cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Transition metal-like carbocatalyst.

Catalytic cleavage of strong bonds including hydrogen-hydrogen, carbon-oxygen, and carbon-hydrogen bonds is a highly desired yet challenging fundamental transformation for the production of chemicals and fuels. Transition metal-containing catalysts are employed, although accompanied with poor selectivity in hydrotreatment. Here we report metal-free nitrogen-assembly carbons (NACs) with closely-placed graphitic nitrogen as active sites, achieving dihydrogen dissociation and subsequent transformation of oxygenates. NACs exhibit high selectivity towards alkylarenes for hydrogenolysis of aryl ethers as model bio-oxygenates without over-hydrogeneration of arenes. Activities originate from cooperating graphitic nitrogen dopants induced by the diamine precursors, as demonstrated in mechanistic and computational studies. We further show that the NAC catalyst is versatile for dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene and tetrahydroquinoline as well as for hydrogenation of common unsaturated functionalities, including ketone, alkene, alkyne, and nitro groups. The discovery of nitrogen assembly as active sites can open up broad opportunities for rational design of new metal-free catalysts for challenging chemical reactions. Metal-free catalysts can offer uniquely different activity and selectivity from transition metal-based counterparts. Here, the authors report metal-free nitrogen-assembly carbon with closely-placed nitrogen as active sites, achieving catalytic cleavage of strong bonds including H-H, C-O and C-H.
Pandemic pedagogy challenges and opportunities: instruction communication in remote, HyFlex, and BlendFlex courses

Although a third of college students take at least one course online today (Lederman, 2018), surveys report that as many as 29% of college instructors do not accept online learning as an effective ...
Dynamic frictional slip along an interface between plastically compressible solids

Dynamic frictional slip along an interface between plastically compressible solids is analyzed. The plane strain, small deformation initial/boundary value problem formulation and the numerical method are identical to those in Shi et al. (Int J Fract 162:51, 2010) except that here the material constitutive relation allows for plastic compressibility. The interface is characterized by a rate and state dependent friction law. The specimens have an initial compressive stress and are subject to shear loading by edge impact near the interface. Two loading conditions are analyzed, one giving rise to a crack-like mode of slip propagation and the other to a pulse-like mode of slip propagation. In both cases, the initial compressive stress is taken to vary with plastic compressibility such that the associated initial effective stress is the same for all values of plastic compressibility. The volume change for the crack-like slip mode is mainly plastic while the elastic volume change plays a larger role for the pulse-like mode. For the crack-like slip mode, the proportion of plastic dissipation in the material increases with the increasing plastic compressibility, but the effect of plastic compressibility on the energy partitioning for the pulse-like slip mode is much smaller. The predicted propagation speeds approach a speed about the dilational wave speed for both the crack-like and pulse-like slip modes and this speed is not sensitive to the value of the plastic compressibility parameter. Plastic dissipation is found to be mainly associated with the deformation induced by the loading wave rather than with the deformation arising from slip propagation. The amplitude of the slip rate in the slip pulses is found to be largely governed by the value of the initial compressive stress regardless of the value of plastic compressibility.
Do more-schooled women have fewer children and delay childbearing? Evidence from a sample of US twins

Using data on monozygotic (MZ) (identical) female twins from the Minnesota Twin Registry, we estimate the causal effect of schooling on completed fertility, probability of being childless, and age at first birth using the within-MZ twins methodology. We find strong cross-sectional associations between schooling and the fertility outcomes, and some evidence that more schooling causes women to have fewer children and delay childbearing, though not to the extent that interpreting cross-sectional associations as causal would imply. Our conclusions are robust when taking account of (1) endogenous within-twin pair schooling differences due to reverse causality and (2) measurement error in schooling. We also investigate possible mechanisms and find that the effect of women’s schooling on completed fertility is not mediated through husband’s schooling but may be mediated in part through age at first marriage.
Promoting parenting in home visiting: A CACE analysis of Family Foundations.

This randomized trial tested the impact of an established prevention program for first-time parents, Family Foundations, adapted for low-income mothers and fathers as a series of sessions provided to couples in their homes. To assess program impact, we recruited and randomly assigned a sample of 150 low-income adult mother-father dyads (not necessarily still romantically involved, cohabiting, or married) during pregnancy or shortly after birth. The randomly assigned intervention families participated in Family Foundations Home Visiting (FFHV), consisting of 11 in-home sessions focusing on parental cooperation, collaboration, and conflict management to support children's development. Complier average causal effect (CACE) analysis was used to examine program impact on parental adjustment and parenting for families completing nine or more program sessions. Results indicated significant positive complier effects for mothers' and fathers' reports of depression, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms, coping with stress, and psychological aggression by fathers toward mothers at post-intervention, controlling for pre-intervention scores. Intervention parents also demonstrated higher levels of affection, engagement, and sensitivity with the infant based on observer coding of videotaped parent-child interactions. These findings indicate that the focus of Family Foundations on enhancing coparenting offers similar benefits for low-income parents and children who are compliers as has the group-format Family Foundations (FF) version in trials with universal samples of cohabiting or married parents. Results are discussed in terms of implications for home visiting, engaging fathers, and optimizing child outcomes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
DeepProg: an ensemble of deep-learning and machine-learning models for prognosis prediction using multi-omics data.

Multi-omics data are good resources for prognosis and survival prediction; however, these are difficult to integrate computationally. We introduce DeepProg, a novel ensemble framework of deep-learning and machine-learning approaches that robustly predicts patient survival subtypes using multi-omics data. It identifies two optimal survival subtypes in most cancers and yields significantly better risk-stratification than other multi-omics integration methods. DeepProg is highly predictive, exemplified by two liver cancer (C-index 0.73–0.80) and five breast cancer datasets (C-index 0.68–0.73). Pan-cancer analysis associates common genomic signatures in poor survival subtypes with extracellular matrix modeling, immune deregulation, and mitosis processes. DeepProg is freely available at https://github.com/lanagarmire/DeepProg
Consensus over Clustered Networks with Asynchronous Inter-Cluster Communication

Within this work, the consensus problem for a clustered multi-agent system (C-MAS) is investigated. Given a multi-agent system (MAS), the agents are organized into disjoint clusters, where each cluster forms a connected network. The agents that are within the same cluster can communicate continuously with their neighbors. Between some cluster pairs, there exists an inter-cluster that enables the relay of information between the two clusters. Agents that have neighbors in clusters different from their own can communicate intermittently and asynchronously with their different-cluster neighbors. The goal of each agent in the C-MAS is to converge to an agreement value by sharing local information of a continuous-time homogeneous process. Note that the intermittent communication events of the continuous-time process are inherently hybrid. Therefore, a unique coupling between a static consensus protocol and a hybrid consensus protocol is designed. The closed-loop network model is presented using a hybrid systems framework. The consensus problem is then recast into a set stability problem and sufficient conditions of the consensus set are presented through leveraging a Lyapunov-based stability analysis. A C-MAS composed of 16 agents that is partitioned into 3 clusters and 2 inter-clusters is used to illustrate the results through numerical simulations and shown to achieve consensus using the proposed control strategy.
Decision Support Systems: the next research/practice connection

North-Holland Publishing Company Human Systems Management 3 (1982) 5455 Over the lest ten years or so, there has been a number of important occurances which have created an environment conducive to the use of systems which support decision making. The four most important occurances seem to have been: (i) The technological developments in hardware and software and their use; (ii) Recognition of the importance of the psychological dimension in decision making; (iii) Recognition of the interdependent nature of organizational subsystems; and (iv) Recognition of the fuzzy nature of many aspects of problem solving. Within each of these major areas there are numerous partitions which could be used to delineate a particular focus for research investigation or practical development. What is needed now is a careful delineation of the partitions of these areas by providing a framework for the study of DSS like the Mason and Mitroff [I] MIS framework. A framework is necessary if research is to be focused not only on "main effects" such as technology and the psychological dimension of decision making but on the interaction of the various main effects. The study of the interaction of specific research aspects is more likely to lead to a strong connection between research and practice, since in practice all the main effects and their interactions must be considered. What would be desirable would be to construct research situations which are likely to impact the practical needs of individuals responsible for designing and implementing DSS. If DSS research is viewed as a means of providing (I) practical insights into the difficult and worrisome situations which surround DSS in organizations, and (2) a forum for practitioners to report the re-
Reversed gradients in the bowel of pregnant animals

Abstract In pregnant rabbits experiments show that the rate of rhythmic contraction in the small bowel was slightly slowed but there was no change in the gradient from duodenum to ileum. The gradient in irritability was flattened in some of the animals and reversed in others. The gradient of latent period was always reversed. Conduction was somewhat changed in that waves moving orad traveled a little faster than those moving caudad. Peristaltic rushes were inhibited. They were hard to start and they slowed down instead of accelerating as they normally should do. In puerperal animals the bowel was unusually irritable but the gradient of irritability was normal. The gradient in latent period was reversed. In sickly animals some gradients are reversed or flattened while others remain normal. This may be a factor of safety enabling the organism to continue with digestion at such times when there is a marked tendency to reverse peristalsis in the bowel. It is to be hoped that a drug can be found which will restore gradients to normal. The difficulties in the way of finding such a drug are discussed. It is suggested that the reversal of gradients may be present in pregnant women and that it may account for some of their nausea and vomiting. It is suggested also that the dilatation of the ureters so commonly seen in pregnant women may be due to a reversal in the ureteral gradient from kidney pelvis to bladder.
Optical Rotatory Dispersion and Circular Dichroism of Phosvitin at Low pH REVERSIBLE TRANSITION BETWEEN UNORDERED CONFORMATION AND β STRUCTURE

Phosvitin undergoes a transition from an unordered conformation to a β structure if the pH of its aqueous solution is lowered sufficiently (1.8 to 1.9) to remove a major part of its negative charge. The characteristic optical rotatory dispersion features of this ordered conformation are ([m′] given in degree × cm2× decimole−1): trough at 230 mµ (−3,000), peak at 203 mµ (+15,000), and a crossover point at 220 mµ. The circular dichroism spectrum ([θ] given in degree × cm2× decimole−1) shows a minimum at 215 mµ (−11,800), a maximum at 194 mµ (+14,600), and a crossover point at 206 mµ. The rate of the transition, but not its extent, is a function of pH and of protein concentration. Salt affects the transition as well. The transition may be reversed nearly completely by an increase in pH if the duration of exposure to low pH is brief. Partial reversal appears to be possible in any case.
Looking Forward, Looking Back [All Systems Go]

In his inaugural column as editor-in-chief, the author discusses changes to the Web. The author look back on how the magazine has evolved along with the Internet The author picked the column heading, All Systems Go, to highlight one of these evolutionary steps
Maintaining Water Quality in Voyageurs National Park

Voyageurs National Park is a recreational area with a high degree of water-based and water-oriented recreation and requires water quality surveillance. Bench mark (baseline) water quality data collected from 20 bench mark stations in the park allow the definition of water quality in the natural environment. The types of data required to assess potential water quality problems is identified. Water quality assessment is a necessary component of the overall recreational planning process. The goal of water quality assessment is to use predictive tools to provide decision makers with the best attainable insight to the impact of planning alternatives on delineated water quality problems. A procedural framework for organizing and executing a technically sound assessment of water quality problems is presented.
Outsourcing: wagering protection

Outsourcing is a growing trend, relieving business pressure to flex with the erratic work demands of a dynamic market. Practically speaking, when a process is fairly consistent across an industry, outsourcing seems to make sense, as long as one can sufficiently detail the work specifications. To be successfully outsourced, a project must be translated into logical steps, those steps communicated, and executed—it must be well managed. Not surprising, the emigration of project management to low wage economies has economic motivation. For all the resistance against such business practice, the long term effect of outsourcing on community health is not obvious. While offering flexibility and diversity to workers and employers, its trade off is stability and many times, expertise. Still, outsourcing offers an opportunity to globalise worker standards. …
Compact Ignition Tokamak (CIT) power system design studies

One of the advantages of the Princeton site for the CIT is that the existing Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) power systems can be applied to CIT requirements, saving on cost and time. However, the peak pulse power and energy required for CIT are four times the corresponding values for TFTR. In addition, the dynamic response required of the plasma-position control system of the CIT is well beyond what is practical for conventional rectifier systems, and therefore less familiar technology has been investigated. the approaches to power- and energy-supply augmentation considered include additional flywheel/generator-type storage, direct pulsing of the utility feed, upgrading of existing motor/generator sets, and the use of lead-acid batteries. Subtopics within these categories include drive techniques for added flywheel storage units, power-factor control for utility pulsing, and modern battery technology. The relationship between the alternative techniques and the proposed two-stage implementation of the CIT power system is reported. >
A Qualitative Examination of Client Participation in Agency-Initiated Services

Decisions of nonvoluntary clients regarding whether to accept or decline agency-initiated social services were examined in this exploratory study. A qualitative research approach was used to collec...
Geochronologic investigations of the Sudbury Nickel Irruptive and the Superior Province granites north of Sudbury

Abstract RbSr ( λ Rb = 1.39 × 10 −11 yr −1 ) and U-Pb ( λ 238 = 1.54 × 10 −10 yr −1 , λ235 = 9.72 × 10 −10 yr −1 ) measurements were undertaken in the Sudbury area, Sudbury, Ontario to determine the ages of the Sudbury Nickel Irruptive, Superior Province granites north of Sudbury, Sudbury Breccia and subsequent metamorphism. The Sudbury Nickel Irruptive norite whole rock Rb-Sr data yield an age of 1883 ± 136 Myr ( I.R . = 0.7071 ± 0.0005 ; all results quoted at 2π level) while the Nickel Irruptive micropegmatite Rb-Sr system has been disturbed and does not yield an isochron. A plagioclase-whole rock pair from the norite near the norite-micropegmatite transition yields an age of 1866 Myr, which when taken in conjunction with field ( Stevenson and Colgrove , 1968) and geochemical ( Naldrett et al., 1970, 1972) data does not support the conclusion of gibbins and McNurr (1972) that the micropegmatite is a later intrusion rather than a differentiate of the magma which produced the norite. Rb-Sr studies of the Superior Province granites north of Sudbury yield an age of 2698 ± 162 Myr ( I.R. = 0.7019 ± 0.0012 ). U-Pb zircon studies of these granites and granitic clasts within the Sudbury Breccia yield an age of 2.71 ± 0.05 Byr and suggest the breccia granitic clasts were derived from the Superior Province granites. The granitic rocks ~150 km north of Sudbury have been undisturbed for ~ 2.6 Byr based on Rb-Sr mineral studies, whereas the granites and Sudbury Breccia within ~ 15 km of the Nickel Irruptive, as well as the Sudbury norite at the perimeter of the Irruptive have been disturbed by the Penokean Orogeny 1.7–1.75 Byr ago. The Penokean event appears to have overprinted isotopic evidence of the Sudbury impact event at least in the area studied.
LOCUS OF CONTROL AND FIELD DEPENDENCE AS FACTORS IN STUDENTS' EVALUATIONS OF APPLIED MUSIC INSTRUCTION '

Summary.-This study examined students' evaluations of applied music teaching as a hnction of the students' attributes of locus of control and field de~endencelindependence. 70 undergraduate music majors listened to an audiotape of an applied piano lesson taught by one of two teachen. Subjects evaluated the teacher by means of (a) the Applied Teaching Rating Scale and (b) the Favorable and Unfavorable Scales of the Adjective Checklist. The former ratings and the ratio of favorable to unfavorable adiectives were examined bv means of 3 x 3 factorial multivariate analvsis of variance. A significant effect of locus of control was found for the adjective ratio, with externally oriented subjects rating teachers significantly less favorably than relatively internally oriented subjects. No significant main effect for field dependence was found. A significant interaction was noted for both the ratings and the adjective ratio, with 19% and 15% of the variance, respectively, explained.
Coupling polylysine to glass beads for plasma membrane isolation

Solid glass beads for use in isolating cell membranes were coated with a stable, covalently attached layer of polylysine. The optimal conditions for coating the bead surface were established and the beads were tested by measuring the attachment of human erythrocyte plasma membranes. When compared to other beads, such as those with absorbed polylysine or protamine, none retained red-cell membranes as well as glass beads with covalently linked polylysine.
Sulfur Volatiles in Guava (Psidium guajava L.) Leaves: Possible Defense Mechanism

Volatiles from crushed and intact guava leaves (Psidium guajava L.) were collected using static headspace SPME and determined using GC-PFPD, pulsed flame photometric detection, and GC-MS. Leaf volatiles from four common citrus culitvars were examined similarly to determine the potential component(s) responsible for guava's protective effect against the Asian citrus psyllid (Diaphorina citri Kuwayama), which is the insect vector of Huanglongbing (HLB) or citrus greening disease. Seven sulfur volatiles were detected: hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide, methanethiol, dimethyl sulfide (DMS), dimethyl disulfide (DMDS), methional, and dimethyl trisulfide (DMTS). Identifications were based on matching linear retention index values on ZB-5, DB-Wax, and PLOT columns and MS spectra in the case of DMDS and DMS. DMDS is an insect toxic, defensive volatile produced only by wounded guava but not citrus leaves and, thus, may be the component responsible for the protective effect of guava against the HLB vector. DMDS is formed immediately after crushing, becoming the major headspace volatile within 10 min. Forty-seven additional leaf volatiles were identified from LRI and MS data in the crushed guava leaf headspace.
Minimal search for the optimal mean-square digital gray-scale morphological filter

To characterize optimal mean-square morphological filters it is first necessary to interpret morphological operations in a functional manner appropriate to the theory of statistical estimation. The present paper takes such an approach in the case of digital N-observation grayscale filters these being defined via the Matheron representation. Having obtained the optimality criterion we are lead to the characterization of a minimal search space the nodes of the space being potential erosion structuring elements. More precisely there exists a set of structuring elements which will always contain elements forming the basis for an optimal MS filter. Moreover the set called the fundamental set is minimal in the sense that no element can be deleted from it without possibly yielding a set not containing the optimal structuring element for a single-erosion filter© (1990) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Effect of Homolog Doping on Surface Morphology and Mass‐Loss Rates from PETN Crystals: Studies using Atomic Force Microscope and Thermogravimetric Analysis

Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) is an important energetic material and its performance as a secondary explosive depends strongly on the density as well as flow porosity of powdered material, which in turn is governed by the size and surface properties of the PETN crystallite particles. Historically there has been evidence that the surface properties of PETN particles can be strongly influenced by the presence of homolog impurities of PETN, in particular, dipentaerythritol hexanitrate (diPEHN) and tripentaerythritol octanitrate (triPEON), although not many systematic studies characterizing such influence exist. In this work we employ thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) to measure mass-loss rates at elevated temperatures and show that doping with a small amount of diPEHN and triPEON can reduce the mass-loss rate from PETN single-crystal surfaces by as much as 35 % as compared to undoped crystals. Arrhenius plots of mass-loss rates as a function of temperature suggest that the reduction in evaporation is not due to the change in activation barrier of the molecular evaporation process, but perhaps due to the impedance to the receding motion of the steps by the immobile impurities on the surface. Removal of surface impurities through gentle washing with ethanol leads to enhanced mass-loss rate relative to puremore » PETN suggesting a roughened surface morphology. Some surface roughening in doped crystals is supported by Atomic force microscopy (AFM) images of growth layers that show evidences of growth layer stacking and rough edges. Furthermore, we find that a larger amount of impurity added to the original solution does not necessarily lead to a more highly doped crystal, which could perhaps be interpreted as PETN crystals being able to accommodate only up to a certain weight percent of homolog impurities.« less
Fatigue properties of suture anchors in anterior shoulder reconstructions: Mitek GII

Suture anchors have simplified anterior capsule labral reconstruction. During rehabilitation the shoulder goes through many repetitions of range of motion exercises. These exercises will repetitively submaximally load the anchor and in theory should reduce the pullout strength of the suture anchor. No published reports exist on the fatigue strengths and properties of one of the most commonly used anchors: Mitek GII suture anchors. Fifty trials of cyclic submaximal load were done on 22 cadaveric glenoids with an average age of 66.8 years (range, 40 to 90 years). At two to three different sites on the same specimen, the anchors were inserted according to manufacturer's specifications. The anchors were tested to failure on a Instron 1331 servohydraulic mechanical testing system at 2 Hertz sinusoidal loading pattern using steel sutures and a predetermined load. There were 22 (44%) tests performed in the superior quadrant and 28 (56%) tests in the inferior quadrant. All anchors pulled out, and no wires broke. There were statistically significant differences between the superior and inferior portion of the glenoid with regard to number of cycles to failure at a given maximum load. The anchors underwent an average of 6,220 cycles before pullout at an average load of 162 N (SD = 73 N). In the superior quadrant, the average ultimate pullout strength was 237 N (SD = 42 N), whereas in the inferior quadrant the average ultimate pullout strength was 126 N (SD = 36 N). Hence, the ultimate pullout strength of the Mitek GII anchor was significantly higher (P < .002) in the superior quadrant than in the inferior quadrant. Using a least squares regression analysis, it was possible to predict the fatigue life of the superiorly and inferiorly placed suture anchors over a wide range of cycles. The R-squared values for trendlines showed good reliability (superior R2 = 0.55; inferior R2 = 0.28). The fatigue life curves for the two different quadrants were normalized using the ultimate pullout strength. This new, universal curve predicts the fatigue life of the Mitek GII anchor as a percentage of the ultimate pullout strength for any selected location. For a clinically relevant number of cycles, no more than approximately 40% to 50% of the ultimate pullout strength of the suture anchor can be cyclically applied to the anchor to guarantee a life for the duration of rehabilitation. For the entire system, the inferiorly placed anchors dictate the amount of cyclically applied load the system can experience without failing, and rehabilitation should be adjusted accordingly.
Experimental Investigation of Single-Phase Microjet Array Heat Transfer

The heat transfer performance of two microjet arrays was investigated using degassed deionized water and air. The inline jet arrays had diameters of 54 μm and 112 μm, a spacing of 250 μm, a standoff of 200 μm (S/d=2.2 and 4.6, H/d=1.8 and 3.7), and jet-to-heater area ratios from 0.036 to 0.16. Average heat transfer coefficients with deionized water were obtained for 150≤Re d ≤3300 and ranged from 80,000 W/m 2 K to 414,000 W/m 2 K. A heat flux of 1110 W/cm 2 was attained with 23°C inlet water and an average surface temperature of 50°C. The Reynolds number range for the same arrays with air was 300≤Re d ≤4900 with average heat transfer coefficients of 2500 W/m 2 K to 15,000 W/m 2 K. The effect of the Mach number on the area-averaged Nusselt number was found to be negligible. The data were compared with available correlations for submerged jet array heat transfer.
Comment on ‘Household Portfolio Choices in Taxable and Tax-Deferred Accounts: Another Puzzle?’

Using an arbitrage approach, Black (1980) and Tepper (1981) conclude that the optimal corporate pension policy is for companies to fully fund their pension plans, borrowing on corporate account if necessary, and investing the pension fund entirely in taxable bonds. The implications of the Black-Tepper arbitrage results for optimal asset location for individual investors were first discussed in Dammon et al. (1999). They demonstrate in their numerical analysis that the investor should optimally hold taxable bonds in his tax-deferred account and stocks in his taxable account, borrowing if necessary to achieve the optimal overall risk exposure. When the investor faces a binding borrowing constraint, he may hold some stock in his tax-deferred account, but only if his taxable account is entirely invested in equity. This optimal asset location policy was later formally derived by both Huang (2000) and Dammon et al. (2004) using the Black-Tepper arbitrage approach. Studies by Shoven (1999), Shoven and Sialm (2002), and Poterba et al. (2000) provide an alternative view. They argue that because many actively managed mutual funds distribute a large fraction of capital gains each year it can be optimal to hold equity in the tax-deferred account and tax-exempt bonds in the taxable account. However, Dammon et al. (2004) demonstrate that holding equity in the taxdeferred account, and tax-exempt bonds in the taxable account, is optimal only if the form of equity holding is highly tax-inefficient and significantly outperforms a tax-efficient index fund. Given the well-documented evidence on the underperformance of actively managed mutual funds, Dammon et al. (2004) conclude that investors would be better off holding index funds (or individual stocks) in the taxable account and taxable bonds in the tax-deferred account.
Tensile Properties of Commonly Used Prolapse Meshes

To improve our understanding of the differences in commonly used synthetic prolapse meshes, we compared four newer generation meshes to Gynecare PS™ using a tensile testing protocol. We hypothesize that the newer meshes have inferior biomechanical properties. Meshes were loaded to failure (n = 5 per group) generating load–elongation curves from which the stiffness, the load at failure, and the relative elongation were determined. Additional mesh samples (n = 3) underwent a cyclic loading protocol to measure permanent elongation in response to subfailure loading. With the exception of Popmesh, which displayed uniform stiffness, other meshes were characterized by a bilinear behavior. Newer meshes were 70–90% less stiff than Gynecare™ (p < 0.05) and more readily deformed in response to uniaxial and cyclical loading (p < 0.001). Relative to Gynecare™, the newer generation of prolapse meshes were significantly less stiff, with irreversible deformation at significantly lower loads.
Maximizing the nonoccurrence of time-out as a function of FR requirement and time-out duration

Pigeons responded on either a FR10 or FR20 schedule for food reinforcement in a discrete-trial probability-learning situation. Responses to one color produced time-outs (2 or 5 sec) 70% of the time, while responses to another color produced time-outs only 30% of the time. All Ss learned to maximize the nonoccurrence of time-outs by selecting the 30% color on nearly every trial Ss responding on the FR20 schedule reached the maximizing criterion significantly faster than did Ss responding on FR10, The results indicate that time out and shock have similar functions in probability-learning experiments.
Multi-armed Bandit Congestion Control in Multi-hop Infrastructure Wireless Mesh Networks

Congestion control in multi-hop infrastructure wireless mesh networks is both an important and a unique problem. It is unique because it has two prominent causes of failed transmissions which are difficult to tease apart - lossy nature of wireless medium and high extent of congestion around gateways in the network. The concurrent presence of these two causes limits applicability of already available congestion control mechanisms, proposed for wireless networks. Prior mechanisms mainly focus on the former cause, ignoring the latter one. Therefore, we address this issue to design an end-to-end congestion control mechanism for infrastructure wireless mesh networks in this paper. We formulate the congestion control problem and map that to the restless multi-armed bandit problem, a well-known decision problem in the literature. Then, we propose three myopic policies to achieve a near-optimal solution for the mapped problem since no optimal solution is known to this problem. We perform comparative evaluation through ns-2 simulation and a real testbed experiment with a wireline TCP variant and a wireless TCP protocol. The evaluation reveals that our proposed mechanism can achieve up to 52% increased network throughput and 34% decreased average energy consumption per transmitted bit in comparison to the other end-to-end congestion control variants.
Phylogenetic relationships and character evolution among selected species of Bactrocera (Diptera: Tephritidae) based on multiple mitochondrial genes

Several species within the fruit fly genus Bactrocera (Diptera: Tephritidae) are serious pests of cultivated fruit. The number of species within the genus and the relationships among them are not well understood. Therefore, we inferred phylogenetic relationships among thirty-nine Bactrocera species from 1819 base pairs of portions of the mitochondrial 16S rRNA, 12S rRNA, NADH 1 dehydrogenase, and cytochrome oxidase II + tRNA-Lys + tRNA-Asp genes. Maximum parsimony analysis suggested the following relationships: (1) Bactrocera is monophyletic, (2) B. (Zeugodacus) is polyphyletic, (3) B. (Daculus) is a sister group to B. (Bactrocera), (4) B. (Bactrocera) is monophyletic, and (5) the B. (B.) dorsalis complex is polyphyletic. Character evolution, biogeography, and male-lure response were evaluated in a phylogenetic context by mapping selected character states onto the parsimony tree. Our mapping analysis suggested that in most cases the morphological characters exhibit a simple evolutionary transition from one character state another. Within the subgenus B. (Bactrocera) four distinct clades were identified which correlated with geographic distribution. Male-lure response was identified as being a labile behavior that has been lost on multiple occasions. Cue-lure response was plesiomorphic to methyl-eugenol response and the latter has evolved independently within the Bactrocera and Zeugodacus groups. The implications of our results toward a coherent, consolidated classification for Bactrocera are discussed.
The evolution of a high-performing Java virtual machine

Early JavaTM virtual machines (Jvms) possessed several significant performance bottlenecks that inhibited the speed of Java workloads. This paper presents the methodology that was used by IBM to identify and eliminate these bottlenecks for improving the performance of Java applications running on several operating system platforms. In addition, several of the key performance problems that were common to all early Java virtual machine implementations and how they were solved for IBM enhanced Jvms are described in detail. The issues discussed in this paper are focused on problems found in core Jvm components, such as object synchronization, object allocation, heap management, text rendering, run-time resolution, and Java class library methods. The results obtained from applying the described methodology and eliminating the identified performance bottlenecks increased the performance of IBM Java virtual machines by as much as four times on some workloads. The technology discussed in this paper is applicable to other Jvm implementations.
Doubly resonant terahertz sideband generation in quantum wells: Optical signatures of terahertz-dressed subbands

The propagation of light through quantum wells in the vicinity of a pair of excitonic resonances dressed by a far-infrared (THz) electric field is considered. The THz frequency is tuned near resonance with (half) the splitting between the exciton levels (for an inversion symmetric system). It is found that even if excitation from the crystal ground state to one of the pair of levels is optically forbidden, it may nevertheless have a strong influence on the optical spectra due to the THz-induced hybridization of the levels (Autler-Townes splitting). If the optical transition from the crystal ground state to each of the two levels is allowed, the optical spectra of the pair of dressed levels exhibit multiple peaks.
Staircase kernels for orthogonald-polytopes

Let S r ~ be a finite union of boxes in R d. For x in S, define A x = {y:x is clearly visible from y via staircase paths in S}, and let Ker S denote the staircase kernel of S. Then KerS = ~ {Ax:x is a point of local nonconvexity of S}. A similar result holds with "clearly visible" replaced by "visible" and "points of local nonconvexity of S" replaced by "boundary points of S."
Local versus global conservation and Noether's theorem

Abstract A distinction between local and global conservation resolves a long standing dispute between Hilbert and Klein, which inadvertently has precipitated an inadequate use of Noether's theorem in contemporary work.
Enkephalin-like substance in aplysia nervous tissue and actions of leu-enkephalin on single neurons.

Abstract Extract from the abdominal ganglia of Aplysia was fractionationed by high performance liquid chromatography. Several large uv absorbing peaks were found. One of these peaks from the ganglionic extract was analyzed by displacement assay with the use of Mytilus edulis membranes. The results revealed the substance in this peak was able to displace 3H-D-Ala2, met5-enkephalinamide. In electrophysiological studies of abdominal and cerebral neurons, depolarizing and hyperpolarizing responses were obtained from some neurons, including neurons in the identified cerebral B cell cluster. A smaller population of cells exhibited biphasic responses. Some of the responses could be depressed by prior naloxone treatment. In conclusion, an endogenous opioid system, using substance related to but distinct from the enkephalins, may exist in Aplysia .
Metabolic and Cardiac Side Effects of Second-generation Antipsychotics: What Every Clinician Should Know

In 2007, 5 of the 7 second-generation antipsychotics were listed in the Top 200 Drugs prescribed by retail sales in the United States. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of natural death in individuals with schizophrenia. Second-generation antipsychotics have been implicated with metabolic and cardiovascular adverse effects, and it is important for nonpsychiatric practitioners to be familiar with the monitoring parameters recommended for these agents. This article discusses the risk of weight gain, hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia, hyperprolactinemia, and cardiovascular concerns associated with second-generation antipsychotic agents. It also discusses the proposed mechanisms for each of these adverse effects. Furthermore, it reviews suggested monitoring parameters to help manage cardiovascular disease in this patient population, and to improve the gap that exists between mental health care and physical health care in the schizophrenic population.
The Child's Conception of Psychiatric Cure

Twenty-two sequentially hospitalized children on a preadolescent psychiatric unit were videotaped with a semi-structured Piagetian-type interview that focused on assessing their understanding of why they were in the hospital, how they conceptualized their problems and how they thought they would get better or cured. We found six categories of “cure”: 1) there was no cure for their problems; 2) cure meant reversal of some behaviors; 3) cure involved some internal change; 4) cure was equivalent to being discharged; 5) cure meant changingother people; and 6) idiosyncratic answers. Our findings suggest that it is useful to clarify a child's understanding of treatment and cure in order to target more understandable and effective treatment.
Cache injection for parallel applications

For two decades, the memory wall has affected many applications in their ability to benefit from improvements in processor speed. Cache injection addresses this disparity for I/O by writing data into a processor's cache directly from the I/O bus. This technique reduces data latency and, unlike data prefetching, improves memory bandwidth utilization. These improvements are significant for data-intensive applications whose performance is dominated by compulsory cache misses.We present an empirical evaluation of three injection policies and their effect on the performance of two parallel applications and several collective micro-benchmarks. We demonstrate that the effectiveness of cache injection on performance is a function of the communication characteristics of applications, the injection policy, the target cache, and the severity of the memory wall. For example, we show that injecting message payloads to the L3 cache can improve the performance of network-bandwidth limited applications. In addition, we show that cache injection improves the performance of several collective operations, but not all-to-all operations (implementation dependent). Our study shows negligible pollution to the target caches.
Photoaffinity Labeling and Mutational Analysis of 24-C-Sterol Methyltransferase Defines the AdoMet Binding Site

Photolabeling and site-directed mutagenesis were performed on recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae 24-C-sterol methyltransferase (SMT) to elucidate the location and role of active site residues involved in AdoMet binding and catalysis. Bioinformatic analysis of the SMT revealed a ten amino acid segment, conserved between L124 and P133, associated with the Rossmann-like fold belonging to AdoMet-dependent methyltransferases. Irradiation of the SMT in the presence of [methyl-3H3]AdoMet directly photolabeled the protein. The specificity of photolabeling was demonstrated by inactivation experiments with structural analogs of AdoMet, including sinefungin. Trypsin digestion of the [methyl-3H3]AdoMet photolabeled Erg6p afforded a single radioactive band in SDS-PAGE gel of 4 kDa. HPLC purification of this material generated a single radioactive fraction. The corresponding 3H-AdoMet-peptide adduct was subjected to Edman sequencing and the first fifteen residues gave a sequence Gly120-Asp-Leu-Val-Leu-Asp-Val-Gly-Cys-Gly-Val-Gly-Gly-Pro-Ala134 that contained the predicted AdoMet binding site. Amino acid residues in the tryptic digest fragment considered to bind covalently with the AdoMet at Asp125, Cys128, Pro133 and Tyr153 were replaced with leucine and analyzed kinetically and by photolabeling inactivation experiments. The results indicate that one or both of Cys128 and Pro133 are covalently bound to AdoMet.
Effects of the persistent dominant follicle on the ability of follicle stimulating hormone to induce follicle development and ovulatory responses.

Abstract Three experiments were conducted to evaluate the effect of an induced first wave persistent dominant follicle on folliculogenesis and ovulatory responses induced by FSH. On d 6 of asynchronized estrous cycle (d 0=estrus), cows were treated with a Syncromate-B implant and two injections of PGF 2α (25mg, 0700h; 15mg, 1900h, i.m.). Cows in the control group retained a first-wave persistent dominant follicle, but in the aspirated group, the first-wave dominant follicle was removed via transvaginal aspiration on d 10 (d 0=estrus). Beginning on d 12, cows received 32mg of FSH-P i.m. in decreasing doses at 12-h intervals over a 4-d period. On d 15, the Syncromate-B implant was removed, and cows were ovariectomized (experiment 1, n=8) or inseminated (experiment 2, n=11) at 10 and 22h after the onset of estrus. Cows in experiment 3 received a used controlled intravaginal drug releasing (CIDR) device and two injections of PGF 2α (25mg, 0700h; 15mg, 1900h; i.m.) on d 6. On d 8, the first-wave dominant follicle was aspirated (n=6) or left intact (n=5), and FSH treatment was initiated (20mg of Folltropin in decreasing doses at 12-h intervals over a 4-d period), and on d 10 the used CIDR device was removed from all cows. Ovarian follicle size and number were examined daily by ultrasonography from d 5 of the estrous cycle. The persistent dominant follicle increased in size from 10.7mm on d 5 to 15.4mm on d 10 (experiments 1 and 2), and from 9mmon d 5 to 20.4mmon d 11 (experiment 3). From d 11 to 14, the number of class 1 (2 to 5mm) follicles was lower in the aspirated group than in the control group; the number of class 2 (6 to 9mm) follicles was higher on d 12 and 13 for the aspirated group (experiments 1 and 2). The number of class 3 (≥10mm) follicles was higher in the aspirated group on d 14 to 16, but the same on d 17. Ovarian and embryo responses to superovulation did not differ between groups. In experiment 3, the numbers of class 1, 2, and 3 follicles, as well as ovarian and embryo responses following ovulation did not differ between groups. Initiation of exogenous FSH treatment appears to override any systemic inhibitory effect that a persistent dominant follicle may be exerting at the pituitary and possibly the ovary.
Electrical localization of neural activity in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord: a modeling study.

Intraspinal microstimulation is a means of eliciting coordinated motor responses for restoration of function. However, detailed maps of the neuroanatomy of the human spinal cord are lacking, and it is not clear where electrodes should be implanted. We developed an electrical approach to localize active neurons in the spinal cord using potentials recorded from the surface of the spinal cord. We evaluated this localization method using an analytical model of the spinal cord and two previously developed inverse algorithms (standardized low resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (sLORETA) and a locally optimal source (LOS) method). The results support electrical source localization as a feasible imaging approach for localizing (within 300 μm) active neurons in the spinal cord. The LOS method could localize the source when 16 recording electrodes were placed on the dorsolateral aspect of the cord and the noise level was 2%. When recording electrodes were positioned around the entire circumference of the spinal cord, either localization method could localize the source, even at 15% noise. Finally, localization error was not sensitive to inaccuracies in the expected electrode positions or the electrical parameters of the forward model, but was sensitive to a geometrical modification of the forward model in one case.
Anaerobic growth of Saccharomyces cerevisiae in the absence of oleic acid and ergosterol

Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Nontrachet strain 522 was successfully grown anaerobically on various glucose concentrations in Yeast Nitrogen Base (YNB) medium (pH 3.5) prepared under an atmosphere of carbon dioxide (CO2). This growth occurred in the absence of Tween 80 and ergosterol. The medium, prepared using the Hungate technique for cultivation of strictly anaerobic bacteria, contained the reducing agent cysteine·HCl·H2O (0.03%). Anaerobic growth was stimulated by the addition of Tween 80 and ergosterol to the anaerobic medium.
Investigation of a cyclic laterally loaded model pile group

Abstract In certain regions of the world, designing deep foundations to withstand seismic loading is a reality. Seismic loading of structures and foundations reaches its most critical state as a cyclic lateral force. The response of soils and foundations to repetitive lateral forces is highly complex, relegating most design methods to be based upon overly conservative rules-of-thumb. The primary objective of this research was to analyze the mechanics of seismic loading on pile groups in clay soils. To achieve this a model testing facility was constructed to house a fully instrumented 1×5 model pile group that was subjected to cyclic lateral loading. An empirically based method for pile group design is suggested based upon the results generated from model pile group testing.