cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
White matter tract integrity metrics reflect the vulnerability of late-myelinating tracts in Alzheimer's disease

Post-mortem and imaging studies have observed that white matter (WM) degenerates in a pattern inverse to myelin development, suggesting preferential regional vulnerabilities influencing cognitive decline in AD. This study applied novel WM tract integrity (WMTI) metrics derived from diffusional kurtosis imaging (DKI) to examine WM tissue properties in AD within this framework. Using data from amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI, n = 12), AD (n = 14), and normal control (NC; n = 15) subjects, mixed models revealed interaction effects: specific WMTI metrics of axonal density and myelin integrity (i.e. axonal water fraction, radial extra-axonal diffusivity) in late-myelinating tracts (i.e. superior and inferior longitudinal fasciculi) changed in the course of disease, but were stable in the initial stages for early-myelinating tracts (i.e. posterior limb of the internal capsule, cerebral peduncles). WMTI metrics in late-myelinating tracts correlated with semantic verbal fluency, a cognitive function known to decline in AD. These findings corroborate the preferential vulnerability of late-myelinating tracts, and illustrate an application of WMTI metrics to characterizing the regional course of WM changes in AD.
Alpha-2 adrenergic activation inhibits forskolin-stimulated adenylate cyclase activity and lipolysis in human adipocytes

Abstract Forskolin at 10 μM caused a 100-fold increase in the intracellular concentration of cyclic AMP and a 6-fold increase in glycerol release in the human adipocyte. These responses are comparable to those prompted by 10 μM isoproterenol. The effects of forskolin on cyclic AMP and lipolysis were dose-dependent. Alpha-2 adrenergic activation, achieved with 10 μM epinephrine and 30 μM propranolol, significantly inhibited forskolin-stimulated cyclic AMP accumulation and glycerol release, shifting the dose-response curves to the right. Forskolin at 10 μM caused a 4.5-fold increase in the adenylate cyclase activity of human adipocyte membranes. When either isoproterenol or epinephrine (0.1 mM) was combined with forskolin, the magnitude of response was substantially greater than the sum of responses achieved by each agent incubated alone.
On-chip diagnosis for early-life and wear-out failures

One approach for achieving integrated-system robustness centers on performing test during runtime, identifying the location of any faults (or potential faults), and repairing or avoiding the affected portion of the system. Fault dictionaries can be used to locate faults but conventional approaches require significant memory storage and are therefore limited to simplistic fault types. To overcome these limitations, three contributions are made that include: (i) enhancement of an unspecified transition fault model (called here the transition-X fault model, or TRAX for short) for capturing the misbehaviors expected from scaled technologies, (ii) development of a new type of hierarchical dictionary that only localizes to the level of repair or fault avoidance, and (iii) the design of a scalable architecture for retrieving and using the hierarchical dictionary for performing on-chip diagnosis. Experiments involving various circuits, including the OpenSPARC T2 processor, demonstrate that early-life and wear-out failures can be accurately diagnosed with minimum overhead using TRAX dictionaries that are up to 2600x smaller than full-response dictionaries.
The psychology of conflict and international relations : a course plan and bibliography:

I suppose I was like many other psychologists in feeling that what we had to say about significant social conflict and war was not worth much. This may have been due to the rather superficial treatments of these topics in many texts, and certainly was also due to a genuine underdevelopment of this area of study. While the area remains underdeveloped, it is rapidly improving and several notable texts have appeared to aid the teacher wishing to explore this material with his students without apology: two examples are Ross Stagner's Psychological Aspects of International Conflict and Jerome Frank's Sanity and Survival. Stagner emphasizes the perceptual aspects of international relations. Frank emphasizes the psychological implications of nuclear weapons for world peace. Both books treat a broad range of topics and make use of a wide variety of behavioral science literature, and both are available in paperback. The course which I developed was for undergraduates. In this case attempts to limit enrollment to a manageable size led to the requirement that students have earned a grade of A or B in the general social psychology course for admission to the seminar. While the grade prerequisite is perhaps unnecessary, I do think the course requirement is pedagogically useful. Students who understand determinism, social influence and conformity processes, attitudes and attitude change will more readily grasp the application of such basic processes to complex real world issues.
The Intergroup Perspective in the Classroom: An Examination of Group-Based Categorization and Relational Outcomes Between Students and Teachers

This brief report highlights a study that applied the intergroup perspective to the instructional context in order to examine the ways in which group-based categorization (i.e., attitude homophily, background homophily, and global shared social identity) related to satisfaction and affect in the educational context. The results demonstrated that all three group-based categorizers were positively related to student-teacher relational satisfaction, student communication satisfaction with their teachers, and affect for teachers; yet attitude homophily emerged as the strongest contributor to feelings of shared identity.
Transportation Demand and Volume Sensitivity: A Study of Grain Shippers in the Upper Mississippi River Valley

Transportation demands typically involve a mode and a volume decision. This paper focuses on the volume decision and the adjustments of volume to changes in rates, transit times, and reliability. Demanders are confronted with a change in each of these attributes and state whether their volumes would change and if they would change, by how much. The model is estimated with Heckman's procedure. In the first stage, the probability of whether an adjustment occurs is estimated as a function of firm attributes, and in the second stage, the level of adjustment is estimated. The data consist of a recent (2006) survey of grain shippers in the Upper Mississippi and Illinois River Valleys. The results suggest that whether an adjustment occurs is affected by storage capacity and rail-car loading capacity. The magnitude of the adjustment, given that it occurs, is driven by the magnitude of the change in rates, time, and reliability. The estimates imply moderate elasticities with respect to rate changes and smaller ela...
Temporally consistent diffeomorphic motion estimation with mutual information: Application to echocardiographic sequences

Motion estimation from cardiac image is a very important technique to study the architecture and function of heart. However quantitative motion analysis from cardiac images is still a challenging problem due to the complexity of cardiac motion and limitations in spatial and temporal image resolutions. We develop a robust temporally consistent diffeomorphic motion estimation algorithm based on mutual information similarity measurement. It extends the current large deformation diffeomorphic registration method by the usage of statistical similarity measurement. In our algorithm, the spatial transformation is parameterized by a smooth velocity field with a transport equation. The optimal velocity field is obtained by minimizing a geodesic path on the diffeomorphic transformation manifold and simultaneously minimizing the frame to frame negative mutual information. The Euler-Lagrange equation of the variational functional is derived and the numerical method based on 3D+t B-spline is proposed. Our method is applied to the simulated and real 3D+t echocardiographic sequences. Experimental results show the improvements of our method over the diffeomorphic method using the sum of squared difference similarity metric.
Parallel processing of verbal and musical stimuli in right and left hemispheres

Abstract Parallel processing of verbal and tonal material was studied in sixteen trained musicians, who under simple dichotic conditions had right ear superiority for verbal and left ear superiority for tonal stimuli. Concurrent processing was induced by presenting spoken numbers superimposed on piano notes in each ear and, in another condition, by presenting competing digits sung to competing tonal patterns. Independent right ear superiority for the verbal component and left ear superiority for the tonal component of each stimulus was maintained under all conditions. It is concluded that the two hemisphere concurrently and independently process that component of a complex stimulus for which each is dominant.
WiMAX opportunities for emerging markets

WiMAX is a novel wireless broadband technology with lots of promises for Urban and rural areas. It has the potential of bringing true wireless broadband to the masses at a fraction of the cost of existing solutions. The technology comes with many benefits and a few challenges. This tutorial discusses the technology benefits and applications. It also addresses some of the hurdles towards deployment and what the industry is doing to overcome those hurdles. A special focus will be given to the Middle East and an overview of the opportunities that exist will be presented.
Sarcoidosis presenting as unilateral alveolar consolidation

Sarcoidosis is a multisystem granulomatous disorder that has variable clinical and radiologic manifestations. We describe a rare case of a 35-year-old black woman who had a nonresolving focal alveolar infiltrate. Her symptoms did not improve with the administration of antibiotics, and a more extensive workup, including fiberoptic bronchoscopy with transbronchial biopsy and a conjunctival biopsy showed noncaseating granulomata. We conclude that sarcoidosis should be included in the differential diagnosis of nonresolving alveolar opacity in populations that have increased incidence.
Pyrolysis mass spectrometry for distinguishing potential hoax materials from bioterror agents

Pyrolysis mass spectrometry (PyMS) was investigated as a rapid tool to distinguish potential bioterror hoax materials from samples containing pathogenic bacteria. A pyrolysis time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometer equipped with an alternative ionization technique, metastable atom bombardment (MAB), was used to produce sample spectra. These spectra were analyzed by principal component and discriminant analysis for pattern recognition. Materials investigated were two strains of Vibrio parahaemolyticus, one of which produced the tdh toxin, two Salmonella enterica serotypes, a biological mosquito control product containing spores of Bacillus thuringiensis, and several white to off-white powders (which could be used as hoax materials), such as flour, corn starch, methyl cellulose, and xanthan gum. PyMS distinguished bacterial samples from hoax materials. Furthermore, pattern analysis differentiated Vibrios from Salmonellae, Salmonella enterica Anatum from S. enterica Heidelberg, and the two V. parahaemolyticus strains from each other. The B. thuringiensis mixture was distinguished from other bacteria and powders, suggesting that PyMS with pattern recognition may differentiate samples containing pathogens, including Bacillus spp., from nonbiological agents and that it can be a rapid method for detection of bacteria. MS data acquisition took only 7 min for each sample. Published in 2006 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Distributed computing in SOSP and OSDI

SOSP, the ACM Symposium on Operating Systems Principles, and OSDI, the USENIX Symposium no Operating System Design and Implementation, are "the world's premier forum for researches, developers, programmers, vendors, and teachers of operating systems technology" according to the SOSP home page. While it may seem odd to discuss operating systems conferences in a column dedicated to distributed computing, the proceedings of the last few SOSP and OSDI's have included numerous papers focused on topics more traditionally associated with distributed computing---primarily transactions, Byzantine fault tolerance, and large distributed systems. In this article we highlight papers from the last 3 years of SOSP and OSDI that are especially relevant to the distributed computing community, identifying areas where the distributed computing community was clearly ahead of its time and others where it was not.
Dimensions of Adaptive Behaviour of Young Adults with Behaviour Disorders

The domain scores of the Adaptive Behaviour Scale were analyzed to investigate the factorial dimensions of the problem behaviours of 106 adolescents referred to a program for people with behaviour disorders. Utilizing the principal components method with a varimax solution four major factors were identified. These were; functional autonomy, behaviour disorder, education and psychiatric disturbance. Of the four, two appear to be unique to this population whilst two, functional autonomy and behaviour disorder are similar to two major factors identified in other factorial studies of the scale.
Improving the reliability of power distribution systems through single-phase tripping

this paper discusses the reliability benefits (reduction in SAIFI and SAIDI) that could be achieved through the implementation of single-phase tripping in four-wire multigrounded medium-voltage distribution feeders. Several issues and concerns regarding the potential problems caused by single-phase tripping are discussed, and the potential reliability benefits due to the implementation of this protection scheme for a real distribution system of the USA are presented and discussed. These benefits were estimated by running multiple simulations using a predictive reliability model.
On the use of ion scattering to examine the role of hydrogen in the reduction of TiO2

Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) was used to measure the titanium concentration profile for hydrogen-reduced, vacuum-reduced, and as-received, stoichiometric rutile. These profiles give the degree of reduction, specifically, the extent of oxygen deficiency, as a function of depth below the sample surface. Using forward-recoil spectrometry (FRES), the hydrogen-reduced rutile was found to contain more bulk and near-surface hydrogen than the as-received, stoichiometric rutile. This observation provides additional evidence for a hydrogen-diffusion model for the reduction of rutile in a hydrogen environment.
Sex roles, social roles, and clinical judgments of mental health

This study examined whether clinical psychologists expect similar behavior from males and females in contexts that are traditionally male vs. female. In a modification of the task by Broverman et al. (Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1970, 34, 1–7), practicing psychologists (N=104) rated the appropriate behavior of a “mature, healthy, socially competent” man in the home environment, man in the work environment, woman in the home environment, or woman in the work environment. There was a significant effect of environment, with ratings closer to the pole traditionally labeled masculine in the work environment (p<.001). However, clinicians did not assign significantly different ratings to men vs. women. These data call into question the continued use of “feminine” and “masculine” to describe behavior, and emphasize the need to specify the environmental context in research on sex role stereotypes.
Separation and characterization of large-ring number polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in non-distillable, pyridine soluble coal-liquids

Abstract Low-pressure liquid chromatography, high-performance liquid chromatography, and field ionization mass spectrometry (f.i.m.s.) were used to obtain compositional information on large-ring number polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) present in a non-distillable coal liquid sample. A highly selective h.p.l.c. method for the separation of (PAH) from polar compounds was applied to nitrogen-compound fractions derived from a Wyodak non-distillable (> 427 °C) coal-liquid sample. F.i.m.s. analyses revealed that the PAH subfractions isolated by the h.p.l.c. procedure contained large-ring number PAH and relatively few nitrogen compounds. The methods developed can generally be applied to the analyses of complex organic mixtures, and in conjunction with other methods, can yield detailed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon compositional information.
Opioid use in the management of chronic pain.

Derivatives of the opium poppy, papaver somniferum , have been used effectively for millenia to provide relief of pain and suffering. The beneficent qualities of opioids have been tempered by their sometimes devastating association with abuse and addiction. 14 Medical opinion regarding the appropriate therapeutic role of opioids has fluctuated widely over the centuries reflecting this divergent experience. As scientific understanding of both pain mechanisms and addiction mechanisms has increased, clinicians and scientists have sought to define the optimal role of opioids in the treatment of chronic pain to exploit fully their unsurpassed effectiveness as analgesics, while minimizing negative consequences arising from diversion, abuse, and addiction. This effort has been characterized by controversy and gradually emerging consensus as interested parties with differing perspectives have struggled to achieve compatible visions of appropriate use. 46 Clinicians who treat patients with pain have sought to increase access to opioids for patients with severe intractable pain, whereas drug enforcement agencies around the world have sought to control the availability of abusable opioids to profiteers and individuals with addiction problems. Medical professional organizations have sought to decrease regulatory sanction of physicians who appropriately prescribe opioids for pain in an effort to support aggressive pain treatment, 29 whereas medical boards, who are responsible for upholding sound medical practice, have sought to identify physicians who may impair public safety through inappropriate prescribing or through diversion of drugs. Clinical addictionists who deal with the often serious morbidity associated with addictions have traditionally sought to educate other physicians on the risks of medication abuse, whereas pain specialists as well as addictionists, advocating for pain relief in their clinical populations, have sought to educate other physicians on the appropriate use of opioids for pain when indicated. 10 The ultimate objective of each of these groups is the well-being of the public. Although none of their operational goals are, in fact, contradictory, their vocabulary and perspectives often have differed significantly, so that it is understandable that the emergence of consensus has been slow and sometimes fraught with controversy. Because paradigms related to the use of opioids for the treatment of pain are rapidly changing, clinicians in primary care settings are often uncertain about what constitutes appropriate use of opioids, both on a medical basis and in the sociocultural and regulatory context. The issues related to opioid therapy are complex, and often no single approach is unequivocally correct in a given clinical setting. This article reviews current thinking on key issues related to the clinical use of opioids for the treatment of chronic pain, to provide physicians with a conceptual and knowledge base that may, together with sound clinical judgment, guide rational decision making in the care of patients with chronic pain.
ANTIGENS ASSOCIATED WITH A TUMOR VIRUS: REJECTION OF ISOGENIC SKIN GRAFTS FROM LEUKEMIC MICE.

Skin grafts from leukemic adult Balb/c mice inoculated when newborn with a leukemia virus, showed evidence of rejection when transplanted to normal Balb/c mice or genetically compatible F 1 hybrids. Therefore, the "cellular" antigens associated with oncogenic viruses may not be limited to the induced tumors.
Subunits of the extracellular hemoglobin of Tubifex tubifex.

The molecular weight of the extracellular hemoglobin of Tubifex tubifex determined by equilibrium sedimentation is 3.0 ± 0.2 · 106. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in sodium dodecyl sulfate showed that the hemoglobin dissociated into four subunits: 13 000 (subunit 1), 21 000 (subunit 2), 23 000 (subunit 3) and 47 000 (subunit 4); in the presence of mercaptoethanol two subunits were observed, 13 000 ± 1000 (subunit I) accounting for 70–80% of the whole molecule, and 26 000 (subunit II). Electrophoresis of the subunits obtained in the absence of mercaptoethanol showed that subunit I originated from subunits 1 and 4, while subunit II originated from subunits 2 and 3. These relationships were supported by N-terminal group determinations. Gel filtration in 6 M guanidine hydrochloride showed that the molecular weight of subunit I is 17 500 and that of subunit II, 36 000. Tubifex hemoglobin appears to consist of at least seven polypeptide chains.
Separation of megakaryocytes from rat bone marrow cells using velocity sedimentation in an isokinetic gradient of ficoll in tissue culture medium

A technique for the purification of rat megakaryocytes is described. Velocity sedimentation in a previously described isokinetic gradient of Ficoll (polysucrose) in tissue culture medium was more effective than isopycnic sedimentation for the purification of megakaryocytes and resulted in preparations of magekaryocytes which contained 2.4 +/- 0.8% (range 1.85-3.60%) megakaryocytes. Megakaryocytes exhibited a broad range of density between 1.06 and 1.15 gm/ml. The inaccuracy which is inherent in the use of velocity sedimentation without isopycnic sedimentation as a means of particle size analysis is discussed.
Migration reversals in perspective: the long-wave evidence

Although the pattern of polarization reversal reported by Vining and Pallone in the 1970s and the re-emergence of core-ward net migration that they now report for the 1980s are problematic if viewe...
Free Fatty Acid Metabolism in Human Skeletal Muscle Is Regulated by PPARγ and RXR Agonists

Free fatty acid (FFA) oxidation in human skeletal muscle cells can be stimulated, both independently and in a synergistic manner, by agonists for PPARgamma and RXR. Increased FFA disposal in muscle through augmented oxidation could reduce intramyocellular lipid accumulation. The abilities of such agents to improve glucose tolerance and insulin action may thus involve effects on both glucose and FFA metabolism.
Phagocyte-induced antigen-specific activation of unprimed CD8+ T cells in vitro.

The strict segregation of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I and class II loading pathways has been challenged by recent reports indicating that MHC class I molecules can acquire antigen in the phagocytic pathway. We now show that this alternative peptide loading pathway can be used efficiently to generate macrophages able to activate unprimed antigen-specific cytotoxic T cells in vitro. Short peptides (8-11 residues), administered in the phagocytic pathway at nanomolar concentrations, were found to be effective in specifically activating naive cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) in vitro, but longer peptides or whole protein antigen were not. Whole protein antigen coated on beads did, however, render macrophages susceptible to lysis by an antigen-specific CTL clone. This indicates that proteolysis in the phagocytic pathway has limited capability for class I-restricted presentation. We propose a model for class I loading in the phagocytic pathway consisting of direct trafficking of nascent MHC class I from the trans-Golgi network to the phagosome, prior to appearance at the cell surface, and the use of the narrow cavity between bead and phagosomal membrane as a peptide exchange/loading compartment. Targeting immunogenic class I-binding peptide to the phagocytic pathway of macrophages facilitates presentation in association with class I. This is a useful tool for CTL response induction in vitro.
A global optimization approach for solving the maximum clique problem

The problem of finding a maximum clique of an undirected graph is formulated and solved as a linearly constrained indefinite quadratic global optimization problem. Theoretical upper and lower bounds on the size k of the maximum clique are derived from the global optimization formulation, and a relationship between the set of distinct global maxima of the optimization problem and the set of distinct maximum cliques of the graph is discussed. In addition, some preliminary computational results are also presented.
Image reconstruction from frequency-offset Fourier data

Motivated by the ability of synthetic-aperture radar and related imaging systems to produce images of surprisingly high quality, we consider the problem of reconstructing the magnitude of a complex signal f from samples of the Fourier transform of f located in a small region offset from the origin. It is shown that high-quality speckle reconstructions are possible so long as the phase of f is highly random. In this case, the quality of the reconstruction is insensitive to the location of the known Fourier data, and edges at all orientations are reproduced equally well. A large number of computer examples are presented demonstrating these attributes. Methods for improving image quality are also briefly discussed.
The mediation proportion.

To the Editor: We read with interest the recent article by Ditlevsen and colleagues1 on effect decomposition using structural equations models (SEM) in epidemio logic research. Every few years an arti cle appears in an epidemiology journal encouraging greater use of path analysis or SEM methods (eg, Susser et al2), but Ditlevsen et al provide several develop ments of particular interest to epidemi ologists. For example, they compare the SEM approach with some of the existing statistical literature on surrogate out comes, and also describe a model of binary outcomes as realized manifesta tions of latent continuous variables. Unfortunately, the article over looks some important developments in effect definition and decomposition over the last 20 years, as presented else where.36 In particular, Ditlevsen et al provide no interpretation for their pa rameters in terms of an underlying for mal causal model. Indeed, the strategy of focusing attention on an arbitrarily scaled latent continuous variable makes it difficult to give causal interpretations to the estimated regression coefficients or to the mediation proportion derived from these coefficients.7 Furthermore, because of identification problems, a variety of causal structures can give rise to the same value for parameters such as the mediation proportion, even when the causal implications of these various structures would be entirely different.6 Finally, for many epidemiologic out comes (eg, spontaneous abortion or mortality), focusing attention on the causal effect of the exposure on the latent continuous outcome, rather than on the observed discrete event, seems to lack clear public-health meaning. When examined in terms of poten tial outcomes, the restrictive assump tions used by Ditlevsen et al (linearity and additivity) can be shown to still be insufficient to give the mediation pro portion an unambiguous causal interpre tation; this interpretation would require the additional assumption of no interac tion at the unit level.8 Under a more general set of circumstances, the total effect (defined causally as a contrast of hypothetical actions) will not decom pose additively into direct and indirect effects.46 In these settings it may still be feasible and substantively interesting to estimate total and direct causal ef fects, recognizing that the latter can be greater than or in the direction opposite to the former.4-6
A Class of Monotone Operator Functions Related to Electrical Network Theory

A new class of monotone functions which map positive operators to positive operators is defined and studied. The class is motivated by electrical network theory. Various properties of these functions are given, including behavior under composition and an electrically motivated duality theory.
INTRODUCTION TO THE SPECIAL ISSUE ON THE POST‐COLD WAR PRESIDENCY

Over the past twenty years the American presidency has been profoundly transformed. It has evolved from an institution that was viewed by many in the scholarly and policy-making community as pre-eminent in our political system to an institution that competes more equally for power with other governmental actors and institutions. Some scholars have argued that the presidency has been so transformed that it may no longer be correct to refer to it as an imperial office but rather that it must be considered an imperiled office.
Effect of change in systolic blood pressure between clinic visits on estimated 10-year cardiovascular disease risk.

Abstract Systolic blood pressure (SBP) often varies between clinic visits within individuals, which can affect estimation of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. We analyzed data from participants with two clinic visits separated by a median of 17 days in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (n = 808). Ten-year CVD risk was calculated with SBP obtained at each visit using the Pooled Cohort Equations. The mean age of participants was 46.1 years, and 47.3% were male. The median SBP difference between the two visits was −1 mm Hg (1st to 99th percentiles: −23 to 32 mm Hg). The median estimated 10-year CVD risk was 2.5% and 2.4% at the first and second visit, respectively (1st to 99th percentiles −5.2% to +7.1%). Meaningful risk reclassification (ie, across the guideline recommended 7.5% threshold for statin initiation) occurred in 12 (11.3%) of 106 participants whose estimated CVD risk was between 5% and 10%, but only in two (0.3%) of 702 participants who had a 10-year estimated CVD risk of 10%. SBP variability can affect CVD risk estimation, and can influence statin eligibility for individuals with an estimated 10-year CVD risk between 5% and 10%.
High-throughput characterization of the ovarian cancer HLA peptidome

Meeting abstracts T cells recognize cancer cells via human leukocyte antigen (HLA)/peptide complexes, and class I HLA-restricted tumor infiltrating T lymphocytes correspond to favorable prognosis in several cancers, including ovarian cancer--the most deadly gynecologic disease [[1][1]]. The
Defects in specialty and container glasses

Abstract Laboratory techniques used to identify solid inclusions such as stones cords, and knots in glass will be described. Examples of defects from raw material, refractory, devitrification and miscellaneous sources will be presented. Glass melting, liquidus determination techniques, and glass-refractory corrosion testing methods can all be utilized to better define defect sources. Correlations between these laboratory tests and actual stone defects will be made.
A first analysis of stability when a constraint on the system state is encountered

The author considers a nonlinear system at a quasistatically varying, stable equilibrium encountering a linear constraint on the system state and studies the consequent change in system stability. The author formulates the problem of a nonlinear vector field encountering a linear constraint and notes that the stability of the constrained system is usually determined by the stability of the constrained linearization of the system. Therefore he studies the stability of a linear system encountering a linear constraint and gives conditions on the constraint guaranteeing stability or a certain change in the degree of stability when the constraint is encountered. The objective is to study the stability of the constrained system directly from the stability of the system and the constraint without explicitly determining the constrained system. This allows analytic study of the process of encountering a constraint. An application to improving the voltage stability of an electric power system near voltage collapse by selectively locking tap-changing transformers is briefly discussed. >
Applications of electrowetting- based digital microfluidics in clinical diagnostics

Digital microfluidics based on electrowetting is a type of microfluidic platform in which liquids are processed as individual unit-sized droplets that are dispensed from a source, merged together, split apart or transported between locations on demand. These devices are implemented using arrays of surface electrodes to control the shape and position of droplets through the electrowetting effect. A major thrust of digital microfluidics research has been the development of integrated lab-on-a-chip devices to perform clinical in vitro diagnostic assays. A variety of preparatory and analytical processes have been implemented and feasibility has been demonstrated for test types ranging from clinical chemistries to immunoassays, nucleic acid tests and cell-based assays. In this article, the current state and future potential of digital microfluidics for clinical diagnostic testing is reviewed and evaluated.
Direct microscale imprinting of Al at room temperature with Si inserts

For direct imprinting of metals, hard materials such as diamond and SiC have been used to construct mold inserts in preference to Si, despite the ease in fabricating Si-based micro-/nano- scale structures. In this communication, we demonstrate that micron scale Al structures can be replicated with good fidelity at room temperature by compression molding with Si inserts without incurring insert damage. We further report on results of a finite element analysis of the mechanics of the molding process. The finite element results provide some understanding of the observed lack of damage to the Si inserts.
Renal Ultrasonographic Correlates of Acute Pyelonephritis

To determine the frequency and clinical significance of ultrasonographically detectable alterations in renal volume and anatomy that are associated with acute pyelonephritis, 25 women underwent renal ultrasonography during the acute phase of their illness, and 21 of these patients underwent the procedure after receiving antimicrobial therapy. One patient had a predisposing anatomic abnormality (4%; 95% confidence interval, 0-12%), and one patient each (8%; 95% confidence interval, 0-19%) experienced focal complications (an intrarenal mass and perinephric fluid collection). The kidneys of the 21 evaluable patients were acutely swollen (mean, 20%; P = .0001); one or both kidneys were enlarged by greater than or equal to 15% in 17 (81%). Acute renal enlargement was associated with protracted pretherapy symptoms (P less than .01), leukocytosis (P less than .01), focal infectious complications (P less than .01), and prolonged hospitalization (P less than .05). Thus, ultrasonographically demonstrable renal swelling characteristically occurs in women with acute pyelonephritis but is usually apparent only in retrospect. The degree of swelling correlates with selected clinical parameters, and the frequency of underlying anatomic abnormalities and focal infectious complications is low.
Morena/o, blanca/o y caféé con leche: Racial Constructions in Chicana/o Historiography

This essay reviews someof the scholarship of the last twenty years that illuminates significant twentieth-century experiences and the multiple identities of Mexican-origin populations in the United States. The racial/gendered contours of Chicana/o history are explored through research that focuses on the Chicano movement, labor and civil rights organizations, identity and community, education, segregation, and sexuality and power. Throughout the history, complicating notions of mestizaje (morena/o), whiteness (blanca/o) and cultural coalescence (cafee con leche) influence and explain individual and institutional actions. Therefore, in this essay the situational nature of racial constructs in the historical (and the historians’) moment are discerned by both a focused overview of critical works in the field and specific cases, including a preview of a case study on school desegregation in the Southwest. Este ensayo revisa parte de la investigacioon de los ultimos veinte annos que ilumina experiencias significativas en el siglo XX sobre las multiples identidades de las poblaciones de origen mexicano en los Estados Unidos. Los contornos raciales/ geneericos de la historia chicana son explorados a travees de la investigacioon que se centra en el movimiento chicano, las organizaciones de derechos civiles y laborales, identidad y comunidad, segregacioon educativa, sexualidad, y poder. A travees de la historia, complejas nociones de mestizaje (morena/o), blancura (blanca/o) y fusiones culturales (cafee con leche) influyen y explican las acciones individuales e institucionales. Por esa razoon, en este ensayo la situacioon de las construcciones raciales en el momento histoorico (y en el de los historiadores) son discernidas a travees de una revisioon panoraamica centrada en los trabajos criiticos del campo y, a la vez, bajo casos especiificos, incluyendo un estudio particular sobre la desegregacioon de una escuela en el Suroeste de los Estados Unidos.
Better Diet Quality before Pregnancy Is Associated with Reduced Risk of Gastroschisis in Hispanic Women

Background Gastroschisis is unique because of its substantial risk in pregnancies of adolescent women. Adolescents may have poor diet quality, which places them at higher risk of gastroschisis. Objective We investigated whether better maternal diet quality, measured by 2 different indices, reduced the risk of gastroschisis. Methods We used case-control data from the National Birth Defects Prevention Study to investigate maternal diet quality among 1125 gastroschisis cases and 9483 controls (estimated delivery dates between 1997 and 2009). Cases were ascertained from 10 U.S. birth defect surveillance systems. Control subjects were randomly selected from birth certificates or hospital records. Using a 58-item food-frequency questionnaire, interviewers queried mothers about their average food and cereal intake during the year before conception. Diet quality scores [Diet Quality Index (DQI) and Mediterranean diet score (MDS)] were calculated using specific components. Women were excluded if they consumed 5000 kcal/d, reported pregestational diabetes, or had >1 missing food item. Quartile-specific adjusted ORs (aORs) were calculated, using as reference the lowest quartile. Results Overall, we observed a statistically significant decrease with increasing diet quality for both the DQI and MDS. When stratified by maternal race/ethnicity, this finding was confined to Hispanic women. Among Hispanic women, the risk of gastroschisis decreased significantly with increasing DQI quartiles: quartile 2, aOR = 0.58 (95% CI: 0.40, 0.86); quartile 3, aOR = 0.52 (95% CI: 0.36, 0.79); and quartile 4, aOR = 0.48 (95% CI: 0.32, 0.76). Increasing diet quality, as measured by the MDS, showed reduced risk of gastroschisis among women, mostly Hispanic, who were born outside the United States: quartile 2, aOR = 0.62 (95% CI: 0.33, 1.16); quartile 3, aOR = 0.51 (95% CI: 0.28, 0.94); and quartile 4, aOR = 0.50 (95% CI: 0.28, 0.90). Conclusions Increasing diet quality was associated with a reduced risk of gastroschisis only among Hispanic and foreign-born women, but these findings require replication.
Nucleotide sequence of the gene encoding the 35-kDa protein of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Abstract A 35-kilodalton (kDa) protein of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is expressed by recombinant Escherichia coli which possess a plasmid that contains a 2.4-kilobase fragment of M. tuberculosis chromosomal DNA. The nucleotide sequence of this fragment was determined by the dideoxynucleotide chain-termination method. Analysis of the sequence revealed four open reading frames that could encode proteins greater than 250 amino acids in length. The reading frame for the 35-kDa protein was identified by subcloning DNA fragments into expression vectors pTTQ18 and pTTQ19, and assaying for production of the 35-kDa protein by Western blotting. A protein with a primary structure of 270 amino acids and a predicted molecular weight of 29, 260 daltons was deduced from the nucleotide sequence. A computer-aided search of nucleic and amino acid sequence databases did not identify any proteins with significant sequence similarity to this protein. The organization of the gene encoding this protein was compared with other mycobacterial genes that have been sequenced. Information obtained from the investigation of this protein may aid in the development of reagents to diagnose and control mycobacterial disease.
Alkaline‐Earth‐Fluoride—LaF3 Systems with Implications for Electroslag Melting

Liquidus and solidus curves in the systems CaF2-LaF3, SrF2-LaF3, BaF2-LaF3, and MgF2-LaF3 under ½ atm helium pressure were determined by thermal analysis as an aid in the selection of suitable fluxes for electroslag melting of reactive metals. The systems CaF2-LaF3, SrF2-LaF3, and BaF2-LaF3 each contain (1) one eutectic, (2) no intermediate phases, and (3) two solid solutions whose lattice parameters vary linearly with composition. The liquidus curves in the systems SrF2-LaF3 and BaF2-LaF3 exhibit maxima. The system MgF2-LaF3 is of the simple eutectic type with no detectable terminal solid solutions. The smallest temperature interval observed between a fluoride-flux liquidus and the melting point of Ti occurs at the dystectic composition in the system SrF2-LaF3. Differences in density between metal and flux are more favorable in the system BaF2-LaF3 than in pure LaF3. These observations suggest potential advantages of using fluxes from the systems studied for electroslag melting of reactive metals.
Prolonged survival of fetal pig islet xenografts in mice lacking the capacity for an indirect response.

: Background: Xenografts of islets from organ-cultured fetal pig pancreases transplanted into non-immunosuppressed mice are rejected within 10 days. Immunosuppression with anti-T cell (anti-CD4) monoclonal antibody alone delays rejection of these xenografts for about 28 days, but rejection eventually occurs despite marked depletion of T cells. To determine if the critical CD4+ T cells responsible for xenograft islet rejection function through the direct or indirect pathway, selective class II-deficient mice that express class II antigens only on their thymic epithelium (not on peripheral cells) with normal numbers of CD4+ T cells, (class II-, CD4+), were used as recipients of xenograft islets to test if rejection occurs in the absence of an indirect response. Methods: Control (C57BL/6) or class II-, CD4+ mice were transplanted under the kidney capsule with cultured fetal pig islets. Class II-, CD4+ mice have normal numbers of B cells, CD4+, γδ T cells, and slightly increased numbers of CD8+ T cells. Additional mice were thymectomized before receiving anti-CD4 or anti-CD8 monoclonal antibodies. Islet graft survival was determined histologically as fetal pig islets were too immature to secrete insulin. Results: Xenograft survival in control animals was 7 to 14 days. In contrast, graft survival in class II-, CD4+ mice was significantly prolonged to greater than 35 days. Depletion of CD8+ T cells in class II-, CD4+ mice prolonged graft survival to about 70 days. Depletion of CD4+ T cells from these mice further prolonged xenograft survival to about 100 days. Conclusions: These results suggest that the rejection of pig islets by mice initially depends on a CD4 dependent indirect response. The CD4 direct response also contributes to graft destruction. CD8+ T cells also participate in graft destruction, albeit weakly.
Matching and scheduling algorithms for minimizing execution time and failure probability of applications in heterogeneous computing

In a heterogeneous distributed computing system, machine and network failures are inevitable and can have an adverse effect on applications executing on the system. To reduce the effect of failures on an application executing on a failure-prone system, matching and scheduling algorithms which minimize not only the execution time but also the probability of failure of the application must be devised. However, because of the conflicting requirements, it is not possible to minimize both of the objectives at the same time. Thus, the goal of this paper is to develop matching and scheduling algorithms which account for both the execution time and the reliability of the application. This goal is achieved by modifying an existing matching and scheduling algorithm. The reliability of resources is taken into account using an incremental cost function proposed in this paper and the new algorithm is referred to as the reliable dynamic level scheduling algorithm. The incremental cost function can be defined based on one of the three cost functions developed here. These cost functions are unique in the sense that they are not restricted to tree-based networks and a specific matching and scheduling algorithm. The simulation results confirm that the proposed incremental cost function can be incorporated into matching and scheduling algorithms to produce schedules where the effect of failures of machines and network resources on the execution of the application is reduced and the execution time of the application is minimized as well.
The Adoption of Competency‐based Regulations for Teacher Certification in Massachusetts

(1982). The Adoption of Competency‐based Regulations for Teacher Certification in Massachusetts. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education: Vol. 12, No. 2, pp. 153-165.
‘Beware the Ides of March!’: an astrological prediction?

This paper will examine the circumstances that inspired the famous utterance attributed to the haruspex Spurinna, ‘Beware the Ides of March!'1 Recently the argument has been made that this warning to Caesar was based upon an astrological calculation, rather than on the usual arts of an haruspex who read signs of the future by inspecting the entrails of sacrificial animals (exta) or by interpreting bolts of lightning (fulgura) and portents (ostenta). As intriguing as this astrological theory is, I am convinced that it is fatally flawed, and I intend to show why it must ultimately be rejected. The question is not merely an academic one, having to do with the methods employed by a particular seer on a given occasion. Rather, if it can be established as even probable that Spurinna based his prophecy upon an astrological calculation, which helped convince the conspirators that Caesar was vulnerable to attack on the Ides as being an unlucky day for him according to the stars, then we are presented with a very significant and hitherto unsuspected instance of astrology influencing the course of public affairs at Rome several decades before astrology came into its own under the early emperors. According to such a reconstruction, astrology played a key role in determining the date of one of the most fateful murders in Roman history. It is the contention of this paper, on the contrary, that there is no reason whatsoever to attribute Spurinna's prophecy to an astrological calculation.