cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Single Molecule Studies of PKCα Activation Mechanism on Membrane Surfaces

The master kinase PKCα is a central player in the normal function of many signaling pathways, and also plays a role in multiple pathologies. The conventional model for activation of classical PKCs, including PKCα, proposes two major steps during conversion of inactive, cytoplasmic enzyme to active, membrane-bound enzyme. First, a cytoplasmic Ca2+ signal activates C2 domain that serves to recruit the inactive enzyme from cytoplasm to the PS-rich inner leaflet of plasma membrane. Second, inactive enzyme, bound to plasma membrane via its C2 domain, is activated by appearance of the second messenger lipid diacylglycerol (DAG) that recruits the inhibitory C1A and C1B domains from the kinase domain to the membrane, thus activating the kinase. To test the predictions of this model, we have employed single molecule methods to analyze membrane binding and surface diffusion of full length PKCα, and also simpler constructs containing a subset of its domains. TIRF microscopy was used to visualize these proteins on supported lipid bilayers containing different combinations of target lipids in order to investigate the contributions of individual domains to membrane binding and lipid-induced kinase activation. Previous studies have shown that single molecule TIRF analysis of peripheral proteins on supported lipid bilayers provides extensive information on protein-lipid interactions difficult to obtain by other methods (Ziemba, Knight & Falke (2012) Biochemistry 51(8):1638-1647. Knight, Lerner, Marcano-Velazquez, Pastor & Falke (2010) Biophys J 99:2879-87). The present single molecule analysis reveals a previously unknown intermediate in the PKCα activation reaction, and indicates this is the major intermediate while the enzyme awaits the appearance of activating diacylglycerol or phorbol ester. The findings yield new insights into the PKCα activation mechanism, and show that the single molecule approach provides a new window into the activation mechanism of membrane-bound signaling enzymes.
Cognitive Social Psychology

Social psychology is presently dominated by cognitive theories that emphasize the importance of personal beliefs and in tellective processes as the immediate determinants of behavior. The present paper explores two areas of.research within this tra dition : (1) beliefs about the external world, and (2) beliefs about the self. The paper concludes with a brief critique of the cognitive approach to social psychology.
Obsessional thoughts and compulsive behaviors in a sample of women with postpartum mood symptoms

Postpartum psychiatric disorders are widely recognized by clinicians and researchers, yet while much attention has been paid to perinatal mood disorders, considerably less has been given to anxiety and obsessive-compulsive symptoms in this population. The present study examined anxiety and obsessive-compulsive symptoms among postpartum women with mood complaints, with the aim of delineating the relationship between these symptoms. Sixty postpartum women seeking treatment in a perinatal mood disorders clinic completed measures of depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Obsession-like thoughts and compulsive-like ("neutralizing") strategies were present among the majority of the sample, yet the severity of these symptoms ranged widely. Depressive and anxiety symptoms were associated with obsessive and neutralizing compulsive symptoms. It may be helpful to consider anxiety and depressive symptoms as part of a broad spectrum of perinatal psychiatric illness. Clinicians should assess for anxiety and obsessive-compulsive symptoms as routinely as they assess for depressive symptoms in the perinatal period.
Multi-objective process optimization for micro-end milling of Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy

Micro-end milling is one of the promising methods for rapid fabrication of features with 3D complex shapes. However, controlling the micro-end milling process to obtain the desired results is much harder compared to that of macro-end milling due to the size effect and uncontrollable factors. The problem is much pronounced when workpiece material is a difficult-to-process material such as titanium-based alloys which are widely used as material of choice for aircraft structures, turbine blades, and medical implants. In order to find the optimal process parameters which minimize the surface roughness and burr formation, experiments were conducted and models obtained with statistically based methods utilized in multi-objective particle swarm optimization to identify optimum process parameters. The results show that the average surface roughness can be minimized while burr formation is reduced concurrently.
Identification and Characterization of Human SLP-2, a Novel Homologue of Stomatin (Band 7.2b) Present in Erythrocytes and Other Tissues *

Abstract Human stomatin (band 7.2b) is a 31-kDa erythrocyte membrane protein of unknown function but implicated in the control of ion channel permeability, mechanoreception, and lipid domain organization. Although absent in erythrocytes from patients with hereditary stomatocytosis, stomatin is not linked to this disorder. A second stomatin homologue, termed SLP-1, has been identified in nonerythroid tissues, and other stomatin related proteins are found inDrosophila, Caenorhabditis elegans, and plants. We now report the cloning and characterization of a new and unusual stomatin homologue, human SLP-2 (stomatin-likeprotein 2). SLP-2 is encoded by an ∼1.5-kilobase mRNA (GenBankTM accession no.AF190167). The gene for human SLP-2, HUSLP2, is present on chromosome 9p13. Its derived amino acid sequence predicts a 38,537-kDa protein that is overall ∼20% similar to human stomatin. Northern and Western blots for SLP-1 and SLP-2 reveal a wide but incompletely overlapping tissue distribution. Unlike SLP-1, SLP-2 is also present in mature human erythrocytes (∼4,000 ± 5,600 (± 2 S.D.) copies/cell). SLP-2 lacks a characteristic NH2-terminal hydrophobic domain found in other stomatin homologues and (unlike stomatin) is fully extractable from erythrocyte membranes by NaOH, pH 11. SLP-2 partitions into both Triton X-100-soluble and -insoluble pools in erythrocyte ghost membranes or when expressed in cultured COS cells and migrates anomalously on SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis analysis with apparent mobilities of ∼45,500, 44,600, and 34,300 M r. The smallest of these protein bands is believed to represent the product of alternative translation initiated at AUGs beginning with nt 217 or 391, although this point has not been rigorously proven. Collectively, these findings identify a novel and unusual member of the stomatin gene superfamily that interacts with the peripheral erythrocyte cytoskeleton and presumably other integral membrane proteins but not directly with the membrane bilayer. We hypothesize that SLP-2 may link stomatin or other integral membrane proteins to the peripheral cytoskeleton and thereby play a role in regulating ion channel conductances or the organization of sphingolipid and cholesterol-rich lipid rafts.
Differential sensitivity of NMDA receptor-mediated synaptic potentials to ethanol in immature versus mature hippocampus

Pharmacologically isolated, NMDA receptor-mediated population EPSPs (pEPSPs) were evoked from area CA1 of hippocampal slices using electrical stimulation of the Schaffer collateral/commissural fiber pathway. Slices were prepared from rats aged 20-25 or 80-100 days. The inhibitory effects of a range of ethanol concentrations were assessed. While ethanol antagonized NMDA-mediated pEPSPs in slices from both age groups, it was significantly more potent against pEPSPs from immature versus mature hippocampi. In slices from mature animals, significant and consistent reduction of pEPSPs was observed only with the highest ethanol concentration (100 mM), whereas 10, 30, or 100 mM significantly reduced the amplitude of pEPSPs in slices from immature animals. These results indicate that NMDA-mediated synaptic activity in the hippocampus is more sensitive to the effects of ethanol in immature versus mature animals.
Effectiveness of a transluminal endoscopic fundoplication for the treatment of pediatric gastroesophageal reflux disease.

Although laparoscopic Nissen fundoplication is the standard surgical treatment for gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), surgical complications and post-operative pain are not uncommon, especially for those patients who are neurologically impaired (NI) or undergoing re-operative procedures. To address this challenge, we utilized the transoral incisionless fundoplication (TIF) procedure to treat GERD via an endoscopic approach. Eleven TIF patients were included with an average age of 16.5 ± 5.1 years and weight of 45.7 ± 13.3 kg. NI was present in nine patients (82%), including a predominant number of patients with a history of seizures and gastrostomy tube feeding. Five patients had a history of a previous failed fundoplication requiring a re-operative procedure (45%). A retrospective chart review evaluated patient outcomes and post-operative complications. The length of the TIF procedure was 113.3 ± 31.3 min with minimal blood loss. The length of stay was 1.2 ± 0.4 days, although one TIF patient was re-admitted for endoscopic clipping for gastric bleeding. At a follow-up of 8.2 ± 4.2 months, TIF effectively resolved GERD in 10 out of 11 children. A few of the patient’s families reported complaints of gagging or dysphagia (30%, 3/11); however it was difficult to determine if complaints were due the procedures itself or baseline NI. All patients who had a follow-up upper GI or pH probe study showed no evidence of reflux. One TIF patient had no recurrent reflux but required an esophago-gastric disconnection for retching. The TIF procedure can complement the current surgically and medically available options for children with GERD, especially in complicated patients such as those with NI. However, complications including hemorrhage emphasize the potential risk of the procedure. Further studies with more patients and a longer follow-up course must be conducted to better assess efficacy.
Interleukin-2-mediated inhibition of dendritic cell development correlates with decreased CD135 expression and increased monocyte/macrophage precursors

We have previously shown that interleukin-2 (IL-2) inhibits dendritic cell (DC) development from mouse bone marrow (BM) precursors stimulated with the ligand for FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3 receptor (Flt3L), and have provided evidence that this inhibition occurs at the monocyte DC precursor stage of DC development. Here, we explored the mechanism of IL-2-mediated inhibition of DC development. First, we showed that these in vitro cultures accurately model DCs that develop in vivo by comparing gene and protein expression of the three main Flt3L-induced DC subsets from the BM, CD11b(+) and CD24(+) conventional DCs (cDCs) and plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs) with their respective ex vivo spleen DC subsets (CD11b(+), CD8(+) and pDCs). Next, gene expression changes were quantified in Flt3L DC subsets that developed in the presence of IL-2. These changes included increased expression of Bcl2l11, which encodes the apoptosis-inducing protein Bim, and decreased expression of Flt3 (CD135), the receptor that initiates DC development. Interleukin-2 also significantly reduced Flt3 protein expression on all three Flt3L DC subsets, and attenuated Flt3L-induced STAT3 phosphorylation in DCs. Based on these data, we hypothesized that decreased Flt3 signalling may divert BM precursors down monocyte and macrophage lineages. Indeed, addition of IL-2 led to increases in Flt3(-) cells, including cKit(+) Ly6C(+) CD11b(-) populations consistent with the recently identified committed monocyte/macrophage progenitor. Therefore, IL-2 can inhibit DC development via decreased signalling through Flt3 and increased monocyte/macrophage development.
Cytomegalic interneurons: a new abnormal cell type in severe pediatric cortical dysplasia

A defining histopathologic feature of Taylor-type cortical dysplasia (CD) is the presence of cytomegalic neurons and balloon cells. Most cytomegalic neurons appear to be pyramidal-shaped and glutamatergic. The present study demonstrates the presence of cytomegalic GABAergic interneurons in a subset of pediatric patients with severe CD. Cortical tissue samples from children with mild, severe, and non-CD pathologies were examined using morphologic and electrophysiologic techniques. By using in vitro slices, cytomegalic cells with characteristics consistent with interneurons were found in 6 of 10 patients with severe CD. Biocytin labeling demonstrated that cytomegalic interneurons had more dendrites than normal-appearing interneurons. Whole-cell patch clamp recordings showed that cytomegalic interneurons had increased membrane capacitance and time constant compared with normal-appearing interneurons. They also displayed signs of cellular hyperexcitability, evidenced by increased firing rates, decreased action potential inactivation, and the occurrence of spontaneous membrane depolarizations. Single-cell reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemistry for GABAergic markers provided further evidence that these cells were probably cytomegalic interneurons. The pathophysiologic significance of GABAergic cytomegalic interneurons in severe CD tissue is unknown, but they could inhibit glutamatergic cytomegalic pyramidal neurons, or contribute to the synchronization of neuronal networks and the propagation of ictal activity in a subset of pediatric patients with severe CD.
Fast spin echo magnetic resonance imaging: Clinical application in screening for acoustic neuroma

The advent of magnetic resonance imaging has greatly improved our ability to diagnose acoustic tumors, but it is a relatively expensive imaging modality. In the present climate of medical cost restraints, methods that reduce costs but maintain quality are extremely desirable. We report a new magnetic resonance imaging technique that uses fast spin echo without gadolinium. It provides ultrahigh-resolution images of the internal auditory canal and cerebellopontine angle. The sensitivity of this technique for the detection of acoustic tumors is equivalent to conventional gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging, but the global cost is comparable with that of brain stem audiometry. In our practice fast spin echo magnetic resonance imaging has replaced brain stem audiometry as a screening modality to evaluate most acoustic tumor suspects. Also, the intricate detail of the internal auditory canal anatomy provided by this technique is useful in planning surgical removal of acoustic tumors.
Simultaneous combined microbial removal of sulfur dioxide and nitric oxide from a gas stream.

A program is under way at the University of Tulsa to develop a viable process concept whereby a microbial process can impact on the problem of flue gas desulfurization and NOx removal. We have previously reported studies of SO2 reduction byDesulfovibrio desulfuricans and NOx reduction byThiobacillus denitrificans. One potential process concept is the simultaneous combined removal of SO2 and NOx from cooled flue gas by contact with cultures of sulfate-reducing bacteria (SO2→H2S) andT. denitrificans (H2S→SO4 -2) as cultures-in-series or in coculture in a single contacting stage. Each of these contacting schemes has been investigated.
Low-cost deposition of CuInSe2 (CIS) films for CdS/CIS solar cells

Abstract We discuss in this paper the development of inexpensive, high efficiency, large-area solar cells of the type thin-film ZnO/CdS/Cu(In,Ga)Se2. It has been shown recently in research laboratory tests that polycrystalline thin-film cells of this general composition deposited onto inexpensive soda-lime glass substrates have solar-to-electric conversion efficiencies exceeding 17%. These small-area cells were deposited using vacuum technology which is difficult and expensive to scale up in area to square-meter flat-plate modules in a manufacturing arena. We discuss in this paper inexpensive, non-vacuum deposition technology which is inherently scalable to large-area deposition. We pay particular attention to electrodeposition of multilayer binary or ternary selenide precursors to be thermally annealed to form Cu(In,Ga)Se2 films of appropriate overall composition, elemental grading and smoothness.
A channel subspace filtering approach to adaptive equalization of highly dynamic realistic channels

A major challenge while communicating in dynamic channels, such as the underwater acoustic channel, is the large amount of time-varying ISI due to multipath. In realistic channels, the fluctuations between different taps of the sampled channel impulse response are correlated. Traditional least squares algorithms used for adapting channel equalizers do not exploit this correlation structure. A channel subspace post-filtering algorithm is presented that treats the least squares channel estimate as a noisy time series and exploits the channel correlation structure to reduce the channel estimation error. A channel estimate based equalizer structure that uses this improved channel estimate to determine the equalizer coefficients is presented. The improvement in performance of the equalizer is predicted theoretically and demonstrated using both simulation and experimental data.
Dairy Products and Prostate Cancer Risk

Increased calcium intake from dairy products has been suggested as a risk factor for prostate cancer. We propose that the high dietary phosphate of dairy products may more readily explain this risk rather than the increased calcium. Several epidemiologic correlations have indicated an increased risk of prostate cancer with long-term, high intake of dairy products in male U.S. physicians and males in Sweden. This relation has been mechanistically associated with the higher dietary intake of calcium in dairy products. We propose, however, that the high dietary phosphate of dairy products affects much larger fluctuation in serum phosphate and may be a more likely source of prostate cancer risk from high dietary intake of dairy products.
DEPLETION OF CYTOCHROME C (CC) INHIBITS BILIRUBIN (B) OXIDATION BY BRAIN MITOCHONDRIAL MEMBRANES (MM). 343

DEPLETION OF CYTOCHROME C (CC) INHIBITS BILIRUBIN (B) OXIDATION BY BRAIN MITOCHONDRIAL MEMBRANES (MM). 343
EDG receptors and hepatic pathophysiology of LPA and S1P: EDG-ology of liver injury.

The biological roles of phospholipid growth factors lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) and sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) have been broadly investigated. The cellular effects of LPA and S1P are mediated predominantly via endothelial differentiation gene (EDG) receptors. Yet, the biological significance of LPA, S1P and their EDG receptors in cells of the liver remains unclear. Recent data demonstrate the presence of EDG2 and EDG4 mRNA for LPA receptor in a murine hepatocyte cell line transformed with human TGF-a, and in primary mouse hepatocytes. EDG2 receptor protein is expressed in mouse liver, where it appears to be located in nonparenchymal cells. Moreover, we have obtained data suggesting that proliferation of small hepatocyte-progenitors and stem (oval) cells during liver injury is associated with the expression of EDG2 and EDG4 receptors. LPA, and possibly S1P, appear to be essential factors that control proliferation and motility of hepatic stellate cells (HSC) and hepatoma cells. It is proposed that LPA, S1P and their respective EDG receptors play important roles in pathophysiology of chronic liver injury and fibrogenesis. The underlying mechanisms recruited by LPA and S1P in pathogenesis of liver injury remain to be investigated. D 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Thermodynamics and kinetics of the hydrolysis of atmospherically relevant organonitrates and organosulfates

Abstract. The presence of alcohol, organonitrate, and organosulfate species related to the gaseous precursor isoprene in ambient secondary organic aerosol (SOA) has stimulated investigations of the nature of SOA-phase chemical processing. Recent work has suggested that certain isoprene-derived organonitrates are able to efficiently convert to organosulfates and alcohols on ambient SOA. In order to better understand the structure activity relationships previously observed for the isoprene-derived organonitrates and organosulfates, the hydrolysis reactions of a number of monofunctional and difunctional organonitrates and organosulfates with varying carbon substitution properties were investigated. Nuclear magnetic resonance techniques were used to study the bulk phase aqueous reactions of these organonitrates and organosulfates in order to determine hydrolysis reaction rate and, in some cases, thermodynamics information. Electronic structure calculations were also carried out to determine the enthalpy of hydrolysis for these species, and for the previously studied isoprene-derived species. The results suggest that while organonitrates and organosulfates are thermodynamically unstable with respect to the corresponding alcohols at standard state, only the tertiary organonitrates (and perhaps some tertiary organosulfates) are able to efficiently hydrolyze on SOA timescales and acidities.
A correct and scalable deadlock avoidance policy for flexible manufacturing systems

Configuration flexibility and deadlock-free operation are two essential properties of control systems for highly automated flexible manufacturing systems. Configuration flexibility, the ability to quickly modify manufacturing system components and their logical relationships, requires automatic generation of control executables from high level system specifications. These control executables must guarantee deadlock-free operation. The resource order policy is a configurable controller that provides the deadlock-free guarantee for buffer space allocation. It uses a total ordering of system machines and routing information to generate a set of configuration specific linear constraints. These constraints encode the system state along with a buffer capacity function and define a deadlock-free region of operation. Constraint generation and execution are of polynomial complexity.
Accurate measurement of line frequency in the presence of noise using time domain data

A new technique for the accurate measurement of the frequency of sinusoidal signals in the presence of noise using time-domain data is proposed. This software-based method is based upon an estimation of the zero crossings and measures the elapsed time between an even number of the estimated zero crossings with smoothing. The method is iterative in that the sample rate is adjusted, in so far as its resolution permits, to be a multiple of the estimated frequency and this permits a progressive refinement of the frequency measurement. >
Large-scale network simulation: how big? how fast?

Parallel and distributed simulation tools are emerging that offer the ability to perform detailed, packet-level simulations of large-scale computer networks on an unprecedented scale. The state-of-the-art in large-scale network simulation is characterized quantitatively. For this purpose, a metric based on the number of packet transmissions that can be processed by a simulator per second of wallclock time (PTS) is used as a means to quantitatively assess packet-level network simulator performance. An approach to realizing scalable network simulations that leverages existing sequential simulation models and software is described. Results from a recent performance study are presented concerning large-scale network simulation on a variety of platforms ranging from workstations to cluster computers to supercomputers. These experiments include runs utilizing as many as 1536 processors yielding performance as high as 106 million PTS. The performance of packet-level simulations of web and ftp traffic, and denial of service attacks on networks containing millions of network nodes are briefly described, including a run demonstrating the ability to simulate a million web traffic flows in near real-time. New opportunities and research challenges to fully exploit this capability are discussed.
An iterative approach to probe-design for compressive sensing microarrays

The compressive sensing microarrays design was proposed by Sheikh et. al as an efficient way of sensing organisms in a given environment such as air, water or soil sample. However, Sheik et. al probe candidates are extracted from the shortest sequences among any given group of organisms. This implies that they have a limited search space for the probe candidates. Probes picked in such a way must not be the most optimal probe candidates. In this paper, we introduce an alternative compressive sensing probe picking algorithm, which consider all possible hybridization affinities and chooses the best group identifier probe among all possible probe candidates from all the members of a group. More importantly, we built relatively larger compressive sensing microarrays systems that consist of four or five groups with the total number of 22 organisms. The system that we built can sense all these organisms effectively by using a nonlinear decoding algorithm known as Belief Propagation (BP).
Analysis of disease resistance-associated parameters in broiler chickens challenged with Eimeria maxima

Abstract To determine an optimal dose for coccidial inoculation and to evaluate genetic resistance or susceptibility in individual chickens, broilers were inoculated with four different doses of Eimeria maxima oocysts. Body weight gain, fecal oocyst shedding, concentrations of plasma NO2- + NO3-, carotenoid, and interferon-gamma were measured at two different time periods postinfection. The results showed significant dose and sex effects on most parameters and interaction between dose and sex in some parameters. The dose effects were generally linear; however, some significant quadratic effects were also observed. The measurements from chickens inoculated with 104 oocysts displayed the highest correlation coefficients among oocyst shedding, body weight gain, and concentrations of carotenoid and NO2- + NO3-. An infection index, calculated from the correlated parameters, displayed high correlation coefficients with the parameters. The infection index may be a better parameter for evaluating individual genetic resistance against coccidial infection.
Echophonocardiographic estimates of pulmonary artery wedge pressure in mitral stenosis

Abstract The efficacy of noninvasive indexes for predicting pulmonary artery wedge (PAW) pressure was reviewed in 77 patients with mitral stenosis. M-mode echocardiography and phonocardiography were used to measure the aortic valve closure-mitral valve E-point interval (A2-E) and the electrocardiographic Q wave-mitral valve closure interval (Q-C) close to the time of diagnostic cardiac catheterization. During catheterization, in 65 patients PAW pressure was measured and in 12 left atrial (LA) pressure was measured. The A2-E and Q-C intervals taken alone had only modest correlation with PAW pressure (r = −0.54 and r = 0.46, respectively). The correlation was weakest in patients with atrial fibrillation and best in sinus rhythm when heart rate variation between invasive and noninvasive studies was within ±5 beats. Substitution of V-wave pressure for mean PAW pressure and correction for variation in blood pressure improved the A2-E correlation (r = −0.64), as did combining the A2-E and Q-C intervals into a ratio (Q-C) (A2-E) (r = 0.62). However, the best results were obtained in patients where LA pressure was measured directly (r = −0.91 for A2-E), suggesting the PAW pressure is not always an accurate reflection of LA pressure. In conclusion, many factors in addition to LA pressure affect the Q-C and A2-E intervals which, in many situations, decrease their predictive value. However, if used appropriately, these intervals may allow an estimation of PAW pressure.
Real Time Camera Phone Guidance for Compliant Document Image Acquisition without Sight

Here we present an evaluation of an ideal document acquisition guidance system. Guidance is provided to help someone take a picture of a document capable of Optical Character Recognition (OCR). Our method infers the pose of the camera by detecting a pattern of fiduciary markers on a printed page. The guidance system offers a corrective trajectory based on the current pose, by optimizing the requirements for complete OCR. We evaluate the effectiveness of our software by measuring the quality of the image captured when we vary the experimental setting. After completing a user study with eight participants, we found that our guidance system is effective at helping the user position the phone in such a way that a compliant image is captured. This is based on an evaluation of a one way analysis of variance comparing the percentage of successful trials in each experimental setting. Negative Helmert Contrast is applied in order to tolerate only one ordering of experimental settings: no guidance (control), just confirmation, and full guidance.
Label-free in vivo imaging of peripheral nerve by multispectral photoacoustic tomography

Unintentional surgical damage to nerves is mainly due to poor visualization of nerve tissue relative to adjacent structures. Multispectral photoacoustic tomography can provide chemical information with specificity and ultrasonic spatial resolution with centimeter imaging depth, making it a potential tool for noninvasive neural imaging. To implement this label-free imaging approach, a multispectral photoacoustic tomography platform was built. Imaging depth and spatial resolution were characterized. In vivo imaging of the femoral nerve that is 2 mm deep in a nude mouse was performed. Through multivariate curve resolution analysis, the femoral nerve was discriminated from the femoral artery and chemical maps of their spatial distributions were generated.
The background in detectors caused by sea level cosmic rays

Abstract Many experiments with slow counting rates are limited by the background noise caused by the sea level flux of cosmic rays. The cosmic rays interact with detectors by including bursts of charge or light. These noise bursts can be conveniently grouped into two classes: the long distributed noise from the ionization wake of fast charged particles, and the creation of small intense bursts of charge by a nuclear reaction leading to a heavy recoiling nucleus. The analysis of this problem is illustrated by calculations of the rates at which bursts of electronic charge are created in silicon particle detectors by cosmic rays at sea level. We show how detector size and shape influence its background, and the influence of concrete shielding. An experimental spectrum is compared to the theoretical prediction to show the many contributions to the final detector background level.
Pulse restoration by filtering of self-phase modulation broadened optical spectrum

Restoration of distorted optical pulses is achieved using nonlinear fiber self-phase spectral broadening and subsequent optical band-pass filtering of a single sideband. Using this technique, the output pulsewidth is shown to remain constant for input pulse-widths between 9-20 ps. A detailed investigation of the signal-to-noise ratio shows that best performance is obtained by operating in normal fiber dispersion regime. This technique is also applied to restore 40 Gb/s RZ-data suffering distortion from polarization mode dispersion. The high-bandwidth fiber nonlinearity shows promise to scale to higher bit rate pulse distortion correction.
Fine Chemicals from Plant Cells — an Overview

This paper reviews the alternatives to agriculture for the production of plant-derived fine chemicals. These include chemical synthesis and the biotechnological approaches of cell suspension culture and plant organ culture. A description of the work and research approach of the authors’ laboratory is presented.
A review of recent books on credit risk

The usual risk taxonomy has three types: market risk, credit risk and operational risk. Market risk arises from the movements in the level or volatility of market prices. Credit risk is the risk that an obligor (borrower, counterparty) may be unable or unwilling to repay their debt, and operational risk, which is broadly a residual category, is specified as the risk of direct or indirect loss resulting from inadequate or failed internal processes, people and systems or from external events.1 Credit risk makes up about 50− 60% of the total risk in a typical, large bank, with market risk taking a smaller share (∼ 20%) of the remainder than operational risk (Kuritzkes, Schuermann and Weiner (2003)). A securities firm or investment bank will likely have relatively more market than credit risk, while insurers are somewhere in between. Yet the bulk of academic research has focused on market risk, perhaps because data is plentiful and easy to obtain, while credit risk has received less attention in the literature, until recently. Indeed we have seen a veritable explosion of research over the past few years as the well established tools of pricing and portfolio management find their way to that vast realm of relatively illiquid credit assets. It has attracted a diverse group of disciplines, from traditional finance (asset pricing) to mathematical statistics to econometrics. And because credit risk is the dominant risk for banks, regulators pay particular attention to its measurement and management. Recently this has culminated in the proposed New Basel Capital Accord (BIS (2001, 2003)), a radical restructuring of how credit risk is assessed and capital set against it.2 In this review I cover three books on credit risk which have appeared recently, though these are far from the only books on this topic. However, they do represent in my view the best of the crop and illustrate the diverse set of issues and their treatments which have occupied the literature, both academic and practitioner. The review is organized around some of the key questions and themes of this literature and how they are addressed by these authors. ∗til.schuermann@ny.frb.org I would like to thank Michelle Gittelman, Sam Hansen, Beverly Hirtle, Hashem Pesaran and Mel Weeks (the editor) for helpful comments and suggestions. Any views expressed represent those of the author only and not necessarily those of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York or the Federal Reserve System. This definition is used in the New Basel Capital Accord (BIS (2001), §547). The purpose of capital is to provide a cushion against losses for a financial institution. The literature on the general rationale for capital regulation in financial institutions is extensive and has been the subject of several recent surveys (Santos (2001), Ball and Stoll (1998), Berger, Herring and Szego (1995)).
An online system analysis course

This paper discusses on online graduate course that teaches a structured method of systems analysis. The course is the first course in a completely online graduate degree program. The paper briefly discusses the degree program and the online environment, and describes how the course is organized and taught. The paper also presents data showing the level of activity by course participants and post-cost evaluation by students.
Semi-leptonic weak and electromagnetic interactions with nuclei: Isoelastic processes

Abstract A one-body density matrix formalism is presented for studies of isoelastic processes, that is, for semi-leptonic weak and electromagnetic interactions involving the members of a nuclear ground-state isospin doublet. Relationships involving density matrices are given for the general case and then specialized to the systems 3 H- 3 He and 11 B- 11 C, where data on conventional electromagnetic and weak interactions provide stringent constraints on the form of the density matrix. Predictions are then given for charge-changing and neutral current neutrino reactions. The effects of changes in the weak coupling constants and of second-class tensor currents on these processes are discussed.
Mining arbitrary-length repeated patterns in television broadcast

Mining repeated patterns in television broadcast is important to advertisers in tracking a large number of television commercials. It can also benefit long-term archival of television because historically significant events are usually marked by repeated airing of the same video clips or sound-bytes. In this paper, we describe a system that can efficiently mine repeated patterns of arbitrary lengths from television broadcast. Compared with existing work, our system has two main innovations: first, our system is robust against minor temporal variations among repeated patterns. This is important as broadcasters often perform temporal editing on commercials so as to fit them into different time slots. Second, our system does not rely on any temporal segmentation algorithm, which may lead to over- or under-segmentation of important patterns. Instead, our system scans the television broadcast with a fixed-size sliding window, summarizes each window into a hash value, and maintains a running frequency count and a reference time-stamp on each hash value. The boundaries of a repeated pattern are identified by the changes in frequency counts and reference time-stamps. Initial experiments show that our system is very efficient in identifying all the repeated commercials from 12 hours of television broadcast.
An efficient implementation of the modified filtered-X LMS algorithm

The filtered-X LMS algorithm used in active noise control applications suffers from slow convergence due in part to the output delay caused by the secondary path of the system. In this letter, we provide a computationally efficient method for removing this output delay within the error signal used to update the controller coefficients, such that the standard LMS algorithm is effectively employed.
Academic versus private cardiology: preparing for a successful career after fellowship.

Cardiovascular diseases are still considered the leading cause of death in the United States [(1)][1]. It is estimated that 40% of Americans will experience some form of cardiovascular disease by 2030 [(2)][2]. The advances in cardiovascular care required to meet this increased demand depend on the
Improving Average Performance by Relaxing Distributed Data Structures

Linearizability is a powerful consistency condition but can be expensive to implement. Recently, reserarchers have suggested gaining performance by relaxing the sequential specification of objects’ data types. We consider, for the first time, linearizable message-passing implementations of relaxed Queues and prove upper and lower bounds on the elapsed time for Dequeue operations both in the worst case and on average.
Instantaneous 'anything'

The author presents a generalization of the concepts of instantaneous frequency and group delay. A simple formula is given for obtaining the instantaneous value of any quantity. The physical interpretation which emerges from these considerations is discussed. Examples are given using time, frequency and scale. >
THz Photomixing

This paper emphasizes recent advances in terahertz photomixing. The development and commercialization of a photomixing transceiver as a high-resolution spectroscopic instrument are also discussed.
Technology for Transient Plasma Ignition

Recently transient plasma ignition has been explored for applications including pulse detonation engines. Technology for this ignition process is an important element of experimental apparatus. It has been found that transient plasma (typ. 50 nanosecond pulse) can be employed to reduce delay times by factors of 5 in flowing systems. In this paper, The design for a pseudospark-based high repetition rate pulse generator together with a resonant charging power supply is presented. The pulse generator has been developed for research applications that include transit nt plasma ignition. The design incorporates a lumped element Blumlein pulse-forming network (PFN) that is switched by a commercial pseudospark into an output pulse transformer with a METGLAS core. The Blumlein is charged up to 30 kV by a resonant capacitor charger, which incorporates a fly-back transformer and high power Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) module. The output voltage of the charger is controlled by IGBT. Pulse with duration of 50 ns can be generated at 2.6 kHz maximum repetition rate in burst mode with amplitudes up to 90 kV and 4 J of energy per ignition pulse.
Quantifying the Inter- and Intramolecular Interactions in Crystalline Phthalic Acid

All inter- and intramolecular interactions in the crystals of phthalic acid have been quantified from the topology of the electron density distribution obtained from low temperature (20 K) X-ray diffraction data and from theoretical calculations. Using the Quantum Theory of Atoms in Molecules (QTAIM) approach, all covalent bonds have been characterized by the electronic properties at their (3, −1) bond critical points as well as all noncovalent bonds of the type O···H (both strong and weak), C···C, O···O, O···C, and H···H. Integrated atomic charges and the derived molecular dipole moment are reported. Differentiation of the two faces of the pyramidalized sp2 carbon atoms is investigated via the electrostatic potential projected onto the molecular surface.
Diffusion of Au in Amorphous Si Measured by the Artificial Multilayer Technique

The diffusivity of Au in amorphous Si (a-Si) has been determined in the temperature range 200-260°C using and Ar-ion sputter deposited artificial multilayered films of a-Si and a-Si(0.7at%Au) with repeat lengths between 44 and 48 A. Diffusion on lengths scales of the order of interatomic spacings have been investigated. The Au diffusivity exhibits an Arrhenius temperature dependence with an activation enthalpy of 1.2eV and shows good agreement with extrapolations of higher temperature Au diffusion data obtained by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) in ion-implanted, CVD, and sputter deposited a-Si. The measured Au diffusivity also shows a significant time dependence.
Abstract 3202: Universal detection of protein phosphorylation based on multi-functionalized soluble nanopolymers

Protein phosphorylation, as the most common covalent modification of proteins, plays a critical role in the regulation of many cellular functions. Irregularities in phosphorylation network are a major cause of onset and progression of many diseases, most notably cancer. Consequently, detection of protein phosphorylation is essential in further understanding of cellular signaling pathways and mechanisms of cell growth and proliferation. To assist in effective phosphorylation analyses, we introduce here a novel technique based on soluble nanopolymers with excellent solubility, compact spherical shape and chemical homogeneity. Soluble nanopolymers functionalized with Ti(IV) ions have shown highly versatility and allow for highly efficient analyses of phosphorylation and signaling pathways. We devise here a novel strategy, termed pIMAGO (phospho-imaging), for effective detection of phosphoproteins on a membrane (Western Blot format) or in a 96-well plate (ELISA format). Unlike antibody-based strategies, the new method is capable of selectively binding a phosphorylated residue independent of amino acid microenvironment. It shows no preference for either of the phosphosites, and thus holds great promise in biological analyses where the site of phosphorylation is not known or its specific antibody is not available. Using this technique, the phosphorylation levels of proteins of interest under physiological conditions can be readily detected as part of a standard Western Blot or ELISA procedures without the need for radioactivity or expensive phosphosite-specific antibodies. The utility of the approach has been demonstrated using standard mixtures of proteins, by in vitro kinase and phosphatase assays, as well as with kinase inhibitor screening and enzyme profiling. In addition, multiplexing capabilities of pIMAGO are presented, a feature often unavailable during antibodies-based detection. Finally, we further confirmed that the technique is sensitive and specific enough to detect endogenous phosphorylation changes by analyzing physiological signaling in number of endogenous protein complexes isolated directly from cells. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 3202. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-3202
Absorption Enhancement in Ultrathin Solar Cells with Antireflection and Light-Trapping Nanocone Gratings

We combine optimized front gratings primarily for antireflection at shorter wavelengths and back gratings primarily for light-trapping at longer wavelengths in ultrathin crystalline silicon solar cells to achieve near Yablonovitch limit absorption.
Role of Thalamic Gustatory Nucleus in Diet Selection by Normal and Parathyroidectomized Rats.

SummaryYoung male Sherman rats were allowed to select individual components of their diet from 9 sources. After the selection of dietary items became relatively stable, a group of the animals was parathyroidectomized to intensify their need for one dietary component, calcium, while the rest of the animals served as unoperated controls. The role of thalamic gustatory neurons in mediating the response to dietary needs was then determined by destroying the thalamic gustatory nucleus in a certain number of the Ptx and the unoperated animals. Thalamie lesions which spared the gustatory neurons were also made to provide for adequate controls. If the thalamic lesions destroyed gustatory neurons in Ptx rats, the animals significantly reduced calcium intake. This reduction was sufficiently large to cause tetany and death in some of the animals. Changes in the consumption of sodium dibasic phosphate, sodium chloride, and distilled water also occurred. Destruction of the thalamic gustatory nucleus in previously norm...
Thiamin content and retention in venison.

In some states, deer harvest provides a considerable amount of meat for hunters’ families. Thus, data on thiamin in venison can be valuable to nutritionists in calculating nutrient intake of homeproduced food. These authors report favorable retention with braising or roasting and actual content greater than in lamb, veal, and beef, but less than in pork.
Colony personality composition alters colony-level plasticity and magnitude of defensive behaviour in a social spider

The ways in which animal societies respond to threat has enormous consequences for their success. In the present study, we investigated how group personality composition in social spiders (Stegodyphus dumicola) alters groups' average response towards predators and how their responses change with experience with important predators, Anoplolepis custodiens ants. We found that colonies composed of a mixture of ‘bold’ and ‘shy’ personality types exhibited twice as much defensive web-making behaviour as other colony compositions. Colony defensive behaviour was also more temporally stable following experience with predators for ‘mixed’ colonies than for either monotypic composition (all shy or all bold). Colonies composed of bold individuals were particularly erratic in their defensive behaviour over time. Thus, colony composition altered colony-level plasticity in response to experience with one of their most voracious predators. We additionally observed the behaviour of marked individuals within colonies to determine which individual traits were associated with task participation during encounters with predators. Individual morphology and boldness both predicted task participation at the individual level, with boldness being negatively associated with participation in the attack sequence, but positively associated with defensive silk making. Low body condition also proved to be important for predicting participation in any task. Lastly, despite a tight association between colony composition and colony defensive behaviour, we found no evidence that colony composition affected colony survival during ant attacks in situ. Instead, older and more established nests were positively associated with colony persistence during attacks.