cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Multiterminal global routing: A deterministic approximation scheme

We consider the problem of routing multiterminal nets in a two-dimensional gate-array. Given a gate-array and a set of nets to be routed, we wish to find a routing that uses as little channel space as possible. We present a deterministic approximation algorithm that uses close to the minimum possible channel space. We cast the routing problem as a new form of zero-one multicommodity flow, an integer-programming problem. We solve this integer program approximately by first solving its linear-program relaxation and then rounding any fractions that appear in the solution to the linear program. The running time of the rounding algorithm is exponential in the number of terminals in a net but polynomial in the number of nets and the size of the array. The algorithm is thus best suited to cases where the number of terminals on each net is small.
The Opportunity Cost of Admission Preferences at Elite Universities

Objective. This study examines how preferences for different types of applicants for admission to elite universities influence the number and composition of admitted students. Methods. Previous research with these NSCE data employed logistic regression analysis to link information on the admission decision for 124,374 applications to applicants’ SAT scores, race, athletic ability, and legacy status, among other variables. Here we use micro simulations to illustrate what the effects might be if one were to withdraw preferences for different student groups. Results. Eliminating affirmative action would substantially reduce the share of African Americans and Hispanics among admitted students. Preferences for athletes and legacies, however, only mildly displace members of minority groups. Conclusions. Elite colleges and universities extend preferences to many types of students, yet affirmative action is the one most surrounded by controversy. In an earlier article in this journal, Espenshade, Chung, and Walling (2004) examined the strength of admission preferences for underrepresented minority students, athletes, and alumni children at three highly selective private research universities in the United States. Using data from the National Study of College Experience on 124,374 applications for admission during the 1980s and the fall semesters of 1993 and 1997, they found that elite universities give extra weight in admissions to candidates whose SAT scores are above 1500, who are African American, and who are student athletes. A smaller, but nevertheless important, preference is extended to Hispanic and legacy applicants. African-American applicants receive the equivalent of 230 extra SAT points (on a 1600-point scale), and being Hispanic is worth an additional 185 SAT points. Other things equal, recruited athletes gain an admission bonus worth 200 points, while the preference for legacy candidates is worth 160 points. Asian-American applicants
An examination of student mathematics learning in elementary and middle schools: A longitudinal look from the us

Abstract School districts in the U.S. increasingly rely on standardized testing to documentstudent achievement in mathematics, reading, science, and English. Educators and policy-makers have engaged in heated debates as to the effects of such standardized testing practices on actual student achievement. In studying these issues, it is important to examine the growth and improvement patterns for individual learners over time. In most studies to date, however, there is a lack of empirical data at the individual level; the studies are rather cross-sectional designs. The current study documents longitudinal math achievement growth based on 716 students in a single U.S. school district. The data for this study are student math scores on SAT 9 achievement tests administered yearly between 1997 and 2000. Multidimensional Scaling profile modeling was used in this investigation to track individual and group patterns over four years. Analysis revealed unequal growth rates. The results are discussed in light of recent school reform effects and raise questions about the expectation of incremental growth curves mandated in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 provision that requires Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). Even in a relatively stable school district, children's actual math learning growth patterns do not mirror the AYP expectation.
The Occultation of Mariner 10 by Mercury

Analysis of Mariner 10 dual-frequency radio-occultation recordings has yielded new information on the radius and atmosphere of Mercury. The ingress measurements, which were conducted near 1.1 deg north latitude and 67.4 deg east longitude on the night side of the planet, gave a value for the radius of 2439.5 + or - 1 km. Egress near 67.6 deg north latitude and 258.4 deg east longitude on the sunlit side yielded a radius of 2439.0 + or - 1 km. The atmospheric measurements showed the electron density to be less than 1000 per cu cm on both sides of the planet. From the latter result one may infer an upper limit to the dayside surface gas density of 1 million molecules per cu cm.
A comparison of methods for measuring event-related potentials

Visual event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 21 hyperactive children under 2 attention conditions and 4 doses of stimulant drug (methylphenidate). This data base was used to evaluate several methods of EP component measurement. These methods were (1) conventional visual peak and trough selection; (2) automatic feature extraction based on peaks; (3) automatic features extraction based on segments; (4) gross amplitude measures; (5) principal components analysis on normalized data and latency-adjusted data. No one method emerged as the best overall. Rather it is the case that different methods are best suited to different purposes, and criteria for choosing methods are outlined.
Utility of Mobile Cardiac Outpatient Telemetry for the Diagnosis of Palpitations, Presyncope, Syncope, and the Assessment of Therapy Efficacy

INTRODUCTION Continuous mobile cardiac outpatient telemetry (MCOT) may have several advantages over traditional ambulatory monitoring systems in the diagnostic evaluation of symptoms such as palpitations, dizziness, and syncope. However, only limited published data are available showing its advantages. METHODS AND RESULTS We reviewed the records of 122 consecutive patients evaluated using MCOT for palpitations, presyncope/syncope, or to monitor the efficacy of a specific antiarrhythmic therapy. Ten of 17 patients (59%) studied for presyncope/syncope had a diagnosis made with MCOT. Eight of these 17 patients had a previous negative evaluation for presyncope/syncope and five had an event correlated with the heart rhythm during the monitoring period. Nineteen patients monitored for palpitations or presyncope/syncope were asymptomatic during monitoring but had a prespecified arrhythmia detected. When MCOT was used as the first ambulatory monitoring system to evaluate palpitations (n = 18), 73% of patients correlated their symptoms with the underlying cardiac rhythm. Seven of 21 patients monitored for medication titration had dosage adjustments during outpatient monitoring. CONCLUSIONS MCOT can detect asymptomatic clinically significant arrhythmias, and was especially useful to identify the cause of presyncope/syncope, even in patients with a previous negative workup. This outpatient monitoring system allows patients to undergo daily medication dose titration in the outpatient setting, thus avoiding hospitalization.
PO-0146 Phenotypical Features In Childhood Wilson Disease: The Experience Of A Hepatology Centre From Bucharest

Background and aims Wilson’s disease (WD) may have a polimorphic clinical picture and positive diagnosis can sometimes be difficult. The study aimed to analyse the clinical and laboratory characteristics of children with WD, diagnosed in the “Grigore Alexandrescu” Children’s Hospital, Bucharest. Methods The study included 23 patients diagnosed with WD between 1995 and 2013. From the medical records we extracted: age, sex, family history, clinical manifestations and laboratory parameters at diagnosis. Results The mean age at diagnosis was 12.1 years. Sex ratio was male/female = 2.1/1. Eight patients had family history of WD. The frequency of clinical signs was: hepatomegaly (47.8%), ascites (22%), jaundice (22%), splenomegaly (22%), esophageal varices (15%). Neurological manifestations were encountered in 4 cases. Children aged 10–14 years presented the largest number of clinical and laboratory abnormal findings. Urinary excretion of cooper was increased in 22 patients. Elevated transaminases was a common finding. Serum ceruloplasmin was low in 74%. Haematological abnormalities were: thrombocytopenia (26%), leucopenia (4%). Hepatic steatosis was found in 56%, fibrosis in 18% and signs of portal hypertension in 11%. Liver biopsy was performed in 8 cases, 6 presenting vacuolar lesions. Genetic testing was performed in 6 patients, 4 had heterozygote exon 8 mutation. Conclusions WD is sometimes difficult to diagnose. Symptoms are more frequent in elder children and are dominated by liver disease with moderate cytolysis syndrome without liver failure; rarely neurological signs are associated. Family screening is extremely useful and allows precocious diagnosis in asymptomatic patients with early therapy initiation.
Effects of cardiac autonomic imbalance on postnatal changes in the electrocardiographic Q-T interval in conscious swine.

Abstract The effects of partial autonomic denervation of the heart on heart rate and Q–T interval were examined during maturation in swine. Four groups of newborns were prepared: right stellate ganglionectomy (RSG), left stellate ganglionectomy (LSG), right cardiac vagotomy (RCV) and sham-operated. Swine were studied postsurgically for eight weeks. Unexpected deaths of unknown cause occurred in five of the 20 denervated swine but in none of the 10 sham-operated controls. Prolongation of the Q–T interval was greatest in RSG animals and least in RCV as compared to controls. The results indicate that we have successfully developed an animal model of a long Q–T syndrome in swine.
Kinetic isotope effects for adiabatic proton transfer reactions in a polar environment

A nontraditional picture for primary kinetic isotope effects (KIEs) is presented for proton transfer (PT) reactions in a polar environment in the proton adiabatic regime, in which proton motion is ...
Transapical Endovascular Ascending Repair for Inoperable Acute Type A Dissection

Acute aortic dissection remains a surgical emergency. The conventional approach involves graft replacement of the ascending aorta under circulatory arrest with variable extension into the root or arch depending on morphology at presentation. A significant proportion of patients are deemed too high-
Strength of short‐fiber reinforced composites

The structural utility of short, glass fiber-reinforced epoxy composities is experimentally investigated for fiber volume fractions from 0.15 to 0.5. The strength and stiffness of systems with randomly oriented fibers are compared with those of similar composites with aligned fibers. The ultimate strength of both types of material increses in a reasonably linear fashion with volume fraction up to 0.5. For all volume fractions in this range, strength of the random composites is slightly higher than the longitudinal and much higher than the transverse strength of equivalent compsites with aligned fibers. The modulus of the random system is approximately two-thirds the longitudinal and twice the transverse modulus of the unidirectional material. The structural utility of the flow molded material is greatest in uniaxial, stiffness critical situations. The greater strength and planar isotropy of the random composites make them preferable in all strength limited or multiaxial applications.
The binary zoo: the calculation of production rates of binaries through 2+1 encounters in globular clusters

In studying encounters between binaries and single stars, one is interested in three classes of events: exchanges of stars, hardening of the original binary by a third star, and the production of merged objects. We present a means for computing cross sections for these three outcomes for an arbitrary binary and single star as might be found in the core of a globular cluster. The cross sections for a number of binaries in various stellar populations are then computed. We consider multiple encounters and the ultimate fate of a population of binaries fed into the cores of different globular cluster models. We see that the presence of only a relatively small number of binaries (containing 10\% of the stars) will boost the production rate of astrophysically-interesting objects by a factor of at least a few over the rates expected from encounters between single stars. In particular, the ratio of smothered neutron stars to low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) may be greatly increased, possibly explaining, in part, the excess of millisecond pulsars compared to LMXBs.
Investigation of satellites associated with Fe 3s photoemission

Spin-resolved x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (SRXPS) studies are reported of a high-binding-energy satellite associated with Fe 3s photoemission. The satellite is found to possess a complex spin polarization with three distinct components. Two majority-spin ({up_arrow}-spin) components are observed with binding energies 111.0{plus_minus}0.5 and 123.4{plus_minus}0.5 eV. These majority-spin satellites are accompanied by a minority-spin ({down_arrow}-spin) peak located at 118.6{plus_minus}0.5 eV binding energy. The spin analysis, combined with electron-energy-loss measurements, indicate that these 3s satellites do not result from plasmon excitation. Comparison of the SRXPS data with theory for the atomic Fe 3s spectrum suggests the majority-spin satellites are caused by final-state configuration interaction between the 3s{sup 1}3p{sup 6}3d{sup 7} hole state and the nearly degenerate 3s{sup 2}3p{sup 4}3d{sup 8} configuration. The origin of the minority-spin satellite component is not understood. {copyright} {ital 1997} {ital The American Physical Society}
Sociality or territorial defense? The influence of resource renewal

The rate with which resources in an area recover from local exploitation should influence the costs to an inhabitant of sharing it with neighbors. I develop a model which predicts the costs of tolerating conspecific foragers (or the benefits of excluding them) as a function of a predator's rate of harvesting prey and the prey's renewal rate. The predictions are consistent with patterns of social grouping observed in small African carnivores. A generalization of the model considers alternate forms of resource renewal (logistic, constant, or “exponential”) and suggests that not only the average rate of renewal but also the details of its time course should influence animal spacing patterns.
Identification of a binding site for quaternary amines in factor Xa.

In the process of characterizing the Na+-binding properties of factor Xa, a specific inhibition of this enzyme by quaternary amines was identified, consistent with previous observations. The binding occurs with Ki in the low millimolar range, with trimethylphenylammonium (TMPA) showing the highest specificity. Binding of TMPA inhibits substrate hydrolysis in a competitive manner, does not inhibit the binding of p-aminobenzamidine to the S1 pocket, and is positively linked to Na+ binding. Inhibition by TMPA is also seen in thrombin and tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), though to a lesser extent compared to factor Xa. Computer modeling using the crystal structure of factor Xa suggests that TMPA binds to the S2/S3 specificity sites, with its hydrophobic moiety making van der Waals interactions with the side chains of Y99, F174, and W215, and the charged amine coupling electrostatically with the carboxylates of E97. Site-directed mutagenesis of factor Xa, thrombin, and tPA confirms the predictions drawn by ...
Coronary artery spasm: The pendulum continues swinging

Historical background. Those of us who have been interested in the concept of coronary artery spasm and re• search on it have witnessed a remarkable pattern of oscil• lation. The pendulum has swung from the enthusiasm of Sir William Osler (1), who in 1910 stated, "I do not know of any better explanation of anginal pain ... ," to the skep• ticism of Keefer and Resnick (2), who in 1928 wondered how rigid atherosclerotic coronary arteries could possibly constrict or go into spasm. The pendulum could not be stopped by Danielopolu (3), Gallavardin (4) and Kohn (5), who between 1924 and 1926 suggested that both spasm and atherosclerosis were involved in the pathophysiology of an• gina pectoris. With the influence of Blumgart et al. (6), not only the role of spasm, but its existence, was questioned. However, Blumgart himself (7) seemed to recognize some role for spasm when he stated, ., Some episodes, particularly those occurring in the absence of effort, or increased cardiac work, are best understood as the expression of vasocon• striction or absence of vasodilation leading to relatively insufficient coronary blood flow." Recent historical perspective. The advent of coronary arteriography in the late 1950s and the failure to demonstrate spontaneous spasm in a significant number of patients with angina focused attention on atherosclerosis as the sole phe• nomenon underlying ischemic heart disease. However, in the early 1970s it became clear that spasm could produce clinical myocardial ischemia in workers after withdrawal from long-term industrial exposure to nitroglycerin (8) and, in patients with Prinzmetal' s variant angina, during episodes of chest pain at rest (9). These observations were followed by a flurry of studies and reports documenting some role for spasm in the broad spectrum of ischemic heart disease ( 10) or proposing it as the key mechanism underlying myo• cardial infarction (II). However, in the early 1980s coro• nary angiography, performed in the acute phases of infarc-
Microbial community genomics in the ocean

Marine microbial communities were among the first microbial communities to be studied using cultivation-independent genomic approaches. Ocean-going genomic studies are now providing a more comprehensive description of the organisms and processes that shape microbial community structure, function and dynamics in the sea. Through the lens of microbial community genomics, a more comprehensive view of uncultivated microbial species, gene and biochemical pathway distributions, and naturally occurring genomic variability is being brought into sharper focus. Besides providing new perspectives on oceanic microbial communities, these new studies are now poised to reveal the fundamental principles that drive microbial ecological and evolutionary processes.
Interpreting the Old and Middle English close vowels

Abstract In a series of publications, including volumes two and three of the Cambridge History of the English Language, Roger Lass has advanced the view that the short vowels spelled and were phonetically [i], [u] in Old and Middle English, and that their modern values [ i ] and [ʊ] developed after the middle of the seventeenth century. This position forces him to propose a simultaneous lowering and lengthening rule for the Middle English short high vowels which undergo Open Syllable Lengthening. We argue that there are no obstacles to reconstructing [ i ] [ʊ] for Old English, that positing a simultaneous lowering and lengthening of the short high vowels in Middle English is an unnecessary contrivance, and that the lengthened [ i ] [ʊ] did not lower, but rather merged with the raised reflexes of ME [e:] and [o:].
Delay in diagnosis of soft tissue sarcomas

Abstract Aim: We reviewed 100 patients referred with soft tissue sarcoma between May 1999 to determine doctor- and patient-related delay. Methods: Patient delay is defined as longer than one month from first symptoms till doctor's visit, doctor delay as longer than one month from first visit till definitive diagnosis. Sixty-eight patients had a multifactional delay. Results: Forty-seven patients showed patient delay, with a median patient delay of 4 months, ranging from 2 to 240 months. The main reason for this delay is a painless mass that is mostly ignored. When pain is present, median patient delay is shorter. Twenty-seven patients experienced doctor delay, ranging from 2 to 79 months, with a median of 6 months. The most frequent reason was a misdiagnosis from the outset, on a clinical basis only, or due to a wrong diagnosis on ultrasound. Only two of these 27 patients had a biopsy, showing a benign tumour. High grade tumours are diagnosed earlier, 85% within 6 months. Conclusions: Delay in diagnosis of soft tissue sarcomas is still a problem requiring better patient and doctor education.
Protein S deficiency and skin necrosis associated with continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis

Skin necrosis associated with protein C deficiency has recently been reported to occur in hemodialysis patients. The clinical presentation and course of this syndrome appears indistinguishable from skin necrosis (purpura fulminans) seen in other settings with inherited or acquired deficiency of the naturally occurring anticoagulant proteins, protein C and S. Patients on maintenance hemodialysis may have low levels of these factors. However, patients on peritoneal dialysis have normal or elevated levels of these proteins despite documented peritoneal losses. We report two patients in whom the occurrence of protein S deficiency and subsequent skin necrosis can be related to demonstrated peritoneal dialysis-associated losses. We suggest that these losses may become critical under appropriate conditions and suggest caution in peritoneal dialysis patients requiring warfarin therapy.
An epistaxis severity score for hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia

Objectives/Hypothesis: Hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT)-related epistaxis leads to alterations in social functioning and quality of life. Although more than 95% experience epistaxis, there is considerable variability of severity. Because no standardized method exists to measure epistaxis severity, the purpose of this study was to determine factors associated with patient-reported severity to develop a severity score. Study Design: Prospective, survey-based study. Methods: HHT care providers and a focus group of patients were interviewed to determine epistaxis-associated factors. From this, an electronic survey was developed and administered to patients with HHT. Descriptive analyses were performed with calculations of means and medians for continuous and proportions for categorical variables. Multiple ordinal logistic and linear regression models were developed to determine risk factors for epistaxis severity. Results: Nine hundred respondents from 21 countries were included. Eight hundred fifty-five (95%) subjects reported epistaxis. The mean (standard deviation) age was 52.1 (13.9) years, and 61.4% were female. Independently associated risk factors for self-reported epistaxis severity included epistaxis frequency (odds ratio [OR] 1.57), duration (OR 2.17), intensity (OR 2.45), need for transfusion (OR 2.74), anemia (OR 1.44), and aggressiveness of treatment required (OR 1.53, P < .001 for all). Conclusions: Risk factors for increasing epistaxis severity in patients with HHT include frequency, duration, and intensity of episodes; invasiveness of prior therapy required to stop epistaxis; anemia; and the need for blood transfusion. From these factors, an epistaxis severity score will be presented. Laryngoscope, 2010
Electronic reminders for cancer prevention: Factors associated with preference for automated voice reminders or text messages

Abstract Objective Prompting may promote engagement with behavior change interventions. Prompts can be delivered inexpensively via automated voice response (AVR) reminders or short message service (SMS) text messages. We examined the association between participants' characteristics and preferred reminder modality. Methods Healthy Directions 2 is a cluster randomized controlled trial implemented in Boston, Massachusetts to promote change in multiple behavioral cancer risk factors. At baseline (2009), participants completed a survey assessing socio-demographics, health status, height/weight, and factors associated with technology. One-third of participants randomized to receive the intervention (n = 598) were randomized to receive automated reminders, with participants selecting modality. Results 28% (167/598) of participants selected SMS reminders. Controlling for clustering by primary care provider, younger participants (OR = 0.97, 95% CI = (0.95, 0.99), p Conclusions Interventions should make both modalities available to ensure that more participants can benefit from prompting. Studies examining the effect of automated reminders may have reduced effectiveness or generalizability if they employ only one modality.
Automatic delineation of Gd enhancements on magnetic resonance images in multiple sclerosis.

A method for automatic identification and delineation of contrast-enhanced multiple sclerosis (MS) lesions on brainmagnetic resonanceimages is described. This method relies on adaptive local segmentation derived from the morphological “open” and “reconstruction” operations on gray scale images for identification of both lesion and nonlesion enhancements. Nonlesion enhancements from vasculature and extrameningeal tissues are identified by exploiting their topologic relationship to the brain mask. Enhancing structures without a blood–brain-barrier, such as choroid plexus, are identified and eliminated by spatially mapping the locations of the MS lesions visualized on dual echo images onto the post-contrast images. Delineation of enhancements is realized using fuzzy connectivity. Both the detection and delineation results are validated using statistical methods.
QUAID: a questionnaire evaluation aid for survey methodologists.

QUAID (question-understanding aid) is a software tool that assists survey methodologists, social scientists, and designers of questionnaires in improving the wording, syntax, and semantics of questions. The tool identifies potential problems that respondents might have in comprehending the meaning of questions on questionnaires. These problems can be scrutinized by researchers when they revise questions to improve question comprehension and, thereby, enhance the reliability and validity of answers. QUAID was designed to identify nine classes of problems, but only five of these problems are addressed in this article: unfamiliar technical term, vague or imprecise relative term, vague or ambiguous noun phrase, complex syntax, and working memory overload. We compared the output of QUAID with ratings of language experts who evaluated a corpus of questions on the five classes of problems. The corpus consisted of 505 questions on 11 surveys developed by the U.S. Census Bureau. Analyses of hit rates, false alarm rates, d' scores, recall scores, and precision scores revealed that QUAID was able to identify these five problems with questions, although improvements in QUAID's performance are anticipated in future research and development.
Computed tomography of lymphogranuloma venereum mimicking cervical cancer

A case of lymphogranuloma venereum involving the cervix as a primary site is discussed. The patient's clinical presentation and findings on tomography were suggestive of carcinoma of the cervix. The differential diagnosis of retroperitoneal pelvic lymphadenopathy is discussed.
Attentional Control Activation Relates to Working Memory in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Background Attentional control difficulties in individuals with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) might reflect poor working memory (WM) ability, especially because WM ability and attentional control rely on similar brain regions. The current study examined whether WM ability might explain group differences in brain activation between adults with ADHD and normal control subjects during attentional demand. Methods Participants were 20 adults with ADHD combined subtype with no comorbid psychiatric or learning disorders and 23 control subjects similar in age, IQ, and gender. The WM measures were obtained from the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III and Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised. Brain activation was assessed with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while performing a Color-Word Stroop task. Results Group differences in WM ability explained a portion of the activation in left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), which has been related to the creation and maintenance of an attentional set for task-relevant information. In addition, greater WM ability predicted increased activation of brain regions related to stimulus-driven attention and response selection processes in the ADHD group but not in the control group. Conclusions The inability to maintain an appropriate task set in young adults with combined type ADHD, associated with decreased activity in left DLPFC, might in part be due to poor WM ability. Furthermore, in individuals with ADHD, higher WM ability might relate to increased recruitment of stimulus-driven attention and response selection processes, perhaps as a compensatory strategy.
Some properties of polar substances: A survey

The current understanding of the macroscopic (bulk) properties of polar substances in terms of molecular theory, or the correlation of them in terms of corresponding-states principles is summarized.
The differential regulation of the synthesis of ribosomal RNA, 5 S RNA, and 4 S RNA in the polytenic salivary gland cells of the blowfly, Calliphora erythrocephala☆

Abstract Third-instar larvae of the blowfly Calliphora erythrocephala were injected with [2- 3 H]adenosine, and its flow into the salivary gland ATP pool and each of several electrophoretically resolved salivary gland RNA species were quantitated. From these data, the individual in vivo rates of synthesis, accumulation, and processing of salivary gland ribosomal RNA (rRNA), 4 S RNA, and 5 S RNA have been measured at several different developmental stages. These results indicate that the synthesis of 5 S RNA and rRNA are coordinate, developmentally regulated, and independent of the synthesis of 4 S RNA. A nonribosomal, heterodisperse RNA component (hdRNA) was also identified. This species contributes to both the rapidly turning over pulse-labeled RNA and the accumulating pulse-labeled RNA populations. Indirect measurements suggest that the developmental pattern of regulation of this RNA species is also independent of 5 S RNA and rRNA synthesis. The rate of synthesis and accumulation of each of these RNA species either remained constant or declined during the first three-fourths of the instar, despite a six- to sevenfold increase in the content of cellular DNA.
Ex-MATE: Data Intensive Computing with Large Reduction Objects and Its Application to Graph Mining

Map-reduce framework has been widely used as the infrastructure for processing large-scale datasets in various domains. Recent work has shown that an alternate API MATE(Mapreduce with an Alternate API), where a reduction object is explicitly maintained and updated, reduces memory requirements and can significantly improve performance for many applications. However, unlike the original API, support for the alternate API has been restricted to the cases where the reduction object can fit in the memory. This limits the applicability of the MATE approach. Particularly, one emerging class of applications that require support for large reduction objects are the graph mining applications. This paper describes a system, Extended MATE or Ex-MATE, which supports this alternate API with reduction objects of arbitrary sizes. We develop support for managing disk-resident reduction objects and updating them efficiently. We evaluate our system using three graph mining applications and compare its performance to that of PEGASUS, a graph mining system implemented based on the original map-reduce API and its Hadoop implementation. Our results on a cluster with 128 cores show that for all three applications, our system outperforms PEGASUS, by factors ranging between 9 and 35.
Electrostatic separators for insulating fluids

Electrostatic separators have been used in purifying hydraulic fluids, fuels, petroleum refining and coal liquefaction streams, lubricating oils, and other insulating liquids. The designs, applications, and separation efficiencies of these separators are discussed. The separators are categorized as employing either spatially uniform or nonuniform electrical fields, or electrical fields in conjunction with other physical separation techniques. They require low inlet pressures, draw low current, and are resistant to plugging. They are rugged, allowing use in high-temperature and -pressure applications. Many designs allow continuous or semicontinuous operation. Electrostatic separators can separate particles of similar density, shape and size by differences in electrical properties. >
Early synthesis of budded virus envelope fusion protein gp64 enhances Autographa californica multicapsid nucleopolyhedrovirus virulence in orally infected Heliothis virescens

Autographa californica multicapsid nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcMNPV), the type species of the Nucleopolyhedrovirus genus (Baculoviridae family), has two highly unusual traits shared by several baculovirus species. First, the occlusion-derived virus (ODV) that establishes primary infection in the midgut following its ingestion by host larvae contains multiple nucleocapsids, all of which enter the same midgut cell. Second, GP64, the envelope fusion protein of the budded virus (BV) that spreads infection beyond the midgut, is synthesized both early and late during infection. We tested the hypothesis that, together, these two traits enable parental ODV nucleocapsids to bud from infected midgut cells, essentially as BV, to establish secondary infections prior to completion of viral replication within the midgut. This “pass-through” strategy would enable the virus to counter the host's principal defense, sloughing of infected midgut cells, by accelerating the onset of systemic infections. To test this hypothesis, we created an AcMNPV recombinant, AcLate21/20-64HB, that can express gp64 only during the late phase of infection (coincident with the other structural proteins). We then compared the virulence of this virus to that of a control recombinant virus that expresses gp64 in a wild-type manner. We found that when administered orally, the control virus was far more virulent and established secondary infection earlier than AcLate21/20-64HB, but when administered intrahemocoelically, infectivity and virulence of the two recombinants were identical. Our results demonstrate that early gp64 expression is a key component of a unique and highly adaptive baculovirus infection strategy.
One Health: the case of human exposure to cyanobacterial toxins in natural and built environments

One Health is the combination of multidisciplinary efforts and expertise from the fields of medicine and science to determine environmental factors that affect human, animal, plant and microbial health in natural and built environments. The One Health initiative has gained momentum in recent decades, yet it has its roots of inception at the beginning of Western medicine when Hippocrates realized that human and ecosystem health are intrinsically connected and should not be considered in isolation.Our studies focus on cyanobacteria and how their abundance and toxin production are affected by unique climatological attributes of the desert, as well as anthropogenic influences and practices. We have determined that cyanobacterial crusts and mats can cover up to 87% of the terrestrial and coastal surface of Qatar, contributing to ecosystem health by preventing soil and coastal sediment erosion and enhancing rain water retention allowing for plant proliferation.Cyanobacteria negatively impact human and ecosystem...
Sexual Behavior in China: Trends and Comparisons

In 2000 the first national probability survey of adult sexual behavior in China was completed. We use these data to address three questions. First has there been a revolution in sexual behavior in China? We examine eight trends covering two markers of change: a) the onset of sexual behavior (puberty masturbation age at first sex and marriage premarital sex) and b) commodification of sex (use of pornographic materials and commercial sex) and concurrent sex. We present a historical overview of previous studies and analyze findings from the national survey. Second is China unique in these transformations? We seek to situate findings pointing to a sexual revolution in China within a regional and global context considering whether China is different or follows patterns similar to those in other parts of the world. Third what are the implications of these findings for Chinas risk of a generalized HIV epidemic? As suggestive of possible future disease patterns we examine results from urine samples for the sexually transmitted infection chlamydia trachomatis - a potential co-factor of HIV. Although sexual behavior retains some distinctly Chinese characteristics our survey data demonstrate that a sexual revolution is occurring in China reflected by the fact that the sexual behavior of the countrys post open-door generation differs markedly from that of earlier generations. (excerpt)
Disruption of the serine proteinase gene (sep) in Aspergillus flavus leads to a compensatory increase in the expression of a metalloproteinase gene (mep20).

The serine proteinase gene (sep) in Aspergillus flavus was disrupted by homologous recombination with a hygromycin resistance gene as the marker. The gene-disrupted mutant GR-2 contained a single-copy insertion of the marker gene and did not express the sep gene. Serine proteinase activity, 36-kDa protein labeled by 3H-diisopropylfluorophosphate, and immunologically detectable proteinase were not detected in the culture fluid of GR-2. Despite the absence of the serine proteinase, the total elastinolytic activity levels in the mutant and the wild-type A.flavus were comparable. Immunoblots revealed that the mutant secreted greater amounts of an elastinolytic metalloproteinase gene (mep20) product than did the wild type. Furthermore, mep20 mRNA levels, measured by RNase protection assay, in the mutant were higher than those in the wild type. Inhibition of the serine proteinase by Streptomyces subtilisin inhibitor (SSI) in the culture medium of wild-type A.flavus also resulted in an elevation of mep20 gene products. Although no serine proteinase activity could be detected, the level of elastinolytic activity of the SSI-treated culture was comparable to that of the control. Immunoblots revealed that the addition of SSI caused an elevation in the levels of metalloproteinase and its mRNA. These results suggest that the expression of the genes encoding serine and metalloproteinases are controlled by a common regulatory system and the fungus has a mechanism to sense the status of extracellular proteolytic activities.
Reactive asymmetry of methyl iodide: crossed beam study of the reaction of Rb with oriented CH3I molecules

Methyl iodide reacted with Rb measured for reactive asymmetry as function of scattering angle and degree of alignment
Surgery of the skull base by 3 pioneering 19th-century Italian surgeons--a surgical subspecialty that has been around for a long time.

eviewing the history of a subject and in particular reviewing surgical history often provides new enlightenR ment on how advanced in thinking were our surgical forefathers. When looking back at 19th-century surgical techniques, and in particular looking at the first half of the 19th century, it was clearly quite challenging to have been a surgical patient about to undergo a “speedy” and extremely painful surgery. Surgical anesthesia and “painless” surgery only came about in the mid-1840s and then notwidely adopted until the late 1850s.When reviewing the careers of the 3 surgeons, T. Vanzetti, D. Giordano, and F. Durante, only the last 2 had surgical anesthesia, that is, “painless surgery” available, Vanzetti did not. For a surgeon to even begin to think of doing extensive skull base surgery, this individual would need to be able to provide the patient with a “painless state” and this state would need to be maintained throughout the surgery. For the surgeon of the 21st century, these concepts of painless surgery are not even an issue but in the 19th century this was not the case. Themedications used, for example, ether and chloroform, were often hard to control, leading to death during the surgery from overdosing in a number of cases. This perspective is extremely important to keep in mind, simply becausesurgeonswereundertaking somevery complex surgeries and in particular also developing complex surgical approaches to the skull base.
Outcomes of Children Treated With Tracheostomy and Positive-Pressure Ventilation at Home

Background. Long-term outcomes for children who survive on tracheostomy and positive-pressure ventilation (TPPV) at home are not well known. Methods. A retrospective review of 20 years of clinical data at a single institution was performed. Outcome measures included 5-year survival, decannulation rate, and neurocognition. Results. A total of 91 children were categorized under neuromotor dysfunction (52%), chronic lung disease (29%), and congenital anomalies (20%). The 5-year survival rates for these categories were 89% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 80%-99%), 76% (95% CI = 57%-100%), and 94% (95% CI = 83%-100%), respectively. Overall, the 5-year decannulation rate was 25% (95% CI = 14%-35%), with children with chronic lung disease having the highest rate (51%). It was found that 14% were extremely delayed in neurocognition. Conclusion. Most children on TPPV at home survive beyond 5 years, and a significant number are decannulated. Primary care physicians and communities should be prepared to accommodate ...
Tubulin Posttranslational Modifications: A Pushmi-Pullyu at Work?

Numerous posttranslational modifications alter surface-exposed residues of tubulin within stable microtubules. The significance of one modification, glycylation, characteristic of ciliary and flagellar microtubules, has been particularly elusive. Two groups now identify the glycylation enzymes and determine the developmental consequences of their depletion. Glycylation enzymes and those responsible for another modification, glutamylation, work in opposition to one another in modifying microtubules.
The effects of surface texture on the slider steady state flying characteristics of pico sliders

Recent experimental studies of textured sliders concentrated on the tribological properties of textured sliders. In this study, the steady state flying behavior of textured sliders is investigated using numerical simulation. The effect of slider texture is studied in terms of texture size, texture position and cross-section shape of texture.
Windows operating systems agnostic memory analysis

Memory analysis is an integral part of any computer forensic investigation, providing access to volatile data not found on a drive image. While memory analysis has recently made significant progress, it is still hampered by hard-coded tools that cannot generalize beyond the specific operating system and version they were developed for. This paper proposes using the debug structures embedded in memory dumps and Microsoft's program database (PDB) files to create a flexible tool that takes an arbitrary memory dump from any of the family of Windows NT operating systems and extract process, configuration, and network activity information. The debug structures and PDB files are incorporated into a memory analysis tool and tested against dumps from 32-bit Windows XP with physical address extensions (PAE) enabled and disabled, 32-bit Windows Vista with PAE enabled, and 64-bit Windows 7 systems. The results show the analysis tool is able to identify and parse an arbitrary memory dump and extract process, registry, and network communication information.
The inflammasome in pathogen recognition and inflammation

The nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-like receptor (NLR) family of proteins is involved in the regulation of innate immune responses and cell death pathways. Some NLR family members promote the activation of proinflammatory caspases within multiprotein complexes, called inflammasomes. Recent studies analyzing mice deficient in various components of the inflammasome have provided insight into the role of these molecules in host defense against pathogens and in autoinflammatory disorders. Here, we review these studies and propose that membrane disruption leads to activation of the inflammasome.
Nonlinear Muscle Length-Tension Curves Affect the Control of Electrically Stimulated Antagonist Muscles

Robust controller designs for electrically stimulated muscle systems critically depend on muscle nonlinearites. Experimental and mathematical modelling results are presented which demonstrate that nonlinear muscle length-tension curves cause magnitude dependent stability conditions for proportional closed-loop positioning systems. These results have applications to the design of clinical neural prostheses for returning function to spinal cord injured persons.
Contribution of increased VEGF receptors to hypoxic changes in fetal ovine carotid artery contractile proteins.

Recent studies suggest that vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) can modulate smooth muscle phenotype and, consequently, the composition and function of arteries upstream from the microcircula...
Packing and temporary closure in a liver injury

As a component of a staged laparotomy for trauma, perihepatic packing can be lifesaving in the patient with exsanguinating liver injury who, due to hypothermia and coagulopathy, is unable to tolerate a more extensive procedure. However, if intra-abdominal pressure increases, the manoeuvre has been reported to compromise cardiopulmonary stability. Patients who suffer the adverse consequences of intra-abdominal hypertension are commonly managed with a loose temporary closure, frequently using an artificial material to bridge the skin defect across the incision. A case is reported where these two seemingly contradictory options were combined to achieve a successful outcome.
Direct and Octave-Shifted Pitch Matching During Nonword Imitations in Men, Women, and Children

Summary Objectives To evaluate whether children, women, and men match the speaker's fundamental frequency (F0) during nonword imitation directly when the target F0 is within the responders' vocal ranges and at octave-shifted levels when the target is outside their vocal ranges, and to evaluate the role of a history of speech sound disorder (SSD) in the adult participants. Study Design Observational. Methods Nonword sets spoken by a man and a woman were imitated by 14 men, 21 women, and 19 children. Approximately half of the adults and two-thirds of the children had a history of SSD. F0 in the imitations was compared with that in the targets and in the participants' nonimitated control word productions. Results When the target F0 was within the responders' vocal ranges, the imitations approximated the target F0. Men imitating a woman's voice approximated F0 levels one octave below the target F0. Children imitating a man's voice approximated F0 levels one octave above the target F0. Women imitating a man's voice approximated the target F0 at a ratio of 1.5 known as the perfect fifth in music. A history of SSD did not influence the results. Conclusions This study replicates previous findings showing that target F0 was a salient aspect of the stimuli that was imitated along with the targets' segmental and prosodic components without explicit prompting. It is the first to show F0 convergence not only directly but also at relevant target/imitation intervals including the octave interval.