cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Comparison of iohexol-240 versus iohexol-300 in abdominal CT

Forty patients without evidence of liver, kidney, or significant cardiac disease were prospectively divided into two groups of 20, receiving either iohexol-240 or iohexol-300. A contrast load of 150 ml was administered in conjunction with a rapid scanning technique at a preselected, fixed level to include liver, renal cortex, and aorta. Peak enhancement was calculated as change in Hounsfield units (HU) over baseline for each area of interest. Mean peak enhancement and standard deviation were calculated for each organ, and the difference between the means for the two contrast agents was compared using the Student'st test.
Low-Overhead FPGA Middleware for Application Portability and Productivity

Reconfigurable computing devices such as field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) offer advantages over fixed-logic CPU and GPU architectures, including improved performance, superior power efficiency, and reconfigurability. The challenge of FPGA application development, however, has limited their acceptance in high-performance computing and high-performance embedded computing applications. FPGA development carries similar difficulties to hardware design, requiring that developers iterate through register-transfer level designs with cycle-level accuracy. Furthermore, the lack of hardware and software standards between FPGA platforms limits productivity and application portability, and makes porting applications between heterogeneous platforms a time-consuming and often challenging process. Recent efforts to improve FPGA productivity using high-level synthesis tools and languages show promise, but platform support remains limited and typically is left as a challenge for developers. To address these issues, we present RC Middleware (RCMW), a novel middleware that improves productivity and enables application and tool portability by abstracting away platform-specific details. RCMW provides an application-centric development environment, exposing only the resources and standardized interfaces required by an application, independent of the underlying platform. We demonstrate the portability and productivity benefits of RCMW using four heterogeneous platforms from three vendors. Our results indicate that RCMW enables application productivity and improves developer productivity, and that these benefits are achieved with less than 7p performance and 3p area overhead on average.
Why do we converse on social media?: an analysis of intrinsic and extrinsic network factors

We are motivated in our work by the following question: what factors influence individual participation in social media conversations? Conversations around user posted content, is central to the user experience in social media sites, including Facebook, YouTube and Flickr. Therefore, understanding why people participate, can have significant bearing on fundamental research questions in social network and media analysis, such as, network evolution, and information diffusion.Our approach is as follows. We first identify several key aspects of social media conversations, distinct from both online forum discussions and other social networks. These aspects include intrinsic and extrinsic network factors. There are three factors intrinsic to the network: social awareness, community characteristics and creator reputation. The factors extrinsic to the network include: media context and conversational interestingness. Thereafter we test the effectiveness of each factor type in accounting for the observed participation of individuals using a Support Vector Regression based prediction framework. Our findings indicate that factors that influence participation depend on the media type: YouTube participation is different from a weblog such as Engadget. We further show that an optimal factor combination improves prediction accuracy of observed participation, by ~9--13% and ~8--11% over using just the best hypothesis and all hypotheses respectively. Implications of this work in understanding individual contributions in social media conversations, and the design of social sites in turn, are discussed.
Impact-induced damage characterization of composite plates using neural networks

Impact-induced damage in fiber-reinforced laminated composite plates is characterized. An instrumented impact tower was used to carry out low-velocity impacts on thirteen clamped glass/epoxy composite plates. A range of impact energies was experimentally investigated by progressively varying impactor masses (holding the impact height constant) and varying impact heights (holding the impactor mass constant). The in-plane strain profiles as measured by polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) piezoelectric sensors are shown to indicate damage initiation and to correlate to impact energy. Plate damage included matrix cracking, fiber breakage, and delamination. Electronic shearography validated the existence of the impact damage and demonstrated an actual damage area larger than visible indications. The strain profiles that are associated with damage were replicated using an in-house finite element code. Using these simulated strain signatures and the shearography results, a backpropagation artificial neural network (ANN) is shown to detect and classify the type and severity of damage.
A New Early Duccio

THE hitherto unknown panel of the Flagellation that has recently come into the Frick Collection is a little masterpiece and, for the historian, a revelation (Fig. 1).1 Its surface, like that of many early panel paintings, has not escaped damage. Wear has deprived it in many places of the last touches of the painter's brush, and it is not free of minute patches of repaint. The heads of the executioners were apparently at one time the objects of a pious attack. The eye of the man at the left was scratched, his companion literally defaced. The present eye and nose of the latter are partly reinforcements of fragments of the original features, and the hair of both men has become woolly. The head of Christ and the entire lower quarter of the surface of the panel are well preserved. None of the larger shapes in the composition has been altered, and neither naive zeal nor the accidents of time have succeeded in dimming the extraordinary beauty of the panel's color and design and the nobility of its sentiment.
Exocytic trafficking is required for nicotine-induced up-regulation of α4β2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors

The primary target for nicotine in the brain is the neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR). It has been well documented that nAChRs respond to chronic nicotine exposure by up-regulation of receptor numbers, which may underlie some aspects of nicotine addiction. In order to investigate the mechanism of nicotine-induced nAChR up-regulation, we have developed a cell culture system to assess membrane trafficking and nicotine-induced up-regulation of surface-expressed α4β2 nAChRs. Previous reports have implicated stabilization of the nAChRs at the plasma membrane as the potential mechanism of up-regulation. We have found that whereas nicotine exposure results in up-regulation of surface receptors in our system, it does not alter surface receptor internalization from the plasma membrane, postendocytic trafficking, or lysosomal degradation. Instead, we find that transport of nAChRs through the secretory pathway to the plasma membrane is required for nicotine-induced up-regulation of surface receptors. Therefore, nicotine appears to regulate surface receptor levels at a step prior to initial insertion in the plasma membrane rather than by altering their endocytic trafficking or degradation rates as had been previously suggested.
Application of the WKBJ Green's function to acoustic propagation in horizontally stratified oceans

The Green’s function (response to an impulsive point source) for ocean acoustic propagation is found using the WKBJ seismogram technique [Chapman, Geophys. J. R. Astron. Soc. 54, 481–518 (1978)]. It is shown that the WKBJ Green’s function reduces to geometric ray theory; in the vicinity of caustics it gives the well‐known Airy function range dependence of each harmonic component of the acoustic field. Arrival patterns constructed using the WKBJ Green’s function are in excellent agreement with a solution to the parabolic equation (PE) except when the source and/or receiver depth is near the turning depth of a geometric ray. Agreement with a measured arrival pattern is also found to be good.
Complex Spatial Structure in a Population of Didymopanax pittieri, A Tree of Wind-Exposed Lower Montane Rain Forest

Didymopanax pittieri is a common shade-intolerant tree colonizing treefall gaps in the elfin forests on windswept ridgecrests in the lower montane rain forests of the Cordillera de Tilarain, Costa Rica. All D. pittieri taller than > 0.5 m in a 5.2-ha elfin forested portion of a gridded study watershed in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve were located, mapped, and measured. This local population of D. pittieri is spatially inhomogeneous, in that density increases with increasing wind exposure; D. pittieri are more abundant near ridge crests than lower on windward slopes. The important and ubiquitous phenomenon of spatial inhomogeneity in population density is addressed and corrected for in spatial analyses by the application of the inhomogeneous version of Ripley's K. The spatial patterns of four size classes of D. pittieri ( 20 cm dbh) were investigated. Within the large-scale trend in density driven by wind exposure, D. pittieri saplings are clumped at the scale of treefall gaps and at the scale of patches of aggregated gaps. D. pittieri 5-10 cm dbh are randomly distributed, apparently due to competitive thinning of sapling clumps during the early stages of gap-phase regeneration. D. pittieri larger than 10 cm dbh are overdispersed at a scale larger than that of patches of gaps. Natural disturbance can influence the distribution of shade intolerant tree populations at several different spatial scales, and can have discordant effects at different life history stages.
A theory of recursive dimension for ordered sets

The classical theorem of R. P. Dilworth asserts that a partially ordered set of width n can be partitioned into n chains. Dilworth's theorem plays a central role in the dimension theory of partially ordered sets since chain partitions can be used to provide embeddings of partially ordered sets in the Cartesian product of chains. In particular, the dimension of a partially-ordered set never exceeds its width. In this paper, we consider analogous problems in the setting of recursive combinatorics where it is required that the partially ordered set and any associated partition or embedding be described by recursive functions. We establish several theorems providing upper bounds on the recursive dimension of a partially ordered set in terms of its width. The proofs are highly combinatorial in nature and involve a detailed analysis of a 2-person game in which one person builds a partially ordered set one point at a time and the other builds the partition or embedding.
DEMONSTRATING THE LIFTING POWER OF TRANSPIRATION

Transpiration and the cohesion of water are two important factors in the rapid rise of water in the conducting systems of stems. The problem of demonstrating these two factors has led to numerous experiments. In the present investigation several modifications of procedure have been devised and have been proved satisfactory. Living leafy twigs have been used to pull mercury columns to heights exceeding barometric pressure. Previous investigators have used two general methods to demonstrate the plausibility of the cohesion theory of the rise of water in plants. In the first method a purely artificial system was used, the apparatus consisting of a porous evaporating surface attached to the top of a long glass tube. First the porous material and tube were thoroughly wetted and then the whole apparatus completely filled with water. The lower end of the glass tube was then dipped into a vessel containing mercury. On allowing the water to evaporate from the porous surface the volume of water decreases, and the mercury is pulled up the tube by the retreating water column. If the mercury column is lifted to a height exceeding barometric pressure then a definite pull is shown to exist in the water column. This experiment has been used to explain the rise of water in plants. The porous material is thought of as the leaf and the glass tube an element in the water-conducting system of the plant. The water is thus pulled up the trunk of the plant by the cohesive properties of the water coluimn. Askenasy (I896), Ursprung (1913), Lubin (1926), Thut (1928), Otis (1930), and others have attempted to perfect such a set-up. The writer has described, in his paper just cited, an experiment in which a column of mercury was lifted 226.6 centimeters. This is equivalent to lifting a column of water approximately I00 feet. In the second method actual living material was used as part of the apparatus. Leafy twigs were employed as evaporating surfaces. Only one successful set-up of this type, that of Boehm's (I893), has been reported in literature. His work, though often cited, has been neglected and probably doubted. Boehm successfully attached living Thuja twigs to capillary manometer tubes and by transpiration and cohesion of water lifted mercury columns to heights of 86.4 and 90.6 centimeters. By this method students of botany need not use an analogy, but can see by actual demonstration that a transpiring leafy twig does exert a pull on a water column.
Strained heterocyclic systems-XV. Infrared spectra of substituted quinoline N-oxides*

Abstract Infrared spectra of 1,2-dihydrocyclobuta[b]quinoline N-oxide and of acenaphthol[1,2-b]quinoline N-oxide in CS2 solution and KBr were measured and compared with model compounds. The shift in N-O stretching frequencies is interpreted in terms of ring strain effects.
Why borderline personality features adversely affect job performance: The role of task strategies

This study examined how Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and its components influence job performance. BPD is theorized to adversely affect the generation of task strategies in the workplace which results in poor job performance. In this study, 180 college students completed the Borderline Scale from the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI-BOR; Morey, 1991) followed by a work-related simulation. While none of the facets of BPD related to task strategy, the composite of borderline negatively related to task strategy, which was positively related to task performance. Thus, borderline appears to have an indirect effect on task performance through task strategy.
Measuring the quality of linguistic forecasts

Abstract We suggest a method for representing linguistic forecasts via fuzzy sets. We then use this representation to obtain a measure of quality of forecasts which takes into account both the validity and the specificity of the forecast.
Low Reynolds number forced convection in three-dimensional wavy-plate-fin compact channels: fin density effects

Abstract Steady forced convection in periodically developed low Reynolds number (10 ⩽ Re ⩽ 1000) air (Pr = 0.7) flows in three-dimensional wavy-plate-fin cores is considered. Constant property computational solutions are obtained using finite-volume techniques for a non-orthogonal non-staggered grid. Results highlight the effects of wavy-fin density on the velocity and temperature fields, isothermal Fanning friction factor f, and Colburn factor j. The fin waviness is seen to induce the steady and spatially periodic growth and disruption of symmetric pairs of counter-rotating helical vortices in the wall-trough regions of the flow cross-section. The thermal boundary layers on the fin surface are thereby periodically interrupted, resulting in high local heat transfer near the recirculation zones. Increasing fin density, however, tends to dampen the recirculation and confine it. The extent of swirl increases with flow rate, when multiple pairs of helical vortices are formed. This significantly enhances the overall heat transfer coefficient as well as the pressure drop penalty, when compared to that in a straight channel of the same cross-section. The relative surface area compactness as measured by the (j/f) performance or the area goodness factor nevertheless increases with fin density.
The Exact Solution to the Two-Stage Group-Testing Problem

In the original two-stage method of group-testing, it is well known that if p is the proportion of infected individuals in the population, then the optimal group size is approximately p −1/2 when p is small. A modified mathematical treatment of the problem is used in this paper to show that for all p < .3 the optimal group size is either 1 + [p −1/2] or 2 + [p −1/2], where [x] denotes the integer part of x, and, when the optimal group size is used, the expected number of tests per individual is between 2p 1/2 – p/2 and 2p 1/2 + 4p 3/2. Other interesting features of the two-stage method, as a function of group size, are also revealed.
The thermodynamic properties of deuterium chloride-sodium chloride mixtures in heavy water

Abstract The activity coefficient of DCl in DClNaCl mixtures in D 2 O has been measured from 20–75°C at total ionic strengths 0.5 and 1.0 using the e.m.f. technique. Values of the activity coefficient of NaCl in the mixtures were calculated by using the parameters obtained in the fit of e.m.f. data and parameters obtained by fitting osmotic coefficient data on solutions of pure NaCl in D 2 O. It was found that the DCl in the mixtures obeyed Harned's rule, as does HCl in the corresponding protonated system. It was also demonstrated that a previously developed simple equation predicted very closely the activity coefficients of both the DCl and the NaCl in the mixtures.
Low alpha power (7.5-9.5 Hz) changes during positive and negative affective learning.

There is evidence that the positive and the negative word lists of the Affective Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AAVL) are useful with regard to mood induction. To date, however, changes in brain activation, as indicated by quantitative electroencephalographic recording, have not been examined. Thus, changes in low alpha power (7.5–9.5 Hz) were examined during and after completion of the positive or the negative learning list of the AAVL among 37 undergraduate men and women. Three primary findings from the study include the following: (1) Previously reported recall patterns were replicated; (2) participants who completed the negative list reported a significant decline in mood state at the end of the session; and (3) participants who completed the negative word list evidenced a significant reduction in low alpha power (in comparison with baseline) within the parietal regions. The findings noted above are seemingly counter to contemporary theories of mood regulation (i.e., asymmetrical changes in anterior activity, rather than changes in parietal regions). Although the AAVL may have limited utility as a tool for mood induction, it may serve as a functional tool for examination of the cerebral processes associated with affective verbal memory.
Cohesive modeling of damage growth in z-pinned laminates under mode-I loading:

In this paper, a traction-separation-based cohesive modeling approach is proposed to predict the effect of z-pinning on laminated composites. A detailed experimental characterization of the z-pin p...
Patterns of bias due to differential misclassification by case–control status in a case–control study

Background Case–control study is still one of the most commonly used study designs in epidemiological research. Misclassification of case–control status remains a significant issue because it will bias the results of a case–control study. There exist two types of misclassification, differential versus nondifferential. It is commonly accepted that nondifferential misclassification will bias the results of the study towards the null hypothesis. Conversely, no reports have assessed the impact and direction of differential misclassification on odds ratio (OR) estimate. The goal of the present study is to demonstrate by statistical derivation that patterns exist on the bias induced by differential misclassification.
Carbon dioxide laser for combination excisional-vaporization conization.

Abstract Extensive cervical intraepithelial neoplasia may simultaneously involve large areas of the ectocervix, even extending to the vaginal fornices, as well as the endocervical canal. In such instances conventional sharp knife conization would result in virtual removal of the cervix if the surgeon wished to completely circumscribe the entire lesion. By combining a narrow carbon dioxide laser excisional conization with ectocervical vaporization, cervical intraepithelial neoplasia may be eradicated by a virtually bloodless surgical procedure and fertility may be preserved. Sixty-one combination conizations with 6 months to 4 years of follow-up are reported. In 95% of the cases biopsy demonstrated cervical intraepithelial neoplasia in three or more ectocervical quadrants, and 16% had extension of disease into the vagina. The technique of combination conization uses 20 to 30 W of power and 1 2 to 1 mm spots for excision and 10 t0 15 W and 1 to 1.5 mm spots for vaporization. The average time to complete the entire procedure was 21 minutes. In three of 61 cases endocervical margins were positive; there were no instances of persistence of neoplasia at either the ectocervical or the vaginal margins. Four complications were observed, all related to delayed bleeding; however, only two patients required the placement of a suture. The volume of tissue removed by a large excisional conization is more than two times greater than that of a laser combination conization.
The Ontogeny of Sexual Dimorphism: Quantitative Models and a Case Study in Labrisomid Blennies (Teleostei: Paraclinus)

Studies of sexual dimorphism commonly focus on male morphology, often viewing males as divergent both evolutionarily and ontogenetically. For example, in continuously grow- ing vertebrates such as lizards and fishes, it has been assumed that adult dimorphism arises from growth rate changes in male characters at the onset of maturity. However, there has been little explicit treatment of the ontogenetic origin of morphological sex differences. I present here a method for testing hypotheses of sex-specific allometric change, and offer an example of its application in four species of labrisomid blennies. I develop three hierarchical models to test for allometric divergence: (1) the null model, in which adult allometries of both sexes are simply an extension of the juvenile allometries (model A); (2) a model in which either adult males or females (but not both) diverge from the juvenile trajectory (model B); and (3) a model in which adults of both sexes diverge from the juvenile allometry (model C). Growth that fits either of the two latter models results in shape dimorphism. Although size dimorphism may occur in all three cases, it is not explicitly treated here. The models were tested with size-series of four species of fish (Paraclinus, Labrisomidae). To further explore overall shape similarity among males, females, and juveniles, a multivariate analysis of shape (independent of size) was applied. Analysis of 42 mensural characters showed that divergence from juvenile allometry occurred as frequently in female traits as in male traits. Multivariate analysis showed that in all four species, female shape diverges more from juvenile shape than does male shape. In addition, similarity among adult dimorphic character states often resulted from quite different growth patterns, suggesting that resemblance of adult characters among related species is insufficient evidence to conclude character homology. Interpretations of sexual dimorphism, currently emphasizing male morphology, may be biased and may underestimate the importance of selection on the female form as a cause of sexual dimorphism. (Allometry; homology; homoplasy; Labrisomidae; ontogeny; Paraclinus; sexual dimorphism; sexual selection.)
Unsubstantiated treatments for individuals with autism.

Public awareness and interest in autism has markedly increased within the past decade as autism prevalence rates have experienced a dramatic increase [1], [2]. With increased incidence and public a...
Galangin induces apoptosis in gastric cancer cells via regulation of ubiquitin carboxy-terminal hydrolase isozyme L1 and glutathione S-transferase P

Galangin has been shown to have anti-cancer property against several types of cancer cells. Many studies have described the anti-oxidant and apoptotic effects of galangin. However, the mechanism of galangin-induced apoptosis has not yet been studied for human gastric cancer cells. We investigated galangin-induced apoptosis of human gastric cancer SNU-484 cells. Galangin inhibited proliferation of SNU-484 cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. The results showed that galangin significantly decreased the viability of SNU-484 cells at 50-200 μM for 24 h and 48 h. Galangin-induced cell death was characterized with the changes in cell morphology, DNA fragmentation, cell cycle, activation of caspase-3/-9, poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) cleavage, and expression of MAP kinase such as ERK1/2 and JNK. For identification of proteins potentially involved in apoptosis, a two-dimensional electrophoresis was employed. Proteomic analysis showed that several proteins were associated with anti-cancer properties of galangin. Of particular interest, these proteins included ubiquitin carboxy-terminal hydrolase isozyme L1 (Uch-L1) and glutathione S-transferase P (GSTP), which are involved in apoptosis of SNU-484 cells. Western blot analysis confirmed up-regulation of Uch-L1 and down-regulation of GSTP following galangin treatment. Our results suggest that Uch-L1 and GSTP be involved in galangin-induced apoptosis in human gastric cancer SNU-484 cells.
Integrated laser sources for WDM coherent transmission

We will present state of the art performance of monolithically integrated 500 Gb/sec and 1 Tb/s coherent transmitter and receiver PICs with integrated multi-channel tunable laser arrays optimized for coherent transmission.
Quantitative analyses of the early angiosperm radiation

Although the pattern of the early angiosperm radiation has been substantially clarified by palaeobotanical and stratigraphic investigations over the last 30 years1–3, knowledge of associated vegetational and floristic change remains limited. Quantitative analyses of Cretaceous fossil floras indicate that by ∼90 million years before present (BP) angiosperms had achieved widespread floristic dominance, at least in the Northern Hemisphere. Although some non-angiosperm plant groups show no pronounced shifts in diversity in association with the angiosperm radiation, others show marked declines that contribute to profound alterations in the composition of terrestrial plant communities. Comparative trends in systematic diversity suggest competitive displacement of cycadophytes and pteridophytes by angiosperms, but current evidence is not sufficient to exclude the probability of a more complex basis for mid-Cretaceous floristic change.
SHAPING THE SELVES OF YOUNG SALESPEOPLE THROUGH EMOTION MANAGEMENT

This article describes how a door-to-door sales company trains sales people to engage in emotion management. Company managers and salespeople engage in emotion mining, the search for and developmen...
Refractoriness to the Insulin-Like Effects of Growth Hormone Depends upon Calcium

GH produces an acute but transient insulin-like response in adipocytes that have been deprived of GH for at least 3 h. The insulin-like response is followed by a period of refractoriness during which a second insulin-like response to GH cannot be elicited. These studies were undertaken to evaluate the role of calcium in the insulin-like response and refractoriness. Methionyl human GH (hGH) (100 ng/ml) increased the incorporation of D-[3-3H] glucose into lipid by 50-100% in fat cells that preincubated for 3 h without hormone and usually by less than 10% in fat cells that were made refractory by exposure to 100 μ/ml of hGH in the first hour of incubation. Insulin (100 μ/ml) increased lipogenesis by 3-5-fold whether fat cells were sensitive or refractory to GH. To determine whether calcium plays a role in either the insulin-like response to GH or the refractory phenomenon, we examined the effects of trifluoroperazine (20 or 50 μM) and calmidazolium (1.0 μM) which block calmodulin, as well as verapamil (30 μM...
Summit asymmetry: The United States and UN reform

(2005). Summit asymmetry: The United States and UN reform. The International Spectator: Vol. 40, No. 4, pp. 7-18.
Appearance Based Recognition Using Spatial and Discriminant Influence

Appearances of objects lie in high-dimensional spaces. For a given recognition task, feature selection aims to select most effective features in order to reduce the recognition cost and improve recognition accuracy. Feature selection can be achieved by a bottom-up scheme, e.g., using spatial information, or a top-down scheme, e.g., using class information. In this paper, we propose a model to integrate spatial and discriminant influence for appearance based recognition, where locality oriented Fisher score is introduced to estimate the discriminant influence. We use Lipschitz regularity to construct image representation. We present a case study of embryo stage recognition to test the performance of the proposed method. We also obtain new insights on the comparison between spatial and discriminant influence.
Why does threonine, and not serine, function as the active site nucleophile in proteasomes?

Proteasomes belong to the N-terminal nucleophile group of amidases and function through a novel proteolytic mechanism, in which the hydroxyl group of the N-terminal threonines is the catalytic nucleophile. However, it is unclear why threonine has been conserved in all proteasomal active sites, because its replacement by a serine in proteasomes from the archaeon Thermoplasma acidophilum (T1S mutant) does not alter the rates of hydrolysis of Suc-LLVY-amc (Seemuller, E., Lupas, A., Stock, D., Lowe, J., Huber, R., and Baumeister, W. (1995) Science 268, 579–582) and other standard peptide amide substrates. However, we found that true peptide bonds in decapeptide libraries were cleaved by the T1S mutant 10-fold slower than by wild type (wt) proteasomes. In degrading proteins, the T1S proteasome was 3.5- to 6-fold slower than the wt, and this difference increased when proteolysis was stimulated using the proteasome-activating nucleotidase (PAN) ATPase complex. With mutant proteasomes, peptide bond cleavage appeared to be rate-limiting in protein breakdown, unlike with wt. Surprisingly, a peptide ester was hydrolyzed by both particles much faster than the corresponding amide, and the T1S mutant cleaved it faster than the wt. Moreover, the T1S mutant was inactivated by the ester inhibitorclasto-lactacystin-β-lactone severalfold faster than the wt, but reacted with nonester irreversible inhibitors at similar rates. T1A and T1C mutants were completely inactive in all these assays. Thus, proteasomes lack additional active sites, and the N-terminal threonine evolved because it allows more efficient protein breakdown than serine.
Immunoglobulins in infants of rubella-exposed mothers

Noninfected infants of women who received large doses of gamma globulin early in pregnancy for the prevention of rubella were found to have lower serum IgG levels than normal controls up until 1 year of age. This effect, however, did not create clinical problems. Infected babies, as defined by the presence of rubella antibody persisting beyond 5 months of age, had higher serum IgM and IgG concentrations than noninfected babies until age 2 years.
The impact of racial diversity on intermediate and long-term performance: The moderating role of environmental context.

We conduct a firm-level, 6-year longitudinal analysis on the impact that racial diversity in human resources has on financial performance. When considering short-term performance outcomes, we predict a curvilinear relationship between diversity and performance (i.e., firm productivity). Although we find evidence of a U-shaped relationship between racial diversity and productivity, the relationship is stronger in service-oriented relative to manufacturing-oriented industries and in more stable vs. volatile environments. For longer-term profitability, we propose and find support for more of a positive linear relationship between diversity and performance (i.e., Tobin's q) than a nonlinear one. This linear effect is stronger and more positive in munificent compared to resource-scare environments. Thus, we aid in reconciling existing, often contradictory, studies by demonstrating the potential short-term vs. long-term impact of racial diversity on performance. We offer implications for future research on diversity considering the current and projected demographic landscape. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Glutamate receptor antagonists protect from virus-induced neural degeneration

Neuronal damage during acute viral encephalomyelitis can result directly from virus infection or indirectly from the host immune response to infection. In neurodegenerative diseases and stroke, neuronal death also can result from excess release of excitatory amino acid neurotransmitters, such as glutamate. To determine the role of glutamate excitotoxicity in fatal alphavirus-induced paralytic encephalomyelitis, we treated mice infected with neuroadapted Sindbis virus (NSV) with antagonists of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) and -amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole propionic acid (AMPA) subtypes of glutamate receptors. Both apoptotic and necrotic neurons in the hippocampus were decreased in animals treated with MK-801, an NMDA receptor antagonist, or GYKI-52466, an AMPA receptor antagonist. However, only AMPA receptor blockade prevented damage to spinal cord motor neurons and protected mice from paralysis and death due to NSV infection. Protection was not caused by altered virus replication because treatment did not affect virus distribution and actually delayed virus clearance. These results provide evidence that NSV infection activates neurotoxic pathways that result in aberrant glutamate receptor stimulation and neuronal damage. Furthermore, AMPA receptor– mediated motor neuron death is an important contributor to paralysis and mortality in acute alphavirus-induced encephalomyelitis. Ann Neurol 2004;55:541–549 Mosquito-borne viruses are important causes of outbreaks of acute encephalomyelitis throughout the world. As illustrated by the recent outbreaks of West Nile virus in the United States, 1 these infections often lead to permanent neurological damage or death. Sindbis virus (SV) is an alphavirus that is related to eastern, western, and Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis viruses, causes of mosquito-borne encephalomyelitis in
Minus 35kV Space-Borne Instrument Power Supply

A -35kV power supply has been developed for a plasma experiment on the out-of-ecliptic mission. In addition, an isolation transformer has been developed to provide low voltage power at the -35kV potential. The design features incorporated to produce a spaceflight power supply housed within a 4 × 4 × 2.5 in package are discussed. The supply is powered from an unregulated spacecraft bus and provides a regulated output of -35kV ± 5 percent with less than 0.5 percent ripple over a temperature range -20°C + 60°C. The unit serves as a bias supply with an output current less than 0.5 , ?A. With the supply essentially operating unloaded, 5 percent regulation is achieved by sensing and regulating the first stage of a 12-stage Cockcroft/Walton multiplier. Control of the ac voltage input to the multiplier stack provides the regulation. The isolation transformer utilizes a ferrite u-core with the primary and secondary windings placed on opposite legs for separation. The transformer is encapsulated with the power supply.
Visualization of fluid mixing in microchannels

The development of a microchannel for fluid-mixing applications comes from the recent interest in microfluidic device applications in biology. Microfluidics refers to fluid flow and transport phenomena associated with these devices. The basic idea of developing microfluidic devices is to shrink the physical dimensions of most commonly used processors - that is, using miniaturization and function integration to create the so-called lab on a chip. The development of microfabrication procedures and the associated fundamental theories requires computer analysis and simulation techniques. Computer modeling not only reduces the experiment costs - such as data acquisition devices and control - but also expedites a certain design concept's evaluation process. More importantly, computer modeling results will help gain a better understanding of the flow field through flow visualization, and the information drawn from the results of computer simulations will in turn improve the design. This is especially important during the conceptual design phase.
Brothels as families: Reflections on the history of Bombay's1 kothas

Abstract Feminist theory typically locates prostitution outside the ambit of familial institutions. In particular, sex radical feminists and some feminist historians cast prostitution as an alternative to heteronormative domesticity. This article stresses the continuities between families and brothels in their structures of affection, obligation and domination. Given that brothels have often been sites of residence in South Asia, the question I address is, to what extent have brothel relations mirrored conventional family roles? In doing so, I offer a caution against universalizing work as a category for framing and understanding commercial sex. I begin the article by explaining the need for greater specificity in transnational feminist conversations about prostitution, and pointing out absences in sex radical and feminist historical accounts. I then analyze brothel life in 1920s Bombay drawing on annual reports of social work organizations, testimonies from high court cases, police files, census figures ...
Theoretical study of free-electron lasers with reversed guide field

Abstract Free-electron laser (FEL) amplifier performance with a reversed axial guide field is studied theoretically and numerically. The theoretical analysis focuses on an analytic nonlinear calculation of the particle motion at negative resonance which predicts the amplitude of oscillation as a function of guiding center location. Numerical studies based on a new simulation code, which follows the three-dimensional particle motion and the self-consistent amplitude and phase of the rf field, reproduce the high efficiency results recently reported by Conde and Bekefi [1] for a reversed field FEL. These studies indicate that the saturated power is rather sensitive to the model used for the space-charge forces. The reported results for Group I orbits can be reproduced only by assuming an anomalously large emittance, while the Group II results are not consistent with the single-frequency model.
Into the future: patient-centredness endures in longitudinal integrated clerkship graduates

Objectives This study was intended to determine if previously identified educational benefits of the Harvard Medical School (HMS) Cambridge Integrated Clerkship (CIC) endure over time. Methods The authors’ earlier work compared the 27 graduates in the first three cohorts of students undertaking the CIC with a comparison group of 45 traditionally trained HMS students; CIC graduates emerged from their clerkship year with a higher degree of patient-centredness and felt more prepared to deal with numerous domains of patient care. Between April and July 2011, at 4–6 years post-clerkship, the authors asked these original study cohorts to complete an electronic survey which included measures used in the original study. The authors also reviewed data from the National Residency Match Program to compare career paths in the two groups. Results The response rate was 62% (42/68). The immediate post-clerkship finding that CIC students held more patient-centred attitudes was sustained over time (p < 0.035). Reflecting retrospectively on their clerkship experiences, CIC graduates continued to report that their clerkship year had better prepared them in a wide variety of domains. Graduates of the CIC attained awards and published papers at the same rates as peers, and were more likely to engage in health advocacy work. Both groups chose a wide range of residency programmes. Among those expressing a preference, no CIC graduates said they would choose a traditional clerkship, but 6 (27%) of the traditionally trained graduates said they would choose a longitudinal integrated clerkship. Conclusions This paper indicates that benefits of longitudinal integrated clerkship training are sustained over time across multiple domains.
Printed circuit board visual inspection performance: a comparative analysis of mono- and stereovision macroscopic views

The objective of this study was to compare visual inspection performance of printed circuit boards (PCBs) and flexible circuit boards (flex) when using monovision and autostereovision modes of the Dimension Technologies' Virtual Window TM . We measured completion times for visual inspections of PCBs and flex cards, and detection of manufacturing or post manufacturing defects in each of the products. In the case of printed circuit boards, the stereovision display mode produce faster inspection (approximately 17% improvement in inspection rate) when compared against the monovision mode. No change in inspection performance was observed with flex cards, or in the number of flaws detected, with the introduction of autostereovision. Recommendations are made for improving the effectiveness of the Virtual Window for visual inspection of printed circuit boards and like phenomena.
Photoelectron imaging of Fermi surfaces

Abstract We describe the use of an ellipsoidal-mirror analyzer to obtain cross-sectional images of electrons photoemitted from a bulk Fermi surface. The region of the Brillouin zone that is sampled can be varied by adjusting the photon energy, allowing a complete mapping of the electron Fermi surface. This technique provides an immediate and direct visualization of the occupied electronic states and their relationship to bulk symmetries.
Towards building a high performance spatial query system for large scale medical imaging data

Support of high performance queries on large volumes of scientific spatial data is becoming increasingly important in many applications. This growth is driven by not only geospatial problems in numerous fields, but also emerging scientific applications that are increasingly data- and compute-intensive. For example, digital pathology imaging has become an emerging field during the past decade, where examination of high resolution images of human tissue specimens enables more effective diagnosis, prediction and treatment of diseases. Systematic analysis of large-scale pathology images generates tremendous amounts of spatially derived quantifications of micro-anatomic objects, such as nuclei, blood vessels, and tissue regions. Analytical pathology imaging provides high potential to support image based computer aided diagnosis. One major requirement for this is effective querying of such enormous amount of data with fast response, which is faced with two major challenges: the "big data" challenge and the high computation complexity. In this paper, we present our work towards building a high performance spatial query system for querying massive spatial data on MapReduce. Our framework takes an on demand index building approach for processing spatial queries and a partition-merge approach for building parallel spatial query pipelines, which fits nicely with the computing model of MapReduce. We demonstrate our framework on supporting multi-way spatial joins for algorithm evaluation and nearest neighbor queries for microanatomic objects. To reduce query response time, we propose cost based query optimization to mitigate the effect of data skew. Our experiments show that the framework can efficiently support complex analytical spatial queries on MapReduce.
Finite element modeling of the circle of Willis from magnetic resonance data

This paper presents a methodology to construct realistic patient-specific computational fluid dynamics models of the circle of Willis (CoW) using magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) data. Anatomical models are reconstructed from MRA images using tubular deformable models along each arterial segment and a surface-merging algorithm. The resulting models are smoothed and used to generate finite element (FE) grids. The incompressible Navier-Stokes equations are solved using a stabilized FE formulation. Physiologic flow conditions are derived from phase-contrast MR velocity measurements. The methodology was tested on image data of a normal volunteer. A pulsatile flow solution was obtained. Measured flow rates were prescribed in the internal carotid arteries, vertebral arteries, middle cerebral arteries and anterior cerebral arteries. Pressure boundary conditions were imposed in the posterior cerebral arteries. Visualizations of the complex flow patterns and wall shear stress distributions were produced. Potential applications of these FE models include: study the role of the communicating arteries during arterial occlusions and after endovsascular interventions, calculate transport of drugs, evaluate accuracy of 1D flow models, and evaluate vascular bed models used to impose boundary conditions when flow data is unavailable or incomplete.
Pretreatment with apoaequorin protects hippocampal CA1 neurons from oxygen-glucose deprivation.

Ischemic stroke affects ∼795,000 people each year in the U.S., which results in an estimated annual cost of $73.7 billion. Calcium is pivotal in a variety of neuronal signaling cascades, however, during ischemia, excess calcium influx can trigger excitotoxic cell death. Calcium binding proteins help neurons regulate/buffer intracellular calcium levels during ischemia. Aequorin is a calcium binding protein isolated from the jellyfish Aequorea victoria, and has been used for years as a calcium indicator, but little is known about its neuroprotective properties. The present study used an in vitro rat brain slice preparation to test the hypothesis that an intra-hippocampal infusion of apoaequorin (the calcium binding component of aequorin) protects neurons from ischemic cell death. Bilaterally cannulated rats received an apoaequorin infusion in one hemisphere and vehicle control in the other. Hippocampal slices were then prepared and subjected to 5 minutes of oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD), and cell death was assayed by trypan blue exclusion. Apoaequorin dose-dependently protected neurons from OGD – doses of 1% and 4% (but not 0.4%) significantly decreased the number of trypan blue-labeled neurons. This effect was also time dependent, lasting up to 48 hours. This time dependent effect was paralleled by changes in cytokine and chemokine expression, indicating that apoaequorin may protect neurons via a neuroimmunomodulatory mechanism. These data support the hypothesis that pretreatment with apoaequorin protects neurons against ischemic cell death, and may be an effective neurotherapeutic.