cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Data Canopy: Accelerating Exploratory Statistical Analysis

During exploratory statistical analysis, data scientists repeatedly compute statistics on data sets to infer knowledge. Moreover, statistics form the building blocks of core machine learning classification and filtering algorithms. Modern data systems, software libraries, and domain-specific tools provide support to compute statistics but lack a cohesive framework for storing, organizing, and reusing them. This creates a significant problem for exploratory statistical analysis as data grows: Despite existing overlap in exploratory workloads (which are repetitive in nature), statistics are always computed from scratch. This leads to repeated data movement and recomputation, hindering interactive data exploration. We address this challenge in Data Canopy, where descriptive and dependence statistics are synthesized from a library of basic aggregates. These basic aggregates are stored within an in-memory data structure, and and are reused for overlapping data parts and for various statistical measures. What this means for exploratory statistical analysis is that repeated requests to compute different statistics do not trigger a full pass over the data. We discuss in detail the basic design elements in Data Canopy, which address multiple challenges: (1) How to decompose statistics into basic aggregates for maximal reuse? (2) How to represent, store, maintain, and access these basic aggregates? (3) Under different scenarios, which basic aggregates to maintain? (4) How to tune Data Canopy in a hardware conscious way for maximum performance and how to maintain good performance as data grows and memory pressure increases? We demonstrate experimentally that Data Canopy results in an average speed-up of at least 10x after just 100 exploratory queries when compared with state-of-the-art systems used for exploratory statistical analysis.
Editorial Comment on: Defining the Costs of Reusable Flexible Ureteroscope Reprocessing Using Time-Driven Activity Based Costing by Isaacson et al. (From: Isaacson D, Ahmad T, Metzler, I, et al. J Endourol 2017;31:1026-1031).

One of the barriers to a more widespread dissemination of flexible ureteroscopy are the costs associated with the ureteroscope itself. The initial purchase price of the ureteroscope can be high, and the lifespan of the scope can be distressingly short. An important challenge inherent in the use of reusable flexible ureteroscopes is the oftentimes-involved process of cleaning the scope from a previous case and readying it for the next case. These processes are complex, and involve multiple personnel throughout many positions within the hospital (nurses, technologists, technicians, etc). A complete accounting of the costs associated with flexible ureteroscopy must, necessarily take all of these steps into consideration. The authors have performed a very nice study that takes the first step towards such an accounting. As the economic pressures associated with medical care become ever more intense, a better understanding of the true costs of surgical procedures is most welcome. For flexible ureteroscopy, a pr...
Academic publishing: Making the implict explicit

For doctoral students, publishing in peer reviewed journals is a task many face with anxiety and trepidation. The world of publishing, from choosing a journal, negotiating with editors and navigating reviewers' responses is a bewildering place. Looking in from the outside, it seems that successful and productive academic writers have knowledge that is inaccessible to novice scholars. While there is a growing literature on writing for scholarly publication, many of these publications promote writing and publishing as a straight-forward activity that anyone can achieve if they follow the rules. We argue that the specific and situated contexts in which academic writers negotiate publishing practices is more complicated and messy. In this paper, we attempt to make explicit our publishing processes to highlight the complex nature of publishing. We use autoethnographic narratives to provide discussion points and insights into the challenges of publishing peer reviewed articles. One narrative is by a doctoral student at the beginning of her publishing career, who expresses her desires, concerns and anxieties about writing for publication. The other narrative focuses on the publishing practices of a more experienced academic writer. Both are international scholars working in the Canadian context. The purpose of this paper is to explore academic publishing through the juxtaposition of these two narratives to make explicit some of the more implicit processes. Four themes emerge from these narratives. To publish successfully, academic writers need: 1) to be discourse analysts; 2) to have a critical competence; and 3) to have writing fluency and 4) to be emotionally intelligent.
Absorption and dispersion of low-frequency sound waves in the main cloud layers of Venus

We present predictions for the acoustic wavenumbers at low frequencies in the condensational cloud layers of Venus, occurring between 50 and 70 km, approximately. While the general thermodynamics of Earth clouds is well understood, that of Venusian clouds is still a matter of debate. Venus' clouds are formed primarily of H2O and H2SO4 vapors and aqueous sulfuric acid droplets, the fluxes of which are not fully constrained due to the few insitu observations. This study is based on and adapted from the terrestrial model of Baudoin et al. (J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 130, 1142 (2011)). Inside the clouds, the Navier-Stokes equations of continuum fluid mechanics are used for the gaseous (dry + vapor) and liquid phases of H2O and H2SO4, combined with the equations describing the evaporation/condensation processes; the gaseous phase is treated as an ideal gas. Outside the clouds, in the CO2—dominated atmosphere, the van der Waals equation of state is used. [The work was supported by a Grant from the Louisiana Space Cons...
Polyreactive antibodies in CLL correlate with the level of immunoglobulins not the number of B lymphocytes.

Polyreactive antibodies are a major part of natural antibody repertoire and can react with different types of antigens both from the host (e.g. proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, DNA) as well as from...
Introduction to Nonlinear Elasticity

This is an introductory survey of some selected topics in finite elasticity. Virtually no previous experience with the subject is assumed. The kinematics of finite deformation is characterized by the polar decomposition theorem; and Euler’s laws of balance and the local field equations of continuum mechanics are described. The general constitutive equation of hyperelasticity theory is deduced from a mechanical energy principle; and the implications of frame invariance and of material symmetry are presented. This leads to constitutive equations for compressible and incompressible, isotropic hyperelastic materials. Constitutive equations studied in experiments by Rivlin and Saunders (Ref. 1) for incompressible rubber materials and by Blatz and Ko (Ref. 2) for certain compressible elastomers are derived; and an equation characteristic of a class of biological tissues studied in primary experiments by Fung (Ref. 3) is discussed. Sample applications are presented for these materials. A balloon inflation experiment is described, and the physical nature of the inflation phenomenon is examined analytically in detail. Results for the different materials are compared. Two major problems of finite elasticity theory are discussed. Some results concerning Ericksen’s problem on controllable deformations possible in every isotropic hyperelastic material are outlined; and examples are presented in illustration of Truesdell’s problem concerning analytical restrictions imposed on constitutive equations. Universal relations valid for all compressible and incompressible, isotropic materials are discussed. The nonuniversal, antiplane shear problem and related theorems are presented. Some examples of nonuniqueness, including that of a neo-Hookean cube subject to uniform loads over its faces, are described. Elastic stability criteria and their connection with uniqueness in the theory of small deformations superimposed on large deformations are introduced, and a few applications are mentioned.
Text Classification with Imperfect Hierarchical Structure Knowledge

Many real world classification problems involve classes organized in a hierarchical tree-like structure. However in many cases the hierarchical structure is ignored and each class is treated in isolation or in other words the class structure is flattened (Dumais and Chen, 2000). In this paper, we propose a new approach of incorporating hierarchical structure knowledge by cascading it as an additional feature for Child level classifier. We posit that our cascading model will outperform the baseline “flat” model. Our empirical experiment provides strong evidences supporting our proposal. Interestingly, even imperfect hierarchical structure knowledge would also improve classification performance.
Effect of transfusion therapy on arteriographic abnormalities and on recurrence of stroke in sickle cell disease

Stroke is a relatively frequent and severe complication of sickle cell disease. We performed cerebral arteriograms in 30 patients with sickle cell disease to evaluate the cause of acute neurologic deficits and to assess the effects of transfusion therapy given for a year or more after the acute episode. Twenty-three patients with motor and speech deficits had multiple abnormalities of major cerebral arteries. The internal carotid and anterior and middle cerebral arteries showed stenosis and/or occlusion at their common junction. Irregular luminal surfaces suggested that endothelial damage and intimal hyperplasia were the basis of stroke. Prolonged transfusion therapy nearly stopped progression of stenosis and markedly decreased the irregularity of the luminal surfaces; in 4 untransfused patients, the degree of stenosis doubled and the luminal abnormalities persisted. Prior to transfusion, 90% of patients had recurrence of stroke. With transfusion therapy, only 10% of patients had recurrence despite persistent arterial abnormalities. Clinical recurrences per patient-month decreased 75- fold. The patients tolerated prolonged transfusion therapy well, despite progressive iron accumulation. Seven patients with smooth abnormalities of a single artery, nonocclusive changes, or with normal arteriograms did not receive transfusions. Only one of this group had recurrence of symptoms.
LIFETIME, FLUORESCENCE EFFICIENCY, AND SCINTILLATION STUDIES ON SOME trans-1,2-DIARYLETHYLENES

Abstract A group of trans -1,2-diarylethylenes embodying structural features which prevent isomerization to the cis -forms have been studied with respect to scintillation properties, fluorescence decay times, fluorescence efficiencies, and energy transfer constants. Relative pulse heights were measured in toluene solution under air equilibrated and deoxygenated conditions at various concentrations using a Bi-207 source and a teflon scintillation cavity. Fluorescence decay times were determined using a statistical recording method involving a one-or-no photoelectron technique. The solutes were pulsed with an oxygen flash lamp, and the experimentally determined decay times were visually matched to synthetically generated decay curves. The quantum efficiencies were determined relative to p -terphenyl, and the energy transfer constants for the toluene systems were obtained from several independent analyses and seem to agree in trend only.
Abstract 22: Apoptosis Signal-Regulating Kinase 1 (ASK1) is a Novel Master Molecular Switch Controlling Microglia/Macrophage Reactions That Impact Short- and Long-Term Stroke Outcomes

Introduction: Recent studies suggest that the functional status of microglia/macrophages (Mi/MΦ) profoundly impacts stroke outcome. However, the molecular mechanisms regulating Mi/MΦ reactions afte...
A new cryptic species of fringe-toed lizards from southwestern Arizona with a revised taxonomy of the Uma notata species complex (Squamata: Phrynosomatidae).

Fringe-toed lizards (Uma) are among the most specialized lizards in North America, adapted to insular windblown sand habitats in the hyper-arid southwestern deserts, with allopatric distributions, subtle morphological variation, and an unstable taxonomic history. We analyzed a morphological dataset of 40 characters for 65 specimens and a molecular dataset of 2,286 bases from three mitochondrial loci for 92 individuals and interpreted these data alongside published analyses of multi-locus genetic data with the goal of revising the taxonomy of the Uma notata (Baird 1858) species complex. We confirmed that fringe-toed lizards from the Mohawk Dunes in southwestern Arizona (U. sp.) constitute a cryptic species sister to the rest of the complex that can be diagnosed with DNA barcoding and geography, so we describe and name this species Uma thurmanae sp. nov. We also confirmed the evolutionary distinctiveness of U. inornata (Cope 1895), an endangered species endemic to Coachella Valley in southern California. We designate a lectotype for the taxon U. “rufopunctata”, but we put its name in quotation marks to reflect its uncertain taxonomic status with respect to its neighboring species U. cowlesi and U. notata.
Relationship between MRI findings after laparoscopic-assisted anorectal pull-through for anorectal malformations and the functional outcomes

Objective To explore the relationship between MRI findings and defecation function after laparoscopic-assisted anorectal pull-through for anorectal malformations. Methods A retrospective cohort study focused on the findings of MRI performed after laparoscopic-assisted anorectal pull-through for anorectal malformations and no spinal deformity was present in all patients who are currently older than 3 years. Forty-two patients aged from 3 to 16 years (median age was 4 years), whom accepted operation at 3 months to 13 years old(median age was 5 months), and MRI was carried out in 2 to 5 months after operation(median time was 3 months). The MRI manifestations including the relationship between the anorect and the high muscle complex(RAHMC), anorectal angle(AA);the relationship between the anorect and the low muscle complex(RALMC), the rectal maximum diameter(RMD), the fat tissue interposition(FTI) and the development of pelvic floor muscle(PFM) were reviewed and summarized. Statistically, the differences of MRI manifestations in different defecation function index, including the degree of voluntary bowel movements, soiling, constipation and Krickenbeck score were evaluated respectively with Chi-square test or rank sum test. Results statistically, There was significant differences among the groups with different degree of voluntary bowel movements, soiling and Krickenbeck score in the RAHMC (P 0.05) . Conclusions The deviation of the anorect from the high muscle complex which showed in the postoperative MRI pictures suggested the poor prognosis, and well-developed pelvic floor muscles which indicated in the MRI was not the sufficient predictor for good outcome. Postoperative anorectal angle obtained in the MRI can be used as an objective indicator of prognosis. Key words: Rectum; Anus diseases; Laparoscopes; Magnetic resonance imaging
SLFN2 protection of tRNAs from stress-induced cleavage is essential for T cell–mediated immunity

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) increase in activated T cells because of metabolic activity induced to support T cell proliferation and differentiation. We show that these ROS trigger an oxidative stress response that leads to translation repression. This response is countered by Schlafen 2 (SLFN2), which directly binds transfer RNAs (tRNAs) to protect them from cleavage by the ribonuclease angiogenin. T cell-specific SLFN2 deficiency results in the accumulation of tRNA fragments, which inhibit translation and promote stress-granule formation. Interleukin-2 receptor β (IL-2Rβ) and IL-2Rγ fail to be translationally up-regulated after T cell receptor stimulation, rendering SLFN2-deficient T cells insensitive to interleukin-2's mitogenic effects. SLFN2 confers resistance against the ROS-mediated translation-inhibitory effects of oxidative stress normally induced by T cell activation, permitting the robust protein synthesis necessary for T cell expansion and immunity.
In Situ Iridium LIII-Edge X-ray Absorption and Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy of Electrodeposited Iridium Oxide Films in Aqueous Electrolytes

Structural and electronic aspects of IrO2 films prepared by electrodeposition on Au substrates were investigated by in situ LIII-edge X-ray absorption and surface enhanced Raman spectroscopies in both acid and alkaline aqueous solutions. Linear correlations were found between the extent of oxidation of Ir3+ in the films determined from a statistical fit of the white line, which includes contributions from each of the sites differing by a single electron, and from coulometric analysis of the voltammetric curves. Analysis of the extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) yielded Ir−O bond lengths decreasing in the sequence 2.02, 1.97, and 1.93 A for Ir3+, Ir4+, and Ir5+ sites, respectively. Whereas SERS provided evidence for the presence of crystalline IrO2 in the highly hydrated films, the lack of intense shells in the Fourier transform of the EXAFS function beyond the nearest oxygen neighbors indicates that the films do not display long-range order.
Designing Networked Handheld Devices to Enhance School Learning

Abstract Handheld devices, especially networked handheld devices, are growing in importance in education, largely because their affordability and accessibility create an opportunity for educators to transition from occasional, supplemental use of computers, to frequent and integral use of portable computational technology. Why and how might these new devices enhance school learning? We begin by discussing a simple but important factor: networked handhelds can allow a 1:1 student:device ratio for the first time, enabling ready-at-hand access to technology throughout the school day and throughout the learner's personal life. We argue that designers need to understand the capabilities of the new generation of handheld computers and wireless networks that are most relevant for learning. We follow this with a discussion of Learning Science theories that connect those capabilities to enhanced learning. The capabilities and features feed into design practices. We describe a set of example applications that are arising from the capabilities, theories and design practices previously described. Finally, we close with a discussion of the challenge of scale.
Lower Dimensional Representation of Text Data Based on Centroids and Least Squares

Dimension reduction in today’s vector space based informat ion retrieval system is essential for improving computational efficiency in handling massive amounts of dat a. A mathematical framework for lower dimensional representation of text data in vector space based inf ormation retrieval is proposed using minimization and a matrix rank reduction formula. We illustrate how the commonly used Latent Semantic Indexing based on the Singular Value Decomposition (LSI/SVD) can be derived as a method for dimension reduction from our mathematical framework. Then two new methods for dimension reduction based on the centroids of data clusters are proposed and shown to be more efficient and e ffective than LSI/SVD when we have a priori information on the cluster structure of the data. Several ad vantages of the new methods in terms of computational efficiency and data representation in the reduced s pace, as well as their mathematical properties are discussed. Experimental results are presented to illustrate the effec tiveness of our methods on certain classification problems in a reduced dimensional space. The results indicate that for a successful lower dimensional representation of the data, it is important to incorporate a priori knowledge in the dimension reduction algorithms.
An Ant System algorithm for graph bisection

This paper gives an algorithm for the graph bisection problem using the Ant System (AS) technique. The ant algorithm given in this paper differs from the usual ant algorithms in that the individual ant in the system does not construct a solution to the problem nor a component of the solution directly. Rather the collective behavior of the two species of ants in the system induces a solution to the problem. The algorithm also incorporates local optimization algorithms to speed up the convergence rate and to improve the quality of the solutions. The results achieved by this algorithm on several classes of graphs equal the best known results for the majority of graphs tested, and are very close to the best known results for the remainder.
Initial Cardiac Rhythm Correlated to Emergency Department Survival

Background: This study attempted to correlate the initial cardiac rhythm and survival from prehospital cardiac arrest, as a secondary end-point. Methods: Prospective, randomized, double-blinded clinical intervention trial where bicarbonate was administered to 874 prehospital cardiopulmonary arrest patients in prehospital urban, suburban, and rural emergency medical service environments. Results: This group’s manifested an overall survival rate of 13.9% (110 of 793) of prehospital cardiac arrest patients. The most common presenting arrhythmia was ventricular fibrillation (VF) (45.0%), asystole (ASY) (34.4%), and pulseless electrical activity (PEA) (15.7%). Less commonly found were normal sinus rhythm (NSR) (1.8%), other (1.8%), ventricular tachycardia (VT) (0.6%), and atrioventricular block (AVB) (0.5%) as prearrest rhythms. The best survival was noted in those with a presenting rhythm of AVB (57.1%), VT (33.3%), VF (15.7%), NSR (14.3%), PEA (11.2%), and ASY (11.1%) (p = 0.02). However, there was no correlation between the final cardiac rhythm and outcome, other than an obvious end-of-life rhythm. Conclusion: The most common presenting arrhythmia was VF (45%), while survival is greatest in those presenting with AVB (57.1%).
Time-varying management of data storage

The efficiency of large-scale applications is strongly dependent on good data management techniques. In this paper, we claim that the ability to specify data requirements in a time-varying manner facilitates data management and improves application efficiency. This is because requirements such as availability, bandwidth and latency can vary significantly with time. Consequently, the storage system can dynamically change the allocation of resources to data objects. We describe how an application may specify these dynamic requirements using utility functions, and outline a strategy towards achieving an optimal allocation of resources to data objects.
POPsicle for Fever! Cooling Down the Inflammasome

Inhibition of the inflammasome might be beneficial for numerous inflammatory pathologies. In this issue of Immunity, de Almeida et al. (2015) report that the PYRIN domain-only protein (POP1) efficiently inhibits inflammasome activation, identifying it as a pan-inflammasome inhibitor.
History of Noise Research

Publisher Summary This chapter explains the history of noise research. It deals with the early developments in the theory of Brownian motion and in noise theory, culminating in the Ornstein approach. It also deals with the Fourier method, and provides the history of the various methods for evaluating noise spectra and distribution functions. Further, this chapter also provides the history of the theories of most important noise sources in amplifiers and detectors. It discusses Einstein's fundamental work and deals with the Langevin method of solving noise problems, and with the solution given by Omstein. Next, it deals with Einstein's theories of temperature fluctuations and of fluctuations in radiation fields. Furthermore, shot noise in temperature limited thermionic diodes is discussed. Finally, Campbell's fundamental theorem is discussed. The Fourier method of dealing with fluctuation phenomena is also discussed.
Automated Volumetric Breast Density derived by Shape and Appearance Modeling

The image shape and texture (appearance) estimation designed for facial recognition is a novel and promising approach for application in breast imaging. The purpose of this study was to apply a shape and appearance model to automatically estimate percent breast fibroglandular volume (%FGV) using digital mammograms. We built a shape and appearance model using 2000 full-field digital mammograms from the San Francisco Mammography Registry with known %FGV measured by single energy absorptiometry method. An affine transformation was used to remove rotation, translation and scale. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was applied to extract significant and uncorrelated components of %FGV. To build an appearance model, we transformed the breast images into the mean texture image by piecewise linear image transformation. Using PCA the image pixels grey-scale values were converted into a reduced set of the shape and texture features. The stepwise regression with forward selection and backward elimination was used to estimate the outcome %FGV with shape and appearance features and other system parameters. The shape and appearance scores were found to correlate moderately to breast %FGV, dense tissue volume and actual breast volume, body mass index (BMI) and age. The highest Pearson correlation coefficient was equal 0.77 for the first shape PCA component and actual breast volume. The stepwise regression method with ten-fold cross-validation to predict %FGV from shape and appearance variables and other system outcome parameters generated a model with a correlation of r2 = 0.8. In conclusion, a shape and appearance model demonstrated excellent feasibility to extract variables useful for automatic %FGV estimation. Further exploring and testing of this approach is warranted.
Oxidative and nitrosative stress in trichloroethene-mediated autoimmune response

Reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) are implicated in the pathogenesis of several autoimmune diseases. Also, increased lipid peroxidation and protein nitration are reported in systemic autoimmune diseases. Lipid peroxidation-derived aldehydes (LPDAs) such as malondialdehyde (MDA) and 4-hydroxynonenal (HNE) are highly reactive and bind proteins covalently, but their potential to elicit an autoimmune response and contribution to disease pathogenesis remain unclear. Similarly, nitration of protein could also contribute to disease pathogenesis. To assess the status of lipid peroxidation and/or RONS, autoimmune-prone female MRL+/+ mice (5-week old) were treated with trichloroethene (TCE), an environmental contaminant known to induce autoimmune response, for 48 weeks (0.5 mg/ml via drinking water), and formation of antibodies to LPDA-protein adducts was followed in the sera of control and TCE-treated mice. TCE treatment led to greater formation of both anti-MDA- and -HNE-protein adduct antibodies and higher serum iNOS and nitrotyrosine levels. The increase in TCE-induced oxidative stress was associated with increases in anti-nuclear-, anti-ssDNA- and anti-dsDNA-antibodies. These findings suggest that TCE exposure not only leads to oxidative/nitrosative stress, but is also associated with induction/exacerbation of autoimmune response in MRL+/+ mice. Further interventional studies are needed to establish a causal role of RONS in TCE-mediated autoimmunity.
Sequences of the Iron-Sulfur Protein Precursor Necessary for Its Import and Two-Step Processing in Yeast Mitochondria

Gene fusion techniques were used to examine whether the presequence of the iron-sulfur protein contains sufficient information for the import of attached mouse cytosolic enzyme dihydrofolate reductase into isolated yeast mitochondria and its subsequent two-step processing. Genes encoding amino-terminal segments of the iron-sulfur precursor protein including the proposed first presequence (residues 1-21), the complete presequence (residues 1-30), and various lengths of the precursor protein from 31 to 160 residues were fused, in frame, to dihydrofolate reductase. All of the fusion proteins, after synthesis in an in vitro transcription-translation system, were imported into a protease-resistant compartment of mitochondria where a single proteolytic cleavage was observed at the first processing site. The second cleavage, however, was not observed after import of any of the chimeric proteins, suggesting that the second cleavage may be strongly influenced by the presence of the passenger protein. A deletion mutant of the iron-sulfur protein precursor lacking residues 161-180 underwent two proteolytic cleavages similar to those observed for the wild-type iron-sulfur protein after import into mitochondria. These results suggest that the complete sequence of the mature form of the iron-sulfur protein including the amino acid residues involved in binding the iron sulfur clusters is not necessary for the second cleavage to occur. In addition, the hydrophobic sequence present in residues 55-66 of the precursor protein which has been suggested to anchor the iron-sulfur protein to the inner membrane, was not necessary for the import and two-step processing of the protein, since a deletion mutant lacking residues 55-66 was processed correctly.
Oxygen equilibrium of emulsified solutions of normal and sickle hemoglobin.

Abstract Emulsions containing microdroplets of concentrated solutions of normal or sickle hemoglobin dispersed in a continous oil phase have been prepared, and the aggregation of sickle hemoglobin within microdroplets in a deoxygenated emulsion demonstrated. The equilibrium oxygen saturation of hemoglobin in the emulsions has been measured as a function of the partial pressure of oxygen by a novel spectrophotometric technique which corrects for the scattering of light in the emulsion. The half-saturation oxygen pressure and cooperativity of oxygen binding are substantially greater in concentrated (27 g/dl) solutions of sickle hemoglobin than in solutions of non-aggregating hemoglobin. The shape of the oxygen equilibrium curve of concentrated sickle hemoglobin is qualitatively discussed in terms of a previously proposed model (1).
Radiation Exposure Predictions for Short-Duration Stay Mars Missions

The human radiation environment for several short-duration stay manned Mars missions is predicted using the Mission Radiation Calculation (MIRACAL) program, which was developed at NASA Langley Research Center. This program provides dose estimates for galactic cosmic rays (GCR) and large and ordinary solar proton flare events for various amounts of effective spacecraft shielding (both operational and storm shelter thicknesses) and a given time history of the spacecraft's heliocentric position. The results of this study show that most of the missions can survive the most recent large flares (if they were to occur at the missions' perihelion) if a 25 g/cm2 storm shelter is assumed. The dose predictions show that missions during solar minima (when solar flare activity is the lowest) are not necessarily the minimum dose cases, due to increased GCR contribution during this time period. The direct transfer mission studied has slightly lower doses than the outbound Venus swingby mission [on the order of 10-20 centi-Sieverts (cSv) lower], with the greatest dose differences for the assumed worst case scenario (when the large flares occur at perihelion). The GCR dose for a mission can be reduced by having the crew spend some fraction of its day nominally in the storm shelter (other than during flare events).
Solid Surface Luminescence: A Study of the Glyoxylic Acid and Formaldehyde/Glutaraldehyde Histofluorescence Methods

The solid surface luminescence of micro amounts of biologically significant amines adsorbed on filter paper and derivatized using the formaldehyde/glutaraldehyde (FAGLU) and glyoxylic acid (GA) histofluorescence methods is reported. A correlation with histochemical studies is noted, making filter paper a valid alternative to animal tissues when derivatization reactions are studied.
Infant-sibling communication: Relationships to birth-spacing and cognitive and linguistic development

Abstract Infant-sibling communication and its relationship to birth-spacing and linguistic and intellectual development were examined. Forty-four dyads of siblings spaced 1–6 years apart were visited when the infants were 12, 12 1 2 , 17 1 2 , and 18 months old. Measures of both siblings' linguistic and intellectual level were obtained at 12- and 18-month visits. Ten-min videotapes of infant-sibling interaction were obtained at 12 1 2 and 17 1 2 months. Analyses revealed that members of widely-spaced dyads directed more social behaviors to each other, engaged in more interactive bouts, and had more sustained bouts. Infants were more responsive to widely-spaced than closely-spaced firstborns. Siblings' social behaviors were highly interrelated but not related to their partners' linguistic or intellectual level. The amount of time infants spent with their mothers or siblings decreased with increasing birth-spacing, suggesting that any benefit of the more extensive interaction between widely-spaced siblings may be offset by their less frequent contact.
Beyond Elegy: Classical Arabic Women's Poetry in Context

Studying gender through literary texts in the pre-modern world is often a thankless task; the inattentive sometimes encapsulate this as with “women in the pre-modern world”, which, while interestin...
DNA cleavage during ethanol metabolism: role of superoxide radicals and catalytic iron.

Abstract The generation of superoxide and related free radicals and the mobilization of catalytic iron due to ethanol metabolism have been suggested as mechanisms of alcohol-induced liver injury as well as of the increased risk of cancer observed in alcoholics. Cleavage of double stranded DNA is produced by both free radicals as well as by catalytic iron. The effects of ethanol metabolism on DNA cleavage were therefore studied in vitro as well as in vivo in isolated hepatocytes. Intactness of double stranded DNA was studied by measuring ethidium bromide fluorescence after DNA electrophoresis. In vitro , the metabolism of acetaldehyde by aldehyde oxidase caused cleavage of Lambda phage DNA. Cleavage was inhibited by both superoxide dismutase and desferrioxamine indicating the role of superoxide radicals and catalytic iron respectively. Studies with HIND III digests of the Lambda phage indicate a lack of specificity in the breaks with respect to nucleotide sequences. Addition of EDTA greatly enhanced cleavage. In vivo , ethanol metabolism caused minimal breakage in hepatocyte DNA and addition of acetaldehyde (100μM) markedly enhanced cleavage; all cleavage was inhibited by desferrioxamine. Themetabolism of ethanol to acetaldehyde and the further metabolism of acetaldehyde by aldehyde oxidase generates free radicals and mobilizes iron; these may contribute to alcohol-induced injury and carcinogenesis.
Growth promotion of excised cucumber cotyledons by rubbing or by cuticular abrasion

Abstract Growth of cotyledons excised from 5-day-old dark grown cucumber seedlings was measured after certain wounding treatments. Cotyledons rubbed between wet thumb and finger with or without carborundum or cut into eight sections grew faster than non-rubbed, non-cut controls. To determine how such treatments promoted growth, scanning electron micrographs of cotyledon surfaces and growth responses in H2O, zeatin, KCl and ethylene were evaluated. Treatments enhanced growth without zeatin or KCl, but were more effective when KCl was present. Abrasion with carborundum caused tears in cotyledon surfaces and faster absorption of KCl. Nevertheless, growth (H2O absorption) in KCl was so much greater that tissue K+ concentrations after growth were lower in abraded than in nonrubbed control cotyledons. Increased permeability of zeatin, KCl, H2O or O2 is unlikely to explain most of the observed growth enhancement, because such enhancement also occured when only the adaxial, astomatal surface was abraded and placed either down (in contact with the growth medium) or up (in contact with air). Effects of exogenous ethylene indicate that this gas does not cause growth enhancement. Perhaps an unidentified factor produced in wounded cells increases growth.
A temporal cross-section approach to the price equation

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to estimate a price equation for the manufacturing sector of the U.S. utilizing temporal cross-section industry data. Unlike previous studies which have not allowed for differences in behavior across industries, however, the parameters of our aggregate price equation are allowed to vary freely across manufacturing industries. To the extent that industries reflect differences in both product demands and costs of factor inputs, the estimation of a price equation permitting varying rather than fixed parameters seems preferable. The temporal cross-section specification will provide a microeconomic foundation to our aggregate price equation as well as permit us to take account of differences in individual industry parameters.
A PATO-compliant zebrafish screening database (MODB): management of morpholino knockdown screen information.

Background The zebrafish is a powerful model vertebrate amenable to high throughput in vivo genetic analyses. Examples include reverse genetic screens using morpholino knockdown, expression-based screening using enhancer trapping and forward genetic screening using transposon insertional mutagenesis. We have created a database to facilitate web-based distribution of data from such genetic studies.
All My Friends Are Doing It: Potentially Offensive Sexual Behavior Perpetration Within Adolescent Social Networks

The current study used social network analysis to investigate peer network and individual predictors of potentially offensive sexual behaviors among high school students. Ninth-grade students (n = 308; 158 girls) completed surveys assessing their perpetration of potentially offensive sexual behaviors against their peers, as well as measures of their sexualized gender stereotypes and propensity to self-monitor. Participants selected up to eight of their closest friends from a roster. RESULTS revealed homophily of potentially offensive sexual behaviors, such that adolescents perpetrated similar amounts of physical/verbal, electronic, and homophobic behaviors as their friends. Characteristics of the peer network (e.g., mean network perpetration, centrality of individual, and gender composition) and the individual adolescent (e.g., gender, sexualized gender stereotypes, self-monitoring) predicted adolescents' own behavior. Language: en
Perceptual Organization of Occluding Contours of Opaque Surfaces

This paper offers computational theory and an algorithmic framework for perceptual organization of contours bounding opaque occluding surfaces of constant lightness. For any given visual scene, a sparse graph is constructed whose nodes are salient visual events such as contrast edges, and L-type and T-type junctions of contrast edges and whose arcs are coincidence and geometric configurational relations among node elements. An interpretation of the scene consists of choices among a small set of labels for graph elements reflecting physical events such as corners, visible surface occlusion, amodal continuation, and surface occlusion sans visible contrast edge (which perceptually give rise to illusory contours). Any given labeling induces an energy, or cost, associated with physical consistency and figural interpretation biases. Using the technique of deterministic annealing, optimization is performed such that local cues propagate smoothly to give rise to a global solution. We demonstrate that this approach leads to correct interpretations (in the sense of agreeing with human percepts) of popular simple “colorforms”, figures known to induce illusory contours, as well as more difficult figures where interpretations acknowledging accidental alignment are preferred.
Increased plasma MMP9 in integrin α1‐null mice enhances lung metastasis of colon carcinoma cells

Inhibitors of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) were developed as anticancer agents based on the observation that MMPs facilitate local tumor spread and metastasis by promoting matrix degradation and cell migration. Unfortunately, these inhibitors were unsuccessful in the clinical treatment of several cancers, including lung cancer. A possible reason contributing to their failure is that MMP activity is critical for the generation of inhibitors of tumor angiogenesis, including angiostatin. Thus, MMPs might play opposing roles in tumor vascularization and invasion. To determine which effect of elevated MMP levels dominates in the progression of metastatic cancer, experimental lung metastasis assays were performed in integrin alpha1-null mice, a genetic model for increased plasma levels of MMP9 and MMP9-generated angiostatin (Pozzi et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2000;97:2202-7). We show that while the number of lung colonies in integrin alpha1-null mice was significantly increased compared to their wild-type counterparts, tumor volume was markedly reduced. In vivo treatment with the MMP inhibitor doxycycline resulted in a significant decrease in the number of lung colonies in both genotypes, but the tumors that formed were bigger and more vascularized. Increased tumor vascularization paralleled decreased plasma levels of MMP9 and consequent decreased angiostatin synthesis. These results demonstrate that while inhibition of MMPs prevents and/or reduces tumor invasion and lung metastasis, it has the paradoxical effect of increasing the size and vascularization of metastatic tumors due to decreased generation of inhibitors of endothelial cell proliferation. The continued growth of these large well-vascularized tumors may explain the poor efficacy of MMP inhibitors in lung cancer clinical trials.
Phagocyte-mediated killing of Candida tropicalis.

Human peripheral monocytes (MO), neutrophils (PMN), and lymphocytes (PBL) were tested for their ability to kill Candida tropicalis. With incubation times between 30 min and 2 h, unstimulated MO and PMN, but not PBL, were efficient killers of C. tropicalis. Both leukocyte subsets were able to kill at minimum 2.5∶ 1 effector to target ratios. Pre-incubation of MO for 24 h with interferon-gamma or tumor necrosis factor (TNF) increased their ability to kill yeast targets. TNF alone had no effect on C. tropicalis targets at concentrations up to 1000 U/ml. PBL activated for 4 d with interleukin-2 did not kill yeast targets. PMN exhibited more cytocidal efficiency per cell than MO in these assays. Direct contact of effectors and targets was required; no significant killing by PMN or MO supernatants was measured. PMN-mediated killing, but not MO killing, was inhibited by a mixture of catalase and Superoxide dismutase suggesting that oxygen-dependent killing mechanisms were partially responsible for candidacidal activity.
Spontaneously hypertensive rats: adrenergic hyperresponsivity to anticipation of electric shock.

Spontaneously hypertensive (SHR) and normotensive (WKY) male rats were transferred daily for 4 consecutive days from their home cages to a shock chamber and, after 5 min, received 60 footshocks (2.5 mA, 0.4 sec in duration, every 5 sec). Control animals of each strain were handled in the same manner but were never shocked. Blood samples were obtained from each rat on the fifth day via a chronic, indwelling tail arterial catheter. Previous exposure to footshock had no effect on plasma levels of norepinephrine (NE) and epinephrine (EPI) while animals were undisturbed in their home cages. After transfer to the shock chamber, the increases in plasma levels of NE and EPI were greater in previously shocked SHR than in unshocked SHR or shocked WKY rats. In addition, the increase in heart rate associated with transfer to the shock chamber was greater in previously shocked SHR rats than in unshocked SHR or in WKY controls. Previously shocked animals of both strains were also less active and defecated more frequently than controls when placed into the shock chamber. These results indicate that SHR and WKY rats have similar behavior responses to anticipation of footshock, but only in SHR rats is this attended by enhanced adrenergic responsivity.
The essence of compiling with traces

The technique of trace-based just-in-time compilation was introduced by Bala et al. and was further developed by Gal et al. It currently enjoys success in Mozilla Firefox's JavaScript engine. A trace-based JIT compiler leverages run-time profiling to optimize frequently-executed paths while enabling the optimized code to ``bail out'' to the original code when the path has been invalidated. This optimization strategy differs from those of other JIT compilers and opens the question of which trace optimizations are sound. In this paper we present a framework for reasoning about the soundness of trace optimizations, and we show that some traditional optimization techniques are sound when used in a trace compiler while others are unsound. The converse is also true: some trace optimizations are sound when used in a traditional compiler while others are unsound. So, traditional and trace optimizations form incomparable sets. Our setting is an imperative calculus for which tracing is explicitly spelled out in the semantics. We define optimization soundness via a notion of bisimulation, and we show that sound optimizations lead to confluence and determinacy of stores.
Cell cycle dependent genes inducible by different mitogens in cells from different species.

A number of genes and cDNA sequences (including at least four oncogenes) are known to be expressed in a cell cycle-dependent manner, i.e. the levels of specific mRNAs vary with the phases of the cell cycle. In order to explore the significance of some of these sequences in the mitogenic response, we have investigated the expression of 8 cell cycle-dependent sequences (plus two control sequences, not expressed in a cell cycle-dependent manner) under a variety of conditions. These conditions included cells of different types, from different species, stimulated to proliferate by different mitogens. The genes (or sequences) studied included five cDNA clones whose sequences are preferentially expressed in early G1, i.e. two cDNA clones inducible by platelet-derived growth factor (JE-3 and KC-1), and three cDNA clones inducible by serum (2A9, 2F1, 4F1); and three oncogenes (c-myc, c-rasHa and p53) whose expression is known to be cell cycle-dependent. All of the tested genes, except 2A9, c-rasHa and the control genes, are expressed in a cell cycle-dependent manner in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells stimulated by phytohemagglutinin and in serum-stimulated mouse and Syrian hamster fibroblasts. The inducibility of these genes by different mitogens in cells of different types and from different species strongly suggests that these genes play a role in cell cycle progression. This conclusion is further supported by the known structural and functional similarities between cell-cycle dependent genes, oncogenes and genes coding for cell-cycle related molecules.
Developmental expression of FOG‐1/CPEB protein and its control in the Caenorhabditis elegans hermaphrodite germ line

The specification of a germ cell as sperm or oocyte and determination of cell number remain unsolved questions in developmental biology. This paper examines Caenorhabditis elegans FOG-1, a CPEB-related RNA-binding protein that controls the sperm fate. We find that abundant FOG-1 protein is observed transiently in germ cells just prior to their expression of an early sperm-differentiation marker. As the germline tissue elongates, abundant FOG-1 appears more and more distally as sperm become specified, but disappears when the germ line switches to oogenesis. This dynamic pattern is controlled by both globally acting and germline-specific sex-determining regulators. Importantly, the extent of FOG-1 expression corresponds roughly to sperm number in wild-type and mutants, altering sperm number. By contrast, three other key regulators of the sperm/oocyte decision do not similarly correspond to sperm number. We suggest that FOG-1 is precisely modulated in both time and space to specify sperm fate and control sperm number.