cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Heparin-induced circular dichroism of an achiral, bicyclic species.

Antimalarial drugs have shown potential in suppressing the role of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) in the pathology of prion protein conformational disorders (e.g. “Mad Cow” disease) by competing for sites of electrostatic interaction. In this study, circular dichroism (CD) and UV/Visible (UV/Vis) absorption spectroscopy techniques were used to investigate the interactions between N-methyl-N′-(7-chloro-4-quinolyl)-1,3-diaminopropane (QD), an achiral, bicyclic compound similar to previously investigated antimalarial drugs, and heparin, a complex GAG that is frequently used as a clinical anticoagulant. Relatively intense heparin-induced CD features were observed for QD and were noted to be radically different from previous studies using related chiral drugs, underscoring the importance of the Pfieffer effect on this and similar heparin research. Additionally, the induced CD for QD was observed to be highly dependent upon drug concentration, heparin concentration, system pH, equilibration time, and ionic strength. These results, in connection with recent work, provide new insight into the nature of the association between GAGs and antimalarial species. Chirality, 2011. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
The Machine in America: A Social History of Technology by Carroll Pursell. 2nd Ed

The Machine in America: A Social History of Technology Carroll Pursell. 2nd Ed. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007. Pursell's book first saw publication in 1995, and the fact that it has now gone into a second edition is a tribute to its perdurability. It is comfortably written for the nonspecialist, which, for the genre of history, means it is not intentionally pedantic or tedious or overly laden with technological statistics and detail. The author, who seems to know his audience, worries that he might have neglected any given reader's "favorite machine," an amusing concern, and worth noting, perhaps, only for the nerdiest of readers, but I found it considerate, and charming. The "Preface" tends toward the mechanical, but the "Introduction" gives a sprightly survey of the state of technology up to the Industrial Revolution. The book's first chapter describes "The Tools Brought Over" to the American Colonies, and the following chapter explains how the Industrial Revolution was "imported" to America. The next challenge, then, was to provide the means of transporting products to markets efficiently by roads, by rivers and canals, and, finally, by railroads. Being something of a railroad buff, my own "favorite machine" (after the typewriter, of course!) would be the Baldwin locomotive. Matthew Baldwin set up business in 1825 in Philadelphia. He had only built six engines by 1834, but by 1839 he had completed an astonishing 140 and was selling locomotives abroad in Russia, Austria, in the German principalities, and even to I. K. Brunei in Britain. This achievement seems all the more melancholy 170-plus years later, with the United States rail system, once second to none, in collapse, its infrastructure and maintenance- of-way weakening day by day. I once had in my possession a badge plate cut off a Baldwin H9s locomotive. It was, for me, symbolic of what our nation once was and once could achieve. But to quote a pessimistic Sam Peckinpah movie, "Those days are closing fast," I'm afraid. This is a tale well told and then retold of a nation tooled and then re-tooled and then, finally, detooled and outsourced. Bringing the book up to date can not have been easy, given the rise of terrorism and its impact on Neoconservative American culture and government. A whole lot has changed during the past dozen years. The sea-change of 9/11 terrorized Americans, who gave their President permission to launch two pre-emptive wars in the Middle East, and in the final pages of this revised book, Pursell attempts to re-evaluate the country's standing, but all is not exactly joyful about contemporary, outsourced America. …
Viscoelastic Strain Response (ViSR) ultrasound assessment of viscoelastic properties in human duchenne muscular dystrophy, in vivo

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is an X-linked recessive disorder that is caused by a mutation in the gene for dystrophin leading to a loss of the dystrophin protein from the muscle cell (myofiber) membrane. Viscoelastic Strain Response (ViSR) ultrasound is a new, quantitative acoustic radiation force (ARF) based elastographic imaging method to calculate τ, the viscoelastic relaxation time constant for constant stress. We have investigated the use of ViSR imaging in human DMD. Imaging was performed in vivo on the right rectus femoris (RF), sartorius (SART), and gastrocnemius (GAST) muscles of two boys with DMD. The boys were 5- and 9-years-old at the time of imaging. ViSR results in the 5-year-old showed an average of 27.0%, 6.6%, and 18.2% fat/necrosis composition in the RF, SART, and GAST, respectively. In the 9-year old subject, ViSR showed an average fat/necrosis composition of 66.7% in the RF, 9.1% in the SART, and 37.2% in the GAST. These results are consistent with both the known phenotypic response of the three muscles and with functional testing results and point to ViSR's potential relevance as a novel outcome measure for diagnostics and clinical trials in DMD.
A Fast and Reliable Method for Surface Wave Tomography

— We describe a method to invert regional or global scale surface-wave group or phase-velocity measurements to estimate 2-D models of the distribution and strength of isotropic and azimuthally anisotropic velocity variations. Such maps have at least two purposes in monitoring the nuclear Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT): (1) They can be used as data to estimate the shear velocity of the crust and uppermost mantle and topography on internal interfaces which are important in event location, and (2) they can be used to estimate surface-wave travel-time correction surfaces to be used in phase-matched filters designed to extract low signal-to-noise surface-wave packets.¶The purpose of this paper is to describe one useful path through the large number of options available in an inversion of surface-wave data. Our method appears to provide robust and reliable dispersion maps on both global and regional scales. The technique we describe has a number of features that have motivated its development and commend its use: (1) It is developed in a spherical geometry; (2) the region of inference is defined by an arbitrary simple closed curve so that the method works equally well on local, regional, or global scales; (3) spatial smoothness and model amplitude constraints can be applied simultaneously; (4) the selection of model regularization and the smoothing parameters is highly flexible which allows for the assessment of the effect of variations in these parameters; (5) the method allows for the simultaneous estimation of spatial resolution and amplitude bias of the images; and (6) the method optionally allows for the estimation of azimuthal anisotropy.¶We present examples of the application of this technique to observed surface-wave group and phase velocities globally and regionally across Eurasia and Antarctica.
BSP-SLIM: a blind low-resolution ligand-protein docking approach using predicted protein structures

We developed BSP-SLIM, a new method for ligand-protein blind docking using low-resolution protein structures. For a given sequence, protein structures are first predicted by I-TASSER; putative ligand binding sites are transferred from holo-template structures which are analogous to the I-TASSER models; ligand-protein docking conformations are then constructed by shape and chemical match of ligand with the negative image of binding pockets. BSP-SLIM was tested on 71 ligand-protein complexes from the Astex diverse set where the protein structures were predicted by I-TASSER with an average RMSD 2.92 A on the binding residues. Using I-TASSER models, the median ligand RMSD of BSP-SLIM docking is 3.99 A which is 5.94 A lower than that by AutoDock; the median binding-site error by BSP-SLIM is 1.77 A which is 6.23 A lower than that by AutoDock and 3.43 A lower than that by LIGSITE(CSC) . Compared to the models using crystal protein structures, the median ligand RMSD by BSP-SLIM using I-TASSER models increases by 0.87 A, while that by AutoDock increases by 8.41 A; the median binding-site error by BSP-SLIM increase by 0.69A while that by AutoDock and LIGSITE(CSC) increases by 7.31 A and 1.41 A, respectively. As case studies, BSP-SLIM was used in virtual screening for six target proteins, which prioritized actives of 25% and 50% in the top 9.2% and 17% of the library on average, respectively. These results demonstrate the usefulness of the template-based coarse-grained algorithms in the low-resolution ligand-protein docking and drug-screening. An on-line BSP-SLIM server is freely available at http://zhanglab.ccmb.med.umich.edu/BSP-SLIM.
Performance of a high-speed PtSi IRCCD camera system

This paper describes the performance of a high-speed PtSi infrared charge-coupled device (IRCCD) camera system for recording periodic and transient events in the infrared. Integration times down to 10 microsecond(s) and the ability to record frames based on an external trigger allows this setup to achieve high effective frame rates. The use of a personal computer (PC) as a controller for CCD clocking and video capture results in a flexible camera system design. Examples of the camera system's capacities for short integration time imaging and triggered image capture are presented.© (1993) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
The impact of body mass index on concordance in the interpretation of matched noncontrast and contrast abdominal pelvic computed tomographic scans in ED patients with nontraumatic abdominal pain.

Abstract Objective To determine if body mass index (BMI) is associated with interpretation agreement between matched abdominal pelvic computed tomographic (CT) scan performed with and without oral contrast in emergency department (ED) patients. Methods A prospective observational trial of a convenience sample of 100 adult patients undergoing an abdominal pelvic CT was done at a tertiary care academic ED from September 4, 2001, to August 30, 2002. Patients with trauma, renal colic, pregnancy, need of intravenous contrast, or who were clinically unstable were excluded. Height, weight, and waist circumference were recorded and BMI was calculated. Patients had a helical abdominal pelvic CT without oral contrast followed by two drinks of oral contrast 90 minutes apart and then a repeat CT. Attending staff radiologists interpreted the CT scans using explicit data sheets and were blinded to the results of the matching CT. Clinically important discordance between the matching scans was determined by a panel of attending staff from radiology and emergency medicine departments. Results Of the 100 patients who completed the protocol, 21% (95% confidence interval, 13%-30%) had clinically significant disagreement between noncontrast and oral contrast CT interpretations. Logistic regression analyses yielded an odds ratio of 1.0 (95% confidence interval, 0.9-1.1) for BMI. Conclusions This study did not find an association between BMI, sex, or waist circumference and concordance of radiologists' interpretation of noncontrast and oral contrast abdominal pelvic CT scans in ED patients.
The Effect of UV Light on IR Absorption in Chemically Vapor Deposited a-SiNx:H Films

We have measured the optical absorption properties of Plasma Enhanced Chemically Vapor Deposited (PECVD) films of hydrogenated amorphous silicon nitride (a-SiNx:H) over the energy range from 0.54 to 2 eV using Photothermal Deflection Spectroscopy (PDS). The near-infrared absorption properties of these films provide a quantitative estimate of the amount of H bonded to Si or N as well as a measure of the the density of electronic gap states due to species like Si dangling bonds. Typical PDS spectra obtained on as-deposited films show a broad absorption tail with a large number of narrow absorption peaks. Using the phase sensitive feature of this spectroscopy we are able to separate nitride-related absorption from that arising from the fused quartz substrates. In addition to the broad, featureless band tail, whose magnitude is quite sensitive to optical excitation with light above -3.9 eV, we observe a number of narrow absorption peaks which we identify as overtones of localized vibrational modes. Specifically, we see peaks at 0.82 and 1.20 eV which we identify as the 1st and second harmonics of N-H stretching vibrations, and several other peaks whose origins remain undetermined. Prolonged UV excitation produces no detectable change in these vibrational modes, although large changes are seen in the underlying absorption tail. This reinforces previous suggestions that photoinduced changes in these films do not arise from rearrangement of the bonded hydrogen.
A novel approach for computing the global minimum of proteins Part 3. Comparison with other global minimization methods

Abstract Recently, a novel method has been introduced to compute the global minimum of multidimensional, multimodal functions. R.L. Somorjai, J. Phys. Chem., 95 (1991) 4141: M. Silvain and R.L. Somorjai, J. Phys. Chem., 95 (1991) 4147. The emphasis was on biopolymers; in particular, on proteins. The method was inspired by quantum mechanical concepts, especially that of tunnelling. In the following the relationship between this approach and other global minimizers are focused on. In particular, the reasons why and how the method outperforms more conventional techniques are outlined. The strategy to be used for biopolymers with non-bonded pair interactions is emphasized.
Mesh relaxation: A new technique for improving triangulations

SUMMARY Given a list of points defining a domain boundary, a three-stage process is often used to triangulate a domain. First, an appropriate distribution of interior points is generated. Next the points are connected to form triangles. And, finally, the connectivity data are used to reposition the interior points using the Laplacian smoothing technique, thereby usually improving the shapes of the triangles. This paper describes a new technique for mesh improvement-adjusting the connection structure during the second stage of this process. The new scheme, which we call mesh relaxation, consists of a procedure for iteratively making the mesh topology more regular by edge swapping. For each interior edge, a relaxation index is computed that depends on the degrees of its end points and adjacent points. Any edge for which this index exceeds a prescribed threshold will be swapped, i.e. replaced by a new edge connecting the adjacent points of the original edge. After all edge swaps are completed, Laplacian smoothing is applied to the mesh. Examples show that, when the mesh point density varies smoothly and due care is taken in the vicinity of the boundary, mesh relaxation can dramatically increase the regularity of the mesh and produce improved triangle shapes.
Reactive deposition of cobalt and nickel films from their metallocenes in supercritical carbon dioxide solution

High-purity Co and Ni thin films were deposited directly onto the native oxide of Si wafers and onto TaN and TiN films supported on Si wafers by the hydrogen reduction of their respective metallocenes in supercritical CO2 solution using a batch, cold-wall chemical fluid deposition (CFD) reactor. For Co deposition from bis(cyclopentadienyl)cobalt, substrate temperatures ranged between 285 and 320 °C and reactor pressures were 220−260 bar. For Ni deposition from bis(cyclopentadienyl)nickel, substrate temperatures were 175−200 °C and reactor pressures were 190−230 bar. In all cases, the reactor wall temperatures were maintained between 90 and 120 °C, restricting the depositions to the heated substrates only. The deposited films were characterized by SEM, XRD, and XPS. The films were found to be essentially free from ligand-derived contamination.
Pharmacodynamics of intravenous procainamide as used during acute electropharmacologic testing

No previous studies have determined the pharmaco-dynamics of intravenous procainamide when administered in a dose of 15 mg/kg and at a rate of 50 mg/min, as is common practice during electropharmacologic testing. In this study, 30 patients received procainamide in this fashion; the right ventricular effective refractory period and the QRS duration at a ventricular pacing rate of 120/minute were then determined every minute for 20 minutes. Ten patients received no maintenance infusion of procainamide (group A), 10 received a 4 mg/min maintenance infusion (group B) and 10 received an 8 mg/min maintenance infusion (group C). Ten additional patients received no procainamide and served as control subjects (group D). The plasma procainamide concentration was measured at 1, 5, 10, 15 and 20 minutes after the loading dose was administered. A stable plasma procainamide concentration was not present in group A, B, or C until 15 minutes after infusion of the loading dose. The effective refractory period and QRS duration increased compared with baseline at 1 minute, decreased between 1 and 10 minutes and then remained essentially unchanged between 10 and 20 minutes in all 3 treatment groups. Concentration-effect relation was linear in each treatment group. The plasma procainamide concentrations in group C were significantly greater than in group A; however, the effects on refractoriness and QRS duration were similar in both groups. These findings indicate that with a procainamide dosing method commonly used during electropharmacologic testing, the plasma procainamide concentration decreases significantly during the first 15 minutes after the loading dose is administered.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
p21Cip1/Waf1/Sdi1 protects against hyperoxia by maintaining expression of Bcl-XL

Abstract p21Cip1/WAF1/Sdi1 is a major transcriptional target of p53 that promotes survival of cells exposed to continuous oxidative stress caused by hyperoxia. Because p21 can protect against genotoxic stress by reducing p53-dependent transcription of the proapoptotic proteins PUMA and Bax, the current study uses genetically modified lines of HCT116 colon carcinoma cells to investigate whether p21-mediated protection against hyperoxia involves attenuation of the p53 apoptotic pathway. Hyperoxia stimulated p53-dependent expression of p21 and Bax. Genetic ablation of p21 increased cell death, and loss of Bax or PUMA increased cell survival. Unlike damage caused by adriamycin, whereby p21 sensitivity could be rescued by removal of p53, PUMA, or Bax, increased sensitivity of p21-deficient cells to hyperoxia could not be rescued by additional loss of these genes. Instead, expression of the antiapoptotic protein Bcl-XL declined in p21-deficient cells exposed to hyperoxia, but when genetically restored, increased their survival. Conversely, siRNA knockdown of Bcl-XL in parental HCT116 cells increased hyperoxia-induced cell death. These findings reveal that p21-mediated protection against hyperoxia does not involve attenuation of p53-dependent apoptosis, but rather functions to maintain Bcl-XL expression during periods of persistent oxidative stress.
A Synthetic Receptor Motif Designed for Extended Peptide Conformations

Abstract The intrinsic flexibility of short peptides makes them difficult targets for molecular recognition. Although in general too short to form stable secondary structures, many are able to sample extended conformations. Using monomer cycloalkyl-1,2-trans-diamines alternated with cycloalkyl-1,2-trans-dicarboxylic acids, we have constructed a novel receptor motif to be complementary to extended tripeptides. Receptor design, synthesis, structural analysis and binding studies are presented.
Optical Pattern Recognition Using Normalized Invariant Moments

A novel approach to coherent optical pattern recognition is described. It does not utilize matched spatial filters and optical correlation methods. Rather, a 2-dimensional input function is described in terms of its absolute normalized invariant moments. Comparison of these moments enables one to determine the presence of a given object independent of geometrical distortions. A parallel optical processor with a special mask is used to generate all moments for a 2-D scene in parallel. A simple digital post processor calculates the actual absolute normalized invariant moments with the high dynamic range necessary. Our initial work reported upon here has concentrated on: the optical generation of individual moments, how the individual moments vary, the dynamic range requirements of the system and how they may best be met in a hybrid optical digital topology,and methods to generate all moments optically in parallel.© (1979) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Two-dimensional colloids. The linear thermodynamics of monolayers

Abstract A variety of two-dimensional microscopic structures resembling emulsions and other colloidal forms have been reported in spread and adsorbed monolayers at fluid interfaces. These two-dimensional colloids may be described as the mutual dispersion of first-order co-existing surface phases associated with the linear tension between the phases, in a manner analogous to the role of surface tension in the dispersion of three-dimensional phases. A formal description of linear tension in monolayers is given, and several relationships, notably the one-dimensional analogues of the Gibbs adsorption isotherm and Kelvin equation, are discussed in the context of potential new experiments. The discussion is primarily for spread insoluble monolayers. The limitations of the utility of the linear tension concept are also considered.
Optical parametric oscillation with intracavity second-harmonic generation

Abstract We consider combining frequency down-conversion with frequency up-conversion in the same cavity as a means of producing tunable up-converted radiation. Specifically, we consider a singly resonant optical parametric oscillator (OPO) containing an intracavity second-harmonic generator (SHG) for doubling the OPO signal frequency. We determine the stable steady states that completely deplete the incident pump radiation. Phase mismatch in the SHG process is considered. An example of converting 532 nm radiation to 365 nm radiation is discussed; power conversion efficiency as high as 63% is predicted.
Individual differences in human–technology interaction: incorporating variation in human characteristics into human factors and ergonomics research and design

This paper argues for incorporation of an individual differences approach into human factors/ergonomics research and practice. Description of the systematic variation in the human portion (e.g. cognitive and personality traits; motivational and emotional states) of human–technology systems can complement the existing design methods (e.g. task analysis) to yield better models of system performance and improve system design and operation. Individual differences research should not and need not be atheoretical and opportunistic and applications should not and need not be restricted to selection. Instead, consideration of individual differences will lead to a more inclusive human factors/ergonomics in which the properties of the human are described in a level of detail commensurate with the properties of the displays and controls. Three theories are described and their implications for human factors/ergonomics are discussed. Key issues for future research and practice are identified, including a set of guidel...
AFM characterization of nanopositioner in-plane stiffnesses

A versatile method for measurement of in-plane stiffness of micro-elements was developed and its usefulness has been demonstrated. The in-plane stiffness of a NIST nanopositioner has been measured directly using a colloidal probe in an AFM without any fixture. Using this method it was possible to measure the in-plane stiffness at different locations of the same micro-element. The in-plane stiffness ratio of a microlever system was also measured and a good agreement was found between the calculated and measured values. Further, when the minimum width of flexures is 4 μm, the measured in-plane stiffnesses showed a close agreement with the calculated value.
The Game of Political Change: Sports in Göttingen during the Weimar and Nazi Eras

From the 1920s, sports enabled Germans to help define local culture through participation and spectatorship. This analysis views sports as a broad set of activities shaped by individuals, local and national political interests, economics, and publicity. It looks specifically at football, swimming, sharpshooting, the construction of structures for sports, and discourses about sports by government figures and newspaper writers. In order to explicate changes in German sports between the two world wars, this study focuses on the mid-sized town of Gottingen, revealing the important role that individuals and local interests played in the transition from Weimar to Nazi Germany. For some Gottingers—chiefly those associated with leftist political parties—new laws beginning in 1933 marked an abrupt end to or a significant change in their sporting activities. For many others, though, experiences in the 1920s anticipated ideas and organizational strategies that the Nazis promoted in the 1930s. Detailing the various processes through which sports changed during the interwar years thus illuminates the ways in which participating in, watching, discussing and regulating sports helped prefigure the actions of the Third Reich and anchor Hitler's regime in Germans’ daily activities.
Some genetic aspects of visual cell degeneration in mice.

In certain strains of mice such as the inbred C3H mice, the visual cells undergo degeneration and death during the 2nd week after birth. Relationships of this hereditary disease to the well-known, probably extinct, retinal anomaly described by Keeler as “rodless retina” were investigated by determining whether the mutation responsible for visual cell degeneration is linked to the mutant “silver” which Keeler showed to be linked to the “rodless” allele. Such a linkage was not found, and the two conditions must represent different mutations. No partial manifestations of the visual cell degeneration mutation were found, in contrast to those produced by the “rodless retina” mutation. The visual cell degeneration occurring in non-inbred ICR/Ha Swiss mice is genetically identical to that of C3H mice. All recent studies of hereditary visual cell degeneration in mice have been on the manifestation of the same mutation, even though the sources of the mice have differed.
Measuring the Effect of Social Communications on Individual Working Rhythms: A Case Study of Open Source Software

This paper proposes novel quantitative methods to measure the effects of social communications on individual working rhythms by analyzing the communication and code committing records in tens of Open Source Software (OSS) projects. Our methods are based on complex network and time-series analysis. We define the notion of a working rhythm as the average time spent on a commit task and we study the correlation between working rhythm and communication frequency. We build communication networks for code developers, and find that the developers with higher social status, represented by the nodes with larger number of outgoing or incoming links, always have faster working rhythms and thus contribute more per unit time to the projects. We also study the dependency between work (committing) and talk (communication) activities, in particular the effect of their interleaving. We introduce multi-activity time-series and quantitative measures based on activity latencies to evaluate this dependency. Comparison of simulated time-series with the real ones suggests that when work and talk activities are in proximity they may accelerate each other in OSS systems. These findings suggest that frequent communication before and after committing activities is essential for effective software development in distributed systems.
Mechanism of Action of Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs

(1998). Mechanism of Action of Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs. Cancer Investigation: Vol. 16, No. 7, pp. 509-527.
Animal-companion depictions in women's magazine advertising

Abstract Via a content analysis of 1398 advertisements that include both people and pets and that appeared in women's magazines over a period of four decades, this study examines the changing roles played by companion animals and the changes in themes used in these advertisements. Considering both the pictures and text, the study codes advertisements for themes, pet roles, whether or not the pet appears on a leash, and the physical location of the pet. These data show the movement of companion animals from outdoor protectors and companions to loved family members sharing all areas of the home with their human family. The study provides a method for transforming qualitative data so that they can be rigorously tested using a quantitative approach. The findings support prior survey research and provide direction for positioning and marketing-communications strategies to allow for societal trends that influence consumers' self-identities.
Protestant and Catholic Perceptions of Church Structure

Although the structure of socioreligious groups receives frequent mention in the sociological literature, systematic analysis of church polity has been generally lacking. The authors draw hypotheses from the congregational, presbyterian, and episcopal models to examine Protestant and Catholic perceptions of 7 components of church structure. The data are taken from a study of fourteen Protestant and Catholic con-gregations in two Oklahoma communities. Responses to 7 original questionnlaire items indicate that Protestants aind Catholics perceived Protestan-t churches as democratic anld the Catholic chuLrch as hierarchical. The authors suggest that the current conceptualizations of the congregational, presbyterian, and episcopal models of church structure are inadequate, but can be used to guide further research, which may either refine these models or lead to the development of alternative orientations to the study of church structure.
Mycobacterium chelonae: a cause of nodular skin lesions with a proclivity for renal transplant recipients.

Abstract purpose : Infections due to Mycobacterium chenolate are uncommon. Several renal transplant recipients at our medical center have developed. M. chenolae infectious during the past several years, so we decided to review our recent experience with M. chenolae infections. patients and methods : The clinical microbiology laboratory records of four Vanderbilt University Affiliated Hospitals were reviewed. Ten patients with M. chelonae tissue or blood infections were identified between 1982 and July 1988. results: All infections involved the skin and subcutaneous tissue. Three infections developed at the sites of medical injections. The remaining seven infections occurred in renal transplant recipients and produced a clinically distinctive sydrome. All were indolent tender nodular lesions on the extremities, usually the lower legs. Systemic symptoms were absent, and white blood cell counts were within normal limits. Diagnosis required tissue biopsy and cultures that were incubated for a month. Therapy consisted of surgical excision combined with long-term antibiotivs. Even so, some patients had a chronic, relapsing course. conclusion: Although other diagnoses must be considered, the presumptin diagnosis of M. chelonae infection is suggested by the appearance of nodular erythematous lesions on the legs of a renal transplant recipient.
A paradigm for interpreting tractable shape grammars

Shape grammars are, in general, intractable. Even amongst tractable shape grammars, their characteristics vary significantly. This paper describes a paradigm for practical general shape grammar interpreters, which aim to address computational difficulties posed by parameterization. The paradigm is expressed in terms of frameworks each comprising an underlying data structure, manipulation algorithms, and a metalanguage. The approach is illustrated through three exemplar frameworks.
The Louisiana Storytelling Program

The Louisiana Storytelling Program was one of four major components of Louisiana Open House 1990, a statewide promotional effort initiated by the Office of Tourism. The storytelling program was intended to enhance cultural tourism by encouraging each community to present its local culture through its stories. The Office of Tourism offered two pavilions free of charge to one hundred events and promised increased publicity. In addition, communities were provided a format for presenting storytelling and technical assistance in identifying storytellers.
Some predictions from a composite model of baryons

Baryons are considered as composites of a neutral baryon core plus various mesons. This model makes three specific predictions: 1) The K+-Σ0(Λ0) force should be much more attractive than the K−-Σ0(Λ0) force. 2) Neutral particles should be approximately electrically neutral throughout. 3) At high energies many elementary particle reactions should have characteristic angular distributions.
PUSHING THE LIMITS OF LIBERALISM: QUEERNESS, CHILDREN, AND THE FUTURE

In this essay, Cris Mayo describes a tension between recognizing gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (lgbt) people by law and giving (or denying) them certain legal rights on the basis of identity, on the one hand, and enabling queer people, not always fully recognizable as inhabiting particular identity categories, to live their potentials, on the other. Laws and rights regulate particular kinds of people, and while lgbt people have pursued civil rights energetically for the last sixty years or so, their queerness continues to complicate their attempts to gain legitimacy. Beyond civil rights claims, queer liberationist claims push the limits of the understanding of identity, sexual practices, and political life, because they prompt us to consider not just abstract possibilities and freedoms but the freedoms and possibilities of people barely recognizable. Mayo shows how these queer claims are often hard to frame in terms of liberal theory and actual law.
Effect of gastrin on gastric myo-electric activity.

In each of 9 dogs, eight electrodes were implanted serially from the fundus to the pylorus on the anterior serosal surface of the stomach. After recovery, the effect of a gastrin pentapeptide and synthetic human gastrin I on the pattern of electric activity was determined. Both hormones given subcutaneously (2.5 μg/kg) had similar effects. They increased the mean frequency of the gastric pacesetter potential (PP) from 5.2 to 6.0 cycles/min. These hormones also increased the mean incidence of bursts of action potentials associated with cycles of the antral PP from 10 to 86%, but they did not consistently alter the velocity of PP propagation in the corpus (0.3 cm/sec) or antrum (1.7 cm/sec). The duration of the bursts of action potentials, 10 min after gastrin pentapeptide, was approximately 4 sec both in the corpus and in the antrum, but the width of the caudally progressing band of action potentials was greater in the antrum (3–6 cm) than in the corpus (less than 3 cm). The onset of changes in the pattern of electric activity occurred within 2 min after an intravenous infusion of gastrin pentapeptide (0.1 μg/kg/min) was started, and the effects began to subside between 3 and 5 minutes after the intravenous infusion was stopped. Gastrin appears to enhance gastric motility through specific effects on gastric electric activity.
Corrosion of ZnSe by alternating high voltage in a saline solution

Prolonged exposure of chemical vapor deposited, polycrystalline ZnSe to high ac voltages in a 1 molal NaCl solution induces severe mechanical damage. Exposure produces defects that originate at the surface and grow intergranularly into the bulk with a bush-like morphology. Single crystal KRS-5 exposed to the same environmental conditions does not display the same mechanical damage. Possible causes for the degradation are discussed.
Shed membrane fragment modulation of CD3-zeta during pregnancy: link with induction of apoptosis

Our objective was to identify shed placental plasma membrane fragments in the maternal circulation and determine whether these fragments are capable of down-regulating CD3-zeta chain expression and inducing apoptosis in T lymphocytes. Sera, isolated from the blood of pregnant women at 26-29 weeks gestation that subsequently had uncomplicated term deliveries, were subjected to high exclusion-limit gel chromatography to isolate placental membrane fragments. The placental origin of the fragments was confirmed by the presence of placental-type alkaline phosphates. These shed membrane fragments were further analyzed for the presence of Fas ligand (FasL) and modulation of CD3-zeta expression on cultured T-lymphocytes (Jurkat cells). The ability of the shed membrane fragments to induce apoptosis was assayed using a cell death ELISA. Components associated with Fas-dependent apoptosis (caspase-3, bcl-2 and bax) were characterized using western immunoblot following exposure to serum-derived membrane fragments. Placental membrane fragments were identified in all pregnancy sera, but not in non-pregnant controls. The 41 kDa FasL was identified in membrane fragment isolates and all samples were capable of inducing apoptosis as determined by the ELISA assay. Exposure of T lymphocytes to isolated membrane fragments suppressed the expression of CD3-zeta. The induction of apoptosis correlated with the induction and activation of caspase 3 and the induction of bax. Placenta-derived membrane fragments are detectable in the maternal circulation. These membrane fragment isolates are capable of inducing FasL-mediated apoptosis and down-regulating CD3-zeta expression, which may contribute to the immune tolerance of the fetus.
Discovery of a potent and selective c-Kit inhibitor for the treatment of inflammatory diseases.

Abstract A potent and selective c-Kit inhibitor 20 was identified through a structure–activity relationship study. In an in vivo mouse model of mast cell activation, 20 blocked the SCF-induced histamine release with an EC50 of 26 nM.
Development and cellular applications of fiber optic nitric oxide sensors based on a gold-adsorbed fluorophore.

A new design for optochemical sensors has been applied to the development of a nitric oxide selective fiber optic sensor. This sensor is composed of a fluorescein derivative dye attached to colloidal gold. The fluorescein dye rearranges as nitric oxide adsorbs onto the gold, inducing a decrease in the fluorescence intensity of the dye. This mechanism has allowed preparation of fiber optic dye-based nitric oxide sensors, which have been made ratiometric by addition of reference dye microspheres. Previously developed fast, selective optical sensors for detection of aqueous nitric oxide involved a protein, such as cytochrome c‘. The new fluorescein derivative chemical sensors have characteristics similar to those of the protein-based biosensors, including fast response times, excellent selectivity, and complete reversibility. In addition, the chemical sensors have advantages such as greater stability and commercially available components. These sensors were utilized to measure nitric oxide production by BALB...
Gender Issues in Advertising—An Oversight Synthesis of Research: 1970–2002

An unbiased comprehensive oversight synthesis of three decades of gender-related advertising research is undertaken. Seventy-six articles found in premiere marketing, psychology, sociology, and communications journals were reviewed. Findings of the gender role research indicate advertisements are generally moving toward a slightly less stereotypical stance. Findings of the selectivity hypotheses research indicate females versus males process advertisements differently. Findings of the spokesperson gender effects research indicate controversy exists, and the gender advertising response literature findings assert gender differences in advertising responses exist. Finally, the gender brand positioning literature specifies gender differences exist. The findings are synthesized and implications are suggested.
Efficient time-frequency and bi-frequency signal processing on a reconfigurable computer

Reconfigurable computers allow applications developers to tailor both the software and the hardware of the computer for efficient execution of computationally intensive algorithms. This increases the speed at which the algorithms are executed, making computationally intensive algorithms more useful for real-time and near real-time applications in electronic intelligence (ELINT) applications. This paper presents a study on the use, accuracy, and efficiency of the SRC-6 reconfigurable computer to perform both time-frequency and bi-frequency signal processing. To test the performance, continuous waveform (CW) radar signal modulations are examined using the Choi-Williams distribution (CWD) to calculate the time-frequency characteristics of a signal. Also, the FFT accumulation method (FAM) is used to calculate the cyclostationary bi-frequency characteristics of a signal.
A probabilistic framework for geometry and motion reconstruction using prior information

In this paper, we propose a probabilistic framework for reconstructing scene geometry and object motion utilizing prior knowledge of a class of scenes, eg, scenes captured by a camera mounted on a vehicle driving through city streets. In this framework, we assume the video camera is calibrated, ie, the intrinsic and extrinsic parameters are known all the time. While we assume a single camera moving during the capture, the framework can be generalized to multiple stationary or moving cameras as well. Traditional approaches match the points, lines or patches in multiple images to reconstruct scene geometry and object motion. The proposed framework also takes advantage of each patch's appearance and location to infer its orientation and motion direction using prior information based on statistical learning from training data. The prior information hence enhances the performance of geometry and motion reconstruction. We show that the prior-based 3D reconstruction outperformed traditional 3D reconstruction with synthetic data and real data, especially in textureless areas for geometry estimation and faraway areas for motion estimation.
TARGET PRACTICE: AN ORGANIZATIONAL IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT APPROACH TO ATTRACTING MINORITY AND FEMALE JOB APPLICANTS

On account of a number of factors, many companies have increased recruitment targeting female and ethnic or racial minority job applicants. Despite evidence suggesting that these applicants are attracted by different factors than traditional applicants and an abundance of recruitment tactics suggested in the popular press, no empirically based approach to recruiting these populations has emerged. This article reviews and integrates literature on organizational impression management, recruitment, marketing, and social psychology and provides a framework to assist practitioners in attracting minority and female job applicants. In addition, several avenues for future research are discussed.
Prolactin and Growth Hormone Responses to Photoperiod in Heifers

Serum PRL, GH, and progesterone were measured at 1300 h twice weekly in heifers exposed to natural length or 16-h light (16L)-8-h dark (8D) during Nov. 11 to March 9 (n = 20) and April 30 to Aug. 13 (n = 18). Heifers exposed to 16L–8D received fluorescent light between 0600–2200 h daily. Serum PRL increased 4-fold in response to 16 h of artificial illumination between Nov. 11 and March 9 (P < 0.01), and increased 1.6-fold between April 30 and Aug. 13 (P < 0.01). Serum PRL fluctuations in natural and 16L–8D photoperiods were synchronized and positively correlated (r = 0.36–0.53) with changes in ambient temperature. Overall, serum PRL concentrations increased (P < 0.01) within 16L–8D and natural length photoperiods as ambient temperatures increased from -7 to +29 C. When ambient temperatures were below 0 C, serum PRL concentrations were similar in heifers exposed to natural and 16L–8D photoperiods. As ambient temperatures increased, serum PRL concentrations increased synergistically in animals exposed to 16...
Elastic properties of thin poly(vinyl alcohol)-cellulose nanocrystal membranes.

In spite of extensive studies on the preparation and characterization of nanocomposite materials, the correlation of their properties at the nanoscale with those in bulk is a relatively unexplored area. This is of great importance, especially for materials with potential biomedical applications, where surface properties are as important in determining their applicability as bulk characteristics. In this study, the nanomechanical characteristics of thin poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVOH)‐poly(acrylic acid) (PAA)‐cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) membranes were studied using the nanoindentation module in an atomic force microscope (AFM) and the properties were compared with the macro-scale properties obtained by tensile tests. In general, the elastic properties measured by nanoindentation followed the same trend as macro-scale tensile tests except for the PVOH 85-PAA 0-CNC 15 sample. In comparison to the macro-scale elastic properties, the measured elastic moduli with AFM were higher. Macro-scale tensile test results indicated that, in the presence of PAA, incorporation of CNCs up to 20 wt% improved the elastic modulus of PVOH, but when no PAA was added, increasing the CNC content above 10 wt% resulted in their agglomeration and degradation in mechanical properties of PVOH. The discrepancy between macro-scale tensile tests and nanoindentation in the PVOH 85-PAA 0-CNC 15 sample was correlated to the high degree of inhomogeneity of CNC dispersion in the matrix. It was found that the composites reinforced with cellulose nanocrystals had smaller indentation imprints and the pile-up effect increased with the increase of cellulose nanocrystal content. (Some figures may appear in colour only in the online journal)
Effect of catheter sampling on the shape of indicator-dilution curves: mean concentration versus mean flux of outflowing dye.

The dispersion of a very short bolus of dye carried through a long cylindrical tube by a Newtonian fluid has been investigated theoretically and experimentally for two situations. In the first case a short bolus of uniform length and concentration is considered, representing a uniform amount of dye entering the tube per unit cross-sectional area independent of velocity of flow at a particular radius from the tube axis. In the second case concentration is uniform so that layers of fluid with greater velocity will carry in more dye than slower layers. Since velocities at the tube wall approach zero whereas velocities of axial dye are maximal, the axial fluid will contain greater amounts of dye per unit area. The implication of these principles to the dispersion of dye taken from deeply situated sites in the mammalian circulation through catheters of appreciable volumue is discussed.
Inverse Modeling of Aerosol Dynamics Using Adjoints: Theoretical and Numerical Considerations

In this paper we develop the algorithmic tools needed for inverse modeling of aerosol dynamics. Continuous and discrete adjoints of the aerosol dynamic equation are derived, as well as sensitivity coefficients with respect to the coagulation kernel, the growth rate, and the emission and deposition coefficients. Numerical tests performed in the twin experiment framework for a single component model problem show that the initial distributions and the dynamic parameters can be recovered from time series of observations of particle size distributions.