cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Diet-Host-Microbiota Interactions Shape Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor Ligand Production to Modulate Intestinal Homeostasis.

The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) is a ligand-activated basic-helix-loop-helix transcription factor that binds structurally diverse ligands and senses cues from environmental toxicants and physio...
Sedimentary Framework of the Drowned Pleistocene Delta of Rio Grande de Santiago, Nayarit, Mexico*

Publisher Summary In this chapter, conventional sampling techniques are combined with bottom penetrating acoustic reflection surveying to delineate major sedimentary facies and to record the structural framework of the sediments forming the continental margin. A lens of Holocene shelf sediments, thickest on the inner shelf, wedges out on the central shelf to expose basal Holocene transgressive sands. These basal sands blanket the outer shelf of the entire area. Beneath the basal sands on the inner shelf is a complex of Pleistocene alluvium which grades seaward into well developed deltaic facies showing classic foreset beds that have prograded the old shoreline. In at least three distinctly recognizable cycles of deposition, the Late Pleistocene Rio Grande de Santiago built a vast deltaic wedge across its ancestral basin and prograded its contemporary shorelines more than 20 miles seaward to form, upon the inundation of the delta marshes, the current platform of the outer continental shelf.
The Interactive Advertising Model: How Users Perceive and Process Online Ads

AbstractThe authors provide an integrative processing model of Internet advertising, which incorporates the functional and structural schools of thought. The model begins with the functional perspective, which attempts to identify reasons for Internet use. Since most individuals enter cyberspace with some goal, or agenda, in mind, the authors argue that a model of online processing should begin with consideration of Internet functions. These functions, according to the authors, operate conjointly with the user’s mode--ranging from highly goal-directed to playful--to influence the types of ads web users will attend to and process. A number of mediating variables, such as skill level, are offered as reasons to switch motives. These variables are conceptualized as having either a deleterious effect, as in the case of low skill and high anxiety, or beneficial effect, as in the case of high skill and low anxiety, on ad processing. Last, the authors incorporate a structural perspective, which seeks to identify ...
Correlation of ultrasonic measurement of ovarian follicle size and serum estradiol levels in ovulatory patients following clomiphene citrate for in vitro fertilization.

Abstract Ovarian follicle development was investigated in 38 normally cycling women who received clomiphene citrate, 150 mg per day for 5 days, to maximize follicular development. Ultrasonic determination of follicle growth was performed on a daily basis with a real-time sector scanner and correlated with daily concentrations of estradiol (E 2 ) in the peripheral serum as measured by rapid radioimmunoassay. Human chorionic gonadotropin was given to induce ovulation, and the day of injection was considered day 0. Mean concentrations of E 2 reached a maximum of 1.150 ± 65 pg/ml on day 0. Mean diameter of the dominant follicle increased to 22.1 ± 0.4 on day 0. When peripheral concentrations of E 2 were correlated with diameter and total follicular volume, it was found that plasma E 2 levels varied, depending on the number of follicles seen on ultrasound examination, with a mean E 2 value of 459 ± 18.9 pg/ml per follicle per day. Multiple growth of follicles occurs with artificial induction of ovulation; therefore, the use of ultrasound is an important parameter to assess follicular maturation and the timing of ovulation more precisely.
Personalizing information retrieval for multi‐session tasks: Examining the roles of task stage, task type, and topic knowledge on the interpretation of dwell time as an indicator of document usefulness

Personalization of information retrieval tailors search towards individual users to meet their particular information needs by taking into account information about users and their contexts, often through implicit sources of evidence such as user behaviors. This study looks at users' dwelling behavior on documents and several contextual factors: the stage of users' work tasks, task type, and users' knowledge of task topics, to explore whether or not taking account contextual factors could help infer document usefulness from dwell time. A controlled laboratory experiment was conducted with 24 participants, each coming 3 times to work on 3 subtasks in a general work task. The results show that task stage could help interpret certain types of dwell time as reliable indicators of document usefulness in certain task types, as was topic knowledge, and the latter played a more significant role when both were available. This study contributes to a better understanding of how dwell time can be used as implicit evidence of document usefulness, as well as how contextual factors can help interpret dwell time as an indicator of usefulness. These findings have both theoretical and practical implications for using behaviors and contextual factors in the development of personalization systems.
Edward I. Stiefel (1942-2006)

E. I. Stiefel was a bioinorganic chemist whose insights into the roles of metals in living systems have led to practical applications and new research ideas.
Concepts for the Rational Selection of Assays to Be Used in Monitoring Therapeutic Drugs

As the domain of monitoring therapeutic drugs rapidly expands from experimental investigations to everyday patient care, all clinical laboratory scientists, but especially clinical chemists, must learn to deal with their involvement in this expansion. First, the theoretical concepts underlying clinical pharmacology must be appreciated so that the laboratory's participation in it can succeed. Individual differences cause unpredictable variations of response to the customarily standardized drug dosage. Properly used, assays of drugs in blood can eliminate such variabilities. Second, the practical selection of which drug assays a laboratory intends to provide must be based on a rational evaluation of assay usefulness, integrating both clinical and laboratory considerations. Such a decision model is suggested; it is generally applicable in allocating priorities among an ever-increasing number of proposed tests under the constraint of finite resources.
Sintering Studies on 20 mol% Yttrium‐Doped Barium Cerate

Acceptor-doped barium cerate perovskite oxides act as high temperature proton conducting ceramics, which can be utilized in solid oxide fuel cells, hydrogen separation membranes, and other electrochemical devices. One of the major issues in their fabrication is the formation of second phases during sintering of these perovskite oxides. In this work, the formation of a second phase is investigated with an aim to understand its influence on the properties of the parent perovskite oxide and also the necessity for its removal. BaCe 0.8 Y 0.2 O 3-δ (BCY20) was synthesized via a polymeric sol-gel method and characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and micro-Raman spectroscopy. Formation of the second phase on the surface of the sintered pellets (sintering temperature > 1250°C for 24 h) was identified to be yttria-doped ceria (Y 0.2 Ce 0.8 O 1.9 ). A mechanism for the formation of the second phase is proposed. The formation of second phase was prevented by sintering the pellets in a powder bath of the same composition as the parent perovskite oxide. From impedance spectroscopy measurements of pellets sintered with and without the powder bath, it was found that the second phase (in the pellet sintered without powder bath) has a negative effect on the bulk ionic conductivity of the pellet.
Properties of Slip‐Cast and Pressureless‐Sintered ZrB2–SiC Composites

In view of the perspective to produce near-net shapes of ultra-refractory ceramics, ZrB2–SiC composite were produced by slip casting on plaster mould and pressureless sintered at 2150°C with a holding time of 120 min, using silicon nitride as a sintering aid. After sintering, slip-cast samples reached a very high relative density over 98%, while for comparison, the density of cold isostatic pressed samples was about 94%. Traces of the formation of secondary phases such as B4C, graphite, and BN were found in all samples, while no grain boundary phases were revealed. RT flexural strength of as-sintered slip cast bars was affected by the presence of an external porous layer of coarse ZrB2 particles, while at 1500°C the flexural strength increased, as a glassy layer sealed the superficial defects. Because of the absence of softening grain boundary phases, subcritical crack growth did not occur during high-temperature strength tests.
Development of a new ion mobility time-of-flight mass spectrometer

A new ion mobility spectrometer (IMS) platform was developed to improve upon the sensitivity and reproducibility of our previous platforms, and further enhance IMS-MS utility for broad ‘pan-omics’ measurements. The new platform incorporated an improved electrospray ionization source and interface for enhanced sensitivity, and providing the basis for further benefits based upon implementation of multiplexed IMS. The ion optics included electrodynamic ion funnels at both the entrance and exit of the IMS, an ion funnel trap for ion injection, and a design in which nearly all ion optics (e.g. drift rings, ion funnels) were fabricated using printed circuit board technology. The IMS resolving power achieved was ~73 for singly-charged ions, very close to the predicted diffusion-limited resolving power (~75). The platform’s performance evaluation (e.g. for proteomics measurements) include LC-IMS-TOF MS datasets for 30 technical replicates for a trypsin digested human serum, and included platform performance in each dimension (LC, IMS and MS) separately.
High performance Si immersion gratings patterned with electron beam lithography

Infrared spectrographs employing silicon immersion gratings can be significantly more compact than spectro- graphs using front-surface gratings. The Si gratings can also offer continuous wavelength coverage at high spectral resolution. The grooves in Si gratings are made with semiconductor lithography techniques, to date almost entirely using contact mask photolithography. Planned near-infrared astronomical spectrographs require either finer groove pitches or higher positional accuracy than standard UV contact mask photolithography can reach. A collaboration between the University of Texas at Austin Silicon Diffractive Optics Group and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Microdevices Laboratory has experimented with direct writing silicon immersion grating grooves with electron beam lithography. The patterning process involves depositing positive e-beam resist on 1 to 30 mm thick, 100 mm diameter monolithic crystalline silicon substrates. We then use the facility JEOL 9300FS e-beam writer at JPL to produce the linear pattern that defines the gratings. There are three key challenges to produce high-performance e-beam written silicon immersion gratings. (1) E- beam field and subfield stitching boundaries cause periodic cross-hatch structures along the grating grooves. The structures manifest themselves as spectral and spatial dimension ghosts in the diffraction limited point spread function (PSF) of the diffraction grating. In this paper, we show that the effects of e-beam field boundaries must be mitigated. We have significantly reduced ghost power with only minor increases in write time by using four or more field sizes of less than 500 μm. (2) The finite e-beam stage drift and run-out error cause large-scale structure in the wavefront error. We deal with this problem by applying a mark detection loop to check for and correct out minuscule stage drifts. We measure the level and direction of stage drift and show that mark detection reduces peak-to-valley wavefront error by a factor of 5. (3) The serial write process for typical gratings yields write times of about 24 hours- this makes prototyping costly. We discuss work with negative e-beam resist to reduce the fill factor of exposure, and therefore limit the exposure time. We also discuss the tradeoffs of long write-time serial write processes like e-beam with UV photomask lithography. We show the results of experiments on small pattern size prototypes on silicon wafers. Current prototypes now exceed 30 dB of suppression on spectral and spatial dimension ghosts compared to monochromatic spectral purity measurements of the backside of Si echelle gratings in reflection at 632 nm. We perform interferometry at 632 nm in reflection with a 25 mm circular beam on a grating with a blaze angle of 71.6°. The measured wavefront error is 0.09 waves peak to valley.
A Parameterization and an Algorithm for the Selection of Decoupling Feedback Gains

A parameterization of linear decoupling controllers of PD type for dynamic systems which evolve around an equilibrium point is presented. The scheme includes decoupling controllers of both diagonalizing and disturbance decoupling types. An algorithm to compute decoupling feedback gains is included.
Superfamily Membracoidea (Homoptera: Auchenorrhyncha). II. Cladistic analysis and conclusions

. Homologies among traditional morphological characters in the Membracoidea (sensu lato) are reassessed and the phylogenetic relationships among higher membracoid taxa are explored, incorporating new morphological evidence from nymphs and adults. Weighted and unweighted parsimony analyses of a matrix of sixty–three characters and thirty-nine OTUs representing the families Aetalionidae, Cicadellidae, Melizoderidae and Membracidae, and an outgroup (superfamily Cercopoidea) yielded various topologies that were largely congruent but presented alternative hypotheses of relationships among the Membracidae. These analyses indicate that the superfamily consists of the following clades: Cicadellidae + (Melizoderidae + (Aetalionidae + Membracidae)). The family Membracidae, traditionally characterized by the presence of a posterior pronotal process, apparently gave rise to Nicomia Stal and other genera that lack this process.
Fragmentum annuarium Collegii Societatis Iesu Claudiopolitani: The Account of a Jesuit Mission in Transylvania, 1659-1662

An unedited document located in the Eotvos Lorand University Library in Budapest contains an account of the Jesuit mission to Cluj, Transylvania (now Romania) for the years 1659 to 1662. This Fragmentum, which was apparently not intended for publication, reveals many details of the Jesuits’ own understanding of their mission: conversions, encounters with the supernatural, and interventions in legal processes are complemented with commentary on contemporary political and ecclesiastical developments. The picture that emerges is of an isolated band of men working in difficult and often dangerous circumstances. They are capable of keen observation, but their understanding of the world, and in particular of causality is entirely Baroque and pre-modern. The Fragmentum is therefore a valuable point of departure for understanding the activities of Jesuits throughout Transylvania and Royal Hungary in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Skin Changes and Pain in the Nipple During the 1st Week of Lactation

Objective: To document skin changes in the nipple during the 1st week of breastfeeding and to explore the relationship of such changes to pain. Design: Longitudinal descriptive study. Subjects were visited four times during the 1st week of breastfeeding. Sample: Convenience sample of 20 Caucasian women. Setting: Hospital and home. Main Outcome Measures: Observed skin characteristics of the nipple included erythema, edema, fissures, blisters, inflamed areas, eschar, white patches, dark patches, yellow patches, peeling, pus, and ecchymosis. Subject‐rated nipple pain. Results: Skin changes were identified and quantified. Changes were visible in 100% (20) of the sample, and 65% (13) had severe skin damage; 90% (18) of the subjects reported pain. Some correlations between skin characteristics and pain were statistically significant, but not clinically meaningful. Skin damage was concentrated on the tip of the nipple. Conclusions: The data chronicle skin changes and their relationship to nipple pain during the 1st week of breastfeeding. Normal neonatal sucking appears to induce a suction wound on the skin of the nipples of many breastfeeding women that may account for pain experienced at the onset of lactation.
Geostatistics and spatial analysis in biological anthropology

A variety of methods have been used to make evolutionary inferences based on the spatial distribution of biological data, including reconstructing population history and detection of the geographic pattern of natural selection. This article provides an examination of geostatistical analysis, a method used widely in geology but which has not often been applied in biological anthropology. Geostatistical analysis begins with the examination of a variogram, a plot showing the relationship between a biological distance measure and the geographic distance between data points and which provides information on the extent and pattern of spatial correlation. The results of variogram analysis are used for interpolating values of unknown data points in order to construct a contour map, a process known as kriging. The methods of geostatistical analysis and discussion of potential problems are applied to a large data set of anthropometric measures for 197 populations in Ireland. The geostatistical analysis reveals two major sources of spatial variation. One pattern, seen for overall body and craniofacial size, shows an east–west cline most likely reflecting the combined effects of past population dispersal and settlement. The second pattern is seen for craniofacial height and shows an isolation by distance pattern reflecting rapid spatial changes in the midlands region of Ireland, perhaps attributable to the genetic impact of the Vikings. The correspondence of these results with other analyses of these data and the additional insights generated from variogram analysis and kriging illustrate the potential utility of geostatistical analysis in biological anthropology. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2008. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Reaction of Bis(1-substituted-1-boratabenzene)bis(trimethylphosphine)zirconium(II) with 1,3-Diynes

1,4-Diphenyl-1,3-butadiyne readily displaces PMe3 from bis(N,N-diisopropyl-1-amino-1-boratabenzene)bis(trimethylphosphine)zirconium(II) to afford a 1:1 adduct which contains a 2,5-diphenyl-1-zirconacyclopenta-2,3,4-triene unit.
Leukocyte response to eastern equine encephalomyelitis virus in a wild passerine bird

SUMMARY Leukocyte counts are frequently used to assess the immunologic status of animals; however, few studies have directly looked at the predictive value of leukocyte counts and an animal's ability to respond to an infection with a pathogen. Understanding how an animal's leukocyte profile is altered by an active infection can assist with interpretation of leukocyte profiles in animals for which infection status is not known. In this study we examine the leukocyte counts of gray catbirds (Dumetella carolinensis) infected with eastern equine encephalomyelitis virus (EEEV). Blood smears were collected from infected catbirds on −4, 2, 5, and 14 days postinoculation (dpi) with EEEV, and from a corresponding uninfected control group, to monitor leukocyte counts. Although we found that preinfection leukocyte counts were not a reliable predictive of a catbird's viremia, we did find that infected catbirds exhibited significant hematologic changes in response to EEEV infection. We observed a significant drop in a...
Trends in protein evolution inferred from sequence and structure analysis

Complementary developments in comparative genomics, protein structure determination and in-depth comparison of protein sequences and structures have provided a better understanding of the prevailing trends in the emergence and diversification of protein domains. The investigation of deep relationships among different classes of proteins involved in key cellular functions, such as nucleic acid polymerases and other nucleotide-dependent enzymes, indicates that a substantial set of diverse protein domains evolved within the primordial, ribozyme-dominated RNA world.
On-Board Real-Time Failure Detection and Diagnosis of Automotive Systems

This paper presents a failure detection and diagnosis (FDD) technique for on-board vehicle applications. Failures are represented by abrupt changes in the characteristic parameters of a system that occur at random instants of time. This representation facilitates the formulation of the FDD problem as a combined state and parameter estimation problem of a system with uncertain parameters. This nonlinear estimation problem is solved using a Bayesian approach and implementing a suboptimal algorithm. The performance of the FDD system is demonstrated in simulations of an active suspension subjected to sensor failures. In the simulations, the system detected and diagnosed the failures correctly within .05 seconds from their occurrence.
Uncertainty, Information Sharing and Tacit Collusion in Laboratory Duopoly Markets

This paper reports 45 laboratory duopoly markets that examine the importance of information sharing in facilitating tacit collusion under conditions of demand uncertainty. Sellers in these repeated laboratory markets generally shared information when possible to reduce their demand uncertainty, which led to output reductions in some demand states. Risk aversion is a likely explanation for this sharing, but some sellers also appeared to employ a strategy of information concealment to punish non-colluding rivals. Nevertheless, output choices were similar in control treatments that forced sellers to share or conceal information, so the information sharing itself did not substantially increase tacit collusion.
Computers and Composition 1983–2002: What we have hoped for

Abstract I review the first 20 years of Computers and Composition , looking particularly at the expressed hopes for the potential of change in the emergence of new writing-classroom technologies. Hopes in the early issues of the journal focused on technology’s presumed potential for improved writing, teaching, and learning in the composition classroom; a later and recurrent hope was that by embracing technology, composition teachers would improve their status in the academy. Authors in recent issues looked less at the technology and much more through the technology, toward a more egalitarian and just society. I attempt, in this review, to locate these hopes in the context of professional and national cultures.
Measurement of Subjective Symptomatology of Acute High Altitude Sickness

The development and testing of a questionnaire to quantify the severity of the subjective symptomatology of acute high altitude sickness is described. Using procedures developed to test the effects of psychotropic drugs, a 26-item questionnaire was produced which was shown to be reliable and to reflect both symptom severity as a function of different simulated altitudes and the length of time of exposure to those altitudes. Development of such a scale will allow comparison of ameliorative measures for acute high altitude sickness and correlation of symptoms of the disorder with physiological changes induced by high altitude.
Real-time Hardware-in-the-Loop simulation for optimal Dc microgrid control development

Microgrids are an emerging approach to achieve the goals of increased reliability, availability, efficiency and renewable energy usage. Many advanced control strategies have been developed to achieve these goals. However, final development and validation of the controls can be difficult due to the need for large and costly hardware testbeds. Real-time hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulators can enable the emulation of complex microgrid testbeds while developing the real-time control hardware to implement and verify theoretical optimal control strategies. This paper presents the development of loss-optimal and energy storage optimization of dc microgrids in distributed digital signal processor (DSP) hardware using HIL test setup.
‘Somewhat mixed up together’: Anglo‐American defence and financial policy during the 1960s

(1999). ‘Somewhat mixed up together’: Anglo‐American defence and financial policy during the 1960s. The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History: Vol. 27, The Statecraft of British Imperialism, pp. 213-232.
Investigating technical trouble tickets: an analysis of a homely CMC genre

CMC has long been recognized as blurring the distinction between written and oral modes of communication. Analysis of genre has traditionally focused on either the structure of the text or an ethnographic description. This study suggests a new approach for investigating organizational genre by combing ethnographic methodology and corpus analysis techniques to examine a previously unexplored genre: the technical trouble ticket. This yields a richer analysis and illuminates not only what happens in trouble ticket discourse, but also how and why. Particular attention is paid to the relative orality of this homely CMC genre.
Recursion relative to regressive functions

Abstract Regressive functions are used to relativize the notion of a recursive function. The results are used to produce immune models of certain algebraic systems.
Prospective evaluation of myopic keratomileusis.

Abstract The initial results of a prospective evaluation of myopic keratomileusis are reported. The procedure was attempted on 42 eyes, with an average followup of 10 months. The average reductions of myopia were 7.05 D and 11.59 D when measured by keratometry and refraction, respectively. Regular astigmatism increased by 0.50 D on keratometry, but there was no change in the refractive cylinder. The majority of patients had some irregular astigmatism on corneoscopy. The average percent correction, based on refraction, was 94.1 ± 24%, and the correlation coefficient was 0.43. Visual rehabilitation was rapid. No patient followed for 1 year or more had a decrease in the best-corrected acuity, and 63% of this group had an average improvement of 1.5 lines with as much as five lines. The final refraction may take up to 6 months to stabilize. Complications consisted of epithelium and debris in the interface and focal necrosis of Bowman's membrane. The technique is difficult but may have application in the visual rehabilitation of the high myope.
Fuzzy Cognitive Maps development using Ant Colony Optimization with local search procedure

Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (FCMs) can represent causal relations among concepts in the form of directed weighted graphs. Learning FCMs from data is a difficult task because of the large number of candidate FCMs. The goal of learning FCMs is to find good weights for the FCM so that the response of the learned FCM should be as close to the observed data as possible. The number of variables to be optimized grows quadratically to the number of concepts. Furthermore, the non-linear numerical optimization problem is also a NP-hard problem. A FCM development algorithm based on Ant Colony Optimization is proposed in this paper. A local search procedure is designed to improve the performance of the learning algorithm. The FCM learning problem is formulated as searching for weights of the FCM so that the FCM has a response sequence as close to the observed data as possible. Simulated data generated from several FCMs with different number of concepts is used to test the ACO-based learning algorithm. The proposed algorithm outperforms other data-driven FCM learning algorithms such as non-linear Hebbian learning, data-driven non-linear Hebbian learning and real-coded genetic algorithm in several experiment scenarios.
Elevated blood glucose is associated with poor outcome in the carbon-monoxide-poisoned rat

Levine-prepared, unanesthetized rats exposed to 2400 and 2700 ppm carbon monoxide (CO) for 90 min were used to examine the effect of acute CO poisoning on plasma glucose and insulin concentrations, and neurologic dysfunction. Body temperature and mean arterial blood pressure fell progressively during CO exposure. Glucose rose during initial CO exposure, then declined: glucose increased again after 2 h of room air recovery. Neurologic deficit, behaviorally-assessed after 4 h of recovery, was strongly correlated (r = 0.71, P less than 0.001) with glucose increase during the first 2 h of recovery. Recovery hyperglycemia was, in turn, correlated (r = 0.69, P less than 0.001) with the fall in glucose during the second half of CO exposure. Neurologic deficit was also correlated, but less strongly so, with hypoglycemia during CO exposure. Failure to rapidly regain body temperature during recovery was correlated with the post-CO rise in glucose concentration and with increased neurologic deficit. Plasma insulin activity was depressed immediately following CO exposure, and increased during recovery. CO-induced hypothermia was greater at 2700 than at 2400 ppm CO, as were post-CO recovery hyperglycemia, neurologic deficit and mortality, while body temperature recovery was less complete. The results provide evidence of an association between neurologic deficit and general morbidity following acute CO poisoning and the magnitude of post-CO hyperglycemia.
Co-localization of SCPB-like and FMRFamide-like immunoreactivities in crustacean nervous systems

A monoclonal antibody to the molluscan small cardioactive peptide SCPB and a polyclonal antibody to FMRFamide were used to localize antigens in the stomatogastric nervous system and brain of two species of Cancer. Both antibodies labeled cell bodies, axons, and neuropilar processes in the brain and in the stomatogastric nervous system. All of the SCPB immunoreactive neurons were co-labeled with antibody to FMRFamide. However, antibody to FMRFamide labeled additional neurons of the commissural ganglion and the brain that were not immunoreactive to the monoclonal SCPB antibody.
Optical rotary dispersion and circular dichroism studies on mitochondria: correlation of ultrastructure and metabolic state with molecular conformational changes.

Abstract Isolated mitochondria show changes in ORD and CD signals which depend on ultrastructure and metabolic state. Expansion of the inner membrane compartment either by energy linked ion translocation or by osmotic swelling in sucrose is accompanied by a shift of the Cotton effect to lower wavelengths and an overall increase in rotational magnitude. Sonication results in ORD and CD curves similar in shape to the protein α-helix only shifted 3 mμ to the red; treatment with Triton X-100 abolishes this shift. Fractionation of sonic disrupted mitochondria and experiments on acetone-treated mitochondria show that the spectral shift associated with the membrane fraction is not removed by lipid extraction. Hence the spectral changes that arise from changes in metabolic state and ultrastructure reflect conformational changes of the inner membrane proteins. Model systems have been used to characterise the various contributions of α-helix and random coil to the final signal.
On-Chip Networks

With the ability to integrate a large number of cores on a single chip, research into on-chip networks to facilitate communication becomes increasingly important. On-chip networks seek to provide a scalable and high-bandwidth communication substrate for multi-core and many-core architectures. High bandwidth and low latency within the on-chip network must be achieved while fitting within tight area and power budgets. In this lecture, we examine various fundamental aspects of on-chip network design and provide the reader with an overview of the current state-of-the-art research in this field. Table of Contents: Introduction / Interface with System Architecture / Topology / Routing / Flow Control / Router Microarchitecture / Conclusions
Congestion control and fairness for many-to-one routing in sensor networks

In this paper we propose a distributed and scalable algorithm that eliminates congestion within a sensor network, and that ensures the fair delivery of packets to a central node, or base station. We say that fairness is achieved when equal number of packets are received from each node. Since in general we have many sensors transmitting data to the base station, we consider the scenario where we have many-to-one multihop routing, noting that it can easily be extended to unicast or many-to-many routing. Such routing structures often result in the sensors closer to the base station experiencing congestion, which inevitably cause packets originating from sensors further away from the base station to have a higher probability of being dropped. Our algorithm exists in the transport layer of the traditional network stack model, and is designed to work with any MAC protocol in the data-link layer with minor modifications. Our solution is scalable, each sensor mote requires state proportional to the number of its neighbors. Finally, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our solution with both simulations and actual implementation in UC Berkeley's sensor motes.
Short-term supplementation with active hexose correlated compound improves the antibody response to influenza B vaccine

Administration of bioactive nutritional supplements near or at the time of immunization has been a recent approach to stimulate human immune response to vaccination. Active hexose correlated compound (AHCC), a mushroom extract, has been shown to protect mice against lethal primary influenza infection. Moreover, when AHCC was administered pre-vaccination in mice, they showed improved protection from lethal avian flu infection when compared to mice vaccinated alone. In this study, we hypothesized that AHCC will also improve the immune responses of healthy individuals to influenza vaccine. A randomized controlled study was performed with 30 healthy adults to evaluate the effects of AHCC supplementation on the immune response to the 2009-2010 seasonal influenza vaccine. Blood was drawn pre-vaccination and 3 wk post-vaccination. Immediately post-vaccination, the AHCC group began supplementation with AHCC (3 g/d). Flow cytometric analysis of lymphocyte subpopulations revealed that AHCC supplementation increased NKT cells (P < .1), and CD8 T cells (P < .05) post-vaccination compared to controls. Analysis of antibody production 3 weeks post-vaccination revealed that AHCC supplementation significantly improved protective antibody titers to influenza B, while the improvement was not significant in the control group. Overall, our study showed that AHCC supplementation improved some lymphocyte percentages and influenza B antibody titers over the control. Future studies are required to determine the kinetics of AHCC supplementation to improve the overall response to influenza vaccination.
Experiments and Stability Predictions of Two Sets of Tilting Pad Bearings on an Overhung Rotor

An overhung rotor was experimentally tested in two sets of five shoe tilting pad bearings. The preload factors of the two sets were 0.1 and 0.5, respectively. The rotor had critical speeds at 3000 and 6800 rpm. When mounted on the first set of bearings, the rotor remained stable for speeds over 11 000 rpm. However, when mounted in the second set of bearings the system went unstable due to whip at 10 400 rpm. A theoretical analysis was performed on the stability of the rotor system to determine if the bearings were the cause of the whip. The analysis indicates that the system is marginally stable, and that small cross couplings generated by the disk-shaft mountings destabilized the system. Also, pad inertia has little affect on the stability of this particular rotor. The system was predicted to be the most stable when mounted on the bearings with a preload of 0.1, so that the predicted trends with varying preload were correct. The predictions also indicate that subsynchronously reduced bearing coefficients...
Thinking about conducting culturally sensitive research in Augmentative and Alternative Communication

The augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) literature includes very little empirical data on cross-cultural research and AAC that can support current clinical and educational practices. This article offers an approach, proposed as the six requirements, through which researchers may begin to reflect on issues pertaining to culturally sensitive research. Specifically, it includes an open discussion regarding the right person asking the right people the right questions in the right way at the right time and place, which draws examples from three research projects that have evaluated various facets of AAC practices. In brief, this article is designed as an open dialogue with researchers who are interested in pursuing culturally sensitive research.
Time course of object identification: evidence for a global-to-local contingency.

A time course contingency is the modification of later phases of object recognition contingent upon stimulus information extracted earlier in processing. It can increase the efficiency of later processing and reduce computational burdens. This idea was instantiated within a global-to-local model and supported in 4 integration priming experiments, in which primes and target objects were presented briefly and then masked. In Experiment 1-3, global and coarse-grained common-feature primes presented early in processing facilitated discriminations between similarly shaped objects, even though they provided no discrimination-relevant information. In Experiment 4, global primes were more effective than local primes early in processing, whereas local primes were more effective than global primes late in processing. Language: en
Electrochemical Reduction of CO2 Catalyzed by Small Organophosphine Dendrimers Containing Palladium

The sequential addition of diethyl vinylphosphonate to primary phosphines followed by reduction with lithium aluminum hydride can be used to synthesize small dendrimers containing up to 15 phosphorus atoms. A second approach uses the addition of bis((diethylphosphino)ethyl)phosphine to tetravinylsilane to produce a dendrimer containing 12 phosphorus atoms. The connectivities of these ligands are established unambiguously by {sup 31}P NMR spectroscopy. These dendrimers react with [Pd(CH{sub 3}CN){sub 4}](BF{sub 4}){sub 2} to produce metalated dendrimers which catalyze the electrochemical reduction of CO{sub 2} to CO. Relationships between catalytic properties and dendrimer structure are discussed.
Indications for and results of implanting cardiac pacemakers

Abstract Implantable pacemakers have decreased the mortality and morbidity of patients with cardiogenic syncope (Morgagni-Adams-Stokes disease). When atrioventricular block is absent, the differential diagnosis of cardiogenic syncope, simple syncope, carotid sinus syndrome, syncope with aortic stenosis, cerebrovascular insufficiency and epileptic states in the elderly may be difficult. The occurrence of bundle branch block in a patient with syncope should raise the suspicion of Morgagni-Adams-Stokes attacks, but could be a miscue if relied on unduly. At the Mayo Clinic internal pacemakers have been implanted in thirty-eight patients primarily for uncontrolled episodes of syncope. At the time of surgical treatment, the dominant atrioventricular relationship was established as complete block in seventeen; 2:1 heart block in eleven; normal sinus rhythm in nine; and atrial fibrillation with episodes of ventricular standstill in one. There were four hospital deaths. Eight patients required reoperation. When only an occasional episode of cardiogenic syncope has occurred, the decision to implant the presently available pacemaker is difficult and a trial of medical management is warranted. Numerous electrocardiographic phenomena occur but are primarily of theoretical interest. We have observed no deaths unequivocably attributable to stimulation of a pacemaker when atrioventricular conduction was present.
Aureusimines in Staphylococcus aureus are not involved in virulence.

Background Recently, dipeptide aureusimines were reported to activate expression of staphylococcal virulence genes, such as alpha-hemolysin, and increase S. aureus virulence. Surprisingly, most of the virulence genes affected by aureusimines form part of the regulon of the SaeRS two component system (TCS), raising the possibility that SaeRS might be directly or indirectly involved in the aureusimine-dependent signaling process. Methodology/Principal Findings Using HPLC analyses, we confirmed that a transposon mutant of ausA, the gene encoding the aureusimine dipeptide synthesis enzyme, does not produce dipeptides. However, the transposon mutant showed normal hemolysis activity and alpha-hemolysin/SaeP production. Furthermore, the P1 promoter of the sae operon, one of the targets of the SaeRS TCS, showed normal transcription activity. Moreover, in contrast to the original report, the ausA transposon mutant did not exhibit attenuated virulence in an animal infection model. DNA sequencing revealed that the ausA deletion mutant used in the original study has an 83 nt-duplication in saeS. Hemolysis activity of the original mutant was restored by a plasmid carrying the sae operon. A mutant of the sae operon showed elevated resistance to chloramphenicol and erythromycin, two antibiotics widely used during staphylococcal mutagenesis. At 43°C in the presence of erythromycin and aeration, the conditions typically employed for staphylococcal mutagenesis, an saeR transposon mutant grew much faster than a control mutant and the saeR mutant was highly enriched in a mixed culture experiment. Conclusions/Significance Our results show that the previously reported roles of aureusimines in staphylococcal gene regulation and virulence were due to an unintended mutation in saeS, which was likely selected due to elevated resistance of the mutant to environmental stresses. Thus, there is no evidence indicating that the dipeptide aureusimines play a role in sae-mediated virulence factor production or contribute to staphylococcal virulence.
The adhesion modulation protein, AmpA localizes to an endocytic compartment andinfluences substrate adhesion, actin polymerization and endocytosis invegetative Dictyostelium cells

AmpA is a secreted 24Kd protein that has pleiotropic effects onDictyostelium development. Null mutants delay development atthe mound stage with cells adhering too tightly to the substrate. Prestalkcells initially specify as prespore cells and are delayed in their migrationto the mound apex. Extracellular AmpA can rescue these defects, but AmpA isalso necessary in a cell autonomous manner for a nteriorl ike c ells (ALCs) to migrate to the upper cup. The ALCsare only 10% of the developing cell population making it difficult to studythe cell autonomous effect of AmpA on the migration of these cells. AmpA isalso expressed in growing cells, but, while it contains a hydrophobic leadersequence that is cleaved, it is not secreted from growing cells. This makesgrowing cells an attractive system for studying the cell autonomous functionof AmpA. In growing cells AmpA plays an environment dependent role in cell migration.Excess AmpA facilitates migration on soft, adhesive surfaces but hindersmigration on less adhesive surfaces. AmpA also effects the level of actinpolymerization. Knockout cells polymerize less actin while over expressingcells polymerize more actin than wild type. Overexpression of AmpA alsocauses an increase in endocytosis that is traced to repeated formation ofmultiple endocytic cups at the same site on the membrane. Immunofluorescenceanalysis shows that AmpA is found in the Golgi and colocalizes with calnexinand the slow endosomal recycling compartment marker, p25, in a perinuclearcompartment. AmpA is found on the cell periphery and is endocyticallyrecycled to the perinuclear compartment. AmpA is processed through the secretory pathway and traffics to the cellperiphery where it is endocytosed and localizes to what has been defined asa slow endosomal recycling compartment. AmpA plays a role in actinpolymerization and cell substrate adhesion. Additionally AmpA influencescell migration in an environment dependent manner. Wild type cells show verylittle variation in migration rates under the different conditions examinedhere, but either loss or over expression of AmpA cause significant substrateand environment dependent changes in migration.
Synthesis and biological evaluation of folate receptor-targeted boronated PAMAM dendrimers as potential agents for neutron capture therapy.

Successful treatment of cancer by boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) requires the selective delivery of 10B to constituent cells within a tumor. The expression of the folate receptor is amplified in a variety of human tumors and potentially might serve as a molecular target for BNCT. In the present study we have investigated the possibility of targeting the folate receptor on cancer cells using folic acid conjugates of boronated poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) containing 3rd generation polyamidoamine dendrimers to obtain 10B concentrations necessary for BNCT by reducing the uptake of these conjugates by the reticuloendothelial system. First we covalently attached 12−15 decaborate clusters to 3rd generation polyamidoamine dendrimers. Varying quantities of PEG units with varying chain lengths were then linked to these boronated dendrimers to reduce hepatic uptake. Among all prepared combinations, boronated dendrimers with 1−1.5 PEG2000 units exhibited the lowest hepatic uptake in C57BL/6 mice (7.2−7.7% inject...
Investigation of basic crystal hardening inequalities in a range of stable lattice orientations in (110) channel die compression

Abstract The fcc slip-systems hardening inequalities given in [Havner, K.S., 2005. On lattice and material-frame rotations and crystal hardening in high-symmetry axial loading. Philos. Mag. 85 (25), 2861–2894] are investigated in (1 1 0) channel die compression for the 35.26° range of lateral constraint directions from ( 1 1 ¯ 1 ¯ ) (the ‘brass’ orientation) to ( 1 1 ¯ 0 ) (the ‘Goss’ orientation). It is established analytically that the inequalities uniquely predict lattice stability and finite shearing about the (1 1 0) load axis, consistent with experiments in this range. An analysis of the continuation of lattice stability to large deformations leads to a critical strain at which the lattice could theoretically, but not necessarily, lose stability.
Surface composition of Pt/Rh alloys

Abstract Ion scattering spectroscopy has been used to determine the surface composition of Pt/Rh alloys as a function of temperature and bulk Pt/Rh atomic ratio. Three alloys, with bulk compositions of 90 at.% Pt, 50 at.% Pt and 10 at.% Pt were studied. The surfaces of the three alloys are enriched in platinum at temperatures between 800 K and 1400 K. At 1300 K the surfaces of the three alloys contain 97 at.% Pt, 77 at.% Pt, and 27 at.% Pt respectively. Segregation of Rh to these surfaces was expected from bond-breaking theories of surface segregation and no satisfactory explanation for the disparity has been found. The segregation of Pt to the surface shows a maximum near 1050 K and decreases to zero (bulk composition) at temperatures below 800 K. This behavior is attributed to a competition between non-preferential sputtering by the analysis beam and thermal diffusion. Sputter removal of quenched surface layers indicated that surface enrichment only occurs in the outer atomic layer.
Think globally, act locally

In the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, dosage compensation is mediated by a subtle twofold downregulation of both X chromosomes. A new study provides a significant advance in our understanding of how the X is targeted for dosage compensation and how this global regulation is integrated with regulation of the expression of each gene.