cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Mutation of a Surface Residue, Lysine-129, Reverses the Order of Proton Release and Uptake in Bacteriorhodopsin; Guanidine Hydrochloride Restores It

K129 is a residue located in the extracellular loop connecting transmembrane helices D and E of bacteriorhodopsin. Replacement of K129 with a histidine alters the pK a 's of two key residues in the proton transport pathway, D85, and the proton release group (probably E204); the resulting pigment has properties that differ markedly from the wild type. 1) In the unphotolyzed state of the K129H mutant, the pK a of D85 is 5.1 ± 0.1 in 150 mM KCl (compared to ∼2.6 in the wild-type bacteriorhodopsin), whereas the unphotolyzed-state pK a of E204 decreases to 8.1 ± 0.1 (from ∼9.5 in the wild-type pigment). 2) The pK a of E204 in the M state is 7.0 ± 0.1 in K129H, compared to ∼5.8 in the wild-type pigment. 3) As a result of the change in the pK a of E204 in M, the order of light-induced proton release and uptake exhibits a dependence on pH in K129H differing from that of the wild type: at neutral pH and moderate salt concentrations (150 mM KCl), light-induced proton uptake precedes proton release, whereas it follows proton release at higher pH. This pumping behavior is similar to that seen in a related bacterial rhodopsin, archaerhodopsin-1, which has a histidine in the position analogous to K129. 4) At alkaline pH, a substantial fraction of all- trans K129H pigment (∼30%) undergoes a conversion into a shorter wavelength species, P480, with pK a ≈ 8.1, close to the pK a of E204. 5) Guanidine hydrochloride lowers the pK a 's of D85 and E204 in the ground state and the pK a of E204 in the M intermediate, and restores the normal order of proton release before uptake at neutral pH. 6) In the K129H mutant the coupling between D85 and E204 is weaker than in wild-type bacteriorhodopsin. In the unphotolyzed pigment, the change in the pK a 's of either residue when the other changes its protonation state is only 1.5 units compared to 4.9 units in wild-type bacteriorhodopsin. In the M state of photolyzed K129H pigment, the corresponding change is 1 unit, compared to 3.7 units in the wild-type pigment. We suggest that K129 may be involved in stabilizing the hydrogen bonding network that couples E204 and D85. Substitution of K129 with a histidine residue causes structural changes that alter this coupling and affect the pK a 's of E204 and D85.
Instrumentation amplifiers with improved bandwidth

Active magnitude compensation methods for the finite bandwidth of operational amplifiers when employed in the differential voltage controlled voltage source structures are given. The results are summarized in a table.
Can an observable with discrete eigenvalues be conjugate to a continuum observable

We point out that, in combination with the normalization and completeness relations for the eigenkets of the operators, the commutation relation [Oα, Oβ]=±ih places severe restrictions on the eigenvalues of the two operators Oα and Oβ. These restrictions can be used both to determine the character of the pairs of conjugate observables that can be involved in uncertainty relations and to predict thequantized form of the eigenvalues of a discrete observable which is conjugate to a continuum observable with a finite spectrum.
Entanglement genesis under continuous parity measurement

We examine the stochastic dynamics of entanglement for an uncoupled two-qubit system, undergoing continuous parity measurement. Starting with a fully mixed state, the entanglement is zero for a finite amount of time, when it is suddenly created, which we refer to as entanglement genesis. There can be further entanglement sudden death or birth events culminating in the formation of a fully entangled state. We present numerical investigations of this effect together with statistics of the entanglement genesis time in the weak measurement limit as well as the quantum Zeno limit. An analytic treatment of the physics is presented, aided by the derivation of a simple concurrence equation for Bell basis $X$ states. The probability of entanglement border crossing and mean first passage times are calculated for the case of measurement dynamics alone. We find that states with almost the same probability of entanglement border crossing can have very different average crossing times. Our results provide insight on the optimization of entanglement generation by measurement.
Use of a driving simulator to evaluate and optimize factors affecting understandability of variable message signs

Variable message signs often require multiple phases in order to convey a complete message to drivers. The dual necessity of maximizing the understandability of these messages and minimizing the time required to convey these messages to the driver is an obvious one, especially during traffic incident management. The objectives of the research were to analyze the factors that affect the readability and comprehension of multiple phase messages presented on variable message signs during a simulated driving task, and to identify the levels of the factors that maximize driver performance. Specifically, a mid-level driving simulator was used to study the joint effect on driver performance of: obstructions of variable message signs by traffic or road geometry; the sequence in which the individual phases of a two phase message are presented to the driver; the message content; and the number and direction of lane changes required by the driver based on the message presented. The above factors were evaluated for two types of message duration (i.e., the duration for which each phase of a two phase message is presented), one based on existing recommendations and the other based on a proposed duration. Driver performance was evaluated for both durations. Clear advantages were obtained when a message was presented for a relatively short duration and repeated twice during the time in which it was visible.
Curve recognition using B-spline representation

The B-spline stands as one of the most efficient curve (surface) representation, and possesses very attractive properties such as spatial uniqueness, boundedness and continuity, local shape controllability, and invariance to affine transformations. These properties made them very attractive for curve representation in computer aided design and computer graphics. Very little work, however, has been devoted to them for recognition purpose. One possible reason might be due to the fact that the B-spline curve is not uniquely described by a single set of control points, which make the curve matching (recognition) process not a simple comparison between the respective parameters of the curves to be matched. The paper is an attempt to find matching solutions despite this limitation and addresses the problems of invariant matching and classification of 2D closed curves with application in identification of aircraft types based on image silhouettes, and writer-identification based on hand written text. >
Effect of Autocorrelated Observations on Confidence Sets Based upon Chi-Square Statistics

How the presence of autocorrelation in a multivariate normal sample affects the confidence level of confidence regions based upon chi-square statistics is investigated. Particular consideration is given to the effect that this violation of the assumption of a random sample has upon the construction of confidence regions for the mean ? and the scalar ?2, in ?2V, where V is a known dispersion matrix.
Use of the Michigan Neuropathy Screening Instrument as a measure of distal symmetrical peripheral neuropathy in Type 1 diabetes: results from the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial/Epidemiology of Diabetes Interventions and Complications.

Aims The Michigan Neuropathy Screening Instrument (MNSI) is used to assess distal symmetrical peripheral neuropathy in diabetes. It includes two separate assessments: a 15-item self-administered questionnaire and a lower extremity examination that includes inspection and assessment of vibratory sensation and ankle reflexes. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of the MNSI in detecting distal symmetrical peripheral neuropathy in patients with Type 1 diabetes and to develop new scoring algorithms. Methods The MNSI was performed by trained personnel at each of the 28 Diabetes Control and Complications Trial ⁄Epidemiology of Diabetes Interventions and Complications clinical sites. Neurologic examinations and nerve conduction studies were performed during the same year. Confirmed clinical neuropathy was defined by symptoms and signs of distal symmetrical peripheral neuropathy based on the examination of a neurologist and abnormal nerve conduction findings in ‡ 2 anatomically distinct nerves among the sural, peroneal and median nerves. Results We studied 1184 subjects with Type 1 diabetes. Mean age was 47 years and duration of diabetes was 26 years. Thirty per cent of participants had confirmed clinical neuropathy, 18% had ‡ 4 and 5% had ‡ 7 abnormal responses on the MNSI questionnaire, and 33% had abnormal scores (‡ 2.5) on the MNSI examination. New scoring algorithms were developed and cut points defined to improve the performance of the MNSI questionnaire, examination and the combination of the two. Conclusions Altering the cut point to define an abnormal test from ‡ 7 abnormal to ‡ 4 abnormal items improves the performance of the MNSI questionnaire. The MNSI is a simple, non-invasive and valid measure of distal symmetrical peripheral neuropathy in Type 1 diabetes.
Nondestructive readout by reversible flux changes

A study has been made of nondestructive readout of multipath memory cores which depend for their operation on the difference between the remanent and demagnetized permeabilities. The output flux change of an experimental core was measured as a function of the flux change in the interrogate branch during interrogation. It was found that the output flux change is a nonlinear function of the flux change in the interrogate branch. To explain these results it was necessary to assume that the reversible permeability is not a constant but depends linearly on the applied field. Using this assumption, a theory was developed which could be fit to the experimental data with a high degree of precision. The results of the analysis are applicable to the development of non-destructive readout (NDRO) memory devices which utilize the permeability difference effect.
FlyRNAi.org—the database of the Drosophila RNAi screening center: 2012 update

FlyRNAi (http://www.flyrnai.org), the database and website of the Drosophila RNAi Screening Center (DRSC) at Harvard Medical School, serves a dual role, tracking both production of reagents for RNA interference (RNAi) screening in Drosophila cells and RNAi screen results. The database and website is used as a platform for community availability of protocols, tools, and other resources useful to researchers planning, conducting, analyzing or interpreting the results of Drosophila RNAi screens. Based on our own experience and user feedback, we have made several changes. Specifically, we have restructured the database to accommodate new types of reagents; added information about new RNAi libraries and other reagents; updated the user interface and website; and added new tools of use to the Drosophila community and others. Overall, the result is a more useful, flexible and comprehensive website and database.
Mid-term results of endoscopic perforator vein interruption for chronic venous insufficiency: Lessons learned from the North American Subfascial Endoscopic Perforator Surgery registry

Abstract Purpose: The safety, feasibility, and early efficacy of subfascial endoscopic perforator surgery (SEPS) for the treatment of chronic venous insufficiency were established in a preliminary report. The long-term clinical outcome and the late complications after SEPS are as yet undetermined. Methods: The North American Subfascial Endoscopic Perforator Surgery registry collected information on 148 SEPS procedures that were performed in 17 centers in the United States and Canada between August 1, 1993, and February 15, 1996. The data analysis in this study focused on mid-term outcome in 146 patients. Results: One hundred forty-six patients (79 men and 67 women; mean age, 56 years; range, 27 to 87 years) underwent SEPS. One hundred and one patients (69%) had active ulcers (class 6), and 21 (14%) had healed ulcers (class 5). One hundred and three patients (71%) underwent concomitant venous procedures (stripping, 70; high ligation, 17; varicosity avulsion alone, 16). There were no deaths or pulmonary embolisms. One deep venous thrombosis occurred at 2 months. The follow-up periods averaged 24 months (range, 1 to 53 months). Cumulative ulcer healing at 1 year was 88% (median time to healing, 54 days). Concomitant ablation of superficial reflux and lack of deep venous obstruction predicted ulcer healing ( P P P Conclusions: The interruption of perforators with ablation of superficial reflux is effective in decreasing the symptoms of chronic venous insufficiency and rapidly healing ulcers. Recurrence or new ulcer development, however, is still significant, particularly in post-thrombotic limbs. The reevaluation of the indications for SEPS is warranted because operations in patients without previous deep vein thrombosis are successful but operations in those patients with deep vein thrombosis are less successful. Operations on patients with deep vein occlusion have poor outcomes. (J Vasc Surg 1999;29:489-502.)
The Apicomplexan Whole-Genome Phylogeny: An Analysis of Incongruence among Gene Trees

The protistan phylum Apicomplexa contains many important pathogens and is the subject of intense genome sequencing efforts. Based upon the genome sequences from seven apicomplexan species and a ciliate outgroup, we identified 268 single-copy genes suitable for phylogenetic inference. Both concatenation and consensus approaches inferred the same species tree topology. This topology is consistent with most prior conceptions of apicomplexan evolution based upon ultrastructural and developmental characters, that is, the piroplasm genera Theileria and Babesia form the sister group to the Plasmodium species, the coccidian genera Eimeria and Toxoplasma are monophyletic and are the sister group to the Plasmodium species and piroplasm genera, and Cryptosporidium forms the sister group to the above mentioned with the ciliate Tetrahymena as the outgroup. The level of incongruence among gene trees appears to be high at first glance; only 19% of the genes support the species tree, and a total of 48 different gene-tree topologies are observed. Detailed investigations suggest that the low signal-to-noise ratio in many genes may be the main source of incongruence. The probability of being consistent with the species tree increases as a function of the minimum bootstrap support observed at tree nodes for a given gene tree. Moreover, gene sequences that generate high bootstrap support are robust to the changes in alignment parameters or phylogenetic method used. However, caution should be taken in that some genes can infer a “wrong” tree with strong support because of paralogy, model violations, or other causes. The importance of examining multiple, unlinked genes that possess a strong phylogenetic signal cannot be overstated.
The modeling of cross-axis flexural pivots

Abstract Cross-axis flexural pivots, formed by crossing two flexible beams at their midpoints, have been used in compliant mechanisms for many years. However, their load–deflection behavior has yet to be appropriately modeled to allow easy analysis and synthesis of mechanisms containing them. This paper uses results of non-linear finite element analysis to investigate this behavior. Based on the analysis, two models for the pivots are presented – one simple and one more complex. The accuracy of the models is demonstrated by comparing results to those measured for pivots made from polypropylene and steel.
Message Passing and Distributed Programming

Absence of shared memory is the defining characteristic of a distributed system. Processes in such a system coordinate by reading and writing shared objects called communications channels. Thus, concurrent programs for distributed systems, or distributed programs, are fundamentally no different from other concurrent programs: all use shared objects of one sort or another for synchronization and communication.
Factors influencing mutation at the hprt locus in T-lymphocytes: Studies in normal women and women with benign and malignant breast masses

A prospective, longitudinal study was performed to test the hypothesis that environmental factors (e.g., diet or cigarette smoking) modulate genetic damage caused by treatment for breast cancer and render these women more susceptible to developing second malignancies. A total of 107 women (49 with breast cancer, 52 with benign breast masses, and 6 normal women) were enrolled. This report describes initial studies at the time of enrollment and disease presentation. Mutant frequency at the hprt locus and cloning efficiency of peripheral blood lymphocytes did not differ significantly among the 3 groups. Mutant frequency increased with age, with a history of cigarette smoking, and with the number of years that current smokers used cigarettes. There was no correlation in women with benign masses between mutant frequency and the incidence of chromosome aberrations (28 women) or sister chromatid exchanges (23 women). A maternal history of breast cancer did not influence mutant frequency. There was no significant relationship between dietary intake of vitamins A, B12, C and E, folacin, selenium, calcium, caffeine, or multivitamin pills, and mutant frequency. Serum folate levels in the deficient range were associated (P = 0.02) with elevated mutant frequencies, whereas SCE rates inversely correlated with serum vitamin B12 levels. These results confirm the importance of age and, less so, cigarette smoking as factors that influence mutant frequency and suggest that a micronutrient, folic acid, may modify genetic damage at the hprt locus. To the extent that somatic mutation contributes to carcinogenesis, these environmental factors may enhance the risk of developing malignant transformation.
Efficient Odd Straight Medium Chain Free Fatty Acid Production by Metabolically Engineered Escherichia Coli

Free fatty acids (FFAs) can be used as precursors for the production of biofuels or chemicals. Different composition of FFAs will be useful for further modification of the biofuel/biochemical quality. Microbial biosynthesis of even chain FFAs can be achieved by introducing an acyl-acyl carrier protein thioesterase gene into E. coli. In this study, odd straight medium chain FFAs production was investigated by using metabolic engineered E. coli carrying acyl-ACP thioesterase (TE, Ricinus communis), propionyl-CoA synthase (Salmonella enterica), and b-ketoacyl-acyl carrier protein synthase III (four different sources) with supplement of extracellular propionate. By using these metabolically engi- neered E. coli, significant quantity of C13 and C15 odd straight-chain FFAs could be produced from glucose and propionate. The highest concentration of total odd straight chain FFAs attained was 1205mg/L by the strain HWK201 (pXZ18,pBHE2),and85%oftheoddstraightchainFFAswas C15. However, the highest percentage of odd straight chain FFAswas achievedby thestrainHWK201 (pXZ18, pBHE3) of 83.2% at 48h. This strategy was also applied successfully in strains carrying different TE, such as the medium length acyl- ACP thioesterase gene from Umbellularia californica. C11 and C13 became the major odd straight-chain FFAs. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2014;9999: 1-11. 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The incidence of murmurs in healthy premature infants during their first 18 months of life.

Eighty-two healthy premature infants, 2 of whom weighed more than 2,000 grams were examined serially during their first 18 months of life. Eighty per cent had a systolic murmur, most often at the lower left sternal border or inside the apex, at some time during this period of observation. The incidence increased after the first month of life and appeared to be greater in infants with a hemoglobin concentration below 9 Gm. Four per cent had congenital heart disease; this is higher than the reported incidence in full-term infants.
Adjusted Estimates of the Size Distribution of Family Money Income

This article describes the effects on estimates of the size distribution of family-unit money income produced by adjusting CPS estimates for 1972 by adding several other data sources. Income estimates were adjusted on an individual-observation basis to make them consistent with independent control totals. As a result of these adjustments, mean income for all units rose 12 percent. The relative share of the top 5 percent increased substantially. Property income increased and wage income decreased in relative importance. The adjustment to mean income was largest for the oldest age group and smallest for the youngest age group.
Removal, partitioning, and fate of silver and other metals in wastewater treatment plants and effluent-receiving streams

We investigated the removal of silver in five publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) and the fate of Ag in effluent receiving streams. Comparisons were made to several other metals. Silver was removed efficiently (>94%) in all POTWs. The percentage of total Ag removed was independent of the influent Ag concentration, while the concentration of Ag in effluents was directly related to influent concentration. A good correlation (r 2 =0.77) between metal removal (%) and partition coefficient (K d ) indicated that differences among metals in removal efficiency were controlled mainly by metal partitioning (sorption) to particles removed by settling and/or filtration. A large fraction (19-53%) of Ag in the filterable ( 0.05 μm), and the percentage filterable Ag was directly related to DOC concentration (r 2 =0.96). Effluent Ag concentrations (0.06-2.6 μg/L) were several orders of magnitude higher that typical background stream levels (1-2 ng/L), but Ag discharged to streams was rapidly dissipated by dilution and incorporation into stream sediments.
FULFILLING COMMUNITY NEEDS THROUGH RESEARCH AND SERVICE: THE NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY ETHNOGRAPHIC FIELD SCHOOL EXPERIENCE

The Northwestern University Ethnographic Field School (EFS) was started in the early 1970s in order to offer undergraduate and early graduate students an opportunity to explore their affinity for fieldwork and gain firsthand experience with the conduct of original research. Operating on the Navajo Nation in the southwestern United States, this eight-week program combines rigorous training in ethnographic methods with a cultural immersion experience requiring volunteer service in a Navajo nonprofit or governmental agency or organization. Students may choose from a wide variety of volunteer placements, including work with children, women at risk, seniors, Navajo cultural institutions, or community service agencies dealing with issues such as AIDS, infant and child nutrition, and residential programs for children and adults with disabilities. EFS emphasizes cross-cultural understanding through direct service, immersion in the host community, and improvement of students' skills in ethnographic methods. Included in the curriculum is exposure to the ethical conduct of research, the practice of participatory action research, and collaboration with Navajo mentors, as well as teachings on Navajo history and culture, and an introduction to the Navajo language.
Managing Workplace Ethics Can Generate Competitive Advantage

The many breaches of ethical conduct and violation of laws by high-profile executives which have been reported for several years have focused attention on the way firms manage business ethics and company values. This paper identifies some of the bottom-line benefits and other benefits of actively managing the business ethics process and recommends practical approaches for developing a program for the management of that process. It is especially important for all enterprises to review their own situations and to become active in this area.
Elements of Scientific Visualization in Basic Neuroscience Research

Abstract Scientific imaging systems have undergone a revolution over the last century since Wilhelm Rontgen's discovery of X rays in 1895. However, deciding which imaging system will do the job and assist in solving a scientific question—not just produce beautiful graphics with little practical use—can be difficult. This article serves as a minireview of methods and applications of imaging techniques for basic research. It identifies some of the popular types of imaging systems; describes briefly how they work; and illustrates their past, present, and potential future applications. It also attempts to identify inherent pitfalls associated with some of these systems. Finally, it demonstrates some of the specific applications of scientific imaging techniques in neuroscience research.
The Systemic Dimensions of Intrastate Conflict: Assessing the Impact of Polarity on Civil War Duration

While the number of ongoing civil wars increased in roughly consistent fashion through-out the Cold War period, they appear to be decreasing in the post-Cold War period. What explains this reversal in trends? In this paper, I show how sensitivity to the polarity of the international system can be leveraged to draw new inferences about civil war duration. I assess the proposition that post-Cold War civil wars are terminating faster than Cold War era civil wars, outlining a theoretical justi cation for why bipolar international systems should prolong intrastate conflicts, but unipolar systems should not. Empirically, I combine matching techniques with duration analyses and identify a signi cant and robust relation-ship between the bipolar period and civil war duration: post-Cold War civil wars are shown to be less than half as long as Cold War era conflicts, a result which I argue highlights the critical influence of systemic factors on intrastate conflicts.
Plenary lecture II: queuing and loss network models: computational algorithms and asymptotic analysis

Queueing network theory has been successfully applied by computer and communication system modelers to represent the inherent contention and congestion in multiple resource systems, to identify the system bottlenecks, and to assess the performance limits. A queueing network model provides a suitable framework for analyzing the performance of "connection-less services" in a packet switched network. the so-called "product-form" networks such as Jackson network and its generalizations, allow such performance metrics as throughput and the mean delay to be represented by a ratio of the "normalization constants" with different arguments. Connection-oriented services, such as the conventional circuit-switched telephone networks and end-to-end flow connections over the Internet can be properly represented by loss network models. the loss network theory is a relatively recent development, and can be viewed as an extension of the classical Erlang and Engset loss models. We will discuss interesting relations between queueing networks and loss networks, and show that the computational algorithms developed for queueing networks are equally applicable to the normalization constants and performance metrics in loss networks as well. Finally, we will discuss the case of large systems, where even most efficient algorithms for exact solutions are computationally infeasible. Recent development for approximation techniques and asymptotic performance limits will be reviewed.
Validation of a food-repertory grid with a diabetic population.

The application of a psychology tool, the repertory grid, was explored. A diabetic sample was used to evaluate this new assessment tool. The grid measures attitudes about food and was created by determining elements (food items) and constructs (adjectival phrases) as identified by diabetic participants and dietitians. The grid was administered twice to 17 diabetic participants to determine applicability. The interindividual correlation coefficients ranged from 0.24 to 0.54 for elements and from 0.24 to 0.61 for constructs. The most stable components can be used for a grid designed to help dietitians with counseling. Clients would fill out a grid so that problem areas in the way of attitudes about food could be pinpointed
Crystallization of Li2O-K2O-Al2O3-SiO2-F Glasses Prepared by Rapid Quenching

The crystallization process of the rapidly quenched glasses in the system Li2O-K2O-Al2O3-SiO2-F has been investigated. Batches of the lepidolite composition were melted at 1773K for 10 minutes and quenched with a twin roller aparatus. Lepidolite and β-eucryptite were precipitated at 773K and 873K, respectively. However, it was requisited to keep the glass at 773K for more than 1 hour for the precipitation of lepidolite. The thermal conductivity of the glass-ceramics heated at 773K for 1hour and then at 973K for 2hours was larger than fluorphrogopite glass-ceramics, and its thermal expansion coefficient and dielectric properties were similar to those of fluorphrogopite glass-ceramics.
Studies of neutralizing properties of antacid preparations. Part 5: Dissolution kinetics of dihydroxyaluminum aminoacetate.

Abstract The acid dissolution process of dihydroxyaluminum aminoacetate (1) has been studied by pH-stat method. The neutralization reaction was examined by monitoring the appearance of aluminum ion and aminoacetic acid in the reaction medium. The Weibull distribution function was applied to the quantitative interpretation of neutralization rate data. The mechanism of acid neutralization of 1 is discussed.
Integrating Model-Based Prediction and Facial Expressions in the Perception of Emotion

Understanding a person’s mental state is a key challenge to the design of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) that can interact with people. A range of technologies have been developed to infer a user’s emotional state from facial expressions. Such bottom-up approaches confront several problems, including that there are significant individual and cultural differences in how people display emotions. More fundamentally, in many applications we may want to know other mental states such as goals and beliefs that can be critical for effective interaction with a person. Instead of bottom-up processing of facial expressions, in this work, we take a predictive, Bayesian approach. An observer agent uses mental models of an observed agent’s goals to predict how the observed will react emotionally to an event. These predictions are then integrated with the observer’s perceptions of the observed agent’s expressions, as provided by a perceptual model of how the observed tends to display emotions. This integration provides the interpretation of the emotion displayed while also updating the observer’s mental and emotional display models of the observed. Thus perception, mental model and display model are integrated into a single process. We provide a simulation study to initially test the effectiveness of the approach and discuss future work in testing the approach in interactions with people.
Radiation and Propagation of Electromagnetic Waves from Moving Sources

The electromagnetic field produced by a general point source moving on an arbitrary trajectory an infinite homogeneous medium is obtained by solving an initial value problem for Maxwell's equations. The solution is expressed parametrically with the aid of bicharacteristics or space-time rays. This representation, which is equivalent to the more common “retarded time” representation is used because it clarifies the space-time geometry of the solution. For the case of a moving charge, the solution reduces to a standard result. In a sequel, the results obtained will be applied to the problem of radiation and propagation of electromagnetic waves produced by point sources moving in an inhomogeneous medium.
Validation of the Pediatric Sleep Questionnaire in Children With Asthma

SummaryObjective The prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is higher in children with poorly controlled asthma. We aimed to determine the validity of the Pediatric Sleep Questionnaire (PSQ) to screen for OSA in children with asthma. Methods This retrospective review encompassed sleep studies and medical records of asthmatic children evaluated in the sleep center at CCHMC over 13 years. Measures of validity were calculated using various cut-off values for obstructive apnea-hypopnea index (OI; >1, >2, >5) and PSQ scores (>0.33, >0.5). Correlation between PSQ and OI, PSQ and spirometry, and OI and spirometry was assessed using Spearman's correlation coefficient. Results One-hundred and sixty children were included (mean age 11 ± 4 years; 64% males). The mean OI was 4.2 ± 14.3 and the mean PSQ score was 0.57 ± 0.19. Thirty-eight percent of patients had a diagnosis of allergic rhinitis. A total of 70 children (43%) were obese (BMI ≥95th percentile). The correlation between OI and PSQ was statistically significant (r = 0.19, P = 0.015). Using a PSQ cutoff of 0.33, and OI cutoffs of 1, 2, and 5, the sensitivities were 81.6%, 81.6%, and 76.2%, and the specificities were 13.1%, 14.4%, and 14.4%, respectively. When the cutoff for PSQ was raised to 0.5 and using an OI of 1, the sensitivity decreased to 71.1%, but the specificity increased to 36.9%. Conclusions The sensitivity of PSQ in asthmatic children is high and comparable to previous studies, but the specificity is low. The PSQ may be considered a reasonable first-line screening tool for OSA in asthmatic children. Pediatr Pulmonol. 2017;52:382–389. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
ROLE OF THE DAIRY AND FOOD INDUSTRY IN ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION CONTROL1

The scope and extent of environmental pollution is reviewed. The roles of the dairy and food industry in environmental pollution–polluter, educator, community leader–are explained. Examples of how the industry pollutes the environment, how it can help educate its employees and the public about pollution, and how industry personnel can provide community leadership to study and solve local environmental pollution problems are cited. The industry is urged to become involved in the campaign to abate pollution and to be committed to improving environmental quality.
Glycine Substitutions in Collagen Heterotrimers Alter Triple Helical Assembly.

Osteogenesis imperfecta typically results from missense mutations in the collagen genome where the required glycine residues are replaced with another amino acid. Many models have attempted to replicate the structure of mutated collagen on the triple helix level. However, composition and register control of the triple helix is complicated and requires extreme precision, especially when these destabilizing mutations are present. Here we present mutations to a composition- and register-controlled AAB helix where one of the requisite glycines in the A chain of the triple helix is changed to serine or alanine. We see a loss of compositional control when the A chain is mutated, resulting in an A′BB composition that minimizes the number of mutations included in the triple helix. However, when both A and B chains are mutated and no nonmutated peptide chains are available, the designed A′A′B′ composition is reestablished. Our work shows the ability of the mutations to influence and alter the composition and regis...
EMT: End To End Model Training for MSR Machine Translation

Machine translation, at its core, is a Machine Learning (ML) problem that involves learning language translation by looking at large amounts of parallel data i.e. translations of the same dataset in two or more languages. If we have parallel data between languages L1 and L2, we can build translation systems between these two languages. When training a complete system, we train several different models, each containing a different type of information about either one of the languages or the relationship between the two. We end up training thousands of models to support hundreds of languages. In this article, we explain our end to end architecture of automatically training and deploying models at scale. The goal of this project is to create a fully automated system responsible for gathering new data, training systems, and shipping them to production with little or no guidance from an administrator. By using the ever changing and always expanding contents of the web, we have a system that can quietly improve our existing systems over time. In this article, we detail the architecture and talk about the various problems and the solutions we arrived upon. Finally, we demonstrate experiments and data showing the impact of our work. Specifically, this system has enabled us to ship much more frequently and eliminate human errors which happen when running repetitive tasks. The principles of this pipeline can be applied to any ML training and deployment system.
Addressing medical needs of adolescents and adults with autism spectrum disorders in a primary care setting.

Little has been reported about how to improve health care access and delivery for adolescents and adults with autism spectrum disorder. To understand the contributions to the health disparities in the autism spectrum disorder population, we conducted two independent research approaches to learn about current medical needs. A retrospective chart review was performed to evaluate medical comorbidities and medication use. A focus group was also created to address barriers faced in providing medical care. Of 126 charts reviewed, 49% (n = 62) had intellectual disability, 49% (n = 62) had attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, 52% (n = 65) had anxiety, 41% (n = 52) had obesity, 31% (n = 39) with a history of aggressive behavior, 31% (n = 31) had depression, 22% (n = 28) had seizures, and 9% (n = 11) had hypertension. A Medical Regimen Complexity Index score was determined to examine medication use trends in the autism spectrum disorder population. Medical Regimen Complexity Index scores were significantly hig...
Regulating Bone Resorption: Targeting Integrins, Calcitonin Receptor, and Cathepsin K

Publisher Summary Skeletal growth and repair during adult life occurs via bone remodeling, a coordinated and tightly regulated process. The maintenance of normal bone mass depends on maintaining the appropriate balance between bone formation and bone resorption. The processes of bone resorption and formation are tightly coupled, so that a change in either usually leads to a subsequent compensating change in the other. Bone resorption is carried out by osteoclasts, which are multinucleated, terminally differentiated cells derived from the monocyte/macrophage lineage. The rate of bone resorption varies as a function of changes in both the number and activity of osteoclasts, the only cells capable of resorbing bone. Osteoclastogenesis is controlled by the proliferation and homing of the progenitors to bone and their differentiation and fusion to form multinucleated cells. Osteoclastic bone resorption is a process requiring physical intimacy between resorptive cell and bone matrix. Thus, cell matrix attachment molecules, particularly integrins, play a central role in the capacity of osteoclasts to degrade bone. Because of its potent inhibitory effects on osteoclast activity, calcitonin has long been recognized as a potential therapeutic agent for the treatment of diseases that are characterized by increased bone resorption, such as osteoporosis, Paget's disease, and late-stage malignancies. Finally, cathepsins participate in important physiological as well as pathological processes, including activation of precursor proteins (proenzymes and prohormones), bone remodeling, MHC-II-mediated antigen presentation, keratinocyte differentiation, hair cycle morphogenesis, and apoptosis. They have also been implicated in tumor progression and metastasis, inflammatory diseases, arthrosclerosis, and periodontitis.
Compatibility of book-spaces with certain identities

This paper is a brief study of the equations compatible with the (topological) n-book for all $${n \geq 2}$$ . For each n, we exhibit an equation-set (an extension of lattice theory) that is identically satisfiable on the $${(n + 1)}$$ -book, but not on the n-book.
Incorporation of carbon and nitrogen isotopes in age-0 walleye (Sander vitreus) tissues following a laboratory diet switch experiment

Trophic dynamics are often described by following the exchange of naturally occurring isotopes through aquatic communities. However, without experimentally derived isotopic turnover rates and discr...
Formation of Ge–GeS core–shell nanostructures via solid-state sulfurization of Ge nanowires

Germanium nanowires (NWs) have attractive properties for a variety of applications, including micro- and optoelectronics, memory devices, solar energy conversion, and energy storage, among others. For applications that involve exposure to air, the poor chemical stability and electronic surface passivation of native oxides have remained a long-standing concern. Termination by sulfur-rich surface layers has emerged as a promising strategy for passivation of planar Ge surfaces. Here we discuss experiments on solid-state sulfurization of Ge nanowires in sulfur vapor at near-ambient pressures and at different temperatures. Combined transmission electron microscopy imaging and chemical mapping establishes that Ge NWs remain intact during vapor-phase reaction with S at elevated temperatures, and show the formation of sulfur-rich shells with T-dependent morphology and thickness on the Ge NW surface. Photoluminescence of ensembles of such core–shell nanowires is dominated by strong emission at ∼1.85 eV, consistent with luminescence of GeS. Cathodoluminescence spectroscopy on individual NWs establishes that this luminescence originates in thin GeS shells formed by sulfurization of the NWs. Our work establishes direct sulfurization as a viable approach for forming stable, wide-bandgap surface terminations on Ge NWs.
Occult head injury is common in children with concern for physical abuse

Studies evaluating small patient cohorts have found a high, but variable, rate of occult head injury in children <2 years old with concern for physical abuse. The American College of Radiology (ACR) recommends clinicians have a low threshold to obtain neuroimaging in these patients. Our aim was to determine the prevalence of occult head injury in a large patient cohort with suspected physical abuse using similar selection criteria from previous studies. Additionally, we evaluated proposed risk factors for associations with occult head injury. This was a retrospective, secondary analysis of data collected by an observational study of 20 U.S. child abuse teams that evaluated children who underwent subspecialty evaluation for concern of abuse. We evaluated children <2 years old and excluded those with abnormal mental status, bulging fontanelle, seizure, respiratory arrest, underlying neurological condition, focal neurological deficit or scalp injury. One thousand one hundred forty-three subjects met inclusion criteria and 62.5% (714) underwent neuroimaging with either head computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging. We found an occult head injury prevalence of 19.7% (141). Subjects with emesis (odds ratio [OR] 3.5, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.8–6.8), macrocephaly (OR 8.5, 95% CI 3.7–20.2), and loss of consciousness (OR 5.1, 95% CI 1.2–22.9) had higher odds of occult head injury. Our results show a high prevalence of occult head injury in patients <2 years old with suspected physical abuse. Our data support the ACR recommendation that clinicians should have a low threshold to perform neuroimaging in patients <2 years of age.
Monitoring progress toward CDC's health protection goals: health outcome measures by life stage.

Objectives From 2004 through 2005, as part of a major strategic planning process called the Futures Initiative, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) developed a set of Health Protection Goals to make the best use of agency resources to achieve health impact. These goals were framed in terms of people, places, preparedness, and global health. This article presents a goals framework and a set of health outcome measures with historical trends and forecasts to track progress toward the Healthy People goals by life stage (Infants and Toddlers, Children, Adolescents, Adults, and Older Adults and Seniors). Methods Measurable key health outcomes were chosen for each life stage to capture the multidimensional aspects of health, including mortality, morbidity, perceived health, and lifestyle factors. Analytic methods involved identifying nationally representative data sources, reviewing 20-year trends generally ranging from 1984 through 2005, and using time-series techniques to forecast measures by life stage until 2015. Results Improvements in measures of mortality and morbidity were noted among all life stages during the study period except Adults, who reported continued declining trends in perceived health status. Although certain behavioral indicators (e.g., prevalence of nonsmokers) revealed steady improvements among Adolescents, Adults, and Older Adults and Seniors, prevalence of the healthy weight indicator was declining steadily among Children and Adolescents and dramatically among Adults and Older Adults and Seniors. Conclusion The health indicators for the Healthy People goals established a baseline assessment of population health, which will be monitored on an ongoing basis to measure progress in maximizing health and achieving one component of CDC's Health Protection Goals.
Version spaces without boundary sets

This paper shows that it is not necessary to maintain boundary sets to reason using version spaces. Rather, most of the operations typically performed on version spaces for a concept class can be tractably executed directly on the training data, as long as it is tractable to solve the consistency problem for that concept class -- to determine whether there exists any concept in the concept class that correctly classifies the data. The equivalence of version-space learning to the consistency problem bridges a gap between empirical and theoretical approaches to machine learning, since the consistency problem is already known to be critical to learning in the PAC (Probably Approximately Correct) sense. By exhibiting this link to the consistency problem, we broaden the class of problems to which version spaces can be applied to include concept classes where boundary sets can have exponential or infinite size and cases where boundary sets are not even well defined.
Challenges to miniaturizing cold atom technology for deployable vacuum metrology.

Cold atoms are excellent metrological tools; they currently realize SI time and, soon, SI pressure in the ultra-high (UHV) and extreme high vacuum (XHV) regimes. The development of primary, vacuum metrology based on cold atoms currently falls under the purview of national metrology institutes. Under the emerging paradigm of the 'quantum-SI', these technologies become deployable (relatively easy-to-use sensors that integrate with other vacuum chambers), providing a primary realization of the pascal in the UHV and XHV for the end-user. Here, we discuss the challenges that this goal presents. We investigate, for two different modes of operation, the expected corrections to the ideal cold-atom vacuum gauge and estimate the associated uncertainties. Finally, we discuss the appropriate choice of sensor atom, the light Li atom rather than the heavier Rb.