cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Syntheses of bis- and tetra-crowned clefts and studies of their selectivities in metal ion complexation

Abstract A novel “tetra[benzo(18-crown-6)]-crowned cleft” ( 2 ) and two new “bis[benzo(15-crown-5)]-crowned clefts” ( 3 and 4 ) have been synthesized. Their respective selectivities in (i) alkali metal picrate extraction into chloroform and (ii) alkali metal perchlorate transport across bulk chloroform membranes have been determined relative to those of appropriate model compounds in each case. The observed picrate extraction selectivity order for 2 , i. e. Cs + > Rb + > K + > Na + > Li + , strongly suggests the existence of “sandwich” complexes which result from extraction cooperativity between two spatially proximate benzo(18-crown-6) units in 2 and a guest alkali metal cation. Interestingly, the corresponding selectivity order for 3 and 4 suggests that only 1 : 1 metal ion-crown ether complexes are formed. For bulk chloroform membranes, bis- and tetra-crowned clefts exhibit much more efficient transport of certain alkali metal perchlorates than do model mono-crown ether compounds.
Electrophysiological and behavioral output of the rat basal ganglia after intrastriatal infusion of d-amphetamine: lack of support for the basal ganglia model.

Dopamine, by acting upon D1 and D2 dopamine receptors located on striatonigral and striatopallidal neurons, respectively, has been postulated to inhibit output from the substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNpr) and internal pallidal segment (GPi). The inhibition of the SNpr/GPi should, in turn, disinhibit the thalamus to facilitate movement. The present study tests this prediction in intact (unlesioned) rats by attempting to correlate changes in the single unit activities of SNpr neurons with motor (i.e. behavioral) responses in the 20-30 min after infusions of d-amphetamine into the striatum. Unilateral injections of amphetamine (20 microg/microl) into either the dorsal-rostral, central, or ventral-lateral striatum failed to appreciably alter behavior and, in parallel electrophysiological studies, failed to consistently or significantly alter the activities of SNpr neurons in either chloral hydrate-anesthetized rats or awake locally anesthetized rats. However, when amphetamine was infused bilaterally into the ventral-lateral striatum (VLS; 20 microg/microl per side), a robust behavioral activation ensued (increased locomotor activity, oral movements, and sniffing) with an onset ranging from immediate to 20 min post-infusion and persisting for at least 40 min. In parallel studies, bilateral amphetamine infusions into VLS also caused changes in the firing frequency of a majority of SNpr neurons. However, the changes in firing were extremely variable and, contrary to expectation, the net population response of SNpr neurons was an increase in firing which corresponded in time with the period of peak behavioral activation. These results show that (i) bilateral but not unilateral activation of striatal dopamine receptors is needed to elicit behavioral and electrophysiological output from the basal ganglia, and (ii) motor activation is apparently not signaled by a generalized inhibition of SNpr firing, as is predicted by the basal ganglia model.
Modernizing problem formulation for risk assessment necessitates articulation of mode of action

The process of scientific hypothesis formulation affects the experimental designs, methods and interpretations applied, but to be testable, the hypotheses posed must conform to the state of scientific knowledge and available technology. An analogous situation exists in risk assessment, where the questions addressed are typically articulated in the problem formulation phase. Decades ago, regulatory agencies couched problem formulation according to the questions answerable by the science of the day. As regulatory requirements for risk assessment became codified, so too did the rudiments of problem formulation. Unfortunately, codifying problem formulation prevented it from evolving to keep pace with scientific advancements. Today's more advanced science is not always being used effectively and efficiently in risk assessment because the risk assessment problem formulation step still typically poses antiquated questions. Problem formulation needs to be improved so that modern science can inform risk considerations. Based on recent developments in the Human Relevance Framework and using well-studied example chemicals - chloroform and carbon tetrachloride - an approach is proposed for focusing problem formulation on human-relevant hypotheses. We contend that modernizing problem formulation in this way will make risk assessment more scientifically accurate, more practical, and more relevant for protecting human health and the environment.
La modernisation du colonialisme et les limites de l'empire

Il y a quelques annees, les chercheurs les plus avances proclamaient que l’Etat-nation se mourait, et que de nouveaux types de relations globales donnaient a l’ordre du monde une forme nouvelle. Voila que l’Etat est de retour ; et, dans un cas, il l’est sous une forme si puissante que des intellectuels le qualifient d’« empire ». Des progressistes serieux deploraient l’arrogance imperiale du gouvernement americain ; des conservateurs pleins d’entrain ont alors contre-attaque et affirme que le...
A note on a Toeplitz inversion formula

Abstract It is shown that a formula of Heinig for the inverse of a Toeplitz matrix follows from a formula of the author for the inverse of a Hankel matrix.
Disconnecting reticulocortical pathways: Amnestic effects on visual habits in the rat*

Discrete bilateral electrolytic lesions destroying the subthalamic area in the rat produced profound losses in retention of a brightness and a pattern discrimination habit. Lesions damaging the anterolateral portions of the thalamus had significantly smaller effects on retention. These results were interpreted as pointing to the priority of a subthalamic route over a thalamic route in the functional activation of the neocortex by the brainstem reticular formation.
Synthetic Lethality in ATM-Deficient RAD50-Mutant Tumors Underlies Outlier Response to Cancer Therapy

Metastatic solid tumors are almost invariably fatal. Patients with disseminated small-cell cancers have a particularly unfavorable prognosis with most succumbing to their disease within two years. Here, we report on the genetic and functional analysis of an outlier curative response of a patient with metastatic small cell cancer to combined checkpoint kinase 1 (Chk1) inhibition and DNA damaging chemotherapy. Whole-genome sequencing revealed a clonal hemizygous mutation in the Mre11 complex gene RAD50 that attenuated ATM signaling which in the context of Chk1 inhibition contributed, via synthetic lethality, to extreme sensitivity to irinotecan. As Mre11 mutations occur in a diversity of human tumors, the results suggest a tumor-specific combination therapy strategy whereby checkpoint inhibition in combination with DNA damaging chemotherapy is synthetically lethal in tumor but not normal cells with somatic mutations that impair Mre11 complex function.
An efficient role-based access control mechanism for multicasting environments

In this paper, a new algorithm is introduced that relies on a role-based access control model to reduce the amount of redundant information sent in multicast sessions. The algorithm utilizes the active nodes located in the multicast tree to reduce the amount of bandwidth wasted when the different roles assumed by the receivers in the multicast session have overlapping data. The proposed algorithm is proven to be effective whether the data belonging to each role is encrypted or not. Complexity analysis shows that the proposed algorithm has a polynomial-time complexity. Meanwhile experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can satisfy the receivers' requirements similar to the case where the data belonging to each role is sent in a separate multicast session while reducing the link utilization by 27% (38% in case of a higher degree of overlapping).
Signal detection for optical communications through the turbulent atmosphere

The probability of a miss in the detection of a signal in an optical communications system through the turbulent atmosphere using intensity modulation is studied. The turbulence of the atmosphere causes scintillation of the received signal intensity which is treated as a lognormal random process. The received background radiation and electronic noise in the receiver is treated as additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). A Chernoff bound is derived for the lognormal sum distribution. An approximation for the lognormal sum distribution is investigated for its utility in calculating the probability of miss. For practical values of the signal-to-noise power ratio (SNR), a series solution for the characteristic function of the lognormal random variable is used to find the probability of miss. Simulation results agree with theoretical results. The method developed in this paper can be used by the system designer to choose the proper signal length and meet the system specifications for signal detection.
Informed consent in the human genome enterprise.

When Jean-Paul Sartre, the French existentialist philosopher, declared some four decades ago that man makes himself, this assertion was based on Sartre's belief that human beings do not possess an essential human nature. Man's self creation had to do with his freedom to choose the roles that he played or could play, and their attendant effects on his attitudes and responsibilities. It said nothing about his freedom to alter his biological nature.
A method for continuous accelerated echo-planar imaging with self-referenced parallel MR reconstruction and artifact correction

Echo planar imaging (EPI) is a widely used rapid MRI technique to image dynamic neurological functionally, but can suffer from Nyquist ghosts and distortions due to magnetic field inhomogeneity. Distortion effects can be reduced by parallel MR imaging (pMRI), via a reduced echo train length, and/or methods that measure and estimate magnetic field distortions using multiple TEs. Recent Nyquist ghost correction methods can also improve self-referenced pMRI image reconstruction quality. Here, we present a combination of these improvements in a framework for continuous echo planar imaging. Through a combination of shifted variable density EPI trajectories and alternating echo spacings, our approach can remove Nyquist ghosts, apply pMRI reconstruction, and correct off-resonant distortions with no need for additional reference data. Results from accelerated in-vivo data are presented.
A framework for testing core-based systems-on-a-chip

Available techniques for testing core-based systems-on-a-chip (SOCs) do not provide a systematic means for synthesising low-overhead test architectures and compact test solutions. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive framework that generates low-overhead compact test solutions for SOCs. First, we develop a common ground for addressing issues such as core test requirements, core access and test hardware additions. For this purpose, we introduce finite-state automata for modeling tests, transparency modes and test hardware behavior. In many cases, the tests repeat a basic set of test actions for different test data which can again be modeled using finite-state automata. While earlier work can derive a single symbolic test for a module in a register-transfer level (RTL) circuit as a finite-state automation, this work extends the methodology to the system level, and, additionally contributes a satisfiability-based solution to the problem of applying a sequence of tests phased in time. This problem is known to be a bottleneck in testability analysis not only at the system level, but also at the RTL. Experimental results show that the system-level average area overhead for making SOCs testable with our method is only 4.4%, while achieving an average test application time reduction of 78.5% over recent approaches. At the same time, it provides 100% test coverage of the precomputed test sets/sequences of the embedded cores.
Evolution of team composition in multi-agent systems

Evolution of multi-agent teams has been shown to be an effective method of solving complex problems involving the exploration of an unknown problem space. These autonomous and heterogeneous agents are able to go places where humans are unable to go and perform tasks that would be otherwise dangerous or impossible to complete. This research tests the ability of the Orthogonal Evolution of Teams (OET) algorithm to evolve heterogeneous teams of agents which can change their composition, i.e. the numbers of each type of agent on a team. The results showed that OET could effectively produce both the correct team composition and a team for that composition that was competitive with teams evolved with OET where the composition was fixed a priori
The ontological argument against the mind-machine hypothesis

L'A. montre que la question qu'est-ce qu'une machine? permet d'etablir une strategie ontologique contre l'hypothese de l'esprit-machine. Mais l'exemple de J. R. Lucas, J. Searle et R. Penrose ne resoud pas le probleme de la description dualiste. L'A. se demande si l'alternative proposee par J. Haugeland permet de depasser la difficulte liee a la relation metaphysique/epistemologie
Lessons learned from a pilot implementation of the UMLS information sources map.

Objective : To explore the software design issues involved in implementing an operational information sources map (ISM) knowledge base (KB) and system of navigational tools that can help medical users access network-based information sources relevant to a biomedical question. Design : A pilot biomedical ISM KB and associated client-server software (ISM/Explorer) have been developed to help students, clinicians, researchers, and staff access network-based information sources, as part of the National Library of Medicine's (NLM) multi-institutional Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) project. The system allows the user to specify and constrain a search for a biomedical question of interest. The system then returns a list of sources matching the search. At this point the user may request 1) further information about a source, 2) that the list of sources be regrouped by different criteria to allow the user to get a better overall appreciation of the set of retrieved sources as a whole, or 3) automatic connection to a source. Results : The pilot system operates in client-server mode and currently contains coded information for 121 sources. It is in routine use from approximately 40 workstations at the Yale School of Medicine. The lessons that have been learned are that: 1) it is important to make access to different versions of a source as seamless as possible, 2) achieving seamless, cross-platform access to heterogeneous sources is difficult, 3) significant differences exist between coding the subject content of an electronic information resource versus that of an article or a book, 4) customizing the ISM to multiple institutions entails significant complexities, and 5) there are many design trade-offs between specifying searches and viewing sets of retrieved sources that must be taken into consideration. Conclusion : An ISM KB and navigational tools have been constructed. In the process, much has been learned about the complexities of development and evaluation in this new environment, which are different from those for Gopher, wide area information servers (WAIS), World-Wide-Web (WWW), and MOSAIC resources.
A sampled master oscillator for the PEP-II B factory

A sampled phase-locked loop synchronizes the PEP-II B Factory rings to their SLAC Linac injector. The injection of both electrons and positrons into the separate rings and into their proper RF buckets requires phase shifting the linac RF with respect to the PEP rings. One of every three machine cycles provides the PEP ring an undisturbed reference while the other two thirds of the time the reference is unusable due to the injection scheme. The ring RF must be tunable about its nominal frequency for machine physics use. A sampled phase-locked loop handles the task of synchronizing the PEP-II RF to the linac while maintaining good phase noise. The input reference is sampled at 120 Hz and provides a ring RF signal with less than 0.1/spl deg/ of rms phase jitter at 476 MHz.
TREATING CHRONIC FOOD REFUSAL IN YOUNG CHILDREN: HOME‐BASED PARENT TRAINING

We evaluated the effects of behavioral parent training program on parent and child feeding-related behaviors in the home. We trained mothers to initiate regular offerings of previously rejected (target) foods and to provide contingent attention (i.e., specific prompts, positive reinforcement) to increase their child's acceptance of nonpreferred foods. For 1 subject, we also directed training at increasing self-eating. Results of a nonconcurrent multiple baseline design across 3 mother-child dyads demonstrated that, with training, all mothers increased offerings of target foods and use of specific prompts, and 2 mothers increased levels of positive attention. In turn, children increased their acceptance of target foods and self-eating, thus demonstrating the functional effects of parent training on in-home meal times. Temporary increases in food refusals occurred when treatment was initiated but declined as treatment continued. We discuss the results in terms of the potential benefits and limitations of a home-based treatment model.
Christology and Church-State Relations in the Fourth Century

“Let, whatsoever I will, be that esteemed a canon.” So retorted the Arianizing Emperor Constantius at the stormy council of Milan in 355 after he had become sole ruler of the Empire and was able to give full expression to his Arian sympathies. Whether Athanasius has accurately recorded his language is not certain; that he has captured the intention of Constantius in a vivid phrase is indisputable. It takes its place alongside James I's summary disposition of the Hampton Court Puritans, “No bishop, no king,” to be set over against another series of resounding affirmations of a contrary significance: Ambrose of Milan's “the emperor is in the Church,” and Andrew Melville's retort to the same James, “Sir, thair is twa Kings and twa Kingdoms in Scotland.”
Pattern of Luteinizing Hormone Secretion During Delayed Implantation in the Spotted Skunk (Spilogale putorius latifrons)

Since insufficient secretion of gonadotropins has been implicated as a possible cause of delayed implantation in mustelids the pattern of luteinizing hormone (LH) secretion and changes in plasma levels of this hormone during pregnancy in the western spotted skunk were studied. 30 pregnant and 17 nonpregnant sexually mature females were bled twice monthly by cardiac puncture beginning in the middle of the 7-month preimplantation period and continuing until just prior to nidation. The jugular vein of 7 pregnant and 4 nonpregnant skunks was cannulated prior to implantation and blood drawn every 2 hours until nidation. 3 additional pregnant animals were sampled at 2-hour intervals during middelay (January). LH levels were determined by double antibody radioimmunoassay. Peripheral plasma levels of LH in pregnant skunks were low at 120 days prior to nidation (4.9 ng/m1). Thereafter mean LH levels gradually increased until nidation at which time they fluctuated about a mean of 7.9 ng/m1. Plasma levels of LH in nonpregnant skunks were generally higher throughout the same period. The pattern of LH secretion in pregnant skunks did not appear to differ between mid preimplantation (January) and the week preceding nidation (late April) as determined by 2-hour serial samples. No surge in LH was observed prior to nidation although peak and basal levels of LH were somewhat higher than in January. The gradual rise in in LH secretion was paralleled by a similar rise in progesterone thus suggesting that LH might have a direct and/or indirect role in initiating resumption of full luteal function and embryonic development.(AUTHORS MODIFIED)
Porcine Endogenous Retrovirus Infects but Does Not Replicate in Nonhuman Primate Primary Cells and Cell Lines

Porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERV) can infect human cell lines in vitro; hence, there is a presumed risk of viral exposure to a recipient when pig cells are transplanted into humans (xenotransplantation). Nonhuman primates (NHP) are considered a potential permissive animal model to study the risk of in vivo infection of PERV after xenotransplantation. We set out to determine whether PERV can infect and replicate in NHP primary cells or established cell lines from African green monkey, rhesus macaque, and baboon. We confirm that the NHP cell lines under investigation were infected with PERV as measured by detection of viral DNA and RNA by PCR and reverse transcription (RT)-PCR, respectively, indicating that a functional receptor must be present on the cell surface. However, the load of detectable viral DNA in infected NHP cells declined over time, and the cells never had detectable reverse transcriptase activity. Utilizing quantitative real-time TaqMan PCR we found detectable levels of unintegrated DNA intermediates, but the levels were approximately 100-fold lower compared to HEK 293 cells infected with PERV. Virions released from infected NHP cells could productively infect naive human cell lines, HEK 293 and HeLa, as shown by RT-PCR and RT assay. However, naive NHP cells remained negative in RT-PCR and RT assay after exposure to virions from infected NHP cells. Together our data demonstrate that NHP cells are not permissive to productive replication by PERV, presumably due to inefficient cell entry and replication. In light of these observations, the appropriateness of NHP as suitable animal models to study PERV infection in vivo needs to be reevaluated.
Out of order causes confusion.

After my editorial, “Out of the opioid fog: A personal perspective” (Willens, 2006) was published in the September issue, I promptly received e-mails from Chris Pasero and Margo McCaffery. They objected to what I thought was reflecting on my own experience when I wrote “how do people with chronic pain function and do they drive under the influence of opioids?” Chris and Margo felt that I may possibly be misleading the readers and that I should have reviewed the literature. Chris and Margo have long championed for improved pain management and have much more experience than I do how readers may take what is in an editorial as fact. I asked them if they wanted to write a letter to the editor expressing their concerns and we could use that as a means of correcting any misconceptions. I tried as hard as I could to have that letter to the editor and was told that it was too late to publish it in the December issue. Therefore my editorial, “Is anyone out there?” (Willens, 2006), was not completely understood. Chris and Margo received many e-mails questioning this. I encourage everyone to read the Letters to the Editor in this issue and hopefully understand the chronology of Chris and Margo’s letter.
Multiplex Analysis of Urinary Cytokine Levels in Rat Model of Cyclophosphamide-induced Cystitis

Objective The urinary proteome is a potential easily accessible source of biomarkers for inflammatory bladder diseases including interstitial cystitis. In the present study, we subjected rat urine to multiplex cytokine analysis in an attempt to identify an inflammatory signature of the temporal course of cyclophosphamide (CYP) - induced cystitis.
ADME Properties of Drugs

ADME properties have tremendous impact on the success of drug candidates. They are a set of fundamental physico-chemical and biochemical properties of drug molecules that can be affected by physiologic conditions in vivo: solubility, permeability, stability, metabolism, and others. ADME properties can be improved through structural modification by medicinal chemists. They are important both in vitro and in vivo. A successful drug must possess a balance of good potency and drug-like properties. High-throughput ADME assays have been developed and implemented widely in the pharmaceutical industry to reduce the attrition of drug candidates. The data are used to identify potential liabilities, guide structural modification, prioritize lead series, select compounds for in vivo studies, and diagnose in vivo assay results. Studies have demonstrated that early screening of ADME properties is a successful approach to enhance the quality of drug candidates.
Femtosecond measurement of enhanced optical nonlinearities of sulfide glasses and heavy-metal-doped oxide glasses

Studies of the nonlinear absorption and refraction of a variety of heavy-metal oxide and sulfide glasses are reported. The third-order nonlinearities were measured with ~100-fs pulses at wavelengths between 600 nm and 1.25 μm, allowing for what we believe is the first systematic study of the dispersion of the third-order nonlinearities of these glasses. The results confirm that the nonlinearities of heavy-metal oxide glasses are determined by heavy-metal content, as reported previously. The measured nonlinear refractive indices are predicted reasonably well by the semiempirical Boling–Glass–Owyoung formula and include several results that are among the largest nonresonant nonlinearities reported. The measured dispersion of the nonlinearities is consistent with simple theoretical expectations. Finally, most of the glasses obey Kleinman’s symmetry, from which we conclude that the origin of the femtosecond-time-scale nonlinearities is electronic.
Optimizing inter-processor data locality on embedded chip multiprocessors

Recent research in embedded computing indicates that packing multiple processor cores on the same die is an effective way of utilizing the ever-increasing number of transistors. The advantage of placing multiple cores into a single die is that it reduces on-chip communication costs (in terms of both execution cycles and power consumption) between the processor cores that are traditionally very high in conventional high-performance parallel architectures (such as SMPs). However, on the negative side, this tighter integration exerts an even higher pressure on off-chip accesses to the memory system. This makes minimizing the number of off-chip accesses a critical optimization goal.This paper discusses a compiler-based solution to this problem for the embedded applications that perform stencil computations. An important characteristic of this solution is that it distinguishes between the intra-processor data reuse and inter-processor data reuse. The first of these captures the data reuse that occurs across loop iterations assigned to the same processor, whereas the second one represents the data reuse that takes place across the loop iterations assigned to different processors. The proposed approach then optimizes inter-processor reuse by re-organizing the loop iterations of each processor carefully, considering how data elements are shared across processors. The goal is to ensure that the different processors access the shared data within a short period of time, so that the data can be captured in the on-chip memory space at the time of the reuse. This paper also presents an evaluation of the proposed optimization and compares it to an alternate scheme that optimizes data locality for each processor in isolation. The results obtained by applying our implementation to eight loop-intensive benchmark codes from the embedded computing domain show that our approach improves over the mentioned alternate scheme by 15.6% on average.
Lithium-ion Diffusion in Solid Electrolyte Interface (SEI) Predicted by Phase Field Model

Solid electrolyte interface (SEI) layer plays a key role in lithium-ion batteries’ degradation research. However, SEI layer microstructure prediction still needs further investigation, especially the lithium-ion diffusion in SEI layer considering its morphology evolution during the growth of SEI. Due to the unique advantage of avoiding explicitly tracking the interfaces with sharp composition gradients, a phase field model is developed to simulate the SEI formation and its morphology evolution that is regarded as a solidification process. Fick’s law and mass balance are applied to investigate lithium-ion concentration distribution and diffusion coefficients of different SEI layers (i.e., compact and porous SEI layers) predicted by the developed phase field model. The simulation results show lithium-ion diffusion coefficients between 298K and 318K are 1.34-1.87(10-16) m2/s and 1.73-2.18(10-12) m2/s for compact SEI and porous SEI layer, respectively. The developed model has great potential to be extended to three dimensional spaces for SEI layer spatial growth investigation and other interfaces with complex morphology evolution.
Magnetic inelastic dark matter: Directional signals without a directional detector

The magnetic inelastic dark matter (MiDM) model, in which dark matter inelastically scatters off nuclei through a magnetic dipole interaction, has previously been shown to reconcile the DAMA/LIBRA annual modulation signal with null results from other experiments. In this work, we explore the unique directional detection signature of MiDM. After the dark matter scatters into its excited state, it decays with a lifetime of order 1 {mu}s and emits a photon with energy {approx}100 keV. Both the nuclear recoil and the corresponding emitted photon can be detected by studying delayed coincidence events. The recoil track and velocity of the excited state can be reconstructed from the nuclear interaction vertex and the photon event vertex. The angular distribution of the WIMP recoil tracks is sharply peaked and modulates daily. It is therefore possible to observe the directional modulation of WIMP-nucleon scattering without a large-volume gaseous directional detection experiment. Furthermore, current experiments such as XENON100 can immediately measure this directional modulation and constrain the MiDM parameter space with an exposure of a few thousand kg{center_dot}day.
A Method For Authenticating Pleasure Travel Expenditures

This study examined the accuracy of tourists' expenditures using a form of a paired- comparison design. One member of a traveling party was randomly assigned the task of compiling a complete record of trip expenditures. A second member was asked to estimate the same expenditures on the last day of the trip. The spending recall accuracy hypotheses of the study were tested by comparirtg the actual trip expenses maintained by each recorder against the more spontaneous estimates provided by their estimating partners. Matched t-tests revealed estimators significantly underestimated overall daily expenditures. Implications for travel spending studies which depend on accurate recall are discussed.
The ERICA IOP 5 Storm. Part III: Mesoscale Cyclogenesis and Precipitation Parameterization

Abstract Modeling studies have consistently shown the importance of latent heat release in explosive marine cyclogenesis. However, a systematic evaluation of precipitation parameterization in the simulation of marine cyclones has been rare in the literature. This paper is the third in a series of modeling studies on the ERICA IOP 5 storm. The objective is to assess the performance of various subgrid-scale cumulus parameterization and resolvable-scale microphysics schemes in the simulation of the storm using the Penn State–NCAR mesoscale model MM5 at grid resolutions of 20 and 60 km. Emphasis is placed on the intensity, distribution, and character of precipitation and on the mesoscale low pressure centers embedded within the synoptic-scale cyclone. Principal findings are as follows. The distribution and intensity of precipitation, its partitioning into grid-resolvable and subgrid-scale portions, the atmospheric thermodynamic structure in the precipitation region, and the evolution of mesoscale low pressure...
Swarm Robot Foraging with Wireless Sensor Motes

We investigate the use of wireless sensor motes as mobile deployable waypoints for swarm robot navigation in a foraging scenario. Each robot can deploy, retrieve, and optimize the location of the sensor motes. After deployment, the robots treat the sensor motes as nodes in a sparse graph, and store and retrieve multiple pheromones and flags locally in each of them. Pheromone information stored in the sensor motes allows the robots to build up gradients to different targets of interest, and to determine which sensor motes are good candidates to optimize location, or to harvest for reuse elsewhere. Unlike many earlier pheromone-based foraging techniques, our method must deal with the physical reality of deploying and manipulating sensor motes, including a limited mote supply both onboard and in total, robustly dealing with occlusion and interference from other robots, and handling noise and robot or mote failure. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the technique both on differential drive robots of our own design, and in simulation, to examine its ability to robustly deal with various failure modes and changes in environment.
IDS for Networks

This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction Background Modern NIDSs Research and Trends Conclusions References ]]>
ACCION Poverty Outreach Findings: SOGESOL, Haiti

This edition of InSight offers an analysis of the poverty outreach of ACCION's affiliate SOGESOL in Haiti. It is the second in a series of ACCION poverty assessments performed as part of our Poverty Outreach project. Here, we evaluate the poverty levels of SOGESOL clients relative to the Haitian national and urban populations as well as international poverty lines. We also examine demographic, socioeconomic and microenterprise characteristics of clients in relation to their level of poverty and compare characteristics of SOGESOL clients with Haiti's national and metropolitan populations.
How - and How Not - to Tax Business

In an address to the Minnesota Taxpayers Association, the author says that states should not tax business inputs and should eliminate corporate income taxes. States should consider adopting a tax like New Hampshire's business enterprise tax.
Public Administration Enquiry and Social Science in The Postmodern Condition: Some Implications of Value Pluralism

This paper examines the relationship between publiic administration and social science in light of the postmodern condition. It is argued here that the postmodern condition limits the role of conventional social science in public administration because it increases the incidence, as well as the visibility, of conflict between incompatible and incommensurable human ends or values. While conventional social science can still make a useful contribution to public administration enquiry, as an expression of certain important values, other modes of enquiry, including philosophy and history, are also important in helping us to become more self-conscious about the political and ethical values that we express in public administration discourse and practice and the conflicts that can occur between them.
Towards a Metric for the Assessment of Safety Critical Control Systems

There is a need for better integration of the fault tolerant and the control designs for safety critical systems such as aircraft. The dependability of current designs is assessed primarily with measures of the interconnection of fault tolerant components: the reliability function and the mean time to failure. These measures do not directly take into account the interaction of the fault tolerant components with the dynamics of the aircraft. In this paper, a first step to better integrate these designs is made. It is based on the observation that unstable systems are intrinsically unreliable and that a necessary condition for reliability is the existence of a stabilizing control law that depends on the interconnection of the working fault tolerant components. Since operation of a fault tolerant interconnection of digital computers in a harsh environment can result in transient errors, a methodology to analyze the mean square stability of the fault tolerant closed-loop system is presented. A definition for mean square stabilizability is then used to introduce the new dynamical system reliability concept. An example illustrates the effect on mean square stability of several fault tolerant design choices and illustrates possible dynamical system reliability plots.
Arbitrarily High-Order Perturbation Model for the Generalized Forces Arising Due to the Long-Range Interaction Forces Between Distributed Bodies

This paper presents a generalized modeling technique for evaluating the potential, forces and torque's arising from force-at-a-distance interaction effects such as gravity and electromagnetic fields. The nonlinear part of the interaction force is replaced by a fifth order multipole expansion model. The interactions are modeled using a Cartesian Tensor formulation. Special algorithms are presented that permit the Cartesian Tensor terms to be efficiently evaluated. A mixed numeric/symbolic algorithm is presented for generating the complete solution. The symbolic part of the algorithm is based on: (I) Pattern matching, (ii) Design of hashing keys and tables, (iii) Exploiting multiple levels of symmetry in tensor operations, and (iv) Development of fast rotation techniques for tensor objects. A numerical example is presented to demonstrate the accuracy of the numerical solutions for several orders of approximation.
Animal and culture models of glaucoma for studying neuroprotection.

PURPOSE. Neuroprotection aims to treat nervous system disease by maintaining the health and function of neurons. The final proof of the neuroprotective strategy relies on randomized, controlled clinical trials, but the choice of which agents to study for these trials depends on studies in the laboratory using culture and animal models. Most culture models for studying ocular neuroprotection use retinal cells, and a range of mechanisms can be studied in culture, e.g. axotomy and serum or growth factor deprivation. METHODS. A variety of animal models are available for studying neuroprotection as possible therapy for glaucomatous optic neuropathy. Those most closely related to glaucoma are probably associated with moderate elevation of the intraocular pressure to levels similar to those seen in patients with untreated glaucomatous optic neuropathy. CONCLUSIONS. Care should be taken when applying the results of these models to humans, and there is no single criterion for deciding which culture or animal model is most relevant to the clinical situation. The most important feature is whether the model's results correlate with clinical results, and this information will only become available over time, as randomized clinical trials are completed.
Efficacy and Safety of the Nd:YAG Laser in Canine Partial Nephrectomy

Partial nephrectomy using 100 watts of focused Neodymium: Yttrium Aluminum Garnet (Nd:YAG) laser power was evaluated to determine its hemostatic capabilities, safety, and effect on renal function and histology. Six adult female dogs ranging from 22 to 33 lbs. underwent nephrectomy and contralateral partial nephrectomy using the laser. Closure of the collecting system and drains were not used to determine if the laser could seal the collecting system. There was no blood loss with this technique. Four of the 6 dogs had no postoperative complications but two had urinary extravasation which led to death in one dog and required drainage in another. One month postoperative serum creatinine levels were 66 per cent higher than pre-operative values. Intravenous urograms revealed no evidence of dilation of the collecting system nor contrast extravasation. The depth of necrosis ranged from 4 mm. in the cortex to 7 mm. in the medulla. The data indicate that Nd:YAG laser partial nephrectomy is effective, and provides complete hemostasis, manageable urinary extravasation and acceptable impairment of renal function.
Modeling Cellular Aging: An Introduction – Mathematical and Computational Approaches

In this chapter we examine a variety of modeling approaches that have been historically used to understand the sub-cellular and cellular biology of aging. We find that there are a large array of methods from discrete to continuous and from deterministic to stochastic. This chapter is not meant to be a comprehensive coverage of all of the modeling efforts but rather a buffet introduction to what has been done in the field over the last 50–60 years.
The Role of Kaposi’s Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus (KSHV/HHV-8) in Lymphoproliferative Diseases

The Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV), also called human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8), is found invariably in Kaposi’s sarcoma, and compelling evidence suggests that it is an etiologic agent for this disease. KSHV has also been found to be present in a limited subset of lymphoproliferative disorders. Among these are the primary effusion lymphomas, formerly designated body cavity-based lymphomas. This is a rare type of malignant lymphoma which possesses an unusual set of clinical and biologic features, suggesting that it represents a distinct disease entity. This virus is also present in a large proportion of cases of multicentric Castleman’s disease, particularly those associated with HIV infection. In addition, KSHV has been implicated in the pathogenesis of multiple myeloma, but many laboratories including our own have been unable to confirm this association. KSHV carries at least 11 open reading frames (ORFs) that encode homologs to cellular proteins involved in signal transduction, cell cycle regulation, inhibition of apoptosis and/or immune modulation. Therefore, it has the genetic machinery of an oncogenic virus. However, only a small proportion of infected people ever develop Kaposi’s sarcoma or virus-induced lymphoma, and do so only after a long latency period. This observation reflects the multistep nature of oncogenesis, with viral infection representing only one of these steps. Cofactors such as HIV infection and iatrogenic immunosuppression dramatically increase the risk for developing a KSHV-related malignancy in infected individuals. Understanding the oncogenic and immunologic mechanisms involved in the pathobiology of virus-associated lymphomas is important for the development of targeted therapeutic and preventive approaches.
The Rush to Rationalize: Public Policies and Impact Assessments

The common interests of the Ethiopian government, international development banks and global consulting firms in promoting, implementing and legitimizing the Gibe III dam and its associated development are starkly apparent in environmental and socioeconomic studies and impact assessments. None of them address the actual impact area of the Gibe III dam project—namely, one including human and environmental effects of the project in the tri-nation Ethiopia/Kenya/South Sudan transboundary region. The Ethiopian government (GOE) downstream impact assessment is invalidated by its major omissions, misrepresentations, and fabrications. These failings include false assertions of ‘disastrous’ Omo River floods ‘requiring’ river regulation floods which do not occur; misrepresentations of Omo basin environmental hydrology and socioeconomy; and exclusion of the impacts of Gibe III dependent, large-scale irrigated agriculture. Global consulting industry assessments of the dam commissioned by the European Investment Bank and African Development Bank (AFDB) do not significantly challenge GOE failings. Instead they offer primarily ‘suggestions’ for future consideration, rather than the identification of analysis that must be conducted before approval of any impact assessment. They pave the way for the World Bank and AFDB to violate their own human rights protocols by funding an infrastructure to allow Ethiopia to export hydrodam generated electricity.
Diagnosis and Treatment of Central Nervous System Infections in the Emergency Department

Central nervous system (CNS) infections, including meningitis, encephalitis, and brain abscess, are rare but time-sensitive emergency department (ED) diagnoses. Patients with CNS infection can present to the ED with nonspecific signs and symptoms, including headache, fever, altered mental status, and behavioral changes. Neuroimaging and CSF fluid analysis can appear benign early in the course of disease. Delaying therapy negatively impacts outcomes, particularly with bacterial meningitis and herpes simplex virus encephalitis. Therefore, diagnosis of CNS infection requires vigilance and a high index of suspicion based on the history and physical examination, which must be confirmed with appropriate imaging and laboratory evaluation.
Prions Causing Neurodegenerative Diseases

Amyloid deposits in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are an invariant feature of the disease. Amyloid deposition has been found primarily within neurofibrillary tangles (NFT), plaques, and cerebral vasculature. These structures are defined as amyloid primarily on the basis of their binding of Congo red and the green-gold birefringence they exhibit under polarized light. Whether any or all of these amyloid deposits in AD are etiologic remains to be established.
HIV-1 Matrix-31 Membrane Binding Peptide Interacts Differently with Membranes Containing PS vs. PI(4,5)P2

Efficient assembly of HIV-1 at the plasma membrane (PM) of the T-cell specifically requires PI(4,5)P2. It was previously shown that a highly basic region (HBR) of the matrix protein (MA) on the Gag precursor polyprotein Pr55Gag is required for membrane association. MA is N-terminally myristoylated, which enhances its affinity to membranes. In this work we used X-ray scattering and neutron reflectivity to determine how the physical properties and structure of lipid bilayers respond to the addition of binding domain peptides, either in the myristoylated form (MA31myr) or without the myristoyl group (MA31). Neutron reflectivity measurements showed the peptides predominantly located in the hydrocarbon interior. Diffuse X-ray scattering showed differences in membrane properties upon addition of peptides and the direction of the changes depended on lipid composition. The PI(4,5)P2-containing bilayers softened, thinned and became less ordered as peptide concentration increased. In contrast, POPS-containing bilayers with equivalent net charge first stiffened, thickened and became more ordered with increasing peptide concentration. As softening the host cell's PM upon contact with the protein lowers the free energy for membrane restructuring, thereby potentially facilitating budding of viral particles, our results suggest that the role of PI(4,5)P2 in viral assembly goes beyond specific stereochemical membrane binding. These studies reinforce the importance of lipids in virology.
Student engagement and inclusive education: reframing student engagement

ABSTRACTEngagement, or student engagement, is widely used in educational research and public discourse to refer to the problem of public education. The underlying ontological and epistemological assumptions buoying engagement are rarely, if ever, addressed by educational researchers. The ‘silent omission’ (Sidorkin 2014. “On the Theoretical Limits of Education.” In Making a Difference in Theory: The Theory Question in Education and the Education Question in Theory, edited by Julie Allan Gert Biesta and Richard Edwards, 121–137. New York: Routledge) of engagement’s metaphysics has implications for inclusive education. This paper finds that despite being employed with good intent, engagement operates in a paradigm of normativity. In a gesture of bifocality (Weis and Fine 2012. “Critical Bifocality and Circuits of Privilege: Expanding Critical Ethnographic Theory and Design.” Harvard Educational Review 82 (2): 173–201), I critique engagement discourse and its historical context to find that it reproduces a l...