cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Estimating Abiotic Thresholds for Sagebrush Condition Class in the Western United States

Abstract Sagebrush ecosystems of the western United States can transition from extended periods of relatively stable conditions to rapid ecological change if acute disturbances occur. Areas dominated by native sagebrush can transition from species-rich native systems to altered states where non-native annual grasses dominate, if resistance to annual grasses is low. The non-native annual grasses provide relatively little value to wildlife, livestock, and humans and function as fuel that increases fire frequency. The more land area covered by annual grasses, the higher the potential for fire, thus reducing the potential for native vegetation to reestablish, even when applying restoration treatments. Mapping areas of stability and areas of change using machine-learning algorithms allows both the identification of dominant abiotic variables that drive ecosystem dynamics and the variables’ important thresholds. We develop a decision-tree model with rulesets that estimate three classes of sagebrush condition (i.e., sagebrush recovery, tipping point [ecosystem degradation], and stable). We find rulesets that primarily drive development of the sagebrush recovery class indicate areas of midelevations (1 602 m), warm 30-yr July temperature maximums (tmax) (30.62°C), and 30-yr March precipitation (ppt) averages equal to 26.26 mm, about 10% of the 30-yr annual ppt values. Tipping point and stable classes occur at elevations that are lower (1 505 m) and higher (1 939 m), respectively, more mesic during March and annually, and experience lower 30-yr July tmax averages. These defined variable averages can be used to understand current dynamics of sagebrush condition and to predict where future transitions may occur under novel conditions.
Setting Habitats Aside for Biodiversity Conservation

Creating new protected areas is a contentious issue because the impact of protected areas on humans is thought to be negative. However, with the alarming declines in biodiversity and the diminishing soil fertility, everyone recognizes that protected areas are the backbones of biodiversity conservation and they are the most viable option to preserve habitats and ecosystems. The chapter argues that the philosophical incommensurability between needs to preserve biodiversity and needs to care about the livelihoods of local communities are rather simply felt and can be reconciled if methods to create new protected areas are cleared of the legacy of past failed experiences. Without negating mutually negative effects of protected areas on humans and of increased human populations on biodiversity, the past experience of protected areas in Democratic Republic of Congo made of imposition without community participation in the decision-making process and, ipso facto, without community free and informed consent lays at the heart of the opposition biodiversity versus humans. The creation of new protected areas within the Lake Tumba Landscape used a process that lessens the opposition between biodiversity conservation and fulfillment of human needs. This process is based on broad participation involving communities immediately adjacent to protected areas and a variety of stakeholders with true stakes in areas to be preserved. The end product was an agreement on rights to access some key resources that would classically be infringed by protected areas without people consenting to that effect, attached to sensible trade-offs such as people participating in deterring massive commercially driven poaching.
If They Endorse It, I Can't Trust It: How Outgroup Leader Endorsements Undercut Public Support for Civil War Peace Settlements

Civil wars are a greater source of violence than any other type of conflict, yet little is known about one of the key determinants of civil war peace settlement success: civilian support. We evaluate how a core component of nearly all peace settlements, leader endorsements, affects public support. We predict that individuals in conflict settings will view settlements endorsed by outgroup leaders as less trustworthy and that they will become less supportive. We conduct an endorsement experiment with nearly 1,000 respondents in South Sudan in 2016, taking advantage of a brief cessation in a devastating civil war. Public support for a tentative settlement drops precipitously when it is endorsed by an outgroup leader but does not increase when it is endorsed by an ingroup leader. We find suggestive evidence that effects are strongest for individuals with the greatest reason to fear outgroup leaders: those whose communities were targeted most violently by that outgroup.
The Möbius function of the affine linear group AGL (1,Fq)

Abstract Let AGL ( 1 , F q ) denote the affine linear group of dimension one over the finite field F q . We determine the Mobius function of the lattice of subgroups of AGL ( 1 , F q ) .
Towards Off-policy Evaluation as a Prerequisite for Real-world Reinforcement Learning in Building Control

We present an initial study of off-policy evaluation (OPE), a problem prerequisite to real-world reinforcement learning (RL), in the context of building control. OPE is the problem of estimating a policy's performance without running it on the actual system, using historical data from the existing controller. It enables the control engineers to ensure a new, pretrained policy satisfies the performance requirements and safety constraints of a real-world system, prior to interacting with it. While many methods have been developed for OPE, no study has evaluated which ones are suitable for building operational data, which are generated by deterministic policies and have limited coverage of the state-action space. After reviewing existing works and their assumptions, we adopted the approximate model (AM) method. Furthermore, we used bootstrapping to quantify uncertainty and correct for bias. In a simulation study, we evaluated the proposed approach on 10 policies pretrained with imitation learning. On average, the AM method estimated the energy and comfort costs with 1.84% and 14.1% error, respectively.
Form and Function of the Upper Airways and Larynx

The sections in this article are: 1 Upper Respiratory Tract as a Conducting Airway 2 Oronasal Breathing 3 Nasal Cycle 4 Effects of Nasal Breathing on Breathing Mechanics 5 Larynx 6 Patency and Obstruction of the Airways
Robotic real-time translational and rotational head motion correction during frameless stereotactic radiosurgery

Purpose: To develop a control system to correct both translational and rotational head motion deviations in real-time during frameless stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS). Methods: A novel feedback control with a feed-forward algorithm was utilized to correct for the coupling of translation and rotation present in serial kinematic robotic systems. Input parameters for the algorithm include the real-time 6DOF target position, the frame pitch pivot point to target distance constant, and the translational and angular Linac beam off (gating) tolerance constants for patient safety. Testing of the algorithm was done using a 4D (XY Z + pitch) robotic stage, an infrared head position sensing unit and a control computer. The measured head position signal was processed and a resulting command was sent to the interface of a four-axis motor controller, through which four stepper motors were driven to perform motion compensation. Results: The control of the translation of a brain target was decoupled with the control of the rotation. For a phantom study, the corrected position was within a translational displacement of 0.35 mm and a pitch displacement of 0.15° 100% of the time. For a volunteer study, the corrected position was within displacements of 0.4 mm and 0.2° over 98.5% of the time, while it was 10.7% without correction. Conclusions: The authors report a control design approach for both translational and rotational head motion correction. The experiments demonstrated that control performance of the 4D robotic stage meets the submillimeter and subdegree accuracy required by SRS.
Teaching For Lifelong Learning: Improving the Metacognitive Skills Of Law Students Through More Effective Formative Assessment Techniques

With the recent criticisms that law schools do not do enough to prepare students for the practice of law, law schools are beginning to develop ways to better prepare their students. These criticisms have focused on the lack of teaching students to be lifelong learners. In fact, a recent report by the Carnegie Foundation stated that law schools need to teach students to be more "metacognitive about their learning." Generally, metacognition refers to having both an awareness of and control over one’s learning and thinking. Put simply, it is thinking about thinking. The way law schools currently assess their students hinders the improvement of students’ metacognitive skills. Law schools and law professors focus too much on completing an end-product in a course — final exams, memoranda of law, appellate briefs, etc. They tend to only assess these end-products without really knowing if the students properly learned the material and are able to transfer this knowledge to new and novel situations they will encounter while practicing law. To improve the learning and metacognitive skills of law students, professors need to do more to critique the learning process of their students and focus less on simply assessing a final product. The article proposes integrating self-assessment tools into the formative assessment process to improve the students’ metacognitive skills. By integrating these steps into lawyering skills courses and clinics, professors are more likely to help students "learn like a lawyer." The articles discusses metacognition, effective formative assessment techniques, and practical ideas on how to improve the learning of law students.
Illicit drug use/abuse and stroke.

Publisher Summary The chapter discusses the relationship between illicit drug use/abuse and stroke, and outlines the history of this relation. The chapter reviews the general medical, neurologic, and psychiatric complications related to specific illicit drugs. The problem of drug use and abuse has reached national and international proportions, with a significant impact on public health and social welfare. Toxicity to every major organ system in adults as well as to the fetus from illicit drug use has been noted. It has been emphasized that chronic cocaine use is associated with abnormal white matter signals suggestive of subclinical vascular events on MRI, cerebral atrophy, mild cognitive impairment, and reduced frontal white matter integrity on diffusion tensor imaging. Use of heroin may be associated with acute cerebrovascular or spinal vascular disease. Other drugs associated with acute cerebrovascular disease include other narcotics, cocaine, amphetamines, over-the-counter (OTC) sympathomimetic decongestants, cold remedies and diet aides, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), phencyclidine (PCP), marijuana, and ecstasy. Evidence is accumulating to define the strength of association between illicit drug use/abuse and stroke, including ischemic stroke, intracerebral hemorrhage and subarachnoid hemorrhage. The chapter discusses the pathophysiologic effects of drug use, mechanisms of ischemia stroke associated with drug use/abuse, mechanisms of intracranial hemorrhage associated with drug use/abuse, diagnosis, management, and outcome of drug-related stroke.
Resolution of a low molecular weight G protein in neutrophil cytosol required for NADPH oxidase activation and reconstitution by recombinant krev-1 protein

Activation of the membrane-associated NADPH oxidase in intact human neutrophils requires a receptor-associated heterotrimeric GTP-binding protein that is sensitive to pertussis toxin. Activation of this NADPH oxidase by arachidonate in a cell-free system requires an additional downstream pertussis toxin-insensitive G protein (Gabig, T. G., English, D., Akard, L. P., and Schell, M. J. (1987) (J. Biol. Chem. 262, 1685-1690) that is located in the cytosolic fraction of unstimulated cells (Gabig, T. G., Eklund, E. A., Potter, G. B., and Dykes, J. R. (1990) J. Immunol. 145, 945-951). In the present study, immunodepletion of G proteins from the cytosolic fraction of unstimulated neutrophils resulted in a loss of the ability to activate NADPH oxidase in the membrane fraction. The activity in immunodepleted cytosol was fully reconstituted by a partially purified fraction from neutrophil cytosol that contained a 21-kDa GTP-binding protein. Purified human recombinant Krev-1 p21 also completely reconstituted immunodepleted cytosol whereas recombinant human H-ras p21 or yeast RAS GTP-binding proteins had no reconstitutive activity. Rabbit antisera raised against a synthetic peptide corresponding to the effector region of Krev-1 (amino acids 31-43) completely inhibited cell-free NADPH oxidase activation, and this inhibition was blocked by the synthetic 31-43 peptide. An inhibitory monoclonal antibody specific for ras p21 amino acids 60-77 (Y13-259) had no effect on cell-free NADPH oxidase activation. Activation of the NADPH oxidase in intact neutrophils by stimulation with phorbol myristate acetate caused a marked increase in the amount of membrane-associated antigen recognized by 151 antiserum on Western blot. Thus a G protein in the cytosol of unstimulated neutrophils antigenically and functionally related to Krev-1 may be the downstream effector G protein for NADPH oxidase activation. This system represents a unique model to study molecular interactions of a ras-like G protein.
Chloroplast and microsatellite DNA diversities reveal the introduction history of Brazilian peppertree (Schinus terebinthifolius) in Florida.

Brazilian peppertree ( Schinus terebinthifolius ) is a woody perennial that has invaded much of Florida. This native of northeastern Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil was brought as an ornamental to both the west and east coasts of Florida at the end of the 19th century. It was recorded as an invader of natural areas in the 1950s, and has since extended its range to cover over 280 000 ha. Our goals were to understand the history of this invasion, as one step toward understanding why this exotic was so successful, and ultimately to improve development of biological control agents. We sampled plants from the native and exotic ranges, particularly Florida, and genotyped these individuals at nuclear and chloroplast loci. Nuclear microsatellite and cpDNA loci reveal strong genetic population structure consistent with limited dispersal in the introduced and native ranges. Bayesian clustering of microsatellite data separates the east and west coast plants in Florida into distinct populations. The two chloroplast haplotypes found in Florida are also concordant with this separation: one predominates on the east coast, the other on the west coast. Analysis of samples collected in South America shows that haplotypes as distinct as the two in Florida are unlikely to have come from a single source population. We conclude that the genetic evidence supports two introductions of Brazilian peppertree into Florida and extensive hybridization between them. The west coast genotype likely came from coastal Brazil at about 27° south, whereas the east coast genotype probably originated from another, as yet unidentified site. As a result of hybridization, the Florida population does not exhibit low genetic variation compared to populations in the native range, possibly increasing its ability to adapt to novel environments. Hybridization also has important consequences for the selection of biocontrol agents since it will not be possible to identify closely co-adapted natural enemies in the native range, necessitating more extensive host testing.
Class III PI3K Vps34: essential roles in autophagy, endocytosis, and heart and liver function

Mammalian phosphatidylinositol (PI) 3-kinases are a family of proteins that share the ability to phosphorylate phosphoinositides at the 3 position of the inositol ring. By doing so, these kinases produce phospholipid molecules that are involved in various cell signaling pathways, such as insulin signaling and endocytosis. The pathways regulated by PI3-kinases are crucial for maintaining cellular homeostasis and thus must be tightly regulated. Irregular PI3-kinase activity is observed in numerous human pathological conditions, such as diabetes, cancer, and inflammation. One family member, Vps34, is of particular interest because it is the only PI3-kinase identified in yeast and it has been evolutionarily conserved through mammals. Vps34 plays an essential role in the cellular process of autophagy, a process linked to human health and disease. Understanding the precise role of mammalian Vps34 will likely be integral to drug development for various diseases.
Method for identifying H-->ττ-->e +/- μ -/+ p/ T at the CERN LHC

Weak boson fusion promises to be a copious source of intermediate mass Higgs bosons at the CERN LHC. The additional very energetic forward jets in these events provide for powerful background suppression tools. We analyze the subsequent $\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{H}\ensuremath{\tau}\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\ensuremath{\tau}}{e}^{\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}}{\ensuremath{\mu}}^{\ensuremath{\mp}}{p}_{T}$ decay for Higgs boson masses in the 100--150 GeV range. A parton level analysis of the dominant backgrounds demonstrates that this channel allows the observation of $\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{H}\ensuremath{\tau}\ensuremath{\tau}$ in a low-background environment, yielding a significant Higgs boson signal with an integrated luminosity of order 60 ${\mathrm{fb}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ or less, over most of the mass range. We also restate a no-lose theorem for observation of at least one of the $\mathrm{CP}$-even neutral Higgs bosons in the MSSM, which requires an integrated luminosity of only 40 ${\mathrm{fb}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}.$
IR-laser ablation in medicine: Mechanisms and applications

The use of pulsed infrared lasers for tissue ablation has led to increased control over thermal damage to tissue and to more precise control over material removal. Tissue removal is mediated by the explosive vaporization of water, which can lead to clinically significant tissue effects.
PERMANENT GENETIC RESOURCES: Isolation, characterization and cross‐species amplifications of microsatellite loci from Conradina (Lamiaceae)

We report the isolation of microsatellite loci from three species in the genus Conradina (Lamiaceae). To ensure their utility for multiple species, loci were screened for amplification and variability in all six Conradina species; 11 loci demonstrated high levels of amplification and polymorphism in most species. These 11 loci were characterized in 20 individuals from one population of Conradina brevifolia; alleles per locus ranged from five to 15, and observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.30 to 0.90. These microsatellites will be used to clarify species limits, detect interspecific hybridization, and understand the partitioning of genetic variation in each species of Conradina.
Positive end-expiratory pressure: Implications for tidal volume changes in anesthesia machine ventilation

In clinical practice, the addition of positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) into a standard anesthesia circle circuit decreases the delivered tidal volume (DTV) to a patient. We studied the magnitude of the ΔDTV/ΔPEEP relationship in two commonly used anesthesia systems. In addition, the magnitude of the ΔDTV/ΔPEEP relationship varies with both pulmonary compliance and volume of gas contained in the patient's breathing system between the ventilator and PEEP valve site, and this was also evaluated. Routine monitoring of expired tidal volume should be used whenever PEEP is added to an anesthesia circuit.
Salinity Tolerance of Phaseolus Species during Germination and Early Seedling Growth

Salinity tolerance during germination and early seedling growth was evaluated for 24 accessions representing four wild Phaseolus species (P. angustissimus A. Gray, P. filiformis Bentham, P. leptostachyus Bentham, and P. microcarpus Mart.) and four accessions of cultivated common bean (P. vulgaris L.) at 0, 60, 120, and 180 mM NaCl. Salinity stress delayed germination in all accessions to varying degrees. Eight accessions of P. filiformis germinated fastest under high salinity (120 mM NaCl). Additional wild accessions exhibiting rapid germination at 120 mM NaCl were P. angustissimus, PI535272, P. leptostachyus, PI535336, and P. microcarpus, PI430196. Among accessions, median germination time (days to 50% germination, T50) at 120 mM NaCl was correlated positively (r2 = 0.55, P less than or equal to 0.01) with germination in the control treatments. Seeds that germinated rapidly at 60 mM NaCl also germinated rapidly at 120 mM NaCl. At 180 mM NaCl, several accessions reached 50% germination by 6 d, demonstrating high genetic potential within Phaseolus for salinity tolerance during germination. The biomass of radicles plus hypocotyls decreased with increasing salinity. Cluster analysis separated the accessions into three groups. Group I included salt sensitive accessions with late germination, high sensitivity index (ratio of median germination time at 120 mM NaCl versus control), and reduced seedling growth. Group II included salt tolerant accessions with rapid germination, high sensitivity index, and enhanced seedling growth. Group III included cultivated accessions corresponding to the Mesoamerican and Andean gene pool with rapid germination, low sensitivity index, and intermediate seedling growth. The results confirm that wild Phaseolus species, and in particular P. filiformis, represent a genetic resource for improvement of salinity tolerance in common bean.
The clinical application of a non-axial treatment plan for pancreatic and biliary malignancies

Standard radiation therapy for adenocarcinoma of the pancreas treats a substantial portion of the renal parenchyma. It was hypothesized that rotating the plane of treatment to a non-axial orientation, with the anterior field entering the patient from an inferior oblique direction, would decrease the renal dose of radiation without increasing the liver dose or compromising the target dose. To test this hypothesis, patients referred for radical radiation treatment for tumors of the pancreas or distal common bile duct were prospectively evaluated by performing treatment planning using axial and non-axial field arrangements. Treatment plans were compared using dose volume histograms (DVHs) of both kidneys and the liver. In all 15 cases analyzed, the non-axial plan was superior to the axial plan with respect to renal dose, without significantly increasing the hepatic dose and was used for treatment. Treatment was not significantly more complex nor was gastrointestinal toxicity increased. These findings show that non-axial field arrangements can be used on a routine basis to decrease the renal dose of radiation for the treatment of pancreatic and biliary malignancies. It is anticipated that in the future, a combination of DVH-guided treatment planning and sophisticated renal function studies will be necessary to permit a more accurate prediction of the probability of renal complications resulting from radiation therapy.
Early drop-outs, late drop-outs and completers: differences in the continuation phase of a clinical trial.

Abstract Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the differences between early and late drop-outs and completers in the continuation phase of a clinical trial. Methods: The authors studied 119 outpatients who were treatment responders in an 8-week open trial with fluoxetine 20 mg/day, and who were then enrolled in a 26-week clinical trial comparing the efficacy of fluoxetine versus fluoxetine and cognitive behavior therapy (CBT). Patients were assessed using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R—Axis I (SCID—Patient Edition), Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD-17) and the following self-rated scales: Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS), Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI) and the Symptom Questionnaire (SQ) prior to starting the 26-week continuation phase. We defined “early drop-outs” (EDs) as patients who dropped out either at or prior to Visit 2 (which was at 2 months into the 6-month continuation phase); those dropping out at Visit 3 or later were defined as “late drop-outs” (LDs) (ED ≤2 months; LD >2 months). The Kruskal–Wallis and the Mann–Whitney U tests were used for data analysis. Results: Of the 119 patients, 83 were completers (mean age: 42.1±9.0 years; 46 [55%] women; age of onset of major depressive disorder [MDD]=24.3±12.5years), 11 were EDs (mean age: 38.1±13.0 years; 4 [36%] women; age of onset of MDD=22.0±11.1 years) and 25 were LDs (mean age: 35.2±10.4 years; 12 [48%] women; age of onset of MDD=24.6±11.6 years). LDs were significantly younger than completers ( P P P P Conclusions: Our data suggest that late drop-outs are significantly younger than completers, although age is not a predictor between early drop-outs and late drop-outs. Further, early drop-outs are depressed for a longer duration compared to late drop-outs, completers are depressed for a longer duration than late drop-outs, and early drop-outs have significantly more social impairment compared to completers. Our study identified some patient characteristics significantly associated with dropping out of a long-term clinical trial.
A comparison of models of long-term inflationary expectations

Abstract This paper compares several models of long-term inflationary expectations, including time series models, models drawn from interest rate relationships, and a structural model developed from a portfolio balance framework. Their within-sample performance over 1961–1974 and out-of-sample performance over periods covering 1975–1982 are compared. Evaluation criteria include accuracy of forecasts and ability to capture changes in the trend of long-term inflation. The structural model is judged best. Its forecasts are generally the most accurate and it performs well in periods of rising and falling inflation, an attribute not present in other models.
Analysis of laminar acetylene-air diffusion flames using reduced reaction mechanisms and state relationships

Abstract In the development of state relationships much of the research has been experimental and limited to steady and lightly sooting flame configurations. This study computationally investigates soot and radiation effects on the state relationships in an unsteady, spherical, moderately sooting, acetylene/air diffusion-flame by coupling the gas phase and soot reaction mechanisms. The gas phase species concentrations are computed either by using a reduced reaction mechanism or by invoking the laminar flamelet concept. Comparisons are made between these two formulations. For moderately sooting, acetylene/air, unsteady diffusion-flames, calculations show that universality for most of the major gas species concentrations does not exist when the species are plotted in either gas phase or total mixture fraction space. In line with experimental results, defining a modified gas species mass fraction and utilizing the apparent gas phase mixture fraction extends the state relationships for most major gas species ...
Petro-Insurgency or Criminal Syndicate? Conflict & Violence in the Niger Delta

The volatility of world oil markets, and the grumbling of American consumers over rising gas and heating oil prices over the last year, has highlighted a number of key trends in world oil markets: the rapidly growing demand for oil by China and India, the questionable status of some of the mega-oilfields in the Gulf, the aggressive nationalism of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and President Ahmadinejad in Iran, and not least the spill-over effects of the Iraqi insurgency across the Gulf. But there has been another presence contributing to this volatility, namely the deepening conflicts across, indeed the increasing ungovernability of the oil fields of the Niger Delta in Nigeria. A spectacular escalation in violent attacks on oil installations and abduction of oil workers beginning in December 2005 and January-February 2006 by a shadowy and largely unknown militant group MEND (the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta), have thrown into dramatic relief the enormous fragility of the Nigeria's oil econo...
Onset of the spiral mode of vortex breakdown

The three-dimensional nature of vortex breakdown, while widely recognized, has seldom been included in the analytical investigations and, until recently, the numerical simulations of this phenomenon. The principle asymmetric effects are examined by considering the impact that a weak perturbation has on an axisymmetric vortex. It is demonstrated that large axisymmetric strain rates are required for a non-axisymmetric perturbation to grow. Simulations bear out this fact by showing significant asymmetric behavior only after a critical swirl is exceeded which leads to breakdown in an axisymmetric flow. This result supports previous investigations which predict breakdown for an axisymmetric flow, despite their inability to fully capture the complexity of the breakdown topology. Furthermore, this finding indicates that vortex breakdown may be a predominantly axisymmetric occurrence which is complicated by three-dimensional effects.
Molecular conductance spectroscopy of conjugated, phenyl-based molecules on Au(111): the effect of end groups on molecular conduction

Abstract Four families of conjugated molecules, containing between one and three phenyl rings and having both thiol (–SH) and isocyanide (–NC) end groups, have been synthesized and assembled as monolayers on flat Au(111) substrates. The conductance spectra G ( V ) for these molecular wires were systematically measured in UHV conditions using scanning tunneling microscope techniques. The measured conductance spectra for the molecules having thiol end groups are compared to a recent theory for molecular conduction. The favorable comparison indicates that the important properties influencing the conductance of short, conjugated molecular wires having thiol end groups and forming self-assembled monolayers on a Au(111) surface have been successfully identified. The isocyanide molecules reveal a shift in Fermi level of the molecule as a function of phenyl ring number that is opposite to that observed for the thiol-terminated molecules. The trends in molecular conductance determined from this systematic study are summarized and discussed and provide insight into the role played by bonding end groups in electronic conduction.
Beyond phonotactic frequency: presentation frequency effects word productions in specific language impairment.

Abstract Phonotactic frequency effects on word production are thought to reflect accumulated experience with a language. Here we demonstrate that frequency effects can also be obtained through short-term manipulations of the input to children. We presented children with nonwords in an experiment that systematically manipulated English phonotactic frequency and the frequency of presentation within the experiment. Both of these manipulations affected the accuracy and time-to-response for nonword production both for typically developing and children with specific language impairment. Children with SLI were less accurate in their productions overall, but still exhibited an effect of the short-term frequency manipulation. Children with SLI differed significantly from their typical peers in terms of time-to-response only when both English and Experimental frequency were low. The results indicate that simple manipulations of the input can affect children's representation of word forms, and this can facilitate word production without the need for long term exposure or articulatory practice. Learning outcomes: The reader will learn that sound frequency affects the production of new words. This includes not only the frequency with which sound sequences are represented in the speaker's native language, but the frequency with which they are heard within a single session.
Connectedness and Neediness: Factors of the DEQ and SAS dependency scales

Separate and combined factor analyses of the dependency scales of the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire (DEQ) and the Sociotropy/Autonomy Scale (SAS) each yielded a factor characterized by valuing of relationships and sensitivity to the effects of one's actions on others (Connectedness), and a factor characterized by anxious concerns regarding possible rejection (Neediness). Connectedness was associated with gender but not with depression. Neediness was associated with depression but not with gender. Results are discussed in relation to claims that psychological models reflect cultural biases favoring individualism and that these models and their associated measures tend to undervalue relational, interdependent orientations.
In vivo treatment of human leukemia in a scid mouse model with c-myb antisense oligodeoxynucleotides

The c-myb protooncogene encodes proteins that are critical for hematopoietic cell proliferation and development. Disrupting c-myb function might, therefore, prove an effective therapeutic strategy for controlling leukemic cell growth. Antisense oligodeoxynucleotides have been utilized for this purpose in vitro, but their in vivo efficacy has not been reported. We therefore established human leukemia-scid mouse chimeras with K562 cells and treated diseased animals with phosphorothioate-modified antisense oligodeoxynucleotides. K562 cells express the c-myb protooncogene, which served as the target for the antisense DNA. They also express the tumor-specific bcr-abl oncogene that was utilized to track the human cells in the mouse host. Once circulating leukemic blast cells had been detected, the survival of untreated control mice was 6 +/- 3 days (mean +/- SD). The survival of animals treated for 7 or 14 days with either sense or scrambled-sequence c-myb oligodeoxynucleotides was not statistically different from the control animals. In distinct contrast, animals treated for similar lengths of time with antisense c-myb oligodeoxynucleotides survived at least 3.5 times longer than the various control animals. In addition, animals receiving antisense c-myb DNA had significantly less disease at the two sites most frequently manifesting leukemic cell infiltration, the central nervous system and the ovary. These results suggest that phosphorothioate-modified antisense DNA may be efficacious for the treatment of human leukemia in vivo, and by analogy, for the treatment of other human neoplasias.
Efficient and reproducible large-scale isolation of human CD4+ CD25+ regulatory T cells with potent suppressor activity

CD4+ CD25+ regulatory T cells have been the subject of intense investigation and have been shown to modulate immune responses in the settings of autoimmunity, cancer and transplantation. The assessment and optimization of purification schemes for specific cellular subtypes such as CD4+ CD25+ regulatory T cells is a critical consideration in developing cell-based therapies in the clinical setting. In the following studies, different strategies for magnetic isolation are compared and the parameters which affect the overall potency of purified human CD4+ CD25+ regulatory T cells are discussed. The data demonstrate that large-scale magnetic isolation can be used to efficiently and reproducibly purify human CD4+ CD25+ regulatory T cells capable of modulating alloreactive T cell responses. The ability to rapidly purify the desired cells from peripheral blood suggests that magnetic isolation may be a suitable alternative to cell sorting for clinical settings, where large numbers of CD4+ CD25+ regulatory T cells may be necessary.
Conservation Laws for Counter-Propagating Optical Waves in Atmospheric Turbulence with Application to Directed Energy and Laser Communications

In this paper we discussed the integral relationships between the counter-propagating wave complex amplitudes known as overlapping integrals or interference metrics, which values are preserved along the propagation path. We show that the conservation property of these integral quantities of the counter-propagating waves can be utilized for atmospheric turbulence effects mitigation in directed energy, free-space laser communication and active imaging applications.
Genetics: Prostate cancer risk stratification by genotype and PSA.

The use of PSA testing as a screening tool for prostate cancer is limited by its low specificity. New data offer insight into how genotypic information might be incorporated into PSA screening approaches to enhance their accuracy.
Many-body Green's-function calculations on the electronic excited states of extended systems

Electron correlation corrections to the excitation energy of the lowest-lying singlet exciton state of polyethylene are evaluated with the aid of the quasiparticle energies obtained from second-order many-body perturbation theory and from the second-order inverse Dyson equation. A simple approximation is proposed to avoid the evaluation of the quasiparticle energies for high- and low-lying energy bands, which is particularly problematic in extended-system calculations. The inclusion of both the electron correlation effects and diffuse basis functions is important for the proper description of the exciton state. The electron correlation corrections calculated by this method appear to be too large, probably due to the neglect of the screening effects of the quasiparticle interactions.
Choice in humans: Functional properties of reinforcers established by instruction.

Adult human subjects chose between schedules containing stimuli (indicator lights) that the subjects were instructed to consider pleasurable. The schedules differed in amount of reinforcement (period of illumination) or delay (interval between a choice response and light onset). Although subjects preferred large to small amounts of reinforcement, they were essentially indifferent between immediate and delayed reinforcement. In contrast, previous data on video game reinforcement demonstrated preferences for both immediate and large amounts of reinforcement. The instructed reinforcer was thus partially effective in controlling choice but was not equivalent to a reinforcer that presumably had intrinsic value.
Deciphering adaptor specificity in GFL‐dependent RET‐mediated proliferation and neurite outgrowth

Glial cell derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF)-dependent receptor tyrosine kinase RET activity is required for proper development of the nervous system and genitourinary tract. Loss-of-function mutations in RET are associated with enteric nervous system abnormalities (Hirschsprung disease) and renal deficits (Potter's syndrome), whereas activating mutations lead to hereditary cancer syndromes (multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2A and type 2B). RET activation is crucial for the proper regulation of a variety of cellular processes including cell migration, proliferation and neurite outgrowth. By analyzing a series of RET mutants we found that Y1062 was critical for stimulating GDNF-mediated proliferation as well as proliferation stimulated by GDNF-independent oncogenic forms of RET. Studies using small interfering RNA driven by lentivirus to knock-down expression of particular adaptor proteins that interact with RET phospho-Y1062, demonstrated that only Src-homology 2 and growth factor receptor binding protein 2 were necessary for RET-mediated proliferation by wild type and oncogenic forms of RET. Interestingly, we discovered that Y1062 was also required for GDNF-stimulated neurite outgrowth. However, small interfering RNAs to either Src-homology 2 or growth factor receptor binding protein 2 or a panel of other adaptor proteins known to interact with RET Y1062 were incapable of blocking GDNF-stimulated neurite formation, indicating that differential use of intracellular adaptors is responsible for regulating alternative RET-stimulated cellular events such as proliferation versus a differentiation response like neurite outgrowth.
Simultaneous in situ detection of IgE receptors and cytoplasmic granules in murine cutaneous mast cells.

Abstract A method is described for the simultaneous in situ detection of surface receptors and cytoplasmic granules in mast cells of frozen sections of mouse skin. Surface IgE receptors are detected after saturation of the receptors with a murine monoclonal antibody of IgE isotype. The latter is subsequently detected by monospecific rabbit anti-mouse IgE (purified on protein A-sepharose) followed by FITC-conjugated goat anti-rabbit IgG. Cytoplasmic granules are localized by staining with TRITC-avidin conjugate. Normal cutaneous mast cells show green surface fluorescence and red intracellular granules. The method is specific for mast cells; other cells with Fc receptors for IgE are not seen. This method should be useful in the study of situations in which mast cells may have become degranulated.
Effect of exchangeable Mg on saturated hydraulic conductivity, disaggregation and clay dispersion of disturbed soils

Abstract Different opinions exist regarding the specific effect of Mg on soil physical and chemical properties. We hypothesized that Mg2+, compared with Ca2+, reduces saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) via promoting clay swelling, disaggregation, and clay dispersion. Two soils (mixed, mesic Typic Hapludalfs) in packed soil columns were leached with either Ca- or Mg-containing solutions at the successive concentrations of 250, 10, 2, 0.5, and 0 mM. Critical flocculation concentration (CFC) in either Ca or Mg systems was determined with flocculation series tests. Aggregate stability and mean weight diameter (MWD) were assessed by wet-sieving. The CFCs were higher in Mg than in Ca for both soils, indicating that Mg is more dispersive than Ca. The MWDs measured using 1–2 mm aggregates of both soils were significantly larger for Ca-soils than for Mg-soils (P=0.05). The Ksr (normalized with initial Ks) started to decline at higher concentrations for Mg than for Ca, and the reduction was much greater in Mg than in Ca above 0.5 mM. The Ksr and percent transmittance (inversely related to turbidity) of leachate at a given eluted pore volume following ‘steady state’ were higher in Ca than in Mg for both soils (P=0.1), indicating lower permeability and more clay dispersion with the Mg treatment. Swelling and disaggregation, which reduced large pores, appeared to be the dominant process causing the rapid initial decline of Ksr. Clay dispersion and subsequent pore plugging became progressively important when electrolyte concentration was reduced to below CFCs.
Identification of Relevant Intra-Maze Cues in Latent Learning

Sunzmary.-A modification of Seward's ( 1949) procedure was used to demonstrate latent learning in a diamond maze, in which extra-maze cues are made irrelevant by having the positive and negative goal boxes adjacent. In a series of experiments, 55 of 60 rats made correct test trial choices. When the cues from visually distinctive areas halfway down the paths to the goal boxes were eliminated, only 15 of 30 Ss chose correctly. I t was concluded that these visual cues controlled Ss' behavior.
A transformation system for interactive reformulation of design optimization strategies

Automatic design optimization is highly sensitive to problem formulation. The choice of objective function, constraints and design parameters can dramatically impact on the computational cost of optimization and the quality of the resulting design. The best formulation varies from one application to another. A design engineer will usually not know the best formulation in advance. To address this problem, we have developed a system that supports interactive formulation, testing and reformulation of design optimization strategies. Our system includes an executable, data-flow language for representing optimization strategies. The language allows an engineer to define multiple stages of optimization, each using different approximations of the objective and constraints or different abstractions of the design space. We have also developed a set of transformations that reformulate strategies represented in our language. The transformations can approximate objective and constraint functions, abstract or reparameterize search spaces, or divide an optimization process into multiple stages. The system is applicable in principle to any design problem that can be expressed in terms of constrained optimization; however, we expect the system to be most useful when the design artifact is governed by algebraic and ordinary differential equations. We have tested the system on problems of racing yacht design and jet engine nozzle design. We report experimental results demonstrating that our reformulation techniques can significantly improve the performance of automatic design optimization. Our research demonstrates the viability of a reformulation methodology that combines symbolic program transformation with numerical experimentation. It is an important first step in a research program aimed at automating the entire strategy formulation process.
Theoretical Studies on the Conformation of Protonated Dopamine in the Gas Phase and in Aqueous Solution

A trans (T) and two gauche (G1 and G2) conformers have been identified for protonated dopamine in the gas phase upon ab initio calculations up to the QCISD(T)/6-31G*//HF/6-31G* and MP2/6-311++G**//MP2/6-311++G** levels and based on B3LYP/6-31G* optimizations in DFT. Free energy differences at 298 K and 1 atm were calculated to be 3.2−5.6 kcal/mol between T and G1, and about 0 kcal/mol between the G2 and G1 conformers. The OH groups are nearly coplanar with the benzene ring and form an O−H···O−H intramolecular hydrogen bond in their most stable arrangement. Using the free energy perturbation method through Monte Carlo simulations, relative solvation free energies were evaluated in aqueous solution at T = 310 K and 1 atm. Ab initio/Monte Carlo torsional potential curves were calculated along pathways where small rotations about the C(ring)−Cβ and Cβ−Cα axes were allowed. No stable rotamers but the gas-phase optimized structures were identified. The T − G1 and G2 − G1 relative solvation free energies were ca...
Will pharmacogenomics alter the role of patents in drug development

s for some of these patents and patent applications are found at this address. 103. http://snp.cshl.org/about/program.shtml SNP Consortium website, last visited
Evidence for some suppression of magnetic moments in superconductive copper oxides

Abstract Comparison is made of the compositional variation of the lattice parameters and T c in four systems exhibiting a transition from antiferromagnetic semiconductor to metallic superconductor at a critical composition. In each system Vegard's law is obeyed within the compositional range exhibiting superconductivity, but an abrupt change in the compositional variation of the lattice parameters occurs at the transitional composition. In each the extrapolated lattice parameters and cell volume indicate that a lattice dilatation occurs on passing from a metallic superconductor to an antiferromagnetic semiconductor, an observation that is interpreted as an expression of Cu-3d-electron localization in the antiferromagnetic phase relative to the superconductive phase. The significance of such a change in electron localization for mechanisms of high- T c superconductivity is discussed briefly.
Long Slow Distance Training in Novice Marathoners

Abstract The purpose of this study was to determine the physiological and performance effects of two frequencies and volumes of long slow distance (LSD) training in novice male and female marathoners. Subjects (N = 51) were healthy college students who had not previously run a marathon. They were matched on peak oxygen consumption (VO2peak) into a 6 d-wk−1 (G6) or a 4 d-wk−1 (G4) training group. Both groups trained at 60% to 75% of the heart rate reserve for 15 weeks but G4 trained with 20% less total volume. All groups responded similarly to the training by decreasing percent body fat and maximum heart rate and by increasing fat free mass and VO2peak. All groups significantly decreased the oxygen (O2) cost, lactate level, and heart rate at a submaximal running speed. Within the same gender, performance in the marathon was not different between groups. It was concluded that both training programs prepared subjects equally well to run a marathon.