cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Cultural Heritage Semiotics

This paper presents an ontological framework to conceptualize the cultural heritage semiotics through generation and application of data, information and knowledge about them. Advances in computers have unleashed an enormous capacity to (a) acquire data and generate information and knowledge about cultural heritage, and (b) apply the knowledge and information to promote their understanding, use and experience. Computers can help augment, virtualize, visualize and comprehensively sense the cultural heritage without the barriers of time and distance. However, there is no roadmap for exploiting them systemically or systematically. The proposed framework shows how the semiotics of cultural heritage can be used to generate and apply knowledge to the advancement of cultural heritage through the artefacts, using the enormous power of modern computers. The ontological framework can be used to map the state of the research on the semiotics of cultural heritage and help develop a roadmap for research and practice.
Non-Pt Cathode Electrocatalysts for Anion-Exchange-Membrane Fuel Cells

This chapter provides an overview of the recent advancement in the development of non-Pt electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reactions (ORRs) in alkaline media; catalyst materials discussed include carbon-supported transition metals (Pt/C, Pd/C, Ag/C), transition-metal macrocycles (M–N–C), and multifunctional materials (e.g., metallic alloys, metallic MnO2, macrocycle-treated metals). The important factors affecting ORR kinetics are identified through combined theoretical simulations and experimental measurements. The inconsistencies between the ORR activities observed in fuel cell tests and those observed in rotating disk electrodes, as reported by several research groups, were analyzed in details, and plausible theoretical explanations were proposed. Several promising bifunctional catalysts and their potentials as replacements for Pt in anion-exchange-membrane fuel cell (AEMFC) applications are discussed. For the AEMFC technology to mature as a low-cost high-performance energy device, further improvement of the performance and durability of the catalysts is essential; we believe that the necessary improvements can be achieved through intelligent design of multifunctional catalysts.
Top Quark Physics at the DZero Experiment

In this paper I present the latest results on top quark physics from the DZero collaboration since the discovery of the top quark in March 1995. I summarize the discovery results, discuss progress since the discovery, and show how we can measure the top quark mass using three separate techniques. The measurements were made at the Fermilab Tevatron, a ppbar collider with sqrt(s) = 1.8 TeV, using 50 pb^-1 data collected from 1992 to early 1995.
Energy-efficient Application Resource Scheduling using Machine Learning Classifiers

Resource scheduling in high performance computing (HPC) usually aims to minimize application runtime rather than optimize for energy efficiency. Most existing research on reducing power and energy consumption imposes the constraint that little or no performance loss is allowed, which improves but still does not maximize energy efficiency. By optimizing for energy efficiency instead of application turnaround time, we can reduce the cost of running scientific applications. We propose using machine learning classification, driven by low-level hardware performance counters, to predict the most energy-efficient resource settings to use during application runtime, which unlike static resource scheduling dynamically adapts to changing application behavior. We evaluate our approach on a large shared-memory system using four complex bioinformatic HPC applications, decreasing energy consumption over the naive race scheduler by 20% on average, and by as much as 38%. An average increase in runtime of 31% is dominated by a 39% reduction in power consumption, from which we extrapolate the potential for a 24% increase in throughput for future over-provisioned, power-constrained clusters. This work demonstrates that low-overhead classification is suitable for dynamically optimizing energy efficiency during application runtime.
Walking the Intraracial Tightrope: Balancing Exclusion and Inclusion within an Elite Black Social Club

Exclusion and inclusion constitute the formation of social groups and their boundaries. Historically, middle- and upper-class African Americans formed social organizations to engage in racial uplif...
The Effects of 21st Century Skills on Behavioral Disengagement in Sacramento High Schools

Using a sample of 2541 students attending 25 high schools in Sacramento, California, this study examines the association between students’ 21st century skills and their level of behavioral disengagement at school. Behavioral disengagement pertains to problem behaviors at school such as poor attendance, truancy, tardiness, and disciplinary problems and has been linked to dropout and poor academic performance. 21st century skills encompass a range of non-cognitive skills, dispositions, and types of school engagement, many of which have been linked to educational trajectories, career success, and long-term well-being. The results show that a range of 21st century skills are associated with behavioral disengagement, accounting for 20% its variance. Furthermore, ethnic/racial, gender, and socioeconomic differences were found with male and underserved groups having higher levels of behavioral disengagement. However, controlling for 21st century skills reduced the magnitudes of the demographic differences by 25–30%. Finally, the socioeconomic composition and emotional engagement composition of the school were associated with behavioral disengagement, which underscores the importance of peer influences and the social context of the school to students’ school behaviors.
Army Research Laboratory essential research area: AI and ML (Conference Presentation)

The U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) has recently developed an essential research area to research and develop artificially intelligent agents (heterogeneous & distributed) that rapidly learn, adapt, reason & act in contested, austere & congested environments. This talk will focus on the AI&ML research challenges and gaps identified by ARL and highlight some of the recent innovations by ARL researchers.
Spatio-Temporal Recommender for V2X Channels

Recommending channel characteristics for V2X communication has the distinct advantage of pre-conditioning the waveform at the transmitter to match the expected fading profile. The difficulty lies in extracting an accurate model for the channel, especially if the underlying variables are uncorrelated, unobserved and immeasurable. Our work implements this prescience by assimilating the Channel State Information (CSI), obtained as a feedback from vehicles, over time and space to adjust the modulation vectors such that the channel impairments are significantly diminished at the receiver, improving the Bit Error Rate (BER) by 96% for higher order modulations. To account for the multivariate, non-stationary V2X channel, a tensor decomposition and completion approach is used to mitigate the effects of sparsity and noise in the CSI measurements. Overall, the system is shown to operate with a prediction accuracy of 10−3 MSE even in dense scattering environments over space and time.
Managerial Visions: Stories of Upgrading and Maintaining the Public Restroom with IoT

This paper examines the entangled development of governance strategies and networked technologies in the pervasive but under-examined domain of public restrooms. Drawing on a mix of archival materials, participant observation, and interviews within and beyond the city of Seattle, Washington, we look at the motivations of public restroom facilities managers as they introduce (or consider introducing) networked technology in the spaces they administer. Over the course of the research, we found internet of things technologies-or, connected devices imbued with computational capacity-became increasingly tied up with cost-reducing efficiencies and exploitative regulatory techniques. Drawing from this case study, we develop the concept of managerial visions: ways of seeing that structure labor, enforce compliance, and define access to resources. We argue that these ways of seeing prove increasingly critical to HCI research as it attends to computer-mediated collaboration beyond white-collar settings.
Unsteady Heat Transfer for Pressure Vessels in Atmospheric Flight at Orbital Velocities

Aeroassisted trajectories can be used to minimize spacecraft propellant requirements for near-Earth orbital operations. A review of spacecraft flight mechanics, aerothermodynamics, and energy balan...
Electron spin-lattice relaxation studies of different forms of the S2 state multiline EPR signal of the Photosystem II oxygen-evolving complex

The pulsed EPR inversion recovery sequence has been utilized to monitor the temperature dependence of the electron spin-lattice relaxation rate of the Mn cluster of the Photosystem II oxygen evolving complex poised in a variety of S2 state forms giving rise to g = 2 multiline EPR signals. A previous study (Lorigan and Britt (1994) Biochemistry 33: 12072–12076) showed that for PS II membranes treated with 5% ethanol, the S2 state Mn cluster relaxes via the Orbach spin-lattice relaxation mechanism, where the relaxation is enhanced via phonon scattering off an excited state spin manifold, in this case at an energy of Δ = 36.5 cm−1 above the S = 1/2 ground state giving rise to the multiline EPR signal. Parallel experiments are reported for PS II membranes with 5% methanol, treated with ammonia, and following short and long term dark adaptation. In each case, the temperature dependence of the electron spin-lattice relaxation rate is consistent with Orbach relaxation, and the range of excited state energies is relatively narrow (33.8 cm−1 ≤ Δ ≤ 39.7 cm−1). In addition, short term dark adapted (6 min, ‘active state’) PS II membranes show biphasic recovery traces which indicate that a minority fraction of the oxygen evolving complexes are trapped in a form with greatly slowed spin-lattice relaxation.
Authority and camaraderie: The delivery of directives amongst the ice floes

This analysis focuses on the institutional talk of sea-kayak guides and their clients in order to understand how guides negotiate the interactional balance of giving orders to maintain a safe and timely excursion while facilitating a fun and recreational experience. Using a mixed-method analysis including Conversation Analysis, ethnography, and statistics, this study examines 576 instances of directives found in video recordings of twenty-five Alaskan kayaking ecotourism excursions and explores the practices guides use in their talk to maintain control of an excursion while not coming across as domineering. By systemically examining directives’ design, directives are found to reveal both their temporal urgency in addition to the precipitating events that necessitate them, such as client behaviors or environmental stimuli. This study's analysis contributes to our understanding of how interactants mitigate face-threatening actions and focuses attention on the interactional work that directives and their accounts achieve in an institutional setting currently underinvestigated (Directives, mixed-methods, Conversation Analysis, ethnography, ecotourism)*
Single-Station Lightning Location Using Azimuth and Time of Arrival of Sferics

Lightning strikes produce electromagnetic waves, now referred to as sferics, in the very low frequency (3 kHz–30 kHz) and the extremely low frequency (3 Hz–3 kHz) bands. Within these frequency bands, the Earth and ionosphere form a waveguide in which sferics propagate long distances with low attenuation. The structure of the received sferic waveform is mainly a function of propagation distance and the waveguide's parameters. This suggests that each observed sferic waveform contains information about the distance that this sferic has propagated which can be used to geolocate lightning. There are various approaches for analyzing received sferics, which mostly rely on measurements from multiple stations. However, in these methods, each station imposes an additional cost for building, maintenance, and synchronization. Here we present a novel method to estimate both the emission time and location of lightning, which works by measuring sferics recorded at a single station. We first process the sferic waveforms to obtain the arrival times of the very low frequency and extremely low frequency radiation components which propagate with different speeds. Once these two separate arrival times are determined, we use them to approximate the distance the sferic propagated in the Earth-ionosphere waveguide. We have used this novel method in combination with a method to find sferic direction to geolocate a significant number of lightning strikes for 4 July 2013. Using this proposed method, the distance of propagation estimates are accurate to within 6.7% of the National Lightning Detection Network-determined propagation distance, and the direction of propagation estimates are accurate to within ∼ 1.3% of the National Lightning Detection Network-determined direction.
Teaching Greek Tragedy

Including the non-canonical is but one strategy for diversifying such courses and intellectual explorations. In this essay, I advocate teaching Greek tragedy as an additional strategy to enhance engagement with diverse voices, viewpoints, and content, as well as an avenue to develop a more gender-inclusive syllabus. In advocating the use of Greek tragedy in introductory political theory courses, as well as upper-division courses, I also engage with an additional aim: political theory should help students encounter and engage with broad questions about the nature of political life, and as such, as a subfield, it should foster creativity. Teaching Greek tragedy offers an opportunity to address both aims concurrently, fostering a particular approach to diversity in ways that promote originality and imagination as central to the work of political theory and political thinking.
Defect Control in the Synthesis of 2 D MoS2 Nanosheets: Polysulfide Trapping in Composite Sulfur Cathodes for Li-S Batteries.

One of the inherent challenges with Li-S batteries is polysulfide dissolution, in which soluble polysulfide species can contribute to the active material loss from the cathode and undergo shuttling reactions inhibiting the ability to effectively charge the battery. Prior theoretical studies have proposed the possible benefit of defective 2 D MoS2 materials as polysulfide trapping agents. Herein the synthesis and thorough characterization of hydrothermally prepared MoS2 nanosheets that vary in layer number, morphology, lateral size, and defect content are reported. The materials were incorporated into composite sulfur-based cathodes and studied in Li-S batteries with environmentally benign ether-based electrolytes. Through directed synthesis of the MoS2 additive, the relationship between synthetically induced defects in 2 D MoS2 materials and resultant electrochemistry was elucidated and described.
Lower Barriers to Immigrant Healthcare Workers to HelCombat the COVID-19 Pandemic

In an industry already short of workers, hospitals and healthcare facilities are facing serious staffing shortages in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic As publ
Inspection of PI Process by Reviewers

Trauma centers are verified by external agencies. A key component of these inspections is the examination of the trauma center PI program. This chapter discusses how to present your PI activities to the inspection team. Strong work by the program can be ignored if the information is not presented in a coherent and logical manner. Opportunities that affect many patients can be aggregated into “projects” where the corrective action plan would not be tied to an individual patient, but to a population of patients. These “projects” can be presented to evaluators to demonstrate the program’s ability to handle large issues that cross disciplines and patient care units. We also review how to structure the physical chart that will be used by the reviewers, and how to ensure that the reviewer can follow the “story” that is being told about the case.
Tools for Evaluating the Implementation of Complex Education Interventions

Large-scale education interventions aimed at diminishing disparities and generating equitable learning outcomes are often complex, involving multiple components and intended impacts. Evaluating imp...
How supervisor trust affects early residents' learning and patient care: A qualitative study.

Trust between supervisors and trainees mediates trainee participation and learning. A resident (postgraduate) trainee’s understanding of their supervisor’s trust can affect their perceptions of their patient care responsibilities, opportunities for learning, and overall growth as physicians. While the supervisor perspective of trust has been well studied, less is known about how resident trainees recognize supervisor trust and how it affects them. In this qualitative study, 21 pediatric residents were interviewed at a single institution. Questions addressed their experiences during their first post-graduate year (PGY-1) on inpatient wards. Each interviewee was asked to describe three different patient care scenarios in which they perceived optimal, under-, and over-trust from their resident supervisor. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Residents recognized and interpreted their supervisor’s trust through four factors: supervisor, task, relationship, and context. Optimal trust was associated with supervision balancing supervisor availability and resident independence, tasks affording participation in decision-making, trusting relationships with supervisors, and a workplace fostering appropriate autonomy and team inclusivity. The effects of supervisor trust on residents fell into three themes: learning experiences, attitudes and self-confidence, and identities and roles. Optimal trust supported learning via tailored guidance, confidence and lessened vulnerability, and a sense of patient ownership and team belonging. Understanding how trainees recognize supervisor trust can enhance interventions for improving the dialogue of trust between supervisors and trainees. It is important for supervisors to be cognizant of their trainees’ interpretations of trust because it affects how trainees understand their patient care roles, perceive autonomy, and approach learning.
Precipitation Processes and Types

Two processes generate precipitation: Either liquid water droplets collide and coalesce with each other until they grow too large to be supported by gravity, or liquid water in the cloud evaporates, which in turn deposits onto ice, allowing droplet growth as snow, in the Wegener-Bergeron-Findeisen (aka: three-phase) process. In the three-phase process, the snow may remain in its original form all the way to the surface, or it may melt to become rain. It may also melt and refreeze before hitting the surface, to become sleet, or it may melt and refreeze only on contact with the surface (freezing rain). The formation process of hail in a cumulonimbus cloud is also explained. Changes in precipitation patterns are expected as the climate continues to change in the future.
The Temperature Dependence of Third-Order Elastic Constants in Metal-Matrix Composites

Elastic nonlinearity is responsible for the deviation of a material’s stress-strain response from the linear relationship represented by Hooke’s law. This law can be written in its most general form as $$\sigma_{ij} = C_{ijkl} \varepsilon_{kl}$$ (1) where σij and ɛkl are the stress and strain tensors respectively, and Cijkl is the tensor of the second order elastic constants. The nonlinear elastic behavior can be determined from measurements of the stress dependence of ultrasonic velocities as well as the distortion of ultrasonic waves by the generation of higher harmonics. Consequently, these effects can be used to nondestructively characterize a material’s elastic nonlinearity.
Public Forces and Private Politics in American Big Business

What are the political motivations behind firms' decisions to adopt policies that self-regulate their behavior in a manner that is beyond compliance with state, federal and local law? Public Forces and Private Politics in American Big Business advances a new understanding of the firm as a political actor that expands beyond the limited conceptualizations offered by economists and organization theorists. Timothy Werner develops a general theory of private politics that is tested using three case studies: the environment, gay rights and executive compensation. Using the conclusions of these case studies and an analysis of interviews with executives at 'Fortune 500' firms, Werner finds that politics can contribute significantly to our understanding of corporate decision-making on private policies and corporate social responsibility in the United States.
Nutritional Factors Influencing the Development of Competence in the Bacillus subtilis Transformation System

Cultures of Bacillus subtilis developed competence for the uptake of deoxyribonucleic acid in a chemically defined medium with a predictable, reproducible pattern. The gross effects of individual amino acids were determined. Seven amino acids, most of which are reported to be major components of the cell wall, were shown to impair the development of maximal levels of competence. When the synthetic growth medium was supplemented with a mixture of the nine amino acids which we found to stimulate the development of competence, the level of transfection was increased to 10 to 15% of the population. The actual level of competence in these populations was assayed by transformation of unlinked bacterial markers and by two different transfection assays. The results indicate that calculations from cotransfer of unlinked markers overestimates the degree of competence in highly competent populations of B. subtilis, whereas the number of plaques obtained in transfection is an under-estimate of the actual level of competence. The results are interpreted to indicate that neither method of analysis gives a true estimate of the competent population, but that more than 80% of the cells may be competent.
A charge-conserving non-quasistatic MOSFET model for SPICE transient analysis

An analytic charge-conserving nonquasistatic (NQS) model has been derived for long-channel MOSFETs and implemented in SPICE3. It is based on an approximate solution to the current-continuity equation. Comparison has been made among this model, the numerical solution to the 1-D current-continuity equation, and the quasistatic (QS) SPICE models. The charge injection at the turnoff transient of a NMOS switch has been simulated using this model and conventional QS models, and it has been found that the QS models give inaccurate results even for the moderately short channel (3- mu m) MOSFETs when the input voltage is changing at the moment of turnoff. A differential sample-hold circuit has also been simulated using this model, and the results are compared with those from QS models. The CPU time using this model is around 3 to 4 times longer than for the conventional QS SPICE models. >
The response of the fetal kidney to obstruction

AbstractIn a fetal ovine model the renal effects of different anatomic levels of fetal urinary obstruction were studied. Parameters of prenatal renal growth and differentiation were characterized and correlated with the patterns of renal response to in utero obstruction. Complete ureteral or urethral obstruction was produced in the sheep fetus at 55 to 60 days of gestation. Animals were delivered and sacrificed at near term (140 days), and the kidneys were removed and prepared for analysis. Parameters examined included weight, histology, glomerular number and total surface area, as well as urinary sodium, creatinine, osmolarity and N-acetyl glucosaminidase.Three patterns of response were identified, producing hydronephrotic, cystic or dysgenetic kidneys. Hydronephrotic kidneys were usually the result of bladder outlet obstruction or ureteral obstruction with spontaneous urinary decompression. These kidneys were large (20.7 gm. versus normal 10.8 gm., p <0.0001), with thinning of cortical parenchyma that w...
Independent cyclic AMP and E1A induction of adenovirus early region 4 expression.

Abstract A cellular transcription factor, ATF, binds to a repeated element in the adenovirus early region 4 (E4) promoter. ATF also binds to other viral early promoter regions and to the cyclic AMP (cAMP) response elements of cellular genes. In this report, we demonstrate that a single ATF-binding site located immediately upstream of the E4 TATA box, between -62 and -46, mediates induction of E4 transcription by 8-bromoadenosine-3',5-cyclic monophosphate or cholera toxin in the human hepatoma cell line HepG2 and rat pheochromocytoma cell line PC12. Different ATF-binding sites in the E4 control region independently conferred cAMP inducibility on the simian virus 40 early promoter in PC12 cells. Induction of E4 expression by cAMP was also observed in virus-infected HepG2 cells. Other viral early promoter regions that contain ATF-binding sites (E1A and E2A) were also induced by cAMP in infected cells. E4 expression was activated by the E1A 13S mRNA products in HepG2 cells. E1A trans activation appears to be distinct from the cAMP response.
HDE 233517: Lithium and Excess Infrared Emission in Giant Stars

Recent studies have identified a small class of moderately rapidly rotating, chromospherically active, single giants, some of which are lithium rich. We present evidence suggesting the peculiar K-type star HDE 233517 is one such object. Previously, HDE 233517 has been suggested to be a young star, consistent with its large far-infrared excess and our log e(Li) ~ 3.3. However, our high-resolution spectroscopic observations show it is likely a single, post-main-sequence K2 giant with v sin i = 15 km s-1 and modest Ca II H and K emission. The giant status of HDE 233517 is determined directly from luminosity-sensitive line ratios and a lack of significant line wings, and is further supported by a large radial velocity (46.5 km s-1), small proper motion, and the presence of interstellar absorption features. Interpretation of the data in the context of a recent mass outflow model for giant stars proposed by de la Reza and coworkers indicates that HDE 233517 has the largest mass-loss rate, ~3 × 10-7 M☉ yr-1, of any known luminosity class III giant. We suggest that the processes causing rapid rotation, large lithium abundance, and infrared excess are triggered at the base of the giant branch when the convection zone reaches the rapidly rotating core of low-mass stars.
Dual distribution as a vertical control device

Abstract This article posits transaction costs as the reason manufacturers use dual distribution (i.e., sell to customers through both independent and company- owned distributions). The authors base their analysis on Williamson's four types of transaction costs, and identify eight explanations for dual distributions. These reasons are lifecycle considerations, lack of distributor competition, information costs, facilitation of collusion, manufacturer opportunism, price discrimination, customer service and manufacturer efficiencies. They conclude that the competitive effect of dual distribution depends on which of the above explanations is relevant. If more than one explanation is valid, it may be necessary to balance the competitive effects in both the manufacturing and retail markets to evaluate the practice.
Hydrogen sulfide: A gasotransmitter of clinical relevance

Though the existence of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) in biological tissues has been known for over 300 years, it is the most recently appreciated of the gasotransmitters as a physiologic messenger molecule. The enzymes cystathionine γ-lyase (CSE) and cystathionine β-synthase (CBS) had long been speculated to generate H2S, and inhibitors of these enzymes had been employed to characterize influences of H2S in various organs. Definitive evidence that H2S is a physiologic regulator came with the development of mice with targeted deletion of CSE and CBS. Best characterized is the role of H2S, formed by CSE, as an endothelial derived relaxing factor that normally regulates blood pressure by acting through ATP-sensitive potassium channels. H2S participates in various phases of the inflammatory process, predominantly exerting anti-inflammatory actions. Currently, the most advanced efforts to develop therapeutic agents involve the combination of H2S donors with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). The H2S releasing moiety provides cytoprotection to gastric mucosa normally adversely affected by NSAIDs while the combination of H2S and inhibition of prostaglandin synthesis may afford synergistic anti-inflammatory influences.
Demonstration of unsuspected malignant disease of the pericardium by computed tomography

Abstract Massive pericardial effusion associated with mediastinal neoplasm was first diagnosed by findings at computed tomography (CT) in two patients. In each case the CT findings prompted urgent pericardiocentesis for relief of pericardial tamponade, One of the patients was subsequently found to have a widely disseminated renal papillary adenocarcinoma, and the other had fibrosarcomatous mesothelioma of the pericardium. The role CT in the diagnosis of pericardial disease is discussed.
Phosphorylation of serine residues in histidine-tag sequences attached to recombinant protein kinases: a cause of heterogeneity in mass and complications in function

High-level recombinant expression of protein kinases in eukaryotic cells or Escherichia coli commonly gives products that are phosphorylated by autocatalysis or by the action of endogenous kinases. Here, we report that phosphorylation occurred on serine residues adjacent to hexahistidine affinity tags (His-tags) derived from several commercial expression vectors and fused to overexpressed kinases. The result was observed with a variety of recombinant kinases expressed in either insect cells or E. coli. Multiple phosphorylations of His-tagged full-length Aurora A, a protein serine/threonine kinase, were detected by mass spectrometry when it was expressed in insect cells in the presence of okadaic acid, a protein phosphatase inhibitor. Peptide mapping by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry detected phosphorylations on all three serine residues in an N-terminal tag, alpha-N-acetyl-MHHHHHHSSGLPRGS. The same sequence was also phosphorylated, but only at a low level, when a His-tagged protein tyrosine kinase, Pyk2 was expressed in insect cells and activated in vitro. When catalytic domains of Aurora A and several other protein serine/threonine kinases were expressed in E. coli, serines in the affinity tag sequence GSSHHHHHHSSGLVPRGS were also variably phosphorylated. His-Aurora A with hyperphosphorylation of the serine residues in the tag aggregated and resisted thrombin-catalyzed removal of the tag. Treatment with alkaline phosphatase partly restored sensitivity to thrombin. The same His-tag sequence was also detected bearing alpha-N-d-gluconoylation in addition to multiple phosphorylations. The results show that histidine-tag sequences can receive complicated posttranslational modification, and that the hyperphosphorylation and resulting heterogeneity of the recombinant fusion proteins can interfere with downstream applications.
Suppression effects in stimulated hyper-Raman emissions and parametric four-wave mixing in sodium vapor.

Experimental investigations of two-photon enhanced stimulated hyper-Raman and parametric four-wave-mixing emissions are described for tuning unfocused laser beams near two-photon resonance with 3D and 4D states in sodium vapor. Over wide ranges of vapor pressures, path lengths, and laser power densities, the gains for stimulated hyper-Raman (SHR) scattering and for parametric four-wave mixing (PFWM) can become very greatly reduced from values expected from simple considerations. The suppression of gain can arise from interferences produced at two-photon and three-photon resonances, and from ac Stark shifts produced by internally generated near-resonant fields. Quantitative comparisons are made between observed and theoretically predicted values for SHR and PFWM production. Of 12 predicted consequences of the interferences and Stark shifting on the nonlinear behavior, ten are demonstrated through the experiments.
Effects of Assistive Technology on Functional Decline in People Aging With a Disability

ABSTRACT This study used a randomized control group design to investigate the impact of an assistive technology and home modification intervention on function for individuals who are aging with a disability. There were 91 participants with polio, rheumatoid arthritis, cerebral palsy, spinal cord injury, stroke, and other impairments. Outcome data were collected at 12 and 24 months through in-home interviews using the Older Americans Resources and Services Instrument (OARS) and the Functional Independence Measure (FIM), and through monthly telephone contact on the hours of in-home care, hospitalizations, and acquisition of AT. The treatment group received an in-home evaluation of their equipment and home modification needs. All recommended AT and home modifications were provided and paid for in full or in part by the study. The control group received the standard community-available health care. A significant “group by time” interaction for the FIM suggested a slower decline in function for the treatment g...
Replication of tobacco mosaic virus. VII. Further characterization of single- and double-stranded virus-related RNAs from TMV-infected plants

The single-stranded (ss) and double-stranded (ds) RNAs produced in tobacco tissue as a result of infection by tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) have been reinvestigated. 32P-labeled probes consisting of either cDNA or viral RNA, complementary to specific regions of either the viral RNA or its negative strand, respectively, were used in "Northern" hybridization experiments. Of the 10 ssRNA bands observed, all but four appeared to be artifacts of electrophoresis. These four RNAs were found on polyribosomes and are presumed to be true mRNAs; three were identified as the well-known genomic RNA, the I2-mRNA and the coat protein mRNA, or LMC. The fourth RNA species of MW approximately 1.2 x 10(6) had not previously been specifically identified as a subgenomic RNA of TMV. The viral RNA which gave rise to the six artifactual ssRNA bands was heterogeneous in size and was shown to be encapsidated in vivo. Upon electrophoresis, these heterogeneous RNA fragments comigrated approximately with plant rRNAs also present in the extracts, generating the observed artifactual bands. Four dsRNAs were also identified. From molecular weight and hybridization analyses, they appeared to be double-stranded forms of the above four polyribosome-associated ssRNAs. Attempts to translate proteins from the denatured dsRNAs in vitro were unsuccessful. A population of low-molecular-weight, TMV-specific ssRNAs, (+) and (-) in sequence, was generated during infection; however these RNAs were believed to be breakdown products.
Can interactivity make a difference? Effects of interactivity on the comprehension of and attitudes toward online health content

The Internet is increasingly being recognized for its potential for health communication and education. The perceived relative advantage of the Internet over other media is its cost-effectiveness and interactivity, which in turn contribute to its persuasive capabilities. Ironically, despite its potential, we are nowhere nearer understanding how interactivity affects processing of health information and its contribution in terms of health outcomes. An experiment was conducted to examine the effects of Web interactivity on comprehension of and attitudes towards two health Web sites, and whether individual differences might moderate such effects. Two sites on skin cancer were designed with different levels of interactivity and randomly assigned to 441 undergraduate students (aged 18-26) at a large southeastern university. The findings suggest that interactivity can significantly affect comprehension as well as attitudes towards health Web sites. The article also discusses insights into the role of interactivity on online health communications, and presents implications for the effective design of online health content.
DIAGNOSTIC LINE EMISSION FROM EXTREME ULTRAVIOLET AND X-RAY-ILLUMINATED DISKS AND SHOCKS AROUND LOW-MASS STARS

Extreme ultraviolet (EUV; 13.6 eV <h{nu} {approx}< 100 eV) and X-rays in the 0.1-2 keV band can heat the surfaces of disks around young, low-mass stars to thousands of degrees and ionize species with ionization potentials greater than 13.6 eV. Shocks generated by protostellar winds can also heat and ionize the same species close to the star/disk system. These processes produce diagnostic lines (e.g., [Ne II] 12.8 {mu}m and [O I] 6300 A) that we model as functions of key parameters such as EUV luminosity and spectral shape, X-ray luminosity and spectral shape, and wind mass loss rate and shock speed. Comparing our models with observations, we conclude that either internal shocks in the winds or X-rays incident on the disk surfaces often produce the observed [Ne II] line, although there are cases where EUV may dominate. Shocks created by the oblique interaction of winds with disks are unlikely [Ne II] sources because these shocks are too weak to ionize Ne. Even if [Ne II] is mainly produced by X-rays or internal wind shocks, the neon observations typically place upper limits of {approx}<10{sup 42} s{sup -1} on the EUV photon luminosity of these young low-mass stars. The observed [O I]more » 6300 A line has both a low velocity component (LVC) and a high velocity component. The latter likely arises in internal wind shocks. For the former we find that X-rays likely produce more [O I] luminosity than either the EUV layer, the transition layer between the EUV and X-ray layer, or the shear layer where the protostellar wind shocks and entrains disk material in a radial flow across the surface of the disk. Our soft X-ray models produce [O I] LVCs with luminosities up to 10{sup -4} L{sub sun}, but may not be able to explain the most luminous LVCs.« less
Biogeochemistry of fatty acids in recent sediments from Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island

Abstract The fatty acid composition of sediments from Narragansett Bay show significant variation between certain areas of the Bay. Both the organic carbon and fatty acid concentrations decrease with increasing distance from the Providence River area—an area which received municipal sewage and industrial effluents. The ratio of the fatty acid concentration to organic carbon concentration is fairly constant for all stations sampled. The variations in the relative abundance of fatty acids may reflect either the influence of fatty acids discharged to the river area by sewage effluents or the synthesis of fatty acids by microbial populations which probably differ for the areas compared. Temporal variations in fatty acid composition and fatty acid concentration are minimal. Lipolytic activity has been demonstrated and probably acts on glycerides deposited to the sediments releasing free fatty acids shortly after deposition. A model for the diagenesis of fatty acids in Recent sediments is proposed based upon the above findings and upon earlier reports by the authors and by other investigators.
Estimating the marginal survival function in the presence of time dependent covariates

Abstract We propose a new estimator of the marginal (overall) survival function of failure times that is in the class of survival function estimators proposed by Robins (Proceedings of the American Statistical Association—Biopharmaceutical Section, 1993, p. 24). These estimators are appropriate when, in addition to (right-censored) failure times, we also observe covariates for each individual that affect both the hazard of failure and the hazard of being censored. The observed data are re-weighted at each failure time t according to Aalen's linear model of the cumulative hazard for being censored at some time greater than or equal to t given each individual's covariates; then, a product-limit estimator is calculated using the weighted data. When covariates have no effect on censoring times, our estimator reduces to the ordinary Kaplan–Meier estimator. An expression for its asymptotic variance formula is obtained using martingale techniques.
Viscosity of Fluid Nitrogen to Pressures of 10 GPa

Shear viscosities of supercritical nitrogen have been measured in the high-pressure diamond-anvil cell, to 673 K and pressures in excess of 10 GPa, using a rolling-sphere technique. The entire set of data, along with lower pressure data from the literature, can be fit to a two-parameter expression in reduced viscosity and reduced residual entropy. The fit spans densities from the dilute gas to 5x the critical density, and two orders magnitude in temperature and in viscosity, with a maximum deviation of 20%. Reduced viscosities scale as ρ4/T and comport with the theory of state “isomorphs” for “Roskilde-simple” systems. The new data allow direct comparison with results of molecular dynamic simulations at high densities.
Gender, Modernity, and Eroticized Internationalism in Japan

It is by now a commonplace that, in translocal contexts, modernities must increasingly be theorized in the plural as diverse global phenomena reflecting multiple local agendas. The traditional/modern binary that was once a central mobilizing trope of anthropology, in which modernity is viewed as a "robust and noxious weed whose spread chokes the delicate life" out of "authentic" local and traditional meanings (Pigg 1996:164), has been revealed as inadequate to explain ways that discourses of the modern may be deployed oppositionally, for example, by those who seek access to modernity's language of rights against an oppressive state. At the same time "local" modernities do not proliferate indiscriminately without reference to the originally modern West; they are intimately implicated in questions of Western universalism and its relation to Western nationalism. As Rey Chow writes, modernity must be understood "as a force of cultural expansionism whose foundations are not only emancipatory but also Eurocentric and patriarchal" (1992:101). In this article I will examine the personal accounts of a marginalized population of professionally ambitious Japanese women to show how they deploy discourses of the modern, or "narratives of internationalism," to construct an "emancipatory" turn to the foreign/West in opposition to gender-stratified corporate and family structures in Japan.1 It should be noted at the outset that such internationalized professional women constitute a small minority of Japanese women; as Ogasawara observes in her recent book, the majority of young women in Japan still hold marriage and full-time motherhood as their primary life goal (1998:62-63). For the small number of women who are enabled by their age, marital status, economic resources, and familial flexibility (among other factors) to explore the cosmopolitan possibilities of internationalization, however, this option can lead to opportunities to travel, study, and work abroad and to the discovery of a female niche in the international job market as translators, interpreters, consultants, bilingual secretaries, entrepreneurs, international aid workers, United Nations employees, and so on. Examples of internationalist narratives abound in a genre of Japanese women's writing about the West by authors such as Toshiko Marks (1992),
C/EBPβ-mediated transcriptional regulation of bcl-xl gene expression in human breast epithelial cells in response to cigarette smoke condensate

In earlier studies, we have shown that cigarette smoke condensate (CSC), a surrogate for cigarette smoke, is capable of transforming the spontaneously immortalized human breast epithelial cell line, MCF10A. These transformed cells displayed upregulation of the anti-apoptotic gene, bcl-xl. Upregulation of this gene may impede the apoptotic pathway and allow the accumulation of DNA damage that can lead to cell transformation and carcinogenesis. In the present study, we have determined the mechanism of CSC-mediated transcriptional upregulation of bcl-xl gene expression in MCF10A cells. We cloned the human bcl-xl promoter (pBcl-xLP) and identified putative transcription factor binding sites. Sequential deletion constructs that removed the putative cis-elements were constructed and transfected into MCF10A cells to determine the CSC-responsive cis-element(s) on the pBcl-xLP. Gel-shift, super-shift and chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis confirmed that CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein (C/EBPβ) specifically bound to a C/EBP-binding site on the pBcl-xLP in vitro and in vivo. Additionally, overexpression of C/EBPβ-LAP2 stimulated pBcl-xLP activity and Bcl-xL protein levels, which mimicked the conditions of CSC treatment. Our results indicate that C/EBPβ regulates bcl-xl gene expression in MCF10A cells in response to CSC treatment; therefore, making it a potential target for chemotherapeutic intervention of cigarette smoke-induced breast carcinogenesis.
Permissions and the social context.

By focusing on formal intensive interview research, this essay explores how the sociohistorical context influences the routine procedures by which sociologists obtained permission to conduct their studies. We examine the permissions process within the specific historical context of the 1950s and contrast it with contemporary issues of informed consent. The need for a more theoretical and situational understanding of permissions is identified, both in regard to human—subjects regulations and social control.
Use of Preexisting Radiographs for Assessing Periodontal Disease in Epidemiologic Studies

Objectives: This study evaluates the feasibility of obtaining preexisting dental radiographs by mail, the validity of assessing alveolar bone loss from posterior radiographs compared to full mouth, and the validity of alveolar bone loss assessed from radiographs taken at different times. Methods: This investigation uses data obtained for a study evaluating associations between oral conditions, blood biomarkers, and coronary heart disease within two large cohorts: the Nurses' Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. If consenting participants had dental radiographs, we requested these radiographs from their dentists. Some dentists returned multiple sets of radiographs, which enabled us to conduct this study. A calibrated periodontist read all radiographs with good intraexaminer reliability (r=0.91). We compared posterior radiographs to full mouth (n=121 sets), as well as radiographs taken at different times (mean difference of 5 years) (n=102 pairs). Results: Of the 812 participants, 81 percent consented and 66 percent provided radiographs. Posterior radiographs underestimated periodontitis (≥1 site with ≥5 mm alveolar bone loss) prevalence by 6 percent (53.7% vs 57.0%) compared to full mouth, with sensitivity of 0.94 (95% confidence interval [CI]/0.86, 0.98) and specificity of 1. Spearman correlation coefficients comparing mean alveolar bone loss were 0.70 for anterior versus posterior teeth (mean difference/0.48), 0.92 for posterior teeth versus full mouth (mean difference/0.25), and 0.78 for pairs of radiographs taken at different times (mean difference=0.01). The kappa statistic was 0.70 comparing radiographs taken within 5 years and 0.29 when the period extended beyond 5 years. Conclusion: Preexisting radiographs are feasible for use in epidemiologic studies and provide valid assessments of periodontal disease. [J Public Health Dent 2004;64(4):223–30]