cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A low pKa cysteine at the active site of mouse methionine sulfoxide reductase A.

Methionine sulfoxide reductase A is an essential enzyme in the antioxidant system which scavenges reactive oxygen species through cyclic oxidation and reduction of methionine and methionine sulfoxide. Recently it has also been shown to catalyze the reverse reaction, oxidizing methionine residues to methionine sulfoxide. A cysteine at the active site of the enzyme is essential for both reductase and oxidase activities. This cysteine has been reported to have a pKa of 9.5 in the absence of substrate, decreasing to 5.7 upon binding of substrate. Using three independent methods, we show that the pKa of the active site cysteine of mouse methionine sulfoxide reductase is 7.2 even in the absence of substrate. The primary mechanism by which the pKa is lowered is hydrogen bonding of the active site Cys-72 to protonated Glu-115. The low pKa renders the active site cysteine susceptible to oxidation to sulfenic acid by micromolar concentrations of hydrogen peroxide. This characteristic supports a role for methionine sulfoxide reductase in redox signaling.
DISTANCE DECAY REEXAMINED

The “journey to crime,” or the study of the distance between an offender's residence and offense site, has been a subject of study within criminology for many years. Implications arising from such research touches the majority of criminological theories. An overriding conclusion from this line of research is that most crimes occur in relatively close proximity to the home of the offender. Termed the distance-decay function, a plot of the number of crimes that an offender commits decreases with increasing distance from the offender's residence. In a recent paper, Van Koppen and De Keijser raise the concern that inferring individual distance decay from aggregate-level data may be inappropriate. They assert that previous research reporting aggregated distance-decay functions conceals individual variations in the ranges of operation, which leads them to conclude that the distance-decay function is an artifact. We do not question the claim that researchers should not make inferences about individual behavior with data collected at the aggregate level. However, Van Koppen and De Keijser's analysis raises four important issues concerning (1) the interpretation of the ecological fallacy, (2) the assumption of linearity in offender movements, (3) the interpretation of geographic work on profiling, and (4) the assumption of random target selection within a delimited range of operation. Using both simulated and nonsimulated data, we present evidence that reaches vastly different conclusions from those reached by Van Koppen and De Keijser. The theoretical implications of our analyses and possibilities for future research are addressed.
Microvessel quantification as a measure of angiogenic activity in benign breast tissues lesions: A marker for precancerous disease?

Neovascularization is a key step in the transformation of normal breast tissue into a cancerous phenotype. We investigated the angiogenic activity of 58 cases of histologically confirmed benign breast lesions quantitating angiogenic activity by factor VIII highlighting of endothelial cells. The mean microvessel count (MVC) for all patients was 51 per 0.19 mm2 in the area of highest angiogenic activity at 400X magnification (range 21-113 per 0.19 mm). MVC in benign tissues were similar to those found previously in cancer tissues. These data suggest that the 'angiogenic switch' occurs early in breast transformation and that a role may exist for the use of MVC in the identification of persons at heightened risk for subsequent development of breast cancer.
An ultrafast line-by-line algorithm for calculating spectral transmittance and radiance

Abstract An ultrafast line-by-line algorithm for calculating spectral transmittance and radiance of gases is presented. The algorithm is based on fast convolution of the Voigt line profile using Fourier transform and a binning technique. The algorithm breaks a radiative transfer calculation into two steps: a one-time pre-computation step in which a set of pressure independent coefficients are computed using the spectral line information; a normal calculation step in which the Fourier transform coefficients of the optical depth are calculated using the line of sight information and the coefficients pre-computed in the first step, the optical depth is then calculated using an inverse Fourier transform and the spectral transmittance and radiance are calculated. The algorithm is significantly faster than line-by-line algorithms that do not employ special speedup techniques by a factor of 103–106. A case study of the 2.7 μm band of H2O vapor is presented.
Semiconductor laser marking studies on copper TCNQ thin films

Description des caracterisations preliminaires des marques de laser semiconducteur dans des couches minces de Cu-TCNQ
Role of ionic species in determining characteristics of polymer LEDs

Abstract Even traces of ionic species in the emissive polymer layer in Al/MEH-PPV/ITO LEDs or in the non-emissive emeraldine base, “EB” layer, in Al/MEH-PPV/EB/ITO LEDs are shown to dramatically change the characteristics of the LEDs including improved quantum yield and/or operation in both forward and reverse bias modes due to reduction of electron/hole injection energies facilitated by ion diffusion phenomenon.
Transient Reflectance Response to Hot Electron Relaxation in InP Based Films

Advancements in technologies related to thin film growth have led to astoundingly complex integrated photonic devices. The reliability of these devices relies upon the precise control of the band gap and absorption mechanisms in the thin film structures. Photon absorption in these devices can result in a reduction of laser efficiency as well as thermal runaway. To improve device performance prediction, an increased understanding of the localized absorption processes is paramount. A pump-probe technique is being developed to measure the transient absorption during hot carrier relaxation. This method relies upon the generation of hot carriers by the absorption of an intense ultrashort laser pulse. The change in reflectance due to hot carrier generation and relaxation is monitored using a probe pulse focused at the center of the excited region. The transient reflectance is measured as a function of the relative delay between the pump and probe pulses. Utilizing ultrashort laser pulses (τp ∼ 190 fs) it is possible to attain sub-picosecond resolution of the transient reflectance during hot carrier relaxation. Transient changes in the reflectance can then be related to transient changes in the absorption mechanisms of the film. Preliminary measurements made with this technique have shown clear differences in the transient reflectance of doped and undoped Indium Phosphide (InP) based films. This study will form the basis for development of a transient thermoreflectance model during hot carrier relaxation in III-V semiconductors.Copyright © 2002 by ASME
The Use of Occupational Therapists in Independent Living Programs

OBJECTIVES Occupational therapy literature describes various independent living programs developed by occupational therapists and at times documents their effectiveness, yet none of the literature reviewed examined the involvement of occupational therapists in independent living programs. METHOD Directors of independent living programs in the United States were surveyed to ascertain their use of occupational therapists, to discover which disciplines were providing traditional occupational therapy services (e.g., daily living skills, assistive device provision, etc.) in these programs, and to identify which types of independent living programs were more likely to use occupational therapy services. RESULTS Less than half of the 96 responding independent living programs (46%) reported using occupational therapy services, and those programs that did provide occupational therapy services did so at a minimal rate. The programs that employed occupational therapists offered traditional occupational therapy services more often than those with no occupational therapists, but frequently, occupational therapists were not the providers of these traditional occupational therapy services. Chi-square analyses indicated that an independent living program's use of occupational therapy services was significantly affected by the type of facility (p = 0.05), the primary funding source (p = 0.04), and the program's practices regarding the hiring of professionals without disabilities (p = 0.04). CONCLUSION Possible reasons why occupational therapists are not employed more by independent living centers are discussed and recommendations for change are provided.
Recovery from Overt Type 1 Diabetes Ensues When Immune Tolerance and β Cell Formation Are Coupled with Regeneration of Endothelial Cells in the Pancreatic Islets

Immune modulation of pancreatic inflammation induces recovery from type 1 diabetes (T1D), but remission was not durable, perhaps because of an inability to sustain the formation and function of new pancreatic β-cells. We have previously shown that Ig-GAD2, carrying GAD 206–220 peptide, induced in hyperglycemic mice immune modulation that was able to control pancreatic inflammation, stimulate β-cell regeneration, and prevent T1D progression. Herein, we show that the same Ig-GAD2 regimen given to mice with overt T1D was unable to reverse the course of disease despite eradication of Th1 and Th17 cells from the pancreas. However, the regimen was able to sustain recovery from T1D when Ig-GAD2 was accompanied with transfer of bone marrow (BM) cells from healthy donors. Interestingly, alongside immune modulation, there was concomitant formation of new β-cells and endothelial cells (ECs) in the pancreas. The new β-cells were of host origin while the donor BM cells gave rise to the ECs. Moreover, transfer of purified BM endothelial progenitors instead of whole BM cells sustained both β-cell and EC formation and reversal of diabetes. Thus, overcoming T1D requires both immune modulation and repair of the islet vascular niche to preserve newly formed β-cells.
Lung Function and Ischemic Stroke Incidence: The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study

Background Few studies have examined the relation between lung function and ischemic stroke incidence; none have studied African Americans. Methods We followed 13,842 middle-aged adults initially free of stroke and coronary heart disease and observed 472 incident ischemic strokes over 13 years. Quartiles of FEV 1 as a percentage of predicted value (FEV 1 PP) and FVC as a percentage of a predicted value (FVCPP) were used as the indicators of lung function. Results In the age-, race-, gender-, and education-adjusted models, both lung function measures were significantly inversely related to ischemic stroke incidence (linear trend for FEV 1 PP, p 1 PP quartiles (lowest to highest) were 1.59, 1.52, 1.26, and 1.00; and for FVCPP quartiles were 1.56, 1.80, 1.09, and 1.00 [trend for both, p 1 PP and FVCPP quartiles were 0.74, 0.89, 0.73, 1.00 [linear trend, p = 0.27] and 0.81, 1.07, 0.61, 1.00 [linear trend, p = 0.75], respectively). An inverse relation between lung function and ischemic stroke was also observed among white subjects who never smoked (FEV 1 PP) or had no respiratory symptoms (both FEV 1 PP and FVCPP) but not among their African-American counterparts. Conclusions Among white subjects, participants with impaired lung function have a modestly higher risk of ischemic stroke even if they have never smoked nor had respiratory symptoms.
EFFECTS OF UV RADIATION ON GROWTH AND PHLOROTANNINS IN FUCUS GARDNERI (PHAEOPHYCEAE) JUVENILES AND EMBRYOS1

Diminishing levels of atmospheric ozone are increasing UV stress on intertidal algae. Early developmental stages tend to be more susceptible to environmental stresses; however, little research has examined how these stages are protected from UV radiation (UVR). Many brown algae contain high levels of phlorotannins, which are thought to function in screening UVR. In this study, we tested the effects of ambient levels of UV-B and UV-A on growth and phlorotannin production in 1- to 2-cm juvenile and microscopic postsettlement embryos of the intertidal alga Fucus gardneri Silva. Algae were grown in four light treatments: 1) ambient light; 2) under cellulose acetate, which lowered light quantity but did not affect light quality; 3) under MylarTM, which filtered UV-B; and 4) under PlexiglasTM, which blocked UV-A and UV-B. Over a 3-week period, UV-B inhibited and UV-A enhanced the growth of F. gardneri embryos, whereas the growth of juveniles was not affected. Phlorotannin concentrations of both embryos and juveniles did not differ in any of the light treatments. Our results suggest that embryos of F. gardneri are susceptible to UV light but develop a tolerance to it as they mature. This tolerance may result from increases in phlorotannin concentrations that occur during maturation; however, phlorotannin production in embryonic or juvenile stages is either not induced by UV light or takes more than 3 weeks to occur.
Lightweight Morphing Support for Evolving Middleware Data Exchanges in Distributed Applications

Most systems must evolve as their missions or roles change and/or as they adapt to new execution environments. When evolving large distributed applications, it is particularly difficult to make changes to the data formats that underlie their components' communications, because such 'format evolution' can affect all or many application components. Prior approaches to the problem of implementing changes in the communications of a deployed system have relied upon ad-hoc solutions or on protocol negotiation to avoid message format mismatches. Unfortunately, such solutions tend to increase the complexity of application code. This paper presents a novel approach to the problem of data format evolution that combines meta-data about the data being exchanged with dynamic binary code generation to create a robust data exchange system that naturally supports application evolution. The idea is to specialize the communications of application components by dynamically generating the code that can automatically transform incoming data into forms that receiving components can understand. A realistic example in the context of publish/subscribe middleware is used to illustrate how this technique can be applied to enhance interoperability between different version of distributed applications
Mouse Crry/p65 is a regulator of the alternative pathway of complement activation

Like man, mouse has evolved a unique set of regulatory proteins which provide protection from complement-mediated damage to self membranes. The recently described mouse protein Crry/p65 has been shown to inhibit classical complement pathway C3 deposition on cell membranes in which it is expressed. In two distinct experimental systems, we now further delineate the regulatory activity of Crry/p65 and demonstrate its inhibitory effect on alternative complement pathway C3 activation. First, significant inhibition of mouse alternative pathway C3 deposition was demonstrated on neuraminidase-treated human K562 cells expressing recombinant Crry/p65. Second, using a baculovirus technique, recombinant Crry/p65 was synthesized as a soluble molecule and then purified. This molecule was found to inhibit mouse C3 deposition on the surface of zymosan, a potent alternative complement pathway activator. These studies, combined with our earlier findings, demonstrate that Crry/p65 can regulate both the classical and alternative complement pathways. Crry/p65 must, therefore, exert its effects prior to, or at the level of, the C3 convertases, in a fashion similar to that of human membrane cofactor protein and/or decay-accelerating factor. These studies provide further proof of the hypothesis that Crry/p65 is an evolutionarily unique, complement regulatory protein which has developed in mouse.
Adjusting the Nodal Point Distribution in Domain Groundwater Flow Numerical Models

A procedure for anticipating the relative error which results from a domain model of groundwater flow is presented. The procedure uses the complex variable boundary element method to develop steady-state solutions within the groundwater basin (or portions of the basin). These steady-state solutions are used for comparison with the domain model approximation, and a relative error distribution is determined. The nodal point distribution is adjusted to increase the nodal density in regions of large error, and likewise decrease the nodal density in regions of small error. The resulting nodal distribution is found to produce associated transient problem solutions comparable to approximations generated by increasing the total number of nodal points.
Absolute quantification of Dehalococcoides proteins: enzyme bioindicators of chlorinated ethene dehalorespiration

Summary The quantification of trace proteins in complex envi- ronmental samples and mixed microbial communities would be a valuable monitoring tool in countless applications, including the bioremediation of ground- water contaminated with chlorinated solvents. Measuring the concentrations of specific proteins provides unique information about the activity and physiological state of organisms in a sample. We developed sensitive ( 0.98) using synthetic peptide standards spiked into a background matrix of sediment pep- tides. We detected and quantified TCE reductive dehalogenase (TceA) at 7.6 ! 1.7 ¥ 10 3 proteins cell -1 in the KB1 TM bioaugmentation culture, previously thought to be lacking TceA. Fragmentation data from MS/MS shotgun proteomics experiments were helpful in developing the MRM targets. Similar shotgun pro- teomics data are emerging in labs around the world for many environmentally relevant microbial proteins, and these data are a valuable resource for the future development of MRM assays. We expect targeted peptide quantification in environmental samples to be a useful tool in environmental monitoring.
Differences in Folylpolyglutamate Synthetase and Dihydrofolate Reductase Expression in Human B-Lineage versus T-Lineage Leukemic Lymphoblasts: Mechanisms for Lineage Differences in Methotrexate Polyglutamylation and Cytotoxicity

Cellular accumulation of methotrexate polyglutamates (MTXPGs) is recognized as an important determinant of the cytotoxicity and selectivity of methotrexate in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). We identified a significantly lower cellular accumulation of MTXPGs in T-lineage versus B-lineage lymphoblasts in children with ALL, which is consistent with the worse prognosis of T-lineage ALL when treated with conventional antimetabolite-based therapy. Maximum MTXPG accumulation in leukemic blasts in vivo was 3-fold greater in lymphoblasts of children with B-lineage ALL (129 children) compared with those with T-lineage ALL (20 children) (p < 0.01) and was characterized by a saturable (Emax) model in both groups. The human leukemia cell lines NALM6 (B-lineage) and CCRF/CEM (T-lineage) were used to assess potential mechanisms for these lineage differences in MTX accumulation, revealing i) greater total and long-chain MTXPG accumulation in NALM6 over a wide range of methotrexate concentrations (0.2-100 microM), ii) saturation of MTXPG accumulation in both cell lines, with a higher maximum (Emax in NALM6, iii) 3-fold higher constitutive FPGS mRNA expression and enzyme activity in NALM6 cells, iv) 2-fold lower levels of DHFR mRNA and protein in NALM6 cells, and v) 4-6 fold lower extracellular MTX concentration and 2-fold lower intracellular MTXPG concentration to produce equivalent cytotoxicity (LC50) in NALM6 versus CEM. There was a significant relationship between FPGS mRNA and enzyme activity in lymphoblasts from children with newly diagnosed ALL, and blast FPGS mRNA and activity increased after methotrexate treatment. These data indicate higher FPGS and lower DHFR levels as potential mechanisms contributing to greater MTXPG accumulation and cytotoxicity in B-lineage lymphoblasts.
Physical Education Policy Compliance and Children's Physical Fitness

Background Physical education policies have received increased attention as a means for improving physical activity levels, enhancing physical fitness, and contributing to childhood obesity prevention. Although compliance at the school and district levels is likely to be critical for the success of physical education policies, few published studies have focused on this issue. Purpose This study investigated whether school district–level compliance with California physical education policies was associated with physical fitness among 5th-grade public-school students in California. Methods Cross-sectional data from FITNESSGRAM ® 2004–2006, district-level compliance with state physical education requirements for 2004–2006, school- and district-level information, and 2000 U.S. Census data were combined to examine the association between district-level compliance with physical education policies and children's fitness levels. The analysis was completed in 2010. Results Of the 55 districts with compliance data, 28 (50%) were in compliance with state physical education mandates; these districts represented 21% (216) of schools and 18% ( n =16,571) of students in the overall study sample. Controlling for other student-, school-, and district-level characteristics, students in policy-compliant districts were more likely than students in noncompliant districts to meet or exceed physical fitness standards (AOR=1.29, 95% CI=1.03, 1.61). Conclusions Policy mandates for physical education in schools may contribute to improvements in children's fitness levels, but their success is likely to depend on mechanisms to ensure compliance.
The gut microbiota and host innate immunity: Regulators of host metabolism and metabolic diseases in poultry?

SUMMARY The endogenous intestinal microbiota represents the multitudes of microbes residing in the intestine and is integral in multiple physiological processes of the host, including being a key factor involved in host metabolism, BW, and energy homeostasis. The gut microflora, together with other environmental factors such as diet and stress, can play a central role in both immune and nutritional physiological balance. The immune response and nutrient metabolism are 2 fundamental biological systems indispensable to maintaining and preserving life. Each of these systems is capable of modulating the activity of the other to ensure that the host animal is capable of coordinating the appropriate responses under any conditions. Thus, metabolic systems are integrated with pathogen-sensing and immune responses, and these pathways are evolutionarily conserved. Several important networks sense and manage nutrients and integrate with immune and inflammatory pathways to influence the physiological and pathological metabolic states. For example, the Toll-like receptors family of the innate immune system, found on immune cells, intestinal cells, and adipocytes, recognize specific microbial components (e.g., lipopolysaccharides, lipoproteins, nucleic acids, and so on) and can sense nutritional signals, such as elevated glucose levels and saturated fatty acids. Likewise, metabolism-signaling pathways, such as leptin and other hormones, can also regulate immune functions. Thus, any immune alteration, specifically inflammation, can cause disturbances in host metabolism. Gut microbiota have evolved with the host as a mutualistic partner, but dysbiosis in the form of altered gut microbiome and gut microbial activities, as well as environmental factors including stress, may promote the development of metabolic disorders of poultry. Using mammalian studies as the experimental models, this review will provide evidence to hypothesize that intestinal dysbiosis or recognition of nutrient-derived factors (fatty acids and glucose) by the avian intestinal innate immune system could activate signaling pathways that affect the avian gut microbiota and induce the dysfunction of the integrated immune and nutritional metabolic systems that could be responsible for initiating many metabolic disorders of poultry.
Preventing respiratory disease in swine confinement workers: intervention through applied epidemiology, education, and consultation.

A combined epidemiological and intervention study was conducted on 207 swine confinement farmers with matched comparison subjects. The objectives of the study were to define, in detail, the nature and disease determinants in this exposed group and to explore methods of disease prevention. This 5 year prospective study included three annual medical assessments of workers and complementary work environment assessments. Between the first and second assessment periods, an in-depth educational intervention was conducted. An industrial hygiene consultation intervention was conducted between the second and third measurement periods. Outcome measurements included changes in knowledge, attitudes, and behavior following educational intervention. Additionally, the outcomes measured included changes in medical and environmental assessment over the 3 year assessment periods. Results of the baseline respiratory symptoms assessment are reported here. Nearly 20% of swine confinement workers reported chronic cough, and 25% reported phlegm (American Thoracic Society questionnaire). Both symptoms were significantly more prevalent in the confinement workers compared to a blue collar comparison group, but only phlegm production was more prevalent compared to nonconfinement farmers. Work-related symptoms were reported much more frequently than chronic symptoms (e.g., 87% of confinement workers reported work-related cough). Bronchitis as well as airways reactivity were all significantly more prevalent in confinement workers compared to nonconfinement workers. Smoking seemed to have an additive effect with confinement exposure. Bronchitis and chest tightness symptoms were reported to be more severe upon return to work after an absence of 7 days or more. Finally, 34% of workers reported episodes of organic dust toxic syndrome.
Toward a molecular explanation for long-term potentiation.

Introduction The molecular mechanisms for long-term potentiation (LTP) may seem hopelessly complex, and no doubt the lack of clarity and concision of the immense LTP literature is a source of frustration for many (Sanes and Lichtman 1999). However, being inherently optimistic it seems to me that certain generalizations are beginning to emerge that allow an initial formulation of a molecular explanation for LTP. At this point in time we do not have in hand all the puzzle pieces concerning the molecular basis for LTP, so any explanation is by necessity incomplete and likely to contain some errors. Nevertheless, I feel it is constructive to present a working draft of a molecular model for one specific type of LTP, in the hope that it will present a useful framework for further discussion and experimentation. In this commentary I will describe several criteria that I use to narrow down the enormous LTP literature, and define certain terms commonly used and misused in the LTP literature so that we have a common vocabulary. I propose a set of criteria for inclusion of a given signal transduction cascade into a “core” mechanism for LTP and present an initial model of such a mechanism for one type of LTP. Finally, I will comment on the complexity of the molecular mechanisms of LTP induction, maintenance, and expression and point out a few emerging themes for the biochemistry of LTP. The latter serves to help manage the complexity of LTP biochemistry by generating functional categories for the molecules of LTP.
Stimulating Career Exploration and Research among Undergraduates: A Colloquium Series

The most frequent question asked of advisors in psychology was answered in this department by an ongoing undergraduate colloquium program.
Optimal Drug Synergy in Antimicrobial Treatments

The rapid proliferation of antibiotic-resistant pathogens has spurred the use of drug combinations to maintain clinical efficacy and combat the evolution of resistance. Drug pairs can interact synergistically or antagonistically, yielding inhibitory effects larger or smaller than expected from the drugs' individual potencies. Clinical strategies often favor synergistic interactions because they maximize the rate at which the infection is cleared from an individual, but it is unclear how such interactions affect the evolution of multi-drug resistance. We used a mathematical model of in vivo infection dynamics to determine the optimal treatment strategy for preventing the evolution of multi-drug resistance. We found that synergy has two conflicting effects: it clears the infection faster and thereby decreases the time during which resistant mutants can arise, but increases the selective advantage of these mutants over wild-type cells. When competition for resources is weak, the former effect is dominant and greater synergy more effectively prevents multi-drug resistance. However, under conditions of strong resource competition, a tradeoff emerges in which greater synergy increases the rate of infection clearance, but also increases the risk of multi-drug resistance. This tradeoff breaks down at a critical level of drug interaction, above which greater synergy has no effect on infection clearance, but still increases the risk of multi-drug resistance. These results suggest that the optimal strategy for suppressing multi-drug resistance is not always to maximize synergy, and that in some cases drug antagonism, despite its weaker efficacy, may better suppress the evolution of multi-drug resistance.
Structure of the Ser195Ala mutant of human alpha--thrombin complexed with fibrinopeptide A(7--16): evidence for residual catalytic activity.

The Ser195Ala mutant of human α-thrombin was complexed with fibrinopeptide A(7–22) (FPA) in an effort to describe the (P1′–P6′) post-cleavage binding subsites of the fibrinogen-recognition exosite and define more clearly the nature of the Michaelis complex and the scissile peptide bond bound at the catalytic site. The thrombin mutant, however, has residual catalytic activity and proteolysis occurred at the Arg16–Gly17 bond. Thus, the structure of the thrombin complex determined was that of FPA(7–16) bound at the active site, which is very similar to the ternary FPA(7–16)cmk–human thrombin–hirugen complex (r.m.s.d. ≃ 0.4 A; Stubbs et al., 1992). It is further shown by subsidiary experiments that the cleavage is the result of residual catalytic activity of the altered catalytic machinery.
An exploration of grip force regulation with a low-impedance myoelectric prosthesis featuring referred haptic feedback.

Haptic display technologies are well suited to relay proprioceptive, force, and contact cues from a prosthetic terminal device back to the residual limb and thereby reduce reliance on visual feedback. The ease with which an amputee interprets these haptic cues, however, likely depends on whether their dynamic signal behavior corresponds to expected behaviors—behaviors consonant with a natural limb coupled to the environment. A highly geared motor in a terminal device along with the associated high back-drive impedance influences dynamic interactions with the environment, creating effects not encountered with a natural limb. Here we explore grasp and lift performance with a backdrivable (low backdrive impedance) terminal device placed under proportional myoelectric position control that features referred haptic feedback. We fabricated a back-drivable terminal device that could be used by amputees and non-amputees alike and drove aperture (or grip force, when a stiff object was in its grasp) in proportion to a myoelectric signal drawn from a single muscle site in the forearm. In randomly ordered trials, we assessed the performance of N=10 participants (7 non-amputee, 3 amputee) attempting to grasp and lift an object using the terminal device under three feedback conditions (no feedback, vibrotactile feedback, and joint torque feedback), and two object weights that were indiscernible by vision. Both non-amputee and amputee participants scaled their grip force according to the object weight. Our results showed only minor differences in grip force, grip/load force coordination, and slip as a function of sensory feedback condition, though the grip force at the point of lift-off for the heavier object was significantly greater for amputee participants in the presence of joint torque feedback. An examination of grip/load force phase plots revealed that our amputee participants used larger safety margins and demonstrated less coordination than our non-amputee participants. Our results suggest that a backdrivable terminal device may hold advantages over non-backdrivable devices by allowing grip/load force coordination consistent with behaviors observed in the natural limb. Likewise, the inconclusive effect of referred haptic feedback on grasp and lift performance suggests the need for additional testing that includes adequate training for participants.
The Law Room: Hyperrealist Jurisprudence & Postmodern Politics

Socially constructed identities are often the product of the very laws that were to protect people being discriminated against. This is the dilemma of anti-discrimination law. This is a feminist deconstruction of the Swedish anti-prostitution law. A law that takes the uneven power relationship into account when it protects the seller of sexual services and penalizes the buyer of sexual services. The Swedish anti-prostitution law in a way criminalizes men taking advantage of women’s vulnerabilities, often imposed on these women through abuses in their childhood.
Extranodal Marginal Zone Lymphoma of the Lung: Evolution from an Underlying Reactive Lymphoproliferative Disorder.

Extranodal Marginal Zone Lymphoma (ENMZL) of Mucosa-Associated Lymphoid Tissue (MALT) is a problematic and sometimes controversial diagnosis. While commonly seen in the stomach in the setting of chronic Helicobacter pylori infection, other extranodal sites, such as the lung, may also present with disease. ENMZL is clinically and morphologically heterogeneous; however, regardless of presentation, the etiology lies in the accumulation of lymphoid tissue in non-traditional sites. This phenomenon is typically secondary to an underlying inflammatory stimulus such as chronic infection or autoimmune states. The current case report details the clinical history of a patient with Sjogren syndrome over a four year period who eventually developed ENMZL. The patient initially presented with an atypical, but polyclonal, lymphoproliferative process diagnosed as lymphocytic interstitial pneumonia. Over time, the patient showed evolution to a monoclonal process with associated radiologic progression of disease. This evolution manifested as a dense lymphoid infiltrate with prominent plasmacytic differentiation and the development of a lung mass radiologically. This case contributes to the growing body of knowledge that suggests ENMZL lies along a biological spectrum of lymphoproliferative disorders whereby a benign, reactive process may eventually undergo malignant transformation. This evolution likely represents the acquisition of genetic abnormalities that allow autonomous proliferation in the absence of the initial immune stimulus. In practice, determining when this event occurs and, thus, distinguishing between reactive and neoplastic disorders within this spectrum may be difficult as no single clinicopathologic feature may be present to establish the diagnosis. This case further illustrates the importance of correlating the clinical, radiologic and pathologic data to evaluate patients with atypical pulmonary lymphoproliferative disorders and to allow the optimal management of their disease.
Electron-Phonon and Phonon-Phonon Interactions Under Laser Annealing Conditions

Since the first time-resolved Raman studies of pulsed laser annealing (PLA) effects in Si, a number of cw Raman studies have been performed which provide a much improved basis for understanding the consequences on Raman spectra of temperature-dependent resonance effects, high carrier density effects, phonon anharmonicity, and strain effects. Here we briefly review these effects and then analyze the latest pulsed Raman studies of PLA including Stokes/anti-Stokes ratios, the shift and shape of the first order line, and time-resolved second-order spectra. The Raman data indicate the existence of a Raman-silent phase followed by a rapidly cooling solid which begins within 300 K of the normal melting temperature of Si. The Raman data also give evidence of carrier densities in the recrystallizing solid of ~1−2×1019/cm3.
Stochastic optical sensing

The fluctuations of measured signals are not always artifacts. A variety of active sensing circumstances where the excitation fields interact with random potentials result in measured signals that fluctuate. As inverse problems are notoriously ill posed, only stochastic information is available in these conditions. Here, we demonstrate a stochastic sensing technique where the statistically non-stationary properties of the excitation fields are purposely manipulated such that the fluctuations of the scattered intensity are enhanced and further exploited to recover information about the interaction potentials. The numerical and experimental results establish the efficacy of this new sensing approach and validate its robustness against various sources of perturbations. A range of remote sensing and biomedical applications that rely on recovering the properties of random scattering potentials and are usually limited by noise could benefit from the sturdy performance of this sensing procedure.
Investigation of an Autonomous Landing Sensor for Unmanned Aerial Systems

This research focused on characterizing the precision, reliability, sensitivity, and uncertainty of an autonomous landing sensor. Currently, the most dangerous flight phase for autonomous aircraft is the landing and takeoff segments, accounting for almost 70% of crashes. This research analyzes the effects of the color and roughness of the landing surface, fog, ice, and varying aircraft angles on the performance of an automated landing sensor. An investigation of suitable sensors was performed and the Dimetix FLS-C30 laser altimeter was selected for testing. The standard deviation and uncertainty of each condition was found and compared. It was determined that surface color, texture, and angles had a minimal effect on the repeatability of the laser altimeter, but that environmental hazards such as fog can potentially have a significant impact on performance. It is recommended that further accuracy and dynamic testing is performed.
Influence of a Baseball Glove on the Nature of Errors Produced in Simple One-Hand Catching

Abstract The influence of a baseball glove on the positioning and grasping components of one-hand catching was studied under both vision impaired and unimpaired conditions. Skilled softball and baseball players (N = 20) caught tennis balls barehand and softballs with a fielder's glove. In half of the trials, a screen positioned alongside the subject's head blocked vision of the catching hand. All trials were videotaped and errors were categorized by type (position or grasp). Results indicated that with the glove performance was essentially perfect, regardless of the screen condition. Barehand grasping performance, however, was affected by the subject's inability to see his hand to a much greater extent than barehand positioning. We argue that the baseball glove functions to reduce both the positioning accuracy requirements and the grasp timing requirements in simple catching. Peripheral vision of the limb, however, is necessary for controlling the barehand grasp phase.
Compositional and Structural Properties of Sputtered Plzt Thin Films

Thin films of lanthanum-modified lead zirconate-titanate (PLZT) were prepared by rf magnetron sputtering from a single oxide target onto a heated substrate. The target consisted of Pbl-xLaxZryTi1-yO3 with composition close to x=8% and y= 65%, either as a loose powder or a solid sintered disk. Under appropriate conditions, the desired perovskite phase formed in situ without any subsequent post-anneal. Film composition and structure were correlated with deposition parameters, including substrate temperature, target composition, gas pressures, and target aging. For deposition onto MgO or A12O3 crystalline substrates, perovskite PLZT films formed if there was sufficient Pb at the target surface, sufficient oxygen in the sputter gas (≈ 50%), and a substrate temperature >≈600°C. Target heating led to excessive Pb loss from the loose powder target; this was much less significant for the solid target. In addition, it was found that deposition onto an epitaxial perovskite substrate promoted formation of the perovskite phase, leading to an epitaxial film. A prototype ferroelectric capacitor was fabricated by depositing a conducting perovskite film (the high-Tc superconductor YBa2 Cu3O7 ) on a perovskite substrate, sputtering PLZT on top, with Ag for a top electrode. Measurements indicate a remanent polarization of 5 μC/cm2 and a coercive field of 900 V/cm.
Optimal Design of IPM Motors With Different Cooling Systems and Winding Configurations

Performance improvement of permanent magnet (PM) motors through optimization techniques has been widely investigated in the literature. Oftentimes the practice of design optimization leads to derivation/interpretation of optimal scaling rules of PM motors for a particular loading condition. This paper demonstrates how these derivations vary with respect to the machine ampere loading and ferrous core saturation level. A parallel sensitivity analysis using a second-order response surface methodology followed by a large-scale design optimization based on evolutionary algorithms are pursued in order to establish the variation of the relationships between the main design parameters and the performance characteristics with respect to the ampere loading and magnetic core saturation levels prevalent in the naturally cooled, fan-cooled, and liquid-cooled machines. For this purpose, a finite-element-based platform with a full account of complex geometry, magnetic core nonlinearities, and stator and rotor losses is used. Four main performance metrics including active material cost, power losses, torque ripple, and rotor PM demagnetization are investigated for two generic industrial PM motors with distributed and concentrated windings with subsequent conclusions drawn based on the results.
Entity Centric Information Retrieval

In the past decade, the prosperity of the World Wide Web has led to fast explosion of information, and there is a long-standing demand on how to access such a huge volume of information effectively and efficiently. Information Retrieval (IR) aims to tackle the challenge by exploring approaches to obtain relevant information items (e.g., documents) relevant to a given information need (e.g., query) from a huge collection of textual data (e.g., the Web). Named entity (e.g., person, location, product, event, organization) is a type of term compound widely existing in textual data. Recent advances in Information Extraction make it possible to extract entities from large volume of free text efficiently, and the research community are actively exploring whether entities would contribute to the retrieval effectiveness.In this thesis, we investigate how to leverage entities to improve retrieval in several directions. We start with finding entities with certain semantic relation, which aims at retrieving entities and their associated attributes to meet user's information need directly. This is different from traditional search paradigm in which only documents are retrieved. Entity retrieval is performed by first retrieving a list of documents and then extracting entities from those documents. We propose a novel probabilistic framework which leverages supporting documents as bridge to model the relevance between query and entities and rank entities accordingly.On the other side, we also explore how to leverage entities to improve effectiveness of ad hoc document retrieval in two directions. The first direction is entity-centric query expansion. We find related entities of query, and perform query expansion using the names and relations of related entities. Significant improvements over several state-of-the-art feedback models could be observed on multiple data collections. Besides, we explore another direction: entity-centric relevance modeling. We propose a novel retrieval approach, i.e., Latent Entity Space (LES), which models the relevance by leveraging entity profiles to represent semantic content of documents and queries. Experimental results over several TREC collections show that LES is effective on capturing latent semantic content and can significantly improve the search accuracy of several state-of-the-art retrieval models for entity-bearing queries.This thesis presents a series of research efforts on entity centric information retrieval in several directions, and reveals promising potential of entities on improving the retrieval effectiveness. With the fast curation of high-quality knowledge base, more information about entities could be easily accessed and integrated into retrieval models. We hope our work could serve as guideline for future work on leveraging entities to improve information retrieval in more applications.
Two-Pore-Domain (K 2P ) Potassium Channels: Leak Conductance Regulators of Excitability

Outward potassium currents mediated by two-pore-domain potassium (K 2P ) channels are recognized to be highly-regulated leak pathways that control excitability, stabilizing membrane potential below firing threshold and expediting repolarization. The channels are identified by a unique structure of two-pore-forming loop domains in each subunit. K 2P channels are implicated in physiological processes including neuromodulation, neuroprotection, anesthesia, regulation of cardiac rhythm, apoptosis, and sensation of oxygen tension, mechanical stress, taste and temperature. Their study has revealed a myriad of mechanisms that provide dynamic control of cellular excitability in excitable cells.
An Open and Shut Case: The Interaction of Magnesium with MST Enzymes.

The shikimate pathway of bacteria, fungi, and plants generates chorismate, which is drawn into biosynthetic pathways that form aromatic amino acids and other important metabolites, including folates, menaquinone, and siderophores. Many of the pathways initiated at this branch point transform chorismate using an MST enzyme. The MST enzymes (menaquinone, siderophore, and tryptophan biosynthetic enzymes) are structurally homologous and magnesium-dependent, and all perform similar chemical permutations to chorismate by nucleophilic addition (hydroxyl or amine) at the 2-position of the ring, inducing displacement of the 4-hydroxyl. The isomerase enzymes release isochorismate or aminodeoxychorismate as the product, while the synthase enzymes also have lyase activity that displaces pyruvate to form either salicylate or anthranilate. This has led to the hypothesis that the isomerase and lyase activities performed by the MST enzymes are functionally conserved. Here we have developed tailored pre-steady-state appro...
Electrophilic Amination for the Synthesis of Alkyl and Aryl Amines

Amines containing either C(sp2)–N or C(sp3)–N bonds are privileged structural motifs that are present in many biologically and pharmaceutically relevant compounds. Traditionally, C–N bonds have been synthesized using nucleophilic amines, with transition metal-mediated aminations providing a powerful method towards this end. The importance of nitrogen-containing compounds continues to drive the development of new C–N bond-forming transformations, therefore making amination reactions using simple and readily available compounds essential to organic synthesis. Electrophilic amination reactions have seen a considerable increase in interest over the past decade as an alternative method for the synthesis of ubiquitous C–N bonds.