cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Differential regulation of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor expression by human TE671/RD cells following second messenger modulation and sodium butyrate treatments

Effects of second messenger system modulation and sodium butyrate (NaBu) treatment on nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) expression by cells of the TE671/RD human clone were established. Treatment with dibutyryl cyclic adenosine 3':5'-monophosphate (dbcAMP) or other substances that increase cellular cAMP content induces a 70% loss of nAChR per unit of membrane protein as assessed by binding studies using (125)I-labeled alpha-bungarotoxin (I-Bgt). By contrast, phorbol 12-myristate-13-acetate (PMA) treatment induces an initial 50% decrease, and then a later two- to threefold increase, in I-Bgt binding sites. These PMA effects are temporally distinct from a PMA treatment-induced 50% downregulation of membrane-bound phorbol ester binding sites, are blocked by treatment of cells with the putative protein kinase C inhibitors H7 or trifluoroperazine, and are sensitive to the protein synthesis inhibitor cycloheximide and the topoisomerase inhibitor novobiocin. Treatment with both PMA and dbcAMP induces a threefold increase in nAChR expression, whereas treatment with NaBu alone or with PMA induces an 80% decrease in I-Bgt binding site expression. All of these effects are dose and time dependent and reflect changes in the number of binding sites rather than changes in nAChR afnity for I-Bgt. These data indicate involvement of both cAMP and C-kinase pathways in the regulation of nAChR expression in ways that are not simply additive, possibly due to cross-talk between second messenger pathways. In addition, transcriptional and/or translational events are implicated in PMA and NaBu effects. The results indicate a multiplicity in the effects and mechanisms involved in regulation of nAChR expression.
Asymmetric synthesis of potent chroman-based Rho kinase (ROCK-II) inhibitors

Rho kinase (ROCK) is currently investigated as a target for various diseases such as glaucoma and spinal cord injury. Herein, we report the asymmetric synthesis of chroman 1, a highly potent ROCK inhibitor, and its analogs. The inhibitory properties of these compounds for ROCK-II and a selected set of highly homologous kinases are also discussed.
Phase-Intensity Effects on the ABR

Auditory brain-stem responses (ABR) to condensation and rarefaction clicks were recorded at six intensity levels in 6 normal subjects. A phase-intensity interaction was apparent for both latency and waveform morphology. These results are in agreement with earlier studies that sampled fewer intensities. The importance of determining both phase and intensity in clinical applications of the ABR is demonstrated in this investigation.
Reaction of Nitrite and Cytochrome c in the Presence or Absence of Ascorbate

The reaction of nitrite with cytochrome c in the presence or absence of sodium ascorbate was studied. The amount of ferrocytochrome c nitrosyl compound I (cytochrome c · Fe2+-NO+) formed in the absence of ascorbate was dependent on pH both at initial equal concentrations of nitrite or nitrous acid; the amount formed was very small at pH above 5.0. The presence of ascorbate significantly enhanced the extent of the reaction in the pH range 5.0–6.0. The reaction decreased rapidly at pH above 6.0, but application of heat was effective in giving a large formation of the product. Ascorbate reduced compound I to ferrocytochrome c nitrosyl compound II (cytochrome c · Fe2+-NO). The relative amounts of the two compounds formed was influenced by pH; at pH below 3.6, a mixture of compound I and II was formed, but only compound II was formed above pH 3.6. Compound II easily gave rise to ferrocytochrome c Cytochrome c probably reacts with nitrite in cured meat if ascorbate or erythorbate is used.
Effects of Variations in Water Need and Incentive Concentration on Bar-Pressing

3 groups of 5 rats each were given daily bar-press training while 22.5 hr. water deprived. Each group always received the same reinforcement: 4%, 12%, or 36% sucrose. In counterbalanced order every S was given 5 different saline or water stomach loads, spaced at 1-wk. intervals. These were given an hour prior to regular training which followed as usual. Both water and saline loads depressed responding, and there was a significant interaction between loads and reinforcements. The only differential effect of sucrose reinforcements during training or testing came after a stomach load of 5% body weight of water.
Effect of Substituents on Dipolar Coupling in Alkali Metal Ketyl Radical Pairs

Abstract A series of substituted alkali metal benzophenone ketyls was prepared and studied by ESR at low temperature. These species form triplet radical pairs in THF solution. Zero-field splitting parameters show that the high-spin behavior of these systems is unaffected by a variety of electronically and sterically perturbing substituents. The use of ketyl radical pairs as building blocks in the construction of molecular magnetic materials is suggested.
Co-integrating high mobility channels for future CMOS, from substrate to circuits

Direct wafer bonding can be a vehicle for the dense co-integration of co-planar nano-scaled SiGe p-FETs and InGaAs n-FETs. Like for SiGe, direct wafer bonding enable the fabrication of fully depleted transistors having superior electrostatic control over the channel. Hybrid substrates can be also fabricated by direct wafer bonding with stacked ultra-thin high-mobility layers. A process flow allows fabricating n- and p-channel field effect transistors with ultra-thin body and BOX on the same wafer. Working CMOS inverters are obtained using a common front-end.
Event-related potential (ERP) evidence for fluency-based recognition memory

Two experiments investigated the influence of perceptual fluency on recognition memory. Words were studied using a shallow encoding task to decrease the contribution of recollection on recognition. Fluency was manipulated by blurring half of the test probes. Clarity varied randomly across trials in one experiment and was grouped into two blocks (clear and blurry) in the other experiment. Clarity did not influence recognition judgments or the ERP correlate of familiarity (FN400) when clarity was blocked across trials, but fluent probes (old and clear) elicited a more negative ERP than less fluent probes 280–400 ms at parietal electrode sites. Random variations in clarity produced the opposite pattern of results because recognition judgments and FN400 amplitudes varied, whereas the early ERPs did not differ. The results are interpreted as evidence that blocking clarity across trials led to recognition that was based on repetition fluency differences (i.e., old more fluent than new), which was associated with an early (280–400 ms) ERP at parietal electrodes in the absence of FN400 differences. Randomly varying clarity across trials created a situation where repetition fluency and perceptual fluency (i.e., probe clarity) interacted and led recognition to be based on familiarity/conceptual implicit memory that was associated with FN400 amplitudes in the absence of early ERP differences. The behavioral and ERP differences suggest that perceptual fluency, by itself, is capable of supporting recognition in some contexts and that, in other contexts, fluency can combine with other memory trace information to support recognition.
A theory of the thermodynamic behavior of nonelectrolyte solutions. III. The osmotic pressure of polymer solutions

Abstract : Data on the osmotic pressures of both dilute and concentrated polystyrene and polyisobutylene solutions in various solvents were examined in terms of Maron's theory. It is shown that for each polymer-solvent system at a given temperature the behavior over the entire concentration range studied can be characterized by a single interaction parameter, mu, whose dependence on volume fraction, v2, of polymer is given by mu = mu-o + sigma-o(v2), where mu-o and sigma-o are constants. For two systems, where data are available, this linear relationship was found to hold from v2 = 0 up to v2 =0.90. With this relationship for mu, Maron's theory leads to functional plots for dilute solutions which are linear even in systems where the usual II/C vs. C plots are not straight lines. These plots yield the molecular weights from the intercepts and the quantities (mu-o -- sigma-o) from the slopes. However, the individual values of mu-o and sigma-o cannot be obtained from the dilute solution data. To arrive at these, data are required at concentrations higher than those customarily used for molecular weight determinations. (Author)
Utilizing interdependent timing constraints to enhance robustness in synchronous circuits

Interdependent setup-hold times are exploited during the design process to improve the robustness of a circuit. Considering this interdependence only during static timing analysis (STA), as demonstrated in the previous work, is insufficient to fully exploit the capabilities offered by interdependence. This result is due to the strong dependence of STA results on the specific circuit, cell library, and operating frequency. Interdependence is evaluated in this paper for several technologies to determine the overall reduction in delay uncertainty rather than improvements in STA. Reducing delay uncertainty produces a more robust synchronous circuit. The increasing efficacy of interdependence in deeply scaled technologies is also demonstrated by investigating the effect of technology scaling on interdependent timing constraints.
A telephone-delivered coping improvement group intervention for middle-aged and older adults living with HIV/AIDS.

Background: By 2015, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicts that 50% of all cases of HIV/AIDS in the United States will be in persons 50 years of age or older.Purpose: This pilot research tested whether a 12-session, coping improvement group intervention delivered via teleconference technology could improve life quality in 90 middle-age and older adults living with HIV/AIDS.Method: This research used a lagged-treatment control group design. Forty-four HIV-infected persons 50-plus years of age participated in a coping improvement group intervention immediately after study enrollment, whereas 46 individuals received the intervention after their time-matched immediate treatment participants completed the intervention. Participants completed self-administered surveys that assessed depressive and psychological symptoms, life-stressor burden, ways of coping, coping self-efficacy, and loneliness.Results: Outcome analyses indicated that, compared to their delayed treatment counterparts, immediate treatment participants reported fewer psychological symptoms, lower levels of life-stressor burden, increased coping self-efficacy, and less frequent use of avoidance coping. After receiving the intervention, delayed treatment participants reported greater coping self-efficacy and less psychological symptomatology, lifestressor burden, and loneliness. However, the intervention demonstrated little ability to reduce depressive symptoms in this sample of HIV-infected older adults diagnosed with depression.Conclusions: Although findings from this research suggest that telephone-delivered, coping improvement group interventions have potential to facilitate the adjustment efforts of HIV-infected older adults, more rigorous evaluations of this intervention modality for this group are needed.
Precisely tunable photonic crystals from rapidly self-assembling brush block copolymer blends.

Colorful: Enabled by their reduced capacity for chain entanglement, high-molecular-weight brush block copolymers can rapidly self-assemble to photonic crystals. The blending of two polymers of different molecular weight can predictably modulate the sizes of the polymer domains, giving rise to a facile means of precision tuning of these photonic-band-gap materials.
Theorizing as the Thickness of Thin Abstraction

We show how the thinness of abstract concepts in thought experiments may provide advantages typically associated with thick description. In addition, we show how the thin abstraction of thought experiments allows for the isolation and manipulation of important variables—a process that parallels the design features of actual experiments and, thus, also casts such empirical methodologies in a new light as modeling input to (rather than their data as output from) theorizing. We consider the implications of this type of theorizing for frame breaking and advancing conceptual developments, such as seen in recent work on trust.
MR imaging in cases of antenatal suspected appendicitis--a meta-analysis.

Objective. Appendicitis is the most common surgical emergency in pregnancy. Acute appendicitis is often difficult to diagnose clinically, and concerns regarding antenatal CT imaging limit its use resulting in high false negative rates at laparotomy. MRI has recently been reported as a reasonable alternative to CT imaging in cases of suspected appendicitis. Our objective was to perform a meta-analysis of recently published data regarding the utility of MR imaging in cases of antenatal suspected acute appendicitis.Methods. We searched the PubMed database using keywords ‘MRI’, ‘appendicitis’, and ‘pregnancy’. Five case series describing the role of MRI in cases of antenatal appendicitis were included. The sensitivity, specificity, positive, and negative predictive values were calculated.Results. Two hundred twenty-nine patients were included in the study. In the first analysis in which non-diagnostic scans were excluded, the sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of MRI for diagnos...
Humans adapt the initial posture in learning a whole-body kicking movement

What strategies are used in learning to control new movements? The present investigation sought to understand this process by analyzing the changes in whole-body kinematics that occurred when subjects attempted to learn an unusual kicking movement. Five novices were taught a capoeira kick that involved both the upper and lower body for balance and co-ordination. Subjects performed two sets of 60 consecutive kicks, 24 h apart. Gradual changes in the body movement and the initial posture were found. Four subjects reduced the dynamic counter-twist associated with kick initiation. These subjects also adopted a more forward initial body lean. This gradual change in initial posture appeared to obviate the early counter-twist and to facilitate both the equilibrium and the goal directed components of the kick.
Consequences of Hox gene duplication in the vertebrates: an investigation of the zebrafish Hox paralogue group 1 genes.

As a result of a whole genome duplication event in the lineage leading to teleosts, the zebrafish has seven clusters of Hox patterning genes, rather than four, as described for tetrapod vertebrates. To investigate the consequences of this genome duplication, we have carried out a detailed comparison of genes from a single Hox paralogue group, paralogue group (PG) 1. We have analyzed the sequences, expression patterns and potential functions of all four of the zebrafish PG1 Hox genes, and compared our data with that available for the three mouse genes. As the basic functions of Hox genes appear to be tightly constrained, comparison with mouse data has allowed us to identify specific changes in the developmental roles of Hox genes that have occurred during vertebrate evolution. We have found variation in expression patterns, amino acid sequences within functional domains, and potential gene functions both within the PG1 genes of zebrafish, and in comparison to mouse PG1 genes. We observed novel expression patterns in the midbrain, such that zebrafish hoxa1a and hoxc1a are expressed anterior to the domain traditionally thought to be under Hox patterning control. The hoxc1a gene shows significant coding sequence changes in known functional domains, which correlate with a reduced capacity to cause posteriorizing transformations. Moreover, the hoxb1 duplicate genes have differing functional capacities, suggesting divergence after duplication. We also find that an intriguing function ‘shuffling’ between paralogues has occurred, such that one of the zebrafish hoxb1 duplicates, hoxb1b , performs the role in hindbrain patterning played in mouse by the non-orthologous Hoxa1 gene.
Espelhos, identidades: Brasil e seus reflexos

Mirrors have been present in the cultural history of many peoples, and many times they have served to reflect on the identity, religious life or psychological life of these peoples. In Latin American literature, the constant presence of mirrors means that the search for identity, even so many years after the different countries have been established, is still an important issue. Using a statement by Bioy Casares, a character in Jorge Luis Borges's short story “Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius”, “mirrors and copulation are abominable,” as a frame, this discussion presents works by several Brazilian writers who have used the image of the mirror to discuss the identity of the country. Even though each writer, Machado de Assis, Guimaraes Rosa, Roberto Drummond and Helena Parente Cunha, expresses the specific cultural anxiety of his or her time, it is always clear that the identity of the country is not a fixed recipe.
Nathan B. Stubblefield and his wireless telephone

In the Winter 1970–71 issue, the Journal published an article on radio's technological “pre‐history” which included mention of Kentucky melon farmer and sometime inventor Nathan B. Stubblefield. The following pages offer a more detailed discussion of Stubblefield's experimental work in radio and seek to answer the question of whether he was an important innovator in radio, or just another whose fringe effort contributed little to the mainstream of radio development. Stubblefield's work, much of it before Marconi became active in wireless development, is a good example of the many small‐town American inventors in this field who took out patents and tried to make a commercial success out of something their backers seldom fully understood. Stubblefield's eventual commercial failure is also, unfortunately, typical of the fate of these inventors. Thomas W. Hoffer currently is an instructor in the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin while completing work on his doctorate.
Nocturnal Noninvasive Ventilation

Nocturnal noninvasive ventilation (NNV), the provision of ventilatory assistance via a noninvasive interface mainly during sleep, has assumed an important role in the management of chronic hypoventilatory syndromes. This review focuses on recent developments related to the use of NNV to treat various forms of chronic respiratory failure or insufficiency. In the past, NNV has been used mainly to treat respiratory insufficiency in patients with neuromuscular disease (NMD) or chest wall deformity; it should be instituted when these patients have orthopnea or daytime symptoms associated with nocturnal hypoventilation. An emerging application is to treat obesity-hypoventilation syndrome, particularly in continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) failures. Additionally, it has a role in managing some patients with obstructive sleep apnea who are hypoventilating or find the lower expiratory pressure with bilevel positive pressure ventilators more tolerable than with CPAP alone. NNV to treat severe, stable COPD remains controversial, although a subgroup of patients with hypercapnea and sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) seems most likely to respond favorably. NNV to treat central SDB in patients with congestive heart failure continues to be investigated. Recent findings from a Canadian CPAP trial were disappointing, but preliminary results on a novel adaptive NNV mode are promising.
Sensory and Multisensory Responses in the Newborn Monkey Superior Colliculus

Superior colliculus (SC) neurons have the ability to synthesize information from different sensory modalities, resulting in enhancements (or depressions) of their activity. This physiological capacity is, in turn, closely tied to changes in overt attentive and orientation responses. The present study shows that, in contrast to more altricial species, many deep layer SC neurons in the rhesus monkey are multisensory at birth. Such neurons can respond to stimuli from different sensory modalities, and all convergence patterns seen in the adult are represented. Nevertheless, these neurons cannot yet synthesize their multisensory inputs. Rather, they respond to combinations of cross-modal stimuli much like they respond to their individual modality-specific components. This immature property of multisensory neurons is in contrast to many of the surprisingly sophisticated modality-specific response properties of these neurons and of their modality-specific neighbors. Thus, although deep SC neurons in the newborn have longer latencies and larger receptive fields than their adult counterparts, they are already highly active and are distributed in the typical adult admixture of visual, auditory, somatosensory, and multisensory neurons. Furthermore, the receptive fields of these neurons are already ordered into well organized topographic maps, and the different receptive fields of the same multisensory neurons show a good degree of cross-modal spatial register. These data, coupled with those from cat, suggest that the capacity to synthesize multisensory information does not simply appear in SC neurons at a prescribed maturational stage but rather develops only after substantial experience with cross-modal cues.
Fatty Acids, Not Insulin, Modulate α1-Adrenergic Reactivity in Dorsal Hand Veins

Abstract Resistance to the vasodilator action of insulin and its capacity to antagonize vascular α-adrenergic reactivity may contribute to the increased neurovascular tone and blood pressure in obese hypertensive subjects. We showed that nonesterified fatty acids (NEFAs) were elevated in obese hypertensive subjects and that raising NEFAs locally in dorsal hand veins of healthy normotensive subjects enhances α 1 -adrenoceptor reactivity. Research by others suggests that insulin antagonizes α 1 -adrenoceptor tone in dorsal hand veins. Taken together with evidence that NEFAs antagonize several of the metabolic actions of insulin, these observations raise the possibility that NEFAs participate in resistance to the vascular effects of insulin and suggest that dorsal hand veins represent a good model for studying these interactions. Thus, we produced local hyperinsulinemia in the dorsal hand veins of six lean normal volunteers and quantified changes of venous distensibility in response to phenylephrine in the presence and absence of a local elevation of NEFAs. We confirmed that raising NEFAs locally decreased by twofold to threefold the phenylephrine ED 50 ( P 1 -sensitizing action of NEFAs was not antagonized by insulin concentrations up to ≈1000 μU/mL. Moreover, local hyperinsulinemia alone did not affect vascular α 1 -adrenergic sensitivity as measured by the phenylephrine ED 50 . To address the possibility that the absence of an insulin effect reflected a lack of nitric oxide–mediated, endothelium-dependent dilation in hand veins, responses to acetylcholine were obtained. Acetylcholine relaxed preconstricted hand veins by 60% to 80% ( P 1 -adrenoceptor sensitivity. Despite the presence of significant endothelium-dependent dilation in dorsal hand veins, insulin does not antagonize vascular α 1 -adrenoceptor sensitivity in the presence of either ambient or locally elevated fatty acids.
Thermal response of soil microbial respiration is positively associated with labile carbon content and soil microbial activity

Abstract The rate of substrate availability in mediating the response of soil microbial respiration rate (SMRR) relative to temperature was investigated using soils from southern Inner Mongolia. Two independent experiments were performed: the first one was to provide natural soils with different soil water contents (non-incubation experiments), and the second one was to incubate soils under two temperature regimes (10 °C and 30 °C) and two moisture regimes (35% and 75% water holding capacity) (incubation experiments). The temperature sensitivity of soil microbial respiration rate ( Q 10 ) varied from 1.76 to 2.25 for the non-incubated soils and was similar to the incubated soils, which ranged from 1.77 to 2.43. In the non-incubation experiments, the greatest dissolved organic carbon (DOC) values (0.57 mg g − 1 ) occurred in the soils with moderate soil moisture, then followed by the wet soils (0.31 mg g − 1 ), and lastly (0.18 mg g − 1 ) by the dry soils; in the incubation experiment, the DOC was significantly ( P − 1 ) than that incubated at 30 °C (0.20 mg g − 1 ). The regression results showed that the soil water-soluble carbon content was the main factor that had a significant ( P Q 10 and its dependence on substrate availability have important implications for regional and global ecosystem carbon modeling, specifically in predicting the response of terrestrial ecosystems to future global warming.
The Politics of Breast Cancer By Maureen Hogan Casamayou. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press, 2001. 191p. $60.00 cloth, $19.95 paper.

This book aims to explain why funding levels for breast cancer research suddenly achieved extensive media coverage, as well as both attention and action from Congress and the White House, in the period between 1990 and 1993. Maureen Hogan Casamayou's answer : the effective mobilization of legions of angry women and their allies by entrepreneurial leaders in a new breast cancer coalition. She tells the story of how these women came together, charted strategy, and succeeded in expanding federal funding.
A theory of argumentation

This monumental work is an English translation (by Tim Personn in cooperation with Michael Weh) of the German edition that was first published in 2008. The need for this book, as the author recounts, arose as a result of work undertaken with the Hamburg Group on Argumentation Theory (p. vi). The book is intended to be a contribution to contemporary argumentation theory. Wohlrapp’s main goal in this book is to provide a philosophical foundation for a theory of argumentation, since he thinks that contemporary conceptions of argumentation fail to do justice to the importance of the practice of argumentation, and since he finds extant theories of argumentation, including pragmadialectics, neither sufficiently pragmatic nor sufficiently dialectical (p. lvii).
Measuring relative abundance in fossil and living assemblages

Paleontologists increasingly appreciate the importance of studying the ecological context of fossil species and communities. Measuring abundance is a vital component not just for describing this context, but also for evaluating biases related to preservation and sampling and for estimating species richness (Jackson et al. 1999; Jackson and Johnson 2001; Kidwell 2001). Our purpose here is to identify a previously unrecognized problem that could lead to incorrect interpretation of observed patterns of abundance. Understanding ancient and living communities and ecosystems requires intimate knowledge of their members. We need to know who the members are, how many of them there are, how they interact, and how they collectively forge a workable, durable whole. Not all species contribute equally to ecosystems. Although some rare species have disproportionate effects because of their very high per capita power-large warm-blooded vertebrates come to mind as examples-many others are what Birkeland (1996) referred to as ornaments, pleasing and interesting but economically of little consequence. Abundance is one measure of a species' success. If a species is common, its characteristics-individual features as well as the attributes of populationsmust be responsible for its success. Jernvall and Fortelius (2002), in fact, applied this rationale to show that abundant and widespread species of Miocene mammals in Europe typically show a trend toward hypsodonty (the development of high-crowned cheek teeth), whereas rare ones often do not. They argued that abundance is a legitimate measure of suc
Working Group on Chapter 1 of the Proposed Restatement of Employment Law: Existence of Employment Relationship

This article presents a critique of chapter 1 of the Proposed Restatement of Employment Law. The critique is organized to follow the organization of the proposed Restatement, which begins with a provision of black letter law, a series of comments and illustrations explaining the meaning and application of the black letter law, and the reporters’ notes providing support for the black letter law and the commentary. This critique will follow that structure, with each part focusing on a section of the chapter: the introductory note; section 1.01; section 1.02; section 1.03; and section 1.04. The subdivisions of the parts will, likewise, generally follow the subdivisions of the sections in the chapter, although sometimes a critique of the reporters’ notes will be its own subpart, and sometimes it will be discussed in the subsections analyzing the comments.
Renaissance computing: an initiative for promoting student participation in computing

We report on a recently funded project called Renaissance Computing, an initiative for promoting student participation in computing. We propose a radical re-thinking not only of our core curriculum in CS, but of the role of CS at the university level. In our conception, ''computational thinking'' is neither easily separated from other endeavors nor easily balkanized into a single department. We thus imagine a CS curriculum that is inextricably linked to other domains. Our proposed initiative covers introductory, depth, and capstone courses, targeting both CS majors and minors. It is also aimed to develop interdisciplinary CS courses in sciences, engineering, arts, and humanities. Furthermore, the framework embraces collaborative learning to help improve learning.
Design and synthesis of AHHpA isosteres for the potential inhibition of methionine aminopeptidase-1

Methionine aminopeptidase (MetAP), a divalent cobalt metalloprotease essential to the processing of proteins, cleaves the N-terminal methionine from growing polypeptide chains. Two types of MetAP are known: MetAP-1 and MetAP-2. Eukaryotes contain both types while prokaryotes only have MetAP-1. Deletion of the gene encoding for MetAP-1 slows growth in eukaryotic cells and is lethal in prokayotic cells [1]. MetAP-2 inhibitors currently show potential use as anti-angiogenesis agents in cancer treatment. Inhibitors of MetAP-1 could have potential anti-bacterial activity. Previous results from our lab established that peptides containing a 3R-amino-2S-hydroxy heptanoic acid (AHHpA) moiety inhibit E. coli MetAP-1 with values in the low micromolar range [2]. We report here the efficient synthesis AHHpA, selective inhibition results for AHHpA containing peptides and the synthesis of transition state isosteres of AHHpA.
Ultrasonic Phantoms

A realistic medium for studying imaging as well as dosimetric characteristics of medical ultrasound equipment should have ultrasonic properties simulating those of body tissues. Materials which have been incorporated in various attempts at producing tissue models include water, silastic and urethane materials, viscous oils and gels. We present data on the ultrasonic properties of water-based gel materials, which can be produced such that any tissue of the body is mimicked quantitatively with respect to density, speed of sound, attenuation coefficient and qualitatively with respect to backscatter; very importantly, the attenuation coefficient is nearly proportional to frequency as in the case of most soft tissues. The dependence of these properties on temperature is also reported. These materials have been used to construct phantoms for use in quality control of medical imaging equipment. In addition, realistic, yet geometrically simple anthropomorphic phantoms have been constructed for use in training programs and in assessing the performance of state-of-the-art scanning equipment.
Preparation, Microstructure and Physical Characteristics of Ferroelectric Pb5Ge3O11 Thin Films for Memory Application

We report sol-gel process of Pb 5 Ge 3 O 11 (PGO) as well as the microstructure and physical properties of ferroelectric PGO films for memory applications. The PGO sol was prepared from lead acetate hydrate, germanium isopropoxide, and di(ethylene glycol) ethyl ether. The reactions taking place during the sol-gel process were examined in detail. Diethanolamine (DEA) was added to help maintain the desired species ratio and prevent germanium oxide precipitation. The preferred orientation of the PGO thin films was well controlled by the heating and reflux procedures in the sol-gel preparation process. Additionally, to examine the impact of postdeposition processing, selected samples were oxygen annealed at temperatures ranging from 450–650°C. The samples were characterized with X-ray diffraction (XRD), non-contact (planview) atomic force microscopy (NC-AFM). The resulting data indicate that the microstructure and physical properties of PGO films depend strongly on the precursor preparation as well as the post deposition annealing temperature.
Dielectric Properties of Various Ranks of Coal and Numerical Modeling Under Electromagnetic Irradiation

The dielectric properties of different ranks of Argonne Premium coal samples have been measured using an automated network analyzer system in the frequency range 0.3MHz to 3GHz. These measurements indicate that the inherent moisture present in the various ranks of coal has dielectric properties which are different from that of free water. The dielectric properties were also observed to increase with the moisture content as well as with the amount of oxygen present in the coal sample. A mixture model was successfully used to predict these dielectric properties. The measured dielectric properties have been incorporated into numerical calculations of the distribution of absorbed energy in coal irradiated with electromagnetic waves. The numerical technique used is the Method of Moments. Subsequently, the temperature distribution obtained in the coal is evaluated using a Finite Difference technique to solve the heat conduction equation. These calculations should prove very useful in the microwave drying of coal where it is difficult to monitor the temperature using probes.
Visualizing and Quantifying Dose Distribution in a UV Reactor Using Three-Dimensional Laser-Induced Fluorescence

Evaluating the performance of typical water treatment UV reactors is challenging due to the complexity in assessing spatial and temporal variation of UV fluence, resulting from highly unsteady, turbulent nature of flow and variation in UV intensity. In this study, three-dimensional laser-induced fluorescence (3DLIF) was applied to visualize and quantitatively analyze a lab-scale UV reactor consisting of one lamp sleeve placed perpendicular to flow. Mapping the spatial and temporal fluence delivery and MS2 inactivation revealed the highest local fluence in the wake zone due to longer residence time and higher UV exposure, while the lowest local fluence occurred in a region near the walls due to short-circuiting flow and lower UV fluence rate. Comparing the tracer based decomposition between hydrodynamics and IT revealed similar coherent structures showing the dependency of fluence delivery on the reactor flow. The location of tracer injection, varying the height and upstream distance from the lamp center, was found to significantly affect the UV fluence received by the tracer. A Lagrangian-based analysis was also employed to predict the fluence along specific paths of travel, which agreed with the experiments. The 3DLIF technique developed in this study provides new insight on dose delivery that fluctuates both spatially and temporally and is expected to aid design and optimization of UV reactors as well as validate computational fluid dynamics models that are widely used to simulate UV reactor performances.
Does Cooperation Require Co-Laboring? How Authority Moderates Project Team Structure

This paper examines how the distribution of authority within organizations impacts the structure and effectiveness of team- based work. In a wide range of contexts, teams are organized to solve com...
Growing up Hmong in Laos and America: Two Generations of Women through My Eyes

We, the Hmong, are a fairly new group of people in the United States. Although there are several million Hmong that live in China and other neighboring countries, nearly 200,000 Hmong refugees have resettled in this country since 1975, 40% of them residing in California. With about three decades of history in this country, there are still many issues that need to be explored. In the early 1980s, there was virtually no written literature about the Hmong and especially of our American experiences.
Online rate adjustment for adaptive random access compressed sensing of time-varying fields

We develop an adaptive sensing framework for tracking time-varying fields using a wireless sensor network. The sensing rate is iteratively adjusted in an online fashion using a scheme that relies on an integrated sensing and communication architecture. As a result, this scheme allows for an implementation that is both energy efficient and robust. The objective is to promote an “active" framework which uses the information extracted from the network data and iteratively adjusts the monitoring process to capture the temporal variations in the monitored field. We propose two metrics based on target detection/tracking for this feedback scheme that seek to trade off between energy efficiency and accuracy of the detection/tracking tasks. Our simulation results suggest that tying target detection with the rate adjustment algorithm ensures that the robustness to changes in the field can be achieved simultaneously with the end goal of accurate target detection. Compared to a baseline method that uses the correlation of the acquired field over time, our method exhibits better performance when the targets of interest have a smaller spatial spread.
Trust-Based Service Composition and Binding with Multiple Objective Optimization in Service-Oriented Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

With the proliferation of fairly powerful mobile devices and ubiquitous wireless technology, we see a transformation from traditional mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) into a new era of service-oriented MANETs wherein a node can provide and receive services. Requested services must be decomposed into more abstract services and then bound; we formulate this as a multi-objective optimization (MOO) problem to minimize the service cost, while maximizing the quality of service and quality of information in the service a user receives. The MOO problem is an SP-to-service assignment problem. We propose a multidimensional trust based algorithm to solve the problem. We carry out an extensive suite of simulations to test the relative performance of the proposed trust-based algorithm against a non-trust-based counterpart and an existing single-trust-based beta reputation scheme. Our proposed algorithm effectively filters out malicious nodes exhibiting various attack behaviors by penalizing them with loss of reputation, which ultimately leads to high user satisfaction. Further, our proposed algorithm is efficient with linear runtime complexity while achieving a close-to-optimal solution.
Surveillance of Animals Reservoir of Plague in Guangzhou City from 2003 to 2004

Objective To examine the composition and distribution of animal reservoir of plague in Guangzhou city. Method Rodents were captured by cages and then identified. Flea index was determined and plague IHA method was used to test for antibody. Result 2259 rodents (including 2014 rattus and 245 insectivora) were caught and identified. The animals were grouped into 7 species, 3 genera, and 2 families. Total density of rodents and rattus was 12.09% and 10.78%, respectively. A total number of 297 fleas, belonging to the species of Xenopsylla cheopis, were caught from 73 rattus. The total flea index was 0.53. No F1 antibody was found. Conclusion The major rodent species found in Guangzhou city is Rattus norvegicus. And Xenopsylla cheopis is the dominant species of flea in these animals. Spreading of plague among rattus was not found.
Evaluation on Antibody Levels of Population After Children Vaccinated Against Viral Hepatitis A

Objective To understaid the effect on HAV antibody levels of population after children vaccinated against viral hepatitis A. Methed Two groups of children from Weifang City of Shandong Province were divided into seven subgroups according to ages respectively. 720 subjects(group 1)were detected of anti-HAV-IgG levels in 1996, and 803 ones (group 2) were detected in 2005 after nine years of mass vaccination.ELISA method was used in serum test.Result Anti-HAV-IgG rate of whole population increased significantly.The positive rate in adolescents and children (18 years old) increased from 29.84% to 64.15% (P0.01),and in adults (25 to 35 years old) from 78.92% to 84.47% with no statistical significance (P0.05).Conclusion HAV antibody levels of population in children significantly increase after vaccinating against viral hepatitis A, and no retrocession in age groups of susceptibility is found.
"Freedom" of translators in terms of relevance theory

The "freedom" of translators is one of the most controversial topics in the history of both Chinese and western translations.This paper focuses on the discussion of how to define the degree of translators' freedom.It starts with the definition of the word "freedom" in translation,followed in the second part by the introduction to one method to confine its extent.It aims at providing a criterion for translators to assess the "freedom" in translation in a more direct and explicit way.
Gene Regulation and Arteriosclerosis: Are Developmental Programs Reactivated in Vascular Disease?

The molecular mechanisms regulating the development of vascular diseases such as atherosclerosis remain poorly understood at present. Similarities between genetic programs observed during the course of vascular disease with those observed during vascular development suggest that developmental processes are recapitulated in vascular disease. The earliest event in vascular development is the differentiation of endothelial cells from their mesodermally-derived hamangioblastic precursors. The receptor for vascular endothelial growth factor, KDR/flk-1, plays a critical role in these earliest stages of vascular development. During development and in the adult, expression of this receptor is restricted to vascular endothelial cells and their immediate precursors. We have therefore endeavored to determine the transcriptional events regulating KDR/flk-1 expression, with the hope of gaining insight into processes of vascular development that might also be important in vascular diseases of the adult.
Pregnancies complicated by liver disease and liver dysfunction.

SUMMARY Although liver dysfunction is infrequently seen in pregnancy, it can result in severe maternal and fetal compromise. An unrecognized case of acute fatty liver may result in both maternal and fetal death. Failure to screen for hepatitis B can result in a newborn who will be a hepatitis carrier for life. Because of such consequences, the obstetrician must remain vigilant for signs of liver dysfunction and must understand the pathophysiology of these disorders.
Developing Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching Teachers: A Model for the Professional Development of Teacher Educators.

We know little about what teacher educators need to know in order to develop preservice teachers’ knowledge of mathematics in ways needed for teaching. As part of a two-year professional development project for teacher educators, and drawing from research on features of high quality professional development programs, we propose a model for the professional development of teacher educators that has the following features central to its design: learning is grounded in the content of teaching and learning, activities create disequilibrium for participants, encourages collaboration among participants, and learning is embedded in the work of teaching teachers. Thus, teacher educator learning is not tied to one specific approach, but rather it is grounded in the work of teaching preservice teachers.
Simultaneous Process and Material Design for Aprotic N-Heterocyclic Anion Ionic Liquids in Postcombustion CO2 Capture

Aprotic heterocyclic anion ionic liquids (AHAs) are a promising new class of CO2 absorbents, with a capacity of one mole of CO2 chemically absorbed per mole of AHA. By tailoring the substituents on the anion, the AHA properties, in particular the enthalpy of absorption, can be tuned over a wide range. Furthermore, the entropy of absorption can be tuned by tailoring substituents on the cation. This then presents a materials design challenge—What are the optimal AHA properties? This challenge is addressed by incorporating AHAs into a simple process model of CO2 capture from postcombustion flue gas, and formulating the question as a type of simultaneous materials and process design problem. New absorption isotherm data is presented, over a larger pressure range than studied previously, for a few AHAs, and is used to suggest a simple thermodynamic model for CO2 uptake, to be used in connection with the process model. The possibility of ionic liquids (ILs) that exhibit a 2:1 CO2 uptake (two moles CO2 per mole ...
Ghosts That a White Man Can See: The Ghost Story and Empire

The question that frames this chapter is this very broad one: What does it mean to talk about empire and the Gothic together? Though I focus on ‘golden age’ ghost stories, from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it is worth beginning with the relationship between empire and the Gothic in more general terms so as to get a sense of what is specific to the ghost story.
A cognitive-interpersonal approach to depressive symptoms in preadolescent children

Cognitive and interpersonal aspects of depressive symptoms were investigated in a community sample of children. Eighty-one 8- to 12-year-olds completed scales assessing cognitive representations of social relationships and symptoms of depression and anxiety. Teachers provided ratings of peer rejection. Children with elevated levels of depressive symptoms displayed increased negativity in their beliefs about self, family, and peers, as well as distinct patterns of interpersonal information processing. Anxiety symptoms did not make a unique contribution beyond depression to negative representations of family and peers; in contrast, symptom-specific profiles of self-representations were found. Structural equation analysis supported a model linking negative interpersonal representations, peer rejection, and depressive symptoms. The findings suggest that future studies may benefit from approaches that incorporate both cognitive and interpersonal variables as predictors of child depression.