cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Synchrotron X-ray diffraction studies on the transition metal alloy MoRe under high pressures

The effect of the addition of a d-rich transition metal Re to Mo on the bcc to hcp phase transformation at high pressures is investigated using Mo-Re alloys with 5, 11, 18, and 26 at. pct Re, fabricated by arc melting. The alloys were cold rolled to a 50-micron-thick foil for studies of transformations under high pressure in a diamond anvil cell. The energy dispersive X-ray diffraction pattern (recorded at Corness High-Energy Synchrotron Source) at the lowest pressure of 0.9 GPa showed that the Mo-26Re was single phase bcc. Typically 15 diffraction peaks of the bcc phase were observed to 70 keV at each pressure, and these peaks were followed to the highest applied pressure of 64 GPa. No discontinuity in the spacing and no new diffracton peaks were observed to 64 GPa, implying that the bcc phase is stable. Theoretical estimates of the transition pressure indicate that studies employing pressures up to several megabars are needed on this alloy to observe the bcc-hcp boundary. 16 refs.
Linear current mode image sensor with focal plane spatial image processing

Linear current mode CMOS image sensor that performs spatial convolution during pixel readout using low power analog circuitry is presented. The image sensor has 128 by 109 pixel array, digital scanning registers, pixel selection circuitry, and digitally programmable analog processing unit. An intensity image in parallel with two convolved images is provided outside the chip at 60 frames per second. The image sensor was fabricated in 0.5 micron 3M2P process. The sensor operation and performance measurements are presented.
Seasonal variation in plasma vitamin C concentration in Pitkäranta, Northwestern Russia.

In the 1990s, extremely low plasma vitamin C concentrations were reported in the district of Pitkaranta, Northwestern Russia, during springtime in connection to population-risk factor surveys.1, 2 The surveys were conducted in springtime, when the supply of fresh vegetables and fruit in the area was remarkably poor. As the consumption of vitamin C-rich foods like vegetables, fruit and berries varies across seasons,3 it can be assumed that levels of plasma vitamin C vary as well.
Metalloporphyrin Nanotube Fabrication Using Peptide Nanotubes as Templates

Protoporphyrin IX Zn(II) has been demonstrated to form metalloporphyrin coatings on peptide nanotubes via hydrogen bonds and produce metalloporphyrin nanotubes. This diacid metalloporphyrin was stabilized on the peptide nanotube surfaces with two types of hydrogen bonds, intermolecular hydrogen bond between the carboxylic acid of metalloporphyrins and the amide of peptide nanotube and intermolecular hydrogen bond between the carboxylic acids of neighboring metalloporphyrins. Since previous study indicates that the peptide nanotubes can potentially be assembled as arrays, the applications of metalloporphyrin nanotubes to nanoscale chemical sensors or photonics may be possible.
A visual medium for programmatic control of interactive applications

The VisMap system provides for visual manipulation of arbitrary off-the-shelf applications, through an applications graphical user interface. VisMaps API-independent control has advantages for tasks that can benefit from direct access to the functions of the user interface. We describe the design goals and architecture of the system, and we discuss two applications, a user-controlled visual scripting program and an autonomous solitaire-playing program, which together demonstrate some of the capabilities and limitations of the approach.
Evidence for a transition state analog, MgADP-aluminum fluoride-acetate, in acetate kinase from Methanosarcina thermophila.

Abstract Aluminum fluoride has become an important tool for investigating the mechanism of phosphoryl transfer, an essential reaction that controls a host of vital cell functions. Planar AlF3 or AlF molecules are proposed to mimic the phosphoryl group in the catalytic transition state. Acetate kinase catalyzes phosphoryl transfer of the ATP γ-phosphate to acetate. Here we describe the inhibition of acetate kinase fromMethanosarcina thermophila by preincubation with MgCl2, ADP, AlCl3, NaF, and acetate. Preincubation with butyrate in place of acetate did not significantly inhibit the enzyme. Several NTPs can substitute for ATP in the reaction, and the corresponding NDPs, in conjunction with MgCl2, AlCl3, NaF, and acetate, inhibit acetate kinase activity. Fluorescence quenching experiments indicated an increase in binding affinity of acetate kinase for MgADP in the presence of AlCl3, NaF, and acetate. These and other characteristics of the inhibition indicate that the transition state analog, MgADP-aluminum fluoride-acetate, forms an abortive complex in the active site. The protection from inhibition by a non-hydrolyzable ATP analog or acetylphosphate, in conjunction with the strict dependence of inhibition on the presence of both ADP and acetate, supports a direct in-line mechanism for acetate kinase.
A Protease for the Ages

Mutations in the genes encoding the nuclear scaffold protein lamin A or the zinc metalloprotease ZMPSTE24 cause the devastating premature aging disorder Hutchinson-Guilford progeria syndrome (HGPS) and the related progeroid disorders restrictive dermopathy (RD) and mandibuloacral dysplasia (MAD-B) ( 1 – 4 ). Children with HGPS, for example, manifest accelerated aging symptoms, including failure to thrive, hair loss, joint ailments, lipodystrophy, and cardiovascular disease, typically dying from the latter in their mid-teens. In all of these progeroid disorders, a persistently farnesylated and methylated form of lamin A is the “molecular culprit,” exerting dominant-negative effects that promote aging-related symptoms ( 1 ). On pages 1604 and 1600 of this issue, Quigley et al. ( 5 ) and Pryor et al. ( 6 ) report the three-dimensional crystal structures of the human zinc metallo-protease ZMPSTE24 and its yeast homolog, Ste24p. These proteases play critical roles in two steps of the posttranslational maturation of human lamin A and the yeast mating pheromone a -factor, respectively ( 7 – 9 ). ZMPSTE24 and Ste24p are multispanning membrane proteins and as such, determining their structures by x-ray crystallography represents a substantial accomplishment. The structures should lead to a better understanding of how these enzymes function and how they are associated with aging.
Patterns of change over time in learned response to chronic illness among participants in a systemic lupus erythematosus self-help course

The findings of this descriptive study of learned response to chronic illness over time of 291 persons having a diagnosis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) who had attended a series of self-management classes demonstrated significant change in learned response over time. Self-help model variables that significantly contributed to the change were uncertainty, depression, enabling skill, self-efficacy, and self-worth. Uncertainty and depression decreased over time while enabling skill, self-efficacy, and self-worth increased. Subjects also demonstrated significant increases in self-help course tied variables of SLE knowledge and both the range and number of rest, relaxation, heat, and exercise activities.
Quantum Dot Infrared Photodetectors

Mid- and far-infrared detectors operating at elevated temperatures (T>150K) are critical for imaging applications. In(Ga)As/GaAs quantum dots, grown by self-organized epitaxy, are an important material for the design and fabrication of high-temperature infrared photodetectors. Quantum dot infrared photodetectors (QDIPs) allow normal-incidence operation, in addition to low dark currents and multispectral response. The long intersubband relaxation time of electrons in quantum dots improves the responsivity of the detectors, contributing to better high-temperature performance. These devices also exhibit photoconductive gain. The characteristics of state-of-the-art lateral and vertical QDIPs will be described. We have achieved peak responsivity for wavelengths ranging from 3.7-18micrometers . We have also obtained extremely low dark currents (Idark=27pA,T=100K,Vbias=0.5V), high detectivities (D*=2.9x108 cmHz½/W, T=100K, Vbias=0.2V), and high operating temperatures (T=150K) for these quantum-dot detectors. The excellent performance of these devices at low bias voltages indicates the compatibility of high temperature QDIPs with commercially available silicon read- out circuits for imaging focal plane arrays. These results, as well as infrared imaging with QDIP arrays, will be described and discussed.
Microsatellite diversity in sympatric reproductive ecotypes of Pacific steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) from the Middle Fork Eel River, California

– Genetic differentiation between two reproductive ecotypes of anadromous steelhead found in the Middle Fork Eel River in northern California was tested using 16 microsatellite loci. Twelve of these loci showed significant differences in allelic frequency between the two Middle Fork Eel River steelhead populations (Fisher's exact P <0.05). Fisher's combined test for independence also supported significant genetic separation between the two reproductive ecotype (P < 0.001). Analysis of molecular variance indicated that only 1% of the overall microsatellite allelic variation contributed to differences between summer- and winter-run steelhead in the Middle Fork Eel River. Variation found among individuals within the two runs equaled 18.2%. Analyses showed less genetic distance between the two populations of steelhead in the Middle Fork Eel River than in comparisons made with geographically proximate coastal winter-run fish. Divergence time based on genetic distance for the two within-basin reproductive ecotypes was estimated to be 16,000–28,000 years ago.
Present status of information on transport properties applicable to combustion research

Abstract A survey is presented of the available experimental and theoretical information on molecular diffusion and thermal conductivity coefficients likely to be of interest in low speed combustion studies. Emphasis is placed on high temperature data and practical methods of calculation. Reliability of present information is discussed, and the great lack of experimental data is pointed out. No pretence of a complete summary is made, but most of the best existing sources are indicated. Consideration of viscosity or dense gas effects is specifically excluded.
Health promotion interventions for adolescent cancer survivors

There is clearly a need to develop effective health promotion interventions for adolescent cancer survivors, given their increased susceptibility to adverse health risks if they practice unhealthy behaviors. Approaches typically used with healthy adolescents may not be highly effective with young cancer patients given their unique educational needs secondary to their cancer treatment experience. Interventions that capitalize on the perceptions of increased health vulnerability, characteristic of cancer survivors, may serve to enhance the impact of more traditional health education approaches. This strategy can be conceptualized from a theoretical model that focuses on the relationship between perceptions of health risk and behavior. The application of this approach as it relates to health promotion with adolescent cancer survivors will be illustrated with an intervention targeting tobacco-use prevention and cessation in this vulnerable population.
Serum macrophage migration inhibition activity in patients with leprosy.

We have found that 26 of 54 (48%) untreated patients with leprosy had serum migration inhibitory activity, and that this was present in tuberculoid, borderline, and lepromatous forms of the disease. Patients with active recreational states; i.e., reversal reactions, Lucio's reaction, or erythema nodosum leprosum, were particularly apt to have this inhibitory activity. The prevalence of inhibitory activity did not vary significantly with treatment, dinitrochlorobenzene responsiveness, tuberculin responsiveness, or serum lysozyme levels.
Primates exposed to cocaine in utero display reduced density and number of cerebral cortical neurons.

This study examined the effects of cocaine use during the second trimester of pregnancy on cerebral neocortical volume and density, and total number of neocortical neurons and glia in offspring. We also evaluated the extent of postnatal recovery of cytoarchitectural abnormalities previously observed in the neocortex of two-month-old primates born from cocaine-treated mothers (Lidow [1995] Synapse 21:332-334). Pregnant monkeys received cocaine orally (20 mg/kg/day) from the 40th to 102nd days of pregnancy (embryonic day [E]40-E102). On E64 and E65, the animals were injected with [(3)H]thymidine. Cerebral hemispheres of the offspring were examined at three years of age. We found a reduction in the neocortical volume and density and total number of neocortical neurons. The observed reduction in neuronal number within the neocortex was not accounted for by the increase in the number of neurons in the white matter of cocaine-exposed animals, because the number of these "extra" neurons was equal to only half that of missing neurons. We detected no significant changes in the number of neocortical glia. The cytoarchitectural abnormalities in the neocortex of prenatally cocaine-exposed three-year-old monkeys closely resembled previously described neocortical abnormalities in similarly exposed two-month-old animals: the neocortex lacked a discernible lamination; the majority of the cells labeled by [(3)H]thymidine injected during neocortical neurogenesis did not reach their proper position within the cortical plate. Therefore, postnatal maturation is not associated with significant improvement in neocortical organization in primates prenatally exposed to cocaine. There was, however, a postnatal recovery of low glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) immunoreactivity previously observed in 2-month-old cocaine-exposed animals.
Molecular Weights of Natural Rubbers from Selected Temperate Zone Plants

Molecular weights and molecular weight distributions are compared by gel permeation chromatography for rubbers from 33 north temperate zone plants, guayule, and Hevea. Rubbers isolated from all the northern plants had much lower weight-average molecular weight (Mw) values (9.72 × 104–4.95 × 105) than milled Hevea (1.31 × 106) or guayule (1.28 × 106) rubber. Pycnanthemum incanum, Lamiastrum galeobdolon, Monarda fistulosa, and Vernonia fasciculata produced potentially useful natural rubbers having Mw values above 4 × 105 and polydispersity factors of 3.1–4.5.
Exercise-induced respiratory symptoms: an epidemic among adolescents

Objective To review the most important causes of exercise-induced respiratory symptoms in adolescents. Data Sources Published English-language medical literature. Study Selection Primary literature and consensus publications relevant to the objective. Results The diagnosis and treatment of exercise-induced asthma are well characterized. Other syndromes, such as exercise-induced vocal cord dysfunction, exercise-induced paradoxical arytenoid motion, and exercise-induced hyperventilation, are relatively common but so far are described primarily in uncontrolled case reports. Conclusion Controlled studies are necessary to define efficient diagnostic and treatment algorithms for young patients experiencing respiratory symptoms during exercise who do not respond to asthma treatment.
Self-Assembly of Cobalt/Bipyridine Multilayers Modeled After Hofmann Clathrate Compounds

Progress has been made towards the development of inorganic-organic multilayered films modeled after Hofmann clathrate compounds. Cobalt-bipyridine multilayers were grown layer by layer on a silicon substrate. The resulting films were characterized using ellipsometry, grazing angle X-ray diffraction, Auger electron spectroscopy and EPMA (Electron Probe Micro- Analysis). Results indicate that moderately well ordered layers have been synthesized, but cross-linking with M(CN)42(M = Ni, Pd, or Pt) to simulate the model structure does not significantly occur.
Growth of human T lymphocyte colonies from whole blood: culture requirements and applications.

Growth of human lymphocyte colonies from whole blood following stimulation with PHA, Con A, or PPD is described. Individual colony cells were identified as T lymphocytes on the basis of surface marker and enzyme cytochemical characterizations. Colony formation increased as a power function over a wide range of cell concentrations above a critical minimal concentration. The whole blood culture system eliminates possible selective effects of lymphocyte colony techniques utilizing gradient-enriched lymphocyte fractions and more closely approximates the in vivo milieu. The whole blood colony method is more sensitive for the detection of low-level radiation effects on lymphocytes than widely used tests that measure 3H-thymidine incorporation. In preliminary studies, we used the whole blood method to determine the relative radiosensitivity of lymphocytes from humans with various hematopoietic disorders, and observed abnormalties in mitogen responsiveness and colony formation in some of the patient groups. This method has wide application for studies in cellular and clinical immunology.
Reactive desorption electrospray ionization linear ion trap mass spectrometry of latest-generation counterfeit antimalarials via noncovalent complex formation.

Desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (DESI MS) is rapidly becoming accepted as a powerful surface characterization tool for a wide variety of samples in the open air. Besides its well-established high-throughput capabilities, a unique feature of DESI is that chemical reactions between the charged spray microdroplets and surface molecules can be exploited to enhance ionization. Here, we present a rapid screening assay for artesunate antimalarials based on reactive DESI. Artesunate is a vital therapy for Plasmodium falciparum malaria, but artesunate tablets have been counterfeited on a very large scale in SE Asia, and more recently in Africa. For this reason, faster and more sensitive screening tests are urgently needed. The proposed DESI assay is based on the formation of stable noncovalent complexes between linear alkylamines dissolved in the DESI spray solution and artesunate molecules exposed on the tablet surface. We found that, depending on amine type and concentration, a sensitivity g...
An exactly soluble kinetic equation for a chemical reaction: Evaluation of several approximation schemes

Abstract A single-velocity-relaxation time Boltzmann equation for an irreversible bimolecular chemical reaction is intro- duced and solved exactly. The exact results are compared to those of the Chapman—Enskog, Hilbert, multiple-time- scale, and Kapral—Hudson—Ross theories. Non-equilibrium contributions to the chemical rate coefficient, diffusion coefficient, and Rayleigh structure factor are obtained for the exact solution and for each of the above approxima- tions. These non-equilibrium terms are calculated explicitly in the case of a hard-sphere reactive cross section.
Estimation of complex modulus using wave coefficients

Abstract The paper presents a new, efficient and accurate method for experimentally determining structural damping properties of stiff materials in flexural vibration. The estimation method seeks a wavenumber that forces data at all measurement points to conform with the general forced-vibration solution for a beam, and, thus, to have the same wave coefficients. The method does not depend on beam boundary conditions, making it relatively simple to implement in any laboratory setting. The paper shows results of using the method to estimate the complex modulus of aluminum and of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) beams in the frequency range from 30 to 800 Hz.Results compare very well with those obtained by more conventional methods and with those previously published over most of the frequencies of interest. Discrepancies in results for frequencies less than 80 Hz are attributed to the difficulty in measuring differences of velocity between points that are near each other at low frequency, and a technique for avoiding such discrepancies is outlined. Evidence shows that the error in the results near 350 Hz is due to a resonance in the scanning laser vibrometer that was used to take the experimental measurements.
Malazy, a degenerate, species-specific transposable element in Cercospora zeae-maydis

Two fungal pathogens, Cercospora zeae- maydis Groups I and II, cause gray leaf spot of maize. During the sequencing of a cosmid library from C. zeae-maydis Group I, we discovered a sequence with high similarity to Maggy, a transposable element from Magnaporthe grisea. The element from C. zeae- maydis, named Malazy, contained 194-base-pair ter- minal repeats and sequences with high similarity to reverse transcriptase and integrase, components of the POL gene in the gypsy-like retrotransposons in fungi. Sequences with similarity to other POL gene components, protease and ribonuclease, were not de- tected in Malazy. A single copy of the element was detected by PCR and Southern analyses in all six North American isolates of C. zeae-maydis Group I but was not detected in the four isolates of C. zeae- maydis Group II from three continents or in phylo- genetically related species. Fragments of the core do- mains of reverse transcriptase and integrase con- tained a high frequency of stop codons that were con- served in all six isolates of Group I. Additional C:G to T:A transitions in occasional isolates usually were silent mutations, while two resulted in isolate-specific stop codons. The absence of Malazy from related spe- cies suggests that it was acquired after the divergence of C. zeae-maydis Groups I and II. The high frequency of stop codons and the presence of a single copy of the element suggest that it was inactivated soon after it was acquired. Because the element is inactive and because reading frames for other genes were not found in sequences flanking the element, Malazy does not appear to be the cause of differences lead- ing to speciation or genetic diversity between C. zeae- maydis Groups I and II.
Small Bowel Adenocarcinoma in Crohn’s Disease

An association between small bowel adenocarcinoma and Crohn’s disease (CD) is well-established. We present our recent experience with this entity in order to further elucidate its clinicopathological features and update our series from 1991. A retrospective review was undertaken of all surgical patients with small bowel adenocarcinoma and CD seen at our institution between 1993 and 2009. Follow-up was assessed until time of death or by interview with survivors. Survival was calculated based on TNM (tumor extent, lymph node status, metastases staging) staging and comparing between our current and previous series. Twenty-nine patients (ten females and 19 males) were identified and followed for a median of 2 years. The median age at onset of CD symptoms was 25, and the median age at cancer diagnosis was 55.4, for a mean interval of 25.3 years. Twenty-two cancers were ileal and five were jejunal. There were no cancers in excluded intestinal loops. Significant differences in 2-year survival were determined for: node-negative (79.3%, 95%CI 58.3–100%) versus node-positive cancers (49% %, 95%CI 20.0–78.0%), and for localized (92.3%, 95%CI 77.8–100%) versus metastatic disease (33.3%, 95%CI 6.6–60%). Overall 36-month survival was 69.3% (95%CI 51.5–87.1%) compared to 40% among those without excluded loops in our series from 1991. Sixteen patients had long periods of quiescent disease before diagnosis (7–45 years), and 16 required surgery for bowel obstruction that was refractory to medical management. Adequate information was not retrievable for three patients. A comparison to our previous series reveals similar clinical characteristics and a high rate of node-positive cancer at diagnosis. Our findings also confirm two important clinical indicators of malignancy: recrudescent symptoms after long periods of relative quiescence and small bowel obstruction that is refractory to medical therapy.
Shape normalized subspace analysis for underwater mine detection

We present a method for classification and localization of sea mines in 2D side-scan sonar imagery. The approach parallels closely Turk and Pentland's method of eigenfaces and treats mine detection as a two dimensional object recognition and localization problem acknowledging the fact that mine patches are endowed with a measure of regularity in geometry and appearance. We, therefore, set out with the hypothesis that mine patches can be described fairly accurately using low complexity parametric models. We outline a method for constructing a low dimensional non-linear shape plus appearance decomposition model from 2D sonar imaging data. We then characterize the parameter space and formulate a distance metric in this space. The distance metric is used as a mine similarity measure, and thus forms the basis of our mine detector. We show results demonstrating the discriminative power of the mine detector on a benchmarking data created from the mine dataset used in.
A framework for resource management

The authors describe the general framework defined for resource management at RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology) microelectronic manufacturing facilities. The common reliability and maintenance issues and their relationships to other, manufacturing-related functions are briefly discussed. Attention is first given to the hardware and software platforms of the RIT integrated circuit factory and their present use. The manufacturing resources utilized for factory operations, are then outlined, and the overall approach followed in resource management, from data collection to data analysis and operations management is described. Some examples implemented in the test database of the CIM (computer-integrated manufacturing) system are presented. Future plans regarding the extension and enrichment of the approach used for resource management are considered. >
Osteopontin Expression in Fetal and Mature Human Kidney

Osteopontin is a secreted phosphoprotein that is expressed by normal kidney, and has been associated with a number of functions including cell adhesion, migration, signaling, and biomineralization. Although there is a vast literature detailing osteopontin localization in various rodent models of both development and disease, this article presents the first comprehensive description of osteopontin localization in human kidney. In this study, immunohistochemistry, immunoelectron microscopy, in situ hybridization, and Northern blotting are used to analyze osteopontin protein and mRNA expression in human fetal and normal mature renal tissue. Osteopontin is expressed in the human embryonic renal tubular epithelium beginning on approximately day 75 to 80 of gestation. In the fetal kidney, osteopontin can also be seen occasionally expressed in the ureteric buds and in some interstitial cells. As localized at the protein and mRNA level, the tubular expression of osteopontin increases with increasing gestational age and persists into adulthood. In the normal adult kidney, osteopontin is localized primarily to the distal nephron and is strongly expressed by the thick ascending limb of the loops of Henle. Osteopontin expression can also be observed in some collecting duct epithelium. In cases that exhibit foci of interstitial fibrosis and an associated influx of interstitial macrophages, osteopontin expression is significantly upregulated in all tubular segments, including proximal tubules.
Ethnic Differences in Risk from Mercury among Savannah River Fishermen

Fishing plays an important role in people's lives and contaminant levels in fish are a public health concern. Many states have issued consumption advisories; South Carolina and Georgia have issued them for the Savannah River based on mercury and radionuclide levels. This study examined ethnic differences in risk from mercury exposure among people consuming fish from the Savannah River, based on site-specific consumption patterns and analysis of mercury in fish. Among fish, there were significant interspecies differences in mercury levels, and there were ethnic differences in consumption patterns. Two methods of examining risk are presented: (1) Hazard Index (HI), and (2) estimates of how much and how often people of different body mass can consume different species of fish. Blacks consumed more fish and had higher HIs than Whites. Even at the median consumption, the HI for Blacks exceeded 1.0 for bass and bowfin, and, at the 75th percentile of consumption, the HI exceeded 1.0 for almost all species. At the White male median consumption, noHI exceeded 1, but for the 95th percentile consumer, the HI exceeded 1.0 almost regardless of which species were eaten. Although females consumed about two thirds the quantity of males, HIs exceeded 1 for most Black females and for White females at or above the 75th percentile of consumption. Thus, close to half of the Black fishermen were eating enough Savannah River fish to exceed HI = 1. Caution must be used in evaluating an HI because the RfDs were developed to protect the most vulnerable individuals. The percentage of each fish species tested that exceeded the maximum permitted limits of mercury in fish was also examined. Over 80% of bowfin, 38% of bass, and 21% of pickerel sampled exceeded 0.5 ppm. The risk methodology is applicable anywhere that comparable data can be obtained. The risk estimates are representative for fishermen along the Savannah River, and are not necessarily for the general populations.
Cryptic splice sites and split genes

We describe a new program called cryptic splice finder (CSF) that can reliably identify cryptic splice sites (css), so providing a useful tool to help investigate splicing mutations in genetic disease. We report that many css are not entirely dormant and are often already active at low levels in normal genes prior to their enhancement in genetic disease. We also report a fascinating correlation between the positions of css and introns, whereby css within the exons of one species frequently match the exact position of introns in equivalent genes from another species. These results strongly indicate that many introns were inserted into css during evolution and they also imply that the splicing information that lies outside some introns can be independently recognized by the splicing machinery and was in place prior to intron insertion. This indicates that non-intronic splicing information had a key role in shaping the split structure of eukaryote genes.
The social epidemiology of substance use.

Tobacco, alcohol, and illicit substance use continue to result in substantial morbidity and mortality and significant societal economic costs despite considerable efforts to minimize use of licit substances and prevent use of illicit substances. Each year, more than 400,000 Americans die from cigarette smoking, and one in every five deaths in the United States is believed to be smoking related (1). Consequences of alcohol and illicit substance abuse include, among others, cirrhosis, job loss, and criminal behavior related to the acquisition and sale of illicit drugs. The economic costs of addiction were estimated as $400 billion yearly in the United States in 1999 (2). Substance use is associated with a wide range of risk behaviors. For the more commonly used substances, risk behavior includes symptoms of both dependence (e.g., reducing important activities because of use of the substance) and abuse (e.g., driving a car more than once while intoxicated, getting into trouble with superiors or co-workers because of intoxication). For example, in 2002, 4.7 percent of the population reported driving under the influence of an illicit drug and 14.2 percent reported driving under the influence of alcohol at least once during the past year (3).
The Quiet Revolution in Personal Jurisdiction

The familiarity of personal jurisdiction doctrine belies the almost total absence of empirical inquiry into many of the assumptions often made in analyzing those cases. For example, there is relatively little systemic evidence on how lower courts reacted to the Supreme Court's purportedly more restrictive view of the extent of personal jurisdiction since the early 1980s, whether federal and state judiciaries typically treat such cases in different fashions, and how often plaintiffs leave their state of residence to shop for a favorable forum. In this Article, Professor Solimine describes his empirical examination of some of these questions, by retrieving and coding nearly 1000 published cases from the United States Court of Appeals, and state supreme courts, decided between 1970 and 1994, which decided personal jurisdiction issues. He finds, among other things, that the doctrinal revolution of the early 1980s is less dramatic than some think; after 1980 lower courts did find personal jurisdiction less often than before, though the differences are not striking. Likewise, there is some evidence that state courts are more likely to find personal jurisdiction, though again the difference from federal court holdings is not large. Finally, it appears that relatively few plaintiffs go outside their resident state to bring suit. Professor Solimine explores various rationales for these arguably counter-intuitive results, as well as other aspects of the study. He concludes by suggesting avenues for further empirical inquiry, which will better inform the development of personal jurisdiction doctrine than have the untested assumptions to date.
Reactions at polymer interfaces: A Monte Carlo Simulation

Reactions at a strongly segregated interface of a symmetric binary polymer blend are investigated via Monte Carlo simulations. End-functionalized homopolymers of different species interact at the interface instantaneously and irreversibly to form diblock copolymers. The simulations, in the framework of the bond fluctuation model, determine the time dependence of the copolymer production in the initial and intermediate time regimes for small reactant concentrations ρ0 Rg3 = 0.0406−0.163. The results are compared to recent theories and simulation data of a simple reaction diffusion model. For the reactant concentration accessible in the simulation, no linear growth of the copolymer density is found in the initial regime, and a √t-law is observed in the intermediate stage.
Using the Tidal Model of Mental Health Recovery to Plan Primary Health Care for Women in Residential Substance Abuse Recovery

Women currently are 30% of the substance abuse recovery population in North America and have gender specific treatment needs as they enter the difficult work of recovery. Important among women's specific needs as they enter recovery is the need for a focus on primary health care. Few models designed to guide the provision of health care for this population are available in the literature. The Tidal Model of Mental Health Recovery and Reclamation is based on the concept of nursing as "caring with" persons in the experience of distress. Given the emphasis in this model on developing a partnership between caregiver and client, it is especially appropriate for women in recovery for substance abuse. The Tidal Model, integrated with the United States Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services' CSAT model for comprehensive alcohol and other drug (AOD) abuse treatment, is used to guide planning for delivery of primary health care in a residential women's substance abuse recovery center in the Midwest. This article describes the Tidal Model, and identifies how the model can improve the delivery of primary care to women in residential substance abuse treatment. Strategies for implementation of the model are proposed. Evaluation and outcome criteria are identified.
Hypertension and the Older Diabetic

Hypertension is a common comorbidity in persons with diabetes mellitus, and its prevalence increases with advancing age. Both diabetes mellitus and hypertension are independent risk factors for development in older persons of coronary artery disease, ischemic stroke, peripheral arterial disease, and of congestive heart failure. This article reviews studies addressing the implications of hypertension and the older diabetic.
Mycotoxin-Induced Alterations in Ion Transport Across Cell Membranes

Patulin and cyclopiazonic acid are fungal metabolites produced by certain species of Penicillium and Aspergillus. Patulin is also produced by certain Byssochlamys species. Both compounds are known to contaminate numerous agricultural products at low levels and are commonly consumed by both animals and man. Although food and feed safety is a prime concern, we are also interested in these compounds because understanding their interaction with biological systems can reveal useful information that could be the basis for future technological advances in controlling agricultural productivity. For the past several years we have studied these two compounds with regards to their effects on membrane function and in particular to their abilities to alter ion transport.6,7,9,30,31,32,33 Basic information about the mode of action of mycotoxins at the level of cell membranes could lead to a better understanding of the role these chemicals may play in 1) the growth and development of the fungus and competing species, 2) the fungal-plant relationship, and 3) the fungal-plant-animal relationship. Additionally, these studies can identify new applications for fungal products as biochemical probes of membrane function and potential therapeutic applications in the areas of plant and animal health and productivity. The U.S. Department of Agriculture/Agricultural Research Service is well aware of the potential of membrane research in developing new agricultural frontiers11 and thus we have chosen as a point of departure the study of the mechanisms by which fungal products alter membrane activity.
Losing balance: Hardy–Weinberg disequilibrium as a marker for recurrent loss-of-heterozygosity in cancer

Identifying regions of loss-of-heterozygosity (LOH) in a tumor sample is a challenging problem. State-of-the-art computational approaches can infer LOH from single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array data, but calling precise boundaries is complicated by normal-cell contamination and markers that are homozygous in the germline and therefore non-informative. More recently, the focus has shifted to pinpointing the loci recurrently affected by LOH events across multiple tumors. Recurrent LOH regions often harbor genes important for tumor suppression. Here, we propose a method that infers LOH rates across an entire sample set on an SNP-by-SNP basis. Our method achieves this by leveraging the straightforward principle that, by definition, LOH depletes heterozygotes, thereby disrupting Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. We apply a statistical test for such LOH-influenced disruptions, and derive a maximum-likelihood estimator for the LOH rate based on the observed number of heterozygotes. This accounts for LOH in both its hemizygous deletion and copy-neutral forms, and does not make use of matched normal genotypes. Power simulations show high levels of sensitivity for the statistical test, and application to a control normal-tissue data set demonstrates a low false-discovery rate. We apply the method to three large publicly available tumor SNP array data sets, where it is able to localize tumor-suppressor gene targets of the LOH events. Inferred LOH rates are quite concordant across platforms/laboratories and between cell lines and tumors, but in a tumor type-dependent fashion. Finally, we produce rate estimates that are generally higher than previously published, and provide evidence that the latter are likely underestimates.
Comparison of image degradation on an electro-optic display: for a raw image and on-line preprocessed edge image

Imaging faithfully in a dynamic environment is very challenging due to the severe degradation caused by the persistence of the display medium (phosphor). In target tracking applications, the degradation may make it impossible to detect an object. The degradation, takes place in all spatial frequencies of an input image. In this work, we propose to compare the amount of degradation caused when a raw image is displayed to that of when the edge image of the same object is displayed. The motivation of this work is to limit the input image to a specific range of frequency, so that a fixed filter may be used to undo the effect of motion degradation. A second motivation is that the motion degraded edge image may be psycho-physically perceived better by the observer than just the degraded raw image. >
Nonaccidental Head Injury (Child Abuse)

The spectrum of disorders encompassed by the term “child abuse,” originally described by Tardieu in 1886 [1], became a medical entity with the studies of Caffey in 1946 [2], 1972 [3], and 1974 [4], Wooley and Evans in 1955 [5], Kempe in 1962 [6] and 1972 [7], and Silverman in 1972 [8]. Nowadays, the term includes emotional and/or neglect, sexual, and physical abuse. Nonaccidental head injuries (NAHI) represent only 12% of physical injuries in child abuse, but are the leading cause of death in abused children under 2 years of age [9] and the most common cause of traumatic death in infancy [10, 11, 12]. Nonaccidental (inflicted) injuries typically occur in children under 2 years of age, particularly in the first year of life. Risk factors include young parents, low socio-economic status, unstable family situation, and disability or prematurity of the child. It should be remembered that children affected by developmental disorders are at higher risk of abuse.
Checking mergeable priority queues

We present an efficient algorithm which can check the answers given by the fundamental abstract data types priority queues and mergeable priority queues. This is the first linear-time checker for mergeable priority queues. These abstract data types are widely used in routing, scheduling, simulation, computational geometry and many other algorithmic domains. We have implemented our answer checker and have performed experiments comparing the speed of our checker to recently benchmarked priority queue and mergeable priority queue implementations, and our checker is substantially faster than the best of these implementations. >
Factorizing Complex Models: A Case Study in Mention Detection

As natural language understanding research advances towards deeper knowledge modeling, the tasks become more and more complex: we are interested in more nuanced word characteristics, more linguistic properties, deeper semantic and syntactic features. One such example, explored in this article, is the mention detection and recognition task in the Automatic Content Extraction project, with the goal of identifying named, nominal or pronominal references to real-world entities---mentions---and labeling them with three types of information: entity type, entity subtype and mention type. In this article, we investigate three methods of assigning these related tags and compare them on several data sets. A system based on the methods presented in this article participated and ranked very competitively in the ACE'04 evaluation.
Competing Risks in Mortality Analysis

In this paper we present a brief review of the concept of competing risks and the statistical methods of mortality analysis including estimation of three types of probability of dying with respect to a particular cause of death. We will describe formulas of estimates for cohort studies medical follow-up studies and analyses of mortality data for a current population. To illustrate this method of analysis we will use the major cardiovascular (CV) diseases and malignant neoplasms mortality data of the United States white male and female population in 1986. (EXCERPT)
Territorial male color predicts agonistic behavior of conspecifics in a color polymorphic species

Male cichlid fish, Astatotilapia burtoni, live in a lek-like social system in shore pools of Lake Tanganyika, Africa, as one of two distinct social phenotypes: territorial (T) males that comprise approximately 10‐30% of the population and nonterritorial (NT) males that make up the rest. T males are brightly colored either blue or yellow with chromatic body patterns and are larger, reproductively capable, and defend territories containing a food resource used to entice females to spawn with them. NT males are camouflage colored, smaller, have regressed gonads, and shoal with females. Importantly, males shift between these social states depending on their success in aggressive encounters. It is not known whether there is a difference between yellow and blue T morphs. Here we asked whether T males preferentially defend their territory against a male of the same or opposite color. T males observed in social groups had agonistic interactions predominantly with neighboring T males of the opposite color, and yellow morphs initiated significantly more aggressive interactions. When agonistic preference was tested experimentally, T males had significantly more agonistic interactions toward males of the opposite color, and yellow T males became territorial in the majority of those interactions. Taken together, these results suggest that male coloration is an important social signal among neighboring T males in this species and support the hypothesis that T males differentially direct agonistic behavior depending on the color of neighboring males. Key words: aggression, polymorphism, social signal, territorial. [Behav Ecol]
Bimanual digital rectal examination for the evaluation of the nonpalpable testis.

ABSTRACTPurpose: In the evaluation and treatment of the nonpalpable testis open surgical exploration and laparoscopy are methods used to differentiate abdominal, infrainguinal (below the internal ring) and atrophic or absent testes. We sought to evaluate the use of bimanual digital rectal examination as an additional tool to localize the nonpalpable testis.Materials and Methods: Forty-one consecutive patients with 45 nonpalpable testes were evaluated in a prospective fashion. Bimanual digital rectal examination was performed with the patients under general anesthesia just before diagnostic laparoscopy or open inguinal exploration. Palpability, location, length and contralateral testicular length were recorded.Results: Twenty-five gonads or spermatic cords (56%) were palpable using the bimanual technique. All positive examinations were confirmed laparoscopically or by open exploration, and the majority of gonads were intra-abdominal (17 of 25, 68%). Seventeen normal appearing gonads underwent orchiopexy an...
SURFACE TENSION OF SERUM : V. RELATION BETWEEN TIME-DROP AND SERUM ANTIBODIES.

An attempt was made to apply to the study of immune sera the fact, pointed out in our previous papers, that at a given dilution the serum shows a maximum drop of surface tension in function of time (time-drop). The results of the experiments here reported would seem to indicate that: 1. The time-drop of a serum solution is greater after the animal has been immunized than before immunization (from 50 to 100 per cent). 2. The time-drop is maximum at a dilution of 1:10,000, as had been predicted from the data previously acquired. 3. The size of the molecules or micellae is probably unchanged after immunization, since the maximum drop is not shifted then. 4. Measurements made during the process of immunization showed that the time-drop increases after the 8th day and second injection, and reaches a maximum toward the 13th day, while the controls undergo no increase. 5. The injection of substances non-productive of antibodies, such as homologous cells or turpentine, does not result in the production of a permanent maximum. This shows that the maximum observed when heterologous cells are used is due to the presence of antibodies, and not to the mere injection of foreign material. 6. The measurement of the refractive index of the sera failed to demonstrate any differences between the sera of the controls and those of the experimental animals.