cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Approximation Schemes for Degree-Restricted MST and Red–Blue Separation Problems

We develop a quasi-polynomial time approximation scheme for the Euclidean version of the Degree-Restricted MST Problem by adapting techniques used previously by Arora for approximating TSP. Given n points in the plane, d = 3 or 4, and e > 0, the scheme finds an approximation with cost within 1 + e of the lowest cost spanning tree with the property that all nodes have degree at most d. We also develop a polynomial time approximation scheme for the Euclidean version of the Red–Blue Separation Problem, again extending Arora’s techniques. Given e > 0, the scheme finds an approximation with cost within 1+ e of the cost of the optimum separating polygon of the input nodes, in nearly linear time.
Viscosity and Thermal Expansion of Mixed‐Alkali Borate Glasses

Mesures de viscosite du domaine de transformation et de dilatation thermique sur cinq series (Li-Na, Li-K, Li-Cs, Na-Cs, K-Rb) de verres de borate a alcalin mixte contenant 30 mol% d'oxyde alcalin total. Dans tous les cas on a observe des deviations negatives a l'additivite pour les temperatures de transition vitreuse. Pour le coefficient de dilatation thermique, dans le cas des verres Li-Na, Li-K et K-Rb on a observe des deviations positives, alors que les verres Li-Cs et Na-Cs presentent des deviations negatives
THEORETICAL MECHANISMS AND KINETICS FOR THE REACTION OF DIMETHYL SULFIDE AND OZONE IN WATER VAPOR

The reaction mechanisms and kinetics for DMS + O3 ⇒ DMSO + O2 in water vapor are studied using density functional theory. A series of reaction pathways are determined with molecular clusters containing the reacting species and up to three water molecules. The results show that the energy barrier, defined as the energy difference between the reactant complex and the transition state, decreases progressively as each water molecule is added to the reacting system. A decreasing energy barrier is attributed to favorable electrostatic interactions between the reacting species and water at the transition state and at the more polar product. Rate constants for the second-order reactions, involving different combinations of hydrated reactants up to three water molecules, are calculated using transition state theory with Eckart tunneling corrections. Effective rate constants for DMS + O3 ⇒ DMSO + O2 are obtained using the calculated second-order rate constants and the concentrations of hydrated reactants present in saturated water vapor. The results show that the rate of reaction for DMS + O3 ⇒ DMSO + O2 increases dramatically in the presence of water vapor, by up to seven orders of magnitude for reactions involving three water molecules. The study implies that the gas-phase reaction of DMS with ozone is significant in the troposphere and can greatly influence the global climate.
Correlates of cell-mediated immunity in Candida albicans-colonized gnotobiotic mice.

Abstract Germfree athymic (nu/nu) and euthymic (nu/+) mice were colonized with a pure culture of Candida albicans. Correlates of cell-mediated immunity (lymphocyte proliferation and footpad responses to C. albicans antigens) and in vivo clearance of mucosal infections were assessed at different time intervals after alimentary tract colonization. C. albicans hyphae infected the dorsal surface of the tongue and the cardial section of the stomach in both nu/nu and nu/+ mice within 1 week after colonization with a pure culture of C. albicans. With time after colonization and infection with C. albicans, nu/+ mice manifested positive lymphocyte proliferation and positive footpad responses to Candida antigens that appeared to correlate with the capacity to clear Candida hyphae from the dorsal surface of the tongue and in the stomach. Conversely, nu/nu mice could not clear mucosal candidosis (in the stomach and on the tongue) and did not manifest either lymphocyte proliferation or footpad swelling in response to C. albicans antigens. These studies indicated that T-cell-mediated immunity may play a role in the acquired resistance of mice to mucosal candidosis. Since neither nu/nu nor nu/+ mice developed a progressive systemic disease, T cells apparently do not play a prominent role in murine resistance to systemic candidosis of endogenous origin.
Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) of the primary motor cortex for treating facial neuropathic pain – preliminary results of a randomized, sham-controlled, cross-over study

Background Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) noninvasively triggers action potentials in underlying brain cortex intended for therapeutic benefit. Currently marketed for refractory depression, rTMS is under investigation for treating several neurological conditions including pain. Facial neuropathic pain (NP) appears to respond well to rTMS [1]. The primary motor cortex (M1) is established as the best site to stimulate to relieve pain, but the best target within M1 remains unknown [1,2]. MRI guidance of rTMS permits repeated precise application to specific targets. The aim of this study was to compare pain relief obtained by applying MRI-guided rTMS to the M1 representation of subjects’ painful face vs. to adjacent M1 cortex innervating their non-painful hand.
Fear of Flying? Economic Analyses of Airline Safety

The safety of the commercial airline industry has attracted considerable attention in the wake of airline deregulation, amid growing concerns that the historical superiority of U.S. jet carriers' safety records may have been linked to economic regulation of the industry by the Civil Aeronautics Board. After all, economists argued that the suppression of price competition led airlines to focus on service competition, and public perceptions of service quality suggest that deregulation has led to substantial reductions in at least some dimensions. Perhaps less observable dimensions of product quality, like safety, have experienced equivalent or greater declines. If this were the case, traditional measures of welfare gains from deregulation could be greatly exaggerated.1 These worries have energized economic research on a broad range of questions relating to airline safety. Four questions have attracted the most attention from economists. First, has airline safety declined since deregulation? Research on this topic investigates whether heightened public concerns about air safety derive from objective increases in accident risks. Second, how has airline deregulation affected the safety of travellers overall? This literature explores indirect channels through which airline deregulation may have changed travel risks, including the substitution of commuter airlines for jet 1This assumes that safety was not over-provided prior to deregulation. Unfortunately, there have been no studies of the level of airline safety provided relative to an optimal level of safety, in either the regulated or the deregulated periods. Given a variety of pressures on airlines, many discussed below, excessive expenditures on safety (relative to social benefits) seem at least as likely as insufficient expenditures.
Delta-FTL: improving SSD lifetime via exploiting content locality

NAND flash-based SSDs suffer from limited lifetime due to the fact that NAND flash can only be programmed or erased for limited times. Among various approaches to address this problem, we propose to reduce the number of writes to the flash via exploiting the content locality between the write data and its corresponding old version in the flash. This content locality means, the new version, i.e., the content of a new write request, shares some extent of similarity with its old version. The information redundancy existing in the difference (delta) between the new and old data leads to a small compression ratio. The key idea of our approach, named Delta-FTL (Delta Flash Translation Layer), is to store this compressed delta in the SSD, instead of the original new data, in order to reduce the number of writes committed to the flash. This write reduction further extends the lifetime of SSDs due to less frequent garbage collection process, which is a significant write amplification factor in SSDs. Experimental results based on our Delta-FTL prototype show that Delta-FTL can significantly reduce the number of writes and garbage collection operations and thus improve SSD lifetime at a cost of trivial overhead on read latency performance.
Anthropological Analysis of Exploration Texts: Cultural Discourse and the Ethnological Import of Fray Marcos de Niza's Journey to Cibola

This article highlights methodological and theoretical presuppositions that have contributed to scholarly neglect and rejection of exploration chronicles such as Fray Marcos de Niza's account of his journey to Cibola in 1539. Marcos's relacion and similar texts often have been ignored or rejected because of presuppositions about the “accuracy” of modern anthropological, as opposed to historical, texts and unwitting acceptance of the “civilization-savagery” myth, which continues to govern interpretations of European and Indian relations. Discourse analysis of Marcos's relacion reveals numerous observations on native life that shed light on the archeological record and the fate of the Hohokam and Trincheras cultures of the Greater Southwest.
The Adsorption Properties of Bacillus atrophaeus Spore on Functionalized Carbon Nanotubes

An equilibrium study of Bacillus atrophaeus (B.a) spores on functionalized Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes (SWCNTs) has been performed in order to characterize the adsorption properties of the spores/nanotubes complex. The carbon nanotubes here investigated were subjected to a two-step purification and functionalization treatment in order to introduce chemical groups on their basal planes. The inclusion of carboxyl functional groups on the nanotubes was corroborated by Raman and infrared spectroscopy. These carboxyl groups appear to enhance the nanotube-B.a. interaction by reacting with the proteinaceous pili appendages present on the spore surface. The adsorption data demonstrate that bacillus spores diffuse faster on functionalized carbon nanotubes than on as-received and purified nanomaterials. Transmission Electron Microscopy also shows that the chemically treated nanotubes resulted in a swollen nano-network which seems to further enhance the bacillus adsorption due to a more extensive spore-nanotube contact area.
Bounded rationality in laboratory bargaining with asymmetric information

Summary. This paper reports an experiment on two-player sequential bargaining with asymmetric information that features some forces present in multi-round monopoly pricing environments. Buyer-seller pairs play a series of bargaining games that last for either one or two rounds of offers. The treatment variable is the probability of continuing into a second round. Equilibrium predictions do a poor job of explaining levels of prices and treatment effects. As an alternative to the conventional equilibrium model, we consider models that allow for bounded rationality of subjects. The quantal response equilibrium model captures some of the important features of the results.
Surface current measurement network using cellular telephone telemetry

An array of five near-surface current measuring buoys has been designed and deployed in the Gulf of Mexico. Each buoy is networked with a central shore station via commercial cellular telephone service. Each buoy employs an electromagnetic water flow sensor (2 meter depth) and a vector-averaging data acquisition system to collect and record near-surface current data. Buffered data are automatically transferred to a shore station on a programmed schedule using the MNP Class 10 high performance data communications protocol. Under user control, the shore station can communicate with individual buoys to modify the data collection and reporting schedule as well as recover archived data. The low-cost, small-profile, solar-powered buoy is deemed "collision survivable" by the manufacturer. The buoy can be deployed from a surface vessel or helicopter.
Clustering of Microarray Data Reveals Transcript Patterns Associated with Somatic Embryogenesis in Soybean

Globular somatic embryos can be induced from immature cotyledons of soybean (Glycine max L. Merr. cv Jack) placed on high levels of the auxin 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D). Somatic embryos develop from the adaxial side of the cotyledon, whereas the abaxial side evolves into a callus. Using a 9,280-cDNA clone array, we have compared steady-state RNA from the adaxial side from which embryos develop and from the abaxial callus at five time points over the course of the 4 weeks necessary for the development of globular embryos. In a second set of experiments, we have profiled the expression of each clone in the adaxial side during the same period. A total of 495 genes differentially expressed in at least one of these experiments were grouped according to the similarity of their expression profiles using a nonhierarchical clustering algorithm. Our results indicate that the appearance of somatic embryos is preceded by dedifferentiation of the cotyledon during the first 2 weeks on auxin. Changes in mRNA abundance of genes characteristic of oxidative stress and genes indicative of cell division in the adaxial side of the cotyledons suggest that the arrangement of the new cells into organized structures might depend on a genetically controlled balance between cell proliferation and cell death. Our data also suggest that the formation of somatic globular embryos is accompanied by the transcription of storage proteins and the synthesis of gibberellic acid.
Location, Motivation, and Social Capitalization via Enterprise Social Networking

This article conceptualizes how the affordances of enterprise social networking systems can help reduce three challenges in sharing organizational knowledge. These challenges include location of expertise, motivation to share knowledge, and social capitalization in the form of developing and maintaining social ties with knowledge providers to actualize knowledge sharing. Building on previous theories and empirical research on transactive memory theory, public goods theory, and social capital theories, as well as recent research on enterprise social media, we argue that the affordances of enterprise social networking systems can better address these knowledge sharing challenges than those of conventional knowledge management systems in that social networking applications can blend connective and communal sharing of knowledge.
A curvature-based approach to terrain recognition

The authors describe an algorithm which uses a Gaussian and mean curvature profile for extracting special points on terrain and then use these points for recognition of particular regions of the terrain. The Gaussian and mean curvatures are chosen because they are invariant under rotation and translation. In the Gaussian and mean curvature image, the points of maximum and minimum curvature are extracted and used for matching. The stability of the position of those points in the presence of noise and with resampling is investigated. The input for this algorithm consists of 3-D digital terrain data. Curvature values are calculated from the data by fitting a quadratic surface over a square window and calculating directional derivatives of this surface. A method of surface fitting which is invariant to coordinate system transformation is suggested and implemented. The algorithm is tested with and without the presence of noise, and its performance is described. >
Probing the electroweak phase transition at the LHC

We study the correlation between the value of the triple Higgs coupling and the nature of the electroweak phase transition. We use an effective potential approach, including higher order, nonrenormalizable terms coming from integrating out new physics. We show that if only the dimension six operators are considered, large positive deviations of the triple Higgs coupling from its standard model (SM) value are predicted in the regions of parameter space consistent with a strong first order electroweak phase transition. We also show that at higher orders sizable and negative deviations of the triple Higgs coupling may be obtained, and the sign of the corrections tends to be correlated with the order of the phase transition. We also consider a singlet extension of the SM, which allows us to establish the connection with the effective field theory approach and analyze the limits of its validity. Furthermore, we study how to probe the triple Higgs coupling from the double Higgs production at the LHC. We show that selective cuts in the invariant mass of the two Higgs bosons should be used, to maximize the sensitivity for values of the triple Higgs coupling significantly different from the standard model one.
Media and religion

There are two possible ways of presenting this themed issue: the media ... and religion, or religion ... and the media. We have ‘naturally’ preferred to privilege media as the first term with which to frame the topic, and we start from a socio-cultural perspective on the question of religion. Mediatization theory is a hot topic at the moment and has been much debated in recent issues of this journal. It serves as a useful entry-point into the relationship between the media and religion. In one influential account of this contested term, mediatization is a phenomenon of late 20th-century modernity and is primarily concerned with the impact and effect of the media system (the daily press and broadcasting services) as a central social institution on other key contemporary social institutions (e.g. politics and sport). Stig Hjarvard, the leading proponent of this approach, has examined religion from this perspective and provides a framework for its discussion by the other participants in the panel on the mediatization of religion which opens up this special themed issue.1 The context of this discussion is particular: all contributors are from northern Europe where Lutheranism is the dominant national religious church. The issues addressed, however, go well beyond this region and its particular institutionalized forms of religion. The conventional wisdom that religion is in decline, in Europe at least, undermined by a long historic trend toward the secularization of modern societies, is increasingly debatable, as Hjarvard acknowledges. But it is for sure, he argues, that the media are themselves modern, worldly, secular institutions whose overall impact has played a part in that decline. What percolates through the media is a diffuse representation of what, with a nod to Michael Billig’s concept of banal nationalism, Hjarvard calls banal religion. Not meant as a pejorative term, banal religiosity shows up in countless narratives about angels, demons, the supernatural, and the afterlife which circulate in TV dramas, movies, and best-seller popular novels of which The Da Vinci Code is exemplary. The leakage of the authority of the traditional churches stands in contrast with a diffuse spiritual sensibility in modern societies, the evidence for which is pervasively present in everyday popular culture.
Police response to domestic violence: the influence of individual and familial factors.

Although police officers are often the first group outside the family to intervene in domestic violence situations, little is known about how individual and family characteristics influence the male police officer's responsiveness in these situations. This study addressed this issue with data from 72 midwestern male police officers. The officers were asked to respond to vignette scenarios in which husbands had assaulted their wives. Three variables previously related to spouse abuse (sex role egalitarianism, approval of marital violence, and marital stress) and the officer's use of violence in his own marriage were entered into a path model to predict three different possible police responses (i.e., mediating response, arrest, and antivictim response). The model predicted significant variance in the officer's hostile response to victims of domestic violence but not to his likelihood of arresting abusers or mediating between the abusive couple. Implications for understanding domestic violence and police response are presented.
Ranking economics departments in the US South: an update

ABSTRACTThis study provides an update to Mixon and Upadhyaya’s (2001) ranking of Southern economics departments using research output indexed in EconLit. Ranking results from a ‘core’ (i.e. the top five faculty researchers) of each institution’s economics department reveal that Vanderbilt University, George Mason University, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Maryland and Georgia State University currently maintain the top five economics departments, respectively, in the US South. Relatedly, the five institutions rising the most from Mixon and Upadhyaya (2001) are Tulane University, Georgia State University, University of Texas–Dallas, Rice University and Florida International University, respectively.
Macrosegregation during steady-state arrayed

Macrosegregation along the length of the directionally solidified samples is produced when Pb-Sn alloys (10 to 58 wt pct Sn) are directionally solidified in a positive thermal gradient (melt on top, solid below, and gravity pointing down) with steady-state dendritic arrayed morphology (the length of the mushy zone, much smaller than the initial length of the melt column, re- maining nearly constant during growth). The extent of the macrosegregation increases with increasing tin content, becomes maximum for 33.3 wt pct Sn, and decreases with further in- crease in tin content. The intensity of the interdendritic thermosolutal convection responsible for the longitudinal macrosegregation can be represented by the effective partition coefficient (k e), anempirical parameter obtained from the dependence of the longitudinal macrosegregation on fraction distance solidified. The extent of the macrosegregation appears to be related to a parameter, {λ 1 2 ƒ E (C E -C t )}, where λ1, is the primary dendrite spacing,f E is the volume fraction of the interdendritic melt, andC E andC t , are the eutectic composition and the melt composition ahead of the dendrite tips, respectively.
The Stimson Doctrine and the Hoover Doctrine

T N response to Japanese activities in the Far East, I93I-I933, the Hoover administration adopted a policy of refusing to recognize political or territorial changes made in violation of American treaty rights. This was not entirely new. At the time of Japan's Twenty-One Demands upon China, in I9I5, Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan had announced a similar nonrecognition policy. But the Hoover administration elaborated the formula by associating it with the Kellogg-Briand or Paris Pact of I928, whose signatories (including Japan) renounce(l war as an instrument of national policy, and with the Nine-Power Treaty of I922, which bound the nine powers (including Japan) to respect the Open Door in China and Chinese territorial and administrative integrity. Nonrecognition as a corollary of these treaties came to be known variously as the Stimson, the Hoover-Stimson, or the Hoover doctrine. The interchangeable use of these terms gave the impression that President Hoover and his Secretary of State, Henry L. Stimson, had one and the same policy in mind. In his boo}c The Far Eastern Crisis (I936) Stimson did not disabuse his readers of that impression, but afterward some of the published papers of Hoover suggested and the memoirs of both men
Insecticidal Poisoning of Honey Bees in Connecticut

Eight insecticides were identified from 43 samples of honey bees obtained from 35 beekeepers in 1981 and 1982. A total of 268 colonies were documented to have been contaminated from May through early October. Carbaryl was detected in 65% of the samples. Methyl parathion and methoxychlor were found in 30 and 14% of the samples, respectively. Other insecticides in honey bees included endosuIfan, chlordane, malathion, diazinon, and acephate. Two simultaneously occurring insecticides were present in 28% of the samples. Residues in brood-nest comb tended to be higher than in dead bees. Most colonies contaminated only by carbaryl recovered, though 9% succumbed. Of the colonies experiencing methyl parathion or dual methyl parathion and carbaryl or endosulfan poisonings, 77% were killed or severely weakened. The majority of incidents involving carbaryl and methoxychlor were reported in May and June, when extensive ground spraying of trees for gypsy moth control occurred. Commercially grown crops treated with carbaryl may have been the principal sources of contaminated bees in July and August. Bees died from methyl parathion from July through September, when its application to orchards and sweet cornfields was common.
A Comparative Analysis of Purebred and Crossbred Poultry

Abstract CONCURRENT with the tremendous increase in the poultry population during the past decade were changes in the proportion of the population made up by the various breeds. Of particular interest is the northeastern part of the United States; especially New York, where the leadership in numbers was easily held by the White Leghorn prior to 1940. Recent surveys indicate that of the chicks started in New York today, about 50 percent are White Leghorns, 25 percent purebred heavies and 25 percent crossbred heavies, the latter being mostly the Sex-linked Cross (Red male x Barred Plymouth Rock female). The demand for poultry meat during and following World War II had a considerable effect in increasing the proportion of heavy breeds raised, but this does not explain why the Sex-Linked Cross was raised in preference to its purebred parents or its reciprocal cross. This paper is a report on a project begun . . .
Thinking on the positive and negative effects of the expanded enrollment scale of higher education in our country

The higher education of our country is expanding the enrollment scale and according to Martin's theory,we have entered into "popularization" education stage and this is a progress of higher education.On the one hand,the opportunities and motive forces brought by the expanding are obvious, the economy developing,the distance between our country and the developed countries narrowing,and more and more people accepting better education;on the other hand,the negative effects brought by the expanding can't be ignored,that is the falls of the higher education quality,the high tuition fee and the increasing pressure on employment,ect.The author wants to offer some constructive advices in order to decrease the negative effects of the expanded enrollment scale from the root,decrease those strike to Chinese higher education.
Sensitivity Analysis of a Predictive Pump Suspension System to Treat People with Type 1 Diabetes

The primary goal of a low glucose suspend system is to reduce the risk of overnight hypoglycemia (low blood glucose) in individuals with type 1 diabetes by reducing/suspending insulin infusion. We have developed a Kalman filter-based algorithm, combined with a number of safety rules, to implement a predictive low glucose suspend system that shuts off an insulin pump based on a prediction of hypoglycemia 30-70 minutes in the future. This system has been studied in over 2,000 nights in an outpatient-home environment. In this paper, based on an analysis of this data, we isolate the effects of the individual rules in part by simulating their removal from the existing data. Specifically, we decompose the basal insulin into small boluses and, using a model of insulin pharmacodynamic action (the time effect of insulin on blood glucose), alter the real data corresponding to the addition or removal of basal insulin via simulation. Our results show that limiting the total suspension to 180 minutes per night prevents excessive suspension in cases where the average calibration is an excessive 58 mg/dl, above the mean of 18 mg/dl. Further, we also show that a simple threshold algorithm that suspends below 100 mg/dl if the glucose level is flat or falling, is comparable in performance. Lastly, we show that the Kalman filter at the heart of this algorithm reduces the time spent below 70 mg/dl by 50% at the expense of a mean rise of 12 mg/dl in morning glucose levels.
Contraction and Expansion of Stimuli-Responsive DNA Bonds in Flexible Colloidal Crystals

DNA surface ligands can be used as programmable “bonds” to control the arrangement of nanoparticles into crystalline superlattices. Here, we study the intrinsic responsiveness of these DNA bonds to changes in local dielectric constant (er) as a new approach to dynamically modulate superlattice structure. Remarkably, ethanol (EtOH) addition can be used to controllably tune DNA bond length from 16 to 3 nm and to increase bond stability by >40 °C, while retaining long-range order and crystal habit. Interestingly, we find that these structural changes, which involve the expansion and contraction of crystals by up to 75% in volume, occur in a cooperative fashion once a critical percentage of EtOH is reached. These results provide a facile and robust approach to create stimuli-responsive lattices, to access high volume fractions, and to improve thermal stability.
Hydrostatic support-free fabrication of three-dimensional soft structures

Abstract This paper presents a support-free fabrication method for three-dimensional soft structures by creating a hydrostatic condition. The hydrostatic force inside the polymer resin can, theoretically, keep a soft structure in position and shape. The key technology behind this method is the low one-photon polymerization (LOPP), which can initiate polymerization at the focusing spot under the resin surface, as opposed to the surface one-photon polymerization in stereolithography (SLA). To prove the concept of LOPP, an optics setup for a wide beam gradient along with a low-absorption wavelength was built for this study. An ultraviolet (UV) curable silicone was adopted as the soft material. The experiments consisted of a qualitative observation for LOPP phenomenon and a quantitative study on the cured geometry and volume under various UV exposure conditions. Results have demonstrated the “in-liquid” polymerization using LOPP and also unveiled the challenges of geometrical resolution and accuracy as a function of UV beam gradient, intensity, and exposure time. Further investigation is required for better control over this method.
Communication’s forgotten narratives: the lost history of Charles Siepmann and critical policy research

ABSTRACTThe field of communication has much to recover from its intellectual history, particularly critical traditions that have been pushed to the margins. Such a project is inherently political: how scholars narrate the histories of their fields reflect tacit assumptions about discursive boundaries and what counts for legitimate scholarship. Prominent historical narratives typically emphasize certain sub-fields and research traditions while giving short shrift to others. Suggesting larger erasures and deeper tensions in the history of the field, this article aims to recover one such neglected thread, embodied by a reformist policy scholar who is all but forgotten in communication research: Charles Siepmann.
Molecular determinants of KA1 domain-mediated autoinhibition and phospholipid activation of MARK1 kinase

Protein kinases are frequently regulated by intramolecular autoinhibitory interactions between protein modules that are reversed when these modules bind other ‘activating’ protein or membrane-bound targets. One group of kinases, the M AP/ m icrotubule a ffinity- r egulating k inases (MARKs) contain a poorly understood regulatory module, the KA1 ( k inase a ssociated-1) domain, at their C-terminus. KA1 domains from MARK1 and several related kinases from yeast to humans have been shown to bind membranes containing anionic phospholipids, and peptide ligands have also been reported. Deleting or mutating the C-terminal KA1 domain has been reported to activate the kinase in which it is found — also suggesting an intramolecular autoinhibitory role. Here, we show that the KA1 domain of human MARK1 interacts with, and inhibits, the MARK1 kinase domain. Using site-directed mutagenesis, we identify residues in the KA1 domain required for this autoinhibitory activity, and find that residues involved in autoinhibition and in anionic phospholipid binding are the same. We also demonstrate that a ‘mini’ MARK1 becomes activated upon association with vesicles containing anionic phospholipids, but only if the protein is targeted to these vesicles by a second signal. These studies provide a mechanistic basis for understanding how MARK1 and its relatives may require more than one signal at the membrane surface to control their activation at the correct location and time. MARK family kinases have been implicated in a plethora of disease states including Alzheimer9s, cancer, and autism, so advancing our understanding of their regulatory mechanisms may ultimately have therapeutic value.
Nucleated Cell (NC) Dose of Autologous (Auto) Marrow Graft Is Not Predictive of Engraftment after Auto-Bone Marrow Transplant (auto-BMT) Following Failed Peripheral Blood Stem Cell (PBSC) Mobilization.

BACKGROUND: Auto-PBSC transplant has replaced auto-BMT. 10–30% of patients (pts) fail to mobilize adequate PBSCs. Previous studies have shown a correlation between infusion of marrow NC doses >2×10 8 /kg recipient body weight and improved marrow engraftment as well as improved disease free survival (DFS). HYPOTHESIS: NC dose in auto-BMT following failed PBSC mobilization is not predictive of marrow engraftment. METHODS: Consecutive pts undergoing high-dose chemotherapy (HDC) and auto-BMT after failed PBSC mobilization were evaluated in this retrospective study. NC dose, CD34+ cell dose, time to neutrophil (ANC) engraftment, time to platelet (Plt) engraftment, and survival were reviewed. Spearman’s correlation was computed. Overall survival (OS) and progression free survival (PFS) were evaluated using Kaplan-Meier plots. RESULTS: 22 pts failed to mobilize PBSC and underwent bone marrow harvest followed by HDC and auto-BMT from 2001 to 2006. 3 pts failed G-CSF and 19 failed cyclophosphamide and G-CSF mobilization. The median age at transplant was 56 yrs (range, 9–69). The diagnoses included Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL;14,64%), Hodgkin lymphoma (4,18%), acute myeloid leukemia (AML;3,14%), and multiple myeloma (MM;1,4%). The median number of salvage regimens prior to attempted PBSC mobilization was 1 (range, 0–4). The median NC and CD34+ cell doses of the marrow stem cell product infused were 3.7×10 8 /kg (range, 1.4–6.8) and 1.0×10 6 /kg (range, 0.3–3.0), respectively. All pts achieved ANC engraftment with G-CSF support at a median time of 20.5 days (range, 13–43). Only 55% (12/22) of the pts achieved Plt engraftment with a median time of 46.5 days (range, 23–92). The NC cell and CD34+ cell dose did not differ significantly in patients with ANC engraftment (≤20 days or >20 days), Plt engraftment (≤45 days or >45 days) or number of salvage regimens (≤1 or >1). There was no correlation between NC dose and time to either ANC engraftment (rho=−0.05, P=0.8) or Plt engraftment (rho=0.6, P=0.9). CD34+ cell dose did not correlate with time to ANC engraftment (rho=−0.2, P=0.4) or Plt engraftment (rho=−0.2, P=0.4). Median follow up was 322 days (range, 53 to 1700). Median overall survival (OS) was 1140 days and median PFS was 509 days (95% CI, 368 to 649). OS and PFS were not impacted by the number of salvage regimens prior to transplant. Overall mortality (OM) was 36% (8/22). Causes of death were progressive disease (6/8,75%) and treatment related mortality (2/8,25%). 10/22 (45%) pts are alive without post-transplant relapse (PTR) at a median follow-up time of 276 (range, 53 to 649). 6 of these 10 pts continue to have Plt counts 9 /L. CONCLUSIONS: NC or CD34+ cell doses of auto-marrow graft do not correlate with engraftment in pts undergoing HDC and auto-BMT after failed PBSC mobilization. Caution should be exercised in interpreting marrow cell doses in this population. These pts have a high OM and should be appropriately counselled.
Improving the Photoresponse of Porous Silicon for Solar Cell Applications by Embedding of CdTe Nanoparticles

The present work is concerned with the preparation of thin films of nanocrystalline porous silicon (PSi) by the method of electrochemical etching. CdTe nanoparticles (NPs) have been prepared by utilizing the pulsed laser ablation in liquid. The measurements of tunneling microscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and atomic force microscopy (AFE) were carried out and revealed that the PSi was nanostructured and the produced CdTe NPs were ball shaped, having good disposability. The diffusion of CdTe NPs on the properties of PSi solar cell assures that there was an improvement upon their properties. The relationship between 1∕C2 and the reverse bias voltage was observed to be linear. Values of the built-in potential were observed to be dependent on the laser fluence, current density and the etching time.
A Polymerase With Potential: The Fe-S Cluster in Human DNA Primase.

Abstract Replication of DNA in eukaryotes is primarily executed by the combined action of processive DNA polymerases δ and ɛ. These enzymes cannot initiate synthesis of new DNA without the presence of a primer on the template ssDNA. The primers on both the leading and lagging strands are generated by DNA polymerase α–primase (pol–prim). DNA primase is a DNA-dependent RNA polymerase that synthesizes the first ~ 10 nucleotides and then transfers the substrate to polymerase α to complete primer synthesis. The mechanisms governing the coordination and handoff between primase and polymerase α are largely unknown. Isolated DNA primase contains a [4Fe–4S] 2 + cluster that has been shown to serve as a redox switch modulating DNA binding affinity. This discovery suggests a mechanism for modulating the priming activity of primase and handoff to polymerase α. In this chapter, we briefly discuss the current state of knowledge of primase structure and function, including the role of its iron–sulfur cluster. This is followed by providing the methods for expressing, purifying, and biophysically/structurally characterizing primase and its iron–sulfur cluster-containing domain, p58C.
Michael Sandel’s Insight

Michael Sandel sees that justice has little content of its own apart from some understanding of the good. Sandel sees that the mistake of previous thinkers—including Rawls—was thinking justice had a content all its own that could be discerned and acted upon. This insight of Sandel was already a staple of indigenous American thought and philosophy long before Sandel wrote. Sandel does see, however, the serious vulnerabilities of current American social reality and knows that conventional appeals to justice itself are useless. Sandel focuses on wealth inequality and the American need for “a politics of moral engagement.” (The idea of a politics of moral engagement is too vague to be helpful, and Sandel does little to fill it out.)
Through a different lens

Nelson-Gray, Gaynor, and Korotitsch (1997) point out that several behavioral researchers and clinicians have made assiduous and vigilant efforts to identify empirically validated therapies (I prefer the term “empirically supported methods”). In this commentary, I agree that the identification of empirically supported methods and the use of sophisticated manual-based treatments offer hope for a scientific psychotherapy. I describe how my multimodal approach can provide a broad-based framework to accommodate and enhance the synergistic merging of robust methods from diverse disciplines. The use of effective techniques within the context of appropriate relationship styles, coupled with broader areas of clinical research, may eventually witness the end of nonempirical and unsubstantiated theories that still appeal to the majority of clinicians.
Identifying Prediabetes and Type 2 Diabetes in Asymptomatic Youth: Should HbA1c Be Used as a Diagnostic Approach?

Because the incidence of type 2 diabetes and prediabetes in children is rising, routine screening of those at risk is recommended. In 2010, the ADA made the recommendation to include hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) as a diagnostic test for diabetes, in addition to the oral glucose tolerance test or fasting plasma glucose. Our objective was to assess the pediatric literature with regard to HbA1c test performance and discuss advantages and disadvantages of use of the test for diagnostic purposes. HbA1c has a number of advantages, including elimination of the need for fasting, lower variability, assay standardization, and long-term association with future development of diabetes. It also has many drawbacks. It can be affected by a number of non-glycemic factors, including red blood cell turnover, hemoglobinopathies, medications, race, and age. In particular, it performs differently in children compared with adults, generally with lower sensitivity for prediabetes (as low as 0–5% in children vs 23–27% in adults) and lower area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) (0.53 vs 0.73 for prediabetes), and it has lower efficacy at a higher cost, compared with other tests of glycemia. Finally, HbA1c may perform very differently across diverse populations according to race/ethnicity; in Chinese populations, the proportion of individuals classified with prediabetes based on HbA1c predominates compared with IFG (77% for HbA1c vs 27.7% for IFG), whereas in US populations, it is the opposite (24.8% for HbA1c vs 80.1% for FPG). HbA1c is controversial because although it is convenient, it is not a true measure of glycemia. The interpretation of HbA1c results requires a nuanced understanding that many primary care physicians who are ordering the test in greater numbers do not possess. Alternative markers of glycemia may hold promise for the future but are not yet endorsed for use in practice. Further studies are needed to determine appropriate thresholds for screening tests and the long-term impact of screening and identification.
Can you balance the equation: effective implementation + school change = integrated technology tools?

Schools have not implemented technology applications as rapidly as many educators had hoped and forecast in the late 1980’s. This is largely because successful integration requires effective implementation strategies. This paper compares four implementation efforts: IBM Model Schools Project Phase I and Phase II, the Alhambra Model Technology Schools Project and Henry Becker’s national survey data of 45 exemplary computer using educators. The paper recommends that policy makers consider five groups of implementation strategies which will assist teachers in creating, developing and integrating technology tools: time for planning and developing technology tool applications, an on-site support team, access to sufficient hardware and software, a focus on curriculum and instruction issues, and appropriate staff development.
Aspiration Pneumonia and Pneumonitis

Aspiration is defined as the misdirection of oropharyngeal or gastric contents into the larynx and the lower respiratory tract.1 An assortment of pulmonary syndromes may occur following aspiration depending on the quantity and nature of the aspirated material, the frequency of aspiration, as well as the nature of the host defense mechanisms and the host’s response to the aspirated material. The most important syndromes include aspiration pneumonitis or Mendelson’s syndrome, which is a chemical pneumonitis caused by the aspiration of gastric contents and aspiration pneumonia, an infectious process caused by the aspiration of oropharyngeal secretions colonized by pathogenic bacteria.1 While there is some overlap between these two syndromes, they are distinct clinical entities.
Spectral Shapes of Compact Extragalactic Radio Sources

Possible mechanisms for producing the observed broad radio spectra of compact extragalactic radio sources are discussed. The explanations considered are: (a) superposition of the spectra of sub-components, (b) inhomogeneous synchrotron sources, and (c) synchrotron radiation from “non-standard” energetic electron spectra, These three models have been compared with results of spectral and VLBT observations. These comparisons indicate: (1) if the “superposition” hypothesis is correct, then the subcomponents themselves must be inhomogeneous synchrotron sources, (2) there is apparently no general inhomogeneous synchrotron source which characterizes compact extra-galactic sources, and (3) many compact sources have spectra which resemble synchrotron radiation from a relativistic Maxwellian electron spectrum, but the inferred electron energies and magnetic fields have a wide range of values. VLBI observations of a selected sample of sources generally favor a single component model, but cannot distinguish between models (b) and (c).
Well Water Capacities Available for Air Conditioning

There have been summers just as warm as was the one of 1936 but the idea of producing an artificially cooled air in public and quasi-public buildings (to say nothing of the homes) had not assumed the importance that it now holds in the minds of many. It is likely that last summer's heat helped in a large degree to crystallize the idea into action. It is very doubtful if air cooling for summer temperatures would have assumed the position it now holds if cooling by means of artificial refrigeration was the only method available. Cold ground water has a great appeal. The fact that such waters have temperatures as low as 49 degrees in some areas made it an attractive medium for dehumidifying or cooling the air in buildings of many descriptions. The use of ground water for air conditioning very naturally appealed to the well contractor who saw in it an opportunity to increase his business. The manufacturer of equipment and his sales force very naturally saw an opportunity to create new business. Unfortunately there is all too often a catch in such hurried developments and the owner or purchaser may as time goes on expect to learn some things he did not anticipate. Ground water, to be satisfactory as a cooling agent, must be cold, the colder the better. If the temperatures are higher than 55° then the volume of water required is very materially increased. As previously mentioned, about the coldest water on record in this State is 49°F. but more generally the minimum temperatures are 50° or somewhat above. It appears from records in the files of the State Water Survey that waters obtained from limestone are as a rule several degrees colder than waters from the sand and gravel deposits of the drift.
OXIDATION OF ALKYL RADICALS BY METAL COMPLEXES

Alkyl radicals are efficiently oxidized by a variety of copper(II) complexes at rates with second order rate constants in excess of 106 M-1 sec-1. The oxidation of alkyl radicals to alkyl halides (chloride, bromide and iodide) and pseudohalides (thiocyanate, azide and cyanide) by copper(II) halides and pseudohalides, respectively, is described as a ligand transfer process. Copper(II) acetate, Perchlorate and triflate, on the other hand, oxidize alkyl radicals by an electron transfer process to alkenes (oxidative elimination) and alkyl derivatives from the solvent (oxidative substitution). The mechanism of electron transfer and ligand transfer oxidation by various copper(II) complexes is studied in detail. Solvolytic routes can be described in which carbonium ion intermediates are formed from metastable alkylcopper species. Atom transfer of the ligand to the alkyl radical represents an alternative route for the oxidation to proceed without the intervention of ionic intermediates. The ligand associated with the copper(II) nucleus and the solvent play critical roles in determining the relative importance of the various pathways for oxidation.