cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Reading Autism through Addiction: On the (Im)Possibilities of Cultural Recuperation

The article reads founding and contemporary representations of autism and autistics (formerly, “the autist”) framed by, and for their extraordinary likenesses to, figurations of addiction/the addict. In so doing it illustrates what has been most feared and reviled in autistics and thus what have been major impediments to, as well as effective strategies of, autism’s (ostensible) cultural revaluation in our time. The article demonstrates that some of the most effective but troubling strategies of autism’s recuperation have been appeals to autistics’ rationality, sociality, and ability to “emerge” into a singular, and thus exclusionary, “objective” reality.
The New Speech Politics

In engaging the popularity of “free speech” as a conservative battle cry in recent years, this article poses two questions: What particular conception of that demand does the right defend, and how should the left respond? Finding that conservatives have moved from a “negative” to a “positive” understanding of this freedom selectively applied, this article presents the consistent application of that positive understanding of free speech as a challenge to concentrations of power that conspire to privilege some speech over others. Turning to recent attempts by graduate students on North American campuses to unionize, the article attempts to ground a reading of union rights as free speech rights. Free speech is presented as a useful frame through which to think about political struggles more generally, though the article cautions against treating free speech as an invariably desirable principle.
Applications of Advanced Breast Imaging Modalities

Advanced mammographic imaging modalities have been implemented in clinical practices throughout the USA. The most notable and widely used has been the three-dimensional derivative of digital mammography, known as digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT). In this article, we review the screening and diagnostic applications of DBT, along with its limitations. We also briefly address several supplemental breast imaging modalities. The accumulating evidence from both small and large-scale trials has shown a significant reduction in recall rates and slight increase in cancer detection rates when using DBT. However, the incremental increase in cancers detected remains less than that achieved with several supplemental imaging modalities, including whole-breast ultrasound, MRI, and MBI (molecular breast imaging). Other modalities, such as CEM (contrast-enhanced mammography) and CET (contrast-enhanced tomography), are also being investigated. Numerous studies have confirmed the added value of DBT and its increased cancer detection rate in both the screening and diagnostic settings. However, the superior sensitivity of supplemental imaging modalities renders them essential, especially in high-risk patients, and potentially those with dense breasts.
Gray's anatomy: dissecting scanning activities using IP gray space analysis

In this paper, we study the scanning activities towards a large campus network using a month-long netflow traffic trace. Based on the novel notion of "gray" IP space (namely, collection of IP addresses within our campus network that are not assigned to any "active" host during a certain period of time), we identify and extract potential outside scanners and their associated activities. We then apply data mining and machine learning techniques to analyze the scanning patterns of these scanners and classify them into a few groups (e.g., focused hitters, random address scanners, and blockwise scanners). The goal is to infer the scanning strategies of the scanners so as to provide some assessment of the potential harmfulness of these scanning activities - for example, whether the observed scanning activities are simply part of background radiation of global random scanning or more focused scanning targeted at our campus network. This is an on-going work; we report some preliminary, yet promising results obtained so far.
Selective vulnerability of hippocampal interneurons to graded traumatic brain injury.

Abstract Traumatic brain injury is a major risk factor for many long-term mental health problems. Although underlying mechanisms likely involve compromised inhibition, little is known about how individual subpopulations of interneurons are affected by neurotrauma. Here we report long-term loss of hippocampal interneurons following controlled cortical impact (CCI) injury in young-adult mice, a model of focal cortical contusion injury in humans. Brain injured mice displayed subfield and cell-type specific decreases in interneurons 30 days after impact depths of 0.5 mm and 1.0 mm, and increasing the depth of impact led to greater cell loss. In general, we found a preferential reduction of interneuron cohorts located in principal cell and polymorph layers, while cell types positioned in the molecular layer appeared well preserved. Our results suggest a dramatic shift of interneuron diversity following contusion injury that may contribute to the pathophysiology of traumatic brain injury.
Optimal NIR and SWIR optical parameters for absorption and SHG detecting deep tissue vessels in intestinal submucosa

In gastrointestinal endoscopic surgery, bleeding from the accidental resection of hidden vessels is a major complication, requiring immediate conversion to open surgery. Methods of visualizing occult vessels have been proposed using the FDA approved fluorescent dye Indocyanine green (ICG), but Native label-free fluorescence of the submucosa—present up till about 886 nm—prevents the use ICG in near-infrared (NIR) window I (700 nm to 900 nm). Instead, absorption imaging is preferred; the darker vessels are visible to 4.5 mm deep. Using data from Raman scattering, absorption, native fluorescence, SHG and the photon excitation fluorescence we investigate the spectral properties and propose optimal parameters for differentiation of blood vessels from surrounding tissue in a variety of tissue types in NIR window II (1000 nm to 1350 nm) and NIR window III (1550 nm to 1900 nm, the “Golden Window”) as a complement to absorption imaging.
Neuronal Effects of Spatial and Feature Attention Differ Due to Normalization

Although spatial and feature attention have differing effects on neuronal responses in visual cortex, it remains unclear why. Response normalization has been implicated in both types of attention (Carandini and Heeger, 2011), and single-unit studies have demonstrated that the magnitude of spatial attention effects on neuronal responses covaries with the magnitude of normalization effects. However, the relationship between feature attention and normalization remains largely unexplored. We recorded from individual neurons in the middle temporal area of rhesus monkeys using a task that allowed us to isolate the effects of feature attention, spatial attention, and normalization on the responses of each neuron. We found that the magnitudes of neuronal response modulations due to spatial attention and feature attention are correlated; however, whereas modulations due to spatial attention are correlated with normalization strength, those due to feature attention are not. Additionally, spatial attention modulations are stronger with multiple stimuli in the receptive field, whereas feature attention modulations are not. These findings are captured by a model in which spatial and feature attention share common top-down attention signals that nonetheless result in differing sensory neuron response modulations because of a spatially tuned sensory normalization mechanism. This model explains previously reported commonalities and differences between these two types of attention by clarifying the relationship between top-down attention signals and sensory normalization. We conclude that similar top-down signals to visual cortex can have distinct effects on neuronal responses due to distinct interactions with sensory mechanisms.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Subjects use attention to improve their visual perception in several ways, including by attending to a location in space or to a visual feature. Prior studies have found both commonalities and differences between the effects of spatial and feature attention on neuronal responses in visual cortex, although it is unclear what mechanisms could explain this range of effects. Normalization, a computation by which neuronal responses are modified by stimulus context, has been implicated in many neuronal mechanisms throughout the brain. Here we propose that normalization provides a simple explanation for how spatial and feature attention could share common top-down attention signals that still affect sensory neuron responses differently.
Cultural sociology meets the cognitive wild: advantages of the distributed cognition framework for analyzing the intersection of culture and cognition

Cognitive cultural sociology has exhibited a preference for the neuro-scientific wing of cognitive science that generally sees cognition as a process occurring in individual minds. This preference has contributed to the individualistic cast of cognitive cultural sociology. Other theoretical frameworks can help cognitive cultural sociology out of this pickle. The paper identifies the distributed cognition approach as a valuable theoretical framework capable of integrating many of the individual/neurological insights of cognitive cultural sociology with the more macro perspectives adopted by most cultural sociologists. The article describes the distributed cognition approach, emphasizing its affinity for some of the theoretical and analytical models already in use by a wide range of cultural sociologists. Features that it offers include a de-emphasis on the inside/outside boundary of the individual person as marking the limit of cognition, attention to heterogeneous networks of information and meaning propagation, and a strong role for culture not just in providing content for cognition but in actually shaping the distributed cognition process. The concept of distributed cognition has the potential to enhance, but not replace, the concept of culture by suggesting fruitful new avenues for exploring the pathways of information and meaning propagation that constitute cognition in its distributed form.
Modulation of antimicrobial potency of human cathelicidin peptides against the ESKAPE pathogens and in vivo efficacy in a murine catheter-associated biofilm model

Antimicrobial peptides are essential components of innate immune systems that protect hosts from infection. They are also useful candidates for developing a new generation of antibiotics to fight antibiotic-resistant pathogens. Human innate immune peptide LL-37 can inhibit biofilm formation, but suffers from high cost due to a long peptide length and rapid protease degradation. To improve the peptide, we previously identified the major active region and changed the peptide backbone structure. This study designed two families of new peptides by altering peptide side chains. Interestingly, these peptides displayed differential potency against various ESKAPE pathogens in vitro and substantially reduced hemolysis. Further potency test in vivo revealed that 17tF-W eliminated the burden of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) USA300 in both mouse-embedded catheters and their surrounding tissues. In addition, peptide treatment suppressed the level of chemokine TNFα, and boosted the levels of chemokines MCP-1, IL-17A and IL-10 in the surrounding tissues of the infected catheter embedded in mice. In conclusion, we have designed a set of new LL-37 peptides with varying antimicrobial activities, opening the door to potential topical treatment of infections involving different drug-resistant pathogens.
Research of Human-Machine Interaction System for a Humanoid Robot Based on Network Communication

The operator directly controls the humanoid robot which is in another space by human's behavior after receiving the scene information of the robot. This control method is more consistent with the practice of the operator, and it makes human's behavior extended in another space. However, it also puts forward higher requirements for the human-machine interaction and the telepresence of the robot system. This paper presents an architecture of human-machine interaction system based on distributed structure. And the delay problem of the network is analyzed under this architecture. In order to conduct human-machine interaction experiment in the laboratory, we designed a set of test methods based on the time-delay simulation principle. The experiment demonstrates that the system has abilities between telepresence and human-machine interaction.
Image Processing Metrics for Phase Identification of a Multiaxis MEMS Scanner Used in Single Pixel Imaging

This article applies image processing metrics to tracking of perturbations in mechanical phase delay in a multiaxis microelectromechanical system scanner. The compact mirror is designed to scan a laser beam in a Lissajous pattern during the collection of endoscopic confocal fluorescence images, but environmental perturbations to the mirror dynamics can lead to image registration errors and blurry images. A binarized, threshold-based blur metric and variance-based sharpness metric are introduced for detecting scanner phase delay. Accuracy of local optima of the metric for identification of phase delay is examined, and relative advantages for processing accuracy and computational complexity are assessed. Image reconstruction is demonstrated using both generic images and sample tissue images, with significant improvement in image quality for tissue imaging. Implications of nonideal Lissajous scan effects on phase detection and image reconstruction are discussed.
The challenges of implementing transactive energy: A comparative analysis of experimental projects

Abstract This study examines the results of field experiments of transactive energy systems (TESs) in order to identify challenges that occur with the integration of TESs with existing software, hardware, appliances, and customer practices. Three types of challenges, and potential responses and solutions, are identified for the implementation phase of TESs: systematic risk to existing building functions, lack of readiness of users and connected systems, and lack of competitiveness with existing demand-management systems and products.
Instrumentation and experimental procedures for robust collection of X-ray diffraction data from protein crystals across physiological temperatures.

Traditional X-ray diffraction data collected at cryo-temperatures have delivered invaluable insights into the three-dimensional structures of proteins, providing the backbone of structure-function studies. While cryo-cooling mitigates radiation damage, cryo-temperatures can alter protein conformational ensembles and solvent structure. Furthermore, conformational ensembles underlie protein function and energetics, and recent advances in room-temperature X-ray crystallography have delivered conformational heterogeneity information that can be directly related to biological function. Given this capability, the next challenge is to develop a robust and broadly applicable method to collect single-crystal X-ray diffraction data at and above room temperature. This challenge is addressed herein. The approach described provides complete diffraction data sets with total collection times as short as ∼5 s from single protein crystals, dramatically increasing the quantity of data that can be collected within allocated synchrotron beam time. Its applicability was demonstrated by collecting 1.09-1.54 A resolution data over a temperature range of 293-363 K for proteinase K, thaumatin and lysozyme crystals at BL14-1 at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource. The analyses presented here indicate that the diffraction data are of high quality and do not suffer from excessive dehydration or radiation damage.
Stitch By Stitch: Addressing the Barriers to Apparel and Textile Reshoring in the United States

The purpose of the study was to explore the ways apparel and textile firms might think innovatively to address the cost and scarcity of a skilled, domestic workforce in order to facilitate the reshoring of their operations in the United States. In depth interviews were conducted with 24 individuals with knowledge of or experience in reshoring from a production or policy perspective. Three themes were identified: Direct Investments, Indirect Solutions, and Differentiating to Meet Demand. Data were interpreted through the lens of innovation theory. Results extend previous literature on the topic by highlighting the ways that industry stakeholders think firms can overcome the barriers to reshoring and make a successful return to domestic production.
The Value of Patient Perspectives in an Ethical Analysis of Recruitment and Consent for Intracranial Electrophysiology Research

We commend Mergenthaler and colleagues for bringing the topic of patient recruitment and consent in intracranial electrophysiology research to the attention of the neuroethics community. Mergenthal...
Trends in Hospitalizations of Acute Pediatric Osteomyelitis: Are we Reaching a Paradigm Shift?

Background: Acute hematogenous osteomyelitis is a frequent cause of hospitalization and current literature suggests that early transition to oral antibiotics may be equally as effective as long-term intravenous antimicrobial administration. Our aim was to explore contemporary trends in acute osteomyelitis hospitalizations, resource utilization, and central/peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) line placement among hospitalized children with osteomyelitis in the United States. Methods: This was a retrospective, serial cross-sectional study using data from the 2007-2016 editions of the National Inpatient Sample, the largest healthcare database in the United …
Toward Artificial Intelligence-Driven Pathology Assessment for Hematologic Malignancies.

In this issue of Blood Cancer Discovery, Bruck and colleagues applied unsupervised and supervised machine learning to bone marrow histopathology images from patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). Their study provides new insights into the pathobiology of MDS and paves the way for increased use of artificial intelligence for the assessment and diagnosis of hematologic malignancies.See related article by Bruck et al., p. 238.
Beating Earnings Benchmarks and the Cost of Debt

Prior research documents that firms tend to beat three earnings benchmarks: zero earnings, last year’s earnings, and analyst’s forecasted earnings, and that there are both equity market and compensation-related benefits associated with beating these benchmarks. This study investigates whether and under what conditions beating these three earnings benchmarks reduces a firm’s cost of debt. I use two proxies for a firm’s cost of debt: credit ratings and initial bond yield spread. Results suggest that firms beating earnings benchmarks have a higher probability of rating upgrades and a smaller initial bond yield spread. Additional analyses indicate that (i) the benefits of beating earnings benchmarks are more pronounced for firms with high default risk; (ii) beating the zero earnings benchmark generally provides the biggest reward in terms of a lower cost of debt; and (iii) the reduction in the cost of debt is attenuated but does not disappear for firms beating benchmarks through earnings management. In sum, results suggest that there are benefits associated with beating earnings benchmarks in the debt market. These benefits vary by benchmark, firm default risk, and method utilized to beat the benchmark. Among other implications, this evidence suggests that the relative importance of specific benchmarks differs across the equity and bond markets.
Functional in vivo characterization of sox10 enhancers in neural crest and melanoma development.

The role of a neural crest developmental transcriptional program, which critically involves Sox10 upregulation, is a key conserved aspect of melanoma initiation in both humans and zebrafish, yet transcriptional regulation of sox10 expression is incompletely understood. Here we used ATAC-Seq analysis of multiple zebrafish melanoma tumors to identify recurrently open chromatin domains as putative melanoma-specific sox10 enhancers. Screening in vivo with EGFP reporter constructs revealed 9 of 11 putative sox10 enhancers with embryonic activity in zebrafish. Focusing on the most active enhancer region in melanoma, we identified a region 23 kilobases upstream of sox10, termed peak5, that drives EGFP reporter expression in a subset of neural crest cells, Kolmer-Agduhr neurons, and early melanoma patches and tumors with high specificity. A ~200 base pair region, conserved in Cyprinidae, within peak5 is required for transgenic reporter activity in neural crest and melanoma. This region contains dimeric SoxE/Sox10 dimeric binding sites essential for peak5 neural crest and melanoma activity. We show that deletion of the endogenous peak5 conserved genomic locus decreases embryonic sox10 expression and disrupts adult stripe patterning in our melanoma model background. Our work demonstrates the power of linking developmental and cancer models to better understand neural crest identity in melanoma. By performing ATAC-Seq on zebrafish melanoma tumours, Cunningham et al identify putative sox10 enhancers with embryonic activity in zebrafish. They identify a region upstream of sox10, termed peak5, that is needed for full expression of embryonic sox10 and for adult stripe patterning demonstrating an enhancer function for peak5 and provide insights into neural crest development and melanoma initiation.
Theory of planned behavior to promote physical activity of adults with physical disabilities: Meta-analytic structural equation modeling.

Abstract Background Adults with physical disabilities experience lower physical activity (PA) engagement. The theory of planned behavior (TPB) has been one of dominant theories in understanding and promoting PA. There is no previous meta-analysis examining the use of the TPB on PA of adults with physical disabilities. Objective The purposes of this review were 1) to conduct meta-analysis to examine predictive effects of TPB on PA behavior of adults with physical disabilities and 2) to investigate a possible moderator among components of TPB. Methods One-stage meta-analytic structural equation modeling was used to conduct meta-analysis. Type of physical disability was examined as a moderator. Results Intention had moderate effect on PA (β = 0.37, p Conclusions Predictive effects of component of TPB were slightly different from those of individuals without disabilities. Type of physical disability can be a critical factor determining the impact of perceived control on PA behavior. Attitude and PBC can be targets for promoting PA of adults with physical disabilities.
Structural Damage Localization Using Sensor Cluster Based Regression Schemes

Automatic damage identification from sensor measurements has long been a topic of interest in the civil engineering research community. A number of methods, including classical system identification and time series analysis techniques, have been proposed to detect the existence of damage in structures. Not many of them, though, are reported efficient for higher-level damage detection which concerns damage localization and severity assessment. In this paper, regression-based damage localization schemes are proposed and applied to signals generated from a simulated two-bay steel frame. These regression algorithms operates on substructural beam models, and uses the acceleration/strain responses at beam ends as input and the acceleration from an intermediate node as output. From the regression coefficients and residuals three damage identification features are extracted, and two change point analysis techniques are adopted to evaluate if a change of statistical significance occurred in the extracted feature sequences. For the four damage scenarios simulated, the algorithms identified the damage existence and partially succeeded in locating the damage. More accurate inferences on damage location are drawn by combining the results from different algorithms using a weighted voting scheme.
Imagining Sovereignty, Managing Secession: The Legal Geography of Eurasia's "Frozen Conflicts"

The interrelated concepts of sovereignty, self-determination, and the territorial integrity of states form a Gordian knot at the core of public international law. This Article, written as part of a symposium on law and geography, considers how geographic concepts can be used to try to untangle - or slice through - this knot of issues. The frozen conflicts of Eurasia are a series of ongoing secessionist crises in the post-Soviet states of Moldova, Georgia, and Azerbaijan. I will use the example of the so-called "frozen conflict" in Moldova as a central illustration. Part I is a discussion of how we "imagine sovereignty" - using techniques of political geography and cartography to designate sovereignty and how this affects our perception of claims. Related to this, I consider how "territory" is both a physical thing - a plot of land - and also an ideological concept - an idea of a homeland. Part II briefly sets out the evolution of the concept of self-determination and how it is used to regulate legal claims for secession. Part III further examines the theory of self-determination through the optic of the conflict in Moldova. This part will also consider the "legal geography" of secessionist enclaves. Part IV situates these legal arguments in the broader discourse of realpolitik, including whether and how these issues relate to the debate over the final status of Kosovo. Finally, Part V considers implications of these findings and addresses arguments that perhaps it is time to reorder the international system around something other than states.The frozen conflicts have been considered intractable in part because it is very difficult to find negotiated solutions on purely political bases. Realpolitik has its limits. Perhaps seeing these conflicts through the optic of international law, and that the contested territory has a legal geography as well as a political geography, may provide a framework in which, based on the norms of the international community, some claims will be favored and others viewed as comparatively weak. The challenge is to use the norms of self-determination not merely to protect the prerogatives of states but also to envision a means towards principled and just resolutions of these, and similar, conflicts.
On the Correctness of Model Transformations in the Development of Embedded Systems

Model based techniques have become very popular in the development of software for embedded systems, with a variety of tools for design, simulation and analysis of model based systems being available (such as Matlab's Simulink [20], the model checking tool NuSMV [4] etc.). Model transformations usually play a critical role in such model based development approaches. While the available tools are geared to verify properties about individual models, the correctness of model transformations is generally not verified. However, errors in the transformation could present serious problems. Proving a property for a certain source model becomes irrelevant if an erroneous transformation produces an incorrect target model. One way to provide assurance about a transformation would be to prove that it preserves certain properties of the source model (such as reachability) in the target model. In this paper, we present some general approaches to providing such assurances about model transformations. We will present some case studies where these techniques can be applied.
Gene signature of cancer stem cells is manifested within an intrinsic subgroup of breast cancers with mesenchymal properties

PL05-01 Background. Breast cancer stem cells characterized by CD44 + /CD24 -/low may be resistant to therapy and responsible for relapse. Mmammospheres (MSs) can be propogated as an in vitro surrogate assay for increased self-renewal. We set out to define a “signature” expression pattern associated with CD44 + /CD24 -/low , mammosphere-forming cells. Methods. Breast cancer biopsies (n=19) were digested, stained with CD24, CD44, and lineage antibodies, and analyzed by flow cytometry. A portion of the unsorted cells were plated under serum-free conditions to form MSs (n=16). Gene expression, using the Affymetrix U133 GeneChip platform, of cancer cells bearing CD44 + /CD24 -/low vs. other sorted cells, and between cancer MS vs. the primary invasive cancers were analyzed. Gene expression from two trials (neoadjuvant letrozole N=18, and docetaxel, N=12) were used as validation studies. Results. In the flow-sorted CD44 + /CD24 -/low vs. other cells, 1,424 named genes were elevated ( p 1.5, FDR=0.20). The comparison between MSs vs. primary cancers yielded 1,890 elevated genes (FDR=0.25). Between the two sets, 380 genes were in common, a highly significant overlap ( p =1E-5, one-sided Fisher’s exact). This overlap was ~40% greater than what would be expected (n=110) if the two sets had no biological relevance. Differential pathways included genes in PI3K/AKT signaling (PI3K3R3, ErbB3, FGFR2, PRLR), and the Notch pathway - a known regulator of normal and malignant stem/progenitor cells (Jagged-2, MAML2, Deltex, HES1). This signature was found exclusively activated in tumors of the recently identified “claudin-low” subtype, characterized by overexpression of many mesenchymal genes. Both signatures were validated in two independent data sets comparing the expression profiles of paired breast cancer core biopsies before vs. after letrozole or docetaxel chemotherapy. Conclusion. The mesenchymal association provides a possible explanation for the intrinsic resistance of breast cancer stem cells to therapy.
The interaction of radioiodinated thyrotropin with plasma membranes: Evidence for high affinity binding sites in the thyroid

Abstract The binding of biologically active [ 125 I]thyrotropin to purified plasma membranes prepared from bovine thyroid glands was studied. At 4°C, specific binding reached a maximum after 2 h of incubation and a plateau was maintained for up to 20 h. Degradation of [ 125 I]thyrotropin was undetectable after 2 h of incubation and was only 10% of the total after 20 h. At pH 6.0, at which binding was maximal, a single class of binding sites, having a dissociation constant of approx. 25 nM, was evident. Dissociation studies revealed first order kinetics with a half-time of 2–3 min. At pH 7.5, binding curves were complex, suggesting two orders of binding sites with dissociation constants of approx. 200 nM and 80 pM. Further, at this pH, dissociation of the thyrotropin from its receptor was also complex, suggesting the presence of two first order reactions, one with a half-time similar to that seen at pH 6.0 and another with a half-time of 4 h. At both pH 6.0 and 7.5, insulin, glucagon, growth hormone, and prolactin were without effect on [ 125 I]thyrotropin binding. Similar high affinity and low affinity binding sites were seen with porcine thyroid membranes, but only low affinity sites were seen with either rat liver membranes or human cultured lymphocytes.
Introduction to the Special Issue: Occupational Social Work: Current Perspectives

The field of Occupational Social Work (OSW) has a long and rich history. Its roots “can be traced to the beginnings of industrialization” in the United States (Googins, 1987, p. 38). Initially, a f...
Simulation of Interstellar Scattering Effects on Pulsar Timing

A computer simulation has been devised to study the effects of interstellar scattering on pulsar pulse times-of-arrival using a one-dimensional power-law phase screen. The motivation for this study is to understand the limits on pulsar timing imposed by interstellar scattering (ISS). For a given model of the electron density spectrum, multi-frequency timing observations may be able to remove the plasma propagation effects. Removal of these effects is necessary to obtain sub-microsecond timing estimation of pulsar proper motion, parallactic distance, and other effects. In this paper we present some of our preliminary results.
Multipurpose assessment for the quantification of Vibrio spp. and total bacteria in fish and seawater using multiplex real-time polymerase chain reaction.

BACKGROUND This study describes the first multiplex real-time polymerase chain reaction assay developed, as a multipurpose assessment, for the simultaneous quantification of total bacteria and three Vibrio spp. (V. parahaemolyticus, V. vulnificus and V. anguillarum) in fish and seawater. The consumption of raw finfish as sushi or sashimi has been increasing the chance of Vibrio outbreaks in consumers. Freshness and quality of fishery products also depend on the total bacterial populations present. RESULTS The detection sensitivity of the specific targets for the multiplex assay was 1 CFU mL−1 in pure culture and seawater, and 10 CFU g−1 in fish. While total bacterial counts by the multiplex assay were similar to those obtained by cultural methods, the levels of Vibrio detected by the multiplex assay were generally higher than by cultural methods of the same populations. Among the natural samples without Vibrio spp. inoculation, eight out of 10 seawater and three out of 20 fish samples were determined to contain Vibrio spp. CONCLUSION Our data demonstrate that this multiplex assay could be useful for the rapid detection and quantification of Vibrio spp. and total bacteria as a multipurpose tool for surveillance of fish and water quality as well as diagnostic method. © 2014 The Authors. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture published by JohnWiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.
A Cryptologic Based Trust Center for Medical Images

Objective : To investigate practical solutions that can integrate cryptographic techniques and picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) to improve the security of medical images. Design : The PACS at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center consolidate images and associated data from various scanners into a centralized data archive and transmit them to remote display stations for review and consultation purposes. The purpose of this study is to investigate the model of a digital trust center that integrates cryptographic algorithms and protocols seamlessly into such a digital radiology environment to improve the security of medical images. Measurements : The timing performance of encryption, decryption, and transmission of the cryptographic protocols over 81 volumetric PACS datasets has been measured. Lossless data compression is also applied before the encryption. The transmission performance is measured against three types of networks of different bandwidths: narrow-band Integrated Services Digital Network, Ethernet, and OC-3c Asynchronous Transfer Mode. Results : The proposed digital trust center provides a cryptosystem solution to protect the confidentiality and to determine the authenticity of digital images in hospitals. The results of this study indicate that diagnostic images such as x-rays and magnetic resonance images could be routinely encrypted in PACS. However, applying encryption in teleradiology and PACS is a tradeoff between communications performance and security measures. Conclusion : Many people are uncertain about how to integrate cryptographic algorithms coherently into existing operations of the clinical enterprise. This paper describes a centralized cryptosystem architecture to ensure image data authenticity in a digital radiology department. The system performance has been evaluated in a hospital-integrated PACS environment.
The Economizing Strategy An Application and a Critique

The Economizing Strategy: An Application and. Critique. Willie Baber. New York: Peter Lang Publishers, 1988. 232 pp. $45 (cloth).
Endogenous GABA release from rat striatal slices: effects of the GABAB receptor antagonist 2-hydroxy-saclofen.

The reproducibility of endogenous GABA release evoked by multiple periods of electrical field stimulation was examined in rat striatal slices. In these experiments, NO-328 was used to block GABA uptake, and evoked GABA release (overflow) was completely Ca2+ dependent. A seemingly invariant observation in these experiments was that spontaneous GABA release (outflow) progressively decreased as a function of superfusion time and that GABA overflow decreased 25–30% in response to the second of two periods of stimulation (S2/S1 ratios = 0.70 to 0.75). The attenuation of GABA release was not explained by the amount of GABA lost to the superfusion buffer (fractional release), direct depletion of releasable pools of GABA, or slice viability. Furthermore, the decreases in GABA release were not dependent on stimulation frequency (5–15 Hz) or the absolute amount of GABA evoked by electrical stimulation. However, the GABAB receptor antagonist 2-hydroxy-saclofen (2-OH-saclofen; 316 μM) not only enhanced GABA overflow, when superfused throughout both periods of stimulation, but also resulted in S2/S1 ratios of unity. When 2-OH-saclofen was superfused throughout the second stimulation period only, GABA overflow was almost two-fold greater than that evoked by the initial period of stimulation (2-OH-saclofen-free). In addition, these S2 responses were ∼30% greater than S1 responses that were observed when 2-OH-saclofen was present throughout the entire superfusion period. These results indicate that activation of GABAB receptors was involved in the progressive attenuation of GABA release and further emphasize that GABAB receptors play an important role in modulating endogenous GABA release from striatal slices. © Wiley-Liss, Inc.
A trinuclear Cu2Eu complex catalyzed asymmetric Friedel–Crafts alkylations of indoles with nitroalkenes

Abstract Catalytic enantioselective Friedel–Crafts alkylations of indoles and nitroalkenes were carried out by using a new heterotrimetallic Cu/Eu/Cu complex catalyst based on the simple chiral ligand, reduced Schiff base 1, to give the Friedel–Crafts adducts with up to 88% yield and 80% ee. The trimetallic catalyst is air-stable and can be formed in-situ by a facile solution self-assembly during the catalytic reaction.
Acute impairment of regional myocardial glucose uptake in the apical ballooning (takotsubo) syndrome.

Background Apical ballooning syndrome (ABS) is a poorly understood clinical entity characterized by acute, transient systolic dysfunction of the left ventricular (LV) apex in the absence of epicardial coronary artery disease and commonly associated with acute emotional stress. We report abnormal regional myocardial perfusion and glucose uptake in 4 consecutive ABS patients studied using positron emission tomography with 13 N-ammonia and 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose within 72 hours of presentation with ABS. Methods All patients were postmenopausal females, 3 of whom had a major recent life stress event. Coronary angiography revealed no or minimal obstructive epicardial coronary artery disease. All patients exhibited reduced glucose uptake in the mid-LV and apical myocardial segments, which was out of proportion to perfusion abnormalities in half of the cases. Conclusion In all 4 patients, affected regions subsequently recovered regional LV systolic function within 6 weeks.
Asymmetric Impact of Tropical SST Anomalies on Atmospheric Internal Variability over the North Pacific

Abstract A substantial asymmetric impact of tropical Pacific SST anomalies on the internal variability of the extratropical atmosphere is found. A variety of diagnoses is performed to help reveal the dynamical processes leading to the large impact. Thirty-five years of geopotential heights and 29 years of wind fields analyzed operationally at the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), formerly the National Meteorological Center, and three sets of 10-yr-long perpetual January integrations run with a low-resolution NCEP global spectral model are investigated in detail for the impact of the SST anomalies on the blocking flows over the North Pacific. The impact on large-scale deep trough flows is also examined. Both the blocking and deep trough flows develop twice as much over the North Pacific during La Nina as during El Nino winters. Consequently, the internal dynamics associated low-frequency variability (LFV), with timescales between 7 and 61 days examined in this study, display distinct ch...
DERIVING THE PHYSICAL PARAMETERS OF A SOLAR EJECTION WITH AN ISOTROPIC MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMIC EVOLUTIONARY MODEL

The time-space evolution of a ~50° wide coronal mass ejection (CME) on 2007 May 21 is followed remotely with the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory heliospheric imager HI-1, and measured in situ near Venus by the MESSENGER and Venus-Express spacecraft. The paper compares the observations of the CME structure with a simple, analytical magnetohydrodynamic force-free solution. It corresponds to a self-similar evolution, which gives a consistent picture of the main spatial-temporal features for both remote and in situ observations. Our main findings are (1) the self-similar evolution allows us to map the CME bright front into about 1/3 of the whole interplanetary counterpart of the coronal mass ejection (ICME, i.e., corresponding to the in situ observed passage of the plasma and magnetic field structure), in good quantitative agreement with the imaging measurements, (2) the cavity following the CME front maps into the rest of the ICME structure, 80% or more of which is consistent with a force free, cylindrically shaped flux rope, and (3) time and space conditions constrain the translational speed of the FR center to 301 km s–1, and the expansion speed of the FR core to 26 km s–1. A careful determination of the ICME cross-section and volume allows us to calculate the mass of the CME bright region (4.3 ± 1.1 1014 g) from the in situ measurements of the proton number density, which we assume to be uniform inside the bright region, of excellent agreement with the value estimated from the SECCHI HI-1 observations for the same structure. We provide model estimates for several global parameters including FR helicity (~2 × 1026 Weber2).
A new species of Acanthobothrium van Beneden, 1849 (Cestoda: Tetraphyllidea) from Rioraja castelnaui (Chondrichthyes: Rajoidei) in coastal waters of Argentina

Acanthobothrium marplatensis n. sp. is described from the spiral intestine of the skate Rioraja castelnaui taken off Mar del Plata, Argentina. The new species is compared with those species that it most closely resembles morphologically, to species reported from other skate hosts and to species described from the same geographical region. A. marplatensis is most similar to A. paulum, A. benedeni, A. costarricense, A. fogeli, A. himanturi, A. lintoni, A. monksi, A. olseni, A. puntarenasense and A. mathiasi. All of these species share a similar combination of characters (12–40 proglottids, 20–50 testes and total length of 2–10mm). A. marplatensis can be differentiated from these species and those described from skates by a combination of the following characters: 4.79–8.44 (6.18) mm long, with 18–30 (24) proglottids, spinose cephalic peduncle 160–338 (227) long, bothridial hooks with total length 93-134 (115), 24–39 (32) testes per proglottid, cirrus-sac curved anteriorly, ovarian lobes never reaching the level of the cirrus-sac and vaginal sphincter absent. Geographically, the new species can be distinguished from A. zapterycum and three different species designated as “Acanthobothrium sp.” reported from the coast of Uruguay and Argentina by the size of the worms, number of proglottids, position of the genital pores and size of the bothridial hooks. A. marplatensis showed the greatest preference for chambers 2 and 3 of the eight chambers of the spiral intestine. The mean intensity of infection in individual hosts increased with host size and was greater in spring and summer than in cold seasons. The intensity of infection was unrelated to host sex.
Hindrance of heavy-ion fusion due to nuclear incompressibility

We propose a new mechanism to explain the unexpected steep falloff of fusion cross sections at energies far below the Coulomb barrier. The saturation properties of nuclear matter are causing a hindrance to large overlap of the reacting nuclei and consequently a sensitive change of the nuclear potential inside the barrier. We report in this Letter a good agreement with the data of coupled-channels calculation for the {sup 64}Ni+{sup 64}Ni combination using the double-folding potential with Michigan-3-Yukawa-Reid effective N-N forces supplemented with a repulsive core that reproduces the nuclear incompressibility for total overlap.
A temperature-drift balancer for calorimetry

Abstract Calorimeters used in radiation measurements often suffer from errors due to thermal drifts at positions of the heat sensors in a Wheatstone bridge. A simple resistance-capacitance circuit can be connected across a Wheatstone bridge in order to balance recorder pen drifts due to gradually changing temperature gradients that often occur in calorimeters.
Resistance monitoring of Heliothis virescens to pyramided cotton varieties with a hydrateable, artificial cotton leaf bioassay

Abstract Proof of concept was demonstrated for a practical, off-the-shelf bioassay to monitor for tobacco budworm resistance to pyramided Bt cotton using plant filtrates. The bioassay was based on a previously described feeding disruption test using hydrateable artificial diet containing a blue indicator dye, a diagnostic dose of insecticide and novel assay architecture. Using neonate larvae from a Bt-susceptible, laboratory reared tobacco budworm strain, a diagnostic dose for Bollgard II and WideStrike cotton was obtained that limited neonate blue fecal production to 0–2 pellets in 24 h (Bt-resistant larvae produced >2 fecal pellets). The bioassay was tested with three different field populations of tobacco budworm collected from tobacco in central North Carolina (USA) and shown to accurately diagnose susceptibility to Bt. The diagnostic doses were also successfully evaluated with two Bt-resistant, laboratory reared tobacco budworm strains. Shelf life studies showed the assay could be stored for at least 6 months at room temperature (longer storage times were not studied). The application of the bioassay as an easy to use monitoring tool is discussed.
Voltage-gated proton channels in microglia.

Microglia, macrophages that reside in the brain, can express at least 12 different ion channels, including voltage-gated proton channels. The properties of H currents in microglia are similar to those in other phagocytes. Proton currents are elicited by depolarizing the membrane potential, but activation also depends strongly on both intracellular pH (pHi) and extracellular pH (pHo). Increasing pHo or lowering pHi promotes H channel opening by shifting the activation threshold to more negative potentials. H channels in microglia open only when the pH gradient is outward, so they carry only outward current in the steady state. Time-dependent activation of H currents is slow, with a time constant roughly 1 s at room temperature. Microglial H currents are inhibited by inorganic polyvalent cations, which reduce H current amplitude and shift the voltage dependence of activation to more positive potentials. Cytoskeletal disruptive agents modulate H currents in microglia. Cytochalasin D or colchicine decrease the current density and slow the activation of H currents. Similar changes of H currents, possibly due to cytoskeletal reorganization, occur in microglia during the transformation from ameboid to ramified morphology. Phagocytes, including microglia, undergo a respiratory burst, in which NADPH oxidase releases bactericidal superoxide anions into the phagosome and stoichiometrically releases protons into the cell, tending to depolarize and acidify the cell. H currents may help regulate both the membrane potential and pHi during the respiratory burst. By compensating for the efflux of electrons and counteracting intracellular acidification, H channels help maintain superoxide anion production. © 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
I. THE PHILADELPHIA CITY COUNCIL

This is the first of a series of articles on the general charactr, procedure and work of city concils. This article frankly presents a clear analysis of Philadelphia's council as organized under the charter of 1919.