cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Neuromuscular specificity: pathfinding by identified motor growth cones in a vertebrate embryo.

Abstract Although it is well known that vertebrate motoneurons are precisely connected to particular muscles, the mechanisms underlying this specificity have been controversial. Observations in various vertebrates have provided evidence for at least two views on the origins of neuromuscular specificity: it may arise (1) directly from the pathfinding abilities of motor growth cones that seek out the correct muscles to innervate; (2) from elimination of incorrect connections by later-acting mechanisms like cell death and competition; or (3) from a combination of these possibilities. Recent direct observations of growing motoneurons in live zebrafish embryos have demonstrated that each motor growth cone that pioneers a peripheral nerve follows a characteristic path and extends directly to the region of muscle appropriate for its adult function. Thus, correct neuromuscular connections in this system and perhaps in most systems arise, at least in part, by cell-specific pathfinding. Other mechanisms may be important later in development for establishing the number and precise distribution of muscle fibers innervated by each motoneuron.
Discovery of Faint Ultraviolet Sources in the Globular Cluster NGC 6624 with the Hubble Space Telescope

Using the Faint Object Camera (FOC) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), we have identified three faint ultraviolet sources in the innermost ~15 arcseconds of the globular cluster NGC 6624. These sources are in addition to the previously discovered UV counterpart to the X-ray source 4U 1820-30, which is observed in the same field. At 1400 A, the sources have dereddened fluxes of 4.4 × 10-16 to 1.8 × 10-15 erg cm-2 s-1 A-1. The faintest source is within the field of view of an existing HST/FOC B image; its B magnitude is ~23.4, or MB ~ 7.8. The two fainter sources may be hot white dwarfs, although it would be unusual to observe two of these objects at such a young age. Alternatively, one or more of the sources could be hot, helium-burning subdwarfs. In particular, the brightest source may be on the extreme blue end of the horizontal branch, which would be notable, as NGC 6624 is a metal-rich cluster with a red horizontal branch. Finally, one or more of these stars could be cataclysmic variables. We briefly discuss future observations that could distinguish among these possibilities.
The archival acid test: evaluating archive performance on advanced HTML and JavaScript

When preserving web pages, archival crawlers sometimes produce a result that varies from what an end-user expects. To quantitatively evaluate the degree to which an archival crawler is capable of comprehensively reproducing a web page from the live web into the archives, the crawlers' capabilities must be evaluated. In this paper, we propose a set of metrics to evaluate the capability of archival crawlers and other preservation tools using the Acid Test concept. For a variety of web preservation tools, we examine previous captures within web archives and note the features that produce incomplete or unexpected results. From there, we design the test to produce a quantitative measure of how well each tool performs its task.
Parallel Structural Analysis Using Threads

Practical solution of the structural analysis problem in a parallel processing environment is investigated through the use of the notion of cheap concurrency and the concept of threads. A thread is a lightweight process or independent instructions executing agent capable of concurrent execution with other threads. Portions of a structural analysis code implemented in C have been parallelized employing the Encore Parallel Threads on an Encore Multimax multiprocessor computer. The issues of racing condition, synchronization, and mapping are considered and discussed. Two synchronization mechanisms, semaphores and monitors, have been employed and compared. Two different mapping strategies have been implemented and studied. Results are reported on the effect of amount and frequency of shared memory access on the speed-up, the overhead time required for creating threads, and comparison of overall computational time performance using two space truss examples. An overall efficiency of 90–95% was achieved for 11 processors.
SUMMARY OF TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH BOARD CONFERENCE, 1980

Abstract The Transportation Research Board Conference of 1980 examined the transportation responses and the effects of policies during the energy supply disruptions of the 1970s. Build-up of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve was strongly recommended, as was involvement of oil industry personnel in future crisis management. Primary reliance on local and private-sector transportation decisionmaking was also advocated and should be encouraged, where possible, by relaxation of regulations. Gasoline coupon rationing was not seen as a feasible option.
Dynamical simulations of stress, strain, and finite deformations.

Formulations and methodologies of molecular-dynamics simulations of material systems evolving under applied finite external perturbations are developed and discussed. Focusing on interfacial systems, composed of interfacing crystalline solids characterized by differing interatomic interactions and atomic sizes, the mechanisms and dynamics of response and stress relief in the elastic, plastic, and inelastic regimes are investigated. Critical values of the external perturbations (stress and strain) are determined, showing dependence on the nature of the interface and the ambient conditions (thermally adiabatic versus isothermal).
Work in progress - software engineering capstone project with Rational Unified Process® (RUP)

Any credible software engineering program must thrive to connect college education with the realities of commercial software development. In most cases, the study of software processes takes place in the lecture halls but it is not practiced in student projects. Students graduate into the commercial world driven by software and business processes without any hands-on experience and thus without an in-depth understanding of the significance of a process to the industrial setting. In order to close this gap, we have chosen to use a commercial grade process framework: Rational Unified Processreg (RUP) for the backbone of our newly introduced software engineering capstone project. The capstone project is required for all students and offered through the senior year of our ABET-accredited BS in computer science program. In our opinion, this will prepare students better for the competitive job market.
An Exploratory Analysis of Homicide Victims, Offenders, and Events in Russia

Detailed research on violence in Russia was nearly impossible until recently because the former Soviet government kept crime and mortality data secret and because Soviet ideology discouraged scientific studies of crime. Transparency has increased during the transition, however, allowing scholars not only to access official data but to undertake independent criminological studies. Taking advantage of a unique set of homicide narratives drawn from court and police records and statements by offenders and witnesses of homicides in the Udmurt Republic from 1989 to 1991 and in 1998, this article is one of the first of its kind to examine the homicide event in Russia. These data are employed to explore victim and offender characteristics, victim-offender relationships, weapon use, motive, time and location of events, and the role of alcohol. Although exploratory in nature, the descriptive results should provide observations on which to develop theory about interpersonal violence.
Liberalizing foreign direct investment regimes: The vestigial screen

Abstract Governments throughout the developing world are widely viewed to be liberalizing their foreign investment regimes. This paper reports on a study that assesses the progress governments have made in implementing new investment regimes by comparing changes in the policies of governments toward foreign investment with changes in the structures and processes they use to screen foreign investment. The data suggest that the implementation of new investment regimes has been slowed by political compromises among units within governments. The paper points to the critical importance of strong central administrations that can muster the will to push liberalization efforts and provides recommendations on how governments can implement effectively policies of investment liberalization.
Lack of evidence of cytoplasmic inheritance in milk production traits of dairy cattle.

Heritability estimates, by year of freshening of daughter, were obtained from daughter-dam and granddaughter-granddam regressions using 61,482 triply matched first lactations of artificially sired Holstein cows obtained from the Northeast Dairy Records Processing Laboratory. After adjusting for herd-year-season effects, residual effects may include additive and other genetic effects of the animal, maternal effects, cytoplasmic effects, and other environmental effects. Analysis of residuals showed that cytoplasmic effects accounted for no variation in milk and fat yield and fat percent. Weighted yearly heritability estimates and standard errors from daughter on dam regressions were .35 +/- .01 for milk yield, .30 +/- .01 for milk fat yield, and .63 +/- .01 for milk fat percent and from daughter on granddam regressions were .34 +/- .03 for milk production, .28 +/- .03 for milk fat production, and .55 +/- .03 for milk fat percent. The differences between daughter-dam and daughter-granddam heritability estimates, which estimate twice the fraction of variance due to cytoplasmic effects, were negative and not statistically significant for milk fat yield and also were negative but highly significant for milk fat percent.
Scale aspects of groundwater flow and transport systems

Flow-system analysis is based on the concept of hierarchical groundwater flow systems. The topography of the water table, which is strongly related to the topography of the land surface, is a major factor in the hierarchical nesting of gravity-driven groundwater flow, resulting in flow systems of different orders of magnitude in lateral extent and depth of penetration. The concept of flow systems is extremely useful in the analysis of spatial and temporal scales and their mutual relationships. Basic equations on the laboratory scale are extended to larger, regional scales. Making use of Fourier analysis further develops Toth's original idea of topography-driven flow systems. In this way, the different spatial scales of the water table are separated in a natural way, leading to a simple expression for the penetration depth of a flow system. This decomposition leads also to the relationship between spatial and temporal scales. Analogous to flow systems, water bodies with different water quality may be called 'transport systems.' Field studies, numerical micro-scale modeling over macro-scale domains, and stochastic dispersion theory indicate that between systems with steady transport, the interfaces are relatively thin. The interfaces are much thinner than the relatively large mixing zones predicted by the conventional engineering approach to macrodispersion, in which relatively large, time-independent macrodispersion lengths are applied. A relatively simple alternative engineering approach is presented. For macrodispersion of propagating solute plumes, the alternative dispersion term gives the same results as the conventional engineering approach and gives correct results for steady-state transport.
A Robust Method For Restoration Of Photon-Limited, Blurred Images

A robust method for restoration of photon- limited, blurred imagesWilliam A. Pearlman and Woo -Jin SongElectrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering DepartmentRensselaer Polytechnic InstituteTroy, N.Y. 12180AbstractA two -step procedure is developed for restoring low light level images degraded by alinear space- invariant blur. The first step uses a linear minimum mean square point esti-mate of the blurred image. The second removes the blur through a constrained linear leastsquares technique where the error of the first step is treated as additive noise. No priorknowledge of the object is required, as the procedure utilizes sample statistics in an anal-ysis window around each received image element to develop the estimators. The size of thewindow is adaptive, as it is adjusted for the next image element according to an activityindex computed for the current window. In experiments with simulated photon- noise -degraded,lineal- motion -blurred images, the efficacy of the procedure is demonstrated visually andmeasured by signal -to -noise ratio improvements.IntroductionA fundamental limitation in restoring images at low light levels is the photon noisearising from the random number of photoelectron counts during the observation interval foreach detector in the image detector array. Moreover, the image may also have suffered de-gradation in transmission through the atmosphere and in reception by a diffraction -limitedoptical system which may be moving relative to the object (image source). Here these atmos-pheric and optical system degradations shall be represented as a linear and spatially invar-iant filtering of the object. This paper addresses the problem of obtaining object estimatesfrom predominantly photon -limited images which have undergone lineal motion blur. These es-timates are obtained without prior knowledge of object or image statistics, as sample sta-tistics are generated upon reception and adaptively updated for different regions of the
Phase diagram for the cubic model in the Kikuchi approximation

A variant of the three-state Potts model known as the cubic model has been used to describe the critical behavior of some rare-earth pnictides. In the mean-field (MF) approximation this model has a tricritical-like phase transition, while in the Bethe-Peierls-Weiss (BPW) approximation the transition is first order. To obtain a better estimate of the phase diagram of this model we have used the Kikuchi cluster variational method with a tetrahedron as the basic cluster. By using the symmetry properties of the cubic model we were able to reduce the 36 coupled equations with 1296 variational parameters to 12 coupled equations and 58 distinct variational parameters. We were able to solve these equations and find the surfaces in the phase diagram where transitions occurred. The qualitative features of the phase diagram for the cubic model do not change too much in going from the BPW to the Kikuchi approximation. However, there are quantitative changes which become large for certain points and along symmetry directions in the phase diagram, i.e., for those values of the anisotropy ($\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{D}}$) for which several components of the spin become simultaneously critical. For these points the Kikuchi tetrahedron approximation takes much better account of the correlations between spins than the MF and BPW approximations. It follows that the estimates of the critical fields ${\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{D}}}_{c}$ and quadrupolar coupling ${\ensuremath{\eta}}_{c}$ necessary to drive the transition tricritical are substantially better in the Kikuchi tetrahedron approximation. At the origin $\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{D}}=0$ we find a first-order phase transition occurs at a temperature 13% lower than that found with the MF approximation and 5% lower than the BPW approximation.
Yeast proteomics and protein microarrays

Our understanding of biological processes as well as human diseases has improved greatly thanks to studies on model organisms such as yeast. The power of scientific approaches with yeast lies in its relatively simple genome, its facile classical and molecular genetics, as well as the evolutionary conservation of many basic biological mechanisms. However, even in this simple model organism, systems biology studies, especially proteomic studies had been an intimidating task. During the past decade, powerful high-throughput technologies in proteomic research have been developed for yeast including protein microarray technology. The protein microarray technology allows the interrogation of protein-protein, protein-DNA, protein-small molecule interaction networks as well as post-translational modification networks in a large-scale, high-throughput manner. With this technology, many groundbreaking findings have been established in studies with the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, most of which could have been unachievable with traditional approaches. Discovery of these networks has profound impact on explicating biological processes with a proteomic point of view, which may lead to a better understanding of normal biological phenomena as well as various human diseases.
LC–MS/MS method development and validation for the determination of polymyxins and vancomycin in rat plasma

Simple, sensitive and robust liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometer (LC-MS/MS) methods were developed and validated for the determination of lipopeptide polymyxins and glycopeptide vancomycin in rat plasma. The effect of trichloroacetic acid (TCA) concentration on sample recoveries (peak area of sample recovered from plasma/peak area of sample from neat solvent solutions) was studied and an optimized concentration of 30% TCA were determined that gives the best sample recovery for the peptides from rat plasma. The effect of the TCA concentration on the chromatographic behavior of peptides was studied on a Phenomenex Jupiter C18 5μ 300A 50mm×2mm column using a mobile phase with a pH of 2.8. Other than protein precipitation, TCA also acted as ion pairing reagent and was only present in the samples but not in the mobile phases. The data demonstrated that by increasing the TCA concentration, the analyte retention and sensitivity were improved. The absence of TCA in mobile phase helped to reduce the ion source contamination and to achieve good reproducibility. The plasma method was linearly calibrated from 5 to 5000ng/mL for polymyxins with precisions to be of 2.3-10.8%, and accuracies to be 91.7-107.4% for polymyxin B1, B2, E1, E2, respectively. For vancomycin the calibration is from 1 to 5000ng/mL with precisions to be of 7.8-10.3 and accuracies to be 96.2-102.0%. The LLOQs corresponding with a coefficient of variation less than 20% were 7.5, 18.1, 7.3, 5.0 and 1.0ng/mL for polymyxin B1, B2, E1, E2 and vancomycin, respectively.
An empirical potential function for the interaction between univalent ions in water

A hydration-shell model has been developed for calculating the interaction energy between ions in water. The hydration shell around each ion contains a few tightly bound water molecules and a larger number of less tightly bound molecules. The energies of their interaction with the ion and the size of the hydration shell have been derived from published experimental data for ion-water clusters in the gas phase. An expression derived for the interaction energy of two univalent ions in water incorporates the following effects: a Lennard-Jones 6–12 interaction, a Coulomb interaction between the charges, the polarization of the hydration shells by a neighboring ion, and an energy term for the removal of water from the hydration shells when the hydration shells of two ions overlap. The ‘effective’ dielectric constant at small ion-ion distances is the only adjustable parameter. Computed interaction energies for aqueous solutions of twelve alkali halides match experimental values, derived from conductimetric measurements, with an average error of ±14%.
Monitoring Student Internet Patterns: Big Brother or Promoting Mental Health?

A study showing that student internet behavior differed significantly for students with high scores on a test of depression is thought to be the first to consider the relationship between internet use and depression that focuses on patterns of online behavior rather than content. Study findings have the potential for use in the human services as a way to assess and/or promote mental health. Although the data were collected anonymously with Institutional Review Board approval and participants' informed consent, objections have been raised suggesting this type of data collection represents “Big Brother” or the monitoring of individuals' behavior without their awareness as portrayed in George Orwell's famous novel, 1984. The importance of this type of research in furthering our understanding of the impact of Internet use on human behavior is emphasized. Additionally, the role of the university is stressed as a location for conducting ethical research which disseminates findings via publication to inform and ...
SOME PROCEDURES FOR SELECTING FUZZY SET-THEORETIC OPERATORS

Abstract We investigate the definition of the “and” operation in multivalued logic and decision making. A set of basic properties are suggested. Rules for selecting an appropriate operator are given. A general class of connectives is also suggested.
Open Aortic Arch Repair: State-of-the-Art and Future Perspectives

Surgical procedures for the treatment of complex aortic arch pathology remain among the most challenging cardiovascular operations, incurring considerable risk for death and stroke. The purpose of this article is to describe the evolution of our approach to open repair of the aortic arch. Our arterial cannulation strategy has shifted from femoral and direct aortic to right axillary and more recently innominate artery cannulation. This transition has facilitated the administration of continuous antegrade cerebral perfusion and more moderate levels of hypothermia during complex repairs. Modifications in surgical technique, including arch reconstruction with the trifurcated graft, and the classical and frozen elephant trunk techniques have simplified the conduct of the operation. Experimental and clinical research supporting the evolution of our approach is discussed in this paper.
College Women's Likelihood to Report Unwanted Sexual Experiences to Campus Agencies: Trends and Correlates

The present study examined college women's likelihood to report sexual victimization to the police, a friend, the counseling center, their resident advisor, or on a survey (N = 300). In comparison to other forms of reporting, women perceived themselves to be most likely to report victimization on a survey. Women also indicated a higher likelihood to report to friends rather than to other agencies. Likelihood to report on a survey did not vary as a function of history of sexual victimization; however, women with a victimization history indicated a lower likelihood to report to all agencies compared to women without a victimization history. Correlates of women's likelihood to report were also documented.
Characterization of copper and vanadium containing heteropolyacid catalysts for oxidative dehydrogenation of propane

Abstract Multicomponent Keggin-type heteropolyacid catalysts were prepared by refluxing MoO3, V2O5 and CuO in aqueous solutions of phosphoric acid. Characterization of the recovered solids by elemental analysis, thermal gravimetric analysis, infra-red spectroscopy, UV–Vis reflectance spectroscopy, and X-ray absorption spectroscopy at the K edges of Mo and Cu, indicated V ions substituted for Mo ions in phosphomolybdic acid, whereas Cu ions did not substitute into the Keggin units. The Cu ions apparently functioned as charge-balancing counter ions in the neutral solid since formation of a Cs salt lowered the Cu content. The activity of Cu,V-containing heteropolyacid for oxidative dehydrogenation of propane to propene at 573 K was greater than that of H3PMo12O40 and H4PMo11VO40, but was similar to that of a physical mixture of CuO and H4PMo11VO40. Substitution of Cu into a Keggin unit does not appear to be necessary for promotion of the oxidative dehydrogenation reaction.
Patchiness in the dispersion of nectar resources: Evidence for hot and cold spots

The dispersion pattern of resources can have a significant effect on foraging behavior. We examined the dispersion pattern of standing crop of nectar in a population of Delphinium nelsonii. The nectar content of flowers was measured for subject inflorescences and their two nearest neighbors. Inflorescences were divided into those which had some nectar (hot plants) and those which had none (cold plants). Tests for independence showed that subject plants and their neighbors were likely to have the same “temperature”, indicating that resources were patchy. The implications of this pattern for the foraging movements of bumblebees are discussed.
A quantitative MRI study of posterior fossa development in velocardiofacial syndrome.

Abstract Background: Velocardiofacial syndrome (VCFS) has been identified as a risk factor for developing schizophrenia. Qualitative neuroimaging studies indicated that VCFS was frequently associated with abnormal development of structures in the posterior fossa of the brain. The objective of this investigation was to identify the specific structures affected in the posterior fossa and investigate the association of these neuroanatomic variations with behaviors potentially related to later-onset psychiatric disorders. Methods: Twenty-four children and adolescents with VCFS individually matched for age and gender with 24 control subjects received magnetic resonance imaging scans. Analysis of covariance models were used to investigate regional brain differences. Association between brain areas and behaviors measured on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) were assessed using simple regression models. Results: Children with VCFS had significantly smaller size of vermal lobules VI–VII and the pons after adjusting for overall brain size. There were no significant associations between scores on the CBCL and measures of neuroanatomic variation within the VCFS group. Conclusions: Structural alterations of the posterior fossa in VCFS are specifically limited to cerebellar vermis lobules VI–VII and pons. Previous literature has suggested that the vermis is involved in social cognition, and alteration of lobules VI–VII could therefore partially explain the neurobehavioral profile associated with VCFS.
Lipoprotein lipase in rat lung. Effect of dexamethasone.

Abstract The effect of hormone administration on the activity of lipoprotein lipase in the lung was studied in the rat. The following hormones were administered: dexamethasone, l -thyroxine, estradiol-17β and progesterone. In addition, lung lipoprotein lipase activity was studied in diabetic and lactating rats. Lipoprotein lipase activity was measured in dried, defatted preparations of rat lung using double labeled ([ 14 C]palmitate, [ 3 H]glycerol) chylomicron triacylglycerol as substrate. Dexamethasone administration caused a rise of 70% in the level of activity of lipoprotein lipase in acetone powders of lung and a 100% increase in the amount of enzyme released during heparin infusion into isolated, perfused lungs. Enzyme activity was higher in lungs of females than of male rats; however, the level of activity was unaffected by estrogen or progesterone administration to either male or ovariectomized rats. Diabetes, hyperthyroidism or lactation did not change lipoprotein lipase activity in the lung. The constant presence of lipoprotein lipase activity in the lung suggests that this organ is able to maintain a steady supply of triacylglycerol-fatty acids under a variety of physiological and pathological conditions. Stimulation of enzyme activity by dexamethasone could lead to increased uptake of triacylglycerol-fatty acids by the lung and may thus be a contributing factor to corticosteroid-induced enhanced surfactant synthesis.
Influence of woody debris on nutrient retention in catastrophically disturbed streams

The role of woody debris in nutrient cycling was investigated in two catastrophically disturbed streams in the Pacific Northwest that had been subjected to large inputs of wood. One study site in each catchment had all woody debris removed (take section), while the debris in the other study site was left intact (leave section). Nitrate, phosphate and chloride (a conservative tracer) were released in each section and nutrient retention was monitored at downstream stations. Phosphate was removed from solution more than nitrate, probably due to the high N : P ratio in the stream water. However, there were no major differences in nutrient retention between the take and leave sections. In contrast, experiments in recirculating chambers showed that woody debris and cobbles exhibited higher nitrate and phosphate uptake per unit surface area than sand/gravel or fine particulate organic matter. The high uptake rates of woody debris and cobbles may be related to their suitability for colonization by heterotrophic microorganisms and algae. Wood may not influence nutrient retention significantly at the reach level because of its low surface area relative to other substrates. However, wood may be very important at small spatial scales because of its high uptake activity.
Discrete stochastic model for self-renewal and differentiation of progenitor cells

We propose a discrete model for self-renewal and differentiation of hematopoietic stem cells based on the notion that, in a favorable environment, the commitment of the cells to a particular pair of progeny is a stochastic event with the possibility of either self-renewal or differentiation. Regulatory mechanisms are incorporated into the model, as is diffusion of the cytokines that carry the signals for such mechanisms. The model can produce chaotic states, and is shown to be capable of predicting some key features of the experimental data.
Differential accumulation of host mRNAs on polyribosomes during obligate pathogen-plant interactions

Plant pathogens elicit dramatic changes in the expression of host genes during both compatible and incompatible interactions. Gene expression profiling studies of plant-pathogen interactions have only considered messenger RNAs (mRNAs) present in total RNA, which contains subpopulations of actively translated mRNAs associated with polyribosomes (polysomes) and non-translated mRNAs that are not associated with polysomes. The goal of this study was to enhance previous gene expression analyses by identifying host mRNAs that become differentially associated with polysomes following pathogen inoculation. Total and polysomal RNA were extracted from barley (Hordeum vulgare) plants at 32 h after inoculation with Blumeria graminis f. sp. hordei, and Arabidopsis thaliana plants at 10 days after inoculation with Turnip mosaic virus. Gene expression profiles were obtained for each pathosystem, which represent diverse plant host-obligate pathogen interactions. Using this approach, host mRNAs were identified that were differentially associated with polysomes in response to pathogen treatment. Approximately 18% and 26% of mRNAs represented by probe sets on the Affymetrix Barley1 and Arabidopsis ATH1 GeneChips, respectively, differentially accumulated in the two populations in one or more combinations of treatment and genotype. Gene ontology analysis of mRNAs sharing the same pattern of accumulation in total and polysomal RNA identified gene sets that contained a significant number of functionally related annotations, suggesting both transcript accumulation and recruitment to polyribosomes are coordinately regulated in these systems.
Parathyroid hormone and vitamin D

PARATHYROID hormone (PTH) and vitamin D are the two most important regulators of calcium metabolism. In addition, both of these substances have marked effects upon citrate metabolism. The evidence for a link between citrate and calcium metabolism may be summarized as follows : (1) Administration of either vitamin D or PTH results in an increase in the amount of citrate and calcium in serum. Conversely, a deficiency of vitamin D, or a lack of FTH, results in a fall in serum citrate and calcium [l-15]. (2) An increase in the level of circulating citrate, whether produced by (a) injections of citrate as such [16]; (b) by the administration of fluoroacetate [17]; or (c) by nephrectomy [I, 17, 181, all result in hypercalcemia or bone resorption [19, 201. This review concerns the relationships between FTH, vitamin D, citrate, and calcium metabolism. The points to be considered are these: (1) the source of the citrate found in the serum after vitamin D or PTH administration; (2) the effect of vitamin D and PTH upon citrate metabolism in the bone, kidney and intestine; (3) the role of citrate in FIX-mediated calcium homeostasis; and (4) the interaction between vitamin D and PTH. General aspects of the biochemistry of parathyroid hormone have been discussed in a previous review [13]. Noteworthy among the existing studies are those of DE LUCA and associates [21, 221. These investigators demonstrated that vitamin D inhibits the oxidation of citrate by the kidney. This could account for the rise in the serum citrate level observed by many investigators after vitamin D administration. A similar rise in the serum citrate level is observed if citrate oxidation by the kidneys is prevented by removing them entirely [ 1, 17, 181. The kidneys have been shown to be the chief organs responsible for the removal of citrate from the blood [18, 231. The possibility of a direct effect of vitamin D on citrate metabolism in the bone must also be considered. CARLSSON and HOLLUNGER [3] have postulated that vitamin D stimulates citric acid production by bone. The administration of vitamin D to rats deficient in the vitamin has been found to increase markedly the plasma citric acid response to nephrectomy [24]. This observation suggests the existence of an extrarenal site of action of vitamin D on citrate metabolism. The most likely possibility is the bone, but there is no direct evidence supporting this view. NEUMAN
Carnivores have sequences in their cellular DNA distantly related to the primate endogenous virus, MAC-1.

Abstract Endogenous viral gene sequences, present in multiple copies and related to the primate type C virus, MAC-1, from Macaca arctoides , are found not only in related primates, as expected, but also in the cellular DNA of various carnivores (order Carnivora). These sequences are not related to the previously described endogenous viruses, RD-114 and feline leukemia virus, of certain Felis species.
Apparent antimutagenic effect of ultraviolet irradiation

Abstract Strain SL3367 is a S. typhimurium LT2 hisG46 stock which spontaneously reverts to His + at a high frequency. Plates of defined medium with 1% (v/v) nutrient broth inoculated with ca. 10 8 washed SL3367 cells were incubated, untreated or after UV irradiation. After 2 days at 37°C, an average of 165 His + colonies were obtained per control plate but significantly fewer, 105 His + colonies, on plates irradiated at a fluence of 7 J/m 2 . The dry weight of bacteria in washings from plates incubated 14 h (by which time growth of His − cells had ceased) was the same for irradiated and non-irradiated plates but the yield of colony-forming units from irradiated plates was less than from control plates, by about the same factor as the reduction in yield of His + colonies caused by the same fluence. Washings from incubated irradiated plates, but not those from control plates, contained long filaments as well as bacteria of normal size; on transfer to nutrient-agar slide cultures cells normal size grew into microcolonies but filaments did not grow. The reduced plateau yield of viable His − cells caused by consumption of much of the growth-limiting supply of histidine by irradiated cells growing into non-viable filaments reduces the number of auxotrophic bacteria at risk for spontaneous reversion and so accounts for the apparent antimutagenic effect of UV irradiation. This effect was partly reversed by the presence of d,l -pantoyl lactone in the selection medium, and was also observed for yield of Trp + colonies from trpE8 cultures with a high spontaneous reversion rate. Treatments not inducing cell filamentation did not result in the depression of spontaneous revertants and were detected as being mutagenic. The apparent antimutagenic effect may be expected for reversion of any auxotroph, unless masked by induced revertants and is particularly apparent in an auxotroph which reverts spontaneously at high frequency.
The Initial Interview with Diverse Populations: An Introduction to the Special Issue

Every initial clinical interview is a unique encounter between psychotherapist and client. This unique encounter typically includes interactions designed to build the therapeutic relationship, collect assessment data, develop a case formulation, and initiate psychotherapy. As the United States population has become more diverse, conducting an effective initial interview has become more complex and challenging. To meet this challenge, it is recommended that psychotherapists make cultural adaptations by seeking self-awareness, acquiring knowledge, and learning culture-specific techniques. This special issue includes six articles designed to stretch the way psychotherapists think about the initial interview and infuse greater multicultural sensitivity and humility into psychotherapy practice.
THE PLASMODIUM FALCIPARUM 6 KB ELEMENT IS POLYCISTRONICALLY TRANSCRIBED

The Plasmodium falciparum 6 kb element encodes three protein coding genes and highly fragmented large and small subunit rRNAs; its gene content makes it the probable mitochondrial genome. Many of the genes are encoded so close to each other that there is insufficient room for specific promoters upstream of each gene. RNase protection analysis of two rRNA fragments whose genes are adjacent provided evidence for a polycistronic transcript containing sequences from both, as well as separate small RNAs. To evaluate the possibility of further polycistronic transcription, several sets of oligonucleotide primers located in different regions of the 6 kb element were employed to amplify cDNAs. These analyses have revealed the existence of 6 kb element transcripts as long as 5.9 kb. Both mRNA and rRNA sequences are included on these putative precursor transcripts. Since these types of RNA are known to have different patterns of abundance changes during the erythrocytic portion of the parasite life cycle, RNA stability is presumably an important feature in regulating mitochondrial transcript abundance.
Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography in the Diagnosis and Management of Cholangiocarcinoma

Cholangiocarcinomas (CCAs) are rare malignancies that arise from the biliary epithelium. Intrahepatic CCAs usually present as mass lesions that are asymptomatic or cause nonspecific systemic symptoms such as fatigue, fever, and weight loss. Hilar and extrahepatic tumors most commonly present with jaundice, though cholangitis also can be seen. Tumor markers such as carbohydrate antigen 19-9 and carcinoembryonic antigen have been used to diagnose CCA, but these are nonspecific and may be elevated in infection, inflammation, or any obstruction. Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) has been used for the diagnosis and management of CCA for many years. This article summarizes the data regarding the application of ERCP in the diagnosis and management of CCA.
High Efficiency Minichannel and Mini-Impingement Cooling Systems for Hybrid Electric Vehicle Electronics

Over the years, electronic equipment, especially semiconductor based devices, have found their applications in almost all fields of research. The demand for more power and performance from such electronic equipment has constantly been growing resulting in an increased amount of heat dissipation from these devices. While conventional cooling solutions have performed the task of heat removal, no straightforward extension has been possible for significantly high heat fluxes dissipated by smaller and more efficient electronic devices. Thermal management of high-density power control unit for hybrid electric vehicle is one such challenging application. Over the last few years, the performance of this power control unit has been improved and size has been reduced to attain higher efficiency and performance causing the heat dissipation as well as heat density to increase significantly. Efforts are constantly being made to reduce the PCU size even further and also to reduce the manufacturing costs. As a consequence, heat density will go up (∼200–250 W/cm2) and thus, a better high performance cooler/heat exchanger is required which can operate under the existing cooling system design (pressure drop limitation) and at the same time, maintain active devices temperature within optimum range (<120–125°C) for higher reliability.The focus of this paper is to discuss the development of various cooling options for high heat flux dissipating devices with severe size constraints. A parametric and optimization study on the selected designs was performed. Finally, the optimized cooler/heat exchanger was tested under actual running conditions. The methodology was to explore various high performance cooling options such as impinging jets, pin fins, and ribbed mini-channels and to arrive at new promising, conceptual designs. These new designs were then compared against similar conventional designs both numerically and experimentally. Additionally, conjugate heat transfer simulations were performed on partial packaging model to compare the various designs. Experiments were also performed to validate the simulation models and characterize the meshing parameters to perform cost and time effective calculations/simulations.Copyright © 2012 by ASME
FSMD functional partitioning for low power

Previous work has shown that sizable power reductions can be achieved by shutting down a system's sub-circuits when they are not needed. However, these shutdown techniques focus on shutting down only portions of the controller or the datapath of a single custom hardware processor. We propose a higher level shutdown technique that considers both the controller and datapath simultaneously; in particular, we partition a processor into multiple simpler mutually-exclusive communicating processors, and then shut down the inactive processors (i.e., the inactive controller/datapath pairs). Power reduction is accomplished because only one smaller processor is active at a time. In addition to power reduction, functional partitioning also provides solutions to a variety of synthesis problems and does not require the modification of the synthesis tool. We present results showing that this FSMD functional partitioning technique can reduce power, on average, 42% over unoptimized systems.
A comparative electron microscopic study of the morphology of Toxoplasma gondii by freeze-etch replication and thin sectioning technic.

SYNOPSIS. Freeze-etch preparations of Toxoplasma gondii reveal details of structure and organelles in 3-dimensional relationships. The subpellicular microtubules and their relationship to the polar ring, the tripartite pellicle, the pellicle constituents, and the spatial relationship of the rhoptries to the conoid and conoid canal are clearly demarcated.
TU-FF-A4-06: Image-Based Modeling of Tumor Shrinkage Or Growth: Towards Adaptive Radiation Therapy of Head-And-Neck Cancer

Purpose: Understanding the kinetics of tumor growth/shrinkage represents a critical step in quantitative assessment of therapeutics and realization of adaptive radiation therapy (ART). We establish a novel framework for image‐basedmodeling of tumor change and demonstrate its performance. Method and Materials: Due to the non‐conservation of tissue, similarity‐based deformable models are not suitable for describing the tumor growth/shrinkage process. Under the hypothesis that the tissue features in the tumor volume or the boundary region are partially preserved, we model the tumor kinetics by a two‐step procedure: (1) auto‐detection of homologous tissue features shared by the planning CT and subsequent on‐treatment CBCTimages using the Scale Invariance Feature Transformation (SIFT) method; (2) establishment of voxel‐to‐voxel correspondence between two input images for the remaining spatial points by a basis spline interpolation. The correctness of the tissue feature correspondence is doubly assured by a bi‐directional association procedure, in which the SIFT features are mapped from planning CT to CBCT and reversely. Only the associations common to both mappings are used in BSpline interpolation. A number of synthetic digital phantom experiments and five clinical HN cases are used to assess the performance of the proposed technique. Results:Image contents of the digital phantoms are modified in various ways. It is found the proposed technique can identify any of the changes faithfully. The subsequent feature‐guided BSpline interpolation reproduces the “ground truth” with an accuracy better than 1.3mm. For the clinical cases, the new algorithm works reliably for a volume change less than 30%, suggesting the time span between two consequent imaging sessions should not be unreasonably far away in order for the model to function properly. Conclusion: An image‐basedtumor kinetic model has been developed to better understand the tumor response to radiation therapy. The technique provides a solid foundation for future head‐and‐neck ART.
Ethics in classroom assessment practices: Issues and attitudes

Abstract Student evaluations should “be ethical, fair, useful, feasible, and accurate” [JCSEE (2003). The student evaluation standards. Arlen Gullickson, Chair. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin]. This study focuses on defining ethical behavior and examining educators’ ethical judgments in relation to assessment. It describes the results from a web-based survey of educators in which they read a brief scenario and indicated whether the student evaluation practice in the depiction was ethical or unethical. Results showed strong agreement among the educators on fewer than half of the scenarios presented in this study. These findings suggest that assessment is currently an educational realm without professional consensus.
The Role of Self‐Perceptions in Reactions to Preferential and Merit‐Based Hiring1

This research attempts to assess the role of preexisting self-perceptions as moderators of individuals' reactions to preferential and merit-based selection. A laboratory experiment was conducted in which female participants were recruited to work on a temporary “job.” Participants were randomly “hired” for the job either because they passed a preemployment qualifying test or because of their gender. Results supported hypothesized self-consistent reactions to the hiring conditions among individuals differing in preexisting self-efficacy. Compared to high self-efficacy participants, lower self-efficacy individuals responded to preferential hiring with lower eventual task performance. Low self-efficacy individuals were also less apt to attribute performance during selection to ability when hired under a merit-based procedure, compared to high self-efficacy participants.
Common misconceptions about cognitive mediation of treatment change: a commentary to Longmore and Worrell (2007)

The article by Richard J. Longmore and Michael Worrell [Clinical Psychology Review, Volume 27, 2007, pp. 173-187] reviews a selection of studies showing no significant difference between treatment conditions that include formal cognitive restructuring techniques and other behavioral treatment modalities that do not include techniques to directly challenge cognitions. Based on this literature, Longmore and Worrell question the validity of the cognitive behavioral treatment model and argue that changes in symptoms are not mediated by changes in cognitions. Longmore and Worrell's arguments are based on common misconceptions about mediation models of treatment change. This commentary discusses and clarifies these misconceptions.