cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Early work on dislocations and point defects at low and intermediate frequencies

Abstract During the period of 1947–1951, I had the good fortune to be present in two laboratories that were carrying out pioneering work in internal friction and anelasticity. These were the laboratories of S.L. Quimby at Columbia University, where I was a graduate student, and that of Clarence Zener at the University of Chicago, where I held a postdoctoral appointment. In this article, I am happy to recall some of my impressions and experiences of that period.
Application of a fiber-speckle hologram to fiber sensing.

A sensitive fiber-speckle field sensor using a Ce:Fe-doped LiNbO3 photorefractive fiber hologram is introduced. We have shown that the sensitivity of this photorefractive fiber specklegram sensor can be of the order of 0.05 μm. The proposed system would offer the widespread use of practical fiber-sensing applications.
Analysis of neural-responsive myogenin upstream sequences by myoblast implantation.

Abstract The expression of myogenin is suppressed during innervation and has been implicated in determining properties of skeletal muscle which are regulated by electrical activity. We previously reported that transcription driven by 3700 bp of the mouse myogenin upstream sequence (MYG3700) is activated by denervation in transgenic mice (Nucleic Acids Res.21, 5684–5693, 1993). To extend our investigation of the activity dependence of the myogenin promoter, we have utilized myoblast implantation as a novel approach toin vivoreporter analysis. Myoblasts for hindlimb injections were generated by stable transfection of chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) reporters into a β-galactosidase-expressing line of C2 cells.In vitrocharacterization of stable myoblast clones carrying myogenin–CAT deletion constructs revealed that while the proximal myogenin 5′-flanking sequence confers myotube specificity, high-level expression requires a region upstream (−335 to −1102) which depends on chromosomal integration for its function. For analysis by implantation, incorporation of injected myoblasts into existing myofibers was confirmed by histochemical staining. Using clonal myoblasts harboring nicotinic receptor α-subunit (α800) and myosin light chain reporters as positive and negative controls, respectively, for denervation responsiveness, we determined that the nuclei of injected myoblasts are susceptible to regulatory signals imposed by nerve-induced electrical activity of the myofiber into which they incorporate. Inin vivoanalysis of myogenin upstream sequence by implantation, CAT activities of MYG3700 and MYG1565 reporters in injected limbs increased up to fourfold within 4 days after denervation, whereas the activities of MYG1102 and MYG335 were unchanged. By 10 days after denervation, all myogenin reporters displayed denervation responsiveness. These implantation data suggest an early phase of denervation activation, one that is mediated by control elements residing within −1102 to −1565 of the myogenin upstream sequence. Thus, the combined analyses of stable reporter myoblast linesin vitroandin vivoby implantation provide an efficient means of evaluating regulatory regions for high-level expression and neural modulation of muscle gene transcription.
Insufficient Language Education Policy: Intercultural Bilingual Education in Chiapas

Based on ethnographic fieldwork research of the authors in schools in Chiapas, Mexico, the article provides an overview of efforts being made to address the unique educational needs of Mexico's Indigenous populations through intercultural bilingual education programs. The article examines the Indigenous teachers' commitment to intercultural bilingual education, as opposed to their incomplete understandings of bilingual teaching practices and biliteracy practices. In so doing, the article questions the efficacy of top-down language education policies when they are State reactions to bottom-up efforts of revolutionary movements, such as the Zapatistas. Given the historical and socioeconomic oppression of the Indigenous populations in Chiapas, intercultural bilingual education acts only as a palliative, leaving the Indigenous peoples without the structural incorporation into the economic and political life of Mexico for which they struggled.
Effect of hemodilution on coagulation and recombinant factor VIIa efficacy in human blood in vitro.

Abstract : Hemorrhage and trauma are a major cause of death in young civilians and are the principal cause of death on the battlefield.1 3 In the United States, between the years 1997 and 2008, acute hemorrhage accounted for 30% of the overall mortality in trauma patients.3 Hemorrhagic shock and trauma followed by fluid resuscitation can lead to the development of coagulopathies that can complicate surgical attempts to stop the bleeding.1,4,5 The inability to clot can be caused by acidosis, hypothermia, and dilution of coagulating factors; all associated with hemorrhage and trauma.4,6,7 Of these three, hemodilution, resulting from after routine resuscitation with large volumes of crystalloid or colloid in an attempt to restore blood volume and blood pressure, is a problem that is often caused by the medical teams treating these patients. Hemodilution occurs. Currently, the Advanced Trauma Life Support protocol recommends resuscitation with 2 L of lactated Ringer s followed by packed red blood cells if the crystalloid fails to reverse the signs of shock.8,9 The military edition of the Prehospital Trauma Life Support recommends 1 L to 2 L of lactated Ringer s after hemorrhage is under control.10 Replacement of lost blood with 1 L to 2 L of nonplasma fluid represents (at least) a 30% to 40% dilution of blood volume in a 70-kg person,11 which could lead to dilution of clotting factors and a decrease in coagulation.
PSL(2,q) as a collineation group of projective planes of small order

Let Π be a projective plane of order n admitting a collineation group G≅PSL(2, q) for some prime power q. It is well known for n=q that Π must be Desarguesian. We show that if n<q then only finitely many cases may occur for П, all of which are Desarguesian. We obtain some information in case n=q2 with q odd, notably that G acts irreducibly on П for q≠3, 5, 9.
Catalytic ozonation of propanal using wood fly ash and metal oxide nanoparticle impregnated carbon.

Catalytic ozonation of propanal at ambient temperatures (23–25 °C) was investigated by varying propanal and ozone concentrations and catalyst type. The catalysts tested included wood fly ash (WFA), magnetically separated ash, synthetic hematite and magnetite, and metal oxide nanoparticle impregnated activated carbon and peanut hull char. A power law model independent of ozone concentration for WFA (rw, moles g−1 s−1) and magnetite (rm) were, respectively, rw = k′w CR0.89 and rm = k′mCR1.55, where k′w, and k′m were 2.36 × 10−6 g−1 s−1 (moles)−0.11 (m3)0.89 and 6.5 × 10−4 g−1 s−1 (moles)−0.55 (m3)1.55, respectively (5–15 ppmv). Magnetite and hematite present in the WFA were theorized to be the primary active sites, since magnetically separated WFA had a significantly higher reaction rate (∼12×, mol m−2 s−1) than that of WFA. X-ray diffraction analysis demonstrated a qualitative increase in magnetite and hematite in the magnetically separated ash, and synthetic magnetite and hematite had reaction rates >80× ...
Comparison of simulated annealing algorithms for conformal therapy treatment planning

Purpose : The efficiency of four fast simulated annealing algorithms for optimizing conformal radiation therapy treatment plans was studied and the resulting plans were compared with each other and to optimized conventional plans. Methods and Materials : Four algorithms were selected on the basis of their reported successes in solving other minimization problems : fast simulated annealing with a Cauchy generating function, fast simulated annealing with a Lorentzian generating function, variable step size generalized simulated annealing (VSGSA), and very fast simulated reannealing (VFSR). They were tested on six clinical cases using a multiple beam coplanar conformal treatment technique. Relative beam weights were computed that maximized the minimum tumor dose subject to dose-volume constraints on normal organ doses. Following some initial tuning of the annealing parameters, each algorithm was applied identically to each test case. Optimization tests were run using different random number sequences and different numbers of iterations. Results : The VSGSA algorithm consistently produced the best results. Using long run times, it generated plans with the highest minimum tumor dose in five of the six cases. For the short run times, the VSGSA solutions averaged larger minimum tumor doses than those of the other algorithms for all six patients, with increases ranging from 0.4 to 5.9 Gy. For three of the patients, the conformal plan gave a clinically significant increase in the minimum tumor dose over the conventional plan, ranging from 8.2 to 13.0 Gy. In two other cases, there was little difference between the two treatment approaches. For one case, the optimized conventional plan was much better than the conformal plan because the conventional beam arrangement included wedges, which offset the multiple beam advantage of the conformal plans. Conclusions : For equal computing times of both long and short duration, the VSGSA algorithm consistently produced conformal plans that were superior to those produced by the other algorithms. The simple conformal technique used in this study showed a significant potential advantage in the treatment of abdominal tumors. In three of the cases, the conformal plans showed clinically important increases in tumor dose over optimized conventional plans.
γ-Secretase activation of notch signaling regulates the balance of proximal and distal fates in progenitor cells of the developing lung

Little is known about the mechanisms by which the lung epithelial progenitors are initially patterned and how proximal-distal boundaries are established and maintained when the lung primordium forms and starts to branch. Here we identified a number of Notch pathway components in respiratory progenitors of the early lung, and we investigated the role of Notch in lung pattern formation. By preventing γ-secretase cleavage of Notch receptors, we have disrupted global Notch signaling in the foregut and in the lung during the initial stages of murine lung morphogenesis. We demonstrate that Notch signaling is not necessary for lung bud initiation; however, Notch is required to maintain a balance of proximal-distal cell fates at these early stages. Disruption of Notch signaling dramatically expands the population of distal progenitors, altering morphogenetic boundaries and preventing formation of proximal structures. Our data suggest a novel mechanism in which Notch and fibroblast growth factor signaling interact to control the proximal-distal pattern of forming airways in the mammalian lung.
Impact of customer coconstruction in product/service markets

Abstract This paper visits a scenario that we believe will be increasingly common in the decades ahead. It focuses its attention on an environment in which customers and producers interact where (a) society is deeply and diversely interconnected; (b) computer and information technology is widespread, accepted, and greatly used; and (c) consumer needs become increasingly ill-structured, so that consumers have only a vague perception of the product they need. We have proposed that organizations would need to gear up, at the very least, to allow for (a) rapid prototyping of the product as delineated through the customer-producer coconstructive activity and (b) customer experimentation with the product so that customers can see the manner in which the product will interface with their world and alter it. We also discuss how the structure of our organizations will be radically altered by the integration of the customer as the coconstructor of the product. We revisit several notions on the management of marketing, design, operations, and risk; we discuss concepts, such as product innovation life cycle, risk sharing, and process promotion, that need to be incorporated within the organizational processes to effectively meet future customer demands.
Active transient voltage compensator design for VR load line improvement

Active transient voltage compensator (ATVC), only engaged in transient periods, was proposed to improve the VR load line and main VR can be optimized design with better efficiency which mainly handles the dc current. ATVC has reduced switching and conduction losses in extra converter due to the introduction of a transformer and it can also reduce the number of VR capacitors for required voltage tolerance. The compensation network delay times deteriorate the second voltage spike at high slew rate transient, especially in the high bandwidth controller. In this paper, combination of linear and adaptive nonlinear control is used to reduce the delay times of the compensation network. Finally a prototype of 3-Ch VR + ATVC was carried out on Intel motherboard and detailed experimental results are given.
Propofol-based versus dexmedetomidine-based sedation in cardiac surgery patients.

Objectives To evaluate the effects of propofol-based and dexmedetomidine-based sedation regimens on achieving early extubation, length of stay (LOS), intensive care length of stay (ICU-LOS), total hospital costs, and mortality rates in cardiac surgery patients. Design Twenty-three-month retrospective analysis. Setting Single center, 907 bed community teaching hospital. Participants Five hundred eighty-two patients ≥18 years of age who received propofol-based or dexmedetomidine-based sedation after cardiac valve or coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery and who did not undergo prolonged surgery (≤8 hours). Intervention Retrospective review of medical records. Measurements and Main Results Baseline characteristics (eg, age, sex, comorbidities) and outcomes (eg, achievement of early extubation, LOS, ICU-LOS, total hospital costs, pharmacy costs) were collected. Early extubation was achieved more frequently in the dexmedetomidine group when compared with the propofol group (68.7% v 58.1%, p = 0.008). The mean postoperative time to extubation and hospital LOS were shorter in the dexmedetomidine group when compared with the propofol group (8.8 v 12.8 hours, p = 0.026) and (181.9 v 221.3 hours, p = 0.001), respectively. There was a reduced ICU-LOS in the dexmedetomidine group compared with the propofol group that did not reach statistical significance (43.9 v 52.5 hours, p = 0.067). Average total hospital charges for the dexmedetomidine group were approximately $4000.00 less than the propofol group. Conclusions Dexmedetomidine-based sedation resulted in achievement of early extubation more frequently than propofol-based sedation. Mean postoperative time to extubation and average hospital LOS were shorter with dexmedetomidine-based sedation and met a statistical level of significance. There was no difference in ICU-LOS or in-hospital mortality between the two groups. Total hospital charges were similar, although slightly higher in the propofol group.
Reply to Papineau and Durà-Vilà

I argued that anyone who adopts the Everettian approach to the foundations of quantum mechanics must also accept the (unpopular) ‘halfer’ solution to the Sleeping Beauty puzzle. Papineau and Dura-Vila have responded with an argument that it is perfectly cogent both to be an Everettian and to accept the (popular) ‘thirder’ solution to Sleeping Beauty. Here I attempt to rebut their argument, and to clarify my original position.
Standard and digestive metabolism in the banded water snake, Nerodia fasciata fasciata.

Estimating energy costs by respirometry is fundamental to many studies of the ecology, behavior and evolution of reptiles. However, traditional respirometry procedures seldom incorporate objective techniques for removal of outliers from estimates of metabolic parameters. We demonstrate how computer-automated respirometry equipment, which records many respiratory measurements over short intervals, can be coupled with mathematical procedures to produce robust estimates of pre- and post-prandial metabolism in banded water snakes (Nerodia fasciata fasciata). Standard metabolic rate of N. f. fasciata was estimated to be 1.21 ml O yh (masss30.21"0.74 g) at 25 8C. After ingestion of a 2 fish equaling 20% of their body mass, snakes exhibited a fivefold increase in metabolic rate with peak O consumption 2 rate (VO ) reaching 6.5 ml O yh. Total cost of digestion was 5.44 kJ, equivalent to approximately 21% of the energy in 22 the meal. Repeated measurements of metabolism in the same individuals revealed that our methods yielded similar results, even when individuals exhibited different patterns of VO variation between respiratory trials. Our results 2 underscore the importance of obtaining many VO measurements, coupled with objective removal of outlier values from 2 estimates of metabolic rate, especially when metabolic values are to be interpreted in a comparative context.
Modeling and predictive control of a rotating disk bioreactor

A rotating disk bioreactor (RDB) produces cohesive cellulose gels rapidly because of the high surface area, high volumetric efficiency, and low power consumption. A novel feature of the RDB that we have developed is that solids added to the medium enter the gel and are held at selected locations. Different solid materials such as silica gel, glass spheres, metallic powders, carbon, and common plant cellulose can be incorporated into the gel and gradients, stripes or bands of solids can be formed, resulting in a new type of biomaterial with applications in foods, medicine, bioprocessing, and manufacture of novel forms of paper. Incorporation of solid particles into the gelatinous matrix of bacterial cellulose involves complicated fluid/particle hydrodynamics. Experimental results are shown for a semibatch RDB, while simulation studies apply model predictive control (MPC) to a continuous RDB. Two MPC approaches are developed and analyzed for setpoint tracking and disturbance rejection.
Distributional Stress Regularity: A Corpus Study

The regularity of stress patterns in a language depends on distributional stress regularity, which arises from the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables, and durational stress regularity, which arises from the timing of syllables. Here we focus on distributional regularity, which depends on three factors. Lexical stress patterning refers to normal stress patterns within words; interlexical stress patterning refers to patterns that arise from word combinations; and contextual stress patterning refers to adjustments in normal lexical stress patterns (such as the well-known phenomenon of "stress clash avoidance"). A corpus study was done to assess the effect of these three factors on distributional stress regularity in conversational and formal spoken English, by comparing the degree of stress regularity in stress-annotated corpus data to randomly manipulated versions of the data and to "citation-form" stress patterns drawn from a phonetic dictionary. The results show that both lexical and interlexical patterning contribute significantly to stress regularity in English; contextual stress patterning does not, and in fact significantly reduces regularity in comparison to citation-form stress patterns.
Plasmacytoid dendritic cell and CD4 + T cell deficiencies in untreated Hodgkin disease: implications for susceptibility to opportunistic infections.

Hodgkin disease (HD), usually a malignancy of early B cells [1], is associated with an increased risk of opportunistic infections (OIs) [2 – 7]. Previous studies of infectious complications of HD have documented skin anergy and a variety of in vitro defects associated with cell-mediated immunity [8 – 10]. Th e spectrum of infections seen in HD resembles that seen in acquired immune defi ciency syndrome (AIDS), where the setting for OI susceptibility has been better defi ned, in particular with respect to interferon- α (IFN- α ) generation by plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) [11]. Longitudinal studies of patients with human immunodefi ciency virus (HIV) infection [12,13] indicated that development of simultaneous reductions in the ability of pDCs to produce IFN- α , together with critically low numbers of circulating CD4 T cells, was a prerequisite to OI development. Th is association was seen both during the natural history of human immunodefi ciency-type 1 infection [12] and during the period of immune reconstitution as eff ective antiretroviral infections became available [13]. Subsequent studies by others have confi rmed in HIV infection the importance of this dual pDC/CD4 defect in susceptibility to OIs using IFN- α generation and enumeration of pDCs [14]. pDCs have been shown to be central to in vivo immune function and regulation [15]. We hypothesized that patients with HD would have defects in pDCs similar to those in HIV infection, to account for their resemblance in susceptibility to OIs. Nine males and one female with recently diagnosed HD, aged 27 – 84 (mean 53.7 17.3), were studied at the Comprehensive Cancer Center of Saint Vincent ’ s Hospital (SVH), New York. None
Laramide Sedimentation and Tectonic Development Along Southern Margin of Wind River Range, Wyoming: ABSTRACT

Surface observations along the southern margin of the Wind River Range indicate that motion on the Wind River and Continental faults controlled depositional patterns and lithologic character of early Eocene syntectonic sediments. The stratigraphic sequence consists of alluvial plain, lake margin, deltaic, and alluvial fan units. Subsequent movement on the Wind River fault warped this sequence into a monocline 2 mi (3.2 km) long. This structure dies out to the northwest and southeast along the Wind River fault and is overlain by undeformed middle Eocene sediments. Clast composition and paleocurrent studies of post-early Eocene conglomerates indicate that there were additional sources for coarse clastics formed by subsequent uplift in the Precambrian core of the range. Tectonic implications of these interpretations are: (1) early motion on the Wind River fault controlled the margin of Eocene Lake Gosiute and generated a distal sediment source to the east; (2) last motion on the Wind River-Continental fault system was episodic and principally over by the end of early Eocene; (3) the Continental fault, now a post-Miocene collapse End_Page 531------------------------------ feature, was a tear fault with a vertical component up on the north; (4) the Wind River fault is a zone consisting of segments that moved separately; and (5) there are at least two unmapped fault zones along which the core of the Wind River Range was uplifted. These interpretations suggest that compression in the Wyoming foreland continued significantly later than early Eocene. An imbricate thrust model is proposed to accommodate these observations and interpretations. End_of_Article - Last_Page 532------------
Scanning and transmission electron microscopy study of antibody-dependent lymphocyte-mediated cytotoxicity on measles virus-infected cells

The structural events related to antibody-dependent lymphocyte-mediated cytotoxicity (ADLC) have been studied on measles virus-infected cells using human peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) and anti-measles virus serum. The first event in ADLC was a recognition process occurring with 15 min after contact between the infected cells and lymphocytes. Plasma membrane and microvilli of adsorbed PBL were specifically attached to virus-induced ridges over nucleocapsids and to viral buds. After 30 min, a fraction of adsorbed PBL (K cells) changed shape and extended long filipodia toward the target cells which, in turn, showed long villi contacting the PBL. At 4 h, when cytotoxicity as measured by chromium release was maximum, K cells had flattened and numerous blebs and ruffles formed on their surface. The K-cell alterations varied in intensity with the type of measles-infected target cell, but frequently the K cells appeared irreversibly damaged. T- and non-T-cell fractions were separated, and in situ erythrocyte rosettes were used as markers for subpopulations which were easily recognized by scanning electron microscopy. Most of the cytotoxic K cells were identified as non-T cells carrying Fc receptors for immunoglobulin G. However, a small subpopulation of cells bearing both sheep erythrocyte and Fc receptors was also found to be involved in ADLC by chromium release assay as well as by electron microscopy. Some of these interacting T cells extended a long uropod on the target cell, but their intracellular structure remained unaltered through ADLC, in contrast with the other T cells and the non-t killer cells. This suggests that perhaps some T killer cells might remain functional after the cytotoxic interaction with a target cell.
Development of Written Communication in Norwegian Kindergarten Children 1

Abstract Nurss, J. R. 1988. Development of Written Communication in Norwegian Kindergarten Children. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research 32, 33‐48 Forty‐eight Norwegian kindergarten children with ages ranging from 3 to 6 years drew pictures, wrote their names, and wrote a caption under their pictures three times during one school year. Their written language was rated on a 0 to 8 point scale. The results showed strong age‐related developmental trends and some within‐age group growth over the school year. No gender‐related differences were found. Six‐year‐olds also read common logos and the same word in decontextualized print. The language/ print environment of the classrooms was evaluated. Results are compared with those of other studies in several different cultures and are discussed in relation to Norwegian kindergarten philosophy and curriculum. 1The research described in this article was completed while the author was fulbright Professor at the Institute of Education, University of Trondheim/...
Biochemical and pharmacological rationale for the use of newer oral anticoagulants in the long term management of heparin induced thrombocytopenia (LB526)

Introduction: Heparin induced thromboycytopenia (HIT) is a catastrophic complication of heparin therapy. While parenteral antithrombin agents can be used for acute/intravenous management of this sy...
Linear stability analysis of the onset of sublithospheric convection

SUMMARY We consider the onset of small scale convection associated with the cooling of the oceanic lithosphere. This process is investigated by examining the linear stability of a 2-D shear flow that is cooled from the top and obeys an Arrhenius rheology. The perturbation equations are derived assuming a parallel flow, local 1-D analysis. The linear stability results are able to reproduce the structure and growth rate produced by solving the full non-linear equations. In addition, linear stability analysis predicts a similar dependence of onset times on activation energy and Rayleigh number as previous studies when small plate velocities are specified. Our linear stability analysis predicts a significant increase in the onset time with increasing plate velocity. Suggestions are given for the dynamical influence of plate velocity in reducing the convective forcing and delaying onset times.
Weight Uncertainty in Neural Network

We introduce a new, efficient, principled and backpropagation-compatible algorithm for learning a probability distribution on the weights of a neural network, called Bayes by Backprop. It regularises the weights by minimising a compression cost, known as the variational free energy or the expected lower bound on the marginal likelihood. We show that this principled kind of regularisation yields comparable performance to dropout on MNIST classification. We then demonstrate how the learnt uncertainty in the weights can be used to improve generalisation in non-linear regression problems, and how this weight uncertainty can be used to drive the exploration-exploitation trade-off in reinforcement learning.
Design of Tubular Microporous Membrane Aerated Bioreactors for Plant Cell Suspension Culture

Bubble free aeration using immersed microporous membrane tubing holds great promise as an alternative to overcome the problems of culturing shear sensitive plant cells in a conventional air sparged bioreactor. In designing a membrane aerated system there are several key variables to be considered These include the length, diameter and thickness of the membrane tubing, inlet gas composition and pressure, and the state of the growing culture, i.e., the dissolved oxygen and carbon dioxide concentrations in the culture medium. An analysis of the effect of these various factors on the oxygen transfer and the carbon dioxide removal is presented in this paper.
Show, Don’t Tell: Using Photographic “Snapsignments” to Advance and Assess Creative Problem Solving

Traditional assignments that aim to develop and evaluate creative problem solving skills are frequently foregone in large marketing classes due to the daunting grading prospect they present. Here, a new assessment method is introduced: the “snapsignment.” Through photography, individual projects can be assigned that promote higher order cognitive functions, build creative confidence, and ease the grading grind. Results from the implementation of the technique in an introductory marketing creativity challenge are presented. The benefits for students and faculty are discussed, and adaptations to other marketing assignments are suggested.
Chemoattractant-mediated stimulation of the respiratory burst in human polymorphonuclear leukocytes may require appearance of protein kinase activity in the cells' particulate fraction

Low doses of aliphatic alcohols produce divergent effects on the function of chemoattractant receptors on human polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs) since they enhance chemotaxis but inhibit stimulation of superoxide production by chemoattractants. As such, alcohols can provide useful pharmacologic tools to probe the mechanisms of stimulus- response coupling in leukocytes. A role for protein kinase C has been implicated in the activation of the respiratory burst in PMNs. Although the vast majority of this enzyme activity is located in the cytosolic fraction of unactivated PMNs, protein kinase C activity appears in the particulate fraction of the cells when they are stimulated to produce superoxide by either chemoattractants or by phorbol myristate acetate (PMA). Doses of the alcohols that selectively inhibited stimulation of superoxide production by chemoattractants also inhibited the appearance of protein kinase C activity as well as an undefined protein kinase activity in the particulate fraction of the cells. In contrast, the alcohols did not affect either the ability of PMA to stimulate the production of superoxide in PMNs nor the appearance of protein kinase activity in the cells' particulate fraction. PMA is known to bind and activate protein kinase C directly, thus bypassing receptor-mediated events. These data suggest that alcohols inhibit the stimulation of the respiratory burst by chemoattractants in PMNs by blocking the ability of receptor occupancy to induce the appearance of protein kinase activity in particulate fractions. These results moreover suggest that the appearance of protein kinase activity in the particulate fraction may be required for activation of the respiratory burst in PMNs.
Does bilingualism contribute to cognitive reserve? Cognitive and neural perspectives.

Objective Cognitive reserve refers to how individuals actively utilize neural resources to cope with neuropathology in order to maintain cognitive functioning. The present review aims to critically examine the literature addressing the relationship between bilingualism and cognitive reserve in order to elucidate whether bilingualism delays the onset of cognitive and behavioral manifestations of dementia. Potential neural mechanisms behind this relationship are discussed.
Natural Hybridization among Distantly Related Toads (Bufo alvarius, Bufo cognatus, Bufo woodhousii) in Central Arizona

Putative hybrid toads of the genus Bufo were collected in central Arizona and identified using allozymes, qualitative and qalsntitative morphological characters, and release call characteristics. Data suggest one hybrid resulted from mating between Bufo cognatus and Bufo woodhousii, and the other three resulted from matings between Bufo alvarius and B. woodhousii. Natural hybridization between these taxa has not been previously reported. To date, B. woodhousii has been found to hybridize with four species of the Bufo americanus species group, of which B. woodhousii is a member, and five other species which represent three outgroups to the B. americanus group. Fossil evidence suggests some genomic compatability has been retained between B. alvarius and B. woodhousii despite at least 6 million years of independent evolution. Hybridization among members of Bufo may be due to alternative mating tactics of males, such as active searching, and by alteration of historical habitats in central Arizona. WT EATHIIN the Bufo americanus group of North
Aeroelastic modelling of a Piezo-solar tensioned energy harvesting ribbon

A multifunctional compliant structure is proposed that can harvest electrical power from both incident sunlight and ambient mechanical energy including wind flow or vibration. The proposed energy harvesting device consists of a slender, ribbon-like, flexible thin film solar cell that is laminated with piezoelectric patches at either ends and mounted in the cross flow of wind in a clamped-clamped end condition with an adjustable axial preload. Taking this motivation forward a system model of the energy harvester is developed which captures the structural response of the solar ribbon and couples it with Theodorsen unsteady aerodynamics to predict the flutter boundary conditions as a function of applied axial preload tension. The model also accounts for geometric and material discontinuities, by effective use of Transfer Matrix Method (TMM) modeling technique both in bending and torsional degrees of freedom. This paper also derives TMM technique for torsional vibrations with an applied axial load from first principles, verifies the method and presents its applicability for the proposed energy harvester. The paper also points out that the flutter instability arises out of different structural modes at different values applied axial tension, with the help of a sample modal convergence plot. The analysis also presents the possibility to tune the solar ribbon to operate at an optimal reduced frequency by adjusting the applied axial preload.
Personal contact from friends to increase mammography usage.

To increase the use of mammography among women 40 years of age and older, the American Cancer Society (ACS) designed a telephone intervention strategy (the “Tell A Friend” program) that relied on ACS volunteers. During a half-day training session, each volunteer provided a list of 10 women she was willing to contact over a 6-month period and encourage to have a mammogram. Each list was randomized, and five names were returned to each volunteer for inclusion in the intervention. The other women served as controls and were not contacted by the volunteers. All women were subsequently interviewed at the end of the intervention period. Forty-nine percent of the women in the intervention group (n = 289) had received their most recent mammogram since the start of the intervention period, whereas 34% of control women (n = 305) received mammograms during the same time period (p ≤ .001, rate ratio = 1.4, 95% confidence interval = 1.2, 1.7). The effectiveness of the intervention remained after controlling for demographic characteristics. The strategy was effective for both black and white women of all ages, but principally among women with annual household incomes of less than $40,000. We conclude that a telephone intervention strategy of personal contacts between acquainted women can significantly increase mammography use, particularly among women with low-to-moderate income.
Evaluating a Curriculum Aimed at Improving Attitudes of Pre-Health Professional Students toward Persons with Disabilities

Objective This pilot study was designed to develop and evaluate the impact of a curriculum intended to improve attitudes toward and advocacy for persons with disabilities in health care.
Retrospective cost adaptive control using concurrent controller optimization and target-model identification

Retrospective cost adaptive control (RCAC) is a discrete-time adaptive control algorithm for stabilization, command following, and disturbance rejection. RCAC requires knowledge of the nonminimum-phase (NMP) zeros in the transfer function from the control input to the performance variable. This knowledge is embedded in the target model used to define the retrospective performance variable. Without this knowledge, RCAC has a tendency to cancel unmodeled NMP zeros. The contribution of the present paper is an extension of RCAC that alleviates the need to know the NMP zeros a priori. In particular, concurrent optimization is used to update the coefficients of the controller and target model, thus providing estimates of the unmodeled NMP zeros. Since the retrospective cost is a biquadratic function of these coefficients, an alternating convex search algorithm takes advantage of the closed-form minimizers of both quadratic cost functions. For comparison, the Matlab fminsearch routine is used to jointly optimize the controller and target model. These techniques are illustrated for SISO plants that are asymptotically stable, unstable, minimum phase, and nonminimum phase.
Factors impacting animation in icons for visually impaired computer users

Icons are commonplace in Graphical User Interfaces. These same components that are intended to make computers easy to use can make technology difficult to access for the visually impaired. Eliminating icons would be unrealistic, but re-examining icons is a starting point in increasing accessibility in GUIs. A project is underway where animation is being added to icons in order to assist visually impaired users who wish to access computing resources. Initially animated icons were not shown to be superior to static icons in terms of the size needed to identify them. This paper will present the analysis of some factors that influenced the results. The extent of the motion in the icons and the visual profile of the participants themselves contributed to the ability to identify animated icons. These insights will assist interface designers in developing more accessible Graphical User Interfaces.
miR-200 Regulates Endometrial Development During Early Pregnancy

For successful embryo implantation, endometrial stromal cells must undergo functional and morphological changes, referred to as decidualization. However, the molecular mechanisms that regulate implantation and decidualization are not well defined. Here we demonstrate that the estradiol- and progesterone-regulated microRNA (miR)-200 family was markedly down-regulated in mouse endometrial stromal cells prior to implantation, whereas zinc finger E-box binding homeobox-1 and -2 and other known and predicted targets were up-regulated. Conversely, miR-200 was up-regulated during in vitro decidualization of human endometrial stromal cells. Knockdown of miR-200 negatively affected decidualization and prevented the mesenchymal-epithelial transition-like changes that accompanied decidual differentiation. Notably, superovulation of mice and humans altered miR-200 expression. Our findings suggest that hormonal alterations that accompany superovulation may negatively impact endometrial development and decidualization ...
Gas-Phase Oxidation of Neutral Basic Residues in Polypeptide Cations by Periodate

The gas-phase oxidation of doubly protonated peptides containing neutral basic residues to various products, including [M + H + O]+, [M – H]+, and [M – H – NH3]+, is demonstrated here via ion/ion reactions with periodate. It was previously demonstrated that periodate anions are capable of oxidizing disulfide bonds and methionine, tryptophan, and S-alkyl cysteine residues. However, in the absence of these easily oxidized sites, we show here that systems containing neutral basic residues can undergo oxidation. Furthermore, we show that these neutral basic residues primarily undergo different types of oxidation (e.g., hydrogen abstraction) reactions than those observed previously (i.e., oxygen transfer to yield the [M + H + O]+ species) upon gas-phase ion/ion reactions with periodate anions. This chemistry is illustrated with a variety of systems, including a series of model peptides, a cell-penetrating peptide containing a large number of unprotonated basic sites, and ubiquitin, a roughly 8.6 kDa protein.
Delta-frequency stimulation of cerebellar projections can compensate for schizophrenia-related medial frontal dysfunction.

Schizophrenia involves abnormalities in the medial frontal cortex that lead to cognitive deficits. Here we investigate a novel strategy to normalize medial frontal brain activity by stimulating cerebellar projections. We used an interval timing task to study elementary cognitive processing that requires both frontal and cerebellar networks that are disrupted in patients with schizophrenia. We report three novel findings. First, patients with schizophrenia had dysfunctional delta rhythms between 1–4 Hz in the medial frontal cortex. We explored cerebellar-frontal interactions in animal models and found that both frontal and cerebellar neurons were modulated during interval timing and had delta-frequency interactions. Finally, delta-frequency optogenetic stimulation of thalamic synaptic terminals of lateral cerebellar projection neurons rescued timing performance as well as medial frontal activity in a rodent model of schizophrenia-related frontal dysfunction. These data provide insight into how the cerebellum influences medial frontal networks and the role of the cerebellum in cognitive processing.
Live video analytics at scale with approximation and delay-tolerance

Video cameras are pervasively deployed for security and smart city scenarios, with millions of them in large cities worldwide. Achieving the potential of these cameras requires efficiently analyzing the live videos in real-time. We describe VideoStorm, a video analytics system that processes thousands of video analytics queries on live video streams over large clusters. Given the high costs of vision processing, resource management is crucial. We consider two key characteristics of video analytics: resource-quality tradeoff with multi-dimensional configurations, and variety in quality and lag goals. VideoStorm's offline profiler generates query resource-quality profile, while its online scheduler allocates resources to queries to maximize performance on quality and lag, in contrast to the commonly used fair sharing of resources in clusters. Deployment on an Azure cluster of 101 machines shows improvement by as much as 80% in quality of real-world queries and 7× better lag, processing video from operational traffic cameras.
Self Sustainability of SME Banks - A Myth or Reality? Evidence From Selected Developing Economies Across Asia

The purpose of this study is to explore those contributory factors that affect the sustainability of SME banks in selected developing economies across Asia (Pakistan, India, Sri-Lanka, Nepal, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Thailand). This study used a sample data of SME banks working in these economies during the period 2005-2015. All the findings of empirical model concluded that there is a significant impact of Gross Loan Portfolio (GLP), Deposits (DP) and Debt to Equity Ratio (D_E) on Sustainability (OSS) of SME banks. No significant relationship was found between operating self-sufficiency with Return on Assets (ROA) and Portfolio at Risk (PAR). By focusing these contributory factors, policy makers and regulators can devise policies to support the long term sustainability of SME banks. These contributory factors are not only useful to determine the sustainability of SME banks but can also assist the future researchers in unfolding further factors for sustainability of other SME financial institutions.
Problems with the Pathovar Concept

Classification of plant pathogenic bacteria has always been in controversy. Traditionally, classification of plant bacteria has been based upon a few biochemical characters and pathogenicity. In practice, pathogenicity became the most important character. Basic studies on the nutrition, biochemistry, physiology and structure were largely ignored. If a bacterium was isolated from a plant and shown to be pathogenic, it was given a species rank. This system of naming new pathogens and their classification was accepted and worked fairly well until the International Committee on Systematic Bacteriology (ICSB) established 1980 as the new starting date for the nomenclature of bacteria.
Electronic structure effects in spatiotemporally resolved photoemission interferograms of copper surfaces

Citation: Ambrosio, M. J., & Thumm, U. (2017). Electronic structure effects in spatiotemporally resolved photoemission interferograms of copper surfaces. Physical Review A, 96(5), 051403. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.96.051403
Behind the success of modified coupled-cluster methods: addition by subtraction

Modified coupled-cluster (CC) methods such as linearized coupled-cluster doubles (LinCCD), approximate coupled pair (ACP D14), 2CC (from nCC family), parameterized CCSD (pCCSD) and distinguishable ...
Surface ruptures east of Mexicali from the Imperial Valley earthquake of 15 October 1979

The title earthquake registered a local Richter magnitude of 6.6 and 7.0 at Berkeley. The observations described here were made on 16 October. The earthquake caused slumps and fissures along an unimproved road, a crack in a paved highway, shattered curbs of the concrete median strips of another highway, structural damage to an overpass, and cracks and offsets from 1-3 cm in masonry walkways and parking areas. The paper briefly reviews implications of these surface fractures for the projected 30-year geothermal development in the Salton Trough. 10 references, 6 figures.
Envisioning the environment, time, and occupation

ABSTRACTThe concepts of environment, time, and occupation are of paramount concern in occupational science. Three real-life stories are employed in this lecture to help envision these concepts and ...
Biomechanics of Long Cane Use.

Introduction:The modern long cane has been used by people who are blind for traveling for decades. This article describes parameters surrounding the collection of over 10,000 trials of people walki...
MAD-TN: A Tool for Measuring Fluency in Human-Robot Collaboration.

Fluency is an important metric in Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) that describes the coordination with which humans and robots collaborate on a task. Fluency is inherently linked to the timing of the task, making temporal constraint networks a promising way to model and measure fluency. We show that the Multi-Agent Daisy Temporal Network (MAD-TN) formulation, which expands on an existing concept of daisy-structured networks, is both an effective model of human-robot collaboration and a natural way to measure a number of existing fluency metrics. The MAD-TN model highlights new metrics that we hypothesize will strongly correlate with human teammates' perception of fluency.