cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Logics of Dynamical Systems

We study the logic of dynamical systems, that is, logics and proof principles for properties of dynamical systems. Dynamical systems are mathematical models describing how the state of a system evolves over time. They are important in modeling and understanding many applications, including embedded systems and cyber-physical systems. In discrete dynamical systems, the state evolves in discrete steps, one step at a time, as described by a difference equation or discrete state transition relation. In continuous dynamical systems, the state evolves continuously along a function, typically described by a differential equation. Hybrid dynamical systems or hybrid systems combine both discrete and continuous dynamics. This is a brief survey of differential dynamic logic for specifying and verifying properties of hybrid systems. We explain hybrid system models, differential dynamic logic, its semantics, and its axiomatization for proving logical formulas about hybrid systems. We study differential invariants, i.e., induction principles for differential equations. We briefly survey theoretical results, including soundness and completeness and deductive power. Differential dynamic logic has been implemented in automatic and interactive theorem provers and has been used successfully to verify safety-critical applications in automotive, aviation, railway, robotics, and analogue electrical circuits.
Inoculation of chicks with viable non-colonizing strains of Campylobacter jejuni: Evaluation of protection against a colonizing strain

We have treated chicks with viable non-colonizing mutant strains of Campylobacter jejuni to test these as a possible vaccine. We found that intramuscular inoculation with and without adjuvant, and with or without a concomitant oral dose of non-colonizing strains, failed to provoke protective immunity.
Effect of two dopamine agonists, TL-99 and 3-PPP, on prolactin secretion in the rat

Abstract TL-99 and 3-PPP, two putative dopamine autoreceptor agonists, effectively suppressed serum prolactin (PRL) concentrations in rats treated with α-methyltyrosine. In addition, the secretion of PRL from anterior pituitary tissue under in vitro conditions was significantly inhibited by TL-99 and 3-PPP. These findings are supportive of the view that TL-99 and 3-PPP exert a dopamine agonist action at dopamine receptors in the anterior pituitary gland.
Effects of deoxynivalenol consumption on body weight and adiposity in the diet-induced obese mouse

The potential for the obese state to alter sensitivity to toxic chemicals is poorly understood. In this study, dose-response effects of the trichothecene deoxynivalenol (DON), a common food-borne mycotoxin, were determined on body weight of diet-induced obese mice. In study 1, the effects of feeding adult female B6C3F1 mice a high-fat diet (HFD; 60% kcal from fat) containing 0, 2, 5, or 10 ppm DON for 10 wk on body weight and adiposity were compared. Mice consuming 5 or 10 ppm DON exhibited a 15 and 24% decrease in weight gain and a 50 and 83% reduction in periuterine fat, respectively. In study 2, mice were fed HFD for 8 wk to induce obesity and the effects of consuming HFD + 0, 2, 5, or 10 ppm DON for 8 wk were then determined. Mice fed 5 or 10 ppm DON exhibited a 16 and 23% weight reduction and a 0 and 40% periuterine fat reduction, respectively. In a follow-up experiment, food consumption was measured prior to and after the transition from HFD to HFD + 10 ppm DON. Exposure to DON was found to lower HFD consumption within 1 d, with significant weight loss in DON-fed mice evident after 6 d. In both studies 1 and 2, consumption of 5 or 10 ppm DON diminished circulating levels of insulin-like growth factor acid-labile subunit. Taken together, DON consumption lowered weight gain and produced weight loss in diet-induced obese mice at higher thresholds than that observed previously in normal B6C3F1 mice.
Linear free-energy relationships and the density functional theory: an analog of the hammett equation.

Density functional theory has been applied to describe electronic substituent effects, especially in the pursuit of linear relationships similar to those observed from physical organic chemistry experiments. In particular, analogues for the Hammett equation parameters (σ, ρ) have been developed. Theoretical calculations were performed on several series of organic molecules in order to validate our model and for comparison with experimental results. The trends obtained by Hammett-like relations predicted by the model were found to be in qualitative agreement with the experimental data. The results obtained in this study suggest the applicability of similar correlation analysis based on theoretical methodologies that do not make use of empirical fits to experimental data can be useful in the study of substituent effects in organic chemistry.
Validation of the NPI-Q, a brief clinical form of the Neuropsychiatric Inventory

The Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) is a validated clinical instrument for evaluating psychopathology in dementia. The authors developed a brief questionnaire form of the NPI (NPI-Q), intended for use in routine clinical practice, and cross-validated it with the NPI in 60 Alzheimer's patients. Test-retest reliability of the NPI-Q was acceptable. The prevalence of analogous symptoms reported on the NPI and NPI-Q differed on average by 5%; moderate or severe symptom ratings differed by less than 2%. The NPI-Q provides a brief, reliable, informant-based assessment of neuropsychiatric symptoms and associated caregiver distress that may be suitable for use in general clinical practice.
Multilocus linkage disequilibrium mapping by the decay of haplotype sharing with samples of related individuals.

We consider the problem of multilocus linkage disequilibrium (LD) mapping of a trait-associated variant from case-control samples in which some individuals may be related. Our method, which we call DHS-R, is an extension of the decay of haplotype sharing (DHS) method of McPeek and Strahs ([1999] Am J Hum Genet 65:858–875) and Strahs and McPeek ([2003] IMS Lecture Notes Monograph Series, Vol. 40.). The DHS-R method shares the main features of the DHS method: (1) it allows construction of a confidence interval for the location of a trait-associated variant; (2) it allows for missing observations and unphased genotype data, with the uncertainty in the haplotypes taken into account in the analysis; and (3) it allows for heterogeneity, mutation, recombination, and background LD. The main advances of the DHS-R are (1) the ability to include individuals of arbitrary known relationship (including inbreeding) in the case and control samples; (2) an extension to allow partially-phased haplotypes derived from case-parent trio genotype data; and (3) an extension to allow for genotyping error in the model. Our method, which uses a hidden Markov model for likelihood calculation and maximization, has the advantage of being computationally feasible even in a large, complex pedigree. Simulations based on a 13-generation, 1,623-member Hutterite pedigree demonstrate accurate coverage of the confidence intervals for location of the variant. We apply the method to fine-mapping of a susceptibility locus for bronchial hyperresponsiveness (BHR) in the Hutterites. The results confirm the importance of taking into account the relatedness of individuals in LD mapping. Genet. Epidemiol. 2005. © 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Advances in AlGaInN blue and ultraviolet light emitters

In this paper, we discuss the current status and the considerable challenges for extending the nitride light sources into deeper ultraviolet (UV). We also review recent progress in exploratory blue and near UV III-nitride light emitters, such as vertical cavity devices and dual-wavelength light-emitting diodes, which may provide useful device templates for applications in the deeper UV.
Integrating social, environmental, and economic issues in sustainable agriculture

In the past several years, researchers, educators, policymakers, and activists have initiated sustainable agriculture programs and efforts the world over. This development has sometimes been accompanied by a sense that it is time to stop discussing sustainability at a conceptual level and get on with the work of making agriculture sustainable. Our perspective is that it is critical to pursue a comprehensive definition of sustainability in order to set sustainable agriculture priorities and ensure that sustainable agriculture takes a path that does not reproduce problems of conventional agriculture. In this paper we briefly review some popular definitions of sustainable agriculture and find that their focus is primarily on farm-level resource conservation and profitability as the main components of sustainability. Others have challenged this approach for either not examining the social aspects of sustainability or for containing an implicit assumption that working on the environmental, production, and microeconomic aspects of sustainability will automatically take care of its social aspects. We propose an expanded conceptualization of sustainability—one that focuses on the entire food and agriculture system at a global level and includes not only environmental soundness and economic viability, but social equity as well. In this perspective, issues such as poverty and hunger are as central to achieving agricultural sustainability as those of soil erosion and adequate farm returns.
Perspectives on: Local calcium signaling

As an ion channel biophysicist studying a Ca2+-permeable channel, I have been poring over the literature trying to figure out better ways to squeeze more information out of my experiments. Like many others, I have become fascinated by Ca2+ influx–mediated cell signaling; I also have found the tools in my repertoire sorely lacking. How fast do signals initiate? What terminates them and how fast? How far do they spread? How many channels does it take to kick off a signaling event? These questions, and more, are central for anybody who studies a variety of Ca2+ channels, and classical electrophysiology does not provide the tools to answer them. Luckily, a revolution in measuring Ca2+ signals has taken place over the last decade and has really accelerated over just the last few years. The field of Ca2+ signaling has benefited from advances in microscopy, Ca2+ buffers/dyes, and caged compounds that allow Ca2+ signals from single channels to be measured with an accuracy approaching that of single-channel electrophysiology recordings. The five contributions to this Perspectives series on Ca2+ signaling introduce these new technologies and apply them to muscle and nerve cell Ca2+ channels. For both plasma membrane channels and those localized to intracellular membranes, we are learning about how functional diversity arises among channels with identical subunit compositions. The fascinating interconnection between channels and between clusters of channels is being revealed. This nanometer-scale Ca2+ signaling underlies essential functional properties that we are only now beginning to understand. Letters to the editor related to these Perspectives will be published in the November 2010 issue of the Journal. Letters to the editor should be received no later than Friday, September 17, 2010, to allow for editorial review. The letters may be no longer than two printed pages (approximately six double-spaced pages) and will be subject to editorial review. They may contain no more than one figure, no more than 15 references, and no significant references to unpublished work. Letters should be prepared according to the Journal’s instructions and submitted via the “Submit” button at http://www.jgp.org. This Perspectives series includes articles by Parker and Smith, Xie et al., Prosser et al., Santana and Navedo, and Hill-Eubanks et al.
An Effective Two-Stage Model for Exploiting Non-Local Dependencies in Named Entity Recognition

This paper shows that a simple two-stage approach to handle non-local dependencies in Named Entity Recognition (NER) can outperform existing approaches that handle non-local dependencies, while being much more computationally efficient. NER systems typically use sequence models for tractable inference, but this makes them unable to capture the long distance structure present in text. We use a Conditional Random Field (CRF) based NER system using local features to make predictions and then train another CRF which uses both local information and features extracted from the output of the first CRF. Using features capturing non-local dependencies from the same document, our approach yields a 12.6% relative error reduction on the F1 score, over state-of-the-art NER systems using local-information alone, when compared to the 9.3% relative error reduction offered by the best systems that exploit non-local information. Our approach also makes it easy to incorporate non-local information from other documents in the test corpus, and this gives us a 13.3% error reduction over NER systems using local-information alone. Additionally, our running time for inference is just the inference time of two sequential CRFs, which is much less than that directly model the dependencies and do approximate inference.
Reactions and Segregation on α-Cristobalite (011) Surfaces by the Electronegativity Equalization Method

The electronegativity equalization method is used to calculate the atomic charges, framework electronegativity and framework energy of the α-cristobalite bulk and the relaxed (011) surface. The effect of surface hydration and fluoridation on the framework properties are then calculated and related to surface charge. The segregation of germanium, aluminum and phosphorus in the α-cristobalite structure are modelled using the same method. The framework electronegativity difference between surface and bulk is observed to be a driving force for reactions and segregation.
The study of relationships between the international organizations and the member states: A system approach

The purpose of this article is to analyze the relationship between international organizations and member states. Our basic ;irgument is that the linkage between the two entities requires a sociological analysis not just a description of mechanisms as they are supposed to operate. The systemic approach provides us with a suitable methodological framework through which the articulation of the relationship between the state and the organization can be seen in terms of inputs, outputs and feedbacks. We have tried to define the various motivations which impel a state to join an international organization and the various roles of the states in creating the international organization. Then we tried to analyze the rature of the state inputs in the international organization and variables affecting their formulation. After that we described first how these inputs convert into general policies, then states’ reaction to the outputs of the international organization, and finally how we can understand and measure int...
Second-order estimates in singular perturbation of output regulator problems

A method of order reduction in singular perturbation problems due to Chow and Kokotovic is studied. The method is used for an output regulator problem in control theory. The quadratic term in the asymptotic expansion of Chow and Kokotovic is calculated and it is shown by some examples how this term can give evidence of the accuracy of the procedure.
Assessing Changes in the Impact of Cancer on Population Survival Without Considering Cause of Death

Background: We have previously argued against the calculation of cancer-specific death rates as philosophically undefined and biased. Deaths attributed to cancer during a particular year occur in patients diagnosed during an unknown distribution of past times, so cancer-specific death rates cannot be used to assess changes in the impact of cancer on survival of the population at specific periods of diagnosis. Purpose: Our goal was to develop and analyze three measures of the impact of cancer on population survival that do not use the attributed cause of death: 1) the age-adjusted proportion of the population diagnosed with cancer in a particular year and projected to be dead of any cause by a particular age; 2) the same measure corrected for population mortality; and 3) the expected years of life lost to a 20-yearold individual because of the possibility of a diagnosis of cancer. Methods: Data on all adults diagnosed with any cancer during the period from January 1973 through December 1990 were obtained from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program of the National Cancer Institute. The measures were calculated separately for various combined sex and race groups. Three 2-year diagnosis periods spaced 5 years apart were considered: 1975-1976, 1980-1981, and 1985-1986. A statistical model was used to extrapolate survival beyond observation; the same model was used for patients diagnosed in the three time periods to minimize the effect of possible model misspecification on changes. Results: Cancer incidence increased for three of the four sex‐race groups; age-adjusted changes from 1975 through 1976 to 1985 through 1986 were +11.5% for white men, +6.9% for white women, +15.1% for black men, and ˛9.2% for black women. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-related cancers were responsible for an increased cancer incidence at early ages in white men in the latest time period studied. There was a decrease in the incidence of gynecologic cancers at early ages; the decrease was greater among black women (˛55.1%) than among white women (˛39.3%). Age- and incidence-adjusted 5-year survival increased by 17.9% for white men, 2.3% for white women, and 7.4% for black men and decreased by 14.1% for black women. When the data from 1985 through 1986 were compared with those from 1975 through 1976, the expected number of years lost to a 20-year-old individual because of cancer changed as follows for the various sex‐race groups: +1.4% for white men (˛4.0% if HIV-related cancers were not included in the calculation), +2.1% for white women, +12.2% for black men, and +8.8% for black women. Conclusions: For white men and women, there has been an increase in both the incidence of and survival following the diagnosis of cancer; the two effects nearly cancel in our measures. The experience of black men and women has worsened because of increasing incidence or decreased survival. [J Natl Cancer Inst 1997;89:58-65]
Intrafamilial variability in Machado‐Joseph disease

Dominantly inherited ataxias resulting from different gene mutations are difficult to distinguish based on clinical phenotypes. We believe the phenotypic variability within families can be a clue to clinical diagnosis. We illustrate the range of phenotypes extending from levodopa-responsive extrapyramidal disease to more purely ataxic syndromes seen in two families with molecularly proven Machado-Joseph disease.
Inequalities in Facebook use

While research has examined digital inequalities in general Internet use, little research has examined inequalities in social networking website use. This study extends previous research by examining how Facebook use is related to student background characteristics. Analyses were conducted to assess differences in time spent and activities performed on Facebook using a large sample (N=2359) of college students. Results showed that women were more likely to use Facebook for communication, African Americans were less likely to use Facebook to check up on their friends, and students from lower socioeconomic levels were less likely to use Facebook for communication and sharing. Implications for education, communication, and student outcomes are presented.
Effects of predation by Chaoborus flavicans on crustacean zooplankton of Lake Lenore, Washington

1. After Chaoborus flavicans became established in 1974, the species composition of zooplankton in Lake Lenore changed. Diaptomus nevadensis disappeared and densities of Diaptomus siciliswere reduced. 2. A transplant experiment showed the D. nevadensis could survive in Lake Lenore water in the absence of Chaoborus. The disappearance of D. nevadensis was probably a consequence of Chaoborus predation. 3. Although densities of Daphnia pulicaria† were similar before and after the colonization of C. flavicans, juvenile D. pulicaria began producing neck-teeth during the first summer Chaoborus was present. 4. The seasonal pattern of neck-teeth production by juvenile D. pilicaria did not correlate with density of Chaoborus but rather with a combination of water temperature and Chaoborus density, suggesting that metabolic processes are a component of induction of neck-teeth in this species.
Science Signaling Podcast: 12 August 2014

This Podcast features an interview with William Talbot, senior author of a Research Article that appears in the 12 August 2014 issue of Science Signaling , about the identification of a ligand for the orphan receptor GPR126. G protein–coupled receptors (GPCRs) are integral membrane proteins that, upon binding to extracellular ligands, activate intracellular G protein signaling pathways. GPCRs transduce signaling in diverse developmental, physiological, and behavioral processes, and aberrant GPCR signaling is implicated in many diseases. The ligands for many GPCRs have been identified, but the natural ligands that activate some GPCRs in vivo have not been identified. GPR126 is one of these orphan receptors, and it is involved in myelination of peripheral nerves and in development of the heart and inner ear. Paavola et al . identified type IV collagen as a ligand for GPR126 and identified the domains of GPR126 required for binding to this ligand.
Skyworker: a robot for assembly, inspection and maintenance of large scale orbital facilities

Future space facilities that could power our planet and expand our horizons will differ vastly from the satellites and space stations familiar today. Characterized by their immense size and the difficulties of human construction in orbit, future space facilities will be assembled in part by robots. This paper profiles Skyworker, a prototype assembly, inspection, and maintenance (AIM) robot designed for large mass payload transport and assembly tasks. Skyworker is an attached mobile manipulator (AMM) capable of walking and working on the structure it is building.
Natural Flexible Dermal Armor

Fish, reptiles, and mammals can possess flexible dermal armor for protection. Here we seek to find the means by which Nature derives its protection by examining the scales from several fish (Atractosteus spatula, Arapaima gigas, Polypterus senegalus, Morone saxatilis, Cyprinius carpio), and osteoderms from armadillos, alligators, and leatherback turtles. Dermal armor has clearly been developed by convergent evolution in these different species. In general, it has a hierarchical structure with collagen fibers joining more rigid units (scales or osteoderms), thereby increasing flexibility without significantly sacrificing strength, in contrast to rigid monolithic mineral composites. These dermal structures are also multifunctional, with hydrodynamic drag (in fish), coloration for camouflage or intraspecies recognition, temperature and fluid regulation being other important functions. The understanding of such flexible dermal armor is important as it may provide a basis for new synthetic, yet bioinspired, armor materials.
Determinants of Gender Differences in Health among the Elderly in Latin America

This paper identifies the main gender differences in health and socio-economic characteristics of the elderly in four Latin American cities. Using locally weighted regressions as well as a flexible model specification that treats age non-parametrically, we investigate whether these unadjusted gender gaps in health are due to gender differences in the distribution of age and other explanatory variables. Interestingly, for all cities, the analyses show a gender gap in health in favour of males at each age. The gaps are larger when one uses functional impairment in mobility and personal self-care as indicators of an individual's health instead of self-reported health. Furthermore, controlling for demographic characteristics, baseline health and the availability of family support do little to change the disadvantage for women in measured health outcomes. Controlling for socio-economic variables does, however, reduce most of the gender differences in health.
Branching Process Models of Cancer

In this chapter, we will use multitype branching processes with mutation to model cancer. With cancer progression, resistance to therapy, and metastasis in mind, we will investigate τ k , the time of the first type k mutation, and σ k , the time of the first type k mutation that founds a family line that does not die out, as well as the growth of the number of type k cells. The last three sections apply these results to metastasis, ovarian cancer, and tumor heterogeneity. Even though martingales and stable laws are mentioned, these notes should be accessible to a student who is familiar with Poisson processes and continuous time Markov chains.
Melt-Quench Formed Smectic Phase in iPP/CNT Nanocomposites and its Re-Crystallization

The largest commercial application of carbon nanotubes (CNT) are their polymer nanocomposites (PNCs). This motivates detailed studies of the interactions between CNTs and polymers and the ways the CNTs influence the crystallization behavior and structure of PNCs. We have chosen isotactic polypropylene (iPP) as one of the best model systems because of its ability to form a smectic liquid crystal phase. We studied iPP/CNT nanocomposites with CNT concentrations ranging from 0.01 to 5% per weight. We prepared films by compression molding and quenching in a mixture of isopropyl alcohol and dry ice. Some of the formed smectic liquid crystalline (LC) phase of iPP/CNT PNCs persisted to temperatures higher than the last melting temperature for iPP crystals. By means of differential scanning calorimetry we corroborated the existence of the LC phase in the nanocomposites and studied the impact of multi-walled carbon nanotubes on its melting and re-crystallization. We used a polarizing optical microscopy to reconfirm our DSC data.
Therapy for locoregionally advanced head and neck cancer

Studies evaluating the integration of chemotherapy into the treatment of locoregionally advanced head and neck cancer were initiated because traditional therapy with surgery and postoperative radiation frequently failed to eradicate locoregional disease and because morbidity with traditional therapy was substantial. Sequential multimodality treatment approaches have included adjuvant and induction chemotherapy plus surgery and postoperative radiation. Published evidence suggests that induction chemotherapy should not be routinely recommended; however, induction chemotherapy with cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil increases the likelihood of larynx preservation in patients with laryngeal or hypopharyngeal cancer and should be offered as a treatment option in this setting. Positive results of several randomized studies and recent metaanalyses of relevant clinical data show that concomitant use of chemotherapy and radiotherapy in unresectable head and neck cancer is beneficial and should be considered a treatment option. Cisplatin administered with concomitant radiation also has proved to be beneficial in patients with nasopharyngeal cancer. The possible role of novel chemotherapeutic agents and treatment approaches is being investigated.
Enhancement of Thermal Energy Transport Across Graphene/Graphite and Polymer Interfaces: A Molecular Dynamics Study

Understanding thermal energy transport in polymeric nanocomposite materials is important to the engineering of polymer composites with better engineered heat transfer properties. Interfacial thermal resistance between the filling particles and the polymer matrices is a major bottleneck for the thermal conductivity improvement of polymer composite materials. Here, thermal energy transport in graphene/graphite-polymer (paraffin wax-C30H62) composite systems are systematically studied using molecular dynamics simulations. The influences of graphene size, interfacial bonding strength, and polymer density on the interfacial thermal transport are studied. According to the simulation results, approaches to improve interfacial thermal transport are proposed. Spectral analysis is performed to explore the mechanism of thermal transport. It is found that thermal energy transport across graphene/graphite-polymer interfaces can be enhanced by increasing the polymer density and graphene size or forming covalent bonds between the graphite edges and polymer molecules. The results offer valuable guidance on improving thermal transport properties of polymeric nanocomposite.
Secular behavior and breakdown of chaotic ray solutions

Solutions of the eikonal equation and the first two transport equations are derived for problems involving ray chaos. The solution of the eikonal equation approximates the phase. The solutions of the transport equations approximate the amplitude as an asymptotic series in /spl omega//sup -1/. Examples are presented to illustrate that the second term in the series grows relative to the first term along some rags. This secular behavior is associated with the exponential decay of amplitude, which occurs along chaotic rays. The results suggest that chaotic ray solutions (including ray paths, phases, and amplitudes) break down rapidly with range. Although the analysis is limited to a special case that is free of caustics, the results bring into question the use of chaotic ray solutions for long-range propagation.
A psychophysical measure of attention deficit in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

The authors explored the temporal mechanism of attention deficit in children with attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In rapid serial visual presentation tasks in which two targets (T 1 and T2) were presented in close temporal proximity among distractors, participants tried to identify T 1 and detect T2 in one (dual-task) experiment and only to detect T2 in a second control (single-task) experiment. The sensitivity of T2 detection was analyzed using signal detection theory. The attentional blink—the impairment in T2 detection following the identification of T 1—was increased in magnitude and protracted in the patients. Moreover, some ADHD children appeared to have a blink largely normal in magnitude but temporally displaced toward a later time. The authors hypothesize that a slower closing of the attention gate may mediate this specific attention impairment in ADHD children.
Epialleles via DNA methylation: consequences for plant evolution

In plants, naturally occurring methylation of genes can affect the level of gene expression. Variation among individuals in the degree of methylation of a gene, termed epialleles, produces novel phenotypes that are heritable across generations. To date, ecologically important genes with methylated epialleles have been found to affect floral shape, vegetative and seed pigmentation, pathogen resistance and development in plants. Currently, the extent to which epiallelic variation is an important common contributor to phenotypic variation in natural plant populations and its fitness consequences are not known. Because epiallele phenotypes can have identical underlying DNA sequences, response to selection on these phenotypes is likely to differ from expectations based on traditional models of microevolution. Research is needed to understand the role of epialleles in natural plant populations. Recent advances in molecular genetic techniques could enable population biologists to screen for epiallelic variants within plant populations and disentangle epigenetic from more standard genetic sources of phenotypic variance, such as additive genetic variance, dominance variance, epistasis and maternal genetic effects.
P-35: Characterizing Laser Speckle and Its Effect on Target Detection

study we examine a power spectral density metric for characterizing laser speckle and predicting its effect on target detection. To evaluate the metric, we measured contrast energy thresholds on both a laser speckle background and backgrounds consisting of randomly modulated pixel luminance (i.e., pixel noise). We found that, at the same power spectral density levels, energy thresholds obtained for gratings superimposed on pixel noise were slightly higher than analogous thresholds obtained with laser-speckle noise. In the discussion section, we outline necessary improvements to the laser speckle power spectral density metric.
Desiccation tolerance of prokaryotes: application of principles to human cells.

The loss of water from cells is a stress that was likely imposed very early in evolution. An understanding of the sensitivity or tolerance of cells to depletion of intracellular water is relevant to the study of quiescence, longevity and aging, because one consequence of air-drying is full metabolic arrest, sometimes for extended periods. When considering the adaptation of cells to physiological extremes of pH, temperature or pressure, it is generally assumed that evolution is driven toward optimum function rather than maximum stability. However, adaptation to desiccation has the singular and crucial distinction that dried cells do not grow, and the time the cell is dried may represent the greater part of the life (the time the cell remains viable) of that cell and its component macromolecules. Is a consideration of “function” relevant in the context of desiccated cells? The response of prokaryotic cells to desiccation, and the mechanisms they employ to tolerate this stress at the level of the cell, genome and proteome are considered. Fundamental principles were then implemented in the design of strategies to achieve air-dry stabilization of sensitive eukaryotic (human) cells. The responses of the transcriptomes and proteomes of prokaryotic cells and eukaryotic cells (yeast and human) to drying in air are compared and contrasted to achieve an evolutionary context. The concept of the “desiccome” is developed to question whether there is common set of structural, physiological and molecular mechanisms that constitute desiccation tolerance.
Evaluation of Precipitation Climatology Derived from TRMM Multi-Satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA) Monthly Product over Land with Two Gauge-Based Products

The NASA/JAXA Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) has been in operation for over 17 years since 1997. The length of TRMM is far shorter than those from ground observations, raising a question as to whether TRMM derived climatology products are good enough for research and applications. In this study, three climatologies derived from a blended product (the TRMM Multi-Satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA) monthly product or 3B43) and gauge-based ground observations (Global Precipitation Climatology Center (GPCC) and Willmott and Matsuura (WM)) are compared over land on a global scale (50° N–50° S) to assess the performance and weaknesses of the TMPA-derived climatology. Results show that the 3B43 climatology matches well with the two gauge-based climatologies in all seasons in terms of spatial distribution, zonal means as well as seasonal variations. However, large variations are found in light rain (<0.5 mm/day) regions such as the Sahara Desert. At high rain rates, large negative biases (3B43 < WM < GPCC) are found in orographically influenced regions such as windward sides of monsoon mountains in JJA, which is associated with underestimation of shallow orographic rain rates in microwave radiometer algorithms and sparse gauge data for bias correction. Nonetheless, biases in 3B43 exist and vary with geographic locations due to a number of factors such as gauge availability and algorithm issues.
SOFTWARE AND DRIVER SYNTHESIS FROM TRANSACTION LEVEL MODELS

This work presents a method of automatically generating embedded software including bus driver code from a transaction level model (TLM). For the application software, a real time operating system (RTOS) adapter is introduced to model scheduling and synchronization at C level. ANSI-C code is generated targeting this RTOS adapter. Bus drivers are also automatically created for HW/SW communication. Finally, the software image file is created from the C code, bus driver code, RTOS adapter and RTOS library code.
Psychiatric and Behavioural Disorders in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 2nd edition, edited by Nick Bouras and Geraldine Holt

In publishing Psychiatric and Behavioural Disorders in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (Bouras & Holt, 2007), editors Nick Bouras and Geraldine Holt have done the near impossible. They ...
Characterization of ovarian aging and reproductive senescence in vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus aethiops sabaeus).

Female vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus aethiops sabaeus) are used as an experimental model for chronic diseases relevant to women's health. However, reproductive senescence (menopause) has not yet been characterized for vervet monkeys. Here we describe the histologic, hormonal, and menstrual markers of reproductive senescence in vervet monkeys from the Wake Forest Vervet Research Colony. Ovaries from monkeys (age, 0 to 27 y) were serially sectioned (5 μm), stained, and photographed. In every 100th section, the numbers of primordial, primary, and secondary follicles were determined, and triplicate measurements were used to calculate mean numbers of follicles per ovary. Antimullerian hormone (AMH), follicle stimulating hormone, and menstrual cycle length were measured in additional monkeys. Primordial follicles and AMH decreased significantly with age, and significant correlations between numbers of primordial and primary follicles and between numbers of primary and secondary follicles were noted. Histologic evaluation revealed that ovaries from 4 aged monkeys (older than 23 y) were senescent. One aged monkey transitioned to menopause, experiencing cycle irregularity over 4 y, eventual cessation of menses, and plasma AMH below the level of detection. Finally, with increasing age, the percentage of female vervets with offspring declined significantly. The present study provides insight into ovarian aging and reproductive senescence in vervet monkeys. Results highlight the importance of considering this nonhuman primate as a model to investigate the relationships between ovarian aging and chronic disease risk.
Photographic Estimation of Weight of Insect Larvae

A photographic technique for measuring insect larvae was tested on Heliconius cydno (Bates) (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) and Trirhabda geminata Horn (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae). The method was found to estimate live body weight to within 12% accuracy over a range of 1.0 to 1,000 mg for H. cydno and 25% accuracy for T. geminata . The method should prove useful for: (1) measuring size and growth rate in species which are too small or delicate to handle, and (2) making accurate in situ field measurements.
Convolutional Laplacian sparse coding

We propose to extend the the standard convolutional sparse representation by combining it with a non-local graph Laplacian term. This additional term is chosen to address some of the deficiencies of the l1 norm in regularizing these representations, and is shown to have an advantage in both dictionary learning and an example image reconstruction problem.
Investigation on knowledge and practice of food nutrition labeling among residents in a district of Beijing in 2012

[Objective]To describe the awareness and application of food nutrition labeling among residents in a district of Beijing,provide the scientific evidence for targeted health education.[Methods]With equal-proportion multi-stage randomized cluster sampling,1 434 households were selected from 12 communities in this district,and 1 people aged 15-79 years old was randomly collected from each household by KISH.All residents were investigated by questionnaire survey.[Results]45.0% of residents have heard of food nutrition labeling,and 39.3% referred to the labeling when they selected food.The proportion of awareness and practice of food nutrition labeling in people with lower age,high education background and good income was higher than that in other population significantly(P 0.01).[Conclusion]The status about knowledge and practice of food nutrition labeling among residents in a district is not satisfactory.It is necessary to strengthen health education and promotion to increase the knowledge and practice of food nutrition labeling among residents,and improve dietary behaviors.
Clinical Investigation of Transthoracic Minimally Invasive Patent Ductus Arteriosus Occlusion in Infants and Young Children

Objective:To investigate the safety and efficacy of transthoracic minimally invasive patent ductus arteriosus(PDA)occlusion in infants and young children.Methods:We retrospectively analyzed 105 infants and young children who received the transthoracic minimally invasive PDA occlusion in our hospital from 2012-10 to 2014-10.According to PDA diameter,patients were divided into 2 groups:Group A,the patients with PDA diameter 4 mm,n=64 and group B,the patients with 2 mm PDA diameter 4 mm,n=41.All patients received the left third parasternal intercostal incision under suprasternal echocardiography guidance.The operative effect was evaluated by transthoracic echocardiography,and the follow-up study was performed at 1 month,3 months,6months period and then annually after the operation by echocardiography.Results:All 105 patients had successfully implanted PDA occluders.The patients' gender,age,body weight,tracheal intubation time and the in-hospital time were similar between 2 groups,P0.05.Compared with Group B,Group A had the larger diameters of PDA(5.7 ± 1.4) mm vs(2.7 ± 0.6) mm,P0.001,PDA occluders(10.6 ± 1.8) mm vs(7.2 ± 1.3) mm,P0.001,and the higher rates of moderate and severe post-operative thrombocytopenia 10.9%(7/64) vs 0%(0/41),P=0.028,immediate post-operative residual shunt as 15.6%(10/64) vs 2.4%(1/41),P=0.031.There was 1 patient in Group A suffered from pericardial tamponade due to hemorrhage at 2 days after operation and he was cured by emergent pericardial drainage.The patients were followed-up for(11.6 ± 7.8) months.The 1 month post-operative residual shunt was similar between 2groups as 1.6%(1/64) vs 0%(0/41),P=0.421,and there was no residual shunt at 3 months after the operation.There were no complications of occluder detachment,hemolysis,pericardial effusion,left pulmonary artery or descending aortic stenosis occurred during the follow-up period.Conclusion:Transthoracic minimally invasive PDA occlusion is a safe and effective method to treat the relevant infants and young children,while the post-operative residual shunt and thrombocytopenia should be closely observed in patients with large PDA.
Ethanol effects on receptor activated lipid hydrolysis in brain and liver.

The effects of ethanol in receptor-stimulated phosphoinositide (PI) hydrolysis in brain and liver slices were investigated. Norepinephrine (NE) was used as an alpha 1-adrenergic receptor agonist to stimulate PI hydrolysis in both tissues. Stimulation of PI hydrolysis by maximal concentrations of norepinephrine (e.g., 100 microM) was inhibited approximately 50% by 500 mM in vitro ethanol in slices from the cerebral cortex, hippocampus, hypothalamus, and striatum. NE-stimulated PI hydrolysis was not affected by 500 mM ethanol in brain stem slices. KCl (20 mM)-stimulated PI hydrolysis was strongly inhibited in all of the above brain regions in the presence of 500 mM ethanol. To further characterize the effects of ethanol on PI hydrolysis in brain, an isolated membrane preparation was used. Guanine nucleotide and calcium-dependent PI hydrolysis in cortical membranes was not affected by concentrations of ethanol as high as 500 mM. In liver slices, NE-stimulated PI hydrolysis was inhibited 50% by 30 mM ethanol in vitro. These results suggest that ethanol may interfere with the coupling of the alpha 1 receptor to the phosphoinositide phosphodiesterase in brain and liver.
Characterization of Nucleosomes using DNA Origami

While biophysical tools such as single molecule fluorescence and force spectroscopy have been used to study the structural dynamics of individual nucleosomes or large chromatin assemblies, it is challenging to probe conformational dynamics of gene regulation in the 10-100nm range. This is the length scale of genomic critical features, including promoter regions that span several nucleosomes. Our work aims to develop DNA origami tools to probe these mesoscale structure and dynamics of nucleosome arrays and chromatin. DNA origami itself is an emerging nanotechnology that enables the self-assembly of precisely designed molecular-scale structures. Here, we implement a DNA origami hinge device with the length scale of ∼100nm as a nanocaliper to study the structure and dynamics of a single nucleosome as proof-of-concept.The measurement capabilities of the device were calibrated by integrating DNA duplexes of varying lengths between the hinge arms to demonstrate the use the hinge angular distribution as a readout for the sample size attached between the arms. We further integrated single nucleosomes with varying but symmetric lengths of DNA linkers (i.e. DNA extending out after wrapping around the histone core) to verify our ability to detect structural changes in nucleosomes. Our immediate goal is to measure the structural changes in single nucleosomes and nucleosome arrays in response to transcription factor (TF) binding. Initial experiments using the nucleosome-caliper construct with GAL4-VP16, a hybrid transcription factor capable of highly-efficient transcription activation, shows that the angular distribution broadens as a result of increasing TF concentrations. Our measurements revealed a dissociation constant in the range of 1-10nM, which agrees with bulk measurements.These results demonstrate the potential of a DNA origami device probing chromatin structure and function in vitro, in particular, the ability to measure structural changes in the range of 10-100nm.
Fire-Related Inhalation Injury.

Fire-related inhalation injury results from a combination of direct exposures, systemic effects of inhaled toxins, accrual of endobronchial debris, and secondary infection. This brief review discusses the pathogenesis of and approach to fire-related inhalation injury.