cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Spectral and kinetic resolution of the bc1 complex components in situ: a simple and robust alternative to the traditional difference wavelength approach.

Abstract The kinetics of the cytochrome (cyt) components of the bc1 complex (ubiquinol: cytochrome c oxidoreductase, Complex III) are traditionally followed by using the difference of absorbance changes at two or more different wavelengths. However, this difference-wavelength (DW) approach is of limited accuracy in the separation of absorbance changes of components with overlapping spectral bands. To resolve the kinetics of individual components in Rhodobacter sphaeroides chromatophores, we have tested a simplified version of a least squares (LS) analysis, based on measurement at a minimal number of different wavelengths. The success of the simplified LS analysis depended significantly on the wavelengths used in the set. The “traditional” set of 6 wavelengths (542, 551, 561, 566, 569 and 575 nm), normally used in the DW approach to characterize kinetics of cyt ctot (cyt c1 + cyt c2), cyt bL, cyt bH, and P870 in chromatophores, could also be used to determine these components via the simplified LS analysis, with improved resolution of the individual components. However, this set is not sufficient when information about cyts c1 and c2 is needed. We identified multiple alternative sets of 5 and 6 wavelengths that could be used to determine the kinetics of all 5 components (P870 and cyts c1, c2, bL, and bH) simultaneously, with an accuracy comparable to that of the LS analysis based on a full set of wavelengths (1 nm intervals). We conclude that a simplified version of LS deconvolution based on a small number of carefully selected wavelengths provides a robust and significant improvement over the traditional DW approach, since it accounts for spectral interference of the different components, and uses fewer measurements when information about all five individual components is needed. Using the simplified and complete LS analyses, we measured the simultaneous kinetics of all cytochrome components of bc1 complex in the absence and presence of specific inhibitors and found that they correspond well to those expected from the modified Q-cycle. This is the first study in which the kinetics of all cytochrome and reaction center components of the bc1 complex functioning in situ have been measured simultaneously, with full deconvolution over an extended time range.
A Situation-Specific Theory of Korean Immigrant Women's Menopausal Transition

Purpose: To extend the previous model of transitions by including the experiences of low-income Korean immigrant women in the United States during their menopausal transition. The extension results in a situation-specific theory of Korean immigrant women’s menopausal transition.
The Warmest Day of Any Week Tends to Occur on the First or Last Day of That Week.

The author analyzed daily maximum temperature data collected at the San Francisco International Airport from 1949 to 1994. For each week, he computed the day of the week on which the weekly maximum temperature falls. He found that the warmest day of the week is more likely to occur on the first (or last) day of the week than a day in the middle of the week. This conclusion does not depend on which day is designated as the first day of the week. The same phenomenon is observed when the data is detrended. The author argues that this surprising phenomenon results from positive temporal correlation in the daily maximum temperature data. He shows that the same phenomenon occurs for two stochastic time series models: a positively correlated Gaussian AR(1) process and a random walk. For the AR(1) process, results are obtained by Monte Carlo simulation experiments. For the random walk, an analytical formula (from the literature) is given.
Challenges on Low-Power Platform Design for Real-World Wireless Sensing Applications

Real-world wireless sensing applications pose a number of great challenges on low-power hardware/software platform designs, including a wide range of size, cost, power consumption, connectivity, performance, and flexibility requirements. Based on a classification of sensing functions, detection methods, timeliness of data, and characteristics of power supply, the platform may need to incorporate different features in order to operate in a low-power, energy-efficient manner. The design issues are highlighted in the context of a number of sensing systems ranging from high-performance, high-precision data acquisition wireless sensor node for civil engineering and an ultra-compact wireless sensor node for infant monitoring to a laser-based breast cancer detector.
Development of canopy stratification during early succession in northern hardwoods

Abstract Canopy development on a 6-year-old strip cut was analyzed by measuring the heights to terminal buds and bud scale scars of the tallest individuals of each species present on 50 plots of radius 6 m. Phenology of height growth was monitored during the following growing season. Pin cherry ( Prunus pensylvania L.), an intolerant short-lived tree, had the fastest growth rate and was on the average the tallest species from the second to the sixth year of regrowth. Although advance regeneration of sugar maple ( Acer saccharum Marsh.) and beech ( Fagus grandifoloa Ehrh.) were the tallest trees during the first growing season, their slower growth rate insured that they would not keep up with the pin cherry. Trembling aspen ( Populus tremuloides Michx.), striped maple ( Acer pensylvanicum L.) and yellow birch ( Betula alleghaniensis Britt.) occupied an intermediate position in the canopy by the end of the sixth growing season, and showed relatively greater annual height increment than beech or sugar maple. Height growth phenology differed slightly for each species. Beech, ash ( Fraxinus americana L.) and sugar maple commenced growth early, grew rapidly and set buds all by 1 August (beech by 15 June). Yellow birch, pin cherry and trembling aspen started growing as early as the others, grew more slowly at first but then grew for a longer period of time. Striped maple seemed to be somewhat intermediate. Growth phenology and growth rate are related to the tolerance and growth form type (e.g. determinate or indeterminate) of the species. The most tolerant species tend to be determinate in growth form, have slower growth rates and complete height growth earlier. The intolerant species tend to be indeterminate, have a faster growth rate and continue to grow for a longer period. These may be mechanisms by which many species can grow together and avoid adverse effects such as suppression.
Elbow and elbow manipulators are optimal

We show that the elbow manipulators and their duals are the optimal designs for 6R manipulators. The performance measures used are those of work-volume and a property defined herein called well-connected-workspace. It is shown that a 6R manipulator, M, has maximal work-volume and a well-connected-workspace if and only if M or M* (its dual) is an elbow manipulator.
Resistance to and Recovery from Lethal Influenza Virus Infection in B Lymphocyte–deficient Mice

In the adaptive immune response to most viruses, both the cellular and humoral arms of the immune system play complementary roles in eliminating virus and virus-infected cells and in promoting recovery. To evaluate the relative contribution of CD4+ and CD8+ effector T lymphocytes in virus clearance and recovery, we have examined the host response to lethal type A influenza virus infection in B lymphocyte–deficient mice with a targeted disruption in the immunoglobulin mu heavy chain. Our results indicate that naive B cell–deficient mice have a 50– 100-fold greater susceptibility to lethal type A influenza virus infection than do wild type mice. However, after priming with sublethal doses of influenza, immune B cell–deficient animals show an enhanced resistance to lethal virus infection. This finding indicates that an antibody-independent immune-mediated antiviral mechanism accounts for the increased resistance to lethal virus challenge. To assess the contribution of influenza-specific CD4+ and CD8+ effector T cells in this process, defined clonal populations of influenza-specific CD4+ and CD8+ effector T cells were adoptively transferred into lethally infected B cell–deficient mice. Cloned CD8+ effectors efficiently promoted recovery from lethal infection, whereas cloned CD4+ T cells conferred only partial protection. These results suggest that memory T lymphocytes can act independently of a humoral immune response in order to confer resistance to influenza infection in immune individuals. The potential implications of these results for vaccination against human influenza infection are discussed.
Fatigue prediction of spot welded joints using equivalent structural stress

The author proposes a fatigue prediction method for spot welded joints in automotive body structures using an equivalent structural stress at the edge of spot welds. The proposed fatigue prediction method is developed by substituting the stress components in von Mises equation to the local structural stresses at the vicinity of spot weld. The structural stresses at the edges of the weld nugget in each sheet are calculated using the forces and moments that are determined by finite element analysis. The equivalent structural stresses are correlated to experimental fatigue data to predict fatigue life of the spot welded joints. The proposed method is evaluated with two different experimental fatigue data of spot welds and shown good correlation with fatigue test results.
SEX DIFFERENCES AND MOTOR TASK PERFORMANCE

The experimental literatlire pertaining to sex differences in motor task performance is contradictory: some investigators find that males outperform females (Kjerland, 1953; Ammons, Alprin, & Ammons, 1955); others find the opposite (Thanga, 1955); while still others indicate that when motor learning tasks are involved, e.g., tapping with the Ieft hand, inverted alphabet printing task, tasks that require responses not well-established or responses that are not normally encountered by S, then sex differences in motor performance are manifested. In an experiment designed to investigate possible performance differences between men and women on a hand-eye coordination exercise, 100 college Ss (50 male, 50 female) performed a simple, repetitive motor task of filling Xs in circles (as rapidly as possible) for 50 min. Xs were marked on worksheets containing 300 circles apiece. The present task is somewhat similar to the Tsai-Partington Numbers Test ( Ammons, 1955 ) . There were four findings of interest: (a) There was no significant difference between males and females on motor task performance during the first 5 min. (b) There was no significant difference between males and females in performance in the total 50 min. (c) Ss performed this simple, repetitive motor task more rapidIy during the first minute than during the fifth minute (p < .01 by t test). (d) Performance showed improvement, i.e., was more rapid, when performance during the time block of 6 to 10 min. was compared with performance during the last 5 min. of the task (p < .O1 by t test). The findings of this study lend support to the notion that sex of S makes no difference in the performance of this simple, repetitive motor task. Assuming that the increased rate of responding between Min. 6 to 10 and 46 to 50 (finding "d" in results) is due to learning (change which occurs as a result of practice), one might say that the present data do not agree with conclusions from previous studies which indicate differences for males and females in learning motor tasks.
Phylogenetic analysis of Gaeumannomyces graminis varieties based on sequence insertions in the small subunit rDNA

Gaeumanoumyces graminis (Gg) varieties (tritici, avenae and graminis) were found to possess sequence insertions in the middle region of the small subunit ribosomal DNA. The sequence insertions were used to distinguish Gg isolates from North America obtained from wheat, creeping bentgrass and St. Augustinegrass and to resolve their phylogenetic relationship. Based on the alignment of sequence insertions, Gg isolates were divided into two sets: set I contained all isolates of Ggt; Gga; and Ggg isolates WF 9124, WF 9238, and WF 9463; while set II contained the other Ggg isolates that possessed insertion sequences with different lengths. Phylogenetic analysis of sequence insertions from set I shows that Ggt are more closely related to Gga that is supported by bootstrap 85%. Ggg isolates did not form a distinct group and appeared mixed between the well supported Ggt and Gga groups. Parsimony analysis of Ggg set II insertions revealed a distinct clade consisting of three monophyletic groups.
The welfare effects of minority-protective judicial review

Constitutional theorists usually assume that minority-protective judicial review leads to outcomes more favorable to the protected minority and less favorable to the majority. Our analysis highligh...
The behavior of native and reduced-alkylated human transferrin in urea and guanidine-HCl solutions

Abstract Free and iron-saturated human transferrins were treated with different concentrations of urea (2–8 M) and guanidine-HCl (1.8–5.4 M) at pH's 8.3 and 3, and were subjected to reduction-alkylation with mercaptoethanol and iodoacetamide in the presence of 2 and 5.6 M urea. The molecular changes taking place were followed by the measurement of absorbances at 465 mμ, optical rotations, sedimentation, diffusion constants, and viscosities. It was found that iron-saturated transferrin was more resistant to these denaturing agents than was free transferrin, and that in no case did the molecular weight of transferrin drop below the 90000 value. Viscosity and β-value determinations of transferrin in 0.1 M NaHCO 3 and in 5.6 M guanidine-HCl revealed that its axial ratios were 1:2 to 1:20 in the two solvents, respectively. The determination of intrinsic viscosity of transferrin in the presence of 6 M guanidine-HCl and 0.5 M mercaptoethanol showed that the protein behaved like a random coil giving an intrinsic viscosity value of 59.4 cm 3 /g and a molecular weight value of 96000. It is concluded that transferrin is transformed into a more disordered structure in urea and guanidine-HCl solutions and into a random coil in the presence of 6 M guanidine-HCl and 0.5 M mercaptoethanol rather than being split into subunits. The denaturation with respect to iron-binding activity appeared to be 70–80% irreversible in 8 M urea and 5.4 M guanidine-HCl at pH 8.3, and was complete following reduction with mercaptoethanol.
Nuclear androgen binding sites in the male rat. II. Seminiferous tubules.

Abstract A nuclear exchange for androgens in the seminiferous tubules of the mature male rat has been established. The exchange, utilizing technology established on the ventral prostate gland described in the previous paper [7], is based upon LH-20 chromatography of salt extract of purified nuclei. The extract is incubated with [3H]methyltrienolone (R 1881) or [3H]dihydrotestosterone (DHT) at 4°C for 21 h. Bound is separated from free on a hydroxylapatite microcolumn. Nonspecific binding is determined by use of 100-fold molar excess of the unlabeled ligand. Specific binding in an incubation volume of 2ml containing 1.4 nM [3H]R 1881 was 5.78 ± 0.57 fmol/mg DNA (mean ± SE). Specific binding was linearly related to protein concentration. Of the steroids studied, only testosterone competed with DHT in suppression of [3H]DHT (one-sixth the affinity). in 4 experiments by saturation analysis, specific binding was saturable and of high affinity: Kd = 6.1 ± 0.93 × 10−10, n = 2.2 ± 0.41 pM (3.75 ± 0.77 fmol/mg DNA). A second receptor of low affinity and high capacity was also observed: Kd = 3.28 × 10−7; n = 161 pM (2.46 pmol/mg DNA). in an analysis of specific binding by ultracentrifugation on an 8–34% glycerol density gradient, 2 radioactively labeled peaks were observed, one at 5.6 S, completely suppressed by 100-fold molar excess of unlabeled steroid, and a second larger peak at 3 S, only partially suppressed. The possibility that marginal binding was due to proteolysis could not be confirmed: (1) Addition of nuclear extract from seminiferous tubules to nuclear extract from the ventral prostate enhanced specific binding in the latter; (2) A 4-h delay in processing of seminiferous tubules did not decrease specific binding; (3) A protease inhibitor (PMSF) did not enhance binding. However, sonication of the testes, retaining only late spermatids and spermatozoa, triple specific binding (16.2 ± 0.8 fmol/mg DNA). These results confirm our previous reports in which we observed by radioimmunologic analysis the presence of androgen receptors in seminiferous tubules, and in late spermatids and spermatozoa. It is suggested that the sonicated testis is an ideal model in which to study the role of the androgen receptor in the maintenance of spermatogenesis.
Contribution of capsuloligamentous structures to passive static inferior glenohumeral stability.

Abstract Objective. This study attempted to determine the relative stabilizing effect of the capsuloligamentous structures to inferior humeral displacement. Design. This was an in vitro study, utilizing cadaveric shoulder specimens. Background. Inferior glenohumeral instability has come under increasingly close scrutiny in the literature in recent years, yet a description of the precise pathoanatomy is still lacking. Methods. Thirteen shoulder specimens were cleaned of soft tissue superficial to the vented joint capsule. The position of the humeral head relative to the glenoid was determined. The humeri were subjected to an inferior load. Static position recordings were obtained for each specimen: (1) with the humerus adducted and abducted, (2) before and after sectioning the superior and inferior capsuloligamentous structures. These recordings were analyzed. Results. In adduction, the humeral head migrated inferiorly as the capsuloligamentous structures were sectioned, but no capsuloligamentous structure was seen to be most important. In abduction, when the inferior capsuloligamentous structures were sectioned first, the humeral head migrated inferiorly (P Conclusions. In this experimental model, the inferior capsuloligamentous structures are the primary inferior stabilizers of the abducted shoulder. The primary stabilizers of the adducted shoulder remain unclear.
Chinese Foreign Policy: External and Internal Factors

The international security environment remains fragile and unpredictable even as China continues to benefit from the current international system. Changing international conditions will continue to shape China's foreign policy. Meanwhile, China's domestic politics has become more complicated with multiple players vying for influence. The Chinese government must maintain a balanced foreign policy without succumbing to growing domestic pressures that demand tougher Chinese actions in international affairs. These external and internal factors produce a dynamic, and sometimes contradictory, foreign policy in Beijing.
Co-processing of agricultural and biomass waste with coal

Abstract The liquefaction of Blind Canyon seam coal in the presence of one of four different types of co-liquefaction agents (CLAs) was studied at 350°C and 1000 psi (cold) hydrogen pressure. The role of tetralin as a solvent was studied. The four CLAs used include sawdust, horse manure, cow manure and commercial “Super Manure”. The conversion and the asphaltene-plus-preasphaltene yield were obtained by successive dissolution in tetrahydrofuran and hexane, respectively, with the oil-plus-gas yield obtained by difference. Results (on a dry, ash-free basis) are reported as both the overall values of conversion and yields, as well as the incremental differences in conversion and yields, relative to separate liquefaction of coal and the CLA. With or without the addition of tetralin, the overall conversion with cow manure is the smallest for the four co-liquefactions. In the absence of tetralin, the asphaltene-plus-preasphaltene yields are all similar. The presence of tetralin increases the overall conversions and the asphaltene-plus-preasphaltene yields. A study of the incremental differences in conversions and yields indicates that the four CLAs interact with coal and tetralin in different ways. The incremental conversion and the asphaltene-plus-preasphaltene yield appear to be related to the amount of hemi-cellulose in the CLAs, while the incremental oil-plus-gas yield appears to be related to the amount of lignin. Added inorganic compounds appear to negate incremental improvements in the oil-plus-gas yield when tetralin is present.
Antenatal steroid exposure and pulmonary outcomes in adolescents born with very low birth weight

Antenatal steroid exposure and pulmonary outcomes in adolescents born with very low birth weight
A Finite-Volume Algorithm for Three-Dimensional Magnetohydrodynamics on an Unstructured, Adaptive Grid in Axially Symmetric Geometry

A new finite-volume algorithm for the solution of the time-dependent, nonideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations in cylindrical (r, ?,z) geometry is presented. The boundary geometry is assumed to be axially symmetric, but it can have arbitrary shape and connectivity in the poloidal (r,z) plane. The dynamics of the fluid is fully three-dimensional. A two-dimensional, unstructured, adaptive grid of triangles is used to describe the poloidal geometry. A pseudospectral algorithm with fast Fourier transforms is used for the periodic toroidal (?) direction. The grid can be dynamically refined or coarsened by adding or deleting points to adapt to evolving fine-scale structures in the solution. The algorithm exactly conserves total mass, momentum, energy, and magnetic flux, and identically preserves the solenoidal properties of the magnetic field and the current density. Examples of the application of the algorithm to two-dimensional hydrodynamic and MHD shocks, the linear growth of a resistive tearing instability in a tokamak, and the linear growth and nonlinear saturation of three-dimensional kink instabilities in toroidal geometry are given.
On balancing energy efficiency and estimation error in compressed sensing

Compressed sensing (CS) refers to the process of reconstructing a signal that is supposed to be sparse or compressible. CS has wide applications, such as in cognitive radio networks. In this paper, we investigate effective CS schemes for balancing energy efficiency and estimation error. We propose an enhancement to a Bayesian estimation approach and an enhancement to the isotonic regression approach that is based on nearly isotonic regression. We also show how to compute the routing matrix for selecting active sensor nodes. The proposed enhancements are evaluated with trace-driven simulations. Considerable gaps are observed between the original approaches and the proposed enhancements in the simulation results. The near isotonic regression method achieves the best performance among all the CS schemes examined in this paper.
A NEW SPECIES OF SERIN FROM ETHIOPIA

SUMMARY From Ethiopia, a new species of streaked seedeater (Serin), the Ankober Serin Serinus ankoberensis. is described. It is closely related to S. menachensis of the Arabian peninsula, and like it, is a highland species living at around 3030 m along the top of the steep escarpment of the central highland massif. It is a terrestrial species. A nest found in March contained three white eggs in a vertical hole in an overhanging bank.
On the electrical conductivity structure of the stable continental crust

Abstract A high conductivity zone (HCZ) exists in many places worldwide in the stable mid- to lower continental crust, at the depth of about 20–30 km, but its origin is enigmatic. At this depth range, the temperatures are constrained between 400 and 600 °C and free fluids are believed to have been consumed by retrograde mineral reactions. Many causes for the HCZ have been considered such as residual fluids and brines, partial melting, serpentine or other hydroxyl-bearing minerals in a state of dehydration, but intergranular carbon films have been the most widely accepted explanation. This view is challenged. Electrical conductivity and dielectric polarization measurements on materials as structurally and chemically diverse as laboratory-grown MgO, upper mantle olivine single crystals, and lower crustal anorthosite rock indicate that, in all of them, highly mobile electronic charge carriers are generated in the 450±50–650±50 °C window. These charge carriers are positive holes, e.g. defect electrons in the O 2p-dominated valence band, chemically equivalent to O− in the O2− matrix. They form through dissociation of positive hole pairs, PHP, chemically equivalent to peroxy links, O3X–OO–XO3 (X=Si4+, Al3+ etc.). The PHPs in turn derive from hydroxyl, O3X–OH, that become incorporated into nominally anhydrous minerals whenever they crystallize in H2O-laden igneous or metamorphic environments. Upon cooling, O3X–OH pairs undergo a redox conversion to O3X–OO–XO3 plus H2. Positive hole charge carriers have no problem co-existing with reduced cations under the non-equilibrium conditions that prevail in dry rocks below 600 °C, and they dominate their electrical conductivity in the 400–600 °C temperature range. It is proposed that the HCZ is caused by positive hole charge carriers that are metastably activated in the crust in the 20–30 km depth range.
Systems analysis and simulation of the NW African marine upwelling region

Abstract A temporal and spatial marine upwelling system model is developed for analysis of prominent biological and physical system interactions which result in obserbed nutrient distribution patterns in the northwest African coastal upwelling system near 21° N. The model is composed of a physical submodel describing a two-dimensional circulation pattern, and a series of biological submodels describing nutrient regeneration. Model results were qualitatively consistent with nutrient distributions observed during an upwelling event in the 1974 JOINT-I study area. Simulated silicate distribution patterns suggest that silica dissolution parameter estimates reported for the northwest African region may represent local conditions, but are likely overestimates at a system level of resolution. Sensitivity analysis results identify grazing threshold level as the primary regulator of model grazing stress. Paucity of herbivorous nekton grazing suggests that primarily phytophagous grazing habit for clupeoid fishes is unlikely in the northwest African upwelling area.
Mechanical Stretch Induces Platelet-activating Factor Receptor Gene Expression Through the NF-κB Transcription Factor

In this study, we used the platelet-activating factor (PAF) receptor gene as a model of a mechano-sensitive gene to investigate how mechanical stimuli regulate gene expression and cell function. We utilized a culture system of pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells and a well-defined in vitro mechanical device that imparts an equibiaxial strain repeatedly to cells attached to an elastomeric membrane. Northern blot and immunohistochemical analyses revealed increased PAF receptor expression at both the mRNA and protein levels after 1 h exposure of the cells to a 5% strain at a frequency of 1 Hz. To investigate the mechanism of activation of this gene by stretch, we performed transfection experiments with a luciferase reporter gene linked to segments of the 5' flanking region of the receptor gene promoter. Expression of the transfected reporter gene bearing a 1.1-kb fragment of the promoter was enhanced in mechanically stretched cells indicating a direct effect on transcriptional activity. When truncated to leave the nucleotides between -610 to +27, the promoter-reporter construct lost stretch inducibility suggesting that the region between -1099 and -610 was required for stretch responsiveness. This region contains four copies of NF-kappaB binding sites. These elements are in close proximity to one another and can form a complex with nuclear proteins derived from stretched cells as demonstrated by gel mobility shift assay. Moreover, in experiments using cycloheximide, we found that de novo protein synthesis was not necessary for the induction of the PAF receptor gene expression by mechanical stretch. Conversely, preincubation of the cells with protein kinase C inhibitors suppressed mechanical stretch-induced PAF receptor gene expression at the mRNA levels and abrogated upstream events of NF-kappaB activation in the cytoplasm. These data strongly suggest that stretch-induced PAF receptor gene expression is mediated by NF-kappaB binding to the PAF receptor gene promoter and that protein kinase C activation is among the molecular features of NF-kappaB activation and translocation into the nucleus in mechanically stretched cells.
Creating Gender: The Sexual Politics of Welfare Policy

Creating Gender: The Sexual Politics of Welfare Policy. By Cathy Marie Johnson, Georgia Duerst-Lahti, and Noelle H. Norton. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2006. 261p. $55.00. Creating Gender compels us to “make ordinary the analysis of gender in policymaking” (p. 228). As such, the authors “take up the question of how gender is created when policy is made” (p. 11) using an intimate and in-depth exploratory analysis of welfare policy in the United States to make their case. Their analysis is based on a “compound gender ideology framework” (p. 228), an original construction of the three authors designed to unravel and reveal gender ideology in the policymaking arena—specifically, the “adoption and implementation of the PRWORA (Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act)—welfare reform” (p. 11).
Quantum wave bandstop filters

We propose and demonstrate, based on the concept of a microwave bandstop filter, two quantum wave bandstop filter structures. Both structures employ nanoscale gates in a heterojunction transistor to induce a quantum cavity connected by two one‐dimensional wires. As the electron wavelength is changed by the gate voltage, we observed that, at certain gate voltages, the transmission of electron waves through the cavity is partially blocked and the drain current drops as large as 50%. This phenomenon is explained in terms of the destructive quantum interference between different electron wave modes in the cavity.
Dissolution of spent nuclear fuel in carbonate-peroxide solution

Abstract This study shows that spent UO2 fuel can be completely dissolved in a room temperature carbonate–peroxide solution apparently without attacking the metallic Mo–Tc–Ru–Rh–Pd fission product phase. In parallel tests, identical samples of spent nuclear fuel were dissolved in nitric acid and in an ammonium carbonate, hydrogen peroxide solution. The resulting solutions were analyzed for strontium-90, technetium-99, cesium-137, europium-154, plutonium, and americium-241. The results were identical for all analytes except technetium, where the carbonate–peroxide dissolution had only about 25% of the technetium that the nitric acid dissolution had.
Methoctramine, a cardioselective antagonist: muscarinic receptor mediating prostaglandin synthesis in isolated rabbit heart

Abstract The antimuscarinic properties of the methoctramine with high selectivity for cardiac muscarinic M 2 receptors were investigated on cholinergically induced changes in prostaglandin (PG) synthesis and mechanical function in the isolated perfused rabbit heart. Acetylcholine (ACh)- and arecaidine propargyl ester (APE)-induced increases in PG synthesis were significantly attenuated by methoctramine in a concentration-dependent manner. Methoctramine at a low concentration of 0.1 μM potentiated ACh-induced PG synthesis, which was blocked by simultaneous infusion of hexahydro-sila-difenidol (HHSiD), a M 3 receptor antagonist. Methoctramine produced an additive effect with HHSiD in diminishing the ACh- or APE-induced PG synthesis. Methoctramine displayed a potent antagonistic activity at M 2 receptors that mediate the decrease in heart rate and increase in coronary perfusion pressure in isolated perfused rabbit heart. Methoctramine also minimized ACh- and APE-induced decrease in developed tension. In contrast, at 0.1–0.75 μM it exhibited no antagonistic activity at vascular muscarinic receptors (M 3 ) mediating vasodilation in response to ACh or APE. These data suggest that methoctramine has a high affinity for cardiac M 2 receptors mediating increases in PG output and coronary perfusion pressure as well as decrease in heart rate and developed tension and has a low affinity for M 3 receptors mediating coronary vasodilator response.
Simpson's paradox and clinical trials: What you find is not necessarily what you prove

Expensive clinical trials have become the gold standard for evaluating the efficacy of promising new therapeutic agents. Full exploration of the collected data is routine to maximize the yield of the information available. However, potential methodologic flaws in these extensive analyses may not be appreciated by investigators or readers. One such problem with subgroup analyses is discussed, using hypothetical examples and data from a recently completed clinical trial of brain resuscitation as illustrations.
COMPARISON OF REFLEX MODIFICATION AUDIOMETRY AND BRAINSTEM EVOKED RESPONSE AUDIOMETRY IN HIGH–RISK PREMATURE INFANTS

Reflex modification audiometry (RMA) is an objective technique for assessing hearing acuity by determining whether the reflexive eyeblink, elicited by a tap to the glabella, is augmented by an acoustic stimulus presented simultaneously with the glabellar tap. Sixteen infants who were at risk for hearing impairment were tested with both RMA and brainstem evoked response audiometry (ABR). These infants had either intraventricular hemorrhage, meningitis, prolonged amingoglycoside therapy and/or were small for gestational age. The RMA procedure consisted of the elicitation of an eyeblink by a miniature solenoid with a teflon striker which could deliver a mild controlled tap to the glabella. The tap was presented either alone or simultaneously with a tone at 90 dB SPL. A photoreflective densitometer attached to a TDH39 earphone provided an objective measure of eyeblink amplitude. The ABR was obtained through standard procedures using clicks at 60 dB HL. Eleven infants passed the brainstem procedure (Group 1: mean postconceptional age 38 wks) while 5 infants failed (Group 2: mean postconceptional age 34 wks). A comparison of the ABR with the reflex augmentation testing procedure showed a significant difference (p<0.05) between those infants who passed the ABR and showed augmentation (10/11 showed augmentation, 4/11 at p<0.05) and those who failed the ABR and showed no difference in their response to tap alone and tap with tone. These data suggest that reflex modification audiometry, which is inexpensive and requires little training and less time to administer and interpret, may be a promising tool for screening infants at risk for hearing loss.
Modeling Physical Capabilities of Humanoid Agents Using Motion Capture Data

In this paper we demonstrate a method for fine-grained modeling of a synthetic agent's physical capabilities - running, jumping, sneaking, and other modes of movement. Using motion capture data acquired from human subjects, we extract a motion graph and construct a cost map for the space of agent actions. We show how a planner can incorporate this cost model into the planning process to select between equivalent goal-achieving plans. We explore the utility of our model in three different capacities: 1) modeling other agents in the environment; 2) representing heterogeneous agents with different physical capabilities; 3) modeling agent physical states (e.g., wounded or tired agents). This technique can be incorporated into applications where human-like, high-fidelity physical models are important to the agents' reasoning process, such as virtual training environments.
Zero delay versus positive delay in an incremental switch-level simulator

The author presents methods used in the implementation of an incremental zero/integer-delay switch-level logic simulator for MOS circuits based on the MOSSIM II switch-level model. Zero-delay timing reduces spurious reevaluations caused by minor changes to signal timing that do not affect logic, while integer-delay timing provides an ability to model race conditions that do affect the logic. In experiments run on switch-level versions of the ISCAS combinational and sequential benchmarks, incremental switch-level simulation with mixed zero/integer delay was four times faster on the average than incremental switch-level simulation with only positive integer delays. >
Force-Directed List Scheduling for Digital Microfluidic Biochips

We introduce a Force-directed List Scheduling (FDLS) algorithm for resource-constrained assay compilation targeting Digital Microfluidic Biochips (DMFBs). This algorithm has been used in the past for high-level synthesis of digital signal processing systems, and is now applied to DMFB synthesis. The results show improvements compared to List Scheduling (LS) and Path Scheduling (PS), the most efficient heuristics that have been proposed, to date, for DMFBs. FDLS was also competitive with longer-running iterative improvement DMFB scheduling algorithms based on genetic algorithms.
Hydrologic processes on tree islands in the Everglades (Florida, USA): tracking the effects of tree establishment and growth

The hydrodynamics of tree islands during the growth of newly planted trees has been found to be influenced by both vegetation biomass and geologic conditions. From July 2007 through June 2009, groundwater and surface-water levels were monitored on eight recently planted tree islands at the Loxahatchee Impoundment Landscape Assessment (LILA) facility in Boynton Beach, Florida, USA. Over the 2-year study, stand development coincided with the development of a water-table depression in the center of each of the islands that was bounded by a hydraulic divide along the edges. The water-table depression was greater in islands composed of limestone as compared to those composed of peat. The findings of this study suggest that groundwater evapotranspiration by trees on tree islands creates complex hydrologic interactions between the shallow groundwater in tree islands and the surrounding surface water and groundwater bodies.
Is Content Sensitivity Issue Specific

Users of interviewing instruments would like to be able to interpret the response to an attitude item as accurately reflecting a respondent's reaction to the item's content. The methodology of survey research is largely directed toward removing (or reducing) factors other than content that might determine a particular response. Cronbach originated concern with one source of noncontent response when he noted that, in a testing situation, students guessed "true" more frequently than "false."' He also observed that some people did this regardless of the questions; they tended to have set responses. This concern with what Cronbach labeled "acquiescence" gathered even greater impetus with the development of the F scale, in which authoritarianism was measured by the number of "agree" responses to the items in the scale. Christie and others, however, noted that different respondents were designated as authoritarian when the meaning of the items was reversed, requiring the authoritarian to respond negatively.2 The extensive literature on acquiescent response, and on its opposite, i.e., the phenomenon of respondents who disagree irrespective of content, characteristically assumes that certain types of people are prone to the difficulty, and seeks to delineate their personal characteristics and motivations.3 Furthermore, the sheer bulk of this research suggests a problem more serious than has been
Sensing Super-position: Human Sensing Beyond the Visual Spectrum

The coming decade of fast, cheap and miniaturized electronics and sensory devices opens new pathways for the development of sophisticated equipment to overcome limitations of the human senses. This paper addresses the technical feasibility of augmenting human vision through sensing super-position by mixing natural human sensing. The current implementation of the device translates visual and other passive or active sensory instruments into sounds, which become relevant when the visual resolution is insufficient for very difficult and particular sensing tasks. A successful sensing super-position meets many human and pilot vehicle system requirements. The system can be further developed into cheap, portable, and low power taking into account the limited capabilities of the human user as well as the typical characteristics of his dynamic environment. The system operates in real time, giving the desired information for the particular augmented sensing tasks. The sensing super-position device increases the image resolution perception and is obtained via an auditory representation as well as the visual representation. Auditory mapping is performed to distribute an image in time. The three-dimensional spatial brightness and multi-spectral maps of a sensed image are processed using real-time image processing techniques (e.g. histogram normalization) and transformed into a two-dimensional map of an audio signal as a function of frequency and time. This paper details the approach of developing sensing super-position systems as a way to augment the human vision system by exploiting the capabilities of the human hearing system as an additional neural input. The human hearing system is capable of learning to process and interpret extremely complicated and rapidly changing auditory patterns. The known capabilities of the human hearing system to learn and understand complicated auditory patterns provided the basic motivation for developing an image-to-sound mapping system. The human brain is superior to most existing computer systems in rapidly extracting relevant information from blurred, noisy, and redundant images. From a theoretical viewpoint, this means that the available bandwidth is not exploited in an optimal way. While image-processing techniques can manipulate, condense and focus the information (e.g., Fourier transforms), keeping the mapping as direct and simple as possible might also reduce the risk of accidentally filtering out important clues. After all, especially a perfect non-redundant sound representation is prone to loss of relevant information in the non-perfect human hearing system. Also, a complicated non-redundant image-to-sound mapping may well be far more difficult to learn and comprehend than a straightforward mapping, while the mapping system would increase in complexity and cost. This work demonstrates some basic information processing for optimal information capture for head-mounted systems
Accelerating large data analysis by exploiting regularities

We present techniques for discovering and exploiting regularity in large curvilinear data sets. The data can be based on a single mesh or a mesh composed of multiple submeshes (also known as zones). Multi-zone data are typical in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations. Regularities include axis-aligned rectilinear and cylindrical meshes as well as cases where one zone is equivalent to a rigid body transformation of another. Our algorithms can also discover rigid-body motion of meshes in time-series data. Next, we describe a data model where we can utilize the results from the discovery process in order to accelerate large data visualizations. Where possible, we replace general curvilinear zones with rectilinear or cylindrical zones. In rigid-body motion cases, we replace a time-series of meshes with a transformed mesh object where a reference mesh is dynamically transformed based on a given time value in order to satisfy geometry requests, on demand. The data model enables us to make these substitutions and dynamic transformations transparently with respect to the visualization algorithms. We present results with large data sets where we combine our mesh replacement and transformation techniques with out-of-core paging in order to achieve analysis speedups ranging from 1.5 to 2.
Three varieties of visual field

Abstract The goal of this paper is to challenge the rather insouciant attitude that many investigators seem to adopt when they go about describing the items and events in their “visual fields”. There are at least three distinct categories of interpretation of what these reports might mean, and only under one of those categories do those reports have anything resembling an observational character. The others demand substantive revisions in one's beliefs about what one sees. The ur‐concept of a “visual field” is that of the “sum of things seen”, but one can interpret the latter in very different ways. The first is the ‘field of view”, or the sum of physical things seen. The second is an array of visual impressions, whose spatial relations are distinct from those of physical phenomena in front of the eyes. The third is an intentional object: the world as it is represented visually. These three categories are described, and various locutions of vision science—such as “optic array”, “retinocentric space”, “vis...
Engineering challenges in a competitive electricity market

To meet the challenges of operating in a competitive electricity market NGC (National Grid Company) has adopted an engineering life cycle analysis, which focuses on the four stages of plant and system life, namely, design, buy and build, operate, and monitor and maintain. NGC's R&D programme uses the same principles in focussing on day-to-day engineering issues so as to improve system reliability and flexibility, through the incorporation of new plant and technology, as well as, increasing the capability and availability of existing plant, and planning for the future. Some examples are given, from all four stages of the plant/system life cycle curve, in which NGC is actively pursuing research to meet the challenges it faces operating in an ever changing and competitive electricity market.
Oxidation of 2′,7′-Dichlorofluorescin by Peroxynitrite

The simultaneous production of nitric oxide and superoxide anion leads to the formation of peroxynitrite, a potent oxidant which may be an important mediator of cellular injury. Oxidation of dichlorofluorescin to the fluorescent dichlorofluorescein has been used as a marker for cellular oxidant production. The mechanisms of peroxynitrite-mediated oxidation of dichlorofluorescin to dichlorofluorescein were investigated. Chemically synthesized peroxynitrite (50–500 nM) induced the oxidation of dichlorofluorescin to dichlorofluorescein in a linear fashion. In addition, the simultaneous generation of nitric oxide and superoxide anion induced the oxidation of dichlorofluorescin to dichlorofluorescein, while nitric oxide (1–10 μM) alone under aerobic conditions did not. Peroxynitrite-mediated oxidation of dichlorofluorescin was not inhibited by the hydroxyl radical scavengers mannitol (100 mM) or dimethylsulfoxide (100 mM). Moreover, peroxynitrite-mediated oxidation of dichlorofluorescin was not dependent upon ...