cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Space charge modeling of dense electron beams with large energy spreads

Theoretical and numerical studies of the transport in vacuum of multi-nC, multi-MeV electron beams are performed using several methods, including envelope models, a novel semianalytic approach using ellipsoidal shell decomposition, a modified electrostatic particle-in-cell method, and a point-to-point interaction model. The effects of space-charge forces on the longitudinal and transverse bunch properties are evaluated for various bunch lengths, energies, energy spreads, and charges. An evaluation of the various methods for studying space-charge effects in large energy spread, high charge beams is summarized. Examples are given for beam distributions typical of those generated by plasma-based accelerators. It is found that, for the highly correlated beams produced in the self-modulated regime, the high energy portion of the beam can gain significant energy while propagating in vacuum due to space-charge effects.
Specific Heat of Solid Helium

Recent torsional oscillator measurements of solid 4He in Vycor glass suggest the existence of a supersolid state of matter below 175mK. We have obtained preliminary data of the specific heat of solid helium down to 80mK. No sharp feature at the onset temperature is observable to within 1%. We are currently working towards extending our measurement to lower temperatures.
Ethics Issues in Academic-Industry Relationships in the Life Sciences: The Continuing Debate.

The author reviews in detail the status of academic-industry relationships (AIRs) in the life sciences from both ethical and empirical perspectives, and identifies ethical issues that have been resolved and those that must still be debated. He summarizes by stating that ethical reasoning militates against the involvement of scientists and universities in those AIRs in which a financial conflict of interest on the part of life science investigators may affect the welfare of human subjects and trainees. Even in other types of AIRs, conflicts of interest have effects on professional decision making that could damage the integrity and productivity of life sciences research, especially scientists' withholding of data and their redirecting of research in more commercial directions. These effects could also help undermine public trust in and support of university researchers. Balanced against these worrisome effects are the benefits of AIRs in increasing some investigators' creativity and productivity, in encouraging technology transfer, and thus in promoting economic growth and public health. He concludes that more research is needed on the harms and benefits of AIRs, especially the development of better data on the effects of withholding data, and also on the economic and health benefits of AIRs and public attitudes toward issues of scientific research that involve possible conflicts of interest. More information on these questions would allow policymakers to make more realistic estimates of the gains and losses associated with AIRs. In the meantime, current information suggests that in general the conflicts of interest created by AIRs are real, consequential, but tolerable if managed carefully. Until more is known about the effects of AIRs, it is prudent for universities and faculty to participate at modest levels in such relationships and to monitor them carefully. This article is one of three in this issue of Academic Medicine that deal with issues of conflict of interest in university-industry research relationships. These articles are discussed in an overview that precedes them.
A fretting fatigue normal pressure threshold concept

Abstract The results obtained and presented in this paper illustrate the existence of a normal pressure threshold (the value after which increasing the pressure does not affect the life) in fretting fatigue. This finding has led the authors to question the role of normal pressure and frictional stress in fretting fatigue failure. This is because at a given applied cyclic stress and below the pressure threshold, fretting fatigue failure is a function of normal pressure and the change in normal pressure, hence by the first law of friction: fretting fatigue life is a function of frictional stress and the change of frictional stress. Above the pressure threshold, fretting fatigue failure is just a function of normal pressure and frictional stress, not the increase of these two variables. In conjunction with these findings, it has been argued that a critical frictional stress might exist that causes the fretting damage to reach its threshold faster.
Biochemical and pharmacological analyses of endogenous cardioactive peptides in the snail,Helix aspersa

1. Isoelectric focusing and ion-exchange chromatography are used to analyse the biochemical properties of cardioactive peptides derived from tissues ofHelix aspersa. 2. The small cardioactive peptide (SCP) appears to be a single peptide species with a molecular weight of ca. 1,000 and an isoelectric point between 10 and 13 (Fig. 1). 3. The large cardioactive peptides (LCP) are made up of two peptides with an identical apparent molecular weight of ca. 7,000. One has a neutral isoelectric point (LCPN), while the other is basic (LCPB) (Figs. 2 and 3). 4. Long-term perfusion of the isolated snail heart with SCP causes an increase in the amplitude and rate of the heart beat. This effect is indistinguishable from that of 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) (Figs. 4 and 5). 5. The amplitude increase caused by SCP or 5-HT occurs more rapidly than the increase in rate (Fig. 4). 6. Perfusion of the heart with LCP causes an increase in beat amplitude and diastolic tone with no significant change in rate (Figs. 4 and 5). 7. The actions of LCPN and LCPB on the heart are essentially identical (Fig. 6). 8. The threshold for the action of perfused LCP is extremely low, less than the LCP from 0.001 auricle/ml (Fig. 7).
The relation between elevation and self-reported prosocial behavior: Incremental validity over the Five-Factor Model of Personality

With the development of the field of positive psychology, new constructs have made their way into the literature. One such construct, elevation, represents a positive moral emotion that is experienced when one witnesses the kind, moral behavior of others (Haidt, 2003). To date, few researchers have examined this construct. The current study examined elevation by locating it in the factor space of the Five-Factor Model of Personality, and determined its relation to the constructs of spiritual transcendence and self-reported prosocial behavior. A total of 188 student participants were recruited. Results indicated that Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, spiritual transcendence, and self-reported prosocial behavior were all positively correlated with elevation. Moreover, the results indicated that elevation provided significant incremental validity in predicting self-reports of prosocial behavior over and above the Five-Factor Model of Personality and spiritual transcendence. Clinical implic...
Topology of combinatorial differential manifolds

Abstract We prove that all combinatorial differential manifolds involving only Euclidean oriented matroids are PL manifolds. In doing so we introduce a new notion of triangulations of oriented matroids, cand show that any triangulation of a Euclidean oriented matroid is a PL sphere. In Section 5 we adapt these results to get a new definition of triangulations of oriented matroid polytopes, and show that any triangulation of a Euclidean oriented matroid polytope is a PL ball.
Scopolamine-physostigmine combination does not substitute for nicotine.

Abstract 1. 1. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were trained to discriminate 0.4 mg/kg nicotine subcutaneously administered from its saline vehicle in a food-motivated operant discrimination task. Once trained, the discriminative performance was observed to be dose-responsive with an ED 50 = 0.11 mg/kg. 2. 2. The co-administration of 0.1 or 0.2 mg/kg physostigmine with either 0.1, 0.15 or 0.2 mg/kg scopolamine produced intermediate discriminative effects, i.e., neither nicotine- nor saline-like responding. However, the physostigmine-scopolamine combination neither substituted for nor increased the discriminative effects of co-administered nicotine. 3. 3. The theoretical/mechanistic possibility that a combination of a cholinesterase inhibitor to increase available acetylcholine plus a specific anti-muscarinic to allow that increased acetylcholine to stimulate nicotinic receptors was investigated. Results indicate that the combination does not produce nicotine-like discriminative effects and evidence the possibility that nicotine discrimination may involve non-cholinergic mechanisms.
Functional and morphological assessment of rat aorta stored in University of Wisconsin and Eurocollins solutions

University of Wisconsin (UW) and Eurocollins (EC) solutions are widely used for preservation of organs before transplantation. However, effect of storage solutions on vascular interface for transplant success is not known. In this study, we have used rat aorta as a model and assessed the effects of cold storage in UW and EC solutions on smooth muscle and endothelial function and the morphology. Smooth muscle and endothelial functions of the rat aorta were assessed using in vitro isometric tension measurement. Morphologic studies were done with scanning and transmission electron microscopy. No significant difference in contractile response to either norepinephrine (NE) or potassium chloride was observed between control aorta and aorta stored in UW solution for 1 hr or 24 hr. In contrast, sensitivity, but not the reactivity to NE and KCl, was increased in aorta stored in EC solution for 1 hr. If the tissues were stored in EC solution for 24 hr, both sensitivity and reactivity to NE and KCl were significantly reduced. Relaxatory response to acetylcholine, in endothelium-intact vessels were reduced in aortas stored in EC solution, but not in UW solution. The magnitude of relaxations observed in tissues stored in the EC solution for 24 hr was less than in tissues stored for 1 hr. Sodium nitroprusside elicited similar relaxatory response in endothelium-denuded control tissue and in tissues stored in UW and EC solution. Electron microscopy data revealed marked swelling of the cell, loss of mitochondria and other intracellular organelles, and striking calcium deposits after preservation of the vessels in EC for 1 or 24 hr. In aorta stored in UW solution for 24 hr, endothelial and smooth muscle cells were intact, with moderate-size vacuoles in the cytoplasm. These results suggest that the UW solution is more suitable than EC solution for short-term preoperative storage of blood vessels.
Tumor necrosis factor receptors encoded by poxviruses.

Poxviruses encode several cytokine response modifying (Crm) proteins. The Crm proteins possess sequence homology to several human proteins important in immunity. This homology and the conservation of Crm proteins among poxvirus strains suggest an immunomodulatory function that provides a survival advantage to the virus. Cowpox virus encodes several tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptor family homologues: CrmB, CrmC, and CrmD. CrmB and CrmD encode a similar approximately 155 amino acid COOH-terminus region distal to their TNF ligand-binding portions. These C-terminus regions contain no significant homology with sequences in public databases. It is not known whether the C-terminus regions have a complementary function to the TNF ligand-binding domains, or an unrelated function. Myxoma virus, a rabbit poxvirus, encodes a protein termed T2 which is homologous to CrmB and CrmD. Deletion of the T2 gene results in decreased pathogenicity of myxoma in rabbits. T2 has also been shown to interfere with TNF-induced apoptosis in vitro. Understanding the role viral TNF receptor homologues play in altering host immune responses may suggest ways to develop specific anti-inflammatory therapeutics.
Solving the uncapacitated facility location problem using tabu search

A tabu search heuristic procedure is developed to solve the uncapacitated facility location problem. Tabu search is used to guide the solution process when evolving from one solution to another. A move is defined to be the opening or closing of a facility. The net cost change resulting from a candidate move is used to measure the attractiveness of the move. After a move is made, the net cost change of a candidate move is updated from its old value. Updating, rather than re-computing, the net cost changes substantially reduces computation time needed to solve a problem when the problem is not excessively large. Searching only a small subset of the feasible solutions that contains the optimal solution, the procedure is computationally very efficient. A computational experiment is conducted to test the performance of the procedure and computational results are reported. The procedure can easily find optimal or near optimal solutions for benchmark test problems from the literature. For randomly generated test problems, this tabu search procedure not only obtained solutions completely dominating those obtained with other heuristic methods recently published in the literature but also used substantially less computation time. Therefore, this tabu search procedure has advantage over other heuristic methods in both solution quality and computation speed.
A meta-analysis of the efficacy of anodal transcranial direct current stimulation for upper limb motor recovery in stroke survivors.

Abstract Study Design Systematic review and meta-analysis. Introduction Prior reviews on the effects of anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (a-tDCS) have shown the effectiveness of a-tDCS on corticomotor excitability and motor function in healthy individuals but nonsignificant effect in subjects with stroke. Purpose To summarize and evaluate the evidence for the efficacy of a-tDCS in the treatment of upper limb motor impairment after stroke. Methods A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials that compared a-tDCS with placebo and change from baseline. Results A pooled analysis showed a significant increase in scores in favor of a-tDCS (standard mean difference [SMD] = 0.40, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.10–0.70, p = 0.010, compared with baseline). A similar effect was observed between a-tDCS and sham (SMD = 0.49, 95% CI = 0.18–0.81, p = 0.005). Conclusion This meta-analysis of eight randomized placebo-controlled trials provides further evidence that a-tDCS may benefit motor function of the paretic upper limb in patients suffering from chronic stroke. Level of Evidence Level 1a.
Capitalist Democracy Among Mongolian Herders: Discourse or Ideology?

Although Mongolian herders sound as if they have adopted capitalist democracy, they are really using the discourse to express their own ideology. Based on cognitive data collected in 1998 and 2003, this paper uses connectionist theory to show that Mongolian herders' political model is shaped by the nexus of three phenomena: (1) a post-socialist political economy granting herders rights and freedoms along with economic responsibility at the family/household level, (2) the pre-socialist cultural themes of appreciation for independence, perception of leaders as distant patrons, and their own isolation from governance; and (3) emotions that guide the interpretation of both, including joy at attaining rights and freedoms, hope of success and fear of failure, and indifference to governance.
Indefinitely Repeated Games: A Response to Carroll

In a recent volume of this journal John Carroll argued that there exist only uncooperative equilibria in indefinitely repeated prisoner's dilemma games. We show that this claim depends on modeling such games as finitely but indefinitely repeated games, which reduce simply to finitely repeated games. We propose an alternative general model of probabilistically indefinitely repeated games, and discuss the appropriateness of each of these models of indefinitely repeated games.
Enhancement by tetraphenylboron of the interaction of the 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium ion (MPP+) with mitochondria.

Abstract Inhibition of mitochondrial energy production by MPP + may be the key step in chemically-induced Parkinson's disease. Tetraphenylboron (TPB − ) markedly enhances the effect of MPP + . Inhibition of respiration and uptake of MPP + are accelerated, the former by up to two orders of magnitude. TPB − increases the final concentration of MPP + in the matrix by 2–3 fold, insufficient to explain the rapid inhibition of respiration. TPB − lowers the membrane surface potential by only about 20%, but increases the partitioning of MPP + into organic solvent by one order of magnitude. TPB − also enhances the effect of MPP + on inverted membranes, reducing the I 50 by an order of magnitude. We suggest that TPB − acts by ion pairing with MPP + to facilitate penetration into mitochondria as well as access to a hydrophobic inhibition site on NADH dehydrogenase.
‘White aliens’: The control of European immigration to Australia 1920–30

The author reviews Australian and British policies restricting non-British immigration to Australia after World War I. "The intense desire in many quarters to maintain a white Australia led not only to the active encouragement of British immigrants but to the restrictions and regulations upon European immigration in the period under review. These restrictions took two forms. Statutory powers of exclusion and restriction were conferred through...legislation....At the same time...administrative techniques were used to limit further and control white alien immigration. These techniques such as quotas and the discretionary power of the Minister to limit visas and landing permits changing in response to economic conditions and public opinion were perhaps more important in the governments policy of ensuring Australias racial purity." (EXCERPT)
Electoral Challenges as Indicators of Community Dissatisfaction

Formulas based on school board incumbents' defeats in elections havelimits for measuring public dissatisfaction.
Regulation of Limbic Motor Seizures by GABA and Glutamate Transmission in Nucleus Tractus Solitarius

Summary: Purpose: The nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS) is a primary site at which vagal afferents terminate. Because afferent vagal nerve stimulation has been demonstrated to have anticonvulsant effects, it is likely that changes in synaptic transmission in the NTS can regulate seizure susceptibility. We tested this hypothesis by examining the influence of γ-amino-butyric acid (GABA) ergic and glutamatergic transmission in the NTS on seizures evoked by systemic and focal bicuculline and systemic pentylenetetrazol (PTZ) in rats. Methods: Muscimol (256 pmol), a GABAA-receptor agonist, bicuculline methiodide (177 pmol), a GABAA-receptor antagonist, kynurenate (634 pmol), a glutamate-receptor antagonist, or lidocaine (100 nl; 5%), a local anesthetic, was microinjected into the mediocaudal (m)NTS. Ten minutes later, seizure activity was induced by either a focal microinfusion of bicuculline methiodide (177 pmol) into the rostral piriform cortex, systemic PTZ (50 mg/kg, i.p.), or systemic bicuculline (0.35 mg/kg, i.v.). Results: Muscimol in mNTS (but not in adjacent regions of NTS) attenuated seizures in all seizure models tested, whereas bicuculline methiodide into mNTS did not alter seizure responses. Kynurenate infusions into mNTS significantly reduced the severity of seizures evoked both systemically and focally. Anticonvulsant effects also were obtained with lidocaine application into the same region of mNTS. Unilateral injections were sufficient to afford seizure protection. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that an increase in GABA transmission or a decrease in glutamate transmission in the rat mNTS reduces susceptibility to limbic motor seizures. This suggests that inhibition of mNTS outputs enhances seizure resistance in the forebrain and provides a potential mechanism for the seizure protection obtained with vagal stimulation.
Infectious primate type C viruses: Three isolates belonging to a new subgroup from the brains of normal gibbons

Abstract Three type C viruses (GBr-1, GBr-2, and GBr-3) were isolated by coculativation of normal gibbon brain tissues with cultured mammalian cell lines. The tissues, all frozen since 1968, were obtained from two animals inoculated with brain extracts from human patients with kuru and from one uninoculated cagemate. By viral interference tests and by immunologic studies of the viral polymerases and major internal structural proteins (p30), the new isolates are typical members of a group of mammalian type C viruses infectious for primates. By nucleic acid hybridization, the viruses isolated from the gibbon brains, while highly related to one another, can be readily distinguished from the previously isolated type C viruses of this group. The infectious primate type C viruses isolated to date can be classified into four distinct subgroups.
Motor Neuron Branching Patterns in Psychotic Patients

• Excessive branching of subterminal motor nerves and multiple innervation of skeletal muscle fibers were significantly more common in 102 psychotic patients of various diagnostic types than in 23 age-matched normal control subjects. Increased branching of subterminal motor nerves was significantly more common in paranoid schizophrenic patients than in nonparanoid schizophrenic patients and normal control subjects. The results support the hypothesis of a neurogenic origin of the skeletal muscle fiber abnormalities that have been reported in psychotic patients.
Direct interaction of myosin regulatory light chain with the NMDA receptor.

NMDA receptors interact with a variety of intracellular proteins at excitatory synapses. In this paper we show that myosin regulatory light chain (RLC) isolated from mouse brain is a NMDA receptor-interacting protein. Myosin RLC bound directly to the C-termini of both NMDA receptor 1 (NR1) and NMDA receptor 2 (NR2) subunits, rendering the interaction of myosin RLC with NMDA receptors distinct from that of calmodulin which is considered a NR1-interacting protein. Myosin RLC co-localized with NR1 in the dendritic spines of isolated hippocampal neurons, and was co-immunoprecipitated from brain extracts in a complex with NR1, NR2A, NR2B, PSD-95, Adaptor protein-2 and myosin II heavy chain. The C0 region of NR1 was necessary and sufficient for binding myosin RLC. Ca2+/calmodulin, but not calmodulin alone, displaced recombinant myosin RLC from the carboxy tail of NR1 indicating that myosin RLC and Ca2+/calmodulin can compete for a common binding site on NR1 in vitro. Myosin RLC is the only known substrate for myosin regulatory light chain kinase, which has recently been shown to modulate NMDA receptor function in isolated hippocampal neurons. Our results suggest that an additional level of NMDA receptor regulation may be mediated via a direct interaction with a light chain of myosin II. Thus, myosin RLC–NMDA receptor interactions may contribute to the contractile and motile forces that are placed upon NMDA receptor subunits during changes associated with synaptic plasticity and neural morphogenesis.
Microcirculatory effects of prostaglandins E1, E2, and A1 in the rat mesentery and cremaster muscle

Abstract The present investigation was carried out to determine the site(s) of vasomotor activity of Prostaglandins E 1 (PGE 1 ), E 2 (PGE 2 ), and A 1 (PGA 1 ) in the terminal vascular bed of the rat mesentery and cremaster (skeletal) muscle. Studies were also performed to determine the effects of PGE 1 and PGA 1 on arteriolar responsiveness to vasoconstrictor agents. In vivo changes in microvascular diameters in response to topical application of prostaglandins and the vasoconstrictor agents were determined quantitatively with an image shearing television microscope and recording system. In the mesentery, PGE 1 elicited arteriolar dilator responses, while similar doses of PGE 2 and PGA 1 were ineffective. The responses of mesenteric arterioles to PGE 1 were not entirely dose-dependent. In the cremaster muscle, the three prostaglandins studied produced a dose-dependent dilation of all muscular microvessels; the order of potency was PGE 1 > PGE 2 > PGA 1 . Mesenteric and cremasteric arteriolar responses to epinephrine, norepinephrine, angiotensin, and vasopressin were inhibited by PGE 1 , and this inhibition was demonstrable after the dilator action of PGE 1 had terminated. PGA 1 did not alter vascular responsiveness in either tissue. It was concluded that prostaglandins, by virtue of their vasodilator actions and inhibitory effects on microvascular responsiveness, may contribute to local control of blood flow.
Policy statement on voting by persons with dementia residing in long-term care facilities

1. Preamble The purpose of this policy statement, which was approved by the Public Policy Committee of the Alzheimer’s Association national Board of Directors, is to identify steps that should be taken by federal agencies, state legislatures, election officials, staff of long-term care facilities, and longterm care residents and their families to assure that residents’ voting rights are respected while preventing fraud in elections.
Cadmium–cysteine coordination in the BK inner pore region and its structural and functional implications

To probe structure and gating-associated conformational changes in BK-type potassium (BK) channels, we examined consequences of Cd2+ coordination with cysteines introduced at two positions in the BK inner pore. At V319C, the equivalent of valine in the conserved Kv proline-valine-proline (PVP) motif, Cd2+ forms intrasubunit coordination with a native glutamate E321, which would place the side chains of V319C and E321 much closer together than observed in voltage-dependent K+ (Kv) channel structures, requiring that the proline between V319C and E321 introduces a kink in the BK S6 inner helix sharper than that observed in Kv channel structures. At inner pore position A316C, Cd2+ binds with modest state dependence, suggesting the absence of an ion permeation gate at the cytosolic side of BK channel. These results highlight fundamental structural differences between BK and Kv channels in their inner pore region, which likely underlie differences in voltage-dependent gating between these channels.
Recent advances in antigen processing and presentation

Heterogeneous intracellular pathways and biochemical mechanisms are responsible for generating the glycoprotein complexes of peptide and major histocompatibility complex that are displayed on the surfaces of antigen-presenting cells for recognition by T lymphocytes. These pathways have a profound influence on the specificity of adaptive immunity and tolerance, as well as the context and consequences of antigen recognition by T cells in the thymus and periphery. The field of antigen processing and presentation has continued to advance since the publication of a focus issue on the topic in Nature Immunology in July 2004. Progress has been made on many fronts, including advances in understanding how proteases, accessory molecules and intracellular pathways influence peptide loading and antigen presentation in various cell types.
Anti-inflammatory effects of methoxyphenolic compounds on human airway cells

The respiratory epithelium plays a central role in the inflammatory response in asthma and other diseases. Methoxyphenolic compounds are purported to be effective anti-inflammatory agents, but their effects on the airway epithelium have not been well characterized. Human airway cells were stimulated with TNF-α in the presence or absence of 4-substituted methoxyphenols and resveratrol. The expression of various cytokines was measured by qPCR, ELISAs, and protein arrays. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) production was measured with a reactive fluorescent probe (3',6'-diacetate-2',7'-dichlorofluorescein). Activation of NF-κB was measured by nuclear translocation and phosphorylation. Ribonuclear protein association with mRNA was assessed with a biotin-RNA affinity isolation assay. Multiple inflammatory mediators were inhibited by methoxyphenols, including: CCL2, CCL5, IL-6, IL-8, ICAM-1, MIF, CXCL1, CXCL10, and Serpin E1. IC50 values were obtained for each compound that showed significant anti-inflammatory activity: diapocynin (20.3 μM), resveratrol (42.7 μM), 2-methoxyhydroquinone (64.3 μM), apocynin (146.6 μM), and 4-amino-2-methoxyphenol (410 μM). The anti-inflammatory activity did not correlate with inhibition of reactive oxygen species production or NF-κB activation. However, methoxyphenols inhibited binding of the RNA-binding protein HuR to mRNA, indicating that they may act post-transcriptionally. Methoxyphenols demonstrate anti-inflammatory activity in human airway cells. More potent compounds that act via similar mechanisms may have therapeutic potential as novel anti-inflammatory agents.
Quasi-optical antenna array amplifiers

Several quasi-optical transmission wave amplifiers are presented: (1) a two-level power-combining PHEMT patch-antenna lens amplifier with 8 dB of absolute power gain at 9.7 GHz used for beamforming and beam-switching; (2) a saturated class-A polarization-preserving 24-MESFET patch array which produces 0.7 Watts at 10 GHz with 21% power-added efficiency; and (3) an X-band 2-stage low-noise CPW PHEMT amplifier cell using anti-resonant slot antennas with 21.7 dB active gain, 3.2 dB noise figure and a 6% 3 dB bandwidth. >
Frame by Frame Analysis of Glottic Insufficiency Using Laryngovideostroboscopy

Summary Objectives/Hypothesis Glottic insufficiency (GI) can be either grossly obvious or subtle in its presentation. Subtle GI is demonstrated by various Laryngovideostroboscopic (LVS) clues, including complete but "short" phase closure of the true vocal folds (VFs) during the glottic cycle. We used the frame by frame analysis (FBFA) technique to evaluate its effectiveness in objectively contributing to the diagnosis of subtle GI in patients with atrophic and/or paretic VFs. This article intends to formally present the methods and intentions of the FBFA technique and report our findings using FBFA on subjects with clinically diagnosed GI and normal volunteers. Study Design Retrospective review and demonstration of technique. Methods Forty-four subjects with a prior clinical diagnosis of true VF atrophy (25/44) and/or paresis (19/44) and five normal volunteers were identified. Using the FBFA technique, each subject's average percentage of closed frames per glottic cycle was recorded. Results Subjects with atrophy spent 32.4% of the frames of the glottic cycle in the closed phase, subjects with paresis spent 35.7% of the frames closed, and normal subjects spent 50.2% of the frames closed. Conclusions FBFA appears to be a simple objective method for the novice or experienced LVS interpreter, by which one can suspect subtle GI. Because of the inherent physical properties by which LVS gives an "illusionary" representation of the glottic cycle, the FBFA technique remains a theoretical tool. Future studies using high-speed digital imaging are needed to validate this useful technique.
Architecture-driven Enterprise Integration

Business Process Management (BPM) is an ongoing topic of interest for contemporary managers. This interest is documented by a long sequence of methods, techniques and tools emerging and declining in favour over the years. This paper takes a more holistic approach to BPM, moving from efficiency generating techniques, and focusing on BPM as the key element in an approach to achieving total enterprise integration. The approach, Architecture-driven Enterprise Integration, has many dimensions, but BPM is central to aligning information technologies and systems to management objectives and related requirements. Aspects of the approach are demonstrated with documentation from various implementation projects and vendor products. A major contribution of this paper is an understanding that BPM must be examined in a more holistic fashion, and that many BPM methods are severely constrained in their ability to generate radical and significant improvement inside of organisations.
Homology and errors

A recent review of the homology concept in cladistics is critiqued in light of the historical literature. Homology as a notion relevant to the recognition of clades remains equivalent to synapomorphy. Some symplesiomorphies are ‘‘homologies’’ inasmuch as they represent synapomorphies of more inclusive taxa; others are complementary character states that do not imply any shared evolutionary history among the taxa that exhibit the state. Undirected character-state change (as characters optimized on an unrooted tree) is a necessary but not su!cient test of homology, because the addition of a root may alter parsimonious reconstructions. Primary and secondary homology are defended as realistic representations of discovery procedures in comparative biology, recognizable even in Direct Optimization. The epistemological relationship between homology as evidence and common ancestry as explanation is again emphasized. An alternative definition of homology is proposed. ! The Willi Hennig Society 2012.
Effect of the packing pressure on the performance of C18 reversed-phase liquid chromatographic columns

Abstract Early evidence has shown that HPLC columns packed with a given ODS phase give different performance, related to differences in their packing densities and external porosities. This effect was systematically studied on two groups of ten analytical (10×0.46 cm) columns packed with Kromasil and Zorbax 10 μm spherical C18, respectively, using chloroform as the slurry solvent and methanol as the pushing solvent. The packing pressure used for column j in each group was 1000j p.s.i. The mass of packing material inside each column increased with increasing packing pressure. The column external porosity, determined by inverse size-exclusion chromatography method, decreased as the packing pressure increased, while the internal porosity remained constant. With a methanol-water (45:55, v/v) solution as the mobile phase, the retention factors and column efficiencies were measured at infinite dilution for acetone, benzyl acetate, benzyl alcohol, m-cresol, 2,6-dimethyl phenol, methyl benzoate, 3-phenyl- 1-propanol, and uracil (also used as non-retained compound to determine the hold-up times). The retention factor and the column efficiency of each compound increased linearly with increasing packing pressure. The isotherm of 3-phenyl-1-propanol was determined on each column by elution by characteristic points and frontal analysis methods. These data were normalized by the column geometrical volume (Vk: ml), by the stationary phase volume (Vp: ml), and by the mass of packing (Wp: g). The parameters obtained from the isotherm normalized by Vk cannot predict the band profile accurately. Better results were obtained with the parameters obtained from the isotherm normalized by Vp. Close agreement was obtained between the parameters obtained by mass normalization. This allowed a reasonable prediction of the band profiles recorded on one column using isotherm data measured on another column. Considering the difficulties encountered in volume determinations, normalization of isotherm data by the packing weight seems to be the most practical solution.
Morbidity Risk for Alcoholism and Drug Abuse in Relatives of Cocaine Addicts

The morbidity risks for alcoholism in the first-degree relatives of a cohort of male cocaine addicts with or without alcoholism comorbidity were studied. Of the 71 patients who participated in our study, 40 (56.3%) had a history of alcoholism and 37 (59.1%) a history of opioid abuse. Twenty-two patients (30.1%) also met criteria for a lifetime diagnosis of a major psychiatric disorder. Significant increases in morbidity risks for alcoholism were found among male relatives of cocaine addicts with comorbid alcohol dependence when compared with relatives of cocaine addicts with no alcohol comorbidity. Among fathers, risks were .69 vs .32 (z = 2.98, p < .003). Among brothers, risks were .38 vs .15 (z = 2.35, p < .03). Significantly increased risks were also observed in male relatives when probands with a psychiatric diagnosis were excluded from the analyses. Among female relatives, increases in morbidity risks were found but they failed to reach statistical significance. Two interpretations are consistent with these findings. One of these interpretations is that alcoholism is a disorder distinct from other addictions and has its own mode of transmission. The second interpretation is that the transmission of substance use disorders lacks specificity and that the substances selected are influenced by sociocultural or biological factors.
Optimizing and Diversifying Electric Vehicle Driving Range for U.S. Drivers

Properly determining the driving range is critical for accurately predicting the sales and social benefits of battery electric vehicles BEVs. This study proposes a framework for optimizing the driving range by minimizing the sum of battery price, electricity cost, and range limitation cost-referred to as the "range-related cost"-as a measurement of range anxiety. The objective function is linked to policy-relevant parameters, including battery cost and price markup, battery utilization, charging infrastructure availability, vehicle efficiency, electricity and gasoline prices, household vehicle ownership, daily driving patterns, discount rate, and perceived vehicle lifetime. Qualitative discussion of the framework and its empirical application to a sample N = 36,664 representing new car drivers in the United States is included. The quantitative results strongly suggest that ranges of less than 100 miles are likely to be more popular in the BEV market for a long period of time. The average optimal range among U.S. drivers is found to be largely inelastic. Still, battery cost reduction significantly drives BEV demand toward longer ranges, whereas improvement in the charging infrastructure is found to significantly drive BEV demand toward shorter ranges. The bias of a single-range assumption and the effects of range optimization and diversification in reducing such biases are both found to be significant.
PCR Method for Detection of Adenovirus in Urine of Healthy and Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Infected Individuals

Adenoviruses (AdV) cause diseases that range from localized, self-limited illnesses to fatal infections in immunocompromised patients. Culture is assumed to be sensitive but requires viable virus and up to 3 weeks for detection, and it can be inhibited by bacterial contamination. A new PCR method amplifying a region of the hexon gene was developed in order to detect AdV in urine more rapidly and with greater sensitivity than obtainable by culture technology. All 18 serotypes tested were detected. Quantitatively, with optimized urine processing, AdV PCR detected 0.2 PFU/ml (serotype 11) and 10 DNA copies/ml (serotype 2). Serially collected urine samples from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients with concurrent cytomegalovirus retinitis were divided into three groups: AdV culture-positive samples, AdV culture-negative or bacterially contaminated samples from patients with a history of AdV culture-positive urines, and AdV culture-negative samples from patients without a history of AdV culture positivity. Urine samples from healthy adults were also tested by culture and PCR to screen for asymptomatic shedding. Amplification was assessed with and without prior DNA purification. AdV was detected by PCR in 90% of culture-positive urines (100% of unclotted samples, e.g., those culture positive after storage for PCR testing), 71% of culture-negative or bacterially contaminated urines from AdV-infected patients, and 28% from AdV culture-negative patients. Healthy volunteers were culture negative for AdV, and 96% were PCR negative. The new AdV PCR method is rapid and sensitive and can detect viral DNA in samples for which culturing is problematic. The role of AdV replication during HIV infection merits further investigation with sensitive tools such as PCR.
CHANGES IN THE NUCLEIC ACID AND PROTEIN COMPOSITION OF THE NASAL GLANDS FROM THE DUCK (ANAS PLATYRHYNCHOS) DURING THE PERIOD OF ADAPTATION TO HYPERTONIC SALINE

1. After transfer of the freshwater-maintained ducks to a hypertonic saline regimen the wet weight, the protein content and the RNA content of the nasal glands showed a two-fold increase. 2. The RNA content of the nasal glands was maximal after approximately 24 hr. whereas the maximum wet weight and protein content did not occur until after approximately 14 days of exposure to hypertonic saline. 3. The DNA content of the nasal glands increased by approximately 42% during the period of adaptation to hypertonic saline and at the same time the weight of gland per unit DNA increased by about 58%. 4. The wet weights, nucleic acid concentrations and the protein concentrations of Harderian glands, liver, kidney and adrenal glands did not change upon adaptation of the ducks to the hypertonic saline regimen for 14 days. 5. Upon return of the birds to the freshwater diet, the weight, protein content and RNA content of the nasal gland declined. No loss of DNA was apparent. The weight of the gland per unit DNA and the protein content per unit DNA and the total RNA content of the nasal glands all returned to the level observed in the freshwater-adapted birds. 6. When the birds were again transferred to the hypertonic saline diet the nasal glands returned to the state of development previously observed when the birds were maintained on the hypertonic saline regimen. 7. The significance of these data in relation to the changes known to occur in the active sodium-transporting properties of the nasal gland are discussed.
Aromatic bisvinyl ethers: A new class of highly reactive thermosetting monomers

Aromatic bisvinyl ethers, prepared by the condensation of bisphenols with 2-chloroethyl vinyl ether in the presence of sodium hydroxide, are a new class of thermosetting monomers. These new materials can be polymerized cationically by using diaryliodonium salts as photo and thermal initiators to produce crosslinked resins whose physical and thermal characteristics resemble those of epoxy resins.
Inhibitory interneurons enable sparse code formation in a spiking circuit model of V1

Sparse coding accounts for several physiological properties of primary visual cortex (V1), including the shapes of simple cell receptive fields and the highly kurtotic firing rates of V1 neurons [1]. Current spiking network models of pattern learning [2] and sparse coding [3] require direct inhibitory connections between the excitatory simple cells, in violation of Dale's Law which states that neurons can either excite or inhibit but not both. At the same time, the computational role of inhibitory neurons in cortical microcircuit function has yet to be fully explained. Here we show that adding a separate population of inhibitory neurons to a recently proposed model of V1 [3] not only brings spiking network models of sparse coding in line with Dale’s Law, but it also predicts excitatory-to-inhibitory neuron ratios and explains how inhibitory neurons may function computationally. When trained on natural images, this excitatory-inhibitory spiking circuit learns Gabor-like receptive fields as found in V1 using spiking neurons and synaptically local plasticity rules. The inhibitory cells enable sparse code formation using a novel learning rule by collaboratively discovering and suppressing correlations within the excitatory population (Figure ​(Figure1).1). The model predicts that only a small number of inhibitory cells is required relative to excitatory cells, matching physiological ratios observed in primary visual cortex. Figure 1 A. Circuit diagram of our spiking network with separate excitatory (E) and inhibitory (I) neural populations (top) compared to current single population models (bottom). This network was simulated with different numbers of excitatory and inhibitory cells. ...
Identification and structural characterization of FYVE domain-containing proteins of Arabidopsis thaliana

FYVE domains have emerged as membrane-targeting domains highly specific for phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate (PtdIns(3)P). They are predominantly found in proteins involved in various trafficking pathways. Although FYVE domains may function as individual modules, dimers or in partnership with other proteins, structurally, all FYVE domains share a fold comprising two small characteristic double-stranded β-sheets, and a C-terminal α-helix, which houses eight conserved Zn2+ ion-binding cysteines. To date, the structural, biochemical, and biophysical mechanisms for subcellular targeting of FYVE domains for proteins from various model organisms have been worked out but plant FYVE domains remain noticeably under-investigated. We carried out an extensive examination of all Arabidopsis FYVE domains, including their identification, classification, molecular modeling and biophysical characterization using computational approaches. Our classification of fifteen Arabidopsis FYVE proteins at the outset reveals unique domain architectures for FYVE containing proteins, which are not paralleled in other organisms. Detailed sequence analysis and biophysical characterization of the structural models are used to predict membrane interaction mechanisms previously described for other FYVE domains and their subtle variations as well as novel mechanisms that seem to be specific to plants. Our study contributes to the understanding of the molecular basis of FYVE-based membrane targeting in plants on a genomic scale. The results show that FYVE domain containing proteins in plants have evolved to incorporate significant differences from those in other organisms implying that they play a unique role in plant signaling pathways and/or play similar/parallel roles in signaling to other organisms but use different protein players/signaling mechanisms.
Iterative soft-decision Reed-Solomon decoding on partial response channels

Since the discovery of turbo codes, iterative decoding has gained enormous momentum. The idea of repeatedly passing information between components of a receiver or decoder to increase the overall system performance has attracted much research effort. In this work, we present an iterative soft-decision decoding architecture for Reed-Solomon (RS) codes on a partial-response (PR) channel. The architecture incorporates a symbol-based a-posteriori probability (APP) detector for the channel, and an enhanced soft-decision RS decoder based upon the recently introduced Koetter-Vardy (KY) algorithm. From the list of candidate RS codewords generated by the KV decoder, we calculate output symbol reliabilities that can be fed back to the APP detector as extrinsic information to be used in a subsequent decoding iteration. Through simulations, we show the efficacy of this approach, especially when the initial KV list size is large. We will also propose ways to modify the decoding scheme in order to beneficially increase the size of the candidate codeword list and thereby improve the overall system performance.
Constructing a Polish Landscape: The Example of the Carpathian Frontier

In the age of modern nationalisms, the first attempt that Poles made to construct a national landscape came in the last third of the nineteenth century. The stateless Poles, subjects of three different imperial powers, somehow managed to transform a remote mountain borderland along the internal Austro-Hungarian frontier into a recognizable and important national icon. While many attempts have been made to transform the natural environment into a national environment since then, this accomplishment helped to make the Carpathian Mountains, and in particular a section of them known as the Tatra Mountains, one of the most recognizable parts of “Poland,” however it is defined.