cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
GABAA Receptor RDL Inhibits Drosophila Olfactory Associative Learning

In both mammals and insects, neurons involved in learning are strongly modulated by the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA. The GABAA receptor, resistance to dieldrin (Rdl), is highly expressed in the Drosophila mushroom bodies (MBs), a group of neurons playing essential roles in insect olfactory learning. Flies with increased or decreased expression of Rdl in the MBs were generated. Olfactory associative learning tests showed that Rdl overexpression impaired memory acquisition but not memory stability. This learning defect was due to disrupting the physiological state of the adult MB neurons rather than causing developmental abnormalities. Remarkably, Rdl knockdown enhanced memory acquisition but not memory stability. Functional cellular imaging experiments showed that Rdl overexpression abolished the normal calcium responses of the MBs to odors while Rdl knockdown increased these responses. Together, these data suggest that RDL negatively modulates olfactory associative learning, possibly by gating the input of olfactory information into the MBs.
Initial acceleration effects on flow evolution around airfoils pitching to high angles of attack

lent Reacting Multi-Phase Flows," 4th International Symposium on Transport Phenomena in Heat and Mass Transfer (Sydney, Australia), Vol. 1, 1991, pp. 391-401. Chan, S. H., and Tan, C. C., "Complex Equilibrium Calculation by Simplex and Duality Theories with Applications to Liquid Metal Fuel Propulsion Systems," Combustion and Flame, Vol. 88, Feb. 1992, pp. 123-136. Parnell, L. A., Gilchrist, J. T., and Rogerson, D. J., ''Flash and Real-Time Radiographic Study of Closed Liquid Metal Combustion," 2nd Office of Naval Research Propulsion Meeting (Irvine, CA), Oct. 1989, pp. 188-205.
Achieving balance in decentralization: A case study of education decentralization in Chile

Abstract Decentralization has been a popular strategy for improving public service delivery, yet it has often failed to live up to its promise. Successful implementation requires the central government to develop new roles which are supportive of decentralization because local institutions generally lack the technical ability and the funds necessary to perform their new functions. Education decentralization in Chile resulted in an appropriate balance of responsibilities between the central government and local institutions. Decentralization had a mixed impact, however, on education quality. Improved monitoring and consistent financial support from the central government is needed to improve equity and raise the quality of education.
Analysis of the proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectrum of formamide by the double resonance technique

Abstract The proton magnetic resonance spectrum of formamide, DCONH2, HCOND2 and HCONHD are analyzed, spin-spin couplings are determined. The method of analysis utilizes selective decoupling of the N14 nucleus while observing the proton resonance. The complete relaxing of the N14 nucleus eliminates the smearing effect of the electric quadrupole relaxation over the proton resonance spectrum.
The Dorset Dairy, the Pastoral, and Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles

Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891) illustrates late-Victorian agricultural history in vivid detail, from the Durbeyfields’ forced migration to Tess’s itinerant work tending fowl, gleaning root crops, and dairying. Hardy summons a pastoral mode during Tess’s employment as a dairymaid in the lush Froom Valley, but its imagery is curiously grotesque. This essay argues that the aesthetic strangeness of Hardy’s pastoral exaggerates idyllic fecundity in order to critique the effects of industrial agriculture on the rural experience of modernity. In the last quarter of the nineteenth century, decades of rural depression led to the dramatic restructuring of British agriculture. When they embraced an industrial logic of surplus production to supply growing urban demand, traditionally small-scale or mixed-use farms were more likely to survive the otherwise widespread deterioration of domestic food production. Especially in Hardy’s Dorset, dairying was one of the rare food industries that thrived in spite of economic hardship by shipping fresh milk along the railways to London. But the strangeness of nature at Talbothays Dairy, through Hardy’s figuration of this industry, suggests his preoccupation with consequences of prioritizing economic surplus over ecological renewal. His use of pastoralism contends that, as farms integrate the logic of the factory, a retreat into idyllic fantasy is increasingly untenable. Neither the natural world nor the figuration that draws from it can remain untroubled by the pressure to exceed its carrying capacity.
Hierarchical scene analysis for object recognition

We consider the problem of identifying each of multiple objects in a scene with object distortions and background clutter present. A unified correlator architecture is used with inference filters that hierarchically process the input image scene to perform detection, enhancement, recognition, and finally identification. The different levels of the processor use various processing techniques: hit-miss rank-order and erosion/dilation morphological filtering, distortion-invariant filtering, feature extraction, and neural net classification.
Hydrogen-induced slow crack growth in Ti-6Al-6V-2Sn

The effect of hydrogen and temperature on threshold stress intensity and crack growth kinetics was studied in Ti-6Al-6V-2Sn containing 38 ppm hydrogen. A slight decrease in threshold values occurred as temperature decreased from 300 K while they increased significantly above 300 K. For a given test temperature, crack growth rates exhibited an exponential dependence on stress intensity over a major portion of growth. At 300 K the rates reached a maximum. Slow crack growth occurred predominately by cleavage ofα grains which has been associated with hydride formation. The stress intensity required for hydride formation at a crack tip can be determined from hydrogen concentration and solubility considerations under stress. As these values differed from observed thresholds, a strong influence of microstructure was suggested and subsequently revealed by crack front examination. Quantification of this effect with a modified Dugdale-Barenblatt model relates the effective stress intensity at the crack tip to the applied stress intensity. Microstructure was also found to exert a strong influence on slow crack growth behavior when examined in terms of the effective stress intensity,K eff. From Arrhenius plots of crack growth rates for variousK eff, activation energies of 27.0 to 32.8 kJ/mol were obtained and related to the diffusion of hydrogen through theβ phase. The increase in crack growth rates with increasing temperatures up to 300 K is attributed to the temperature dependence of hydrogen diffusion. The decrease in crack growth rates above 300 K is related to a hydride nucleation problem.
A comprehensive approach to evaluating watershed models for predicting river flow regimes critical to downstream ecosystem services

Selection of strategies that help reduce riverine inputs requires numerical models that accurately quantify hydrologic processes. While numerous models exist, information on how to evaluate and select the most robust models is limited. Toward this end, we developed a comprehensive approach that helps evaluate watershed models in their ability to simulate flow regimes critical to downstream ecosystem services. We demonstrated the method using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), the Hydrological Simulation Program-FORTRAN (HSPF) model, and Distributed Large Basin Runoff Model (DLBRM) applied to the Maumee River Basin (USA). The approach helped in identifying that each model simulated flows within acceptable ranges. However, each was limited in its ability to simulate flows triggered by extreme weather events, owing to algorithms not being optimized for such events and mismatched physiographic watershed conditions. Ultimately, we found HSPF to best predict river flow, whereas SWAT offered the most flexibility for evaluating agricultural management practices. A new approach was developed and used to evaluate the SWAT, HSPF model, and DLBRM.The methodology allowed improved identification of model strengths and weaknesses.Daily and monthly flow prediction was found to be "very good" to "excellent".All models performed less well at simulating extreme low-flow events.Ease of use and flexibility make the SWAT most suitable for scenario-testing.
An analysis of MCNP cross-sections and tally methods for low-energy photon emitters

Monte Carlo calculations are frequently used to analyse a variety of radiological science applications using low-energy (10–1000 keV) photon sources. This study seeks to create a low-energy benchmark for the MCNP Monte Carlo code by simulating the absolute dose rate in water and the air-kerma rate for monoenergetic point sources with energies between 10 keV and 1 MeV. The analysis compares four cross-section datasets as well as the tally method for collision kerma versus absorbed dose. The total photon attenuation coefficient cross-section for low atomic number elements has changed significantly as cross-section data have changed between 1967 and 1989. Differences of up to 10% are observed in the photoelectric cross-section for water at 30 keV between the standard MCNP cross-section dataset (DLC-200) and the most recent XCOM/NIST tabulation. At 30 keV, the absolute dose rate in water at 1.0 cm from the source increases by 7.8% after replacing the DLC-200 photoelectric cross-sections for water with those from the XCOM/NIST tabulation. The differences in the absolute dose rate are analysed when calculated with either the MCNP absorbed dose tally or the collision kerma tally. Significant differences between the collision kerma tally and the absorbed dose tally can occur when using the DLC-200 attenuation coefficients in conjunction with a modern tabulation of mass energy-absorption coefficients.
Data Tethers: Preventing information leakage by enforcing environmental data access policies

Protecting data from accidental loss or theft is crucial in today's world of mobile computing. Data Tethers provides flexible environmental policies, which can be attached to data, specifying security requirements that must be met before accessing that data. Data Tethers uses fine-grain data flow tracking to maintain these policies on derivative data. This is implemented by dynamic recompilation of legacy applications without the need to recompile from source. We demonstrate the system's feasibility with microbenchmarks that show individual component performance and benchmarks of real user applications like word processors and spreadsheets.
NEXUS: A Simulation Environment for Large-Scale Neural Systems

NEXUS is a novel simulation environment designed for modeling large neural systems. The simulator allows the user to incorporate complex functional properties and symbolic processing at the level of the individual unit. In addition, NEXUS takes advantage of the principle of topographic map organization, found throughout the mammalian nervous system, to facilitate the modeling and design process. An easy-to-use graphical interface allows the user to interactively build and test models. This paper describes the principles underlying the NEXUS design and its advantages over other current simulation approaches.
Statistical intelligence: effective analysis of high-density microarray data.

Microarrays enable researchers to interrogate thousands of genes simultaneously. A crucial step in data analysis is the selection of subsets of interesting genes from the initial set of genes. In many cases, especially when comparing genes expressed in a specific condition to a reference condition, the genes of interest are those which are differentially regulated. This review focusses on the methods currently available for the selection of such genes. Fold change, unusual ratio, univariate testing with correction for multiple experiments, ANOVA and noise sampling methods are reviewed and compared.
The Evolutionary History of the Australopiths

The australopiths are a group of early hominins (humans and their close extinct relatives) that lived in Africa between approximately 4.1 and 1.4 million years ago. Formerly known as the australopithecines, they are not a “natural” group, in that they do not represent all of the descendants of a single common ancestor (i.e., they are not a “clade”). Rather, they are grouped together informally because nearly all share a similar adaptive grade (i.e., they have similar adaptations). In particular, they are bipedal apes that, to a greater or lesser extent, exhibit enlarged molar and premolar teeth (postcanine megadontia) and other associated modifications to their feeding apparatuses. Dietary adaptations clearly played an important role in shaping their evolutionary history. They also are distinguished by their lack of derived features typically associated with the genus Homo, such as a large brain, a broad complement of adaptations for manual dexterity, and advanced tool use. However, Homo is almost certainly descended from an australopith ancestor, so at least one or some australopiths belong directly to the human lineage. Regardless, australopiths had a rich evolutionary history deserving of study independent of questions about our direct ancestry. They were diverse, geographically widespread, and anatomically derived, they lived through periods of pronounced climate change, and their story dominates the narrative of human evolution for millions of years.
Transmission of laser radiation through microcapillary plasmas

Propagation of laser radiation through a plasma, created in microcapillaries, has been investigated under various experimental conditions, which are closely related to x-ray laser development. It has been shown that the absorption of laser radiation in a microcapillary plasma depends on the microcapillary diameter as well as on the laser parameters and provides a good lead for the process of optimization of the soft-x-ray gain generation. Real-time nonintrusive plasma probing with a low-intensity He–Ne laser beam has also been performed.
Medically Complex Pregnancies and Early Breastfeeding Behaviors: A Retrospective Analysis

Background Breastfeeding is beneficial for women and infants, and medical contraindications are rare. Prenatal and labor-related complications may hinder breastfeeding, but supportive hospital practices may encourage women who intend to breastfeed. We measured the relationship between having a complex pregnancy (entering pregnancy with hypertension, diabetes, or obesity) and early infant feeding, accounting for breastfeeding intentions and supportive hospital practices. Methods We performed a retrospective analysis of data from a nationally-representative survey of women who gave birth in 2011–2012 in a US hospital (N = 2400). We used logistic regression to examine the relationship between pregnancy complexity and breastfeeding. Self-reported prepregnancy diabetes or hypertension, gestational diabetes, or obesity indicated a complex pregnancy. The outcome was feeding status 1 week postpartum; any breastfeeding was evaluated among women intending to breastfeed (N = 1990), and exclusive breastfeeding among women who intended to exclusively breastfeed (N = 1418). We also tested whether breastfeeding intentions or supportive hospital practices mediated the relationship between pregnancy complexity and infant feeding status. Results More than 33% of women had a complex pregnancy; these women had 30% lower odds of intending to breastfeed (AOR = 0.71; 95% CI, 0.52–0.98). Rates of intention to exclusively breastfeed were similar for women with and without complex pregnancies. Women who intended to breastfeed had similar rates of any breastfeeding 1 week postpartum regardless of pregnancy complexity, but complexity was associated with >30% lower odds of exclusive breastfeeding 1 week among women who intended to exclusively breastfeed (AOR = 0.68; 95% CI, 0.47–0.98). Supportive hospital practices were strongly associated with higher odds of any or exclusive breastfeeding 1 week postpartum (AOR = 4.03; 95% CI, 1.81–8.94; and AOR = 2.68; 95% CI, 1.70–4.23, respectively). Conclusions Improving clinical and hospital support for women with complex pregnancies may increase breastfeeding rates and the benefits of breastfeeding for women and infants.
Dehydration of red bell-pepper (Capsicum annuum L.): Change in drying behavior, colour and antioxidant content

Abstract The sun, oven (50 and 70 °C) and microwave oven (210 and 700 W) drying behaviors of red bell-pepper slices were investigated. Effects of these drying methods in terms of colour indices and antioxidant activity of pepper slices were also studied. “Midilli and Kucuk” model exhibited high coefficient of determination (R2) values for all the drying methods used in the assay, ranging between 0.994–0.999, while “Page” and “Modified Page” models fit better for oven drying at 70 °C. The calculated effective diffusivity (Deff) values (m2/s) of pepper slices for the drying processes ranged between 0.31 and 87.39 × 10−9. Sun dried and followed by microwave oven (700 W) dried samples revealed the highest L*, a* and b* colour values than the other dried samples. Microwave oven dried (210 W) and oven dried (50 °C) samples exhibited the lowest TEAC and DPPH radical scavenging activities among the dried samples.
Critical control volume sizing for improved transient thermal modeling of PEM fuel cells

Abstract Many control-oriented models represent the entire fuel cell stack's thermal response with a single lumped temperature. While this simplification greatly reduces the computational expense of these models, it does not afford any information regarding cell-to-cell differences. In many cases, the operating conditions in the outermost (inlet and outlet) cells are significantly different from the rest of the stack. As a result, these cells also often limit the stack performance. Previous experiments performed by the authors have shown this phenomenon, particularly in the inlet cells. Poor performance in these cells led to a gradual decline in the stack average voltage at high loads, and caused the inaccuracy of the lumped fuel cell model prediction. These results suggest a need for individual modeling of the end cells to properly model performance in these areas, particularly during high demand phases. In this paper, the necessity of multiple thermal control volumes (CVs) in the cathode channel is investigated to address the spatial gradients. A method to improve the thermal modeling accuracy near the cathode inlet of the fuel cell stack by using un-evenly spaced CVs to represent the channel is presented. Analysis is performed starting with the 1D heat transfer equation for the cathode channel. By using scaling arguments to remove extraneous terms, a simplified 1D solution for the temperature profile in the cathode channel is developed. From this result, the necessary CV sizes to remain within a critical band of the actual spatial temperature profile can be calculated.
Light Tunneling in Multi-Layered Plasmonic Crystals

In this work, we are demonstrating resonant light transmission through hybrid multi-layered plasmonic crystals, which are formed by a coupled nanohole and a nanoparticle array. This structures are shown to provide the conventional extraordinary optical transmission (EOT) peaks and also a newly found cavity-based mode is introduced with an emphasis to its high sensing capabilities. Plasmon hybridization in coaxial nanocavities is also addressed, where the nanohole array and the nanoparticle array are in the same layer.
Commentary on a multi-institutional analysis of external beam radiotherapy for T1–T2 prostate cancer: “love the one you're with” and “do the right thing”

Yogi Berra said, “You can observe a lot by just watching.” In these two papers, Drs. Kuban and Thames made observations about prostate cancer outcomes after EBRT alone. To do this, they rounded up data from “the usual suspects” and provide for the radiotherapy community an updated view of where we stand in using PSA to define outcomes after EBRT for T1-T2 disease. By virtue of the sheer number of patients involved, the duration of follow-up, and the statistical power applied, these studies will provide a new standard source of reference for many years to come. It is my challenging charge to write one editorial that covers both papers that does more than congratulates these investigators for “a job well done.” What have these two studies contributed to the growing body of information on prostate cancer? I attempt to provoke readers to become acutely conscious of what conclusions we should most comfortably accept, and which conclusions should be viewed most cautiously. I will also raise important issues that are left unanswered by these reports and then take the liberty of speculating on where we must go from here. In which conclusions reached by Kuban et al. can we have the highest degree of confidence?
Parenthood following renal transplantation

Sexual dysfunction is common in patients suffering from chronic renal failure. In one study of 519 patients, 48% of males and 26% of females encountered this problem [1]. Usually, females have loss of libido, anovulatory vaginal bleeding or amenorrhea, and males have loss of libido and impotence. During maintenance dialysis therapy, only 8% of medes and 6% of females experience improvement in sexual function. As a result, pregnancy occurs in only about 1 of 200 women of childbearing age having dialysis therapy [2]. Very few of these pregnancies result in live births at term [2–5]. Many patients experience improvement of sexual function following successful renal transplantation, however, and fertility increases. Thus, patients have the opportunity to become parents if they so desire [6, 7], and about 1 of every 50 women of childbearing age having a functioning renal transplant becomes pregnant [2]. Average survival figures of large numbers of patients from all over the world indicate that between 61 and 78% of recipients of kidneys from related living donors are alive 5 years after transplantation, and with cadaver kidneys the figure is 42 to 51% [8]. Functional survival of the kidney graft at 5 years is 45 to 66% in recipients of living donor kidneys, and 29 to 35% in recipients of cadaver organs [8]. Currently, between 4,000 and 4,500 patients per year are undergoing renal transplantation in this country. As the number of long-term survivors is growing, it is important that physicians should be acquainted with the problems surrounding parenthood in these patients [6, 7]. This article will describe our experience in dealing with such individuals and their offspring.
Influences on Municipal Annexation Methodology An Intrastate Analysis of Annexation Activity in North Carolina, 2000–2010

Investigations into municipal annexation have been largely conducted at the interstate unit of analysis and have focused on the impact of annexation legislation on overall annexation frequency. Interestingly, little effort has been placed on exploring the differences in intrastate levels of annexation activity by method of annexation available to municipalities. This analysis explores intrastate annexation activity through a multivariate regression examination of municipal annexation activity conducted in North Carolina between 2000 and 2010. Results surprisingly show that the key variables impacting voluntary contiguous, voluntary noncontiguous, and involuntary annexations are similar. Meanwhile, more research is needed to understand the unique factors that influence legislative annexation activity.
Neuromuscular responses of sloths

Because sloths are among the slowest moving of mammals, it is of interest to determine whether the rate limiting factor is in their motivation, central nervous system, or their muscles. Muscle characteristics of ten sloths (Choloepus hoffmanni and Bradypus tridactylus) were studied by neuromuscular examination, electrophysiological, biochemical, and histological methods. Muscle twitch contraction averages 120 msec and one-half relaxation time was 108 msec. Muscle contraction and relaxation are extremely sensitive to cold but were unaltered by calcium, quinine or procaine amide. Biochemical studies showed ATPase activity to be extremely low. Ultrastructure conformed closely to that of mammalian twitch fibers. Our data suggest that although muscle mechanics undoubtedly contribute to the slow movements of the sloth, they are not the only rate limiting factor.
Perspective versus Plan View Air Traffic Control Displays: Survey and Empirical Results

A survey was distributed and an experiment was performed to analyze two air traffic control (ATC) color-coded display formats: (1) the currently used plan view display format, and (2) a perspective display format. The results of both the survey and experiment were used to extract specific user requirements from which specifications could be applied to design a three-dimensional, dynamic, color-coded, perspective display for use in an ATC environment. The emphasis of the survey and current experiment focused on the air traffic controller's point of view in terms of cognitive workloads, task and information requirements, color preferences, and air traffic workloads relative to traffic density and complexity. Fifteen full-performance air traffic controllers performed three timed tasks: (1) resolve impending air traffic conflicts, (2) identify the callsigns of aircraft in the highest and lowest actual altitudes, and (3) reconstruct air traffic situations. Two levels of traffic density were crossed with two di...
Peasants' Response to Modernization Projects in Minifundia Economies

Different factors are mentioned in explaining peasants' adoption of modern technologies. A model of the peasant household is developed integrating most of these factors, condensed into a stochastic linear programming framework, and applied to the Puebla area in Mexico. Observed low adoption rates and peasants' participation in modernization projects are explained by opportunity costs of time and uncertainty. The view that labor-using technologies per se will rapidly increase agricultural production is challenged. The generation of less risky technologies and more emphasis on organizational-communication aspects are also necessary. Further rural development will require intermediate technologies and organizations.
"ELECTRICAL TRANSMISSION" AT AN EXCITATORY SYNAPSE IN A VERTEBRATE BRAIN.

A type of excitatory synaptic transmission which is novel for the vertebrate brain has been found in the ner neuron (M-cell) by means of the passive spread of their action currents across the synaptic membrane. After stimulating the ipsilateral eighth cranial nerve, an excitatory postsynaptic potential (EPSP) appears in the M-cell with a latency which is very brief ( about 0.1 msec) and which proba; bly represents a negligible synaptic delay. This response is attributed to the club endings: there were steep gradients of potential along the lateral dendrite of the M-cell during activity and the early EPSP was maximal in the distal part of the dendrite where the club endings predominate. Potential changes in the M-cell spread (passively) backwards into certain eighth-nerve fibers (probably club endings) indicating the presence of special low-resistance connections between them and the M-cell.
Self-efficacy among urban African American early adolescents: Exploring issues of risk, vulnerability, and resilience

Data from the first year of a longitudinal study of 562 African American adolescents were analyzed to examine coping methods and competence outcomes as measured by academic performance (national percentile ranking [NPR] on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills) and academic self-esteem. With resilience conceptualized as adaptive coping, regression analyses were performed to test a model of risk and resilience that takes into account family and neighborhood characteristics, youths' perceptions of their contexts, coping strategies, identity processes, and achievement outcomes. With all measures in the regression model, significant predictors of NPR for males were mother's education and academic self-esteem; predictors for females were mother's education, parental life dissatisfaction, youths' perception of family conflict, and academic self-esteem. Predictors of academic self-esteem for males were mother's education, negative life events, and youths' perception of family conflict; predictors for females were negative life events and youths' perception of family conflicts. The findings indicate that, as adaptive coping responses, both academic self-esteem and academic achievement are responsive to particular protective factors. The authors suggest that prevention and intervention efforts should be sensitive to specific coping methods and abilities that could promote resilient outcomes.
Power allocation strategy for MIMO system based on beam-nulling

In this paper, we propose a scheme called “beam-nulling” using the same feedback bandwidth as beamforming but with higher capacity. In the beam-nulling scheme, the eigenvector of the weakest subchannel is fed back and then signals are sent over a generated subspace orthogonal to the weakest subchannel. Hence, the scheme can achieve high capacity. The capacities of water-filling, equal power, beamforming and beam-nulling are compared through theoretical analysis and numerical results. It is shown that at medium signal-to-noise ratio, beam-nulling approaches the optimal waterfilling scheme. Additionally, the existing beamforming and new proposed beam-nulling can be extended if more than one eigenvector is available at the transmitter. The new extended schemes are called multi-dimensional (MD) beamforming and MD beam-nulling. Theoretical analysis and numerical results in terms of capacity are also provided to evaluate the new extended schemes.
Sex-lethal enables germline stem cell differentiation by down-regulating Nanos protein levels during Drosophila oogenesis

Drosophila ovarian germ cells require Sex-lethal (Sxl) to exit from the stem cell state and to enter the differentiation pathway. Sxl encodes a female-specific RNA binding protein and in somatic cells serves as the developmental switch gene for somatic sex determination and X-chromosome dosage compensation. None of the known Sxl target genes are required for germline differentiation, leaving open the question of how Sxl promotes the transition from stem cell to committed daughter cell. We address the mechanism by which Sxl regulates this transition through the identification of nanos as one of its target genes. Previous studies have shown that Nanos protein is necessary for GSC self-renewal and is rapidly down-regulated in the daughter cells fated to differentiate in the adult ovary. We find that this dynamic expression pattern is limited to female germ cells and is under Sxl control. In the absence of Sxl, or in male germ cells, Nanos protein is continuously expressed. Furthermore, this female-specific expression pattern is dependent on the presence of canonical Sxl binding sites located in the nanos 3′ untranslated region. These results, combined with the observation that nanos RNA associates with the Sxl protein in ovarian extracts and loss and gain of function studies, suggest that Sxl enables the switch from germline stem cell to committed daughter cell by posttranscriptional down-regulation of nanos expression. These findings connect sexual identity to the stem cell self-renewal/differentiation decision and highlight the importance of posttranscriptional gene regulatory networks in controlling stem cell behavior.
35 years of International Reference Ionosphere – Karl Rawer’s legacy

Abstract. This presentation is given in honor of Prof. Karl Rawer’s 90th birthday. It looks back at 35 years of research and development in the framework of the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) project. K. Rawer initiated this international modeling effort and was the first Chairman of the IRI Working Group. IRI is a joint project of the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) and the International Union of Radio Science (URSI) whose goal it is to establish an international standard model for the ionospheric densities, temperatures and drifts. This year we are celebrating Karl Rawer’s 90th birthday and also the 35-year anniversary of the IRI effort. My talk will review the close involvement of Karl Rawer in all stages of the development and improvement of this international standard from early on and his still very active participation in this effort.
Elastoplastic constitutive analysis with the yield surface in strain space

A COMMON APPROACH used in formulating elastoplastic constitutive equations is to partition the total strain rate into its elastic and plastic parts, and then develop the constitutive expression for the plastic strain rate using the concept of the yield surFace in stress space. An alternative approach is to partition the stress rate into its elastic and plastic parts, and then develop the constitutive expression for the plastic stress rate using the concept of the yield surface in strain space. Both of these approaches are used in this paper to derive and compare the final structures of the corresponding constitutive equations. It is shown that the preferable choice of the yield surface may be in either stress or strain space depending on the selected strain and conjugate stress measures utilized to construct the constitutive formulation. THE PROCEDURE that is normally used in developing the elastoplastic constitutive equations involves decomposing the total strain rate into its elastic and plastic parts, and then deriving the constitutive expressions for each part. The elastic part of the strain rate is defined as the reversible part of the total strain rate, in the sense that it gives a strain increment that is recovered after the loading-unloading cycle of the appropriate stress increment. The remaining part of the total strain rate is the plastic (residual) contribution which under certain assumptions is codirectional with the outward normal to the current locally smooth yield surface in the appropriate stress space. An alternative but rarely utilized approach is to partition the stress rate into its elastic and plastic parts, and then derive the constitutive expressions for each of these parts. The elastic part of the stress rate is defined as the stress rate that would correspond to a prescribed strain rate if the instantaneous material response was purely elastic. The plastic part of the stress rate then gives a residual stress decrement in an infinitesimal loading-unloading strain cycle. As discussed in Section 3, this part of the stress rate under certain assumptions is codirectional with the inward normal to the current locally smooth yield surface in the strain space. Although the general constitutive framework which employs both of the described approaches has been outlined by HILL (1959, 1967, 1978), IL'YUSHIN (196 1) and HILL and RICE (1972, 1973), the second approach has received little attention. It is the
A simple common contexts explanation for the development of abstract letter identities

Abstract letter identities (ALIs) are an early representation in visual word recognition that are specific to written language. They do not reflect visual or phonological features, but rather encode the identities of letters independent of case, font, sound, and so forth. How could the visual system come to develop such a representation? We propose that because many letters look similar regardless of case, font, and other characteristics, these provide common contexts for visually dissimilar uppercase and lowercase forms of other letters (e.g., e between k and y in key and E in the visually similar context K-Y). Assuming that the distribution of words' relative frequencies is comparable in upper- and lowercase (that just as key is more frequent than pew, KEY is more frequent than PEW), these common contexts will also be similarly distributed in the two cases. We show how this statistical regularity could lead Hebbian learning to produce ALIs in a competitive architecture. We present a self-organizing artificial neural network that illustrates this idea and produces ALIs when presented with the most frequent words from a beginning reading corpus, as well as with artificial input.
On the Cross-Linguistic Interpretation of Embedded Tenses

We propose a semantic analysis of cross-linguistic variation in the distribution and interpretation of tenses embedded in propositional attitude complements and temporal adjunct clauses in English, Japanese and Russian. We compare our analysis to previous ones proposed by Ogihara (1994, 1996) and Arregui and Kusumoto (1998), which attribute the variation to syntactic differences between the languages, and argue that the semantic analysis is preferable on both empirical and conceptual grounds.
Facing Down Medusa (An aetiology of the gaze)

Archaic and classical Greek images of the face of Medusa (gorgoneia) are typically understood as apotropaia, quasi–magical terror masks that instantiated the power of the monster’s petrifying gaze. This interpretation articulates the fiction of the image (its pictorialization of the threat posed by Medusa), but fails to account for its material condition as an object of visual consumption. The latter, constituted through practices of image–making and image–viewing, reverses Medusa’s mythological power by turning the objectifying gaze back upon the monster. A close reading of the Perseus legend indicates that this reversal articulated an aetiological discourse in which the hero retrieved the power of the gaze from Medusa by transforming it into the power of representation. By staging the key aetiological moment of the hero’s triumph, the gorgoneion interpellated its makers and viewers as ‘Perseus’ and worked thereby to reproduce the dominant masculine subject position he represented.
Sintering of Nanophase γ‐Al2O3 Powder

The sintering of ultrafine γ-Al2O3 powder (particle size ∼10–20 nm) prepared by an inert gas condensation technique was investigated in air at a constant heating rate of 10°C/min. Qualitatively, the kinetics followed those of transition aluminas prepared by other methods. Measurable shrinkage commenced at ∼ 1000°C and showed a region of rapid sintering between ∼1125° and 1175°C followed by a transition to a much reduced sintering rate at higher temperatures. Starting from an initial density of ∼0.60 relative to the theoretical value, the powder compact reached a relative density of 0.82 after sintering to 1350°C. Compared to compacts prepared from the as-received powder, dispersion of the powder in water prior to compaction produced a drastic change in the microstructural evolution and a significant reduction in the densification rate during sintering. The incorporation of a step involving the rapid heating of the loose powder to ∼1300°C prior to compaction (which resulted in the transformation to α-Al2O3) provided a method for significantly increasing the density during sintering.
Anthropology as an Agonistic Discipline

Counterworks: Managing the Diversity of Knowledge. Richard Fardon. ed. New York: Routledge, 1995. 233 pp.
Pooled fecal culture sampling for Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis at different herd sizes and prevalence

A stochastic spreadsheet model was developed to obtain estimates of the costs of whole herd testing on dairy farms for Mycobacterium aviumsubsp. paratuberculosis (Map)with pooled fecal samples. The optimal pool size was investigated for 2 scenarios, prevalence (a low-prevalence herd ( #5%) and a high- prevalence herd (.5%)) and for different herd sizes (100-, 250-, 500- and 1,000-cow herds). All adult animals in the herd were sampled, and the samples of the individuals were divided into equal sized pools. When a pool tested positive, the manure samples of the animals in the pool were tested individually. The individual samples from a negative pool were assumed negative and not tested individually. Distributions were used to model the uncertainty about the sensitivity of the fecal culture at farm level and Map prevalence. The model randomly allocated a disease status to the cows (not shedding, low Map shedder, moderate Map shedder, and heavy Map shedder) on the basis of the expected prevalence in the herd. Pooling was not efficient in 100-cow and 250- cow herds with low prevalence because the probability to detect a map infection in these herds became poor (53% and 88%) when samples were pooled. When samples were pooled in larger herds, the probability to detect at least 1 (moderate to heavy) shedder was .90%. The cost reduction as a result of pooling varied from 43% in a 100-cow herd with a high prevalence to 71% in a 1,000-cow herd with a low prevalence. The optimal pool size increased with increasing herd size and varied from 3 for a 500-cow herd with a low prevalence to 5 for a 1,000-cow herd with a high prevalence. Paratuberculosis (''Johne's disease'') in cattle is a chronic enteritis caused by Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (Map). The disease is char- acterized by a decrease in milk production, the loss of body condition, and intermittent diarrhea. In clinical cases, the infection eventually can be fatal; however, the majority of infected animals remain subclinical. The usual route of infection is fecal-oral, with young animals becoming infected by contact with infected adults or an environment contaminated by infected fe- ces. The disease is widespread in cattle populations in almost all countries with a dairy industry. The 1996 National Animal Health and Monitoring Study (NAHMS) showed a 20-40% herd prevalence in the
Normal levels of zinc and sulfhydryls in morphologically abnormal populations of spermatozoa from moderately zinc‐deficient rats

Zinc is required for spermatogenesis in mammals and is concentrated in the dense outer fibers of the sperm tail, where it is associated with cysteine-rich protein. To investigate the effects of marginal zinc deficiency upon dense fiber formation and upon sperm quality in general, weanling Sprague-Dawley rats were administered a commercial low-zinc diet, supplemented with phytate, for approximately 60 days, and were compared with controls fed the same diet plus 50 ppm zinc in their drinking water. The following characteristics of the zinc-deficient rats were significantly lower than in the controls: body weight, testis weight, epididymis weight, seminal vesicle weight, sperm content of the cauda epididy-midis, sperm motility, testis zinc, and hair zinc. By contrast, the levels of sperm zinc and sperm sulfhydryls were the same in the zinc-deficient and control rats. The zinc-deficient rats displayed a highly variable spectrum of sperm defects, which included decapitation, disorganized and redundant tail elements, and superfluous cytoplasm. However, abortive dense fiber development was only rarely observed. Apparently, even when availability of zinc is limited and reduced sperm production ensues, elaboration of dense fibers rich in zinc and sulfhydryls continues to be obligatory for the completion of spermiogenesis.
Divergence of Fine and Gross Motor Skills in Prelingually Deaf Children: Implications for Cochlear Implantation

Objective: The objective of this study was to assess relations between fine and gross motor development and spoken language processing skills in pediatric cochlear implant users. Study Design: The authors conducted a retrospective analysis of longitudinal data. Methods: Prelingually deaf children who received a cochlear implant before age 5 and had no known developmental delay or cognitive impairment were included in the study. Fine and gross motor development were assessed before implantation using the Vineland Adaptive Behavioral Scales, a standardized parental report of adaptive behavior. Fine and gross motor scores reflected a given child's motor functioning with respect to a normative sample of typically developing, normal-hearing children. Relations between these preimplant scores and postimplant spoken language outcomes were assessed. Results: In general, gross motor scores were found to be positively related to chronologic age, whereas the opposite trend was observed for fine motor scores. Fine motor scores were more strongly correlated with postimplant expressive and receptive language scores than gross motor scores. Conclusions: Our findings suggest a disassociation between fine and gross motor development in prelingually deaf children: fine motor skills, in contrast to gross motor skills, tend to be delayed as the prelingually deaf children get older. These findings provide new knowledge about the links between motor and spoken language development and suggest that auditory deprivation may lead to atypical development of certain motor and language skills that share common cortical processing resources.
Psychotropic-induced sexual dysfunction

Psychotropic-induced sexual dysfunction is a common and bothersome side effect of psychotropic medications. The majority of information available on the subject primarily pertains to antidepressants, but antipsychotics can also cause significant sexual dysfunction. The mechanisms behind these adverse events are thought to be primarily due to antidepressants' effects on serotonin and to antipsychotics' anti-dopaminergic activity. Sexual dysfunction can have many causes, not just psychotropic medication, therefore this article aims to examine the etiology of sexual dysfunction, as well as discuss differential diagnoses. Treatment for psychotropic-induced sexual dysfunction will be discussed, with more data available for the treatment of antidepressant-induced sexual dysfunction. The paucity of data for antipsychotic-induced sexual dysfunction does make it more difficult to treat.
Zero-error function computation in sensor networks

We consider the problem of data harvesting in wireless sensor networks. A designated collector node seeks to compute a function of the sensor measurements. For a directed graph G = (V ,ℰ) on the sensor nodes, we wish to determine the optimal encoders on each edge which achieve zero-error block computation of the function at the collector node. Our goal is to characterize the rate region in R∣ℰ∣.
Partially ejected flux ropes: Implications for interplanetary coronal mass ejections

[1] Connecting interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) to their solar pre-eruption source requires a clear understanding of how that source may have evolved during eruption. Gibson and Fan (2006a) have presented a three-dimensional numerical magnetohydrodynamic simulation of a CME, which showed how, in the course of eruption, a coronal flux rope may writhe and reconnect both internally and with surrounding fields in a manner that leads to a partial ejection of only part of the rope as a CME. In this paper, we will explicitly describe how the evolution during eruption found in that simulation leads to alterations of the magnetic connectivity, helicity, orientation, and topology of the ejected portion of the rope so that it differs significantly from that of the pre-eruption rope. Moreover, because a significant part of the magnetic helicity remains behind in the lower portion of the rope that survives the eruption, the region is likely to experience further eruptions. These changes would complicate how ICMEs embedded in the solar wind relate to their solar source. In particular, the location and evolution of transient coronal holes, topology of magnetic clouds (“tethered spheromak”), and likelihood of interacting ICMEs would differ significantly from what would be predicted for a CME which did not undergo writhing and partial ejection during eruption.