cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Development and Underdevelopment in the Middle East and North Africa

Based on a critical review of diverse explanations for underdevelopment in the Middle East, ranging from long-run historical approaches to accounts that concentrate on developments since independence, I make two main arguments in this essay. First, a single framework cannot explain the diverse cross-national economic trajectories because the region includes countries with widely variable natural resource and human capital endowments while state institutions and state-society relations have evolved differently in countries with distinct levels and experiences of colonial rule and post-colonial state and nation-building. In fact, the MENA region is composed of three distinct types of economies, which entail different levels of population and natural resource endowments. Second, I argue that ongoing research on economic outcomes in the. Middle East should pay more attention to colonial legacies and their interaction with post-colonial policies and institutions and should seek to explain why the particular manifestation of business-government relations in the region seems to be associated with suboptimal economic performance. The chapter begins by tracing the empirical record of development in the region, focusing on standard measures of GDP and industrialization as well as social development indicators. The region’s development trajectory is contextualized in a larger set of cross-regional comparisons to elucidate the ways in which the MENA has and has not excelled with respect to economic and social outcomes. The subsequent section provides a basic typology of national political economies in the region, incorporating both political regime type and economic factors as the main criteria for classifying Middle Eastern countries. This section traces the record of economic growth and development across the distinct political economies of the region in different periods after World War II. In the remaining parts of the essay, I assess existing explanations for economic performance in the region and lay the foundation for an alternative account of the diverse economic trajectories within the Middle East.
What can we Learn from Publication Studies

In the field of astronomy we illustrate the kinds of questions that can be answered with publication studies. For instance, we show that the publication rate is directly proportional to the number of active researchers and not upon technical or scientific breakthroughs. We find that astronomers, at least, are productive of outstanding papers throughout their careers. We found that the halflives of papers can be very long (30–40 years) in those fields and sub-fields that are growing rapidly. We suggest that such quantitative studies should be used more widely in making objective evaluations of researchers, equipment, and the awarding of grants and prizes.
A Survey of Current Integrative Network Algorithms for Systems Biology

The goal of systems biology is to gain a more complete understanding of biological systems by viewing all of their components and the interactions between them simultaneously. Until recently, the most complete global view of a biological system was through the use of gene expression or protein-protein interaction data. With the increasing number of high-throughput technologies for measuring genomic, proteomic, and metabolomic data, scientists now have the opportunity to create complex network-based models for drug discovery, protein function annotation, and many other problems. Each technology used to measure a biological system inherently presents a limited view of the system. However, the combination of multiple technologies can provide a more complete picture. Much recent work has studied integrating these heterogeneous data types into single networks. Here we provide a survey of integrative network-based approaches to problems in systems biology. We focus on describing the variety of algorithms used in integrative network inference. Ultimately, the survey of current approaches leads us to the conclusion that there is an urgent need for a standard set of evaluation metrics and data sets in this field.
An Adaptive Technique for Automatic Region Detection and Extraction of FTIR Spectral Material Absorption for Mid-Wave Infrared Microsphere-Lens-Enhanced Type II Strained Layer Super-Lattice Photodetectors

In general, spectral absorptions are known to negatively affect photodetector Fourier Transform Infrared Transform (FTIR) responses. In this paper, we present an adaptive technique for automatic spectral region detection, absorption modeling and extraction. We show how a combination of several automated signal processing steps, including automatic piecewise-polynomial models derivation in addition to an automatic adaptive boundary based spectral absorption removal, leads to an effective determination of overall FTIR signal performance improvement. Our results show that for different types of lens materials the proposed adaptive algorithm can automatically quantify the increase in the detector sensitivity while additionally finding material-based absorptions and reducing their adverse effects across the MWIR band.
Evolutionary stable sex ratios with non‐facultative male‐eggs first sex allocation in fig wasps

Sex allocation theory has long generated insights into the nature of natural selection. Classical models have elucidated causal phenomena such as local mate competition and inbreeding on the degree of female bias exhibited by various invertebrates. Typically, these models assume mothers facultatively adjust sex allocation using predictive cues of future offspring mating conditions. Here we relax this assumption by developing a sex allocation model for haplodiploid mothers experiencing local mate competition that lay a fixed number of male eggs first. Female egg number is determined by remaining oviposition sites or remaining eggs of the mother, depending on which is exhausted first. Our model includes parameters for variation in foundress number, patch size, fecundity and offspring mortality that allow us to generate secondary sex ratio predictions based on specific parameterizations for natural populations. Simulations show that: 1) in line with classical models, factors that increase sib‐mating result in mothers laying relatively more female eggs; 2) high offspring mortality leads to relatively more males as fertilization insurance; 3) unlike classical model predictions, sub‐optimal predictions, such as more males than females are possible. In addition, our model provides the first quantitative predictions for the expected number of males and females in a patch where typically only one mother utilizes a given patch. We parameterized the model with data obtained from seven species of southern African fig wasps to predict expected means and variances for numbers of male and female offspring for typical numbers of mothers utilizing a patch. These predictions were compared to secondary sex ratio data from single foundress patches, the most commonly encountered situation for these species. Our predictions matched both the observed number and variance of male and female offspring with a high degree of accuracy suggesting that facultative adjustment is not required to produce evolutionary stable sex ratios.
Phonological Treatment Options for Children with Expressive Language Impairment.

The vast majority of treatment efficacy research in the area of phonology focuses on issues relevant to children who have significant limitations in productive phonology but are “typically developing” in most other ways. The base of evidence to guide clinicians on planning intervention for children with phonological and cooccurring expressive language difficulties (PD + LI) is less well developed. Thus, the goal of this paper is to summarize the evidence on two treatment procedures designed to facilitate growth in phonological inventory for children who also require direct intervention to target other aspects of expressive language. We first review what is known about the delicate interaction between phonology and grammatical morphology. We focus the remainder of the summary on what is known about how to best address the more complex needs of children with PD + LI in intervention.
Access to Law or Access to Lawyers? Masters Programs in the Public Educational Mission of Law Schools

The general decline in juris doctor (“J.D.”) law school applicants and enrollment over the last decade has coincided with the rise of a new breed of law degree. Whether known as a master of jurisprudence, juris master, master of legal studies, or other names, these graduate degrees all have a target audience in common: adult professionals who neither are nor seek to become practicing attorneys. Inside legal academia and among the practicing bar, these degrees have been accompanied by expressed concerns that they detract from the traditional core public mission of law schools—educating lawyers. This Article argues that non-lawyer master’s programs are not a distraction from the public mission of law schools, nor are they a necessary evil foisted upon legal education by economic trends. Rather, such degrees reflect a paradigm shift that law schools and attorneys should embrace rather than resist: a move away from law being largely accessed primarily through a licensed elite and toward a greater role for autonomy in public engagement with the legal system. The law school function of serving the public goes well beyond training future lawyers or even marshalling them in the advance of access to justice. The expanded legal education vision advocated here includes those functions, but as part of a more encompassing mission. Law schools should aim to ensure access to law rather than simply access to lawyers. This Article then sets forth foundational frameworks for such programs to succeed at their goals, both at the programmatic level and at the course-design level.
Deep Venous Thrombosis and Pulmonary Embolism After Minimally Invasive Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody Fusion: Report of 2 Cases in 315 Procedures

When the guidelines of the North American Spine Society concerning deep venous thrombosis (DVT) prophylaxis were followed, only 2 (0.63%) of 315 patients with minimally invasive transforaminal lumbar interbody fusions developed DVT complications over a 9-year period. Based on these findings, mechanical DVT prophylaxis appears to be adequate in patients undergoing elective spinal surgery, with no current support for pharmacologic prophylaxis.
Metagenomic views of microbial dynamics influenced by hydrocarbon seepage in sediments of the Gulf of Mexico.

Microbial cells in the seabed are thought to persist by slow population turnover rates and extremely low energy requirements. External stimulations such as seafloor hydrocarbon seeps have been demonstrated to significantly boost microbial growth; however, the microbial community response has not been fully understood. Here we report a comparative metagenomic study of microbial response to natural hydrocarbon seeps in the Gulf of Mexico. Subsurface sediments (10–15 cm below seafloor) were collected from five natural seep sites and two reference sites. The resulting metagenome sequencing datasets were analyzed with both gene-based and genome-based approaches. 16S rRNA gene-based analyses suggest that the seep samples are distinct from the references by both 16S rRNA fractional content and phylogeny, with the former dominated by ANME-1 archaea (~50% of total) and Desulfobacterales, and the latter dominated by the Deltaproteobacteria, Planctomycetes, and Chloroflexi phyla. Sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) are present in both types of samples, with higher relative abundances in seep samples than the references. Genes for nitrogen fixation were predominantly found in the seep sites, whereas the reference sites showed a dominant signal for anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox). We recovered 49 metagenome-assembled genomes and assessed the microbial functional potentials in both types of samples. By this genome-based analysis, the seep samples were dominated by ANME-1 archaea and SRB, with the capacity for methane oxidation coupled to sulfate reduction, which is consistent with the 16S rRNA-gene based characterization. Although ANME-1 archaea and SRB are present in low relative abundances, genome bins from the reference sites are dominated by uncultured members of NC10 and anammox Scalindua, suggesting a prevalence of nitrogen transformations for energy in non-seep pelagic sediments. This study suggests that hydrocarbon seeps can greatly change the microbial community structure by stimulating nitrogen fixation, inherently shifting the nitrogen metabolism compared to those of the reference sediments.
Some Remarks About Computational Fluid Dynamics

Recent results in computational fluid dynamics are discussed and open problems are indicated. It is stressed that we cannot hope for accurate results, if we do not resolve all the relevant scales. If the capacity of the computer is not adequate, then one has to modify the differential equations.
ACTS: a multi-media contaminant transport modelling platform

In an attempt to determine if there are links between environmental pollution and increased risk to human health, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) conducts health assessments, health consultations, exposure investigations, and health studies. Quantifying the fate and transport of pollutants and the uncertainty associated with the analysis is a key step in these studies. To assist engineers and health scientists in conducting such analyses, ATSDR and the Multimedia Environmental Simulation Laboratory (MESL) program at Georgia Tech have developed software to assist with environmental multi-media fate and transport computations in a user-friendly environment. This software is identified as the "Analytical Contaminant Transport analysis System" (ACTS). In this paper, we describe general features of this software and the models contained therein. Further demonstration of the capabilities and use of ACTS software in site-specific cases can be found in other publications of the authors as referenced in this paper.
The Golden Ratio of Learning and Momentum.

Gradient descent has been a central training principle for artificial neural networks from the early beginnings to today's deep learning networks. The most common implementation is the backpropagation algorithm for training feed-forward neural networks in a supervised fashion. Backpropagation involves computing the gradient of a loss function, with respect to the weights of the network, to update the weights and thus minimize loss. Although the mean square error is often used as a loss function, the general stochastic gradient descent principle does not immediately connect with a specific loss function. Another drawback of backpropagation has been the search for optimal values of two important training parameters, learning rate and momentum weight, which are determined empirically in most systems. The learning rate specifies the step size towards a minimum of the loss function when following the gradient, while the momentum weight considers previous weight changes when updating current weights. Using both parameters in conjunction with each other is generally accepted as a means to improving training, although their specific values do not follow immediately from standard backpropagation theory. This paper proposes a new information-theoretical loss function motivated by neural signal processing in a synapse. The new loss function implies a specific learning rate and momentum weight, leading to empirical parameters often used in practice. The proposed framework also provides a more formal explanation of the momentum term and its smoothing effect on the training process. All results taken together show that loss, learning rate, and momentum are closely connected. To support these theoretical findings, experiments for handwritten digit recognition show the practical usefulness of the proposed loss function and training parameters.
High-throughput liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry assay as initial testing procedure for analysis of total urinary fraction

In the recent years, a lot of effort was put into the development of multiclass initial testing procedures (ITP) to streamline analytical workflow in antidoping laboratories. Here, a high-throughput assay based on liquid chromatography-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry suitable for use as initial testing procedure covering multiple classes of compounds prohibited in sports is described. Employing a 96-well plate packed with 10 mg of weak cation exchange polymeric sorbent, up to 94 urine samples and their associated positive and negative controls can be processed in less than 3 h with minimal labor. The assay requires a 0.5-ml urine aliquot, which is subjected to enzymatic hydrolysis followed by solid phase extraction, evaporation, and reconstitution in a 96-well collection plate. With a 10-min run time, more than 100 analytes can be detected using electrospray ionization with polarity switching. The assay can be run nearly 24/7 with minimal downtime for instrument maintenance while detecting picogram amounts for the majority of analytes. Having analyzed approximately 28,000 samples, nearly 400 adverse analytical findings were found of which only one tenth were at or above 50% of the minimum required performance level established by the World Anti-Doping Agency. Compounds most often identified were stanozolol, GW1516, ostarine, LGD4033, and clomiphene, with median estimated concentrations in the range of 0.02-0.09 ng/ml (either as parent drug or a metabolite). Our data demonstrate the importance of using a highly sensitive ITP to ensure efficient antidoping testing.
Licensing business data in Academia: Negotiating and balancing needs

Reading licenses can be a challenge with the dry complicated language, but licensing business data is an even bigger challenge. Data providers tend to be less familiar with the academic arena than ...
The 50 Most-Cited Papers on Bankart Lesions.

Purpose To analyze the 50 most-cited articles pertaining to “Bankart lesions,” also known as anteroinferior labral tears, by means of citation analysis as well as to provide analysis and summary of the origins and trends of research on Bankart lesions. Methods Scopus was used to query the literature on Bankart lesions. Included articles were related to Bankart lesions and the indications, risk factors, techniques, and outcomes of arthroscopic and open Bankart repair. The 50 most-cited articles were analyzed in the following areas: year of publication, citations in the most recent year, total citation count, contributing authors, institutions, countries, and journals, article classifications, and level of evidence. Results Years of publication ranged from 1938 to 2013. There were 608 total citations in the most recent year. Total citation count was 12,441. Regarding country, journal, and authorship, United States, R. A. Arciero, and Arthroscopy were the highest respective contributors. Rush University had the greatest number of publications. The most common article classification was clinical outcomes. Of 49 clinical articles, the most frequent Level of Evidence was IV. The majority of the top 50 Bankart literature consisted of case series and retrospective studies performed in the United States. Conclusions Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that the 50 most-cited articles about Bankart lesions are predominantly U.S.-based, produced by academic orthopaedic groups, clinical outcomes articles, and of Level IV and V evidence. This list of articles should serve as a reference tool for any orthopaedist looking to review Bankart literature.
Early micro- and macrostructure of sensorimotor tracts and development of cerebral palsy in high risk infants.

Infants born very preterm (VPT) are at high risk of motor impairments such as cerebral palsy (CP), and diagnosis can take 2 years. Identifying in vivo determinants of CP could facilitate presymptomatic detection and targeted intervention. Our objectives were to derive micro- and macrostructural measures of sensorimotor white matter tract integrity from diffusion MRI at term-equivalent age, and determine their association with early diagnosis of CP. We enrolled 263 VPT infants (≤32 weeks gestational age) as part of a large prospective cohort study. Diffusion and structural MRI were acquired at term. Following consensus guidelines, we defined early diagnosis of CP based on abnormal structural MRI at term and abnormal neuromotor exam at 3-4 months corrected age. Using Constrained Spherical Deconvolution, we derived a white matter fiber orientation distribution (fOD) for subjects, performed probabilistic whole-brain tractography, and segmented nine sensorimotor tracts of interest. We used the recently developed fixel-based (FB) analysis to compute fiber density (FD), fiber-bundle cross-section (FC), and combined fiber density and cross-section (FDC) for each tract. Of 223 VPT infants with high-quality diffusion MRI data, 14 (6.3%) received an early diagnosis of CP. The cohort's mean (SD) gestational age was 29.4 (2.4) weeks and postmenstrual age at MRI scan was 42.8 (1.3) weeks. FD, FC, and FDC for each sensorimotor tract were significantly associated with early CP diagnosis, with and without adjustment for confounders. Measures of sensorimotor tract integrity enhance our understanding of white matter changes that antecede and potentially contribute to the development of CP in VPT infants.
Electrical Properties of Optically Triggered SiC JFET for Power Electronic Application

A novel high voltage optically triggered SiC Junction Field Effect Transistor (JFET) configuration is proposed. The electrical and switching characteristics of the device is studied theoretically by solving the experimentally validated transport and physical models and do analysis experimentally. The optical signal trigger low-voltage optically controlled GaAs switch, called optically triggered power transistor (OTPT), is designed for voltage rating of nearly 70 V. The OTPT is connected in series with normally-on SiC JFET to handle the current switching. The simulation result found that the optically triggered SiC JFET operated with very high blocking voltage of 1200 V and rate of current rise (di/dt) of 25 A/ns at 500 V drain bias with significantly low leakage current of 10 μA. Additionally, it is found that the current of the optically triggered JFET increases with the increase of optical power of illuminated laser. Furthermore, the experimental outcome of turn on and turn off time of the device studied at comparatively low drain bias (200 V) are 95 nm and 740 ns respectively. Finally, very high breakdown voltage and high rate of current rise leads the SiC optical JFET a potential candidate for high power switching application.
Inhibitors of DHHC family proteins.

Abstract Protein S-acylation is a prevalent post-translational protein lipidation that is dynamically regulated by ‘writer’ protein S-acyltransferases and ‘eraser’ acylprotein thioesterases. The protein S-acyltransferases comprise 23 aspartate–histidine–histidine–cysteine (DHHC)–containing proteins, which transfer fatty acid acyl groups from acyl-coenzyme A onto protein substrates. DHHC proteins are increasingly recognized as critical regulators of S-acylation–mediated cellular processes and pathology. As our understanding of the importance and breadth of DHHC-mediated biology and pathology expands, so too does the need for chemical inhibitors of this class of proteins. In this review, we discuss the challenges and progress in DHHC inhibitor development, focusing on 2-bromopalmitate, the most commonly used inhibitor in the field, and N-cyanomethyl-N-myracrylamide, a new broad-spectrum DHHC inhibitor. We believe that current and ongoing advances in structure elucidation, mechanistic interrogation, and novel inhibitor design around DHHC proteins will spark innovative strategies to modulate these critical proteins in living systems.
Ranking cities for safety investigation by potential for safety improvement

ABSTRACTThe authors performed a city-level hot-spot identification by using the 4-year data of 265 cities in California. It is intended to equip road safety professionals with more useful information to compare the safety performance of city as a whole. Potential for safety improvement (PSI) was adopted as a measure of crash risk to compare alternate identification of hot spot (HSID) methods, including the Empirical Bayes (EB) and three full Bayesian (FB) alternatives, negative binomial, Poisson log-normal, and the Poisson temporal random effect, for ranking the safety performance of cities. Five evaluation tests which contain the Site Consistency Test, the Method Consistency Test, the Total Rank Difference Test, the Total Performance Difference Test, and the Total Score Test were applied to evaluate the performance of the four HSID methods. Moreover, two cutoff levels, top 5% and 10% cities, were employed for more reliable results. Overall, the study results are consistent with the results of previous qu...
Separation methods for waste and environmental applications

Adsorption and ion exchange absorption and stripping membrane process leaching/extraction liquid-liquid extraction distillation, evaporation and stream stripping surface filtration deep-bred filters sedimentation and settling precipitation other physical separation methods.
Increasing Confirmation Response Rates: Prenotifications, Monetary Incentives and Addressee Differences:

This article reports the results of a research effort that measured the response enhancing effectiveness of two sizes of small monetary incentives and prenotification letters. The measurements were obtained during the audit of the installment and commercial loan balances of a medium-sized bank located in Central Florida. The data were analyzed with logistic regression. The analyses revealed that prenotification letters tended to encourage timely responses but they did not increase overall response levels. This was true for both types of loan balances. Small monetary incentives were found to be effective with installment loans in certain situations but ineffective with commercial loans.
The cognitive basis of physical modelling

We revisit the meaning of the term “solution” with regards to a physical model representing a natural system. We suggest that a (non-conventional) epistemic cognition solution (assuming that the model describes incomplete knowledge about nature, and focusing on conceptual mechanisms of scientific thinking) can lead to more realistic results than a (conventional) ontologic solution (assuming that the model describes nature as is, and focusing on form manipulations).
Simple Wavelet Sets in R n

Wavelet sets that are finite unions of convex sets are constructed in R n , n ≥ 2, for dilation by any expansive matrix that has a power equal to a scalar times the identity and also has all singular values greater than √ n. In particular, we produce simple wavelet sets in every dimension for dilation by any real scalar greater than 1.
Title VII’s Last Harrah: Can Discrimination Be Plausibly Pled?

The Roberts Supreme Court appears to be somewhat schizophrenic in how it approaches antidiscrimination law. One recent decision, Ricci v. DeStefano, involves a potentially expansionist development making proof of intent to discriminate, a key element in most antidiscrimination cases, simply a question of fact of whether the employer was aware of the racial (or gender) consequences of its action. Other decisions push Title VII cases out of court into arbitration, further complicate procedural law and diminish the scope of substantive protections of the law, thereby making Title VII cases that remain in court more difficult to bring as class actions or to advance even individual cases beyond the pleading stage of litigation. Given the breadth of the onslaught against a robust antidiscrimination jurisprudence, it appears likely that the thrust limiting antidiscrimination law will win out over the alternative expansionist approach that would follow the application of Ricci to disparate treatment discrimination cases beyond “reverse” discrimination claims. If that is true, the Supreme Court will be bringing to an end the availability of Title VII to help redress our society’s longstanding and continuing problems of employment discrimination. This paper argues for the extension of the simplified proof standard of what constitutes intent to discriminate and for the acceptance at the pleading stage of discrimination cases of social science research, including implicit bias studies, that show why discrimination persists. Establishing a more realistic set of background assumptions about that persistence would assist judges making the plausibility finding necessary for discrimination claims to survive motions to dismiss. These two paths seem to be what the Court has so far left open so that the antidiscrimination project can continue to have some life. This paper was originally presented at the University of Chicago Legal Forum's 2013 Symposium, "The Civil Rights Act at 50 Years," on November 8, 2013.
A note on Talagrand’s convex hull concentration inequality

The paper reexamines an argument by Talagrand that leads to a remarkable exponential tail bound for the concentration of probability near a set. The main novelty is the replacement of a mysterious Calculus inequality by an application of Jensen's inequality.
Relative Recursive Enumerability

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses relative recursive enumerability. It presents a theorem that was first suggested by a conjecture of Cooper. The theorem shows that let C be a recursively enumerable (r.e.), nonrecursive set. Then there is a set A such that A is r.e. in C, C is recursive in A, but A does not have r.e. degree. The chapter describes a single requirement for proving the theorem and presents a construction that meets this requirement. It outlines a method for meeting all the requirements, assuming that C is low, and describes the method for meeting the requirements without this assumption. The chapter further refinements of the theorem and also discusses the relationship of this discussion to that of Jockusch and Shore. The technique of replacing an infinite injury priority argument by a finite injury argument using lowness is due to Robinson.
Evaluation of a continuing computer conference on simulation

A 20-day computer conference was held in preparation for a face-to-face meeting to produce a computer simulation. The conferencing resulted in the generation of seven different models and was excellent preparation for the subsequent meeting. Computer conferencing appears to hold great value for faculty development in a period of reduced faculty mobility.
State-averaged CASSCF and MRCI studies on the ground and low-lying singlet excited states of methylacetylene

Abstract In this work, the potential energy curves for the ground and low-lying singlet excited states of methylacetylene molecule are calculated at the state-averaged CASSCF level including nine roots. The vertical excitation energies, dipole moments and transition moments are also obtained at the equilibrium geometry for the low-lying singlet excited states at both CASSCF and MRCI levels. We have investigated the nature of the electronic transitions and the photolysis processes at different wavelengths as well as the vibronic effect for all the states.
The nature of knowledge and theory in nursing.

The formulation of nursing as a discipline is under way. Work on theory development, concept clarification and the development of a knowledge base is spurred by the creation of new doctoral programs and the emphasis on nursing research. As nursing establishes itself as an inventor of theory, the contrasts and similarities between its existence as both a practice profession and academic discipline come into sharp focus. As nursing strives to understand itself both as a user-applier and discoverer-inventor of knowledge and theory, it provides a model for other practice professions and academic disciplines to explore such questions as, What is the nature of theory in practice? What is the role of application in the formulation of theory? This paper examines the characteristics of theoretical constructs as they apply to the practice of nursing, the use of theory in that practice and the limitations of theory in application.
BIGPROBE: a computer program that predicts the sequence of long oligonucleotide probes with high reliability.

Abstract We have written a computer program, BIGPROBE, which facilitates the design of long nucleic acid probes from the partial or complete amino acid sequence of a protein. BIGPROBE relies upon information on codon usage, intercodon dinucleotide frequency, and potential probe self-complementarity. We have examined the accuracy with which the program predicts coding sequences using sample human and rat genes and probe lengths of 30-60 nucleotides. Rat probe sequences selected by BIGPROBE using either codon usage or dinucleotide frequency data alone averaged 86-92% homology with the known exons of the corresponding gene sequences. Predictive accuracy with rat gene probes could be improved to 89-94%, depending upon probe length, by applying codon usage and dinucleotide frequency data in combination. Similar accuracy was achieved for human genes.
Melatonin in Relation to Cellular Antioxidative Defense Mechanisms

Melatonin's actions in organisms are more widespread than originally envisaged. Over three decades ago, the changing pattern of nocturnal melatonin production was found to be the signal for the annual cycle of reproduction in photoperiodic species. Since then, melatonin's actions also have been linked to circadian rhythms, immune function, sleep, retinal physiology and endocrine functions in general. In recent years, however, the sphere of influence of melatonin was further expanded when the indole was found to be an effective free radical scavenger and antioxidant. Free radicals are toxic molecules, many being derived from oxygen, which are persistently produced and incessantly attack and damage molecules within cells; most frequently this damage is measured as peroxidized lipid products, carbonyl proteins, and DNA breakage or fragmentation. Collectively, the process of free radical damage to molecules is referred to as oxidative stress. Melatonin reduces oxidative stress by several means. Thus, the indole is an effective scavenger of both the highly toxic hydroxyl radical, produced by the 3 electron reduction of oxygen, and the peroxyl radical, which is generated during the oxidation of unsaturated lipids and which is sufficiently toxic to propagate lipid peroxidation. Additionally, melatonin may stimulate some important antioxidative enzymes, i.e., superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase and glutathione reductase. In in vivo tests, melatonin in pharmacological doses has been found effective in reducing macromolecular damage that is a consequence of a variety of toxic agents, xenobiotics and experimental paradigms which induce free radical generation. In these studies, melatonin was found to significantly inhibit oxidative damage that is a consequence of paraquat toxicity, potassium cyanide administration, lipopolysaccharide treatment, kainic acid injection, carcinogen administration, carbon tetrachloride poisoning, etc., as well as reducing the oxidation of macromolecules that occurs during strenuous exercise or ischemia-reperfusion. In experimental models which are used to study neurodegenerative changes associated with Alzheimer's and Parkinson disease, melatonin was found to be effective in reducing neuronal damage. Its lack of toxicity and the ease with which melatonin crosses morphophysiological barriers and enters subcellular compartments are essential features of this antioxidant. Thus far, most frequently pharmacological levels of melatonin have been used to combat oxygen toxicity. The role of physiological levels of melatonin, which are known to decrease with age, is being investigated as to their importance in the total antioxidative defense capacity of the organism.
Cafestol to Tricalysiolide B and Oxidized Analogues: Biosynthetic and Derivatization Studies Using Non-heme Iron Catalyst Fe(PDP).

The tricalysiolides are a recently isolated class of di­terpene natural products featuring the carbon backbone of the well-known coffee extract, cafestol. Herein we validate the use of our non-heme iron complex, Fe(PDP), as an oxidative tailoring enzyme mimic to test the proposal that this class of natural products derives from cafestol via cytochrome P-450-mediated furan oxidation. Thereafter, as predicted by computational analysis, C–H oxidation derivatization studies provided a novel 2° alcohol product as a single diastereomer.
Community‐based forestry in Mexico: can it reverse processes of degradation?

To arrest processes of resource degradation, researchers and activists increasingly advocate community-based approaches, which recognize local tenure rights and devolve management responsibilities to local communities. But de jure community control does not necessarily eliminate the problem. In Mexico, more than 70 percent of remaining forests are the common properties of thousands of rural communities. During most of this century, however, custodial forest management policies and concessions to large industries alienated local people from using their forests or participating in their conservation. This led to forest degradation and deforestation through the concessionaire's high-grading and the timber smuggling and land conversion carried on by members of excluded communities. Since the 1980s, a community-based alternative has arisen, in which communities manage their own logging enterprises operating in their communal forests. In a case-study community, benefits from forestry increased dramatically after community control and forest management improved. But severe problems remain, including corruption and the concentration of forestry benefits among a local elite, and forest-degrading timber smuggling among many commoners. These problems reflect an imbalance of power in the community and weakened common property institutions. This situation contrasts with seven other forestry communities that maintain communal accountability over logging businesses, better distribution of the benefits and restrictions of resource management, and internally legitimate control over timber smuggling and unsanctioned clearing. A comparison of the history and institutional characteristics of these communities suggests that parallel policies of institutional investment and capacity building will enhance the success of community-based approaches to reversing processes of resource degradation. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Laparoscopic myomectomy in African-American women

Abstract Study Objective. To evaluate the effectiveness of laparoscopic myomectomy in an ethnic group with a statistically increased frequency of uterine leiomyomata. Design. Retrospective chart review. Setting. Private practice of one surgeon, and Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Rush Medical College, Chicago, Illinois. Patients. Forty-one consecutive African-American women who underwent laparoscopic myomectomy and were followed for 12 to 26 months. Interventions. The women received a modified protocol for gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist treatment before laparoscopic surgery. Laparoscopic myomectomies were performed under general anesthesia using energy sources of monopolar and bipolar electrosurgery and ultrasonic coagulation-cutting (harmonic scalpel). Measurements and Main Results. Seventy percent (70%, 29 women) of procedures were completed on an outpatient basis. Twelve patients were hospitalized for an average of 1.3 days. No significant operative or postoperative complications occurred, and none of the women required blood transfusions or readmission. The conversion rate was zero. Forty patients (91%) reported complete resolution or significant reduction of their symptoms. Conclusions. Outpatient laparoscopic myomectomy is safe and effective in African-American women with symptomatic uterine leiomyomata of 20 weeks' size or less.
The oscillatory instability in rapid solidification

We modify the usual directional solidification equations for the case of large pulling velocities (rapid solidification). Using these equations we describe a numerical method to analyze the stability for numerically obtained cellular structures. We find cells which are oscillatory unstable which will lead to the observation of banded regions in the experiment. The width of these bands are estimated and found to agree roughly with the experimentally observed ones.
Early understanding of perception as a source of knowledge

Two studies investigated preschool children's ability to infer another person's knowledge or ignorance on the basis of that person's recent perceptual experience. In Experiment 1 children were questioned about their own and a puppet's knowledge of a hidden object's color and about their own and the puppet's ability to see the hidden object. Three- and 4-year-olds attributed knowledge and perceptual experience to the person (either themselves or the puppet) who had viewed the hidden object, but not to the person who did not view it. Experiment 2 further investigated 3-year-olds understanding of perception as a source of knowledge. Children were asked to indicate which of two puppets, one who had viewed a hidden object and one who had not, would be able to tell them the object's color. Children chose the correct puppet more often than would be predicted by chance. The results of these experiments suggest that understanding of perception as a source of knowledge is present by the age of 3 years.
The development of brain biogenic amines, cyclic nucleotides and hyperactivity in 6-OHDA-treated rat pups.

Abstract Developmental changes in the behavior and brain biochemistry of rat pups were investigated in rats administered intracisternal injections of 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) or its vehicle at 5 days of age. Although pups of both groups were equivalent in their activity at 15 days of age, 6-OHDA-induced hyperactivity emerged at 20 and 30 days of age in a between-group design in which rats were only tested at one age. Body weightmeasurements revealed that 6-OHDA-treated rats were underweight at 15, 25 and 30 days of age. Furthermore, at 20 days of age, total activity was inversely related to body weights in the 6-OHDA-treated pups. Whole-brain levels of dopamine (DA) were decreased at very age by the 6-OHDA treatment, whereas norepinephrine (NE) levels were virtually unaffected by 6-OHDA at these same ages. Total activity was inversely correlated with whole-brain DA levels at 20 and 30 days of age when 6-OHDA-treated pups were hyperactive. Measures of cerebellar and “rest-of-brain” adenosine 3′,5′-monophosphate (cyclic AMP) and guanosine 3′,5′-monophosphate (cyclic GMP) were not uniformly altered by either the 6-OHDA treatment or by maturation. Results are discussed both in terms of brain biochemistry modulation of hyperactivity and the contribution of decreased body weights induced by 6-OHDA to the production of hyperactivity.
Asymptotic stability of piecewise affine systems with sampled-data piecewise linear controllers

This paper addresses stability analysis of closed-loop sampled-data piecewise affine (PWA) systems. In particular, we study the case in which a PWA plant is in feedback with a sampled-data piecewise linear (PWL) controller. We consider the sampled-data system as a continuous-time system with a variable time delay. The contributions of this work are threefold. First, we present a modified Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional (LKF) for studying PWA systems with time delay. Second, based on the new LKF, sufficient conditions are provided for asymptotic stability of PWA systems in feedback with sampled-data PWL controllers. Finally, following the time-delay approach, we formulate the problem of finding a lower bound on the maximum delay that preserves asymptotic stability to the origin as an optimization program in terms of LMIs. The new results are successfully applied to a unicycle example.
Regulation of glucose transport as well as glucose transporter and immediate early gene expression in 3T3-L1 preadipocytes by 8-bromo-cAMP.

In the present study we have examined the ability of 8-bromoadenosine cyclic 3′, 5′-phosphate (8-bromo-cAMP; the membrane permeant analog of cAMP which can activate protein kinase A) to mimic hormone action and stimulate glucose transport and glucose transporter (GLUT-1) gene expression as well as the expression of several growth-related protooncogenes in quiescent 3T3-L1 fibroblasts. 8-Bromo-cAMP induced a rapid and prolonged increase in the rate of hexose transport. Early activation of hexose transport (within 30 min) was associated with increased plasma membrane immunoreactive glucose transporters, which corresponded to a doubling in the number of D-glucose-displaceable, plasma membrane cytochalasin B binding sites. The time course for 8-bromo-cAMP-induced hexose transport preceded the accumulation of GLUT-1 mRNA, which peaked between 4 and 8 h after exposure to the agent, and subsequently declined to approach basal (control) levels. Expression of the immediate-early genes c-fos and jun-B was induced by 8-bromo-cAMP on a rapid, but sustained time course, whereas induction of c-jun expression was delayed. Alterations in specific mRNAs following exposure to 8-bromo-cAMP were due to increased gene transcription (as judged by nuclear transcription run-on assays), although with respect to GLUT-1, an increase in mRNA stability was also observed. Treatment of the cells with forskolin resulted in the induction of GLUT-1 expression as well as expression of the immediate early genes. Exposure of quiescent 3T3-L1 fibroblasts to 8-bromo-cAMP resulted in a substantial increase in rates of total protein and RNA synthesis, but had little effect on DNA synthesis. The results demonstrate that 8-bromo-cAMP initiated a G0/G1 transition, but did not permit progression into S-phase. The results further suggest that increased cytosolic cAMP results in the stimulation of glucose transport by three distinct mechanisms to include translocation of pre-existing transporters, increased transcription of the GLUT-1 gene and increased stability of GLUT-1 mRNA.
Design and Preliminary Implementation of an N $\times$ N Diffractive All-Optical Fiber Optic Switch

We have demonstrated a diffraction-based nonblocking, scalable N × N optical switch employing a digital micromirror display (DMD) with 12 μs switching speed, performing 100 times faster than the currently available technology. The distributed nature of diffraction makes this switch more robust than one-to-one reflective systems where a single mirror failure incapacitates an entire connection. We thereby address a key bottleneck in data centers and optical aggregation networks by decreasing circuit-switching speed and allowing for facile port count scalability.