cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Three Typological Themes in Early Jewish Messianism: Messiah Son of Joseph, Rabbinic Calculations, and the Figure of Armilus

The messianic dream owes its roots to biblical prophecy and its rich development to generations of sensitive and creative exegetes anxiously awaiting redemption. Scripture itself is less than generous in providing detailed information about the end of days, so ungenerous, in fact, that some modern scholars have expressed skepticism about the very appearance of a messianic figure in the biblical text. While this skepticism is excessive, it reflects a reality which troubled the ancients no less than the moderns and left room for the diversity and complexity that mark the messianic idea by late antiquity.
Issues on government incentives for synthetic fuels from coal and biomass resources in the Midwestern U.S.A.

Abstract Discussions on incentives policy for liquid fuels from coal and biomass produced general agreement on: the need to carefully define objectives of such fuel production; the importance of a favorable ratio between energy output and input; the difficulties in using food and feed to make fuel; and the prospect that government incentives for making fuel from these sources will diminish, at least in the near term.
PTSD and Reasons for Living: Associations with Depressive Symptoms and Alcohol Use

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with suicidal ideation and behavior, and is found to frequently co-occur with other conditions that exacerbate the risk for suicidal behavior. Despite these findings, few individuals with PTSD engage in suicidal acts, and there has been little research to examine those factors that protect against such behaviors. The current study used path analysis to examine the association among PTSD, depression, hazardous alcohol consumption, and beliefs about suicide (i.e., reasons for living) in a community sample with motor vehicle accident related-PTSD (N=50). Reasons for living were inversely associated with PTSD, depression, and alcohol use. Further, depression symptom severity accounted for the association between PTSD symptom severity and reasons for living. In contrast, hazardous alcohol consumption only demonstrated a trend for accounting for the association between PTSD and reasons for living. Our findings highlight the importance of clinicians assessing co-occurring depression symptoms and suggest the potential use of interventions that promote adaptive cognitions about suicide among people with PTSD.
Transverse Coherence Length (r o ) Observations

The transverse coherence length (r0) was directly measured approximately every 5 minutes from 29 August to 28 September 1984 at MTh, I,=1). An MTF-device was used with stellar sources for the ro observations. The diurnal variation of ro is discussed and related to processes affecting optical turbulence in the planetary boundary layer. A complete heat exchange study involving radiative, sensible heat, latent heat and soil heat fluxes is presented and related to ro values as well as to surface measured Cn. Of particular interest to the problem is the observed surface thermal activity. Vertical profile measurements of Cn, obtained from thermosondes at various times of the day and night, are presented to show the contributions of optical turbulence at various levels in the atmosphere to r o . Cn2 development as related to solar activity is discussed. The measured Cn2 profiles are compared to appropriate models.
Retail atmospherics: The impact of a brand dictated theme

Abstract Although retail atmospherics has been an active area of study, a glance around a typical mall indicates many retailers still do not actively differentiate their retail environment from competitors. This is likely due to retailers considering the atmospheric elements (lighting, music, etc.) individually and making decisions regarding the elements based on what is “standard” for their customers, merchandise, and format. This approach leads to very little differentiation and fails to consider that today’s consumer is often expecting a more multi-sensory, interactive, and holistic shopping experience. This paper considers an alternative approach, where a brand dictated “theme” is used to guide the manipulation of the atmospheric elements. This allows retail brands to break free from standard design to create a more interactive, immersive, and authentic environment. Outcomes include increases in shopping enjoyment, positive brand attitudes, and brand loyalty. T -tests are utilized to compare the two approaches within both the apparel (Study 1) and restaurant (Study 2) industries.
A conical-collared intramedullary stem can improve stress transfer and limit micromotion.

Objective. The objective of this study was to quantify the effect of collar geometry on stress transfer and micromotion in idealized models of a cementless implant having an intramedullary stem. Background. Intramedullary stems exist on several types of orthopaedic implants, including the femoral component of hip arthroplasties and segmental replacements used in the surgical treatment of a tumor or trauma in the diaphysis of a long bone. Methods. Using three-dimensional finite element analysis, we compared four idealized, straight-stemmed, axisymmetric prostheses: flat-collared (0°), conical-collared (30° and 60°), and collarless tapered (80°). We simulated axial and non-axial (20° oblique) loads as well as non-ingrown and ingrown interface conditions. Results. Without bone ingrowth, stress transfer to bone adjacent to the collar increased with collar angle. Micromotion at the distal stem increased moderately with collar angle from 0° through 60°, then increased markedly from 60° to 80°. With simulated bony ingrowth, the effect of the collar was greatly reduced. Conclusions. The results of this study suggest that the selection of collar angle represents a tradeoff between initial stress transfer and micromotion. Stems with conical collar angles in the range of 30–60° can provide increased stress transfer compared to a flat collar design and reduced micromotion compared to a collarless tapered design. Relevance This study suggests that a conical-collared stem has the potential to better maintain bone density and achieve stable fixation. This finding is consistent with clinical data and indicates that further biomechanical and clinical investigations may be in order.
A bio-inspired ultra-low-power spike encoding circuit for speech edge detection

Speech edge detection can be used to adaptively control the performance and improve the energy efficiency of smart audio sensors. In this paper, we propose a spike encoding circuit inspired by mammalian auditory system for real-time and low-power speech edge detection. The circuit can directly encode the signal's envelope information by asynchronous spikes' temporal density without additional envelope extraction. Furthermore, the spike encoding automatically adapts its encoding resolution to the amplitude of the input signal, which improves encoding resolution for small signal without directly increasing power consumption. Fabricated in 0.5-µm CMOS process, the spike encoding circuit consumes 0.3-#x00B5;W power, and the experimental results are presented.
LEISURE: Load-Balanced Network-Wide Traffic Measurement and Monitor Placement

Network-wide traffic measurement is of interest to network operators to uncover global network behavior for the management tasks of traffic accounting, debugging or troubleshooting, security, and traffic engineering. Increasingly, sophisticated network measurement tasks such as anomaly detection and security forensic analysis are requiring in-depth fine-grained flow-level measurements. However, performing in-depth per-flow measurements (e.g., detailed payload analysis) is often an expensive process. Given the fast-changing Internet traffic landscape and large traffic volume, a single monitor is not capable of accomplishing the measurement tasks for all applications of interest due to its resource constraint. Moreover, uncovering global network behavior requires network-wide traffic measurements at multiple monitors across the network since traffic measured at any single monitor only provides a partial view and may not be sufficient or accurate. These factors call for coordinated measurements among multiple distributed monitors. In this paper, we present a centralized optimization framework, LEISURE (Load- EqualIzed mea SUREment), for load-balancing network measurement workloads across distributed monitors. Specifically, we consider various load-balancing problems under different objectives and study their extensions to support both fixed and flexible monitor deployment scenarios. We formulate the latter flexible monitor deployment case as an MILP (Mixed Integer Linear Programming) problem and propose several heuristic algorithms to approximate the optimal solution and reduce the computation complexity. We evaluate LEISURE via detailed simulations on Abilene and GEANT network traces to show that LEISURE can achieve much better load-balanced performance (e.g., 4.75 $\times$ smaller peak workload and 70 $\times$ smaller variance in workloads) across all coordinated monitors in comparison to a naive solution (uniform assignment) to accomplish network-wide traffic measurement tasks under the fixed monitor deployment scenario. We also show that under the flexible monitor deployment setting, our heuristic solutions can achieve almost the same load-balancing performance as the optimal solution while reducing the computation times by a factor up to 22.5 $\times$ in Abilene and 800 $\times$ in GEANT.
Ignition of lean hydrogen–air mixtures

Abstract A series of tests were conducted to investigate how difficult lean hydrogen–air mixtures (4–10% hydrogen concentration) are to ignite. The commonly reported lean limit of combustion for hydrogen is 4.0%. The tests that were used to determine this assumed a quiescent hydrogen–air mixture and no upper limit on ignition energy or gap size for ignition. In this work, ignition tests were conducted with: (1) quiescent hydrogen–air mixtures and ignition arc lengths up to 3.2 mm (0.126 in), (2) mixtures in motion and arc lengths up to 1.5 mm (0.060 in), and (3) low-velocity mixtures with common electrical appliances as ignition sources. This work showed that the probability of igniting lean hydrogen–air mixtures is strongly affected by the ignition source, where successful ignition was a strong function of arc length and a weaker function of gas velocity and ignition energy. The tests were conducted at 26– 27 ∘ C (78– 80 ∘ F ).
Angiogenic activity of the corneal epithelium.

Abstract A homogenate of corneal epithelial cells was tested to determine if it could induce vascularization in the cornea. Both fresh and cultured cells were used as sources of the homogenate which was evaluated in vivo using a self-contained system to perfuse it constantly into the corneal stroma. A vigorous growth of vessels resulted when the concentration of the homogenate exceeded a threshold of 20 μg per ml total protein. This capacity was not destroyed when the homogenate was heated. As a preliminary refinement of this response white blood cells were eliminated from the model with whole body X-irradiation. Vascularization occurred in leukopenic animals but was less than that observed in normal animals. It is concluded that the epithelial homogenate is able to provoke corneal vascularization in the absence of leukocytes.
Experimental study of olivine-melt reaction and its petrological implications

Abstract Reaction experiments between olivine and SiO2-rich melt were carried out at 1 atm under controlled fO2 conditions with variables comprising the chemical compositions of olivine and melt, temperature, and time. Vermicular crystals of olivine or opaque zones composed of fine mixtures of Ca-poor pyroxene, magnetite, and melt are formed by reaction between olivine, more fayalitic than the equilibrium olivine, and melt (partial dissolution). Irrespective of the compositions of olivine, reaction rims of Ca-poor pyroxene are formed on the olivine crystals (or on the opaque zones) by the reaction with an andesite melt, but not with a boninite melt. The former melt cannot coexist with olivine, while the latter can on an olivine-pyroxene reaction surface. The observation of the reaction rims suggests that many pyroxene reaction rims on olivine are not formed by simple monotonic cooling of magmas but by reaction between disequilibrium pairs of olivine and SiO2-rich melt as the result of xenocryst incorporation and/or magma mixing. The variety of reaction textures present in volcanic rocks, such as dusty plagioclase, alkali feldspar, and pyroxene, and pyroxene reaction rims on olivine, indicate that many of these rocks have experienced contamination by xenolith incorporation and/or magma mixing.
A quantitative study of adrenal influences upon the cellular elements of bone marrow.

ALTHOUGH the role of the adrenal in regulating peripheral blood cell numbers is still being explored (reviews by Gordon and Charipper, 1947; Daughaday, Williams and Daland, 1948; Aschkenasy, 1952; Grant and Root, 1952; Dougherty and Dougherty, 1953; Gordon 1954; Gordon, 1955; Swingle and Kleinberg, 1955), only scant attention has been paid to its influence upon the blood forming organs. Some investigators have reported stimulation whereas others have noted hypoplasia of the bone marrow following activation of the pituitary-adrenal axis. Thus, adrenalectomy in rats (Gordon, Piliero and Landau, 1951) and mice (Stein and Martin, 1951) results in a decreased erythroid-myeloid cell ratio in marrow. Adrenal cortical extract and cortisone prevent this change in the adrenalectomized rat (Gordon, Piliero and Landau, 1951). Moreover, erythropoietic stimulation has been observed following administration of adrenal cortical extract to intact rats (Hayes and Baker, 1952), after treatment of intact guinea pigs with ACT...
Continuous turbine blade creep measurement based on Moiré

Moire imaging has been used to measure creep in the airfoil section of gas turbine blades. The ability to accurately assess creep and other failure modes has become an important engineering challenge, because gas turbine manufacturers are putting in place condition-based maintenance programs. In such maintenance programs, the condition of individual components is assessed to determine their remaining lives. Using pad-print technology, a grating pattern was printed directly on a turbine blade for localized creep detection using the spacing change of moire pattern fringes. A creep measurement prototype was assembled for this application which contained a lens, reference grating, camera and lighting module. This prototype comprised a bench-top camera system that can read moire patterns from the turbine blade sensor at shutdown to determine creep level in individual parts by analyzing the moire fringes. Sensitivity analyses and noise factor studies were performed to evaluate the system. Analysis software was also developed. A correlation study with strain gages was performed and the measurement results from the moire system align well with the strain gage readings. A mechanical specimen subjected to a one cycle tensile test at high temperature to induce plastic deformation in the gage was used to evaluate the system and the result of this test exhibited good correlation to extensometer readings.
Fluorescent Detection of Chemical Warfare Agents: Functional Group Specific Ratiometric Chemosensors

Indicators providing highly sensitive and functional group specific fluorescent response to diisopropyl fluorophosphate (DFP, a nerve gas (G-agent) simulant) are reported. Nonemissive indicator 2 reacts with DFP to give a cyclized compound 2+A- that shows a high emission due to its highly planar and rigid structure. Very weak emission was observed by the addition of HCl. Another indicator based on pyridyl naphthalene exhibits a large shift in its emission spectrum after reaction with DFP, which provides for quantitative ratiometric detection.
Is increased cholesterol excretion the link between low serum cholesterol and colon cancer

Abstract The data from several different patient groups consuming high‐fat, high‐cholesterol diets suggest that decreased serum cholesterol may be linked with increased cholesterol excretion. Since cholesterol or its degradation products have been implicated in the pathogenesis of colon cancer, an inverse relationship between serum and biliary cholesterol levels could explain the statistical relationship between low serum cholesterol and colon cancer observed in recent prospective studies.
Ether complexes of tungsten with two different binding modes: An O-bound ether and an {eta}{sup 2}-(C=C) vinyl ether. Evidence for C-H...O hydrogen bonding of vinylic C-H groups

The reaction of PhCH(OCH{sup 3}){sup 2} with Cp(CO){sup 3}WH and HOTf gives [Cp(CO){sup 3}W(PhCH{sup 2}OCH{sup 3})]{sup +}OTf{sup -}. The structure of this benzyl methyl ether complex was determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction and was shown to have the ether bonded to tungsten through the oxygen. This compound was isolated as a kinetic product of the reaction; it decomposes in solution by releasing free PhCH{sup 2}OCH{sup 3} and forming Cp(CO){sup 3}WOTf. An analog with the BAr`{sup 4}{sup -} counterion [Ar` = 3, 5-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl] is more stable. The reaction of the vinyl acetal CH{sup 2}=CHCH(OEt){sup 2} with Cp(CO){sup 3}WH and HOTf produces [Cp(CO){sup 3}W({eta}{sup 2}-EtOCH=CHCH{sup 3})]{sup +} OTf{sup -}, in which the ether is bonded to tungsten through the C=C bond of the vinyl ether. The crystal structure of this compound shows that the W-C(OEt) distance (2.69(3) A) is significantly longer than the W-C(CH{sup 3}) distance (2.37(3) A). There are weak C-H...O hydrogen bonds between both vinyl CH`s and oxygens of the triflate counterions. Evidence is presented that some of these weak hydrogen bonds are maintained in CD{sup 2}Cl{sup 2} solution but not in CD{sup 3}CN. 44 refs., 4 figs., 3 tabs.
Point-and-edge model for edge-preserving splatting

We introduce the point-and-edge model for edge-preserving modeling and rendering. Besides a set of surface points, the point-and-edge model also includes edge points representing the sharp edges in the model. The surface points and the sharp edges are relatively independent of each other. We present a feedback algorithm to simplify the point-and-edge model with bounded error based on an edge-preserving clustering method. An efficient constrained splatting method is used to preserve the sharp edges in the rendering, regardless of the surface point density.
Periocular botulinum toxin.

Abstract Botulinum toxin type A (BOTOX ® , Dysport™) has revolutionized treatment of wrinkles around the eyes. Since the first publications of its cosmetic benefit by Drs. Jean and Alastair Carruthers,1 hundreds of articles have been published about its cosmetic use. BOTOX ® holds U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval in the United States for treatment of glabellar lines. BOTOX ® is in widespread use worldwide and is currently the most popular cosmetic treatment in the United States.
Wave functions and energy bands for narrow band materials: A modified tight-binding calculation for the d-bands of Cu

Abstract We describe the energy band wavefunctions for the d electrons of copper by the tight-binding method, but using an optimized atomic-like orbital representative of the solid, rather than the free-atom d orbital. The optimized orbital is obtained by a variational calculation for a non-hybridizing d-band state, using the Chodorow potential for copper. The resulting d-band energy values agree with the augmented-plane-wave calculation of Burdick to within 0.005 Ry for most bands, with a maximum deviation of 0.03 Ry. It is suggested that this technique would facilitate the calculation of many of the electronic properties of narrow-band materials.
Neural control of pituitary adrenal activity in Cyprinus carpio

The freshwater teleost Cyprinus carpio is endowed with an active ACTH-adrenocorticosteroid system comparable in its responsiveness to that of the laboratory rat. Treatment with dexamethasone sodium phosphate or with pharmacological doses of porcine ACTH indicates that plasma cortisol levels may range from 1 ± 0.9(6) to 45 ± 6.7(6) μg/100 ml of plasma. A change in habitat from native pond to fish hatchery or laboratory tank is accompanied by elevated plasma steroid levels which slowly subside over a period of several weeks. The restraint imposed by netting results in a prompt rise in plasma cortisol levels from a resting level of 1 ± 1.1(13) μg per 100 ml to an excited level of 25 ± 3.59(9) μg per 100 ml at 15 min after initiation of restraint. When a disturbance is created in the tank by the netting of one fish, elevations in the plasma cortisol levels occur in the other fish which reach a maximum of 24 ± 4.6(5) μg per 100 ml at 20 min after the initiation of the disturbance. A 24-hour rhythmicity of plasma cortisol levels appears to be present. With the photoperiod set for 12 hr of light beween 0600 and 1800, a nocturnal rise in cortisol levels to 25 ± 3.7(9) μg/100 ml was observed to commence at 1200 and peak at 0300. Neural structures situated at the base of the fish brain appear to be involved in the release of ACTH. Electrical stimulation of hypothalamic tissue situated above the pituitary gland resulted in prompt elevations in plasma cortisol to 25 ± 2.3(6) μg/100 ml which were significantly greater than those observed in sham-stimulated controls [5 ± 0.6(7) μg/100 ml].
Learning English on Her Own—Almost: The Facilitative Role of One Immigrant's Daughter

Maria's experiences as an immigrant learning English in the southwestern United States parallel those of others who desire to improve their English but lack the time or resources to enroll in ESL classes. Maria was originally observed during English conversation and interviewed in Spanish to assess her awareness and use of effective language-learning strategies on her own; however, during data collection it became apparent that Maria was not alone at all. The role Maria's teenage daughter Rosa played in mediating her mother's second language identity construction and in providing psychological access to productive communities of practice appeared to outweigh her role as interpreter.
RKN-Type Parallel Block PC Methods with Lagrange-Type Predictors

Abstract This paper describes the construction of block predictor-corrector methods based on Runge-Kutta-Nystrom correctors. Our approach is to apply the predictor-corrector method not only at step points, but also at off-step points (block points), so that in each step, a whole block of approximations to the exact solution at off-step points is computed. In the next step, these approximations are used to obtain a high-order predictor formula using Lagrange interpolation. By suitable choice of the abscissas of the off-step points, a much more accurately predicted value is obtained than by predictor formulas based on last step values. Since the block of approximations at the off-step points can be computed in parallel, the sequential costs of these block predictor-corrector methods are comparable with those of a conventional predictor-corrector method. Furthermore, by using Runge-Kutta-Nystrom corrector methods, the computation of the approximation at each off-step point is also highly parallel. Application of the resulting block predictor-corrector methods to a few widely-used test problems reveals that the sequential costs are reduced by a factor ranging from 4 to 50 when compared with the best sequential methods from the literature.
Protein kinase C phosphorylates a 47 Mr protein (F1) directly related to synaptic plasticity

Ca2+-phospholipid-dependent protein kinase C, and activators of protein kinase C (phosphatidylserine, phorbol esters) stimulate the in vitro phosphorylation of a 47 kdalton phosphoprotein (protein F1) previously shown (Routtenberg, Lovinger and Steward,Behav. neural Biol., 43 (1985) 3–11) to be directly related to the plasticity of long-term potentiation. These data indicate that protein F1 serves as a protein kinase C substrate, and suggest the hypothesis that protein kinase C is involved in processes of long-term potentiation.
Bridged Ferrocenes. I

Abstract Previously reported correlations between Mossbauer spectra and the number of bridges in trimethylene bridged ferrocene derivatives have now been observed in the electrode potentials and in the electronic spectra. Crystallographic results reported in the subsequent papers of this series are employed to confirm the previous attribution of these effects to ring—ring tilting, iron-to-ring distance, and to a lesser extent the non-planarity of the rings in some compounds. Rearrangement during the bridging reaction is proposed to explain the failure of the formation of the four-bridged compound.
Within and Between Shot Information Utilisation in Video Key Frame Extraction

In consequence of the popularity of family video recorders and the surge of Web 2.0, increasing amounts of videos have made the management and integration of the information in videos an urgent and important issue in video retrieval. Key frames, as a high-quality summary of videos, play an important role in the areas of video browsing, searching, categorisation, and indexing. An effective set of key frames should include major objects and events of the video sequence, and should contain minimum content redundancies. In this paper, an innovative key frame extraction method is proposed to select representative key frames for a video. By analysing the differences between frames and utilising the clustering technique, a set of key frame candidates (KFCs) is first selected at the shot level, and then the information within a video shot and between video shots is used to filter the candidate set to generate the final set of key frames. Experimental results on the TRECVID 2007 video dataset have demonstrated the effectiveness of our proposed key frame extraction method in terms of the percentage of the extracted key frames and the retrieval precision.
Analysis of plant-derived miRNAs in animal small RNA datasets

Plants contain significant quantities of small RNAs (sRNAs) derived from various sRNA biogenesis pathways. Many of these sRNAs play regulatory roles in plants. Previous analysis revealed that numerous sRNAs in corn, rice and soybean seeds have high sequence similarity to animal genes. However, exogenous RNA is considered to be unstable within the gastrointestinal tract of many animals, thus limiting potential for any adverse effects from consumption of dietary RNA. A recent paper reported that putative plant miRNAs were detected in animal plasma and serum, presumably acquired through ingestion, and may have a functional impact in the consuming organisms. To address the question of how common this phenomenon could be, we searched for plant miRNAs sequences in public sRNA datasets from various tissues of mammals, chicken and insects. Our analyses revealed that plant miRNAs were present in the animal sRNA datasets, and significantly miR168 was extremely over-represented. Furthermore, all or nearly all (>96%) miR168 sequences were monocot derived for most datasets, including datasets for two insects reared on dicot plants in their respective experiments. To investigate if plant-derived miRNAs, including miR168, could accumulate and move systemically in insects, we conducted insect feeding studies for three insects including corn rootworm, which has been shown to be responsive to plant-produced long double-stranded RNAs. Our analyses suggest that the observed plant miRNAs in animal sRNA datasets can originate in the process of sequencing, and that accumulation of plant miRNAs via dietary exposure is not universal in animals.
Hydrothermal alteration of impact melt sheets with implications for Mars

A model of the interaction of water with an impact melt sheet is constructed to explain the presence of hydrothermal alteration, fluid flow channels, and the redistribution of volatile elements in terrestrial melt sheets. A calculation of the amount of water vaporized beneath a melt sheet with a large fraction of melt results in a maximum total steam/melt sheet ratio of 23% by weight. The model also applies to Martian impact melt sheets, which have a total volume greater than a global layer 60 m thick. Hydrothermal circulation of steam in Martian melt sheets may have produced iron-rich alteration clays, ferric hydroxides, and near-surface accumulations of salts. The ability of vapor-dominated hydrothermal systems to concentrate sulfate relative to chloride is consistent with the high sulfate to chloride ratio found in the Martian soil by the Viking landers. A major fraction of the Martian soil may consist of the erosion products of hydrothermally altered impact melt sheets.
Diagnosis and management of HIV-infected patients with diarrhoea

Diarrhoea and weight loss are found in more than 50% of patients with AIDS and in some patients can be so severe that death may occur even in the absence of opportunistic infections. Systematic evaluation of diarrhoeal illness in HIV-infected patients will often identify a treatable aetiology. Despite the tendency for recurrences, the majority of patients will respond to anti-infective therapy. A practical approach to the diagnosis and management of HIV-infected patients with diarrhoea is presented in this article.
Benefits of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery in the treatment of non-small-cell lung cancer

SUMMARY Anatomic lung resection remains the gold standard in the treatment of lung cancer. The traditional approach has been an open thoracotomy with anatomic lobectomy. The approach to the operation has continued to evolve, transitioning from large thoracotomy incisions to smaller muscle sparing incisions to video-assisted thoracic surgery. This article reviews the studies and evidence in support of the potential benefits afforded by the video-assisted thoracic surgery approach in the treatment of lung cancer.
Structural Organization and Expression Pattern of the Canine RPGRIP1 Isoforms in Retinal Tissue

The RPGRIP1 gene encodes retinitis pigmentosa GTPase interacting protein 1, and mutations in the human gene are associated with Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA),1–3 juvenile retinitis pigmentosa,4 a late-onset cone–rod dystrophy,5 and cone–rod dystrophy type 1 in dogs.6,7 Human RPGRIP1 consists of 25 exons, of which 24 code for a 1259-amino-acid protein.1,3 Exons 6 to 13, 14 to 16, and 18 to 24 encode, respectively, the α-helical coil–coiled protein interaction motif of members of the structural maintenance of chromosomes (SMC) superfamily, two protein kinase C conserved region 2 motifs (C2), and conserved RPGR-interacting domain (RID).8–10 The biological functions of RPGRIP1 are complex. In the eye, it is expressed in amacrine neurons8,11 and photoreceptors,9,12 and in numerous other tissues, albeit at greatly reduced levels.9,12 Moreover, the existence of multiple isoforms, with species-specific subcellular localization patterns (e.g., connecting cilium,11,13 photoreceptor inner14 and outer8,11 segments, and basal bodies of cells with primary cilia15), suggests that different isoforms perform cell-specific functions. RPGRIP1 is required not only for disc morphogenesis of the outer segments (OS),16 but also for the formation of the OS itself, particularly in rods.17 A general role of RPGRIP1 as a scaffold protein has been suggested,13 and it interacts directly or indirectly with RPGR,9,16,18 NPHP4,10 and RanBP2.8 It has been shown that RPGRIP1 can be proteolytically processed, rendering its N-terminal domain competent for nuclear localization,19 suggesting that it may be involved in regulating gene expression. Although a mutation in RPGRIP1 is causally associated with canine cone–rod dystrophy,6,7 a potential large-animal model for gene-based therapies,20 little is known about the canine gene structure, organization, and expression, and the molecular basis of the disease. To assess the structure/function relationship of the RPGRIP1 isoforms, we characterized the full-length transcript of canine RPGRIP1 (cRPGRIP1) and its several alternatively spliced isoforms and evaluated the 5′- and 3′-UTRs of RPGRIP1 transcripts. Our results identified a novel complex 5′ and 3′ splicing pattern and further described the complete structure of six cRPGRIP1 alternatively spliced variants driven by two different promoters.
Some is not enough: Quantifier comprehension in corticobasal syndrome and behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia

Quantifiers are very common in everyday speech, but we know little about their cognitive basis or neural representation. The present study examined comprehension of three classes of quantifiers that depend on different cognitive components in patients with focal neurodegenerative diseases. Patients evaluated the truth-value of a sentence containing a quantifier relative to a picture illustrating a small number of familiar objects, and performance was related to MRI grey matter atrophy using voxel-based morphometry. We found that patients with corticobasal syndrome (CBS) and posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) are significantly impaired in their comprehension of cardinal quantifiers (e.g. "At least three birds are on the branch"), due in part to their deficit in quantity knowledge. MRI analyses related this deficit to temporal-parietal atrophy found in CBS/PCA. We also found that patients with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) are significantly impaired in their comprehension of logical quantifiers (e.g. "Some of the birds are on the branch"), associated with a simple form of perceptual logic, and this correlated with their deficit on executive measures. This deficit was related to disease in rostral prefrontal cortex in bvFTD. These patients were also impaired in their comprehension of majority quantifiers (e.g. "At least half of the birds are on the branch"), and this too was correlated with their deficit on executive measures. This was related to disease in the basal ganglia interrupting a frontal-striatal loop critical for executive functioning. These findings suggest that a large-scale frontal-parietal neural network plays a crucial role in quantifier comprehension, and that comprehension of specific classes of quantifiers may be selectively impaired in patients with focal neurodegenerative conditions in these areas.
Adaptive neural models of queuing and timing in fluent action

In biological cognition, specialized representations and associated control processes solve the temporal problems inherent in skilled action. Recent data and neural circuit models highlight three distinct levels of temporal structure: sequence preparation, velocity scaling, and state-sensitive timing. Short sequences of actions are prepared collectively in prefrontal cortex, then queued for performance by a cyclic competitive process that operates on a parallel analog representation. Successful acts like ball-catching depend on coordinated scaling of effector velocities, and velocity scaling, mediated by the basal ganglia, may be coupled to perceived time-to-contact. Making acts accurate at high speeds requires state-sensitive and precisely timed activations of muscle forces in patterns that accelerate and decelerate the effectors. The cerebellum may provide a maximally efficient representational basis for learning to generate such timed activation patterns.
Energy equivalence routing in wireless sensor networks

Energy is a critical resource in wireless sensor networks. In this paper, we propose a new approach to maintain network wide energy equivalence and maximize network lifetime. Compared to existing protocols, our approach emphasizes on route maintenance instead of route finding. This means no critical nodes would become the bottleneck of network lifetime. A reroute request packet is sent out from sinks periodically. When the packet reaches a path node, Common Neighbor Switching (CNS) algorithm checks energy difference between the node and its neighbors outside the routing tree. If the difference goes beyond a threshold, double neighbor switching is performed. Two pathrerouting algorithms, namely, Shortest Rerouting (EERS) and Longest Rerouting (EERL), are also presented to show that neighbor switching is better than path rerouting. Simulation results show that CNS outperforms Directed Diffusion in more than 90% cases, while EERS and EERL show only blurry and conditional advantage over directed diffusion. q 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Valor diagnóstico y pronóstico de los síntomas de primer orden de Schneider: un estudio longitudinal de 20 años de la esquizofrenia y el trastorno bipolar

Resumen Objetivo En esta investigacion se abordan las siguientes cuestiones: ?cual es la prevalencia y la gravedad de los sintomas de primer orden (SPO) durante un periodo de tiempo prolongado en pacientes con esquizofrenia y trastorno bipolar con psicosis? ?Son los SPO especificos enumerados en el Manual Diagnostico y Estadistico de los Trastornos Mentales, tercera edicion revisada/cuarta edicion (DSM-IIIR/IV) dentro del Criterio A para el diagnostico de la esquizofrenia (una voz que comenta continuamente o varias voces en conversacion) mas prevalentes y graves en los pacientes con esquizofrenia que en los pacientes con trastorno bipolar con psicosis? Y por ultimo, ?predicen los SPO existentes en la hospitalizacion inicial del estudio en pacientes con esquizofrenia la ausencia de recuperacion posterior? Metodos En esta investigacion se realiza un seguimiento de una muestra de pacientes con trastornos psicoticos que fueron evaluados en la hospitalizacion inicial del estudio y seguidos luego prospectivamente en 6 evaluaciones durante los 20 anos siguientes (n = 86). Todos los pacientes fueron evaluados como parte de un estudio de investigacion prospectivo disenado para medir multiples factores de fenomenologia, gravedad de la enfermedad, pronostico y resultado global. Resultados Los SPO no son exclusivos de la esquizofrenia; se dan tambien en algunos pacientes bipolares. Sin embargo, son mas frecuentes y mas graves en los pacientes con esquizofrenia que en los que presentan un trastorno bipolar. Los pacientes con esquizofrenia que tienen SPO durante la fase aguda muestran una mayor probabilidad de presentar una peor evolucion a largo plazo que los pacientes esquizofrenicos en los que no hay SPO durante la fase aguda. Conclusiones Nuestros resultados indican que los SPO en la fase aguda no constituyen un correlato clinicopatologico especifico de la esquizofrenia. Sin embargo, la presencia y la gravedad de cualquier SPO y concretamente de los 2 SPO asociados al Criterio A del DSM-IIIR/IV tienen mayor prevalencia y mayor gravedad en los pacientes con esquizofrenia que en los pacientes con trastorno bipolar.
Is visual attention required for robust picture memory

Humans can remember many scenes for a long time after brief presentation. Do scene understanding and encoding processes require visual selective attention, or do they occur even when observers are engaged in other visual tasks? We showed observers scene or texture images while they performed a visual search task, an auditory detection task, or no concurrent task. Concurrent tasks interfered with memory for both image types. Visual search interfered more than effects of auditory detection even when the two tasks were equally difficult. The same pattern of results was obtained with concurrent tasks presented during the encoding or consolidation phases. We conclude that visual attention modulates picture memory performance. We did not find any aspect of picture memory to be independent of attentional demands.
Effect of Mechanical and Electromechanical Stress on a-ZIO TFTs

In this letter, we report the effects of electromechanical and mechanical strain on amorphous ZIO thin-film transistors (TFTs), deformed on cylindrical surfaces of varying radii for varying time spans. The TFTs were fabricated on island structures on polyethylene napthalate and subjected to both tensile and compressive stress, parallel and perpendicular to the conducting channel length. Mobility increased while the subthreshold slope decreased with tensile stress, and reverse changes were observed with compressive stress, both being parallel to the channel length. Almost no changes were observed for perpendicular stress, within experimental errors. The magnitude of change also depended on the time duration of the strain. None of the changes were catastrophic to cause complete failure of the devices.
Surveillance of work‐related carpal tunnel syndrome in Massachusetts, 1992–1997: A report from the Massachusetts sentinel event notification system for occupational risks (SENSOR)*

Background This surveillance study was undertaken to target efforts to prevent work-related carpal tunnel syndrome (WR-CTS) and to assess physician case-reports as a source of surveillance data. Methods Physician case-reports and workers’ compensation disability claims were used to document patterns of WR-CTS in Massachusetts from March 1992 to June 1997 by age, gender, industry, occupation, and calendar year. Characteristics of cases identified through the two data sources were compared. Results 4,836 cases of WR-CTS were ascertained; 6% were identified by both data sources. Whereas the two sets of cases were similar with respect to age and occupation categories, physician-reported cases were more likely male and employed in manufacturing. The number of compensation claims filed by women declined over time, and a substantial number of cases under age 25 years were identified. Manufacturing workers had the highest rates; the highest numbers of cases were employed in hospitals, grocery stores, and the insurance industry. Several technical/administrative support occupations likely to use video display terminals had both high rates and frequencies. Conclusion WR-CTS is a significant public health problem. Physician reports are useful in understanding problem magnitude and targeting specific establishments for intervention but are currently of limited use in targeting specific industries and occupations. Am. J. Ind. Med. 39:58–71, 2001. © 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Neurodevelopmental Underpinnings of Angelman Syndrome.

This review briefly discusses key recent research literature on Angelman Syndrome (AS), a rare genetic disorder of neurodevelopmental origin. Dysfunction/inactivation of the maternal UBE3A gene and its surrounding chromosome regions has been identified as the causative factor for AS. The human UBE3A gene is located within human chromosome 15q11-13 and encodes an E3 ubiquitin-protein ligase (UBE3A, also called E6 associated protein, E6-AP). Due to genetic imprinting of the paternal copy of UBE3A gene in many brain regions, loss of function of a single maternal copy of UBE3A is highly penetrant and pathogenic. Most of the deficits seen in AS patients have been reproduced in Ube3a gene maternal deficiency mice (‘AS mice’, Ube3am−/p+), thus enabling mechanistic interrogations of AS pathogenesis and therapeutic explorations using mice models. Here we briefly discuss recent advances on AS etiology and identify some challenges in translating mechanistic insights into potential therapeutic interventions. Experimental evidence collected so far indicate impaired maternal UBE3A in neurons may contribute to AS deficiency by influencing multifaceted neural developmental processes including cell survival, synaptic transmission, signal transduction, gene expressions.
Editorial Commentary: Maternal Pertussis Vaccination: Protecting Neonates From Infection

Pertussis (“whooping cough”) remains endemic in the United States with disease outbreaks generally occurring every 3–5 years. There has been a steady rise in the total number of cases in the United States since historically low rates were recorded in the 1970s, making it a poorly controlled vaccine-preventable disease. In the first half of 2012, many states reported increased pertussis cases, including but not limited to the ongoing epidemic in Washington State [1]. Im
Theorizing Scale in Critical Place-Name Studies

Building on broader developments in critical social theory, geographers have made significant strides in explicating the assumptions, motivations, and values involved in place naming. This has led to an emphasis on understanding the processes involved in the inscription, subversion, and revision of place names. Despite the increasingly sophisticated approaches found in place-name studies, the field of toponymy occupies a relatively minor position in academic geography. There are varied and complex reasons for this marginality, but perhaps the most salient critique is that place-name research has been slow to engage broader developments in geographic and social theory.
Minimum Frequencies for the Virtual Maximum MAC Capacity in a Multichannel Ad-Hoc Network

Since the very first work of asymptotic capacity problem in a wireless ad-hoc network, rich variations such as adding mobility, the usage of directional antenna, and introducing infrastructure have been studied. The intention behind adding these technologies is to reduce inter-node interference and the relay burden of nodes because these are the main causes of vanishing throughput in wireless ad- hoc networks. Another way to increase network capacity is to use the utilization of multichannels. However, the most recent result on the capacity of a multichannel ad- hoc network showed that the usage of multichannels and multiple NICs can not break through the same capacity limit as with single channel. More specifically, assuming finite NICs at a node, the per-node throughput of at most Thetaradic(logn/n) can be maintained by utilizing up to Theta(logn/n) channels beyond which capacity loss occurs. In order to give a new perspective on this phenomenon, we define the Minimum Frequencies for the Virtual Maximum MAC Capacity (MFVMC) problem in this paper. The objective of the problem is to find the minimum frequencies to guarantee collision-free transmissions at a given time slot for any maximum matching of a given graph. Focusing our interest to the set of unit disk graphs with the maximum node degree of d, we prove that Theta(d) is the tight bound for the MFVMC problem. We discuss the implication of this result on the asymptotic network capacity in a multichannel ad-hoc network.
Microarray analysis of Arabidopsis genome response to aluminum stress

To better understand the mechanisms involved in aluminum toxicity and tolerance in plants, microarray technology was used to evaluate changes in gene expression in Arabidopsis thaliana under Al stress. With the use of Affymetrix Arabidopsis ATH1 Genechip, a comparison of RNA expression profiles was made between control and Al-treated Arabidopsis seedlings. A total of 256 genes were identified as Al-responsive. Ninety-four genes were shown to be up-regulated and 162 were down-regulated; comprising 1.1 % of the 24 000 Arabidopsis genes. Real-time RT-PCR was used to confirm the microarray data. The analysis showed that a large number of transcription factors and several putative signaling components were up-regulated by aluminum. Chloroplast structural and photosynthetic genes were, in general, down-regulated. A number of previously identified Al-responsive genes, e.g. GST, Auxin-regulated, Peroxidase, and Chitinase, were up-regulated by Al-stress, whereas Wali 3 and Wali 4 were down-regulated. We also identified several up-regulated genes involved in vacuolar signaling, sorting and docking. Three genes were also up-regulated by Al-stress, Ras GTP-binding protein, ABC-cassette binding, and the AtELP1 receptor genes, have previously been documented as responsive to drought and/or oxidative stress and may play important roles the detoxification of Al ions by transportation and storage into root vacuoles. Ultrastructural changes in the roots tips cells of Arabidopsis were evaluated using transmission electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray analysis with scanning electron microscopy and results showed Al accumulation in the root tips of Arabidopsis.