cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Androgenic–anabolic steroids blunt morphine-induced c-fos expression in the rat striatum: possible role of β-endorphin

Abstract Self-administration of large doses of androgenic–anabolic steroids (AAS) in a significant portion of the population suggests that these agents are drugs of abuse. However, acute administration of AAS did not induce striatal immediate-early genes (IEG) expression in male rats, indicating that AAS do not share a common mechanism of action with other drugs of abuse. Surveys have indicated that people who abuse AAS are more likely to self-administer other drugs of abuse than do people who do not take AAS. In the present study, chronic administration of AAS blunted the striatal c-fos response to morphine, indicating that AAS can alter the molecular responses to at least one drug of abuse. Chronic administration of AAS also increased the content of β-endorphin in the midline thalamus, suggesting a possible mechanism by which AAS may modulate the response to morphine through regulation of thalamo-striatal neurons.
India and Iran: New Delhi's Balancing Act

India's relationship with Iran is about New Delhi's great-power aspirations and Central Asia, not just energy. But how far can India expand its ties with Tehran while deepening its relations with the United States, Israel, and other states wary of Iran?
Abstract A112: Temporal trends in treatment and survival among white and black women with uterine cancer

Background: Despite the lower overall incidence rates for Uterine cancer in black compared to white women mortality rates are known to be very high in blacks. Our focus was to elucidate trends over time and describe differences in clinical characteristics by particular treatment, and survival outcomes between black and white women. Methods: Black and white women diagnosed with uterine cancer during 1991-2000 were identified from SEER 9 database and stratified in two groups by year of diagnosis: 1991-1995 and 1996-2000. Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazard models were developed to compare women by race and accounting for other prognostic variables. Results: A total of 30,673 patients were diagnosed with Uterine cancer (adenocarcinoma Type I, Type II and Sarcoma) between 1991-2000; blacks forming 6.5% of total (1978 patients). Black women were 2 times more likely not to receive therapy (OR 2.29; p Difference in treatment distribution between white and black women was significant with Type-I (p Black women had 32% higher risk to die from uterus cancer during 1991-2000 (HR1.32; 95% CI 1.15-1.51). Histological type, age at diagnosis, radiation therapy, advanced stage and grade were significant predictors. However a refreshing trend is that black women had 19% less risk of dying from uterus cancer in 2nd period (HR 0.81; p=0.127; 95%CI 0.63-1.05). While Type II cancers fared better black women had 47% higher risk to die from Type-I carcinoma compare to white women when diagnosed during years 1991-2000 (even after adjusting for time period, histological type, age at diagnosis, therapy, stage, and grade (HR 1.47; 95%CI 1.24-1.75). Conclusions: Treatments for Uterine cancer improved during 2nd period in black women with consequent tendency for improved 5 year survival. Overall percentage of treated versus not-treated cases remained the same between periods, changes in treatment patterns were noted only when stratified by histological types. Black women diagnosed with Type-I Uterine cancer need special targeting with public educational policy: twice as many were not treated compare to white patient and had the greatest disparity in surgery. Overall there is a trend for the better for most recent time period for black women diagnosed with Uterine cancer but challenges remain. Citation Information: Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2010;19(10 Suppl):A112.
Consolidation of Nano-Crystalline ZrO2

Abstract The objective of this research was to investigate the effect of ultrafine synthesis methods on the consolidation behavior of nano-crystalline ZrO2. Cost effective, scaleable processes were utilized so that the work would be relevant to industrial issues. Both 4 mol.% Y2O3 and 8 mol.% Y2O3 stabilized nano-crystalline ZrO2 were synthesized using the Rapid Thermal Decomposition of Precursors in Solution (RTDS) process (a continuous hydrothermal process) and a modified Glycine-Nitrate (GNP) synthesis method (a combustion synthesis technique). The RTDS method involves a brief ( 9) by the addition of urea to the precursor stock solution. Both acidic and b...
Fluprazine hydrochloride does not decrease defensive behaviors of wild and septal syndrome rats

Abstract Recent studies indicate that fluprazine hydrochloride reduces offensive attack in laboratory rats and mice without decreasing defensive behavior during conspecific encounters. Since wild rats and rats displaying the “septal lesion syndrome” show much more pronounced defensive reactions than do normal laboratory rats, these animals were used to provide a more critical test of fluprazine's effectiveness on defense. When a dose of fluprazine hydrochloride (8 mg/kg), previously shown to be highly effective in reducing or eliminating offense, was given to wild and septal syndrome rats these animals showed no reliable decrement in a wide range of defensive reactions including biting attack (defensive attack) to human handling and other stimulation. These findings support the view that fluprazine does not appreciably affect defensive attack or other defensive behaviors even though it strongly inhibits offensive attack.
Non-linear diffusion in Hamiltonian systems exhibiting chaotic motion

Abstract The exact evolution equation for the angle averaged phase space density in action-angle space is derived from the Liouville equation using projection operator techniques. This equation involves a correlation function of the initial value of the phase space density with the angle dependent part of the Hamiltonian and a correlation function of the angle dependent part of the Hamiltonian and a correlation function of the angle dependent part of the Hamiltonian with itself. Each of these correlation functions develops in time with angle projected dynamics. We show their relation to the correlation functions which develop in time with usual Hamiltonian dynamics. These correlation functions are then studied in the standard model of Chirikov, and we conclude that they behave as e -σt cos (Ωt + φ) in regions of irregular motion. We conjecture that angle averaged correlation functions behave this way in general, and we give an argument based on the mixing property of the Hamiltonian system. Our argument goes beyond the usual mixing, so we regard it as a quasi-mixing hypothesis. Under this hypothesis the equation for the angle averaged phase space density becomes a diffusion equation which incorporates much of the non-linear dynamics of Hamiltonian systems exhibiting chaotic motion.
Academic Integrity: The Relationship between Individual and Situational Factors on Misconduct Contemplations

Recent, well-publicized scandals, involving unethical conduct have rekindled interest in academic misconduct. Prior studies of academic misconduct have focussed exclusively on situational factors (e.g., integrity culture, honor codes), demographic variables or personality constructs. We contend that it is important to also examine how␣these classes of variables interact to influence perceptions of and intentions relating to academic misconduct. In a sample of 217 business students, we examined how integrity culture interacts with Prudence and Adjustment to explain variance in estimated frequency of cheating, suspicions of cheating, considering cheating and reporting cheating. Age, integrity culture, and personality variables were significantly related to different criteria. Overall, personality variables explained the most unique variance in academic misconduct, and Adjustment interacted with integrity culture, such that integrity culture had more influence on intentions to cheat for less well-adjusted individuals. Implications for practice are discussed and future research directions are offered.
An Evaluation of the Spitz Student Response System in Teaching a Course in Logical and Mathematical Concepts

The problem of this study was the effect of teaching freshman mathematics with the Spitz Student Response System (SSRS) upon a student’s anxiety, attitude, and achievement. Subjects were seventy-three freshman men and women at a liberal arts college in the Southwest. A 2 x 2 factorial analysis of covariance was used to analyze the data. Several research hypotheses were formulated to be consistent with the purposes of this research problem. It was found that the use of the Spitz Student Response System did not significantly change a student’s achievement, anxiety, or attitude in mathematics. The statistical data of this study would tend to support the idea that the effect of attitude on achievement in independent of the method of instruction. Subjective evaluation by the students tends to support the use of the Spitz System.
Functional appliances: A review

The purpose of this review was to evaluate the scientific studies that describe the effects of functional appliances on the dentofacial structures in the treatment of Class II malocclusions. The review is limited to two appliances: the activator and the functional regulator.
Predicting and tracking interlaminar crack growth in composites using a cohesive layer model

The paper proposes a cohesive layer model to track the propagation of delamination in composites. The primary motivation for this development is to automate and accelerate the computation in 3-D problems where the rates of delamination growth in different directions are unknown a priori and in problems involving contact between delaminated surfaces. The cohesive layer model has been used to analyze void nucleations and coalescence of voids in metals through a constitutive relation that gives the dependence of the tractions on the relative separation across the cohesive layer. In the present study we propose to work in terms of stresses and strains of the material of the cohesive layer. This approach makes it easy to account for geometric nonlinear effects. The new model is studied to examine its intrinsic consistency and its ability to predict experimental results. Two typical cases, viz. a DCB specimen and a compressed composite beam are studied. The simulation was found to be in a good agreement with the experimental results and the starting point as well as the initial phase of delamination growth are correctly predicted.
Glycoenzymes: structure and properties of the two forms of glucoamylase from Aspergillus niger.

Abstract Aspergillus niger produces two forms (isoenzymes) of glucoamylase that are separable by electrophoresis or by chromatography on DEAE-cellulose and that are designated glucoamylase I and II. The molecular weight of glucoamylase I is 99,000, and that of glucoamylase II is 112,000. Both forms of the glucoamylase contain covalently linked carbohydrate (containing d -mannose, d -glucose, and d -galactose residues) and are therefore glycoenzymes. The carbohydrate-protein linkage in the glycoenzyme is primarily glycosidic to the hydroxyl group of l -serine and l -threonine residues, but glycosylamine linkages to l -asparagine and l -glutamine may also be present. Glucoamylase I and II possess identical amino acid compositions and, presumably, identical amino acid sequences. However, the two glycoenzymes differ in carbohydrate content, glucoamylase II containing nearly twice as many carbohydrate residues per molecule as glucoamylase I. Accordingly, it is suggested that the two forms of glucoamylase are isoglycoenzymes. The difference in electrophoretic and chromatographic properties of the isoglycoenzymes is probably due to a difference in the number of amide groups or glycosylaminically linked carbohydrate units in the polypeptide chains.
Potassium perruthenate-treated carbon nanotube sheets for flexible supercapacitors

Abstract High-throughput production of flexible, all-solid-state supercapacitors can be accomplished by integrating redox-functionalized commercial carbon nanotube sheets with H 2 SO 4 /PVA/H 2 O polymer hydrogel electrolyte. The chemical composition, elemental oxidation states, and crystallinity of the pristine and 0.02 M potassium perruthenate-treated multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) sheets are examined using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. In assembled hydrogel-based supercapacitor cells, ruthenium oxide-decorated MWCNT sheet electrodes exhibit a specific capacitance of 96 F/g at 1.0 A/g and good cycle stability.
UTILITY OF LOW mA 1.5 PITCH HELICAL VERSUS CONVENTIONAL HIGH mA ABDOMINAL CT

Abstract The objective of this study was to evaluate the utility of a low mA 1.5 pitch helical versus conventional high mA conventional technique in abdominal computed tomography (CT). Twenty-five patients who had both a conventional high mA (>300) and a 1.5 pitch low mA (80–125) helical CT within 3 months were selected for inclusion in the study. Patients were excluded who had a significant change in pathology between the two studies. The other parameters (injection rate, contrast type and volume, and filming window/level) were constant. The studies were randomized and blinded to five separate experienced readers who graded the studies by a variety of normal anatomical structures and pathological criteria. Overview questions also assessed noise, resolution, contrast, and overall quality. The abdominal wall/retroperitoneum and hiatal hernias were statistically better visualized on the conventional high mA studies. However, for all other normal anatomical and pathological sites, there was equivalent or better visualization on the helical versus the conventional CT examinations. The resolution of the helical studies was graded statistically better than the high mA conventional CT scans as was the amount of noise present on the images. While there was some advantage for conventional high mA CT with respect to contrast enhancement and low contrast sensitivity, these differences were not statistically significant. It appears from the data of this study that a low mA technique in evaluating the abdomen may be a useful option in performing routine abdominal CT. The radiation dose savings to the patient is significant and there appears to be little degradation of image quality using a low mA 1.5 helical versus mA conventional CT technique.
Clinical characteristics of patients with late life bipolar disorder in the community: Data from the NNDC registry

Objective To compare clinical characteristics of older and younger patients with bipolar disorder enrolled in the United States' National Network of Depression Centers (NNDC) Clinical Care Registry (CCR). Design Multicenter, de-identified naturalistic data from the National NNDC's CCR for all patients with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder who were enrolled in the registry as of April 25, 2013. Participants Community-dwelling patients (N = 218), ages 18 years or older, with bipolar disorder diagnosis recruited by NNDC-affiliated medical centers to participate in the NNDC CCR. Subjects aged 55 years or older were compared with subjects younger than age 55 years on clinical measures. Measurements Patient Health Questionnaire; Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology - Self-Report; Altman Self-Rating Mania Scale; Work and Social Adjustment Scale; Frequency and Intensity of Burden of Side Effects Rating; and the Self-Administered Comorbidity Questionnaire. Results A greater percentage of older patients were prescribed antidepressant medications (71.9% versus 50.0%), and the younger cohort had significantly more psychostimulant use (16.7% versus 0%). Younger patients endorsed significantly more depressive symptoms compared with older patients. The mean number of psychotropic medications was not different in both older and younger patients with bipolar disorder. There was no statistically significant difference in frequency, intensity, or burden of psychotropic medication side effects as measured by the Frequency and Intensity of Burden of Side Effects Rating. Conclusion Findings of higher antidepressant use rates in the older cohort, combined with lower depression symptom severity and a similar degree of manic symptoms, suggests the possibility that older adults with bipolar disorder may have improved antidepressant efficacy and lower switch rates into manic or mixed states compared with younger cohorts. Ongoing data collection by the NNDC CCR will add to current knowledge to inform the care of older patients with bipolar disorder by providing multi-site data regarding phenomenology, treatment response, and longitudinal course of late life bipolar disorder in community settings.
On generalized inputs and white noise

A brief sketch is given of recent work by this author and by M. Fliess on generalized inputs. The aim is to develop a theory in which stochastic differential equations driven by white noise can be solved for each sample path. The results obtained so far are complete for the case of equations driven by a scalar white noise, as well as for bilinear systems driven by vector-valued inputs. The main idea is to regard the "sample paths of a white noise process" as "generalized functions" in a sense different from the theory of distributions. A representation of these generalized functions as formal power series is discussed.
Factors that Affect the Physical Science Career Interest of Female Students: Testing Five Common Hypotheses.

There are many hypotheses regarding factors that may encourage female students to pursue careers in the physical sciences. Using multivariate matching methods on national data drawn from the Persistence Research in Science and Engineering (PRiSE) project ($n=7505$), we test the following five commonly held beliefs regarding what factors might impact females' physical science career interest: (i) having a single-sex physics class, (ii) having a female physics teacher, (iii) having female scientist guest speakers in physics class, (iv) discussing the work of female scientists in physics class, and (v) discussing the underrepresentation of women in physics class. The effect of these experiences on physical science career interest is compared for female students who are matched on several factors, including prior science interests, prior mathematics interests, grades in science, grades in mathematics, and years of enrollment in high school physics. No significant effects are found for single-sex classes, female teachers, female scientist guest speakers, and discussing the work of female scientists. However, discussions about women's underrepresentation have a significant positive effect.
Interaction of the Transcription Factors USF1, USF2, and α-Pal/Nrf-1 with the FMR1 Promoter IMPLICATIONS FOR FRAGILE X MENTAL RETARDATION SYNDROME

Hypermethylation of the FMR1 promoter reduces its transcriptional activity, resulting in the mental retardation and macroorchidism characteristic of Fragile X syndrome. How exactly methylation causes transcriptional silencing is not known but is relevant if current attempts to reactivate the gene are to be successful. Understanding the effect of methylation requires a better understanding of the factors responsible for FMR1 gene expression. To this end we have identified five evolutionarily conserved transcription factor binding sites in this promoter and shown that four of them are important for transcriptional activity in neuronally derived cells. We have also shown that USF1, USF2, and α−Pal/Nrf-1 are the major transcription factors that bind the promoter in brain and testis extracts and suggest that elevated levels of these factors account in part for elevated FMR1 expression in these organs. We also show that methylation abolishes α−Pal/Nrf-1 binding to the promoter and affects binding of USF1 and USF2 to a lesser degree. Methylation may therefore inhibit FMR1 transcription not only by recruiting histone deacetylases but also by blocking transcription factor binding. This suggests that for efficient reactivation of the FMR1 promoter, significant demethylation must occur and that current approaches to gene reactivation using histone deacetylase inhibitors alone may therefore have limited effect.
History, Ruins, Voices: Reading Herman Melville'sd Clarel

ALA 2006–San Francisco Who Speaks in Melville’s Poems? CHAIR: FAITH BARRETT, LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY F rom Battle-Pieces, to Clarel, to John Marr, to Timoleon, Melville works with an extraordinary range of poetic speakers and stances, exploring the generic limits of the lyric and the narrative poem and building both dialogue and personae into his poetic texts. Who are these speakers, and what is at stake for Melville the poet in his exploration of these stances? How do Melville’s poetic voices represent tensions between self and other, North and South, East and West, faith and doubt, past and future? How do Melville’s poetic texts signal transitions or developments in nineteenth-century American poetry? How are we to understand the connections or disconnections between Melville’s speakers and those of his poetic contemporaries? How do Melville’s speakers engage with the commitments of romantic, Victorian, realist, or modernist poetics? These are some of the questions this panel explored through readings of Battle-Pieces, Clarel, and John Marr and Other Sailors. Margins of Poetry: The Character of Character in Melville’s “The Temeraire” Dan Fineman Occidental College A lthough Battle-Pieces otherwise concerns itself directly with the Civil War, “The Temeraire” presents the reader with thoughts “supposed to have been suggested to an Englishman of the old order by the fight of the Monitor and Merrimac.” This intruding consciousness may be a paradigmatic instance of the book’s underlying transgressive modality, one that suggests that poetry arises out of catastrophic historical alteration. The work’s titular topic, the final disposal of the second line ship from Nelson’s Battle of Trafalgar, engages the reader in intersecting arenas of consideration: the end C © 2006 The Authors Journal compilation C © 2006 The Melville Society and Blackwell Publishing Inc L E V I A T H A N A J O U R N A L O F M E L V I L L E S T U D I E S 83
Bupropion and its main metabolite reverse nicotine chronic tolerance in the mouse.

INTRODUCTION Although the antidepressant bupropion is prescribed to aid in smoking cessation, little is known concerning its mechanisms of action in this regard. One factor that might influence quit success is nicotine tolerance, which could promote high levels of nicotine intake in order to maintain nicotine's subjective effects (thereby making attempts to reduce smoking more difficult). METHODS To explore whether bupropion and its active hydroxymetabolite modulate nicotine tolerance, mice were injected for 14 days with saline or nicotine. On Day 14, animals received saline, (2S,3S)-hydroxybupropion, or bupropion at different doses. On Day 15, mice were assayed on test day for nicotine-induced analgesia and hypothermia. RESULTS Animals chronically injected with saline + nicotine developed tolerance to nicotine's effects in both assays. Administration of bupropion and (2S,3S)-hydroxybupropion dose-dependently reversed chronic nicotine tolerance. CONCLUSIONS These results indicate that bupropion's ability to promote smoking cessation may be partly due to its attenuation of nicotine tolerance since both measured responses of nicotine (antinociception and hypothermia) are mediated to a large extent by neuronal α4β2* nicotine receptors.
Local dissipativity and attractors for the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation in thin 2D domains

Here 0 < E 5 1 is assumed to be sufficiently small, so that the basic periodicity cell Sz, = [0,2n] x [0,2ne] is a thin domain. We shall also mention other types of boundary conditions for which the same methods are applicable. The dissipativity of the general two (and higher)dimensional problem has been open for some time, the essential difficulty being the lack of a proof of the existence of an absorbing set. In fact, if such a set exists, then there exists a global attractor, and one can prove very precise regularity results (excellent references for these, as well as many refined results on the geometry of the attractor, are the paper by Nicolaenko et af. [l], Il’yashenko [2], and the books by Ttmam [3] and Constantin et al. [4]). The approach we shall adopt is based on the intuitive idea that l)-( 1.3) should be close to one-dimensional, and is close to the methods introduced by Hale and Raugel [5, 61 and Raugel and Sell [7]. There are many nontrivial results available for the periodic one-dimensional problem. The odd-periodic case was studied by [l, 81. The same authors [g] treat a Neumann type of problem without symmetry, and the rigid Dirichlet problem is studied by [9], again without any symmetry assumptions. The general periodic one-dimensional problem has only recently been proved to be dissipative [2]. Our main result is the following theorem.
Profile-based autonomous data feeding: an approach to the information retrieval problem in a high communications latency environment

This paper proposes the use of user profiles for data selection and prioritization for transmission. This approach has three parts. First, a profile can be created for an individual user. This may provide the best results; however, it requires transmitting a separate profile up for each prospective user. Second, user correspondence with a set of profiles can be tracked. Finally, this can be extended to match a user not just with a single profile but with (possibly different) profiles for each dimension tracked. The benefits of each of these approaches are discussed and the implementation pathway is considered.
The Dvāravatī Wheels of the Law and the Indianization of South East Asia

This volume deals with a unique group of stone sculptures, representations of the Buddha's Wheel of the Law, found in present-day Thailand that date from about the seventh-eighth centuries CE. The book places these sculptures in their historical, religious, and art historical contexts to determine what they meant to the culture (called Dvaravati) that produced them. Thus, other art historical material associated with the Wheels, including stone deer, Buddha images, and stupas, are discussed. Of greatest importance is how these sculptures relate to both the art in Cambodia and that in India, and to determine what these relationships can tell us about the process (called Indianization) by which Indian culture, religion, and art were adapted in Southeast Asia.
Comparison of MISR and AERONET aerosol optical depths over desert sites

[1] Comparisons of the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) aerosol optical depths (AOD) with those of the AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) were made at four desert sites, covering a two-year time period from December 2000 to November 2002. The two data sets show good correlation with no obvious systematic biases or trends, demonstrating MISR's ability to retrieve reliable visible and near infrared AOD over surfaces with relatively high reflectance. For MISR AOD obtained at 17.6 km spatial resolution, the estimated uncertainty is about 0.08. When the spatial resolution was degraded to 52.8 km, the estimated AOD uncertainty decreased to about 0.05. Year-long time-series comparisons of MISR and AERONET AOD at the four desert sites showed that MISR can quantitatively capture the temporal nature of strong dust activity in desert regions.
Using social simulations to assess and train potential leaders to make effective decisions in turbulent environments

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe two social simulations created to assess leadership potential and train leaders to make effective decisions in turbulent environments. One is set in the novel environment of a lunar moon colony and the other is a military combat command. The research generated from these simulations for assessing the decision effectiveness of potential leaders with different personality traits and decision styles under varying degrees of information quantity, uncertainty and complexity is summarized. Opportunities and limitations of applying current computer assisted technology to social simulations for assessing and developing leaders' decision effectiveness in turbulent environments is discussed.Design/methodology/approach – College undergraduates and officer candidates in university ROTC programs made a series of decisions while being subjected to varying degrees of environmental turbulence in social simulations. The decision effectiveness of subjects with different pe...
Molecular analysis in newborns from Texas affected with galactosemia.

The spectrum of mutations in the Galactose-1-phosphate uridyl transferase (GALT) gene is described in 11 cases of classic galactosemia and 38 of Duarte-2 type identified by the Texas Newborn Screening Program. Blinded studies were done by automated DNA sequencing of all the 11 exons and the exon-intron boundaries of the GALT gene using genomic DNA isolated from dry blood spots. Fourteen different mutations (11 missense mutations, 2 nonsense mutations and 1 splicing mutation) were detected in 94 of the 98 mutant alleles (diagnostic efficiency of 96%). The prevalent mutations were N314D (41%), Q188R (37%) and K285N (4%). The other less frequent mutations were IVS2-2A>G and S135L (3% each), T138M (2%) and T23A, H184Q, Y251S, L195P, Q207X, L264X, Q344K, and A345D (1% each). Three novel mutations, T23A, Q207X, and A345D, were identified. Our study supports previous findings that N314D and Q188R are prevalent in Hispanics and Whites and K285N was only observed in Whites. The IVS2-2A->G mutation is probably ethnic specific because it was identified exclusively in Hispanics. S135L, a prevalent mutation in Blacks, was also present in 3 Hispanics. Two unusual genotypes were observed in 2 patients homozygous for the Duarte-2 N314D allele and heterozygous for a novel mutation (Q207X- N314D/N314D in a classic galactosemia and T23A- N314D/N314D in a Duarte-2 case). The detection of GALT gene mutations in newborns from Texas should focus first on N314D, Q188R, K285N, IVS2-2A>G, S135L and T138M. Other exons and exon-intron boundaries would have to be studied if either one or no mutations are found in the primary screening. © 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Testing the "Dark-Energy"-Dominated Cosmology via the Solar-System Experiments

The effect of "dark energy" (i.e. the Lambda-term in Einstein equations) is sought for at the interplanetary scales by comparing the rates of secular increase in the lunar orbit obtained by two different ways: (1) measured immediately by the laser ranging and (2) estimated independently from the deceleration of the Earth's proper rotation. The first quantity involves both the well-known effect of geophysical tides and the Kottler effect of Lambda-term (i.e. a kind of the "local" Hubble expansion), while the second quantity is associated only with the tidal influence. The difference between them, 2.2 +/- 0.3 cm/yr, can be attributed just to the local Hubble expansion with rate H_0^(loc) = 56 +/- 8 km/s/Mpc. Assuming that Hubble expansion is formed locally only by the uniformly distributed dark energy (Lambda-term), while globally also by a clumped substance (for the most part, the cold dark matter), the total (large-scale) Hubble constant should be H_0 = 65 +/- 9 km/s/Mpc. This is in reasonable agreement both with the commonly-accepted WMAP result, H_0 = 71 +/- 3.5 km/s/Mpc, and with the data on supernovae Ia distribution. The above coincidence can serve as one more argument in favor of the dark energy.
Caffeine elicited withdrawal signs in morphine-dependent rhesus monkeys.

In the dose range of 4.0--32.0 mg/kg s.c., caffeine produced most of the signs which are commonly seen after the administration of naloxone (0.05 mg/kg s.c.) to morphine-dependent monkeys. The signs designated as lying on side or abdomen, avoiding contact, vocalizing, crawling or rolling, restlessness or pacing, tremors, retching, vomiting, coughing, vocalizing when abdomen palpated, rigid abdomen and salivation were noted. A randomized and blind experimental design, which included vehicle and positive (naloxone) controls was used. The significance of the differences between total scores for the whole syndrome was tested by the Mann-Whitney U-test. In preliminary studies in naive monkeys, caffeine was found to elicit some withdrawal signs but the results were equivocal. Na benzoate also elicited some withdrawal signs in morphine-dependent monkeys at 32.0 mg/kg s.c., but few signs were seen in naive monkeys. Caffeine was found to be approximately 10X more active than Na benzoate in inhibiting cAMP phosphodiesterase activity in a neuroblastoma cell whole homogenate assay. These results are consistent with the observations of Collier and Francis that morphine abstinence in rodents is associated with increased brain levels of cAMP.
Beta estimation in the market model: skewness and leptokurtosis

Leptokurtosis and skewness characterize the distributions of the returns for many financial instruments traded in security markets. These departures from normality can adversely affect the efficiency of least squares estimates of the β's in the single index or market model. The proposed new partially adaptive estimation techniques accommodate skewed and fat tailed distributions. The empirical investigation, which is the first application of this procedure in regression models, reveals that both skewness and kurtosis can affect β estimates.
When Is the Honeymoon Over? National Basketball Association Attendance 1971-2000:

This article uses a Tobit analysis to test for the presence of a honeymoon effect for National Basketball Association (NBA) arenas using a pooled cross-section time series sample from 1971 to 2000. No previous NBA attendance-demand or attendance-related study tested for such an effect. The honeymoon effect increases attendance demand 15% to 20% in the first 4 years of the operation of a new arena, an increase that is similar in magnitude to recently constructed Major League Baseball stadiums. The effect is nonlinear and diminishes relatively quickly with the steady state established after Year 10. Because many NBA arenas are subsidized, the effect has public policy implications if revenue projections for a new arena ignore or overestimate the effect.
TRANSCRIPTIONAL REGULATION OF THE MYOSIN HEAVY CHAIN IIB GENE IN INACTIVE RAT SOLEUS

The myosin heavy chain (MHC) isoform composition of skeletal muscle is dependent, in part, on the functional demands of the muscle. The rat soleus muscle primarily expresses the slowcontracting type I MHC; however, chronic inactivity increases expression of the faster-contracting type II MHC isoforms. The purpose of this study was to identify the type IIb MHC promoter region(s) that regulate de novo transcription during chronic inactivity of the soleus induced by spinal cord isolation (SI; complete mid-thoracic and high sacral spinal cord transections plus deafferentation). Seven days after SI, transcription of IIb MHC was evidenced by increases in IIb pre-mRNA and mRNA. The activity of an ≈2.2-kb IIb promoter-firefly luciferase reporter plasmid increased in SI soleus over control as compared to that of a promoterless plasmid. Deletion analyses indicated that the regions encompassing −2237 to −1431, −1048 to −461, and −192 to −161 basepairs (bp) each contributed to the increase in transcriptional activity. Moreover, deletions or mutations of AT-rich regions in the proximal −192 bp region abolished the increased promoter activity. These results provide important insights related to how proximal IIb MHC promoter elements regulate the increased expression of the IIb MHC gene in response to inactivity of a predominantly slow postural muscle as it undergoes a remodeling of its phenotype and functional characteristics.
α-tubulin genes of drosophila

Four Drosophila alpha-tubulin genes have been isolated on recombinant DNA molecules. The identity of two of these genes (T alpha 1 and T alpha 2) was established by isolating complementary mRNAs and then examining the in vitro translation products of the mRNAs. The one- and two-dimensional gel patterns and the peptide maps of the in vitro products were indistinguishable from those of embryonic alpha-tubulin. In turn, the embryonic tubulin was identified by determining its amino-terminal sequence. We identified two other cloned alpha-tubulin genes (T alpha 3 and T alpha 4) by their complementarity to T alpha 1 and T alpha 2. Maps of restriction endonuclease sites indicate that the four genes are different. DNA hybridization studies demonstrated, however, that three of them have extensive sequence homology with each other and slight homology with the fourth, T alpha 4. Hybridization to genomic DNA fragments indicated that the four clones genes account for all of the different alpha-tubulin genes of Drosophila melanogaster. Three of them are present only once in the haploid genome; the other, T alpha 1, is present in either one or two copies. Each of the four genes hybridizes in situ to a different site on the third chromosome.
SELECTION ON FLOWERING TIME: AN ADAPTIVE FITNESS SURFACE FOR NONEXISTENT CHARACTER COMBINATIONS

The purpose of this study was to determine how natural selection might have shaped the flowering phenologies currently observed in natural populations by examining the potential mechanisms of selection and generating a hypothetical fitness surface that includes phenotype combinations that do not occur in natural populations. To this end I tagged >3500 individual flowers to track seed set on a per-day basis, performed a hand pollination experiment, and quantified pollinator visitation throughout the flowering season in a population of Lythrum salicaria. I then used the seed production data to construct a hypothetical adaptive surface for two highly correlated characters: date of initial flowering and flowering duration. I found evidence of temporal variation in seed set that can be explained by temporal patterns of pollinator visitation. There were significant effects of date (linear and quadratic) and number of flowering stems on the number of pollinator visits per patch. A significant date × number of stems interaction indicated that the effect of number of stems was dependent on flowering date. Early in the flowering season pollinator visitation was dependent on the density of plants in flower. However, late in the season pollinators stopped visiting the patch for reasons unrelated to flowering plant density. A hand-pollination experiment demonstrated that the paucity of pollinators late in the season resulted in late-season pollinator limitation. Late-season pollinator limitation could explain the shape of the fitness surface. The shape of the estimated fitness surface indicates saturating directional selection on flowering duration and a combination of directional and stabilizing selection on date of flowering initiation. The estimated fitness surface has a single peak located at the earliest date of flowering initiation and the longest flowering duration. This fitness peak is at the same point as the point of highest fitness in the actual fitness distribution. Areas of the phenotype space representing nonexistent phenotype combinations were the locations of fitness valleys on the hypothetical fitness surface. This suggests that the correlation between date of initial flowering and flowering duration is the result of past selection.
A self-organizing neural network for nonlinear filtering

A neural network based on the combination of a feature map and linear filters is proposed as a generalized adaptive processor for multidimensional nonlinear mapping. The self-organizing part of the system provides a progressively finer embedding of the input space as more units are added to the network. The linear filters, which tap from the memory, provide the function approximations. Learning is achieved with simple rules of the Hebb's type with no backpropagation needed. Some preliminary results on two-dimensional patterns show the potential of this approach. >
Adaptive rate control for real-time packet audio based on loss prediction

The paper presents an adaptive rate control framework, which performs proactive rate control based on packet loss prediction and on-line audio quality assessment for real-time packet audio. The proposed framework determines the optimal combination of various audio codecs for transmission, utilizing a thorough analysis of audio quality based on individual codec characteristics, as opposed to the ad-hoc codec redundancy used by other approaches. As a main component of this framework, a preliminary formulation of the packet loss predictor is shown; it determines the likelihood of packet loss in terms of available bandwidth, delay variation trend, and network history. We present simulation and experimental results to show the accuracy and efficiency of this technique.
Effects of a diet restricted in saturated fatty acids and cholesterol on the composition of apolipoprotein A-I-containing lipoprotein particles in the fasting and fed states

To test the hypothesis that diet may exert dif- ferential effects on apolipoprotein (apo) A-I-containing high- density-hipoprotein (HDL) particles with (w) and without (w/o) apo A-Il (Lp(A-I w A-I!) and Lp(A-I w/o A-Il)), the effects of a diet low in saturated fatty acids and cholesterol (National Cho- lesterol Education Panel (NCEP) Step 2 diet) on these lipopro- teins were determined in eight normohipidemic subjects, aged 53-74 y, in both the fasting and nonfasting states. Compared with a diet high in saturated fatty acid and cholesterol, consump- tion ofan NCEP diet (6 mo) lowered fasting plasma, low-density- lipoprotein, and HDL cholesterol, and nonfasting plasma choles- terol, triglyceride, and HDL cholesterol (P < 0.05-<0.005). Phosphohipid in fasting and nonfasting Lp(A-I w A-I!) and Lp(A- I w/o A-Il) was lower during the NCEP diet (P < 0.05-0.001), but reductions in apo A-I or A-Il were observed only in Lp(A-I w A-il). In contrast, differences in particle-size profiles were de- tected in Lp(A-I w/o A-Il) but not in Lp(A-I w A-Il). These observations provide further evidence that Lp(A-I w A-Il) and Lp(A-I w/o A-il) are distinct metabolic entities. Am J Clin Nutr l994;60:9l1-8.
Exosomal RNA from Mycobacterium tuberculosis-Infected Cells Is Functional in Recipient Macrophages.

Exosomes are extracellular vesicles released by cells that carry proteins, lipids and nucleic acids and function in intercellular communication. Previously, we determined that exosomes released from Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb)-infected macrophages carry mycobacterial proteins and lipids. However, the RNA composition within these exosomes has not been defined. In this study, we characterized the exosomes released from M.tb-infected macrophages and identified a cohort of mouse messenger RNA (mRNA) and microRNA (miRNA). Quantitative reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction analysis showed less abundance of miRNAs in exosomes released from infected compared with uninfected macrophages. Moreover, more than 100 transcripts were found to be enriched or unique to exosomes from infected cells including transcripts involved in regulating an immune response. The exosomal RNA could be transferred and expressed in naive macrophages and was biologically active, stimulating production of inflammatory mediators and inducing apoptosis in recipient cells. Interestingly, we also identified mycobacterial transcripts in exosomes released from infected macrophages. To our knowledge, this is the first study to identify bacterial-derived RNA in exosomes. Our results suggest that exosomal RNA released from M.tb-infected macrophages may have functional and diagnostic potential in the context of a mycobacterial infection.
Detection of Primary Free Radical Species in Aqueous Sonochemistry by EPR Spectroscopy

In this paper we discuss the identification of the primary free radical species produced by sonolysis of noble gas-saturated aqueous solutions (i.e.• H, •OH, O2 •−) and in N2-containing aqueous solutions (i.e. •H, ·OH, O2 •−, and •NO) predominantly by means of electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy with spin trapping. The EPR experiments which show that no detectable level of hydrated electrons is formed in the sonolysis of water at neutral pH are summarized.
Adaptive resistance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa induced by aminoglycosides and killing kinetics in a rabbit endocarditis model.

Adaptive resistance following the first exposure to aminoglycosides is a recently described in vitro phenomenon in Pseudomonas aeruginosa and other aerobic gram-negative bacilli. We investigated the in vivo relevance of adaptive resistance in P. aeruginosa following a single dose of amikacin in the experimental rabbit endocarditis model. Rabbits with P. aeruginosa endocarditis received either no therapy (control) or a single intravenous (i.v.) dose of amikacin (80 mg/kg of body weight) at 24 h postinfection, after which they were sacrificed at 5, 8, 12, 16, or 24 h postdose. Excised aortic vegetations were subsequently exposed ex vivo to amikacin at 2.5, 5, 10 or 20 times the MIC for 90 min. In vivo adaptive resistance was identified when amikacin-induced pseudomonal killing within excised aortic vegetations was less in animals receiving single-dose amikacin in vivo than in vegetations from control animals not receiving amikacin in vivo. Maximal adaptive resistance occurred between 8 and 16 h after the in vivo amikacin dose, with complete refractoriness to ex vivo killing by amikacin seen at 12 h postdose. By 24 h postdose, bacteria within excised vegetations had partially recovered their initial amikacin susceptibility. In a parallel treatment study, we demonstrated that amikacin given once daily (but not twice daily) at a total dose of 80 mg/kg i.v. for 1-day treatment significantly reduced pseudomonal densities within aortic vegetations versus those in untreated controls. When therapy was continued for 3 days with the same total daily dose (80 mg/kg/day), amikacin given once or twice daily significantly reduced intravegetation pseudomonal densities versus those in controls. However, amikacin given once daily was still more effective than the twice-daily regimen. These data confirm the induction of aminoglycoside adaptive resistance in vivo and further support the advantages of once-daily aminoglycoside dosing regimens in the treatment of serious pseudomonal infections.
The Role of the Plumage in Heat Transfer Processes of Birds1

Abstract The plumage of birds provides a critical thermal buffer between the animal and its environment. Rates of energy expenditure are strongly influenced by the thermal properties of the environment or the microclimates the animal occupies. Current data suggest that the addition of solar radiation is equivalent to three to four-fold changes in wind speed and that solar heat gain can be extremely sensitive to changes in wind speed. Dry heat transfer through the plumage occurs by three avenues 1) conduction and free convection through air 2) conduction along the solid elements of the plumage and 3) radiation. Overall, about 95% of the total heat flow is evenly divided between the first two avenues. Radiative heat transfer accounts for only about 5% of total heat flow. Plumage color, as well as the microstructure and micro-optical properties of plumage elements, when combined with environmental properties (e.g., wind speed), determine the radiative heat loads that birds acquire from solar radiation. Altho...