cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
An assessment of the surface climate in the NCEP climate forecast system reanalysis

This paper analyzes surface climate variability in the climate forecast system reanalysis (CFSR) recently completed at the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP). The CFSR represents a new generation of reanalysis effort with first guess from a coupled atmosphere–ocean–sea ice–land forecast system. This study focuses on the analysis of climate variability for a set of surface variables including precipitation, surface air 2-m temperature (T2m), and surface heat fluxes. None of these quantities are assimilated directly and thus an assessment of their variability provides an independent measure of the accuracy. The CFSR is compared with observational estimates and three previous reanalyses (the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis or R1, the NCEP/DOE reanalysis or R2, and the ERA40 produced by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts). The CFSR has improved time-mean precipitation distribution over various regions compared to the three previous reanalyses, leading to a better representation of freshwater flux (evaporation minus precipitation). For interannual variability, the CFSR shows improved precipitation correlation with observations over the Indian Ocean, Maritime Continent, and western Pacific. The T2m of the CFSR is superior to R1 and R2 with more realistic interannual variability and long-term trend. On the other hand, the CFSR overestimates downward solar radiation flux over the tropical Western Hemisphere warm pool, consistent with a negative cloudiness bias and a positive sea surface temperature bias. Meanwhile, the evaporative latent heat flux in CFSR appears to be larger than other observational estimates over most of the globe. A few deficiencies in the long-term variations are identified in the CFSR. Firstly, dramatic changes are found around 1998–2001 in the global average of a number of variables, possibly related to the changes in the assimilated satellite observations. Secondly, the use of multiple streams for the CFSR induces spurious jumps in soil moisture between adjacent streams. Thirdly, there is an inconsistency in long-term sea ice extent variations over the Arctic regions between the CFSR and other observations with the CFSR showing smaller sea ice extent before 1997 and larger extent starting in 1997. These deficiencies may have impacts on the application of the CFSR for climate diagnoses and predictions. Relationships between surface heat fluxes and SST tendency and between SST and precipitation are analyzed and compared with observational estimates and other reanalyses. Global mean fields of surface heat and water fluxes together with radiation fluxes at the top of the atmosphere are documented and presented over the entire globe, and for the ocean and land separately.
Sugar Feeding by Female Tabanids (Diptera: Tabanidae) and its Relation to Gonotrophic Activity

Developmental stages of terminal follicles and parity were determined for 1311 blood-seeking females of 17 Chrysops , 7 Hybomitra , and 7 Tabanus species in Connecticut during 1978 and 1979. Nulliparous individuals with stages I, I–II, or 11 follicles were observed in 29 species; nulliparity (n ≥ 50 dissections) ranged from 28.7% of 181 Hybomitra lasiophthalma to 90% of 160 Chrysops vittatus . Anautogeny prevails in inland populations of tabanids at this locality. Cold anthrone reagent detected fructose and/or sucrose in 71% of 799 nulliparous and in 72.3% of 512 parous specimens. Prevalence of sugar-positive females (n ≥ 24 tested) ranged from 58% in H. sodalis to 92% in C. cincticornis . In an additional 366 tabanids analyzed by thin-layer chromatography, 55.9% of 345 positives had glucose, fructose, and sucrose, 38.3% contained glucose and fructose, and 5.8% showed glucose alone. Of the 1677 females tested by either method, 72.9% contained fructose and/or sucrose. Results indicate extensive feedings on sugars and suggest that these carbohydrates are essential dietary nutrients.
Texture mapping for 3D painting using geodesic distance

3D modeling systems form the basis for many of the most widely used graphics applications. Although interfaces have long provided the ability to paint directly on a 3D model, the colors are usually stored in a 2D domain, such as in a texture map. Despite its widespread use and several advantages, texture mapping has several shortcomings in the context of 3D painting. 3D painting usually requires only a local surface parameterization, while many parameterization methods are global and cannot be applied directly for 3D paints. The computing cost can be too high for realtime parameterization and obvious texture distortions can arise. One of the key works to address these shortcomings is by Schmidt et al. [Schmidt et al. 2006] on decal compositing, who provided an efficient local parameterization for 3D painting. They try to minimize the distortion of textures by approximating the exponential map. However, their work still has many limitations on 3D paintings. Their local parameterization method relies on the topology of the local mesh structure, which implies that this method is not stable on different mesh topologies that represent the same geometric shape. Experimental examples showed particular problems when models include large numbers of sliver triangles. Due to the sensitivity to the mesh topology, there is not an error bound between their approximation and the exponential mapping. While their method works well in many standard situations, the limitations can cause significant texture distortion in other cases.
Cholestasis in rats induced by taurolithocholate.

THE taurine conjugates of cholic and chenodeoxycholic acid1 are preponderant bile acids of murine bile. The systematic names of the bile acids referred to in the text are: taurocholic acid, 3α, 7α, 12α-trihydroxy-5β-cholanyl taurine; taurochenodeoxycholic acid, 3α,7α-dihydroxy-5β-eholanyl taurine; taurolithocholic acid, 3α-hydroxy-5β-cholanyl taurine; lithocholic acid, 3α-hydroxy-5β-cholanic acid. Although these bile acids are excreted as the sodium salts, by convention they are often referred to in the acid form. In this communication the suffix, ‘-ate’, is used to indicate the sodium salt. Intravenous administration of taurocholate to rats is known to result in increased bile flow and bile acid excretion2.
Geochemical evidence for abrupt changes in relative strength of the Arabian monsoons during a stadial/interstadial climate transition

The occurrence and propagation of abrupt climate change between the high and low-latitudes has become an important focus of paleoclimatic and paleoceanographic research. The causes of abrupt change have significant implications for understanding future manifestations of similar forcings under late Holocene (‘Anthropocene’) boundary conditions. Of particular interest are signals indicative of sub-millennial scale climate change in the sub-tropics of similar magnitude and frequency to those recorded in Greenland ice cores. Earlier research in the Arabian Sea has highlighted the sensitivity of sedimentary organic carbon and nitrogen isotope measurements for recording the state of the SW monsoon and associated Arabian Sea Oxygen Minimum Zone. In this study, we exploit the unprecedented fidelity of the sedimentary δ15N record to identify a 20 cm interval at ODP Site 723 containing a stadial/inter-stadial interval between 43-42 Kyr BP. We employ sedimentary nitrogen isotopes, chlorin pigment and alkenone abundances, major and minor element analyses of highly-resolved (2 mm ≈ 10 yr) samples across this interval to compare a comprehensive, multi-proxy data set to understand (a) the processes contributing to the δ15N signal in the longer records of denitrification; and (b) the associated climatic events, especially the relative intensity of summer and winter monsoons at these times. A lack of evidence for bioturbation in excess of our 2 mm sampling resolution facilitates decadal-scale oceanographic and climatic reconstructions. Using a four-component flux-dilution model, we show that the deposition of carbonate decreased in parallel with an increase in Total Organic Matter flux from stadial to inter-stadial time. This interval is also marked by a significant drop in lithogenic (dust) accumulation, analogous to a similar decrease noted during deglaciation in the Western Arabian Sea. Combined with alkenone U37K′-derived estimates for sea surface temperature (SST), we conclude that the climatological shift from stadial to inter-stadial conditions at low latitudes was characterized by repeated switches in mean monsoon state approximately every 200 yr. The winter monsoon was the dominant mode during maximum stadial conditions; conversely the summer monsoon was dominant during maximum interstadial-like conditions. However, each interval was separated by a distinct ‘inter-monsoon’ mode, indicated by a higher continental dust flux but warmer SST. Proxy records for changing bottom-water oxygenation show near-identical results down to the mm-scale, but hint at increased export production leading the onset of anoxia during the stadial/inter-stadial transition. The coherence of all sedimentary signals depicts a wholesale reorganization of the Arabian Sea climate and marine ecosystem over approximately 200 years, a period that may be associated with monsoon modulation by small oscillations in solar irradiance.
RNA synthesis and turnover during density-inhibited growth and encystment of Acanthamoeba castellanii.

Alterations in transcription that precede and accompany encystment (E) of suspension grown A. castellanii have been investigated. Comparative studies were performed on cells undergoing spontaneous E in high density stationary phase cultures or after experimental induction of E at low cell densities by deprivation of nutrients in exponential growth. Onset of growth deceleration at high cell densities was accompanied by an increase in the cellular RNA. The maximum RNA content occurred in cells at stationary phase and subsequently declined with the appearance of cysts in the cultures. On the contrary, the RNA content in cells whose growth was immediately terminated by experimental E induction remained at a constant exponential level through 5 h postinduction and then began to decline shortly before the appearance of cysts. The mature cyst formed in stationary phase cultures and after experimental E induction contained an equivalent amount of RNA (∼50% of the exponential value). Comparison of the kinetics of [3H]uridine incorporation demonstrated that there was an abrupt reduction in the rate of uridine incorporation into RNA with onset of growth deceleration or after growth termination in experimental E induction. The reduced incorporation of uridine into RNA could not be attributed to to a reduced uptake of the isotope by the cells or an altered capacity of the cells to phosphorylate uridine. Uridine continued to be incorporated into RNA at a reduced rate in cells throughout growth deceleration, in stationary phase, and up to 12 h postexperimental induction. Considered together, these results indicate that a buildup in RNA is not necessary for induction of encystment in acanthamoeba. The accumulated RNA in stationary phase cells appears to be due to the greater reduction in the growth rate than in transcription and the absence of RNA turnover in cells during growth deceleration. Initiation of RNA turnover appears to accompany growth termination and induction of E. The results further demonstrate that the regulation of the rate of transcription is closely coordinated with the control of growth and encystment in acanthamoeba.
The service sector and economic growth: some cross-section evidence

It has often been claimed that a relative expansion of the service sector has a deleterious effect on economic growth. This paper uses cross-section country-level data from three decades –1960s, 1970s and 1980s – to see whether in fact this negative relation is reflected in the data. It is found that the effect is negative or positive depending on how the role of the service sector is measured, but there is a strong case that effect is in fact usually negative.
Molecular mobility in rubbery composites: Effect of filler particle size

We have measured proton NMR T2 relaxation spectra in Arco R45M OH-terminated poly-butadienes (PBs) cured with isophorone diisocyanate and filled with 65 wt % SiO2 particles of each of six different average sizes. Identifying the short T2 component with the gel, we find that the gel fraction is displaced from nominal NCO/OH stoichiometry, probably as a result of water adsorbed on filler particle surfaces. Near effective stoichiometry and in the presence of filler, molecular and segmental mobilities decrease, most strongly in specimens with the smallest filler particles. Comparison with parallel Monte Carlo simulations of the PB matrix geometry indicates that segmental mobility and sol migration decrease uniformly in a wide vicinity of the filler particles. Thus the rigidification of the matrix measured via NMR has a range of approximately 1-3 μm from nearby filler particle surfaces, representing the rms diffusion distance of the light components of the sol during the T2 relaxation. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Discovery and characterization of chemical signals for citrus root weevil, Diaprepes abbreviatus

The tropical root weevil Diaprepes abbreviatus (L. 1758) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) is a polyphagous insect from the Caribbean Islands and an invasive insect in the southern part of the United States where it is pest of citrus crops and ornamental trees. Adults feed upon foliage where aggregation, mating and oviposition take place. Here, the headspace volatiles from Citrus macrophylla Wester (Rutaceae), D. abbreviatus adults feeding on this plant, adults alone and adult feces, were collected by aeration and solid-phase microextraction (SPME) for analysis by gas chromatography-linked mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Electrophysiological responses of weevil antennal receptors to volatile headspace extracts and synthetic analogues were recorded by gas chromatography-linked electroantennographic detection (GC-EAD) and electroantennograms (EAGs). Antennal responses were recorded to the monoterpenes (R)-(−)-linalool, citronellal, nerol, citral, and geraniol; all present in the headspace of C. macrophylla. Antennal responses were also recorded to carvacrol, present in the headspace of adults and adult feces. The green leaf volatiles cis-3-hexen-1-ol and trans-2-hexen-1-ol, produced by other host plants, elicited reliable responses on the D. abbreviatus antenna. When comparing EAGs between (±)-linalool and (R)-(−)-linalool, no significant difference was found; responses to (R)-(+)-citronellal were larger than for (S)-(−)-citronellal. Among the individual compounds and blends tested using an open T-track dual choice olfactometer, only the blend of (±)-linalool, cis-3-hexen-1-ol and carvacrol (source dose 25:25:2.5 μg) elicited significant attraction of females, the same blend was repellent for males. The biologically active compounds found here likely play a role in host finding by D. abbreviatus and other interactions of the insect with its hostplant.
The regulation of neuronal gene expression by alcohol

In recent years there has been an explosion of interest in how genes regulate alcohol drinking and contribute to alcoholism. This work has been stimulated by the completion of the human and mouse genome projects and the resulting availability of gene microarrays. Most of this work has been performed in drinking animals, and has utilized the extensive genetic variation among different mouse strains. At the same time, a much smaller amount of effort has gone into the in vitro study of the mechanisms underlying the regulation of individual genes by alcohol. These studies at the cellular and sub-cellular level are beginning to reveal the ways in which alcohol can interact with the transcriptional, translational and post-translational events inside the cell. Detailed studies of the promoter regions within several individual alcohol-responsive genes (ARGs) have been performed and this work has uncovered intricate signaling pathways that may be generalized to larger groups of ARGs. In the last few years several distinct ARGs have been identified from 35,000 mouse genes, by both the "top-down" approach (ex vivo gene arrays) and the "bottom-up" methods (in vitro promoter analysis). These divergent methodologies have converged on a surprisingly small number of genes encoding ion channels, receptors, transcription factors and proteins involved in synaptic function and remodeling. In this review we will describe some of the most interesting cellular and microarray work in the field, and will outline specific examples of genes for which the mechanisms of regulation by alcohol are now somewhat understood.
Proton-translocating Nicotinamide Nucleotide Transhydrogenase of Escherichia coli. INVOLVEMENT OF ASPARTATE 213 IN THE MEMBRANE-INTERCALATING DOMAIN OF THE β SUBUNIT IN ENERGY TRANSDUCTION

Mutations in the β subunit of Escherichia coli proton-translocating nicotinamide nucleotide transhydrogenase of the conserved residue βAsp-213 to Asn (βD213N) and Ile (βD213I) resulted in the loss, respectively, of about 70% and 90% NADPH → 3-acetylpyridine adenine dinucleotide (AcPyAD) transhydrogenation and coupled proton translocation activities. However, the cyclic NADP(H)-dependent NADH → AcPyAD transhydrogenase activities of the mutants were only ~35% inhibited. The latter transhydrogenation, which is not coupled to proton translocation, occurs apparently via NADP under conditions that enzyme-NADP(H) complex is stabilized. Mutations βD213N and βD213I also resulted in decreases in apparent K mNADPH for the NADPH → AcPyAD and SNADPH (NADPH concentration needed for half-maximal activity) for the cyclic NADH → AcPyAD transhydrogenation reactions, and in K dNADPH, as determined by equilibrium binding studies on the purified wild-type and the βD213I mutant enzymes. These results point to a structural role of βAsp-213 in energy transduction and are discussed in relation to our previous suggestion that proton translocation coupled to NADPH → NAD (or AcPyAD) transhydrogenation is driven mainly by the difference in the binding energies of NADPH and NADP.
A study of perfectly mixed photochemical reactors

The performance of a perfectly mixed photochemical reactor has been analyzed for systems having low light absorption coefficients. The analysis has been tested by an experimental study of the decomposition of hexachloroplatinic acid in dilute aqueous solution. Results tend to verify the analysis, but indicate the need for additional experimental work.
Tissue bioelectrode for organic-phase enzymatic assays

Abstract The utility of tissue bioelectrodes to serve as effective organic-phase biosensors is demonstrated. The organic-phase operation enables a simple immobilization procedure, based on spreading a thin layer of the tissue onto a rough graphite disk. Mushroom, banana or horseradish root layers (rich with tyrosinase or horseradish peroxidase) were thus immobilized and employed for quantifying the corresponding phenolic and peroxide species in chloroform media. The thin tissue layer and its immediate proximity to the graphite surface results in a very fast and sensitive amperometric response (8–20 s for steady state, and a detection limit 3 × 10 −5 M). The influence of numerous experimental variables is explored, and future prospects are discussed.
Labour‐market participation of Asian Indian immigrant women in the greater Kansas City Metropolitan Area, USA

Immigrants are changing the composition of the American population at the end of the twentieth and into this century, just as they have done for many decades. The amended Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965 resulted in a steady flow of professional Asian Indians to the United States. While receiving indirect attention in several studies, relatively little is known about the labour-market participation of Asian Indian immigrant women. This research aims to determine the economic and non-economic factors that influence the participation of Asian Indian immigrant women in the labour market of the Greater Kansas City Metropolitan Area. On the basis of 160 responses from a questionnaire survey, this research found that annual income, years in current job, occupation type, and the nature of investment in India were the pertinent economic factors, while non-economic factors range from age, urban residential background, education, number of years in the US, the decision to work, and some perceptions on work, homemaking and household income contribution. Findings from this study are discussed in the context of existing theories on international migration, particularly those dealing with the labour-force participation of immigrants. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Asbestos-related diseases: a historical and mineralogic perspective.

T HE PAST HALF-CENTURY witnessed a remarkable feat: the medical and scientific community identified one of nature’s deadliest killers, investigated it thoroughly, learned how to prevent it, and is on the verge of eradicating it. Asbestos-related disease is also unique as the first nonbiologic entity to almost fulfill Koch’s postulates, in which asbestos fibers were “isolated” in the lungs of workers suffering from mesothelioma, and are capable of producing mesotheliomas in experimental animals. Historically, asbestos has been suspected of causing lung disease since antiquity (Table 1). Well known for its resistance and insulating properties, asbestos was used primarily as a cloth-like material, from which garments and purses were made in the 19th century (Fig 1). However, after the Industrial Revolution, the uses of asbestos multiplied and production reached staggering proportions. Soon, reports of ill-effects were made, but they did not take hold in the scientific community until 1960, when Wagner et al’ described mesothelioma in South African asbestos workers. Subsequent clinical, pathologic, and epidemiologic studies have amply linked asbestos with asbestosis, lung cancer, and mesothelioma. All of these are covered in this issue of the Seminars, with emphasis on diagnostic challenges and medicolegal implications of asbestosrelated diseases. The evidence connecting asbestos to pulmonary diseases accumulated rapidly, linking asbestos to mesothelioma in the United States,*v3 Canada,4 and the United Kingdom. 5,6 However, epidemiologic studies showed that prevalence of asbestos exposure ranged from as low as 10% to 30%,4,7-9 to as high as 80% to 100% ‘,2,‘o-‘3 among patients with mesothelioma (Table 2). This discrepancy may be due to the varying methodology of obtaining history related to occupation, residence, and hobbies, and the fact that the data are frequently supplied by the next-of-kin of deceased victims. However, as reviewed by Roggli,14 elevated asbestos body content is noted in between two
Grain-size variations in North Atlantic non-carbonate sediments and sources of terrigenous components

Abstract Fine-silt to medium-sand grain-size spectra of the carbonate-free fractions of 115 sea bed samples from the northern North Atlantic, the Labrador Sea and Baffin Bay can be explained as mixtures of five distinct end-members. The five end-members resemble combinations of grain-size modes which are characteristic of till-matrix (Dreimanis and Vagners, 1972). Therefore the ultimate source of most of the terrigenous deep-sea sediments in the study area is probably the veneer of glacial comminution products on the surrounding continents. Three sand-rich end-members exhibit patterns of distribution that are largely compatible with the modern transport of ice-rafted debris as inferred from iceberg drift observations. The best sorted of those sandy end-members however also appears to be concentrated in regions characterized by high-energy turbidity and contour currents and so may also represent hydraulically winnowed sediment. The distribution of two lutite end-members appears in general to reflect the transport of fines by moderate to low energy thermohaline currents; although, in Baffin Bay and the northeastern North Atlantic the lutite could have accumulated primarily in turbidites. Ice-rafting by icebergs calved from Greenland glaciers, the reworking of glacigenic sediments on the Iceland—Faeroes Ridge and injection of turbid glacial meltwater into deep Baffin Bay from West Greenland fiords are suggested as the principal means of introduction of clastic particles into the sediment distribution (redistribution) budget of the deep North Atlantic.
Endothelin receptor antagonists restore morphine analgesia in morphine tolerant rats

Several neurotransmitter mechanisms have been proposed to play a role in the development of morphine tolerance. The present study provides evidence for the first time that endothelin (ET) antagonists can restore morphine analgesia in morphine tolerant rats. Tolerance to morphine was induced by subcutaneous implantation of six morphine pellets during a 7-day period. The degree of tolerance to morphine was measured by determining analgesic response (tail-flick latency) and hyperthermic response to morphine sulfate (8 mg/kg, subcutaneously (s.c.)) in placebo and morphine pellet implanted rats. The maximal tail-flick latency in morphine pellet-vehicle treated rats (7.54 s) was significantly lower (P<0.05) when compared to placebo pellet-vehicle treated rats (10s), indicating that tolerance developed to the analgesic effect of morphine. In separate sets of experiments, ET antagonists, BQ123 (10 microg, intracerebroventricularly (i.c.v.)) and BMS182874 (50 microg, i.c.v.) were administered in placebo and morphine tolerant rats. BQ123 was injected twice daily for 7 days and once on day 8. BMS182874 was administered only on day 8. Morphine (8 mg/kg, s.c.) was administered 30min after BQ123 or BMS182874 administration. It was found that both BQ123 and BMS182874 potentiated morphine analgesia in placebo and morphine tolerant rats. BQ123 potentiated tail-flick latency by 30.0% in placebo tolerant rats and 94.5% in morphine tolerant rats compared to respective controls. BMS182874 potentiated tail-flick latency by 30.2% in placebo tolerant rats and 66.7% in morphine tolerant rats. Morphine-induced hyperthermic effect was also potentiated by BQ123 and BMS182874. The duration of analgesic action was also prolonged by BQ123 and BMS182874. The effect of BMS182874 was less as compared to BQ123. BQ123 and BMS182874 are selective ET(A) receptor antagonists. Therefore, it is concluded that ET(A) receptor antagonists restore morphine analgesia in morphine tolerant rats.
Spatiotemporal wavelet transform: application to target detection and recognition

ABSTRACT The motion analysis of a time dependent signal in one dimension of space and time using the spatio-temporalcontinuous wavelet transform ((1+1)D CWT) allows signature detection of the moving objects. In this paper wefirst review some relevant properties of the (1+1)D CWT. We then apply it to motion analysis of some academicsignals plunged in a cluttered medium. From there we infer a strategy for detection and recognition of moving targets. In the appendix we give analytical results of (1+1)D CWT applied to two basic signals: N ponctual moving objects, and N moving plane waves. 1 INTRODUCTION We leave in a world where objects (Cars, animals, man, birds, air planes, houses, sun, etc. ..) that surround usare constantly in relative motion. One would like to extract the motion information from the scene observationand use it for various purposes, for example detecting the objects and recognizing them. This is the case for themoving target detection and identification system7 (MTDI) where a certain number of targets move in a cluttered
&ACE: a high-performance parallel Prolog system

In recent years a lot of research has been invested in parallel processing of numerical applications. However, parallel processing of Symbolic and AI applications has received less attention. This paper presents a system for parallel symbolic computing, named ACE, based on the logic programming paradigm. ACE is a computational model for the full Prolog language, capable of exploiting Or-parallelism and Independent And-parallelism. In this paper we focus on the implementation of the and-parallel part of the ACE system (called &ACE) on a shared memory multiprocessor, describing its organization, some optimizations, and presenting some performance figures, proving the ability of &ACE to efficiently exploit parallelism. >
The Effect of a Covariate on Standard Error and Confidence Interval Width

The standard error of covariate-adjusted mean difference is not always smaller than that of the unadjusted mean difference despite the fact that adding a covariate is commonly believed to reduce the unexplained error variance. The covariate mean difference between the contrasted treatment conditions can inflate the standard error of the adjusted mean difference. If the covariate is viewed as randomly varying from one study to another, a minimum sample size can be found to attain a desired probability of reducing the standard error and the confidence interval width for the adjusted mean difference.
Measuring hazardous work and identifying risk factors for non-fatal injuries among children working in Philippine agriculture.

OBJECTIVES: Global consensus is lacking, especially among developing countries, on whether agricultural work is detrimental to children's health and safety. We aimed to measure the degree to which Philippine children working in agriculture have a higher risk of injury compared with children working in other industries, and to uncover potential risk factors for their non-fatal injuries. METHODS: Using the Philippine Survey of Children (SOC) 2001, we calculated injury incidence rates and relative risk measures across industries, and employed a multivariate logistic regression on the sample of working children in agriculture to ascertain the association of various exposures with the occurrence of work-related injuries. RESULTS: Children working in agriculture had a fivefold risk of non-fatal injury compared to children working in other industries. Logistic regression indicated that the most robust risk factor for the occurrence of non-fatal injury was the use of tools (OR = 3.12). CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study demonstrate agriculture to be a hazardous industry for children. Further research should focus on identifying the most dangerous tools and restricting their use. Am. J. Ind. Med. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Language: en
Interaction between the Helicobacter pylori accessory proteins HypA and UreE is needed for urease maturation.

Several accessory proteins are required for the maturation of two nickel-containing enzymes in the gastric pathogen Helicobacter pylori. These two enzymes are hydrogenase and urease. Among the accessory/maturation proteins, the nickel-binding HypA protein has been previously shown to be required for the full activity of both the hydrogenase and the urease enzymes, while another nickel-binding protein, UreE, is known to be solely involved in the urease maturation process. In this study, UreE was shown to be required under all nickel levels for full activation of the apourease. By use of cross-linking studies, an interaction between purified HypA and UreE proteins was identified, leading to the formation of a 34 kDa heterodimer complex. The cross-linked adduct was detected by immunoblotting with either anti-HypA or anti-UreE antiserum. By using a two-plasmid system in Escherichia coli, the highest urease activity was achieved under low nickel conditions only when the UreE protein was expressed along with the wild-type HypA protein, but not with its nickel-binding-deficient variant HypA H2A. Addition of only 1 μM NiCl2 into minimal medium abolished the need for HypA to activate the urease. Although various attempts to show direct nickel transfer from HypA to UreE failed, these results suggest that interactions between the nickel-binding accessory proteins HypA and UreE are required to allow nickel transfer from HypA eventually to the apourease in H. pylori.
Performance of African American preschool and kindergarten students on the expressive vocabulary test.

Purpose To examine the validity of the Expressive Vocabulary Test (EVT; K. Williams, 1997) for assessing the expressive vocabulary skills of African American students. Method/Results One hundred si...
Knowledge-based Automatic Topic Identification

As the first step in an automated text summarization algorithm, this work presents a new method for automatically identifying the central ideas in a text based on a knowledge-based concept counting paradigm. To represent and generalize concepts, we use the hierarchical concept taxonomy WordNet. By setting appropriate cutoff values for such parameters as concept generality and child-to-parent frequency ratio, we control the amount and level of generality of concepts extracted from the text.
An algebra for semantic interoperability of information sources

Resolving heterogeneity among the various biological information systems is a crucial problem if we wish to gain value from the many distributed resources available to us. For example, information from multiple protein databases (e.g., Swiss-Prot and PDB) might need to be composed to answer queries posed by end-users. Problems of heterogeneity in hardware, operating systems, interfaces and data structures have been widely addressed, but issues of diverse semantics have been handled mainly in an ad-hoc fashion. This paper highlights the ONION (ONtology compositION) system that enables semantic interoperation among various information sources by articulating the ontologies associated with them. An articulation focuses on the semantically relevant intersection of information resources. Although the generation of articulations (semantic correspondences between the ontologies) cannot be fully automated, we take a semi-automatic approach. ONION uses heuristic algorithms for the automatic generation of suggested articulations. This paper outlines an algebra for ontology composition based on their articulations. We show the properties of the algebraic operators and how they depend upon the articulation functions that generate the articulations. Query optimization is enabled based on the properties of the algebraic operators.
Minimal effect of a low-fat/high soy diet for asymptomatic, hormonally naive prostate cancer patients.

Purpose: The effects of a low-fat diet or a low-fat diet with the addition of a soy supplement were investigated in a pilot Phase II study for asymptomatic, hormonally naive prostate cancer patients with rising prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels. Experimental Design: A two-step intervention was implemented. During step 1 patients were begun on a low-fat diet with a goal to reduce fat intake to 15% of total daily calories. On PSA progression, a soy protein supplement was added to the diet (step 2). The primary end point was PSA reduction by 50%. Secondary end points were PSA doubling time and time to progression (TTP). Serum was analyzed for changes in the sex hormone and insulin-like growth factor (IGF-I) axes. Results: Among 18 evaluable patients, (median follow-up on study 10.5 months), no patient on either step had a PSA reduction by 50% at any time. There was a trend toward a longer PSA doubling time ( P = 0.06) and a prolongation in estimated median TTP of ∼3 months ( P = 0.018) during step 2 compared with step 1 of the study. During step 1, free testosterone levels decreased by 5% ( P P = 0.02). Conclusions: A low-fat diet with the subsequent addition of a soy supplement did not result in a significant decline in PSA levels. The addition of soy protein had a modest effect on TTP. A potentially undesirable effect associated with the administration of soy was an increase in IGF-I serum levels.
Characterization of Different Hematological Responses During Molts Induced by Zinc or Fasting

Abstract Single Comb White Leghorn hens were induced to molt by complete fasting for 11 days (FAST) or feeding a layer ration that contained 20,000 ppm zinc as zinc oxide for 11 days (ZINC). In both cases hens lost approximately 30% of their initial body weight. A control (CON) group was maintained. At 4, 8, 12, 18, and 42 days after initiation of the treatments, total erythrocyte numbers (TRBC), percent packed cell volume (PCV), mean corpuscular volume, hemoglobin (Hb), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCHb), and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) were determined. Erythrocytes were characterized as reticulocytes, intermediate Stage VII erythrocytes, or mature Stage VIII erythrocytes. The FAST hens exhibited significantly increased PCV through 18 days, which was not exhibited by ZINC hens. The FAST treatment increased TRBC on Days 8 and 12 and decreased TRBC on Day 42 while ZINC decreased TRBC on Day 4 and increased TRBC on Day 12. The FAST hens exhibited decreased Hb on Day 42, as reproduction resumed. Both ZINC and FAST hens exhibited decreased MCHb and MCHC on Day 12. Percentages of reticulocytes were decreased at Day 4 by FAST and increased at Days 8 and 18 by ZINC. Stage VII erythrocytes were decreased on Days 4 and 12 in FAST hens whereas ZINC hens exhibited a decrease on Day 4 and an increase on Days 8 and 18. Concomitantly, FAST hens exhibited an increase in Stage VIII erythrocytes on Days 4 and 12, whereas an increase on Day 4 and decreases on Days 8 and 18 were observed in ZINC hens. Anorexia and a virtual state of fasting was induced by ZINC but caused a different hematological response than that exhibited by FAST hens.
Hydrostatic and Geostrophic Adjustment in a Compressible Atmosphere: Initial Response and Final Equilibrium to an Instantaneous Localized Heating

Abstract The initial and steady-state response of a compressible atmosphere to an instantaneous, localized heat source is investigated analytically. Potential vorticity conservation removes geostrophic and hydrostatic degeneracy and provides a direct method for obtaining the steady-state solution. The heat source produces a vertical potential vorticity dipole that induces a hydrostatically and geostrophically balanced cyclone–anticyclone structure in the final state. For a typical deep mesoscale heating, the net displacements required for the adjustment to the final steady state include a small, O(100 m) ascent of the core of the heated air with weak far-field descent and a large, O(10 km) outward/inward lateral displacement at the top/base of the heating. The heating initially generates available elastic and potential energy. The energy is then exchanged between kinetic, elastic, potential, and acoustic and gravity wave energy. In the final state, after the acoustic and gravity wave energy has dispersed,...
Identification of the variance components in the general two-variance linear model

Bayesian analyses frequently employ two-stage hierarchical models involving two-variance parameters: one controlling measurement error and the other controlling the degree of smoothing implied by the model's higher level. These analyses can be hampered by poorly identified variances which may lead to difficulty in computing and in choosing reference priors for these parameters. In this paper, we introduce the class of two-variance hierarchical linear models and characterize the aspects of these models that lead to well-identified or poorly identified variances. These ideas are illustrated with a spatial analysis of a periodontal data set and examined in some generality for specific two-variance models including the conditionally autoregressive (CAR) and one-way random effect models. We also connect this theory with other constrained regression methods and suggest a diagnostic that can be used to search for missing spatially varying fixed effects in the CAR model.
Altered structural fluctuations in duplex RNA versus DNA: a conformational switch involving base pair opening

DNA and RNA are known to have different structural properties. In the present study, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations on a series of RNA and DNA duplexes indicate differential structural flexibility for the two classes of oligonucleotides. In duplex RNA, multiple base pairs experienced local opening events into the major groove on the nanosecond time scale, while such events were not observed in the DNA simulations. Three factors are indicated to be responsible for the base opening events in RNA: solvent–base interactions, 2′OH(n)–O4′(n+1) intra-strand hydrogen bonding, and enhanced rigid body motion of RNA at the nucleoside level. Water molecules in the major groove of RNA contribute to initiation of base pair opening. Stabilization of the base pair open state is due to a ‘conformational switch’ comprised of 2′OH(n)–O4′(n+1) hydrogen bonding and a rigid body motion of the nucleoside moiety in RNA. This rigid body motion is associated with decreased flexibility of the glycosyl linkage and sugar moieties in A-form structures. The observed opening rates in RNA are consistent with the imino proton exchange experiments for AU base pairs, although not for GC base pairs, while structural and flexibility changes associated with the proposed conformational switch are consistent with survey data of RNA and DNA crystal structures. The possible relevance of base pair opening events in RNA to its many biological functions is discussed.
Asynchronous distributed optimization with minimal communication

We consider problems where multiple agents must cooperate to control their individual state so as to optimize a common objective while communicating with each other to exchange state information. Since communication costs can be significant, especially when the agents are wireless devices with limited energy, we seek conditions under which communication of state information among nodes is asynchronous and can be minimized while still ensuring that the optimization process converges. We propose a scheme that limits communication to instants when some state estimation error function at a node exceeds a threshold and prove that, under certain conditions, such convergence is guaranteed. We apply this approach to a sensor network coverage control problem where the objective is to maximize the probability of detecting events occurring in a given region.
Regulation of oligopeptide transporter (Pept-1) in experimental diabetes

The knowledge of expression and biology of the intestinal oligopeptide transporter (Pept-1) in a metabolic disorder such as diabetes may have nutritional and pharmacological implications. To study this problem, rats were made diabetic by streptozotocin injection, and Western and Northern blot analyses and nuclear run-on assay were used to determine the protein and gene expressions of Pept-1 and its rate of transcription, respectively. Uncontrolled diabetes for 96 h increased the activity of Pept-1 in the brush-border membrane of intestinal mucosa. Studies of Michaelis-Menten constant, maximal velocity, and protein expression of Pept-1 indicated that an increase in the abundance of this transporter was responsible for the increased activity. Studies of the gene expression showed that uncontrolled diabetes increased the abundance of mRNA encoding Pept-1 without altering its rate of transcription. Lastly, studies of the specificity of the above effect showed that uncontrolled diabetes similarly affected the ...
Automatic Generation of Miniaturized Synthetic Proxies for Target Applications to Efficiently Design Multicore Processors

Prohibitive simulation time with pre-silicon design models and unavailability of proprietary target applications make microprocessor design very tedious. The framework proposed in this paper is the first attempt to automatically generate synthetic benchmark proxies for real world multithreaded applications. The framework includes metrics that characterize the behavior of the workloads in the shared caches, coherence logic, out-of-order cores, interconnection network and DRAM. The framework is evaluated by generating proxies for the workloads in the multithreaded PARSEC benchmark suite and validating their fidelity by comparing the microarchitecture dependent and independent metrics to that of the original workloads. The average error in IPC is 4.87 percent and maximum error is 10.8 percent for Raytrace in comparison to the original workloads. The average error in the power-per-cycle metric is 2.73 percent with a maximum of 5.5 percent when compared to original workloads. The representativeness of the proxies to that of the original workloads in terms of their sensitivity to design changes is evaluated by finding the correlation coefficient between the trends followed by the synthetic and the original for design changes in IPC, which is 0.92. A speedup of four to six orders of magnitude is achieved by using the synthetic proxies over the original workloads.
RENEW 2055: 60 years old and counting.

Greetings from a kindred spirit! You, dear reader in 2055, your colleagues, family, friends and neighbours are, I hope, so familiar with the services and programmes of RENEW that you take them for granted. In the late 20th century, however, RENEW was only a seed. It began as a not-for-profit enterprise to help people sustain or regain their enthusiasm, effectiveness, and purpose by giving them the wherewithal to renew themselves—and their relationships, organizations, and professions. If in 2055 you do take RENEW's services and programmes for granted you may find it hard to understand why its formative years were so difficult. In those days, many doctors were reluctant to acknowledge the personal challenges of our profession and were uneasy about trying something new. Fortunately, we pressed on. Why? In the 20th century's last decade, times were tough for physicians, other health professionals, and their patients in the United States. Costs were high; opportunities for listening, learning, and teaching were scant; relationships were topsy-turvy, with internet-empowered patients firing questions and making demands. It was difficult for practitioners or professors to gain satisfaction, much less pleasure or even joy, from their life and work. Many worried that they were shortchanging their families, friends, and communities. Some became convinced that their own health suffered as professional pressures robbed them of the time and energy to do the things they counselled their patients to do—take exercise, read, write, play the zither, socialize, learn something. This was close to home—even my own home, because my husband and daughter are physicians. And I decided to try to help. Colleagues and I launched RENEW first to offer health professionals services and programmes that would help us cope with the turbulence and competing imperatives of our commitments. Our inspiration was John W Gardner, PhD, a statesman-scholar who understood the unhappy consequences of unrelenting strain and inspired many with his books and speeches about renewal. John wrote, ‘the release of human possibilities within an ethical and moral framework [is] crucial to the flourishing of any society.’ My colleagues and I concluded that flourishing should be the goal. Flourishing is central to the sound practice of medicine: when health professionals overlook family and personal needs, they can become cynical, exhausted, hard on themselves, and hard on others.