cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
BCA2/RABRING7 Interferes with HIV-1 Proviral Transcription by Enhancing the SUMOylation of IκBα

BCA2/Rabring7 is a BST2 cofactor that promotes the lysosomal degradation of trapped HIV-1 virions but also functions as a BST2-independent anti-HIV factor by targeting Gag for lysosomal degradation. Since many antiviral factors regulate the NF-κB innate signaling pathway, we investigated whether BCA2 is also connected to this proinflammatory cascade. Here, we show for the first time that BCA2 is induced by NF-κB-activating proinflammatory cytokines and that upregulation of BCA2 provides regulatory negative feedback on NF-κB. Specifically, BCA2 serves as an E3 SUMO ligase in the SUMOylation of IκBα, which in turn enhances the sequestration of NF-κB components in the cytoplasm. Since HIV-1 utilizes NF-κB to promote proviral transcription, the BCA2-mediated inhibition of NF-κB significantly decreases the transcriptional activity of HIV-1 (up to 4.4-fold in CD4+ T cells). Therefore, our findings indicate that BCA2 poses an additional barrier to HIV-1 infection: not only does BCA2 prevent assembly and release of nascent virions, it also significantly restricts HIV-1 transcription by inhibiting the NF-κB pathway.IMPORTANCE Understanding the interactions between HIV-1 and its host cells is highly relevant to the design of new drugs aimed at eliminating HIV-1 from infected individuals. We have previously shown that BCA2, a cofactor of BST2 in the restriction of HIV-1, also prevents virion assembly in a BST2-independent manner. In this study, we found that BCA2 negatively regulates the NF-κB pathway-a signaling cascade necessary for HIV-1 replication and infectivity-which in turn detrimentally affects proviral transcription and virus propagation. Thus, our results indicate that, besides its previously described functions as an antiviral factor, BCA2 poses an additional barrier to HIV-1 replication at the transcriptional level.
Reinforcement of Human Reaction Time: Manual-Vocal Differences

Subjects responded to the spatial location of a stimulus, either by moving a lever in the direction of the stimulus or by saying the direction into a microphone connected to a computer-controlled speech recognition system. Both manual and vocal reaction times increased as a function of the number of response alternatives (1, 2, or 4 directions) and decreased when rapid responding was differentially reinforced. Vocal responding generally was slower, and effects of increasing the number of response alternatives were more pronounced. This last finding, together with the method used to record vocal latencies, argued against the possibility that slower responding was an artifact of the recording systems. The results showed the feasibility of using vocal responses in steady-state analyses of human operant behavior. The manual-vocal differences may have been a consequence of the directionality of the manual response. Movements toward a stimulus are closely controlled by contingencies inherent within the response-stimulus relationship, whereas vocal responses pertaining to direction must be established and maintained by the less reliable verbal community.
Reciprocal within-day associations between incidental affect and exercise: An EMA study

Previous research suggests that how people feel throughout the course of a day (i.e. incidental affect) is predictive of exercise behaviour. A mostly separate literature suggests that exercise can ...
Situating La Princesse de Montpensier: Tavernier’s adaptation of Madame de Lafayette

AbstractWhen Bertrand Tavernier discussed his project to make a film adaptation of Madame de Lafayette’s novel La Princesse de Montpensier, he explained the contradictory nature of his project. On ...
The Hyperion-II radio-frequency oxygen ion source on the UCLA ims 1290 ion microprobe: Beam characterization and applications in geochemistry and cosmochemistry

Abstract A radio-frequency plasma ion source, the Hyperion-II, has been commissioned on a CAMECA ims1290, a high resolution/high transmission secondary ion mass spectrometer at UCLA. Performance characteristics (e.g., beam density, spot size, etc.) of the primary oxygen beam are documented and application to isotopic analyses requiring high lateral resolution with high secondary ion transmission are described. The Hyperion source delivers on average 10 times and 6 times the current density delivered by the CAMECA duoplasmatron for 16O− and 16O2− beams, respectively. This significantly enhanced current density allows for reduction of the analytical spot size by at least a factor of three while maintaining the beam intensity, making it possible to perform isotopic measurements at smaller scales without sacrificing analytical precision. In addition, the smaller Hyperion beam spot size also reduces the crossover size and spherical aberrations in the secondary ion optics, thereby improving secondary ion transmission at mass resolving power of 3000–12,000 by 25–80% compared to that achieved with a duoplasmatron.
FDTD modeling of plasmonic enhancement in two-dimensional gold lattice structures

Recent progression in the development and implementation of point-of-use biosensors has contributed to their widespread adoption in the fields of biotechnology, food and drug safety, drug discovery, environmental protection, medicine, solar cells, microscopy, magneto-optic data storage, and public security [1-4, 7]. Specifically, the capability of biosensors to improve the overall quality of life through real-time detection of various pathogens, infectious diseases, antigen-antibody reactions, biomarkers, etc. has led to an increased interest in the research of these devices [1-5]. Further advancements in modern biosensor development will be realized through novel electrochemical, electromechanical, bioelectrical, and/or optical transduction methods aimed at reducing the size, cost, and limit of detection (LOD) of these devices [3]. This work explores the FDTD simulation of gold lattice structures with the goal of enhancing the electromagnetic (EM) fields above the surfaces of these nanopillars for improving current fluorescence-based detection methods.
Propensity modeling for employee Re-skilling

Due to the rapidly changing, dynamic nature of today's economic landscape, organizations are often engaged in a continuous exercise of matching their workforce with the changing needs of the marketplace. Re-skilling offers these enterprises the ability to effectively manage and retain talent, while also satisfying business requirements. We describe an analytics-based propensity scoring model for re-skilling by combining historical employee job-role/skill records, relationships between different job-roles/skills, employee resumes, and job postings. This is used to determine the source features that are the closest to a required target skill and hence identify employees that can be easily trained for the target skill. We evaluate this approach for a representative set of target skills at a multinational with a large services/consulting arm. We show that the propensity model learnt from the combined data sources has a high accuracy that is also substantially better than that achieved by using features from job-roles or resumes alone. The performance is improved further by using an ensemble model to evaluate the propensity scores.
Streamlined triage and transfer protocols improve door-to-puncture time for endovascular thrombectomy in acute ischemic stroke

Abstract Objective Shorter time from symptom onset to treatment is associated with improved outcomes in patients who undergo mechanical thrombectomy for treatment of acute ischemic stroke due to emergent large vessel occlusion. In this work, we detail pre-thrombectomy process improvements in a multi-hospital network and report the effect on door-to-puncture time in patients undergoing mechanical thrombectomy. Patients and Methods A streamlined workflow was adopted to minimize door-to-puncture time. Key features of this workflow included rapid and concurrent clinical and radiological evaluation with point-of-care image interpretation, pre-transfer IV thrombolysis and CTA for transferred patients, immediate transport to the angiography suite potentially before neurointerventional radiology team arrival, and minimalist room setup. Door-to-puncture time was measured prospectively and analyzed retrospectively for 78 consecutive patients treated between January 2015 and December 2015. Statistical analysis was performed using the F-test on individual coefficients of a linear regression model. Results From quarter 1 to quarter 4, the number of thrombectomies performed increased by 173% (11 patients to 30 patients, p = 0.002), and there was a significant increase in the proportion of transferred patients that underwent pre-transfer CTA (p = 0.04). During this interval, overall median door-to-puncture time decreased by 74% (147 min to 39 min, p Conclusion Simple workflow improvements to streamline in-hospital triage and perform critical workup at transferring hospitals can produce reductions in door-to-puncture time.
Nanotoxicology and nanomedicine: making development decisions in an evolving governance environment

The fields of nanomedicine, risk analysis, and decision science have evolved considerably in the past decade, providing developers of nano-enabled therapies and diagnostic tools with more complete information than ever before and shifting a fundamental requisite of the nanomedical community from the need for more information about nanomaterials to the need for a streamlined method of integrating the abundance of nano-specific information into higher-certainty product design decisions. The crucial question facing nanomedicine developers that must select the optimal nanotechnology in a given situation has shifted from “how do we estimate nanomaterial risk in the absence of good risk data?” to “how can we derive a holistic characterization of the risks and benefits that a given nanomaterial may pose within a specific nanomedical application?” Many decision support frameworks have been proposed to assist with this inquiry; however, those based in multicriteria decision analysis have proven to be most adaptive in the rapidly evolving field of nanomedicine—from the early stages of the field when conditions of significant uncertainty and incomplete information dominated, to today when nanotoxicology and nano-environmental health and safety information is abundant but foundational paradigms such as chemical risk assessment, risk governance, life cycle assessment, safety-by-design, and stakeholder engagement are undergoing substantial reformation in an effort to address the needs of emerging technologies. In this paper, we reflect upon 10 years of developments in nanomedical engineering and demonstrate how the rich knowledgebase of nano-focused toxicological and risk assessment information developed over the last decade enhances the capability of multicriteria decision analysis approaches and underscores the need to continue the transition from traditional risk assessment towards risk-based decision-making and alternatives-based governance for emerging technologies.
Other Techniques in Special Circumstances: Pulmonary Thromboendarterectomy in Right Heart Failure

Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension still remains an under-recognized and misdiagnosed condition. If left untreated, it can progress to right heart failure. Diagnosis and referral to a specialized center is paramount since surgical treatment offers a life-long cure to these patients and reversal of their right heart failure. Although new medications have been developed to treat pulmonary hypertension, they remain significantly inferior to surgical treatment in both exercise capacity and pulmonary vascular resistance improvement. The UCSD surgical classification describes the level of disease and corresponds to the difficulty of the endarterectomy. Pulmonary thromboendarterectomy remains the gold standard treatment for patients with chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension. In experienced hands, pulmonary thromboendarterectomy can be performed with excellent long-term results and very low mortality.
The Weak and Weak* Topologies: An Introduction

As we saw in our brief study of compactness in normed linear spaces, the norm topology is too strong to allow any widely applicable subsequential extraction principles. Indeed, in order that each bounded sequence in X have a norm convergent subsequence, it is necessary and sufficient that X be finite dimensional. This fact leads us to consider other, weaker topologies on normed linear spaces which are related to the linear structure of the spaces and to search for subsequential extraction principles therein. As so often happens in such ventures, the roles of these topologies are not restricted to the situations initially responsible for their introduction. Rather, they play center court in many aspects of Banach space theory.
Design of Civil Engineering Frame Structures Using a Monomial/Newton Hybrid Method

This paper presents an application of a monomial approximation method for solving systems of nonlinear equations to the design of civil engineering frame structures. This is accomplished by solving a set of equations representing the state known as “fully-stressed design”, where each member of the structure is stressed to the maximum safe allowable level under at least one of the loading conditions acting on it. The monomial approximation method is based on the process of condensation, which has its origin in geometric programming theory. A monomial/Newton hybrid method is presented which permits some of the design variables to be free in sign, while others are strictly positive. This hybrid method is well suited to the structural design application since some variables are naturally positive and others are naturally free. The proposed method is compared to the most commonly used fully-stressed design method in practice. The hybrid method is shown to find solutions that the conventional method cannot find, while doing so with less computational effort. The impact of this approach on the activity of structural design is discussed.
Removal of Chlorophenols from Water by Photocatalytic Oxidation

Photocatalyst, TiO2, upon irradiation with uv light produces electrons and positive holes. The positive holes are strong oxidation agents that can oxidize organic compounds such as chlorophenol to mineral acids e.g. HC1 and CO2. Factors such as pH, chlorophenol concentration, concentration of TiO2 and inorganic electrolytes that may affect the oxidation of chlorophenol were investigated. The rate of the chlorophenol oxidation follows a first order reaction with respect to the chlorophenol concentration and independent of pH. The rate increases with concentration of TiO2, reaches a maximum level at 3 g/L then decreases to a constant value upon further increase in TiO2. Increasing the degree of chlorination appears to increase the extent and the rate of oxidation. For mono-chlorophenols the extent of oxidation follows: 4-chloro > 3-chloro > 2-chloro phenol. For dichlorophenols, the order is 2,6-dichloro ≈ 2,5-dichloro > 2,4-dichloro≈ 2,3-dichlorophenol. For symmetrical chlorophenols, the oxidation increases in the order: 4-chloro > 2,5-dichloro > 2,4,6-trichlorophenol. Pentachlorophenol is rapidly decomposed but the extent of oxidation is not complete.
Cost comparison and complication rate of Lisfranc injuries treated with open reduction internal fixation versus primary arthrodesis

Abstract Background Controversy exists regarding optimal primary management of Lisfranc injuries. Whether open reduction internal fixation (ORIF) or primary arthrodesis is superior remains unknown. Methods A national insurance database of approximately 23.5 million orthopedic patients was retrospectively queried for subjects who were diagnosed with a Lisfranc injury from 2007 to 2016 based on international classification of diseases (ICD) codes (PearlDiver, Colorado Springs, CO). Patients with lisfranc injuries then progressed to either nonoperative treatment, ORIF, or primary arthrodesis. Associated treatment costs were determined along with complication rate and hardware removal rate. Results 2205 subjects with a diagnosis of Lisfranc injury were identified in the database. 1248 patients underwent nonoperative management, 670 underwent ORIF, and 212 underwent primary arthrodesis. The average cost of care associated with primary arthrodesis was greater ($5005.82) than for ORIF ($3961.97,P = 0.045). The overall complication rate was 23.1% (155/670) for ORIF and 30.2% (64/212) for primary arthrodesis (P = 0.04). Rates of hardware removal were 43.6% (292/670) for ORIF and 18.4% (39/212) for arthrodesis (P Discussion Primary arthrodesis is both significantly more expensive and has a higher complication rate than ORIF. Open reduction and internal fixation demonstrated a low rate of progression to arthrodesis, although there was a high rate of hardware removal, which may represent a planned second procedure in the management of a substantial number of patients treated with ORIF. Level of evidence :Level III Retrospective Cohort Study.
An overview of two open interactive computing environments useful for data science education.

Objective To discuss and illustrate the utility of two open collaborative data science platforms, and how they would benefit data science and informatics education. Methods and Materials The features of two online data science platforms are outlined. Both are useful for new data projects and both are integrated with common programming languages used for data analysis. One platform focuses more on data exploration and the other focuses on containerizing, visualization, and sharing code repositories. Results Both data science platforms are open, free, and allow for collaboration. Both are capable of visual, descriptive, and predictive analytics. Discussion Data science education benefits by having affordable open and collaborative platforms to conduct a variety of data analyses. Conclusion Open collaborative data science platforms are particularly useful for teaching data science skills to clinical and nonclinical informatics students. Commercial data science platforms exist but are cost-prohibitive and generally limited to specific programming languages.
SSFD: A Face Detector using A Single-scale Feature Map

In this paper, we present a simple but effective face detector (dubbed SSFD), which can localize multi-scale faces. Unlike other multi-scale feature detectors which learn multi-scale features or feature pyramids aggregated from different scale feature maps, SSFD only depends on a single-scale input image and a single-scale feature map to detect faces of various scales. In SSFD, transposed convolutions are leveraged to increase the resolution of feature maps with different strides, which can maintain adequate information for occluded and small faces. In addition, dilated convolutions are deployed to increase the receptive field size, which contributes to obtaining discriminative contextual information. SSFD, which is based on the VGG-16 network, outperforms the ResNet101-based Scale-Face as well as the VGG16-based HR on the WIDER FACE validation dataset.
Practice Makes Perfect

Johne's disease (JD) control in dairy herds requires changes in herd management in combination with routine use of diagnostic tests and specific actions on test results. Outcomes of JD control programs, i.e. changes in prevalence, take at least five or more years to be seen on farms. Thus, it takes many years before bovine practitioners personally experience the success or failure of JD control programs in their clients' herds - a long learning cycle. Computer simulations allow for gaining clinical experience on virtual farms before tackling JD control in reality. Gaming concepts challenge learners to attain a passing score or improve their score by repeated attempts; in effect, trying to model expert behavior.
Implementing a Graduate-level Data Information Literacy Curriculum at Oregon State University: Approach, Outcomes and Lessons Learned

Suggested citation: "Whitmire, A.L., “Implementing a graduate-level data information literacy curriculum at Oregon State University: approach, outcomes and lessons learned.” Poster, University of Massachusetts & New England Area Librarian e-Science Symposium, April 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/1957/47005" This entry includes the conference poster and supplementary materials including: course syllabus, lesson plans, assessment survey, and survey responses.
Transition-Aware Detection of Modes of Locomotion and Transportation Through Hierarchical Segmentation

Recognizing human daily activities with motion sensors data, specifically, modes of locomotion and transportation provides important contextual information that enhances the effectiveness of mobile applications. For instance, in assisted living or sports monitoring it is essential to log driving or running episodes. Previous studies in this field have utilized a fixed-size windowing technique for segmenting the sequential data of sensors. While segmenting signals into larger windows provides more information about the signal for classifiers, it increases misclassification rate when a transition occurs between the activities (i.e., multi-class windows). This will lead to inaccurate detection and logging of the activities of interest. To identify the exact time of transition from one to another activity as precisely as possible, this article proposes a fast and efficient hierarchical search algorithm that finds the exact sample at which transition occurs. This search algorithm can be applied to any activity recognition model with various lengths of segmentation window. To further improve the performance, we propose a new structure of 2D signal inputs to be used with 2D convolutional neural networks (CNN), which improves the ability of the CNN in capturing patterns underlying in inter-axes correlations. Experimental results show that the proposed transition detection method improves the F1-score by 28% compared to using fixed-size windowing approach for multi-class windows. In addition, the proposed method is 20 times faster than the naive search.
Stages of Adoption of "Treatment as Prevention" Among HIV-Negative Men Who Have Sex with Men Who Engage in Exchange Sex.

Prior research found low acceptability of HIV treatment as prevention (TasP; or Undetectable = Untransmittable) among HIV-negative men who have sex with men (MSM). This study reports on qualitative...
SPAID: software prefetching in pointer- and call-intensive environments

Software prefetching, typically in the context of numeric- or loop-intensive benchmarks, has been proposed as one remedy for the performance bottleneck imposed on computer systems by the cost of servicing cache misses. This paper proposes a new heuristic-SPAID-for utilizing prefetch instructions in pointer- and call-intensive environments. We use trace-driven cache simulation of a number of pointer- and call-intensive benchmarks to evaluate the benefits and implementation trade-offs of SPAID. Our results indicate that a significant proportion of the cost of data cache misses can be eliminated or reduced with SPAID without unduly increasing memory traffic.
Medicare fee reductions and the overuse of intensity-modulated radiotherapy.

OBJECTIVE To estimate the impact of a large Medicare fee reduction for intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) on its use in prostate and breast cancer patients. DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING SEER-Medicare. STUDY DESIGN We compared trends in the use of IMRT between patients treated in practices directly affected by fee reductions (for prostate cancer, men treated in urology practices that own IMRT equipment; for breast cancer, women treated in freestanding radiotherapy clinics) and patients treated in other types of practices. DATA COLLECTION/EXTRACTION METHODS We identified breast and prostate cancer patients receiving IMRT using outpatient and physician office claims. We classified urology practices based on whether they billed for IMRT and radiotherapy clinics based on whether they were reimbursed under the Physician Fee Schedule. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Between 2006 and 2015 the payment for IMRT delivered in freestanding clinics and physician offices declined by $367 (-54.7%). However, the use of IMRT increased in physician practices subject to payment cuts, both in absolute terms and relative to use in practices unaffected by the payment cut. Use of IMRT in prostate cancer patients treated at urology practices that own IMRT equipment increased by 9.1 (95% CI: 2.0-16.2) percentage points between 2005 and 2016 relative to use in patients treated at other urology practices. Use of IMRT in breast cancer patients treated at freestanding radiotherapy centers increased by 7.5 (95% CI: -5.1 to 20.1) percentage points relative to use in patients treated at hospital-based centers. CONCLUSIONS A steep decline in IMRT fees did not decrease IMRT use over the period from 2006 to 2015, though use has declined since 2010.
Hierarchical Associative Memory

Dense Associative Memories or Modern Hopfield Networks have many appealing properties of associative memory. They can do pattern completion, store a large number of memories, and can be described using a recurrent neural network with a degree of biological plausibility and rich feedback between the neurons. At the same time, up until now all the models of this class have had only one hidden layer, and have only been formulated with densely connected network architectures, two aspects that hinder their machine learning applications. This paper tackles this gap and describes a fully recurrent model of associative memory with an arbitrary large number of layers, some of which can be locally connected (convolutional), and a corresponding energy function that decreases on the dynamical trajectory of the neurons' activations. The memories of the full network are dynamically "assembled" using primitives encoded in the synaptic weights of the lower layers, with the "assembling rules" encoded in the synaptic weights of the higher layers. In addition to the bottom-up propagation of information, typical of commonly used feedforward neural networks, the model described has rich top-down feedback from higher layers that help the lower-layer neurons to decide on their response to the input stimuli.
Public Schools' Pyrrhic Victories Over Parents' Rights

Many within the public school establishment dance within unrestrained enthusiasm on the grave of parental rights. But, we respectfully submit, they celebrate a pyrrhic victory. Left unremedied, the defeat of parents' rights in this context would prove not only harmful for parents and students, but would also damage public schooling in two interconnected ways.
ATP in the Treatment of Advanced Cancer

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the three properties of intravenously administered adenosine triphosphate (ATP) that contribute to its efficacy and are expected to significantly affect the outcomes of patients with advanced cancer. The three properties of ATP discussed in the chapter are cytolytic activities of ATP, the induction of resistance by ATP, and anticachexia effects of ATP. The cytolytic activities of ATP are attributed to both purinergic receptors and non- receptor-mediated mechanisms. The induction of resistance by ATP induces resistance to chemo- and radiation therapy in normal tissues. The third proven activity of ATP (anticachexia effects)—its ability to effectively expand the liver, red blood cells, and blood plasma ATP pools—is expected to significantly contribute to a favorable outcome in the treatment of advanced cachectic cancers, especially in older patients, by delivering purines to purine-depleted peripheral sites. A large amount of data establishes that on aging and in cachectic disease models, a significant depletion of purines in vivo can be easily noted. The anticachexia effects of ATP translate into significant improvements in the quality of life parameters in the advanced disease patients. The anticachexia effects of ATP and its effectiveness in delivering purines to purine-depleted peripheral sites act to protect the host from the otherwise devastating effects of high-dose cytotoxic and/or radiation therapy.
The Chemical Composition of Planetary Nebulae

The problem of the determination of the chemical compositions of planetary and other gaseous nebulae constitutes one of the most exasperating problems in astrophysics. On the one hand, the problem appears to be conceptually simple — the mechanisms of excitation of the various lines appear to be well understood and the necessary physical parameters can be obtained by quantum mechanical theory. Yet the task is a difficult one and we want to explore some of the significant features.
Experimental optimization of detector pixel size for stent visualization in X-ray fluoroscopy

To visualize small interventional device such as stent in angiographic x-ray fluoroscopy, detector pixels must be sufficiently small to limit contrast dilution for partial-area effects. However, X-ray photon number per pixel and pixel signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) are decreasing with the smaller pixels. There must be a size in between with improved visualization. Using quantitative experimental and modeling techniques, we determined the optimal pixel sizes for visualization of a stent 50 /spl mu/m in wire diameter for different detector types. With regard to detecting the presence of a stent, with an idealized direct detector, the 100 /spl mu/m pixel size resulted in maximum measured contrast sensitivity. For the idealized indirect detector, optimal pixel size reaches at 200 /spl mu/m pixel size. With regard to stent deployment, the target is smaller, and the result is more sensitive to pixel size, resulting in a steeper drop in performance with large pixels. We also applied a spatial-temporal channelized human observer model to predict and fit to the experiment results.
Pedicled parathyroid gland autotransposition in secondary and tertiary hyperparathyroidism

Keywords: Parathyroidectomy; parathyroid autotransplantation; parathyroid autotransposition; hyperparathyroidism; end-stage renal disease; parathyroid hormone
Decentralized Supply Risk Management

In a 2008 survey of 138 companies, 58% reported that they suffered financial losses within the last year due to a supply disruption. This article emphasizes the challenges and opportunities in supply risk management arising from the decentralized nature of supply chains and highlight how supply risks influence the interactions among firms in supply networks, review insights into decentralized supply risk management from the extant academic research and point out important future research directions.
Discovering Technicolor at Hadron Colliders

Strategies are presented for discovering light, color-singlet technipions (pi_T) produced in association with a vector boson through s-channel technirho production, at the Tevatron and LHC. Signal and W+jets background were simulated including detector effects. Tagging of b-quarks from the pi_T -> bb decay is found to be important to reduce the W+jets background. Kinematic properties of signal and background events are significantly different and simple cuts can be used to further improve the signal to background ratio.
Architecture, Implementation, and Evaluation of a Concurrent Multi-path Real-time Transport Control Protocol

Current multimedia applications utilize a combination of real-time transport protocol (RTP) and user datagram protocol (UDP) for transmitting real-time streams across the network. Bandwidth aggregation over multiple paths for improved real-time stream transmission can be achieved using either a combination of multi-flow RTP (MRTP) and UDP, or various adaptations of Partial reliability (PR) extension of SCTP (SCTP-PR). However, they are not really useful for balancing load on the multiple paths. The receiving end of these protocols can neither identify late arriving packets nor notify the sender about them. The novel concurrent multi-path real-time transmission control protocol (cmpRTCP) proposed, implemented, and evaluated in this work not only overcomes the problems faced by existing multi-path protocols, but also preserves the novel design and implementation features of the recently proposed cmpTCP. This protocol which has a congestion controller and a packet scheduler embedded in its core, intelligently exploits the availability of multiple paths between multi-homed hosts for concurrent transmission and showcases the ability of (i) remaining TCP-friendly while aggregating bandwidth, (ii) balancing load across paths by scheduling more packets on less congested paths, (iii) increasing end-to-end connection reliability by using multiple paths and (iv) improving QoS at the receiving end by scheduling more packets on better paths.
Cloning of a chick A3 adenosine receptor: characterization of ligand binding and receptor-effector coupling of chick A1 and A3 adenosine receptors.

We have reported previously the cloning and partial characterization of a chick A1 adenosine receptor expressed in the heart. We report herein the cloning of a chick A3 adenosine receptor and a comprehensive characterization of both the A1 and A3 receptors expressed in human embryonic kidney 293 cells. [125I]N6-(p-aminobenzyl)adenosine bound to both receptors with similar affinities and was used in competition studies. Although the selectivities of both agonists and antagonists were less than in other species, two antagonists, 3-ethyl-5-benzyl-2-methyl-6-phenyl-4-phenylethynal-(±)-dihydropyridine-3,5-dicarboxylate and 3,6-dichloro-2′-(isopropyloxy)-4′-methylflavone), were at least partially selective for A3 receptors while one antagonist [C8-(N-methylisopropyl)-amine-N6-(5′endohydroxy)endonorbornan-2-yl-9-methyladenine] was selective for A1 receptors. While both receptors coupled to the inhibition of adenylyl cyclase, we were unable to detect coupling of either receptor to phospholipase C or D.
Understanding diagrams in technical documents

The development of a knowledge base of biological research papers that supports the Scientist's Assistant, an intelligent system that will provide a scientist with interactive access to the research results, methods, and reasoning in a collection of scientific papers, is discussed. The document understanding system uses graphics constraint grammars for describing and analyzing diagrams, spatial indexing in diagram analysis and understanding, and extension of natural-language processing techniques to complex scientific text. The graphics constraint grammars of the diagram-understanding system are described in detail. Example diagrams and grammars are presented. >
Improved belt-charging system for better terminal stability in electrostatic accelerators

Abstract The terminal voltage stability in a Tandem Van de Graaff accelerator can be substantially improved by using a simple constant-current supply to regulate the total charge flow from the belt to the high voltage terminal. Results obtained with such systems are described and the desirability of equilizing the charge densities on the up-run and the down-run of the belt is discussed.
Current uses of hypertext in teaching literature

Literature instructors are using hypertext to enhance their teaching in a broad variety of ways that includes putting course materials on the WWW; creating online tutorials; using annotated hypertexts in addition to or in lieu of print texts; having students write hypertexts; examining the medium of hypertext as a literary and cultural theme; and studying hypertext fiction in the context of traditional literature classes. The article describes examples of each of these uses of hypertext in teaching literature and provides sources of further examples of and information on using hypertext as a teaching tool in literature classes.
Creating Rigidly Stabilized Fractures for Assessing Intramembranous Ossification, Distraction Osteogenesis, or Healing of Critical Sized Defects

Assessing modes of skeletal repair is essential for developing therapies to be used clinically to treat fractures. Mechanical stability plays a large role in healing of bone injuries. In the worst-case scenario mechanical instability can lead to delayed or non-union in humans. However, motion can also stimulate the healing process. In fractures that have motion cartilage forms to stabilize the fracture bone ends, and this cartilage is gradually replaced by bone through recapitulation of the developmental process of endochondral ossification. In contrast, if a bone fracture is rigidly stabilized bone forms directly via intramembranous ossification. Clinically, both endochondral and intramembranous ossification occur simultaneously. To effectively replicate this process investigators insert a pin into the medullary canal of the fractured bone as described by Bonnarens4. This experimental method provides excellent lateral stability while allowing rotational instability to persist. However, our understanding of the mechanisms that regulate these two distinct processes can also be enhanced by experimentally isolating each of these processes. We have developed a stabilization protocol that provides rotational and lateral stabilization. In this model, intramembranous ossification is the only mode of healing that is observed, and healing parameters can be compared among different strains of genetically modified mice 5-7, after application of bioactive molecules 8,9, after altering physiological parameters of healing 10, after modifying the amount or time of stabilization 11, after distraction osteogenesis 12, after creation of a non-union 13, or after creation of a critical sized defect. Here, we illustrate how to apply the modified Ilizarov fixators for studying tibial fracture healing and distraction osteogenesis in mice.
Liberalism Triumphant—But Where is the World System?:

World-System is a pioneering work that opens up new horizons for research, gener ates new problems, and elaborates new methods. At the same time, it is a difficult work that proceeds not by constructing a his tory, but by critiquing the categories of existing historiography. For this reason it seems as if the world-system approach is an historicized version of Parsonian structural-functionalism where the social system determines everything. Indeed it has frequently been interpreted in this way However, this is a one-sided reading that misses the perspective's potential. The vol ume under review here breaks with liberal
A comprehensive model for understanding technology selection decisions of interconnected information technologies

Information technologies are becoming increasingly interconnected and interdependent, which enhances functionalities and communications, but also introduces new risks and considerations such as technical incompatibilities, technology mortality, switching costs, and lock-in. This research aims to build on innovation diffusion theory and network effects theory by introducing switching costs theory to construct a more comprehensive framework explaining technology selection decisions. Additionally, the research model has been informed and tweaked based on several interviews with technology selectors, and the resulting model will be empirically verified. From this research, practitioners can better understand the factors that make a difference in success and failure of technology decisions, and consequently, develop strategies to mitigate the risks which accompany selection decisions. For researchers, this research will provide empirical verification of a range of existing theories when their relationships are examined together.Justin Cochran is a doctoral candidate in Management Information Systems at the University of Georgia. His research interests are technology selection, IS strategy, and service-oriented computing. He expects to graduate in Spring 2007. His advisor is Dale Goodhue.
Functional relationship between somatosensory cortex and specialized afferent pathways in the monkey

Previous work showed that the primate dorsal funiculus (DF) was necessary for tactile discrimination which entailed movement. The extra-DF spinal afferent fibers, by contrast, were sufficient for discrimination of tactile stimuli which did not require movement. This study investigated the association between various cortical regions and the specialized tactile roles of the separate afferent systems. Monkeys learned two sets of tasks, one of which was dependent on DF integrity, and the other was capable of mediation by the extra-DF pathways. The cortical distribution and processing of DF and extra-DF information has been defined here by whether or not these tasks were affected by lesions in the respective regions. Lesions in area 3b led to impairment of both tasks, but more severe and longer-lasting impairment of the DF tests. Lesions in areas 1, 5, or 7 were without effect on either type of function. Ablation of the forelimb region in area 2 selectively damaged only the DF discriminations. These results, in combination with the results of others which are considered here, suggest that (i) both the DF and the extra-DF tactile information converge into area 3b; (ii) the extra-DF information is then projected diffusely to widespread regions of the cortex which enables it to survive limited parietal ablations; and (iii) the DF information is transmitted compactly to a focal region in area 2.
Functional development of dopamine receptors in the rat forebrain

Abstract Dopamine (DA) was injected unilaterally into the dorsal caudate-putamen (D-CPU), ventral caudate-putamen (V-CPU), piriform cortex (PIR), olfactory tubercle (OTU) and frontal cortex (FC) of two day old rats and rotational behavior observed. Injection of DA into D-CPU, PIR, and OTU produced a contralateral postural deviation which differed significantly from the ipsilateral deviation produced by control injections. Only DA injections into PIR and OTU produced contralateral turning differing significantly from the effects of control injections. These results suggest that the DA receptors in D-CPU, PIR, and OTU involved in rotational behavior are functionally mature at two days of age and that the two components of rotation, postural deviation (direction) and turning (locomotion), involve different neural systems at this age. The developing rat is suggested as a valuable tool for understanding the neural circuitry and pharmacology of rotational behavior.
A Raman study of phonon mode softening in superconducting and non-superconducting (RE)Ba2Cu3O7 for RE = Y,Eu,Pr

Abstract We have measured the mode frequency amd linewidth of the A g ( B 1 g ) phonon mode which exhibits softening below the superconducting transition in the YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7 (Y123) family of high temperature superconductors. Measurements were made on Y123, Eu123 and on non-superconducting Pr123. The mode softens by 10 cm −1 in Y123, by 3 cm −1 in Eu123 and shows no anomaly in Pr123.
Effect of long-term L-dopa administration on brain biogenic amines and behavior in the rat.

Abstract Long-term adminstration of l -DOPA to rats at doses comparable to those used in treating Parkinson's disease in man resulted in generalized increased motor activity, piloerection, increased startle, touch and pain responses, and in some cases, orobuccofacial dyskinesias. Within 1–2 hr after the last l -DOPA injection, brain dopamine levels were elevated. Much of the dopamine was shown to be in the vascular endothelium, while the greatest increase in parenchymal amine was demonstrated in the basal ganglia. Norepinephrine levels, which were decreased in brain tissues by 21–54%, depending on the dosage and time after the last l -DOPA injection, appeared to affect motor behavior associated with the administration of l -DOPA.
A methodology for simultaneously dealing with machine duplication and part subcontracting in cellular manufacturing systems

Abstract In this article, we present a model and a solution algorithm for dealing simultaneously with duplicating bottleneck machines and subcontracting bottleneck parts under budgetary restrictions in CM systems. Because the problem is proven NP-hard in the strong sense, a higher-level heuristic algorithm based upon a concept known as tabu search is presented. The functionality of the algorithm is demonstrated by solving an example (small) problem. Further, the small problem as well as a variant of the small problem are solved for the optimal solution, and the solutions obtained at four different budgetary levels are shown to match with those obtained with the heuristic algorithm. The applicability of the algorithm for problems encountered in industry practice to create either completely disaggregated or nearly completely disaggregated manufacturing cells is demonstrated by solving a fairly large problem that has appeared in the published literature. When parts manufacturing companies are subject to budgetary restrictions, the results obtained show that the proposed approach can be used to determine which of the following three actions should be undertaken for each bottleneck part. That is should, the bottleneck part be left as in the initial solution, all the bottleneck machines connected to it be duplicated, or the part be subcontracted?
NATURAL CONTROL OF HEMLOCK SAWFLY, NEODIPRION TSUGAE (HYMENOPTERA: DIPRIONIDAE), POPULATIONS IN SOUTHEAST ALASKA

Hemlock sawfly infestations occur most commonly in the warm southern half of southeast Alaska. Biotic factors that limit sawfly populations are a fungus, Entomophthora sphaerosperma , which kills disproportionately large numbers of female larvae; food quality as affected by host site and defoliation; and three ichneumonid parasitoid species, Delomerista japonica diprionis , Oresbius tsugae tsugae , and Itoplectis quadricingulatus , which attack prepupal larvae in cocoons. E . sphaerosperma was the most effective natural control in recent years, especially during wetter than normal summers. Parasites which attack after the fungus has decimated larval populations were most abundant during two dry summers. Parasitization and sawfly emergence were directly related, and both were highly inversely correlated with percentage fungus killed sawflies. Sawflies reared on lightly defoliated trees produced significantly more eggs than those reared on heavily defoliated trees, and fecundity was directly related to cumulative heat units during the summer. Between 1952 and 1974, most negative sawfly population trends south of Frederick Sound occurred when two wet summers occurred consecutively. Apparent widespread collapse of sawfly populations in 1974 was associated with low temperatures in 1973 which delayed sawfly development and reduced opportunities for successful oviposition.
A formal framework for the Java bytecode language and verifier

This paper presents a sound type system for a large subset of the Java bytecode language including classes, interfaces, constructors, methods, exceptions, and bytecode subroutines. This work serves as the foundation for developing a formal specification of the bytecode language and the Java Virtual Machine's bytecode verifier. We also describe a prototype implementation of a type checker for our system and discuss some of the other applications of this work. For example, we show how to extend our work to examine other program properties, such as the correct use of object locks.