width of BL can much more eliminate the chattering, but lead to less accurate control results versa. A simple, easily implemented method to vary the width of BL according to the value of tracking error is illustrated and verified in this paper.Copyright © 2009 by ASME
Forecasting mobile transmission reliability using crowd-sourced cellular coverage data

As smartphones work their way into mission-critical applications, there is a need to gain knowledge of access network speeds and their variability at different locations. This information is vital to ensuring the efficient transmission of time-sensitive data and can mean the difference between life and death for some patients [1]. However, the decision to adopt smartphone applications (apps) that provide advanced communication services is complicated by the uncertainty of whether they will actually perform well in the field. Reliable operation in the field is hard to assess from laboratory demonstrations with reliable network coverage. Even if performance can be related to simple measures of network connectivity (e.g. the number of "bars"), objective 3rd-party assessments are difficult to obtain short of extensive field testing. This paper presents preliminary work toward an empirical model that predicts the number of bars in specific geographical locations using "crowd-sourced" signal strength data. Preliminary field test data was used to illustrate a Geographical Information System (GIS)-based end-to-end process by which signal strength (number of bars) in rural areas can be predicted from available signal strength measurements on major thorough fairs. Two linear models for predicting signal strength were developed using predictor variables that are easily assessed using standard GIS software. While the results presented here fail to achieve a high degree of statistical significance, the basic feasibility of the approach is established, and the factors that contribute to success or failure of the approach are discussed.
Concurrent use of cocaine and alcohol is more potent and potentially more toxic than use of either alone—A multiple-dose study ☆

Abstract Background: Simultaneous abuse of cocaine and alcohol is widespread and increasingly detected in patients seeking emergent care. This double-blind, randomized, within-subjects study used a paradigm more closely approximating practices of drug abusers to better understand the pathogenesis of cocaine–alcohol abuse. Methods: Subjects meeting DSM-IV criteria for cocaine dependence and alcohol abuse participated in three drug administration sessions: four doses of intranasal cocaine (1 mg/kg every 30 min) with oral alcohol (1 g/kg) administered following the initial cocaine dose and a second dose (120 mg/kg) at 60 min calculated to maintain plasma alcohol concentration at approximately 100 mg/dL during cocaine administration; four doses of cocaine/placebo alcohol; four doses of cocaine placebo/alcohol. Pharmacokinetic, physiological, and behavioral effects were followed over 8 hours. Results: Cocaine–alcohol produced greater euphoria and increased perception of well-being relative to cocaine. Heart rate significantly increased following cocaine–alcohol administration relative to either drug alone. Cocaine concentrations were greater following cocaine–alcohol administration. Cocaethylene had a longer half-life with increasing concentrations relative to cocaine at later time points. Conclusions: Enhanced psychological effects during cocaine–alcohol abuse may encourage ingestion of larger amounts of these substances over time placing users at heightened risk for greater toxicity than with either drug alone.
The Location of Closed Watersheds for Urban Water Supplies: A Theoretical and Historical Analysis:

Over the course of their development, large cities and metropolitan regions have repeatedly changed their sources of drinking water. This work is an attempt to quantify and compare the effects of pipeline, land, and energy costs, as well as environmental conditions and regulation on the location of water-supply watersheds. Relatively unpolluted watersheds are the water sources for many large cities, such as New York, Boston, Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. The findings illustrate some of the important impacts of urban and regional growth on public works location and development.
Bad Results or Medical Malpractice in Pain Medicine: Ways to Prevent a Suit and What to Do Once a Suit Is Inevitable

An unfortunate reality of medical practice is that many clinicians will be a target of malpractice litigation during their career. This article describes the critical issues involved in understanding malpractice law. We examine the differences between a malpractice suit and a bad outcome. The article also examines the actions a physician can take to improve their litigation risks and outcomes. The critical factors needed to defend a physician in a medical malpractice suit are also detailed. Conclusion. This article discusses how to prevent malpractice litigation against an interventional pain physician and the appropriate actions once a bad result has occurred.
State, Dependency, and Nationalism: Revolutionary Mexico, 1924–1928

The domestic and global forces that shaped Mexico's revolutionary struggle of 1910–17 continued to shape its state-building conflicts during the 1920s. Recent revisionist historiography underscores this point by emphasizing the bitter irony of the Mexican revolution. This literature contends that, despite the revolution's populist and nationalist aura, by the late 1920s it had done little more than subordinate the masses to an even more centralized state and deepen Mexico's dependence on United States governmental and capital interests. The revisionists argue, then, that the revolution had basically reinforced the country's old regime legacies and created a more institutionalized version of the Porfiriato's authoritarian state.
Queueing Network-Model Human Processor (QN-MHP): A computational architecture for multitask performance in human-machine systems

Queueing Network-Model Human Processor (QN-MHP) is a computational architecture that integrates two complementary approaches to cognitive modeling: the queueing network approach and the symbolic approach (exemplified by the MHP/GOMS family of models, ACT-R, EPIC, and SOAR). Queueing networks are particularly suited for modeling parallel activities and complex structures. Symbolic models have particular strength in generating a person's actions in specific task situations. By integrating the two approaches, QN-MHP offers an architecture for mathematical modeling and real-time generation of concurrent activities in a truly concurrent manner. QN-MHP expands the three discrete serial stages of MHP, of perceptual, cognitive, and motor processing, into three continuous-transmission subnetworks of servers, each performing distinct psychological functions specified with a GOMS-style language. Multitask performance emerges as the behavior of multiple streams of information flowing through a network, with no need to devise complex, task-specific procedures to either interleave production rules into a serial program (ACT-R), or for an executive process to interactively control task processes (EPIC). Using QN-MHP, a driver performance model was created and interfaced with a driving simulator to perform a vehicle steering, and a map reading task concurrently and in real time. The performance data of the model are similar to human subjects performing the same tasks.
Upper Devonian Sandstone in Arrow Canyon Quadrangle, Clark County, Nevada

Nine sandstone beds, ranging in thickness from a few inches to almost 25 ft, characterize the upper half of the Late Devonian Arrow Canyon Formation in the Arrow Canyon quadrangle. These sandstone bodies are composed of well-sorted, rounded quartz grains. Similarly sorted calcareous pellets are present in some of the sandstone and apparently constitute most of the dominantly carbonate rock of the upper Arrow Canyon Formation. Most of the sandstone layers are continuous within the quadrangle. Similar sandstones are common in the eastern Great Basin along the eastern boundary of the miogeosyncline, with a major concentration in the region of the Great Salt Lake. Directional indicators in the Arrow Canyon quadrangle indicate predominant sediment movement toward the southwest along the geosynclinal margin. The environment of deposition appears to have been relatively quiet water, but with sediments supplied from a region of more intense agitation.
An electromyographic study of jaw opening and closing reflexes in man

The electromyographic activity of the right masseter and digastric muscles was recorded in 10 subjects. A jaw-opening reflex was observed shortly after a mechanical stimulation in subjects performing clenching and active jaw-opening exercises. The latency of this reflex activity was about 28 ms, coinciding with the termination of the silent period of the masseter muscle. The experiments show that this opening reflex can occur without masseter spindle-unloading and may respond to low-threshold afferents.
New approaches to the study of sepsis

Models of sepsis have been instructive in understanding the sequence of events in animals and, to an extent, in humans with sepsis. Events developing early in sepsis suggest that a hyperinflammatory state exists, accompanied by a buildup of oxidants in tissues reflective of a redox imbalance. Development of immunosuppression and degraded innate and adaptive immune responses are well-established complications of sepsis. In addition, there is robust activation of the complement system, which contributes to the harmful effects of sepsis. These events appear to be associated with development of multiorgan failure. The relevance of animal models of sepsis to human sepsis and the failure of human clinical trials are discussed, together with suggestions as to how clinical trial design might be improved.
Emerging methods to study bacteriophage infection at the single-cell level.

Bacteria and their viruses (phages) are abundant across diverse ecosystems and their interactions influence global biogeochemical cycles and incidence of disease. Problematically, both classical and metagenomic methods insufficiently assess the host specificity of phages and phage–host infection dynamics in nature. Here we review emerging methods to study phage–host interaction and infection dynamics with a focus on those that offer resolution at the single-cell level. These methods leverage ever-increasing sequence data to identify virus signals from single-cell amplified genome (SAG) datasets or to produce primers/probes to target particular phage– bacteria pairs (digital PCR and phageFISH), even in complex communities. All three methods enable study of phage infection of uncultured bacteria from environmental samples, while the latter also discriminates between phage–host interaction outcomes (e.g., lytic, chronic, lysogenic) in model systems. Together these techniques enable quantitative, spatiotemporal studies of phage–bacteria interactions from environmental samples of any ecosystem, which will help elucidate and predict the ecological and evolutionary impacts of specific phage–host pairings in nature.
Multi-document summarization via submodularity

Multi-document summarization is becoming an important issue in the Information Retrieval community. It aims to distill the most important information from a set of documents to generate a compressed summary. Given a set of documents as input, most of existing multi-document summarization approaches utilize different sentence selection techniques to extract a set of sentences from the document set as the summary. The submodularity hidden in the term coverage and the textual-unit similarity motivates us to incorporate this property into our solution to multi-document summarization tasks. In this paper, we propose a new principled and versatile framework for different multi-document summarization tasks using submodular functions (Nemhauser et al. in Math. Prog. 14(1):265---294, 1978) based on the term coverage and the textual-unit similarity which can be efficiently optimized through the improved greedy algorithm. We show that four known summarization tasks, including generic, query-focused, update, and comparative summarization, can be modeled as different variations derived from the proposed framework. Experiments on benchmark summarization data sets (e.g., DUC04-06, TAC08, TDT2 corpora) are conducted to demonstrate the efficacy and effectiveness of our proposed framework for the general multi-document summarization tasks.
Estimating the amount of information conveyed by a population of neurons

Recent technological advances have made the simultaneous recording of the activity of many neurons common. However, estimating the amount of information conveyed by the discharge of a neural population remains a significant challenge. Here we describe our recently published analysis method that assists in such estimates. We describe the key concepts and assumptions on which the method is based, illustrate its use with data from both simulated and real neurons recorded from the lateral geniculate nucleus of a monkey, and show how it can be used to calculate redundancy and synergy among neuronal groups.
The Dominance Concept Inventory: A Tool for Assessing Undergraduate Student Alternative Conceptions about Dominance in Mendelian and Population Genetics

Biology undergraduates often have difficulty understanding dominance in genetics. The authors developed and evaluated the Dominance Concept Inventory, a tool to measure the prevalence of four alter...
On the Decline of Competition in Congressional Elections

Several authors have observed a decline in the number of competitive congressional districts during the past two decades. Various explanations have been proposed for this change. Among these are theories attributing major causal significance to changing methods of drawing district boundaries, and increasing control of campaign resources by incumbents. These theories are examined critically and arguments are advanced for their rejection. The principal cause of the decline of competition for congressional seats appears to rest on a change in individual voting behavior.
The persistence and resurgence of medical pluralism.

��� For Paul Starr, medicine is the dream of reason partially come true, and the recognition and acceptance of this view by most Americans is what has largely determined the development of our health care system. Starr’s efforts to advance this vision led him to neglect the extent to which medical pluralism survived and thrived in America. In the first chapter of The Social Transformation of American Medicine (1982) (hereafter TSTAM), Starr describes a time (1760‐1850) when doctors had little in the way of status or respect. Physicians’ knowledge about disease and their skills as healers were questioned by practitioners of many stripes, including those within their own ranks. In fact, the very need for specialized medical practitioners was doubted by those who saw the home as the natural locus of health care, and family members (informed by popular medical manuals) as the natural and best providers. This cacophony of views was widespread and reflected the diverse set of beliefs held by most of the population, as well as its leaders. The American ethos was to distrust specialized knowledge, particularly knowledge that was “secret” or inaccessible to the average citizen. What changed all of this, in Starr’s view, was the rise and public recognition of scientific rationality. The populace began to recognize that the natural world had a “legitimate complexity” that might not be equally accessible to all. The democratic belief that everyone could know how the natural world really worked no longer seemed accurate or apt to bring about the cure of illness. The growth of education and literacy, along with
Serum magnesium and ischaemic heart disease: findings from a national sample of US adults.

Background Animal and human data suggest that magnesium may play an important role in ischaemic heart disease. Few prospective epidemiological studies have related serum magnesium concentrations to mortality from ischaemic heart disease (IHD) or all-causes. Methods Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey Epidemiologic Followup Study were used to examine the association between serum magnesium concentration, measured between 1971‐1975, and mortality from IHD or all-causes in a national sample of 25‐74-year-old participants followed for about 19 years. Results The analytical samples for IHD and all-cause-mortality included 12 340 and 12 952 participants, respectively (1005 IHD deaths, 2637 IHD deaths or hospitalizations, 4282 total deaths). Hazard ratios for IHD mortality from proportional hazards analysis comparing the second (1.59‐,1.68 mEq/l), third (1.68‐,1.77 mEq/l), and fourth (>1.77 mEq/l) quartiles of serum magnesium concentration with the lowest quartile were 0.79 (95% CI : 0.58‐1.08), 0.66 (95% CI : 0.47‐ 0.93), 0.69 (95% CI : 0.52‐0.90), respectively. For all-cause mortality, hazards ratios were 0.82 (95% CI : 0.72‐0.93), 0.84 (95% CI : 0.73‐0.96), 0.85 (95% CI : 0.75‐0.95). No significant interactions between serum magnesium concentration and age, sex, race, and education were observed. Conclusion Serum magnesium concentrations were inversely associated with mortality from IHD and all-cause mortality.
An extension of sigma-point Kalman filtering using nonlinear estimator bases

This paper investigates the problem of state estimation for nonlinear discrete-time dynamic systems. The estimator is parameterized as a linear combination of chosen basis functions. We seek the parameter that minimizes the mean squared estimation error (MSE); however, computing this objective is intractable. Hence, the MSE is approximated using the Scaled Unscented Transform (SUT), which yields a discrete least-squares optimization problem. Tikhonov regularization is used to avoid overfitting the data supplied by the SUT. A double pendulum example is used to compare this estimation strategy to the Unscented Kalman Filter.