cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Observations on the effects and the metabolism of thyroid hormones in Necturus maculosus.

Necturus maculosus, a neotenous urodele, apparently fails to respond to thyroactive compounds by undergoing metamorphosis. Experiments have been performed to determine whether or not other manifestations of thyroid hormone action could be induced in this species. Following administration to the Necturus of thyroxine, 3:5:3′-L-triiodothyronine, tetraiodothyroacetic acid, triiodothyroacetic acid, mono- or diiodotyrosine, respiration was measured in tissue slice preparations, and the electrophoretic characteristics of the plasma proteins and the hemoglobin were determined. The effect of thyroxine added in vitro on the oxidation of succinate by homogenates of the Necturus ventricle also was studied. No evidence of thyroid hormone action could be obtained. A study of thyroid hormone metabolism in the Necturus was then carried out. In contrast with findings obtained in the tadpole, homogenates or slices of tissue from the Necturus completely failed to deiodinate thyroxine and its derivatives, although a system ...
Stereoregular polymerization of β‐butyrolactone by aluminoxane catalysts

A study was conducted on the application of aluminoxane catalysts to the polymerization of β-butyrolactone, including the effects of polymerization solvent, temperature, type of aluminoxane, aluminoxane preparation, aluminoxane concentration, and modifications of the aluminoxane on the yield and tacticity of the polymer obtained. Optimal conditions for the synthesis of high molecular weight, highly isotactic poly-β-butyrolactone, PBL, were determined. Quantitative yields of crude PBL could be obtained, but removal of aluminum residues from the crude PBL by treatment with acetylactone resulted in large polymer losses. The polymer lost had a low molecular weight and an atactic stereochemistry. The purified PBL was of high molecular weight and high isotacticity.
Genetic dissent and individual compromise

Organisms can be treated as optimizers when there is consensus among their genes about what is best to be done, but genomic consensus is often lacking, especially in interactions among kin because kin share some genes but not others. Grafen adopts a majoritarian perspective in which an individual’s interests are identified with the interests of the largest coreplicon of its genome, but genomic imprinting and recombination factionalize the genome so that no faction may predominate in some interactions among kin. Once intragenomic conflicts are recognized, the individual organism can be conceptualized as an arbiter among competing interests within a collective. Organismal adaptation can be recognized without phenotypes being optimized.
Annual Bed Statistics Give a Misleading Picture of Hospital Surge Capacity

Study objective I describe how annual hospital surge capacity is affected by within-year variation in patient volume and bed supply. Methods Surge capacity was measured as the percentage and total number of hospital beds that are not occupied by patients. Administrative data were used to calculate these bed statistics for 78 hospitals in New Jersey—statewide and by emergency planning regions—in 2003. Annual bed statistics were compared to more refined calculations for each day of the year. Calculated numbers of empty beds were compared to federal disaster planning benchmarks. Results Annual bed statistics showed no major limitations on surge capacity. Statewide occupancy rates were well below 80% (ie, more than 20% of beds were empty), and the number of empty beds that were set up and staffed (ie, maintained) was well above federal disaster planning benchmarks. In contrast, daily bed statistics reveal long periods in 2003 when regional and statewide surge capacity was severely strained. Strained capacity was most likely to occur on Tuesdays through Fridays and least likely to occur on weekends. On 212 days, statewide occupancy of maintained beds met or exceeded 85%. This occupancy rate met or exceeded 90% and 95% on 88 and 4 days, respectively. On 288 days, the statewide number of empty maintained beds fell below the federal planning benchmark. Conclusion Annual bed statistics give a misleading picture of hospital surge capacity. Analysis of surge capacity should account for daily variation in patient volume and within-year variation in bed supply.
Noninvasive polarized light microscopy quantitatively distinguishes the multilaminar structure of the zona pellucida of living human eggs and embryos

Abstract Objective To characterize the architecture of the zona pellucida in living human eggs and embryos, noninvasively with the PolScope, a digital polarizing light microscope. Design The PolScope was used to examine zonae pellucida of living human eggs and embryos. Setting Academic IVF clinic. Patient(s) Patients undergoing fresh, nondonor infertility treatment who underwent egg aspiration, fertilization by intracytoplasmic sperm injection or traditional IVF, and cleavage-stage embryo transfer (day 3). Intervention(s) The PolScope imaged the zona of eggs before intracytoplasmic sperm injection and in cleavage-stage embryos before transfer. Main outcome measure(s) Thickness and retardance of three zona layers were measured from eight quadrants. Mean and variance in thickness and retardance were calculated for individual eggs and embryos, between eggs and embryos of a cohort, and across the sample patient population. Result(s) Cleavage-stage (day 3) embryos have thinner zonae (15.2 ± 2.9 μm) than both immature (20.4 ± 2.4 μm) and mature (19.5 ± 2.2 μm) eggs. The zona of embryos is thinner, primarily owing to thinning of the outer layer. The thicker the zona layer, the greater its retardance. Considerable variation exists in the thickness and retardance of zona layers around individual eggs and embryos and between members of a cohort. The zona of eggs and embryos from different patients differ in thickness, retardance, and variation. Conclusion(s) Thickness and organization of zonae pellucida of human eggs and embryos varies considerably and can be quantitatively imaged with the PolScope.
Response of esthesioneuroblastoma to chemotherapy report of five cases and review of the literature

Five patients with advanced stage or metastatic esthesioneuroblastoma treated with chemotherapy are reported, and another eight cases found in the literature are reviewed. In this collective experience with chemotherapy in this disease, the authors found that 8 of 13 patients (62%) had an objective response to chemotherapy. The agents which may be active in this disease and the role of chemotherapy, particularly adjuvant therapy for patients presenting with advanced disease, are discussed.
Synthesis of amorphous MgHPO4.x(R) [R = ethanol; ethylene glycol] in anhydrous media

Abstract New amorphous MgHPO 4 · 0.80(EtOH) and MgHPO 4 · x(C 2 H 6 O 2 ) isostructural with layered MgHPO 4 · 1.2H 2 O were synthesized using magnesium diethoxide Mg(OEt) 2 and orthophosphoric acid (H 3 PO 4 ) as reagents and anhydrous ethanol and ethylene glycol as solvents. The removal of intercalated ethanol or ethylene glycol occurs simultaneously with the dehydration of HPO 4 2− ions into P 2 O 7 4− ions due to a phase transition to crystalline Mg 2 P 2 O 7 .
Life and death in paradise.

Over 500 researchers participated in a recent American Association for Cancer Research special conference, entitled “Apoptosis and Cancer: Basic Mechanisms and Therapeutic Opportunities in the Post-Genomic Era” (February 13–17, 2002) in sunny Hawaii (Hilton Waikoloa village, Kona, Hawaii). The meeting participants presented the most recent findings on the mechanisms regulating cell death in cancer. In the past decade, apoptosis research has undergone a quantum leap, metamorphosing from a descriptive, phenomenological discipline into a molecularly defined, highly complex signalling field. This transformation was highlighted in the conference's opening talk by meeting co-organizer, John Reed (The Burnham Institute, La Jolla, CA). Reed and colleagues used published protein functional information and bio-informatic mining of the available human genome databases to tabulate the number of human proteins predicted to be involved in regulating apoptosis. The list includes 11 catalytically active caspases, 26 CARD (caspase associated recruitment domain)-, 32 DD (death domain)-, 12 DED (death effector domain)-, 8 BIR (baculovirus inhibitor of apoptosis protein region)-, 24 BH (Bcl-2 homology)-, and 34 PAAD/PYD (pyrin/PAAD)-containing sequences.
Reactions to ambiguous stimuli among paranoid personalities

The psychological literature on paranoia and paranoid schizophrenia is extensive, particularly in the area of perceptual and cognitive processing. However, there has been a relative neglect of paranoid personality. The present study investigates whether paranoid personalities differed from controls in their responses to ambiguous or incomplete stimuli. Paranoid personalities (PP), other personality controls (OP), and normal subjects (NR) were exposed to blurred pictures of zoo animals which became progressively clearer. Subjects were asked to identify the content of such pictures from a list provided and to rate their confidence in their respective identifications. The PPs were unique in suspecting that correct answers were not provided by the experimenters. The confidence levels of the PPs also decreased significantly during the course of the experiment, whereas the OP and NR subjects' levels did not. The PP group made significantly earlier attempts at identifying the ambiguous slides and were significantly more accurate in doing so compared to the NR group. Neither group differed significantly from the OR controls on these two measures. The significance of the results are discussed.
Specific and sensitive determination of digoxin and metabolites in human serum by high performance liquid chromatography with cyclodextrin solid-phase extraction and precolumn fluorescence derivatization.

A precolumn fluorescence derivatization high performance liquid chromatographic method has been developed for the simultaneous determination of digoxin and its metabolites digoxigenin bisdigitoxoside, digoxigenin monodigitoxoside digoxigenin, and dihydrodigoxin (20-R and 20-S epimers) in human serum. Digoxin and its metabolites were extracted from serum samples (containing digitoxin as internal standard) with a cyclodextrin solid-phase extraction (SPE) column. Fluorescent derivatives were formed by reaction of the analytes with 1-naphthoyl chloride in the presence of 4-dimethylaminopyridine under a nitrogen atmosphere in a glove box with controlled relative humidity (26% r.h. or less). The derivatives were isolated using cyclodextrin and C1 SPE columns sequentially, and determined by HPLC using silica column separation and fluorescence detection. Calibration curves were linear over the concentration range from 0.25 to 4.0 ng ml-1. Recoveries of digoxin and its metabolites from serum ranged from 62 to 86%, and coefficients of variation from repetitive analyses ranged from 6.9 to 20.9% and from 5.8 to 12.2% at 0.5 ng ml-1 and 2.0 ng ml-1, respectively. This method has been shown capable of specifically determining digoxin and its major metabolites in serum, and has been successfully used in the determination of digoxin and its metabolites in serum samples collected from patients undergoing digoxin therapy. This method thus permits the investigation of digoxin metabolism and pharmacokinetics after the administration of commercial dosage forms.
Grain-scale deformation and the fold test - evaluation of syn-folding remagnetization

The paleomagnetic fold test examines for pre-, syn- or post-folding (re)magnetization. Generally, passive limb rotation is used to restore folded units to their original position, and the position of the Fisherian maximum deter- mines the relationship between folding and magnetization. In a more complete analysis, the reorientation of material lines. in different fold models is used. However, the magnetic vec- tor should not be considered a material line as it represents the sum of vectors in individual magnetic carriers and does not cross grain boundaries. Therefore, the role of grain-scale deformation mechanisms was examined, using two end mem- bers: rigid-body rotation (spin) and homogeneous strain. From this study it is concluded that (1) the Fisherian maximum will in general occur before complete unfolding, (2) the sign of the inclination may change during unfolding and, consequently, 'cross-over' unfolding is not representati- ve of syn-folding remagnetization, (3) statistical analysis will not necessarily produce significant results. A number of recommendations are given, which include: stepwise unfol- ding (and unplunging) should be carried out routinely; local, rather than regional, fold tests should be performed; both limbs and the hinge of a single folded layer should be exa- mined in order to determine the active deformation mecha-
Extended life PZT stack test fixture

Piezoelectric stacks are being sought to be used as actuators for precision positioning and deployment of mechanisms in future planetary missions. Beside the requirement for very high operation reliability, these actuators are required for operation at space environments that are considered harsh compared to normal terrestrial conditions.These environmental conditions include low and high temperatures and vacuum or high pressure. Additionally, the stacks are subjected to high stress and in some applications need to operate with a very long lifetime durability.Many of these requirements are beyond the current industry design margins for nominal terrestrial applications. In order to investigate some of the properties that will indicate the durability of such actuators and their limitations we have developed a new type of test fixture that can be easily integrated in various test chambers for simulating environmental conditions, can provide access for multiple measurements while being exposed to adjustable stress levels. We designed and built two test fixtures and these fixtures were made to be adjustable for testing stacks with different dimensions and can be easily used in small or large numbers. The properties that were measured using these fixtures include impedance, capacitance, dielectric loss factor, leakage current, displacement, breakdown voltage, and lifetime performance. The fixtures characteristics and the test capabilities are presented in this paper.
Product market competition, corporate governance, and cost of capital

We investigate how market competition and corporate governance affect a firm’s cost of equity and debt. We find firms with better corporate governance have a lower cost of equity and cost of debt. However, we find that the negative relation between cost of capital and governance primarily holds for firms in highly competitive industries. The relation between governance and cost of capital does not hold if the industry competition is weak.
Peer relationships and writing development: a microgenetic analysis

Background. Recent research has begun to examine the facilitative role of close relationships, such as friendships, in the process of early literacy learning. It is believed that the quality of specific relationships can provide extensive support for literacy development and that the role of peer relationships in the context of writing may be significant. In this study, the actual processes by which children learn to use literate language and learn to write were documented, microgenetically. Aims. The purpose of the study was to determine whether an aspect of the social context in which writing typically occurs, namely the relationship of interactants, has consequences for children's use of literate language and early writing. Sample. The sample was class of 12 male and 8 female students attending a rural public school in the south-eastern United States, with a mean age of 88 months. Methods. In the study, 7–8 year-old pupils' written narratives, composed using a word processor, were examined to identify lexico-grammatical effects. Simultaneously, children's talk while writing was analysed to determine the extent of their use of ‘meta’ terms or literate language. Participant relationships were manipulated to determine the influence of friendship on children's literate language and early writing. At the same time a microgenetic approach was adopted to examine temporal changes in children's oral and written language. Results. The results supported the prediction that narratives composed by pupils working in close proximity to a friend would be more well formed than narratives composed by non-friends. Furthermore, interacting with a close friend during narrative writing tasks elicited children's use of metacognitive and metalinguistic language. Conclusions. The results are discussed in terms of the facilitative effects of close relationships on children's oral and written language.
First-principles study of uranium carbide: Accommodation of point defects and of helium, xenon, and oxygen impurities

Point defects and volatile impurities (helium, xenon, oxygen) in uranium monocarbide UC are studied by first-principles calculations. Preliminarily, bulk properties of UC and of two other uranium carbide phases, ${\text{UC}}_{2}$ and ${\text{U}}_{2}{\text{C}}_{3}$, are calculated in order to compare them to experimental data and to get confidence in the use of the generalized gradient approximation for this class of compounds. The subsequent study of different types of point defects shows that the carbon sublattice best accommodates the defects. The perturbation of the crystal structure induced by the defects is weak and the interaction between defects is found short range. Interstitial carbon dumbbells possibly play an important role in the diffusion of carbon atoms. The most favorable location of diluted helium, xenon, and oxygen impurities in the UC crystal lattice is then determined. The rare-gas atoms occupy preferably a uranium substitution site or a uranium site in a U-C bivacancy. But their incorporation in UC is, however, not energetically favorable, especially for xenon, suggesting their propensity to diffuse in the material and/or form bubbles. On the other hand, oxygen atoms are very favorably incorporated as diluted atoms in the UC lattice, confirming the easy oxidation of UC. The oxygen atoms preferably occupy a carbon substitution site or the carbon site of a U-C bivacancy. Our results are compared to available experimental data on UC and to similar studies by first-principles calculations for other carbides and nitrides with the rock-salt structure.
Gender Differences in Business Faculty's Research Motivation

The authors use expectancy theory to evaluate gender differences in key factors that motivate faculty to conduct research. Using faculty survey data collected from 320 faculty members at 10 business schools, they found that faculty members, both men and women, who displayed higher motivation were more productive in research. Among them, pretenured faculty were motivated by extrinsic rewards; conversely, posttenured faculty were motivated by intrinsic rewards. Gender differences were observed in faculty's overall and intrinsic motivations. Specifically, female faculty displayed higher overall and intrinsic motivations than male faculty, and such a gender difference was especially profound between posttenured female and male faculty. Faculty members, both men and women, considered receiving tenure and promotiosn to be the most important research motivations. Other important motivational factors included salary raises, satisfying a need for creativity–curiosity, and staying current.
Speech Audiometry and Spanish–English Bilinguals: Challenges in Clinical Practice

Purpose The Spanish–English bilingual population has been on a steady rise in the United States and is projected to continue to grow. Speech audiometry, a key component of hearing care, must be cus...
Phosphatidic acid binding to human neutrophils: Effects on tyrosine kinase-regulated intracellular Ca2+ mobilization

Neutrophils provide an attractive model with which to characterize cellular effects of phosphatidic acid (PA) independently of effects triggered by lysophosphatidic acid (LPA), since these cells lack LPA receptors. We developed a novel method to quantitate binding of PA to neutrophils and neutrophil plasma membranes. Intact cells or subcellular fractions were immobilized on nitrocellulose membranes and incubated in a bath containing [32P]PA under various conditions, followed by rapid rinsing with a mild detergent (0.05% Tween 20) to minimize non-specific binding. With this method, dioctanoyl PA specifically ligated plasma-membrane binding sitesin a time- and temperature-dependent manner. Specific binding of (DiC8-PA was markedly potentiated by pre-treatment of cells or membranes with ecto-phosphatidic acid phosphohydrolase (PAPase) inhibitor dimethylsphingosine (DMS). Optimum binding of DiC8-PA to PAPase-inhibited cells occurred within 10 min at room temperature, increased linearly with the cell concentration used, and was not significantly affected by alteration of pH over the range of 5.5-8.5. Of several phosphatidic acid species examined, optimal specific binding to immobilized neutrophils was observed with DiC8-PA and dicapryl (DiC10) PA; dicaproyl (DiC6) PA bound weakly, whereas dimyristoyl (DiC14) PA and dipalmitoyl (DiC16) PA did not bind. Dioleoyl (DiC18:1) PA bound to immobilized cells, but this binding was essentially non-specific, in that it was not reduced by excess non-radioactive ligand. Various LPA preparations, including [32P] lyso-octanoyl (C8) PA and [32P] lyso-oleoyl (C18:1) PA, showed very low specific binding to neutrophils in this system. Specific binding of DiC8-PA and DiC10-PA preparations correlated well with the ability of each to effect the mobilization of intracellular Ca2+ in neutrophils. Ca2+ mobilization was characterized by two distinct phases; a rapid rise that was inhibited in the presence of the tyrosine kinase inhibitor herbimycin-A, followed by a sustained increase that was eliminated in the presence of EGTA. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that neutrophils have specific binding sites for phosphatidic acid, the occupation of which leads to rapid mobilization of intracellular free Ca2+ via activation of tyrosine kinases. The methods described in this report may facilitate the identification and characterization of functional phosphatidic acid receptors on neutrophil plasma membranes.
Single-phase Cu0.50Ni0.50 alloy preparation by thermolysis of a simple heteropolymetallic precursor

Abstract We have found that thermolysis of the heteropolymetallic transmetalation product (μ4-O)L4Cu2(Ni(H2O))2Cl6 (L  N,N-diethylnicotinamide) in argon at 350°C is a direct, low-temperature route to the single-phase copper-nickel alloy Cu0.50Ni0.50. Homologous heteropolymetallic precursors also give other stoichiometric copper-nickel alloys under the same conditions.
Depth zero Boolean algebras

We study the class of depth zero Boolean algebras, both from a classical viewpoint and an effective viewpoint. In particular, we provide an algebraic characterization, constructing an explicit measure for each depth zero Boolean algebra and demonstrating there are no others, and an effective characterization, providing a necessary and sufficient condition for a depth zero Boolean algebra of rank at most ω to have a computable presentation.
Clustering web images using association rules, interestingness measures, and hypergraph partitions

This paper presents a new approach to cluster web images. Images are first processed to extract signal features such as color in HSV format and quantized orientation. Web pages referring to these images are processed to extract textual features (keywords) and feature reduction techniques such as stemming, stop word elimination, and Zipf's law are applied. All visual and textual features are used to generate association rules. Hypergraphs are generated from these rules, with features used as vertices and discovered associations as hyperedges. Twenty-two objective interestingness measures are evaluated on their ability to prune non-interesting rules and to assign weights to hyperedges. Then a hypergraph partitioning algorithm is used to generate clusters of features, and a simple scoring function is used to assign images to clusters. A tree-distance-based evaluation measure is used to evaluate the quality of image clustering with respect to manually generated ground truth. Our experiments indicate that combining textual and content-based features results in better clustering as compared to signal-only or text-only approaches. Online steps are done in real-time, which makes this approach practical for web images. Furthermore, we demonstrate that statistical interestingness measures such as Correlation Coefficient, Laplace, Kappa and J-Measure result in better clustering compared to traditional association rule interestingness measures such as Support and Confidence.
Analysis of the accuracy and readability of herbal supplement information on Wikipedia

Abstract Objective To determine the completeness and readability of information found in Wikipedia for leading dietary supplements and assess the accuracy of this information with regard to safety (including use during pregnancy/lactation), contraindications, drug interactions, therapeutic uses, and dosing. Design Cross-sectional analysis of Wikipedia articles. Interventions The contents of Wikipedia articles for the 19 top-selling herbal supplements were retrieved on July 24, 2012, and evaluated for organization, content, accuracy (as compared with information in two leading dietary supplement references) and readability. Main Outcome Measures Accuracy of Wikipedia articles. Results No consistency was noted in how much information was included in each Wikipedia article, how the information was organized, what major categories were used, and where safety and therapeutic information was located in the article. All articles in Wikipedia contained information on therapeutic uses and adverse effects but several lacked information on drug interactions, pregnancy, and contraindications. Wikipedia articles had 26%–75% of therapeutic uses and 76%–100% of adverse effects listed in the Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database and/or Natural Standard. Overall, articles were written at a 13.5-grade level, and all were at a ninth-grade level or above. Conclusion Articles in Wikipedia in mid-2012 for the 19 top-selling herbal supplements were frequently incomplete, of variable quality, and sometimes inconsistent with reputable sources of information on these products. Safety information was particularly inconsistent among the articles. Patients and health professionals should not rely solely on Wikipedia for information on these herbal supplements when treatment decisions are being made.
Formation of transcobalamin II--vitamin B12 complex by guinea-pig ileal mucosa in organ culture after in vivo incubation with intrinsic factor--vitamin B12.

Summary. The in vivo incubation of intrinsic factor-[57Co]vitamin B12 in an ileal loop of a guinea-pig followed of in vitro culturing of segments of the ileum for 180 min has been used to study the transepithelial transport vitamin B12. Analysis of the solubilized supernate of mucosa following the in vivo phase demonstrated that 44% of the [57Co]vitamin B12 was bound to intrinsic factor (IF), 26% was free, and 16% was bound to transcobalamin II (TCII). Following culture, similar analysis demonstrated that 18% of the vitamin was now bound to IF, 49% was free, and 35% was bound to TCII. In the culture medium, 54% of the [57Co]vitamin B12 was free and 37% was bound ot TCII. The formation of TCII-[57]vitamin B12 did not occur if homogenized mucosa was incubated with free [57Co]vitamin B12 but it did form in cultures of ileal segments from animals given an excess of unlabelled vitamin to saturate all circulating TCII, and in the medium containing puromycin. Indirect immunoflourescence using chicken anti-TCII demonstrated that TCII was associated with the mucosal cells of both the ileum and jejunum. These studies demonstrate that following transepithelial flux of vitamin B12 through the ileal mucosa, the vitamin becomes coupled to TCII. This coupling requires a structurally intact mucosa and the source of the TCII appears to be the ileal mucosal cell rather than unsaturated TCII circulating in the blood.
DNA (cytosine-5)-methyltransferases in mouse cells and tissues. Studies with a mechanism-based probe

The mechanisms that establish and maintain methylation patterns in the mammalian genome are very poorly understood, even though perturbations of methylation patterns lead to a loss of genomic imprinting, ectopic X chromosome inactivation, and death of mammalian embryos. A family of sequence-specific DNA methyltransferases has been proposed to be responsible for the wave of de novo methylation that occurs in the early embryo, although no such enzyme has been identified. A universal mechanism-based probe for DNA (cytosine-5)-methyltransferases was used to screen tissues and cell types known to be active in de novo methylation for new species of DNA methyltransferase. All identifiable de novo methyltransferase activity was found to reside in Dnmt1. As this enzyme is the predominant de novo methyltransferase at all developmental stages inspected, it does not fit the definition of maintenance methyltransferase or hemimethylase. Recent genetic data indicate that de novo methylation of retroviral DNA in embryonic stem cells is likely to involve one or more additional DNA methyltransferases. Such enzymes were not detected and are either present in very small amounts or are very different from Dnmt1. A new method was developed and used to determine the sequence specificity of intact Dnmt1 in whole-cell lysates. Specificity was found to be confined to the sequence 5'-CpG-3'; there was little dependence on sequence context or density of CpG dinucleotides. These data suggest that any sequence-specific de novo methylation mediated by Dnmt1 is either under the control of regulatory factors that interact with Dnmt1, or is cued by alternative secondary structures in DNA.
Discourse, Identity, and “Homeland as Other” at the Borderlands

A critical reading of the relationships between social identity theory and the shifting national identities of immigrants residing in a borderland region illustrates the processes involved in linking identity construction, international migration, and context. This spatially grounded discursive study builds on the notion that identities are constructed not only as attachments to particular places or nations, and an eagerness to grasp and hold onto dominant ideologies, but also as disidentifications with other peoples and places. Canada is now home to the largest number of U.S.-born immigrants in more than two-and-a-half decades. The northward movement of war resisters, draft dodgers, and others from the United States to Canada during the Vietnam War years was the largest politically motivated outmigration of U.S. citizens in history. In more recent years, political and economic migrants (including soldiers avoiding the war in Iraq) continue to leave the United States for permanent residency in Canada. The...
A compact imbedding result on Lipschitz manifolds

In [14], Teleman developed a theory of signature operators on Lipschitz manifolds. The theory includes both the classical index operator _D + and "twisted" operators with values in vector bundles. The main result of 1,-14] is Theorem 13.1 which states, in part, that for any closed, oriented, Lipschitz Riemannian manifold M" and for any Lipschitz complex vector bundle ~ over M, there is a natural signature operator _D[; the index of this operator is a Lipschitz invariant of the pair (M, ~). Using this result, Sullivan and Teleman 1-13] were able to show that (except in dimension 4) the index of _D~is actually a topological invariant of(M, 4). The computation of the index of _D~requires three tools: Hodge theory, a compact imbedding result and an excision theorem. The proof of the imbedding result in particular is quite complicated, using ideas from the theory of pseudodifferential operators. The main purpose of the present paper is to provide a simpler proof of the compact imbedding, based on ideas in 1-11], and to show that Hodge theory may be derived easily as a consequence of the imbedding result. (In the smooth case, this approach to Hodge theory may be traced back to Gaffney 15] and Friedrichs I-4].) Our techniques use only elementary facts from functional analysis. (For a concise summary of these see Appendix A of 1,8].) Before proceeding with the rigorous development, we would like to explain briefly the essential new idea in our approach. (The precise definitions of all spaces and operators may be found in the next section.) We denote the Hilbert space of square-integrable differential forms on M by L2(M), and define
Object-oriented Model for IEEE 1588 Standard

The IEEE 1588 standard specifies a protocol enabling precise synchronization of clocks in measurement and control systems implemented with technologies such as network communication, and distributed objects. The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a powerful tool for object-oriented modeling, design, and development of complex distributed systems. This paper describes an object-oriented model for the IEEE 1588 standard-v2, which has been developed using UML tool at National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Tliis model consists of the data types, datasets, entities, and devices of IEEE 1588 standard-v2. The model has been used to produce C++ source codes, and create C++ libraries for the IEEE 1588 standard-v2. With the help of this object model, the development time of IEEE 1588-basd distributed measurement and control applications can be reduced dramatically.
Design, characterization, and optimization of waveguides based on chalcogenide glasses for biosensors

We have systematically designed, fabricated, and tested chalcogenide-glass waveguides. Among all the characterization techniques, we have found that the prism-coupling method is the most effective and accurate for determining all the parameters describing the performance of the slab waveguides. Furthermore, we have also achieved the end-fire coupling in these waveguides to study the characteristics of the transmitted beams. These waveguides can be optimized eventually for the biosensor applications.
Hyperphenylalanemia: Effect on Brain Polyribosomes Can Be Partially Reversed by Other Amino Acids

The effect of a single injection of phenylalanine (2 mg/g of body weight) on brain polyribosomes, which increases the number of inactive monoribosomes, persists for 2 to 3 hours. A single injection of seven large neutral amino acids after phenylalanine administration results in a reversal of the effect on brain polyribosomes with a resultant decrease in monoribosomes to near normal levels. The other common amino acids are apparently not limiting during hyperphenylalanemia, because an injection of these did not increase recovery.
Are rate sensitivity and strength effected by cross-slip in nano-twinned fcc metals

Synthesis of nano-twinned pure Cu by Lu et al. [L. Lu, R. Schwaiger, Z. W. Shan, M. Dao, K. Lu, S. Suresh, Nano-sized twins induce high rate sensitivity of flow stress in pure copper, Acta Mater. 53 (2005) 2169–2179] has produced materials with extremely attractive properties of combined high strength, strain rate sensitivity, and ductility adequate for applications. This note explores the underlying mechanistic reasons for this via a model analysis of dislocation interaction with nano-twinned boundaries. Interestingly, we find that processes like cross-slip, that lead to the absorption and transmission of slip through twin boundaries yet are normally associated with rate insensitive behavior, can lead to high strength and rate sensitivity as observed in experiment.
A Hamiltonian interpretation of Penrose's quasi-local mass

A connection is established between Penrose's (1982) definition of quasi-local mass and the more conventional notions of mass, momentum etc arising from the canonical formalism of general relativity (which exist at least asymptotically). It is shown that each component of the 'angular momentum' twistor can be thought of as the value of a Hamiltonian which generates motions of regions of the spacetime which tend towards one of a collection of 'quasi-Killing vectors' on the bounding 2-surface on which the computations take place. The quasi-Killing vectors are obtained from solutions of the twistor equation, and essential use is made of the spinorial version of the gravitational Hamiltonian first employed in Witten's simplified proof of positive energy in general relativity. These ideas are then used to suggest a variation on Penrose's quasi-local mass definition using 'quasi-conformal Killing vectors' rather than quasi-Killing vectors. This has the advantage that there are only sixteen real quantities rather than the twenty real (ten complex) ones from Penrose's original definition.
Assessment of Farm Support Policies and Likely Impact of Cap Implementation on Farm Structures and Sustainability in Bulgaria

This paper presents the dominating farming structure in Bulgaria on the eve of EU accession, and evaluates recent policies for farm and agricultural income support, and assesses likely consequences of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) implementation on farming structures and sustainability. We demonstrate that a specific farming structure dominates in the country consisting of numerous subsistence and small farms; and few large farms, cooperatives, and agro-firms; and widely used informal, vertically integrated, and mix forms. Public support to farming has been in an increase in recent years but is still far bellow the European level. Besides, only a fraction of farms benefit from some form of public support most of them being large farms, cooperatives, and tobacco producers. Farming is still an important income source for a good part of population. However, there is a significant gap in the monetary income in the large and some smaller-scale (intensive) enterprises, and the great majority of farms. Besides, development programs contribute less to agrarian and rural sustainability, and to decreasing divergence between richer and poor regions of the country. Assessment of likely short-term impact of the CAP implementation in Bulgaria shows that it will increase sustainability of farms bringing net financial benefits, enhancing competitiveness, and improving environmental performance. However, the chief beneficiary from the direct payments and other support measures will be the biggest farms in the most developed regions of the country. CAP programs will also give new possibility for extending activities of existing forms and bring to a life new organizational arrangements. All that will create more employment and income opportunities, and revitalize agrarian and rural economy. On the other hand, some effective smaller-size and family structure and livestock farms will have no or limited access to EU funding. Consequently, income and performance gap between farms of different types, sub-sectors and regions will widened unless special supplementary measures ("coupled" with production and regions) are taken. Besides, CAP will likely support "ineffective" and non-market modes (such as part-time and subsistence farming, production cooperatives), and therefore raise their sustainability and delay further restructuring. Last but not least important, there will be significant difficulties for introducing CAP and EU standards which will require more costs than in other countries, and will be associated with some time lag until "full" implementation, and would not involve less commercialized and subsistent farming.
NOAA satellite observing systems: status and plans

Abstract NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) operates separates series of environmental monitoring satellites in polar and geostationary orbits. Two geostationary spacecraft are normally in opration: one stationed at 75° E longitude (GOES-EAST), and one stationed at 135° W longitude (GOES-WEST). Owing to a combination of premature in-orbit failures and a launch failure there is only one GOES satellite currently operational, GOES-7, which is migrated between 95° and 105° W longitude depending upon season. GOES-7 was launched in February 1987. Its primary observing instrument is a combined imager/sounder, the VISSR Atmospheric Sounder (VAS). The first in the next series of GOES satellite, (GOES I-M), is scheduled for launch in 1992. The major upgrade over the current GOES satellites will be the introduction of simultaneous imaging and sounding capability and improvements in imaging IR and sounding resolution. Because of the long lead times necessary in designing and building new systems, NOAA, in cooperation with NASA, has already begun the planning and study process for the GOES-N series of satellites, which will fly early in the next century. NOAA operates a two polar satellite system with equatorial nodal crossing times of 0730 (descending) and 1345 (ascending). The current operational satellites are NOAA-10 (AM) and NOAA-11 (PM). The next in the series (NOAA-D, which will become NOAA-12 once operational) is scheduled for launch in early summer 1991. The instruments onboard are used to make global measurements of numerous parameters such as atmospheric temperature, water vapor, ozone, sea surface temperature, sea ice, and vegetation. The NOAA K-N series of satellites, scheduled for deployment in the mid 1990's, will provide upgraded imaging and sounding capability. The imager will be enhanced to include a sixth channel for cloud/ice descrimination. A 15 channel advanced microwave sounder will be manifested for atmospheric temperature retrievals, and a seperate 5 channel advanced microwave sounder will be used for atmospheric water vapor retrievals. The polar program will undergo major changes beginning in the late 1990's. The morning polar metsat service will become the responsibility of the Europeans with NOAA providing an operational sensor payload. The afternoon metsat service will be continued by NOAA with a new block of satellites and instruments beginning at NOAA-O. NOAA will also be closely cooperating with NASA in this time frame. A number of the instruments on NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) platforms, scheduled for launch beginning in the late 1990's, have been designated “prototype operational” and may become candidates for eventual flight on NOAA operational spacecraft.
α-Tocopherol attenuates NFκB activation and pro-inflammatory cytokine production in brain and improves recovery from lipopolysaccharide-induced sickness behavior

This study was conducted to determine if alpha-tocopherol facilitates recovery from lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced sickness behavior through a NFkappaB-dependent mechanism. In the first study, 3 daily intraperitoneal (i.p.) injections of alpha-tocopherol (20 mg) improved recovery from sickness behavior induced by i.p. injected LPS. Furthermore, alpha-tocopherol pretreatment attenuated LPS-activated NFkappaB and pro-inflammatory cytokine production in brain. In addition, inhibiting NFkappaB activity in the brain specifically by ICV injection of a NFkappaB decoy prior to LPS, significantly accelerated recovery from LPS-induced sickness behavior. Taken together, these data indicate alpha-tocopherol modulates sickness behavior and inflammatory cytokine production in the brain through an NFkappaB-dependent pathway.
Preparation of New Derivatives of Anisic Acid

The synthesis of five new esters of anisic acid with amino alcohols is discussed and their analyses are presented. Pharmacologi cal tests indicate local anesthetic properties.
Longitudinal differentiation of chromosomes and the possibility of interstitial telomeres

Abstract 1. 1. Chromosome 1 of the Chinese hamster has a band in the long arm (region 7) sensitive to BUDR toxicity. It has been interpreted previously as A-T rich region, similar in nature to that of telomeres. 2. 2. Distribution of radiation induced damage along chromosome 1 is at random if samples are taken to study the cells in the G 2 period when radiation was applied. Delayed postirradiation harvest shows nonrandom distribution of damage, with region 7 displaying the highest frequency. The nonrandomness of radiation induced chromosome damage appears, therefore, as a result of nonrandom restitution, not nonrandom induction. 3. 3. Region 7 of the Chinese hamster cells, broken under the influence of BUDR, does not necessarily require rejoining with another broken end for stabilization. Interstitial A-T rich regions are, therefore, considered as interstitial telomeres.
The emergence of new virus diseases: an overview

Abstract From experience, we know that many different elements can contribute to the emergence of a new virus disease; these include virologic determinants [such as mutation, recombination, reassortment (drift and shift), natural selection, fitness adaptation, evolutionary progressional], natural influences (such as ecologic, environmental and zoonotic influences) and factors pertaining to human activity (such as behavioral, societal, transport, commercial and iatrogenic factors). In general, there is no way to predict when or where the next important new viral pathogen will emerge; neither is there any way to reliably predict the ultimate importance of a virus as it first emerges. Given this reality, initial investigation at the first sign of the emergence of a new virus disease must focus on characteristics such as mortality, severity of disease, transmissibility, and remote spread, all of which are important predictors of epidemic potential and societal threat. Clinical observations, pathologic examinations and preliminary virus identification and characterization often provide early clues, since new, emerging viruses often resemble their closest genetic relatives in regard to their epidemiologic and pathogenetic characteristics. Development of a global surveillance/diagnostics/communications network is needed, but this, in turn, must be linked to a global action network. This network must be designed to be flexible; capable, for example, in one instance of emphasizing local professional infrastructure development, and in the next of emphasizing global epidemic aid. Given the nature and magnitude of the threat represented by new and emerging virus diseases, the development of a global surveillance/action network is, indeed, a worthy goal for national and international public health authorities.
Some sampling considerations in the quantitation of monkey behavior under field and captive conditions

Observations of monkey behavior were made on free-ranging and corral-enclosedMacaca mulatta. Two sampling techniques were used: focal animal and group observations. Group observations measured frequencies of social behavior whereas focal observations used time samples which estimated durations of social and nonsocial activities as well as frequencies of social behavior. Analysis of concordance within and between sampling techniques revealed that short duration focal time samples provide a reliable estimate of total frequencies of social behaviors derived using group observations and furthermore, allows the recording of important nonsocial activities not easily recorded in terms of frequencies. Focal time sampling is advantageous for certain types of studies where the equal distribution of observation time between individuals is important, particularly in the field where visibility is often limited and individuals can only be observed continuously for short periods of time.