cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Potassium 1,3,4,6-tetra­nitro-2,5-di­aza­pentalene

The structure of the potassium salt of the dianion of 1,3,4,6-tetra­nitro-2,5-di­aza­pentalene is reported, viz. 2 K+·C6N6O82−. Only three atoms of the central 2,5-di­aza­pentalene skeleton are unique, as the anion possesses 2/m symmetry. The potassium cation is nine-coordinate, forming K—O and K—N bonds to five different 1,3,4,6-tetra­nitro-2,5-di­aza­pentalene anions.
Coupled implant-defined vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser arrays

Evanescently-coupled 2-dimensional VCSEL arrays are fabricated by defining multiple implant apertures. We demonstrate coupling of multiple apertures and develop a coherence theory of laser coupling.
The perplexed and confused mutations affect distinct stages during the transition from proliferating to post-mitotic cells within the zebrafish retina.

To identify and study genes essential for vertebrate retinal development, we are screening zebrafish embryos for mutations that disrupt retinal histogenesis. Key steps in retinogenesis include withdrawal from mitosis by multipotent neuroepithelial cells, specification to particular cell types, migration to the appropriate laminar positions, and molecular and morphological differentiation. In this study, we have identified two recessive mutations that affect the transition of proliferating neuroepithelial cells to postmitotic retinal cells. Both the perplexed and confused mutant phenotypes were initially detectable when the first retinal neuroepithelial cells began to leave the cell cycle. At this time, each mutant retina showed increased cell death and a lack of morphological differentiation. Cell death was found to be apoptotic in both perplexed and confused retinas based on TUNEL analysis and activation of caspase-3. TUNEL-phosphoRb-BrdU colocalization studies indicated that the perplexed mutation caused death in cells transitioning from a proliferative to postmitotic state. For the confused mutation, TUNEL-phosphoRb-BrdU analysis revealed that only a subset of postmitotic cells were induced to activate apoptosis. Mosaic analysis demonstrated that within the retina the perplexed mutation functions noncell-autonomously. Furthermore, whole lens or eye cup transplantations indicated that the retinal defect was intrinsic to the retina. Mosaic analysis with confused embryos showed this mutation acts cell-autonomously. From these studies, we conclude that the perplexed and confused genes are essential at distinct stages during the transition from proliferating to postmitotic cells within the zebrafish retina.
Synthesis, structure, and reactivity of a new Ti-containing microporous/mesoporous material.

A new class of porous, mixed phase titanosilicate materials containing a microporous TS-1 phase and a mesoporous Ti-MCM-48 phase has been successfully synthesized. A novel, one-pot synthesis method was used in which the organic templates for the mesoporous and microporous phases were added sequentially to the same reaction mixture, followed by crystallization at 150 °C. The gemini surfactant 18-12-18 was used to form the Ti-MCM-48 mesophase; subsequent addition of tetrapropylammonium cation (TPA+) led to the formation of TS-1. The relative amounts of the two phases within the final products were controlled by optimizing the crystallization time. Crystallization times between 12 and 50 h gave materials containing both phases, with an increasing amount of microphase formed at longer crystallization times. These materials, called “Ti-MMM-2” (microporous/mesoporous materials) were characterized using powder XRD, N2 physisorption, TEM, FTIR, DR-UV/Vis spectroscopy, and 29Si MAS NMR. In the epoxidation of cyclo...
Coating techniques used in target fabrication

Abstract A review of coating techniques used to fabricate targets and experimental components is presented. Coating techniques include physical vapor deposition, chemical vapor deposition, electroplating and dip coating. In all cases the substrate or mandrel material is removed from the coating to result in the final part.
Tuberous sclerosis complex and polycystic kidney disease together: An exception to the contiguous gene syndrome

Tuberous sclerosis complex and polycystic kidney disease together: An exception to the contiguous gene syndrome
Reconstitution of functional hemocyanin from apohemocyanin: The hepatopancreas as copper donor

Abstract 1. 1. Apohemocyanin was prepared from hemocyanin of the spiny lobster, Panulirus interruptus . 2. 2. The hepatopancreas of the lobster, which contains 75 per cent of the animal's total copper, was centrifugally fractionated and the supernatant, which contains 90 per cent of the copper of the homogenate, was used as a copper donor for reconstitution of functional hemocyanin from apohemocyanin. 3. 3. Reconstitution occurred at pH's 5, 6 and 7. 4. 4. A low molecular weight fraction of the hepatopancreas supernatant fraction was the source of the copper. 5. 5. Copper replacement by the hepatopancreatic supernatant is non-enzymatic. 6. 6. Copper sulfate was also used to reconstitute hemocyanin. 7. 7. The reconstituted hemocyanin exhibited oxygen-binding characteristics identical to those of the native molecule.
Impact of Prior Perinatal Loss on Subsequent Pregnancies

Objective To evaluate the influence of previous perinatal loss on depressive symptoms, pregnancy‐specific anxiety, and prenatal attachment for parents during subsequent pregnancies. Design Cross‐sectional, survey design. Participants Forty expectant couples who experienced a prior perinatal loss. Measures Influence of loss (Impact of Event Scale [IES]), depressive symptoms (Center for Epidemiologic Studies–Depression Scale [CES‐D]), pregnancy‐specific anxiety (Pregnancy Outcome Questionnaire [POQ]), and prenatal attachment (Prenatal Attachment Inventory [PAI]). Results Mothers reported higher levels of depressive symptoms, pregnancy‐specific anxiety, and prenatal attachment than fathers did. Forty‐five percent of mothers and 23% of fathers had CES‐D scores greater than or equal to 16 indicating high risk for depression. Eighty‐eight percent of mothers and 90% of fathers reported elevated stress related to the prior loss (IES scores greater than or equal to 19). The impact of the previous perinatal loss was moderately correlated with depressive symptoms as well as pregnancy‐specific anxiety. There was no relationship between the psychological distress in pregnancy after perinatal loss and prenatal attachment. Conclusions The extent to which the impact of the prior loss increased parents' stress in the current pregnancy influenced their psychological distress. These findings should heighten awareness of the mixture of hope and fear expectant parents experience during pregnancies subsequent to perinatal loss.
The Role of Status in Producing Depressed Entitlement in Women's and Men's Pay Allocations

Extensive empirical evidence confirms a depressed entitlement effect wherein women pay themselves less than men for comparable work and believe the allocation fair. The present study tests the hypothesis that status subordination linked to being female underlies at least some of this effect. A 2 × 3 design crossed 180 undergraduates' gender with a control condition, which successfully established the depressed entitlement effect, and two experimental conditions. In one, women's status was enhanced through legitimation of women's task abilities; in the other, both women's and men's status was enhanced by adding educational credentials relevant to task ability. Follow-up analyses of the significant interaction revealed that the gap in self-pay demonstrated in the control condition disappeared when women's status was enhanced such that higher-status women's self-pay equaled that of men and exceeded that of control women. Although these findings confirm that status plays a role in producing depressed entitlem...
Embryo freezing to prevent ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome.

Abstract One of the primary goals of ART is to achieve some degree of supraphysiologic ovarian stimulation. Too vigorous a response can lead to ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS), which is potentially life threatening. The incidence of severe OHSS is low, yet global proliferation of ART suggests that the absolute number of cases will be increasing. The clinical course of OHSS is more severe in patients who conceive. Should gonadotropin therapy induce too great a response, OHSS can best be prevented via cycle cancellation and withholding HCG. An alternative, which would not forfeit oocyte retrieval, is to perform elective cryopreservation of all resulting pre-embryos. This requires a strategy to identify patients at risk accurately. Several centers have bypassed fresh embryo transfer to lessen the risk of OHSS. By consensus it appears that this approach reduces but does not eliminate the risk of severe OHSS. Chances of pregnancy are excellent in subsequent cryo–thaw transfers.
Analysis of continuous sandwich panels in building systems

Abstract Applying the flexibility method with suitable compatibility conditions, an extended theory involving integro-differential and ordinary differential equations are developed to analyze multi-span architectural sandwich panels. Experimental and theoretical data are in good agreement.
Coarse-sediment distribution as evidence of an elevation limit for flash flooding, Bear Creek, Colorado

Bear Creek is a tributary of the South Platte River in central Colorado. The stream flows east from an elevation of 4348 m at the Continental Divide to the mountain front at 1670 m. It thus encompasses the 2300 m elevation limit for substantial rainfall flooding in the Colorado Front Range proposed by Jarrett. Maximum paleoflood discharges estimated from flood deposits at four sites along Bear Creek demonstrate a consistent decrease in unit discharge with increasing elevation and support the hypothesis of an upper elevation limit for rainfall floods. The unit discharge values were used to explain coarse-sediment distribution along Bear Creek. Measurements of coarse-grained channel sediment at 19 sites along the creek indicate a decrease in particle size in flood deposits with increasing elevation, as well as a decrease in the size of clasts introduced to the main channel along tributaries. These changes in grain size are hypothesized to reflect changes in the competence of channel transport as a result of snowmelt-dominated versus rainfall-dominated discharge regimes above and below 2100 m elevation. Calculations of flow competence versus entrainment thresholds for the deposits may support this interpretation. One of the geomorphic implications of the elevation limit on flash flooding is a reversal of the usual downstream-fining trend in coarse channel sediments.
Simultaneous calorimetric and respirometric measurements on plant tissues

Abstract Simultaneous measurements of the rates of heat production, CO 2 production, and O 2 utilization by living plant tissues provide a useful means of determining metabolic efficiencies and detecting and quantifying changes in the metabolic pathways active in the tissues. This paper describes a convenient, simple method for simultaneously measuring metabolic heat rate and the rate of CO 2 production directly in the calorimetric reaction vessel. The method requires only a slight modification of existing, commercially available, heat conduction calorimeters. Calorimetric measurement of the rate of heat production by reaction of CO 2 with a base is used to obtain CO 2 production rates. The detection limit for CO 2 production is 50 picomole/second, which is similar to the detection limits reported for commercially available respirometers of various types.
Translocation of 4S and 5S forms of estrogen-receptors into rat liver nuclei in vitro

Summary We report the temperature-dependent translocation of cytoplasmic estrogen-receptor complexes into purified rat liver nuclei in vitro . In contrast to uteri cytosol which translocates only 5S forms of the uterine cytoplasmic receptor into nuclei, liver nuclei contain both 4S and 5S complexes following incubation with [3H]-labeled liver cytosolic fractions at 29°C. Data suggests that the liver 4S nuclear form may represent activated receptor. Thus a shift in the sedimentation coefficient from 4S to 5S may not be obligatory to estrogen receptor activation and subsequent nuclear retention of the complex in this tissue.
The relationship between somatic and cognitive-affective depression symptoms and error-related ERPs.

Abstract Background The symptoms that contribute to the clinical diagnosis of depression likely emerge from, or are related to, underlying cognitive deficits. To understand this relationship further, we examined the relationship between self-reported somatic and cognitive-affective Beck׳s Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) symptoms and aspects of cognitive control reflected in error event-related potential (ERP) responses. Methods Task and assessment data were analyzed within 51 individuals. The group contained a broad distribution of depressive symptoms, as assessed by BDI-II scores. ERPs were collected following error responses within a go/no-go task. Individual error ERP amplitudes were estimated by conducting group independent component analysis (ICA) on the electroencephalographic (EEG) time series and analyzing the individual reconstructed source epochs. Source error amplitudes were correlated with the subset of BDI-II scores representing somatic and cognitive-affective symptoms. Results We demonstrate a negative relationship between somatic depression symptoms (i.e. fatigue or loss of energy) (after regressing out cognitive-affective scores, age and IQ) and the central–parietal ERP response that peaks at 359 ms. The peak amplitudes within this ERP response were not significantly related to cognitive-affective symptom severity (after regressing out the somatic symptom scores, age, and IQ). Limitations These findings were obtained within a population of female adults from a maximum-security correctional facility. Thus, additional research is required to verify that they generalize to the broad population. Conclusions These results suggest that individuals with greater somatic depression symptoms demonstrate a reduced awareness of behavioral errors, and help clarify the relationship between clinical measures of self-reported depression symptoms and cognitive control.
The taxonomic status of Polystachya foliosa (orchidaceae) in The Bahama Islands

Polystachya foliosa is lectotypified and a new triandrous variety of it is described from the Bahama Islands and Cuba.
Short-term selection for the interaction between S-propranolol and ethanol in mice.

Background: We have previously demonstrated that there is an interaction between S-propranolol, a β-adrenergic blocking agent, and ethanol on the hypnotic sensitivity of inbred short- and long-sleep mice (ISS and ILS). We found that the interaction was due to an additive hypothermic effect of ethanol and S-propranolol that markedly decreased the disappearance rate of ethanol. There was no discernible effect of S-propranolol on the hypnotic actions of ethanol as evidenced by the waking blood ethanol levels. Because ISS mice were more sensitive to this effect than were ILS mice, it seemed that there was a genetic effect to the response. Therefore, we carried out a short-term breeding project to determine whether the response could be selectively bred. Methods: We used the heterogeneous stock of mice from the Institute for Behavioral Genetics to carry out the selection study. The index for selection was the difference in sleep time between the same animal treated with propranolol and ethanol versus treatment with saline and ethanol at least 1 week apart. Results: In four generations, we were able to achieve separation between mice with a large difference in sleep time (high line) from those with a smaller difference in sleep (low line) time. There was no difference between the average blood ethanol at awakening in the high line versus the low line. The effect was not due to a difference in rate of propranolol metabolism between the two lines. Sleep time with ethanol alone was not different between the high and low lines. Conclusions: The magnitude of the interaction between ethanol and S-propranolol is controlled by alleles with polymorphisms present in the HS stock of mice. The response is most likely due to a difference in the mechanisms of thermogenesis controlled by the β-adrenergic receptors in muscle and fat. Because there were no sleep time differences between the high and low lines given ethanol alone, central nervous system sensitivity to ethanol is not a correlated response to the selection.
Dermatologic Formularies in the Managed Care Setting

Formularies and formulary systems are not a new concept in medical practice. In this country, they have been used in selected settings since the Revolutionary War and formal guidelines were published in 1933. They are in essence a collection of prescribing policies of physicians in a particular practice setting. Formularies are administered by a system in which medical staff members working through a pharmacy and therapeutics (P&T) committee recommend, evaluate, appraise, and select drugs to be included in the medication list. The system also develops, maintains, and enforces policies regarding how restrictive the process will be and what methods will be used to ensure compliance and verify that educational and quality standards are met. 1,2
The power of explicit congestion notification

Despite the fact that Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) demonstrated a clear potential to substantially improve network performance, recent network measurements reveal an extremely poor usage of this option in today's Internet. In this paper, we analyze the roots of this phenomenon and develop a set of novel incentives to encourage network providers, end-hosts, and web servers to apply ECN.Initially, we examine a fundamental drawback of the current ECN specification, and demonstrate that the absence of ECN indications in TCP control packets can dramatically hinder system performance. While security reasons primarily prevent the usage of ECN bits in TCP SYN packets, we show that applying ECN to TCP SYN ACK packets can significantly improve system performance without introducing any novel security or stability side-effects. Our network experiments on a cluster of web servers show a dramatic performance improvement over the existing ECN specification: throughput increases by more than 40%, while the average web response-time simultaneously decreases by nearly an order of magnitude.In light of the above finding, using large-scale simulations, modeling, and network experiments, we re-investigate the relevance of ECN, and provide a set of practical recommendations and insights: (i) ECN systematically improves the performance of all investigated AQM schemes; contrary to common belief, this particularly holds for RED. (ii) The impact of ECN is highest for web-only traffic mixes such that even a generic AQM algorithm with ECN support outperforms all non-ECN-enabled AQM schemes that we investigated. (iii) Primarily due to moderate queuing levels, the superiority of ECN over other AQM mechanisms largely holds for high-speed backbone routers, even in more general traffic scenarios. (iv) End-hosts that apply ECN can exercise the above performance benefits instantly, without waiting for the entire Internet community to support the option.
POLG mutation in a patient with cataracts, early-onset distal muscle weakness and atrophy, ovarian dysgenesis and 3-methylglutaconic aciduria

Abstract Mutations in POLG account for one of the most frequent nuclear encoded causes of mitochondrial disorders to date. Individuals harboring POLG mutations exhibit fairly heterogeneous clinical presentations leading to increasing difficulties in classifying these patients into defined clinical phenotypes. This study aims to investigate the molecular basis of a mitochondrial cytopathy in a patient with 3-methylglutaconic aciduria and to expand the clinical phenotype associated with POLG mutations. Clinical, molecular and genetic analyses as well as neurophysiological examinations were carried out for a 23-year-old woman of mixed Caucasian and Latin American ancestry with a history of cataracts diagnosed at age 1year, she had onset of distal muscle weakness at age 2years progressing to atrophy and ovarian dysgenesis at puberty. The patient was found to have 3-methylglutaconic acid with normal 3 hydroxyisovaleric acid on urine organic acid analysis. POLG sequencing was done and a heterozygous variant, c.2851T>A (p.Y951N) was found which is predicted to be deleterious. There are limited reports of POLG mutations in individuals with 3-methylglutaconic aciduria. This case report of a young woman with a heterozygous mutation in POLG , presenting with muscle weakness and atrophy at a young age aims to aid clinicians in similar challenging diagnostic situations as well as enhances our understanding of POLG -related disease phenotypes.
Nematic polymers: Excluded-volume effects

We present a theoretical model which describes a cooperative helix–coil liquid-crystal phase transition. We show that this model predicts a first-order phase transition where certain types of chainlike macromolecules in solution make a transition from a nearly coiled to a nearly rigid conformation accompanied by a simultaneous development of long-range nematic-type liquid crystalline orientational order. From this model, the phase boundaries between nematic and isotropic phases are obtained as functions of concentration of macromolecules and of other physical parameters.
The effect of gas transport on the isotope signature of methane in wetlands

Abstract This paper reviews the 13 C isotopic fractionations of the three main modes of CH 4 transport from wetlands: diffusion, ebullition and via emergent aquatic plants. Aquatic plants employ either diffusion or a combination of convective bulk flow in daylight and diffusion at night. Ebullition and diffusion across the air–water interface result in no to little isotopic fractionation. However, diffusion through air when conducted by plant lacunae or aerenchyma results in significantly greater rates of transport for 12 CH 4 relative to 13 CH 4 . This difference causes the backup of 13 C-enriched CH 4 in plant lacunae, which partly but not totally compensates for the isotopic fractionation out of the plant. It is also suggested that the preferential plant transport of 12 CH 4 causes 13 C enrichment of methane in the rhizosphere but it is difficult to separate the effects of rhizospheric methane oxidation from this process. Convective bulk flow transport via plants results in little isotopic fractionation. However, the pattern of fractionation differs significantly in convective plants from day to night as diffusion is more important in darkness.
Evaluation of the coupled multielectrode array sensor as a real-time corrosion monitor

Coupled multielectrode array sensors made of carbon steel and stainless steels were evaluated and compared with electrochemical noise (EN) sensors. Good correlations between sensor signals and solution corrosivity were observed for all multielectrode array sensors. Some correlation between the average pit index and solution corrosivity was observed for the carbon steel EN sensors, but not for the stainless steel EN sensors. The time-average noise resistances from the stainless steel EN sensors correlate well with solution corrosivity. There were, however, large random fluctuations and drifting for all EN signals, which make the EN sensors unreliable as real-time monitors.
Cortical visual evoked response in children with learning disorders.

A family of poor readers is shown to have attenuation of the visual evoked response (VER) in the left parietal area. Studies of two samples of poor readers, and a sample of children with contrasting verbal-performance discrepancies on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale also show significant relationships between verbal skills and the late components of the VER. The strongest VER amplitude correlations occur in the left parietal area. Children with verbal-performance discrepancies also show some highly significant latency effects in the late waves of the VER.
Benefits and costs of controlling rangeland grasshoppers (Orthoptera: Acrididae) with exotic organisms: search for a null hypothesis and regulatory compromise

The rebuttal of Lockwood (1993, Environ. Entomol. 22:503–518) by Carruthers & Onsager (1993, Environ. Entomol. 22:[in press]) focuses on the elements of cost-benefit analysis and regulatory policy. I present the case that “native” has ecological, evolutionary, ethical, and legal meaning (hence the term neoclassical biological control is justified). In comparing the costs and benefits of grasshoppers (using only conditional values), the argument that costs of widespread damage and control exceed the benefits interms of sustained ecological and economic productivity is not supported by available data, whether we consider the interests of the rancher or the public. Moreover, when unconditional values are included, neoclassical control of rangeland grasshoppers becomes indefensible. Contrary to selected evidence presented by Carruthers & Onsager (1993), existing data show that native biological control agents are as or more effective in population regulation than the exotic agents. Host ranges of the exotic organisms are essentially unknown given the quality and quantity of available data, so ecological safety assurances are unfounded. A careful review of the data used to demonstrate the probability of success by the proposed exotic agents clearly demonstrates that these organisms have a very lowlikelihood of economic or ecological benefit. The essential ecological differences between various forms of biological control must be addressed in terms of regulatory policies and procedures. Existing federal laws may be sufficient to protect the agricultural and environmental interests of western rangeland, but only if these laws are interpreted and enforced from a sound ecological basis.
Radar signatures of terrain: Useful monitors of renewable resources

The development and utilization of techniques for civilian-oriented satellite remote sensing of the earth began in the early 1960's with the launch and operation of meteorological and weather satellites. Among the numerous sensing systems that have since been transported into space for experimental and operational purposes, the four satellites in the Landsat series have played a leading role in establishing remote sensing as an integral natural resource management tool in today's technological society. The Landsat systems-three of which were placed in orbit in the 1970's, and one in 1982-were equipped with multispectral optical scanners designed primarily for land applications. Despite their usefulness in a wide variety of geoscientific applications, the optical scanners do, nevertheless, have their limitations; the most serious of these is their inability to provide information about the surface of the earth when obscured by cloud cover. In the field of remote sensing, the decade of the 1980's will witness a new generation of space sensors; chief among them will be the synthetic-aperture radar (SAR). In addition to its cloud cover penetration capabilities, the SAR possesses many attributes in terms of its electro-magnetic response to surface features. As a result, the use of radar imagery, together with optical imagery, is expected to yield both greater amounts of and more accurate information about the earth's surface than has hitherto been possible. This paper endeavors to provide a general overview of the backscattering behavior of terrain surfaces, and to examine the potential use of radar in the monitoring of renewable resources.
Selective-pole switching of long double-circuit EHV line

This paper develops the joint use of several new concepts for improving stability, reliability, and safety of a double-circuit three-phase EHV line: 1. Use of selective-pole switching; that is, only the faulted conductors are opened and reclosed. 2. Exclusive use of that arrangement of conductors that gives the least current to ground from a large vehicle capacitively coupled to the line: like phases are in diagonally opposite positions. 3. Use of bank of 3 shunt capacitors and 9 shunt reactors for neutralizing the 15 interconductor capacitances and thereby eliminating the shunt capacitive coupling that tends to maintain the secondary fault arc. 4. Sectionalizing the faulted conductor or conductors into two or more longitudinal sections by remote-controlled switches in order to reduce the longitudinal resistive-inductive coupling that also tends to maintain the secondary fault arc. These concepts are illustrated by applying all of them to a simulated 735-kV, heavily loaded, 200-mile line having 6 bundles of 4 Chukar conductors each.
MOTHERS'LANGUAGE AND INFANT SENSORIMOTOR DEVELOPMENT: IS THERE A RELATIONSHIP?1

An investigation was made of the language of three mothers to their infants between the ages of two months and eight months in order to chronicle pragmatic changes in the mothers' language as the infants progressed from Piaget's Stage 2 (primary circular reactions) to Stage 3 (secondary circular reactions) of sensorimotor development. Results indicated that the mothers modified their speech to their infants when the babies began to display primarily Stage 3 behaviors. That is, a greater proportion of their speech referred to the child interacting with objects, while their references to the child alone decreased. They used a greater proportion of meaningful utterances and more reference in their speech. A decrease in the use of language to maintain interaction with the infant and an increase in its use to regulate the child's behavior or teach the child was noticed. Finally, the mothers used less repetition as their infants entered Stage 3. These language modifications would not be apparent in an analysis limited to syntactic or semantic aspects.
Technical Testing and Evaluation of Biometric Identification Devices

Although the technical evaluation of biometric identification devices has a history spanning over two decades, it is only now that a general consensus on test and reporting measures and methodologies is developing in the scientific community. By “technical evaluation”, we mean the measurement of the five parameters generally of interest to engineers and physical scientists: false match and false non-match rates, binning error rate, penetration coefficient and transaction times. Additional measures, such as “failure to enroll” or “failure to acquire”, indicative of the percentage of the general population unable to use any particular biometric method, are also important. We have not included in this chapter measures of more interest to social scientists, such as user perception and acceptability. Most researchers now accept the “Receiver Operating Characteristic” (ROC) curve as the appropriate measure of the application-dependent technical performance of any biometric identification device. Further, we now agree that the error rates illustrated in the ROC must be normalized to be independent of the database size and other “accept/reject” decision parameters of the test. This chapter discusses the general approach to application-dependent, decision-policy independent testing and reporting of technical device performance and gives an example of one practical test. System performance prediction based on test results is also discussed.
Activating a Repressor

A factor implicated in autism spectrum disorders can both suppress and activate the expression of genes involved in neurodevelopment.
The effects of pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls and metals on the growth and reproduction of Acanthamoeba castellanii.

The effects of pollutants (pesticides, PCB and metals) were studied in the free-living amoeba, Acanthamoeba castellanii. Eight pesticides were used--the insecticides dieldrin, aldrin and sevin, and the herbicides linuron, stam F-34, IPC, atrazine and simazine. It was shown that the sensitivity of A. castellanii to pesticides varied greatly. The population growth was inhibited by linuron, stam F-34, IPC, sevin and atrazine at a level of 10 mg/l. The polychlorinated biphenyl, Arochor 1254, had no significant effect at a concentration of 0.01 mg/l (10 ppb). The studies with metal ions showed that A. castellanii was unaffected by moderately high levels of Cu and Zn, but was sensitive to the presence of Pb and mercuric ions.
A semilocal holographic minimal model

We present a conjecture on the complete spectrum of single-trace operators in the infinite $N$ limit of ${W}_{N}$ minimal model and evidence for the conjecture. We further propose that the holographic dual of ${W}_{N}$ minimal model in the 't Hooft limit is an unusual ``semilocal'' higher spin gauge theory on ${\mathrm{AdS}}_{3}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{S}^{1}$. At each point on the ${S}^{1}$ lives a copy of three-dimensional Vasiliev theory, that contains an infinite tower of higher spin gauge fields coupled to a single massive complex scalar propagating in ${\mathrm{AdS}}_{3}$. The Vasiliev theories at different points on the ${S}^{1}$ are correlated only through the ${\mathrm{AdS}}_{3}$ boundary conditions on the massive scalars. All but one single tower of higher spin symmetries are broken by the boundary conditions.
Adolescent literacy: Charting a course for successful futures as lifelong learners

Abstract A brief history of the adolescent literacy movement is provided and the suggestion is made that the next step in the evolution of this conceptualization is the need to extend it into how we approach curriculum development. Two issues that will impact adolescent literacy curriculum development and help us chart our course toward making adolescents lifelong learners, globalization and adolescent identity, are then discussed. It is suggested that the articles in this special issue will begin to help us think about what exactly that course for success will be.
Hypoglycemic effects of brassinosteroid in diet-induced obese mice

The prevalence of obesity is increasing globally, and obesity is a major risk factor for metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes. Previously, we reported that oral administration of homobrassino...
Selection for pollination success and the mechanical fit of Impatiens flowers around bumblebee bodies

Selection on flowers has often been viewed as being particularly strict, constant, and responsible for species differences. 1mpaliens pallida and I. capensis flowers fit snugly around bees, leading one to expect a close relationship between floral morphology and pollination success. My studies on the amount of pollen removed from androecia and deposited on stigmas in single visits by bumblebees did not confirm this supposition. Trimming off parts of the floral vestibule with scissors and gluing in pleats had very little effect on the amount of pollen that bees moved. In reciprocal transfer experiments, flowers from different populations sometimes differed in the amount of pollen moved, but when the two species were compared in sympatry, pollen removal and deposition differed hardly at all. A comparison of the relationship between pollen movement and floral morphology among 15 populations showed that, although there was great heterogeneity in the amount of pollen moved, the observed differences were independent of floral morphology. None of this supports a belief in strong selection that fine-tunes the mechanical fit between bee and flower; selection for visitation success based on pollinator behaviour may have a much stronger influence on floral characters.
GENETICS OF SOFT TISSUE TUMORS

Sarcomas form a highly diverse group of rare tumors that are derived from connective tissue. More than 100 different malignant and benign soft tissue neoplasms can be recognized by histologic examination. Few diagnostic markers exist, and the cell of origin for many soft tissue tumors is unknown. The accurate diagnosis of many of these tumors therefore remains a challenge. The study of sarcomas has yielded many insights that can be applied to other neoplasms such as carcinoma. For example, the success of the treatment of gastrointestinal stromal tumor with Imatinib has led to an increased effort to find targeted therapies for other malignancies. Here we describe the known molecular changes in a number of sarcomas and focus on novel scientific approaches that can be expected to lead to improved diagnosis, prognostication, and therapy of sarcoma.
Impact of pattern of admission on outcomes after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage

Objective: Patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) require management in centers with neurosurgical expertise necessitating emergent interhospital transfer (IHT). Our objective was to compare outcomes in aSAH IHTs to our institution with aSAH admissions from our institutional emergency department (ED). Methods: Data for consecutive patients with aSAH admitted to Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions between 1991 and 2009 were analyzed from a prospectively obtained database. We compared inhospital mortality and functional outcomes at first clinical appointment post-aSAH (30-120 days) using dichotomized Glasgow Outcome Scale (good outcome: Glasgow Outcome Scale 4-5) in ED admissions with IHTs. Results: A total of 1134 consecutive patients with aSAH were included in analysis (ED 40.1%, IHT 59.9%). Direct ED admissions had a higher incidence of poor Hunt and Hess grade (4/5) and major medical comorbidities, with no significant differences between the 2 groups in age, intraventricular hemorrhage, and hydrocephalus. In-hospital mortality for ED admissions (14.9%) was significantly lower than that for IHTs (20.5%), with 1.8 times greater adjusted odds of survival after multivariate analysis (P = .001). Emergency department admissions had nearly 2-fold greater odds of good outcomes (odds ratio, 1.89; P b .001) after multivariate analysis. Conclusions: Our institutional ED SAH admissions had significantly better outcomes than did IHTs, suggesting that delays in optimizing care before transfer could deleteriously impact outcomes.
Using one-dimensional finite element analysis to estimate differential pressure of renal artery stenoses

A study was conducted to evaluate the ability of a simple one-dimensional (1D) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model to identify a hemodynamically significant renal artery stenosis by predicting pressure loss and flow rate across a renal artery stenosis. Six combinations of wall properties, inlet, and outlet boundary conditions were used to evaluate their effects on blood pressure estimation. All combinations of boundary conditions in the 1D model produced pressure to flow relations that compared favourably with previously reported in vitro and three-dimensional CFD model of a similar geometry. The mean error of the 1D results, using the in vitro model as the gold standard, ranges from 0.53 to 3.46 mmHg. While further work is required to optimize the specification of renal outlet boundary conditions from patient specific data, these results show that a 1D model may be used to identify pressure gradients across a renal artery stenoses.
Productivity and impact of astronomical facilities: Three years of publications and citation rates

In calendar years 2001 to 2003, 20 journals of astronomy and astrophysics published 11 831 papers that reported or analyzed observations at wavelengths from meter radio to ultrahigh energy gamma rays. These were cited 161 556 times in the three calendar years following publication, according to the Science Citation Index/Web of Science, for an average of 13.66 citations per paper or 4.55 citations per paper per year. We examine these numbers as a function of subject matter, wavelength bands, journals, and individual telescopes used and explore a small subset of possible temporal trends, anomalies, and sources of uncertainty, including blockbuster journals, papers and facilities. Many of the results resemble qualitative expectations. There are hot topics (cosmology, exoplanets) and not so hot topics (binary stars, planetary nebulae). Papers reporting data from space are cited a bit more often, and ground-based radio papers a bit less often, than optical papers, while multi-wavelength ones do noticeably better than average. The total number of telescopes involved is surprisingly large, approximately 350 optical and infrared (mostly ground-based but including HST because of its long life), 144 radio facilities on about 100 sites (including WMAP and COBE and a few balloon-borne CMB experiments), and 105 space-based detectors (including satellites, interplanetary probes, things carried on rockets, balloons, the Shuttle, and so forth). The outstanding telescopes are generally both stable with time and predictable. HST and the VLA are responsible for the largest number of optical and radio papers respectively, but the most frequently cited optical papers come from SDSS (by a wide margin), Keck, and the AAT, while the JCMT, Parkes and (especially) CMB observatories lead the radio brigade. Among things that fly, leadership changes more quickly, as missions are launched, vigorously exploited, and turned off, sometimes achieving geostationary, suboceanic orbits. If you have a choice, large trumps small, but well-supported sites trump struggling ones by a comparable factor. And service to the community, in the form of catalogues and mission descriptions, is rewarded, at least in citation numbers, if not always in other ways. © 2008 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.
Nonlinear Cosmological Structure Formation aa

Abstract: A general discussion of the evolution and model-dependence of both the linear and nonlinear power spectrum of density fluctuations is presented. The features of the linear power spectrum in cosmological models with cold dark matter (CDM) and cold + hot dark matter (C + HDM) are reviewed, and useful analytical approximations are summarized. Cosmological numerical simulation results are then used to illustrate the process of nonlinear gravitational clustering and to compute the nonlinear power spectrum. A new analytical approximation relating the linear and nonlinear power spectrum in C + HDM models is presented.
Information fusion in low-resolution iris videos using Principal Components Transform

The focus of this work is on improving the recognition performance of low-resolution iris video frames acquired under varying illumination. To facilitate this, an image-level fusion scheme with modest computational requirements is proposed. The proposed algorithm uses the evidence of multiple image frames of the same iris to extract discriminatory information via the Principal Components Transform (PCT). Experimental results on a subset of the MBGC NIR iris database demonstrate the utility of this scheme to achieve improved recognition accuracy when low-resolution probe images are compared against high-resolution gallery images.
Spatially controlled hydrogel mechanics to modulate stem cell interactions

Local control of the stem cell microenvironment with biomaterial design is of critical importance for tissue engineering. Matrix mechanics is one aspect of biomaterial design that has received considerable attention recently due to the effect of mechanics on stem cell proliferation, morphology, and differentiation. In order to investigate the effect of locally controlled mechanics on human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs), a sequentially crosslinked hyaluronic acid hydrogel system was developed that permits spatial patterning of mechanics (distinct patterns and gradients). Methacrylated hyaluronic acid was synthesized to allow for crosslinking via both Michael-type addition using a dithiol and radical polymerization using light. By varying the initial methacrylate consumption through addition crosslinking, restricting UV light to specified regions, and varying UV exposure time, a wide range of mechanics (from ∼3 kPa to ∼100 kPa) was possible in both uniform and patterned hydrogels. hMSCs exhibited increased spreading and proliferation on stiffer gels compared to cells cultured on softer gels. Furthermore, cells grown on gels with patterned mechanics exhibited spreading and proliferation behavior that correlated with the local mechanics. This method to spatially control matrix mechanics represents a novel hydrogel system to tune the stem cell microenvironment.
Work Motivation, Culture, And Economic Development: Is Work Motivation Shaped By Its Socio-Economic Context?

Cultural impacts on work motivation have been well-studied. While a number of authors have assessed the effect of scarcity versus affluence on work motivation, few researchers have considered whether both cultural and economic factors may be jointly shaping national characteristics of work motivation. A regression analysis based on economic and cultural indexes indicates that a national level of work motivation is strongly correlated with aspects of culture as well as economic development. While national income is not, itself, a strong predictor of work motivation, indicators which describe a nation’s economic strength and stability are. The article concludes with suggestions for further research.
Transferring color to greyscale images

We introduce a general technique for "colorizing" greyscale images by transferring color between a source, color image and a destination, greyscale image. Although the general problem of adding chromatic values to a greyscale image has no exact, objective solution, the current approach attempts to provide a method to help minimize the amount of human labor required for this task. Rather than choosing RGB colors from a palette to color individual components, we transfer the entire color "mood" of the source to the target image by matching luminance and texture information between the images. We choose to transfer only chromatic information and retain the original luminance values of the target image. Further, the procedure is enhanced by allowing the user to match areas of the two images with rectangular swatches. We show that this simple technique can be successfully applied to a variety of images and video, provided that texture and luminance are sufficiently distinct. The images generated demonstrate the potential and utility of our technique in a diverse set of application domains.
Standing in the Wake of the Foreclosure Crisis: Why Procedural Requirements are Necessary to Prevent Further Loss to Homeowners

In the current fallout from the foreclosure crisis and the securitization of mortgages, an old procedural doctrine is becoming increasingly relevant to homeowners facing foreclosure. The doctrine of standing is surfacing in the contexts of judicial foreclosure and bankruptcy proceedings as a defense to the foreclosing party’s right to foreclose. Defendants and debtors are affirmatively compelling lenders to produce evidence of ownership of the underlying note and mortgage, and lenders are increasingly falling victim to the same haste and lack of foresight that led to the crisis. Additionally, courts are beginning to raise these issues on their own, a sign that they are inclined not to allow lenders to foreclose without properly protecting the homeowners at risk. This protective stance, however, fails to reach the homeowners whose foreclosures occur outside the judicial system. Numerous defects in standing and ownership of the mortgages pass through non-judicial foreclosure without any scrutiny, and homeowners’ interests in retaining ownership of their property will continue to suffer unless legislators respond with laws requiring proof of ownership of the loan before foreclosure.
Parallelization of transport-theory based optical tomography algorithms by domain decompositio

We applied a domain-decomposition method that provides a suitable framework for parallelization of optical tomographic algorithm based on frequency-domain radiative transfer equation. This leads to substantial reduction in memory requirements and increased computation speed.