cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The Yuge Effect of Racist Resentment on Support for Donald Trump and…Attitudes about Automobile Fuel Efficiency Requirements?

Recent political science research has used a relatively new measure of racist attitudes—referred to as racist resentment, among other labels—to support inferences about racist attitudes and vote choice in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Analysis of data from the 2016 Cooperative Congressional Election Study indicated that this racist resentment measure predicted vote choice for Donald Trump but also nontrivially predicted phenomena that theoretically have little-to-no racial content such as attitudes about environmental policies. These results suggest that the racist resentment measure captures too much nonracial content to be useful for estimating the association of racism with outcome variables.
On Dynamic Pricing

This paper builds a theory of dynamic pricing for the sale of timed goods such as travel tickets, hotel stays and concert seats. The main friction is private and evolving valuation of the buyer prior to the date of consumption. A combination of membership fee and continuously increasing prices induces a threshold response from the buyer, endogenously segmenting the market along timing of purchase. This pricing mechanism achieves the deterministic global optimum. Under standard assumptions, the analyst can estimate the fundamentals of the market from observables– time and price of sale. The tools developed here are shown to be useful in thinking about: refund contracts, global incentives and randomization in dynamic mechanisms, dynamic incentives beyond the one-shot deviation principle, and mapping dynamic pricing to the classic taxonomy of consumer-producer surplus and deadweight loss.
Teaching Chronic Pain in the Family Medicine Clerkship: Changes From 2014.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES The management of chronic pain is an important topic for training competent family physicians. The purpose of this study was to determine factors in teaching about chronic pain and whether state overdose death rates were associated with teaching chronic pain topics. METHODS Data were collected as part of the 2019 Council of Academic Family Medicine Educational Research Alliance (CERA) Clerkship Directors' Survey. The response rate was 71%. Respondents answered questions about the amount of time spent teaching about chronic pain diagnoses, approach to chronic pain, opioid medications, nonopioid medications and nonpharmacologic treatments for chronic pain. RESULTS The most frequent topic was chronic pain diagnoses, taught by 64% of clerkships with an average of 92 minutes spent on the topic. Each chronic pain topic was taught by nearly 50% of clerkships, and 72.3% of clerkships taught at least one topic. More clerkships were teaching about opioids, nonopioids, and nonpharmacological treatments for chronic pain than in 2014. Time currently spent teaching about opioids was positively correlated with clerkships' state 2014 drug overdose death rate. CONCLUSIONS The majority of family medicine clerkships teach about chronic pain, and the amount of time dedicated to this topic has increased over the last 5 years. A state's opioid overdose rate correlates with the amount of time spent teaching about opioids, but does not correlate with the amount of time teaching about other chronic pain subtopics. It is possible that the opioid crisis is causing a shift in the subtopics of chronic pain teaching.
Chapter 6.4 – The NeuroHomology Database

Publisher Summary The neurohomology database is a knowledge-based summary database, and contains three interconnected modules: brain structures, connections, and homologies. It expresses the existence of typical and specific correspondences among parts of members of natural groups of living organisms. This chapter discusses the way to quantify the degree of confidence of connections, the staining techniques that are used, the method for computing the overall confidence of connections, and the related staining techniques. The concept of homology is defined in relation to the continuity of information and the inheritance of features from a common ancestry or phyletic continuity. The criterion of chemoarchitecture of brain structures refers to specific neurotransmitters and enzymes that are found within these structures. The degree of homology is calculated based on the number of fulfilled homology criteria for each retrieved reference and on the number of retrieved references. The connections as part of the neurohomology database have brain structures related by connections as objects. This chapter identifies eight criteria to define a homology between two brain structures: cell morphology, relative position, cytoarchitecture, chemoarchitecture, myeloarchitecture, afferent and efferent connections, and function.
GRK2 mediates β-arrestin interactions with 5-HT 2 receptors for JC polyomavirus endocytosis

JC polyomavirus (JCPyV) infects the majority of the population, establishing a lifelong, asymptomatic infection in the kidney of healthy individuals. People that become severely immunocompromised may experience JCPyV reactivation, which can cause progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), a neurodegenerative disease. Due to a lack of therapeutic options, PML results in fatality or significant debilitation among affected individuals. Cellular internalization of JCPyV is mediated by serotonin 5-hydroxytryptamine subfamily 2 receptors (5-HT2Rs) via clathrin-mediated endocytosis. The JCPyV entry process requires the clathrin-scaffolding proteins β-arrestin, adaptor protein 2 (AP2), and dynamin. Further, a β-arrestin interacting domain, the Ala-Ser-Lys (ASK) motif, within the C-terminus of 5-HT2AR is important for JCPyV internalization and infection. Interestingly, 5-HT2R subtypes A, B, and C equally support JCPyV entry and infection, and all subtypes contain an ASK motif, suggesting a conserved mechanism for viral entry. However, the role of the 5-HT2R ASK motifs and the activation of β-arrestin-associated proteins during internalization has not been fully elucidated. Through mutagenesis, the ASK motifs within 5-HT2BR and 5-HT2CR were identified as critical for JCPyV internalization and infectivity. Further, utilizing biochemical pulldown techniques, mutagenesis of the ASK motifs in 5-HT2BR and 5-HT2CR resulted in reduced β-arrestin binding. Utilizing small-molecule chemical inhibitors and RNA interference, G-protein receptor kinase 2 (GRK2) was determined to be required for JCPyV internalization and infection by mediating interactions between β-arrestin and the ASK motif of 5-HT2Rs. These findings demonstrate that GRK2 and β-arrestin interactions with 5-HT2Rs are critical for JCPyV entry by clathrin-mediated endocytosis and resultant infection.IMPORTANCE As intracellular parasites, viruses require a host cell to replicate and cause disease. Therefore, virus-host interactions contribute to viral pathogenesis. JC polyomavirus (JCPyV) infects most of the population, establishing a lifelong asymptomatic infection within the kidney. Under conditions of severe immunosuppression JCPyV may spread to the central nervous system, causing the fatal demyelinating disease progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML). Individuals living with HIV or undergoing immunomodulatory therapies are at risk for developing PML. The mechanisms of how JCPyV uses specific receptors on the surface of host cells to initiate internalization and infection is a poorly understood process. We have further identified cellular proteins involved in JCPyV internalization and infection and elucidated their specific interactions that are responsible for activation of receptors. Collectively, these findings illuminate how viruses usurp cellular receptors during infection, contributing to current development efforts for therapeutic options for the treatment or prevention of PML.
Perceptions of Vulnerability to HIV Among Older African American Women: The Role of Intimate Partners

The incidence of HIV is increasing among older women at such a fast rate that between 2000 and 2001 the number of HIV infections among older women increased by 51%. Despite the need for HIV prevention efforts among older women, particularly African American women living in rural southern communities, there is a paucity of research related to sexuality, HIV risk and prevention among the population. In 1998, the Congressional Black Caucus declared a state of emergency in the African American community due to the devastating consequences of the AIDS epidemic. Based on selfreported risk behaviors, HIV prevention efforts among older African American women must also address risk behaviors of injection drug use and higher risk behaviors such as anal sex and exchanging sex for something of value. When working with African American communities and other communities of color, an understanding of specific behavioral contexts, such as the "down low," may be helpful in assessing social service needs.
Competence Resource Specialization, Causal Ambiguity, and the Creation and Decay of Competitiveness: The Role of Marketing Strategy in New Product Performance and Shareholder Value

Marketing strategists should create, maintain, and arrest the decay of causally ambiguous resource competences that lead to competitiveness and thus performance. However, competence causal ambiguity, which helps create competitiveness, is also implicated in competitiveness decay. In this study we test a model of specialization-competitiveness-performance using primary and secondary data from 169 public respondents/firms, to examine the effects of negative internal barriers to replication and adaptation. These barriers develop due to resource lock-in arising from the same specialization processes that lead to the positive barriers to imitation that deter competitors. Results suggest that commitment to learning can mitigate resource lock-in problems with internal competence causal ambiguity, competence causal ambiguity among competitors appears more essential to competitiveness in more competitive markets, competitiveness positively relates to both shareholder value and new product performance, and an increased differential focus on marketing versus operations in the organization strengthens the positive bridge between organizational competitiveness and shareholder return.
Hollywood’s Social Construction of Innocence: Entertainment Media’s Deviant Portrayal of Black Children

The analysis is a sociohistorical examination of entertainment media’s representation of black children from the 1970s to 2000s. Each decade of media production provides insight into the presentation of black children in regards to the stereotypes and biased messages conveyed. The analysis delineates the narrowly defined yet deviant manner in which black children have been depicted. Examples derived from motion picture films and television shows are set forth to illustrate the manner in which black children have traditionally been included, or perhaps excluded, in the perpetuation of racial stereotypes reflective of the coinciding stereotypes usually projected on to black adults.
Epistemology: Does it Depend on Independence?

It is Lehrer’s epistemology that most engages me, and that is what I will focus on here, while acknowledging his more recent extra-epistemological analogies and comparisons, and the parallel forms of reasoning that he uncovers concerning ethics, and even wisdom, autonomy, and love. Perhaps we will go astray in abstracting thus from the broader context. If so, I hope Keith will set us straight.
Discovering Constrained Substructures in Bayesian Trees Using the E.M. Algorithm

We present an Expectation-Maximization learning algorithm (E.M.) for estimating the parameters of partially-constrained Bayesian trees. The Bayesian trees considered here consist of an unconstrained subtree and a set of constrained subtrees. In this tree structure, constraints are imposed on some of the parameters of the parametrized conditional distributions, such that all conditional distributions within the same subtree share the same constraint. We propose a learning method that uses the unconstrained subtree to guide the process of discovering a set of relevant constrained substructures. Substructure discovery and constraint enforcement are simultaneously accomplished using an E.M. algorithm. We show how our tree substructure discovery method can be applied to the problem of learning representative pose models from a set of unsegmented video sequences. Our experiments demonstrate the potential of the proposed method for human motion classification.
How Parents' Negative Experiences at Immunization Visits Affect Child Immunization Status in a Community in New York City

Objective.Little is known about how families' experiences with immunization visits within the medical home may affect children's immunization status. We assessed the association between families' n...
Making Loyal Customers

ABSTRACT Youth ministries are in a state of transition. Formerly effective models of youth ministry are proving to be ineffective for youth born in the 1980′s, the Millenials. Today's youth are feeling alienated from the church community and are often treated like a separate subculture, uninvolved in church life outside their own sphere. While contemporary discussions about these issues largely focus upon the format and structure of youth ministries, this article concerns itself with the content of those ministries. While not discussing what youth are taught, this article emphasizes the need to ground youth in what we teach them so that those teachings will be long-lived in the youth. Specifically, this article presents ideas, based on established social psychological theory, which may help to develop in our youth resistance against a bombardment of messages from our culture which are contrary to our religious principles, values, and beliefs.
A Party Without a Hangover? On the Effects of U.S. Government Deficits

This paper develops a 2-country New Keynesian overlapping generations model suitable for the joint evaluation of monetary and fiscal policies. We show that a permanent increase in U.S. government deficits raises the world real interest rate and significantly increases U.S. current account deficits, especially in the medium- to long-run. A simultaneous increase in non-U.S. savings lowers the world real interest rate and further increases U.S. current account deficits. We show that conventional infinite horizon models are ill-equipped to deal with issues that involve permanent changes in public or private sector savings rates.
City-County Consolidation: Three Rural Georgia Counties

Although the number of successful urban city-consolidations has slowed over the past thirty years, few studies examine political impacts of consolidation in rural areas. To address this gap in the political science literature, I analyze potential political impacts of rural city-county consolidation upon Black political interests. Conducting a comparative analysis of state agency and media data, I examine changes in electoral participation at the federal, subnational, and county level. Results indicate that political participation among Blacks has not change significantly and that women may not be served well politically with the dissolving of rural municipal governments.
M&A Break Fees: US Litigation vs. UK Regulation

This paper contrasts UK and US governance of MA are protected by entrenched interest groups (institutional investors in the UK, lawyers in the US); and co-exist with the opposite approach (litigation in the UK, regulation in the US), even within the domain of M&A law. Subject to strong limits on external validity, the case study suggests that interest groups may be the most important factors shaping the initial choice between regulation and litigation, even for otherwise similar nations in a similar context, and that a combination of interest groups formed in response to a given choice, as well as lawmaker incentives, may preserve those choices even after the conditions giving rise to the initial choice have passed away.
Proinflammatory Chemokines, Such as C-C Chemokine Ligand 3, Desensitize μ-Opioid Receptors on Dorsal Root Ganglia Neurons

Pain is one of the hallmarks of inflammation. Opioid receptors mediate antipain responses in both the peripheral nervous system and CNS. In the present study, pretreatment of CCR1: mu-opioid receptor/HEK293 cells with CCL3 (MIP-1alpha) induced internalization of mu-opioid receptors and severely impaired the mu-opioid receptor-mediated inhibition of cAMP accumulation. Immunohistochemical staining showed that CCR1 and mu-opioid receptors were coexpressed on small to medium diameter neurons in rat dorsal root ganglion. Analysis of ligand-induced calcium flux showed that both types of receptors were functional. Pretreatment of neurons with CCL3 exhibited an impaired [D-Ala(2),N-MePhe(4),Gly-o15]enkephalin-elicited calcium response, indicative of the heterologous desensitization of mu-opioid receptors. Other chemokines, such as CCL2, CCL5, and CXCL8, exhibited similar inhibitory effects. Our data indicate that proinflammatory chemokines are capable of desensitizing mu-opioid receptors on peripheral sensory neurons, providing a novel potential mechanism for peripheral inflammation-induced hyperalgesia.
Transformation of “Masked” 1,3‐Diols of Protected α‐D‐Erythro‐Hexopyranoside into Acyclic Forms. Chirons for Amphotericin B and Tetrin A

Methyl 3-O-benzyl-2,4-dideoxy-D-erythro-hexopyranoside 1a, a chiron for the C1-C6 segment of amphotericin B and tetrin A, has been successfully converted to aldehyde 3; chloride 5d and iodide 7c in high yields, which are the acyclic forms of 1,3-diols.
Dynamics of Photosubstitution Reactions of Fe(CO)5: An Ultrafast Infrared Study of High Spin Reactivity

The photosubstitution reactions of Fe(CO)5 with alcohols and triethylphosphine have been studied in room temperature solution using femtosecond UV pump IR probe techniques. The dynamics of Fe(CO)5 in alcohols show that the coordination of the hydroxyl group of the solvent with triplet Fe(CO) 4 is generally much faster than the coordination timescale observed with comparable singlet species. The physical reason for this is the fact that the metal C-H agostic bond is much weaker for triplets, thus allowing fast rearrangement to the hydroxyl group of the alcohol. In the case of triethylphosphine photosubstitution, the reaction is divided into parallel channels which include intersystem crossing and a spin conserving double carbonyl loss. The intermediates observed were studied using density functional theory (DFT) as well as ab initio quantum chemical calculations.
Cardiac rehabilitation using simultaneous voice and electrocardiographic transtelephonic monitoring

Abstract Based on the results of this survey, we conclude that simultaneous TEM technology is expanding and is an appropriate adjunct to hospital-based cardiac rehabilitation programs.
Pediatric practice guidelines: implications for nurse practitioners.

Abstract Practice guidelines are promoted as an important means of achieving high-quality, cost-effective health care. Nurse practitioners must understand what practice guidelines are and how they are developed and be willing to put them into practice. This discussion begins with a description of practice guidelines specific to pediatrics. The terminology used in reference to these “clinical tools” are differentiated and their historic and contemporary influences are summarized. The complexity of guideline development and attributes of a quality practice guideline are described. Finally, the pivotal roles nurse practitioners can play in putting guidelines into practice are suggested.
Abstract 59: Identification of RNA editing events in cancer using high-throughput sequencing data

RNA editing is a post-transcriptional modification of pre-mRNA that has recently been identified as an additional epigenetic mechanism relevant to cancer development and progression. With projects like The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) providing high-throughput sequencing datasets measuring both DNA and RNA from the same patients across multiple cancers, it is now possible to search for RNA editing events at a genome-wide scale. Using fully-sequenced tumor and matched-normal genomes and RNA-Seq data from TCGA project, we will identify RNA editing events in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients. We have analyzed the tumor and matched normal genomes to identify SNPs, mutations (both germline and somatic), and heterozygosity across the entire genome. By comparing the patient9s genomic data to the RNA transcripts assembled by the UCSC RNA-Seq pipeline, we can identify any bases that were transcribed abnormally. All putative RNA editing events will be assessed according to the most common types of RNA editing, such as the deamination of adenosine into inosine (A-to-I) or the conversion of cytosine into uracil (C-to-U). Local phasing information inferred from the genomic sequence will be used to disambiguate potential RNA editing events found at heterozygous locations. As a positive control, we will confirm RNA-editing events previously discovered experimentally in AML patients, such as an A-to-I conversion in the protein tyrosine phosphatase PTPN6 gene. The PTPN6 gene is recognized as a tumor suppressor gene and is important for the down-regulation of growth-promoting receptors. The A-to-I conversion of adenosine 7866 causes the splicing mechanism to ignore a splicing junction, leading to a non-functional PTPN6 protein via the inclusion of an intron in the mature RNA transcript. Using the TCGA sequencing data, we will identify all AML samples that exhibit this particular A-to-I conversion as well as the inclusion of the intron with the RNA-Seq data. In addition, we will report novel RNA editing events in AML and other cancer types and look for patterns that may be cancer specific or globally relevant to cancer development. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 59. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-59
Inbreeding depression and partial selfing: evolutionary implications of mixed-mating in a coastal endemic, silene douglasii var. oraria (Caryophyllaceae)

Recent studies have found moderate to high levels of selfing in plants despite high inbreeding depression. Because both factors influence the evolution and persistence of rare plants, we conducted glasshouse and field studies of pollination and inbreeding in Silene douglasii var. oraria, a perennial tetraploid endemic to coastal prairies. We detected: (i) variation in reproduction or inbreeding depression among life stages, years and maternal families; (ii) partial selfing yet higher relative fitness in outcrossed than selfed progeny; (iii) differing values of selfing and inbreeding depression using population means vs. matched maternal families. Fruit and seed production varied significantly with pollination treatment and year in flowers manipulated in situ during three seasons of growth. Hand-pollinations providing pollen in excess of ovule production in 1996 yielded more seeds than marked, open-pollinated flowers, implying pollen limitation of seed production. However, among-year differences in reproductive success after open-pollination (i.e. values equivalent to autogamy, selfing or outcrossing) suggest that pollination levels also vary temporally. In pollinations matched by maternal family, selfing yielded significantly fewer seeds than outcrossing. Fitness differences between inbred and outbred progeny were significant (P < 0.05) for seed production, percentage germination, and biomass or fecundity, but not for survival. Maternal family data gave selfing rates intermediate between obligate outcrossers and predominant selfers (S = 0.34–0.51), but population-wide means gave unusually high values (S = 1.1–1.6). Cumulative inbreeding depression was 76% for maternal families, and 70–85% using population means; in all cases, inbreeding depression values were high in early and late life stages, and lowest for survival. Thus far, reproductive assurance offers the most cogent explanation for the coexistence of moderate selfing and high inbreeding depression in this strongly protandrous Silene once thought to be highly outcrossing. This possibility merits further study in other rare plants with mixed-mating systems, where inbreeding depression and pollinator scarcity may both compromise population persistence and raise the threshold below which selfing is favoured by evolution.
Hormonal specificity of the in vitro action of growth hormone on amino acid transport into rat muscle.

Various pituitary hormones were tested for their ability to stimulate in vitro the transport of AIB into the cells of isolated hypophysectomized rat diaphragms. Crude and purified TSH, purified FSH, purified LH, purified MSH, posterior pituitary extracts and synthetic oxytocin andvasopressin were all ineffective at the concentrations tested. Three ovine prolactin preparations stimulated AIB transport into muscle when present in the incubation medium at high concentrations. This activity was abolished, however, when the prolactin solutions were adjusted to pH 8 and heated for 20 minutes at 100 C. The heating procedure also eliminates the action of growth hormone on amino acid transport but does not alter the ability of prolactin to stimulate the pigeon crop sac. Thus, it is conceivable that the amino acid transport stimulating activity present in ovine prolactin is due to growth hormone contamination. These experiments indicate that growth hormone is the only pituitary hormone which interacts to any extent...
Visual responses from cells in striate cortex of monkeys rendered chronically 'blind' by lesions of nonvisual cortex.

Chronic ‘blindness’ can be produced in monkeys by a large cortical removal that spares modality specific visual cortex (striate, prestriate, and inferior temporal cortex). To understand the reasons for the blindness we compared single unit activity recorded from striate cortex of these monkeys with the activity of units recorded from seeing animals. The results indicate that visual processing in the striate cortex of the blind monkeys, with the exception of changes attributable to a partial disruption of the geniculostriate pathway, is similar to that of the normal monkeys. The chronic blindness is therefore probably due not to dysfunction within striate cortex but rather to a disconnection from critical processing stages within the ablated territory. Feedback from this territory is apparently not necessary for information processing to occur in striate cortex.
The Role of Propanal in the Reaction of 2-Propen-1-ol in H-ZSM-5

Abstract The adsorption of 2-propen-1-ol and propanal has been studied in H-ZSM-5 using simultaneous temperature programmed desorption (TPD) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) measurements and 13 C NMR. For both adsorbates, the TPD-TGA results are shown to be a strong function of the initial exposure. Following a saturation exposure of either adsorbate, TPD-TGA results for both molecules form a large number of complex products. However, for low exposures, less than one molecule/Bronsted site, the initial products can be observed. For 2-propen-1-ol, the initial reaction product, formed between 400 and 425 K, is propanal, formed through either a secondary cation or an epoxide intermediate. The intact desorption of propanal at low coverages was also observed in this temperature range. 13 C NMR spectra of 2-propen-1-ol confirm the formation of propanal and condensation products of propanal. Finally, a potential energy model based on gas-phase proton affinities of the various conjugate bases along possible reaction coordinates for the reaction of 2-propen-1-ol explain the observed chemistry well.
Pulsed EPR Investigations of Systems Modeling Molybdenum Enzymes: Hyperfine and Quadrupole Parameters of Oxo-17O in [Mo17O(SPh)4]-

Ka band ESEEM spectroscopy was used to determine the hyperfine (hfi) and nuclear quadrupole (nqi) interaction parameters for the oxo-17O ligand in [Mo17O(SPh)4]-, a spectroscopic model of the oxo-Mo(V) centers of enzymes. The isotropic hfi constant of 6.5 MHz found for the oxo-17O is much smaller than the values of ∼20−40 MHz typical for the 17O nucleus of an equatorial OH(2) ligand in molybdenum enzymes. The 17O nqi parameter (e2qQ/h = 1.45 MHz, η ≈ 0) is the first to be obtained for an oxo group in a metal complex. The parameters of the oxo-17O ligand, as well as other magnetic resonance parameters of [Mo17O(SPh)4]- predicted by quasi-relativistic DFT calculations, were in good agreement with those obtained in experiment. From the electronic structure of the complex revealed by DFT, it follows that the SOMO is almost entirely molybdenum dxy and sulfur p, while the spin density on the oxo-17O is negative, determined by spin polarization mechanisms. The results of this work will enable direct experimental...
Iodine metabolism of dispersed thyroid cells obtained by trypsinization of sheep thyroid glands.

Follicular cells of sheep thyroid glands were dispersed and isolated by a continuous-flow tissue trypsinization procedure. When incubated with [131I]iodine, the isolated cells were shown to retain the capacity for concentrating iodide ion, and for incorporating iodine into iodotyrosines and iodothyronines. They also deiodinated 3,5-diiodotyrosine more actively and 3-iodotyrosine less actively than did thyroid slices. These findings are interpreted as showing that the presence of colloid and follicular structure is not essential for iodide-concentrating function and hormone synthesis by the thyroid gland.
Two-, three-, and four-interval forced-choice staircase procedures: Estimator bias and efficiency

Threshold estimates for multiple‐interval forced‐choice staircase procedures were studied using computer simulations. A sigmoidal psychometric function shape governed the hypothetical subject’s responses in the simulations. Parameters varied included the number of trials, the step size for stimulus level change, and decision rules that targeted 70.7% and 79.4% correct performance. Each threshold estimate was calculated by averaging the stimulus levels at which a reversal a stimulus level direction occurred. The results of the simulations suggest that, as the number of alternatives is increased from 2 to 4, the variability of repeated threshold estimates decreases or remains constant, and the accuracy of the estimator, in most cases, improves. A subset of the simulations was compared with data obtained in a detection‐in‐noise task. The behavioral data were consistent with the simulation results. Two major conclusions were reached. First, 3‐ and 4‐interval forced‐choice (IFC) procedures are more efficient than a 2IFC procedure with a decision rule that targets 70.7% correct performance even when the additional time required to complete 3‐ and 4IFC trials is considered. Second, the accuracy of 2IFC procedures can be improved by fitting the trial history of a staircase run using probit analysis.
Salt-induced hypertension in chronic renal failure: evidence for a neurogenic mechanism.

Abstract We investigated the possibility that blood pressure elevation induced by salt excess may be secondary to a neurogenic mechanism. The compound SK&F 64139 (50 mg/kg) known to inhibit central and peripheral phenylethanolamine N-methytransferase (PNMT) the enzyme necessary for the conversion of norepinephrine to epinephrine, was given by oral gavage to two groups of subtotally nephrectomized rats maintained for five days on either a high salt (HS) or low salt (LS) diet respectively. Blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and hematocrit were not different between the two groups, while body weight and serum Na were significantly higher in the HS animals. Baseline mean blood pressure (BP) was higher in the HS animals (HS 154 ± 4.7 vs LS 121 ± 3.7 mmHg, p
Compression of noisy signals with information bottlenecks

We consider a novel approach to the information bottleneck problem where the goal is to perform compression of a noisy signal, while retaining a significant amount of information about a correlated auxiliary signal. To facilitate analysis, we cast compression with side information as an optimization problem involving an information measure, which for jointly Gaussian random variables equals the classical mutual information. We provide closed form expressions for locally optimal linear compression schemes; in particular, we show that the optimal solutions are of the form of the product of an arbitrary full-rank matrix and the left eigenvectors corresponding to smallest eigenvalues of a matrix related to the signals' covariance matrices. In addition, we study the influence of the sparsity level of the Bernoulli-Gaussian noise on the compression rate. We also highlight the similarities and differences between the noisy bottleneck problem and canonical correlation analysis (CCA), as well as the Gaussian information bottleneck problem.
Biochemical changes in skeletal muscles of denning bears (Ursus americanus).

Abstract 1. 1. Biopsies of the extensor hallucis longus (EHL) and gastrocnemius (G) muscles of four captive black bears (Ursus americanus) were obtained prior to denning (PRE), during denning (DEN) and following the Spring arousal (POST). 2. 2. Glycogen, triglyceride and protein concentrations did not differ significantly between the three groups. Likewise, the activity of citrate synthase, a mitochondrial oxidative enzyme, was not significantly different between the three groups. 3. 3. DNA concentrations in DEN samples increased 30% compared to other groups while RNA concentrations were significantly elevated in POST samples. The RNA/DNA ratios were significantly depressed during DEN. 4. 4. These results suggest a degree of muscle atrophy during DEN, with the potential for an increased capacity for muscle protein synthesis following the Spring arousal.
Reduced cost and increased capability through technology in the new millennium

Abstract The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) New Millennium Program (NMP) is designed to reduce the cost of spacecraft in the 21st century while simultaneously increasing spacecraft capabilities, thereby increasing the return on our investment in space exploration. The NMP process is being enacted in the following manner. We are developing a science vision for the 21st century and identifying the attendant missions of this vision. These missions, in turn, will specify the capabilities that future spacecraft require. Technology-validation flights will be selected to demonstrate specific high pay-off technologies needed to provide these capabilities. These key technologies are categorized by certain areas—autonomy, microelectronics, communications, and so on — and will be flight validated prior to the 21st century in order to enable our vision for the next century. To that end, and keeping in mind our science vision, the technologies will primarily be those that allow us to reduce the size of spacecraft instruments, and in turn the size of the spacecraft itself, so that smaller launch vehicles can be employed. Also, these technologies will provide for autonomous spacecraft capability and shorter mission flight times so that the ground operations staff for future space missions can be reduced, thus bringing down costs in this area as well. This paper presents specific examples of these key technologies and their pay-offs.
Extraction of High Quality RNA from Polysaccharide Matrices using Cetlytrimethylammonium Bromide

Polysaccharides are increasingly being used as biomaterials for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Quantitative analysis of gene expression from cells in three-dimensional (3D) scaffolds requires extraction of messenger RNA, which is complicated in polysaccharide materials by ionic complexing between nucleic acids and the matrix. We used a strongly cationic surfactant, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), to extract RNA from human mesenchymal stem cells embedded in 3D chitosan, agarose and collagen matrices. CTAB extraction was compared to conventional guanidinium thiocyanate-based methods for RNA isolation by assessing RNA yield, purity (A260/A280 and A260/A230) and integrity (28S/18S and RIN). For polysaccharide-based matrices, CTAB extraction yielded significantly more RNA with higher purity than guanidinium thiocyanate-based methods alone. The extracted RNA was largely intact as indicated by 28S/18S ratios and RIN values, while these parameters could not be measured using conventional kits alone. For pure collagen matrices, the CTAB method was comparable or better than guanidinium thiocyanate-based methods in terms of RNA yield and quality. We further validated the CTAB protocol using semi-quantitative and quantitative RT-PCR to amplify both large and small amplicons. Our results show that the CTAB-based method is a facile and effective way to extract abundant, high quality RNA from polysaccharide and protein biomaterials.
Fibroma of tendon sheath in the hand

Seven cases of fibroma of tendon sheath in the hand are reviewed. These tumors are common enough to be considered in the differential diagnosis of a soft tissue tumor in the hand, as they comprised 7 of our series of 208 soft tissue hand tumors excised over a 15-year period. A marginal excision was performed in each case, and no tumor recurred after a mean follow-up interval of 8 years. The fibromas were adherent to tendons, tendon sheaths, and neurovascular structures, and thus were more difficult to excise without morbidity than other soft tissue hand tumors.
Iron binding proteins and their roles in the tobacco hornworm, Manduca sexta (L.).

Manduca sexta larvae accumulate large amounts of iron during their larval feeding period. When59Fe was fed to 5th instar larvae, it was evenly distributed among the hemolymph, gut and carcass until the cessation of feeding. By pupation 95% of the labelled iron was found in the fat body. In the adult a significant portion of this iron was found in flight muscle.
Dielectric loss microwave degradation of polymers: Cellulose

The pyrolysis of organic waste polymers to produce fuels and chemicals is of interest to augment petroleum-based processes. The wide variety of pyrolysis products of low yield and the uncertain role that heat transfer rate plays in determining these have been deterrents to utilization in the past. A possible approach to increased selectivity for products is to heat them rapidly and homogeneously with the aim of narrowing the product distribution. A very rapid means of homogeneous heat transfer throughout the substrate is microwave heating. A laboratory study has been done to determine what effect high-intensity microwave energy has on the thermal degradative pathways of cellulose. The product distribution found when cellulose is pyrolyzed in the absence of a microwave discharge is similar to that found in conventional furnace pyrolysis. The major products are levoglucosan (27%), carbon dioxide (2–5%), water, and charred residue. However, the total heat-up and reaction times for even large pellets are reduced to less than 2–3 min when high-intensity microwave irradiation is employed. Effects of pressure and microwave power are reported. Low external gas temperature also prevents secondary reactions.
The absence of differences in cellular immunity in elderly individuals with and without delayed local cutaneous reactions to influenza vaccine.

Two groups of elderly subjects who received bivalent influenza virus vaccine were identified. Those in Group I manifested marked local reactions, suggestive of delayed hypersensitivity reactions, whereas those in Group II, matched with Group I for vaccine preparation, had no cutaneous reactions. In vitro assays of immune function were performed on pairs of subjects from the two groups and included serum immunoglobulin and complement levels, antibody response to vaccine, lymphocyte transformation to mitogens (phytohemagglutinin, pokeweed mitogen and concanavalin A) and antigens (streptokinase-strepto-dornase, influenza virus vaccine antigens and multiple mixed lymphocytes), and polymorphonuclear leukocyte chemotactic responsiveness. There was no demonstrable correlation between delayed local cutaneous reaction and preservation of in vitro cell-mediated immune function in these elderly individuals.
REVIEW: BIOMECHANICS OF CHILD OCCUPANT PROTECTION

This paper provides a review of the following issues: the differences in injury patterns between adults and children under similar loading conditions during an automotive crash event. Because of the recent awareness and the ensuing necessity, as an example, injuries including fatalities due to airbag deployment are discussed. Biomechanical differences explain the varying injury patterns and mechanisms of injury. The commonly adopted scaling techniques for predicting pediatric tolerances are described. A comparison of the biomechanical properties of the pediatric and adult structures is given. Some insight is provided with regard to the use of these data to develop validated mathematical models of pediatric structures. The paper concludes with recommendations for further research.
Externalism, privileged self-knowledge, and the irrelevance of slow switching

Some philosophers think that externalism about mental content is incompatible with what I call privileged self-knowledge: the thesis that one's beliefs about the contents of one's thoughts are at least typically instances of direct knowledge. Two main lines of argument have been developed in support of this claim. The first, put forward most forcefully by Michael McKinsey (1991 and 1994) and also supported by, among others, Jessica Brown (1995), argues that the consistency of privileged self-knowledge and externalism would imply the soundness of what, in these philosophers' eyes, is an implausibly strong transcendental anti-sceptical argument. Having had my say about this flawed line of argument elsewhere,1 I would like to show on the present occasion that the second line of sceptical reasoning is also flawed. The second line of argument, developed by Paul Boghossian and also discussed by Peter Ludlow (1995a and 1995b) and others, uses so called 'slow switching' (Burge 1988) cases in an attempt to illustrate the alleged incompatibility of privileged self-knowledge and externalism.2 Boghossian asked us to consider an individual slow switched between Earth and Twin
Watermarking capacity in the presence of multiple watermarks and a partially known channel

The effect of a partially known watermarking channel, additive noise, and multiple watermarks on the watermarking capacity region is studied. A channel can be partially known because of the following reasons : (a) randomly time-varying channel characteristics, (b) unknown attacks by an adversary, (c) uncertainty due to estimation errors such as in oblivious watermarking techniques. A mathematical model for this scenario is introduced. No assumptions are made regarding the probability distribution of the channel. Lower and upper bounds on the feasible watermarking rate region are derived. It is shown that, in terms of watermarking capacity, it is better to cancel the effect of an interfering watermark than to treat is as noise. As a special case, it is also observed that the capacity estimates based on the popular additive Gaussian noise model tend to either over or under estimate the capacity for a single watermark channel. Numerical results are also presented. Finally, we observe that the proposed mathematical model can be applied to real-life applications such as image/video watermarking. Image processing operations such as scaling, geometrical transformations etc. that distort the image (not just add noise) fall under the proposed mathematical model.
Electrical resistivity of semimetals in the extreme quantum limit

The electrical resistivity of semimetals in the extreme quantum limit is strongly affected by the presence of anomalous charge—density waves at low temperatures. Anomalous Green's function and perturbation theories of the charge—density wave regime are related and extended to calculation of the imaginary part of the electron self-energy. The electrical resistivity due to electron—hole scattering is calculated. The electron—hole scattering reaches a peak value near a scaling temperatureT c with a lnT decrease at higher temperatures. When combined with electron—impurity and electron—phonon scattering contributions, the total resistivity behaves in a manner which has been observed experimentally in Bi-Sb alloys.
Threshold Inaccuracies in an Elderly Clinical Population

In a sample of 80 persons in the 60–79-year age range, threshold shifts suggestive of collapsible car canals were found in over one third of the subjects. A very conservative interpretation of the ...
GREENHOUSE EVALUATION OF FOUR BORON FERTILIZER MATERIALS

Management of boron (B) in soils can be difficult since a narrow range exists between plant deficiency and toxicity. A greenhouse study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of four soil-applied B fertilizers varying in solubility (Granubor, Hydroboracite, Ulexite, and Colemanite) in supplying B to alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.). Boron was incorporated at rates of 0, 1, or 2 mg B kg−1 into Norfolk (fine-loamy, kaolinitic, thermic, Typic Kandiudults) or a Cecil (fine, kaolinitic, thermic Typic Kanhapludults) soil and planted with alfalfa. After establishment, shoots were harvested four times at approximately five-week intervals and analyzed for dry matter and B. Following the last harvest, soil samples were taken and analyzed for Mehlich-1 extractable B. There was no effect of fertilizer material, application rate, or their interaction on the dry weight of alfalfa. Boron concentrations in alfalfa did not significantly decline with each successive cutting, indicating that a sufficient amount was applied...
Hypervelocity impact of a steel microsphere on fused silica sheets

Abstract We use the commercial finite element software Abaqus to study three-dimensional deformations of glass panels impacted at normal incidence by a 0.5 mm diameter steel sphere moving at about 3 km/s and having kinetic energy of approximately 2.3 J. We quantify effects of the critical erosion strain and the impact speed upon the conchoidal fracture diameters developed on the front- and the back-surfaces of the panel, and on the hole-out diameter. The strength responses of the steel and the glass are modeled as thermoelastoviscoplastic, and their hydrodynamic responses by the Mie–Gruneisen equation of state. An element is assumed to have failed when the erosion strain in it reaches the material-dependent critical value. Failed elements deleted from the analysis domain form cracks in the specimen. Effects of numerical uncertainties on significant failure features are found by repeating simulations with infinitesimal variations in the impact speed. The computed results are compared with experimental findings available in the open literature. For the impact problems studied it is found that (i) the spall front speed and the length of a spalled line are highly sensitive to the impact speed, and (ii) conchoidal fracture diameters on the front and the back surfaces of the target are less sensitive to the impact speed, (iii) values of the critical erosion strain greater than 2.0 do not affect the above listed damage variables.