cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Monitoring human neuromusculoskeletal system performance during spacesuit glove use: A pilot study

This paper presents an application of system-based modeling to monitor the performance of the human neuromusculoskeletal (NMS) system during spacesuit glove use. Autoregressive moving average models with exogenous inputs (ARMAX) were used to characterize the dynamics of the NMS system and track its changes over time during two types of fatiguing tasks: isometric grasping and repetitive opening and closing of the hand. Features extracted from the joint time-frequency distributions of surface electromyography (sEMG) signals, collected from flexor and extensor muscles of the forearm, were inputs to the ARMAX models. Biomechanical data, either hand grip force or fingertip displacement, were outputs to the model. A quantitative metric that compares one-step ahead prediction errors of the model over time, called the Freshness Similarity Index (FSI), was utilized to track the rate at which an individual's NMS system behavior diverges over the course of the fatiguing tasks. Data collected from a single subject was employed to validate the monitoring methodology. Results showed that the FSI displayed statistically significant increasing trends for each of the tasks performed, indicating the growing dissimilarity between the subject's NMS system at a rested state and subsequent periods throughout the test. Furthermore, trends in the FSI exhibited consistency across multiple days of testing, the resolving power to distinguish differences in prescribed work load and glove features, and the ability to identify the accumulation of residual fatigue from consecutive trials of a task. As such, the FSI metric clearly characterized the rate at which the individual's performance degraded over time and succinctly represented the manifestation of fatigue. With impending plans for planetary and lunar explorations on the horizon, tracking an astronaut's physiological status will be essential for ensuring mission safety and success. Thus, the presented methodology, which successfully demonstrated the capacity to detect changes in an individual's performance while wearing a spacesuit glove, could be extended to assess full-body health status in real-time, identify the onset of abnormal or degraded performance, and evaluate fitness-for-duty during manned space exploration.
Ein Dekompositionsprinzip für lineare Programme

Zur Einfuhrung in eine typische Situation, bei der sich die Anwendung des Dekompositionprinzips empfiehlt, betrachte man das Problem eines Managers in einem Unternehmen mit zwei fast unabhangigen Betrieben. Innerhalb jedes Betriebes gibt es viele Restriktionen, die durch die Aktivitaten des anderen Betriebes nicht beruhrt werden, aber es gibt einige wenige Restriktionen und ein gemeinsames Ziel, durch das die zwei Betriebe verbunden sind.
Regulation of the Levels of mRNA for Glucose-6-phosphate Dehydrogenase and Its Rate of Translation in the Uterus by Estradiol

The enzyme glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) catalyzes the oxidation of D-glucose-6-phosphate to 6-phospho-D-gluconolactone with the simultaneous reduction of NADP+ to NADPH. The enzyme is the first in the pentose phosphate pathway (hexose monophosphate shunt), which produces pentose phosphates used for nucleotide and nucleic acid synthesis, and reducing equivalents in the form of NADPH for use in biosynthetic reduction reactions, including fatty acid synthesis and hydroxlations. G6PD has been purified and characterized from the tissue cytosols of several mammalian species, including human erythrocytes, rat mammary gland, rat and mouse liver, and bovine adrenal cortex (Bonsignore and DeFlora, 1972; Levy, 1979). In general, the enzymes from these sources are “similar” and are composed of subunits that, by immunological and molecular weight criteria, may be identical proteins within a species. The monomeric subunits have a molecular weight of about 60,000, based on their rate of migration on SDS-polyacrylamide gels. The monomers are catalytically inactive. In the presence of NADP+, the inactive monomers form a catalytically active dimer containing 1 or perhaps 2 moles of NADP+ per mole of dimer; at reduced ionic strength and pH, and in the presence of Mg2+, the dimers aggregate to form tetramers and hexamers.
Resolution of Singularities

Introduction Non-singularity and resolution of singularities Curve singularities Resolution type theorems Surface singularities Resolution of singularities in characteristic zero Resolution of surfaces in positive characteristic Local uniformization and resolution of surfaces Ramification of valuations and simultaneous resolution Smoothness and non-singularity Bibliography Index.
CASE HISTORY: EARTH SHELTERED HOUSE IN VERSAILLES, MISSOURI

ABSTRACT Solar energy and earth embankment are two design considerations for reducing the energy input to heating a residence. This report describes how three supplemental heating systems interact with solar energy as a primary heat source. The three supplemental heat systems were (1) electric resistance, (2) heat pump, and (3) wood stove. The electric heating elements were used to calibrate the house energy use as a function of ambient outdoor temperature (degree day). Then, following a schedule developed by the Rural Housing Research Unit, a 16-week testing period was divided into four one-week cycles. One week of each cycle represented the operation of each of four modes in which different heating systems were used. The house thermostat was set at 70°F. It was determined that more energy was necessary to heat the house on cloudy days than on sunny days. The electric heating elements and the heat pump kept the house close to the desired temperature. However, they were the most expensive to operate. The solar system and the wood stove, although less expensive to operate, created significant temperature swings above 70°F in the house. This was due to their uncontrollability, and had these systems been more controllable, these economic benefits would have been many times greater.
Piccolo: building fast, distributed programs with partitioned tables

Piccolo is a new data-centric programming model for writing parallel in-memory applications in data centers. Unlike existing data-flow models, Piccolo allows computation running on different machines to share distributed, mutable state via a key-value table interface. Piccolo enables efficient application implementations. In particular, applications can specify locality policies to exploit the locality of shared state access and Piccolo's run-time automatically resolves write-write conflicts using user-defined accumulation functions.Using Piccolo, we have implemented applications for several problem domains, including the PageRank algorithm, k-means clustering and a distributed crawler. Experiments using 100 Amazon EC2 instances and a 12 machine cluster show Piccolo to be faster than existing data flow models for many problems, while providing similar fault-tolerance guarantees and a convenient programming interface.
Investigation by the ASCE Committee (Francis et al. 1891) and the Fate of their Report

A committee of four ASCE members visited the South Fork dam, took measurements, interviewed residents, and wrote a detailed report. Their state-of-the-art report was completed seven months after the disaster but was then sealed. Its publication was prevented or delayed by three Presidents of ASCE: Max Becker, William Shinn, and Octave Chanute. They were mainly railroad and steel men. Shinn was a former managing partner of Andrew Carnegie at the Edgar Thompson works - the investigation report remained sealed for his entire term as President. Chanute is best remembered today for his innovative research in aeronautics and later association with the Wright brothers. Five months into Chanute’s term, and two years after the flood, the long-awaited investigation report became public during the Chattanooga Convention in 1891. But three of the committee members stayed away, leaving James Francis alone to present the report.
MPC-Based Variable Speed Limit and its Impact on Traffic with V2I Type ACC

Previous microscopic simulation work of [1] intended to maximize freeway bottleneck flow using Variable Speed Limit (VSL) determined by simple feedback control at the most downstream bottleneck. VSL in other sections upstream are simply determined by distance-based interpolation. The main contributions of this paper are: (a) to expand the feedback control approaches at the most downstream bottleneck; (b) to determine the VSL in other upstream sections through a Model Predictive Control (MPC) with a 2nd order METANET model; (c) Vehicle-to-Infrastructure-to (V2I) ACC (Adaptive Cruise Control) vehicles and their interaction with other traffic are modeled in the simulation, which use the VSL as set-speed for control to exclude driver behavior; and (d) the impact on traffic throughput has been simulated for several levels market penetration of ACC vehicles. Microscopic simulation has been conducted using a previously calibrated Aimsun network model of 1–66 inside the Capital Beltway. Simulation results showed improvement in several aspects including: Total Travel Time, Total Travel Distance, Total Delay, Speed Variation, and flow at bottlenecks. Overall traffic has also been improved compared to the previous approach in [1].
Body Composition and Visceral Adipose Tissue in Female Collegiate Equestrian Athletes.

To examine measures of total and regional body composition using dual X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) in NCAA Division I collegiate equestrian athletes, 31 female collegiate equestrian athletes were matched to a population of normal controls by age and body mass index. Total and regional fat tissue mass (FM), lean tissue mass (LM), bone mineral density (BMD), and abdominal visceral adipose tissue (VAT) were measured by DXA. Equestrian athletes had a significantly (p=0.03) lower total body fat percentage (%fat) than controls. There were no significant differences in total LM and VAT between equestrian athletes and controls. However, equestrian athletes, when compared to the controls, had significantly lower leg %fat, leg FM and higher leg LM. The greater leg LM in equestrian riders resulted in a smaller upper to lower body LM ratio compared to controls. There was no difference in leg BMD between equestrian athletes and controls. There were no significant differences between the 2 styles of riding (i. e., hunt seat and western style) in regards to body composition. The lower total %fat in equestrian athletes seems to be influenced by differences in leg composition, with equestrian athletes having significantly more LM and less FM.
Bistability in thermomechanical metamaterials structured as three-dimensional composite tetrahedra

Abstract The letter begins with the thermomechanical model of a three degree-of-freedom tetrahedral unit cell subject to cycles of heating and cooling. Geometric nonlinearity, mechanical constraint and dissimilar material properties of thermoelastic elements lead to a build-up of thermally-driven stored strain energy as dictated by the thermomechanical potential. For certain geometric configurations and combinations of material properties in the composite structure, the solution bifurcates at a critical thermal load causing a discontinuous buckling or ‘pop-through’ of the interior triad. Interestingly, if the pop-through action coincides with an abrupt inward displacement of the tetrahedral vertices then the effective volume of the unit cell shrinks. The phenomenon is termed negative ‘intermittent’ volumetric thermal expansion. In total, six types of thermal load–response curves are identified. By systematic nonlinear analysis of the thermomechanical potential, the stability diagram and phase diagram pinpoint the locations of bifurcations, cusps and features that mark a shifts in hysteretic behavior. The diagrams map the thermomechanical response to the design of the unit cell. A region is identified in the phase diagram corresponding to the sets of design parameters that lead to the metamaterial response.
Innate immunological memory: from plants to animals

Immunological memory is defined by the ability of the host to recognise and mount a robust secondary response against a previously encountered pathogen. Classic immune memory is an evolutionary adaptation of the vertebrate immune system that has been attributed to adaptive lymphocytes, including T and B cells. In contrast, the innate immune system was known for its conserved, non-specific roles in rapid host defence, but historically was considered to be unable to generate memory. Recent studies have challenged our understanding of innate immunity and now provides a growing body of evidence for innate immune memory. However, in many species and in various cell types the underlying mechanisms of immune 'memory' formation remain poorly understood. The purpose of this review is to explore and summarise the emerging evidence for immunological 'memory' in plants, invertebrates, and vertebrates.
Associations of Novel Dietary and Lifestyle Inflammation Scores With Incident Colorectal Cancer in the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study.

Background Chronically higher inflammation, likely contributed to by dietary and lifestyle exposures, may increase risk for colorectal cancer (CRC). To address this, we investigated associations of novel dietary (DIS) and lifestyle (LIS) inflammation scores with incident CRC in the prospective National Institutes of Health-American Association of Retired Persons Diet and Health Study (N = 453 465). Methods The components of our previously developed and externally validated 19-component DIS and 4-component LIS were weighted based on their strengths of associations with a panel of circulating inflammation biomarker concentrations in a diverse subset (N = 639) of participants in the REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke Study cohort. We calculated the components and applied their weights in the National Institutes of Health-American Association of Retired Persons cohort at baseline, summed the weighted components (higher scores reflect a higher balance of proinflammatory exposures), and investigated associations of the scores with incident CRC using Cox proportional hazards regression. All statistical tests were two-sided. Results Over a mean 13.5 years of follow-up, 10 336 participants were diagnosed with CRC. Among those in the highest relative to the lowest DIS and LIS quintiles, the multivariable-adjusted hazards ratios (HRs) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were HR = 1.27 (95% CI = 1.19 to 1.35; Ptrend < .001) and 1.38 (95% CI = 1.30 to 1.48; Ptrend < .001), respectively. The associations were stronger among men and for colon cancers. The hazards ratio for those in the highest relative to the lowest joint DIS and LIS quintile was HR = 1.83 (95% CI = 1.68 to 1.99; Pinteraction < .001). Conclusions Aggregates of proinflammatory dietary and lifestyle exposures may be associated with higher risk for CRC.
Political Punishment and Financial Safety Nets: Evidence from India's Demonetization

We analyze the electoral consequences of India’s 2016 ‘demonetization’: a unique policy that unexpectedly made 86% of the currency-in-circulation redundant overnight, and led to severe cash shortages in the subsequent months. We leverage a discontinuity in the number of bank branches arising from a nationwide district-level bank expansion policy, instituted by the previous government in 2005. We first document that the impacts of the branch-expansion policy around the cut-off were meaningful: areas just above the cut-off had fewer bank branches, less outstanding credit, and households were less likely to report having bank accounts. Importantly, these effects strongly persisted in 2016, when the demonetization policy was instituted. As districts with fewer banks had greater cash shortages, we identify the impacts of demonetization at the bank-expansion cut-off. Regression discontinuity estimates show that following demonetization, places with fewer banks had lower economic activity, as measured by nighttime lights, and voters reported having less favorable views on demonetization. Using electoral data and a difference-in-discontinuity design, we find that in elections following demonetization, the ruling party did relatively worse in regions with discontinuously fewer banks, receiving a 4.7 percentage point lower fraction of votes. We finally show that voters that were historically strongly aligned with the ruling party, are nearly unresponsive in voting behavior, despite having a less favorable view of the policy itself.
MELD-XI is predictive of mortality in venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.

BACKGROUND Venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA-ECMO) is a life-saving method of supporting critically ill patients. However, it is expensive and associated with high morbidity and mortality, making early predictive outcome modeling extremely valuable. The model for end-stage liver disease-excluding international normalized ratio (MELD-XI) scoring system has been shown to have prognostic value in other critically ill patient populations. MATERIALS AND METHODS A single-center retrospective review was performed for all adult patients managed on VA-ECMO from May 2011 to January 2018 (n = 247). Patients were included in the study if MELD-XI scores could be calculated during the first 48 hours on ECMO (n = 187). Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was performed for MELD-XI in regard to in-hospital mortality. RESULTS Of the 187 patients, 74 (40%) patients had MELD-XI less than 14 (low-risk) and 113 (60%) had a MELD-XI of 14 or greater (high-risk). The cohorts did not differ significantly in terms of patient characteristics or indication for ECMO. The high-risk MELD-XI group had significantly greater mortality during index hospitalization compared to the low-risk group (74% vs 39%; P < .0001). Quartile stratification demonstrated progressively worse prognosis associated with higher MELD-XI scores; the fourth quartile showed a ninefold increased risk of mortality compared to the first quartile (P < .001). The AUC for predicting index hospitalization mortality was 0.69 (95% CI, 0.62-0.77) with a Youden index (J) of 0.36 and optimized cutoff of 12.98. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that the MELD-XI scoring system can be applied to the VA-ECMO patient population early in their course of ECMO as a prognostic tool to aid in complex clinical decision making.
The impact of mobile customer relationship management (mCRM) on sales collaboration and sales performance

In our study, a measure of Mobile CRM (mCRM) is adapted and applied to salespeople in a business-to-business sales context. We propose a research model that integrates Technology Acceptance Model and DeLone and McLean’s IS success model to investigate the impact mCRM has on sales performance. Relationships with sales business process, traditional CRM use, collaboration and sales performance are conceptualized and tested. Results suggest that sales performance is highest when digital tools such as mCRM are supported by sales process. Results also suggest that mCRM impacts the relationship performance with customers when collaboration mediates the relationship. Overall, the research empirically demonstrates that mCRM plays an important role in traditional CRM adoption and in sales performance when sales process capabilities and collaboration are involved.
A Systematic Review of The Semantic Vigilance Literature

The present study sought to review and summarize the extant literature on semantic vigilance, or lexical vigilance, to benchmark the performance, stress, and workload associated with such tasks. Th...
Forecasting COVID-19 Number of Cases by Implementing ARIMA and SARIMA with Grid Search in the United States

COVID-19 has surged in the United States since January 2020. Since then, social distancing and lockdown have helped many people to avoid infectious diseases. However, this did not help the upswing of the number of cases after the lockdown was finished. Modeling the infectious disease can help the health care providers and governors to plan ahead for obtain the needed resources. In this manner, precise short-term determining of the number of cases can be imperative to the healthcare system. Many models have been used since the pandemic has started. In this paper we will compare couple of time series models like Simple Moving Average, Exponentially Weighted Moving Average, Holt-Winters Double Exponential Smoothing Additive, ARIMA, and SARIMA. Two models that have been used to predict the number of cases are ARIMA and SARIMA. A grid search has been implemented to select the best combination of the parameters for both models. Results show that in the case of modeling, the Holt-Winters Double Exponential model outperforms Exponentially Weighted Moving Average and Simple Moving Average while forecasting ARIMA outperforms SARIMA.
Discovery and visualization of uncharacterized drug-protein adducts using mass spectrometry.

Abstract Drugs are often metabolized to reactive intermediates that form protein adducts. Adducts can inhibit protein activity, elicit immune responses, and cause life threatening adverse drug reactions. The masses of reactive metabolites are frequently unknown, rendering traditional mass spectrometry-based proteomics incapable of adduct identification. Here, we present Magnum, an open-mass search algorithm optimized for adduct identification, and Limelight, a web-based data processing package for analysis and visualization of data from all existing algorithms. Limelight incorporates tools for sample comparisons and xenobiotic-adduct discovery. We validate our tools with two drug/protein combinations and apply our workflow to identify novel xenobiotic-protein adducts in CYP3A4. Our new methods and software enable accurate identification of xenobiotic-protein adducts with no prior knowledge of adduct masses or protein targets. Magnum outperforms existing tools in xenobiotic-protein adduct discovery, while Limelight fulfills a major need in the rapidly developing field of open-mass searching, which until now lacked comprehensive data visualization tools.
Examining the Effectiveness of Circuit Breaker by Quantifying the S&P 500 Index's Development: Implications for Financial Market Regulation

The U. S. financial regulators have established the circuit breaker rule to protect American households from sudden market crashes. If the markets slump to a certain percentage, the rule halts trading for a certain period of time. The circuit breaker rule was triggered four times in response to the stock market plummeting due to COVID-19. By analyzing the S&P 500 Index's performance in March 2020, this paper explores whether the circuit breaker can stimulate market recovery on the days following sudden slumps. According to the data, without the circuit breaker rule, the market would continue to slump by up to -19.98% on the days following the previous crashes. In reality, the rule has successfully prevented the predicted plummet and further stimulated the market to recover for up to 9.31% percent. The recovery was present in all eleven S&P 500 sectors when the markets triggered circuit breaker, but there shows no strong correlation between the degree of recovery and the industries' performance during market slumps.
On the Merits of Temporal Testers

The paper discusses the merits of temporal testers, which can serve as a compositional basis for automata construction corresponding to temporal formulas in the context of ltl , psl , and mitl logics. Temporal testers can be viewed as (non-deterministic) transducers that, at any point, output a boolean value which is 1 iff the corresponding temporal formula holds starting at the current position. The main advantage of testers, compared to acceptors (such asBuchi automata) is their compositionality. Namely, a tester for a compound formula can be constructed out of the testers for its sub-formulas. Besides providing the construction of testers for formulas specified in ltl , psl , and mitl , the paper also presents a general overview of the tester methodology, and highlights some of the unique features and applications of transducers including compositional deductive verification of ltl properties.
Configurable computing for high-security/high-performance ambient systems

This paper stresses why configurable computing is a promising target to guarantee the hardware security of ambient systems. Many works have focused on configurable computing to demonstrate its efficiency but as far as we know none have addressed the security issue from system to circuit levels. This paper recalls main hardware attacks before focusing on issues to build secure systems on configurable computing. Two complementary views are presented to provide a guide for security and main issues to make them a reality are discussed. As the security at the system and architecture levels is enforced by agility significant aspects related to that point are presented and illustrated through the AES algorithm. The goal of this paper is to make designers aware of that configurable computing is not just hardware accelerators for security primitives as most studies have focused on but a real solution to provide high-security/high-performance for the whole system.
Catecholamine binding complex in bovine adrenal medulla. Possible involvement of calcium.

Abstract Seventy per cent of the calcium of chromaffin granules of bovine adrenal medulla was estimated to be nonexchangeable by incubation of chromaffin granules with 45 Ca for 19 hr at 4°. By contrast, only 34 per cent of the calcium of a preparation from bovine adrenal medulla containing lysosomes and mitochondria, as well as chromaffin granules, was nonexchangeable. These results indicate that a relatively large amount of calcium is held in a nondiffusible form within chromaffin granules and may be part of the binding complex for catecholamines in adrenal medulla. Stimulation of bovine adrenals with acetylcholine in the presence of DOPA and 45 Ca resulted in a greater accumulation of 45 Ca in granule fractions than stimulation with acetylcholine in the absence of DOPA. This finding suggests that calcium is incorporated into chromaffin granules during catecholamine synthesis and supports the hypothesis that calcium is part of the catecholamine storage complex in adrenal medulla.
Prospects and challenges of high-density heterogeneous photonic integration

We will review the progress and impact of photonic integration, and address the progress, challenges, and future prospects of photonic-electronic integration in future information systems. Technologies include silicon CMOS photonics and InP, GaAs OEICs.
Randomized Controlled Trial of Therapeutic Horseback Riding in Children and Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Objective This study expands previous equine-assisted intervention research by evaluating the effectiveness of therapeutic horseback riding (THR) on self-regulation, socialization, communication, adaptive, and motor behaviors in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Method Participants with ASD (aged 6–16 years; N = 127) were stratified by nonverbal IQ standard scores (≤85 or >85) and randomized to 1 of 2 groups for 10 weeks: THR intervention or a barn activity (BA) control group without horses that used similar methods. The fidelity of the THR intervention was monitored. Participants were evaluated within 1 month pre- and postintervention by raters blinded to intervention conditions and unblinded caregiver questionnaires. During the intervention, caregivers rated participants' behaviors weekly. Results Intent-to-treat analysis conducted on the 116 participants who completed a baseline assessment (THR n = 58; BA control n = 58) revealed significant improvements in the THR group compared to the control on measures of irritability (primary outcome) ( p = .02; effect size [ES] = 0.50) and hyperactivity ( p = .01; ES = 0.53), beginning by week 5 of the intervention. Significant improvements in the THR group were also observed on a measure of social cognition ( p = .05; ES = 0.41) and social communication ( p = .003; ES = 0.63), along with the total number of words ( p = .01; ES = 0.54) and new words ( p = .01; ES = 0.54) spoken during a standardized language sample. Sensitivity analyses adjusting for age, IQ, and per protocol analyses produced consistent results. Conclusion This is the first large-scale, randomized, controlled trial demonstrating efficacy of THR for the ASD population, and findings are consistent with previous equine-assisted intervention studies. Clinical trial registration information Trial of Therapeutic Horseback Riding in Children and Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder; http://clinicaltrials.gov; NCT02301195.
A Primer on Ugaritic: Resources for Further Study

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY This primer is intended only to guide a student through the first semester of a course in Ugaritic. We realize that many students will not go much further. Here we offer a selected annotated bibliography for those students who desire further study. This bibliography is not complete, but it should give the student more than enough resources to begin further study. Some students will also know (or should soon be studying) European languages that are necessary for scholarly research into Ugaritic. We have given some annotation to the more significant works. For further studies, students will want to have Daniel Sivan's A Grammar of the Ugaritic Language , which is now the standard reference grammar in English. Research into Ugaritic grammar should begin with J. Tropper's monumental, Ugaritische Grammatik (2000), along with D. Pardee's equally monumental review in Archiv fur Orientforschung 50 (2003/2004). The standard dictionary is G. del Olmo Lete and J. Sanmartin's A Dictionary of the Ugaritic Language in the Alphabetic Tradition . Excellent digital images of the Ugaritic tablets can be found at the Inscriptifact web site, http://www.inscriptifact.com/, an image database of inscriptions and artifacts compiled by Bruce Zuckerman, Marilyn Lundberg, and Leta Hunt of West Semitic Research. The student will find that Watson and Wyatt's Handbook for Ugaritic Studies [= HUS ]—though too expensive for many impoverished students to buy—will be a good starting place for most areas of research into the Ugaritic language, literature, history and culture.
Isolation and Characterization of an Extracellular Polysaccharide from Physarum polycephalum.

The myxomycetes are called slime molds because of the synthesis of copious amounts of extracellular material (slime) during parts of the life cycle. In Physarum polycephalum, small amounts of slime are produced during exponential growth of microplasmodia in shake flasks, but the amount of this slime increased 10- to 20-fold at 16 to 34 hr after microplasmodia were induced to form spherules by transferring them to salt solution. The slime obtained during both periods is the same; an acidic polysaccharide consisting of galactose, sulfate, and trace amounts of rhamnose. Analysis of the galactose-to-sulfate ratio gave a value of about 4 to 1. Infrared spectroscopy showed increased absorbance at 820 cm−1 characteristic of C-O-S vibrations. Electrophoresis on polyacrylamide gel revealed that the material moved as a single band which stained with Alcian Blue and periodic acid Shiff reagent. However, fractionation of identical material on Dowex columns and electrophoresis on cellulose acetate showed the slime to be made up of three major fractions. The polysaccharide appeared as an extracellular capsule closely adhering to the walls of the spherules. It could be separated from the wall by vigorous shaking. The increased synthesis of slime during spherulation was not blocked by cycloheximide, suggesting that new enzyme synthesis was not necessary for its formation.
MR of neurocutaneous melanosis.

PURPOSE To describe the MR findings of neurocutaneous melanosis in the brain and correlate these with the known pathology and proposed embryologic basis of this disorder. METHODS The brain (seven patients) and spine (three patients) MR scans of seven patients with neurocutaneous melanosis were retrospectively reviewed. In two patients, findings were confirmed at surgery. The pattern of central nervous system involvement was also correlated with known pathologic studies regarding frequency and location of melanotic deposits. RESULTS Five patients had regions of T1 shortening in the cerebellum; three of these also had T2 shortening. Five patients had regions of T1 shortening in the anterior temporal lobes. Other areas of involvement included the pia mater over the cerebellum (two patients), pons (one patient), medulla (one patient), and left parietal lobe (one patient). Only two lesions showed enhancement, edema, or necrosis; both were proved malignant melanomas at biopsy. No pial enhancement was detected. CONCLUSION Neurocutaneous melanosis appears to involve the brain in specific locations that can be detected on MR imaging. Knowledge of these locations can aid in differentiating metastases, secondary to malignant degeneration of the large cutaneous nevi, from melanotic deposits that are a part of the disease. Identification of malignant degeneration of the melanotic deposits is difficult; at present, it depends on the identification of growth, edema, or necrosis of the deposits.
Experimental limit on the neutral current in the semileptonic processes

Abstract We have searched for example of the reactions vμ + n → vμ + n + π° and vμ + p → vμ + p + π° in a large optical spark chamber as a test for the presence of neutral currents in semi-leptonik weak interactions. No candidate for either reaction was observed. With 90% confidence, the upper limit for the neutral current reactions was found to be: ⦅σ(v n + p → v μ + π° + p ) + σ(v μ + n → v μ + π° n )⦆ / 2σ(v μ + n → μ − + π° + p ) .
Polygyny and the Extent of Women's Contributions to Subsistence: A Reply to White

White's pursuit of high standards in the study of polygyny raises a crucial issue: the relationship between a woman's marital status and her productivity. Here I present further evidence, including a new analysis proposed by White, in support of my argument that, among Kipsigis, the wealth a man uses to marry additional wives is obtained by means largely independent of the contributions of cowives.
Bender-Gestalt as an Indicator of Suicidal Potential

An attempt to differentiate 46 suicidal psychiatric patients from 46 non-suicidal psychiatric patients, all of whom were hospitalized, yielded good rater reliability. However, only two of the several measures differentiated these groups and might be explored further to ascertain how impulse control might best be assessed with the Bender.
“To Obviate a Scandalous Reflection”: Revisiting the Wreck of the Nottingham Galley

The Nottingham Galley, and its captain John Deane, are remembered today for having survived a grim winter wreck and cannibalism on Boon Island, Maine, in 1710. But that episode is only part of a larger, compelling story involving mutiny, politics, class conflict, reputation, and the power of the written and printed word.
Scales of the extra dimensions and their gravitational wave backgrounds

Circumstances are described in which symmetry breaking, during the formation of our three-dimensional brane within a higher-dimensional space in the early universe, excites mesoscopic classical radion or brane-displacement degrees of freedom and produces a detectable stochastic background of gravitational radiation. The spectrum of the background is related to both the unification energy scale and the sizes and numbers of large extra dimensions. It is shown that properties of the background observable by gravitational-wave observatories at frequencies $f\ensuremath{\approx}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}4}\mathrm{Hz}$ to ${10}^{3}\mathrm{Hz}$ contain information about unification on energy scales from $1$ to ${10}^{10}\mathrm{TeV},$ gravity propagating through extra-dimension sizes from 1 mm to ${10}^{\ensuremath{-}18}\mathrm{mm},$ and the dynamical history and stabilization of from one to seven extra dimensions.
Studies with the S-peptide-S-protein system: The role of glutamic acid-2, lysine-7, and methionine-13 in S-peptide1–14 for binding to and activation of S-protein

Abstract Syntheses are described of 12-serine S-peptide 1–14 , 12-(β-pyrazolyl-3)-alanine S-peptide 2–14 , 12-(β-pyrazolyl-3)-alanine S-peptide 3–14 , 13-norleucine S-peptide 1–14 , 13-norleucine S-peptide 2–14 , 13-norleucine S-peptide 3–14 , 7-norleucine S-peptide 1–14 , and 7,13-dinorleucine S-peptide 1–14 . The peptides were prepared by combination of the stepwise method and fragment condensation and were characterized by thin-layer chromatography and amino acid analyses of acid and enzymic hydrolysates. The interaction between these peptides and S-protein or ribonuclease S was determined with RNA as the substrate. The peptides in which 12-histidine is replaced by serine or β-(pyrazoly--3)-alanine did not activate S-protein but had the ability to compete with S-peptide 1–20 for S-protein and thus inhibited RNase S. 12-(β-Pyrazolyl-3)-alanine S-peptide 2–14 was essentially as effective an inhibitor of RNase S as 12-(β-pyrazolyl-3)-alanine S-peptide 2–14 ; 12-(β-pyrazolyl-3)-alanine S-peptide 3–14 was about 30-fold less active. 13-Norleucine S-peptide 1–14 and 13-norleucine S-peptide 2–14 activated S-protein and were considerably more effective than 13-norleucine S-peptide 3–14 . Together with previous observations, these results firmly establish the “binding” contribution of glutamic acid-2 in the S-peptide-S-protein system. A possible explanation for this phenomenon is presented. 12-Serine S-peptide 1–14 was approximately sevenfold less effective an inhibitor as 12-(β-pyrazolyl-3)-alanine S-peptide 1–14 . This finding indicates that the aromatic azole ring of histidine and of β-(pyrazolyl-3)-alanine contributes to the stability of the respective S-peptide-S-protein complexes. The observation that both 7-norleucine S-peptide 1–14 and 7,13-dinorleucine S-peptide 1–14 activate S-protein does not support the suggestion that lysine-7 is an important substrate binding site in RNase S.
Combining angiogenic gene and stem cell therapies for myocardial infarction

Background Transplantation of stem cells from various sources into infarcted hearts has the potential to promote myocardial regeneration. However, the regenerative capacity is limited partly as a result of the low survival rate of the transplanted cells in the ischemic myocardium. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that combining cell and angiogenic gene therapies would provide additive therapeutic effects via co-injection of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) with an adeno-associated viral vector (AAV), MLCVEGF, which expresses vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in a cardiac-specific and hypoxia-inducible manner. Methods MSCs isolated from transgenic mice expressing green fluorescent protein and MLCVEGF packaged in AAV serotype 1 capsid were injected into mouse hearts at the border of ischemic area, immediately after occlusion of the left anterior descending coronary, individually or together. Engrafted cells were detected and quantified by real-time polymerase chain reaction and immunostaining. Angiogenesis and infarct size were analyzed on histological and immunohistochemical stained sections. Cardiac function was analyzed by echocardiography. Results We found that co-injection of AAV1-MLCVEGF with MSCs reduced cell loss. Although injection of MSCs and AAV1-MLCVEGF individually improved cardiac function and reduced infarct size, co-injection of MSC and AAV1-MLCVEGF resulted in the best improvement in cardiac function as well as the smallest infarct among all groups. Moreover, injection of AAV1-MLCVEGF induced neovasculatures. Nonetheless, injection of MSCs attracted endogenous stem cell homing and increased scar thickness. Conclusions Co-injection of MLCVEGF and MSCs in ischemic hearts can result in better cardiac function and MSC survival, compared to their individual injections, as a result of the additive effects of each therapy. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Depressive rumination and cognitive processes associated with depression in breast cancer patients and their spouses

Depression is common among patients with breast cancer (BC) and their spouses. The diagnosis of BC often results in negative cognitive processes, such as appraisals of harm/loss, intrusive thoughts, and depressive rumination, all of which contribute to the occurrence of depression in both the patient and spouse. The present research is a cross-sectional exploration of the mediating role of depressive rumination in the relationships of intrusive thoughts and appraisal of harm/loss with depression, in a sample of 56 BC patients and their partners. We hypothesized that depressive rumination would mediate the relationships between cognitive processes and depression in both BC patient and their partners. Participants completed self-report measures of depressive symptoms, depressive rumination, cognitive appraisals, and intrusive thoughts. Path analyses using hierarchical linear regression were conducted to assess the relationships among variables. Results indicated that for BC patients, harm/loss appraisals and intrusive thoughts had direct effects on depression; only harm/loss appraisals had indirect effects through depressive rumination. For partners, both harm/loss appraisal and intrusive thoughts had direct effects on depression, and both had indirect effects through depressive rumination. Dyadic analysis showed no relation of partner cognitive variables with patient depression or patient cognitive variables with partner depression. Findings show that the perseverative practice of dwelling on these negative thoughts of loss and harm relates to depressive symptoms. Rumination may act as one possible mechanism by which intrusive thoughts and harm/loss appraisals lead to depressive symptoms.
Dependability and security models

There is a need to quantify system properties methodically. Dependability and security models have evolved nearly independently. Therefore, it is crucial to develop a classification of dependability and security models which can meet the requirement of professionals in both fault-tolerant computing and security community. In this paper, we present a new classification of dependability and security models. First we present the classification of threats and mitigations in systems and networks. And then we present several individual model types such as availability, confidentiality, integrity, performance, reliability, survivability, safety and maintainability. Finally we show that each model type can be combined and represented by one of the model representation techniques: combinatorial (such as reliability block diagrams (RBD), reliability graphs, fault trees, attack trees), state-space (continuous time Markov chains, stochastic Petri nets, fluid stochastic Petri nets, etc) and hierarchical (e.g., fault trees in the upper level and Markov chains in the lower level). We show case studies for each individual model types as well as composite model types.
Resolution enhancement technology in Hewlett-Packard LaserJet printers

One of the major obstacles in raster graphics has been the artifacts due to aliasing in discrete sampling of continuous curves. These distortions may appear as `jaggie stair-case,' `edge ticks,' `roundup tips,' `squared corners,' and `filled ink-traps.' These distortions that occur in the higher spectrum of human vision create subtle unpleasant effects. Resolution enhancement technology employs a set of piecewise continuous rules to improve output quality by extrapolative prediction beyond traditional anti-aliasing algorithms. The first commercial version of this post processor has more than 200 rules capable of enhancing video streams on the fly. The enhanced print quality has an effect of more than doubling the perceived resolution in field print quality tests.
Novel efficient techniques for computer simulation of magnetic recording

Perpendicular recording--a new paradigm for high-density magnetic recording currently under intensive development--presents complex engineering challenges which require that design be assisted by computer simulation. However, simulating perpendicular recording is itself a challenge for several reasons; it requires a large simulation box that includes both write head and hard disk and must be treated at high spatial resolution, and the simulations must run for long periods of time and for numerous data inputs. To accomplish this complex modeling, we have developed novel techniques which involve a mixed real-space/Fourier-space representation and which compute time scales linearly with system size, enabling large simulations to be performed efficiently. We show tests of our methodology and provide an example of a simulation that involves writing three bits (a tribit) to disk.
A sublayer model for turbulent deposition of particles in vertical ducts with smooth and rough surfaces

Abstract The sublayer model for deposition of spherical particles from turbulent air streams in vertical ducts with smooth and rough walls is described. The formulation is based on the coherent vortical structure of near-wall turbulence and the detailed analysis of particle trajectories in this flow field. The Stokes drag, the Staffman lift force, and the gravitational force are included in the equations of particle motion. The wall roughness is taken into account by an appropriate modification of the boundary condition for the particle capture trajectories. The predicted deposition rates under various conditions are compared with the available experimental data and a reasonable agreement is observed. It is noticed that the particle-to-fluid density ratio, the shear-induced lift force, the wall roughness, the gravity direction and the flow Reynolds number have profound effects on the particle deposition rate. Based on a perturbation method, a simplified empirical equation for evaluating the turbulent deposition rate is also proposed.
Time-shared Systems: a theoretical treatment

Time-shared computer (or processing) facilities are treated as stochastic queueing systems under priority service disciplines, and the performance measure of these systems is taken to be the average time spent in the system. Models are analyzed in which time-shared computer usage is obtained by giving each request a fixed quantum Q of time on the processor, after which the request is placed at the end of a queue of other requests; the queue of requests is constantly cycled, giving each user Q seconds on the machine per cycle. The case for which Q → 0 (a processor-shared model) is then analyzed using methods from queueing theory. A general time-shared facility is then considered in which priority groups are introduced. Specifically, the pth priority group is given gpQ seconds in the processor each time around. Letting Q → 0 gives results for the priority processor-shared system. These disciplines are compared with the first-come-first-served disciplines. The systems considered provide the two basic features desired in any time-shared system, namely, rapid service for short jobs and the virtual appearance of a (fractional capacity) processor available on a full-time basis. No charge is made for swap time, thus providing results for “ideal” systems. The results hold only for Poisson arrivals and geometric (or exponential) service time distributions.
NeuroSIG: the computer network of the congress of neurological surgeons

A sophisticated computer network has been developed specifically for use by the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. This network provides a variety of communication and information features. These include public and private message transmission, teleconferencing, numerous data libraries, programs that may be downloaded and executed on the user's own computer, high resolution color graphics image transmission, an extensive neurosurgical database, and extensive on-line "help" features. The system can be accessed using almost any personal computer and a telephone modem.