cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Ethics and the Role of Producers, Writers, Actors and Directors : Or How to Get Started in the Entertainment Business

This chapter examines some of the ethical issues that creative individuals face on a daily basis. It explores issues confronting producers, writers, actors and directors. Writers, directors, actors, and producers all have to decide what part ethics will play in their work. The creative team may choose to ignore, embrace, or co-opt ethical issues, but they can not readily deny their existence; sometimes the ethical quandaries lurk below the surface before imploding and creating a crisis. Picture Perfect uses religious imagery throughout to add texture to the ethical issues the film is exploring. The list of ethical issues writers face is a long one filled with many bumps along the road. Making the ethical conflict more complex and less clear-cut creates stronger drama. Some writers start with characters they find compelling and present them with an ethical conflict, while others create a believable ethical situation and then create the characters to suit the conflict.
A 0.6-V Power-Efficient Active-RC Analog Low-Pass Filter With Cutoff Frequency Selection

This article presents a fully differential (FD) low-voltage (LV) fourth-order Butterworth active- RC low-pass filter (LPF) with a maximum cutoff frequency $(f_{o})$ of 160 MHz, $f_{o}$ programmability, and adaptive power. The proposed filter targets communication systems requiring high and reconfigurable $f_{o}$ at supply voltages $(V_{\mathrm {DD}}s)$ of 0.6 V. The filter is implemented with an active- RC topology, a programmable $f_{o}$ between four steps, 20/40/80/160 MHz, and a $f_{o}$ fine-tuning option after fabrication via capacitor banks. A compact LV FD amplifier with feedforward gain-boosting implementation is used to meet the stringent filter’s performance. The novel amplifier achieves an open loop gain of 66 dB and a maximum unity-gain frequency (UGF) of 759 MHz with $V_{\mathrm {DD}} = 0.6$ V and 5.27 mW of power dissipation. Using the proposed amplifier, the filter achieves the highest $f_{o}$ reported in the literature for LV active- RC implementations and 40% power reduction over similar high- $f_{o}$ LV filters. The filter was fabricated in a CMOS 130-nm technology; it has a THD = 50.7 dB, signal-to-noise and distortion (SNDR) = 45.37 dB, $P_{\mathrm {1dB}} = 4.26$ dBm and 520- $\mu \text{V}$ RMS integrated noise over the filter’s bandwidth (BW), while consuming 23.8 mA from a 0.6-V supply for $f_{o} = 160$ MHz.
The Difference Between Cystatin C- and Creatinine-Based Estimated GFR and Associations With Frailty and Adverse Outcomes: A Cohort Analysis of the Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial (SPRINT)

Rationale & Objective In prior research and in practice, the difference between estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) calculated from cystatin C level and eGFR calculated from creatinine level has not been assessed for clinical significance and relevance. We evaluated whether these differences contain important information about frailty. Study Design A cohort analysis of the Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial (SPRINT). Setting & Participants 9,092 hypertensive SPRINT participants who had baseline measurements of serum creatinine, cystatin C, and frailty. Exposure eGFRs calculated using CKD-EPI (Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration) equations (eGFRcys and eGFRcr), and eGFRDiff, calculated as eGFRcys − eGFRcr. Outcomes A validated 35-item frailty index that included questionnaire data for general and physical health, limitations of activities, pain, depression, sleep, energy level, self-care, and smoking status, as well as medical history, cognitive assessment, and laboratory data. We defined frailty as frailty index score > 0.21 (range, 0-1). The incidence of injurious falls, hospitalizations, cardiovascular events, and mortality was also recorded. Analytical Approach We used logistic regression to model the cross-sectional association of baseline eGFRDiff with frailty among all SPRINT participants. Adjusted proportional hazards regression was used to evaluate the association of eGFRDiff with adverse outcomes and mortality. Results Mean age was 68 ± 9 (SD) years, mean eGFRcys and eGFRcr were 73 ± 23 and 72 ± 20 mL/min/1.73 m2, and mean eGFRDiff was 0.5 ± 15 mL/min/1.73 m2. In adjusted models, each 1-SD higher eGFRDiff was associated with 24% lower odds of prevalent frailty (OR, 0.76; 95% CI, 0.71-0.81), as well as with lower incidence rate of injurious falls (HR, 0.84; 95% CI, 0.77-0.92), hospitalization (HR, 0.91; 95% CI, 0.88-0.95), cardiovascular events (HR, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.81-0.97), and all-cause mortality (HR, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.63-0.82); P Limitations Gold-standard measure of kidney function and assessment of muscle mass were not available. Conclusions The difference between eGFRcys and eGFRcr is associated with frailty and health status. Positive eGFRDiff is strongly associated with lower risks for longitudinal adverse outcomes and mortality, even after adjusting for chronic kidney disease stage and baseline frailty.
Protein secondary structure motifs: A kinematic construction.

The kinematic geometry of protein backbone structures, constrained by either single or multiple hydrogen bonds (H-bonds), possibly in a periodic array, is discussed. These structures include regular secondary structure elements α-helices and β-sheets but also include other short H-bond stabilized irregular structural elements like β-turns. The work here shows that the variations observed in such structures have simple geometrical correlations consistent with constrained motion kinematics. A new classification of the ideal helices is given, in terms of the parameter α, the angle at a Cα atom to its two neighboring Cα 's along the helix, and shown how it can be generalized to include nonideal helices. Specifically, we derive an analytical expression of the backbone dihedrals, (ϕ, ψ), in terms of the parameter α subject to the constraint that the peptide planes are parallel to the helical axis. Helices constructed in this way exhibit near-vertical alignment of the C = O and N - H units and are the canonical objects of this study. These expressions are easily modifiable to include perturbations of parameters relevant to nonplanar peptide units and noncanonical angles. The addition of a second parameter, e0 , inclination of successive peptide planes along a helix with respect to the helical axis leads to a generalization of the previous expression and provides an efficient parametrization of such structures in terms of coordinates consistent with H-bond parameters. An analogs parametrization of β-turns, using inverse kinematic methods, is also given. Besides offering a unifying viewpoint, our results may find useful applications to protein and peptide design.
Enhancing Behavioral Health Services for Child Welfare-Involved Parents: A Qualitative Study

Behavioral health issues are prevalent among child welfare-involved parents. Despite associations with parenting challenges and maltreatment, parents’ behavioral health conditions often go untreate...
Functionally Graded Flexural Rigidity Improves Flight Performance in Flapping Wing Insects

Insect wings are highly heterogeneous structures, with flexural rigidity varying one to two orders of magnitude over the wing surface. This heterogeneity influences the deformation the flapping wing experiences under aerodynamic and inertial loads. However, it is not well understood how this flexural rigidity gradient affects wing performance. Here, we develop a reduced-order model of the flapping wing using the assumed mode method and unsteady vortex lattice method to model the structural and fluid dynamics, respectively. We conduct parameter studies to explore how variable flexural rigidity affects mean lift production, power consumption and the forces required to flap the wing. We find that there is an optimal flexural rigidity distribution that maximizes lift production; this distribution generally corresponds to a 3:1 ratio between the wing9s flapping and natural frequencies, though the precise ratio is sensitive to flapping kinematics. For hovering flapping kinematics, the optimized flexible wing produces 20% more lift and requires 15% less power compared to a rigid wing but needs 20% higher forces to flap. Even when flapping kinematics deviate from those observed during hover, the flexible wing outperforms the rigid wing in terms of aerodynamic force generation and power across a wide range of flexural rigidity gradients. Peak force requirements and power consumption are inversely proportional with respect to flexural rigidity gradient, which presents a trade-off between insect muscle size and energy storage requirements. The model developed in this work can be used to efficiently investigate other spatially variant morphological or material wing features moving forward.
The Difficulty of Temporal Jurisdiction in Janowiec and Others v. Russia

In October 2013, the European Court of Human Rights ruled on claims brought against the Russian Federation for the 1940 massacre of more than 21,000 prisoners of war. Relatives of the prisoners challenged that Russia had, among other things, failed in its legal obligation to carry out an adequate and effective investigation into the massacre. The court concluded that it did not have temporal jurisdiction to evaluate the merits of these claims; it stated that Russia’s legal obligation to investigate could not extend to transgressions that occurred prior to the existence of the convention under which the claims had been brought. Unfortunately, in looking to the convention and not to international customary law as the source of temporal jurisdiction, the court was unable to protect the rights of the prisoners and their relatives. The court should have looked to customary law to establish temporal jurisdiction so that it could reach the merits of the case and hold Russia accountable for its gross violation of human rights.
Scrupulosity and implicit and explicit beliefs about God

Dual-system models of cognition propose that the interplay between analytic and associative cognition determines emotions and behaviors. Scrupulosity, an OCD presentation dominated by religious or moral fears, involves fears that God is unreasonable and punitive, and previous research suggests that individuals with scrupulosity hold more negative concepts of God. The current research assessed if implicit associative aspects of these beliefs are relevant, both to bypass social desirability and to explore the role of non-conscious cognition. Participants were drawn from the Harvard Medical School Study on Judaism and Mental Health and completed an explicit assessment of beliefs about God, a related implicit association task (GNAT), and the Penn Inventory of Scrupulosity. Results indicated that explicit and implicit beliefs did not correlate, and that they both independently correlated with scrupulosity. Regression analyses indicated that only those with high explicit negative beliefs and relatively negative implicit associations reported elevated levels of scrupulosity. Beliefs about God, like other cognitive processes, appear to include both automatic and deliberate components that can be discordant, and symptoms of scrupulosity may require both explicit and implicit negative evaluations. Further research exploring the relevance of dual process models to scrupulosity, OCD, and affective disorders generally, appears warranted and necessary.
An Investigation on Ecosystem Services, the Role of Investment Banks, and Investment Products to Foster Conservation

As they have done in the past with global challenges such as rebuilding in the aftermath of WWII and financing the industrial revolution, banks have a central role to play in helping society meet their development goals in a resource-constrained world. In preparing for the challenges of this next century, society will need to manage issues such as population growth, food and water scarcity, and climate change while preserving the ecosystem services that underpin economic growth. “Sustaining innovations” in a banks’ business model are required—those that transform banking products to generate environmental and societal benefits. Banks can manage risk and seek opportunities by deploying latent capital into revolving funds, leverage public-private partnerships to develop the absorptive capacity of potential clients (particularly private equity investors), and establish innovative financial products that conserve ecosystem services in support of healthy, sustainable societies.
Adherence of Veillonella species mediated by extracellular glucosyltransferase from Streptococcus salivarius.

The effect of extracellular products from Streptococcus salivarius on sucrose-dependent adherence to smooth surfaces by other oral bacteria was studied in vitro. Strains of Streptococcus mitis, Streptococcus pyogenes, and Veillonella parvula without innate ability to adhere to a steel wire were able to do so when incubated with sucrose and cell-free culture fluid from S. salivarius strains 9759, 25975, CNII, and MEPI. These culture fluids synthesized more adherent material and water-insoluble glucan than those from Streptococcus mutans C67-1 and seven other S. salivarius strains. Among the S. salivarius strains, glucosyltransferase (GT; dextransucrase, EC 2.4.1.5) activity varied more than 100-fold. Cells of Veillonella and S. mitis S3 that had been incubated in culture fluids from S. salivarius 25975 and 9759, respectively, and then washed adhered upon subsequent incubation with sucrose. This was due to adsorbed GT because (i) the adherence was sensitive to dextranase; (ii) it was observed only with the high-GT culture fluids; (iii) it was dependent on sucrose; and (iv) the washed Veillonella cells synthesized glucan, but not fructan, from sucrose. These results suggest that sucrose-dependent adherence of bacteria without such innate ability can be mediated by (i) entrapment in insoluble glucan synthesized by S. salivarius culture fluids, and (ii) prior adsorption of GT from S. salivarius culture fluids. The possibility that GT formed by high-yield strains of S. salivarius is distributed through the mouth by the action of salivary flow and contributes to sucrose-dependent adherence and plaque formation is considered. Images
Single particle versus collective electronic excitations

As a first approximation, a metal can be modelled as an electron gas. A non-interacting electron gas has a continuous spectrum of electron-hole pair excitations. At each wavevector Q with |Q| less than the maximum Fermi surface spanning vector (2k F ) there is a continuous set of electron-hole pair states, with a maximum energy but no gap (the minimum energy is zero.) Once the Coulomb interaction is taken into account, a new collective mode, the plasmon, is built from the electron-hole pair spectrum. The plasmon captures most of the spectral weight in the scattering cross-section, yet the particle-hole pairs remain practically unchanged, as can be seen from the success of the Landau Fermi-liquid picture. This article explores how even an isolated electron-hole pair in non-interacting approximation is a form of charge density wave excitation, and how the Coulomb interaction totally alters the charge properties, without affecting many other properties of the electron-hole pairs.
Energy-efficient and high throughput sparse distributed memory architecture

This paper presents an energy-efficient VLSI implementation of Sparse Distributed Memory (SDM). High throughput and energy-efficient Hamming distance-based address decoder (CM-DEC) is proposed by employing compute memory [1], where computation is deeply embedded into a memory (SRAM). Hierarchical binary decision (HBD) is also proposed to enhance area- and energy-efficiency of read operation by minimizing data transfer. The SDM is employed as an auto-associative memory with four read iterations and 16×16 binary noisy input image with input error rates of 15%, 25%, and 30%. The proposed SDM achieves 39× smaller energy delay product with 14.5× and 2.7× reduced delay and energy, respectively as compared to conventional digital implementation of SDM in 45 nm SOI CMOS process with output error rate degradation less than 0.4%.
The Case for Meteorologically Driven Fluctuations in Residence Times of Long Island Waters Subject to Algal Blooms

Exceptionally large algal blooms (“brown tides”) were experienced by the coastal embayments of Long Island, New York, throughout the summers of 1985, 1986 and to a lesser degree in 1987. Great South Bay and the Peconic Bays (Fig. 1) were the areas most affected by this phenomenon, whose outcome was the decimation of their valuable scallop fisheries.
Power Under Pressure: Digital Capitalism In Crisis

Massive and sustained corporate investment around ICTs developed in response to the economic downturn of the 1970s, within a multifaceted attempt to renew profitable growth. Five core components of this encompassing response were financialization, militarization, wage repression, transnationalization, and accelerated commodification. Yet these axes of a developing digital capitalism eventually converged on a new and deeper financial-economic crisis. May we expect this sector to reprise its earlier role in renewing the accumulation process? How may geopolitical-economic forces be rebalanced?
wNAF, an efficient left-to-right signed digit recoding algorithm

Efficient implementations of cryptosystems are important in order to conserve resources, memory, power, etc., which will enable resource-limited devices to compute necessary cryptographic operations. One technique that successfully reduces the number of necessary operations is the use of a signed digit representation for the key, because it reduces the nonzero density of the representation. One such signed digit representation is the non-adjacent form or NAF. Moreover, one can make more reductions in the number of nonzero symbols of the key by expressing the key with a w-ary NAF or wNAF form. A drawback is that one needs to parse the key twice, once to construct the wNAF representation and the second time to perform the necessary cryptographic operation. At Crypto 2004 [10], Okeya et. al. introduced a w-ary representation wMOF, which possess the same nonzero density as wNAF, as well as an algorithm that computes wNOF in a left-to-right manner utilizing very little memory ("memory-less"). At that time, the authors noted that a left-to-right "memory-less" algorithm that computes wNAF is an open problem. In this work, we define wNAF, a generalization of wNAF. Further, we construct a left-to-right "memory-less" algorithm that computes the w-ary wNAF representation of a key and demonstrate that wNAF is as efficient as wNAF. Our work will demonstrate that the left-to-right wNAF recoding algorithm closely resembles the right-to-left wNAF recoding algorithm.
Complex regulation of c-myc gene expression in a murine B cell lymphoma.

Alterations in the structure of the c-myc gene have implicated this oncogene in many types of B cell neoplasias. Changes include chromosomal translocation to an immunoglobulin gene locus, retroviral insertion into the c-myc promoter, and gene amplification. While in most cases the change in c-myc gene structure leaves the protein product unaffected, the regulation of expression of the gene may be altered. In many cell systems, e.g. splenic lymphocytes, untransformed fibroblast lines, and rat liver (Kelly et. al., 1983, Campisi et al., 1984, Goyette et. al., 1984), expression of c-myc mRNA is low in quiescence and increases rapidly upon exit from the GO state. Quiescent B lymphocytes contain barely detectable levels of c-myc mRNA. Upon stimulation with the mitogen LPS, c-myc mRNA levels increase 20 to 30 fold within 2–3 hours (Kelly et al., 1983). Terminal differentiation is accompanied by a decrease in expression of c-myc mRNA (Campisi et al., 1984, Grosso and Pitot 1985, Lachman and Skoultchi, 1984). These results suggest a role for the c-myc gene in the control of proliferation and differentiation. Since maturation of B cells involves several stages of differentiation, including terminal differentiation to nonproliferating plasma cells, it seemed likely that alterations in c-myc gene regulation might lead to aberrant B cell growth and differentiation.
Holomorphic anomalies in topological field theories

We study the stringy genus-one partition function of N = 2 SCFTs. It is shown how to compute this using an anomaly in decoupling of BRST trivial states from the partition function. A particular limit of this partition function yields the partition function of topological theory coupled to topological gravity. As an application we compute the number of holomorphic elliptic curves over certain Calabi-Yau manifolds including the quintic threefold. This may be viewed as the first application of mirror symmetry at the string quantum level.
Characterization of saccharides and other organic compounds in fine particles and the use of saccharides to track primary biologically derived carbon sources.

A total of 134 aerosol samples (dp < 2.5 μm) were collected at one rural site and one urban site in Texas from November 2005 to July 2006 to investigate the different sources that contribute to the ambient levels of different compounds. In particular, saccharide compounds were studied as potential tracers to track aerosols of biologically derived origin. The ambient concentration, seasonal variation, and urban/rural comparison of major saccharides and other organic compounds including normal alkanes, hopanes, and carboxylic acids were determined and analyzed relative to characterizing sources of PM2.5. Saccharides, together with other known molecular markers, were analyzed by a positive matrix factorization model and eight source factors were isolated that provide meaningful interpretation of aerosol sources. Three isolated factors were characterized by the dominance of different saccharide compounds and were attributed to wood smoke, sucrose rich bio-aerosols, and fungal spore derived bio-aerosols. It was estimated that wood smoke and primary biologically derived carbon sources contributed 22% and 14% to the measured ambient PM2.5 mass at San Augustine and 16% and 5% to the measured ambient PM2.5 mass at Dallas. The relative PM contribution from other resolved sources were also calculated.
No evidence of natal habitat preference induction in juveniles with complex life histories

Individual variation in physiology and behaviour can have strong effects on ecological and evolutionary processes. Natal habitat, one source of individual variation, can influence individual phenotype, behaviour and fitness through effects on eventual habitat selection. Natal habitat preference induction occurs when individuals match stimuli in their selected habitat to those of their natal habitat. Natal habitat can also affect habitat selection through its influence on body condition (silver spoon effect). We tested for natal habitat preference induction and body-condition-dependent habitat selection in two species with complex life histories, the spotted salamander, Ambystoma maculatum, and the small-mouthed salamander, Ambystoma texanum. We reared salamanders from hatchlings in mesocosms with leaf, grass or control substrate, and tested juvenile habitat selection through two behavioural assays. We found weak evidence of larger salamanders having decreased latency and sampling more habitats, lending support to the body-condition-dependent habitat selection hypothesis in these species. Juveniles preferred grass litter cues regardless of the substrate in their natal mesocosm, suggesting natal habitat preference induction may not occur in species with complex life histories. We propose that species with complex life histories use simple movement rules, such as moving along habitat gradients, to select postnatal habitat when moving through a novel environment.
Apparent activation volumes of hydrophobic ions and carriers in planar lipid bilayers.

A gas-free high-pressure cell has been developed to measure planar bilayer conductances induced by hydrophobic ions and ionophores as a function of hydrostatic pressure. Plots of log conductance versus pressure for valinomycin and nonactin-mediated potassium transport in egg phosphatidyl cholinedecane membranes are essentially linear over a pressure range of 1 to 818 atm. Calculated activation volumes give similar results for both nonactin and valinomycin yielding values of +48 and +42 cc/mole, respectively. The valinomycin activation volume agrees reasonably well with the results obtained by Johnson and Miller (Biochim. Biophys. Acta375:286–291, 1975) for K+-valinomycin transport in liposomes. In contrast to the activation volumes for nonactin and valinomycin, relaxation measurements of tetraphenyl boron (TPB) and dipicrylamine (DPA) give very small values of <5 cc/mole for the translocation rate constant,ki. Similarly, steady-state conductance measurements on tetraphenyl arsonium (TPA) and carbonylcyanidem-chlorophenylhydrazone (CCCP), give small values of 6 and 7 cc/mole, respectively. These low figures do not support transport theories based on the formation of bilayer holes or kinks (H. Trauble,J. Membrane Biol.4:193–208, 1971). The low values for TPB and TPA are especially interesting because their cross-sectional areas are not much different than those of valinomycin and nonactin. Pressure-induced changes in membrane dielectric constant and thickness which lower the bilayer electrostatic barrier could explain the low values for the hydrophobic ions. Additionally, larger activation volumes might be expected for carriers such as nonactin and valinomycin that undergo significant rearrangement and change in hydration during surface complexation of cations.
The influence of decision factors on what is reported in free recall of a brief narrative

Abstract In recent research on memory for prose, attention has focused on the influence of a reader's perspective or schema on what is encoded and subsequently recalled. Previous research has revealed that subjects were able to recall previously unrecalled information if they were directed to take a new perspective during a second recall trial. This has been termed the perspective shift effect. This paper describes two possible mechanisms to account for the perspective shift effect—a retrieval process and a decision process. Two experiments which investigated the roles of these processes in the perspective shift effect are described. Experiment 1 employed an incentive to influence the subjects' criterion for reporting recalled information. Experiment 2 obtained separate estimates for decision and memory processes by applying signal detection theory. The results of both experiments provide data that tend to rule out the decision process as an important factor in the perspective shift phenomena in recall.
Is medicalization and dichotomization of sexology the answer? A commentary.

David Rowland (2007) in his thought-provoking article suggests that, “with the introduction of new pharmacological treatments, the resulting shift from the biopsychosocial model [of sexual dysfunct...
Expression and regulation of the human dopamine transporter in a neuronal cell line

Human cocaine users exhibit increased striatal [3H]WIN35428 binding to the dopamine transporter (DAT). However, the nature of the changes induced in the DAT are complex and may not result from a simple increase in number of DAT molecules. To better understand the regulation of DAT inhibitor binding sites and their relationship to the overall process of dopamine uptake, a neuronal model system expressing the human DAT has been developed. Initial experiments were attempted with native dopaminergic neurons so as to allow examination of DAT interactions with vesicular release and storage mechanisms. Dissociated fetal rat mesencephalic neurons, of various ages and mixtures with target cells, were grown to confluence. However, [3H]WIN35428 binding was of low affinity at all levels of maturity. Following this, a simpler model was assessed, using DAT cDNA transfected into neuroblastoma-derived Neuro2A cells. Initially, no specific and little non-specific [3H]WIN35428 or [3H]paroxetine binding was found in non-transfected cells. After transfection with the human DAT inserted in the pcDNA vector, both DAT binding and dopamine uptake were significantly and stably present. Treatment with (-)cocaine, 10-6 M for 24 h, increased DAT binding and uptake, which did not occur in parallel COS-7 experiments. Other experiments with Neuro2A cells also found that dopamine uptake was down-regulated by treatment with a PKC activator. These results suggest that the transfected Neuro2A neurons should be useful for ongoing experiments examining the regulation of the DAT by assorted treatments.
Assessing Mobility Difficulties for Cross-National Comparisons: Results from the World Health Organization Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health

Objectives: To assess the correspondence between self-reported and measured indicators of mobility disability in older adults in six low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Design: Cross-sectional analysis of Study on Global AGEing and Adult Health (SAGE). Setting: Household surveys in China, India, Russia, South Africa, Ghana, and Mexico. Participants: Community-dwelling SAGE respondents aged 65 and older (N = 12,215). Measurements: Objective mobility was assessed according to a 4-m timed walk at normal pace conducted in the respondent's home; slow walking speed was defined according to the Fried frailty criteria (lowest quintile of walking speed, adjusted for age and height). Self-reported mobility difficulty was assessed according to a question about ability to walk 1 km; this response was dichotomized into any versus no self-reported difficulty walking 1 km (reference no difficulty). The age- (5-year groups) and sex-specific probability of self-reporting difficulty walking 1 km was estimated in those with a measured slow walk using logistic regression. Results: Between 42% and 76% of people aged 65 and older reported any difficulty walking 1 km. Average walking speed was slowest in Russia (0.61 m/s) and fastest in China (0.88 m/s). The probabilities of reporting any difficulty walking 1 km in women aged 65 to 69, for example, with a slow walk varied (China = 0.35, India = 0.90, Russia = 0.68, South Africa = 0.81, Ghana = 0.91, Mexico = 0.73; test of country differences P < .001). There was significant variation at older ages, albeit smaller in magnitude. Patterns were similar for men. Conclusion: Although correspondence between an objective and self-reported measure of mobility was generally high, correspondence differed significantly between LMICs. International comparisons of self-reported disability measures for clinical, prevention, and policy guidelines in LMICs should consider that self-reported data may not correspond to objective measures uniformly between countries.
A coordinate-independent center manifold reduction

Abstract We give a method for performing the center manifold reduction that eliminates the need to transform the original equations of motion into eigencoordinates. To achieve this, we write the center manifold as an embedding, rather than as a graph over the center subspace.
Regulation of the mouse mammary tumor virus receptor by phosphorylation and internalization in mammary epithelial cells

The mouse mammary tumor virus enters mammary epithelial cells via a plasma membrane protein that binds to a viral envelope glycoprotein, gp52. In intact cells, this gp52 receptor can be phosphorylated by activators of protein kinase A and protein kinase C (PKC), but this modification does not occur in response to epidermal growth factor, whose receptor is a tyrosine kinase, or to gp52. Phosphorylation of the gp52 receptor rapidly leads to internalization and gradual loss of binding activity. Both the phosphorylation and the internalization induced by PKC are abolished by prior downregulation of this kinase. Although the physiological function of the gp52 receptor is unknown, its binding to gp52 can stimulate several biological activities, including amino acid accumulation. Receptor processing impairs this gp52-induced amino acid uptake, as well as viral infection, by depleting the binding protein at the cell surface. In contrast, PKC augments insulin-induced amino acid transport, and PKC downregulation abolishes the action of insulin, suggesting that insulin and gp52 utilize partially separate pathways leading to amino acid transport. These data further suggest that PKC may be involved in this insulin-stimulated activity.
Genetic conservation of radiata pine and coast redwood.

Abstract This paper is a personal history of how 1962 and 1964 research collections of radiata pine (Pinus radiata D. Don) were first perceived as, and then converted into, genetic-conservation collections. It recounts an early period of financial support from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and from those most likely to benefit in Australia and New Zealand, and of both financial and organizational support from the University of California (UC). Then came a period of contesting philosophies and reordering priorities. Support from UC was reduced, and NSF support was withdrawn. New Zealand institutions redirected their support to radiata-pine collections deployed in New Zealand, with the goal of securing a broad genetic base taking precedence over the 1962–1964 California collections' primary goal of conserving genetic architecture. Several American foundations excluded forest trees from their support portfolios, so that their genetic-conservation activities could be focused on more traditional agricultural species. Then came a period of renewed interest in non-agricultural species. Additional collections of native radiata pine were made in 1978. In the period between 1964 and 1978, basic research had been producing more complete and more reliable information on the genetic architecture of radiata pine with each passing year, resulting in a revised conservation strategy for the 1978 collections. During each episode of neglect, however, substantial portions of the 1962–1964 California collections were irretrievably lost. Finally, a more recent genetic-conservation collection of coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens [D. Don] Endl.) is described. Unlike the radiata pine collection, the redwood collection has support from an endowment established by the Save The Redwoods League.
Approach to Discrete Optimization Under Uncertainty: The Population-Based Sampling Genetic Algorithm

This paper presents the population-based sampling genetic algorithm, which allows for discrete design optimization under uncertainty. The population-based sampling approach uses the genetic algorithm population to provide samples for the probabilistic evaluation of aggregate uncertain constraint or objective functions. In population-based sampling, large numbers of samples are accumulated to evaluate the fitness values of "good" designs during the genetic algorithm run, whereas the computational cost spent on designs with "poor" fitness is minimal. Using Monte Carlo sampling with a genetic algorithm for optimization under uncertainty is a currently accepted approach; however, this approach incurs a large computational cost. In this paper, the genetic algorithm with population-based sampling generates solutions to a discrete optimization problem under uncertainty associated with a commercial satellite design that was solved in previous work via a genetic algorithm with Monte Carlo sampling. The genetic algorithm with population-based sampling and genetic algorithm with Monte Carlo sampling approaches are compared in terms of efficiency (computational cost) and effectiveness (solution quality). The comparison also examines the scalability of the algorithms' performance when solving three additional problem sizes. Furthermore, two population-based sampling variants are introduced, namely, the variable population-based sampling approach, which combines the concepts of population-based sampling and Monte Carlo sampling, and the generalized population-based sampling approach, which removes the restriction in population-based sampling that the uncertain parameters associated with the design variables all have Gaussian probability distributions.
Roughness effects on wall-bounded turbulent flowsa)

This paper outlines the authors' experimental research in rough-wall-bounded turbulent flows that has spanned the past 15 years. The results show that, in general, roughness effects are confined to the inner layer. In accordance with Townsend's Reynolds number similarity hypothesis, the outer layer is insensitive to surface condition except in the role it plays in setting the length and velocity scales for the outer flow. An exception to this can be two-dimensional roughness which has been observed in some cases to suffer roughness effects far from the wall. However, recent results indicate that similarity also holds for two-dimensional roughness provided the Reynolds number is large, and there is sufficient scale separation between the roughness length scale and the boundary layer thickness. The concept of similarity between smooth- and rough-wall flows is of great practical importance as most computational and analytical modeling tools rely on it either explicitly or implicitly in predicting flows over rough walls. Because of the observed similarity, the roughness function (ΔU+), or shift in the log layer, is a useful way of characterizing the roughness effect on the mean flow and the frictional drag. In the fully rough regime, it is shown that the hydraulic roughness length scale is related to the root-mean-square height (krms) and skewness (sk) of the surface elevation probability density function. On the other hand, the onset of roughness effects is seen to be associated with the largest surface features which are typified by the peak-to-trough height (kt). Roughness function behavior in the transitionally rough regime varies significantly between roughness types. Since no “universal” roughness function exists, no single roughness length scale can characterize all roughness types in all the flow regimes. Despite this, research using roughness with a systematic variation in texture is ongoing in an effort to uncover surface parameters that lead to the variation in the frictional drag behavior witnessed in the transitionally rough regime.
Using the Bootstrap Method for a Statistical Significance Test of Differences between Summary Histograms

A new method is proposed to compare statistical differences between summary histograms, which are the histograms summed over a large ensemble of individual histograms. It consists of choosing a distance statistic for measuring the difference between summary histograms and using a bootstrap procedure to calculate the statistical significance level. Bootstrapping is an approach to statistical inference that makes few assumptions about the underlying probability distribution that describes the data. Three distance statistics are compared in this study. They are the Euclidean distance, the Jeffries-Matusita distance and the Kuiper distance. The data used in testing the bootstrap method are satellite measurements of cloud systems called cloud objects. Each cloud object is defined as a contiguous region/patch composed of individual footprints or fields of view. A histogram of measured values over footprints is generated for each parameter of each cloud object and then summary histograms are accumulated over all individual histograms in a given cloud-object size category. The results of statistical hypothesis tests using all three distances as test statistics are generally similar, indicating the validity of the proposed method. The Euclidean distance is determined to be most suitable after comparing the statistical tests of several parameters with distinct probability distributions among three cloud-object size categories. Impacts on the statistical significance levels resulting from differences in the total lengths of satellite footprint data between two size categories are also discussed.
Galerkin-based modal analysis on the vibration of wire–slurry system in wafer slicing using a wiresaw

Wiresaws have been widely used in industries to slice semiconductor ingots into thin wafers for semiconductor fabrication. However, the surface roughness of a wiresaw-sliced wafer is usually not uniform which can be a concern in the subsequent lapping and polishing processes. It is sometimes observed that poor surface finish can occur at the beginning and the end of sliced round wafers when contact spans are short. In this paper, the dynamics of a coupled wire/slurry non-conservative vibration system is analyzed according to the rolling-indenting floating machining mechanism of typical wiresaw processes. Basic approaches adopted are the linearization of the coupled nonlinear governing equations with respect to the equilibrium, Galerkin-based discretization of the distributed non-conservative system, and the subsequent modal analysis. For the purpose of model verification, a numerical scheme of direct-time integration to an alternative finite element (FE) semi-discretized system is performed using the one-step Newmark's method. The results from the eigenanalysis of the Galerkin-based model are presented. These simulation results indicate that the wire/slurry system consists of both real and paired complex eigenvalues, which correspond to the over-damped modes and other vibration modes of the system. Parametric studies show that the vibration displacement of the wire decreases when the contact span expands, which explains the typical distribution of the surface roughness of a round wiresawn wafer. From the parametric studies, the tension and bow angle of the wire are found to play important roles in the response of the wire. Finally, in order to reduce the differential saw damage caused by the vibration of the wire, adaptive vibration control strategies are proposed for the wiresaw slicing processes.
A pH-sensitive assay for galactosyltransferase.

We report here a new pH-indicator-based assay for galactosyltransferase. The method is simple and fast, requires no specialized equipment, labeled substrate, or other expensive materials, and is thus expected to have broad applications including automated high-throughput screening. The method is based upon the detection of absorbance change of a pH indicator, phenol red, in response to proton release that accompanies the galactosyltransferase-catalyzed galactose transfer. The assay was used to compare three galactosyltransferases in our collection. As demonstrated here, subtle differences in substrate specificity were readily discerned with this sensitive method. All three enzymes accept both N -acetylglucosamine and glucose as acceptor but the relative activity varies with the origin of the enzyme. The method was demonstrated to be useful in the initial characterization of recombinant galactosyltransferase from crude cell extract. Optimal metal cofactor Mn 2þ concentration and temperature were determined with the method. Overall, the method offers a great improvement over current methods in reducing time and material consumption. It is the first pH-sensitive method for galactosyltransferase. The principles of using pH indicator in galactosyltransferase assay should be applicable to other glycosyltransferase enzymes. 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Developmental characteristics of Macrocentrus grandii as influenced by temperature and instar of its host, the European corn borer

Abstract Developmental time of the polyembryonic parasitoid Macrocentrus grandii in larvae of Ostrinia nubilalis, the European corn borer was shown to be shortest under a warm-temperature regime and in later-host instars. Temperature had a significant effect upon parasitoid development during both host-internal and host-external phases, whereas host instar proved important only during the former developmental phase. The number of parasitoids emerging from each host showed a dramatic increase from 20 to 25°C. The ability of emerged parasitoids to reach the pupation stage successfully also was affected significantly by temperature with an optimum of 25°C. A peculiar phenomenon involving abnormal pupal development in the European corn borer observed during the study suggests that alteration of the normal host-parasitoid relationship occurred at cooler temperatures (15–20°C).
Surface modified, collapsible controlled pore glass materials for sequestration and immobilization of trivalent metal ions.

We report a one-pot method for sequestration, containment, and immobilization of lanthanide (Ln) ions from dilute aqueous waste streams. The approach is based on the use of collapsible, surface modified controlled pore glass (CPG) nanomaterials. We present several approaches for a single-step chemical modification of 3-propylaminated CPGs that yield highly efficient Ln-extracting materials with distribution coefficients exceeding 10000 mL/g. The resulting Ln complexes were studied using X-ray absorption, magnetic resonance, and time-resolved luminescence spectroscopies. One of these CPG materials involving an imidodi(methanediphosphate) moiety demonstrated high extraction efficacy, significant ionic radius sensitivity, and exceptional tolerance to masking agents, which is conducive to its use for removal of traces of radionuclide ions from aqueous TALSPEAK raffinate (trivalent actinide-lanthanide separation by phosphorus reagent extraction from aqueous complexes process used in processing of spent nuclear fuel). The glass loaded with the extracted metal ions can be calcined and sintered at 1100 C, yielding fused material that buries Ln ions in the vitreous matrix. This processing temperature is significantly lower than 1700 C that is required for direct vitrification of lanthanide oxides in high-silica glass. X-ray absorption spectroscopy and acid leaching tests indicate that the immobilized ions are isolated and dispersed in the fused glassmore » matrix. Thus, the method integrates Ln ions into the glass network. The resulting glass can be used for temporary storage or as the source of silica for production of borosilicate waste forms that are used for long-term disposal of high level radioactive waste.« less
Dark matter: What is it?

The short answer is that we don't know, but it can't be conventional atom-based matter. Other observations provide further clues to its identity
Active transport in phototrophic bacteria

Phototrophic bacteria utilize light-driven, cyclic electron flow to pump protons out of their cytoplasm, creating an electrochemical proton gradient, \(\Delta {\bar \mu _H} + \) outside acid and positive. These bacteria exchange external protons for internal cations (Na+, K+ and Ca+2), allowing the cells to maintain a nearly constant internal pH while maintaining the electrical component of \(\Delta {\bar \mu _H} + \). Na+/H+ exchange also establishes an electrochemical Na+ gradient. Phototrophic bacteria are able to utilize these electrochemical gradients as energy sources for the uptake of a wide variety of metabolites (e.g., sugars, organic acids and amino acids) via metabolite/cation symports.