cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A monofocal pontine lesion

The patient was admitted for confusion and a resultant tracheal laceration sustained after her fall which was complicated with subcutaneous emphysema and infection. Diagnostic studies revealed normal serum electrolytes, cerebrospinal fluid study, vitamin B12 level, and tests for rheumatological diseases. Chronic alcoholism was felt to be the cause of the central pontine myelinolysis (CPM). The patient improved significantly with antibiotics and surgical tracheal repair and was discharged with minimal memory residual deficits. Repeat MRI of the brain more than 6 months later showed decreased but persistent hyperintensity in the midpons (Fig. 1). CPM is most commonly associated with: alcoholism, 39.4% of patients; rapid reversal of hyponatremia, 21.5%; and liver transplantation, 17.5%. Prognosis for CPM is reported to be invariably fatal but patients with complete recovery with mild impairment have been seen. Three subtypes of these brain demyelinating diseases are known: (i) CPM, confined to the pons; (ii) extrapontine myelinolysis (EPM); and (iii) osmotic demyelinating syndrome (ODS), in which CPM and EPM are both present. Adult pontine gliomas are rare tumors that usually present clinically with gait disturbance, headaches, weakness of limbs, and cranial nerve involvement. MRI findings include a non-enhancing diffusely infiltrative mass, enhancing localized mass, and isolated tectal tumor. The absence of these findings in our patient made the diagnosis of a pontine glioma unlikely. Pontine infarctions usually present with findings that may include ipsilateral peripheral cranial nerve palsies, contralateral movement disorders, sensory disturbances, and pure motor hemiparesis or hemiplegia. MRI findings typically include a well-demarcated hyperintensity in the pons on T2-weighted MRI with a corresponding hypointensity on T1-weighted MRI. Multiple sclerosis is a chronic, persistent inflammatory–demyelinating disease of the central nervous system that typically presents as an acute clinically isolated syndrome attributable to a monofocal or multifocal demyelinating lesion,
Does diet or alcohol explain the French paradox

The low rate of coronary heart disease (CHD) in France compared with other developed countries with comparable dietary intake has been called the French paradox. We explored this paradox by looking at alcohol, diet, and mortality data from 21 developed, relatively affluent countries in the years 1965, 1970, 1980, and 1988. We assessed wine, beer, and spirits intake separately. France had the highest wine intake and the highest total alcohol intake, and the second lowest CHD mortality rate. In univariate analyses, ethanol in wine was slightly more inversely correlated with CHD than total wine volume. In multivariate analyses, animal fat tended to be positively correlated, and fruit consumption inversely correlated, with CHD. Beer and spirits were only weakly inversely correlated with CHD. The strongest and most consistent correlation was the inverse association of wine ethanol with CHD. However, wine ethanol was unrelated to total mortality. We conclude that ethanol, particularly wine ethanol, is inversely related to CHD but not to longevity in populations. Although light to moderate alcohol consumption may improve longevity, alcohol abuse--which sharply reduces longevity--is correlated with average alcohol consumption in populations. Thus, while the risk/benefit ratio varies for individuals, the use of alcohol for cardioprotective purposes should not be encouraged as a public health measure.
Environment friendly template-free microwave synthesis of submicron-sized hierarchical titania nanostructures and their application in photovoltaics

A simple low-temperature microwave synthesis of hierarchical nanostructures (HNSs) of titania in DI water is reported. A great advantage of the reported method is the production of submicron-sized HNSs without any surfactant or hydrofluoric acid. The hierarchical morphology provides huge surface area for maximum exposure for light-driven reactions, and the 3D folding morphology allows further scattering of light to obtain its maximum utilization. FESEM, TEM, XRD, BET surface area measurement, UV/VIS and Raman spectroscopy were utilized to understand the structures. The mechanism of formation of nanostructures is also discussed. The nanostructures were employed in dye-sensitized solar cells for performance comparison.
59. Self-Reported Sexual and Reproductive Health Information/Services Received by Adolescents and Young Adults With Perinatally Acquired HIV: What Are Their Needs?

Purpose: The population of adolescents and young adults (AYA) with perinatally acquired HIV (PHIV) present challenges to HIV healthcare providers (HHCPs). Originally not expected to survive childhood, they are now living well into young adulthood. Previous research has documented reproductive outcomes and sexual risk behaviors. However, little is known about the type of sexual and reproductive (SRH) information/services offered to AYA with PHIV by HHCPs. The purpose of this is to describe the self-reported SRH information and/or services received by this unique population, and to identify any areas of unmet needs.
Comparison of lysimeter runoff, infiltration, and percolation to stream flow

Water control and water use in agriculture are currently receiving much attention. Agricultural practices which aid in putting more rain water into the soil are effective conservation measures. This water put into the soil cannot always thereafter be forgotten. In some sections of the country, part of the rain water taken up by the soil contributes to stream flow. When the moisture content of the soil is high, much of the water of infiltration percolates to water tables. Subsequently, the increases to water in zones of saturation are reflected in stream rises. Measurements of these phenomena for a wet period in March, 1945 are presented. For contrast, the records for a storm with practically no percolation or ground-water rises are also presented.
On the thermal structure of Triton's thermosphere

The analysis of the Voyager 2 Ultraviolet Spectrometer solar occultation data obtained at Triton is consistent with a spherically symmetric, isothermal thermosphere above 400 km at T(infinity) = 96 K. A detailed calculation of energy loss processes in a pure N2 atmosphere indicates that solar heating, with calculated T(infinity) = 70 K, is insufficient to account for the inferred T(infinity) = 96 K. The magnetosphere must deposit twice as much power as the sun to heat the thermosphere to 96 K and generate the observed N2 tangential column densities above 450 km. The thermal escape of H and N atoms and the downward diffusion of N atoms to recombine below 130 km results in local ionospheric heating efficiency of 24 percent. An upper limit on the tropopause CO mixing ratio of 2 x 10 exp -4 is inferred in the absence of aerosol heating to balance its efficient cooling by LTE rotational line emission.
Stabilization of Arsenite Wastes with Prior Oxidation

The stabilization of arsenite hazardous waste is more difficult than arsenate waste. Oxidation of arsenite was investigated as a pretreatment before stabilization of the resulting arsenate. The effectiveness of air oxidation was limited and depended on the amount of water present. Hydrogen peroxide oxidation was effective but limited by reactions with calcium hydroxide. After oxidation, the resulting arsenate waste was effectively stabilized using ferric sulfate.
Unveiling North African Women, Revisited: An Arab Feminist Critique of Orientalist Mentality in Visual Art and Ethnography

My interest in undertaking the study of images of Arab women in Western visual ethnography and art emerged from my own life experience. My identity as an Arab feminist having lived in different Eastern and Western communities has shaped my understanding and affected my observation in this research. As an Arab woman being observed in the first place, I am taking the role of the "outside"/inside' observer in this study. I am observing the observers and the observed, and both become the observed in my chosen study. I observe visual images of Arab women under the gaze of Western observers. Ethnographers, photographers, and artists become the observed under my investigation. Here again, visual images of Arab women are observed—in fact they only have been observed as objects, a result of their display as visual images by Western observers. Contemporary North African women, Assia Djebar, Houria Niati, and Leila Sebbar are observers who examine visual images of North African women that were painted by Western artists. In examining their works here, they in turn become the observed. Also I observe Elizabeth Fernea's visual ethnographic work on North African women. Fernea and her project become the observed in my research. Finally, I undertook the role of the observer in this study mainly in order to understand myself and identify my place in the society of other women and men. I introduce a cross-cultural dialogue that will question the bipolar cultural boundaries in feminist and historiographic scholarship.
Adolescent rearing conditions influence the relationship between initial anxiety-like behavior and ethanol drinking in male Long Evans rats.

Background Rodent studies have demonstrated that adolescent social isolation results in many behavioral perturbations, including increases in anxiety-like behaviors. Socially isolated (SI) rats have also been shown to self-administer greater amounts ethanol (EtOH) in some, but not all, studies. Here, we tested whether juvenile social isolation increases EtOH drinking using an intermittent procedure that engenders relatively high intake in normally reared animals. We also compared the behavioral phenotype of rats reared under social isolation or group-housed conditions with adult rats housed under conditions commonly used in EtOH-drinking studies. Methods Male Long Evans rats were procured immediately postweaning and were group housed for 1 week. Subjects were then randomly divided into 2 groups: SI rats, housed individually for 6 weeks and group-housed (GH) rats (4/cage). A third group was procured as young adults and was housed individually upon arrival for 1 week (standard housing condition). Rats were then tested in a plus-maze and novelty assay, and then, all subjects were singly housed and EtOH drinking was assessed. Results SI rats displayed increased anxiety-like behaviors on the plus-maze, a greater locomotor response to a novel environment, and increased EtOH intake, relative to GH rats. Age-matched standard housed (STD) rats exhibited an anxiety-like behavioral profile on the plus-maze that was similar to SI, and not GH rats, and also drank EtOH at levels comparable with SI subjects. In addition, anxiety-like behavior on the plus-maze correlated with intermittent EtOH intake in SI and GH rats. Conclusions These data further support the validity of the rodent juvenile social isolation model for studies directed at elucidating behavioral and neurobiological mechanisms linking anxiety and EtOH drinking. These findings further suggest that housing conditions commonly employed in rodent drinking studies may recapitulate the anxiety-like and EtOH-drinking phenotype engendered by a juvenile social isolation procedure.
Perceptions of Communication With Gay and Lesbian Family Members: Predictors of Relational Satisfaction and Implications for Outgroup Attitudes

This study investigates perceptions of family communication among members with different sexual identities. Specifically, from the perspective of heterosexual family members (N = 129), the study takes an intergroup perspective to determine how accommodative and non-accommodative communication and attitudes toward homosexuality predict intergroup anxiety and relational satisfaction with gay or lesbian family members. Further, the manner in which family communication influences attitudes toward homosexuality is examined. Results are discussed in terms of implications for research on heterosexual–homosexual interaction, family communication, and intergroup communication, in general.
Grassmann speciality of Jordan supersystems

Abstract The Grassmann envelope Γ (S)=S 0 ⊗ Γ 0 +S 1 ⊗ Γ 1 is a useful tool for deciding varietal questions about supersystems S=S 0 +S 1 . It is not useful in deciding simplicity, since the envelope is always fraught with trivial ideals coming from trivial superscalars. At first glance it would not seem useful in deciding superspeciality either, but we will show that it is a more sensitive tool than it seems. We say a Jordan supersystem Js (algebra, triple, or pair) is Grassmann special if its Grassmann envelope is special as an ordinary Jordan system over Γ 0 . Certainly superspeciality Js⊂As+ over Φ implies Grassmann speciality Γ(Js)⊂Γ(As)+ over Γ 0 , but it is not obvious how Grassmann speciality influences superspeciality of Js. Nevertheless, we show how to transform obstacles to speciality of Js over Φ (anti-superspecial elements) into obstacles to speciality of Γ(Js) over Γ 0 (anti-special elements) using Grassmann boosters, so that non-superspeciality Js over Φ implies non-speciality of Γ(Js) over Γ 0 . Thus Grassmann speciality is the same as superspeciality: a supersystem J is a superspecial Jordan supersystem over Φ iff Γ(Js) is a special Jordan system over Γ 0 . (It is not clear this is the same as speciality of Γ(Js) over Φ, since in general speciality of quadratic Jordan systems depends on the scalars: we give an example of a Jordan Ω -algebra which is not special, but is special over a scalar subring Φ.) As a corollary, any Jordan superalgebra with zero linear extreme radical which is viably evenly 4-interconnected is superspecial; thus exceptional superalgebras must be built over even parts of degree ⩽3.
Beyond postdevelopment: civic responses to regional integration in the Amazon

Postdevelopment theorists often try to read “alternatives to development” in the actions of local social movements or non-governmental organizations. More recent studies of development, however, emphasize the imbrication of state agendas with those of civil society. In the context of a major regional integration initiative in South America, this essay argues for the need to move beyond postdevelopment. Launched in 2000, IIRSA, the Initiative for the Integration of Regional Infrastructure in South America, calls for a massive expansion of the continent's transport, energy and telecommunications networks and as such has the potential to redefine both the ecological and political-economic landscapes of South America. In particular, IIRSA's Amazonian mega-projects have prompted outcries from environmentalists and indigenous peoples. In examining some of the salient methods activists are using to challenge IIRSA, this paper takes issue with postdevelopment and argues that activists are not rejecting elite proj...
Landscape of Next-Generation Sequencing Technologies

DNA sequencing is in the throes of an enormous technological shift marked by dramatic throughput increases, a precipitously dropping per-base cost of raw sequence, and an accompanying requirement for substantial investment in large capital equipment in order to utilize the technology. Investigations that were, for most, unreachable luxuries just a few years ago (individual genome sequencing, metagenomics studies, and the sequencing of myriad organisms of interest) are being increasingly enabled, at a rapid pace. This Review concentrates on the technology behind the third- and fourth-generation sequencing methods: their challenges, current limitations, and tantalizing promise. First-generation sequencing encompasses the chain termination method pioneered by Sanger and Coulson1 in 1975 or the chemical method of Maxam and Gilbert in 1976–1977.2 In 1977, Sanger sequenced the first genome, bacteriophage ΦX 174, which is 5375 bases in length.3 These methods and their early history4 have been reviewed in detail previously.5 Four-color fluorescent Sanger sequencing, where each color corresponds to one of the four DNA bases, is the method used by the automated capillary electrophoresis (CE) systems marketed by Applied Biosystems Inc., now integrated into Life Technologies, and by Beckman Coulter Inc. (Table 1).6 The first composite human genome sequence, reported in 2001, was obtained largely using CE, at great cost and with intense human effort over more than a decade.7,8 While the genome reported in 2001 was a work in progress, the availability of an ever-improving “reference” genome is the basis of an ongoing transformation of biological science and remains fundamental to investigations of genotype–phenotype relationships. Considering reports that have appeared (and not appeared) in the literature to date, it could well be that medically meaningful (actionable) insights into complex diseases will require additional types of “personal” genomic data, for instance, tissue-specific mRNA expression profiling and mRNA sequencing, individualized analysis of gene regulatory regions, epigenetic profiling, and high-quality, long-range chromosome mapping to catalog significant deletions, insertions, rearrangements, etc. Correlation of such integrated genomic data sets with comprehensive medical histories for hundreds or thousands of individuals may be what it takes to reach an era of personalized medicine.9–11 Large-scale sequencing centers are now completing the conversion to next-generation sequencers; the Joint Genome Institute (JGI) has retired all of their Sanger sequencing instruments.12 At the other extreme, until small-scale next-generation sequencers can outperform CE on a cost per accurate base called as well as read length, CE systems will likely remain in heavy use for benchtop-scale, targeted sequencing for directed investigations such as quantitative gene expression, biomarker identification, and pathway analysis. Table 1 First- and Second-Generation Sequencing Technologies
MULTI‐PARTY E‐NEGOTIATIONS: AGENTS, ALLIANCES, AND NEGOTIATION SUCCESS

Using a four‐person email negotiation on a fictitious house‐sale as the context, this study explores the effects of (1) familiarity and similarity manipulations on agent‐agent relationships, and (2) the emotional attachments that novice agents and principals form and maintain over the course of a single negotiation. Results show that only agent‐agent pairs receiving both manipulations (similarity and familiarity) were uniquely more successful in achieving an agreement, and that positive feelings for novice agents begin aligned with the principal and end aligned with the other agent. This demonstrates that relationship‐building in the online environment may be easier for some partnerships than for others, and that the dual‐loyalty conflict facing agents seems to encourage one partnership being preferred to the other at any one point in time. Implications for theory and for email negotiations are discussed.
The self and social cognition: the role of cortical midline structures and mirror neurons

Recent evidence suggests that there are at least two large-scale neural networks that represent the self and others. Whereas frontoparietal mirror-neuron areas provide the basis for bridging the gap between the physical self and others through motor-simulation mechanisms, cortical midline structures engage in processing information about the self and others in more abstract, evaluative terms. This framework provides a basis for reconciling findings from two separate but related lines of research: self-related processing and social cognition. The neural systems of midline structures and mirror neurons show that self and other are two sides of the same coin, whether their physical interactions or their most internal mental processes are examined.
Filler reaggregation and network formation time scale in extruded high‐density polyethylene/multiwalled carbon nanotube composites

A high-density polyethylene (HDPE) masterbatch containing 20.2 wt% multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) was melt diluted with neat HDPE using two different methods: a twin screw microcompounder and a single-screw extruder. The electrical properties of these composites were assessed using bulk electrical conductivity measurements, their mechanical properties were evaluated using tensile tests and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), and percent crystallinity was determined by wide angle x-ray diffraction (WAXD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). A percolation threshold (pc) of 4.5 wt% MWNTs was found in compression-molded samples. Extruded samples were prepared with nanotube concentrations below and above the compression-molded percolation threshold (2 and 7 wt% MWNTs) and passed through the extruder twice before entering a low-shear melt annealing zone. Different melt annealing times were used and their effects on the electrical and mechanical properties of the resulting quench-cooled composites were evaluated. Results showed that extruded composites were nonconductive, indicating that a conductive nanotube network did not form on the time scale of these experiments. Annealing time also did not affect significantly the mechanical properties of the resulting solid composites. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2012. © 2012 Society of Plastics Engineers
Giant amoebae from Colorado identified by transplantation tolerance.

SYNOPSIS. Giant multinucleated amoebae, discovered in Colorado near Ft. Collins and tentatively identified as Pelomyxa carolinensis, were successfully cultured in a manner identical with that used for P. carolinensis. The ultrastructure of the Colorado amoebae, in comparison with that of other large amoebae, was like that of P. carolinensis, but different from those of Amoeba proteus, P. illinoisensis, and P. palustris. Protoplasmic grafts between the Colorado amoebae and P. carolinensis were then exchanged by microsurgery. These grafts were well tolerated, and the recipient amoebae reproduced at a rate comparable to that of non-grafted controls. Other Colorado amoebae received grafts from P. illinoisensis, but all recipients died without cell division a few days after microsurgery. These nutritional, cytologic and transplantation-tolerance data reveal that the amoebae from Colorado are P. carolinensis.
First-Year Medical Students' Impressions of the Internet

Physicians are becoming aware of the World Wide Web as a resource for medical information. In spring 1999, first-year students at the University of Louisville's School of Medicine were given an assignment to review and evaluate Internet search engines and directories, medicine-specific search engines and meta lists, and health-related Web sites. Students found that general search engines were easier to learn and use and produced better results than either meta medical sites or medicine-specific search engines. Students were very severe in judging the quality of health-related Web sites. Our students' impressions are compared to those of physicians in similar studies. Solutions to the problems of searching the Web for health information are reviewed.
Viable Populations, Reserve Size, and Federal Lands Management: A Critique

: An examination of current viable population theories and reserve size studies suggests that biological diversity for North American national parks and forests is inadequately protected This conclusion is further supported by reviews of federal agency management plans and policies. Preservation of biodiversity is thwarted by lack of landscape–level management, insufficient data, competition between federal land management agencies, and bureaucratic inertia, among other factors. To dress these problems, an ecosystem management model for reform is outlined New legislation is also suggested. Ethical and social choices are recognized as the basis for any restructuring of land management to protect biodiversity. Un examen de las actuales teorias sobre tamanos de poblaciones viables y de estudios sobre tamanos de reservas, sugiere que la diversidad boilogica de los parques nacionales y bosques de Norte America no esta pro-tegida adecuadamente. Esta conclusion se apoya tambien en la revision de planes y politicas de manejo desarrolladas por agencias del gobierno federal. La preservacion de la biodi-versidad se ve obstaculizada pora la falta de manejo a nivel del paisaje (ecosistema), por insuficiencia de datos, por competencia entre las agencias gubernamentales encarga-das del manejo de tierras y recursos naturales y por inercia burocratica, entre otros. Para enfrentar estos problemas, se presenta un modelo de manejo de ecosistemas. Asi mismo, se propone nueva legislacion al respecto. Se reconoce a las opciones eticas y sociales como la base para reestructurar cualquier manejo de tierra para proteger la biodiversiaad.
The China seven cities study and the pacific rim transdisciplinary tobacco and alcohol use research center

S106 Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology 21 (2006) S106 No claim to original US government works Journal compilation © 2006 Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Foundation and Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd Blackwell Publishing AsiaMelbourne, AustraliaJGHJournal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology0815 9319© 2006 The Authors; Journal compilation © 2006 Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Foundation and Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd200621S3S106••How to Promote Global Collaborative Research Pacific Rim Transdisciplinary Tobacco and Alcohol Use Research CenterCarl A Johnson
The Relationship Between Workplace Stressors and Mortality and Health Costs in the United States

Even though epidemiological evidence links specific workplace stressors to health outcomes, the aggregate contribution of these factors to overall mortality and health spending in the United States is not known. In this paper, we build a model to estimate the excess mortality and incremental health expenditures associated with exposure to the following 10 workplace stressors: unemployment, lack of health insurance, exposure to shift work, long working hours, job insecurity, work–family conflict, low job control, high job demands, low social support at work, and low organizational justice. Our model uses input parameters obtained from publicly accessible data sources. We estimated health spending from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey and joint probabilities of workplace exposures from the General Social Survey, and we conducted a meta-analysis of the epidemiological literature to estimate the relative risks of poor health outcomes associated with exposure to these stressors. The model was designed to o...
Ambient air pollution and depressive symptoms in older adults: Wellenius et al. respond.

We thank Gao et al. (2015) for their interest in our recent publication examining the association between ambient air pollution and depressive symptoms in a cohort of Boston-area elderly participants (Wang et al. 2014).
The solar dynamo

The origins of solar magnetism lie below the visible surface of the Sun, in the highly turbulent convection zone. Turbulent convection operates in conjunction with rotational shear, global circulations and intricate boundary layers to produce the rich diversity of magnetic activity we observe. Here, we review recent insights into the operation of the solar dynamo obtained from solar and stellar observations and numerical models.
Fear, Shame and Guilt: Economic and Behavioral Motivations for Strategic Default

∗∗∗ ∗∗∗ ∗∗∗∗ This study examines underwater primary resident homeowners to identify why some decide to strategically default while others do not. We find that realized shameandguiltareconsistentwithexante expectations.However,thefinancial backlash experienced by strategic defaulters is less than anticipated, causing strategic defaulters not to regret their actions. State-specific bankruptcy exemption levels and real estate laws only marginally explain the decision to strategically default, partly because the decision to walk away from a mortgage is emotional, and partly because the implementation of these laws is uncertain and confusing to distressed borrowers. Rather, we find key strategic default drivers include the homeowner’s expectation of future real estate price movements, frustration with the lender, moral evaluation of the decision to strategically default, loan knowledge, political ideology, gender, income and age. The continued economic recession and prolonged housing crisis have resulted in an alarming increase in mortgage defaults and corresponding foreclosures. There are two primary mechanisms causing homeowners to default on their mortgages. The first is an inability to continue making the mortgage payment, which is usually brought on by a dramatic, negative economic event such as a job loss, divorce, prolonged illness or death in the family. We refer to this throughout the article as “economic” or “involuntary default.” The second is an unwillingness to continue making the mortgage payment because the home’s value has declined to a level far below the outstanding balance on the loan. This later situation, known as being underwater, is a burgeoning reason being cited as to why people default on their mortgage and is the focus of this investigation. The popular press has coined this reason for default “strategic default,” and
Self‐reported official trouble and official arrest: Validating a piece of the core alcohol and drug survey

In the past decade, universities and colleges across the USA have attempted to develop a profile of college student drinkers in order to develop programs and policies for combating high‐risk drinking. Most of these studies have relied on the Core Alcohol and Drug Survey in which students self‐report drinking and behaviors associated with drinking. While the Core survey has undergone multiple validity checks, few researchers have employed official data to validate items in the survey, particularly self‐reported official trouble. The present study employed municipal alcohol‐related arrest reports to determine whether the correlates of arrest resembled correlates associated with self‐reported official trouble from drinking. Overall, group membership patterns from the self‐report item resembled the patterns of alcohol‐related arrest. Further tests using internal Core survey criteria revealed additional validity support for the self‐reported official trouble item.
Moisture transfer simulation in packaged cereal-fruit systems

Abstract A numerical procedure was developed for simulating moisture migration in multi-component breakfast cereal systems. The transport of moisture within cereals and raisins was described by equations of unsteady state diffusion. The surface moisture concentration of raisins and cereals was assumed to be in equilibrium with the package void space moisture concentration and was obtained from the corresponding GAB moisture isotherm equations. Using diffusion coefficients determined from regression analysis of the series solution for gain or loss of moisture, the simulation accurately predicted the moisture gain by cereal at 25 °C and 75% relative humidity and loss from raisins when stored alone at 25 °C and 11% relative humidity. Simulated curves were obtained using an explicit finite difference scheme to model unsteady state moisture diffusion within raisins and cereals when stored in an impermeable package at 25 °C. These simulations allowed visualization of the effect of increasing or decreasing the moisture diffusion coefficient in raisins on the moisture migration pattern within the system.
Methanobacterium thermoformicicum thymine DNA mismatch glycosylase: conversion of an N-glycosylase to an AP lyase

The thymine DNA mismatch glycosylase from Methanobacterium thermoformicicum, a member of the endonuclease III family of repair proteins, excises the pyrimidine base from T-G and U-G mismatches. Unlike endonuclease III, it does not cleave the phosphodiester backbone by a beta-elimination reaction. This cleavage event has been attributed to a nucleophilic attack by the conserved Lys120 of endonuclease III on the aldehyde group at C1' of the deoxyribose and subsequent Schiff base formation. The inability of TDG to perform this beta-elimination event appears to be due to the presence of a tyrosine residue at the position equivalent to Lys120 in endonuclease III. The purpose of this work was to investigate the requirements for AP lyase activity. We replaced Tyr126 in TDG with a lysine residue to determine if this replacement would yield an enzyme with an associated AP lyase activity capable of removing a mismatched pyrimidine. We observed that this replacement abolishes the glycosylase activity of TDG but does not affect substrate recognition. It does, however, convert the enzyme into an AP lyase. Chemical trapping assays show that this cleavage proceeds through a Schiff base intermediate and suggest that the amino acid at position 126 interacts with C1' on the deoxyribose sugar.
Ion beam synthesis of IrSi 3 by implantation of 2 MeV Ir ions

Formation of a buried IrSi[sub 3] layer in (111) oriented Si by ion implantation and annealing has been studied at an implantation energy of 2 MeV for substrate temperatures of 450--550C. Rutherford backscattering (RBS), ion channeling and cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy showed that a buried epitaxial IrSi[sub 3] layer is produced at 550C by implanting [ge] 3.4 [times] 10[sup 17] Ir/cm[sup 2] and subsequently annealing for 1 h at 1000C plus 5 h at 1100C. At a dose of 3.4 [times] 10[sup 17] Ir/cm[sup 2], the thickness of the layer varied between 120 and 190 nm and many large IrSi[sub 3] precipitates were present above and below the film. Increasing the dose to 4.4 [times] 10[sup 17] Ir/cm[sup 2] improved the layer uniformity at the expense of increased lattice damage in the overlying Si. RBS analysis of layer formation as a function of substrate temperature revealed the competition between the mechanisms for optimizing surface crystallinity vs. IrSi[sub 3] layer formation. Little apparent substrate temperature dependence was evident in the as-implanted state but after annealing the crystallinity of the top Si layer was observed to deteriorate with increasing substrate temperature while the precipitate coarsening and coalescence improved.
Maloriented bivalents have metaphase positions at the spindle equator with more kinetochore microtubules to one pole than to the other.

To test the “traction fiber” model for metaphase positioning of bivalents during meiosis, kinetochore fibers of maloriented bivalents, induced during recovery from cold arrest, were analyzed with a liquid crystal polarizing microscope. The measured birefringence retardation of kinetochore fibers is proportional to the number of microtubules in a fiber. Five of the 11 maloriented bivalents analyzed exhibited bipolar malorientations that had at least four times more kinetochore microtubules to one pole than to the other pole, and two had microtubules directed to only one pole. Yet all maloriented bivalents had positions at or near the spindle equator. The traction fiber model predicts such maloriented bivalents should be positioned closer to the pole with more kinetochore microtubules. A metaphase position at the spindle equator, according to the model, requires equal numbers of kinetochore microtubules to both poles. Data from polarizing microscope images were not in accord with those predictions, leading to the conclusion that other factors, in addition to traction forces, must be involved in metaphase positioning in crane-fly spermatocytes. Although the identity of additional factors has not been established, one possibility is that polar ejection forces operate to exert away-from-the-pole forces that could counteract pole-directed traction forces. Another is that kinetochores are “smart,” meaning they embody a position-sensitive mechanism that controls their activity.
Palaeoclimates: the first two billion years

Earth’s climate during the Archaean remains highly uncertain, as the relevant geologic evidence is sparse and occasionally contradictory. Oxygen isotopes in cherts suggest that between 3.5 and 3.2 Gyr ago (Ga) the Archaean climate was hot (55–85 8C); however, the fact that these cherts have experienced only a modest amount of weathering suggests that the climate was temperate, as today. The presence of diamictites in the Pongola Supergroup and the Witwatersrand Basin of South Africa suggests that by 2.9 Ga the climate was glacial. The Late Archaean was relatively warm; then glaciation (possibly of global extent) reappeared in the Early Palaeoproterozoic, around 2.3–2.4 Ga. Fitting these climatic constraints with a model requires high concentrations of atmospheric CO2 or CH4, or both. Solar luminosity was 20–25% lower than today, so elevated greenhouse gas concentrations were needed just to keep the mean surface temperature above freezing. A rise in O2 at approximately 2.4 Ga, and a concomitant decrease in CH4, provides a natural explanation for the Palaeoproterozoic glaciations. The Mid-Archaean glaciations may have been caused by a drawdown in H2 and CH4 caused by the origin of bacterial sulphate reduction. More work is needed to test this latter hypothesis.
Modeling the functional development of human visual motion area MT

Area MT+ is a patch of middle temporal cortex that plays a critical role in our ability to perceive motion in the visual modality. Recent neuroimaging studies of congenitally blind adults suggest that this brain area can “learn” to represent auditory motion, but only when individuals are deprived of visual input from birth. Here I present a parallel distributed processing network that behaves similarly to area MT+. Its internal connection weights are such that it is able to compute the direction of motion by comparing the locations of two sequentially-presented visual inputs. Trained on visual + auditory input, it continues to respond only to visual motion. In the absence of visual inputs, it learns to detect motion in auditory inputs. My network is characterized by innate processing biases, coupled with a capacity for flexibility. I argue that this implementation is a plausible model of the neural network that constitutes area MT+.
Roles for nucleotide phosphatases in sulfate assimilation and skeletal disease.

Sulfur is an essential element to all kingdoms of life and is used in essential cellular processes including the synthesis of sulfur-containing amino acids, maintenance of cellular redox states, and incorporation into various metabolites. Inorganic sulfate, the most abundant source of environmental sulfur, is metabolized into two commonly formed nucleotide precursors: adenosine 5’-phosphosulfate (APS) and 3’-phosphoadenosine 5’-phosphosulfate (PAPS). Donation of activated sulfur occurs through a broad range of enzymatic reactions many of which consume PAPS thereby producing 3’-phosphoadenosine 5’-phosphate (PAP). Two classes of 3’-nucleotide phosphatases then hydrolyze PAP into 5’-AMP: one is evolutionarily conserved from bacteria to man and localizes to the cytoplasmic compartment, while the other is restricted to a subset of eukaryotes and is active within the Golgi lumen. Interestingly, both classes of 3’-nucleotidase are members of a structurally conserved family of lithium-inhibited phosphatases that are targets of the drug in a variety of organisms. In this review we provide an overview of sulfur assimilation and the broad regulatory roles that 3’-nucleotidases play in processes ranging from halotolerance to glycosaminoglycan sulfation. In addition, we discuss recent plant and animal studies that emphasize roles for 3’-nucleotidase function in developmental biology, physiology, and in a rare subset of human patients with skeletal abnormalities.
Synthesis of 2,3‐Disubstituted Indoles via Palladium‐Catalyzed Annulation of Internal Alk Ynes: 3‐Methyl‐2‐(Trimethylsilyl)Indole

Palladium acetate Triphenylphosphine Sodium carbonate Tetra-n-butylammonium chloride N,N-Dimethylformamide 1-Trimethylsilyl-1-propyne Keywords: 2,3-disubstituted indoles; palladium-catalyzed annulation; internal alk ynes; 3-methyl-2-(trimethylsilyl)indole
Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibition as antiatherosclerotic therapy: no answer yet ☆

Abstract Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors have proven to be of clinical benefit in congestive heart failure. Whether they also provide benefit to patients with coronary artery disease in the absence of congestive heart failure via an antiatherosclerotic mechanism is a question the QUinapril Ischemic Event Trial quantitative coronary angiography (QCA) study attempted to answer: 1,750 patients with normal left ventricular function who were undergoing coronary angiography and angioplasty were randomized to 20 mg/day of quinapril versus placebo and followed for 3 years for cardiac end points. A randomly selected subgroup of the total cohort underwent follow-up angiography. The primary QCA end point was the categorical designation of progression versus nonprogression, defined either by QCA or by a cardiac event in patients selected for the QCA trial who had no usable follow-up x-ray film. Secondary end points in patients with 2 angiograms were: new stenosis development, change in minimum lumen diameter index, and change in percent diameter stenosis index. There were 119 progressors among 243 placebo-treated patients (49%) and 111 progressors among 234 quinapril-treated patients (47%) (p = NS). There were 44 patients with new stenosis developement in the placebo group (19%) and 50 (22%) in the quinapril group (p = NS). Change in minimum lumen diameter index was −0.21 ± 0.03 mm in the placebo group and −0.18 ± 0.03 mm in the quinapril group (p = NS). Finally, change in percent diameter stenosis index was +5.1 ± 1.0 in the placebo group and +3.5 ± 1.0 in the quinapril group (p = NS). Potential confounders of this trial are presented and discussed.
Hybrid stress reduced‐Mindlin elements for thin multilayer plates

A hybrid-stress formulation of isoparametric elements for the analysis of thin multilayer laminated composite plates is presented. The element displacement behaviour is characterized by laminate reference surface inplane and transverse displacements and laminate non-normal cross-section rotations; as a result, simple Co interpolation of displacement and rotation can be used, and the number of degrees-of-freedom is independent of the number of layers. All components of stress are included and are related to a set of laminate stress parameters, the number of which is independent of the number of layers. Attention is restricted here to thin laminates, for which it is shown that the contributions of transverse shear stress and transverse normal stress to the internal complementary energy can be neglected. As a result of this reduction, a modified stiffness-formation algorithm can be used which provides a significant improvement in computational efficiency. The formulation presented is used to develop an 8-node isoparametric thin multilayer plate element. The resulting element is naturally invariant, of correct rank, and non-locking in the thin plate limit.
Policy-Based Access Control Framework for Grid Computing

Grid technology enables access and sharing of data and computational resources across administrative domains. Thus, it is important to provide a uniform access and management mechanism couple with finegrain usage policies for enforcing authorization. In this paper, we describe our work on enabling finegrain access control for resource usage and management. We describe the prototype as well as the policy mark-up language that we designed to express fine-grain security policies. We then present our experimental results and discuss our plans for future work.
G. Scott Davis: Believing and acting: the pragmatic turn in comparative religion and ethics

In Believing and Acting: The Pragmatic Turn in Comparative Religion and Ethics, G. Scott Davis aims to inject a dose of common sense into contemporary methodological discussions in religious studies. The study of religion, he claims, is not altogether unlike what we do in navigating our everyday social environment. In fact, it involves some of the exact same skills. When we use a subway system, or attempt to understand other people so occupied, we attribute beliefs and desires to them in order to make sense of what they do. If a person is going down the escalator to the A train, we attribute to her the belief that her destination is proximate to one of the stations along that route and the desire to journey there. We understand her beliefs as reasons the commuter has for getting on the escalator. Much of the time, we are accustomed to the patterns of behavior around us, and we make these belief attributions implicitly, if at all. But if we are struggling to understand unfamiliar behavior, or if we are responding to the curious questions of the uninitiated, attributing beliefs and counting them as reasons for the believer to act is what we do. Studying religion has complexities peculiar to it, but it is at heart a similar undertaking. When confronted by the rituals, utterances, and texts of practitioners, we are trying to figure out what beliefs to attribute to them in order to make the most sense of their behavior. This requires explicit and sustained attention to their social and historical context, whereas typically we take that context for granted in our everyday social life. Historians and ethnographers are trained experts in this sort of attention to context. Thus, Davis can recommend, “Understanding religion requires nothing more than the sensitive and imaginative reading of human phenomena informed by the best available ethnography set in the best available historical narrative” (p. 3).
Räumliche und zeitliche Muster

Die Biogeographie untersucht die grosraumige geographische Verteilung von Organismen. Das zu beobachtende Muster hat stets eine historische Komponente, da die aktuelle Verbreitung von Or ganismen immer auch ein Resultat von Vorgangen in der geologischen Vergangenheit ist. In diesem Sinne drangt sich eine Unterteilung in Biogeographie (Verbreitung rezenter Organismen) und Palaobiogeographie (Verbreitung fossiler Organismen) nicht auf.
Enzymatic Biofuel Cells

Publisher Summary This chapter examines the development of enzymatic biofuel cells over the last four decades. Like traditional PEM fuel cells, biofuel cells consist of an anode and cathode separated by a membrane. The difference is that biofuel cells eliminate the dependence on precious metal catalysts by replacing them with biological catalysts. Biofuel cells can be categorized as microbial fuel cells and/or enzymatic biofuel cells. Microbial fuel cells utilize living microorganisms to oxidize the fuel, whereas enzymatic fuel cells employ isolated enzymes. A comparison of enzymatic biofuel cells to traditional fuel cells is presented and the types of enzymes employed at the anode and cathode of biofuel cells, along with strategies for immobilization of those enzymes at electrode surfaces are discussed. A detailed comparison of mediated electron transfer and direct electron transfer, along with discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of both types of electron transfer mechanisms are also discussed in the chapter. Furthermore, the chapter describes the importance of metabolic pathways in enzymatic biofuel cell development and fuel cell design and engineering issues for enzymatic biofuel cells.
Latin American Economic Growth: Disparate Paths, Creditable Accomplishments

Seven major Latin American countries had moderately high growth rates during the period 2001–2012.We used indicators of capital market modernization and corruption to explain the widely varying GDP growth figures for each time frame and also assessed whether export growth was highly linked to GDP growth. The countries did not fall into clusters with each coinciding closely with the others in the cluster. Instead each country appeared to be sui generis, finding its own path in response to its own circumstances.
Role of carbon monoxide in glutamate receptor-induced dilation of newborn pig pial arterioles.

The hypothesis that glutamate dilates pial arterioles of newborn pigs through the production of carbon monoxide (CO) was addressed. Anesthesized newborn pigs were equipped with cranial windows to m...