cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Gender stereotyping of computing

The gender typing construct for computing is identified, defined, and operationalized through the development of a valid, reliable measure called the Gender Typing Scale (GTS). This scale is used to measure gender typing perceptions of computing activities. The research analyzes the validity and reliability of the instrument based on data obtained from 262 students and faculty who participated in this initial study. Exploratory factor analysis of the GTS resulted in two factors. Factor 1 (GTS1) is the technical and managerial aspects of computing, while factor 2 (GTS2) is the office use and affective domain of computing. Factor analysis and reliability provide support for the construct validity of the instrument when administered to undergraduate and graduate students and faculty. Suggestions are provided for further uses of the scale to increase generalizability, refine the instrument, and to help establish a theoretical basis for further gender typing research.
On the statistical sufficiency of the coherently averaged covariance matrix for the estimation of the parameters of wideband sources

In this paper we investigate the degee of sufficiency of the approximately coherently averaged covariance matrix [1] via a relative efficiency measure, termed the Relative Information Index (RII) [2], for the estimation of the parameters of multiple wideband sources. First, we prove that all the narrowband sample covariance matrices are minimal sufficient under the asymptotic normality condition of the raw data samples. The asymptotic distribution and its associated first- and second-order statistics of the approximately coherently averaged covariance matrix [1] are derived. The Fisher's Information matrices of the statistic and the raw data are then evaluated for the computation of the RII's.
Improvement of the Sugar Beet in the United States

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on various development of sugar beet industry in the United States. The beet sugar industry in the United States may be said to date from 1870 with the factory in Alvarado, California—a factory that was remodeled in 1879 and essentially rebuilt in 1936, but is still in operation on the original site. From this period to the present time, numerous factories have been started. Many of them operated for only a brief period before they were abandoned or moved to another location. A few of these were frank promotional ventures, but mostly, they were serious attempts to establish the sugar beet as a part of agriculture. Now sugar beets are grown in 21 or 22 states on upwards of 850,000 acres annually; the production of refined sugar being approximately 1.7 million tons. In Canada, there are 7 factories, located in Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec. About 100,000 acres of sugar beets is grown annually. A number of leaf-spot-resistant varieties have been produced by breeding research of beet sugar companies to supply the requirements of their respective districts. The chapter mentions the history of the development of sugar beet in Europe.
Discrete Random Signals and Systems

This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction Deterministic Signals and Systems Spectral Representation of Discrete Signals Discrete Random Signals Spectral Representation of Random Signals Discrete Systems with Random Inputs ARMAX ( AR , ARX , MA , ARMA ) Models Lattice Models Exponential (Harmonic) Models Spatiotemporal Wave Models State-Space Models State-Space, ARMAX ( AR , MA , ARMA , Lattice) Equivalence Models State-Space and Wave Model Equivalence Summary MATLAB Notes References Problems
Correlates of emotional distress in out-of-home youth.

Problem Adolescents in out-of-home placement have a high prevalence of mental health distress, and their vulnerability to poor mental health outcomes continues during placement. Risk and protective factors may influence mental health outcomes; however, little is known about their relationship to mental health distress in this population. Methods Using data from a population-based survey conducted in schools, mental health distress, along with other risk and protective factors, was evaluated in young people who reported living in out-of-home placements (n = 5,516) and a comparison group (n = 5,500). Multivariate analysis was used to determine the strength of association between risk and protective factors and mental health distress in the youth reporting out-of-home placement. Findings Comparisons of risk and protective factors indicated that out-of-home youth had greater risks (suicidal risk, mental health distress) and fewer protective factors (feeling parents care about them, other adults care, and school connectedness) than those in the comparison group. Multivariate analyses showed significant associations (38% explained variance) between mental health distress and the risk and protective factors, with the exception of other adult connectedness. Conclusions Findings from this population-based school survey of young people reiterate that youth in out-of-home placements have higher levels of mental health distress and lower levels of protective factors compared to other youth. These results offer insights for those working with out-of-home or precariously housed young people.
Characteristics of Histic Materials in Wisconsin as Arrayed in Four Classes

(...) Sapric A materials are defined here as those containing from 8 to 20 % fiber ; sapric B materials contain 0 to 7 %. Fiber, moisture, and organic C content decrease from fibric to sapric B material. Sodium pyrophosphate extract color (SPEC) values and C/N ratios follow the same trend. Percentage N and ash content increase in value, as does pH and bulk density.(...)
Quantitative evaluation of metal ion binding to PvuII restriction endonuclease.

F NMR spectroscopy have been applied to evaluate metal ion binding by the representative PvuII endonuclease in the absence of substrate. In separate experiments, ITC data demonstrate that PvuII endonuclease binds 2.16 Mn(II) ions and 2.05 Ca(II) metal ions in each monomer active site with K d values of ≈ 1 mM. While neither calorimetry nor protein NMR spectroscopy is directly sensitive to Mg(II) binding to the enzyme, Mn(II) competes with Mg(II) for common sites(s) on PvuII endonuclease. Substitution of the conserved active site carboxylate Glu68 with Ala resulted in a loss of affinity for both equivalents of both Ca(II) and Mn(II). Interestingly, the active site mutant D58A retained an affinity for Mn(II) with K d ≈ 2 mM. Mn(II) paramagnetic broadening in 19F spectra of wild-type and mutant 3-fluorotyrosine PvuII endonucleases are consistent with ITC results. Chemical shift analysis of 3-fluorotyrosine mutant enzymes is consistent with a perturbed conformation for D58A. Therefore, free PvuII endonuclease binds metal ions, and metal ion binding can precede DNA binding. Further, while Glu68 is critical to metal ion binding, Asp58 does not appear to be critical to the binding of at least one metal ion and appears to also have a role in structure. These findings provide impetus for exploring the roles of multiple metal ions in the structure and function of this representative endonuclease.
Slow viscous rotation of an axisymmetric body within a circular cylinder of finite length

The effect of boundary proximity on the resistance to rotation of an axially symmetric body of otherwise arbitrary shape is theoretically calculated, at small angular Reynolds numbers, for the case in which it rotates symmetrically about the axis of a circular cylinder filled to a finite depth with viscous liquid. The body may occupy any position along the cylinder axis. Owing to the presence of the cylinder walls, the cylinder bottom and the free surface, the rotational resistance of the body is different than would obtain in an unbounded fluid medium. Results are expressed in terms of the ratio of torques experienced by the body in the bounded and unbounded fluids, respectively, when rotating at the same angular velocity. Numerical values are provided which enable this ratio to be computed from the fundamental parameters of the system.
Mechanisms and factors influencing the ultrasonic cleaning of particle-fouled ceramic membranes

Abstract This paper investigates factors affecting ultrasonic cleaning of particle-fouled ceramic membranes and possible mechanisms responsible for cleaning. Homogeneous ceramic membranes were fouled by sulfate polystyrene latex particles in a dead-end filtration cell and subsequently subjected to ultrasound at different frequencies, power intensities and durations of treatment. Flux measurements indicate that increased power intensity and lower frequency increase particle removal from a fouled membrane. These data along with SEM images suggest that cavitational mechanisms (i.e., microstreaming and microstreamers) are important in detaching particles from the membrane surface while turbulence associated with ultrasound (i.e., acoustic streaming) plays a role in the transport of particles away from the surface following detachment. Micro-jets did not appear to cause significant removal compared to microstreamers, although evidence of micro-jet pitting was visible in SEM images of the fouled surface. In addition, SEM images did not show any visible damage to the membrane surface, even for prolonged periods of ultrasound at high power intensity and low frequency (20 W cm −2 , 20 kHz).
Nu Shifts in Betatron Oscillations from Uniform Perturbations in the Presence of Non-Linear Magnetic Guide Fields

Uniform magnetic field perturbations cause a closed orbit distortion in a circular accelerator. If the magnetic guide field is non-linear these perturbations can also cause a Nu shift in the betatron oscillations. Such a shift in radial Nu values has been observed in the Bevalac while studying the low energy resonant extraction system. In the Bevalac, the radial perturbation comes from the quadrants being magnetically about 0.8% longer than 900. The normal effect of this type of perturbation is a radial closed orbit shift and orbit distortion. The nu shift, associated with this type of perturbation in the presence of a non-linear guide field, is discussed in this paper. A method of handling the non-linear n values is discussed as well as the mechanism for the associated Nu shift. Computer calculations are compared to measurements.
The role of convection in surface property and velocity fluctuations

Time series of temperature, humidity and horizontal wind speed are presented from data collected at two tower sites during the 1968 Barbados Experiment. Marked and periodic fluctuations on the convective scale are evident in the traces. It is postulated that these fluctuations are due to moderate cumulus convection. Estimates show that departures in temperature and humidity at the surface must be due to downward mixing from near or above the convective cloud base. Such cloud layer-subcloud layer mixing must change the thermodynamic character of the subcloud layer. This in turn suggests that cloud convection may play an important part in governing the transport of energy across the air-sea interface.
Pulsations of the R Coronae Borealis stars

The radial pulsations of very luminous, low-mass models (L/M ∼ 104, solar units), which are possible representatives of the R CrB stars, have been examined. These pulsations are extremely nonadiabatic. We find that there are in some cases at least one extra (“strange”) mode which makes interpretation difficult. The blue instability edges are also peculiar, in that there is an abrupt excursion of the blue edge to the blue for L/M sufficiently large. The range of periods of the model encompasses observed periods of the Cepheid-like pulsations of actual R CrB stars.
Don’t take students’ word for what they do while reading

The metacognitive reading strategies college students said they utilized were investigated. No significant differences were observed between groups of students identified as high and low comprehenders on the strategies they believed they applied during reading. However, the examination of student performance during reading indicated that the students did not consistently apply the metacognitive strategies they professed to use or that they were not proficient in applying them.
Intracranial meningiomas: factors that influence the development of cerebral edema after stereotactic radiosurgery and radiation therapy.

PURPOSE: To evaluate causative factors of cerebral edema after stereotactic radiosurgery or stereotactic radiation therapy in intracranial meningiomas. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Of 43 adult patients with intracranial meningiomas, three received 13.5-18-Gy single-fraction stereotactic radiosurgery; one received 19.8 Gy in three fractions, one received 42 Gy in six fractions, and 31 received 32-36 Gy in six to eight fractions of stereotactic radiation therapy; and seven received 45-54-Gy external-beam radiation with 20-28 Gy in five to seven fractions as concomitant stereotactic boosts. Brain edema was estimated by calculating the edema index. RESULTS: After irradiation, all 11 patients with parasagittal and four patients with nonparasagittal tumors developed worsening cerebral edema that necessitated the administration of steroids (P < .001). The statistically significant factors for the development of edema were parasagittal location, presence of pretreatment edema, sagittal sinus occlusion, and the use of m...
Ab initio study of hydrogen interaction with pure and nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes

Detailed studies of mechanisms for hydrogen dissociative adsorption and diffusion on pure and nitrogen-doped (8, 0) carbon nanotubes are carried out using the first-principles density functional theory method. (1) For pure carbon nanotubes, we have identified the energetically most favorable dissociative pathway for hydrogen adsorption, with a barrier height of $1.3\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{eV}$. We also found that the adsorbed hydrogen atoms can act as an autocatalyst for further dissociative adsorption of hydrogen molecules. (2) It is found that on pure carbon nanotubes the diffusion of hydrogen atoms is constrained by interaction with neighboring adsorbed hydrogen atoms. The diffusion barrier is around $0.7\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{eV}$ for an isolated hydrogen atom, but becomes substantially higher at around $1.4\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{eV}$ in the presence of adsorbed hydrogen in neighboring positions. (3) Doping the nanotube with nitrogen considerably alters the catalytic effects of the carbon nanotube for hydrogen dissociative adsorption. The dissociative adsorption of hydrogen on the carbon nanotube is greatly enhanced, with the barrier substantially reduced to ca. $0.9\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{eV}$. The differences in the barrier heights are explained through analysis of the electronic structure changes of the nanotube.
Bayesian Agnosticism and Constructive Empiricism

1. How should the traditional doxastic attitude of agnosticism be represented in a Bayesian framework? In Laws and Symmetry, Bas van Fraassen proposes that agnosticism be represented as having a certain type of vague opinion. A Bayesian with no vague opinions assigns sharp subjective probabilities to all propositions in a domain of discourse. A Bayesian with vague opinions represents his opinions not by a single probability function, but by a set of probability functions. The probability given to a proposition H is an interval [x, y] iff [x, y] is the smallest closed interval containing the probabilities assigned to H by members of that set. Van Fraassen (1989: 194) gives a general analysis of Bayesian agnosticism when he implicitly suggests that a Bayesian is agnostic about a proposition iff her opinion about the proposition is represented by an interval with zero as the lower limit.1
Acute tryptophan depletion in bulimia: Effects on large neutral amino acids

Acute tryptophan depletion, which may reduce brain serotonin synthesis in humans, was evaluated in bulimic and normal subjects assessing its effects on the plasma ratio of tryptophan to the sum of the other large, neutral amino acids (TRP/sigma LNAA). Thirteen bulimic and 9 control women ingested an amino acid mixture containing either 2.3 g (control mixture) or 0 g of tryptophan (active mixture), in combination with 100 g of the other amino acids. Six healthy male volunteers were also studied, using a similar mixture containing 4.6 g of tryptophan. Bulimic and control women both experienced sizable reductions in the plasma TRP/sigma LNAA ratio, compared to baseline values, for both the active mixture (10% of baseline) or the control mixture (45% of baseline). For bulimic women, the active mixture produced a significant increase in fatigue and a trend toward increased anxiety and indecisiveness. The control mixture did not maintain baseline TRP/sigma LNAA ratios so we identified a control amino acid mixture that does not cause a drop in the plasma TRP/sigma LNAA ratio when ingested (4.6 g tryptophan in combination with 100 g of other amino acids). An oral, tryptophan-deficient amino acid mixture produced acute, substantial reductions in the plasma TRP/sigma LNAA ratio in all subjects, suggesting that the treatment should reduce brain tryptophan uptake and serotonin synthesis. A control mixture containing tryptophan was also identified that maintains the plasma TRP/sigma LNAA ratio at pretreatment values.
Business ethics: a cross-cultural comparison of Mexico and the USA

This empirical study examines the attitudes of undergraduate and graduate business students in Mexico and the USA to determine if they share similar attitudes with regard to business ethics. Tests of significance were used to determine that there were significant differences between the two groups in terms of their attitudes toward specific ethics value statements and perceived consequences of an ethics code. The findings provide useful information in helping the people of these two nations better understand each other and should prove especially useful to those concerned with the increasingly important issue of ethics in business operations.
Extinction efficiencies of elongated soot particles

Abstract Knowledge of the radiative properties of soot particles is needed in many areas of research and practical applications. Soot particles play a significant role in radiative heat-transfer modeling, efficiency of mobile and stationary combustion systems and air pollution studies. The effects of soot shape on flame radiation have often been addressed with much attention given to the limiting shapes of agglomeration: spheres and long chains modeled as infinite cylinders. In the present study, we investigate the existing approximate solutions for cylinder-like agglomerated soot. A new approximate expression for this type of agglomerate is presented that accurately describes the extinction efficiency of combustion-generated soot as a function of the particle radius and its refractive indices.
Recent Progress in Visualizing Constraint-Based Flux-Balance Models in Cytoscape

The last several years have seen an explosion in the quality and quantity of genome-scale data. From metabolism to transcription and translation, the “-omics” revolution has given systems biologists the ability to develop increasingly comprehensive models of biochemical reaction networks. But as the size and scope of systems-level models has increased, it has become more difficult to understand and communicate their behavior in an intuitive manner. We believe that a robust set of tools designed to aid in the visualization of systems-level models can offer a way forward in this regard. We will report on recent advances in the development of several plugins for the popular Cytoscape network visualization software platform. These plugins are designed to represent large constraint-based models in an immediately understandable way. Several plugins are under development, including functionalities for importing and updating hand-curated maps from the BiGG database, and mapping flux distributions throughout reaction networks, but the centerpiece will be a unique algorithmic approach to network lay-out that will create highly-readable maps with little or no hand-curation necessary.
The effect of albumin on extravascular lung water in animals and patients with low-pressure pulmonary edema.

Abstract This experiment was performed to determine the effect of intravenous albumin on extravascular lung water (EVLW) in lungs with low-pressure pulmonary edema (adult respiratory distress syndrome) secondary to impaired pulmonary capillary membrane permeability. EVLW was measured by the thermal-dye, double-indicator dilution technique. Dogs were administered intravenous albumin in the presence of low-pressure, increased EVLW produced by intravenous ethchlorvynol administration. Bovine serum albumin increased EVLW from 13.6 ± 0.6 ml/kg in ethchlorvynol-treated dogs to 15.7 ± 0.7 ml/kg in albumin-treated dogs. This increase was not produced by human serum albumin administered to dogs. Adult, severely ill patients, not in shock or being resuscitated, with low or normal pulmonary artery wedge pressure and severely elevated EVLW were administered 150 g human serum albumin over 8 hr. EVLW was decreased from a prealbumin infusion value of 12.3 ± 1.6 ml/kg to a postalbumin value of 9.5 ± 1.7 ml/kg. The results of this study indicate that albumin administration in ill patients with suspected pulmonary capillary membrane damage neither benefited nor adversely affected EVLW.
Gastric para-mucus.

WHEN an aqueous solution of either iodoacetamide or N-ethyl maleimide, in suitable concentration, is applied topically to the mucosa of a canine Heiden-hain pouch half an hour before the injection of hist-amine, the hydrochloric acid secretory activity of the pouch is inhibited completely, though reversibly1. This inhibitory action may be presumed to involve a competitive inhibition of one or more enzymes within the parietal cells, though Davenport's assumption2 that these enzymes contain sulphydryl still awaits confirmation. Instead of the water-like solution of hydrochloric acid ordinarily obtained in response to histamine stimulation, the pouch now pours out a mucinous cell-free liquid of pH greater than 7, and sometimes even as high as 8. Flow of this viscous liquid continues for many hours after drainage of the iodoacetamide or N-ethyl maleimide solution from the pouch, whereas the acid-secretory response to subcutaneously administered histamine usually lasts for no more than 1–1½hr. Further evidence that this mucinous material bears no relation to the parietal secretion is given by the fact that the same response is obtained when the instillation of iodoacetamide or N-ethyl maleimide into the pouch is not followed by the subcutaneous administration of histamine.
Protein-Enabled Synthesis of Monodisperse Titania Nanoparticles On and Within Polyelectrolyte Matrices

Here, the results of a study of the mechanism of bio-enabled surfacemediated titania nanoparticle synthesis with assistance of polyelectrolyte surfaces are reported. By applying atomic force microscopy, surface force spectroscopy, circular dichroism, and in situ attenuated total reflection Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, structural changes of rSilC-silaffin upon its adsorption to polyelectrolyte surfaces prior to and during titania nanoparticle growth are revealed. It is demonstrated that the adhesion of rSilC-silaffin onto polyelectrolyte surfaces results in its reorganization from a random-coil conformation in solution into a mixed secondary structure with both random coil and b-sheet structures presented. Moreover, the protein forms a continuous molecularly thin layer with well-defined monodisperse nanodomains of lateral dimensions below 20nm. It is also shown that rSilC embedded inside the polylelectrolyte matrix preserves its titania formation activity. It is suggested that the surface-mediated, bio-enabled synthesis of nanostructured materials might be useful to develop general procedures for controlled growth of inorganic nanomaterials on reactive organic surfaces, which opens new perspectives in the design of tailored, in situ grown, hybrid inorganic‐organic nanomaterials.
Sentinel Satellites Initiate New Era in Earth Observation

With the European Space Agency's (ESA) Sentinel-1A satellite expected to enter into its operational phase later this summer, it ushers in a new series of Earth observation satellites. The first generation of the fleet of satellites, which will total 20 when all are launched, will comprise “the most comprehensive Earth observation system worldwide,” according to Josef Aschbacher, head of program planning and coordination for ESA's Earth Observation Programs directorate. The satellites are a key part of Copernicus, the European Earth Observation Program that from 1998 to 2012 was called the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) program.
A comparison of 1D vertical models of biogenic gas content within a northern peatland from common mid-point and cross-borehole GPR

Surface-based ground penetrating radar surveys are non-invasive and fast while cross-borehole methods have the potential to be more accurate and repeatable, though time consuming. In order to assess the variation between common mid-point and cross-borehole surveys as a tool for estimating free-phase gas volume in peat soils, we compared the modeled gas content results from surface-based multiple-offset data to down-hole zero-offset profiles. Accuracy of each method was also evaluated using reciprocal measurements and statistical methods. Both common mid-point and cross-borehole methods yielded repeatable measurements and resulted in a similar range of gas content estimates. Variations in gas content estimates ranged from <1% – 16%, though the common mid-point measurements underestimated the gas content compared to the cross borehole measurements
Pancreatic cyst prevalence and the risk of mucin-producing adenocarcinoma in US adults.

OBJECTIVES:The presence of a pancreatic cyst often prompts concern, although the rate of malignant transformation to mucin-producing adenocarcinoma is not known. We aimed to determine the prevalence rate of mucin-producing adenocarcinoma in US adults with pancreatic cysts.METHODS:This retrospective,
Plasma-assisted reaction chemical ionization for elemental mass spectrometry of organohalogens.

We present plasma-assisted reaction chemical ionization (PARCI) for elemental analysis of halogens in organic compounds. Organohalogens are broken down to simple halogen-containing molecules (e.g., HBr) in a helium microwave-induced plasma followed by negative mode chemical ionization (CI) in the afterglow region. The reagent ions for CI originate from penning ionization of gases (e.g., N2) introduced into the afterglow region. The performance of PARCI-mass spectrometry (MS) is evaluated using flow injection analyses of organobromines, demonstrating 5–8 times better sensitivities compared with inductively coupled plasma MS. We show that compound-dependent sensitivities in PARCI-MS mainly arise from sample introduction biases.
Stress and resistivity control in sputtered molybdenum films and comparison with sputtered gold

Dc bias sputtering has been used to obtain molybdenum films with total stress varying controllably from +1010to < −1010 dyne per sq cm. These results were obtained for films approximately 3000 A thick sputtered onto thermally oxidized silicon at substrate-holder temperatures from 70° to 230°C, with dc bias as the major parameter. 1000 A films exhibit an even greater range of stress. Bias and substrate-holder temperature control also permits minimization of resistivity which is correlated with the impurity content of the films. Electron microprobe analysis shows a high oxygen content for zero-biased films, which decreases with increasing negative bias, as does the resistivity. The argon (sputtering ambient) content of the films increases as the negative bias increases from −110 to −200 volts. These changes with bias are qualitatively what would be expected based upon the preferential resputtering of oxygen and upon the embedding of the more energetic argon atoms at higher bias. The stress level, resistivity, and impurity content of dc bias sputtered gold films exhibit much less variation with bias than for molybdenum films, which is consistent with the difference in oxide formation properties of the two metals.
Chemokine receptor utilization and macrophage signaling by human immunodeficiency virus type 1 gp120: Implications for neuropathogenesis

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) uses the chemokine receptors CCR5 and CXCR4 for entry. Macrophages and microglia (M/M) are the principal productively infected brain cells in HIV encephalopathy (HIVE), and neuronal injury is believed to result both from direct effects of viral proteins and indirect effects mediated by macrophage activation and secretion of neurotoxic products. In vitro, direct injury by the viral envelope glycoprotein gp120 can be mediated by neuronal CXCR4, but most HIV-1 isolates from the central nervous system (CNS) studied to date use CCR5 (R5 strains) rather than CXCR4 (X4 or R5X4 strains). Additionally, it remains unknown how HIV induces M/M activation and neurotoxin secretion. To address these issues, the authors analyzed a CNS-derived primary isolate, TYBE, and showed that it uses CXCR4 only and replicates efficiently in macrophages through CXCR4-mediated entry. The authors also showed that both R5 and X4 gp120 activate intracellular signals in macrophages through CCR5 and CXCR4, including calcium elevations; K+, Cl−and nonselective cation channel activation; phosphorylation of the nonreceptor tyrosine kinase Pyk2; and activation of p38 and SAPK/JNK mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs). Finally, the authors showed that macrophages stimulated with gp120 produce soluble factors through MAPK-dependent pathways, including β-chemokines implicated in HIVE pathogenesis. The findings emphasize that both X4 and R5 HIV-1 isolates may contribute to HIVE pathogenesis, and that gp120/chemokine receptor interactions in M/M trigger specific signal transduction pathways that may affect M/M function and provide a mechanism underlying CNS injury.
Teaching war literature, teaching peace

This article explores literature taught in three different courses and the peace education approaches used for each, including epics in literature courses, Vietnam War literature, and literature of anger and hope. The author recommends the teaching of war literature as an essential part of a peace education curriculum. Devastating events such as the Holocaust, the Hiroshima‐Nagasaki bombings and the Partition of India should be studied not only as history but also as literature, for deeper truths may emerge from metaphoric representation and descriptive details than can be provided by factual accounts.
FeP(Im)-AB Bonding Energies Evaluated with A Large Number of Density Functionals (P = porphine, Im = imidazole, AB = CO, NO, and O(2)).

Sixty-four density functionals, ranging from GGA, meta-GGA, hybrid GGA to hybrid meta-GGA, were tested to evaluate the FeP(Im)–AB bonding energies (E bond) in the heme model complexes FeP(Im)(AB) (P = porphine, Im = imidazole, AB = CO, NO, and O2). The results indicate that an accurate prediction of E bond for the various ligands to heme is difficult with the DFT methods; usually, a functional successful for one system does not perform equally well for other system(s). Relatively satisfactory results for the various FeP(Im)–AB bonding energies are obtained with the meta-GGA functionals BLAP3 and Bmτ1; they yield E bond values of ca. 1.1, 1.2, and 0.4 eV for AB = CO, NO, and O2, respectively, which are in reasonable agreement with experimental data (0.78–0.85 eV for CO, 0.99 eV for NO, and 0.44 − 0.53 eV for O2). The other functionals show more or less deficiency for one or two of the systems. The performances of the various functionals in describing the spin-state energetics of the five-coordinate FeP(Im)...
Pulse Thermal Processing for Low Thermal Budget Integration of IGZO Thin Film Transistors

Pulse thermal processing (PTP) has been explored for low thermal budget integration of indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) thin film transistors (TFTs). The IGZO TFTs are exposed to a broadband (0.2− $1.4~\mu $ m) arc lamp radiation spectrum with 100 pulses of 1 m pulse width. With power density of 3.95 kW/ $\mathrm{cm}^{2}$ and 0.1 s total irradiation time, the PTP treated IGZO TFTs showed comparable or improved switching and bias stability properties, at significantly lower thermal budget, to furnace annealed IGZO TFT. The typical field effect mobility $\mu $ FE, threshold voltage VT, and sub-threshold gate swing S.S were calculated to be 7.8 $\mathrm{cm}^{2}$ /V $\cdot $ s, 8.1 V, and 0.22 V/decade, respectively. The observed performance shows promise for low thermal budget TFT integration on flexible substrates exploiting the large-area, scalable PTP technology.
Time-domain soft mode spectroscopy

Abstract The application of impulsive stimulated light scattering, an entirely time-domain form of light scattering spectroscopy, to the study of lattice dynamics in crystals near structural phase transitions is reviewed. Advantages of the time-domain approach are demonstrated for study of low-frequency, heavily damped, and/or dispersive modes such as soft acoustic phonons. Impulsive stimulated Brillouin and Raman scattering data showing time-dependent oscillations and decay of acoustic and optic phonons, respectively, are presented and explained. Results of experiments on acoustic phonons in uniaxial and incommensurate ferroelectrics are summarized. Time-domain spectrosocopy of soft optic phonons and other overdamped modes is discussed.
Currents in auroral substorms

[1] We present a model of the three-dimensional current system in the nighttime sector during the expansion phase through early recovery phase for bulge-type aurora substorms. The height-integrated horizontal ionospheric currents are calculated from models of the height-integrated conductivity and convection electric field previously published [Gjerloev and Hoffman, 2000a, 2000b, 2001] that were based on a set of data from the Dynamics Explorer 2 satellite, while the field-aligned currents are deduced from the divergence of the horizontal currents. These model-derived field-aligned currents are then compared with the field-aligned currents determined from magnetometer data from the same data set used to develop the conductance and electric field models. The comparison shows good agreement, thereby serving as an independent verification of the entire self-consistent substorm model. We find that the feeding as well as the drainage of the substorm current wedge component of the westward electrojet is principally due to an imbalance of the downward region 0 and upward region 1 current sheets under which the electrojet is flowing. We do not find evidence of a simple downward current postmidnight and upward current premidnight. The eastward electrojet, which almost entirely originates on the dayside, is partly drained by a poleward current flowing across the Harang region into the westward electrojet at ∼19–21 magnetic local time (MLT) and partly by net upward field-aligned currents located just prior to midnight.
Cell sodium and the induction of myocardial injury after adrenaline

Accumulation of calcium in cardiac cells during catecholamine induced injury is considered a major pathogenetic factor but its mechanism has not been defined. During initiation of injury in an intact canine model, cell sodium was enhanced fourfold in myocardium after a local infusion of epinephrine via the left anterior descending coronary artery for a 60 min period. Tissue calcium was enhanced and a major role for the Na-Ca carrier system is suggested. Regional myocardial function, blood flow and electrocardiogram responses to toxic levels of the catecholamine have been contrasted with ischaemic injury.
Region-of-Interest Sharpness Correction

Maximizing a sharpness metric over a region-of-interest (ROI) improves the wavefront correction for anisoplanatic images over that specific region. We discuss ROI size and scene content that contribute to the effectiveness of this technique.
On How to Merge Sorted Lists Coming from Different Web Search Tools

Different web search tools often complement each other. So, if we want to have a good coverage of all relevant web items, a reasonable strategy is to use different search tools and them merge the resulting lists. How to merge them? In this paper, we describe reasonable axioms for the merging procedure and describe all mergings that satisfy these reasonable axioms.
The effects of nicotine exposure and PFC transection on the time-frequency distribution of VTA DA neurons' firing activities.

We investigated the influence of nicotine exposure and prefrontal cortex (PFC) transections on ventral tegmental areas (VTA) dopamine (DA) neurons’ firing activities using a time–frequency method based on the continuous wavelet transform (CWT). Extracellular single-unit neural activity was recorded from DA neurons in the VTA area of rats. One group had their PFC inputs to the VTA intact, while the other group had the inputs to VTA bilaterally transected immediate caudal to the PFC. We hypothesized that the systemic nicotine exposure will significantly change the energy distribution in the recorded neural activity. Additionally, we investigated whether the loss of inputs to the VTA caused by the PFC transection resulted in the cancellation of the nicotine’ effect on the neurons’ firing patterns. The time–frequency representations of VTA DA neurons firing activity were estimated from the reconstructed firing rate histogram. The energy contents were estimated from three frequency bands, which are known to encompass the significant modes of operation of DA neurons. Our results show that systemic nicotine exposure disrupts the energy distribution in PFC-intact rats. Particularly, there is a significant increase in energy contents of the 1–1.5 Hz frequency band. This corresponds to an observed increase in the firing rate of VTA DA neurons following nicotine exposure. Additionally, our results from PFC-transected rats show that there is no change in the energy distribution of the recordings after systemic nicotine exposure. These results indicate that the PFC plays an important role in affecting the activities of VTA DA neurons and that the CWT is a useful method for monitoring the changes in neural activity patterns in both time and frequency domains.
De-regulation of JNK and JAK/STAT signaling in ESCRT-II mutant tissues cooperatively contributes to neoplastic tumorigenesis

Multiple genes involved in endocytosis and endosomal protein trafficking in Drosophila have been shown to function as neoplastic tumor suppressor genes (nTSGs), including Endosomal Sorting Complex Required for Transport-II (ESCRT-II) components vacuolar protein sorting 22 (vps22), vps25, and vps36. However, most studies of endocytic nTSGs have been done in mosaic tissues containing both mutant and non-mutant populations of cells, and interactions among mutant and non-mutant cells greatly influence the final phenotype. Thus, the true autonomous phenotype of tissues mutant for endocytic nTSGs remains unclear. Here, we show that tissues predominantly mutant for ESCRT-II components display characteristics of neoplastic transformation and then undergo apoptosis. These neoplastic tissues show upregulation of c-Jun N-terminal Kinase (JNK), Notch, and Janus Kinase (JAK)/Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription (STAT) signaling. Significantly, while inhibition of JNK signaling in mutant tissues partially inhibits proliferation, inhibition of JAK/STAT signaling rescues other aspects of the neoplastic phenotype. This is the first rigorous study of tissues predominantly mutant for endocytic nTSGs and provides clear evidence for cooperation among de-regulated signaling pathways leading to tumorigenesis.
Legislative duty and the independence of law

This essay considers the nature of duties incumbent on legislators in virtue of the office itself. I argue that there is no duty for a legislator to enact a criminal law based on morality; there is no duty to incorporate substantive moral conditions into the criminal law; and there is therefore no duty derivable from the nature of the legislative office itself to make conditions of culpability depend on those of moral responsibility. Finally, I argue that the relation between morality and the criminal law is therefore much less direct than assumed in most theories of the criminal law.
How safe is the treatment of uraemic children with recombinant human growth hormone

Exogenous growth hormone (GH) treatment for growth failure in uraemic children is effective over a period of up to 3 years. The safety of this new treatment modality is remarkably high, at least for this short period of time. Despite a reduced renal metabolic clearance rate of GH in uraemia, exogenous GH does not accumulate in the serum. In a dose range of 28 units/m2 per week, GH does not impair glucose tolerance but increases serum insulin levels, indicating that euglycaemia is maintained at the expense of increased insulin secretion. No alterations of lipid metabolism, mineral metabolism, pituitary-thyroid axis and blood pressure were observed. The GH-induced glomerular hyperfiltration in healthy subjects seems to be obliterated in chronic renal failure. Accordingly, no accelerated progression of renal disease was observed under GH treatment. However, potential side effects during long-term treatment, especially regarding carbohydrate metabolism and malignancy in children under immunosuppression, are not yet excluded.
82 Antibody Directed Therapy for DSA Results in Diminished Autoimmune Response and Favorable Long Term Outcome Following Human Lung Transplantation

Purpose Current evidence demonstrates an important role for cross talk between alloimmunity and autoimmunity in the pathogenesis of chronic rejection following human lung transplantation (LTx) manifested as bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS). We recently demonstrated that preemptive antibody directed therapy (IVIG and Rituximab) in patients who develop de novo anti-HLA antibodies (DSA) resulted in removal of DSA and greater freedom from BOS. The goal of this study is to determine the impact of antibody directed therapy on autoimmunity and its influence in reducing the incidence of BOS. Methods and Materials Adult lung transplant recipients (n=116) were analyzed. BOS was diagnosed by ISHLT guidelines. DSA were measured by LABScreen Single antigen beads by Luminex every 3 months, antibodies (Abs) to self-antigens K-α1-tubulin (Kα1T) and Collagen V (Col-V) by ELISA and cytokines by Luminex kit. Results Among 116 LTx, 65 developed DSA within 3 months of LTx and were treated with IVIG and/or rituximab. Among the DSA cleared BOS- patients (n=28), there was a significant drop in Abs to Col-V (from 23/28 to 12/28) and Kα1T (from 25/28 to 14/28, p Conclusions Our results demonstrate that antibody directed therapy results in decreased circulating levels of pro inflammatory cytokines and development of auto-Abs and increased freedom from BOS.
Character identification in evolutionary biology: The role of the organism

In this article we argue that an organismic perspective in character identification can alleviate a structural deficiency of mathematical models in biology relative to the ones in the physical sciences. The problem with many biological theories is that they do not contain the conditions of their validity or a method of identifying objects that are appropriate instances of the models. Here functionally important biological characters are introduced as conceptual abstractions derived within the context of an ontologically prior object, such as a cell or an organism. To illustrate this approach, we present an analytical method of character decomposition based on the notion of the quasi-independence of traits. Two cases are analyzed: context dependent units of inheritance and a model of character identification in adaptive evolution. We demonstrate that in each case the biological process as represented by a mathematical theory entails the conditions for the individualization of characters. Our approach also requires a conceptual re-orientation in the way we build biological models. Rather than defining a set of biological characters a priori, functionally relevant characters are identified in the context of a higher level biological process.
Differential acetylcholine release in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus during pavlovian trace and delay conditioning

Pavlovian trace conditioning critically depends on the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and hippocampus (HPC), whereas delay conditioning does not depend on these brain structures. Given that the cholinergic basal forebrain system modulates activity in both the mPFC and HPC, it was reasoned that the level of acetylcholine (ACh) release in these regions would show distinct profiles during testing in trace and delay conditioning paradigms. To test this assumption, microdialysis probes were implanted unilaterally into the mPFC and HPC of rats that were pre-trained in appetitive trace and delay conditioning paradigms using different conditional stimuli in the two tasks. On the day of microdialysis testing, dialysate samples were collected during a quiet baseline interval before trials were initiated, and again during performance in separate blocks of trace and delay conditioning trials in each animal. ACh levels were quantified using high-performance liquid chromatography and electrochemical detection techniques. Consistent with our hypothesis, results showed that ACh release in the mPFC was greater during trace conditioning than during delay conditioning. The level of ACh released during trace conditioning in the HPC was also greater than the levels observed during delay conditioning. While ACh efflux in both the mPFC and HPC selectively increased during trace conditioning, ACh levels in the mPFC during trace conditioning testing showed the greatest increases observed. These results demonstrate a dissociation in cholinergic activation of the mPFC and HPC during performance in trace but not delay appetitive conditioning, where this cholinergic activity may contribute to attentional mechanisms, adaptive response timing, or memory consolidation necessary for successful trace conditioning.
A Theoretical Model for the Dynamic Structure of Hepatitis B Nucleocapsid

The genomic material of hepatitis B virus (HBV) is confined within a fenestrated nucleocapsid consisting of 240 identical copies of the capsid protein, which has a rigid core and a positively charged and highly flexible C-terminal domain (CTD). Although previous mutagenesis studies have demonstrated the importance of the CTD in viral RNA packaging and reverse transcription, the microscopic structure of the CTD and its interaction with encapsidated nucleic acids at various stages of viral maturation remain poorly understood. Here, we present a theoretical analysis of the radial distributions of the CTD chains and nucleic acids in the hepatitis B virus nucleocapsid at the beginning and final stages of viral reverse transcription based on classical density functional theory and a coarse-gained model for the pertinent biomolecules. We find that a significant portion of the CTD is exposed at the surface of the RNA-containing immature nucleocapsid and that the CTD is mostly confined within the DNA-containing mature nucleocapsid. Large accumulation of cations is predicted inside both immature and mature nucleocapsids. The theoretical results provide new insights into the molecular mechanism of CTD regulation of viral reverse transcription and nucleocapsid trafficking during various stages of the viral replication processes.