cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Toward nanoscale molecular mass spectrometry imaging via physically constrained machine learning on co-registered multimodal data

Mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) plays a pivotal role in investigating the chemical nature of complex systems that underly our understanding in biology and medicine. Multiple fields of life science such as proteomics, lipidomics and metabolomics benefit from the ability to simultaneously identify molecules and pinpoint their distribution across a sample. However, achieving the necessary submicron spatial resolution to distinguish chemical differences between individual cells and generating intact molecular spectra is still a challenge with any single imaging approach. Here, we developed an approach that combines two MSI techniques, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS), one with low spatial resolution but intact molecular spectra and the other with nanometer spatial resolution but fragmented molecular signatures, to predict molecular MSI spectra with submicron spatial resolution. The known relationships between the two MSI channels of information are enforced via a physically constrained machine-learning approach and directly incorporated in the data processing. We demonstrate the robustness of this method by generating intact molecular MALDI-type spectra and chemical maps at ToF-SIMS resolution when imaging mouse brain thin tissue sections. This approach can be readily adopted for other types of bioimaging where physical relationships between methods have to be considered to boost the confidence in the reconstruction product.
Why LGBTQ+ campus resource centers are essential

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and additional marginalized genders and sexualities LGBTQ+ campus resource centers provide essential services for college and university communities and are increasingly necessary in light of the ongoing and reverberating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic This commentary describes specific needs of LGBTQ+ student populations in accessing health care, psychosocial support, advocacy, and academic support in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic We briefly review current literature suggesting a disproportionate effect of COVID-19 on both general LGBTQ+ populations and LGBTQ+ college students We then describe how the functions of LGBTQ+ campus resource centers-support, education, and advocacy-are aligned with the specific needs of these students We argue that these centers are essential campus resources that must receive continued funding and support to address the unique needs of LGBTQ+ students affected by COVID-19 We conclude with suggestions for action for administrators, faculty, and students to ensure the continuity of LGBTQ+ campus resource centers (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved) Impact Statement Public Significance Statement -LGBTQ+ campus resource centers are an essential service for colleges and universities, and should be adequately staffed and funded by institutional leaders in spite of financial challenges brought about by COVID-19 (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)
Identifying Spammers to Boost Crowdsourced Classification

The present work addresses the problem of adversarial attacks in unsupervised ensemble or crowdsourcing classification tasks. Under certain conditions, it is shown, both analytically and through numerical tests, that spammers cause the most damage with respect to classification performance. To curb their effect, a novel spectral algorithm for spammer detection that utilizes second-order statistics of annotators, is developed and preliminary results on synthetic and real data showcase the potential of this approach.
The Bovine Genome Study and Its Goals

The consensus conclusion of several recent major international livestock genetics conferences is that genomic localization of economic trait loci and subsequent marker-assisted selection for these traits will rapidly facilitate genetic improvement of livestock. Genetic improvement of cattle, specifically for efficiency of food utilization, reproductive performance, resistance to disease, and higher quality of beef and dairy products ranks high among the world's agricultural research needs. The necessary tool for large scale improvement of such a diverse array of phenotypes by marker-assisted selection is a 20 centiMorgan map of the bovine genome, consisting of highly polymorphic loci that can be easily scored by teams of investigators studying the segregation of desirable traits. This same map can subsequently be developed to a high level of resolution in regions around genes of particular interest and used to isolate and clone genes involved in the expression of economically important traits. Experiments in our laboratory (1, 2, 3) and others (4, 5) demonstrate that the methods that have revolutionized human genetics in the last decade can do the same for cattle genetics. Bovine cells readily hybridize with mouse L cells or hamster E36 cells and segregate cattle chromosomes (1). Genetic analysis of these segregating hybrid cells has produced the current syntenic map of the cow which consists of more than 270 genes including markers of every bovine chromosome. Fifteen of the autosomal syntenic groups have been assigned to chromosomes. Our laboratory has participated in these assignments (6, 7). We have selected genes for physical mapping based on their potential role in key physiological processes and their value in defining the limits of chromosomal conservation with the human and mouse maps. We have used Southern blotting of more than 200 bovine and heterologous probes and more recently, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with published primer sequences to generate these maps.
Robotics-assisted epicardial left atrial appendage clip exclusion.

Objectives We demonstrate the feasibility and safety of robotics-assisted left atrial appendage clip exclusion in clinical practice. Methods Analysis of a single center robotics-assisted left atrial appendage clip exclusion experience using an epicardial linear clip device in patients with atrial fibrillation with high-risk of thromboembolic stroke and intolerance to oral anticoagulants. Results During the period from December 2017 to September 2020, we performed 42 robotics-assisted left atrial appendage clip exclusions in response to increased risk of bleeding in patients with atrial fibrillation and intolerance to oral anticoagulants. The average congestive heart failure, hypertension, age, diabetes, stroke, and vascular disease score was 5.2 ± 1.6 and hypertension, abnormal liver or kidney function, stroke, bleeding, labile international normalized ratio, elderly, drugs (aspirin, other antiplatelets, or anticoagulants) score was 4.5 ± 0.9. No patients died intraoperatively or within 30 days, or due to conversion to thoracotomy, intraoperative complications, or failure to apply the clip satisfactorily. The procedure was successfully completed despite pericardial adhesions in 2 patients with prior coronary bypass grafts and 3 with postpericarditis scars. Intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography was performed in 38 out of 42 patients; satisfactory exclusion with left atrial appendage stump <5 mm was confirmed in all. Average length of stay was 3.4 ± 3 days with 12 out of 42 patients discharged within 24 hours. Oral anticoagulants were discontinued in 41 out of 42 patients and no cases of 30-day stroke, myocardial ischemia, or new arrhythmias were observed. One case of hemothorax required thoracoscopy a day later. There was no reported thromboembolic stroke or transient ischemic attack at 12 months. One case of late lacunar stroke was due to in situ small intracranial vessel thrombosis without left atrial appendage thrombus on imaging. Conclusions Robotics-assisted left atrial appendage clip exclusion is a safe and feasible minimally invasive method for left atrial appendage management in patients with atrial fibrillation with intolerance to oral anticoagulants and increased risk of thromboembolic stroke.
Imaging and Biomarker Approaches to HCC Surveillance.

HCC surveillance should be performed as recommended in patients with chronic hepatitis B and patients with cirrhosis to reduce HCC‐related mortality. Semiannual abdominal ultrasound and AFP is currently the best strategy to maximize early detection; however, this strategy misses more than one‐third of HCCs at an early stage, highlighting the need for better tests. MRI‐based imaging strategies may increase sensitivity for early HCC detection, although there are potential concerns about cost‐effectiveness and radiological capacity. In parallel, there are several promising blood‐based protein and genomic biomarker panels that have shown high sensitivity for early HCC detection in early case‐control studies. These biomarkers still require validation in large cohort studies but have potential to truly transform how we perform HCC surveillance among at‐risk patients.
On the Demographics of Exoplanet Host Stars

The NASA TESS mission has provided the community with a plethora of new exoplanet host stars. These bright, nearby stars have been examined in detail in a number of studies and it has been determined that nearly one-half of the solar-like stars are binary. Two recent papers which examined 700 TESS exoplanet hosts have provided stellar properties for the stars, both single and binary. Herein, we provide a quantitative look at some properties of the stars, particularly searching for differences between the single versus binary (primary) host stars. We also compare the properties of the binary (primary) host stars themselves.
Effects of sevelamer carbonate versus calcium acetate on vascular calcification, inflammation, and endothelial dysfunction in chronic kidney disease.

Hyperphosphatemia is present in most patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and has been associated with increased cardiovascular mortality. Phosphate binders (calcium-based and calcium free) are the mainstay pharmacologic treatment to lower phosphorus levels in patients with ESRD. We evaluated biochemical markers of vascular calcification, inflammation, and endothelial dysfunction in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) treated with sevelamer carbonate (SC) versus calcium acetate (CA). Fifty patients with CKD (stages 3 and 4) were enrolled and assigned to treatment with SC and CA for 12 weeks. At the end of the study the biomarkers of vascular calcification, inflammation, and endothelial dysfunction were analyzed. A significant increase in HDL-cholesterol was observed with SC but not with CA in patients with CKD. Treatment with SC reduced serum phosphate, calcium phosphate, and FGF-23 levels and there was no change with CA treatment. The inflammatory markers IL-8, IFN-γ, and TNFα decreased with response to both treatments. The levels of IL-6 significantly increased with CA treatment and no change was observed in the SC treatment group. SC showed favorable effects on anti-inflammatory and vascular calcification biomarkers compared to CA treatment in patients with CKD stages 3 and 4 with normal phosphorous values.
MolProbity for the masses-of data.

MolProbity is a powerful software program for validating structures of proteins and nucleic acids. Although MolProbity includes scripts for batch analysis of structures, because these scripts analyze structures one at a time, they are not well suited for the validation of a large dataset of structures. We have created a version of MolProbity (MolProbity-HTC) that circumvents these limitations and takes advantage of a high-throughput computing cluster by using the HTCondor software. MolProbity-HTC enables the longitudinal analysis of large sets of structures, such as those deposited in the PDB or generated through theoretical computation—tasks that would have been extremely time-consuming using previous versions of MolProbity. We have used MolProbity-HTC to validate the entire PDB, and have developed a new visual chart for the BioMagResBank website that enables users to easily ascertain the quality of each model in an NMR ensemble and to compare the quality of those models to the rest of the PDB.
Studies in Rh sensitization. VI. A-B-O blood groups and Rh subtypes in sensitized and nonsensitized Rh negative pregnant women.

The Rh antibody titer was studied during pregnancy and after delivery in 11 cases in which previously sensitized Rh-negative mothers had Rh-negative babies. In addition, 1 case was studied in which a type Rh1 mother, previously sensitized to the rh'' factor, gave birth to a type Rh1 baby. In all cases the babies were normal at birth and the baby’s serum contained univalent Rh antibodies equal in titer to those present in the maternal serum. In no case was there a rise in the antibody titer in the maternal serum either during the pregnancy or after the baby was born. Thus, it has not been possible to confirm claims concerning a "nonspecific anamnestic rise" in Rh antibody titer said to be caused by an Rh-negative baby. Two illustrative cases are described in detail. In one of the cases described, there was no appreciable change in Rh antibody titer during the pregnancy despite the use of so-called Rh hapten; nor had there been an appreciable change in titer for as long as two and one-half years previously. The Rh antibody titer of the baby’s blood dropped about 98 per cent by the end of the sixth month, while during the same period of time the maternal antibody titer fell only approximately 35 per cent. Based on the course of the Rh antibody titer of the baby’s serum, the half-life of the antibody globulin molecule is estimated to be about thirty days.
Catecholamines and stress

The subject of catecholamines and stress has occupied researchers for many years and filled many books. A brief revew such as this cannot cover such a broad topic. Instead, provided here are a few concepts, reflecting somewhat different viewpoints from those in standard textbooks. The first of these concepts is that there are three distinct peripheral catecholamine systems, each with different effectors, regulation, and roles. The three systems are the sympathetic nervous system, adrenomedullary hormonal system, and DOPA-dopamine autocrine/paracrine system. This contrasts with the traditional concept, promulated by WALTER B. CANNON, of a unitary sympathoadrenal system. It also contrasts with the notion of HANS SELYE that release of “adrenalines” characterizes the acute phase of what he called the “General Adaptation Syndrome.” Both these investigators held to the view that all forms of stress lead to the same stereotyped response. Indeed, in line with this “doctrine of nonspecificity,” SELYE defined stress as the nonspecific response of the body to any demand imposed upon it [1]. According to a relatively new concept, however, stress responses have a primitive kind of specificity, with differential responses of the sympathetic nervous and adrenomedullary hormonal systems, depending on the type and intensity of the stressor as sensed by the organism and interpreted in light of experience [2]. Another concept in this paper that contrasts with CANNON'S teachings is that instead of the sympathetic nervous system becoming active only in emergencies, tonic sympathetic nervous outflows to several vascular beds, organs, and glands maintain levels of a variety of monitored variables, both under resting conditions and in response to everyday challenges such as orthostasis, locomotion, the post-prandial state, and altered temperature. This paper also notes a closer association between the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenocortical system and adrenomedullary hormonal system in several forms of stress than between the sympathetic nervous and adrenomedullary hormonal systems (Table 1). In fainting, adrenomedullary activation with concurrent sympathoinhibition precedes and may precipitate the acute neurocirculatory collapse. Finally, offered for consideration here is the notion that stress and distress can contribute to acute and chronic diseases, by worsening independent pathologic states and inducing “allostatic load.” These concepts may provide a theoretical basis for scientific integrative medicine in the post-genome era.
Eigenfunction and harmonic function estimates in domains with horns and cusps

(1997). Eigenfunction and harmonic function estimates in domains with horns and cusps. Communications in Partial Differential Equations: Vol. 22, No. 11-12, pp. 1805-1836.
DOES FDI DIMINISH LOCAL EDUCATION SPENDING INEQUALITY? AN ANALYSIS OF US PANEL DATA 1992-2002

A significant education and economic literature worries about the within-state inequality in public school spending, while the studies focus on the impacts of state constitution and political structure. Motivated by the literature and recent research on the effect of FDI on public education provision, this paper is the first to examine the impact of FDI on public school resource inequality within a state empirically. Using the US state-level panel data from 1992 to 2002 and a GMM estimation approach to control for unobservable state fixed-effects, time series issues, and endogeneity, the findings of the paper suggest that a 1-percent increase in the ratio of foreign employment relative to state non-farm employment is associated with the decrease in the within-state public school spending inequality by 5.2 percent on average. Thus, FDI contributes not only to increase jobs at state level but also to diminish inequality in public school spending within the state.
Trading patterns, bid-ask spreads, and estimated security returns

Abstract Returns computed with closing bid or ask prices that may not represent ‘true’ prices introduce measurement error into portfolio returns if investor buying and selling display systematic patterns. This paper finds systematic tendencies for closing prices to be recorded at the bid in December and at the ask in early January. After changing bid and ask prices are controlled for. this pattern results in large portfolio returns on the two trading days surrounding the end of the year, especially for low-price stocks. Other temporal return patterns (e.g. weekend and holiday effects) are also related to systematic trading patterns.
When Cyborgs meet: building communities of cooperating wearable agents

This paper introduces the notion of a wearable community as a group of wearable users who cooperate for their mutual benefit. In such a community, wearable computers act as personal agents on behalf of and in the interest of their 'owners'. These agents are goal-directed and will perform a broad array of tasks for the user, ranging from personal scheduling to task planning. We describe how personal wearable agents can be used to enable goal directed cooperation during physical encounters of people with selfish and conflicting goals, such that cooperation leads to mutually beneficial results. We discuss negotiation protocols, and describe the design and implementation of a wearable agent system, as well as a simulator for large-scale wearable communities.
Are environmental and manufacturing objectives compatible

Attempts to show that environmentally-driven design and operational changes can improve products and be good for business. For example, at IBM product yield improvements have resulted from recycling equipment that is also used to purify incoming chemicals. Cleaners using water instead of CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) produce better parts at lower cost. In addition, chemical source reduction activities are reducing liability and costs associated with waste disposal. One of the keys to efficient operation now and in the future is to design products and manufacturing processes so that chemicals and waste are minimized. >
Unifying Synchronous Tree-Adjoining Grammars and Tree Transducers via Bimorphisms

We place synchronous tree-adjoining grammars and tree transducers in the single overarching framework of bimorphisms, continuing the unification of synchronous grammars and tree transducers initiated by Shieber (2004). Along the way, we present a new definition of the tree-adjoining grammar derivation relation based on a novel direct inter-reduction of TAG and monadic macro tree transducers. Tree transformation systems such as tree transducers and synchronous grammars have seen renewed interest, based on a perceived relevance to new applications, such as importing syntactic structure into statistical machine translation models or founding a formalism for speech command and control. The exact relationship among a variety of formalisms has been unclear, with a large number of seemingly unrelated formalisms being independently proposed or characterized. An initial step toward unifying the formalisms was taken (Shieber, 2004) in making use of the formallanguage-theoretic device of bimorphisms, previously used to characterize the tree relations definable by tree transducers. In particular, the tree relations definable by synchronous tree-substitution grammars (STSG) were shown to be just those definable by linear complete bimorphisms, thereby providing for the first time a clear relationship between synchronous grammars and tree transducers.
Mobile computing in the public sector: practices, opportunities, and arduous challenges

Along with cloud computing and data-centric computing Mobile Computing can be seen as a third building block of a rapidly emerging new computing paradigm, in which human actors expect to be able to satisfy their information and electronic transaction needs (combined data/voice) at any time and at any place. For the public sector this shift has numerous and challenging implications, but also holds promises of huge productivity gains and ubiquitous service availability in unprecedented ways. This tutorial introduces practices, opportunities, and challenges in public-sector field force automation. The tutorial briefly touches on the widely under-researched area of emergency and disaster response management in the context of the rapidly changing computing paradigms.
Probabilistic techniques for phrase extraction

This study proposes a probabilistic model for automatically extracting English noun phrases without part-of-speech tagging or any syntactic analysis. The technique is based on a Markov model, whose initial parameters are estimated by a phrase lookup program with a phrase dictionary, then optimized by a set of maximum entropy (ME) parameters for a set of morphological features. Using the Viterbi algorithm with the trained Markov model, the program can dynamically extract noun phrases from input text. Experiments show that this technique is of comparable effectiveness with the best existing techniques.
Economic analysis of drug transaction ‘cycles’ described by incarcerated UK drug dealers

The fundamental activity of most drug dealers is buying drugs from a supplier and selling them on, usually in smaller lot sizes to multiple customers at a lower market level. Data on such ‘cycles’ of purchase and resale are derived from interviews with 65 dealers incarcerated in UK prisons. A power function relationship between price and transaction size is confirmed. Analyses reveal great consistency in proportional price markups across drugs and time, high cycle frequencies (typically weekly or more often) and importers who vertically integrate into the highest level of domestic distribution, so that an important share of their net revenues effectively derives from domestic distribution inside the UK, as opposed to importation per se.
Early standard development assessment characteristics in very low birth weight infants later classified with autism spectrum disorder.

Abstract Background The prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) symptoms is high among very low birth weight infants (VLBWIs). Early diagnosis of ASD is crucial, because early intervention for ASD is effective. Objective To evaluate early standard development assessment characteristics in VLBWIs later classified with ASD. Methods Thirty-five VLBWIs later diagnosed with ASD were compared with 169 children with typical development who were admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit at Nagano Children's Hospital between 2001 and 2005. We retrospectively evaluated developmental quotient (DQ) using the Kyoto Scale of Psychological Development (KSPD) at 6 and 18 months post-term age (PTA) and 3 year chronological age. Results KSPD DQ was significantly lower in ASD infants than in typical development infants at all ages. Postural-motor DQs of ASD infants at 18 months PTA and 3 year chronological age showed some increase compared to that at 6 months PTA. Conclusion Early recognition of ASD using standardized development assessment tools in VLBWIs might be possible.
Evidence of tree species' range shifts in a complex landscape.

Climate change is expected to change the distribution of species. For long-lived, sessile species such as trees, tracking the warming climate depends on seedling colonization of newly favorable areas. We compare the distribution of seedlings and mature trees for all but the rarest tree species in California, Oregon and Washington, United States of America, a large, environmentally diverse region. Across 46 species, the mean annual temperature of the range of seedlings was 0.120°C colder than that of the range of trees (95% confidence interval from 0.096 to 0.144°C). The extremes of the seedling distributions also shifted towards colder temperature than those of mature trees, but the change was less pronounced. Although the mean elevation and mean latitude of the range of seedlings was higher than and north of those of the range of mature trees, elevational and latitudinal shifts run in opposite directions for the majority of the species, reflecting the lack of a direct biological relationship between species’ distributions and those variables. The broad scale, environmental diversity and variety of disturbance regimes and land uses of the study area, the large number and exhaustive sampling of tree species, and the direct causal relationship between the temperature response and a warming climate, provide strong evidence to attribute the observed shifts to climate change.
NanoLC/ESI+ HRMS3 Quantitation of DNA Adducts Induced by 1,3-Butadiene

Human exposure to 1,3-butadiene (BD) present in automobile exhaust, cigarette smoke, and forest fires is of great concern because of its potent carcinogenicity. The adverse health effects of BD are mediated by its epoxide metabolites such as 3,4-epoxy-1-butene (EB), which covalently modify genomic DNA to form promutagenic nucleobase adducts. Because of their direct role in cancer, BD-DNA adducts can be used as mechanism-based biomarkers of BD exposure. In the present work, a mass spectrometry-based methodology was developed for accurate, sensitive, and precise quantification of EB-induced N-7-(1-hydroxy-3-buten-2-yl) guanine (EB-GII) DNA adducts in vivo. In our approach, EB-GII adducts are selectively released from DNA backbone by neutral thermal hydrolysis, followed by ultrafiltration, offline HPLC purification, and isotope dilution nanoLC/ESI+-HRMS3 analysis on an Orbitrap Velos mass spectrometer. Following method validation, EB-GII lesions were quantified in human fibrosarcoma (HT1080) cells treated with micromolar concentrations of EB and in liver tissues of rats exposed to sub-ppm concentrations of BD (0.5–1.5 ppm). EB-GII concentrations increased linearly from 1.15 ± 0.23 to 10.11 ± 0.45 adducts per 106 nucleotides in HT1080 cells treated with 0.5–10 μM DEB. EB-GII concentrations in DNA of laboratory rats exposed to 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 ppm BD were 0.17 ± 0.05, 0.33 ± 0.08, and 0.50 ± 0.04 adducts per 106 nucleotides, respectively. We also used the new method to determine the in vivo half-life of EB-GII adducts in rat liver DNA (2.20 ± 0.12 d) and to detect EB-GII in human blood DNA. To our knowledge, this is the first application of nanoLC/ESI+-HRMS3 Orbitrap methodology to quantitative analysis of DNA adducts in vivo.
Rac1 signaling in the establishment of the fucoid algal body plan

Fucoid zygotes use environmental vectors, including sunlight, to initiate a growth axis a few hours after fertilization. The first division is then transversely oriented by the growth axis, producing daughter cells of distinct fates. The tip growing rhizoid cell gives rise to the holdfast, anchoring the alga to the intertidal substratum, while the opposite thallus cell mainly generates the photosynthetic and reproductive stipe and fronds. Elaboration of this simple growth axis thus establishes the basic body plan of the adult; and elucidating the mechanisms responsible for formation of the growth axis is paramount to understanding fucoid morphogenesis. Recent studies have culminated in a model whereby sunlight, and perhaps other environmental cues, activate the signaling protein Rac1 at the rhizoid pole. Here it sets in motion nucleation of a patch of actin filaments that in turn, targets ions, proteins, and cellular processes to the future growth site. At germination, Rac1 initiates morphogenesis by inducing transformation of the patch of actin filaments to a structure that delivers vesicles to the growing tip, and a few hours later orients the spindle and cytokinetic plate.
The view from the bottom

Student views on career choices are considered from the following standpoints: 1) skills and abilities, 2) choice of field, 3) location, 4) working environment, and 5) future goals and objectives. In addition, notes are made on common student mistakes when job-hunting and suggestions to correct these mistakes are made.
Incorporation of phage DNA on lysogenization of Shigella dysenteriae.

Abstract Shigella dysenteriae lysogenized by phage P1 under conditions of single infection was found to incorporate almost all the 32 P DNA of the phage into a stable bacterial DNA component. Bacteria infected with more than one phage retain DNA equivalent to only one phage per cell. Super-infection of lysogenic Sh(P1) by 32 P labeled phage P1 results in the retention by the cells of only 10–30% of the label. These results indicate that the DNA of the phage P1 is specifically involved in the formation of prophage material. During the lytic cycle of growth parent to progeny transfer of 32 P of the order of 90% may occur.
Perfusion bioreactor system for human mesenchymal stem cell tissue engineering: Dynamic cell seeding and construct development

Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) have great potential for therapeutic applications. A bioreactor system that supports long-term hMSCs growth and three-dimensional (3-D) tissue formation is an important technology for hMSC tissue engineering. A 3-D perfusion bioreactor system was designed using non-woven poly (ethylene terepthalate) (PET) fibrous matrices as scaffolds. The main features of the perfusion bioreactor system are its modular design and integrated seeding operation. Modular design of the bioreactor system allows the growth of multiple engineered tissue constructs and provides flexibility in harvesting the constructs at different time points. In this study, four chambers with three matrices in each were utilized for hMSC construct development. The dynamic depth filtration seeding operation is incorporated in the system by perfusing cell suspensions perpendicularly through the PET matrices, achieving a maximum seeding efficiency of 68%, and the operation effectively reduced the complexity of operation and the risk of contamination. Statistical analyses suggest that the cells are uniformly distributed in the matrices. After seeding, long-term construct cultivation was conducted by perfusing the media around the constructs from both sides of the matrices. Compared to the static cultures, a significantly higher cell density of 4.22 × 107 cell/mL was reached over a 40-day culture period. Cellular constructs at different positions in the flow chamber have statistically identical cell densities over the culture period. After expansion, the cells in the construct maintained the potential to differentiate into osteoblastic and adipogenic lineages at high cell density. The perfusion bioreactor system is amenable to multiple tissue engineered construct production, uniform tissue development, and yet is simple to operate and can be scaled up for potential clinical use. The results also demonstrate that the multi-lineage differentiation potential of hMSCs are preserved even after extensive expansion, thus indicating the potential of hMSCs for functional tissue construct development. The system has important applications in stem cell tissue engineering. © 2005 Wiley-Periodicals, Inc.
Differences in Prey Capture Behavior in Populations of Blue Crab (Callinectes sapidus Rathbun) from Contaminated and Clean Estuaries in New Jersey

Populations living in contaminated environments may exhibit behavioral changes that can alter predator–prey interactions. Blue crabs from the contaminated Hackensack Meadowlands (HM) had reduced ability to capture juvenile blue crabs and adult mummichogs (both active prey) compared with crabs from a reference site (Tuckerton (TK)). However, they consumed equivalent amounts of ribbed mussels and fiddler crabs, which are less active prey. Crabs may have reduced coordination rather than appetite or motivation. The lab data are supported by stomach analysis of field-caught crabs. HM crab stomachs contained ∼60% algae, plant material, detritus, and sediment and much lower weights of crab, fish, and other live food than TK crabs. However, the relative absence of bivalves in their diet may reflect reduced amounts available. When TK crabs were caged in HM or fed food from HM in the lab for 8 weeks, their prey capture ability declined significantly, and mercury in their muscle tissue increased significantly, indicating that environmental factors were responsible for the behavioral differences. When HM crabs were caged in TK or fed fish from TK in the lab for 8 weeks, their prey capture ability improved significantly. Mercury levels were variable and did not show a significant decrease.
A Note on Synthesis of Inductive Assertions

One of the principal impediments to widespread use of automated program verification methodology is due to the user burden of creating appropriate inductive assertions. In this paper, we investigate a class of programs for which such inductive assertions can be mechanically generated from Input-output specifications. This class of programs, called accumulating programs, are iterative realizations of problems in which the required output information is accumulated during successive passes over the input data structures. Obtaining invariant assertions for such programs is shown to be equivalent to the problem of generalizations of specifications to that over an extended closed data domain. For this purpose, a set of basis data elements are to be conceived of as generating the extended domain. An arbitary data element would thus be considered as uniquely decomposable into a sequence of basis elements. The structural relations between the components of a data element are used to extend program behavior and thus obtain the desired invariant.
A Time-Dependent Model of Radiative and Conductive Thermal Energy Transport in Planetary Regoliths with Applications to the Moon and Mercury

Modeling thermal energy transfer in planetary regoliths involves treating four processes: visible radiative transfer, thermal radiative transfer, conductive transfer, and heat storage. We explicitly treat these processes while considering time-dependent problems, and we apply this model to the regoliths of the Moon and Mercury. Fitting the model to observational data allows us to constrain the radiative resistivity and thermal inertia parameters of these regoliths and hence constrain their conductivities, thermal extinction coefficients, and average grain sizes. It is also found that water ice would be stable in the polar subsurfaces of both bodies, even in areas which receive sunlight during the day.
Behavioral kinetics: A method for deriving qualitative and quantitative changes in sensory responsiveness following septal nuclei damage

Abstract An apparatus was designed and constructed that would maximize the reliable and objective recording of a rat's response to footshock following damage to the septal area. A method of data analysis was borrowed from enzyme kinetics to provide two summary measures of the rat's response to increasing shock levels. These results were then compared with data obtained from other measures of reactivity to determine the validity and generalizability of the new summary measures. The results indicate that the apparatus and data reduction method provide two different sources of information about a rat's response to footshock: (1) a statistic representing the qualitative relation between response magnitude and stimulus intensity, and (2) maximal responsiveness, or quantitative index of responsiveness independent of stimulus intensity. The results are discussed in light of the procedure's future utility in comparing certain behavioral events with their physiological correlates following surgical or pharmacological intervention.
The irreversible binding of 2‐site ligands to hetereogeneous polymers

We obtain an analytical solution for the binding of 2-site ligands to a heterogeneous lattice. The model also describes the kinetics of chemical reactions between adjacent pendant groups of a copolymer. Our analysis is based on the principle of independence, as formulated by Gonzalez and Hemmer. Several special cases are solved in closed form; a power series solution is developed for the general problem. The results may be modified to take into account fixed total ligand. We also analyze competition between 1-site and 2-site ligands. As an illustration of the results, we examine in detail the kinetics and final extent of binding for two special cases.
EPR evidence for a weak first order behavior of the ferroelectric transition in (NH4)2SO4

Abstract EPR line-broadening effects have been analyzed for the low (∼ 1010 Hz) rotational fluctuations of NH3 + radicals in (NH4)2SO4 crystals near their ferroelectric transition. Critical fluctuations together with coexistence of the paraelectric and ferroelectric phases have been observed and interpreted in terms of a weak first order, Landau-type model for the phase transition.
CONNOLLY, THE ARCHIVE, AND METHOD

Over the last two decades, the introduction of postcolonial theory into the context of Irish Studies has led to a prolonged re-examination of a number of thinkers whose works resonate with recent critical understandings of the history of colonization in Ireland and the nationalist drive for independence. This has intensified interest in archival research to reclaim these figures and texts for purposes of contemporary criticism. One of the most significant of these thinkers is the anti-imperialist revolutionary leader James Connolly, perhaps the first theorist to rethink Marxism according to the specificity of colonial history. Connolly's theorization of the impact the violence of imperialism makes upon Marxist understandings of the dialectical category of contradiction contributes to the critical interrogation of modernization in diachronic terms. The degree to which Connolly insisted upon the specificity of the time in which he wrote, however, makes it more difficult to translate his positions into conte...
Prestack plane-wave Kirchhoff migration in laterally varying media

Conventional Kirchhoff migration methods are applied to seismograms in the offset-time (x - t) domain. We describe the theory, numerical details, and examples of a prestack depth migration method in the plane-wave domain that is valid in laterally inhomogeneous media. The theory is based on a Kirchhoff-Helmholtz formulation of the wavefield and uses plane-wave-transformed shot gathers for migration. We use geometric ray theory for the source wavefield continuation operator and a plane-wave expansion of the receiver wavefield in the integrand of the Kirchhoff-Helmholtz integral. The source and receiver plane-wave traveltimes are computed at each grid point in the subsurface using a finite-difference approximation of the eikonal equation with appropriate initial and boundary conditions. We developed an efficient technique to compute imaging time by a combination of these two times. The technique allows us to design algorithms for migrating shot gather or constant ray-parameter sections efficiently. We evaluate the efficiency and accuracy of the algorithm with three sets of synthetic data examples with varying degrees of complexity. We also compare the performance of the parallel algorithms using Parallel Virtual Machine (PVM). Migration of a marine data set results in excellent images of a mud volcano and the top of an accretionary prism of an active continental margin on the Nicoya Peninsula of Costa Rica.
Functional status II(R): A measure of child health status.

Few measures are available to assess the health status of the growing numbers of children who now survive long-term with chronic physical disorders. A Functional Status Measure, FS I, that had considerable promise for measuring individual child health status and characterizing populations was develo
Value iteration in constable state average cost Markov decision processes with unbounded costs

We deal with countable state Markov decision processes with finite action sets and (possibly) unbounded costs. Assuming the existence of an expected average cost optimal stationary policyf, with expected average costg, when canf andg be found using undiscounted value iteration? We give assumptions guaranteeing the convergence of a quantity related tong−Νn(i), whereΝn(i) is the minimum expectedn-stage cost when the process starts in statei. The theory is applied to a queueing system with variable service rates and to a queueing system with variable arrival parameter.
Copyright Ownership of Online News: Cultivating a Transformation Ethos in America's Emerging Statutory Attribution Right

Several federal district courts in 2009 and 2010 interpreted a relatively obscure provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to grant a potentially broad right of attribution to owners of copyright in creative works. The statutory provision prohibits removal or alteration of copyright management information. The law gives reason for both hope and fear for news organizations. On one hand, an attribution requirement is seen by some in the news industry as relief from negative effects of technology, including online news aggregators. On the other hand, news organizations already have been sued under the copyright management provision for their conduct in newsgathering. This article examines the copyright management information provision and concludes that transformation will be a key consideration in balancing the interest in attribution with preservation of newsgathering's reliance on access to and fair use of copyright-protected works.
Immunopathogenesis of oral lichen planus and recurrent aphthous stomatitis

Oral mucosal bullous/desquamative/ulcerative diseases involve immunopathological mechanisms that account for loss of adhesion between contiguous keratinocytes or to structures within the basal lamina. Some are antibody mediated, in which specific adhesion molecules of the desmosome, hemidesmosome, and basement membrane become antigenic targets. Oral lichen planus and recurrent apthous ulcers, although manifesting disparate clinical appearances and natural history, share immunopathological features that involve T cell-mediated immunity. Although the antigens, haptens, or autoantigens are not usually apparent, current research poses the hypothesis that both of these common oral mucosal diseases are a delayed-type hypersensitivity or cell-mediated response to an antigenic stimulus residing within the epithelium. This article reviews the research evidence for this hypothesis.
A self‐reported survey of Alzheimer's centers in Southwestern Pennsylvania

Directors of nursing at 23 nursing homes with Alzheimer's units in Southwestern Pennsylvania completed a self-reported survey of 12 questions. Responses from the self-administered questionnaires (100% response rate) revealed a wide variation in the staff categories assessing the oral health status of newly admitted residents with AD. The respondents described oral examinations that were incomplete when compared to the oral indicators listed in the Minimum Data Set. All nursing homes reported that oral hygiene was provided each day. The number of residents in a facility had a significant effect on the frequency of oral hygiene provided. Only 52% of the facilities reported yearly oral examinations for this population. According to the respondents, dental treatment was typically performed on-site. The oral health care costs were paid by Medicare, Medicaid, the residents/family members, or by other undescribed resources. Insufficient time, staff, and training, as well as uncooperative behavior, were identified as barriers to optimum oral health care for residents with AD. Additional staff, specialized training, and increased government reimbursement were suggested to improve the oral health care for this group of older adults. For future studies, review of medical records and on-site evaluation of the oral health care at these facilities should be required to verify the reported practices.
Real-time evaporimeter/hygrometer

Laboratory measurements of microscopic level changes in a water tank were shown to have good correlation with the evaporation rate predicted using Dalton's Law. Submicron level changes in the tank were measured in real-time using an interferometer interfaced to a PC. The methodology developed offers a way to build an instrument that can be used as a standard for an evaporimeter or a hygrometer. The real-time measurement capability provides a tool for determining refined dynamic correlations of evaporation with fast changes in meteorological variables such as wind and solar radiation.
Relationship of Depressive, Conduct, and Comorbid Disorders and Social Functioning in Childhood

ABSTRACT Objective To examine the relationship of depressive, conduct, and comorbid disorders and social functioning in psychiatrically referred youths. Method Subjects were 94 boys and 67 girls (mean age at initial assessment=11.5 years) who were repeatedly evaluated with standardized instruments during a mean interval of 4.4 years. On the basis of their diagnoses during the follow-up, children were designated as having had depressive, conduct, or both (comorbid) disorders or other conditions. Two domains of social functioning were assessed: social competence and self-esteem. Results Longitudinal analyses revealed that at any given point in time, depressive, conduct, and comorbid disorders were associated with low social competence and depressive disorder also was associated with low self-esteem. At the approximate age of 15 years, on average, children with a history of conduct or comorbid disorders had lower social competence than did children with a history of depressive disorder, but these groups endorsed similar levels of self-esteem. Conclusion Some areas of social dysfunction associated with comorbid depressive and conduct disorders appear to reflect mostly the effects of conduct disorder. The latter condition has a more severe and longer-term impact on children's social competence than does depression. In addition, whereas depression has an adverse effect on self-esteem, this effect appears to be temporary. J. Am. Acad. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry , 1997, 36(7): 998–1004.