cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Split-pole magnetic spectrograph for precision nuclear spectroscopy

Abstract A split-pole, broad-range magnetic spectrograph has been designed that uses the fringing fields associated with four pole boundaries to obtain two-directional focusing over the full momentum range of p max / p min ≈2.8 (energy range E max / E min ≈8). The spectrograph is also approximately second-order focusing in the plane of dispersion (median plane) over this entire range. Different magnetic configurations (pole shapes) were simulated by computer and used in a program designed to trace rays of different initial conditions through the spectrograph. These computer experiments were then used to optimize the design and resulted in an instrument for which the median-plane aberration of second order was zero or very small over the entire energy range. Measured peak shapes and resolving power are in good agreement with calculations. A resolving power better than p / Δp = 5000 has been demonstrated in the 106 Pd(d,p) 107 Pd reaction with a 50 μg/cm 2 target and a solid angle of 0.8 msterad.
Wireless RF data communications using 60 GHz antennas in Multi-Core systems

Free space wireless transmission via the 60 GHz antenna in the Multi-Chip Multi-Core (MCMC) architecture is proposed in this paper. Antenna in package (AiP) solution is chosen as the 60GHz antenna configuration and the antenna is designed based on low temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) superstrate that could connect to the silicon circuitry via the flip-chip technology. The designed antenna having ground shielded structures and the artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) will demonstrate the azimuth plane signal transmission with the high radiation efficiency.
Pigments in hybrid, variant and melanic tanagers (birds)

Abstract 1. 1. Rump feathers in parental and hybrid populations of Ramphocelus tanagers along an altitudinal cline varied from scarlet to lemon yellow. However, spectral and chromatographic data indicated the presence of only a single carotenoid pigment. Dilution and statistical tests indicate that the observable colors were a function of pigment concentration. Spectral differences may be correlated with a single peak (470 nm) in the absorbance curve. 2. 2. In a color variant of R. passerinii the spectral and chromatographic data suggest only a difference in pigment concentration. In both cases, these results were unexpected when compared to previous studies on seasonal change and the pigmentation of genetic mutants. 3. 3. Melanic mutant scarlet tanagers retained the feather structure typical of carotenoid-containing feathers. 4. 4. These observations relate to other studies on the biochemistry, metabolic and genetic control of avian carotenoid pigments and to proposed relationships between feather structure and pigment content.
Thin Teflon film walls for a polarized-gas target cell

Abstract Immersion coating, spray coating, stretching, and roll-reduction methods have been explored in work to produce pinhole-free films of Teflon that are 5 cm × 30 cm in area and less than 500 μg/cm 2 thick. A method to produce these films by rolling thicker, commerically available films will be described. The defining characteristics and limitations encountered with each of the other preparation methods also are presented. Four of the self-supporting Teflon films form the walls of an open-ended cell used to increase the density of a polarized-hydrogen target [M.A. Ross et al., Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A 344 (1994) 307; W.A. Dezarn et al., these Proceedings (17th World Conf. of the INTDS, Bloomington, IN, USA, 1994) Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A 362 (1995) 36]. At a wall thickness of 500 μg/cm 2 , roughly half the thickness of commerically available film, detection of recoil protons became possible.
The Application of a Gradient Method in the Finite Element Solution of Elastohydrodynamic Problems

A gradient method is described which can be used to solve problems in elastohydrodynamics. The method involves the minimization of an error function, and is compatible with such numerical schemes of solving continuum problems as the finite element or the finite difference method. A finite length slider bearing is used to illustrate the method, and numerical results for the elastohydrodynamic pressure distribution are presented.
Obfuscating temporal context of sensor data by coalescing at source

Contextual privacy threat arises from divulging the location and time of the triggering events to adversaries. Since, the context of the triggering events serve as useful information to the eavesdropper, data encryption alone renders inadequate for protecting total privacy of a sensing task. Obfuscation of the contextual information is a natural solution to the contextual privacy problem. Since both location and time of a sensed event constitute its context, obfuscation can be performed both spatially and temporally. In [1], the authors employ spatial obfuscation techniques (controlled flooding, probabilistic flooding and fake messaging) by focusing mainly on the location component of the contextual information. Nevertheless, increased message transmissions place an additional burden on the power constrained sensor nodes.
Thermionic electron emission from diamond by nano-seconds laser heating

Investigating a vacuum thermionic emission behavior of a CVD diamond film on silicon substrate is reported. Under vacuum conditions and subjected to a moderate voltage bias, the bare silicon and diamond coated silicon samples show emission current pulses synchronized with excitation nano seconds 532 nm Nd:YAG pulsed laser. Nano second laser is applied to back side of the substrate and the emission site is screened from laser excitations. As increasing the pulse laser intensity, peak emission current increases monotonically. The Arrhenious plot of the peak emission current and the pulse laser intensity relationship follows Richardson's thermionic emission equation in the bare silicon sample. The diamond-coated sample shows two activation energies: one is the same as silicon and the other shows zero activation energy.
Control of jump parameter systems with discontinuous state trajectories

An algorithm is presented for finding the optimal regulator for a linear system with discontinuous state trajectories. Particularly when the state reverts to the origin after every jump in the parameter matrices, the optimal stochastic controller has an interesting certainty equivalence property.
Seattle Fa'a Sāmoa

The paper reviews the concept of community as it has been used by social scientists to describe groups of people, and explores how it might be developed to understand the experience of diasporic communities. Although community avoids some of the essentializing tendencies that are inherent in the concept of culture, the classic use of community fails to acknowledge the reality of travel, and the transcultural, transnational movement of people and ideas. Four Samoan individuals who live in Seattle are portrayed using the method of "ethnography of the particular" to illustrate the cross-cutting influences of their lives and the fluid nature of the boundaries that surround their multiple communities. Shared values of the importance of family ties and church connections help to define what it means to be Samoan in Seattle.
P-bodies, stress granules and viral life cycles

Eukaryotic mRNAs are in a dynamic equilibrium between different subcellular locations. Translating mRNAs can be found in polysomes, mRNAs stalled in translation initiation accumulate in stress granules and mRNAs targeted for degradation or translation repression can accumulate in P bodies. Partitioning of mRNAs between polysomes, stress granules, and P bodies affects rates of translation and mRNA degradation. Host proteins within P bodies and stress granules can enhance or limit viral infection, and some viral RNAs and proteins accumulate in P bodies and/or stress granules. Thus, an important interplay among P bodies, stress granules, and viral life cycles is beginning to emerge.
Ab initio molecular dynamics simulations of threshold displacement energies in SrTiO3.

Ab initio molecular dynamics simulations have been carried out to study low energy recoil events in SrTiO3. The threshold displacement energies are shown to be strongly dependent on both the orientation and the corresponding atomic arrangement. The minimum threshold displacement energies are 13 eV for an O recoil along the 〈100〉 O–O chain, 25 eV for a Sr recoil along the 〈100〉 Sr–Sr chain and 38 eV for a Ti recoil along the 〈110〉 Ti–Ti chain. The weighted average threshold displacement energies along the primary crystallographic directions are 35.7, 53.5 and >64.9 eV for O, Sr and Ti, respectively. The interstitial configurations produced by the recoil events are 〈100〉 and 〈111〉 split interstitials for O and Sr, respectively, together with a Ti interstitial occupying a distorted bridge position between two Sr sites. It is found that the recoil events in SrTiO3 are partial-charge transfer assisted processes, and the partial-charge transfer plays an important role in these recoil events.
The natural history of upper extremity deep venous thromboses in critically ill surgical and trauma patients: what is the role of anticoagulation?

Background:The natural history and optimal treatment of upper extremity (UE) deep venous thromboses (DVT's) remains uncertain as does the clinical significance of catheter-associated (CA) UE DVT's. We sought to analyze predictors of UE DVT resolution and hypothesized that anticoagulation will be ass
Shortest path edit distance for detecting duplicate biological entities

This paper presents a novel and context-sensitive Shortest Path Edit Distance (SPED) applied to duplicate entity detection in biological data. SPED is an extension of Markov Random Field-based Edit Distance. It transforms the edit distance computational problem to the calculation of the shortest path among two selected vertices of a graph. The experimental results show that SPED produces competitive outcomes. SoftSPED, the combination of SPED with TFIDF, achieves superior performance in most cases.
Structural investigation of nitrogenase components from Clostridium pasteurianum and comparison with similar components of other organisms

Abstract 1. 1. Amino acid analysis of molybdoferredoxin from Clostridium pasteurianum showed a majority of acidic amino acids, which is consistent with its electrophoretic behavior. Other features of the amino acid composition are the presence of 3 tryptophan residues and 20 half-cystine residues per 110 000 daltons. 2. 2. Azoferredoxin has a preponderance of aspartic and glutamic acids over basic amino acids. Tryptophan is absent in this protein. There are 12 half-cystine residues per 55 000 daltons. 3. 3. Molybdoferredoxin has been resolved into its two types of composite subunits, one with a molecular weight of 60 000 and one of 50 000. A comparison of the amino acid composition of native molybdoferredoxin with that of an equimolar combination of subunits shows good agreement. 4. 4. Comparison of the amino acid compositions of the nitrogenase components from C. pasteurianum with published compositions of Klebsiella pneumoniae and Azotobacter vinelandii (the MoFe protein only) show that the half-cystine, histidine and proline residues are almost identical. But although the general pattern of the remaining amino acids is similar, there are considerable differences in the tryptophan content of molybdoferredoxin from these three organisms. 5. 5. C-terminal analysis of molybdoferredoxin indicated the presence of alanine and leucine, consistent with the presence of two different subunits. Detection of leucine as the single C-terminal residue in azoferredoxin is compatible with two identical subunits in azoferredoxin dimer. 6. 6. Far ultraviolet circular dichroism spectra of both azoferredoxin and molybdoferredoxin showed pronounced differences in the secondary structure between the air-oxidized and reduced state. 7. 7. Circular dichroism data on the mersalyl derivatives of both proteins exhibited decrease in α-helical structure.
Social and asocial cues about new food: Cue reliability influences intake in rats

Dietary generalists often treat new foods with caution and may rely on social cues to identify new foods that are safe to eat. However, not all generalists show the same degree of caution, nor do they all rely on social cues to the same extent. The cue reliability approach (CRA) attempts to account for this variation by quantifying the costs and benefits of sampling a new food for the first time. The experiments reported here tested predictions of the CRA, and the results suggested that rats eat more new food when asocial cues predict that new foods will prove more profitable than familiar foods. The experimental results also suggested that rats are more likely to seek out social cues when asocial cues are unreliable.
Distant source of 1976 dustfall in Illinois and Pleistocene weather models

Very turbid skies were accompanied by dust deposition in western Illinois on October 15, 1976. Atmospheric circulation in central North America at the time was such that the dust was apparently transported to Illinois from sources in North Dakota or perhaps even southern Saskatchewan. This event indicates how some of the finer grained component of Pleistocene loesses of Illinois may have been derived from a distant source. Current models of Woodfordian atmospheric circulation patterns portray mid-tropospheric and lower tropospheric circulation, cyclonic activity, and climatic tendencies during summer months that are similar to the conditions that prevailed during this particular dust event.
A new insight into using chlorine leaving group and nucleophile carbon kinetic isotope effects to determine substituent effects on the structure of SN2 transition states.

Chlorine leaving group k35/k37, nucleophile carbon k11/k14, and secondary α-deuterium [(kH/kD)α] kinetic isotope effects (KIEs) have been measured for the SN2 reactions between para-substituted benzyl chlorides and tetrabutylammonium cyanide in tetrahydrofuran at 20 °C to determine whether these isotope effects can be used to determine the substituent effect on the structure of the transition state. The secondary α-deuterium KIEs indicate that the transition states for these reactions are unsymmetric. The theoretical calculations at the B3LYP/aug-cc-pVDZ level of theory support this conclusion; i.e., they suggest that the transition states for these reactions are unsymmetric with a long NC−Cα and reasonably short Cα−Cl bonds. The chlorine isotope effects suggest that these KIEs can be used to determine the substituent effects on transition state structure with the KIE decreasing when a more electron-withdrawing para-substituent is present. This conclusion is supported by theoretical calculations. The nucl...
Isolation and chemical characterization of the human B29 and mb-1 proteins of the B cell antigen receptor complex☆

A disulfide-linked heterodimeric antigen from human B leukemia cells was detected by radioimmunoprecipitation and Western blot analysis using a monoclonal antibody (mAb). The mAb was generated against a cell membrane antigen preparation from human B prolymphocytic leukemia cells and found to define an extracellular epitope of the smaller component (beta chain) of a heterodimeric antigen on human B leukemia cells. The antigen from BALL-1, a human B leukemia cell line, and fresh (uncultured) B prolymphocytic leukemia cells was found to consist of a 44-49 kDa (alpha chain) and a 36-40 kDa (beta chain) component. An additional minor component of 34 kDa was detected in the reduced antigen from BALL-1. For chemical identification of the antigen, we isolated the antigen from a Triton X-100 lysate of BALL-1 by immunoaffinity chromatography using the mAb. Determination of the amino-terminal amino acid sequences of the alpha and beta chains unequivocally identified them as the human mb-1 and B29 proteins, respectively. The sequence analyses indicate the molecular heterogeneity of the mb-1 protein and also perhaps the heterogeneity of the B29 protein. We detected three forms of the mb-1 protein which share an identical amino-terminal amino acid sequence and probably two forms of the B29 protein which share an identical amino-terminal sequence. Our sequence data allowed us to establish the authentic amino-terminal amino acid sequence of the human B29 protein which is different from those proposed by others based on cDNA sequence analyses. Comparison of the amino-terminal sequences of the human mb-1 and B29 proteins with those of the mouse mb-1 and B29 proteins showed that the majority of the conserved amino acids in the mb-1 proteins are hydrophobic amino acids. Such conservation of hydrophobic amino acids is not observed in the amino termini of the human and mouse B29 proteins. A beta-tubulin-like protein was found to be co-purified with the mb-1-B29 antigen in the present study. In addition, we found that there is a strong amino acid sequence homology between the microtubule-binding domains of certain human microtubule-associated proteins and an intracellular segment of the human mb-1 protein.
Synthesis and evaluation of aryl boronic acids as fluorescent artificial receptors for biological carbohydrates.

Carbohydrates in various forms play a vital role in numerous critical biological processes. The detection of such saccharides can give insight into the progression of such diseases such as cancer. Boronic acids react with 1,2 and 1,3 diols of saccharides in non-aqueous or basic aqueous media. Herein, we describe the design, synthesis and evaluation of three bisboronic acid fluorescent probes, each having about ten linear steps in its synthesis. Among these compounds that were evaluated, 9b was shown to selectively label HepG2, liver carcinoma cell line within a concentration range of 0.5–10 μM in comparison to COS-7, a normal fibroblast cell line.
Reduced 2-to-1 maps and decompositions of graphs with no 2-to-1 cut sets

Abstract A graph has an increasing ear decomposition if it can be constructed from a simple closed curve by attaching arcs in stages with the endpoints of each arc attached to different points so that at least one new branch point is formed at each stage. A reduced 2-to-1 map is a 2-to-1 map that does not have a restriction that is 2-to-1. A 2-to-1 cut set of a graph G is a finite subset B such that G⧹B has at least 2|B| components. A graph has an increasing ear decomposition if and only if it does not have a 2-to-1 cut set, and a graph is the image of a reduced 2-to-1 map if and only if it does not have a 2-to-1 cut set.
Demystifying the “Magical Cure” for Diabetes

Reducing your stomach to the size of a walnut would perhaps seem an unthinkable intervention for the treatment of type 2 diabetes (T2D). Yet despite trepidation regarding surgical complications, irreversible anatomical changes, and potential life-long medical consequences, Roux-en-Y-gastric bypass
Cardiac Arrest due to Left Ventricular Gas Embolism After Bronchoscopic Argon Plasma Coagulation: A Case Report

Background Argon plasma coagulation (APC) has been used safely in interventional pulmonology and is rarely associated with morbidity and mortality. We report a case of gas embolism to the left ventricle after bronchoscopy with APC. Case A 75-year-old woman with endobronchial carcinoid tumor underwent rigid brochoscopy for APC treatment. The patient went into ventricular fibrillation and cardiopulmonary resuscitation initiated. Transesophageal echocardiogram revealed a large gas bubble in the left ventricle. The patient was placed on extracorporal membrane oxygenation and the gas bubble was aspirated. Discussion Possible explanations for gas in the left ventricle include an anatomic systemic pulmonary shunt, diffusion of air secondary to jet ventilation, or a temporary conduit formed by the intense heat created by the plasma coagulator.
Electronic structures of C60, C70 and the fullerides: Photoemission and inverse photoemission studies

Abstract This paper reviews the electronic structures of solid C60 and C70 as measured using optical and electron spectroscopies. It discusses Li, Na, K and Rb doping of C60 as well as K doping of C70. It also discusses alkaline earth doping of C60.
Linear adjugate preservers on the complex matrices

It is shown that if L is a linear map from the set of n × n complex matrices into itself such that L(adj A) = adj L(A) for all A, and if n ≠ 2, then L has one of the forms is a linear combination of maps of the form PA(adj P) and/or QAT (adj Q). The P's and/or Q's need not be nonsingular when n = 2.
Categorization of birds, mammals, and chimeras by pigeons.

Abstract Identifying critical features that control categorization of complex polymorphous pictures by animals remains a challenging and important problem. Toward this goal, experiments were conducted to isolate the properties controlling the categorization of two pictorial categories by pigeons. Pigeons were trained in a go/no-go task to categorize black and white line drawings of birds and mammals. They were then tested with a variety of familiar and novel exemplars of these categories to examine the features controlling this categorization. These tests suggested the pigeons were segregating and using the principal axis of orientation of the animal figures as the primary means of discriminating each category, although other categorical and item-specific cues were likely involved. This perceptual/cognitive reduction of the categorical stimulus space to a few visual features or dimensions is likely a characteristic of this species’ processing of complex pictorial discrimination problems and is a critical property for theoretical accounts of this behavior.
Visual Estimation of Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Grain Yield in Multiple Environments in Louisiana

Development of high-yielding rice (Oryza sativa L.) cultivars is a primary objective of most rice-breeding programs, and breeding progress is generally measured through increases in grain yield attributable to new cultivars. The pedigree-breeding method, commonly employed in rice-breeding programs, usually results in a large number of lines being discarded in early generations on the basis of visual estimates of grain yield potential. The objective of this research, conducted at five locations in 2007 and 2008 in Louisiana, was to evaluate the effectiveness of visual grain-yield predictions by two rice breeders. A second objective was to determine the effect of disease and lodging on the accuracy of visual selection. Across all years and locations, the grain yield estimates of both breeders were positively correlated with observed grain yield, indicating that visual selection for grain yield can be effective. Differences existed in the predictive ability of the breeders to estimate grain yield at differen...
Airplane Design Methodology: Setting the Gold Standard

AEROSPACE LETTERS are brief communications (approximately 2000 words) that describe new and potentially important ideas or results, including critical analytical or experimental observations that justify rapid publication. They are stringently prescreened, and only a few are selected for rapid review by an Editor. They are published as soon as possible electronically and then appear in the print version of the journal.
Unanticipated guest motion during a phase transition in a ferroelastic inclusion compound.

Urea inclusion compounds (UICs) have been used as tools to understand ferroelastic domain switching and molecular recognition during crystal growth. Although the vast majority of UICs contain helical arrangements of host H-bonds, those containing guests with the formula X(CH2)6Y (X, Y = Br, Cl, CN, NC) adopt an alternative P21/n packing mode in which the host molecules exist as stacked loops of urea hexamers. Such structures may be further separated into two classes, ones distorted away from hexagonal symmetry along [100] (Br(CH2)6Br, Br(CH2)6Cl, and Cl(CH2)6Cl) and those distorted along [001] (e.g. NC(CH2)6CN). In each of these systems, guests exist as equilibrium mixtures of gauche conformers whose populations control the direction and magnitude of the observed distortion. Such UICs are potentially ferroelastic, but the n-glide requires that domains are not related by a simple rotation−translation mechanism as in the helical systems. Ferroelastic (degenerate) domain reorientation would necessitate a lar...
Predicting percent composition of blends of biodiesel and conventional diesel using gas chromatography―mass spectrometry, comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography―mass spectrometry, and partial least squares analysis

Abstract The percent composition of blends of biodiesel and conventional diesel from a variety of retail sources were modeled and predicted using partial least squares (PLS) analysis applied to gas chromatography–total-ion-current mass spectrometry (GC–TIC), gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS), comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography–total-ion-current mass spectrometry (GCxGC–TIC) and comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GCxGC–MS) separations of the blends. In all four cases, the PLS predictions for a test set of chromatograms were plotted versus the actual blend percent composition. The GC–TIC plot produced a best-fit line with slope = 0.773 and y-intercept = 2.89, and the average percent error of prediction was 12.0%. The GC–MS plot produced a best-fit line with slope = 0.864 and y-intercept = 1.72, and the average percent error of prediction was improved to 6.89%. The GCxGC–TIC plot produced a best-fit line with slope = 0.983 and y-intercept = 0.680, and the average percent error was slightly improved to 6.16%. The GCxGC–MS plot produced a best-fit line with slope = 0.980 and y-intercept = 0.620, and the average percent error was 6.12%. The GCxGC models performed best presumably due to the multidimensional advantage of higher dimensional instrumentation providing more chemical selectivity. All the PLS models used 3 latent variables. The chemical components that differentiate the blend percent compositions are reported.
(Na+,K+)-ATPase and noradrenergic regulation: Effects of cardiac glycoside treatment and noradrenergic manipulations

We examined effects of treatment with cardiac glycosides, in combination with noradrenergic stimulation or depletion, on (Na+,K+)-ATPase activity in rat cerebral cortex, heart, and kidney. Treatment with digitoxin increased the apparent number of (Na+,K+)-ATPase sites in heart, cerebral cortex, and kidney. Ouabain, which crosses the blood-brain barrier poorly, did not affect enzyme in brain but was otherwise similar. Norepinephrine depletion prevented the increase in heart but not in cerebral cortex. Noradrenergic stimulation increased the number of sites in cerebral cortex and in heart. In rats treated with digitoxin, noradrenergic stimulation increased enzyme activity further in heart but not in cerebral cortex. Examination of effects on noradrenergic receptor binding and on norepinephrine metabolite concentrations suggested that, while in heart cardiac glycosides appeared to increase norepinephrine release, in brain there was no effect on release but there may have been appreciable inhibition of norepinephrine reuptake under stimulated conditions.
Local regulation of interchange turbulence in a dipole-confined plasma torus using current-collection feedbacka)

Turbulence in plasma confined by a magnetic dipole is dominated by interchange fluctuations with complex dynamics and short spatial coherence. We report the first use of local current-collection feedback to modify, amplify, and suppress these fluctuations. The spatial extent of turbulence regulation is limited to a correlation length near the collector. Changing the gain and phase of collection results in power either extracted from or injected into the turbulence. The measured plasma response shows some agreement with calculations of the linear response of global interchange-like MHD and entropy modes to current-collection feedback.
Surface segregation during irradiation

Gibbsian adsorption is known to alter the surface composition of many alloys. During irradiation, four additional processes that affect the near-surface alloy composition become operative: preferential sputtering, displacement mixing, radiation enhanced diffusion, and radiation induced segregation. Because of the mutual competition of these five processes, near-surface compositional changes in an irradiation environment can be extremely complex. Although ion-beam induced surface compositional changes were noted as long as 50 years ago, it is only during the past several years that individual mechanisms have been clearly identified. In this paper, a simple physical description of each of the processes is given, and selected examples of recent important progress are discussed. With the notable exception of preferential sputtering, it is shown that a reasonable qualitative understanding of the relative contributions from the individual processes under various irradiation conditions has been attained. However, considerably more effort will be required before a quantitative, predictive capability can be achieved.
Mechanisms of absorption in pulsed excimer laser-induced plasma

This work investigates the interaction between pulsed excimer laser-induced plasma and an excimer laser beam. The optical transmissivity through the laser-induced plasma and the velocity of the plasma front are measured within the duration of the laser pulse. Based on the measured velocity of the plasma front, an analysis of compressible gas dynamics is used to compute the thermodynamic properties of the plasma layer, including temperature, pressure, and the number density of the laser-evaporated particles. The absorption coefficient of each absorption mode in the plasma is then calculated from the thermodynamic properties. By comparing the calculated and the measured transmissivity of the laser-induced plasma, we have determined the dominant absorption mechanism in the plasma plume to be photo-ionization at laser intensities in the range 90-400 MW/cm 2 .
Application of positron emission tomography to determine cerebral glucose utilization in conscious infant monkeys

Cerebral glucose metabolism has been used as a marker of cerebral maturation and neuroplasticity. In studies addressing these issues in young non-human primates, investigators have used positron emission tomography (PET) and [18F]2-fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose (FDG) to calculate local cerebral metabolic rates of glucose (lCMRGlc). Unfortunately, these values were influenced by anesthesia. In order to avoid this confounding factor, we have established a method that permits reliable measurements in young conscious vervet monkeys using FDG-PET. Immature animals remained in a conscious, resting state during the initial 42 min of FDG uptake as they were allowed to cling to their anesthetized mothers. After FDG uptake, animals were anesthetized and placed in the PET scanner with data acquisition beginning at 60 min post-FDG injection. FDG image sets consisted of 30 planes separated by 1.69 mm, parameters sufficient to image the entire monkey brain. Our method of region-of-interest (ROI) analysis was assessed within and between raters and demonstrated high reliability (P<0.001). To illustrate that our method was sensitive to developmental changes in cerebral glucose metabolism, quantitative studies of young conscious monkeys revealed that infant monkeys 6–8 months of age exhibited significantly higher lCMRGlc values (P<0.05) in all regions examined, except sensorimotor cortex and thalamus, compared to monkeys younger than 4 months of age. This method provided high resolution images and lCMRGlc values that were reliable within age group. These results support the application of FDG-PET to investigate questions related to cerebral glucose metabolism in young conscious non-human primates.
Vibrational spectra of ReO3Cl and ReO3Br

Abstract This paper presents (a) the infrared spectrum of ReO3Cl from 195–3000 cm−1, and its Raman spectrum with polarizations, and (b) the infrared spectrum of ReO3Br from 150–3000 cm−1. A vibrational assignment is made for both molecules on the basis of C3v symmetry. The fundamental frequencies for ReO3Cl are taken as α1 = 1001, 435, 293; e = 960, 344, 196 cm−1; for ReO3Br as α1 = 997, 350, 195; e = 963, 332, 168 cm−1. Calculated thermodynamic properties are given for ReO3Cl.
Evaluation of annual external radiation doses at values near minimum detection levels of dosimeters at the Hanford nuclear facility

Evaluation of annual external radiation doses at values near minimum detection levels of dosimeters at the Hanford nuclear facility
A high-gain, low-noise 1/2- mu m pulse-doped pseudomorphic HEMT

A 1/2- mu m gate-length pulse-doped pseudomorphic high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) grown by MBE, which exhibits a current-gain cutoff frequency of 62 GHz, is discussed. The maximum available gain cutoff frequency was greater than 150 GHz. A minimum noise figure of 0.85 dB and associated gain of 14 dB were measured at 10 GHz. Tuned small-signal gain in a waveguide-to-microstrip test fixture at 44 GHz was 7.6 dB. When the HEMT was tuned for power, 260 mW/mm with 5-dB gain and 17% power-added efficiency were obtained at 44 GHz. These results suggest that a 1/2- mu m pseudomorphic HEMT is a viable candidate for Q-band applications. >
Vegetative bacterial endocarditis in dogs; echocardiography diagnosis and clinical signs

Over a two-year period, three hundred and forty-five consecutive canine patients of a Cardiology Specialty Clinic were screened for signs of bacterial endocarditis. Ten dogs were identified to have echocardio-graphical signs suggestive of this disease. Their clinical and haematologic data are presented in tables, and the clinical diagnoses were confirmed by necropsies. The echocardiographic signs of bacterial endocarditis and the usefulness of this new technique are discussed.
Antibiotic resistance management.

Antibiotic resistance genes arose long ago in response to naturally occurring antibiotics. Modern medicine has driven further evolution of some of these genes. Resistance can also arise spontaneously by mutation. In bacteria, genes can be inherited or they can be acquired from non-relatives on mobile genetic elements like plasmids. This horizontal gene transfer (HGT) can occur between very different bacteria.
Field Calibration and Spatial Analysis of Compaction Monitoring Technology Measurements

To implement compaction-monitoring technologies (i.e., continuous compaction control and intelligent compaction), robust and versatile specifications are needed. These specifications require field calibration of the various machine sensor outputs to in situ soil compaction measurements. The goal of this study was to provide insights into (a) the nature of compaction-monitoring measurements, (b) how the measurements are related to soil properties determined from in situ compaction control tests, and (c) how compaction-monitoring technology may be addressed in specifications for using the technology in practice. To accomplish this goal, testing was conducted on one-dimensional test strips with several nominal moisture contents for developing statistical regression models that relate machine drive power and compaction meter value data to engineering and index properties of soil. In addition, a two-dimensional test area with variable lift thickness and moisture content was constructed and tested by using both...
Institutional investors, long-term investment, and earnings management

This paper examines the influence of institutional investors on the incentives of corporate managers to alter long-term investment for earnings management purposes. Many critics argue that the short-term focus of institutional investors encourages managers to sacrifice long-term investment to meet current earnings targets. Others argue that the large stockholdings and sophistication of institutions allow them to fulfill a monitoring role in preventing such myopic investment behavior. I examine these competing views by testing whether institutional ownership affects RD otherwise, institutional ownership serves to reduce pressures on managers for myopic investment behavior.
On program testing criteria

There are three commonly used criteria for program testing: each and every statement (branch) (path) in a program is executed at least once. This paper explores the complexity of proving the correctness of several classes of programs by testing. It turns out that even for very restrictive classes of programs, none of the commonly used test criteria is nearly sufficient to guarantee absence of errors. Then this paper proposes two new test criteria which suggest how to select test data to obtain confidence on program correctness beyond the requirement of having each statement, branch, or path to be executed at least once.
The near future of coral reefs

In this paper the current status of coral reefs, predictions concerning the ecological state of coral reefs to the 2025 time horizon and the research needs that can help understanding and management activities that might alleviate detrimental ecological changes are evaluated and discussed. The present rate of CO 2 emissions will produce an atmospheric concentration in 100 years not experienced during the past 20 million years and water temperatures above those of the past interglacial 130 000 years before present. Human influences on water temperatures, seawater chemistry (toxic substances, nutrients and aragonite saturation), the spread of diseases, removal of species and food web alterations are presently changing reef ecology. A significant ecological reorganization is underway and changes include a reduction in calcifying and zooxanthellae-hosting organisms, their obligate symbionts, and species at higher trophic levels, with an increase in generalist species of low trophic level that are adapted to variable environments. Late-successional fleshy brown algae of low net productivity or non-commercial invertebrates such as sea urchins, starfish and coral-eating snails will dominate many reefs. These changes will be associated with a loss of both net benthic and fisheries production and inorganic carbonate deposition; this will reduce reef complexity, species richness, reef growth and increase shoreline erosion. To avert these changes management is needed at both global and local levels. Both levels need to reduce greenhouse gases and other waste emissions and renew efforts to improve resource management including restrictions on the use of resources and globalization of resource trade, run-off and waste production, and balancing potential reef production and resource consumption.
Photodynamic therapy of infectious and malignant diseases

The application of light-induced or photodynamic chemical reactions for inactivating or killing both disease-causing organisms and malignant tumors is discussed. Currently, Phase-III, FDA-sanctioned trials are under way using the initially commercially developed porphyrin photosensitizer, dihematopor-phyrin ether. They are designed to ascertain if photodynamic therapy is efficacious in treating cancer of the lung, bladder, and esophagus. Numerous investigations under way to identify other photosensitizers that can be activated at longer wavelengths and absorb light more efficiently, thus offering potential treatment of cancer tumors that are thicker or more deeply buried, are briefly summarized, as well as investigations of the effects of localizing photosensitizers in various portions of a normal cell, a tumor cell, or an infectious agent, whether viral or cellular. The purpose of these studies is to relate localization and cellular lethality to those chemical attributes of the photosensitizer that control its pattern of localization. >
Yield prediction of acoustic charge transport transversal filters

A yield model for gallium arsenide acoustic charge transport transversal filters is presented. It differs from previous IC yield models in that it is not assumed that individual failures of the nondestructive sensing taps necessarily cause a device failure. In this way, a redundancy in the number of taps included in the design is accounted for. Poisson statistics are used to describe the tap failures. A representative design example is presented, and the critical area for device failure is calculated. Yield is predicted for a range of defect densities, distribution functions, and redundancies. To verify the model, a Monte Carlo simulation is performed on an equivalent circuit model of the device. The results of the yield model are then compared to the Monte Carlo simulation. Better than 95% agreement is obtained for the Poisson model weighted by a triangular distribution function with one redundant circuit. >
Prospects for operational use of airborne polarimetric SAR for disaster response and management

Rapid response to natural disasters resulting from events such as earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, and tsunamis or anthropogenically induced events such as oil spills often requires response time measured in hours to days. The type of information required spans information on the magnitude and location of damage needed by immediate response teams to longer time scale information to monitor recovery efforts. Airborne radar can play an important role in response to disasters given its day/night and all weather imaging capability coupled with its unique set of measurement observables such as millimeter level surface deformation from radar interferometry and polarimetric scattering data. The properties a radar sensor must possess to have a useful role, e.g., frequency, resolution, swath width, etc., depends on the intended application. In this paper we discuss the potential for radar like the NASA/JPL UAVSAR system to respond to disaster management and provide examples from existing UAVSAR data collection to illustrate its potential.
Carcinoembryonic antigen: clinical and historical aspects.

To further define and determine the usefulness of CEA, 1100 CEA determinations have been made over the past two years at The Ohio State University Hospitals on patients with a variety of malignant and nonmalignant conditions. Correlation of CEA titers with history and clinical course has yielded interesting results not only in cancers of entodermally derived tissues, for which CEA has become an established adjunct in management, but also in certain other neoplasms and inflammatory states. The current total of 225 preoperative CEA determinations in colorectal carcinomas shows an 81% incidence of elevation, with postoperative titers remaining elevated in patients having only palliative surgery but falling to the negative zone after curative procedures. An excellent correlation exists between CEA levels and grade of tumor (more poorly differentiated tumors showing lower titers). Left-side colon lesions show significantly higher titers than right-side lesions. CEA values have been shown to be elevated in 90% of pancreatic carcinomas studied, in 60% of metastatic breast cancers, and in 35% of other tumors (ovary, head and neck, bladder, kidney, and prostate cancers). CEA levels in 35 ulcerative colitis patients show elevation during exacerbations (51%). During remissions titers fall toward normal, although in 31% still remaining greater than 2.5 ng/ml. In the six colectomies performed, CEA levels all fell into the negative zone postoperatively. Forty percent of adenomatous polyps showed elevated CEA titers (range 2.5-10.0) that dropped following polypectomy to the negative zone. Preoperative and postoperative CEA determinations are important in assessing the effectiveness of surgery. Serial CEA determinations are important in the follow-up period and in evaluation of the other modes of therapy (e.g., chemotherapy). These determinations of tumor antigenicity give the physician added prognostic insight into the behavior of the tumor growth. Rectal examination with guaiac determinations, sigmoidoscopy, cytology, barium enema, and a good clinical evaluation remain the primary tools for detecting colorectal disease. However, in the high-risk patient suspicious of developing cancer, CEA determinations as well as colonoscopy are now being used increasingly and provide additional highly valuable tools in the physician's armamentarium.
Interdependent and Domestic Foundations of Policy Change: The Diffusion of Pension Privatization Around the World

In the last two decades, striking correlations in the location and timing of structural pension reforms have raised important questions about the kind of information used by policy makers in their decisions to adopt such measures. This study tests the hypothesis that the adoption of pension privatization is shaped systematically by an interdependent logic, wherein the decision to privatize pensions in one country is systematically linked to corresponding decisions made by governments in relevant peer nations. Duration analysis with time-varying covariates of data from 59 countries between 1980 and 1999 reveals that the decision to adopt a private pension reform in one country increases systematically as the proportion of peer nations that have adopted corresponding measures rises. Importantly, the effect of this peer dynamic varies across groups of nations, with the most powerful impact of peer decisions being found among Eastern European and Central Asian nations. Peer dynamics likewise contribute powerfully to the adoption of private pension reforms in Latin America, but do not significantly shape the hazard of privatization among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development member nations. Even controlling for diffusion mechanisms, the analysis shows that pension reform decisions remain subject to domestic political and economic considerations, including demographic pressures, financial costs and incentives to reform, and constraints delimited by the political institutions in each nation.
Reliability and Validity of the SCL-90-R with Hispanic College Students.

Reliability and validity of the Symptom Checklist 90 Revised (SCL-90-R) was investigated to determine if this instrument is appropriate for use with Hispanic college students. The sample(28males, 177females) consistedof 101participantswho identified as Anglo and 104 who identified as Hispanic (6 did not identify their ethnicity). Participants ranged in age from 17 to 50. Cronbach’s alpha was used to assess each of the SCL-90-R’s subscales. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was employed to check for significant differences between Anglo and Hispanic students’pretest scores. The extent to which the SCL-90-R measures change in both samples in a similar way was investigated. The data support the reliability and validity of the SCL-90-R as a measure of psychological symptoms for Hispanic college students.
Electrical properties of a thermoplastic polyurethane filled with titanium dioxide nanoparticles

In this study we report a nanodielectric system composed of pre-synthesized nanoparticles embedded in an elastomer. Nanoparticles of titanium dioxide were synthesized in an aqueous solution of titanium chloride and polyethylene glycol. The nanoparticles were blended in a twin screw extruder with a thermoplastic, polyurethane (Morthane PS455–203), to form nanodielectrics at three different weight fractions of titanium dioxide. Impedance spectroscopy was employed to study polymer dynamics and the influence of nanoparticles on relaxation. The segmental relaxation associated with the glass transition of the polyurethane matrix, and the local relaxations associated with short range motions of polar groups were investigated at wide ranges of frequency (20 Hz–1 MHz) and temperature (300–20 K). The dielectric breakdown strength of the nanodielectrics was also measured to characterize their insulating properties and their potential for use in high voltage applications.