cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Examination of a multiple universe version of the Partition function of the universe, based upon Penrose’s cyclic conformal cosmology. Leading to uniform values of (Planck’s constant) and invariant physical laws in each Universe of the ‘multiverse’

We look at, starting with Shankar’s treatment of the partition function, inserting in the data of the modified Heisenberg uncertainty principle as to give a role of the inflaton in the formation of a partition of the universe. The end result will be, even with the existence of a multiverse, i.e. simultaneous universes, uniform physical laws throughout the Multiple universes. Key words, Cyclic Conformal cosmology (Penrose), Modified HUP
Does the translocation of human ribosomal protein S3 (hS3) to the nucleus under conditions of oxidative stress pose a threat to the efficient repair of damaged DNA bases

3140 The human ribosomal protein S3 (hS3) possesses roles in extra ribosomal activities that influence DNA repair, cancer metastasis and apoptosis beyond its participation in protein synthesis. One example of such activity is the processing of oxidative DNA damage. Several DNA modifications are formed under conditions of oxidative stress, most common being 7, 8-dihydro-8-oxoguanine (8-oxoG), which if not repaired, results in G:C to T:A transversion mutations. The removal of 8-oxoG in humans is not as robust as seen in other organisms as the specific 8-oxoG DNA glycosylase/AP lyase (hOGG1) that initiates the base excision repair (BER) of 8-oxoG is relatively inefficient because of high affinity for the product of the reaction it catalyses. Our in vitro studies using surface plasmon resonance (SPR) technology have shown that hS3 has an extraordinarily high binding affinity for 8-oxoG and abasic sites in DNA. Additionally, pre-incubation of hS3 with a 37mer oligonucleotide containing 8-oxoG inhibited the removal of this lesion by OGG1, thereby suggesting that hS3 is creating an obstacle to the efficient repair of 8-oxoG. In agreement with this hypothesis are studies that show that the knockdown of hS3 expression by RNA interference in HEK293 cells resulted in increased cell survival in the presence of DNA damaging agents. Recent data from our lab also demonstrated a significant portion of cytoplasmic hS3 is translocated to the nucleus in cells exposed to genotoxic agents, showing that in fact hS3 is poised to carry out a role involving BER. The ability of hS3 to presumably block the liberation of 8-oxoG has led us to question what effect hS3 expression has in vivo on the whole animal. We have created mice that over express hS3 and are testing the hypothesis that, “Under conditions of oxidative stress cytoplasmic hS3 translocates to the nucleus and binds to 8-oxoG residues in DNA, blocks its repair and affects cell survival and/or tumorigenesis in vivo”. Observations made in these mice should be informative to understand the role of this protein in the oxidative stress induced DNA damage response pathway and its potential involvement in cancer etiology.
Engagement in Home Visiting Services during the Transition from Pregnancy to Postpartum: A Prospective Mixed Methods Pilot Study

This pilot study used a prospective mixed methods approach to examine predictors of retention in services during the transition from pregnancy to postpartum. Home visiting programs that serve pregnant women are an important means of improving child and maternal well-being. Providing services to women during the transition from pregnancy to postpartum is particularly important, because children under the age of 1 are at high risk for mortality. Morever, mothers face amplified levels of stress during the postpartum period. Unfortunately, home visiting programs in the United States that support pregnant and postpartum women suffer from high rates of attrition. General research on home visiting engagement suggests that the client-provider relationship is an important factor in predicting client engagement in services; however, few studies have examined factors related to maternal engagement during the transition from pregnancy to postpartum. Measures administered during pregnancy for 39 pregnant women were used to predict attrition up to 15 months postpartum. Semi-structured interviews were conducted at 3 months postpartum with 33 of the original 39 women to qualitatively assess factors related to engagement in services during the transition from pregnancy to postpartum. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses indicated that clients’ perceptions of the client-provider relationship was a critical factor in maintaining mothers’ engagement in services. Both types of analyses indicated that perceived provider reliability was related to mothers’ engagement in services. Quantitative analyses also found that perceived provider cultural competence predicted engagement in services. Other findings from qualitative analyses indicated that mothers’ perception of the home visitor as trustworthy/supportive, personable/having good communication skills, knowledgeable, and collaborative/flexible, were factors that mothers noted when discussing engagement in services. These results advance the literature on engagement in home visiting services by overcoming some of the limitations of previous literature and may have implications for home visitor training.
Firms Far Up : Productivity, Agglomeration, and High-Growth Firms in Ethiopia

High-growth firms have been widely studied in advanced countries, but little is known about such stellar performers in Africa. Using establishment-level data from Ethiopia, this paper finds that the incidence of high-growth firms stands at an average of 7 percent, a figure comparable to that of advanced countries. High-growth episodes are short-lived, and the likelihood of survival or a subsequent episode is not any higher for high-growth firms. It is difficult for firms to sustain high growth, and the likelihood of a repeated episode is low. There is only a 6.5 percent chance that a manufacturing plant in Ethiopia will repeat a high-growth event in the subsequent three-year period. This likelihood is not greater than that of plants that did not experience high growth in the previous period. The paper explores the drivers of high growth and finds a tight link between exemplary performance and initial plant productivity, which is robust to many controls, including plant location. Plants located in Ethiopia's capital city or agglomerations have a higher probability of high growth. And high growth in plant employment is found to be self-reinforcing, that is, past high-growth experience is positively and significantly associated with subsequent growth in firm productivity.
White-Tailed Deer in Tallgrass Prairie: Novel Densities of a Native Herbivore in Managed Ecosystems

White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are now the dominant large herbivores in tallgrass prairie ecosystems of the U.S. Midwest and have unique ecological impacts compared to the historically dominant bison (Bison bison) and elk (Cervus elaphus) that were extirpated from this region. While most of our knowledge of white-tailed deer impacts on plant communities and ecosystem processes comes from forested habitats, relatively little research has focused on deer effects in prairies. In this review, we discuss the ecological impacts of white-tailed deer in North American tallgrass prairies, potential deer management strategies, and areas of future research.Unlike bison and elk, deer are selective grazers that preferentially eat nutrient-rich forbs. At high deer densities, this consumption of forbs can have negative effects on prairie biodiversity and alter nutrient cycling. Deer can decrease plant diversity by reducing the abundance and reproductive success of their preferred plant species, shifting the plant community to one dominated by species avoided by deer or tolerant of herbivory.At lower densities, deer may maintain biodiversity in accordance with the intermediate disturbance hypothesis. Deer are able to maintain a balance between deer-avoided and deer-preferred species abundance by giving unpreferred or herbivory-tolerant species an advantage, but not completely suppressing herbivory-sensitive species. Nonconsumptive deer impacts also influence prairies through transporting invasive species, trampling on deer trails, and redistributing nutrients in fecal pellets and carcasses. Management strategies such as hunting, use of fences, and patch-burning can alleviate the pressures of overabundant deer populations, while maintaining their ability to promote heterogeneity.
Police Use of Force Interactions: Is Race Relevant or Gender Germane?:

Representative bureaucracy research has examined the influence of race and ethnicity on policing outcomes, yet little is known about police use of force specifically at the individual-level. To add...
Assess the Effectiveness of Informational Booklet of Knowledge Regarding Hypertension and its Lifestyle Modification Among the Hypertension Patients

Hypertension is an important medical and public health problem. Blood pressure is the force exerted by the blood against the wall of the blood vessels. The objective was to assess the knowledge regarding hypertension and its lifestyle modification among hypertensive patients. Evaluative approach was used in the study. Purposive sampling technique was adopted and structured questionnaire was used to assess the knowledge regarding hypertension and its lifestyle modification among hypertensive patients. In the community, health status is the combination of health measure for all individuals living in the community. So, as a community health nurse, lifestyle modification of hypertension among hypertensive patients plays an important role in promoting the health of an individual.
Record-and-Replay Techniques for HPC Systems: A Survey

Record-and-replay techniques provide the ability to record executions of nondeterministic applications and re-execute them identically. These techniques find use in the contexts of debugging, reproducibility, and fault-tolerance, especially in the presence of nondeterministic factors such as message races. Record-and-replay techniques are highly diverse in terms of the fidelity of replay they provide, the assumptions they make about the recorded application, the programming models they target, and the runtime overheads they impose. In the high performance computing (HPC) environment, all the above factors must be considered in concert, thus presenting additional implementation challenges. In this manuscript, we survey record-and-replay techniques in terms of the programming models they target and the workloads on which they were evaluated, providing a categorization of these techniques benefiting application developer s and researchers targeting exascale challenges. This manuscript answers three questions through this survey: What are the gaps in the existing space of record-and-replay techniques? What is the roadmap to widespread use of record-and-replay on production-scale HPC workloads? And, what are the critical open problems that must be addressed to make record-and-replay viable at exascale? Keywords: Reproducibility, nondeterminism, fault-tolerance, exascale, message-passing, shared memory, proxy application, HPC benchmarks
Academic Rhinologists' Online Rating and Perception, Scholarly Productivity, and Industry Payments.

IntroductionThe emergence of popular online rating websites, social media platforms, and public databases for industry payments and scholarly outputs provide a complete physician online presence wh...
Effects of the association of the α v β 8 lower legs on integrin ligand binding

Many integrins transmit signals through global conformational changes. However, it is unclear whether integrin αv β8 adopts a similar mechanism during integrin activation and signaling on the cell surface. Here, we showed that disulfide-bonded mutants, which prevented integrin αv β8 lower leg dissociation, bound ligands with similar level as the wild-type protein, suggesting that αv β8 ligand binding did not require lower leg disassociation. We further showed that the N-glycosylation mutant at the interface between the β I and hybrid domains did not affect ligand binding, suggesting that the αv β8 open headpiece was not present on the cell surface. We proposed that αv β8 integrin may adopt only one state, that is, the extended conformation with a closed headpiece. Our results showed that two lower legs retained heterodimeric interfaces, and this association might be important for stabilizing integrin in the extended conformation. Therefore, αv β8 may not transmit bidirectional signals across the plasma membrane but instead may serve as an anchoring site with high affinity and high accessibility for extracellular ligands.
The Low-Rank Simplicity Bias in Deep Networks

Modern deep neural networks are highly over-parameterized compared to the data on which they are trained, yet they often generalize remarkably well. A flurry of recent work has asked: why do deep networks not overfit to their training data? In this work, we make a series of empirical observations that investigate the hypothesis that deeper networks are inductively biased to find solutions with lower rank embeddings. We conjecture that this bias exists because the volume of functions that maps to low-rank embedding increases with depth. We show empirically that our claim holds true on finite width linear and non-linear models and show that these are the solutions that generalize well. We then show that the low-rank simplicity bias exists even after training, using a wide variety of commonly used optimizers. We found this phenomenon to be resilient to initialization, hyper-parameters, and learning methods. We further demonstrate how linear over-parameterization of deep non-linear models can be used to induce low-rank bias, improving generalization performance without changing the effective model capacity. Practically, we demonstrate that simply linearly over-parameterizing standard models at training time can improve performance on image classification tasks, including ImageNet.
Resilience of riparian vegetation composition and diversity following cessation of livestock grazing in northeastern Oregon

Riparian ecosystem restoration has been accomplished through exclusion of livestock using corridor fencing along hundreds of kilometers of streams in the western USA, for the benefit of riparian-obligate wildlife and endangered fishes. Yet few studies have evaluated shifts in the vegetation composition and diversity following the cessation of livestock impacts. We sampled riparian vegetation composition along 11-paired grazed and ungrazed (exclosed) stream reaches in northeastern Oregon, USA. Exclosure ages ranged from 2 to >30 years and grazing treatments varied from light grazing every one out of three years to heavy season-long grazing. Species richness and diversity was higher in the ungrazed reaches (p =0.002). The abundance of native sedges ( Carex spp.) and broad-leaved forbs were also significantly (p < 0.05) greater in ungrazed areas. In contrast, exotic species adapted to grazing such as Poa pratensis and Trifolium repens were more abundant in grazed stream reaches. The prevalence of hydrophytic species significantly increased (p [≤] 0.01) in ungrazed reaches, (based on wetland species indicator scores), indicating that wetland-dominated communities within the ungrazed stream reaches were replacing ones adapted to drier environments. The increased abundance of facultative and wetland-obligate species in ungrazed reaches compared to grazed reaches suggests that livestock grazing exacerbates those climate change effects also leading to warmer and drier conditions. Further, riparian-obligate shrub cover along the streambank was higher in 7 of 8 exclosures that were older than 5 years. As a restoration approach the inherent resilience of riparian ecosystems exhibited in ungrazed riparian zones suggest positive feedbacks to other beneficial ecosystem processes such as increased species and habitat diversity, increased carbon sequestration, enhanced allochthonous inputs and greater sediment retention, that would affect the aquatic and terrestrial biota, water quality, and stream morphology.
A Once Promising but Now Wounded Nation: A Review of Dr. Bereket Habte Selassie's Book on Eritrea

Upon the pretext that Eritrea is the creation of European colonial history and ultimately received the blessing of the Ethiopian Peoples Democratic Front (EPRDF), which believed in the principle of the right of colonized peoples to self-determination (Bereket 2011, p. 37), Eritrea obtained its independence from Ethiopia on May 27, 1993. However, some time before Eritrea achieved its official independence, a number of Eritrean supporters were spreading the news that after the post-liberation period, the Eritrean economy would not only be selfsufficient but Eritrea would become, economically, the Singapore of Africa. As narrated by an anonymous writer, the group’s talking heads went door to door with their fictitious stories and “...told Eritreans about the legend of the phoenix mystical bird that was made of ashes and promised them that they will produce gold out of wood. Some walked around with virtual pictures of the future of Eritrea showing skyscrapers and villas and had swindled the people” (sic) (September 15, 2008). Based on its current political space, assessing the Eritrean’s standard of living, and estimating the dependency of Eritrea on the amount of remittances it gets from the Eritrean Diaspora, others would like to depict post-independence Eritrea in a severe crisis and surviving on an artificial life support system. In current Eritrea, things are worse than before and its people have lost their fortitude and are not hoping any longer. They are rather yearning to skip out of the country more then they wish to see the promise coming true (Anonymous, September 15, 2008).
The Legionella pneumophila Life Cycle: Connections between Growth Phase, Virulence Expression, and Replication Vacuole Biogenesis

To persist in the environment, Legionella pneumophila that is confronted with feeding amoebae, must avoid digestion and instead establish a protected site for intracellular replication. After exhausting the resources of its host, the bacterial progeny must vacate the premises to search out a more fertile locale. When L. pneumophila encounters grazing amoebae, its prowess as a parasite becomes paramount. A model for the L. pneumophila life cycle in which growth phase determines virulence expression and replication vacuole biogenesis has been provided in this chapter. A striking observation made by Brenda Byrne motivated the authors' investigation of L. pneumophila virulence regulation. When broth cultures of L. pneumophila exit the exponential growth (E) phase, the bacteria become osmotically resistant, sodium sensitive, cytotoxic, motile, infectious, and competent to evade macrophage lysosomes. Results obtained by four independent experimental approaches strengthen the hypothesis that L. pneumophila survives and replicates within lysosomal compartments. First, virtually every vacuole that harbors more than five bacteria also contains LAMP-1. Second, bacteria within endosomal vacuoles are viable, as judged by their capacity to respond to a metabolic inducer by expressing a gfp reporter gene. Third, replicating bacteria obtained from macrophages, but not broth, are acid resistant. Finally, inhibition of vacuole acidification and maturation by bafilomycin A1 or other agents actually inhibits bacterial replication.
Polymeric corrosion inhibitors for the oil and gas industry: Design principles and mechanism

Abstract This work provides an overview of the most common polymeric corrosion inhibitors for the oil and gas industry. Exploration, production and transportation of petroleum and natural gas products constantly deal with highly corrosive environments due to oxygen, acid stimulation, CO2 and H2S contamination. Therefore, versatile materials are required in order to keep corrosion rates in control. Unlike small molecule corrosion inhibitors, polymers possess multi-functionality and better film-forming capabilities, which could significantly improve protective barrier properties. In this article, polymeric architectures tested in relevant oil and gas media are compiled in order to highlight certain moieties capable of complex formation with the metal surface or chelation on corrosive agents resulting to improved corrosion inhibition.
Adaptive and Fault Tolerant Tracking Control of a Pneumatic Actuator

Pneumatic actuators are of interest for robotic applications because of their large force output per unit weight and their low cost. A pneumatic actuator with high bandwidth is difficult to obtain because of the compressibility of air and the nonlinear characteristics of air flowing through a variable area orifice. In this paper a controller for a one degree of freedom pneumatic system is presented which uses full-state feedback for simultaneous parameter identification and tracking control. Experimental results indicate that trajectory tracking comparable to electric motor driven robot systems can be achieved.
Dream, Drama, Metadrama: Tang Xianzu and/in Jiang Shiquan's Linchuan meng (Dreams of Linchuan)

Jiang Shiquan 蔣士銓 (1725–1785) is one of the most important poets and playwrights of eighteenth-century China.2 In poetry he was often grouped together with Yuan Mei 袁枚 (1716–1797) and Zhao Yi 趙翼 (1...
Dialysis Culture of T-Strain Mycoplasmas

Using dialyzing cultures of T-strain mycoplasmas, it was possible to make some observations relevant to the growth and metabolism of these organisms which would not be possible in nondialyzing cultures due to growth inhibition of the organisms by elevated pH and increased ammonium ion concentration in media containing urea. The rate of ammonia accumulation was found to be related to the initial urea concentration in the medium and could not be accounted for by any change in the multiplication rate of the organisms. More ammonia was generated than could be accounted for by the added urea alone, suggesting that an ammonia-producing activity other than urease may be present in T-strain mycoplasmas. Titers above 107 color change units per ml were achieved in dialysis cultures of a T-strain mycoplasma in the presence of urea, and such titers were maintained for approximately 60 h during dialysis culture in the absence of added urea.
ACE Inhibitors in Heart Failure: Prospects and Limitations

ACE inhibitors have been shown to be effective in reducing the morbidity and mortality of patients with left ventricular systolic dysfunction, but their application to clinical practice in this situation is still limited. In part, the failure to prescribe an ACE inhibitor to a patient with left ventricular systolic dysfunction is due to perceptions regarding their side effects, such as cough and renal dysfunction. Relatively few patients with left ventricular systolic dysfunction and a serum creatinine ≥2 mg/dl receive an ACE inhibitor in clinical practice. In this situation one should consider an agent such as fosinopril, which is metabolized by the liver as well as secreted by the kidney. In patients with moderate renal dysfunction, fosinopril has been well tolerated without an increase in serum creatinine. In patients who develope cough due to an ACE inhibitor, consideration should be given to an angiotensin II type 1 receptor blocking agent, such as losartan. The relative safety and efficacy of an ACE inhibitor compared with an angiotensin II type 1 receptor blocking agent is being explored in a prospective randomized trial (Evaluation of Losartan In The Elderly [ELITE]), as well as the safety and pharmacological effectiveness of adding an angiotensin II receptor antagonist to an ACE inhibitor (Randomized Angiotensin receptor antagonists–ACE-inhibitor Study [RAAS]). There may also be a role for the combination of an aldosterone receptor antagonists and an ACE inhibitor in patients with left ventricular systolic dysfunction. Once an ACE inhibitor is administered to a patient with left ventricular systolic dysfunction it should be continued indefinitely. ACE inhibitors may be of value not only in preventing the progression of heart failure but also in reversing endothelial dysfunction and preventing the development of atherosclerosis and its consequences, such as myocardial infarction.
Complete kinetic and thermodynamic characterization of the unisite catalytic pathway of Escherichia coli F1-ATPase. Comparison with mitochondrial F1-ATPase and application to the study of mutant enzymes.

Abstract A complete analysis is presented of the component rate constants of the "unisite" reaction pathway in normal Escherichia coli F1-ATPase. Gibbs free energy profiles of the unisite reaction pathway were constructed for both normal E. coli F1 and bovine-heart mitochondrial F1, and comparison indicated that E. coli F1 is an ancestral form of the mitochondrial enzyme. Similar kinetic and thermodynamic analyses of the unisite reaction pathway were done for mutant beta-Asn-242 and beta-Val-242 E. coli F1-ATPases. Both mutations affected unisite binding and hydrolysis of MgATP but had little effect on release of products or binding of MgADP. It was apparent that a primary effect of the mutations was on the interaction between the catalytic nucleotide-binding domain and the substrate MgATP. The catalytic transition state [F1-ATP]++ was the most destabilized step in the reaction sequence. Measurements of delta delta G[F1.ATP]++ and linear free energy plots for the catalytic step were consistent with the view that, in normal enzyme, residue beta-Asp-242 accepts an H-bond from the transition-state substrate in order to facilitate catalysis. Both mutations impaired positive catalytic cooperativity. This was caused by energetic destabilization of the catalytic transition state and was an indirect effect, not a direct effect on signal transmission per se between catalytic nucleotide-binding domains on beta-subunits. Therefore, impairment of unisite catalysis and of positive catalytic cooperativity appeared to be linked. This may provide a unifying explanation as to why a series of other, widely separated mis-sense mutations within the catalytic nucleotide-binding domain on F1-beta-subunit, which have been reported to affect unisite catalysis, also impair positive catalytic cooperativity. Linear free energy plots for the ATP-binding step of unisite catalysis demonstrated that beta-Asn-242 and beta-Val-242 mutant enzymes did not suffer any gross disruptive change in structure of the catalytic nucleotide-binding domain, reinforcing the view that impairment of catalysis was due to a localized effect. Such analyses confirmed that six other F1-beta-subunit mutants, previously generated and characterized in this laboratory and thought to have inhibitory side-chain substitutions in the catalytic nucleotide-binding domain, are also devoid of gross structural disruption.
Maternal negative affect during infancy is linked to disrupted patterns of diurnal cortisol and alpha asymmetry across contexts during childhood.

Abstract Maternal negative affect in the early environment is believed to sensitize long-term coping capacities in children. Yet, little work has identified physiological systems associated with coping responses, which may serve as mechanisms for links between early maternal negativity and child outcomes. Using a longitudinal twin sample ( N = 89), we found that high levels of maternal negative affect during infancy were associated with dysregulation of diurnal cortisol and electroencephalograph (EEG) asymmetry, two physiological systems that may support active approach-oriented coping when children are 7 years old. Flattened slopes of diurnal cortisol were also associated with greater numbers of concurrent overanxious behaviors in children. A mediation analysis supported the role of dysregulated diurnal cortisol as a mediator of the link between maternal negative affect in the early environment and childhood risk for anxiety problems.
Ultrastructural Characteristics of Coccidioides immitis, a Morphological Variant of Cryptococcus neoformans and Podosypha ravenelii

Electron microscopic examination of Coccidioides immitis revealed dense septum-associated bodies, characteristic of Ascomycetes. Similar examinations of a filamentous variant of Cryptococcus neoformans failed to clarify the taxonomic position of this yeast but did not exclude the possibility that this organism is a heterobasidiomycete. Septal pores were not seen in either organism.
Molecularly Imprinted Polymers Used as Optical Waveguides for the Detection of Fluorescent Analytes

This article demonstrates the novel approach of fabricating molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) as fiber optic waveguides for the detection of fluorescent analytes. Combining a polyurethane system and the soft lithography technique of micromolding in capillaries (MIMIC), polymer waveguides of 50 νm and 100 νm dimensions were patterned onto a silicon substrate. Laser coupling into small waveguide segments has been verified visually. Binding experiments using the waveguides are currently being explored. Some preliminary binding studies have been performed, however, for smaller, freestanding filaments of sizes consistent with conventionally prepared MIP particles. Using fluorimetry measurements, templated fibers of 20 νm dimension preferentially bound the analyte molecules by a factor of 1.5 as compared to control polymers.
Comparative Skeletal Structure

The sophisticated organization of the skeleton achieves a structure that can withstand the extremes of functional load-bearing. The growth, development and repair of the skeletal structure is realized through the tightly regulated remodelling of bone tissue, orchestrated by cells that specifically form or resorb the matrix. Keywords: bone; ligament; tendon; cartilage; skeleton; connective tissue
Concepts relating the behavior of biochemical systems to their underlying molecular properties.

The concepts of amplification, parameter sensitivity, and feedback effectiveness in biochemical systems are presented and explored using a method of mathematical analysis previously developed for biochemical systems. These are properties of the intact system that can in no way be determined solely by experiments on the individual parts or reactions that comprise the system. These properties are important because they are functions only of the parameter values of the system, and thus may be used to characterize the system for comparative purposes. Furthermore, since these properties are independent of the concentration variables, they may be used to predict the behavior of the system over a wide range of conditions that would alter these concentrations. Empirical findings are also presented in support of this conclusion. Finally, and of most importance, these properties enable us to relate knowledge at one level of organization in biochemical systems to that at another. This is because the values of these properties can be predicted, using this theory, from knowledge of the component parts of the system, and they may also be obtained from direct measurements in the intact system. These two results must agree if the system is properly understood.
Use artificial neural network to align biological ontologies.

Being formal, declarative knowledge representation models, ontologies help to address the problem of imprecise terminologies in biological and biomedical research. However, ontologies constructed under the auspices of the Open Biomedical Ontologies (OBO) group have exhibited a great deal of variety, because different parties can design ontologies according to their own conceptual views of the world. It is therefore becoming critical to align ontologies from different parties. During automated/semi-automated alignment across biological ontologies, different semantic aspects, i.e., concept name, concept properties, and concept relationships, contribute in different degrees to alignment results. Therefore, a vector of weights must be assigned to these semantic aspects. It is not trivial to determine what those weights should be, and current methodologies depend a lot on human heuristics. In this paper, we take an artificial neural network approach to learn and adjust these weights, and thereby support a new ontology alignment algorithm, customized for biological ontologies, with the purpose of avoiding some disadvantages in both rule-based and learning-based aligning algorithms. This approach has been evaluated by aligning two real-world biological ontologies, whose features include huge file size, very few instances, concept names in numerical strings, and others. The promising experiment results verify our proposed hypothesis, i.e., three weights for semantic aspects learned from a subset of concepts are representative of all concepts in the same ontology. Therefore, our method represents a large leap forward towards automating biological ontology alignment.
Two-stage polybaric formation of the new enriched, pyroxene-oikocrystic, lherzolitic shergottite, NWA 7397

Northwest Africa (NWA) 7397 is a newly discovered, enriched, lherzolitic shergottite, the third described example of this group. This meteorite consists of two distinct textural lithologies (1) poikilitic—comprised of zoned pyroxene oikocrysts, with chadacrysts of chromite and olivine, and (2) nonpoikilitic—comprised of olivine, low-Ca and high-Ca pyroxene, maskelynite, and minor abundances of merrillite, spinel, ilmenite, and pyrrhotite. The constant Ti/Al ratios of pyroxene oikocrysts suggests initial crystallization of the poikilitic lithology at depth (equivalent to pressures of approximately 10 kbar), followed by crystallization of the nonpoikilitic lithology at shallower levels. Oxygen fugacity conditions become more oxidizing during crystallization ranging from fO2 conditions of approximately QFM-2 to QFM-0.7. Magma calculated to be in equilibrium with the major rock-forming minerals is LREE-enriched relative to depleted or intermediate shergottites and has flat overall profiles. Therefore, we suggest that the parental magma for NWA 7397 had sampled an enriched, oxidized, Martian geochemical source, similar to that of other enriched basaltic and olivine-phyric shergottites. We present a polybaric formation model for the lherzolitic shergottite NWA 7397, to account for the petrologic constraints. Three successive stages in the development of NWA 7397 are discussed (1) formation of a REE-enriched parental magma from a distinct Martian mantle reservoir; (2) magma ponding and development of a staging chamber concomitant with initial crystallization of the poikilitic lithology; and (3) magma ascent to the near surface, with entrainment of cumulates from the staging chamber and subsequent crystallization of the nonpoikilitic lithology en route to the surface.
Plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 in the pathogenesis of delayed radiation damage in rat spinal cord in vivo

The pathophysiology of radiation-induced damage to the central nervous system (CNS) is poorly understood. Preliminary data suggest that fibrinolytic inhibitors are involved in the development of necrosis. In this study, cervical spinal cord irradiation was studied in 90 rats by measuring plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI)-1 on Days 2, 7, 30, 60, 90, 120, 130, or 145 after irradiation. Paralysis due to radiation necrosis developed in all animals kept alive for 140 to 150 days. Assay of PAI-1 was by Western blot, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and complex formation with 125I-labeled urokinase. No PAI-1 was detected in normal spinal cord tissue or in irradiated spinal cord up to Day 90. However, PAI-1 was detected at Day 120 and was marked by elevated ELISA levels at the time of paralysis. Western blot showed detectable PAI-1 (51 kD) at Day 120 and very significant levels at the time of paralysis. Complex formation with 125I-labeled urokinase was also detected at Day 120 with similar results. Immunohistochemical studies showed that PAI-1 was highly concentrated within and immediately adjacent to zones of necrosis at 145 days and was absent in normal tissue. This study adds considerable weight to the proposal that PAI-1 is closely associated with the pathogenesis of CNS radiation necrosis.
Flow parameters in a shallow conduit-flow carbonate aquifer, Inner Bluegrass Karst Region, Kentucky, USA

Abstract In the carbonate aquifers which underlie most karst terrains, groundwater flow is through a dendritic system of solution conduits. In such aquifers, termed shallow conduit-flow aquifers, the methods used to model granular and fracture aquifers are not generally applicable. Investigations were conducted in the Inner Bluegrass Karst Region of central Kentucky with the objective of developing methods of modeling shallow conduit-flow aquifers as well as obtaining quantitative information on a specific portion of the aquifer to assist in its management for water supply purposes. In the Inner Bluegrass Karst Region, groundwater basins are developed, in each of which there is an integrated system of solution conduits which conducts recharge to a major spring. One of the largest of these groundwater basins feeds Royal Spring, which serves as the principal water supply for the town of Georgetown. The basin extends over 15 km to the southeast and most of its flow is furnished by underground diversions of Cane Run, a surface stream with headwaters near the center of the City of Lexington. The principal objectives of the field investigation were to determine discharges at the spring and travel times to the spring from discrete recharge points within the basin, termed swallets. The spring is ungaged, and an attempt was made to obtain a continuous discharge record by the dilution of dye introduced at a swallet. Comparison of the dye-dilution discharge record with stage discharges at the spring revealed substantial discrepancies which are believed to be caused by as much as five-sixths of the low-flow discharge from the upper portion of the basin bypassing the spring. The dye-dilution method, therefore, provided significant insights into the geometry of the conduit system of the groundwater basin although it proved unsatisfactory as a method of determining discharges at the spring. Analysis of the travel times and stage discharges provided information on the conduit geometry by modeling the flow as open-channel flow in a rectangular channel. Flow in the system is rapid, ranging from 140 to 590 m h −1 . Although the flow rate increases with discharge, the relationship is not simple owing to substantial increases in conduit cross-sectional area at higher discharges. Flow is turbulent and subcritical under all conditions. The most surprising result was the very low depth of flow calculated; less than 17 cm at even the highest discharge. Although this must be considered an ‘equivalent’ depth, it is believed to indicate that active flow in shallow conduit-flow aquifers is generally in a thin zone just beneath the water table.
The Reaction of Lithium with Dimethyl Carbonate and Diethyl Carbonate in Ultrahigh Vacuum Studied by X-ray Photoemission Spectroscopy

The reaction of dimethyl carbonate (DMC) and diethyl carbonate (DEC) with clean metallic lithium in ultrahigh vacuum was studied by the use of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy with the temperature-programmed reaction methodology. Both molecules are of interest as solvents in ambient-temperature lithium batteries. The solvent molecules were condensed onto the surface of an evaporated lithium film at 120 K, and spectra were collected as the sample was warmed in ca. 25 to 30-K increments. The reaction of either DMC or DEC with lithium was initiated at 180 K, a temperature much lower than their bulk melting temperatures, producing lithium methyl carbonate, methyllithium and lithium ethyl carbonate, and ethyllithium, respectively. At temperatures greater than 270−300 K, the lithium alkyl carbonates start to decompose with Li2O, elemental carbon, and alkyllithium as products on the surface. Both DMC and DEC are more reactive toward metallic Li than another carbonate solvent, propylene carbonate, which we have s...
Peptostreptococcal Endophthalmitis With a Relapsing Course

• A posttraumatic exogenous endophthalmitis developed that was due to Peptostreptococcus . This Gram-positive anaerobe was isolated in pure culture from vitreous. The endophthalmitis showed a bacteriologic and clinical relapse despite conventional routes of antimicrobial treatment. A second clinical relapse occurred despite apparent vitreal sterilization with intravitreal antibiotics. The response to vitrectomy was impressive, and postoperatively the patient's visual acuity improved to 20/20.
Agricultural land use and hydrology affect variability of shallow groundwater nitrate concentration in South Florida

South Florida's Miami-Dade agricultural area is located between two protected natural areas, the Biscayne and Everglades National Parks, subject to the costliest environmental restoration project in history. Agriculture, an important economic activity in the region, competes for land and water resources with the restoration efforts and Miami's urban sprawl. The objective of this study, understanding water quality interactions between agricultural land use and the shallow regional aquifer, is critical to the reduction of agriculture's potentially negative impacts. A study was conducted in a 4-ha square field containing 0·9 ha of corn surrounded by fallow land. The crop rows were oriented NW–SE along the dominant groundwater flow in the area. A network of 18 monitoring wells was distributed across the field. Shallow groundwater nitrate–nitrogen concentration [N-NO3−] was analyzed on samples collected from the wells biweekly for 3 years. Detailed hydrological (water table elevation [WTE] at each well, groundwater flow direction [GwFD], rainfall) and crop (irrigation, fertilization, calendar) data were also recorded in situ. Flow direction is locally affected by seasonal regional drainage through canal management exercised by the local water authority. The data set was analyzed by dynamic factor analysis (DFA), a specialized time series statistical technique only recently applied in hydrology. In a first step, the observed nitrate variation was successfully described by five common trends representing the unexplained variability. By including the measured hydrological series as explanatory variables the trends were reduced to only three. The analysis yields a quantification of the effects of hydrological factors over local groundwater nitrate concentration. Furthermore, a spatial structure across the field, matching land use, was found in the five remaining common trends whereby the groundwater [N-NO3−] in wells within the corn rows could be generally separated from those in fallow land NW and SE of the crop strip. Fertilization, masked by soil/water/plant-delayed processes, had no discernible effect on groundwater nitrate levels. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Mass spectrometric analysis of rat cerebrospinal fluid proteins following exposure to the neurotoxicant carbonyl sulfide.

RATIONALE Using a proteomic-based approach we have investigated possible altered expression of a range of cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) proteins following exposure to the neurotoxicant carbonyl sulfide (COS). CSF is ideal for the investigation of markers of brain injury or disease since it is secreted from several central nervous system structures and changes in the CSF composition may reflect brain insult and many pathological processes. METHODS Animals were placed in exposure chambers and were exposed to 0 ppm or 500 ppm COS for 1, 2 or 3 days, 6 h per day. After the last inhalation exposure, 50–70 μL CSF sample was obtained by lumbar puncture. CSF samples were analyzed by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) on either a Premier quadrupole time-of-flight (QTOF) or an Agilent 6340 ion trap and by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI)-MS on a 4800 MALDI-TOF/TOF analyzer. RESULTS The dynamic range of abundance of the identified proteins spanned over more than three orders of magnitude. The four most abundant proteins identified (albumin, cystatin C, serotransferrin, transthyretin) are major proteins that are present in both CSF and blood at high levels but the fifth most abundant protein identified (prostaglandin H2D isomerase) is the second most abundant protein in human CSF and is secreted and synthesized in the rat central nervous system. No significant differences were observed between COS-treated CSF samples and the control CSF samples because of blood contamination. CONCLUSIONS Quantitative MS protein analyses of rat CSF is limited by the low sample volumes that can practicably be obtained from rats and the low protein concentrations in rat CSF. Results of this work suggest a clear need for CSF collection that would minimize blood contamination. Published in 2014. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.
Computer Generation of Normal Random Variables

Abstract This paper suggests that user accessibility as well as speed and accuracy should be used as a criterion to evaluate algorithms for generating random variables. FORTRAN implementations of several of the best current normal algorithms are studied. Two of the algorithms were also implemented in assembler for making comparisons with other studies and for assessing the cost of accessibility. A new mixing algorithm which combines features of the convenient and fast methods of Marsaglia et al. is introduced.
A Cryogenic Infrared Dual Optical Channel Interferometer-Spectrometer For Upper Atmospheric Measurements

A cryogenically cooled dual optical channel interferometer-spectrometer is being developed by the Space Dynamics Laboratory at Utah State University (USU). The design presented is based on a standard Michelson interferometer implemented on a flexural pivot parallelogram carriage with dual beam splitters and a single drive system. The sensor will be used to make simultaneous measurements of atmospheric emissions in the 2- to 22-μm spectral range from a rocketborne platform. The dual optical channel design allows optical materials and throughput to be optimized for narrower spectral ranges, resulting in improved performance. Other enhancements resulting from the use of a dual optical channel over the single channel design are presented.
Hemolytic anemia and thrombocytopenia (ITP type) in chronic lymphocytic leukemia following nitrogen mustard therapy

A patient with advanced chronic lymphocytic leukemia developed a sudden progression of anemia and a thrombocytopenia following therapy with nitrogen mustard. The bone marrow following therapy did not show myelosuppression but rather revealed no further decrease in erythroblastic tissue and an adequate number of megakaryocytes when compared with the marrow taken before therapy. The rapid progression of anemia probably reflected in part the onset or aggravation of a hemolytic process since the drop in hemoglobin could not be explained by a decrease in red cell production alone; the hemoglobin did not rise to the level expected after transfusions; further transfusions were required in a relatively short period; and a Gr51 red cell survival was shortened. The acute thrombocytopenia associated with a normal number of megakaryocytes in the marrow suggested the morphologic findings in idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura. The author believes that the therapy was a factor in producing these phenomena rather than merely being coincidental.