cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Specialized Myrmecophily at the Ecological Dawn of Modern Ants

Summary Myrmecophiles—species that depend on ant societies—include some of the most morphologically and behaviorally specialized animals known [1]. Remarkable adaptive characters enable these creatures to bypass fortress-like security, integrate into colony life, and exploit abundant resources and protection inside ant nests [2, 3]. Such innovations must result from intimate coevolution with hosts, but a scarcity of definitive fossil myrmecophiles obscures when and how this lifestyle arose. Here, we report the earliest known morphologically specialized and apparently obligate myrmecophile, in Early Eocene (∼52 million years old) Cambay amber from India. Protoclaviger trichodens gen. et sp. nov. is a stem-group member of Clavigeritae, a speciose supertribe of pselaphine rove beetles (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) heavily modified for myrmecophily via reduced mouthparts for trophallaxis with worker ants, brush-like trichomes that exude appeasement compounds, and fusions of many body and antennal segments [4, 5]. Protoclaviger captures a transitional stage in the evolutionary development of this novel body plan, most evident in its still-distinct abdominal tergites. The Cambay paleobiota marks one of the first occurrences in the fossil record of a significant presence of modern ants [6]. Protoclaviger reveals that sophisticated social parasites were nest intruders throughout, and probably before, the ascent of ants to ecological dominance, with ancient groups such as Clavigeritae primed to radiate as their hosts became increasingly ubiquitous.
Processing of the external transcribed spacer of murine rRNA and site of action of actinomydn D

The primary rRNA transcript contains a large external transcribed spacer (ETS) approximately 4,000 nucleotides in length. We have used subcloned DNA probes derived from the 5' end of the ETS in conjunction with Northern blot analysis of murine nuclear RNA to examine processing of this region. In agreement with the results of previous investigators, we find that the large rRNA precursor lacks part of the ETS region. These ETS sequences are also missing from subsequent rRNA processing intermediates. Experiments using actinomycin D confirm that the excision of portion of the ETS is an early event in rRNA processing. In addition, in the presence of actinomycin D small RNA species accumulate which hybridize to a probe specific for the 5' end of the ETS. The length of these abbreviated transcripts defines a region of rDNA which is probably a target for this drug.
Out-of-core Data Management for Path Tracing on Hybrid Resources

Author(s): Budge, Brian C.; Bernardin, Tony; Stuart, Jeff A.; Sengupta, Shubhabrata; Joy, Ken; Owens, John D. | Abstract: We present a software system that enables path-traced rendering of complex scenes. The system consists of two primary components: an application layer that implements the basic rendering algorithm, and an out-of-core scheduling and data-management layer designed to assist the application layer in exploiting hybrid computational resources (e.g., CPUs and GPUs) simultaneously. We describe the basic system architecture, discuss design decisions of the system's data-management layer, and outline an efficient implementation of a path tracer application, where GPUs perform functions such as ray tracing, shadow tracing, importance-driven light sampling, and surface shading. The use of GPUs speeds up the runtime of these components by factors ranging from two to twenty, resulting in a substantial overall increase in rendering speed. The path tracer scales well with respect to CPUs, GPUs and memory per node as well as scaling with the number of nodes. The result is a system that can render large complex scenes with strong performance and scalability.
Oil and related toxicant effects on mallard immune defenses

A crude oil, a petroleum distillate, and chemically dispersed oil were tested for their effects on resistance to bacterial infection and the immune response in waterfowl. Sublethal oral doses for mallards were determined for South Louisiana crude oil, Bunker C fuel oil, a dispersant--Corexit 9527, and oil/Corexit combinations by gizzard intubation. Resistance to bacterial challenge (Pasteurella multocida) was significantly lowered in mallards receiving 2.5 or 4.0 ml/kg of Bunker C fuel oil, 4.0 ml/kg of South Louisiana crude oil, and 4.0 ml/kg of a 50:1 Bunker C fuel oil/Corexit mixture daily for 28 days. Ingestion of oil or oil/Corexit mixtures had no effect on mallard antibody-producing capability as measured by the direct spleen plaque-forming assay.
Galectin-3 is associated with prostasomes in human semen

Galectin-3 is a β-galactoside-binding protein involved in immunomodulation, cell interactions, cancer progression, and pathogenesis of infectious organisms. We report the identification and characterization of galectin-3 in human semen. In the male reproductive tract, the ~30 kDa galectin-3 protein was identified in testis, epididymis, vas deferens, prostate, seminal vesicle, and sperm protein extracts. In seminal plasma, galectin-3 was identified in the soluble fraction and in prostasomes, cholesterol-rich, membranous vesicles that are secreted by the prostate and incorporated into seminal plasma during ejaculation. Two-dimensional immunoblot analysis of purified prostasomes identified five galectin-3 isoelectric variants with a pI range of 7.0 to 9.2. Affinity purification and tandem mass spectrometry of β-galactoside-binding proteins from prostasomes confirmed the presence of galectin-3 in prostasomes and identified a truncated galectin-3 variant. The intact galectin-3 molecule contains a carbohydrate recognition domain and a non-lectin domain that interacts with protein and lipid moieties. The identification of a monovalent galectin-3 fragment with conserved carbohydrate-binding activity indicates the functional relevance of this truncation and suggests a regulatory mechanism for galectin-3 in prostasomes. Surface biotinylation studies suggested that galectin-3 and the truncated galectin-3 variant are localized to the prostasome surface. Prostasomes are proposed to function in immunosuppression and regulation of sperm function in the female reproductive tract, are implicated in facilitating sexually-transmitted infections, and are indicated in prostate cancer progression. Given the overlap in functional significance, the identification of galectin-3 in prostasomes lays the groundwork for future studies of prostasomes in reproduction, disease transmission, and cancer progression.
Real zeros of quadratic Dirichlet L-functions

A small part of the Generalized Riemann Hypothesis asserts that L-functions do not have zeros on the line segment ( 2 , 1]. The question of vanishing at s = 2 often has deep arithmetical significance, and has been investigated extensively. A persuasive view is that L-functions vanish at 2 either for trivial reasons (the sign of the functional equation being negative), or for deep arithmetical reasons (such as the L-function of an elliptic curve of positive rank) and that the latter case happens very rarely. N. Katz and P. Sarnak [7] have formulated precise conjectures on the low lying zeros in families of L-functions which support this view. In the case of Dirichlet L-functions it is expected that L( 2 , χ) is never zero, and so L(σ, χ) = 0 for all 2 ≤ σ ≤ 1. This conjecture appears to have been first enunciated by S.D. Chowla [2] in the special case of quadratic characters χ. Progress towards these non-vanishing questions has been in two directions: zero-density type results which establish that very few L-functions have a zero in ( 2 + , 1] (see for example A. Selberg [10], M. Jutila [6] and D.R. Heath-Brown [4]), and a growing body of work on non-vanishing at 2 (see for example R. Balasubramanian and V.K. Murty [1], H. Iwaniec and Sarnak [5], and K. Soundararajan [11]). Further much numerical evidence for the GRH has been accumulated, and these calculations support Chowla’s conjecture (see [8] and [9]). However the state of knowledge could not exclude the possibility that every Dirichlet L-function of sufficiently large conductor has a non-trivial real zero. In this
Electroshocking-Induced Injuries in Newly Transformed Juvenile Fish

Abstract Electroshocking-induced injuries in fish have not been described histologically, and little is known about such injuries in fish that have recently completed the transformation from larva to juvenile. We electroshocked newly transformed juvenile channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus, rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss, striped bass Morone saxatilis, largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides, bluegill Lepomis macrochirus, and Nile tilapia Tilapia nilotica (also known as Oreochromis niloticus). Fish were exposed for 5 s (bluegills only) or 20 s to homogeneous electric fields of 30-Hz to 120-Hz pulsed DC. Only 2.8% of the survivors (N = 800) and 0.7% of the fish that died immediately after electroshocking (N = 600) had gross injuries. Hemorrhage in the posterior trunk or anterior tail was the most common gross lesion, occurring in 17 fish. Nine of these fish were examined histologically, and 8 had an injured vertebra, sometimes associated with a notochord hernia, at the location of hemorrhage. In largemout...
Mixed limit theorems for pattern analysis

Abstract Limit theorems are derived for probability measures of random configurations over graphs which are used as prior distributions in pattern theory. For one-dimensional graphs, these limits can be viewed as distributions of certain stochastic processes, while in higher dimensions the limits will in some cases have to be interpreted as belonging to Schwartz distributions. Such limit distributions are easy to use in pattern analysis, and greatly reduce the computing effort required in comparison with stochastic relaxation methods.
Pauli blocking in the low-lying, low-spin states of Pr 141

The low-lying, low-spin levels of $^{141}\mathrm{Pr}$ were investigated using ($n,{n}^{'}\ensuremath{\gamma}$) techniques. Level energies, branching ratios, and tentative spin assignments for more than 100 states, linked by nearly 300 transitions, were obtained from two angular distributions (${E}_{n}=2.0$ and 3.0 MeV) and an excitation function measurement (${E}_{n}=1.5\text{\ensuremath{-}}3.2$ MeV). The application of the Doppler-shift attenuation method led to the determination of lifetimes. The obtained spectroscopic data provide insight into the wave functions of the states observed. A detailed analysis of the $[{2}_{1}^{+}\ensuremath{\bigotimes}{d}_{5/2}]$ and $[{2}_{1}^{+}\ensuremath{\bigotimes}{g}_{7/2}]$ multiplets provides the first quantitative evidence for Pauli blocking in a spherical odd-mass nucleus. The unpaired particle is used to probe the microscopic structure of the first ${2}^{+}$ state of the adjacent core nuclei $^{140}\mathrm{Ce}$ and $^{142}\mathrm{Nd}$.
The pattern of integration of viral DNA sequences in the adenovirus 5-transformed human cell line 293

The pattern of integrated adenovirus 5 DNA in the adenovirus 5-transformed human cell line 293 was analyzed by DNA blot hybridization. In contrast to a previous report, only sequences from the left end of the genome were detected. The viral DNA was contained in a unique DNA fragment generated by cleavage of 293 DNA with either EcoRI or BamHI, two enzymes which do not cut the integrated viral DNA. Further mapping studies indicated that the integrated sequence was probably colinear with viral DNA. The joining to host cell sequences occurred between viral nucleotide base pairs 1 and 270 (a site for BalI) on one end and 4123 (SmaI site) and 5372 (BalI site) at the other end. The viral DNA was not tandemly repeated. These results suggest that integration of viral sequences into the host genome probably occurred at a single site. If any subsequent duplications of viral DNA took place, then duplication of extensive cellular sequences also must have occurred.
Redirecting migration of T cells to chemokine secreted from tumors by genetic modification with CXCR2.

T-cell-based immunotherapies provide a promising means of cancer treatment although durable antitumor responses are infrequent. A potential reason for these shortcomings may lie in the observed lack of trafficking of specific T cells to tumor. Our increasing knowledge of the process of trafficking involving adhesion molecules and chemokines affords us the opportunity to intervene and correct deficiencies in this process. Chemokines can be expressed by a range of tumors and may serve as suitable targets for directing specific T cells toward tumor. We initially sought to identify which chemokines were produced by a range of human tumor cell lines, and which chemokines and chemokine receptors were expressed by cultured T cells. We identified two chemokines: Growth-Regulated Oncogene-α (Gro-α; CXCL1) and Regulated on Activation Normal T Cell-Expressed and Secreted (RANTES; CCL5), to be secreted by several human tumor cell lines. Expression was also detected in fine-needle aspirates of melanoma from patients. ...
Permeable Surface Corrections for Ffowcs Williams and Hawkings Integrals

The acoustic prediction methodology discussed herein applies an acoustic analogy to calculate the sound generated by sources in an aerodynamic simulation. Sound is propagated from the computed flow field by integrating the Ffowcs Williams and Hawkings equation on a suitable control surface. Previous research suggests that, for some applications, the integration surface must be placed away from the solid surface to incorporate source contributions from within the flow volume. As such, the fluid mechanisms in the input flow field that contribute to the far-field noise are accounted for by their mathematical projection as a distribution of source terms on a permeable surface. The passage of nonacoustic disturbances through such an integration surface can result in significant error in an acoustic calculation. A correction for the error is derived in the frequency domain using a frozen gust assumption. The correction is found to work reasonably well in several test cases where the error is a small fraction of the actual radiated noise. However, satisfactory agreement has not been obtained between noise predictions using the solution from a three-dimensional, detached-eddy simulation of flow over a cylinder.
Deregulation of Pax-2 expression in transgenic mice generates severe kidney abnormalities

The Pax genes comprise a family of transcription factors active in specific tissues during embryonic development and are associated with at least three developmental mutations in mouse and man. In the developing kidney, Pax-2 is expressed in the induced mesenchyme, in the ureter epithelium, and in early epithelial structures derived from the mesenchyme. Pax-2 expression is repressed upon terminal differentiation of the renal tubule epithelium, but persists in the undifferentiated epithelium of human Wilms' tumours. We have produced a dominant gain-of-function mutation in transgenic mice by deregulating the expression of the mouse Pax-2 gene. The data obtained with four independently derived transgenic embryos and with one transgenic line demonstrate that deregulated Pax-2 expression results in histologically abnormal and dysfunctional renal epithelium with properties similar to congenital nephrotic syndrome. Thus, repression of Pax-2 is required for normal kidney development and persistent expression of Pax-2 may restrict the differentiation potential of renal epithelial cells.
On the measurement of the specific 'emitter efficiency factor in bipolar transistors'

Abstract This monograph advocates that workers dealing with experimental data on bipolar transistors consider the effect of changes in the emitter minority carrier saturation current density when evaluating their results. A technique for extracting this parameter is outlined, and an emitter efficiency figure of merit is proposed.
Chemical storage of data

We investigate the possibility of storing data using H and F on a polymer to signify 0 and 1 bits. We show that the difference between the B-F and B-H interaction energies for either C5H5B or C3H3N2B is only slightly larger than the variation in B-F interaction energy with type of neighboring atoms. Pyridine (C5H5N) and (CH3)3P=O have a much larger difference in the H and F interaction energies. (CH3)3P=O may be better suited as a surface probe, because the interaction with neighboring data sites should be smaller.
Limited pepsin digestion of bovine plasma albumin.

Abstract Limited pepsin digestion of bovine plasma albumin at pH 3.7 and 25 °C in the presence of octanoic acid gave two fragments, A and B, each in about 16% yield. In the absence of octanoic acid fragment A was rapidly degraded further into smaller fragments. Sodium dodecylsulfate gel electrophoreses and amino acid analyses of fragments A and B indicated their molecular weights to be about 29,000 and 34,000, respectively. Comparative studies of the cyanogen bromide peptides of fragments A and B with those of intact albumin established that fragments A and B represent, respectively, the carboxyl and the amino terminal portions of the albumin molecule. In Tris-HCl buffer (pH 7.95) at 25 °C, fragment A has one primary binding site for octanoic acid with a binding constant about one-eighth of that of albumin. This binding constant is doubled in the presence of an equimolar amount of fragment B, although fragment B itself shows very weak activity, less than one three-hundreth of that of albumin. l - and d -tryptophans competitively bind at the same primary octanoate binding site of fragment A, just as is the case with albumin. These findings together with those of other studies suggest that the albumin molecule might consist of several compact regions and that the interactions of these regions within the molecule vary with the solvent environment and upon binding of organic ligands.
Reconstruction of eolian bed forms and paleocurrents from cross‐bedded strata at Victoria Crater, Meridiani Planum, Mars

Outcrop exposures imaged by the Opportunity rover at Victoria Crater, a 750 m diameter crater in Meridiani Planum, are used to delineate sedimentary structures and further develop a dune-interdune depositional model for the region. The stratigraphy at Victoria Crater, observed during Opportunity's partial traverse of its rim, includes the best examples of meter-scale eolian cross bedding observed on Mars to date. The Cape St. Mary promontory, located at the southern end of the rim traverse, is characterized by meter-scale sets of trough cross bedding, suggesting northward migrating sinuous-crested bed forms. Cape St. Vincent, which is located at the opposite end of the traverse, shows tabular-planar stratification indicative of climbing bed forms with meter- to decameter-scale dune heights migrating southward. Promontories located between Cape St. Mary and Cape St. Vincent contain superposed stratigraphic units with northward and southward dipping beds separated by outcrop-scale bounding surfaces. These bounding surfaces are interpreted to be either reactivation and/or superposition surfaces in a complex erg sea. Any depositional model used to explain the bedding must conform to reversing northward and southward paleomigration directions and include multiple scales of bed forms. In addition to stratified outcrop, a bright diagenetic band is observed to overprint bedding and to lie on an equipotential parallel to the preimpact surface. Meter-scale cross bedding at Victoria Crater is similar to terrestrial eolian deposits and is interpreted as a dry dune field, comparable to Jurassic age eolian deposits in the western United States.
Silver nanoparticles incite size- and dose-dependent developmental phenotypes and nanotoxicity in zebrafish embryos.

Nanomaterials possess distinctive physicochemical properties and promise a wide range of applications, from advanced technology to leading-edge medicine. However, their effects on living organisms remain largely unknown. Here we report that the purified silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs, 97 ± 13 nm) incite specific developmental stage embryonic phenotypes and nanotoxicity in a dose-dependent manner, upon acute exposure of given-stage embryos to the NPs (0–24 pM) for only 2 h. The critical concentrations of the NPs that cause 50% of embryos develop normally for cleavage, early-gastrula, early-segmentation, late-segmentation, and hatching stage zebrafish embryos are 3.5, 4, 6, 6, and 8 pM, respectively, showing that the earlier developmental stage embryos are much more sensitive to the effects of the NPs than the later stage. Interestingly, distinctive phenotypes (head abnormality and no eyes) are observed only in cleavage and early-gastrula stage embryos treated with the NPs, showing the stage-specific effects of the NPs. By comparing with our study of the smaller Ag NPs (13.1 ± 2.5 nm), we found that the embryonic phenotypes strikingly depend upon the sizes of Ag NPs and embryonic developmental stages. These notable findings suggest that the Ag NPs are unlike any conventional chemicals or ions. They can potentially enable target specific study and therapy for early embryonic development in size, stage, dose, and exposure-duration dependent manners.
Compression wood in conifers as a morphogenetic phenomenon

Although much has been done with compression wood, its basic causes have only recently been investigated. It seems quite clear that compression wood is formed indirectly as a counteractant to forces tending to deform a tree in any way. It seems equally clear that compression wood is actually under great compression and actually tends to straighten the tree or otherwise overcome the deformation, be the deformation actual or incipient. Finally it seems quite probable that auxin is the regulator which sets off the intracellular reaction that causes formation of the anomaly.
Home Tooth Whitening Systems Improve Tooth Color Over Short Term but Lack Evaluation of Side Effects

Article Title and Bibliographic Information Home-Based Chemically Induced Whitening of Teeth in Adults Hasson H, Ismail AI, Neiva G. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2006, Issue 4. Art. No.: CD006202. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD006202 . Level of Evidence 1a Purpose To evaluate the effectiveness of and side effects of over-the-counter and dentist-dispensed chemically based tooth-whitening products designed for home use. Source of Funding None noted Type of Study/Design Systematic Review
Pediments and Terraces along the Moapa Valley, Clark County, Nevada

On the basis of topographic and stratigraphic relations between pediments and terraces along the Moapa Valley, Clark County, Nevada, a temporal-genetic model is proposed for the origin of these surfaces. Pedimentation is a continuous process below the 1,000-m contour and is essentially unaffected by transitions from pluvial to interpluvial periods because climatic conditions below this elevation remain arid. Incision of the trunk drainage is initiated during pluvial periods owing to the increase in runoff from the higher, upper reaches of the Muddy River watershed in east-central Nevada. During pluvial periods, pediment formation proceeds without aggradation of the trunk drainage by local tributaries because the competence of the main stream is held at a high level. During a long pluvial period, pedimentation may extend to the marginal limits of the weak basin fill. This buffers the trunk drainage against aggradation by local tributaries during the subsequent interpluvial period, when the competence of the main stream is greatly reduced because the bedrock mountain ranges erode very slowly as compared with the basin fill, and because waste from the mountain ranges can be stored in alluvial fans which spread out onto the pediments. Aggradation of the trunk drainage by local tributaries occurs during interpluvial periods following short pluvial periods, because under these conditions there is little opportunity to destroy the older, higher surfaces while the competence of the main stream is at a high level.
Precision rheometry: Surface tension effects on low-torque measurements in rotational rheometers

For rotational rheometers, surface tension results in a torque that should not occur in an ideal, rotationally symmetric geometry. This paper identifies and explains the effect, which is due to surface tension and contact line traction forces, and not surface rheology at the liquid-air interface. For water, we show that this torque can be more than two orders of magnitude larger than the viscous torque. In steady shear flow, the effect appears as a constant torque independent of rate, which would appear inaccurately as apparent shear thinning of water. In oscillatory tests, this may appear inaccurately as an elastic modulus. This surface tension torque is sensitive to wetting conditions and contact line asymmetries and cannot be deterministically corrected in experimental measurements. It therefore raises the lower bound of the instrument low-torque limit. The surface tension torque is reduced by maximizing rotational symmetry of the contact line, minimizing evaporation and the migration of the contact line, reducing the radial location of the contact line, and lowering the surface tension. Identifying and eliminating the surface tension torque is critical for low viscosities, intrinsic viscosities, soft materials, subdominant viscoelastic components, small gaps, and any circumstance where the low-torque limit is experimentally important.
Helminth Parasites of the Grotto Salamander, Eurycea spelaea (Caudata: Plethodontidae), from Northern Arkansas and Southern Missouri, U.S.A

Thirty-eight larval and adult Eurycea (¼Typhlotriton) spelaea were borrowed from the Arkansas State University Museum Herpetological (ASUMZ) collec- tion and examined for helminth parasites. These salaman- ders were collected at various times between 1936-1988 from locales in Independence, Izard, Sharp, and Stone counties, Arkansas, U.S.A., and Boone, Howell, and Taney counties, Missouri, U.S.A. In addition, 2 larval E. spelaea were collected more recently (March 2001 and May 2004) from Fulton and Madison counties, Arkansas, and 8 more larvae were collected (March 2003) from 2 caves in Shannon County, Missouri. Eight of the ASUMZ salaman- ders and 1 larvae from Madison County, Arkansas (9/40, 22.5%) harbored infections, including 1 (2.5%) with the trematode Plagioporus gyrinophili Catalano and Etges, 1981; 3 (7.5%) with the cestode Bothriocephalus typhlo- tritonis Reeves, 1949; 5 (12.5%) with the trichurid nematode Amphibiocapillaria tritonispunctati (Diesing, 1851) Mor- avec, 1982; 1 (2.5%) with the seuratoid nematode Omeia papillocauda Rankin, 1937, and 1 (2.5%) with the acan- thocephalan Fessisentis vancleavei (Hughes and Moore, 1943) Nickol, 1972. In addition, all 8 larval E. spelaea from Shannon County, Missouri, harbored neascus type meta- cercariae of an undetermined strigeoid trematode in their gills and body tissues. Plagioporus gyrinophili, O. papil- locauda, and F. vancleavei represent new helminth records for this host; new geographic distributional records are
Combination of 15N reverse labeling and afterglow spectroscopy for assigning membrane protein spectra by magic-angle-spinning solid-state NMR: application to the multidrug resistance protein EmrE

Magic-angle-spinning (MAS) solid-state NMR spectroscopy has emerged as a viable method to characterize membrane protein structure and dynamics. Nevertheless, the spectral resolution for uniformly labeled samples is often compromised by redundancy of the primary sequence and the presence of helical secondary structure that results in substantial resonance overlap. The ability to simplify the spectrum in order to obtain unambiguous site-specific assignments is a major bottleneck for structure determination. To address this problem, we used a combination of 15N reverse labeling, afterglow spectroscopic techniques, and frequency-selective dephasing experiments that dramatically improved the ability to resolve peaks in crowded spectra. This was demonstrated using the polytopic membrane protein EmrE, an efflux pump involved in multidrug resistance. Residues preceding the 15N reverse labeled amino acid were imaged using a 3D NCOCX afterglow experiment and those following were recorded using a frequency-selective dephasing experiment. Our approach reduced the spectral congestion and provided a sensitive way to obtain chemical shift assignments for a membrane protein where no high-resolution structure is available. This MAS methodology is widely applicable to the study of other polytopic membrane proteins in functional lipid bilayer environments.
HPV vaccine and males: Issues and challenges

The quadrivalent vaccine has been shown to be safe and efficacious against HPV infection in men. It is expected, though, that male vaccination rates will remain low. Therefore this literature review examines the attitudes of parents, young men, and HCPs toward HPV vaccination and other sexually transmitted infections (STI). It appears that parents are interested in vaccinating their sons against HPV and other (STI). In addition, adolescent and adult males are interested in receipt of HPV vaccine and other vaccines for prevention of STI. Health care providers have a general preference for vaccinating females, but they indicate a willingness to recommend HPV vaccine for their male patients. This is important given the "permissive" recommendation for male HPV vaccination issued by the US Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). Cost effectiveness studies have shown that vaccinating males and females is less cost effective than vaccinating females alone. With low female vaccination rates, both cost effectiveness and health benefits increase. It is clear that males have poor knowledge of HPV infection, morbidity, transmission and prevention. Regardless of vaccination strategies adopted, efforts should be made to educate males about HPV and its health implications. In addition, there are more challenges to overcome before male vaccination can be successfully implemented.
Bithalamic hyperintensity on T2-weighted MR: vascular causes and evaluation with MR angiography.

PURPOSE To determine whether MR angiography can be used to differentiate between the two vascular causes of bithalamic hyperintensity on T2-weighted MR images: "top of the basilar" artery occlusion and deep cerebral vein thrombosis. METHODS A retrospective review identified six patients with bithalamic T2 hyperintensity of vascular causes. MR angiography was performed in four patients, MR angiography and conventional angiography in one patient, and conventional angiography in one patient. Data pertaining to clinical presentation and hospital course were collected. MR angiographic techniques were multislab overlapping three-dimensional time-of-flight, 2-D time-of-flight, and 2-D phase-contrast. RESULTS Three cases of top of the basilar artery occlusion and three cases of deep cerebral vein thrombosis were recognized. In all cases, T2 hyperintensity in a vascular distribution suggested cerebral occlusive disease. Infarction involving the thalami and basal ganglia was present in two cases of deep cerebral vein thrombosis. Infarction of the thalami, mesodiencephalic region, and cerebellar hemispheres was present in two cases of basilar artery occlusion. Bithalamic infarction alone was seen in one case of deep cerebral vein thrombosis and one case of basilar artery occlusion. In the five cases in which MR angiography was used, this technique accurately distinguished the vessels involved (arterial or venous). CONCLUSION MR angiography is a useful adjunct to MR imaging in the evaluation of bithalamic T2 hyperintensity. It does help distinguish between the two vascular causes: top of basilar artery occlusion and deep cerebral vein thrombosis.
Problems with the fourth-year curriculum of students entering surgical residencies

Background Because of concerns about the relevance of the fourth-year curriculum of students entering surgical residencies, this study was undertaken to analyze the curriculum, electives, and grades and to compare the students' elective choices with previously documented preferences of surgical educators. Methods Computer profiles of all fourth-year students at New York Medical College who entered surgical residencies during a 3-year period were reviewed. The records of 115 students (92 male, 23 female), who were placed in 68 categorical and 47 preliminary positions, comprised the study. Four-week rotations in internal medicine, neurology, and ambulatory medicine were mandatory. An average of 5.1 electives per student, along with time for vacation and interviews, filled the remainder of the year. Results Students were statistically significantly more likely to receive honors grades in electives. Students, especially those in preliminary positions, frequently selected electives in their eventual specialty choice. Conclusions Program directors interviewing prospective candidates for residency should view elective grades with care. Students often take electives that duplicate or do not enhance their career choices. Elective grades are inflated and may be based on subjective evaluations. This issue should be investigated further, and the major surgical education organizations should propose meaningful changes.
A Model for Aggregate Financial Planning

Financial planning in the firm is a dynamic process requiring that a variety of liquidity, profitability, capital structure, growth and stability variables be simultaneously considered. In recent years widespread attention has been given the time-wise interdependencies involved, but the focus has been conceptual and not directed to yield an implementable model. In the present paper a workable, multi-stage planning model is developed by combining these developments in corporate finance with techniques from optimal systems control. The firm is viewed as attempting to optimize a multiple-objective criterion of time-dated variables involving both short-and long-term financial goals. Random elements are considered to be part of the process by which decisions affect the firm's financial state and an optimal decision strategy developed for an important first-approximation model. The paper concentrates on the general model structure and specific means for implementation; rigorous mathematical analysis is suppressed. An illustrative application is presented and potential uses discussed.
Can Eddy Fluxes Serve as a Catalyst for Hurricane and Typhoon Formation

Abstract Numerical simulations and diagnostics are performed for Typhoon Tip and Tropical Storm Faye, both of which occurred during 1979, the year of the First Global GARP (Global Atmosphere Research Program) Experiment (FGGE). The simulations are started from early in the life cycles of both disturbances, the former of which developed into a super typhoon, and the latter of which did not develop beyond the tropical storm stage. The numerical model employed was that of Madala et al. and is a modification of the one used in previous simulations by the authors. The primary modifications are the inclusion of a more sophisticated boundary layer parameterization, based on similarity theory, and the inclusion in the Kuo cumulus parameterization scheme of the nonmeasurable mesoscale latent heat release, as described by Krishnamurti et al. The initial conditions for both simulations were derived from the FGGE dataset of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts and from monthly mean sea surface tempe...
Antiphlogistic activity of L-phenylalanine and L-tryptophane within the mouse peritoneal cavity.

L'inflammation de la cavite abdominale provoquee chez la souris par injection de gelatine a ete inhibe par l'administration intraperitoneale de 25 mg/kg del-phenylalanine et del-tryptophane. Ce fait a ete constate aussi en mesurant la distribution des cellules dans le liquide peritoneale aspire.
Practical applications of Preventive Security Constrained Optimal Power Flow

This paper presents an approach to solving a Preventive Security Constrained Optimal Power Flow (PSCOPF) problem with two sample applications in power system planning and operation. One application is to address N-1-1 contingency analysis as a part of NERC TPL standard compliance studies and another is to perform reactive compensation planning to mitigate post-contingency voltage problems. The approach features the modeling of full AC power flow equations, contingency filtering and Benders decomposition, as well as an iterative process that includes optimization of system control settings and AC power flow solution to verify the effectiveness of the controls.
Target Localization using Multiple UAVs with Sensor Fusion via Sigma-Point Kalman Filtering

This paper proposes a sensor-fusion methodology based on sigma-point Kalman filtering (SPKF) techniques, where the SPKF is applied to the particular problem of localizing a mobile target using uncertain nonlinear measurements relating to target positions. This SPKF-based sensor fusion is part of our larger research program in which the particular target localization solution of interest must address a number of challenging requirements: (a) covert/passive sensing means must be used; (b) the dynamic characteristics of the target are unknown; (c) the target is episodically mobile; and (d) the target is intermittently occluded from one or more sensors. Our research efforts seek to meet these requirements using a flight of small autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with heterogeneous sensing capabilities. Each UAV carries one or more sensors, which include: radio frequency sensors, infrared sensors, and image sensors. Due to cost considerations and to payload constraints, it is not desirable for every UAV to have a full complement of sensing capability. In our implementation, the UAVs first search a predefined region for targets. Upon target detection, a small formation of UAVs comprising complementary heterogeneous sensors is autonomously assembled to localize the target. The UAVs then cooperatively locate the target by combining the sensor information collected by heterogeneous sensors onboard the UAVs. The output of the localization process is an estimate of the target’s position and velocity as well as error bounds on that estimate. The primary purpose of this paper is to describe SPKF-based sensor-fusion for target localization using sensors that only provide direction-of-arrival information. Results of simulations are compared to prior work where linear Kalman filters were used to localize stationary targets. The SPKF gives much more accurate and consistent results, due mostly to its better handling of the nonlinear measurement relationship. Results are also given for the application of SPKF to mobile targets.
Time-domain radiated emissions measurement of laboratory simulated spacecraft on-orbit electrostatic discharge

Time-domain techniques were employed to capture the EMI emission in laboratory simulated spacecraft on-orbit electrostatic discharges. The test setup included custom-built four-channel data acquisition instrumentation anchored by a 15-GHz digital oscilloscope, and a dedicated fiberglass vacuum chamber inside a semi-anechoic shielded room. The test article was designed to simulate a section of a solar cell array and was irradiated with an electron gun. Radiated emission pulse waveforms have been captured and converted to frequency spectra via Fourier transform. This time-domain measurement approach allowed us to capture the entire L-, S-, and C-bands of the ESD pulse radiated emission spectrum instead of the narrow frequency band snapshots obtained using a spectrum analyzer. Latest data and statistical analysis will be presented.
A robust PCR primer design platform applied to the detection of Acidobacteria Group 1 in soil

Environmental biosurveillance and microbial ecology studies use PCR-based assays to detect and quantify microbial taxa and gene sequences within a complex background of microorganisms. However, the fragmentary nature and growing quantity of DNA-sequence data make group-specific assay design challenging. We solved this problem by developing a software platform that enables PCR-assay design at an unprecedented scale. As a demonstration, we developed quantitative PCR assays for a globally widespread, ecologically important bacterial group in soil, Acidobacteria Group 1. A total of 33684 Acidobacteria 16S rRNA gene sequences were used for assay design. Following 1 week of computation on a 376-core cluster, 83 assays were obtained. We validated the specificity of the top three assays, collectively predicted to detect 42% of the Acidobacteria Group 1 sequences, by PCR amplification and sequencing of DNA from soil. Based on previous analyses of 16S rRNA gene sequencing, Acidobacteria Group 1 species were expected to decrease in response to elevated atmospheric CO2. Quantitative PCR results, using the Acidobacteria Group 1-specific PCR assays, confirmed the expected decrease and provided higher statistical confidence than the 16S rRNA gene-sequencing data. These results demonstrate a powerful capacity to address previously intractable assay design challenges.
Beam Transmission Through Periodic Subwavelength Hole Structures

The structure of the field transmitted through a metal plate perforated by subwavelength holes and illuminated by a beam is analyzed. Starting from a spectral representation of the transmitted field involving the plate's plane wave transmission coefficient and the incident beam's angular Fourier transform, the transmitted field is shown to asymptotically comprise saddle point, (transmission coefficient) pole, and (transmission coefficient) branch cut contributions. For incident beams with narrow angular support only the saddle point contribution is significant. The transmitted field is an attenuated, laterally, and angularly shifted replica of the incident beam. For beams with wide angular support all three saddle point, pole, and branch cut contributions can be significant. The saddle point contribution dominates the transmitted field far from the plate as it gives rise to a geometrical ray. The pole and branch point contributions are observed nearby the structure as they give rise to leaky and a new type of lateral waves, respectively. These contributions relate to so-called resonant and Rayleigh Wood anomalies; the former play a key role in the buildup of enhanced transmission phenomena. The influence of the plate thickness and the proximity of the plane wave transmission coefficient poles and branch points on the structure of the transmitted field is elucidated both for beams with narrow and wide angular support. This study is relevant not only for characterizing transmission properties of hole perforated plates but also those of many other gratings. The investigated structure and phenomena can be applied and exploited in the construction of novel probes, antennas, and microwave and optical filters.
Improvement in the visualization of superficial arm veins being evaluated for access and bypass

Objectives Duplex ultrasound mapping of arm veins is being performed with increasing frequency. Unlike ultrasound testing in other areas, this has never been subjected to a gold standard invasive test to determine accuracy. Duplex mapping appears to have a good predictive value whenever large veins are demonstrated preoperatively, but its ability to accurately measure minimum-sized veins is unproven. In this study, we compared diameter measurements obtained under six different conditions and used the maximum diameter as the comparison gold standard. Methods A 12-MHz linear probe was used to measure the cephalic and basilic vein cross-sectional diameters at the wrist level in 24 normal volunteers under the following conditions: (1) resting supine with a room temperature of 23° to 24° C, (2) supine with a tourniquet inflated to 65 mm Hg, (3) sitting with the arm dangling, (4) sitting with a tourniquet, (5) sitting after a 2-minute immersion in warm water (44° C), and (6) same with tourniquet. Half the subjects underwent the protocol in a different order. Results Vein diameters were significantly larger after submersion in warm water compared with supine ( P 2 mm after warming. All subjects had either a cephalic or a basilic vein at the wrist that was >3.1 mm after warming. Conclusion Use of warm water immersion before vein diameter measurement in a sitting position, without a tourniquet, will result in significantly larger diameter findings in normal arm veins. These diameters are likely to more closely resemble the venous diameter after distension with arterial pressure. Further studies are needed to see if warming in patients could result in increased utilization of autogenous arm vein for dialysis access and bypass.
A Repository Service for Grid Workflow Components

As part of the Java CoG kit we have defined a sophisticated workflow framework. This workflow framework projects an integrated approach towards executing tasks in grid and non-grid environments. One of the services needed is a convenient service to store, retrieve, and modify workflow components defined by the community similar to systems such as the comprehensive perl archive network. The availability of such a service will not only allow the definition of components useful for the greater grid community, but it will also be possible that it can be reused to support dynamically changing workflows managed by collaborative groups. In this paper, we present a simple extensible framework to design, build, and deploy a workflow repository service. This repository is intended to be used in ad-hoc grids or in community grids
Spectral smoothing and recursion based on the nonstationarity of the autocorrelation function

Averaging and recursion in short-time spectral analysis in view of the nature of the nonstationarity of the random process is addressed. Using the Wigner spectrum estimator as a general model, this correspondence relates the selection of the time and lag windows to the stationary intervals of the autocorrelation at different lags. The lag-dependent time averaging for two types of commonly assumed nonstationarities is presented and used to devise the recursive estimates of their time-varying spectrum. >
Partitioning of foraging resources between sympatric Indiana and little brown bats

The partitioning of resources within communities is commonly associated with variation in morphological characteristics between species. However, communities containing morphologically similar species, such as the endangered Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis) and the little brown bat (M. lucifugus) must partition resources in different ways. We examined sympatric populations of M. sodalis and M. lucifugus to determine whether they partitioned their resources through the selection of foraging habitat. Foraging ranges, estimated using 100% minimum convex polygons (MCP) and 95% fixed kernel (FK) models, and foraging habitat selection, estimated using Euclidean distance-based habitat selection analyses, were examined and compared between the species using radiotelemetry. M. sodalis had a mean foraging range area of 375 6 39 ha and 285 6 32 ha (MCP and 95% FK, respectively), whereas M. lucifugus had a mean of 2,739 6 456 ha and 515 6 78 ha. Both species selected for similar hydric habitats at the landscape level. However, although M. lucifugus specifically selected for open water and bottomland hardwood forests within their expansive foraging ranges, M. sodalis used land cover types as they were available within their smaller home ranges, suggesting that these species use different foraging strategies, partitioning foraging resources through variation in their selection of land cover.