cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
What is it like to think about oneself? De Se thought and phenomenal intentionality

The topic of the paper is at the intersection of recent debates on de se thought and phenomenal intentionality. An interesting problem for phenomenal intentionality is the question of how to account for the intentional properties of de se thought-contents---i.e., thoughts about oneself as oneself. Here, I aim to describe and consider the significance of a phenomenological perspective on self-consciousness in its application to de se thought. I argue that having de se thoughts can be explained in terms of the ways that subjects consciously attend to themselves in experiences of thinking. Therefore, a strong form of first-person persectivalness, in which the subject is capable of self-directed control of the focus of conscious attention, is required for de se thought. But no constraints on the semantic content of such thoughts are required. The outcome of the question therefore bears importantly on both on the problem of self-reflexive self-reference and the wider problem of self-consciousness. My model suggests phenomenologically-derived conceptual constraints for the extension of minimal, background forms of self-awareness to robust, cognitive forms of self-awareness that have been of interest in recent empirical studies on self-consciousness. The framework therefore provides a way of operationalizing the concept of self-reflexive consciousness by deploying widely deployed notions from the empirical literature such as attention and minimal phenomenal selfhood, enabling a framework for empirically falsifiable hypotheses about the neural mechanisms underlying the structure of self-consciousness. What Is it Like to Think about Oneself? De Se Thought and Phenomenal Intentionality.
Deterministic and Stochastic Wireless Network Games: Equilibrium, Dynamics, and Price of Anarchy

Power control over wireless networks has been an active area of research with significant applied impact. A well-motivated line of this research, which has received increasing attention, is applyin...
Multi-modal MRI segmentation of sarcoma tumors using convolutional neural networks

Small animal imaging is essential in building a bridge from basic science to the clinic by providing the confidence necessary to move new cancer therapies to patients. However, there is considerable variability in preclinical imaging, including tumor volume estimations based on tumor segmentation procedures which can be clearly user-biased. Our group is engaged in developing quantitative imaging methods which will be applied in the preclinical arm of a co-clinical trial studying synergy between anti-PD-1 treatment and radiotherapy using a genetically engineered mouse model of soft tissue sarcoma. This study focuses on a convolutional neural network (CNN)-based method for automatic tumor segmentation based on multimodal MRI images, i.e. T1 weighted, T2 weighted and T1 weighted with contrast agent. Our images were acquired on a 7.0 T Bruker Biospec small animal MRI scanner. Preliminary results show that our U-net structure and 3D patch-wise approach using both Dice and cross entropy loss functions delivers strong segmentation results. We have also compared single performance using only T2 weighted versus multimodal MR images for CNN segmentation. Our results showthat Dice similarity coefficient were higher when using multimodal versus single T2 weighted data (0.84 ± 0.05 and 0.81 ± 0.03). In conclusion, we successfully established a segmentation method for preclinical MR sarcoma data based on deep learning. This approach has the advantage of reducing user bias in tumor segmentation and improving the accuracy and precision of tumor volume estimations for co-clinical cancer trials.
Assessing urban vacant land ecosystem services: Urban vacant land as green infrastructure in the City of Roanoke, Virginia

Abstract The research reported here quantifies the ecosystem services and values of vacant land using the City of Roanoke, Virginia as a study site. Aerial photo interpretation with ground-truthing was used to identify and catalog vacant parcels of land within the city limits and the results mapped using the i-Tree Canopy and i-Tree Eco models to define land cover classes and quantify ecosystem structure and services. An analysis of urban forest cover in Roanoke's vacant land reveals that this area has about 210,000 trees, with a tree cover of 30.6%. These trees store about 97,500 t of carbon, valued at $7.6 million. In addition, these trees remove about 2090 t of carbon (valued at $164,000), and about 83 t of air pollutants (valued at $916,000) every year, which is high relative to other land uses in Roanoke. Trees on vacant land in the city are estimated to reduce annual residential energy costs by $211,000 for the city's 97,000 residents. The structural value of the trees growing on vacant land is estimated at $169 million. Information on the structure and functions of urban forests on vacant land can be used to evaluate the contribution made by urban vacant land's green infrastructure to improving environmental quality. The methodology applied to assess ecosystem services in this study can also be used to assess ecosystem services of vacant land in other urban contexts.
Paternal involvement in feeding and its association with nutritional status of children in an urban slum in a low-resource setting: A cross-sectional study.

Abstract Objectives In India, childhood malnutrition continues to be a major public health problem, especially in slums. Research mostly focuses on the role of the mother in child feeding, as she spends significantly more time with children. However, the role of fathers, their parenting skills, and child-feeding practices may also affect child development and eating behavior, independent of maternal factors. To our knowledge, there is limited research on the role of the father in child undernutrition, especially in the Indian context. Thus, the aim of this study was to address this knowledge gap and to explore paternal child-feeding patterns, their involvement in feeding, and its association with malnutrition in the slums. Methods This community-based, cross-sectional study was conducted in an urban slum in Bangalore. The study included 210 father–child dyads. The Caregiver's Feeding Styles Questionnaire was used to assess paternal involvement in parenting and feeding. Anthropometry measurements were taken using standardized methods. Nutritional status was classified according to the growth standards of the World Health Organization. Logistic regression was used to test the association between paternal parenting style and malnutrition. Results We recruited 116 boys and 94 girls and their fathers. The mean age of the children was 15.94 mo (SD 4.85). One-fourth of the fathers were illiterate and most of the families belonged to the middle class. Almost half of the fathers fed their children once a day (57.1%) and engaged them during feeding by telling stories (47.1%). The most common paternal feeding style was uninvolved (36%) followed by authoritative (29.5%). Prevalence of undernutrition, stunting, and wasting was 44.3%, 42.8%, and 9.5%, respectively. Religion, type of family, and per capita income were independently associated with uninvolved feeding style. There was no association between paternal child-feeding style malnutrition (P > 0.05) Conclusion The present study explored the dimensions of paternal involvement in child feeding in a slum setting and its effect on child nutrition. A good proportion of fathers were actively involved in child feeding and neither involvement nor paternal feeding styles were associated with the nutritional status of children.
The Prevalence and Utility of Vascular Surgery Training Programs' and Vascular Societies' Social Media Presence.

Background There is a paucity of information describing the adoption of social media by the vascular surgery community and social media's effectiveness. We evaluated current trends in social media use by all accredited vascular surgery training programs (VSTPs) in the United States and National and Regional Vascular Societies (NVS) in comparison to hospital/institutions and general surgery programs (GSPs). Methods Four major social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube) were individually searched for VSTPs, affiliated hospital/institution, affiliated GSP, and NVS profiles (31 societies). Social media presence was evaluated for quantitative and qualitative variables (likes/followers/posts and content) on each platform. Statistical analysis was performed utilizing a two-sample t-test, exact McNemar's and Fischer's exact test, as appropriate, with alpha set at 0.05. Results Social media accounts were found for 31% of VSTP. VSTP with both fellowship and integrated positions had a greater social media presence than integrated only (45% vs. 10%, P = 0.042) and fellowship only (45% vs. 26%, P = 0.044) programs. For integrated programs, an increase in residency positions filled in the 2019 match was associated with the use of social media (P = 0.002). VSTP social media presence was largest on Twitter (24%) with 232 total posts and 0.32 posts/day. 52% of NVS had a social media platform, with the highest prevalence on Facebook (42%) and highest utilization on Twitter (1422 posts, 0.47 posts/day). Hashtags were used for postings by 78% of VSTP and 100% of NVS. VSTP had a lower overall social media presence than their institutions and GSP (31% vs. 96% and 65%, P Conclusions There is relative underuse of social media by VSTP in comparison to their associated institutions and general surgery programs. VSTP may modify their approach to recruitment by utilizing the follower base of institutions, surgery programs, and NVS or by leveraging established institutional marketing programs. Adoption of social media may provide vascular surgery increased exposure for trainee and patient recruitment and specialty brand recognition.
Epi-Intra neural probes with glassy carbon microelectrodes help elucidate neural coding and stimulus encoding in 3D volume of tissue.

Objective In this study, we demonstrate practical applications of a novel 3-dimensional neural probe for simultaneous electrophysiological recordings from the surface of the brain as well as deep intra-cortical tissue. We used this 3D probe to investigate signal propagation mechanisms between neuronal cells and their responses to stimuli in a 3D fashion. Approach This novel probe leverage 2D thin-film microfabrication technique to combine an epi-cortical (surface) and an intra-cortical (depth) microelectrode arrays (Epi-Intra), that unfold into an origami 3D-like probe during brain implantation. The flexible epi-cortical component conforms to the brain surface while the intra-cortical array is reinforced with stiffer durimide polymer layer for ease of tissue penetration. The microelectrodes are made of glassy carbon material that is biocompatible and has low electrochemical impedance that is important for high fidelity neuronal recordings. These recordings were performed on the auditory region of anesthetized European starling songbirds during playback of conspecific songs as auditory stimuli. Main results The Epi-Intra probe recorded broadband activity including local field potentials (LFPs) signals as well as single-unit activity and multi-unit activity from both surface and deep brain. The majority of recorded cellular activities were stimulus-locked and exhibited low noise. Notably, while LFPs recorded on surface and depth electrodes did not exhibit strong correlation, composite receptive fields (CRFs)-extracted from individual neuron cells through a non-linear model and that are cell-dependent-were correlated. Significance These findings demonstrate that CRFs extracted from Epi-Intra recordings are excellent candidates for neural coding and for understanding the relationship between sensory neuronal responses and their stimuli (stimulus encoding). Beyond CRFs, this novel neural probe may enable new spatiotemporal 3D volumetric mapping to address, with cellular resolution, how the brain coordinates function.
SYMBION: Interleaving Symbolic with Concrete Execution

Symbolic execution is a powerful technique for exploring programs and generating inputs that drive them into specific states. However, symbolic execution is also known to suffer from severe limitations, which prevent its application to real-world software. For example, symbolically executing programs requires modeling their interactions with the surrounding environment (e.g., libraries, operating systems). Unfortunately, models are usually created manually, introducing considerable approximations of the programs behaviors and significant imprecision in the analysis. In addition, as the complexity of the system under analysis grows, additional models are needed, making this process unsustainable. For these reasons, in this paper we propose a novel technique that allows interleaving symbolic execution with concrete execution, focusing the symbolic exploration only on interesting portions of code. We call this approach interleaved symbolic execution. The key idea of our approach is to re-use the concrete environment to run the input program, and then synchronize the results of the environment interactions with the symbolic execution engine. As a consequence, our approach does not make any assumption about such interactions, and it is agnostic with respect to the concrete environment. We implement a prototype for this technique, SYMBION, and we demonstrate its effectiveness by analyzing real-world malware, showing that it allows us to effectively skip complex portions of code that do not need to be analyzed symbolically.
Optimizing Video Quality Estimation Across Resolutions

Many algorithms have been developed to evaluate the perceptual quality of images and videos, based on models of picture statistics and visual perception. These algorithms attempt to capture user experience better than simple metrics like the peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and are widely utilized on streaming service platforms and in social networking applications to improve users’ Quality of Experience. The growing demand for high-resolution streams and rapid increases in user-generated content (UGC) sharpens interest in the computation involved in carrying out perceptual quality measurements. In this direction, we propose a suite of methods to efficiently predict the structural similarity index (SSIM) of high-resolution videos distorted by scaling and compression, from computations performed at lower resolutions. We show the effectiveness of our algorithms by testing on a large corpus of videos and on subjective data.
Public health implications of vaping in the USA: the smoking and vaping simulation model

Nicotine vaping products (NVPs) are increasingly popular worldwide. They may provide public health benefits if used as a substitute for smoking, but may create public health harms if used as a gateway to smoking or to discourage smoking cessation. This paper presents the Smoking and Vaping Model (SAVM), a user-friendly model which estimates the public health implications of NVPs in the USA. SAVM adopts a cohort approach. We derive public health implications by comparing smoking- and NVP-attributable deaths and life-years lost under a No-NVP and an NVP Scenario. The No-NVP Scenario projects current, former, and never smoking rates via smoking initiation and cessation rates, with their respective mortality rates. The NVP Scenario allows for smoking- and NVP-specific mortality rates, switching from cigarette to NVP use, separate NVP and smoking initiation rates, and separate NVP and smoking cessation rates. After validating the model against recent US survey data, we present the base model with extensive sensitivity analyses. The SAVM projects that under current patterns of US NVP use and substitution, NVP use will translate into 1.8 million premature smoking- and vaping-attributable deaths avoided and 38.9 million life-years gained between 2013 and 2060. When the NVP relative risk is set to 5%, the results are sensitive to the level of switching and smoking cessation rates and to a lesser extent smoking initiation rates. When the NVP relative risk is raised to 40%, the public health gains in terms of averted deaths and LYL are reduced by 42% in the base case, and the results become much more sensitive to variations in the base case parameters. Policymakers, researchers, and other public health stakeholders can apply the SAVM to estimate the potential public health impact of NVPs in their country or region using their own data sources. In developing new simulation models involving NVPs, it will be important to conduct extensive sensitivity analysis and continually update and validate with new data. The SAVM indicates the potential benefits of NVP use. However, given the uncertainty surrounding model parameters, extensive sensitivity analysis becomes particularly important.
Dysregulation of Protein Kinase C in Adult Depression and Suicide: Evidence From Postmortem Brain Studies.

BACKGROUND Several lines of evidence suggest the abnormalities of protein kinase C (PKC) signaling system in mood disorders and suicide based primarily on the studies of PKC and its isozymes in the platelets and postmortem brain of depressed and suicidal subjects. In this study, we examined the role of PKC isozymes in depression and suicide. METHODS We determined the protein and mRNA expression of various PKC isozymes in the prefrontal cortical region (Brodmann area 9) in 24 normal control subjects, 24 depressed suicide (DS) subjects, and 12 depressed nonsuicide (DNS) subjects. The levels of mRNA in the prefrontal cortex were determined by quantitative real-time reverse transcription PCR, and the protein expression was determined by western blotting. RESULTS We observed a significant decrease in mRNA expression of PKCα, PKCβI, PKCδ, and PKCe and decreased protein expression in either the membrane or the cytosol fraction of PKC isozymes PKCα, PKCβI, PKCβII, and PKCδ in DS and DNS subjects compared with normal control subjects. CONCLUSIONS The current study provides detailed evidence of specific dysregulation of certain PKC isozymes in the postmortem brain of DS and DNS subjects and further supports earlier evidence for the role of PKC in the platelets and brain of the adult and teenage depressed and suicidal population. This comprehensive study may lead to further knowledge of the involvement of PKC in the pathophysiology of depression and suicide.
Nanoscale Superconducting States in the Fe-Based Filamentary Superconductor of Pr-Doped CaFe2As2

The low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope and spectroscopy (STM/STS) are used to visualize superconducting states in the cleaved single crystal of 9% praseodymium-doped CaFe2As2 (Pr-Ca122) with Tc ≈ 30 K. The spectroscopy shows strong spatial variations in the density of states (DOS), and the superconducting map constructed from spectroscopy discloses a localized superconducting phase, as small as a single unit cell. The comparison of the spectra taken at 4.2 K and 22 K (below vs. close to the bulk superconducting transition temperature) from the exact same area confirms the superconducting behavior. Nanoscale superconducting states have been found near Pr dopants, which can be identified using dI/dV conductance maps at +300 mV. There is no correlation of the local superconductivity to the surface reconstruction domain and surface defects, which reflects its intrinsic bulk behavior. We, therefore, suggest that the local strain of Pr dopants is competing with defects induced local magnetic moments; this competition is responsible for the local superconducting states observed in this Fe-based filamentary superconductor.
A Measurement Study of Wechat Mini-Apps

A new mobile computing paradigm, dubbed mini-app, has been growing rapidly over the past few years since being introduced by WeChat in 2017. In this paradigm, a host app allows its end-users to install and run mini-apps inside itself, enabling the host app to build an ecosystem around (much like Google Play and Apple AppStore), enrich the host's functionalities, and offer mobile users elevated convenience without leaving the host app. It has been reported that there are over millions of mini-apps in WeChat. However, little information is known about these mini-apps at an aggregated level. In this paper, we present MiniCrawler, the first scalable and open source WeChat mini-app crawler that has indexed over 1,333,308 mini-apps. It leverages a number of reverse engineering techniques to uncover the interfaces and APIs in WeChat for crawling the mini-apps. With the crawled mini-apps, we then measure their resource consumption, API usage, library usage, obfuscation rate, app categorization, and app ratings at an aggregated level. The details of how we develop MiniCrawler and our measurement results are reported in this paper.
Feeding Tube Placement Following Transoral Robotic Surgery for Oropharyngeal Squamous Cell Carcinoma.

ObjectiveTo identify factors that may predict the need for feeding tubes in patients undergoing transoral robotic surgery (TORS) in the perioperative setting.Study DesignRetrospective chart review....
Violet Fox: A Clinical View of Vertebral Fractures.

Had Violet's abdominal MR not been performed, or its findings not appreciated, the cause of her clinical event might never have been known because our current concept of osteoporotic vertebral fracture (VF) is substantially predicated on a change in either vertebral height or shape on lateral or sagittal spine imaging. The intention of this commentary is to stimulate a multidisciplinary conversation of osteoporotic VFs from an integrated clinical, physiological, and imaging perspective. For research and epidemiological purposes, osteoporotic VFs have been defined as a reduction in anterior, middle, or posterior vertebral height although the required minimum height reduction (e.g., 15% or 20%) varies among definition schemes. We further classify osteoporotic VFs to be "clinical" when they are accompanied by back pain and "morphometric" when they are not, and we have generally accepted the assertion that most of the osteoporotic VFs are painless, that is, morphometric. This dichotomous VF definition scheme has been the foundation of osteoporosis epidemiology and the primary endpoint in most pivotal osteoporosis pharmaceutical trials. Although, having served the osteoporosis community well, our clinical experience, refined by recent insights into vertebral anatomy and spinal biomechanics, advances in vertebral imaging, and 2 decades of vertebral augmentation suggest that the spectrum of osteoporotic VFs is more complicated than this scheme suggests.
Visualization of Program Performance on Concurrent Computers

A distributed memory concurrent computer (such as a hypercube computer) is inherently a complex system involving the collective and simultaneous interaction of many entities engaged in computation and communication activities. Program performance evaluation in concurrent computer systems requires methods and tools for observing, analyzing, and displaying system performance. This dissertation describes a methodology for collecting and displaying, via a unique graphical approach, performance measurement information from (possibly large) concurrent computer systems. Performance data are generated and collected via instrumentation. The data are then reduced via conventional cluster analysis techniques and converted into a pictorial form to highlight important aspects of program states during execution. Local and summary statistics are calculated. Included in the suite of defined metrics are measures for quantifying and comparing amounts of computation and communication. A novel kind of data plot is introduced to visually display both temporal and spatial information describing system activity. Phenomena such as hot spots of activity are easily observed, and in some cases, patterns inherent in the application algorithms being studied are highly visible. The approach also provides a framework for a visual solution to the problem of mapping a given parallel algorithm to an underlying parallel machine. A prototype implementation applied to several case studies is presented to demonstrate the feasibility and power of the approach.
Pathogenic Antigen-Specific Th17 Cells Drive Autoimmunity Myasthenia Gravis (P1.059)

OBJECTIVE: Define the phenotype of autoreactive T cells contributing to myasthenia gravis (MG) immunopathology. BACKGROUND: The pathology of MG is affected by autoantibodies directed to the acetylcholine receptor (AChR). Mature, antigen-experienced B cells that rely on the action of helper T cells produce these pathogenic antibodies. The phenotype of the MG antigen-specific T cell compartment is not well defined. DESIGN/METHOD: A novel T cell library assay that affords multi-parameter interrogation of infrequent autoreactive CD4 T cells was applied. Cells were sorted so that the naive, CCR6- and CCR6+ memory cells were evaluated separately. Proliferation and cytokine production in response to both AChR and control antigens were measured in 6 MG subjects and 6 healthy controls. RESULTS: The frequency of CCR6+ memory T cells from MG subjects proliferating in response to AChR-derived peptides was higher than that of healthy controls. Production of both IFN-γ and IL-17, in response to AChR-derived peptides, was also restricted to the CCR6+ memory T compartment in the MG cohort. Given that the CCR6 chemokine receptor is preferentially expressed on Th17 cells these data indicate that autoimmune cells resided in the proinflammatory Th17 compartment. Pro-inflammatory Th17 cells can be further defined as pathogenic based on the expression of GMCSF and the absence of IL-10 expression. This cytokine profile was observed in the CCR6+ memory T cells from the MG subjects but not in the controls. CONCLUSIONS: These data indicate that the antigen-specific T cells in MG are of the pro-inflammatory pathogenic Th17 phenotype. This component of the autoimmune response in MG is of particular importance when considering the durability of MG treatment strategies that target B cells, as these autoreactive T cells could induce new pathogenic antibodies in the reconstituted B cell compartment with ensuing clinical manifestations. Study Supported by: Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America Incorporated Disclosure: Dr. Cao has nothing to disclose. Dr. Dominguez-Villar has nothing to disclose. Dr. Amezquita has nothing to disclose. Dr. Liu has nothing to disclose. Dr. Kleinstein has nothing to disclose. Dr. Goldstein has received personal compensation for activities with Athena Diagnostics. Dr. Nowak has nothing to disclose. Dr. O9Connor has received personal compensation for activities with EMD Serono as a speaker. Dr. O9Connor has received research support from EMD Serono.
Security policies to mitigate insider threat in the document control domain

With rapid advances in online technologies, organizations are migrating from paper based resources to digital documents to achieve high responsiveness and ease of management. These digital documents are the most important asset of an organization and are hence the chief target of insider abuse. Security policies provide the first step to prevent abuse by defining proper and improper usage of resources. Coarse grained security policies that operate on the "principle of least privilege" [J. H. Saltzer et al., (1974)] alone are not enough to address the insider threat, since the typical insider possesses a wide range of privileges to start with. In this paper, we propose a security policy that is tailored to prevent insider abuse. We define the concept of subject, object, actions, rights, context and information flow as applicable to the document control domain. Access is allowed based on the principles of "least privilege and minimum requirements", subject to certain constraints. Unlike existing techniques, the proposed policy engine considers, among other factors, the context of a document request and the information flow between such requests to identify potential malicious insiders. Enforcing these fine-grained access control policies gives us a better platform to prevent the insider abuse. Finally, for demonstration purposes, we present a framework that can be used to specify and enforce these policies on Microsoft Word documents, one of the popular document formats.
Proposed test method to evaluate the safety of materials using spark incendivity

For many years scientists and engineers have been searching for the proper test method to evaluate an electrostatic risk for materials used in hazardous environments. A new test standard created by the International Electrotechnical Commission is a promising addition to conventional test methods used throughout industry.
Retroviral vector system for the study of cDNA gene formation

A retroviral vector system was developed to study the retrotransposition of RNAs lacking all cis-acting sequences required for normal retroviral replication. Our experiments indicate that such RNAs can be encapsidated in retroviral proteins, reverse transcribed, and integrated to form functional cDNA genes in infected cells. The frequency of this process, however, was approximately 8 orders of magnitude less than that of normal retroviral replication. The efficiency was limited at each step in this process. Investigation of seven cDNA genes by Southern blot analysis revealed that all of them were truncated at either the 3' or the 5' end or both. These truncations are not seen with natural cDNA genes and raise the question of retroviral involvement in their formation.
Russell on "disambiguating with the grain"

Fregeans face the difficulty finding a notation for distinguishing statements about the sense or meaning of an expression as opposed to its reference or denotation. Famously, in "On Denoting", Russell rejected methods that begin with an expression designating its denotation, and then alter it with a "the meaning of" operator to designate the meaning. Such methods attempt an impossible "backward road" from denotation to meaning. Contemporary neo-Fregeans, however, have suggested that we can disambiguate with , rather than against , the grain, by using a notation that begins with expressions designating senses or meanings, and then alters them with a "the denotation of" operator to designate the denotation. I show that in his manuscripts of 1903–05, Russell both considered and rejected a similar notation along with the metaphysical suppositions underlying it. This discussion sheds light on the evolution of Russell's thought, and may yet be instructive for ongoing debates.
The Relationship Between Lifestyle Regularity and Subjective Sleep Quality

In previous work we have developed a diary instrument-the Social Rhythm Metric (SRM), which allows the assessment of lifestyle regularity-and a questionnaire instrument--the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), which allows the assessment of subjective sleep quality. The aim of the present study was to explore the relationship between lifestyle regularity and subjective sleep quality. Lifestyle regularity was assessed by both standard (SRM-17) and shortened (SRM-5) metrics; subjective sleep quality was assessed by the PSQI. We hypothesized that high lifestyle regularity would be conducive to better sleep. Both instruments were given to a sample of 100 healthy subjects who were studied as part of a variety of different experiments spanning a 9-yr time frame. Ages ranged from 19 to 49 yr (mean age: 31.2 yr, s.d.: 7.8 yr); there were 48 women and 52 men. SRM scores were derived from a two-week diary. The hypothesis was confirmed. There was a significant (rho = -0.4, p < 0.001) correlation between SRM (both metrics) and PSQI, indicating that subjects with higher levels of lifestyle regularity reported fewer sleep problems. This relationship was also supported by a categorical analysis, where the proportion of "poor sleepers" was doubled in the "irregular types" group as compared with the "non-irregular types" group. Thus, there appears to be an association between lifestyle regularity and good sleep, though the direction of causality remains to be tested.
Evidence for Physical Interaction between the Immunoglobulin Heavy Chain Variable Region and the 3′ Regulatory Region

B cell-specific expression of immunoglobulin heavy chain (IgH) genes utilizes two cis regulatory regions, the intronic enhancer (Emicro), located in the J(H)-Cmicro intron, and a complex regulatory region that lies 3' to the IgH gene cluster, 3' RR. We hypothesized that the 3' RR is involved in IgH gene transcription in plasma cells via physical interaction between distal 3' RR enhancers and target V(H) sequences, with loop formation by intervening DNA. In support of this hypothesis we report sequence data at DNA recombination breakpoints as evidence for loop formation preceding DNA inversion in a plasma cell line. In addition, using the chromosome conformation capture technique, physical interactions between V(H) and 3' RR were analyzed directly and detected in MPC11 plasma cells and variants and normal splenic B cells but not detected in splenic T cells or in non-B cells. V(H)-3' RR interactions were present in the absence of Emicro, but when the hs1,2 enhancer was replaced by a Neo(R) gene in a variant cell line lacking Emicro, H chain expression was lost, and interactions between V(H) and 3' RR and among the 3' RR regulators themselves were severely disrupted. In addition, the chromosome conformation capture technique detected interactions between the myc promoter and 3' RR elements in MPC11, which like other plasmacytomas contains a reciprocal translocation between the c-myc and the IgH locus. In sum, our data support a hypothesis that cis V(H)-3' RR and myc-3' RR interactions involve physical interactions between these DNA elements.
DNA-PROTEIN BINDING IN INTERPHASE CHROMOSOMES

The metachromatic dye, azure B, was analyzed by microspectrophotometry when bound to DNA fibers and DNA in nuclei with condensed and dispersed chromatin. The interaction of DNA and protein was inferred from the amount of metachromasy (increased s/α-peak) of azure B that resulted after specific removal of various protein fractions. Dye bound to DNA-histone fibers and frog liver nuclei fixed by freeze-methanol substitution shows orthochromatic, blue-green staining under specific staining conditions, while metachromasy (blue or purple color) results from staining DNA fibers without histone or tissue nuclei after protein removal. The dispersed chromatin of hepatocytes was compared to the condensed chromatin of erythrocytes to see whether there were differences in DNA-protein binding in "active" and "inactive" nuclei. Extraction of histones with 0.02 N HCl, acidified alcohol, perchloric acid, and trypsin digestion all resulted in increased dye binding. The amount of metachromasy varied, however; removal of "lysine-rich" histone (extractable with 0.02 N HCl) caused a blue color, and a purplish-red color (µ-peak absorption) resulted from prolonged trypsin digestion. In all cases, the condensed and the dispersed chromatin behaved in the same way, indicating the similarity of protein bound to DNA in condensed and dispersed chromatin. The results appear to indicate that "lysine-rich" histone is bound to adjacent anionic sites of a DNA molecule and that nonhistone protein is located between adjacent DNA molecules in both condensed and dispersed chromatin.
Rhodostreptomycins, Antibiotics Biosynthesized Following Horizontal Gene Transfer from Streptomyces padanus to Rhodococcus fascians

Two antibiotics have been isolated from a strain of Rhodococcus fascians that emerged from a competitive co-culture with Streptomyces padanus. The structures of these compounds were elucidated by d...
ApoA5 knockdown improves whole-body insulin sensitivity in high-fat-fed mice by reducing ectopic lipid content

ApoA5 has a critical role in the regulation of plasma TG concentrations. In order to determine whether ApoA5 also impacts ectopic lipid deposition in liver and skeletal muscle, as well as tissue insulin sensitivity, we treated mice with an antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) to decrease hepatic expression of ApoA5. ASO treatment reduced ApoA5 protein expression in liver by 60–70%. ApoA5 ASO-treated mice displayed approximately 3-fold higher plasma TG concentrations, which were associated with decreased plasma TG clearance. Furthermore, ApoA5 ASO-treated mice fed a high-fat diet (HFD) exhibited reduced liver and skeletal muscle TG uptake and reduced liver and muscle TG and diacylglycerol (DAG) content. HFD-fed ApoA5 ASO-treated mice were protected from HFD-induced insulin resistance, as assessed by hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamps. This protection could be attributed to increases in both hepatic and peripheral insulin responsiveness associated with decreased DAG activation of protein kinase C (PKC)-e and PKCθ in liver and muscle, respectively, and increased insulin-stimulated AKT2 pho­sphory­lation in these tissues. In summary, these studies demonstrate a novel role for ApoA5 as a modulator of susceptibility to diet-induced liver and muscle insulin resistance through regulation of ectopic lipid accumulation in liver and skeletal muscle.
An Extension of the Marcus Equation for Atom Transfer Reactions

The Marcus equation for electron transfer has been widely applied to atom transfer reactions, but the equation does not seem to work well for very endothermic or very exothermic reactions. In this paper, a modified model is proposed. The modified model assumes that the potential energy surface can be written as a sum of the potentials for the individual molecules and an intermolecular potential that keeps the reactants apart. The activation barrier predicted by the model is within 3 kcal/mol of that predicted by the Marcus electron transfer equation when −1 ≤ ΔHr/4E °≤ 1, where ΔHr is the heat of reaction and E ° is the intrinsic barrier. However, there are significant deviations when ΔHr/4E ° 1. The modified model predicts that the activation barrier should equal ΔHr/4E ° in the very endothermic limit, (i.e., ΔHr/4E ° > 1), while the Marcus electron transfer equation predicts that the activation energy, Ea, should diverge from ΔHr. Data shows that Ea approaches ΔHr. The modified ...
Free composite groin flap and vascularized external oblique aponeurosis for traumatic avulsion injuries of the foot.

Avulsion trauma to the dorsum of the foot is usually combined with skin and tendon loss. Five patients with such composite tissue loss were treated with composite free groin flaps including the external oblique aponeurosis based on the superficial circumflex iliac vessels. The groin flaps resurfaced the skin defect and the vascularized fascia was used to replace the absent extensor tendons in a single-stage reconstruction. All the composite free tissue transfers were successful. When compared with conventional treatments, the advantages of this technique are one-stage reconstruction, faster wound healing, and fewer adhesions of the reconstructed tendons
Dislocation morphology in graded heterojunctions: GaAs1−xPx

The details of the formation, propagation, interaction, and densities of misfit dislocations are combined into a simple model quantitatively predicting dislocation densities for both abrupt and graded heterojunctions. Three key concepts are introduced: (1) misfit dislocations are segmented; (2) accordingly, they must give rise to a density of inclined dislocations, n I, that propagate through the growing layer; and (3) these inclined dislocations can bend in and out of any subsequently formed misfit plane to relieve the strain, and when bent in, serve as strain-relieving misfit dislocations. Thus, the value of n I is expected to remain constant with thickness. Also, n I is predicted to vary directly with the compositional gradient at the heterojunction. It is pointed out that there are two general classes of misfit dislocations, pure-edge and mixed and that their intersections, which cause the misfit dislocations to appear to bend within their plane, can be simply classified into three general types. Transmission electron microscopy was used for a comprehensive study of dislocations in a series of GaAs1−xPx heterojunctions prepared by a vapour phase growth technique. The main features of the above model were corroborated. The value of n I was found to be constant with growth distance as postulated, and in quantitative agreement with prediction, n I decreased from 4 × 107 cm−2 to 106 cm−2 as the compositional gradient decreased from 5% phosphorus/μm to 0.2% phosphorus/μm. Note that these values can far exceed the dislocation density of the substrates. Of particular significance, the inclined dislocations n I were found to propagate through a constant-composition region grown on top of a compositionally graded region, so that formation of the heterojunction must affect subsequently grown layers. Finally, it is shown that the misfit dislocations are, indeed, a combination of pure-edge and mixed, and all three postulated general interactions between these dislocations are shown to occur.
On a kinetic equation for and the dynamical friction of a particle in a plasma-a phenomenological approach

Based on phenomenological considerations, a one particle distribution function consisting of two parts accounting for the effects of “distant” particles and the “nearest” neighbors is suggested. Employing the above distribution function and the Liouville theorem, dynamical friction of a particle in, and a kinetic equation for a plasma are demonstrated.
The evolution of fibrin-specific targeting strategies

Fibrin-specific targeting capabilities have been highly sought for over 50 years due to their implications for bio-molecule delivery, diagnostics, and regenerative medicine. Yet only recently has our full knowledge of fibrin's complex polymerization dynamics and biological interactions begun to be fully exploited in pursuit of this goal. This highlight will discuss the range of rapidly changing strategies for specifically targeting fibrin over the precursor fibrinogen and the advantages and disadvantages of these approaches for various applications.
ReaxFF Reactive Force-Field Modeling of the Triple-Phase Boundary in a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell

In our study, the Ni/YSZ ReaxFF reactive force field was developed by combining the YSZ and Ni/C/H descriptions. ReaxFF reactive molecular dynamics (RMD) were applied to model chemical reactions, diffusion, and other physicochemical processes at the fuel/Ni/YSZ interface. The ReaxFF RMD simulations were performed on the H_2/Ni/YSZ and C_4H_(10)/Ni/YSZ triple-phase boundary (TPB) systems at 1250 and 2000 K, respectively. The simulations indicate amorphization of the Ni surface, partial decohesion (delamination) at the interface, and coking, which have indeed all been observed experimentally. They also allowed us to derive the mechanism of the butane conversion at the Ni/YSZ interface. Many steps of this mechanism are similar to the pyrolysis of butane. The products obtained in our simulations are the same as those in experiment, which indicates that the developed ReaxFF potential properly describes complex physicochemical processes, such as the oxide-ion diffusion, fuel conversion, water formation reaction, coking, and delamination, occurring at the TPB and can be recommended for further computational studies of the fuel/electrode/electrolyte interfaces in a SOFC.
Age as a diagnostic of stratospheric transport

Estimates of stratospheric age from observations of long-lived trace gases with increasing tropospheric concentrations invoke the implicit assumption that an air parcel has been transported intact from the tropopical tropopause. However, because of rapid and irreversible mixing in the stratosphere, a particular air parcel cannot be identified with one that left the troposphere at some prior time. The parcel contains a mix of air with a range of transit times, and the mean value over this range is the most appropriate definition of age. The measured tracer concentration is also a mean over the parcel, but its value depends both on the transit time distribution and the past history of the tracer in the troposphere. In principle, only if the tropospheric concentration is increasing linearly can the age be directly inferred. We illustrate these points by employing both a one-dimensional diffusive analog of stratospheric transport, and the general circulation model (GCM) of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). Within the limits of the GCM, we estimate the time over which tropospheric tracer concentrations must be approximately linear in order to determine stratospheric age unambiguously; the concentration of an exponentially increasing tracer is a function only of age if the growth time constant is greater than about 7 years, which is true for all the chlorofluorocarbons. More rapid source variations (for example, the annual cycle in CO2) have no such direct relationship with age.
The Place of Foreign Languages in Post‐War Education

(Author's summary.-The author predicts three developments in foreign language study. First, Increased interest in regional studies of foreign cultures, both ancient and modern. Second, The construction of courses in elementary linguistics in an effort to raise the nation's knowledge of language in general and English in particular. Third, An effort to make foreign language study and teaching a vital part of general education.)
Quantitative gas-liquid chromatography of triglycerides

To determine optimum operating conditions, an extensive study was made of the variables affecting quantitative recovery and resolution of model triglyceride mixtures. Parameters investigated included: flash heater temperature, carrier gas flow rate, type of carrier gas, column length, glass and metal columns, temperature program rate, linearity of detector response, physical design of gas chromatograph, and molecular species of triglyceride. Results indicate that with optimum operating conditions, triglyceride molecular weights through trierucin can be quantitatively analyzed. Accurate calibration is essential, since quantitative response factors vary somewhat with operating conditions, triglyceride carbon number, and the chromatograph used. Cocoa butter and rat adipose tissue triglycerides have been quantitatively analyzed by this technique.
Foveal Cone Electroretinograms in Retinitis Pigmentosa and Juvenile Macular Degeneration

Foveal cone electroretinograms were elicited with a hand-held stimulator-ophthalmoscope from 16 patients with retinitis pigmentosa and 17 patients with juvenile macular degeneration. Among 11 patients with retinitis pigmentosa and visual acuities of 6/9 (20/30) or better, eight had foveal cone ERGs that were normal in amplitude and b-wave implicit time; all five patients tested with visual acuities of 6/12 (20/40) to 6/18 (20/60) had foveal cone ERGs that were reduced in amplitude and normal in implicit time. All patients with juvenile macular degeneration and visual acuities of 6/15 (20/50) or worse showed subnormal amplitudes with normal or delayed implicit times, or responses indistinguishable from noise. Amplitudes tended to be smaller and delays greater among patients with juvenile macular degeneration and visual acuities of 6/60 (20/200) or worse.
Microtus californicus (Rodentia: Cricetidae)

Microtus californicus (Peale, 1848) is a cricetid commonly called the California vole or California meadow mouse. A sexually dimorphic, medium-sized vole, M. californicus is 1 of 62 species in the genus Microtus. It is found in the interior valleys of southwestern Oregon, most of California, and northern Baja California, Mexico. M. californicus is found in a wide range of habitats from arid uplands to wet meadows and salt marshes. Several subspecies are listed as of conservation concern; the Amargosa vole, M. c. scirpensis, is listed as federally endangered.