cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Mother knows best: Epigenetic inheritance, maternal effects, and the evolution of human intelligence

Abstract Contemporary evolution biology has recognized the role of development in evolution. Evolutionarily oriented psychologists have similarly recognized the role that behavioral plasticity, particularly early in development, may have had on the evolution of species, harking back to the ideas of Baldwin (the Baldwin effect). Epigenetic theories of development provide a framework for interpreting the interacting roles of experience and genetics both in ontogeny and phylogeny and the transmission of nongenetic characteristics across generations (epigenetic inheritance). In mammals in particular, differences in maternal behavior may contribute substantially to epigenetic inheritance. Changes in early rearing experiences may have been especially important for humans’ ancestors, leading to the acquisition of symbolic functioning. Such representational changes were most influential in social cognition and led to new selective pressures furthering the evolution of symbolic abilities. Research with great apes is presented to suggest that our last common ancestor with chimpanzees likely had the behavioral plasticity and sociocognitive precursors to modify their behavior and cognition via maternal effects toward a more human-like social intelligence.
Diurnal fluctuation in urine concentration in the little brown bat, Myotis lucifugus, in a natural roost

1. 1. Urine collected periodically from naturally roosting Myotis lucifugus on a rainy, overcast day and on a successive sunny, warm day showed no differences in concentration between sexes, age groups, or activity level (torpid or active). 2. 2. Time of day at which samples were collected and the day of collection both showed significant effects on urine concentration. 3. 3. Urine concentration dropped progressively on the rainy day from 2750 mOsm/kg at predawn to 1890 mOsm/kg at sunset. 4. 4. On the sunny day, midday samples were not different from the previous day; however, samples collected at dusk (2640 mOsm/kg) were significantly more concentrated. 5. 5. Naturally roosting M. lucifugus excreted urine that was 275 mOsm/kg below their mean maximum urine concentration.
Controlling the thermomechanical properties of polymer nanocomposites by tailoring the polymer–particle interface

We show that the thermomechanical properties of polymer nanocomposites are critically affected by polymer-particle wetting behavior. Silica nanoparticles grafted with dense polystyrene brushes of degree of polymerization 1050 are blended with polystyrene melts to form nanocomposites. It was found that low molecular weight (MW) polystyrene melts with lengths <880 wet these particles. Concurrently, the glass transition temperature (Tg) of the nanocomposite increases. At higher MW, the matrix does not wet the particles and the Tg decreases. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 44: 2944–2950, 2006
Congenital Hypertrophy of the Retinal Pigment Epithelium in Familial Adenomatous Polyposis

One hundred fifty-three members of 56 kindreds with familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) underwent funduscopic examination for congenital hypertrophy of the retinal pigment epithelium (CHRPE). All patients underwent wide-angle fundus photography to document lesions, proctosigmoidoscopy to document polyps, and examination for extracolonic manifestations. Ninety-seven patients were diagnosed as having FAP and 56 patients were offspring of FAP patients and thus at 50% risk of inheriting the disease. In two thirds of the kindreds, CHRPE could be used as a congenital phenotypic marker to predict the presence or development of polyps. In these kindreds, all patients with diagnosed FAP and 39% of the patients at risk had at least four CHRPE lesions. In one third of the kindreds, CHRPE could not be used as a predictive congenital marker, and in these kindreds all patients had zero to three total lesions of CHRPE. The presence of CHRPE did not correlate with any other extracolonic manifestations. In kindreds without any other extracolonic manifestations, CHRPE can still be present and can be used as a predictive congenital phenotypic marker.
Potential for a New Coronary Thrombolytic Plateau.

The GUSTO-I trial provided definitive evidence that early and complete thrombolysis are closely associated with clinical outcome. However, in this trial the best thrombolytic strategy, consisting of accelerated t-PA, aspirin, and heparin, only yielded restoration of brisk flow (TIMI 3) in 54% of patients at 90 minutes after therapy. There are a variety of new strategies aimed at improving the rate of early TIMI flow, consisting of new plasminogen activators, anticoagulants, and platelet inhibitors. The third generation plasminogen activators include reteplase (r-PA), n-PA, bat-PA, staphylokinase, and TNK. To date, none of these molecules have been clearly associated with superior rates of infarct vessel patency, but comparative trials are in progress. Potent inhibitors of thrombin are recombinant hirudin, the most potent naturally occurring anticoagulant known, and synthetic direct thrombin inhibitors such as hirulog and argatroban. In the years ahead, agents that block the generation of thrombin, a step higher up in the coagulation cascade, such as factor Xa inhibitors, will be clinically pursued. The platelet glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors are a potent class of agents directed against the final common pathway for platelet aggregation, and pilot studies suggest excellent potential for facilitating early thrombolysis. Accordingly, a multitiered strategy of improved plasminogen activators, thrombin inhibitors, and antiplatelets is likely to result in far better clinical outcomes for myocardial reperfusion therapy in the future.
Direct reprogramming by oncogenic Ras and Myc

Genetically or epigenetically defined reprogramming is a hallmark of cancer cells. However, a causal association between genome reprogramming and cancer has not yet been conclusively established. In particular, little is known about the mechanisms that underlie metastasis of cancer, and even less is known about the identity of metastasizing cancer cells. In this study, we used a model of conditional expression of oncogenic KrasG12D allele in primary mouse cells to show that reprogramming and dedifferentiation is a fundamental early step in malignant transformation and cancer initiation. Our data indicate that stable expression of activated KrasG12D confers on cells a large degree of phenotypic plasticity that predisposes them to neoplastic transformation and acquisition of stem cell characteristics. We have developed a genetically tractable model system to investigate the origins and evolution of metastatic pancreatic cancer cells. We show that metastatic conversion of KrasG12D-expressing cells that exhibit different degrees of differentiation and malignancy can be reconstructed in cell culture, and that the proto-oncogene c-Myc controls the generation of self-renewing metastatic cancer cells. Collectively, our results support a model wherein non-stem cancer cells have the potential to dedifferentiate and acquire stem cell properties as a direct consequence of oncogene-induced plasticity. Moreover, the disturbance in the normally existing dynamic equilibrium between cancer stem cells and non-stem cancer cells allows the formation of cancer stem cells with high metastatic capacity at any time during cancer progression.
An uncertain future for cardiovascular drug development

Pfizer announced last September that it was getting out of the business of developing new drugs to prevent or treat cardiovascular disease. Dr. Alan Garber asks whether the decision reflects only t...
Learning program organization through COBOL

Arguably, many computer languages have more panache and less verbosity than COBOL; but none has greater potential to inculcate the habits and techniques of advance planning for such things as structure, the byte-length of variables representing the results of computations, table/array size, fields that will be needed, and the like. To illuminate a program's logic one can add some judiciously chosen, even un-required, yet available reserved words. I have found that the COBOL language aids and encourages comprehension of logical structure to a greater degree than with other languages. Moreover, in COBOL, meaningful, if lengthy, names are actually desirable and serve to clarify the work that takes place in the various procedures. Finally, because the structure of a COBOL program is so determinate, it is possible to teach a series of steps leading up to the end product, which both foreshadow and greatly organize the process of coding. This habit of organization is easily transferable to other contexts.
Anal sphincter electromyography: editing of sampled motor unit action potentials.

During multi-motor unit action potential (MUAP) analysis of the tonically contracted external anal sphincter (EAS), a mild interference pattern often obscures the baseline, affecting the algorithm's ability to determine accurate boundaries of detected MUAPs. To assess the equivalence of methods of editing and selecting candidate MUAPs from the EAS, 17 nulliparous women underwent concentric needle electromyography (EMG) of the EAS using multi-MUAP software. The selected MUAPs either were accepted without question (“automated”), or a subset was deleted due to a noisy baseline (“manual-deletion”) or manually marked (“manual-mark”). A second examiner repeated the analysis. Each examiner found that the two editing methods were equivalent and yielded results that differed from those obtained by automated analysis of unedited data. However, there was a moderate difference in MUAP amplitude when the manual-deletion method was compared between the two examiners. Editing of selected EAS MUAPs during multi-MUAP analysis is required, and development of common protocols is essential to enable meaningful comparisons between similar studies. Muscle Nerve, 2005
Some axioms, popular notions, and misconceptions regarding cardiovascular control.

The present status and future prospects of cardiovascular research have been evaluated in terms of a series of axioms that may serve to summarize this report and to guide our efforts in the future. Axiom I. An important objective of cardiovascular physiology is elucidation of the mechanisms of function and control in animals and human subjects under normal conditions. Axiom II. The use of ambiguous and poorly defined terms tends to obscure ignorance and impede progress. Axiom III. Ideally, investigation of physiologic mechanisms should be conducted with minimal disturbances of either the organ system or its controls. Axiom IV. Experimental data are applicable without reservation only to the specific conditions under which they were collected. Axiom V. Extrapolation in the application of experimental data to species or to conditions of function different from those in which the information was collected should be based on knowledge of the kind and extent of deviation of the experimental from the normal. Axiom VI. The circulation of anesthetized animals must be regarded as experimental models of normal cardiovascular function. Axiom VII. Experimental models are frequently desirable and useful, but their validation requires quantitative comparison of the specific model with the physiologic mechanism or condition it is designed to represent. Axiom VIII. With the development of technics for comprehensive analysis of cardiovascular function in alert, active animals, general anesthesia, thoracotomy, and heart-lung preparations should be less frequently employed for studies of cardiovascular responses. Axiom IX. The use of general anesthesia to perform on animals the same procedures that are routinely accomplished on human subjects with nothing more than topical anesthesia (venipunctures, catheterization, etc.) may complicate interpretation of experimental observations without contributing significantly to the humane treatment of animals. Axiom X. Before extrapolating from one species to another, an investigator has a responsibility to determine to the best of his ability the extent to which appropriate correspondences have been established for the functions or control mechanisms under study. Axiom XI. A scientific term is most useful when it has a unique definition that immediately indicates what characteristics or properties must be quantitatively measured to determine its existence or change in its status. Axiom XII. Changes in function induced by an investigator during physiologic experiments indicate potential rather than actual mechanisms. The responses to artificially induced loads indicate what can happen rather than what does happen during normal spontaneous reactions. Axiom XIII. Although newly discovered natural laws may frequently bring order and clarity out of chaos, simplicity is not a reliable criterion for the validity of postulates regarding physiologic function or control mechanisms.
The attrition of Japanese by English-speaking children: An interim report

Abstract This is an interim report of a study of the gradual loss in the United States of Japanese as a second language by four American children. Within this particular attrition context the paper discusses the significance of age and original level or proficiency as factors in language loss. The language collected from the four children includes spontaneous conversation, four oral elicitation tasks, two aural comprehension tests and one writing task. These longitudinal data support the hypotheses that “older is better” for maintaining second language skills, and that “the more you know, the less you lose.”
Forms of Early Walking

Children in the first weeks of independent locomotion display a wide variety of walking forms. The walking forms differ in mechanical strategy and concern with balance. Three extreme walking forms are presented: the Twister, who uses trunk twist, the Faller, who uses gravity, and the Stepper, who remains balanced as much as possible. Each walking form is presented as a "d-space", a mathematical format combining continuous and discrete aspects, developed to express the sequence and pattern of a movement without the inappropriate precision of a physical trajectory. The three d-spaces represent analyses of three extreme modes of early walking. They are used to generate the variety of early walking forms and to predict mixtures of mechanical strategies as children mature and converge to more similar walking forms over the first few months of independent locomotion.
Soil response model verification: A multi-year study of foot traffic impact

Abstract The purpose of this research is to build upon the baseline study of soil compaction response to trampling previously conducted. Although trampling studies have been conducted in the past, the analysis of military training, in part, provides a different perspective and approach. The baseline data showed bulk densities remained relatively constant for a time and then began to increase at an increasing rate for several hundred passes and finally leveled and remained at or below 1.30 gm/cm 3 through the remainder of the experiment. A mathematical model was created based on empirical data from the trampling experiment using a gamma cumulative distribution function. Subsequent similar experiments were conducted over the following 2 years to verify the baseline model soil response. The follow-on data were modeled using the same gamma distribution function with good results. The model replicated the soil response for the subsequent years well with the exception of the initial threshold which was dramatically reduced for both years. The experiments and the resulting model give quantifiable continuous inference on the effects of trampling, as opposed to the existing qualitative assessments. This model performed well and can be used as a foundation for future studies of land management when trampling occurs.
STUDIES ON THE CIRCULATION IN MAN : VII. THE BLOOD FLOW IN THE FEET.

1. The blood flow in the feet is smaller per unit of volume of the part than in the hand, the ratio of foot flow to hand flow per 100 cubic centimeters of the part usually lying in normal persons between 1 to 3 and 1 to 2. 2. In the supine position, with the legs hanging down, the flow in the feet seems to be somewhat greater than in the sitting position.
Primary Infection with Epstein-Barr Virus in Infants in the United States: Clinical and Serologic Observations

Previous studies in Ghana had shown that primary infections with Epstein-Barr virus in infants under the age of two years remain silent and evoke antibody responses different from those seen in infectious mononucleosis. In order to determine whether or not these observations were limited to Africa, 80 American infants presenting with minor infectious complaints were studied serologically; 14 (17.5%) showed evidence of recent or current primary infections with Epstein-Barr virus. The clinical features of these 14 infants were similar to those of the other 66 and did not suggest a diagnosis of infectious mononucleosis, nor were there histories of a recent infectious mononucleosis-like illness. Ten (72%) had antibodies to the early antigen complex induced by Epstein-Barr virus; however, these antibodies were directed, as in the Ghanaian infants, against the restricted rather than the diffuse components, in contrast to the pattern generally observed in infectious mononucleosis. Possible reasons for the differences between the responses of infants and those of older individuals to primary infection with Epstein-Barr virus and to the early antigen complex are discussed.
Exchange-rate sensitivity of commodity trade flows: Does the choice of reporting country affect the empirical estimates?

While the effects of currency fluctuations on trade have long been of interest to economic researchers, the most recent trend in the literature is to estimate commodity trade flows between pairs of countries. This raises an important question: Does it matter which country reports the data? This study investigates 96 industries that are reported both as exports by the United States and as imports by South Korea. Since export data are FOB and import data are CIF, the Korean imports are expectedly larger than the US exports. Correspondingly, our cointegration analysis produces drastically different results between specifications. Nonparametric analysis shows that the Korean imports are more sensitive to real exchange-rate fluctuations than US exports, signifying the importance of cost of insurance and freight, as well as the data's conversion into dollars.
Error Correcting Optical Syntactic Pattern Recognizers

There. where many pattern recognition problems here the pattern's structural information is important. In these problems, a syntactic method of pattern recognition is of value. In this paper, both parallel syntactic pattern recognition algorithm and optical architecture implementation approaches are described. In particular, the applications of syntactic pattern recognition algorithm to shape classification are illustrated. A number of parallel optical syntactic pattern coding methods; a structural matched filter; an associative memory filter; and an optical symbolic substitution syntactic parser, are discussed.
Simultaneous optimization of transmission range and actor movement in WSANs

Wireless sensor and actor networks (WSANs) are composed of static sensor nodes and movable actors. We assume actors have a random initial location in the field. The objective is to move each actor to a location such that every sensor node is within one transmission hop from some actor. Because sensor nodes have limited energy, finding actor locations that minimize the transmission range required from the sensor nodes may significantly increase network lifetime. However, actors also have a limited (although larger) power supply, and their movement depletes their resources. It follows that an optimal pairing of actors with the chosen new locations may also provide energy savings for the actors. In this paper, we address the problem that simultaneously minimizes sensor transmission radius and total actor movement. Due to its complexity, we present a heuristic and compare it against an optimial ILP solution. More importantly, we consider two approaches for both the heuristic and the ILP. First, actor locations that minimize transmission range are found, and then the assignment of actors to locations is performed (double-step approach). Second, a joint-optimization (single-step) approach is proposed in which transmission range and actor movement are considered simultaneously. We show that the single-step approach outperforms the double-step approach.
Further evidence for collisions among asteroids

Abstract The 64 asteroids with reliably known rotational properties [rotation period P, magnitude B(1, 0) and maximum change of magnitude Δm] are studied. A plot of B(1,0) vs P illustrates that smaller asteroids tend to rotate faster than larger asteroids. The mean P for all 64 asteroids is 8.8 hr. The class of irregular asteroids (taken to be those with Δm >0.38, i.e., those whose axes differ by more than 40%) called group C are studied separately; they are shown to rotate much faster (mean P = 7.7 hr) than the remaining more regular asteroids (mean P = 9.2 hr). The smaller bodies are more irregular on the average. These results are interpreted in terms of a model in which collisions break asteroids into irregular fragments. Since angular momentum is transmitted in such collisions, significant increases in the mean can occur in the angular velocity of the largest fragment. The effect of interasteroid collisions on the mean orbital parameters is briefly discussed and is shown to be masked by selection effects.
Cytochemical evidence for RNA synthesis inhibition by fumagillin.

Evidence was obtained that fumagillin inhibits RNA synthesis in the microsporidian, Octosporea muscaedomesticae, a pathogen of the blow fly, Phormia regina. Infections, treated with 66 mg fumagillin per liter of 5% sucrose for six hours, were compared to control octosporeoses of the same age with the following techniques: Giemsa stain, pyronin-methyl green, and acridine orange fluorescence. Staining reactions demonstrated an almost complete loss of material from the parasites' cytoplasm; RNase treatment of normal parasites identified this material as RNA. Parasite DNA remained unchanged after fumagillin treatment, as observed by the above techniques.
Derived distribution points heuristic for fast pairwise statistical significance estimation

Estimation of statistical significance of a pairwise sequence alignment is crucial in homology detection. A recent development in the field is the use of pairwise statistical significance as an alternative to database statistical significance. Although pairwise statistical significance has been shown to be potentially better than database statistical significance in terms of homology detection retrieval accuracy, currently it is much time consuming since it involves generating an empirical score distribution by aligning one sequence of the sequence-pair with N random shuffles of the other sequence. A high value of N produces (statistically and potentially biologically) accurate estimates, but also consumes more time. A low value of N leads to inaccurate fitting of the score distribution, and hence poor estimates of statistical significance. In this paper, we propose a simple heuristic, called the Derived Distribution Points (DDP) heuristic, which is designed taking into account the features of the pairwise statistical significance estimation procedure, and has shown to significantly improve the quality of pairwise statistical significance estimates (evaluated in terms of retrieval accuracy) even when using low values of N. Alternatively, it can be thought of as speeding-up pairwise statistical significance estimation using high values of N, where comparable performance is achieved by actually using a much lower number of random shuffles. Experiments indicate that a speed-up of up to 40 as compared to current implementations can be achieved without loss in retrieval accuracy.
Forced eruption: Principles in periodontics and restorative dentistry

Abstract Forced orthodontic eruption is based on an understanding of the normal dental unit. The relationships between tooth, attachment apparatus, gingival unit, and force and stress demand consideration when forced eruption is used to treat carious or traumatic destruction of clinical crowns, lateral root perforations, or isolated vertical periodontal defects. Factors that must be judged acceptable prior to the initiation of therapy are (1) esthetics, (2) clinical root length, (3) root proximity, (4) root morphology, (5) furcation location, (6) individual tooth position, (7) collective tooth position, and (8) the ability to restore teeth. A correct diagnosis is essential and must precede the choice of forced eruption as a clinical solution. Correctly chosen, forced eruption allows the tooth to assist in the support of a multiunit restoration or maintain its individual integrity while contributing to esthetics, speech, and function.
Neoadjuvant comparisons of aromatase inhibitors and tamoxifen: pretreatment determinants of response and on-treatment effect

Adjuvant endocrine therapy reduces the risk of relapse and death from early stage hormone receptor positive breast cancer. However, tamoxifen is only partially effective because of the development of tumor resistance. Aromatase inhibitors (letrozole, anastrozole and exemestane) are also prone to the development of resistance but the pharmacologic action (estrogen deprivation) is distinct and so different mechanisms may be responsible. The problem of endocrine resistance can be directly studied in patients by examining the relationship between predictive tumor biomarkers and clinical outcome. In an example of a prospectively planned biomarker study, tumor samples were examined from a randomized trial of neoadjuvant endocrine treatment in which letrozole proved more effective than tamoxifen in terms of the rate of breast conservation and tumor regression. Interestingly letrozole was more effective at all levels of ER expression and was particularly more efficacious than tamoxifen for tumors that expressed HER1 and/or HER2 (with ER). This suggests that HER1/2 predicts primary tamoxifen resistance and relative sensitivity to potent estrogen deprivation, perhaps because HER1/2 signaling promotes the partial agonist effects of tamoxifen. A Phase 2 study of neoadjuvant letrozole is now underway to focus on gene expression profiling as a mechanism to further investigate the transcriptional programs that underlie resistance and sensitivity to estrogen deprivation. Expression profiles taken at baseline and after 1 month of therapy reveal dramatic reductions in the expression from genes responsible for DNA replication and synthesis, cell cycle progression, suppression of apoptosis and tissue invasion. When enough profiles have been generated it should be possible to detect complex interaction patterns that correctly reclassify ER+ disease into treatment responsive and resistant categories with high probability.
Diversity among the primate eosinophil-derived neurotoxin genes: a specific C-terminal sequence is necessary for enhanced ribonuclease activity

The human eosinophil-derived neurotoxin (hEDN) is a secretory effector protein from eosinophilic leukocytes that is a member of the ribonuclease A (RNase A) family of ribonucleases. EDN is a rapidly evolving protein, accumulating non-silent mutations at a rate exceeding those of most other functional coding sequences studied in primates. Although all primate EDNs retain the structural and functional residues known to be prerequisites for ribonuclease activity, we have shown previously that recombinant EDN derived from a New World monkey sequence ( Saguinus oedipus ) had significantly less catalytic activity than the human (hEDN) ortholog.In this work, we have prepared recombinant proteins from EDN from sequences derived from orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus, oEDN) and Old World monkey (Macaca fascicularis, mcEDN) genomic DNAs, and from a second New World monkey sequence (Aotus trivirgatus, omEDN) as well. The catalytic efficiencies [ k cat/ K m (M-1s-1)] determined for both oEDN and mcEDN were similar to that determined previously for hEDN, while omEDN displayed approximately 100-fold less catalytic activity. The relative ribonuclease activities of hEDN/omEDN chimeras pointed to a C-terminal segment as crucial to the enhanced catalytic activity hEDN, and substitution of Arg 132-Ile 133 of hEDN with the Thr-Thr pair at the analogous position in omEDN resulted in an approximately 10-fold reduction in hEDN's catalytic efficiency. However, the reverse substitution, Arg-Ile for Thr-Thr in omEDN, did not enhance the catalytic efficiency of this relatively inactive protein. These results indicate that the Arg and/or Ile residues adjacent to the C-terminus are necessary (but not sufficient) for enhanced ribonuclease activity among the primate EDNs, and will permit prediction of the relative ribonuclease activities based on differences in primary structure.
A probabilistic theory for the strength of short fibre composites

This paper presents a probabilistic theory for predicting the strength of unidirectional short fibre composites. It is assumed that the failure of the composite occurs due to the inability of the short fibres bridging a critical zone to carry the load. The stress concentrations on the fibres bridging a fibre end gap are evaluated as a function of the number of fibre ends forming the gap. The sizes of the gaps are predicted from a probabilistic approach. The short fibre composite strength is then estimated from the gap size and the corresponding stress concentration factor. Comparisons of the present work with existing theories and experiments have been made.
Activated platelets contribute importantly to myocardial reperfusion injury

Platelets become activated during myocardial infarction (MI), but the direct contribution of activated platelets to myocardial reperfusion injury in vivo has yet to be reported. We tested the hypot...
Logic Rating of Electromechanical Relays

Electromechanical relays were the first logic element used in a computer. Today, small compact reed relays are again being extensively used as logic elements. A logic factor, FL, measures the improvement that a logic device can affect if interposed between a logic source and logic detector. A logic figure of merit, TFM, determined when FL = 1.0 can be used for comparison of the logic performance of logic devices. TFM is developed for an arbitrary electromechanical relay. For a miniature reed relay packaged for printed circuit boards, TFM = 1.7 milliseconds. For comparison, solid-state devices have TFM ? 1 nanoseconds and COSMOS (complementary symmetry metal oxide semiconductor) devices have TFM ? 20 nanoseconds.
Inequalities for Hadwiger's harmonic quermassintegrals

Let J~ff" denote the set of convex bodies (compact sets with nonempty interiors) in Euclidean n-space IR", and let ~ denote the subset of ~T TM that contains the centered (centrally symmetric with respect to the origin) bodies in ~ " . Let G(n, i) denote the Grassmann manifold of/-dimensional subspaces of IR", and let/1i denote the usual Haar measure on G(n, i), normalized so that #i(G(n, i)) = 1. For K~ ~ff" and ~ ~ G(n, i), we use KI~ to denote the image of the orthogonal projection of K onto ~, and V~ (K[ ~) to denote the/-dimensional volume of the body KI~ in ~. The Quermassintegrals Wo(K), WI(K) . . . . . W,,(K), of a convex body K in R", can be defined by letting Wo(K) = V(K), the volume of K, W,(K) = co,, the volume of the unit ball, B, in IR", and for i such that 0 < i < n, by
A behavioral model of the economic long wave

Abstract This paper presents a simple model of the economic long wave. The model is based on the System Dynamics National Model. Since 1975 the National Model has provided an increasingly rich theory of the economic long wave. The theory relates capital investment, employment and workforce participation, monetary and fiscal policy, inflation, productivity and innovation, and even political values. The model presented here focuses on capital investment. The structure of the model is shown to be consistent with the principles of bounded rationality. The behavior of the model is analyzed, and capital self-ordering is shown to be sufficient to generate long waves. The model complements the National Model by providing a representation of the dynamic hypothesis that is amenable to formal analysis and is easily extended to include other important mechanisms that may influence the nature of the long wave.
Bradley Efron: A Conversation with Good Friends

Bradley Efron is Professor of Statistics and Biostatistics at Stanford University. He works on a combination of theoretical and applied topics, including empirical Bayes, survival analysis, exponential families, bootstrap and jackknife methods and confidence intervals. Most of his applied work has originated in biomedical consulting projects at the Stanford Medical School, mixed in with a few papers concerning astronomy and physics. Even his theoretical papers usually begin with specific applied problems. All three of the interviewers here have been close scientific collaborators. Brad was born in St. Paul, Minnestora, May 1938, to Esther and Miles Efron, Jewish-Russian immigrants. A Merit Scholarship, in the program's inaugural year, brought him to Caltech, graduating in Mathematics in 1960. He arrived at Stanford that Fall, eventually gaining his Ph.D., under the direction of Rupert Miller and Herb Solomon, in the Statistics Department, whose faculty also included Charles Stein, Herman Chernoff, Manny Parzen, Lincoln Moses and Ingram Olkin. Brad has lived at Stanford since 1960, with sabbaticals at Harvard, Imperial College and Berkeley. He has held several administrative positions in the university: Chair of Statistics, Associate Dean of Science, Chairman of the University Advisory Board and Chair of the Faculty Senate. He is currently Chair of the Undergraduate Program in Applied Mathematics. Honors include doctorates from Chicago, Madrid and Oslo, a MacArthur Prize Fellowship, membership in the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, fellowship in the IMS and ASA, the Wilks Medal, Parzen Prize, the newly inaugurated Rao Prize and the outstanding statistician award from the Chicago ASA chapter. He has been the Rietz, Wald, and Fisher lecturers and holds the Max H. Stein endowed chair as Professor of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford. Professional service includes Theory and Methods Editor of JASA and President of the IMS. Currently he is President-Elect of the American Statistical Association, becoming President in 2004.
Haemoglobin A1 and Diabetes Mellitus

HbA1c is the product of a reaction between glucose and the N-terminal valine of adult haemoglobin (HbA). The levels of HbA1c are increased in diabetic patients, and reflect their metabolic control. Thus, measurements of HbA1c have proved to be useful in the follow up and treatment of diabetic patients. HbA1c may prove to be valuable for assessing the relationship between diabetic control and long-term complications, as well as in studying the potential glycosylation of proteins in various organs which may occur in the diabetic state.
The permeability of alumina over an extended temperature range

A semiempirical mathematical model has been developed to predict the permeability of porous alumina over a wide temperature range at atmospherie pressure. Although the thermal expansion of the alumina is of the order of 1 % over the range of temperatures considered, the apparent permeability of the sample to gas flow varies by over 400%. This behavior is due to the dependence of the mean free path of a gas on temperature and to the corresponding slip conditions that occur in the pores of the solid. The model developed correlates the “apparent permeability” data with temperature, true permeability, gas viscosity, and gas molecular weight, variables suggested by kinetie theory on mean free path and slip. Apparent permeability was found to be a very strong function of temperature. It exhibited both a direct thermal dependence and an indirect dependence, manifest through thermally driven variations in the gas viscosity. A mathematical model from the literature was used for gas viscosity. The inverse correlation with gas molecular weight, suggested by kinetie theory, is demonstrated. The model covers the temperature range between 250 and 1600 K. Small molelcule gases including air, nitrogen, argon, and helium were used in the development.
On the Spatial Predictability of Communication Channels

In this paper, we are interested in fundamentally understanding the spatial predictability of wireless channels. We propose a probabilistic channel prediction framework for predicting the spatial variations of a wireless channel, based on a small number of measurements. By using this framework, we then develop a mathematical foundation for understanding the spatial predictability of wireless channels. More specifically, we characterize the impact of different environments, in terms of their underlying parameters, on wireless channel predictability. We furthermore show how sampling positions can be optimized to improve the prediction quality. Finally, we show the performance of the proposed framework in predicting (and justifying the predictability of) the spatial variations of real channels, using several measurements in our building.
Computer Simulation of Metabolic Transformation

SYNCHEM2 is a large knowledge-based domain-specific heuristic problem solving system that applies the methodology of artificial intelligence to the problem domain of synthetic organic chemistry. The program may be used for both synthetic and retrosynthetic exploration of the reaction transform space. We describe some experiments that might lead to the development of a special purpose version of the program for the investigation and prediction of environmental and metabolic processes undergone by chemicals that are released into the biosphere or directly ingested. The test system was used to predict the metabolites of three molecules of considerable biochemical interest, benzo[a]pyrene (known to be metabolically transformed into an active carcinogen), paramethyl substituted phenylalanine (which undergoes the NIH-shift when metabolized), and haloperidol (an important and widely used neuroleptic). In the case of the benzo[a]pyrene, the program predicted all of the known metabolites, as well as several others. All of the 11 compounds predicted as metabolites of 4-methylphenylalanine, which included the major known metabolite that exhibits the NIH-shift, were reasonable. Contained among the predicted metabolic pathways for haloperidol was a credible explanation for the occurrence of a known haloperidol metabolite derived from a substituted phenylacetic acid, but for which no intermediates have been isolated. The program was able to bridge the problem space between haloperidol and the derived hippuric acid by using an unsuspected, but metabolically sound pinacol rearrangement.
Role of complement and B lymphocytes in Sjögren's syndrome-like autoimmune exocrinopathy of NOD.B10-H2b mice.

Sjogren's syndrome (SjS) is a human autoimmune disease characterized by the loss of exocrine function as a result of a chronic immune attack directed primarily against the salivary and lacrimal glands leading to xerostomia (dry mouth) and xerophthalmia (dry eyes). NOD.B10-H2b mice manifest many features of SjS, exhibiting exocrine gland dysfunction concomitant with leukocyte infiltration of the salivary and lacrimal glands. Recent studies have shown that both SjS patients and NOD.B10-H2b mice exhibit increased B lymphocyte survival, B cell hyper-reactivity and hyper-gammaglobulinemia with high production of autoantibodies. To study the possible influence of complement on the development and expression of SjS-like disease of the NOD.B10-H2b, we have utilized a prophylactic treatment with CVF known to interfere with the action of complement C3 factor. NOD.B10-H2b mice, injected with CVF starting at 10 weeks of age, a time when leukocyte infiltration is expected to begin, failed to develop salivary dysfunction out to 24 weeks of age, a time when reduced salivary flow rates are known to occur in non-treated animals. Concomitant with retention of salivary exocrine function, CVF-treated mice showed reduced levels of leukocytic infiltration, reduction of anti-nuclear autoantibodies and major alterations in the B lymphocyte profiles while maintaining general pathophysiological measures of disease. These data suggest that C3 plays a significant role in development and onset of SjS-like disease, yet additional studies need to be carried out to identify the precise mode of action.
From iodide to iotrolan: history and argument

The history of iodinated contrast agents is reviewed, demonstrating the evolution toward contrast agents of increasingly better tolerance, predicated upon stability hydrophilicity and lower osmolality. These properties were best approximated by iotrolan, 5,5′-(N,N′-dimethylmalonyl-dimino)-bis-(N,N′-bis[1RS, 2SR)-2, 3-dihydroxy-1-hydroxymethyl-propyl]-2,4,6-triidoisophthalamide], anon-ionic, highly hydrophilic dimer which at 300 mg I/ml is isotonic with body fluids and as proved to be preclinically and clinically well tolerated in all body compartments and cavities, including the subarachnoid space.
ELECTROSTATIC PHENOMENA AND MOLECULAR MOTION AT INTERFACES OF GLASS/POLYMER COMPOSITES.

A boundary zone of filler-affected polymeric network is a possible element in the microstructure of composites. The intensity of adsorption potentials for polymeric material on the filler and therefore its surface energy should be an important variable in boundary zone properties. This work has involved the modification of surface energy in a glass filler material through the introduction of externally induced electrostatic charge that is through the creation of a ‘synthetic’ zeta potential on filler particles. The interactions of charged and uncharged glass surfaces with a polymeric matrix were studied by thermally stimulated discharge (TSD), and also by contact angle measurements. The experimental system studied was an aluminosilicate glass as the filler material, and poly(tetraethylene glycol dimethacrylate) as the organic matrix. Contact angle measurements revealed enhanced wettability for the matrix-forming monomer on glass surfaces charged negatively by electric fields. TSD analysis was also carried out on pure polymer, and composite materials containing either uncharged or bipolar filler particles (particles exposed to an external electrical potential). TSD spectra suggest a suppressed level of molecular motion in composites with fillers of high electrostatic surface energy. Also, activation energies calculated from TSD data are higher in bipolar filler composites. The higher activation energies are consistent with the possibility that a less mobile interfacial zone polymerizes around higher surface energy filler particles.
FACTOR ANALYSIS AND PSYCHOMETRIKA: MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS

Papers on factor analysis appearing inPsychometrika reflect the initial efforts of the Thurstonians to reformulate psychology as a quantitative science. The Thurstonians' emphasis on the development of factor analysis as an exploratory methodology was not new with them but was taken from British statisticians and psychologists who preceded them, whose literature the Thurstonians otherwise tended to ignore. The Thurstonians' rejection of general factors and focus on rotation to simple structure reflected an attempt to avoid statistical artifact and to identify factors with psychological substance. Much of the literature on factor analysis inPsychometrika concerned solving technical problems in the exploratory factor analysis method. Factor analysis took a major shift in direction in the 1970's with the development of confirmatory methodologies, many of which now receive greater attention than the method of exploratory factor analysis, most of the problems of which are now resolved.
Assessment and management of disability in chronic daily headache

The problem of chronic daily headache is ubiquitous and affects up to 5% of the world's population. In most cases, it is associated with the overuse of symptomatic medications in patients with a history of migraine or tension-type headaches, indicating an urgent need for intensive public and professional education. In a minority, it develops de novo from episodic migraine without excessive drug intake. The condition is likely to have a biologic (rather than psychologic) basis. The degree with which it negatively impacts patients and their family is reviewed. Current treatment regimes are described, but it is noted that those currently employed are seldom adequate in the long term, possibly because of the unavailability of nonpharmacologic treatments to most people or because of the low frequency of use of preventative pharmacologic and lifestyle measures.
HyCache: A User-Level Caching Middleware for Distributed File Systems

One of the bottlenecks of distributed file systems deals with mechanical hard drives (HDD). Although solid-state drives (SSD) have been around since the 1990's, HDDs are still dominant due to large capacity and relatively low cost. Hybrid hard drives with a small built-in SSD cache does not meet the need of a large variety of workloads. This paper proposes a middleware that manages the underlying heterogeneous storage devices in order to allow distributed file systems to leverage the SSD performance while leveraging the capacity of HDD. We design and implement a user-level file system, HyCache, that can offer SSD-like performance at a cost similar to a HDD. We show how HyCache can be used to improve performance in distributed file systems, such as the Hadoop HDFS. Experiments show that HyCache achieves up to 7X higher throughput and 76X higher IOPS than Linux Ext4 file system, and can accelerate HDFS by 28% at 32-node scales (compared to vanilla HDFS).
Resolved Spectroscopy of M Dwarf/L Dwarf Binaries. II. 2MASS J17072343−0558249AB

We present Infrared Telescope Facility SpeX observations of the M/L binary system 2MASS J17072343-0558249. SpeX imaging resolves the system into a 101 ± 017 visual binary in which both components have red near-infrared colors. Resolved low-resolution (R ~ 150) 0.8-2.5 μm spectroscopy reveals strong H2O, CO, and FeH bands and alkali lines in the spectra of both components, characteristic of late-type M and L dwarfs. A comparison to a sample of late-type field dwarf spectra indicates spectral types M9 and L3. Despite the small proper motion of the system (0100 ± 0009 yr-1), imaging observations over 2.5 yr provide strong evidence that the two components share common proper motion. Physical association is also likely due to the small spatial volume occupied by the two components (based on spectrophotometric distance estimates of 15 ± 1 pc) as compared to the relatively low spatial density of low-mass field stars. The projected separation of the system is 15 ± 3 AU, similar to other late-type M and L binaries. Assuming a system age of 0.5-5 Gyr, we estimate the masses of the binary components to be 0.072-0.083 and 0.064-0.077 M⊙, with an orbital period of roughly 150-300 yr. While this is nominally too long a baseline for astrometric mass measurements, the proximity and relatively wide angular separation of the 2MASS J1707-0558AB pair make it an ideal system for studying the M dwarf/L dwarf transition at a fixed age and metallicity.