cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Welcome and Introduction to SPIE Conference 11598

Welcome and Introduction to SPIE Medical Imaging conference 11598: Image-Guided Procedures, Robotic Interventions, and Modeling
Update on Treatment-Free Remission in CML

Introduction Treatment-free remission (TFR) is one of the main goals of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) therapy. Tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) discontinuation should be considered in eligible patients for several reasons. Patients with CML on TKI have a reduced quality of life.1 TKIs are associated with long-term side effects, such as cardiovascular and renal complications.2 TKIs are associated with a heavy financial burden, both to patients and society. Numerous studies with thousands of patients have demonstrated the safety and feasibility of attempting TKI discontinuation.3–7 Finally, TKI discontinuation is an important goal for children diagnosed with CML due to long-term side effects and effects on growth and development.8 With current TKIs, approximately 50% of patients will be eligible for attempting TFR. Of those, only 50% will achieve a successful TFR. So, in reality, only 20% of patients with newly diagnosed CML will achieve a successful TFR, and the majority of patients will need to continue TKI therapy indefinitely.
Promoting Physical Activity Through Conversational Agents: Mixed Methods Systematic Review.

Background: Regular physical activity (PA) is crucial for well-being; however, healthy habits are difficult to create and maintain. Interventions delivered via conversational agents (eg, chatbots or virtual agents) are a novel and potentially accessible way to promote PA. Thus, it is important to understand the evolving landscape of research that uses conversational agents. Objective: This mixed methods systematic review aims to summarize the usability and effectiveness of conversational agents in promoting PA, describe common theories and intervention components used, and identify areas for further development. Methods: We conducted a mixed methods systematic review. We searched seven electronic databases (PsycINFO, PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, ACM Digital Library, Scopus, and Web of Science) for quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods studies that conveyed primary research on automated conversational agents designed to increase PA. The studies were independently screened, and their methodological quality was assessed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool by 2 reviewers. Data on intervention impact and effectiveness, treatment characteristics, and challenges were extracted and analyzed using parallel-results convergent synthesis and narrative summary. Results: In total, 255 studies were identified, 7.8% (20) of which met our inclusion criteria. The methodological quality of the studies was varied. Overall, conversational agents had moderate usability and feasibility. Those that were evaluated through randomized controlled trials were found to be effective in promoting PA. Common challenges facing interventions were repetitive program content, high attrition, technical issues, and safety and privacy concerns. Conclusions: Conversational agents hold promise for PA interventions. However, there is a lack of rigorous research on long-term intervention effectiveness and patient safety. Future interventions should be based on evidence-informed theories and treatment approaches and should address users’ desires for program variety, natural language processing, delivery via mobile devices, and safety and privacy concerns.
Ir76b is a Co-receptor for Amine Responses in Drosophila Olfactory Neurons

Two large families of olfactory receptors, the Odorant Receptors (ORs) and Ionotropic Receptors (IRs), mediate responses to most odors in the insect olfactory system. Individual odorant binding “tuning” OrX receptors are expressed by olfactory neurons in basiconic and trichoid sensilla and require the co-receptor Orco. The situation for IRs is more complex. Different tuning IrX receptors are expressed by olfactory neurons in coeloconic sensilla and rely on either the Ir25a or Ir8a co-receptors; some evidence suggests that Ir76b may also act as a co-receptor, but its function has not been systematically examined. Surprisingly, recent data indicate that nearly all coeloconic olfactory neurons co-express Ir25a, Ir8a, and Ir76b. Here, we demonstrate that Ir76b and Ir25a function together in all amine-sensing olfactory receptor neurons. In most neurons, loss of either co-receptor abolishes amine responses. In contrast, amine responses persist in the absence of Ir76b or Ir25a in ac1 sensilla, but are lost in a double mutant. We show that responses mediated by acid-sensing neurons do not require Ir76b, despite their expression of this co-receptor. Our study also demonstrates that one population of coeloconic olfactory neurons exhibits Ir76b/Ir25a-dependent and Orco-dependent responses to distinct odorants. Together, our data establish the role of Ir76b as an bona fide co-receptor, which acts in partnership with Ir25a. Given that these co-receptors are among the mostly highly conserved olfactory receptors and are often co-expressed in chemosensory neurons, our data suggest Ir76b and Ir25a also work in tandem in other insects.
The Emission of Sulfur to the Remote Atmosphere: Background Paper

Both natural and anthropogenic sources contribute to the global atmospheric budget of sulfur. Anthropogenic sulfur emissions are dominated by the release of SO2 from fossil-fuel burning. Several authors have recently reviewed these emissions and presented detailed source allocations (e.g., Moller 1984 and Cullis and Hirschler 1980). The estimates from these papers fall into a relatively narrow range of about 70 Tg to 100 Tg S/yr.
A Reading of Donald Hall's "Kicking the Leaves"

WHEN WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS, in "A Sort of Song," calls on metaphor to "reconcile / the people and the stones," he clearly means by stones the world we inhabit, the world we move through. In that same lyric, Williams proposes a vegetative metaphor for the self, for his self: "Saxifrage is my flower that splits / the rocks." The vitality, almost stub born muscularity of the metaphor is unmistakable and characteristic. Don ald Hall's ambition in his major poem, "Kicking the Leaves," is also ex pressed through a metaphor from the vegetative world, but Hall's poem aims to reconcile us not to life (Williams' goal) but to death: lives are leaves.
Improving the scalability of performance evaluation tools

Performance evaluation tools play an important role in helping understand application performance, diagnose performance problems and guide tuning decisions on modern HPC systems. Tools to observe parallel performance must evolve to keep pace with the ever-increasing complexity of these systems. In this paper, we describe our experience in building novel tools and techniques in the TAU Performance System® to observe application performance effectively and efficiently at scale. It describes the extensions to TAU to contend with large data volumes associated with increasing core counts. These changes include new instrumentation choices, efficient handling of disk I/O operations in the measurement layer, and strategies for visualization of performance data at scale in TAU's analysis layer, among others. We also describe some techniques that allow us to fully characterize the performance of applications running on hundreds of thousands of cores.
The role of immersive informal science programs

Immersive informal environments (such as summer camps, residential programs at museums and science centers, etc.) can provide a venue for young people to explore their scientific thinking in a less formalized context than is available in most traditional classrooms. While class instruction is beneficial for children to develop formal science skills and content knowledge, venues that offer more opportunities for experimentation and exploration can promote deeper understandings. In this article I explore the background of science learning and venues where this learning can take place followed by a review of the benefits and necessary components of well designed immersive informal programs.
Complex Chalcogenides as Thermoelectric Materials: A Solid State Chemistry Approach

A solid state chemical approach to discover new mateials with enhanced thermoelectric properties is described. The aim is to construct three-dimensional bismuth chalcogenide framework structures which contain tonically interacting alkali or alkaline earth atoms. The alkali atoms tend to have soft "rattling" type phonon modes which result in very low thermal conductivity in these materials. Another desirable feature in this class of compounds is the low crystal symmetry and narrow band-gaps. Several promising materials such as BaBiTe3, KBi6.33S10, K2Bi8S13, β-K2Bi8Se13, K2.5Bi8.5Se14, Ba4Bi6Se13, Eu2Pb2Bi6Se13, Al1+xPb4-2xSb7+xSe15 (A=K, Rb), and CsBi4Te6 are described.댐쀅�⨀砃?⨀颠�⨀ㄠ덐ꢠ�⨀†࢈�⨀
A novel MEMS device for high resolution force and displacement measurement

We present the design and fabrication of a MEMS device for high resolution force and displacement measurements. Quantitative and qualitative measurements can be performed in-situ in SEM, TEM or STM, where the small chamber size makes it challenging to integrate conventional force-displacement sensors. The device exploits the amplification of displacement and attenuation of structural stiffness in the post-buckling region of slender silicon beams to obtain pico-Newton force and nanometer displacement resolution. The specimen deformation can be read in optical microscopes, thus avoiding complex displacement sensing mechanisms. The device can be used for characterization of carbon nanotube-polymer interfaces, nanoscale thin films and mechanical testing of single biological cells.
The Tales of White Folk: Doctrine, Narrative, and the Reconstruction of Racial Reality

Black America, some people said, was dying. And they wondered what they would hear in the souls of white folk when white America heard the news. Part of the story was told in June 1995, by the Supreme Court. The session of the Court had not been convened explicitly or exclusively to determine the fate of black America. Still, it was clearly on the agenda, with no less than three major race-related disputes on the High Court's docket. And what the Court had to say on such matters did matter. As the highest tribunal in the land, it possessed the power to shape the law, and, the power to shape the larger society. This last point was the focus of academic debate--some questioned the societal impact of the Court's decisions--but this much remained certain: the law would play some role in shaping the development of societal conventions, and on matters of law, the words of the Supreme Court tended to be the final ones. More importantly, the Court helped establish the parameters of cultural discourse. It was a major participant in the national political dialogue, and its voice carried an authority not often accorded its elected counterparts. Ironically, the paradigms it helped shape were not only legal ones: some were epistemological, some quite political, some downright moral. In reinforcing popular attitudes and beliefs, or in challenging them through new perspectives and dissonant information, the Court helped establish a national mood. It confirmed or denied the citizenry's sense of what is real and what is right. Over time, it transformed their sense of both the possible and probable, and forever changed the way the people saw one another and saw themselves. Yes, the Court's words mattered. And what the Justices had to say on this occasion, in the closing weeks of their judicial term, might have mattered more than usual. Their words were addressed to the most intractable of national problems: the enduring dilemma of racial inequality. For a waiting nation--for judges, lawyers, lawmakers and their constituents, for teachers and students, parents and children, for the American people of every station, and every hue-- the Court would do no less than newly define the meaning of racial equality. It would be a progress report of sorts: how equal was America? But more importantly, it would set the agenda for the millennium. In this struggle for racial equality, what could be achieved, and how? Whose struggle was it, and when could it end? There were nine of them, one was black and eight were white, and they would need to explain what their souls had to say when they pondered the fate of black America. They had chosen three specific issues to address: the racial desegregation of America's public schools; the national government's use of preferences or presumptions to benefit racial minorities; and the explicit reliance on race in the creation of electoral districts as a device to ensure minority representation in the federal legislature.
Learning in the Active Mode

The paper distinguishes between two different modes of learning by neural networks. Traditional networks learn in the passive mode by incorporating in their internal structure the regularities present in the input and teaching input they passively receive from outside. Networks that live in a physical environment (ecological networks) can learn in the active mode by acting on the environment and learning to predict what changes in the environment or in their relation to the environment are caused by their actions. Being able to predict the consequences of one's own actions is useful when one wants to cause desired consequences with these actions. The paper contrasts learning to predict the consequences of one's actions with learning to predict environmental changes that are independent from the network's actions. It then discusses how perceptually ‘hidden’ properties of the environment such as the weight of objects are better learned in the active rather than in the passive mode and how learning in the active mode can be particularly useful in a social environment and in learning by imitating others. Learning in the active mode appears to be a crucial component of the human adaptive pattern and is tightly linked to another component of this pattern, i.e., the human tendency to modify the external environment rather than adapt to the environment as it is.
Nonlinear dynamics and switching time bifurcations of a thyristor controlled reactor

The authors study a thyristor controlled reactor circuit used for static volt ampere reactive (VAR) control of electric power systems. The circuit exhibits switching times which jump or bifurcate. The nonlinear dynamics of the circuit are studied using a Poincare/spl acute/ map and it is demonstrated that the Poincare/spl acute/ map has discontinuities and is not invertible. These novel properties illustrate some of the basic features of dynamical systems theory for switching circuits. >
Carboxylation of an ansa-Zirconocene Dinitrogen Complex: Regiospecific Hydrazine Synthesis from N2 and CO2

Addition of 2 equiv of carbon dioxide to the ansa-zirconocene dinitrogen complex resulted in selective insertion into each zirconium nitrogen bond, forming a C2 symmetric dicarboxylated diazenido compound. Treatment with excess Me3SiI furnished the ansa-zirconocene diiodide along with the N,N‘-dicarboxylated silylated hydrazine. New nitrogen−carbon bonds were also assembled by addition of methyl triflate. Tri- and tetrasubstituted hydrazines could be formed by treatment with water and Me3SiI, respectively. The regiochemistry of the N2 carboxylation is controlled by the ansa-cyclopentadienyl ligand where the sterically demanding tert-butyl substituents and the C2 symmetry of the dimer dictates the stereochemistry of CO2 insertion. These results demonstrate the ability of zirconium dinitrogen compounds to participate in heterocumulene insertion chemistry.
Achieving energy efficiency by HW/SW co-design

Summary form only given. Compute performance increased by orders of magnitude in the last few decades, made possible by continued technology scaling, increasing frequency, providing integration capacity to realize novel architectures, and reducing energy to keep power dissipation within limit. The technology treadmill will continue, and one would expect to reach Exascale level performance this decade; however, it's the same Physics that helped you in the past will now pose some barriers-Business as usual will not be an option. The energy and power will pose as a major challenge- an Exascale machine would consume in excess of a Giga-watt! Memory & communication bandwidth with conventional technology would be prohibitive. Orders of magnitude increased parallelism, let alone extreme parallelism due to energy saving techniques, would increase unreliability. And programming system will be posed with even severe challenge of harnessing the performance with concurrency. We will discuss potential solutions in all disciplines, such as circuit design, system architecture, system software, programming system, and resiliency to pave the road towards Exascale performance.
Interaction of lipoprotein lipase with glycosaminoglycans and apolipoprotein C-II: effects of free-fatty-acids.

Lipoprotein lipase (LPL) bound to endothelial cells is released from the cell surface by triacylglycerol-rich lipoproteins and oleic acid (Saxena, U., Witte, L.D. and Goldberg, I.J. (1989) J. Biol. Chem. 264, 4349-4355). Studies were conducted to compare the ability of different fatty acids to release 125I-labelled bovine milk LPL bound to endothelial cells and to define the mechanism for this effect. Using fatty acid/bovine serum albumin (BSA) solutions (molar ratio, 6:1), the release of LPL from endothelial cell surfaces using monounsaturated (18:1), polyunsaturated (18:2) and saturated (16:0) fatty acids was 78%, 60% and 28%, respectively. Release of LPL from heparin-agarose followed a similar pattern, suggesting that the fatty acids specifically affected LPL-heparin interaction. Short-chain fatty acids (C6, C8 and C10), medium-chain fatty acids (C12 and C14) and elaidic acid, a transisomer of oleic acid, released less 125I-LPL than oleic acid from heparin-agarose. To determine whether oleic acid release of 125I-LPL from heparin-agarose was due to binding of the fatty acid to heparin or LPL, oleic acid was incubated with either LPL or heparin-agarose prior to performing the affinity chromatography. Only the prior incubation with LPL affected the binding to heparin-agarose. This demonstrates that dissociation of LPL from heparin required interaction of fatty acid with LPL. At high molar ratios of fatty acid:BSA (greater than 3:1), apo C-II is known to be ineffective as an activator of LPL. To determine whether this effect is due to decreased association of apo C-II with LPL, 125I-apo C-II (0.5-10 nmol) was allowed to bind to LPL-Sepharose. A 6:1 molar ratio of oleic acid:BSA produced up to 69% decrease in the amount of 125I-apo C-II bound to the gel. This dissociation of apo C-II from LPL by oleic acid was also demonstrated using gel-filtration chromatography. Thus, the amount and type of fatty acids may be important in regulating LPL activity in vivo by affecting both LPL interaction with glycosaminoglycans and with apo C-II.
The role of oxygen in the intrinsic tensile residual stress evolution in sputter-deposited thin metal films

The intrinsic tensile stress and oxygen content in thin Cr films sputter deposited at high argon pressure are investigated as a function of negative substrate bias. With increasing bias from 0 to −100 V, the tensile stress increases to a maximum while the oxygen content decreases. At bias higher than −100 V, the tensile stress decreases but no significant change is observed in the oxygen content. A similar trend in stress evolution with bias is also observed in Cr films capped with Al to protect from postdeposition oxidation. It is concluded that, for a given deposition condition, the incorporation of oxygen may lower the magnitude of tensile stress without affecting the trends in stress evolution with increasing substrate bias. These effects are discussed using a model that correlates the film microstructure with long range attractive forces predicted from interatomic potentials.
Eddy Current Assessment of Near-Surface Residual Stress in Shot-Peened Inhomogeneous Nickel-Base Superalloys

Recently, it has been shown that shot-peened nickel-base superalloys exhibit an approximately 1% increase in apparent eddy current conductivity at high inspection frequencies, which can be exploited for nondestructive subsurface residual stress assessment. Unfortunately, microstructural inhomogeneity in certain as-forged and precipitation hardened nickel-base superalloys, like Waspaloy, can lead to significantly larger electrical conductivity variations of as much as 4‐6%. This intrinsic conductivity variation adversely affects the accuracy of residual stress evaluation in shot-peened and subsequently thermalrelaxed specimens, but does not completely prevent it. Experimental results are presented to demonstrate that the conductivity variation resulting from volumetric inhomogeneities in as-forged engine alloys do not display significant frequency dependence. This characteristic independence of frequency can be exploited to distinguish these inhomogeneities from nearsurface residual stress and cold work effects caused by surface treatment, which, in contrast, are strongly frequency-dependent.
Does the Induction of Flowering by Photoperiod Change the Polarity or Other Characteristics of Indole-3-acetic Acid Transport in Petioles for the Short Day Plant, Xanthium?

To test the hypothesis that photoinduction acts by changing the ability of the plant to transport hormones, rather than by changing the ability of organs to synthesize them, the transport of carboxy-labeled indole-3-acetic acid was measured in the short day plant Xanthium pensylvanicum. Plants grown under noninductive conditions were matched for developmental stage, then assigned by a mathematically random method to either short day or noninductive conditions of “short day + light break.” After the plants had been subjected to one to seven cycles, the movement of auxin was followed through sections cut from the middle of petioles of various ages. Photoinduction, even with as many as seven cycles, had no effect on auxin movement in either the basipetal or acropetal direction. Auxin movement in vegetative Xanthium was similar to that in Coleus and Phaseolus: strongly polar in a basipetal direction through younger petioles, but with polarity declining with increasing petiole age and concomitant decreasing elongation.
Was Lord Rayleigh Right

It is the primary mission of the present article to show that the premises and method in the articles of Chao et al. (1982) and Bertin and Ozoe (1986) (in the following referred to as CCO and BO, respectively) are flawed because indiscriminate extrapolation is not permissible for low Prandtl numbers and that there is no corroborative experimental evidence for Pr number influence on the onset of convection. The question is posed in order to accentuate the lack of response in the literature following the publication of CCO and BO.
An encoding method for multifield sorting and indexing

Sequences of character strings with an order relation imposed between sequences are considered. An encoding scheme is described which produces a single, order-preserving string from a sequence of strings. The original sequence can be recovered from the encoded string, and one sequence of strings precedes another if and only if the encoding of the first precedes the encoding of the second. The strings may be variable length, without a maximum length restriction, and no symbols need be reserved for control purposes. Hence any symbol may occur in any string. The scheme is useful for multifield sorting, multifield indexing, and other applications where ordering on more than one field is important.
Broadening the research on self-esteem: A new scale for longitudinal studies

When interest in self-esteem exploded in the 1980s, many longitudinal studies were already under way and thus did not administer self-esteem measures. Consequently, not much is known about the developmental course of self-esteem during adulthood. In order to facilitate life-span research using existing longitudinal studies, a new self-esteem scale (CPI-SE) was derived from the California Psychological Inventory. Study 1 documented the internal consistency and test – retest reliability of the CPI-SE, as well as its convergent validity by comparing it to three commonly used measures of self-esteem. Study 2 examined the nomological network of the CPI-SE by relating it to interviewer ratings of self-esteem, affect, coping style, social skills, intelligence, and physical attractiveness, obtained with the California Adult Q-Set. Together, these two studies provide evidence for the construct validity of the CPI-SE.
Boundary conditions for high-shear grain flows

Boundary conditions are developed for rapid granular flows in which the rheology is dominated by grain–grain collisions. These conditions are v_0=constdv_0/dy and u_0 = constdu_0/dy, where v and u are the thermal (fluctuation) and flow velocities respectively, and the subscript indicates that these quantities and their derivatives are to be evaluated at the wall These boundary conditions are derived from the nature of individual grain–wall collisions, so that the proportionality constants involve the appropriate coefficient of restitution ew for the thermal velocity equation, and the fraction of diffuse (i.e. non-specular) collisions in the case of the flow-velocity equation. Direct application of these boundary conditions to the problem of Couette-flow shows that as long as the channel width h is very large compared with a grain diameter d it is permissible to set v=0 at the wall and to adopt the no-slip condition. Exceptions occur where d/h is not very small, when the wall is not rough, and when the grain–wall collisions are very elastic. Similar insight into other flows can be obtained qualitatively by a dimensional analysis treatment of the boundary conditions. Finally, the more difficult problem of self-bounding fluids is discussed qualitatively.
Robust H∞∞ dynamic output feedback control for linear time-varying uncertain systems via switching-type controllers

The problem of designing robust H∞ switching-type controllers via dynamic output feedback for uncertain linear systems is studied. The uncertainties are assumed to be time varying, unknown, but bounded, which appear affinely in the matrices of system model. Here, a switching mechanism is introduced to construct a novel robust H∞ controller with time-varying gains and to reduce the conservativeness inherent in traditional robust H∞ controllers with fixed gains. The proposed controller gains are switching between a number of fixed gains automatically, which depend on the bounds of uncertain parameters. New sufficient conditions with less conservativeness than those for designing traditional robust controllers with fixed gains are also derived to guarantee the stability and H∞ performances of the closed-loop systems, and a two-step linear matrix inequality (LMI)-based procedure is proposed for designing switching controllers. A numerical example is given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
A novel role of fibrin in epidermal healing: plasminogen-mediated migration and selective detachment of differentiated keratinocytes.

Recent studies have shown that fibrin promotes epidermal regeneration in vitro and maintains the stem cell population after transplantation of keratinocytes in vivo. As epidermal keratinocytes do not express integrin αvβ3, the receptor for fibrin and fibrinogen, the mechanism through which fibrin affects epidermal cells remains elusive. To investigate the role of fibrin in epidermal wound healing, we developed an in vitro model in which fibrin was added to the top of wounded keratinocyte monolayers grown on collagen. With this matrix topology, keratinocytes migrate between the collagen on their basal side and fibrin on their apical side mimicking migration of the epidermis in vivo. Using this model, we found that fibrin promoted keratinocyte migration in low and high calcium concentrations by exposing the cells to plasminogen. The migration rate depended strongly on the concentration of fibrinogen and the rate of plasmin-mediated fibrin degradation. Surprisingly, fibrin and fibrinogen caused significant detachment of keratinocytes which was prevented by the addition of calcium. Further examination using flow cytometry revealed that the detached cells were larger, more granular, and had very low levels of β1 integrin, which are all signs of differentiated keratinocytes. Our results suggest a novel dual role of fibrin in epidermal healing. First, fibrin promotes keratinocyte migration indirectly by exposing plasminogen to migrating cells, and second, fibrin selectively disrupts adhesion of differentiated keratinocytes. Our data are novel and may have important implications in understanding wound healing and in the use of fibrin as a biomaterial for protein and gene delivery.
Unravelling the Residential Rent-Value Puzzle: An Empirical Investigation:

This paper tests empirically whether observed variation in the relationship between residential rents and housing prices in US metropolitan areas during the 1974-79 period can be attributed to differences in the user cost of residential capital. Consistent with user cost models, house values are found to be high relative to market rents where real after-tax financing costs are low and where expected capital gains from appreciation are large. At the same time, high rental vacancies, lagging rents and high inflation rates per se also are found to raise structure prices relative to market-clearing rents, suggesting significant adjustment lags from the durability of the housing stock, transaction costs, and segmentation between owner and rental submarkets.
Ability of normal vaginal flora to produce detectable phosphatidylglycerol in amniotic fluid in vitro.

Objective: To determine if bacteria are capable of producing phosphatidylglycerol in amniotic fluid (AF) and the number of colony forming units (CFU) of bacteria necessary to produce this result. Methods: Eleven species of bacteria and one species of yeast, common to the female genital tract and implicated in chorioamnionitis, were selected. Amniotic fluid was collected from 21 women and inoculated with 10 8 CFU/mL of each isolate. Aliquots of AF were tested at 0, 4, 12, and 24 hours for colony counts and the presence of phosphatidylglycerol by thin-layer chromatography. Results: The mean gestational age (± standard deviation) of the 21 study patients was 33 weeks and 1 day (± 4 weeks). Among the 12 species studied, Escherichia coli produced phosphatidylglycerol, at a concentration of 1.75 x 10 8 CFU/mL, beginning 12 hours after incubation. Conclusion: Escherichia coli is capable of producing phosphatidylglycerol in AF in vitro and is present in the vagina in 24% of normal pregnant patients. Our findings question the validity of using vaginal pool AF specimens for phosphatidylglycerol determination. Therefore, we recommend that patients presenting with preterm premature rupture of membranes be evaluated by amniocentesis to determine fetal lung maturity with phosphatidylglycerol and the lecithin-sphingomyelin ratio.
A Ga-based optimization scheme for extracting the equivalent-circuit models of spiral inductors embedded in a multilayer structure

In this article, we present a parameter extraction approach for deriving the equivalent lumped-element model of spiral inductors embedded in a multilayer structure by using the genetic algorithm (GA). In many RFIC applications, it is very important to achieve an inductor with a good quality factor (Q), and this depends on several interdependent parameters, such as the spiral width, spacing, number of turns, inner radius, and so forth. The effects of varying the spiral width, spacing, inner radius, conductor thickness, and insulator thickness on the parameters of interest, namely, inductance and Q, are investigated using the proposed method and a guideline to design an inductor with a maximum quality factor is presented. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2005.
Hypertensive encephalopathy as a complication of hyperdynamic therapy for vasospasm: report of two cases.

OBJECTIVE AND IMPORTANCE: After developing subarachnoid hemorrhage, patients may deteriorate from a variety of well-known causes, including rebleeding, hydrocephalus, and vasospasm. Many patients now undergo empirical hyperdynamic vasospasm therapy with hypervolemia, induced hypertension, and nimodipine. CLINICAL PRESENTATION: We report two cases of iatrogenic hypertensive encephalopathy occurring during hyperdynamic therapy for cerebral vasospasm after subarachnoid hemorrhage. Hypertensive encephalopathy is a syndrome of rapidly evolving generalized or focal cerebral symptoms occurring in the setting of severe hypertension, which is reversible with antihypertensive therapy. INTERVENTION: The syndrome can be diagnosed in the appropriate clinical setting with computed tomographic or magnetic resonance imaging that demonstrates characteristic findings. In both cases, decreasing the blood pressure resulted in neurological improvement. CONCLUSION: In the setting of induced hypertensive/hypervolemic therapy for vasospasm, hypertensive encephalopathy should be considered as a potentially reversible cause of delayed neurological decline.
A Profile and Management of the US Army's underground storage tanks

The US Army owns more than 10,000 underground storage tanks (USTs), many of which are old and may be leaking. The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 required tank owners to collect and report data on them by May 1986. In order to manage the large amounts of information on its USTs, the Army developed a microcomputer-based data base system. The data base system is user friendly and allows the user to store, organize, and manipulate the UST data. A leak potential index (LPI) was also developed and calculated for each of the Army's USTs. The LPI is used to prioritize USTs so that those with higher LPIs can be monitored closely. A characteristic profile of Army USTs according to construction material, capacity, age, content, and LPI is presented in this paper.
Sequential modification of cationic and anionic nanoclays with ionic liquids

Abstract Ion exchange of a cationic nanoclay from a solution containing phosphonium cations that remained after an anionic nanoclay exchange reaction with an ionic liquid (IL) was successful in increasing the cationic nanoclay basal spacing for nanocomposite applications requiring improved filler dispersion. This modification method minimizes through their reuse, the formation of waste, toxic solutions that are to be discarded. The results are compared with data from the direct modification of the cationic clay with a solution of the same IL. To verify the intercalation of residual cations, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, and X-ray diffraction were used. All these results show that the residual cation after anion exchange modification successfully intercalated into the clay gallery to the same degree as the original IL. The sequential clay modification approach in this communication conforms to established green chemistry principles from the viewpoints of waste ...
Metallothionein mRNA expression in fetal mouse organs.

The regulation of metallothionein biosynthesis in mammalian development was investigated by examining organs of 17-day fetal mice for biologically active metallothionein mRNA. Metallothionein was identified in cell-free translation products by migration in polyacrylamide gels and its characteristic elution on Sephadex G-50 columns. Metallothionein constitutes ∼7.5% of [35S]cysteine incorporated into polypeptides directed by mRNA from fetal liver, but it is not detectable in mRNA-directed products of fetal kidney, small bowel, heart, or adult liver. Consistent with a fetal-specific role, hepatic metallothionein mRNA content decreases abruptly in newborn mice, becoming undetectable within 12 days.
Far Infrared Thermal Radiative Properties of Polar Materials From First-Principle Simulations

The Lorentz oscillator model is well-known for its effectiveness to describe the far infrared optical properties of ionic materials. The parameters including oscillator strength and damping factor in the model are usually obtained by fitting to experimental results. In this paper, a new method, based on static and dynamic first-principle simulations, is developed to parameterize the Lorentz oscillator model with the initial atomic structure as the only input parameter. This method is then applied to predict the far infrared reflectance of GaAs, which shows excellent agreement with experimental measurements.Copyright © 2011 by ASME
Ion debris and X-ray energy deposition and response of fusion reactor first walls

The energy deposition of the thermonuclear target explosion products in Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) reactors, i.e., ion debris and X-rays and the resulting thermal response of first wall materials, is calculated using the computer code ATEN. Models to accurately simulate the ion and X-ray energy deposition and the consequent response of the wall are implemented in the code. Simultaneous multiple ions and X-rays with different yields and spectra incident on various wall materials are easily handled by the code. In a laser driven ICF reactor, in addition to X-rays, ions, and neutrons, the first wall will be exposed to the portion of the laser light reflected from the target. This could have an important effect on the overall performance of the wall. The thermal response and the resulting melting and erosion due to vaporization of wall materials are found to be critically dependent on target design configuration. Depending on the details of target design, its constituents and the driver beam, a wide range of X-ray and ion debris yields and spectra can be generated as a result of the thermonuclear reaction. A parametric study of first wall temperature excursion, resulting melt thickness and material loss for different candidate wall materials is presented. It is found that controlling the partition between X-ray energy yield and ion energy yield and their spectra can substantially result in a longer first wall lifetime for the same total target yield.
Stereochemically Versatile Synthesis of the C1–C12 Fragment of Tedanolide C

A flexible synthesis of the C1–C12 fragment of Tedanolide C has been accomplished in eight steps from 2-methyl-2,4-pentadienal. Asymmetric hydroformylation of a 1,3-diene allows for the late-stage generation of either C10 epimer with complete catalyst control. Diastereoselective addition of an isobutyryl β-ketoester dianion to an α,β-disubstituted chiral aldehyde sets the C5 stereochemistry while installing the geminal dimethyl unit. Differential protection of a syn-1,3-diol is performed as a highly efficient single-pot operation.
The utility of German WWW Search Services for North American Users

Foreign Internet search services are unknown to most North American users. Focusing on German search services, Schmetzke investigates four hypotheses pertaining to the potential utility of these services for North American users interested in country‐ or language‐specific resources. He concludes that only for subject directory‐based searches are German services superior. For keyword searches, U.S.‐based Altavista is the tool of choice. No German search engine was found to be consistently superior to Altavista in the indexing of German resources, to be better equipped to limit queries to German‐language sources, and to deal more effectively with problems posed by special characters.
Liquid chromatographic detection of cardiac glycosides, saccharides and hydrocortisone based on the photoreduction of 2-tert-butylanthraquinone

Abstract The photoreduction fluorescence detector, a postcolumn liquid chromatographic reaction detector, functions by generating fluorescent products from alcohols, aldehydes, ethers, and amins via a photochemical reaction. The fluorscent product is produced in the photoreduction of 2-tert-butylanthraquinone (t-BAQ) by analytes containing the above-mentioned functional groups. The photochemical reaction only requieres t-BAQ to absorg light, and thus many analytes with extremely low ultraviolet-visible absorptivities can be determined with good sensitivity. Because the t-BAQ is added precolumn, no reagent-addition pumps or mixing cells are needed in the detection scheme. The photochemical reactor is simply inserted between the liquid chromatographic column and a conventional fluorimeter. To demonstrate the capabilities of the detector involatile compounds were chosen (cardiac glycosides, saccharides, and steroids), some of which exhibit extremely low u.v.-visible absorptivities. The detection limits for the cardiac glycosides and hydrocortisonek were found to be about 2 ng whereas the detection limits for the sacharides were about 80 ng.
Nanoscale characterization of semiconductor materials and devices using scanning probe techniques

Abstract Scanning probe techniques are applied to a rapidly growing degree in the characterization of advanced semiconductor materials and device structures. In this review, the fundamental principles of scanning tunneling microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and other scanning probe techniques are described. The application of these techniques to the characterization of III–V and Group IV semiconductor epitaxial growth and epitaxial layer structure is discussed, with particular emphasis on the elucidation of epitaxial growth mechanisms, and on the atomic-scale characterization of interface and alloy layer structure in III–V heterostructures by crosssectional techniques. Nanoscale characterization of buried metal-semiconductor and semiconductor-semiconductor interfaces using ballistic electron emission microscopy is also addressed. Finally, a detailed discussion is included concerning the use of scanning probe techniques for nanometer-scale characterization of ultrasubmicron Si electronic devices — a problem of central importance in ultralarge-scale integrated circuit technology for the coming decade and beyond. Throughout the review, emphasis is placed on the role of scanning probe microscopy in relation to other semiconductor characterization techniques, the influence of various atomic- to nanometer-scale material properties on semiconductor device behavior, and the importance in many instances of theoretical modeling and simulation in the interpretation of results obtained using scanning probe techniques.
An age-dependent association of mannose-binding lectin-2 genetic variants on HIV-1-related disease in children.

Background Mannose-binding lectin (MBL) is part of the lectin pathway of complement activation against various pathogens; however, its role in innate immune responses against HIV-1 infection in children is unknown. Objective This study evaluated the effects of mannose-binding lectin-2 (MBL2) alleles on HIV-1 disease progression and central nervous system (CNS) impairment in children. Methods A cohort of 1037 HIV-1–infected children enrolled in Pediatrics AIDS Clinical Trial Group protocols P152 and P300 before the availability of effective antiretroviral therapy was genotyped for MBL2 and evaluated for disease progression. Results Children with the homozygous variant MBL2-O/O genotype were more likely to experience rapid disease progression and CNS impairment than those with the wild-type AA genotype. The effects were predominantly observed in children younger than 2 years. In unadjusted Cox proportional hazards models, children younger than 2 years with MBL2-O/O experienced more rapid disease progression ( O/O vs AA : relative hazard [RH], 1.54; 95% CI, 1.07-2.22; P = .02; O/O vs A/O : RH, 2.28; 95% CI, 1.09-4.79; P = .029). Similarly, children with MBL2-O/O were more likely to experience rapid progression to CNS impairment ( O/O vs A/A : RH, 2.78; 95% CI, 1.06-2.69, P = .027; O/O vs A/O : RH, 1.69; 95% CI, 1.07-7.21; P = .035). The effects remained significant after adjustment for CD4 + lymphocyte count, plasma HIV-1 RNA, and other genotypes. Conclusions MBL2-O/O genotypes, which result in lower expression of MBL, are associated with more rapid HIV-1–related disease progression, including CNS impairment, predominantly in children younger than 2 years. These data suggest that MBL2 variants are associated with altered HIV-1 disease progression, particularly in young children.
Personal, Familial, and Systemic Factors Associated with Family Belonging for Stepfamily Adolescents

Abstract While many in the social sciences agree that satisfying the need to belong is crucial to the identity formation of adolescents, and domain-specific, such as with school or family settings, little is known about differing levels of family belonging with those in family structures outside the cultural norm of the two-parent biological family. Indeed, though prevalent, little is known about what factors are associated with level of family belonging for stepfamily adolescents. The current study tested the association of characteristics in various contexts on stepfamily adolescents' level of family belonging. Participants were students from high schools and undergraduate university classes in a small Midwestern city (n = 60). Factors examined included level of family belonging, the personal characteristics of the adolescent's age and gender, familial characteristics of stepfamily type, presence of stepsiblings, and systemic factors such as interfamilial relationships and contact with the non-residenti...
Human ADA3 binds to estrogen receptor (ER) and functions as a coactivator for ER-mediated transactivation.

We have recently identified the hADA3 protein, the human homologue of yeast transcriptional coactivator yADA3, as a novel HPV16 E6 target. Using ectopic expression approaches, we further demonstrated that hADA3 directly binds to the 9-cis retinoic acid receptors α and β, and functions as a coactivator for retinoid receptor-mediated transcriptional activation. Here, we examined the role of endogenous hADA3 as a coactivator for estrogen receptor (ER), an important member of the nuclear hormone receptor superfamily. We show that ADA3 directly interacts with ERα and ERβ. Using the chromatin immunoprecipitation assay, we also show that hADA3 is a component of the activator complexes bound to the native ER response element within the promoter of the estrogen-responsive gene pS2. Furthermore, using an ER response element-luciferase reporter, we show that overexpression of ADA3 enhances the ERα- and ERβ-mediated sequence-specific transactivation. Reverse transcription-PCR analysis showed an ADA3-mediated increase in estrogen-induced expression of the endogenous pS2 gene. More importantly, using RNA interference against hADA3, we demonstrate that inhibition of endogenous hADA3 inhibited ER-mediated transactivation and the estrogen-induced increase in the expression of pS2, cathepsin D, and progesterone receptor, three widely known ER-responsive genes. The HPV E6 protein, by targeting hADA3 for degradation, inhibited the ERα-mediated transactivation and the protein expression of ER target genes. Thus, our results demonstrate that ADA3 directly binds to human estrogen receptor and enhances the transcription of ER-responsive genes, suggesting a broader role of mammalian hADA3 as a coactivator of nuclear hormone receptors and the potential role of these pathways in HPV oncogenesis.
Synthesis optimization and characterization of multiwalled carbon nanotubes

The unique properties of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have suggested applications in a variety of fields. Multiwalled nanotubes were synthesized using chemical vapor deposition (CVD) procedures and subsequently characterized. Reaction parameters such as catalyst type and carrier gas flow rate were optimized to produce well-aligned multiwalled nanotubes with lengths between a few microns to several millimeters. Characterization was performed with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), x-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS), thermo-gravimetric analysis, and Raman spectroscopy, focusing on composition and purity. Results show the synthesis of high-purity nanotubes of several millimeters in length from iron, nickel, cobalt, and titanium carbide catalysts with thermal stability to above 550°C.