cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Neurobiological features common to memory modulation by many treatments

Evidence reviewed here suggests that many treatments that retroactively enhance or impair memory in rats and mice may act by releasing epinephrine from the adrenal medulla: (1) When administered shortly after training, epinephrine injections modulate memory storage processes; (2) plasma epinephrine levels assessed shortly after training predict later performance of learned responses in several situations; and furthermore, (3) peripherally administered adrenergic antagonists block the effects on memory of epinephrine and of many other treatments that enhance and impair memory. In addition, the rapid forgetting exhibited by juvenile and aged rodents can be retarded (i.e., memory is improved) by posttraining epinephrine injections, suggesting that age-related memory deficits may reflect inadequate functions of those neuroendocrine systems responsible, in part, for regulating memory storage. These results, together with the additional finding that epinephrine enhances the establishment of a neurophysiological analogue of memory, long-term potentiation, suggest that the hormone regulates neurobiological processes responsible for memory formation.
Adaptation of theCahn-Ingold-Prelog system of nomenclature to hexahelicene

On propose une extension du systeme deCahn-Ingold-Prelog pour nommer des enantiomers des composes en forme d'helice tels que le hexahelicene.
Preparation of heterosiloxanes containing Zr and Hf and their use as precursors to refractory materials

Metallasiloxanes of the type, M (OSiR 3 ) 4 , which contain zirconium and hafnium can be prepared by the facile silanol-induced cleavage of organometallic compounds. The metallasiloxanes vary from mobile liquids to insoluble nonmelting powders depending upon the constituents bonded to the silicon. The compounds can be fired into inorganic refractory oxides at temperatures varying from 350–600 °C. The resulting materials have the general formula M Si 4 O 10 . Electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis (ESCA) data suggest that the M -O–Si linkage remains intact during this process. Thus the M Si 4 O 10 material can be considered a mixed oxide alloy rather than a simple mixture of the oxides M O 2 and SiO 2 .
Estrogen and aryl hydrocarbon responsiveness of ECC-1 endometrial cancer cells

ECC-1 endometrial cancer cells express estrogen receptor alpha (ER(alpha)), and 17beta-estradiol (E2) induces cell proliferation, cathepsin D mRNA levels, and reporter gene activity in cells transiently transfected with constructs derived from the human cathepsin D and creatine kinase B (pCD and pCKB, respectively) gene promoters. The comparative antiestrogenic activity of aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) agonists and ER(alpha) antagonists were also determined in these endometrial cancer cells. A functional AhR was expressed in ECC-1 cells and AhR agonists including 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) inhibited E2-induced cell proliferation and transactivation. This was comparable to inhibitory AhR-ER crosstalk in breast cancer cell lines. The pure ER antagonist ICI 182,780 also exhibited antiestrogenic activity in ECC-1 cells; however, the results obtained for 4'-hydroxytamoxifen were response-specific. 4'-Hydroxytamoxifen alone did not induce ECC-1 cell proliferation but completely inhibited E2-induced cell proliferation. 4'-Hydroxytamoxifen primarily exhibited ER antagonist activities in transactivation assays and this contrasted to the predominant ER agonist responses observed in other endometrial cancer cell lines. The unique cellular context of ECC-1 cells was confirmed using pCKB and constructs expressing wild-type ER or ER variants expressing activation function 1 (AF1) or AF2 (ER-AF1 and ER-AF2, respectively). 4'-Hydroxytamoxifen did not induce reporter gene activity in cells cotransfected with pCKB and ER-AF1 or ER-AF2; however, in cotreatment studies (4'-hydroxytamoxifen plus E2), 4'-hydroxytamoxifen inhibited E2-induced transcriptional activation by ER-AF1 or ER-AF2. Thus, the primarily antiestrogenic activity observed for 4'-hydroxytamoxifen in ECC-1 cells may be related to the inability to activate gene expression through AF1-dependent pathways.
Comparison of Neurotensin Responses to MDL 100,907, a Selective 5HT2A Antagonist, with Clozapine and Haloperidol

The unique pharmacological profile of atypical antipsychotics, such as clozapine, suggests that action on non-dopaminergic transmitter systems might contribute to the unique therapeutic benefits of these drugs. In order to test this possibility, the response of neurotensin systems to drugs with antipsychotic potential was examined because of this peptide's putative association with psychiatric disorders. The effects of treatments by haloperidol, clozapine, and MDL 100,907 (a selective 5HT2A antagonist thought to have antipsychotic activity) on NT pathways were determined in various extrapyramidal and limbic regions and compared. The response of neurotensin systems was determined by measuring neurotensin-like immunoreactivity after 1, 2, 4, and 5 drug administrations. It was observed that tissue content of this peptide in caudate and nucleus accumbens regions tended to be elevated after 1 or 2 drug administrations, but had either returned or was returning to control levels after 4 or 5 drug administrations. In general, the extrapyramidal and limbic neurotensin levels responded in a similar manner to clozapine and the 5HT2A antagonist, but differently for haloperidol in most regions examined. An important exception was in the nucleus accumbens, where all three drugs had similar effects on neurotensin tissue levels. These results suggest that 5HT2A receptors exert basal control over some extrapyramidal and limbic neurotensin systems and this interaction might contribute to the antipsychotic effects of these drugs.
Parental Autonomy Support and Student Learning Goals: A Preliminary Examination of an Intrinsic Motivation Intervention

In a seven week quasi-experimental study, parents (n = 15) of elementary school students (n = 15) learned autonomy supportive communication techniques that included helping their children set learning goals for homework assignments. Treatment vs. comparison group (n = 30) ANCOVA analyses revealed that the parents in the treatment group perceived their children as becoming more autonomously motivated relative to the comparison group, F(1, 26) = 7.69, p < .05. Children in the treatment group reported increased positive affect toward homework relative to the comparison group, F(1,26) = 5.35, p < .05. Children did not significantly improve on general measures of self reported academic intrinsic motivation or relative autonomy. These preliminary findings suggest that autonomy supportive parenting styles may improve parent’s perceptions of their children’s autonomous motivation and children’s subjective experience of positive affect surrounding homework. In order to draw firmer conclusions about the effects of the intervention, more rigorously controlled studies will be needed in the future.
Three-dimensional trajectory optimization for aircraft

A solution method for determining three-dimensional minimum-time aircraft trajectories for aircraft is described. The method is based on Euler-Lagrange optimization theory and energy state approximations. The optimal controls are found by either maximizing or minimizing a modified Hamiltonian. The starting extremum operation and the switching conditions from one extremum operation to the other are determined. The solution is computed by iteration on the two constant adjoint variables. The solution convergence, however, is sensitive to these parameters. A method based on the characteristics of the heading adjoint variable is used to reduce this sensitivity. A roll angle chattering solution, which occurs during the minimum power energy loss segment of the trajectory and causes computational problems, is removed by including a penalty on the roll angle magnitude in the performance criterion. A number of specific problems are then solved.
Assessing extradyadic behavior: A review, a new measure, and two new models

Abstract An important defining characteristic of a monogamous relationship is that certain behaviors are regarded as acceptable only for the two individuals involved in the relationship. When an individual engages in such exclusive behaviors with someone outside the primary relationship without the partner’s consent, such behaviors are termed “extradyadic behaviors” (EDB). In this article, a thorough review was conducted on the measurement of EDB and the prevalence rate of EDB. It was shown that the rate of EDB varied considerably from study to study and was contingent on sample characteristics and the operational definition of EDB. Three limitations were identified in the assessment of EDB: vague terms, limited scope, and little attempt to examine the underlying structure of EDB. A new measure of EDB was developed to overcome these limitations. This new measure included a comprehensive list of clearly defined EDB, including both sexual and emotional behaviors, and both face-to-face and online EDB. Exploratory factor analyses showed that a single-factor model fit face-to-face EDB, whereas two factors were identified for online EDB: online sexual and online emotional EDB.
Nothing to Fear but Fear: Governmentality and the Biopolitical Production of Terror

Moving beyond the political framework of both Hobbes and Schmitt that privileges a centralization of power as a way of dealing with the fear of violent death, this article turns to Foucault’s discourses of war, power over life, and governmentality to illuminate the contemporary reproductive potential of fear in exercises of preservation of life in society. The decentralization of fear and power in governmentalized modernity encourages various public agents/agencies to mobilize the specter of danger, threat, insecurity, or enmity to normalize populations. This article reflects on the effects of this (re)productive mobilization of fear and emphasizes the proliferation of dispositifs of terror that engender a fear of not being able to live one’s normal life.
A clinical appraisal of radioiodine tests of thyroid function.

Radioiodine (I131) tests, like most other diagnostic laboratory procedures, are not fully effective in separating patients with thyroid disease from normal persons. Most radioiodine diagnostic tests thus far proposed can be used with relatively high precision in the separation of patients with exophthalmic goiter1 from normal individuals, but they are not nearly so efficient in the separation of persons with thyroid deficiency from normal persons, or in the detection of hyperthyroidism in patients who have adenomatous goiter. Thus, radioiodine tracers are more effective as diagnostic tests for certain thyroid states than for others.
Synthetic acceleration methods for linear transport problems with highly anisotropic scattering.

This paper reports on the diffusion synthetic acceleration (DSA) algorithm that effectively accelerates the iterative solution of transport problems with isotropic or mildly anisotropic scattering. However, DSA loses its effectiveness for transport problems that have strongly anisotropic scattering. Two generalizations of DSA are proposed, which, for highly anisotropic scattering problems, converge at least an order of magnitude (clock time) faster than the DSA method. These two methods are developed, the results of Fourier analyses that theoretically predict their efficiency are described, and numerical results that verify the theoretical predictions are presented.
Warped Dispersive Transform and its application to analog bandwidth compression

A biologically-inspired mathematical transform for compressing the bandwidth of analog signals is introduced. One of its applications is frequency-selective sampling to minimize the required record length for a given digitizer sampling rate.
Encapsulation of bacterial spores in nanoorganized polyelectrolyte shells.

Layer-by-layer assembly uses alternating charged layers of polyionic polymers to coat materials sequentially in a sheath of functionalized nanofilms. Bacterial spores were encapsulated in organized ultrathin shells using layer-by-layer assembly in order to assess the biomaterial as a suitable core and determine the physiological effects of the coating. The shells were constructed on Bacillus subtilis spores using biocompatible polymers polyglutamic acid, polylysine, albumin, lysozyme, gelatin A, protamine sulfate, and chondroitin sulfate. The assembly process was monitored by measuring the electrical surface potential (ζ-potential) of the particles at each stage of assembly. Fluorescent laser confocal microscopy and scanning electron microscopy confirmed the formation of uniform coatings on the spores. The coating surface charge and thickness (20−100 nm) could be selectively tuned by using appropriate polymers and the number of bilayers assembled. The effect of each coating type on germination was assesse...
Generalized location-based resource allocation for OFDMA cognitive radio systems

Cognitive radio is one of the hot topics for emerging and future wireless communication. Cognitive users can share channels with primary users under the condition of non interference. In order to compute this interference, the cognitive system usually use the channel state information of the primary user which is often impractical to obtain. However, using location information, we can estimate this interference by pathloss computation. In this paper, we introduce a low-complexity resource allocation algorithm for orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) based cognitive radio systems, which uses relative location information between primary and secondary users to estimate the interference. This algorithm considers interference with multiple primary users having different thresholds. The simulation results show the efficiency of the proposed algorithm by comparing it with an optimal exhaustive search method.
On the advantages and disadvantages of subjective measures

Abstract This paper utilizes data from a laboratory experiment in order to examine the advantages and disadvantages of subjective measures. Our results indicate good and bad news: subjective measures correlate highly with the variables they are designed to capture but they also systematically suffer from many economic and cognitive biases. Importantly, we find that subjective measures are often complements to objective measures, and that they may actually be preferable in use to objective measures in those cases where the two disagree with each another.
Inference of time-varying gene networks using constrained and smoothed Kalman filtering

This paper tackles the problem of recovering time-varying gene networks from a series of undersampled and noisy observations. Gene regulatory networks evolve over time in response to functional requirements in the cell and environmental conditions. Collected genetic profiles from dynamic biological processes, such as cell development, cancer progression and treatment recovery, underlie genetic interactions that rewire over the course of time. We formulate the problem of estimating time-varying networks in a state-space framework. We show that, due to the small number of measurements, the system is unobservable; thus making the application of the standard Kalman filter ineffective. We remedy the problem by performing simultaneous compression and state estimation. The sparsity property of gene regulatory networks is incorporated as a constraint in the Kalman filter, leading to a compressed Kalman estimate and reducing the number of required observations for effective tracking of the network. Moreover, we improve the estimation accuracy by taking into account the entire sample set for each time instant estimate of the network through a forward-backward smoothing procedure. The proposed constrained and smoothed Kalman filter is shown to yield good tracking results for varying small and medium-size networks.
Effects of soil density on yield and fertilizer requirement of sugar beet

SUMMARY Three experiments (1971–3) on medium-textured soils of low organic-matter content examined the effects of soil density on seedling emergence and yield of sugar beet, and the interactions between soil density and the requirement for nitrogen (N) and phosphate (P2O5) fertilizers. Three soil densities were produced by rolling and harrowing, dutch harrowing twice, and power harrowing once; each was tested with 75, 150 and 225 kg ha-1 N and 0, 100 and 200 kg ha-1 P2O5. Most seedlings emerged on the medium-density treatment produced by dutch harrowing twice. The crop in the least dense soil treatment, produced by power harrowing once, consistently yielded slightly more sugar than the medium-density treatment, which yielded significantly more than the most dense treatment. In dense soil, created by rolling and harrowing, there was a response to more fertilizer N than the less dense ones; the crop did not respond to phosphate fertilizer. Mechanical impedance, not toxic concentrations of ethylene in the soil atmosphere, appeared to be the cause of reduced yield on the dense soils; these reductions were considerable at dry soil bulk densities in excess of 1·5 g ml-1.
"It's just the nature of the beast": Re-imagining the literacies of schooling in adult ESL education

With a view of standardized testing as a situated local practice that serves “global” agendas, I examine the specific ways that this bureaucratic mechanism receives, sorts, arranges and classifies adult learners of English; inspires certain pedagogical practices; and fosters identities desired by the new global economy. Relying on data gathered through participant observation in an adult ESL program and interviews with students, teachers and administrators, this study raises questions about how we might re-conceptualize theories of language learning, language teaching, and literacy in local communities across the developed world, particularly when economic conditions are driven by rapid technological advancements, the continued movement of goods and people across borders, and growing distinctions between the rich and poor.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF PIGMENT GRANULES IN THE EYES OF WILD TYPE AND MUTANT DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER

The eye pigment system in Drosophila melanogaster has been studied with the electron microscope. Details in the development of pigment granules in wild type flies and in three eye color mutants are described. Four different types of pigment granules have been found. Type I granules, which carry ommochrome pigment and occur in both primary and secondary pigment cells of ommatidia, are believed to develop as vesicular secretions by way of the Golgi apparatus. The formation of Type II granules, which are restricted to the secondary pigment cells and contain drosopterin pigments, involves accumulation of 60- to 80-A fibers producing an elliptical granule. Type III granules appear to be empty vesicles, except for small marginal areas of dense material; they are thought to be abnormal entities containing ommochrome pigment. Type IV granules are characteristic of colorless mutants regardless of genotype, and during the course of development they often contain glycogen, ribosomes, and show acid phosphatase activity; for these reasons and because of their bizarre and variable morphology, they are considered to be autophagic vacuoles. The 300-A particles commonly found in pigment cells are identified as glycogen on the basis of their morphology and their sensitivity to salivary digestion.
Sensorineural hearing loss after select procedures.

Abstract Hearing is one of the most significant senses; therefore, any loss can be frightening. Previous studies have found that certain surgical and medical procedures can result in hearing loss. Cardiac surgical procedures are most commonly associated with hearing loss owing to the use of the cardiopulmonary bypass pump. Other noncardiac, nonotologic surgical procedures also may result in hearing loss. Additionally, medical procedures such as myelogram and lumbar puncture have been associated with hearing loss. Studies suggest that hearing loss can result any time cerebrospinal fluid is leaked. This report highlights the effect of dural puncture on hearing loss. The implication that any dural puncture procedure may result in a cerebrospinal fluid leak and subsequent hearing loss is a significant clinical topic. Perianesthesia nurses are advised to educate themselves and their patients regarding this complication. © 2002 by American Society of PeriAnesthesia Nurses.
Molecular basis for formation of lipid sound lens in echolocating cetaceans

MOST echolocating porpoises and small whales (odontocete) possess a fatty protrusion on the forehead and a peculiarly formed lower jaw which flares into a posterior flange. Overlying this flange is a region of highly fatty tissue referred to by Norris1 as an acoustic window. The fatty tissues (>80% lipid) of the mandible and the melon are believed to be associated with sound transmission1–3. It is proposed4,5 that the melon functions as a sound lens, a concept consistent with the view that it is heterogeneous in terms of sound velocity and refraction6. Recent studies7–13 revealed that the lipids of acoustic tissues are different from those of the surrounding tissues. For example, the acoustic tissues contain triacylglycerols and wax esters rich in short and medium chain (C5–C12) acids, whereas blubber tissues are composed primarily of triacylglycerols containing long chain (C14–C22) acids. In the families Delphinidae7–9 and Monodontidae12, isovaleric acid (3-methyl butyric acid) and longer iso (gem-dimethyl) acids are present in large amounts in acoustic tissues. Furthermore, certain areas, such as the acoustic window and the inner melon, contain almost exclusively l,3-diisovaleroyl-2-acylglycerols and isovaleroyl wax esters (Fig. 1). These compounds are replaced by medium and long chain triacylglycerols in adjacent areas. Thus, specific lipid compositions with various proportions of branched structures are found in the putative areas of sound transmission14,15. The intriguing association between proposed acoustic pathways and unique lipid composition led us to study the acoustic properties of these lipids.
Comparative extreme ultraviolet emission measurements for lithium and tin laser plasmas.

Detailed spectroscopic studies on extreme UV emission from laser plasmas using tin and lithium planar solid targets were completed. At 13.5 nm, the best conversion efficiency (CE) for lithium was found to be 2.2% at intensities near 7×1010 W/cm2. The highest CE measured for tin was near 5.0% at an intensity close to 1×1011 W/cm2.
Pathologic Myopia and Choroidal Neovascularization

In 14 of 27 eyes with choroidal neovascular membranes associated with severe myopia, visual acuity deteriorated two or more lines on the Snellen chart. Twelve of the 27 eyes became legally blind. Final visual acuity may be related to the position of the neovascular membrane within the posterior pole. Four of the eight eyes with new vessels outside of the foveal avascular zone had follow-up visual acuities of 6/12 (20/40) or better. Only one of five eyes with new vessels extending to the edge of the avascular zone had a final visual acuity of 6/12 (20/40) or better. Three of 14 eyes with a neovascular membrane beneath the foveal avascular zone had visual acuities of 6/12 (20/40) or better. Neovascularization associated with severe myopia clearly jeopardizes central visual acuity. Laser photocoagulation therapy may be useful in treating neovascular membranes outside the foveal avascular zone or extending to the edge of the perifoveal capillary network. A larger prospective study is needed to determine the guidelines for and efficacy of such treatment for patients with severe myopia who develop choroidal neovascularization.
Properties of Flours and Starches as Affected by Rough Rice Drying Regime

ABSTRACT Flours and starches from rough rice dried using different treatment combinations of air temperature (T) and relative humidity (RH) were studied to better understand the effect of drying regime on rice functionality. Rough rice from cultivars Bengal and Cypress were dried to a moisture content of ≈12% by three drying regimes: low temperature (T 20°C, RH 50%), medium temperature (T 40°C, RH 12%), and high temperature (T 60, RH 17%). Head rice grains were processed into flour and starch and evaluated for pasting characteristics with a Brabender Viscoamylograph, thermal properties with differential scanning calorimetry, starch molecular-size distribution with high-performance size-exclusion chromatography (HPSEC), and amylopectin chain-length distribution with high-performance anion-exchange chromatography with pulsed amperometric detection (HPAEC-PAD). Lower head rice and starch yields were obtained from the batch dried at 60°C which were accompanied by an increase in total soluble solids and total ...
Ultrasensitive phase measurements with femtosecond ring lasers

The decoupling in frequency of the two counterpropagating pulses in a femtosecond ring laser makes such a laser a sensitive probe of phase differences between the counterpropagating pulses. The phase difference per round trip is manifest as a beat frequency between the counterpropagating pulses. Phase differences between the counter propagating pulses of 10-6 have been measured, corresponding to a cavity length difference of 10-12 m. In this work, we will first discuss mechanisms involved in the decoupling of the counterpropagating pulses, and then we will show how the laser can be applied to ultrafast intracavity electro-optic sampling.
Effects of Musical Aptitude, Academic Ability, Music Experience, and Motivation on Aural Skills

A latent-trait model describing the influence of musical aptitude, academic ability, music experience, and motivation for music on the development of aural skills by 142 music theory students was evaluated. The model accounted for 73% of the total aural skills variance, with the ear-training and sight-singing components variance being accounted for by the model at 79% and 44%, respectively. Musical aptitude had the largest effect on performance in the aural skills components of the theory course, and the effects of academic ability and music experience were also statistically significant. Motivation for music did not affect aural skills performance, and it did not correlate significantly with any of the other latent variables.
Innovative processing of dense LSGM electrolytes for IT-SOFC's

Abstract This paper reports for the first time the attempted synthesis of SrO- and MgO-doped LaGaO 3 (La 1− x Sr x Ga 1− y Mg y O 3−0.5( x + y ) , LSGM) perovskite by an aqueous ‘regenerative’ solution route. This novel technique enabled recycling of the undesired product and subsequently yielded product with much better phase purity and density than that obtained from the solid-state route. La 0.8 Sr 0.2 Ga 0.85 Mg 0.15 O 2.825 (LSGM-2015) and LaGaO 3 were prepared using both the regenerative sol–gel (RSG) and conventional solid-state route at 1400 °C. Series of La 0.8 Sr 0.2 Ga 0.83 Mg 0.17 O 2.815 (LSGM-2017) pellets were also prepared by the RSG method at different sintering temperature (1200–1500 °C) and time. The effect of conventional and microwave sintering of samples obtained from both solid-state and regenerative route was also investigated. Microwave heating was carried out using SiC as a microwave susceptor. The LSGM pellets prepared by using different synthetic methods were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and pellet density was determined by pycnometry. The LSGM-2015 prepared by RSG route exhibited conductivity σ t = 0.066 and 0.029 S cm −1 at 800 and 700 °C, respectively, and activation energy of the bulk, grain-boundary, and total are E b = 0.97 eV, E gb = 1.03 eV and E t = 1.01 eV, respectively. The sintering temperature severely affected the grain size (
Spitzer Observations of the New Luminous Red Nova M85 OT2006-1

M85 OT2006-1 is the latest and most brilliant addition to the small group of known luminous red novae (LRNe). An identifying characteristic of the previously detected events (M31 RV, V4332 Sgr, and V838 Mon) was a spectral redward evolution connected with an emerging infrared component following the optical decay. Here we report on the discovery of a similar feature in Keck NIRC and Spitzer photometry of M85 OT2006-1 6 months posteruption. We find that its 2.1-22 μm spectral energy distribution is best described by a blackbody with effective temperature T_(eff) = 950 ± 150 K and bolometric luminosity L = 2.9^(+0.4)_(-0.5) × 10^5 L_⊙. Assuming spherical geometry, the blackbody effective radius, R = 2.0^(+0.6)_(-0.4) × 10^4 R_⊙, and corresponding expansion velocity, v = 870^(+260)_(-180) km s^(-1), are remarkably similar to the properties of M31 RV 70 days after its eruption. Furthermore, we propose a search strategy for LRNe in the local universe making use of the longevity of their infrared excess emission and discuss the expected number of events in the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey.
Effect of prostaglandin E2 and other intracellular cyclic AMP elevating agents on the mitogen induced mouse splenocyte proliferation in a serum free culture condition

Prostaglandins (PGs) play an important role in the regulation of the host's immune responses to infection and inflammation. However, the mechanisms through which the PGs regulate immune functions are not well known. In the present study, we investigated the T cell specific mitogen Concanavalin A (Con A) induced mouse splenocyte proliferation in a serum free condition in vitro in the presence of absence of different doses of PGE2, indomethacin, cholera toxin and forskolin. The Con A induced splenocyte proliferative responses were significantly inhibited following the addition of PGE2 and were markedly enhanced in the presence of indomethacin (PG synthase inhibitor). As with PGE2, both cholera toxin and forskolin, which increase intracellular cyclic AMP by activating stimulatory GTP binding protein (Gs protein) and adenylate cyclase respectively, inhibited splenocyte proliferation in a dose dependent manner. These data indicate that PGE2 down regulated mitogen induced splenocyte proliferation and that blocking the production of endogenous PGs potentiated T-cell mitogen response. Further, these findings suggest that PGE2 regulation of splenocyte proliferation is due to increasing intracellular cAMP through G protein transmembrane regulation of adenylate cyclase. This study also provided a defined experimental model to investigate mechanisms of the regulation of cellular function through the exogenous and endogenous mediators such as PGs and their intracellular signal transductions.
Dissecting oral cancer through large-scale gene expression profiling of laser capture microdissection samples

Dissecting oral cancer through large-scale gene expression profiling of laser capture microdissection samples
Ferrous hemin oxidation by organic halides at nanocrystalline TiO2 interfaces

The photoreduction of organic halides CCl4, CBr4, and CHCl3 and chloroacetanilides alachlor (2-chloro-2‘,6‘-diethyl-N-(methoxymethyl)acetanilide) and propachlor (2-chloro-N-isopropylacetanilide) by iron(III) protoporphyrin IX chloride (hemin) in fluid solution and anchored to a mesoporous nanocrystalline (anatase) TiO2 thin film immersed in solution is reported. Band gap illumination resulted in the reduction of Fe(III) to Fe(II) when the films were immersed in acidic water (pH 4) and in dimethyl sulfoxide with photochemical quantum yields of (2.0 ± 0.3) × 10-3 and (1.6 ± 0.3) × 10-2, respectively. The ferrous hemes were reacted with organic halides in the dark. Second-order kinetic rate constants were quantified and were found to be larger than the corresponding rate constants for ferrous hemin in fluid solution.
A developmentally regulated Na-H exchanger in Dictyostelium discoideum is necessary for cell polarity during chemotaxis

Increased intracellular H+ efflux is speculated to be an evolutionarily conserved mechanism necessary for rapid assembly of cytoskeletal filaments and for morphological polarity during cell motility. In Dictyostelium discoideum, increased intracellular pH through undefined transport mechanisms plays a key role in directed cell movement. We report that a developmentally regulated Na-H exchanger in Dictyostelium discoideum (DdNHE1) localizes to the leading edge of polarized cells and is necessary for intracellular pH homeostasis and for efficient chemotaxis. Starved DdNHE1-null cells (Ddnhe1−) differentiate, and in response to the chemoattractant cAMP they retain directional sensing; however, they cannot attain a polarized morphology, but instead extend mislocalized pseudopodia around the cell and exhibit decreased velocity. Consistent with impaired polarity, in response to chemoattractant, Ddnhe1− cells lack a leading edge localization of F-actin and have significantly attenuated de novo F-actin polymerization but increased abundance of membrane-associated phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5-trisphosphate (PI(3,4,5)P3). These findings indicate that during chemotaxis DdNHE1 is necessary for establishing the kinetics of actin polymerization and PI(3,4,5)P3 production and for attaining a polarized phenotype.
Inclusive Science Education: Classroom Teacher and Science Educator Experiences in CLASS Workshops

Inclusion is the meaningful participation of students with disabilities in general education classrooms. The CLASS project (Creating Laboratory Access for Science Students) is a unique initiative offering training and resources to help educators provide students with a variety of physical, sensory and learning disabilities equal access in the science laboratory or field. To determine whether participants believed a 2-week residential workshop sponsored by CLASS raised disability awareness and provided teacher training in inclusive science teaching practice, a multipoint Likert scale survey and questionnaire was completed by all participants (N= 20) in four workshops. Participants reported large gains in their preparedness to teach science to students with disabilities. Participants also reported gains in their familiarity with instructional strategies, curricula, and resources and their ability to design, select, and modify activities for students with disabilities. Finally, shifts in attitudes about teaching science to students with disabilities were noted.
The effects of septal lesions on the learning and reversal of a kinesthetic discrimination

The effects of septal lesions on the learning and reversal behavior of the rat in a kinesthetically cued discrimination problem were examined. Septal lesions significantly impaired the reversal but not the original learning of the discrimination, supporting the notion that the septal region is involved in the inhibition of previously learned somatomotor cued responses.
Ethical Issues of Participant Recruitment in Surgical Clinical Trials

Although the historical background of ethical principles of human subjects research are the same for surgery and nonsurgical fields, surgical clinical trials raise several specific ethical issues. Placebo arms in surgical trials are problematic because the closer the sham surgery is to a real operation, the greater the risks for subjects. In order to ethically enter subjects into a clinical trial, a researcher must have equipoise-that is, uncertainty about which treatment arm is more effective. Surgeons must diligently maintain skepticism about whether new treatments are actually better until objective data are available. The dynamic of informed consent between surgeons and patients may be negatively impacted if patients are convinced that new treatments are better even when there are no objective data. Although clinical trials in surgery often are challenging to develop and complete, there is an ethical and social responsibility for surgeons to participate in clinical trials so that data can be gathered to determine what treatments are safe and effective.
Universal approximation using feedforward networks with non-sigmoid hidden layer activation functions

K.M. Hornik, M. Stinchcombe, and H. White (Univ. of California at San Diego, Dept. of Economics Discussion Paper, June 1988; to appear in Neural Networks) showed that multilayer feedforward networks with as few as one hidden layer, no squashing at the output layer, and arbitrary sigmoid activation function at the hidden layer are universal approximators: they are capable of arbitrarily accurate approximation to arbitrary mappings, provided sufficiently many hidden units are available. The present authors obtain identical conclusions but do not require the hidden-unit activation to be sigmoid. Instead, it can be a rather general nonlinear function. Thus, multilayer feedforward networks possess universal approximation capabilities by virtue of the presence of intermediate layers with sufficiently many parallel processors; the properties of the intermediate-layer activation function are not so crucial. In particular, sigmoid activation functions are not necessary for universal approximation. >
Nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs and upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage in an urban hospital.

Aspirin and nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs have been implicated in the pathogenesis of gastrointestinal hemorrhage. To evaluate their impact on inpatients, charts from Temple University Hospital with a discharge ICD-9 code which included upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage during a one-year period were reviewed. Aspirin and/or nonaspirin nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug (NSAID) use was identified in 34 patients (19 daily users and 15 intermittent users). Sixty-seven patients who bled, but did not use these agents, served as controls. Daily NSAID users were older than intermittent users and controls (P<0.05). A higher frequency of bleeding ulcers was associated with NSAID use. Patients using NSAIDs spent more time in intensive care than controls (median 1 day vs 0 days). Daily users had a higher transfusion requirement (4 units) than non-users (0 units;P<0.05). This study suggests that NSAID use has a substantial impact on health care resource utilization in patients admitted to an urban hospital for upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage.
Laser Induced Fluorescence As An Engineering Tool

Laser based spectroscopic diagnostic tools offer the exciting possibility of spatially and temporally resolved measurements of species concentrations in complex reacting gas flows of engineering interest. In our laboratory we are beginning to examine using laser induced fluorescence to measure species concentration in such devices as aircraft gas turbine combustors. The major problem associated with such measurements is the effect of quenching reactions on the fluorescence signal. To overcome this difficulty we have proposed operating in the saturation mode. For suitable systems the fluorescence signal is then no longer a function of quenching rates or laser power. Very low detectability limits appear possible.
The Indirect Effect of Radiation on Embryonic Mortality

SummarySurvival of rat embryos in the right uterine horn irradiated (200 to 400 R) on days 1½ or 4½ of pregnancy is significantly increased by concomitant shielding of the left lower-body quadrant. The data are interpreted as evidence that radiation-induced maternal dysfunction is a significant contributing factor to embryonic mortality observed in rats irradiated during the pre-implantation stage of pregnancy. Possible mechanisms of action are discussed.
Characterizing Address Use Structure and Stability of Origin Advertisement in Inter-domain Routing

The stability and robustness of BGP remains one of the most critical elements in sustaining todays Internet. In this paper, we study the structure and stability of origin advertisements in inter-domain routing. We visualize and quantitatively characterize the frequency, size, and effect of address assignment and origin changes by analyzing realworld BGP updates for a period of one year from multiple vantage points. Broad classes of prefix behaviors are developed. We show that a significant portion of BGP traffic is due to prefix flapping and explore the contributing factors which include a number of prefixes with abnormal short upand- down cycles. A significant portion of prefixes have high origin stability. Most ASes are involved in few, if any, prefix movement events, while a small number of ASes are responsible for most of the origin churn. Additionally, we find that a high volume of new prefixes can be attributed to actively evolving countries, that some abnormal prefix flapping is most likely due to misconfiguration, and that some culprit ASes characterize the places where multi-origin prefixes oscillate.
Monolithic silicon waveguides in bulk silicon

Low loss silicon waveguides fabricated by etching of standard silicon wafers are demonstrated. The fabrication method does not require SOI substrates and therefore simplifies integration of electronics and photonics.
Automatic current shaper with fast output regulation and soft-switching

A new utility-to-DC, harmonic-free interface combines the functions of automatic input current shaping, fast output voltage regulation, and lossless, soft switching in a single power converter. This was made possible through internal energy storage and the discovery of new modes of operation, which together, effectively decoupled the input boost-like part of the Cuk converter from its buck-like output. Experimental results obtained on a 50 W-12 V prototype confirm the fast output regulation (30 kHz bandwidth for 100 kHz switching frequency) simultaneously with low-harmonic line current waveforms. >
Grammar learning for spoken language understanding

Many state-of-the-art conversational systems use semantic-based robust understanding and manually derived grammars, a very time-consuming and error-prone process. This paper describes a machine-aided grammar authoring system that enables a programmer to develop rapidly a high quality grammar for conversational systems. This is achieved with a combination of domain-specific semantics, a library grammar, syntactic constraints and a small number of example sentences that have been semantically annotated. Our experiments show that the learned semantic grammars consistently outperform manually authored grammars, requiring much less authoring load.
Infrared Singularities and Massive Fields

We examine some problems associated with the low-momentum behavior of gauge theories and other renormalizable field theories. Our main interest is in the infrared structure of unbroken non-Abelian gauge theories and how this is affected by the presence of other heavy fields coupled to the massless gauge fields. It is shown in the context of a simple model of gauge mesons coupled to massive fermions that the heavy fields decouple at low momenta except for their contribution to renormalization effects. This result is used to discuss the mass-shell structure of the fermion propagator. The decoupling theorem is then stated for a general renormalizable theory and applied to some interesting examples. One is a more general gauge theory which makes use of the Higgs mechanism and attempts to unify the elementary particle forces. Another is the connection of the linear and nonlinear $\ensuremath{\sigma}$ models in the limit ${m}_{\ensuremath{\sigma}}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$.
Characterization of an endo-Acting Amylopullulanase from Thermoanaerobacter Strain B6A.

A thermoanaerobe (Thermoanaerobacter sp.) grown in TYE-starch (0.5%) medium at 60°C produced both extra- and intracellular pullulanase (1.90 U/ml) and amylase (1.19 U/ml) activities. Both activities were produced at high levels on a variety of carbon sources. The temperature and pH optima for both pullulanase and amylase activities were 75°C and pH 5.0, respectively. Both the enzyme activities were stable up to 70°C (without substrate) and at pH 4.5 to 5.0. The half-lives of both enzyme activities were 5 h at 70°C and 45 min at 75°C. The enzyme activities did not show any metal ion activity, and both activities were inhibited by β- and γ-cyclodextrins but not by α-cyclodextrin. A single amylolytic pullulanase responsible for both activities was purified to homogeneity by DEAE-Sepharose CL-6B column chromatography, gel filtration using high-pressure liquid chromatography, and pullulan-Sepharose affinity chromatography. It was a 450,000-molecular-weight glycoprotein composed of two equivalent subunits. The pullulanase cleaved pullulan in α1,6 linkages and produced multiple saccharides from cleavage of α-1,4 linkages in starch. The Kms for pullulan and soluble starch were 0.43 and 0.37 mg/ml, respectively.
AN INTRODUCTORY COURSE IN READING FRENCH

Students who wish to read French and who are willing to omit instruction in the spoken language have learned successfully by using texts that are mixtures of French and English. The texts begin with English words in French word order, and in subsequent passages a few French words are substituted for the English words. Later the proportion of French gradually rises. The method has the advantage that adult students can practice from the beginning with adult materials. They need never be subjected to the French equivalent of “Dick and Jane”. The method also allows a relatively systematic introduction of grammatical material, another advantage for the adult student, and it allows a good many aspects of the language to be absorbed relatively unconciously through extensive exposure to written matierals. Its major disadvantage is the unaesthetic appearance of the mixed texts. The method violates a number of widely held assumptions about second language instruction but reasons exist for doubting all these assumptions.
LAFCam: Leveraging affective feedback camcorder

If a video camera recognizes and records affective data from the camera operator, this data can help determine which sequences will be interesting to the camera operator at a later time. In the case of home videos, the camera operator is likely to also be the editor and narrator of the final video. LAFCam is a system for recording and editing home video. We facilitate the process of browsing and provide automatic editing features by indexing where the camera operator laughed and visualizing the skin conductivity and facial expressions in the editing session.
When Assessing Twin Concordance, Use the Probandwise Not the Pairwise Rate

Geneticists and twin researchers have long debated the relative merits of two alternative measures of twin concordance: the pairwise and probandwise concordance rates. The results of this debate are now quite clear, for almost every application the probandwise rate is preferred over the pairwise rate. In a recent review of schizophrenia twin studies, however, Torrey (1992) chose to analyze pairwise rather than probandwise rates. Torrey's use of pairwise rates led him to conclude that the monozygotic twin concordance for schizophrenia is weaker than what is widely accepted, and that, by implication, the magnitude of the genetic contribution to schizophrenia has been overestimated. In this brief commentary, we review the relative strengths and weaknesses of the pairwise and probandwise rates and show that Torrey's conclusion is based upon his incorrect use of pairwise rates. Twin studies of schizophrenia continue to support the existence of a strong genetic influence on the development of schizophrenia.