cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Parent Activation in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

OBJECTIVE Patient activation is the knowledge, skills, and confidence to manage one's health; parent activation is a comparable concept related to a parent's ability to manage a child's health. Activation in adults is a modifiable risk factor and associated with clinical outcomes and health care utilization. We examined activation in parents of hospitalized newborns observing temporal trends and associations with sociodemographic characteristics, neonate characteristics, and outcomes. STUDY DESIGN Participants included adult parents of neonates admitted to a level-IV neonatal intensive care unit in an academic medical center. Activation was measured with the 10-item Parent version of the Patient Activation Measure (P-PAM) at admission, discharge, and 30 days after discharge. Associations with sociodemographic variables, health literacy, clinical variables, and health care utilization were evaluated. RESULTS A total of 96 adults of 64 neonates were enrolled. The overall mean P-PAM score on admission was 81.8 (standard deviation [SD] = 18), 88.8 (SD = 13) at discharge, and 86.8 (SD = 16) at 30-day follow-up. Using linear mixed regression model, P-PAM score was significantly associated with timing of measurement. Higher P-PAM scores were associated with higher health literacy (p = 0.002) and higher in mothers compared to fathers (p = 0.040). There were no significant associations of admission P-PAM scores with sociodemographic characteristics. Parents of neonates who had a surgical diagnosis had a statistically significant (p = 0.003) lower score than those who did not. There were no associations between discharge P-PAM scores and neonates' lengths of stay or other indicators of illness severity. CONCLUSION Parental activation in the NICU setting was higher than reported in the adult and limited pediatric literature; scores increased from admission to discharge and 30-day postdischarge. Activation was higher in mothers and parents with higher health literacy. Additional larger scale studies are needed to determine whether parental activation is associated with long-term health care outcomes as seen in adults. KEY POINTS · Little is known about activation in parents of neonates.. · Activation plays a role in health outcomes in adults.. · Larger studies are needed to explore parent activation..
Distinguishing Amphetamine, Methamphetamine and 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine from Other Sympathomimetic Amines After Rapid Derivatization with Propyl Chloroformate and Analysis by Gas Chromatography—Chemical Ionization Mass Spectrometry

Misidentification of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine as methamphetamine has been reported because of similar retention times of their derivatives in gas chromatography as well as very similar mass spectral fragmentation patterns in the conventional electron impact mode of analysis. Recently, a new derivatization of amphetamine and methamphetamine has been described using propyl chloroformate. The derivatization is easily accomplished at room temperature by adding the derivatizing reagent in the extraction solvent because the reagent is stable in the presence of water. The electron impact mass spectrum of derivatized methamphetamine (base peak, m/z 144, other peaks at m/z 102, 58) is similar to the electron impact mass spectrum of both derivatized pseudoephedrine (base peak, m/z 144, other peaks, m/z 102, 58), and ephedrine (base peak, m/z 144, other peaks, m/z 102, 58). Therefore, misidentification of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine as methamphetamine is possible even if this new derivatization technique is used with conventional gas chromatography/electron impact mass spectrometry. We demonstrated that by using chemical ionization mass spectrometry, this problem can be eliminated. In the chemical ionization, using methane as a reagent gas, derivatized methamphetamine showed a protonated molecular ion as a base peak at m/z 236 and other strong peaks at m/z 144 and 119, both derivatized ephedrine and pseudoephedrine showed a base peak at m/z 192 and another strong peak at m/z 148, thus differentiating them clearly from methamphetamine. Amphetamine also showed a protonated molecular ion at m/z 222 and other strong peaks at m/z 130 and 119, whereas phenylpropanolamine after derivatization with propyl chloroformate showed a base peak at m/z 220 and another strong peak at m/z 238, thus differentiating it from amphetamine. The designer drug 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) showed a molecular ion at m/z 279 using electron impact, after derivatization with propyl chloroformate. Using chemical ionization, a relatively stronger protonated molecular ion at m/z 280 was observed. We conclude that using chemical ionization instead of conventional electron impact and propyl chloroformate derivatization, misidentification of ephedrine or pseudoephedrine as methamphetamine or phenylpropanolamine as amphetamine can be eliminated.
Cytology of Plant Virus Infections

Publisher Summary Cytological methods are effective during the period of virus multiplication after the initial infection has become well established. Phase optics allows sequential studies of living cells during virus multiplication. Microspectrographic equipment with appropriate optics, radioactive tracers, and fluorescence microscopy are made possible the examination of most stages in the multiplication cycle. In most instances, advances in knowledge of plant virus cytology are due to the use in combination of two or more techniques or forms of optical equipment. This chapter discusses the microscopic techniques confined to phase and bright light microscopy, Ultraviolet (UV) microspectrophotometric methods, and their application to virus-infected cells. The selection of normal and infected cells for examination and similar problems are discussed in this chapter. Possibly the nucleolus-to-cytoplasm sequence is common in the synthesis of many plant viruses, but it need not be invariable. Supposing the final act of infection was due to the RNA of a single virus particle finding an appropriate site in the nucleolus. A limitation in the use of the cytological method is that synthesis of a single virus particle must be deduced from the multiplication of a virus population. The detection of intermediate stages in virus assembly, and the positions in the ceI1 where they appear are important elements in this process. So far, for one plant virus, TMV, and to a lesser degree for other viruses, a general outline of the multiplication cycle has been given. Intensive methods, such as UV-microspectrophotometric, fluorescent antibody techniques, and radioactive tracers have given accurate information within a small range. Phase and ordinary bright light microscopy have given less reliable information, but have told more about the infected cells as coordinated systems, and have more readily allowed comparisons between a numbers of virus-host combinations.
Interpreting Music Manuscripts: A Logic-Based, Object-Oriented Approach

This paper presents a complete framework for recognizing classes of machine-printed musical manuscripts. Our framework is designed around the decomposition of a manuscript into objects such as staves and bars which are processed with a knowledge base module that encodes rules in Prolog. Object decomposition focuses the recognition problem, and the rule base provides a powerful and flexible way to encode the rules of a particular manuscript class. Our rule-base registers notes and stems, eliminates false-positives and correctly labels notes according to their position on the staff. We present results that show 99% accuracy at detecting note-heads and 95% accuracy in finding stems.
Latin Sermon Collections from Later Medieval England: Orthodox Preaching in the Age of Wyclif

Until the Reformation, almost all sermons were written down in Latin. This is the first scholarly study systematically to describe and analyse the collections of Latin sermons from the golden age of medieval preaching in England, the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Basing his studies on the extant manuscripts, Siegfried Wenzel analyses these sermons and the occasions when they were given. Larger issues of preaching in the later Middle Ages such as the pastoral concern about preaching, originality in sermon making, and the attitudes of orthodox preachers to Lollardy, receive detailed attention. The surviving sermons and their collections are listed for the first time in full inventories, which supplement the critical and contextual material Wenzel presents. This book is an important contribution to the study of medieval preaching, and will be essential for scholars of late medieval literature, history and religious thought.
Multi-party, privacy-preserving distributed data mining using a game theoretic framework

Analysis of privacy-sensitive data in a multi-party environment often assumes that the parties are well-behaved and they abide by the protocols. Parties compute whatever is needed, communicate correctly following the rules, and do not collude with other parties for exposing third party's sensitive data. This paper argues that most of these assumptions fall apart in real-life applications of privacy-preserving distributed data mining (PPDM). This paper offers a more realistic formulation of the PPDM problem as a multi-party game where each party tries to maximize its own objectives. It develops a game-theoretic framework to analyze the behavior of each party in such games and presents detailed analysis of the well known secure sum computation as an example.
The Chinese Legal System Since 1995: Steady Development, Striking Continuities

This article provides an overview of legal reform in China since 1995 and outlines the articles included in the special issue of The China Quarterly. The issue contains articles on the topics of public security, the role of the court, legislation about business activity and corporate governance, family law, and China’s role in the international system. This introduction concludes that many of China’s legal characteristics have remained the same.
Transmission of alpha-synuclein in Parkinson’s disease

The accumulation of misfolded proteins is a fundamental pathogenic process in neurodegenerative diseases. However, the factors that trigger aggregation and spreading of α-synuclein (α-syn), the principal component of the intraneuronal inclusions known as Lewy bodies (LBs) and Lewy neurites (LNs) that characterize Parkinson’s disease (PD) and dementia with LBs (DLB) in brain are poorly understood. We demonstrate that pre-formed fibrils (pffs) generated from recombinant α-syn enter cultured primary neurons generated from non-transgenic wildtype mice, promote recruitment of soluble endogenous α-syn into insoluble PD-like LBs and LNs. Accumulation of pathologic α-syn led to selective decreases in synaptic proteins, progressive impairments in neuronal excitability and connectivity, and eventually, neuron death. Moreover, we further show that in young asymptomatic α-syn transgenic (Tg) mice, intracerebral injections of synthetic α-syn pffs accelerate both the formation of intracellular LB/LN-like inclusions and the onset of neurological symptoms in recipient animals. Pathologic α-syn propagated along major central nervous system (CNS) pathways to regions far beyond injection sites and dramatically reduced survival with a highly reproducible interval from injection to death in inoculated animals. Thus, synthetic α-Syn pffs are wholly sufficient to initiate PD-like LBs/LNs and to transmit disease in primary neurons in vitro and Tg mice in vivo. Thus, these data support a prion-like cascade in synucleinopathies whereby cell-to-cell transmission and propagation of misfolded α-syn underlie the CNS proliferation of LBs/LNs. These findings open up new avenues for understanding the progression of PD and for developing novel therapeutics.
The Nature of Parental Involvement in Middle School: Examining Nonlinear Associations

Parental educational involvement during middle school has received increased attention from researchers and policymakers because of its links to a variety of academic outcomes. Despite this increased attention, parental involvement has been inconsistently linked to academic outcomes among adolescents, indicating different types and levels of involvement that may be more beneficial for adolescents. Therefore, this study examined the nonlinear associations between parental involvement (home-based involvement and academic socialization) and academic motivation in an effort to better understand the nature of parental involvement in middle school. Using data from an ethnically diverse (57 % Black/African American, 19 % multiracial, 18 % White/Caucasian, 5 % Hispanic or Latino, and 1 % Asian American) sample of 150 adolescents (56 % female) in grades 6 through 8, findings showed no associations between home-based involvement and intrinsic or extrinsic motivation. There was, however, a significant nonlinear association between academic socialization and both types of motivation. More specifically, the positive association between academic socialization and intrinsic motivation was attenuated at high levels of academic socialization. There was no association between academic socialization and extrinsic motivation at low and moderate levels, but there was a positive association at high levels of academic socialization. These findings suggest that different types of involvement and greater amounts of parental involvement may not always benefit adolescents’ academic motivation.
Patterns in species richness and assemblage structure of native mussels in the Upper Mississippi River

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Lake City, MN 55041, USAABSTRACT1. To evaluate patterns in mussel assemblages in the Upper Mississippi River (UMR), data from systematicsurveysof mussels conducted in threelarge reaches(Navigation Pools5, 6, and 18) from 2005–2007were analysed.2. Nonmetric multi-dimensional scaling analyses and permutation tests indicated that assemblages differedamong reaches. The mussel assemblage in Pool 18 was substantially different from the assemblage in Pool 5and moderately different from the assemblage in Pool 6, whereas assemblages in Pools 5 and 6 were similar.Assemblages in broadly deﬁned, ﬂowing aquatic habitats did not substantially differ.3. The dissimilarity of Pool 18 was primarily the result of Pool 18 having higher abundances of three Quadrulaspecies(Q.quadrula,Q.pustulosa,andQ.nodulata),andlowerabundancesofAmblemaplicataandFusconaiaﬂava.4. Rarefaction analyses showed that species richness and species density were higher in Pool 18 compared withthe other two pools.5. Large-scale patterns in mussel assemblages may be related to other longitudinal trends in the system includinggeomorphology, water quality, and abundances of ﬁsh species that serve as hosts for glochidial larvae.6. The results suggest that management goals and actions in the UMR may need to account for importantdifferences in mussel assemblages that occur among reaches.Published in 2012. This article is a US Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.Received 04October2011; Revised 27March 2012; Accepted 10April2012
Aligning incentives in health care: a multiscale decision theory approach

Financial incentives offered by insurers to health care providers have been identified as a key mechanism to lower costs while improving quality of care. How to effectively design incentive programs that can align the varying objectives of health care stakeholders, as well as predict program performance and stakeholders’ decision response is an unresolved research challenge. The objective of this paper was to establish the foundation for a novel approach based on multiscale decision theory (MSDT) that can effectively model and efficiently analyze such incentive programs, and the complex health care system in general. The MSDT model captures the interdependencies of stakeholders, their decision processes, uncertainties, and how incentives impact decisions and outcomes at the payer, hospital, physician and patient level. We illustrate the modeling approach by applying it to a specific incentive program, the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) for Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), which was introduced by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in the United States in 2012. We focus our analysis on computed tomography (CT) use by physicians, and CT scanner investment decisions by hospitals. We determine the conditions under which the incentive program leads to the desired outcomes of cost reduction and quality of care improvements. The results have policy and managerial implications for CMS, ACOs and their members, specifically hospitals and physicians.
UCF-WS: Domain Word Sense Disambiguation Using Web Selectors

This paper studies the application of the Web Selectors word sense disambiguation system on a specific domain. The system was primarily applied without any domain tuning, but the incorporation of domain predominant sense information was explored. Results indicated that the system performs relatively the same with domain predominant sense information as without, scoring well above a random baseline, but still 5 percentage points below results of using the first sense.
Economic risks of Jordan's nuclear program

Abstract Jordan has recently embarked on establishing a nuclear program in the hope that it would resolve its energy security problems, meet its increasing demand of electricity and promote economic growth through localization. This paper examines the economic risks and challenges associated with Jordan's nuclear program. It is based on a comparative cost analysis and interviews conducted with current and former Jordanian policy makers. Economically, nuclear power represents a high-risk option for Jordan as it involves three potentially costly scenarios of varying impact: project cancellation, unplanned outages and the declining costs of renewable technologies, particularly solar power. The paper also highlights other challenges facing Jordan in its pursuit of nuclear power such as opaque decision-making process and the need for an independent and competent nuclear regulatory body.
Chapter 15 Methods to identify mitotic cells by flow cytometry

Publisher Summary One of the most characteristic molecular events that occur during mitosis is phosphorylation of histone H3 (H3). A new monoclonal antibody has been developed that specifically recognizes only H3 phosphorylated at Ser-10 (anti-H3-P MAb). This antibody, thus, provides the means for immunocytochemical detection of H3 phosphorylation and thereby detection of mitotic cells. Indeed, the H3 epitope is accessible in situ to this antibody, and mitotic cells can be identified with this approach. This chapter describes the procedure for identification of mitotic cells with the use of this antibody. There are several potential applications for this methodology. The immunocytochemical detection of H3-P provides new opportunities for studying the role of H3 phosphorylation in chromatin condensation during mitosis. In particular, it may be helpful in identification of the kinase(s) that is (are) involved in H3 phosphorylation. Because this kinase(s) is a potential target for development of new antitumor drugs designed to target the G 2 to M transition, the possibility of immunocytochemical detection of its (their) activity may be of great value in drug screening. Furthermore, this antibody, being a marker of mitotic cells, can be applied in multiparametric cytometric analysis to study H3 phosphorylation in relation to expression of other proteins critical for cell cycle progression or chromatin condensation during mitosis.
Lie group exponents and SU (2) current algebras

Due to the Cappelli-Itzykson-Zuber classification, the minimal conformally invariant quantum field theories withSU(2) currents are classified by the ADE Lie algebras. Here I give a conceptual proof of the empirically valid relation between their partition functions and the Lie algebra exponents.
Declarative and procedural memory in bipolar disorder

Abstract Background: Memory function is an important but under researched area for neuropsychological investigation in persons with bipolar disorder. Previous studies have reported cognitive deficits on tasks of declarative memory in bipolar patients in the euthymic state. Methods: This study extended these findings by investigating declarative as well as procedural learning and memory in bipolar patients (with and without alcohol abuse) who were examined in the euthymic state. The California Verbal Learning Test, Star Mirror Tracing Task, Pursuit Rotor Task, American National Adult Reading Test, and the Vocabulary Subtest of the WAIS-R, were administered to bipolar patients and control subjects by researchers who were blind to the subject's group. Results: Bipolar patients performed worse than control subjects on a measure of declarative memory (California Verbal Learning Test) but did not differ from the performance of control subjects on either of the two procedural learning tasks (Pursuit Rotor Task and Star Mirror Task). Conclusions: These results suggest disturbed function of temporal lobe, but not basal ganglia, structures in persons with bipolar disorder.
On The Mechanics of Indentation Induced Lateral Cracking

The mechanics governing the lateral cracks that form when a hard object plastically penetrates a ceramic is presented. The roles of indentation load, penetration depth and work of indentation are all highlighted, as are the influences of the mechanical properties of the substrate. The three dimensional axisymmetric problem for an annular crack driven by a rigid spherical or conical indenter pushed into a semi-infinite half-space of elastic-perfectly plastic material is solved using numerical methods. The region of highest tensile stress is identified corresponding to the location where a crack is most likely to nucleate. This location coincides with the depth below the surface where the crack will expand parallel to the surface under mode I conditions. The solutions have been validated by comparison with measurements of the cracks that form upon Vickers indentation. The basic formula for the crack radius has been used to predict trends in cracking upon static penetration.
Distance and dynamics determination by W-band DEER and W-band ST-EPR

To explore high-field EPR in biological applications we have compared measurements of dynamics with X-band (9 GHz) and W-band (94 GHz) saturation transfer EPR (ST-EPR) and distance determination by X and W-band DEER. A fourfold increase of sensitivity was observed for W-band ST-EPR compared with X-band. The distance measurements at both fields showed very good agreement in both the average distances and in the distance distributions. Multifrequency EPR thus provides an additional experimental dimension to facilitate extraction of distance populations. However, the expected orientational selectivity of W-band DEER to determine the relative orientation of spins has not been realized, most likely because of the large orientational disorder of spin labels on the protein surface.
Preference preserving hashing for efficient recommendation

Recommender systems usually need to compare a large number of items before users' most preferred ones can be found This process can be very costly if recommendations are frequently made on large scale datasets. In this paper, a novel hashing algorithm, named Preference Preserving Hashing (PPH), is proposed to speed up recommendation. Hashing has been widely utilized in large scale similarity search (e.g. similar image search), and the search speed with binary hashing code is significantly faster than that with real-valued features. However, one challenge of applying hashing to recommendation is that, recommendation concerns users' preferences over items rather than their similarities. To address this challenge, PPH contains two novel components that work with the popular matrix factorization (MF) algorithm. In MF, users' preferences over items are calculated as the inner product between the learned real-valued user/item features. The first component of PPH constrains the learning process, so that users' preferences can be well approximated by user-item similarities. The second component, which is a novel quantization algorithm,generates the binary hashing code from the learned real-valued user/item features. Finally, recommendation can be achieved efficiently via fast hashing code search. Experiments on three real world datasets show that the recommendation speed of the proposed PPH algorithm can be hundreds of times faster than original MF with real-valued features, and the recommendation accuracy is significantly better than previous work of hashing for recommendation.
BMP2 induces segment-specific skeletal regeneration from digit and limb amputations by establishing a new endochondral ossification center

Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) are required for bone development, the repair of damage skeletal tissue, and the regeneration of the mouse digit tip. Previously we showed that BMP treatment can induce a regeneration response in mouse digits amputated at a proximal level of the terminal phalangeal element (P3) (Yu et al., 2010). In this study, we show that the regeneration-inductive ability of BMP2 extends to amputations at the level of the second phalangeal element (P2) of neonatal digits, and the hindlimb of adult limbs. In these models the induced regenerative response is restricted in a segment-specific manner, thus amputated skeletal elements regenerate distally patterned skeletal structures but does not form joints or more distal skeletal elements. Studies on P2 amputations indicate that BMP2-induced regeneration is associated with a localized proliferative response and the transient expression of established digit blastema marker genes. This is followed by the formation of a new endochondral ossification center at the distal end of the bone stump. The endochondral ossification center contains proliferating chondrocytes that establish a distal proliferative zone and differentiate proximally into hypertrophic chondrocytes. Skeletal regeneration occurs from proximal to distal with the appearance of osteoblasts that differentiate in continuity with the amputated stump. Using the polarity of the endochondral ossification centers induced by BMP2 at two different amputation levels, we show that BMP2 activates a level-dependent regenerative response indicative of a positional information network. In summary, our studies provide evidence that BMP2 induces the regeneration of mammalian limb structures by stimulating a new endochondral ossification center that utilizes an existing network of positional information to regulate patterning during skeletal regeneration.
BTW: a web server for Boltzmann time warping of gene expression time series.

Dynamic time warping (DTW) is a well-known quadratic time algorithm to determine the smallest distance and optimal alignment between two numerical sequences, possibly of different length. Originally developed for speech recognition, this method has been used in data mining, medicine and bioinformatics. For gene expression time series data, time warping distance is arguably a more flexible tool to determine genes having similar temporal expression, hence possibly related biological function, than either Euclidean distance or correlation coefficient—especially since time warping accommodates sequences of different length. The BTW web server allows a user to upload two tab-separated text files A,B of gene expression data, each possibly having a different number of time intervals of different durations. BTW then computes time warping distance between each gene of A with each gene of B, using a recently developed symmetric algorithm which additionally computes the Boltzmann partition function and outputs Boltzmann pair probabilities. The Boltzmann pair probabilities, not available with any other existent software, suggest possible biological significance of certain positions in an optimal time warping alignment. Availability: http://bioinformatics.bc.edu/clotelab/BTW/.
A perspective of recent progress in ZnO diluted magnetic semiconductors

ZnO has long been considered as a promising candidate material for diluted magnetic semiconductors, owing to its theoretically predicted and experimentally observed above-room-temperature ferromagnetism and long spin-coherence time. In this brief perspective, recent progress in ZnO diluted magnetic semiconductors is reviewed with particular focus on three topics: (1) spin coherence in ZnO; (2) free-carrier type and concentration-dependent magnetic properties in ZnO; and (3) ferromagnetism in undoped and non-transition-metal-doped ZnO. Finally, current status and possible potential direction of research on ZnO diluted magnetic semiconductors are summarized in the concluding remarks.
Use and impact of information technology in Indonesian commercial banks

Abstract Efforts in 1983 by Indonesia to liberalize its financial markets produced a competitive atmosphere that was a stimulus to computerization, particularly in banking. Within four years, commercial banks had applied information technology to a range of back office tasks, although they still lagged behind US banks in applying IT to product development and marketing. The impact on productivity was negligible, partly due to shortages of personnel skilled in IT and inadequate telecommunications infrastructure, but also because banks had not yet accumulated sufficient managerial capabilities necessary for a more competitive environment. Manual banking systems remain viable, but probably not for long, since IT-driven systems will eventually yield greater gains in productivity.
Surface and subsurface composition changes in NiSi alloys during elevated-temperature sputtering☆

Abstract Modifications in the surface and subsurface compositions of Ni-9.5at%Si alloys at temperatures between 200 and 700°C were measured using ion scattering spectroscopy. Upon heating prior to sputtering, Si segregated to the alloy surface, the entropy and enthalpy of Gibbsian adsorption were found to be 0.26 k and −0.054 eV, respectively. During sputtering with 3 keV Ne + and Ar + ions, the steady-state surface composition was practically temperature independent, suggesting that the contributions from beneath the first atomic layer to the sputtered-atom flux were very small ( ⪅5%) for these alloys. From the steady-state concentration profiles measured after rapid specimen cooling to room temperature, the effective altered-layer thickness were estimated, and information about radiation-enhanced diffusion in the bombarded alloy was obtained. Theoretical modeling of the phenomenon was also carried out using the kinetic model of Lam and Wiedersich, and the results were compared with experimental measurements.
Two distinct head-tail interfaces cooperate to suppress activation of vinculin by talin.

Vinculin is autoinhibited by an intramolecular interaction that masks binding sites for talin and F-actin. Although a recent structural model explains autoinhibition solely in terms of the interaction between vinculin tail (Vt) and residues 1–258 (D1), we find an absolute requirement for an interface involving the D4 domain of head (Vh residues 710–836) and Vt. Charge-to-alanine mutations in Vt revealed a class of mutants, T12 and T19, distal to the V-(1–258) binding site, which showed increases in their Kd values for head binding of 100- and 42-fold, respectively. Reciprocal mutation of residues in the D4 domain that contact Vt yielded a head-tail interaction mutant of comparable magnitude to T19. These findings account for the approximately 120-fold difference in Kd values between Vt binding to V-(1–258), as opposed to full-length Vh-(1–851). The significance of a bipartite autoinhibitory site is evidenced by its effects on talin binding to Vh. Whereas Vt fails to compete with the talin rod domain for binding to V-(1–258), competition occurs readily with full-length Vh, and this requires the D4 interface. Moreover in intact vinculin, mutations in the D4-Vt interface stabilize association of vinculin and talin rod. In cells, these head-tail interaction mutants induce hypertrophy and elongation of focal adhesions. Definition of a second autoinhibitory site, the D4-Vt interface, supports the competing model of vinculin activation that invokes cooperative action of ligands at two sites. Together the D1-Vt and D4-Vt interfaces provide the high affinity (∼10–9) autoinhibition observed in full-length vinculin.
A model of criminal sanctions that incorporate both deterrence and incapacitation

Abstract This paper adapts the standard economic model of crime to incorporate both deterrence and incapacitation. The results show that adding incapacitation can result in either a longer or a shorter optimal prison term compared to the deterrence-only model.
Heterokaryon self-incompatibility in Gibberella fujikuroi (Fusarium moniliforme)

Some isolates of Gibberella fujikuroi were unable to form a heterokaryon when complementary mutants were paired. The basis of this heterokaryon self-incompatibility (HSI) phenotype in two wild-collected strains was examined. The structural basis of HSI was determined microscopically by counting hyphal fusions. The HSI strains averaged 0·2 and 1·1 hyphal fusions per mm2 compared with 6·9 and 8·1 fusions per mm2 for heterokaryon self-compatible (HSC) strains (which form heterokaryons normally). The physiological basis of HSI was examined by observing heterokaryon formation by HSC and HSI strains on media containing compounds known to alter hyphal branching and/or hyphal fusion in other fungi. None of the compounds tested altered the ability of either the HSC or the HSI strains to form heterokaryons. Meiotic progeny of a cross between an HSC strain and an HSI strain segregated 1:1 for the HSI phenotype, suggesting that this trait is under the control of a single nuclear gene. Female infertility co-segregated with HSI among the cross progeny. We concluded that the HSI phenotype results from a mutation at a nuclear gene designated hsil that governs the ability of the fungal hyphae to anastomose.
Sterol Changes during Germination of Nicotiana tabacum Seeds

The identity, composition, and concentration of the total, free, esterified, and glycosidic sterol fractions were determined during germination of tobacco seeds. The total, free, and esterified sterols increased, with stigmasterol and campesterol accounting for most of the increase. Steryl glycosides decreased during germination, and stigmasteryl and sitosteryl glycosides showed the largest decrease. During germination, sitosterol was the major sterol in all fractions but stigmasterol and campesterol showed the greatest changes. The fatty acid composition of the steryl esters and acylated steryl glycosides most closely resembled the di- and triglycerides.
Sudan's elusive democratisation: civic mobilisation, provincial rebellion and chameleon dictatorships

Abstract Sudan experienced two inspirational popular uprisings that brought down military dictatorships, but the ‘Arab Spring’ passed it by. This paper analyses social movements and armed resistance within the dualistic structure of Sudan's centre and periphery. A pattern of alternating military and parliamentary government has been superceded by a militarised political marketplace, in which patrons and clients bargain over temporary loyalties, alongside secessionist movements and a residual urban civic activism. The paper examines the popular uprisings of 1964 and 1985, examining their short-term success but long-term failure, and reviews the last 20 years’ of abortive efforts to stage a ‘third intifada’, noting the difficulties of simultaneously pursuing civic uprising and armed insurrection, and of aligning the objectives of liberal democracy and ethnic self-determination.
Negative emotion does not modulate rapid feature integration effects.

Emotional arousal at encoding is known to facilitate later memory recall. In the present study, we asked whether this emotion-modulation of episodic memory is also evident at very short time scales, as measured by “feature integration effects,” the moment-by-moment binding of relevant stimulus and response features in episodic memory. This question was motivated by recent findings that negative emotion appears to potentiate first-order trial sequence effects in classic conflict tasks, which has been attributed to emotion-modulation of conflict-driven cognitive control processes. However, these effects could equally well have been carried by emotion-modulation of mnemonic feature binding processes, which were perfectly confounded with putative control processes in these studies. In the present experiments, we tried to shed light on this question by testing explicitly whether feature integration processes, assessed in isolation of conflict–control, are in fact susceptible to negative emotion-modulation. For this purpose, we adopted a standard protocol for assessing the rapid binding of stimulus and response features in episodic memory (Experiment 1) and paired it with the presentation of either neutral or fearful background face stimuli, shown either at encoding only (Experiment 2), or at both encoding and retrieval (Experiment 3). Whereas reliable feature integration effects were observed in all three experiments, no evidence for emotion-modulation of these effects was detected, in spite of significant effects of emotion on response times. These findings suggest that rapid feature integration of foreground stimulus and response features is not subject to modulation by negative emotional background stimuli and further suggest that previous reports of emotion-modulated trial–transition effects are likely attributable to the effects of emotion on cognitive control processes.
Enhancing heat-transfer ability of drag reducing surfactant solutions with ultrasonic energy

Abstract While major reductions in pumping energy requirements can be achieved by adding drag reducing surfactant solutions in recirculating district heating and cooling (DHC) systems, special techniques are needed to enhance the reduced heat-transfer coefficients. In this paper, the use of ultrasonic energy to enhance the heat-transfer ability of drag reducing surfactant solutions is described. The surfactant solutions tested include two viscoelastic drag reducing surfactant solutions: Ethoquad T13–50/NaSal (5 mM/8.75 mM) (S1) and SPE98330/HCHO/Trilon A (1500 ppm/150 ppm/500 ppm) (S2) and a drag reducing surfactant solution Arquad S-50/NaSal (5 mM/12.5 mM) (S3) whose viscoelasticity cannot be detected by our rheometer. Significant heat-transfer enhancements were observed for the two viscoelastic drag reducing surfactant solutions, S1 and S2, with ultrasonic energy while surprisingly, only small effects on enhancing the heat-transfer ability of S3 were observed. The effectiveness of ultrasonic energy in enhancing the heat-transfer ability of viscoelastic drag reducing surfactant solutions depends on the solution temperature, ultrasonic intensity and also the microstructure of the surfactant solutions. The relationships among solution viscoelasticity, vortex inhibition and heat-transfer reduction of the surfactant solutions are also discussed.
An investigation of synchrony in transport networks

The cumulative degree distributions of transport networks, such as air transportation networks and respiratory neuronal networks, follow power laws. The significance of power laws with respect to other network performance measures, such as throughput and synchronization, remains an open question. Evolving methods for the analysis and design of air transportation networks must be able to address network performance in the face of increasing demands and the need to contain and control local network disturbances, such as congestion. Toward this end, we investigate functional relationships that govern the performance of transport networks; for example, the links between the first nontrivial eigenvalue, λ2, of a network's Laplacian matrix—a quantitative measure of network synchronizability—and other global network parameters. In particular, among networks with a fixed degree distribution and fixed network assortativity (a measure of a network's preference to attach nodes based on a similarity or difference), those with small λ2 are shown to be poor synchronizers, to have much longer shortest paths and to have greater clustering in comparison to those with large λ2. A simulation of a respiratory network adds data to our investigation. This study is a beginning step in developing metrics and design variables for the analysis and active design of air transport networks. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity, 2009
Gain and Angle of Approach Effects on Cursor-Positioning Time with a Mouse in Consideration of Fitts' Law

Over the past decade, indirect pointing with a mouse has become a fundamental part of the GUI environment. In that regard research has used Fitts' law to measure speed and accuracy of the human-mot...
The function of dynamin in endocytosis

Temperature-sensitive shibire mutants of Drosophila melanogaster become rapidly paralyzed upon a shift to the restrictive temperature, which is due to a block in synaptic vesicle endocytosis. The shibire gene encodes the GTPase dynamin. Recent studies have shown that dynamin forms rings at the neck of invaginated clathrin-coated pits, and have suggested that a conformational change in the ring, which correlates with GTP hydrolysis, plays an essential role in vesicle fission.
Inhibition of malolactic fermentation by Saccharomyces during alcoholic fermentation under low- and high-nitrogen conditions: a study in synthetic media

The ability of different wine yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) to inhibit malolactic bacteria (Oenococcus oeni) and the influence of nitrogen were studied using a synthetic grape juice. Malolactic fermentation was induced in fermenting synthetic grape juice or synthetic wines inoculated with different commercial strains of S. cerevisiae. O. oeni was generally inhibited in wines that contained higher concentrations of total SO2 although many yeast strains only inhibited the bacteria during fermentation under high nitrogen conditions. Yeast produced higher amounts of SO2 during fermentation under high nitrogen conditions suggesting that nitrogen affected the malolactic fermentation by influencing yeast SO2 production. However, the production of SO2 by yeast did not always account for the inhibition of O. oeni, suggesting the presence of other inhibitory mechanisms.
Higher-Order Multilinear Poincaré and Sobolev Inequalities in Carnot Groups

The notions of higher-order weighted multilinear Poincare and Sobolev inequalities in Carnot groups are introduced. As an application, weighted Leibniz-type rules in Campanato-Morrey spaces are established.
Growth Kinetics of Intermetallic Phases in U-Mo vs. Al Alloy Diffusion Couples Annealed at 550°C

This study examined the growth kinetics of intermetallic phases that develop in solid-tosolid diffusion couples assembled with U-7, 10 and 12wt.%Mo vs. Al alloys (Al, Al-2wt.%Si, Al- 5wt.%Si, 4043 and 6061) after a diffusion anneal at 550°C for 24 hours. Based on interdiffusion microstructure and integrated interdiffusion coefficients, the addition of Si into the Al matrix alloy was observed to significantly reduce the growth rate of the intermetallic layer that primarily consisted of (U,Mo)Al4 phase. Growth rate of the (U,Mo)Al4 intermetallic layer also increases slightly with Mo content; however, it was not significant compared to the effect of alloying Si into Al alloys. Growth kinetics of (U,Mo)Al4 intermetallic layer appear highly sensitive to composition of U-Mo fuel alloy and Al cladding alloys, and must be an important criteria in alloy development/selection for optimum fuel performance with due consideration for compositiondependent multicomponent interdiffusion.
Monolingualism: The unmarked case

It is frequently observed that bilingualism and multilingualism are more common in the world than monolingualism, and yet, as Romaine (1995) points out, it is rare to find a book with the title ‘Monolingualism’. Linguistic theories have often assumed monolingualism to be the norm (Pav l e n ko, 2000), and this view is often held by individual monolinguals who are speakers of a dominant language such as English (Edwards, 1994). This paper will review three representations of monolingualism in the applied linguistics literature. The first is as an unmarked case, against wh i c h bilingualism and multilingualism are set as the exception. The second representation is of monolingualism as a limitation on cog n i t ive, communicative, social and vocational potential (Kirkpatrick, 2000; Crozet, Liddicoat & Lo Bianco, 1999). Perspectives from language policy documents in Australia are presented to illustrate the second representation. The third and most critical representation employ s metaphors of disease, sickness and disability to port r ay monolingualism as a p a t h o l ogical state (Skutnabb-Kangas, 2000a; Oller, 1997). This latter strand of literature critiques the influence of the monolingual perspectives held by those who wield authority in language policy and in education. The paper concludes with a call for the development of a framework within which to understand monolingualism and its social and educational effects.
Toward quantitative interpretation of methyl side-chain dynamics from NMR by molecular dynamics simulations.

Recent improvements of the protein backbone force-field parameters in AMBER99SB have allowed accurate simulation of backbone dynamics, but the consequences for side-chain dynamics have been unclear. It is demonstrated for Ca2+-bound calbindin D9k and ubiquitin that the methyl group dynamics, as assessed by deuterium relaxation measurements of 13CH2D groups, is well-reproduced across the protein by molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. Direct analysis of simulated spectral density functions and fitted S2 order parameters yield remarkably good agreement. These results provide important benchmarks for amino acid specific improvements of side-chain force fields.
Risk factors for recurrence in patients with Staphylococcus aureus infections complicated by bacteremia

Recurrence is a common complication of Staphylococcus aureus infections. A shorter duration of antibiotic treatment for a S. aureus infection has been previously suggested as a possible risk factor for recurrence. We conducted a retrospective cohort study of patients with S. aureus infection complicated by bacteremia who survived their initial treatment (N = 397) at the VA Maryland Health Care System from 1995 to 2004 to determine if 2 weeks or less of antibiotic therapy is significantly associated with a higher rate of recurrence. Recurrence was defined as recurrence of infection because of S. aureus with the same susceptibility to methicillin within 1 year of treatment of the initial bacteremia. Seventeen percent of patients who survived their initial infection had a recurrence of infection. Mean duration of antibiotic therapy in those who recurred was longer than in those who did not recur (21 versus 18 days, P = .18). No evidence was found to support an association between a duration of therapy of 14 days or less and an increased risk for recurrence (RR, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.44–1.04). However, being HIV infected (OR, 4.59; 95% CI, 1.61–13.10), having diabetes (OR, 2.02; 95% CI, 1.13–3.61) and having an infection due to a methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) (OR, 2.11; 95% CI, 1.17–3.80) were independent risk factors for recurrence. In conclusion, 2 weeks or less of antibiotic therapy was not associated with an increased risk for recurrence. However, patients with diabetes or HIV infection and patients with MRSA infections are at an increased risk for recurrence and should be followed more closely.