cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Dynamic Aspects Of TV Based Inspection And Measurement Systems For Factory Automation

The priority associated with U.S. efforts to increase productivity has led to, among other things, the development of Electronic Vision Systems for use in manufacturing automation requirements. Many such systems combine closed circuit television cameras and data processing equipment to facilitate high speed, on-line inspection and real time dimensional measurement of parts and assemblies. These parts are often randomly oriented and spaced on a conveyor belt under continuous motion. Television imagery of high speed events has historically been achieved by use of pulsed (strobe) illumination or high speed shutter techniques synchronized with the camera's vertical blanking to separate write and read cycle operation. Lack of synchronization between part position and camera scanning in most on-line applications precludes use of this technique and dictates that another approach be utilized. Unique inject-inhibit capability of General Electric Company's Charge Injection Device (CID) imager will, when interfaced appropriately with Xenon strobe illumination, provide asynchronous stop motion imagery and facilitate dimensional measurement at rates of up to 900 parts per minute. OPTOMATIONIM Electronic Vision Systems incorporating this capa-bility have been operating in factory applications for now, in excess of three years. Operation of the CID Solid State imager will be reviewed in this context along with the system equipment, and possible future developments will be discussed.© (1983) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Convergence of Attention and Prominence Dimensions of Salience among Major Online Newspapers

This study explores two primary dimensions of salience, such as attention and prominence, among coverage of four major online newspapers, which areNYTimes.com, USATODAY.com, washingtonpost.com, andLATimes.com. The four major online newspapers agree with not only issue agendas (attention of salience) but also story placement (prominence of salience). Specifically, NYTimes.comandwashingtonpost.compost more important stories on the most visible areas of their major sections and publish less important stories on the bottom areas of the sections. This indicates the potentials of major online newspapers to influence other news media. Because news Web sites are major information sources, the convergence of attention and prominence is likely to affect public opinion.
The cartographic calculation of space: race mapping and the Balkans at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919

Following the armistice of the First World War, the allied powers met in Paris in 1919 to establish a new political map for Europe and the former German colonies. This reterritorialization drew its rationale from cartographic calculations of borders and populations that depended on a process of assessing citizenship, racial identity and territory. In this paper I examine the role of these geographical and cartographical knowledges in geopolitical decision-making. Specifically, I focus on the American delegation's group of experts known as ‘the Inquiry’. The Inquiry's maps and reports framed the problem of contested areas such as the Balkans as one of race and territory. I argue that the Inquiry exercised a unique but little understood geopolitical influence on the geopolitics of Europe that echoed down the twentieth century. Le calcul cartographique de l'espace: la cartographie des races et les Balkans lors de la Conference de la paix de Paris en 1919 Au lendemain de l'Armistice de la Premiere Guerre mond...
Phosphorylation of Bcl-2 is a marker of M phase events and not a determinant of apoptosis.

Phosphorylation of Bcl-2 protein is a post-translational modification of unclear functional consequences. We studied the correlation between Bcl-2 phosphorylation, mitotic arrest, and apoptosis induced by the anti-tubulin agent paclitaxel. Continuous exposure of human cervical carcinoma HeLa cells to 50 ng/ml paclitaxel resulted in mitotic arrest with a symmetrical bell-shaped curve over time. The number of mitotic cells was highest at 24 h (82%), then declined as arrested cells progressed into apoptosis, and barely no mitotic cells were present at 48–60 h. The time curves of paclitaxel-induced cyclin B1 accumulation and stimulation of Cdc2/cyclin B1 kinase activity were identical and superimposable to that of M phase arrest. In contrast, apoptosis was first detected at 12 h and steadily increased thereafter until the termination of the experiments at 48–60 h, when about 80–96% of cells were apoptotic. Bcl-2 phosphorylation was closely associated in time with M phase arrest, accumulation of cyclin B1, and activation of Cdc2/cyclin B1 kinase, but not with apoptosis. At 24 h, when about 82% of the cells were in mitosis, almost all Bcl-2 protein was phosphorylated, whereas at 48 h, when 70–90% of the cells were apoptotic, all Bcl-2 protein was unphosphorylated. Similar results were obtained with SKOV3 cells, indicating that the association of paclitaxel-induced M phase arrest and Bcl-2 phosphorylation is not restricted to HeLa cells. We used short exposure to nocodazole and double thymidine to synchronize HeLa cells and investigate the association of Bcl-2 phosphorylation with mitosis. These studies demonstrated that Bcl-2 phosphorylation occurs in tight association with the number of mitotic cells in experimental conditions that do not lead to apoptosis. However, a continuous exposure to nocodazole resulted in a pattern of Bcl-2 phosphorylation, M phase arrest, and apoptosis similar to that observed with paclitaxel. The phosphatase inhibitor okadaic acid was found to inhibit the dephosphorylation of phosphorylated Bcl-2 and to delay the progression of nocodazole M phase-arrested cells into interphase. In contrast, the serine/threonine kinase inhibitor staurosporine, but not the tyrosine kinase inhibitor genistein, led to rapid dephosphorylation of phosphorylated Bcl-2 and accelerated the progression of nocodazole M phase-arrested cells into interphase. Immune complex kinase assays in cell-free systems demonstrated that Bcl-2 protein can be a substrate of Cdc2/cyclin B1 kinase isolated from paclitaxel-treated cells arrested in M phase. Taken together, these studies suggest that Bcl-2 phosphorylation is tightly associated with mitotic arrest and fail to demonstrate that it is a determinant of progression into apoptosis after mitotic arrest induced by anti-tubulin agents.
On Computer Security Incident Response Teams

This special issue will give you a greater understanding of what CSIRTs are and how they work. For the security researcher, these articles highlight challenges faced by operational security, presenting opportunities for new research avenues. Security practitioners can use the diverse perspectives presented in these articles to help them be more effective at their jobs. And policy makers can gain insights into how their work might impact these critical organizations.
The Mechanical Variables Underlying Object Localization along the Axis of the Whisker

Rodents move their whiskers to locate objects in space. Here we used psychophysical methods to show that head-fixed mice can localize objects along the axis of a single whisker, the radial dimension, with one-millimeter precision. High-speed videography allowed us to estimate the forces and bending moments at the base of the whisker, which underlie radial distance measurement. Mice judged radial object location based on multiple touches. Both the number of touches (1–17) and the forces exerted by the pole on the whisker (up to 573 μN; typical peak amplitude, 100 μN) varied greatly across trials. We manipulated the bending moment and lateral force pressing the whisker against the sides of the follicle and the axial force pushing the whisker into the follicle by varying the compliance of the object during behavior. The behavioral responses suggest that mice use multiple variables (bending moment, axial force, lateral force) to extract radial object localization. Characterization of whisker mechanics revealed that whisker bending stiffness decreases gradually with distance from the face over five orders of magnitude. As a result, the relative amplitudes of different stress variables change dramatically with radial object distance. Our data suggest that mice use distance-dependent whisker mechanics to estimate radial object location using an algorithm that does not rely on precise control of whisking, is robust to variability in whisker forces, and is independent of object compliance and object movement. More generally, our data imply that mice can measure the amplitudes of forces in the sensory follicles for tactile sensation.
A note on multiple precision arithmetic

Since computers have means to detect overflow on addition or subtraction, this can be used in a multiple precision addition-subtraction subroutine to obviate a sign analysis. Consider all integers in the computer to be expressed “radix t”, that is, in the form a = a0 + a1t + ··· + antn where ai are of like sign and have magnitudes less than t. t is a positive integer determined by the word length of the computer. Consider the expression c = a ± b = (a0 ± b0) + (a1 ± b1)t + ··· + (an ± bn)tn. Here ai ± bi may exceed the storage capacity of one word or may have a sign different from c.
The Extent of Labor Organization in the United States in 1910

I. Statistics of trade union membership, 487. — American Federation of Labor, 487. — Building Trades Department, 489. — New York Department of Labor, 489. — Union records, 490. — Local unions, 491. — Female, 492. — Canada, 492. — II. Statistics of occupations, 493. — Classification of trade union membership, 495. — III. Membership of American trade unions, 496. — IV. Organization by industry, 497. — Female laborers, 501. — Employing and salaried classes, 502. — Classes difficult to organize, 502. — Subdivisions of industry, 504. — Immigrant laborers, 507. — Industries in which ownership is concentrated, 507. — V. Organization by occupation, 508. — Female laborers, 514. — Skilled and unskilled laborers, 515. — VI. Statistical reform, 517.
APOLIPOPROTEIN E (APOE) PEPTIDE REGULATES TAU PHOSPHORYLATION VIA TWO DIFFERENT SIGNALING PATHWAYS

Previous studies have shown that treating rat cortical neurons in primary culture with apolipoprotein E (apoE) peptide increased cytoplasmic Ca2+ by 2 mechanisms: 1) an influx of extracellular Ca2+ resulting from the activation of a cell surface Ca2+ channel; and 2) release of Ca2+ from internal Ca2+ stores via a G-protein-coupled pathway (Wang and Gruenstein, 1997). These studies employed a biologically active apoE synthetic peptide (apoEdp) derived from the receptor binding domain of apoE. In the present study we examined whether activation of these 2 signal transduction pathways affects phosphorylation of microtubule-associated protein tau. The levels of tau phosphorylation at thr231, ser235, and ser396 were quantified by ELISA employing monoclonal antibodies PHF-6, SMI33, and PHF-1. ApoEdp treatment resulted in a concentration- and time-dependent dephosphorylation of tau at all 3 phosphorylation sites. The apoEdp-induced dephosphorylation of tau at thr231, and ser235 was dependent on the influx of extracellular Ca2+, while dephosphorylation at ser396 was mediated by a pertusis toxin-sensitive G-protein pathway. The involvement of protein phosphatases in mediating the apoEdp-induced dephosphorylation of tau was examined. Pretreatment with the protein phosphatase 2B inhibitor cyclosporin A blocked the apoEdp-induced dephosphorylation of tau at thr231 and ser235 but not at ser396. Pretreatment with the protein phosophatase 2A/1 inhibitor okadaic acid blocked the apoEdp-induced dephosphorylation of tau at all 3 sites, while pretreatment with the protein phosphates 1 inhibitor tautomycin was without effect. The present study suggests that apoE may affect several Ca2+-associated signal transduction pathways that increase the activity of protein phosphatases 2A and 2B, which in turn dephosphorylate tau. J. Neurosci. Res. 51:658–665, 1998. © 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Turbine: a distributed-memory dataflow engine for extreme-scale many-task applications

Efficiently utilizing the rapidly increasing concurrency of multi-petaflop computing systems is a significant programming challenge. One approach is to structure applications with an upper layer of many loosely-coupled coarse-grained tasks, each comprising a tightly-coupled parallel function or program. "Many-task" programming models such as functional parallel dataflow may be used at the upper layer to generate massive numbers of tasks, each of which generates significant tighly-coupled parallelism at the lower level via multithreading, message passing, and/or partitioned global address spaces. At large scales, however, the management of task distribution, data dependencies, and inter-task data movement is a significant performance challenge. In this work, we describe Turbine, a new highly scalable and distributed many-task dataflow engine. Turbine executes a generalized many-task intermediate representation with automated self-distribution, and is scalable to multi-petaflop infrastructures. We present here the architecture of Turbine and its performance on highly concurrent systems.
Nitrite modulates bacterial antibiotic susceptibility and biofilm formation in association with airway epithelial cells.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is the major pathogenic bacteria in cystic fibrosis and other forms of bronchiectasis. Growth in antibiotic-resistant biofilms contributes to the virulence of this organism. Sodium nitrite has antimicrobial properties and has been tolerated as a nebulized compound at high concentrations in human subjects with pulmonary hypertension; however, its effects have not been evaluated on biotic biofilms or in combination with other clinically useful antibiotics. We grew P. aeruginosa on the apical surface of primary human airway epithelial cells to test the efficacy of sodium nitrite against biotic biofilms. Nitrite alone prevented 99% of biofilm growth. We then identified significant cooperative interactions between nitrite and polymyxins. For P. aeruginosa growing on primary CF airway cells, combining nitrite and colistimethate resulted in an additional log of bacterial inhibition compared to treating with either agent alone. Nitrite and colistimethate additively inhibited oxygen consumption by P. aeruginosa. Surprisingly, whereas the antimicrobial effects of nitrite in planktonic, aerated cultures are nitric oxide (NO) dependent, antimicrobial effects under other growth conditions are not. The inhibitory effect of nitrite on bacterial oxygen consumption and biofilm growth did not require NO as an intermediate as chemically scavenging NO did not block growth inhibition. These data suggest an NO-radical independent nitrosative or oxidative inhibition of respiration. The combination of nebulized sodium nitrite and colistimethate may provide a novel therapy for chronic P. aeruginosa airway infections, because sodium nitrite, unlike other antibiotic respiratory chain “poisons,” can be safely nebulized at high concentration in humans.
Virus-specific RNA species present in the cytoplasm of Rous sarcoma virus-infected chicken cells.

Abstract Polyadenylated and nonpolyadenylated cytoplasmic RNA from chicken cells infected with wild-type (wt) and transformation-defective (td) Rous sarcoma virus (RSV) were fractionated on sucrose density gradients and hybridized with a [ 3 H]cDNA probe complementary to RSV-RNA to determine the size distribution of virus-specific RNA. Two major species of poly (A) -containing viral RNA sedimenting at 35 and 21 S were detected in wt and td virus-infected cells. Both RNA classes were released from polyribosomes with puromycin, suggesting that each RNA species serves as messenger in vivo . Another minor size class of virus-specific RNA, 10–12 S, was found in both the polyadenylated and nonpolyadenylated RNA fractions.
Nutrients, vitamins and minerals in cancer prevention: facts and fallacies.

In this paper, a summary is first presented of the important facts that have linked diet and dietary habits to human cancers, with the purpose of identifying the sources and extent of food fallacies that associate “nutrients, vitamins, and minerals” in cancer prevention. Then examples are presented of the many fallacies that persuade consumers to make dangerous, inappropriate and/or ineffective dietary choices. Minimizing food faddism and dietary quackery with its false claims about diet and cancer requires an important counter-challenge on the part of health professionals. There is a great need to determine the possible role of nutrients and dietary components in the development of neoplastic disease in human populations in order to develop rational and safe food and nutrition policies. Concurrently, nutrition education should receive increased research support in order to improve techniques and approaches for informing policy makers, the food industry and public accurately and objectively of the recent advances in the study of nutrition and cancer prevention and their practical and health significance.
Effects of Solvent Exposure on Material Properties and Impact Performance of an American Football Helmet Outer Shell Material

The pursuit to maintain the initial performance standard of American football helmets has prompted the implementation of a certified reconditioning and recertification process. Thus, the purpose of this study is to: (i) develop a method to replicate solvent exposure during the reconditioning painting process, (ii) compare selected solvent exposure intensities, and (iii) quantify shifts in material and impact properties of an American football helmet outer shell material. Spraying yielded uniformly exposed samples and was substantiated for investigation of solvent effects. Exposures of n-Butyl acetate to the helmet-grade material surface led to shifts in colorimetric, dimensional, thermal, and tensile properties. Impact performance of helmet surrogate systems performed equivalently. Overall, results substantiated spraying as representative of the reconditioning process and demonstrated shifts in material properties via solvent-induced degradation of helmet-grade outer shell materials.
Formation of Toxic α,β-Unsaturated 4-Hydroxy-Aldehydes in Thermally Oxidized Fatty Acid Methyl Esters

To investigate the heat induced formation of α,β-unsaturated 4-hydroxy-aldehydes (4-hydroxy-2-trans-hexenal (HHE), 4-hydroxy-2-trans-octenal (HOE), 4-hydroxy-2-trans-nonenal (HNE) and 4-hydroxy-2-trans-decenal (HDE)) fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) of stearic, oleic, linoleic and linolenic acids were heated separately at 185°C for 0 to 6 hrs. The formation of 2,4-decadienal, a suspected intermediate in HNE formation, was also measured in these FAMEs. As expected methyl stearate (MS) and methyl oleate (MO) did not produce any of the α,β-unsaturated 4-hydroxy-aldehydes as a consequence of thermally induced lipid peroxidation. The formation of HHE was detected in both methyl linoleate (ML) and methyl linolenate (MLN), with concentration higher in MLN than in ML. The maximum HHE concentration was 3.99 μg HHE/g ML after 2 h and 50.78 μg HHE/g MLN after 4 h of heat treatment. HOE was detected in both ML and MLN, and the maximum concentration was 102.50 μg HOE/g ML after 6 h and 90.56 μg HOE/g MLN after 2 h of heating. HNE was found only in ML and its highest concentration was 84.82 μg HNE/g ML after 3 h of heating. HDE was not detected in any of the four heat treated FAMEs. 2,4-Decadienal was not found to be an intermediate in the formation of HNE in thermally induced oxidation of FAMEs.
DOES ROUTINE PATCH ANGIOPLASTY AFTER CAROTID ENDARTERECTOMY LESSEN THE RISK OF PERIOPERATIVE STROKE

From 1964 through 1991 we performed primary closure of the arteriotomy in 1173 patients and patch angioplasty in 506 patients after carotid endarterectomy. The decision to patch was made at the surgeon's discretion. In general a patch was used for small arteries. In the primary closure group 32 patients (2.7%) had a perioperative stroke and in the patch angioplasty group 17 (3.4%) had a stroke. The difference (2.7% vs. 3.4%) was not significant (p<0.5275, Fisher's exact two-tailed test). A total of 240 arteries were closed with a vein patch and 11 (4.6%) of these patients had a stroke; 266 were closed with a synthetic patch (Dacron, 211; polytetrafluoroethylene, 55) and six of the patients had a stroke (2.3%). The difference in stroke rate between the vein and synthetic patch groups (4.6% vs. 2.3%) was not significant (p<0.2159). Patch angioplasty cannot be shown to reduce the incidence of perioperative stroke. Late carotid patency was not studied. This study supports a policy of selective patch angioplasty based on arterial size rather than patching all carotid arteries. When a patch is used, we prefer filamentous Dacron as the patch material.
Revision adenoidectomy-—A retrospective study

Summary Background: Adenoid ‘‘re-growth’’ is a poorly understood phenomenon. While parents often express concerns regarding the potential for adenoid ‘‘re-growth’’, little information exists in the literature about its incidence and causation. Purpose: To establish the incidence and possible contributing factors leading to adenoid re-growth in children. Design: Retrospective case series review. Setting: Tertiary care children’s hospital. Methods: The charts of 106 patients who underwent revision adenoidectomy between 1995 and 2006 were reviewed. Thirty-four patients were excluded because the primary adenoidectomy was performed elsewhere or initially only a partial adenoidectomy was performed. In the remaining 72 patients, demographic data, clinical presentation, associated medical conditions and findings at surgery were studied. Results: During the 11-year study period. 13,005 adenoidectomies or adenotonsillectomies were performed; 72/13,005 (0.55%) underwent revision adenoidectomy. The mean (S.D.) age at presentation for primary adenoidectomy was 3.68 2.9 and 7.69 4.04 years for secondary (‘‘revision’’) adenoidectomy with an average time interval of 4.3 years between surgeries. Age at initial adenoidectomy was not a significant factor in predicting revision adenoid surgery. 29/72 (40%) underwent a reflux work up including scintiscan with gastric emptying, 24 h pH probe, or laryngoscopy. 28/29 (96%) were diagnosed with reflux. At least 15/72 (21%) were reported to have symptoms consistent with adenoid re-growth which were found to be caused by tubal tonsil hyperplasia.
Clinical Epidemiology of Acute Lung Injury and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome: Incidence, Diagnosis, and Outcomes

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and acute lung injury (ALI) are clinical syndromes characterized by the sudden onset of severe hypoxemia and diffuse bilateral pulmonary infiltrates in the absence of left atrial hypertension. Although advances have been made in the understanding of the etiology, pathophysiology, and epidemiology of both entities, many questions remain regarding their incidence, diagnosis, and outcomes. This article reviews the currently used definition of ARDS and ALI, different studies that have advanced the understanding of the epidemiology and outcomes of these entities, and several diagnostic issues that are important for both clinicians and researchers.
Hydrogen‐bonding geometry and patterns in carbohydrates and amino acids

The hydrogen-bond geometry observed by neutron diffraction of 24 carbohydrate and 32 amino acid crystal structures is analyzed and compared. Of the 100 OHO bonds in the carbohydrate structures, 25 were three-centered (bifurcated). This bigamous behavior is rationalized in terms of the 25% greater number of acceptor oxygens than donor hydroxyls and the need to preserve the “cooperative effect.” The predominant hydrogen bonds in the amino acids are the zwitterion type , 64 out of a total of 145. Of these, 51 are three-centered. Again the rationale appears to be an equilization of donor and acceptor functions, since each carboxylate group generally accepts between four and six hydrogen bonds.
Modeling Nitrogen Management Effects on Winter Wheat Production Using RZWQM and CERES-Wheat

Agricultural system models can provide an alternative, less time-consuming and inexpensive means of determining the optimum crop N requirement under varied soil and climatic conditions. In this context, we parameterized the Root Zone Water Quality Model (RZWQM) for winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) production and then evaluated it along with the CERES-Wheat model to assess their potential as N management tools at Akron, Co. Both models were evaluated with data from five N treatments (0, 28, 56, 84, and 112 kg N ha -1 ) and three crop seasons (1987-1988, 1988-1989, and 1989-1990). Data from 1987-1988 zero-N treatment were used for model calibration, and the rest of the data were used for model validation. Genetic coefficients for winter wheat (cv. TAM 107) were developed for the CERES-Wheat model. The crop parameters required for the generic crop model of RZWQM were parameterized using information from the literature or by calibration. Both models were calibrated first for soil moisture and then for biomass and grain yield. Grain yield predictions had a root mean square error (RMSE) of 500 and 363 kg ha -1 , respectively, for CERES-Wheat and RZWQM. Aboveground biomass was predicted with RMSEs of 1247 and 1441 kg ha -1 , respectively. Long-term simulations of both RZWQM and CERES for winter wheat growth using historical weather data (1912-2001) showed that 56 kg ha -1 N applied as broadcast incorporated is a viable N management option in eastern Colorado, taking into account the grain yield, crop N uptake, N leaching into groundwater, and residual soil N at harvest. Model simulations also showed that the wheat-fallow cropping system is less water use efficient than a continuous wheat system under rainfed agriculture in eastern Colorado.
Instructional Motivation of Adult Learners: An Analysis of Student Perceptions in Continuing Education.

(1990). Instructional Motivation of Adult Learners: An Analysis of Student Perceptions in Continuing Education. The Journal of Continuing Higher Education: Vol. 38, No. 3, pp. 10-14.
Transplantation of multipotent progenitors from the adult olfactory epithelium.

MAMMALIAN olfactory epithelium produces new neurons rapidly throughout adulthood. Here, we demonstrate that precursor cells harvested from the adult olfactory epithelium, when transplanted into the nasal mucosa of host rats exposed previously to an olfactotoxic gas, engraft and participate in neuroe
A Randomized Clinical Trial of Transdiagnostic Cognitve-Behavioral Treatments for Anxiety Disorder by Comparison to Relaxation Training

Transdiagnostic cognitive-behavioral treatments (CBT) for anxiety disorders have been gaining increased attention and empirical study in recent years. Despite this, all of the research on transdiagnostic anxiety treatments to date have either not used a control condition, or have relied on no-treatment or delayed-treatment controls, thus limiting inferences about comparative efficacy. The current study was a randomized clinical trial examining the efficacy of a 12-week transdiagnostic cognitive-behavioral group treatment in comparison to a 12-week comprehensive relaxation training program. Results from 87 treatment initiators suggested significant and statistically equivalent/noninferior outcomes across conditions, although relaxation was associated with a greater rate of dropout despite no differences in treatment credibility. No evidence was found for any differential effects of transdiagnostic CBT for any primary or comorbid diagnoses.
Vitamin D and the vitamin D receptor are critical for control of the innate immune response to colonic injury

The active form of vitamin D (1,25(OH)2D3) has been shown to inhibit development of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in IL-10 KO mice. Here, the role of the vitamin D receptor (VDR) and 1,25(OH)2D3 in acute experimental IBD was probed. VDR KO mice were extremely sensitive to dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) and there was increased mortality of the VDR KO mice at doses of DSS that only caused a mild form of colitis in wildtype (WT) mice. DSS colitis in the VDR KO mice was accompanied by high colonic expression of TNF-α, IL-1 α, IL-1β, IL-12, IFN-γ, IL-10, MIP-1α and KC. DSS concentrations as low as 0.5% were enough to induce bleeding, ulceration and weight loss in VDR KO mice. VDR KO mice failed to recover following the removal of DSS, while WT mice showed signs of recovery within 5 days of DSS removal. The early mortality of DSS treated VDR KO mice was likely due to perforation of the bowel and resulting endotoxemia. VDR KO mice were hyper-responsive to exogenously injected LPS and cultures of the peritoneal exudates of moribund DSS treated VDR KO mice were positive for bacterial growth. 1,25(OH)2D3 in the diet or rectally decreased the severity and extent of DSS-induced inflammation in WT mice. The data point to a critical role for the VDR and 1,25(OH)2D3 in control of innate immunity and the response of the colon to chemical injury.
Shall the Northern Optimal R&D Subsidy Rate Inversely Respond to Southern Intellectual Property Protection?

Empirical studies have found that decentralized economies typically underinvest in research and development (R&D). This paper shows that to promote R&D investment, the innovating North's optimal subsidy rate may not necessarily fall in response to the imitating South's strengthening intellectual property protection (IPP), depending on the elasticity of demand for innovative goods. As numerical simulations indicate, if the demand is less elastic, a tightening of Southern IPP (increase in patent life) tends to allow the self-interested North a smaller optimal subsidy rate. Yet, this relation is overturned if the demand is elastic enough. I also find that worldwide welfare maximization requires a regime of Southern IPP that is neither as stringent as the North favors nor as lax as the South prefers.
Intragenomic spliced leader RNA array analysis of kinetoplastids reveals unexpected transcribed region diversity in Trypanosoma cruzi

The spliced leader RNA gene (SL RNA) repeat is present in large multicopy arrays and has been used as a marker for the diversity of kinetoplastid protozoans. Intra-array variation could affect conclusions made using a randomly isolated repeat as a marker. We examined the Leishmania major (Friedlin) and Trypanosoma cruzi (CL Brener) genome projects for SL RNA repeat sequences in order to assess their homogeneity and the possible effects of sequence variation on taxonomic interpretation. Of the dozens of distinct sequence classes examined, no single copy would bias clustering analyses with regard to other closely related species or isolates. Six dimorphic sites within the T. cruzi transcribed region were found to be linked and are predicted to yield a heterogeneous SL RNA population. The variation that exists among the repeats paints a picture of the broad mechanisms of array maintenance and evolution where site-specific mutations in a single repeat may be spread throughout the array and recombined with existing repeats to create new sequence classes, all occurring under selective pressure to maintain or increase the fitness of the cell line in which these events occur.
Planning the project management way: Efficient planning by effective integration of causal and resource reasoning in RealPlan

In most real-world reasoning problems, planning and scheduling phases are loosely coupled. For example, in project planning, the user comes up with a task list and schedules it with a scheduling tool like Microsoft Project. One can view automated planning in a similar way in which there is an action selection phase where actions are selected and ordered to reach the desired goals, and a resource allocation phase where enough resources are assigned to ensure the successful execution of the chosen actions. On the other hand, most existing automated planners studied in Artificial Intelligence do not exploit this loose-coupling and perform both action selection and resource assignment employing the same algorithm. The current work shows that the above strategy severely curtails the scale-up potential of existing state of the art planners which can be overcome by leveraging the loose coupling. Specifically, a novel planning framework called RealPlan is developed in which resource allocation is de-coupled from planning and is handled in a separate scheduling phase. The scheduling problem with discrete resources is represented as a Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP) problem, and the planner and scheduler interact either in a master-slave manner or in a peer-peer relationship. In the former, the scheduler simply tries to assign resources to the abstract causal plan passed to it by the planner and returns success. In the latter, a more sophisticated i°multi-module dependency directed backtrackingi± approach is used where the failure explanation in the scheduler is translated back to the planner and serves as a nogood to direct planner search. RealPlan not only preserves both the correctness as well as the quality (measured in length) of the plan but also improves efficiency. Moreover, the failure-driven learning of constraints can serve as an elegant and effective approach for integrating planning and scheduling systems. Beyond the context of planner efficiency, the current work can be viewed as an important step towards merging planning with real-world problem solving where plan failure during execution can be resolved by undertaking only necessary resource re-allocation and not complete re-planning.
Histopathology of Primary Pulmonary Hypertension

Table 1 summarizes the results of five large pathology series published during the past 20 years. The great majority of patients with PPH had wide­ spread abnormalities only in the arterial side of the pulmonary circulation at autopsy or lung biopsy and were classified as having pulmonary hypertensive arteriopathy. In a small percentage of cases, the hypertensive changes did involve primarily the venous pulmonary circulation, and the patients were classi­ fied as having pulmonary veno-ocelusive disease. In some cases, the diagnosis of PPH could not be confirmed histopathologically.
Reduction of Rayleigh scattering in nonlinear optical phase conjugations by photo-induced density redistribution in atomic vapors

We investigate the reduction of Rayleigh scattering in four-wave mixing due to photo-induced spatial redistribution of atoms in atomic vapors. The Rayleigh scattering from the pump beams in optical phase conjugation is a major source of noise, which affects the fidelity of the phase-conjugated image. In the blue-shifted operation, the atoms are driven toward the low-intensity regions of the standing-wave pattern, leading to a reduction of Rayleigh scattering. We also investigate the effect of saturation on the differential scattering cross section.
Entropic aspects of random fields on trees

The existence of the entropy rate of shift-invariant random fields on binary trees is proven. Alternative representations of and bounds for the entropy rate and surface entropy rate are obtained in terms of conditional entropy. Particular emphasis is placed on Markov chain fields on trees; explicit results are obtained, some of which extend to a more complicated class of tree models. >
A general purpose autonomous transmitter and receiver system for underwater acoustic experiments

A versatile multifrequency, multi-purpose acoustic transmitter and receiver system has been developed and used to measure low frequency acoustic backscatter from the ocean surface. The instrumentation is general purpose in that all signal and sample parameters are selected by software and a variety of transmission, scattering and reverberation experiments are possible without hardware modification. The system is battery-powered and self-contained for remote and unattended operation for periods of months, depending upon the experimental parameters that affect power and tape consumption. The main features of the system are: a high-powered broadband set of acoustic sources-with center frequencies of 100, 200, 400, and 800 Hz, programmable output signal types, a 64-element vertical hydrophone array, fifty gigabytes of data storage capacity, dynamically-tuneable band pass filters and variable sampling rates, high power microprocessors for in situ signal processing and independent subsystems for recording mooring depth and inclination. The system has been used in surface backscattering experiments at sea and results that demonstrate the capability of the system are presented and discussed.
AntiBot: Clustering Common Semantic Patterns for Bot Detection

Among malicious software (malware), autonomous malicious programs, called bots, are a serious problem in the Internet. The bot writers have developed a variety of techniques to evade simple signature-based detection. Concise representations of malware behavior, or semantic patterns, are much harder to evade or obfuscate. However, generating a semantic pattern for every program instance is time-consuming, and comparing with a large number of patterns creates a challenge for timely identification of bots. This paper proposes an automated approach to generate semantic patterns for bot detection. Unlike previous approaches, it is intended to find one pattern that accurately represents the important behavior of an entire class of bots, rather than of individual instances. Doing so has advantages for fast malware identification, and for distinguishing new classes of attacks from previously-seen attacks. The work uses static analysis to characterize bot behaviors, and proposes to use hierarchical clustering of the resulting semantic patterns from a set of bot programs. The goal is to identify critical, common semantic behavior that represents the functions of an entire class of the malware. This method has been prototyped and evaluated on real-world malicious bot software. Depending on parameter choices, our approach can achieve more than 95% detection rates and less than 5% false positive rates on a large set of bot programs and non-bot executables.
MESENCHYMAL-EPITHELIAL INTERACTIONS IN BLADDER SMOOTH MUSCLE DEVELOPMENT: EFFECTS OF THE LOCAL TISSUE ENVIRONMENT

Purpose: We have previously shown that mesenchymal-epithelial interactions are necessary for the development of bladder smooth muscle. Specifically without fetal or adult urothelium embryonic rat bladder mesenchyma does not differentiate into smooth muscle. The mechanism responsible for this interaction is not known, although it is postulated that diffusable growth factors have a role. Our hypothesis is that diffusable factors within adult rat bladders influence smooth muscle differentiation.Materials and Methods: Chimeric bladders were created by surgically implanting 14-day embryonic rat bladder mesenchyma before smooth muscle differentiation into the detrusor space of adult syngeneic hosts to test whether the host urothelium would induce smooth muscle differentiation without being in direct contact with fetal bladder mesenchymal tissue. Sub-detrusor pockets were created between the serosa and smooth muscle layer, between the smooth muscle layer and lamina propria, and between the lamina propria and uro...
Detailed Analysis of Split-Level Combining

High level combining is a practical way to upgrade existing FM transmitters to IBOC. Very well understood, with readily available 10 dB couplers, it is a very attractive method with which to upgrade even the highest power levels in the field. Unfortunately, if offers only a combining efficiency of 83%, as 90% of the IBOC power is wasted into a dummy load, along with 10% of the generated FM power. Additionally, the power headroom demanded from the FM transmitter is proving to be an unsurpassable requirement for some existing sites ready to upgrade. This paper presents an innovative combining technique that minimizes the FM and IBOC power loss in high level combining. Instead of combining two totally incoherent signals with its known resulting losses, this method first achieves partial coherence of the signals, and only then combines them at an optimum coupling ratio. A system implemented this way offers two main benefits; a higher overall system efficiency, and the elimination of the need for FM headroom. Though the paper focuses on the particular case of FM HD radio upgrade, this technique can also be used whenever low loss is needed when combining dissimilar signals.
Concurrency control in real-time databases by dynamic adjustment of serialization order

A new concurrency control algorithm for real-time database systems is proposed, by which real-time scheduling and concurrency control can be integrated. The algorithm is founded on a priority-based locking mechanism to support time-critical scheduling by adjusting the serialization order dynamically in favor of high priority transactions. Furthermore, it does not assume any knowledge about the data requirements or execution time of each transaction, making the algorithm very practical. >
Criticality computation in parameterized statistical timing

Chips manufactured in 90 nm technology have shown large parametric variations, and a worsening trend is predicted. These parametric variations make circuit optimization difficult since different paths are frequency-limiting in different parts of the multi-dimensional process space. Therefore, it is desirable to have a new diagnostic metric for robust circuit optimization. This paper presents a novel algorithm to compute the criticality probability of every edge in the timing graph of a design with linear complexity in the circuit size. Using industrial benchmarks, we verify the correctness of our criticality computation via Monte Carlo simulation. We also show that for large industrial designs with 442,000 gates, our algorithm computes all edge criticalities in less than 160 seconds.
Kinetic study of the replacement of porcine small intestinal submucosa grafts and the regeneration of meniscal-like tissue in large avascular meniscal defects in dogs.

Porcine small intestinal submucosa (SIS) was used to replace large, avascular defects in the medial menisci of dogs. Twelve dogs received SIS grafts and 3 dogs were left untreated as controls. Dogs were evaluated at 4, 8, and 12 weeks by means of lameness scoring and ultrasonography. Dogs were sacrificed at 1, 6, or 12 weeks after implantation, and the tissue at the site of meniscal resection was evaluated for gross and histologic appearance, cross-sectional and surface area, and collagen types I and II. The femoral and tibial condyles were assessed for articular cartilage damage. Control dogs were significantly more lame than grafted dogs 8 and 12 weeks after instrumentation. Grafted dogs' replacement tissue appeared meniscal-like when evaluated grossly and ultrasonographically 12 weeks after instrumentation. The amount of replacement tissue was significantly greater in both cross-sectional and surface area for grafted dogs than for controls at all time points. Histologically, the SIS biomaterial could b...
The victimization of children and youth: a comprehensive, national survey

This study examined a large spectrum of violence, crime, and victimization experiences in a nationally representative sample of children and youth ages 2 to 17 years. More than one half (530 per 1,000) of the children and youth had experienced a physical assault in the study year, more than 1 in 4 (273 per 1,000) a property offense, more than 1 in 8 (136 per 1,000) a form of child maltreatment, 1 in 12 (82 per 1,000) a sexual victimization, and more than 1 in 3 (357 per 1,000) had been a witness to violence or experienced another form of indirect victimization. Only a minority (29%) had no direct or indirect victimization. The mean number of victimizations for a child or youth with any victimization was 3.0, and a child or youth with one victimization had a 69% chance of experiencing another during a single year.
Unsupervised Adaptation of a Stochastic Language Model Using a Japanese Raw Corpus

The target uses of Large Vocabulary Continuous Speech Recognition (LVCSR) systems are spreading. It takes a lot of time to build a good LVCSR system specialized for the target domain because experts need to manually segment the corpus of the target domain, which is a labor-intensive task. In this paper, we propose a new method to adapt an LVCSR system to a new domain. In our method, we stochastically segment a Japanese raw corpus of the target domain. Then a domain-specific Language Model (LM) is built based on this corpus. All of the domain-specific words can be added to the lexicon for LVCSR. Most importantly, the proposed method is fully automatic. Therefore, we can reduce the time for introducing an LVCSR system drastically. In addition, the proposed method yielded a comparable or even superior performance to use of expensive manual segmentation.
Can burst fractures be predicted from plain radiographs

Plain radiographs of 67 acute spinal compression fractures in 49 patients were analysed by subjective and objective criteria, using CT scans as the diagnostic standard for the diagnosis of burst fracture. Discriminant analysis correctly predicted the type of fracture in 88% of cases. Burst fractures, however, were almost as frequently misdiagnosed as being wedge compression fractures using this technique, compared with the reading of 25 films from patients without previous information. A quarter of the injuries would have been misdiagnosed had reliance been placed solely on the plain radiographs. CT scans of all patients with acute spinal compression fractures should be considered to decrease this potentially serious diagnostic error.
A 48-year-old man with chronic right shoulder pain and weakness after a fall: diagnosis and discussion

Rotator cuff tears following shoulder dislocation are the most common cause of prolonged shoulder pain. However, 9 to 18% of patients who have anterior dislocation actually suffer from prolonged pain due to axillary nerve injury [1]. The axillary nerve (C5, C6) is a branch of the posterior cord of the brachial plexus and exits the axilla to enter the quadrilateral space. This space is bounded by the teres minor muscle superiorly, the teres major muscle inferiorly, the long head of the triceps muscle medially, and the surgical neck of the humerus laterally. The anterior branch of the axillary nerve supplies the anterior deltoid muscle and overlying skin, while the posterior branch supplies the teres minor muscle, the posterior deltoid muscle, the skin overlying the distal deltoid muscle, and proximal triceps [2]. In an anterior shoulder dislocation, axillary nerve injury presumably occurs because of inferior displacement of the humeral head causing compression of the quadrilateral space [1]. Clinical symptoms of axillary nerve injury include vague shoulder pain, decreased strength on abduction, and abnormal sensation in the cutaneous distribution of the axillary nerve. The definitive diagnostic test used to confirm the clinical diagnosis of axillary nerve injury is electromyography (EMG). However, EMG is painful and operatordependent. MR imaging, on the other hand, is a noninvasive technique that can help provide a diagnosis, especially when other diagnoses besides axillary nerve injury are being considered [3]. Anatomical distribution of the signal changes on MR distinguishes nerve injury from direct traumatic injury of muscles. With axillary nerve injury, some or all of the muscles supplied by the axillary nerve will be affected, depending on the location of the injury along the path of the axillary nerve [1]. MR signal from acute denervation within the first 24 h may manifest as increased short tau inversion recovery (STIR) signal and as increased apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) [4, 5]. Absence of edema of overlying soft tissues allows distinction of acute denervation from acute traumatic muscle injury. Subacute muscle denervation causes uniform muscle edema in approximately 2–4 weeks. Shifting of water from the intracellular to the extracellular space causes increased MR signal in the fluid-sensitive The case presentation can be found at doi:10.1007/s00256-009-0846-z.