cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Temporal modulation transfer functions in auditory receptor fibres of the locust ( Locusta migratoria L.).

The temporal resolution of auditory receptors of locusts was investigated by applying noise stimuli with sinusoidal amplitude modulations and by computing temporal modulation transfer functions. These transfer functions showed mostly bandpass characteristics, which are rarely found in other species at the level of receptors. From the upper cut-off frequencies of the modulation transfer functions the minimum integration times were calculated. Minimum integration times showed no significant correlation to the receptor spike rates but depended strongly on the body temperature. At 20°C the average minimum integration time was 1.7 ms, dropping to 0.95 ms at 30°C. The values found in this study correspond well to the range of minimum integration times found in birds and mammals. Gap detection is another standard paradigm to investigate temporal resolution. In locusts and other grasshoppers application of this paradigm yielded values of the minimum detectable gap widths that are approximately twice as large than the minimum integration times reported here.
Chromosomes of Four Species of Polistes Wasps (Hymenoptera: Vespidae)

SUMMARYChromosomes of the following four species of Polistes wasps from the Bryan-College Station area in Texas are reported: apachus, n = 22 or 25; exclamans, n = 33; metricus, n = 26; and carolina, n = 19, 2n = 38. The karyotype of P. carolina was constructed and revealed that chromosomes no. 16 and no. 19 are acrocentric whereas the others are metacentric.
A THREE‐DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS OF THE SPHEROIDAL AND TOROIDAL ELASTIC VIBRATIONS OF THICK‐WALLED SPHERICAL BODIES OF REVOLUTION

This paper addresses the spheroidal (i.e. coupled bending-stretching) and toroidal (i.e. torsional or equivoluminal) elastic vibrations of thick-walled, spherical bodies of revolution by means of the three-dimensional theory of elasticity in curvilinear (spherical) co-ordinates. Stationary values of the dynamical energies of the spherical body are obtained by the Ritz method using a complete set of algebraic-trigonometric polynomials to approximate the radial, meridional, and circumferential displacements. Extensive convergence studies of non-dimensional frequencies are presented for the spheroidal and toroidal modes of thin-walled spherical bodies of revolution. Results include all possible 3-D modes, i.e. radial stretching, combined bending-stretching, pure torsion, and shear deformable flexure through the wall thickness (including thickness-shear, thickness-stretch, and thickness-twist). It is shown that the assumed displacement polynomials yield a strictly upper-bound convergence to exact solutions of the title problem, as a sufficient number of terms is retained. Since the effects of transverse shear and rotary inertia are inherent to the present 3-D formulation, an examination is made of the variation of non-dimensional frequencies with non-dimensional wall thickness, h/R ranging from thin-walled (h/R=0⋅05) to thick-walled (h/R=0⋅5) spherical bodies. The findings confirm that the variation of the spheroidal frequencies increases with increasing h/R and mode number, whereas the variation of the toroidal frequencies decreases with increasing h/R and mode number. This work offers some accurate 3-D reference data for the title problem with which refined solutions drawn from thin and thick shell theories and sophisticated finite element techniques may be compared. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Selling retirement in financial planning advertisements

Abstract The nature of, and course toward, retirement are perennial issues that the financial services industry bids to define. We used a sample of print advertisements for retirement financial planning from 1997 to 1998 to examine how advertisers create structures of meaning for retirement. The model customer was an individual, conscientious and self-reliant, typically male, and financially sophisticated. Worthy traits notwithstanding, ads suggested to readers that saving for retirement is a difficult and anxious task, the complexity of which the companies stood ready to manage. The savings goal — retirement itself — was depicted in only a minority of ads, underscoring its life-course givenness and desirability. Ads with an image of retirement showed an emancipatory life stage of active leisure underwritten by necessary financial security. The ultimate commodity for sale here was rationality of a remote and near kind — an eventual retirement that is controllable, and a financial path to that state that is routine and orderly.
Characterization of Cardiolipin as the Sodiated Ions by Positive-Ion Electrospray Ionization with Multiple Stage Quadrupole Ion-Trap Mass Spectrometry

The application of multiple-stage ion-trap (IT) mass spectrometric methods for the structural characterization of cardiolipin (CL), a 1,3-bisphosphatidyl-sn-glycerol that consists of four fatty acyl chains and three glycerol backbones (designated as A, B, and central glycerol, respectively), as the sodiated adduct ions in the positive-ion mode was evaluated. Following collisionally activated dissociation (CAD), the [M−2H+3Na]+ ions of CL yield two prominent fragment ion pairs that consist of the phosphatidyl moieties attached to the 1′- and 3′-position of the central glycerol, respectively, resulting from the differential losses of the diacylglycerol moieties containing A and B glycerol, respectively. The results are consistent with those previously described for the [M−H]− and [M−2H+Na]− ions in the negative-ion mode, thus permitting assignment of the two phosphatidyl moieties attached to the 1′-or 3′-position of the central glycerol. The identities of the fatty acyl substituents and their positions on the glycerol backbones (glycerol A and B) are deduced from further degradation of the above ion pairs that give the fragment ions reflecting the fatty acid substituents at the sn-1 (or sn-1′) and sn-2 (or sn-2′) positions. The ions that arise from losses of the fatty acid substituents at sn-1 and sn-1′, respectively, are prominent, but the analogous ions from losses of the fatty acid substituents at sn-2 and sn-2′, respectively, are of low abundance in the MS2 product-ion spectra. This feature further confirms the assignment of the positions of the fatty acid substituents. The similar IT multiple-stage mass spectrometric approaches including MS2 and MS3 for structural characterization of CL using its [M+Na]+ and the [M−H+2Na]+ ions are also readily applicable. However, their uses for structural characterization are less desirable because formation of the [M+Na]+ and the [M−H+2Na]+ ions for CL is not predictable.
Minimax trees, paths, and cut sets

The notions of minimax paths, trees, and cut sets are defined for undirected graphs; and relationships between these entities are established. Simple solution procedures based on these relationships are presented.
A knowledge-based design model for mechanical components

Abstract A model of the design process for mechanical components is presented. The proposed model uses modular knowledge bases and a hierarchical control structure. The modular structure makes it easy to update the knowledge bases with new knowledge. The modular structure also allows for painless integration of external software into the design expert system. An expert system implementation of the model, XPRING, has been developed. XPRING's design domain includes helical compression, extension, and torsion springs. XPRING incorporates computer graphics, finite element analysis, and design optimization into its design knowledge base to form a comprehensive mechanical design expert system.
Conventional and composite matched filters with error correction: a comparison

A common pattern recognition problem is finding a library object which most closely matches a received image. For additive white Gaussian input noise, optimal detection performance is obtained using a matched filter for each of the N possible library objects. The use of composite matched filters (CMFs) (also called synthetic discriminant functions or linear combination filters) is one technique of reducing the number of filters required for the recognition problem. For two-level composite matched filter outputs, the reduction is from N to Q = log(2) (N) filters. The CMF's performance, however, can be suboptimum. Using CMFs with bipolar (+1,-1) outputs, this paper examines the detection performance improvement obtained by using error correcting codes. Use of varying levels of error correction is shown to allow trade-off between detection probability and the number of bank filters. Also, we show that in the case of inexact processing, the CMF can perform better than the conventional matched filter.
CAPSL: Common Authentication Protocol Specification Language

CAPSL is a formal language for expressing authentication and key-exchange protocols. It is intended to capture enough of the abstract features of these protocols to perform an analysis for protocol failures. The impetus for such a language grew out of project work in protocol analysis. A common protocol specification language seems necessary to bridge the gap between the typical informal presentations of protocols given in papers and the precise characterizations required to conduct formal analysis. It is hoped that proponents of different analysis techniques will offer algorithms for compiling this language into whatever form they require. Doing so will go a long way toward ensuring that the assumptions made by different techniques, as well as the analysis results, are comparable. Since Denning and Sacco published a replay attack on the Needham-Schroeder protocol in 1981, it has been welI known that protocols for exchanging cryptographic keys over data networks can be vulnerable to message modification attacks. The abundance of flaws in published protocols led to the development of formal techniques for their security aualysis. The proposed techniques, as represented by some of the earlier papers on the subject, include the use of goal-directed state search tools implemented in Prolog, the application of general purpose specification and verification tools, a specially-designed logic of belief, and the application of a model-checking tool for CSP specifications. It has become evident that it was difficult for analysts other than the developers of the various techniques to apply them. One reason for this difficulty is the fact that the protocols had to be m-specified for each technique, and it was not easy to transform the published description of the protocol into the required formal system. Some tool developers began work on translators or compilers that would perform the transformation automatically. The input to any such translator still requires a formally-defined language, but it can be made similar to the message-oriented protocol descriptions that are typically published. Besides our initial work on CAPSL for the Interrogator at MITRE, there were independent efforts by Steve Brai and Gavin Lowe, with a similar language, CASPER, for the application of FDR using a CSP model-checking approach. The idea of having a single common protocol specification language that could be used as the input format for any formal analysis technique was first presented at the 1996 Isaac Newton Institute Programme on Computer Security, Cryptology, and Coding Theory. The design of CAPSL is still in progress. Current documentation for the language, and discussions on design alternatives and extensions, may be found at the CAPSL home page on the World-Wide Web, at the URL http:// www.mitre.org/research/capsI.
Part Lactations. II. Genetic and Phenotypic Studies of Monthly Milk Fat Yield

Summary Monthly milk fat yields have been analyzed to obtain estimates of heritability, repeatability, genetic and phenotypic correlations. Generally speaking, the heritability estimates decrease and the repeatability estimates increase as lactation progresses. The differences between cows other than additive genetic effects, therefore, appear to affect production more in late lactation than in early lactation. Estimates of the genetic correlation of monthly yield with lactation yield show approximately the same trend over the lactation as the heritability estimates—an increase up to the third month and then a general decline. This indicates that in addition to environment playing an increasingly more important role in determining production as lactation progresses, the sets of genes determining total yield and end-of-lactation yield are not altogether the same. Genetic correlations estimated among monthly yields are higher among early months of lactation than among the later months, and also higher than the correlations between early and late months. The estimated sampling errors of these estimates are very high, in the order of 0.20, indicating that considerably more data than the available 2,500 daughter-dam pairs are needed for satisfactory estimation of these parameters.
Perennial Questions of Hydrology and Climate

![Figure][1] Deep root systems. Perennials such as switchgrass deserve further study. CREDIT: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS The Policy Forum by J. D. Glover et al. (“Increased food and ecosystem security via perennial grains,” 25 June, p. [1638][2]) highlights environmental advantages of perennial
Mapping and Confirmation of the ‘Hyuuga’ Red-Brown Lesion Resistance Gene for Asian Soybean Rust

Asian soybean rust (ASR), caused by Phakopsora pachyrhizi Syd., is a widespread disease of soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] with the potential to cause serious economic losses. The objective of this study was to genetically map red-brown lesion type resistance from the cultivar Hyuuga. A population of 117 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) from the cross of Dillon (tan lesion) x Hyuuga (red-brown [RB] lesion) was rated for ASR lesion type in the field and inoculated with P. pachyrhizi in the greenhouse. The RB resistance gene mapped between Satt460 and Satt307 on linkage group (LG)-C2. When field severity and lesion density in the greenhouse were mapped, the Rpp?(Hyuuga) locus explained 22 and 15% of the variation, respectively (P < 0.0001). The RB lesion type was associated with lower severity, fewer lesions, and reduced sporulation when compared to the tan lesion type. A population from the cross of Benning x Hyuuga was screened with simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers in the region on LG-C2 flanked by Satt134 and Satt460. Genotype at these markers was used to predict lesion type when the plants were exposed to P. pachyrhizi. All the lines selected for the Hyuuga markers in this interval had the RB lesion type and they averaged approximately 50% fewer lesions compared to lines with tan lesions. Sporulation was only detected in 6% of the RB lines compared with 100% of the tan lines. Marker-assisted selection can be used to develop soybean cultivars with the Rpp?(Hyuuga) gene for resistance to ASR.
Parameterized verification of transactional memories

We describe an automatic verification method to check whether transactional memories ensure strict serializability a key property assumed of the transactional interface. Our main contribution is a technique for effectively verifying parameterized systems. The technique merges ideas from parameterized hardware and protocol verification--verification by invisible invariants and symmetry reduction--with ideas from software verification--template-based invariant generation and satisfiability checking for quantified formulae (modulo theories). The combination enables us to precisely model and analyze unbounded systems while taming state explosion.Our technique enables automated proofs that two-phase locking (TPL), dynamic software transactional memory (DSTM), and transactional locking II (TL2) systems ensure strict serializability. The verification is challenging since the systems are unbounded in several dimensions: the number and length of concurrently executing transactions, and the size of the shared memory they access, have no finite limit. In contrast, state-of-the-art software model checking tools such as BLAST and TVLA are unable to validate either system, due to inherent expressiveness limitations or state explosion.
Expression of wild-type pinB sequence in transgenic wheat complements a hard phenotype.

Wheat grain hardness is a major factor in the wheat end-product quality. Grain hardness in wheat affects such parameters as milling yield, starch damage and baking properties. A single locus determines whether wheat is hard or soft textured. This locus, termed Hardness (Ha), resides on the short arm of chromosome 5D. Sequence alterations in the tryptophan-rich proteins puroindoline a and b (PINA and PINB) are inseparably linked to hard textured grain, but their role in endosperm texture has been controversial. Here, we show that the pinB-D1b alteration, common in hard textured wheats, can be complemented by the expression of wild-type pinB-D1a in transformed plants. Transgenic wheat seeds expressing wild-type pinB were soft in phenotype, having greatly increased friabilin levels, and greatly decreased kernel hardness and damaged starch. These results indicate that the pinB-D1b alteration is most likely the causative Ha mutation in the majority of hard wheats.
Somatostatin and insulin mediate glucose-inhibited glucagon secretion in the pancreatic α-cell by lowering cAMP

The dysregulation of glucose-inhibited glucagon secretion from the pancreatic islet α-cell is a critical component of diabetes pathology and metabolic disease. We show a previously uncharacterized ...
Effect of drought on growth and water use of sugar beet

The growth and water use of sugar beet affected by early (ED) and late (LD) drought was compared with that of irrigated (I) and unirrigated (NI) controls. Mobile shelters were used to exclude rain from ED plots during June and July, and LD plots during August and September, respectively, whereas outside these periods the ED and LD plots were irrigated as necessary.The ED treatment affected the fibrous roots severely. Many of the roots in the top 60 cm of soil died and development of the root system below this depth was slow. Expansion of the leaf canopy slowed, radiation interception was reduced and the rate of water use fell from about 1·2 times to 0·6 times Penman potential transpiration rate. The LD treatment, which was imposed when the fibrous root system was already extensive, had little effect on the fibrous roots except in the top soil. The accessible soil water was quickly depleted and the resulting stress was accompanied by earlier senescence of leaves. The rate of converting intercepted light to crop dry matter was reduced in both treatments. However, the ED treatment was the most detrimental because the amount of light intercepted in the months of highest radiation was greatly reduced owing to the restricted leaf cover. The relative effects on growth are reflected in the final sugar yields which were 8·7, 10·5, 9·9 and 12·0 (±0·30) t/ha in the ED, LD, NI and I treatments respectively.More of the deep soil water was used in the drought-affected plots (particularly LD) than in the irrigated controls. Maximum depths of water extraction were 140–150 cm in ED and I plots and > 170 cm in LD plots. The highest uptake rates per unit length of root (20–40 μl/cm per day) were measured in the deepest part of the root system. At all depths, uptake rates declined as the soil dried. After correcting for overestimated water use where necessary, the ratios of final dry matter and sugar yields respectively to season-long water use (June–October) were close to 1·4 and 0·8 t/ha per 25 mm for all four treatments.
Structural determinants of drug partitioning in n-hexadecane/water system.

Surrogate phases have been widely used as correlates for modeling transport and partitioning of drugs in biological systems, taking advantage of chemical similarity between the surrogate and the phospholipid bilayer as the elementary unit of biological phases, which is responsible for most of the transport and partitioning. Solvation in strata of the phospholipid bilayer is an important drug characteristic because it affects the rates of absorption and distribution, as well as the interactions with the membrane proteins having the binding sites located inside the bilayer. The bilayer core can be emulated by n-hexadecane (C16), and the headgroup stratum is often considered a hydrophilic phase because of the high water content. Therefore, we tested the hypothesis that the C16/water partition coefficients (P) can predict the bilayer locations of drugs and other small molecules better than other surrogate systems. Altogether 514 PC16/W values for nonionizable (458) and completely ionized (56) compounds were c...
Activation of Ras/Erk Pathway by a Novel MET-interacting Protein RanBPM

MET is a receptor protein-tyrosine kinase (RPTK) for hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), which is a multifunctional cytokine controlling cell growth, morphogenesis, and motility. MET overexpression has been identified in a variety of human cancers. Oncogenic missense mutations of the tyrosine kinase domain of the MET gene have been identified in human papillary renal cell carcinomas. In this study, RanBPM, also known as RanBP9, is identified as a novel interacting protein of MET through yeast two-hybrid screen. RanBPM contains a conserved SPRY (repeats in splA and RyR) domain. We demonstrate that RanBPM can interact with MET in vitro and in vivo, and the interaction can be strengthened by HGF stimulation. RanBPM interacts with the tyrosine kinase domain of MET through its SPRY domain. We show that RanBPM can induce GTP-Ras association and Erk phosphorylation and elevate serum response element-luciferase (SRE-LUC) expression, indicating that RanBPM can activate the Ras-Erk-SRE pathway. We demonstrate that RanBPM, which itself is not a guanine exchange protein, stimulates Ras activation by recruiting Sos. On the cellular level, A704 cells, a human renal carcinoma cell line, transfected with RanBPM exhibit increased migration ability. Our data suggest that RanBPM, functioning as an adaptor protein for the MET tyrosine kinase domain, can augment the HGF-MET signaling pathway and that RanBPM overexpression may cause constitutive activation of the Ras signaling pathway.
Novel microstructures from confined reactive mesogens

Abstract Novel supramolecular self-organized microstructures with high degrees of captured mesogenic order and well-defined non-planar symmetry are presented. The molecular self-assembly of reactive mesogens is profoundly modified when constrained to non-planar templates with either spherical or cylindrical symmetry. Multi-dimensional, ordered configurations are created and indefinitely captured by photopolymerization forming solid polymer microspheres or microfibrils on the submicrometer or micrometer scale. Sophisticated microstructures and details on their structural, electrical, optical, and dynamic properties are presented, as well as the ways in which these self-organized structures can be manipulated and modified by imposed external constraints (e.g. interfaces, finite size effects, external fields, and constraining geometry). Scanning electron microscopy and optical microscopy studies will be presented.
Voltammetric measurement of bimolecular electron-transfer rates in low ionic strength solutions

Abstract : Electrochemical investigations of homogenous chemical reactions that are coupled to an initial electron-transfer step are frequently based on methods in which the mass-transfer coefficient of a reactant or intermediate is experimentally varied relative to the inherent rate of the chemical reaction. Common methods employed in studying coupled chemical reactions include the rotating disk electrode (RDE), rotating ring-disk electrode (RRDE), and cyclic voltammetry. In the RDE and RRDE experiments, the rate of mass-transfer is proportional to the square-root of the electrode rotation rate so that the mass- transfer rate may be adjusted to a value comparable to the rate of the chemical reaction. The dependence of the limiting current in this experimental regime may be analyzed, using appropriate kinetic equations, to determine the rate constant of a chemical reaction.
Modeling Flux of Skim Milk as a Function of pH, Acidulant, and Temperature

Abstract Skim milk was concentrated using a DDS-20 UFRO unit equipped with DDS HC-50 RO nanofiltration membranes. We studied the effect of the operational parameters of temperature, pH, acidulant, and applied transmembrane pressure on performance as evaluated by flux and component partitioning. Milk temperature, milk pH, percentage of total solids, inlet and outlet pressures, and temperatures were monitored and controlled throughout the experiments. Flux was recorded as a function of temperature, pH, acidulant, and applied pressure. Higher temperatures, pH, and pressures gave greater flux; and lower temperatures, pH, and pressures gave lower flux. Transmembrane pressure had the greatest effect, followed by temperature and then by pH. Equations were generated to model flux as a function of transmembrane pressure, temperature, and pH. There was no difference in effect caused by acidulant. Flux decline, Q 10 , and activation energies were calculated. Arrhenius relationships were valid for skim milk under the experimental conditions.
High performance liquid chromatography analysis of oligosaccharides formed during β-galactosidase action on lactose

Abstract High performance liquid chromatography was used to determine the formation of oligosaccharides during β -galactosidase action on lactose. Lactose solutions (5 and 20%) in .025 M potassium phosphate buffer (pH 6.60) were inoculated with β -galactosidase at 1 and 2 μ mol orthonitrophenol units/ml from two different microbial sources and incubated at 4°C for 24h and 37°C for 4h. During hydrolysis, formation of oligosaccharides was followed with high performance liquid chromatography, using both resinbased ( μ -Spherogel, Altex Scientific) and polar-bonded (Amino Spheri-5, Brownlee Labs) columns. Five oligosaccharides were detected during hydrolysis. However, only two of these occurred in significant concentrations. Maximum observed concentration was at .75 to 1.0h in the 37°C incubation at 2 μ mol orthonitrophenol units enzyme/ml substrate. The concentration of the two oligosaccharides decreased thereafter during hydrolysis. However, with 1 μ mol enzyme used, one of the two major oligosaccharides showed no appreciable decrease in concentration after reaching its maximum at 45min. At maximum concentration the oligosaccharides represented about 11.3% of the total lactose for 5% lactose solutions and 16.0% for 20% lactose. They decreased to 5.5% for 5% lactose and 10.8% for 20% lactose near the completion of hydrolysis.
Use of CNS Stimulant Medication in Averaged Electroencephalic Audiometru with Children with MBD

Averaged electroencephalic audiometry (AEA) was conducted on 12 children diagnosed as having minimal brain dysfunction (MBD). Each child was tested on three separate days to permit a double-blind evaluation of responsiveness to no-drug, placebo and CNS stimulant drug conditions. In addition, 9 of the 72 children were tested a fourth time to permit an examination of the two dosage levels. Lower thresholds were recorded when the subjects were tested on medication. This finding suggests that AEA with MBD children can be enhanced by taking advantage of the medication prescribed to counteract hyperactivity. It was also observed that the AEA performance of children on whom medication had a favorable behavioral effect was different from that of poor drug responders, even in the no-medication conditions.
Dynamic ramp rate control for voltage regulation in distribution systems with high penetration photovoltaic power generations

Multiple voltage regulating devices, such as on-load tap changer (OLTC), step voltage regulators (SVRs), switching capacitors banks work in tandem with each other to regulate voltage in the distribution network. These conventional devices are based on volt/var optimization strategies that work in a time coordinated method. However, in case of distribution systems with Photovoltaic (PV) generations, a dynamically responsive voltage regulating device is required. Case studies are performed investigating voltage regulation at the PV bus during ramp up/down case. An alternate method using an energy storage device to regulate the target PV bus voltage during ramp up/down of PV power is proposed. A novel ramp rate control algorithm based on the current state of charge is also discussed. A benchmark MV distribution network model is developed and simulated in PSCAD/EMTD environment and the results validate the proposed coordinated voltage control strategy.
Technique for precise placement of poller screws with intramedullary nailing of metaphyseal fractures of the femur and the tibia

Intramedullary nailing is the accepted treatment of femoral and tibial shaft fractures. Improvements in surgical techniques and implant designs have extended indications for nailing to metaphyseal fractures of the proximal tibia, distal tibia and the distal femur. Malalignment can still occur with intramedullary nailing of these fractures. Among many techniques that have been described, the use of a 'poller screw' or 'blocking screw' is one of the methods that may be used to aid in satisfactory fracture reduction and biomechanical stability. To our knowledge, the use of a Steinman pin as the initial step in poller screw insertion has not been reported in the English literature. Were port a new technique of poller screw using Steinman pin localisation with tibial and femoral nailing of metaphyseal fractures.
Information Technology as a Critical Element of the Transportation Infrastructure: Critical Analysis in Modern Transportation Agencies

Advanced infrastructure systems (AISs) are sensor data-driven control and management systems, which have been developed to improve the performance of society's infrastructure systems. AISs are becoming commonplace in the transportation infrastructure, for example, in traffic operations, structural monitoring, environmental modeling, and especially in the emerging initiative known as vehicle infrastructure integration. Thus, information technology (IT) is fundamentally changing the composition of what is referred to as the transportation infrastructure. Finding sophisticated IT systems serving critical control and management functions in the infrastructure itself also is becoming commonplace. However, in general, the organizational structures of transportation agencies have been established to support IT as a tool to provide administrative and analytic support. To move forward and allow departments of transportation to take full advantage of AISs, it is recommended that agencies establish agencywide groups...
Vocational Choices in College

Our society presses unreasonably on students to “know” what they want to do vocationally. The pressure is unreasonable, especially when applied to high school seniors and college freshmen, because most of them have not yet learned enough about themselves or about occupations to be able to make a first, satisfying choice. And especially they have not learned enough about the nature of their limitations in college-level work. As a result, many students commit themselves to vocational choices prematurely and then perceive the experience as a “failure.” Students should be encouraged to consider any early decision as tentative, a choice to be tested, confirmed, or disconfirmed. They should be relieved of pressure to “know” what they want to do, and helped to see their task as one of confirming or discovering what they want to do by way of a process of exploration, experimentation, and personal development that may go on through their lifetime.
Activation energies of grain growth mechanisms in aluminum coatings

Abstract To produce a specific grain size in metallic coatings requires precise control of the time at temperature during the deposition process. Aluminum coatings are deposited using electron-beam evaporation onto heated substrate surfaces of both mica and lithium flouride. The grain size of the coating is determined upon examination of the microstructure in plan view and cross-section. Ideal grain growth is observed over the entire experimental range of temperature examined from 413 to 843 K. A transition in the activation energy for grain growth from 0.87 to 2.04 eV atom − 1 is observed as the temperature increases from 588 K. The transition is indicative of the dominant mechanism for grain growth shifting with increasing temperature from grain boundary to lattice diffusion.
LONG-TERM MANAGEMENT OF THE LIVER TRANSPLANT RECIPIENT

Hepatobiliary disorders are major causes of morbidity and mortality in the general population. This explains why nearly 4000 liver transplants are performed each year in the United States. Liver transplantation is now routinely used as treatment of end-stage cirrhosis and other irreversible hepatic disorders. 49 The success rate of this surgical procedure is so high that increasing numbers of liver transplant recipients are returning to their communities to move on with their lives and enjoy a remarkable improvement in lifestyle and productivity. This improvement is possible not only because of the new nondiseased liver, which is responsible for the disappearance of the disabling complications of liver failure, but also because of pharmacotherapeutic agents used to avoid rejection and close medical follow-up, which is necessary to control problems that develop long after the transplant procedure. The ability to implement appropriate preventive health measures, manage a host of metabolic side effects, and evaluate and treat expeditiously intercurrent complications such as fever or jaundice is essential for the health maintenance of the liver transplant recipient. In this context, the internist and family practitioner play a crucial role in the long-term management of the liver transplant recipient in the community. Moreover, these physicians are critically important in the care of liver recipients who live at a geographic distance from the transplant center. Although the gastroenterologist is key in the pretransplant phase in managing ascites, variceal bleeding, hepatic encephalopathy, and other manifestations of cirrhosis, the role of this specialist in the management of the liver transplant recipient with a well-functioning graft is often limited to advice and intervention when liver function tests are abnormal or when complications of the biliary tract occur. All members of the posttransplant care team (i.e., the primary care physician, gastroenterologist, and transplant center specialists) should communicate freely with each other to enhance the probability of long-term survival of the recipient. In general, the liver transplant recipient is closely monitored by the liver transplant center during the first 6 months after surgery because most complications that occur during this period require highly specialized resources. Subsequently, as the recipient begins to alternate visits between the transplant center and the primary physician, a different set of medical issues begins to emerge. In this article, the most important aspects of the long-term medical care of the liver transplant recipient are discussed(Table 1), with emphasis on situations generally managed by the primary physician. In addition, issues that are best approached in consultation with, or exclusively by, the liver transplant center are mentioned.
Embodying mathematics and science: Microworlds as representations

Abstract This paper examines the category of open-ended exploratory computer environments that have been labeled “microworlds.” The paper reviews the ways in which the term “microworld” has been used in the mathematics and science education communities, and analyzes examples of specific computer microworlds. Two definitions of microworld are proposed: a structural definition that focuses on design elements shared by the environments, and a functional definition that highlights commonalties in how students learn with microworlds. In the final section of the paper, the notion that computer microworlds can be said to “embody” mathematical or scientific ideas is addressed, within the context of a re-evaluation of the general concept of representation.
Silicon Carbide as a Platform for Power Electronics

For high-voltage, high-current devices that can be operated at elevated temperatures, silicon carbide (SiC) has been the material of choice. Efforts to produce single-crystal SiC began 30 years ago, but intrinsic problems in growing high-quality single-crystal boules free of micropipe defects—micrometer-scale pinholes created by dislocations—have only recently been overcome. A series of developments in crystal growth have made large-area, high-quality SiC substrates readily available for applications such as high-frequency transmitters and solid-state white lighting. Additional reductions in defects in the active region of devices have been achieved through epitaxial approaches, in which single-crystal layers are grown on the substrate. SiC is now poised as the linchpin to “green energy” that will replace less energy-efficient switches now based on silicon technology.
An Assay Procedure for Inositol Pentaphosphate in Avian Erythrocytes

A method to determine the concentration of inositol pentaphosphate (IP5) in chicken erythrocytes is described. Lysates of washed erythrocytes were treated with trichloroacetic acid to remove protein and were chromatographed on Dowex-1 chloride columns. After eluting the other organic phosphates with .3 N HCl, IP5 was eluted with .5 N HCl and quantitated by phosphorus assay. The mean for 12 chickens was 15.4 +/- 2.71 micromoles/g hemoglobin. The method should be useful for the assay of large numbers of samples.
Fentanyl-related compounds and derivatives: current status and future prospects for pharmaceutical applications.

Fentanyl and its analogs have been mainstays for the treatment of severe to moderate pain for many years. In this review, we outline the structural and corresponding synthetic strategies that have been used to understand the structure–biological activity relationship in fentanyl-related compounds and derivatives and their biological activity profiles. We discuss how changes in the scaffold structure can change biological and pharmacological activities. Finally, recent efforts to design and synthesize novel multivalent ligands that act as mu and delta opioid receptors and NK-1 receptors are discussed.
β-Glucan attenuates TLR2- and TLR4-mediated cytokine production by microglia

Microglia, the resident immune cells of the brain, are activated in response to any kind of CNS injury, and their activation is critical for maintaining homeostasis within the CNS. However, during inflammatory conditions, sustained microglial activation results in damage to surrounding neuronal cells. β-Glucans are widely recognized immunomodulators, but the molecular mechanisms underlying their immunomodulatory actions have not been fully explored. We previously reported that β-glucans activate microglia through Dectin-1 without inducing significant amount of cytokines and chemokines. Here, we show that particulate β-glucans attenuate cytokine production in response to TLR stimulation; this inhibitory activity of β-glucan is mediated by Dectin-1 and does not require particle internalization. At the molecular level, β-glucan suppressed TLR-mediated NF-κB activation, which may be responsible for the diminished capacity of microglia to produce cytokines in response to TLR stimulation. Overall, these results suggest that β-glucans may be used to prevent or treat excessive microglial activation during chronic inflammatory conditions.
Regenerative switching in V-groove metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor structure

Abstract Anomalous regenerative switching has been observed in a power V-groove MOSFET with the drain terminal of the MOSFET at the top surface of the chip. This switching phenomenon is attributed to a rectifying junction formed at the drain terminal due to a thin oxide between the drain metal and the n -type drain diffusion. Because of the regenerative switching, the device characteristic changes from the MOSFET I ( V ) characteristic to a turned-on thyristor characteristic as the gate voltage is increased to a critical voltage. The ON-resistance of the device in the thyristor mode is found to be one-tenth of that in the MOSFET mode. Based on the explanation of the experimental results, an insulated gate controlled thyristor structure with substrate as the cathode is proposed.
Unconditionally stable algorithms for rigid body dynamics that exactly preserve energy and momentum

We show that, for rigid body dynamics, the mid-point rule formulated in body co-ordinates exactly conserves energy and the norm of the angular momentum for incremental force-free motions, but fails to conserve the direction of the angular momentum vector. Further, we show that the mid-point rule formulated in the spatial representation is, in general, physically and geometrically meaningless. An alternative algorithm is developed which exactly preserves energy, and the total spatial angular momentum in incremental force-free motions. The implicit version of this algorithm is unconditionally stable and second order accurate. The explicit version conserves exactly angular momentum in incremental force-free motions. Numerical simulations are presented which illustrate the excellent performance of the proposed procedure, even for incremental rotations over 65 degrees. The procedure is directly applicable to transient dynamic calculations of geometrically exact rods and shells.
Adventures of a Theoretical Physicist, Part II: America

This second part of my interview with Andor Frenkel focuses on my life and work in America. After arriving in New York in March 1941 and visiting relatives and friends in Cambridge and Boston, Massachusetts, my friend Edward Teller, who had a professorship at George Washington University, invited me to his home in Arlington,Virginia, where I stayed until June while he attempted to locate a position for me. Eventually, John Clarke Slater, Head of the Physics Department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), offered me a one-year instructorship beginning in the fall of 1941, which evolved into an assistant professorship in 1945, an associate professorship in 1948, and a full professorship in 1960. During these years, I established close friendships at MIT with Herman Feshbach, Philip Morrison,Victor Weisskopf, and other colleagues, and pursued productive researches with my graduate students. I developed a new course on thermodynamics in 1941 based on my notes of Max Born’s lectures at the University of Gottingen in 1929, Lev Landau and Evgenii Lifshitz’s book, Statistical Physics of 1938, and Slater’s book, Introduction to Chemical Physics of 1939, which I revised and refined over the following years. In 1966 I published my book, Generalized Thermodynamics. I also reflected on the role that my two-fluid theory of 1938 played in clarifying superfluidity, as well as on my relations with Lev Landau and Fritz London, and on their controversial relations with each other. In 1947 I widened Landau’s phenomenological theory of phase transitions to include mathematical singularities. Subsequently, I concentrated more and more on the paradoxes of quantum mechanics, a first result being an unpublished manuscript of 1950, which I reproduce in the Appendix. In later decades, both before and after my retirement from MIT in 1973, my concern with the foundation of quantum mechanics continued unabated. The first part of this interview, covering my life and work in Europe, appeared in the previous issue.
Kollner Effect and Suppression of the View of an Eye

Kollner's discovery of binasal hemianopia as an early stage in binocular color rivalry is extended to the study of the subsequent suppression of the color seen by an eye. The Kollner effect is one of the five two-color configurations that occur initially, and through which total suppression develops by the visible expansion of one of the colors. However, suppression sometimes occurs without a two-color phase.
The Effects of Multi-Wave Mailings on the External Validity of Mail Surveys

Survey data, particularly mail questionnaires, are very useful in community development work. With relatively low cost, a practitioner can obtain valild information to determine community needs, support for programs and general attitudes and opinions of local citizens. Low response rates, however, can have serious effects on the validity of the data Previous research has shown that followup mailings are essential to obtaining a high response rate to mail surveys. This paper examines the potential for sample bias if the number of mailings is reduced. Differences between groups responding to three waves of mailings to a statewide Pennsylvania survey (N = 9,957) are examined via log-linear techniques, using continuation ratio models. The results indicate that initial respondents differ from laggard respondents on five demographic characteristics, but differences diminish between early laggard and late laggard respondents. The implication is that single mailings of questionnaires could cause serious threats t...
Drought-induced shifts in daily CO2 uptake patterns for leafy cacti

For cacti with persistent, relatively large leaves, most shoot CO2 uptake under well-watered conditions occurs by the leaves using the C3 pathway. For three species in the primitive subfamily Pereskioideae, droughts of 7 or 14 days decreased leaf daytime net CO2 uptake by an average of 49 and 88%, respectively; these species always had a net CO2 release at night by the leaves and both at night and during the day by the stems. For three leafy species in subfamily Opuntioideae, 7 and 14 days of drought reduced leaf daytime net CO2 uptake by 90 and 100%, respectively. Although drought reduced the total CO2 uptake over 24 h, the average percentage occurring at night by the leaves of these species increased from 5% under wet conditions to 71% after 7 days of drought to 99% after 14 days of drought. For two of the three species of Opuntioideae, 7 days of drought caused the small net CO2 uptake by the sterns to shift from the daytime to the nighttime, while for the third species drought caused a reduction of its stem nocturnal net CO2 uptake. Thus, shifts from predominantly daytime to predominantly nighttime net CO2 uptake can be induced by drought for the leaves and the stems of leafy cacti in subfamily Opuntioideae, indicating a high degree of biochemical versatility.
Fundamentals of Clinical Trial Design

Most errors in clinical trials are a result of poor planning. Fancy statistical methods cannot rescue design flaws. Thus careful planning with clear foresight is crucial. Issues in trial conduct and analyses should be anticipated during trial design and thoughtfully addressed. Fundamental clinical trial design issues are discussed.
Enhanced recovery of ischemic myocardium by combining percutaneous bypass with intraaortic balloon pump support.

Abstract Although percutaneous bypass (PB) can support the failing myocardium, regional ischemic damage may still occur beyond a coronary occlusion. This study sought to determine whether the addition of intraaortic balloon pump (IABP) support to PB would result in more optimal salvage of ischemic myocardium. In 30 pigs, the second and third diagonal vessels were occluded with snares for 90 minutes followed by 30 minutes of cardioplegic arrest and 3 hours of reperfusion with the snares released. During the period ot coronary artery occlusion, 10 pigs were placed on PB, 10 pigs received PB plus IABP support, and 10 pigs received no support (the unmodified group). The hearts treated with the combination of PB and IABP support exhibited the highest wall motion scores (3.3 ± 0.20 for the PB plus IABP group ( p p p p