cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Hexaphyrin(1.0.1.0.0.0): An Expanded Porphyrin Ligand for the Actinide Cations Uranyl (UO22+) and Neptunyl (NpO2+)

Applications of actinide chemistry, whether for energy or defense purposes, have left a legacy of potential waste hazards. The new expanded porphyrin ligand 1 forms stable complexes with both uranyl (UO22+ ) and neptunyl (NpO2+ ) ions and presents a potential new avenue for waste remediation.
ECOLOGICAL FUTURES: BUILDING AN ECOLOGY OF THE LONG NOW1

Ecosystem dynamics unfold into the future but are understood by examining the past. A forward-looking ecology, which assesses a broad range of possible future ecosystem states, is the complement of long-term, historical approaches to ecology. Together they are the ecology of the long now. The “long now” of ecosystems includes historical influences that shape present ecologies, and the future consequences of present events. As a step in testing theories by their consequences, prediction is widely used in ecology. Ecologists have developed, criticized, and improved many predictive theories. Ecologists also have developed many empirical relationships that are potentially useful in forecasting. Eutrophication is an example of a problem for which ecologists created fundamental understanding, predictive capability, and new options for management. Ecologists frequently justify their research funding through appeals to improved predictability. This goal is sometimes attainable and in any case motivates a considerable body of insightful research. However, in many cases of environmental decision making, what ecologists cannot predict is at least as important as what can be predicted. It is important to assess the full range of changes in ecosystems that may plausibly occur in the future, and the implications of these changes. The paper discusses some ways that ecological information can be used to improve understanding of the future consequences of present choices.
Phase-field simulations of GaN/InGaN quantum dot growth by selective area epitaxy

Abstract Arrays of semiconductor quantum dots grown by selective area epitaxy, a process in which the size and position of the dots is determined by a lithographically patterned mask, can have a high degree of uniformity in both size and position. However, non-uniformity in the initial stages of growth causes broadening of the energy states of GaN/InGaN heterostructures grown using this technique, limiting their practical utility for device applications. A phase-field model was developed to simulate selective area epitaxy, accounting for a crystallographic-orientation-dependent deposition rate. Model parameters were varied to optimize the uniformity of the InGaN active layers. Conditions that led to the most uniform active layers included low total deposition rate, high surface diffusivity, low deposition of surface adatoms from the mask, and smaller contact angle at the mask–vapor–quantum dot interface. Other factors that improved uniformity were growth on (0001) substrates, which is the fastest growth direction, and more vertical orientation of the sidewalls of the mask holes.
Effect of Zn doping on the sublimation rate of pentaerythritol tetranitrate using atomic force microscopy.

A series of Zn ion-doped pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) nanoislands in the form of thin films were prepared on Si substrates using spin coating. The effect of Zn concentrations on the sublimation energy was investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The pure and Zn-doped nanoislands are imaged by AFM in contact mode at room temperature after annealing isothermally for a given time. The volume of the islands starts to decrease after annealing at 45°C for pure PETN, whereas Zn-doped nanoislands start to decrease in height and volume after annealing at 55–58°C. The minimum activation energy is found to be 29.7 Kcal/mol for 1,000 ppm Zn concentration. These studies are important for the long-term stabilization of PETN. SCANNING 31: 181–187, 2009. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Integrating Personnel Evaluation in the Planning and Evaluation of School Improvement Initiatives

Researchers assert that successful school improvement initiatives are school-based efforts that focus on a realistic number of priorities that address critical student needs and simultaneously motivate school staff members. Following from this assertion, attention to personnel evaluation can be a valuable component of evaluations of school improvement initiatives. Program evaluators need to examine the role of personnel evaluation systems in the operation and success (or failure) of the school improvement initiatives they evaluate. This article argues that (a) when used appropriately, personnel evaluation can become an integral component of school improvement initiatives; (b) evaluations of school-reform (and other educational) programs should focus far more on personnel evaluation systems; and (c) the benefits to rendering greater attention to personnel evaluation include a likely increase in the success of school improvement interventions.
Technically speaking: fostering the communication skills of computer science and mathematics students

The Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Denison University has introduced a significant new oral communication component early in both majors. The sophomore computer science and mathematics majors meet together each week for a "lab" taught jointly by a computer scientist and a mathematician. There were three goals in this endeavor: (1) to prepare students for the workforce and graduate school by improving their oral communication skills, (2) to nurture future researchers in both fields by exposing them to research early in their undergraduate training, and (3) to increase computer science students' exposure to mathematics. In the following, we establish the need for such a course, describe our approach, how it satisfies our three goals, and additional outcomes.
Difficult-to-Control Asthma: Contributing Factors and Outcome of a Systematic Management Protocol

To our knowledge, there are no published results of protocols for managing difficult to control asthma (DTCA) or of the spectrum and frequencies of reasons why asthma can be difficult to control (DTC). To assess the usefulness of a systematic management protocol and determine the reason(s) why asthmatics are DTC, we developed a protocol that systematically considered multiple factors that may make asthma worse and prospectively evaluated the outcomes of therapeutic interventions for these factors and of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) and azathioprine. We studied 42 consecutive and unselected DTCAs (19 men and 23 women) whose age was 48 ± 15.9 years. They had a diagnosis of asthma for 15.1 ± 15.8 years, were DTC for 4.8 ± 7.8 years, and were followed up by us in the study for a total of 3.5 ± 1.9 years. Initially, the dose of prednisone was 30.2 ± 22 mg/d. Following utilization of the protocol, 74 percent were no longer DTC. It took 1.8 ± 1.7 years for them to no longer be DTC; they remained so for 1.8 ± 1.5 years. In these patients, 2.7 ± 1.2 factors appeared to be responsible for the DTC state; 80 percent had ≥2. Improvemen t was more likely if gastroesophageal reflux (GER) was a factor (p=0.014); it correlated with the addition of ICS (p=0.04) and treatment for GER (p=0.02). Failure to reverse DTCA correlated with the suspicion (p=0.004) and admission of nonadherence (p=0.04). In 14 patients given azathioprine, prednisone dose decreased from 45 ± 25.3 to 13.3 ± 21.6 mg/d (p=0.003); 6 of 14 achieved no longer DTC status; and substantial morbidity occurred. The reason(s) for DTCA could be determined in most instances by utilizing a systematic protocol; multiple factors were responsible in the majority of cases; treatment for GER and ICS were the two most helpful interventions; nonadherence was the most likely reason suspected for maintaining DTCA; and azathioprine acted as a corticosteroid-sparing agent that should not be prescribed routinely. (Chest 1993; 103:1662-69)
Surface Modification of Polypropylene Fabrics by Acrylonitrile Cold Plasma.

Polypropylene fabrics were extracted with carbontetrachloride and acetone by Soxhlet extraction, and then PPAN ( plasma polymerized acrylonitrile ) was grafted to the surface of the extracted fabrics using a ground pressure of 0.05 mm Hg, 0.3 mm Hg pressure in the reactor, 60 W and 100 W RF power, and reaction times of 30 seconds, 1, 3, and 5 minutes. ESCA analysis was used to determine the ratios of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen at a 20 A sampling depth. IR and ATR-IR were used to obtain information on the structure of the grafted surface. Major differences were detected in the IR spectra of PPAN in comparison to PAN. The spectra of deposited polymers indicated the loss of —C≡N functional groups. Dehydrogenation and in tramolecular reorganization involving =C=N— and =C =C = also occurred, and as reaction time increased, the level of structural changes increased. Longer reaction periods and higher power resulted in increased deposition rates. Studying the water uptake and dyeability of PPAN revealed that h...
A Magazine Publisher's Lot is not a Happy One

Hunt reveals the difficult history of magazine publishing in America from the colonial period though the early twentieth century.
MAPPING HUMAN INTERFERON-ALPHA (IFN-ALPHA 2) BINDING DETERMINANTS OF THE TYPE I INTERFERON RECEPTOR SUBUNIT IFNAR-1 WITH HUMAN/BOVINE IFNAR-1 CHIMERAS

Type I interferons bind to a common receptor (IFNAR), composed of two transmembrane polypeptides, IFNAR-1 and IFNAR-2. Although human IFNAR-1 has a weak intrinsic affinity for human Type I interferons (IFNs), bovine IFNAR-1 binds human Type I IFNs with moderate (nM) affinity, and can be conveniently used to investigate the regions of IFNAR-1 involved in ligand binding. We have constructed 14 bovine/human IFNAR-1 chimeras by exchanging homologous subdomains in the extracellular portion of the receptor. These chimeras were expressed at very high levels on COS cells, and their ability to bind HuIFN-alpha2 was measured. No single bovine subdomain substituted into human IFNAR-1 could confer moderate-affinity ligand binding on the resulting chimera. Simultaneous substitution of bovine IFNAR-1 subdomains 2 and 3 for the homologous human subdomains resulted in a dramatic increase in the binding of IFN-alpha2, suggesting that critical determinants for moderate-affinity ligand binding by BoIFNAR-1 reside in these two subdomains. Bovine subdomains 1 and/or 4 each further enhanced IFN-alpha2 binding in the presence of bovine subdomains 2 and 3. Thus, the binding interactions of BoIFNAR-1 with IFNs appears to be more complex than that of other class II cytokine receptors with their ligands.
THE ROLE OF GLANDULAR TRICHOMES IN THE RESISTANCE OF LYCOPERSICON HIRSUTUM F. GLABRATUM TO HELIOTHIS ZEA

Removal of the glandular trichome exudate from leaflets of the wild tomato Lycopersicon hirsutum f. glabratum PI 134417 by swabbing with ethanol resulted in loss of resistance to larvae of the tomato fruitworm (Heliothis zea). An extract containing the exudate and little else was toxic to first-instar fruitworm larvae. Gas chromatographic analysis of extracts containing only the excised tips of the glandular trichomes revealed the presence of 2-tridecanone, a compound toxic to H. zea and other arthropods. The toxin was found to be nearly absent from the leaflet interior, being present in significant quantities only in extracts of leaflet surfaces. H. zea larvae were killed by fumes from the surface extract and from pure 2-tridecanone. The air surrounding PI 134417 leaflets was found to be rich in 2-tridecanone vapors. Fumigant action is a major avenue of their exposure to 2-tridecanone on the foliage of PI 134417. While larvae are quickly immobilized by fumes when placed on resistant leaflets, most recover within 24 hr, casting doubt on 2-tridecanone as the sole defensive compound in PI 134417 against H. zea. ZUSAMMENFASSUNG Die Rolle der Drusenhaare bei der Resistenz von Lycopersicon hirsutum f. glabratum gegen Heliothis zea Die Beseitigung des Drusenhaarexudats von Teilblattchen der wilden Tomate Lycopersicon hirsutum f. glabratum PI 134417 durch Waschen mit Aethanol fuhrte zum Verlust der Resistenz gegen Raupen von Heliothis zea. Ein Extrakt, der praktisch nur das Exudat enthielt, war fur Erstraupen giftig. Die gaschromatographische Analyse des Extrakts von Drusenhaarspitzen ergab 2-Tridecanon, eine fur H. zea und andere Arthropoden giftige Verbindung. Der Giftstoff war im Blattinnern fast nicht vorhanden; er war nur in Blattoberflachenextrakten in wesentlichen Mengen nachweisbar. Dampfe des Oberflachenextrakts und des reinen 2-Tridecanon waren fur Raupen totlich. Die die Blattchen umgebende Luft war reich an 2-Tridecanon. Tridecanondampfe spielen eine Rolle bei der Exposition von H. zea Raupen auf Blatter resistenter Pflanzen. Die auf solchen Blattern sitzenden Raupen werden durch die Dampfe rasch immobilisiert, doch erholen sich die meisten innerhalb 24 Stunden. Offenbar ist also 2-Tridecanon nicht der einzige Abwehrstoff in PI 134417.
The Architecture of Arcadia: Quinault, Lully, and the Complicit Spectator of the Tragédie en Musique

AbstractMost analyses of the Arcadia of the Ancien regime interpret pastoral politically as a place built in contrast to court life, a contrast that manifested itself iconographically as pastoral scenes built in the foreground of palatial backdrops, or Arcadian, garden-like courtyards. But, in the context of theatre, the scenography of pastoral was also constructed as a peaceful, verdant setting that opposed the dangers and marvels of mythological places and characters put into motion by machines. Even though Arcadia was a rather artificial version of a simple garden or forest, it was nevertheless part of a visual tradition that was understood as a possible world. For Philippe Quinault and Jean-Baptiste Lully, the pastoral space was key to harmonizing not only the singing, but also the ever-increasing use of machines and spectacular scene changes of early musical tragedy. Thanks to its familiar topoi, the pastoral setting (evident in didascalies, iconography, and within the verses of Quinault's libretti) ...
Displacement field around a shear dislocation loop

Abstract The Green's function method has been applied to derive analytical expressions for the displacement field around a circular shear dislocation loop in an infinite isotropic medium. Previously, solutions have been available only for a prismatic dislocation loop with an axially symmetrical stress distribution. The displacement field is obtained in terms of tabulated elliptic integrals. Numerical results are presented graphically by means of contour plots.
Wheatstone's Bridge

The arrangement of four resistors, a source of emf, and a galvanometer, known as Wheatstone's bridge, has been in existence for more than 170 years. The only other piece of apparatus with its staying power is Atwood's machine. Now that it has reached mature status, it seems only fitting to describe its origin, analysis, circuit topology, and past and future uses.
Trypanosome nuclear factors which bind to internal promoter elements of tRNA genes

Expression of eukaryotic nuclear encoded tRNA genes requires two transcription factors, TFIIIB and TFIIIC. To determine if the highly evolutionarily diverged parasitic protozoan Trypanosoma brucei possesses any analogous factors, trypanosome nuclear extracts were prepared. Using these extracts in gel-retardation assays on trypanosome tRNA genes we detected three specific protein-DNA complexes, a highly retarded species and a less retarded pair of complexes. Introduction of mutations into the B box of a lysyl tRNA gene greatly reduced formation of all three complexes. Footprinting studies indicated that all complexes protected the B box of the tRNA gene from cleavage. The most highly retarded complex protected both the A and B boxes from DNasel cleavage. The less retarded pair of complexes showed footprints on the B box alone and the lowest B box specific complex is shown to be resistant to the polyanion heparin. All three complexes are demonstrated to induce bends in the DNA on binding.
Electrodynamic drift in the nocturnal F-region ionosphere caused by conjugate point sunrise

Abstract A rapid change in the electrical conductivity of the ionosphere occurs at the time of sunrise. When the conjugate point is in darkness, this change causes a change in the component of the dynamo electrostatic field normal to the sunrise line. This change in electrostatic field should cause a corresponding change in the vertical component of ion drift velocities in the F -region. The theory we develop predicts changes in ion drift velocities that are of the same order of magnitude, tens of meters per second, as the dynamo region winds. The effect may be detectable as an upward or downward movement of the nocturnal ionosphere at the time of conjugate point sunrise.
Organizing for Environmental Destruction

Organizations are the most intensive and effective environmental destroyers. Organizations in a competitive unregulated market such as the United States and emerging Asian and former Soviet countries are more likely to be destructive because externalizing environmental costs increases profits and competitiveness, but organizational properties encourage destructive practices even in command economies. In the United States, a fully wage-dependent workforce makes whistle-blowing risky, structural interests of employees limits the reform efforts of even an environmentally sensitive executive, decentralization limits accountability, consultants and public relations staffs are available to reassure executives that trade-offs are in society's interests and that regulations mean waste, and organizations socialize all employees, making whistle-blowing even rarer.
Work-Related Values of Managers and Subordinates in Manufacturing Companies in Germany, Georgia, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Russia, and the US

ABSTRACT This paper is based on a survey of over 4,000 respondents from ten manufacturing companies in two Western countries (the US and Germany), and four countries of the former Soviet Union (Russia, Georgia, Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic). The study is using Hofstede's framework and instrumentation, and explores work-related culture dimensions of managers and employees in the ten companies. The study results point to within and between country variation in cultural dimensions, differences between managers and their subordinates, and the influence of demographic factors on culture. This is one of the first studies to address work-related cultural values in Georgia, Kazakhstan, and the Kyrgyz Republic, and one of few studies that allow inferences about the degree of variation within and between countries of the former Eastern Bloc and the countries of the West.
Anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor encephalitis: an emerging cause of centrally mediated sinus node dysfunction.

Aims Anti- N -methyl-d-aspartate receptor encephalitis (NMDARE) is a recently recognized form of autoimmune encephalitis that typically affects young women, often as a paraneoplastic syndrome related to ovarian teratoma. Clinical features include psychiatric and neurological disturbances, central hypoventilation, autonomic instability, and cardiac dysrhythmias. The prevalence, nature, and outcomes of cardiac dysrhythmias in patients with NMDARE have not been well described. Methods and results Records of 10 consecutive patients with NMDARE were reviewed to obtain clinical, laboratory, echocardiographic, electrocardiographic, and radiological data. Patients were all female with an average age of 23 ± 5.5 years. Echocardiograms revealed structurally normal hearts with the exception of mild left ventricular hypertrophy in two cases. Eight patients had inappropriate sinus tachycardia. Six patients developed significant sinus bradycardia, which included periods of sinus arrest in four cases. Five patients manifested both sinus bradycardia and tachycardia. Bradycardia was often triggered by identifiable vagal stimuli. Temporary pacing was instituted in three patients, but permanent pacing was not required in any of the patients. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans revealed mesial temporal abnormalities in nine patients. In all cases, the dysrhythmias resolved with treatment of the underlying immune disorder with immunotherapy and/or teratoma resection. There was no evidence of dysrhythmia recurrence in any patient at follow-up. Conclusion Anti- N -methyl-d-aspartate receptor encephalitis is a recently recognized cause of autoimmune encephalitis with a predilection to cause severe sinus node abnormalities. Temporary pacing is occasionally required, but permanent pacing appears to be unnecessary. An analysis of the clinical syndrome coupled with MRI and experimental data may offer insight into central mechanisms of heart rate regulation.
Functionalization of Electrospun Poly (Caprolactone) to Achieve Enhanced Cell Attachment

The covalent immobilization of various compounds onto functionalized polymer surfaces has been an area of interest to the researchers in the past decade. Methods that can be used to alter the surface properties of materials to improve performance, biocompatibility or to achieve certain desired effects are a key to continued development of these materials [1]. The artificial scaffolds trying to mimic the architecture of natural human tissues at nanoscale may lead to successful implants within the body [2]. Among various nano-scaled materials, nano fibers produced by electrospinning process offer advantages as comparatively low cost, production of continuous fibers, feasibility of complex and seamless three dimensional shapes and many more. In the present work, polycaprolactone nanofibers were generated by electrospinning process and the scaffolds were functionalized in two different ways i.e. by amination followed by subsequent RGD immobilization and hydrolysis. Thereafter, fibroblast cells behavior was studied on functionalized scaffolds.Copyright © 2011 by ASME
Finite-size effects on the W(001) low-temperature phase transition

The W(001) low-temperature, reconstructive phase transition was studied by low-energy electron diffraction with use of a carefully aligned, low-step-density W(001) surface. Finite-size effects on this transition were studied by observing the same transition on a high-step-density W(001) surface which has limited size reconstruction domains of \ensuremath{\sim}60\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}30 A\r{}. The critical behavior of the step-limited domains shows rounding of the order parameter and shifting of the critical temperature as compared with the results obtianed from the much larger flat-surface domains.
Race-Specific College Student Experiences On A Predominantly White Campus:

The purpose of this study was to assess the extent to which African American students enrolled at a predominantly White educational institution may or may not be experiencing unique, racially exclusive social situational circumstances that could potentially affect academic performance. The findings indicate that general attitudes concerning the college experience, adverse situations or circumstances unrelated to the university, perceptions of self, perceptions of the campus's social climate, and perceptions of the campus police are not racially exclusive, as both Black and White students expressed similar attitudes about the university setting and had experienced similar personal and social issues related and nonrelated to college.
Distribution of atmospheric SF6 near a large urban area as recorded in the vadose zone.

Local emissions of SF6 are of interest for studying their impact on the use of SF6 as a groundwater-dating tool near source regions as well as for investigating the spatial distributions of (inert) gaseous compounds spreading from urban or industrial centers. A precondition for the use of SF6 in such studies is the capability to document the temporal and spatial evolution of SF6 in and around source regions with sufficient resolution. Here we present a time series of SF6 measurements in soil air at a site (Sparkill, NY) about 25 km north of New York City carried out between May 2000 and January 2002. The data show that, below about 2 m depth, the vadose zone integrates atmospheric SF6 mixing ratios over time scales greater than 1 month. SF6 mixing ratios in soil air at these depths match averaged high-resolution atmospheric measurements performed at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, NY, located about 3 km south of Sparkill. To a first-order approximation, a simple one-dimensional diffusion mo...
Simple, portable and fast SIMD intrinsic programming: generic simd library

Using SIMD (Single Instruction Multiple Data) is a cost-effective way to explore data parallelism on modern processors. Most processor vendors today provide SIMD engines, such as Altivec/VSX for POWER, SSE/AVX for Intel processors, and NEON for ARM. While high-level SIMD programming models are rapidly evolving, for many SIMD developers, the most effective way to get the performance out of SIMD is still by programming directly via vendor-provided SIMD intrinsics. However, intrinsics programming is both tedious and error-prone, and worst of all, introduces non-portable codes.This paper presents the Generic SIMD Library (https://github.com/genericsimd/generic_simd/), an open-source, portable C++ interface that provides an abstraction of short vectors and overloads most C/C++ operators for short vectors. The library provides several mappings from platform-specific intrinsics to the generic SIMD intrinsic interface so that codes developed based on the library are portable across different SIMD platforms.We have evaluated the library with several applications from the multimedia, data analytics and math domains. Compared with platform-specific intrinsics codes, using Generic SIMD Library results in less line-of-code, a 22% reduction on average, and achieves similar performance as platform-specific intrinsics versions.
Concomitant abdominal aortic aneurysm and colorectal carcinoma: Priority of resection

Abstract Seventeen patients (15 men and two women) underwent operation for concomitant abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) and colorectal carcinoma (Ca) during a recent 12-year period. Ages ranged from 59 to 89 years (median 75.2 years). Diameter of the AAA ranged from 3.5 to 9.5 cm (median 5.5 cm). The Ca was staged by the Astler-Coller modification of Dukes' classification as B1 in three patients, B2 in eight, C2 in three, D in two, and unclassified in one. Personal preference, presence of symptoms, and extent of malignant involvement determined preference of resection. The Ca was eventually resected in 16 patients and the AAA in nine. Thirteen patients underwent resection of the Ca first, two the AAA first, and two concomitantly. Eight patients (47%) underwent resection of both the AAA and Ca, eight underwent resection of the Ca only, and one underwent resection of the AAA only. There were three deaths in 24 operations. Follow-up ranged from 5 weeks to 8 years (median 1 ½ years). Only five patients (29.4%) were long-term survivors without evidence of recurrent Ca and all occurred in the eight patients (62.5%) who had undergone resection of both the Ca and AAA. Three late deaths occurred as a result of complications from the unresected AAA in the eight patients who had undergone resection of the Ca only (37.5%). We conclude that if the Ca is not symptomatic and localized the AAA should be resected first. However, both lesions need to be resected eventually for long-term survival. (J Vasc Surg 1989;9:630–6.)
Glial fibrillary acidic protein from bovin and rat brain Degradation in tissues and homogenates

Abstract Compared with human material glial fibrillary acidic protein isolated from bovine, rat and mouse brain was remarkably homogeneous and migrated as a single band at 54 000 mol. wt. on sodium dodecyl sulfate gel electrophoresis. The protein was extremely susceptible to proteolysis and lower molecular weight components were invariably isolated together with the major species when the brain was not rapidly frozen. Further degradation of the 54 000 mol. wt. polypeptide in bovine tissues incubated at 24 °C resulted in preparations essentially identical to those previously isolated from human autopsy material and separating into a series of immunologically active polypeptides ranging in molecular weight from 54 000 to approximately 40 500. The gel band pattern obtained after progressively longer periods of autolysis suggested that small fragments were cleaved from the original polypeptide in successive steps of degradation. As in human brain, the lower molecular weight products in the 45 000–40 500 range were more resistant to proteolysis and still present after prolonged periods of tissue autolysis. The effect of the pH and of proteinase inhibitors on degradation was studied in homogenates of bovine brain stem incubated at 37 °C. At pH 8.0 proteolysis of the glial fibrillary acidic protein followed essentially the same pattern as in tissue. Cleavage of the major species was not prevented by the addition of proteinase inhibitors. At pH 6.0 and 6.5 a different type of degradation was observed, with rapid breakdown of the protein and loss of immunological activity. Increased solubility in buffer solutions was another effect of autolysis. Compared with cerebral cortex and brain stem, where most of the protein was water soluble, only a small fraction was extracted with buffer from bovine white matter. However, the solubility markedly increased following incubation and comparable amounts were extracted in buffer and in 6 M urea.
Excited-State Effective Masses in Lattice QCD

We apply black-box methods, i.e. where the performance of the method does not depend upon initial guesses, to extract excited-state energies from Euclidean-time hadron correlation functions. In particular, we extend the widely used effective-mass method to incorporate multiple correlation functions and produce effective-mass estimates for multiple excited states. In general, these excited-state effective masses will be determined by finding the roots of some polynomial. We demonstrate the method using sample lattice data to determine excited-state energies of the nucleon and compare the results to other energy-level finding techniques.
Some Characteristics of Certain Reflexes Which Modify the Circulation in Man

Records are presented which have been obtained from man by direct intra-arterial catheterization and electrocardiography. These records have been selected (1) because they offer evidence for the validity of Starling's law in intact man and (2) because they demonstrate that when the heart is influenced by activity of the so-called "intrinsic" reflexes these manifestations of Starling's law are modified. It appears from these types of data that ventricular activity may be directly affected independently of influences upon the pacemakers of the heart.
An exploratory investigation of the impact of surprise interviews with former graduates on online students learning in an introductory IT course

This study explored a unique approach to motivating online students in an introductory IT course. The authors conducted and videotaped surprise interviews with former business graduates and offered the recorded interviews to online business students enrolled in an introductory IT course. The authors then compared the academic performances of the students who watched the surprise interviews and those who did not. The study employed a mixed research methodology and found that students who watched the surprise interviews achieved significantly better performance than students who did not in all aspects of learning outcome assessment.
Balanced Sex Ratio at Hatch in a Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) Population

ABSTRACT Only one estimate of sex ratio at hatch exists for Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus). Managers typically assume a ratio at the population level of approximately 2:1 (female:male), primarily on the basis of sex ratio in the harvest. We determined the sex of newly hatched young and unhatched Greater Sage-Grouse by amplifying a portion of the sex-linked CHD gene. Sex ratio for Greater Sage-Grouse in east-central Nevada was 0.51 ± 0.03 (SE; n = 272). We found no substantial difference in size between eggs that produced male chicks and those that produced females (44.5 ± 0.2 mm3 vs. 44.3 ± 0.3 mm3) or between the masses of male and female chicks (25.8 ± 0.3 g vs. 26.3 ± 0.3 g), which suggests that energetic cost investments by females were similar between offspring of different sexes. We also found no effect of female condition on differential investment in male versus female offspring. Given that adult survival does not differ substantially between the sexes in our study population (J. ...
Revisionist history, visionary criminology, and needs-based justice

Although there may be some value in debating the question of whatever happened to radical criminology, I believe that it is more productive to think in terms of radical and/or critical continuities in pedagogy, research, and practice that have survived time and can be linked to current efforts in visionary criminology and transformative justice. Examining changes in the study of crime and justice from such a perspective, it can be argued that the antiestablishment criminologies of the year 2003 are not any more marginal, and in fact may be less marginal today than when radical criminology first burst onto the scene in the early 1970s.
Evaluation of a molecularly imprinted polymer for the isolation/enrichment of β-estradiol

Abstract The selective preconcentration of estradiol was explored using the recognition ability of a molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) in the solid phase extraction (SPE) format. Polymeric particles were imprinted with 17β-estradiol using methacrylic acid as functional monomer and divinylbenzene as crosslinker. Binding studies of these polymeric particles towards 17β-estradiol showed selectivity over non-imprinted polymers, using acetonitrile as solvent. The imprinted polymer showed a recovery of 88% for β-estradiol in deionized water and 81% in surface water. The selectivity of the MIP over the non-imprinted polymer was relatively low, only 10% higher recovery. The results indicate that the MIP imprinted with 17β-estradiol does not appear to provide a viable approach to be used in a sample clean-up or enrichment step for the determination of estradiol in aqueous systems.
The Courage To Be Leisured

Many of man's most significant activities, the processes of creativity, invention, discovery, are ultimately based on a certain detached, playful attitude toward experience. Many of his most vital achievements, the results of these processes, could not occur in the absence of civilized reflection and purposeful daydreaming. Yet the very behavior that is essential to these activities and achievements, the behavior of being leisured, is one of the least understood and seldom analyzed of human experiences. This essay is an attempt to define certain characteristics of leisure, to explore reasons why it is such a neglected topic, and to suggest that the avowed, conscious pursuit of leisure is, especially in the highly organized societies of the modern West, a genuine test of personal
Surprising evidence of pelvic growth (widening) after skeletal maturity

Following an increase in length and width during childhood and adolescence, skeletal growth is generally assumed to stop. This study investigates the influence of aging on the dimensions of the pelvis and the L4 lumbar vertebra during adulthood. The dimensions of the pelvis, L4 vertebra, and femoral heads were calculated for 246 patients who had received pelvic and abdominal Computed Tomography scans from the UNC Health Care System. Linear regression analysis determined the significance of relationships between age and width of the pelvis. There was a strong correlation between increasing patient age and increasing width of the pelvis at the trochanters, (0.333 mm/year of age p<0.0001), at the iliac wings, (0.371 mm/year of age p < 0.0002), and between the femoral heads, indicating that the bony pelvis widens over 20 mm between the ages of 20 and 80. The pelvic inlet did not enlarge over time while the distance between the hips and the femoral head diameter did significantly increase. The height of L4 did not increase over time, but the L4 width did increase. These correlations were seen in both genders. Surprisingly, our results suggest that the pelvis and L4 vertebra increase in width after skeletal maturity and cessation of longitudinal growth. © 2011 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 29:1719–1723, 2011
Work in progress: a fresh look at case studies

Students in the manufacturing engineering technology program at Western Washington University complete two assignments in which they must research and prepare a written and/or oral report on an engineering case study. Student-researched case studies address a number of learning objectives, including EAC criteria 3.f-j and TAC criteria 2.g-j, they can be used to address technical learning objectives, and they increase student motivation and often provide a fresh look at the case and the lessons it teaches. The most significant challenge to using student-researched case study assignments is developing well structured assignments that are open-ended, but have clear expectations.
Carboxypeptidase E, a peripheral membrane protein implicated in the targeting of hormones to secretory granules, co-aggregates with granule content proteins at acidic pH.

Carboxypeptidase E (CPE) is a prohormone-processing enzyme and peripheral membrane protein of endocrine/neuroendocrine secretory granules. CPE has been shown to bind to an amino-terminal peptide of pro-opiomelanocortin (N-POMC) at pH 5.5 and hypothesized to be critically involved in the targeting of hormones such as POMC to the regulated secretory pathway [Cool, D. R., Normant, E., Shen, F., Chen, H. C., Pannell, L., Zhang, Y., and Loh, Y. P. (1997) Cell 88, 73–83]. To further explore the possibility that CPE serves to mediate the association of content proteins with the membrane during granule biogenesis, the binding of CPE to granule content proteins was investigated using anin vitro aggregation assay in which the selective precipitation of granule content proteins is induced by titration of the pH to
Triple jeopardy for Hodgkin lymphoma survivors

In this issue of Blood, van Eggermond et al demonstrate that Hodgkin lymphoma survivors who develop a second malignancy have increased risk of developing yet a third malignancy.
‘If I had begun to dance’: Women’s Performance in Kemps Nine Daies Wonder

This article considers women’s role as performers in Will Kemp’s nine day morris dance from London to Norwich in February 1600, particularly the two young women who danced with him along the way, one at Chelmsford and one at Bury. Closely examining Kemp’s Nine daies wonder and consulting relevant scholarship on women and performance, the essay argues that Kemp’s interaction with female dancers reveals a great deal about the status, motivations, and strategies of women’s performance and that it shows collaboration rather than rivalry as a viable model for understanding the relationships between professional male performers and the amateur women who performed outside of London.
Water-soluble triazabutadienes that release diazonium species upon protonation under physiologically relevant conditions.

Triazabutadienes are an understudied structural motif that have remarkable reactivity once rendered water-soluble. It is shown that these molecules readily release diazonium species in a pH-dependent manner in a series of buffer solutions with pH ranges similar to those found in cells. Upon further development, we expect that this process will be well suited to cargo-release strategies and organelle-specific bioconjugation reactions. These compounds offer one of the mildest ways of generating diazonium species in aqueous solutions.
The generalized convergence computation method

The author generalizes T.C. Chen's (1972) convergence computation method to multidimensional quantities, resulting in a unified algorithm for elementary function generation of which CORDIC and convergence computation functions are special cases. The generalized convergence computation method (GCCM) provides a unified mathematical framework for generating elementary functions and reveals that CORDIC is also a convergence method in reality. The practical benefit of this unification is the fact that heretofore distinct methods can now be implemented in a single expandable hardware structure. >
Variable Electronic Coupling in Phenylacetylene Dendrimers: The Role of Förster, Dexter, and Charge-Transfer Interactions

A combination of theory and experiment is used to identify a novel variable excitonic coupling in a series of building blocks for small phenylacetylene dendrons. Systematic changes in the experimental emission spectra, radiative lifetimes, and polarization anisotropies as the number of meta-conjugated branches increases provide evidence for a qualitative change in the electronic structure in the relaxed excited state. The excited state electronic structure is investigated theoretically using ab initio CASSCF and CASPT2 calculations, which indicate the presence of large electronic coupling in the emitting geometry that is not seen for the absorbing geometry of the same molecules. The changes in electronic structure that occur upon excited-state relaxation can be understood in terms of a variable excitonic coupling between the phenylactylene branches, which takes these molecules from the weak coupling to the strong coupling regime as they relax on the excited state. The origin of this geometry-dependent coupling is investigated through the interpretation of ab initio calculations in terms of Forster, Dexter, and through-bond charge-transfer interactions. We find that the change in the coupling arises primarily from an increase in the through-bond or charge-transfer component of the coupling, despite the absence of large changes in charge distribution. A theoretical comparison of meta-versus para-substituted phenylacetylenes clarifies why this effect is so pronounced in the meta-substituted molecules.
Brain reserpine levels following large and small doses of reserpine-H3.

Summary(1) Reserpine randomly labeled with tritium had a time-concentration relationship in liver and brain similar to that observed for reserpine labeled with C14 in the TMBA moiety. (2) Throughout and beyond the entire period of observable pharmacological response, reserpine was found to be present in brain and liver. (3) The concentration of reserpine in the brain varied little during the entire period of observable activity and bore no relationship to the intensity of response. (4) The material present in the brain was indistinguishable from reserpine by paper chromatography.
Loop Pipelining for Scheduling Multi-Dimensional Systems via Rotation

Multi-dimensional (MD) systems are widely used in scientific applications such as image processing, geophysical signal processing and fluid dynamics. Earlier scheduling methods in synthesizing MD systems do not explore loop pipelining across different dimensions. This paper explores the basic properties of MD loop pipelining and presents an algorithm, called multi-dimensional rotation scheduling, to find an efficientschedule based on the multi-dimensional retiming technique we developed. The description and the correctness of our algorithm are presented in the paper. The experiments show that our algorithm can achieve optimal results efficiently.
RIPTIDE: Segmenting data using multiple resolutions

Segmenting real-valued data, be it speech waveforms into words and phrases or temperature readings into environmental epochs, is a challenging, open problem. We introduce an unsupervised, domain-independent algorithm, RIPTIDE, that discovers segments in real-valued time series data while constructing a hierarchy of segments. Our top-down approach begins with a coarse approximation of the input data, finds segment boundaries, and recursively considers discovered segments with a finer resolution. We demonstrate the drawbacks of an existing segmentation algorithm and the multiresolution capabilities of a discretization method for time series.
Invariance Property of Isotropic Random Walk Mobility Patterns in Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks

The class of isotropic random walk mobility models, including random direction mobility model, random walk mobility model and Brownian motion mobility model, has been widely used in the study of Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks for mobility modeling and control. In this paper, we show an important property for contact time of isotropic random walk mobility models. Specifically, we find that the mean contact time of two mobile nodes following isotropic random walk mobility models is invariant with respect to the step-length distribution under both the simplest distance-based (Boolean) interference model and the more realistic SINR-based interference model. We also study the effect of system parameters on the contact and inter-meeting time of mobile nodes and discuss their higher-order statistics.
Intraband and intraband scattering in the resistivity of high Tc β-W superconductors

Abstract We point out an inconsistency in a recent calculation of the electrical resistivity of β-W compounds that leads to unphysical behavior.
Quantitative Analysis of Swimmeret Beating in the Lobster

1. High-speed motion pictures of the metachronous movements of the abdominal swimmerets of the lobster Homarus americanus were analysed. Measurements were made on films produced before and after removing part or all of individual swimmerets. 2. Analysis of the intact swimmeret system provided quantitative constraints for models of the neural mechanisms underlying swimmeret beating. For example, the conduction velocity of the anterior-moving, metachronous wave increases with increasing frequency of swimmeret beating, as does the powerstroke amplitude and velocity of each swimmeret. The phase positions of individual swimmerets in the movement cycle are the same regardless of the frequency of swimmeret beating, and so are the ratios of powerstoke duration to returnstroke duration. The durations of the powerstroke, returnstroke and the short pauses between them decrease as the frequency of swimmeret beating increases. 3. Removal of a swimmeret weakens the movements of ipsilateral swimmerets on adjacent segments, but does not affect the movements of contralateral swimmerets. Control experiments were performed to reduce the possibility that the effects were mechanical. 4. The results suggest that proprioceptive feedback from the movements of individual swimmerets plays a supplemental role in the intersegmental coordination of the swimmerets of one side, but that contralateral proprioceptive influences are weak or absent.