cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Efficacy of TACE in TIPS patients: comparison of treatment response to chemoembolization for hepatocellular carcinoma in patients with and without a transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt.

Purpose To compare treatment response after transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in patients with and without a transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS).
Productivity and adaptive capacity of winter wheat landraces and modern cultivars grown under low-fertility conditions

In recent decades, most winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) breeding in the United States has been done in field nurseries in which the soil receives ample fertilization. To determine the effects of these breeding efforts on productivity under low-fertility conditions, we evaluated twenty-nine winter wheat genotypes (seven Asian landraces; thirteen standard-height U.S. cultivars released between 1874 and 1971; and nine semidwarf cultivars released between 1977 and 1988) under severe fertility stress at three Kansas, USA locations. Experiments included fertilized and unfertilized treatments. The modern, semidwarf cultivars yielded 18% and 20% more, on average, than landraces and standard-height cultivars under low and high fertility, respectively; however, only the latter difference reached the 5% significance level. At only one location (Hays) was there a significant genotype X fertility interaction: there, 89% of the semidwarf cultivars, only 8% of the standard cultivars, and 57% of the landraces responded to fertilization. The regression coefficient of mean grain yield (unfertilized) on year of introduction or release for standard and semidwarf cultivars was zero, indicating that a century of breeding has produced no genetic improvement in performance under these low-fertility conditions. Although we found that the usual yield advantage of modern cultivars is not expressed under very low fertility, we saw no evidence that older cultivars are superior under those conditions.
2,3-Diphenyl-1-indanone fluorometric analysis of amino acids

Fluorometric analysis of amino acids is accomplished by the synthesis of the furan derivatives of sulfoindonyl amino acids. The assay is determined at an excitation of 365 nm and an emission of 484 nm. Quantitative analysis of the amino acids can be achieved at concentrations as low as 10−9M. Supporting evidence for the synthesis of the amino acid derivative is demonstrated from mass and infrared spectra.
A quantum-theoretic approach to genetic problems

A quantum-theoretic picture of the transfer of genetic information is described. The advantage of such an approach is that a number of genetic effects appear to be explicable on the basis of general microphysical laws, independent of any specific model (such as DNA-protein coding) for the transmission of genetic information. It is assumed that the genetic information is carried by a family of numerical observables belonging to a specific microphysical system; it is shown that a single observable is theoretically sufficient to carry this information. The various types of structure that this observable can possess are then described in detail, and the possible genetic effects which can airse from each such structure are discussed. For example, it is shown how the assumption that the genetic observable possesses degenerate eigenvalues may lead to a theory of allelism. To keep the treatment self-contained, the basic quantum-theoretical principles to be used are discussed in some detail. Finally, the relation of the present approach to current biochemical ideas and to earlier quantum-theoretic treatments of genetic systems is discussed.
An analysis of expressed sequence tags of developing castor endosperm using a full-length cDNA library

Background Castor seeds are a major source for ricinoleate, an important industrial raw material. Genomics studies of castor plant will provide critical information for understanding seed metabolism, for effectively engineering ricinoleate production in transgenic oilseeds, or for genetically improving castor plants by eliminating toxic and allergic proteins in seeds.
A Fast Algorithm for Spherical Grid Rotations and Its Application to Singular Quadrature

We present a fast and accurate algorithm for evaluating singular integral operators on smooth surfaces that are globally parametrized by spherical coordinates. Problems of this type arise, for example, in simulating Stokes flows with particulate suspensions and in multiparticle scattering calculations. For smooth surfaces, spherical harmonic expansions are commonly used for geometry representation and the evaluation of the singular integrals is carried out with a spectrally accurate quadrature rule on a set of rotated spherical grids. We propose a new algorithm that interpolates function values on the rotated spherical grids via hybrid nonuniform FFTs. The algorithm has a small complexity constant, and the cost of applying the quadrature rule is nearly optimal $\mathcal{O}(p^4\log p)$ for a spherical harmonic expansion of degree $p$.
Does mycorrhiza improve salinity tolerance in grafted plants

Abstract Grafting has been reported to give some benefits against salinity stress, however rootstock genotype plays a key role in this tolerance. Beneficial organisms can also used to enhance plant growth and increase salinity tolerance. The aim of this research was to test the combined effects of grafting and mycorrhizal inoculation under salinity stress conditions. The experiment was conducted in a PE covered greenhouse during the autumn and spring seasons of 2008 and 2009. ‘Maxifort’ and ‘Beaufort’ hybrid tomato rootstocks grafted with commercial cultivar ‘191 (Gokce) F1’ were compared with self-grafted plants in the case of mycorrhizal inoculation or not. Half of the plants were placed in a suspension containing 2.5 kg ha−1 of EndoRoots® which contains the spores of endomycorrhizal (VAM) fungi (Glomus spp.). This was done for one day before transplanting while the rest were planted as controls without any treatment. Plants were grown in perlite culture and the EC level of the solution was increased up to 6 dS m−1 using NaCl. The experimental design was randomized blocks with 3 replicates. Parameters related to plant growth, yield and fruit quality were determined. The use of rootstocks, in particular Maxifort, inoculated with mycorrhizal fungi increased the total and marketable yield. Although there were no statistical differences in fresh and dry weights of plant parts, mycorrhizal inoculation increased root fresh and dry weights. Of the quality parameters, vitamin C increased when VAM was used while titratable acidity decreased. Dry matter percentage, rind strength, titratable acidity, EC and pH also changed in the VAM inoculated rootstocks. It was concluded that salinity tolerance would be improved if grafted plants were inoculated with mycorrhizal fungi.
White Weddings : Romancing Heterosexuality in Popular Culture

From sitcoms and soap operas to talk shows and movies, Americans are in love with the idea of a white wedding. The happy bride and groom smile from the covers of fashion and entertainment magazines, and appear in TV commercials to sell everything from life insurance to antacid. Fascinated by this national obsession, Chrys Ingraham peers behind the veil to question the meaning of weddings in American popular culture. L What she finds is nothing less than a wedding industrial complex. The wedding industry does a thriving business with annual revenues in excess of 30 billion dollars. The average cost of a wedding is over USD19,000, with 2.4 million couples getting married this year. White Weddings is the first book to investigate the underside of this recession-proof industry, exposing how weddings are used to sell a heterosexual fairy tale. Ingraham draws on popular media, such as bridal magazines, children's toys, feature films, television and advertising to reveal how they regulate gender, sexuality, race and class. Weddings mean more than just flowers and flatware, but are part of a belief system that relies on romantic and sacred notions of heterosexuality to maintain the illusion of normalcy. This entertaining and insightful book will make you think twice about ever wanting to catch the bouquet.
Features of non-malignant thoracic lesions on F-18 FDG PET/CT scan

Introduction: During PET/CT chest interpretation, the radiologist may encounter non-malignant positive findings originating from physiologic variants, inflammation, infection, iatrogenic causes, post-surgical/post-therapeutic changes and benign tumors of different components of the thorax. This article illustrates and raises the awareness of these benign FDG-avid findings. Methods: We use a search engine to retrospectively review the 10-year PET/CT and pathology database of our institution for cases with thoracic findings linked to physiologic variations, and to benign processes and diseases. The keywords used for the search include all the entities presented in this article. We select the cases presenting with the most didactic value of benignity related to (1) established imaging patterns already published in the literature, which serves as reference articles in this paper, (2) final diagnosis from tissue sampling of ambiguous and difficult cases, and (3) long term monitoring based on clinical evaluation and anatomic and functional imaging. Results: Among the pool of cases fulfilling the required search criteria, we choose the most illustrative ones to present the different categories of benign findings encompassing the physiologic variants, inflammation, infection, iatrogenic causes, post-operative and post-therapeutic changes, and benign neoplasms. The most representative reference articles of the presented cases concerning all the benign thoracic entities are selected for the bibliography. Conclusion: The presented PET/CT cases raise the awareness and strengthen the interpretation confidence of the radiologist during the evaluation of cancer. The familiarity with these benign thoracic entities would obviate any suspicion of malignancy and avoid unnecessary additional assessment using expansive and potentially harmful procedures.
Rain cell size statistics as a function of rain rate for attenuation modeling

Rain cell size statistics as a function of rain rate have been deduced by employing a radar data base of rain reflectivity data acquired over a three-year period at Wallops Island, VA. These cell statistics have important applications in slant path rain attenuation modeling and remote sensing of the earth's surface from space at frequencies above 10 GHz.
Evaluation of proton-proton elastic scattering with quark hard cores using glauber and Monte Carlo methods

Abstract This paper shows how Monte Carlo methods can be used to evaluate multidimensional integrals that occur in Glauber scattering theory. A detailed discussion of the various Monte Carlo methods is given. The methods are used to obtain the proton-proton elastic scattering differential cross section, where the proton is composed of three quarks with hard cores. It is found that including a quark hard core has no effect on the differential cross section for a fixed rms quark distance.
Response artifact in the measurement of neuroleptic-induced anhedonia

Systemic administration of the neuroleptic drug alpha-flupenthixol attenuated lever-pressing behavior in rats responding for rewarding brain stimulation. The magnitude of this attenuation was dose-dependent and resembled the effects of reward reduction and termination. However, when the operant response requirements of the same rats were changed to nose poking, identical drug treatments produced relatively little attenuation in performance. These data do not support the belief that neuroleptics produce a general state of anhedonia. Rather, the apparent suppression of reinforced behaviors depends at least in part on the kinetic requirements of the response.
Mapping the Site of RyR2 “Unzipping” Peptide (DPc10) by using Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) in Permeabilized Cardiomyocytes

DPc10 is a synthetic RyR2 peptide corresponding to the part of central domain (Gly2460-Pro2495) in cardiomyocytes. It was reported that DPc10 can specifically bind and destabilize RyR2 by causing defective domain interaction between N-terminal and central domains, which is called “domain unzipping”. In this study, we use DPc10 as a marker, through small fluorophore and single site specifically labeled proteins, to map the location of DPc10 binding site in permeabilized cardiomyocytes via different FRET pairs. We first test the DPc10 binding stoichiometry, by measuring the ratio of donor (AF488/568-FKBP12.6) enhancement upon acceptor (HF647-DPc10) photobleaching, which show donor and acceptor stoichiometry is 1:1. Two different R0 FRET pairs (AF488/AF568-FKBP12.6 and HF647-DPc10) are used to assess FKBP12.6-DPc10 FRET efficiency in permeabilized cardiomyocytes via acceptor photobleach (PB) and donor quench (Quench).The FRET efficiency between AF568-FKBP12.6 and HF647-DPc10 was 90.8 ± 0.6 % (PB), 91.9 ± 0.6 % (Quench), corresponding to a distance of 55.8 ± 0.6 A (PB), 54.1 ± 0.8 A (Quench). Furthermore, FRET efficiency between AF488-FKBP12.6 and HF647-DPc10 was 57.9 ± 1.4 % (PB), 62.4 ± 1.4 % (Quench), corresponding to the distance of 53.1 ± 0.5 A (PB), 51.4 ± 0.5 A (Quench) which is consistent with the distance measured in FRET between AF568-FKBP12.6 and HF647-DPc10. Moreover, through another FRET pair AF568-CaM and HF647-DPc10, their FRET efficiency was 89.6 ± 0.6 % (PB), which reflects the distance between CaM and DPc10 is 57.2 ± 0.7 A (PB).These results provide direct in situ information of DPc10 localization on the functional RyR2.
Pre-mating isolation is determined by larval rearing substrates in cactophilicDrosophila mojavensis. II. Effects of larval substrates on time to copulation, mate choice and mating propensity

It has been hypothesized that reproductive character displacement has evolved in mainland Sonora, Mexico populations of cactophilicD. mojavensis due to the presence of a sympatric sibling speciesD. arizonae. In laboratory tests using ancestral Baja California populations and derived, sympatric mainland populations, asymmetrical sexual isolation has been observed among populations ofD. mojavensis where mainland females discriminate against Baja males. Effects of different pre-adult rearing environments on adult mating behaviour were assessed by comparing fermenting cactus tissues like those used in nature for breeding with laboratory media because previous studies have employed synthetic growth media for fly growth and development. Significant behavioural isolation was evident in all cases when larvae were reared on laboratory food, but was non-significant when flies were reared on fermenting cactus, except for the cactus used by most mainland populations, consistent with previous studies. Time to copulation of Baja females was greater than mainland females over all substrates, but male time to copulation did not differ between populations. Time to copulation for both sexes was significantly greater when flies were reared on laboratory food with one exception. The degree of behavioural isolation was weakly correlated with time to copulation across food types (Spearman rank correlation = 0.58,p = 0.099). Therefore, use of laboratory media in this and previous studies exaggerated adult pre-mating isolation and time to copulation in comparison to natural breeding substrates. These experiments suggest that a change in host substrates by saprophagous insects (where chemical differences exist between hosts) may have subtle effects on mating behaviour in a manner which promotes low levels of sexual isolation as a by-product of their utilization of a particular substrate during larval development. ForD. mojavensis, these results suggest that over evolutionary time, radiation into a new environment (from Baja to the mainland) allowed utilization of new host plants that may have incidentally promoted the sexual isolation patterns that have been observed within this species.
Nesting of reducible and irreducible loops

Recognizing and transforming loops are essential steps in any attempt to improve the running time of a program. Aggressive restructuring techniques have been developed for single-entry (reducible) loops, but restructurers and the dataflow and dependence analysis they rely on often give up in the presence of multientry (irreducible) loops. Thus one irreducible loop can prevent the improvement of all loops in a procedure. This article give an algorithm to build a loop nesting tree for a procedure with arbitrary control flow. The algorithm uses definitions of reducible and irreducible loops which allow either kind of loop to be nested in the other. The tree construction algorithm, an extension of Tarjan's algorithm for testing reducibility, runs in almost linear time. In the presence of irreducible loops, the loop nesting tree can depend on the depth-first spanning tree used to build it. In particular, the header node representing a reducible loop in one version of the loop nesting tree can be the representative of an irreducible loop in another. We give a normalization method that maximizes the set of reducible loops discovered, independent of the depth-first spanning tree used. The normalization require the insertion of at most one node and one edge per reducible loop.
Factor structure and risk factors for the health status of homeless veterans.

Homeless veterans have numerous health problems that have been previously characterized as falling into four major subgroups; addiction, psychosis, vascular disorders, and generalized medical and psychiatric illness. Comorbid conditions are common, often involving a combination of psychiatric and medical disorders. Using data from the same survey of homeless veterans that was used to establish these subgroups with cluster analysis, the present study examined the structure of these subgroup patterns through the use of factor analysis. This analysis yielded a five factor solution. They were named “Cardiac”, Mood, Stress, Addiction, and Psychosis factors. Factor scores were computed and an odds ratio analysis was accomplished to determine the association between obtaining a high score on a given factor with a number of sociodemographic and homelessness related variables. It was concluded that health status of homeless veterans is a complex condition, but has a clear latent structure demonstrated by factor analysis. Scoring high or low on a particular factor is associated with numerous historical and sociodemographic considerations, notably age, ethnicity, and employment status.
A concept analysis of susceptibility: application of the hybrid model.

TOPIC Choosing to obtain a screening mammogram is often determined by a woman's perceived susceptibility. PURPOSE To establish the importance of susceptibility to breast cancer in rural women in southeast Louisiana, using concept analysis as the hybrid model. SOURCES Through this analysis, findings from the literature were compared to women's actual perceptions from the field. CONCLUSIONS The author concludes that rural women in Louisiana do not view breast cancer as a potential harm, nor is there a belief that they have control over the decision to have a screening mammogram; therefore, rural women do not perceive themselves susceptible.
Metal stoichiometry, coenzyme binding, and zinc and cobalt exchange in highly purified yeast alcohol dehydrogenase☆

Abstract Yeast alcohol dehydrogenase, purified from baker's yeast under conditions which exclude contamination by extraneous metal ions, is homogeneous by analytical ultracentrifugation and disc gel electrophoresis in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate. The enzyme has a molecular weight of 149,000 as determined by ultracentrifugation time-lapse photography and exhibits specific activities of 430 to 480 U/mg. Zinc analysis by three independent, highly sensitive methods, i.e., atomic absorption spectrometry, atomic fluorescence spectrometry, and microwave-induced plasma emission spectrometry, demonstrates 4 g-atom of catalytically essential Zn per mole of enzyme. No other metal atoms are present in stoichiometrically significant quantities as assessed by emission spectrography. The Stoichiometry of coenzyme binding, 4 mol of NADH/mol of enzyme, is identical to that of zinc, consistent with one coenzyme binding site and one zinc atom per enzyme subunit. Conditions for exchange of the four catalytically essential zinc atoms with 65Zn have been developed. These atoms exchange identically under all conditions examined. The resultant radiolabeled enzyme, l(YADH)65Zn4], has the same metal content, specific enzymatic activity, and coenzyme binding properties as the native enzyme. The 65Zn of this enzyme serves to monitor the extent and site specificity of cobalt replacement. The fully cobalt-substituted enzyme, [(YADH)Co4], has a specific activity of 80 U/mg, 17% that of the Zn enzyme, and exhibits absorption and circular dichroic spectra which are consistent with coordination by one or more sulfur ligands in a distorted tetrahedral geometry.
Organization redesign: the current state and projected trends

Redesign activity is taking place within organizations faced with rapidly changing business environments. In this article, the current state of organization redesign, the role of information systems, and the effect of redesign activities on job satisfaction and motivation are reviewed. The current state and projected trends are then related to a field study conducted at the Zeeland, Michigan, machine processing plant (ZMP) of Herman Miller. Interviews with both hourly and managerial personnel were conducted. The results of the interviews suggest that effective redesign efforts focus on the human or intangible aspects, as well as structural changes.
Alteration and Formation of Clay Minerals During Cat Clay Development

ABSTRACT THE natural tidelands sediments along the north shore of San Pablo Bay, California, are neutral in reaction and subjected to a wet, reducing environment conducive to ferrous sulfide accumulation. When the sediments are diked and drained, the environment rapidly becomes oxidizing and generally dry. Oxidation of the ferrous sulfide results in extremely acid cat clays within a year or two. Undrained sediments from the area contain montmorillonite, chlorite, mica, and kaolinite that all give sharp X-ray diffraction patterns. Sediments drained for 6 years, although strongly acid, have virtually the same clay mineralogy as the undrained sediments. However, sediments drained for 60 years show a general deterioration of crystalline clay minerals, particularly chlorite. The deterioration decreases with depth until the deeper zones closely resemble the undrained sediments. In separate laboratory experiments, chlorites were formed in an oxidized soil that was subjected to reducing conditions simulating the enviromnent of the undrained tidelands sediments. The possibility exists, therefore, that chlorites in the undrained sediments may have formed subsequent to deposition.
Quantitative Analysis of Silica in Silica-Kaolin Mixtures by Photoacoustic and Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopies

The techniques of photoacoustic spectroscopy (PAS) and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) are investigated for the quantification of silica using the IR bands at 1080, 797, 693, and 1875 cm−1. It is observed that, in both techniques, signal intensity increases linearly with mass initially. However, signal saturation sets in at much lower masses (>2 mg) in PAS than in DRS (>30 mg), showing that saturation is strongly technique dependent, in addition to having dependence on the absorptivity of the sample. These findings are applied to the quantification of silica in laboratory-generated silica-kaolin mixtures. It is shown that, with the use of the weaker band at 1875 cm−1 in DRS, satisfactory results for the quantification of silica are obtained.
The thrombin receptor in adrenal medullary microvascular endothelial cells is negatively coupled to adenylyl cyclase through a Gi protein

Abstract The effects of thrombin on adenylyl cyclase activity were examined in rat adrenal medullary microvascular endothelial cells (RAMEC). Confluent RAMEC monolayers were stimulated for 5 min with cAMP-generating agents in the absence and presence of thrombin, and intracellular cAMP was measured with a radioligand binding assay. Thrombin (0.001–0.25 U/ml) dose-dependently inhibited IBMX-, isoproterenol- and forskolin-stimulated cAMP accumulation. A peptide agonist of the thrombin receptor, γ -thrombin, and the serine proteases trypsin and plasmin, also inhibited agonist-stimulated cAMP levels, while proteolytically inactive PPACK- or DIP- α -thrombins were without effect. Moreover, the thrombin inhibitor hirudin abolished the inhibitory effect of thrombin but not of the peptide agonist. These results suggest that the inhibitory action of thrombin on cAMP accumulation is mediated by a proteolytically-activated thrombin receptor. The inhibitor of G i -proteins pertussis toxin abolished the inhibitory effect of thrombin on isoproterenol- or IBMX-stimulated cAMP production, while the phorbol ester PMA partly impaired it. The protein kinase C inhibitors staurosporine or H7 and the intracellular Ca 2+ chelator BAPTA-AM were without effect. Collectively, our data suggest that the thrombin receptor in RAMEC is negatively coupled to adenylyl cyclase through a pertussis toxin-sensitive G i -protein.
Prostate-specific antigen testing: men's responses to 2012 recommendation against screening.

Background The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) released a draft recommendation advising against prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing in October 2011, a major shift from previous years of recommending neither for or against PSA testing due to insufficient evidence. Purpose The purpose of this study was to assess men's awareness of the new recommendation, and their responses to it. Methods This study comprised a web survey of men aged 40–74 years that was conducted through GfK Custom Research, LLC's Knowledge Panel ® from November 22 to December 2, 2011. Chi-square tests and logistic regression analyses were conducted to identify factors associated with disagreement with and intention to follow the recommendation. Data were analyzed in March 2012. Results The survey sample included 1089 men without a history of prostate cancer. After reviewing the recommendation, 62% agreed with the recommendation. Age and worry about getting prostate cancer were significantly related to disagreement with the recommendation. Only 13% of respondents were intenders (they planned to follow the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendation and not get a prostate-specific antigen test in the future); 54% were non-intenders (they planned to not follow the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendation and get a prostate-specific antigen test in the future); and 33% were undecided. Black race, higher income, having a PSA test in the past 2 years, and being somewhat/very worried about getting prostate cancer were all positively associated with being a non-intender. Conclusions Study findings suggest that consumers are favorably disposed to PSA testing, despite new evidence suggesting that the harms outweigh the benefits. The new USPSTF recommendation against PSA testing in all men may be met with resistance.
Auditory and phonetic memory codes in the discrimination of consonants and vowels

Recognition memory for consonants and vowels selected from within and between phonetic categories was examined in a delayed comparison discrimination task. Accuracy of discrimination for synthetic vowels selected from both within and between categories was inversely related to the magnitude of the comparison interval. In contrast, discrimination of synthetic stop consonants remained relatively stable both within and between categories. The results indicate that differences in discrimination between consonants and vowels are primarily due to the differential availability of auditory short-term memory for the acoustic cues distinguishing these two classes of speech sounds. The findings provide evidence for distinct auditory and phonetic memory codes in speech perception.
Real-Time Regularized Ultrasound Elastography

This paper introduces two real-time elastography techniques based on analytic minimization (AM) of regularized cost functions. The first method (1D AM) produces axial strain and integer lateral displacement, while the second method (2D AM) produces both axial and lateral strains. The cost functions incorporate similarity of radio-frequency (RF) data intensity and displacement continuity, making both AM methods robust to small decorrelations present throughout the image. We also exploit techniques from robust statistics to make the methods resistant to large local decorrelations. We further introduce Kalman filtering for calculating the strain field from the displacement field given by the AM methods. Simulation and phantom experiments show that both methods generate strain images with high SNR, CNR and resolution. Both methods work for strains as high as 10% and run in real-time. We also present in vivo patient trials of ablation monitoring. An implementation of the 2D AM method as well as phantom and clinical RF-data can be downloaded.
Influence of adjunctive balloon angioplasty on coronary blood flow after rotational atherectomy

Rotational atherectomy is being performed with increasing frequency in a distinct subset of patients whose lesion characteristics are unfavorable for conventional balloon angioplasty. Although satisfactory luminal enlargement can be accomplished with the use of rotational atherectomy alone in some patients, adjunctive balloon angioplasty is necessary in most patients, to obtain a minimal residual angiographic result. To demonstrate responses associated with rotational atherectomy results, serial coronary blood flow measurements were obtained in a patient undergoing rotational atherectomy for unstable angina. Adjunctive balloon angioplasty resulted in normalization of post-stenotic coronary flow reserve. Recanalization by rotablator alone may not normalize coronary flow despite a satisfactory angiographic result. © 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Electric charge buildup in hypersonic wind tunnels with electron-beam energy addition

A 2D axisymmetric model is developed to predict electric charge and voltage build-up in supersonic/hypersonic nozzle flows of dense air with upstream-propagating high-energy electron beams depositing energy and electric charge into the air. The flowfield and the electron beam power deposition profiles were taken from calculations performed elsewhere. The present model includes kinetics of plasma species (electrons and positive and negative ions) and the Poisson equation for the electric potential. Both the case of grounded conducting nozzle walls and that of walls covered by a dielectric layer were considered. The model was applied to quantify the important charge and voltage build-up and removal under the conditions expected in medium and large-scale electron beam driven hypersonic wind tunnels.
Trust-based coalition formation in multi-agent systems

In this paper, we provide a framework to study trust-based coalition formation in multi-agent systems using cooperative game theory as the underlying mathematical framework. We describe how to study trust dynamics between agents as a result of their trust synergy and trust liability in cooperative coalitions. We also rigorously justify the behaviors of agents for different classes of games and discuss how to exploit the formal properties of these games for cooperative control in an unmanned military vehicle convoy.
Integrative leadership for collaborative governance: Civic engagement in Seattle

This article distills concepts and tools from the literatures on civic engagement, collaborative management, and conflict resolution into a parsimonious framework of tactics and constructs for integrative leadership. Using these tactics and constructs to compare cases of civic engagement drawn from the administration of Seattle Mayor Norman Rice (1990–98), the article demonstrates the framework's analytic potential for scholars and its strategic relevance for public leaders. The comparison of the cases suggests that the framework enables scholars and practitioners to distinguish meaningful changes in key dimensions of collaborative governance related to leadership tactics, stake holders' interpretations, and results. The conclusion proposes six hypotheses and explores theoretical implications for future research.
Triage and case presentations in a chiropractic pediatric clinic.

Objective The use of triage in a chiropractic practice is to determine whether or not a patient who has presented to an office is in need of a referral to another health care provider. The objective of this article is to illustrate the use of triage skills in a primary care, chiropractic pediatric practice. This is examined both in the new patient setting and during visit-to-visit protocol.
The Methanogen-Specific Transcription Factor MsvR Regulates the fpaA-rlp-rub Oxidative Stress Operon Adjacent to msvR in Methanothermobacter thermautotrophicus

Methanogens represent some of the most oxygen-sensitive organisms in laboratory culture. Recent studies indicate that they have developed mechanisms to deal with brief oxygen exposure. MsvR is a transcriptional regulator that has a domain architecture unique to a select group of methanogens. Here, runoff in vitro transcription assays were used to demonstrate that MsvR regulates transcription of the divergently transcribed fpaA-rlp-rub operon in Methanothermobacter thermautotrophicus in addition to transcription from its own promoter. The protein products of the fpaA-rlp-rub operon have previously been implicated in oxidative stress responses in M. thermautotrophicus. Additionally, electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSAs) and DNase I footprinting were used to confirm a binding site inferred by bioinformatic analysis. Sequence mutations within these binding sites did not significantly alter EMSA shifting patterns on longer templates but did on shorter 50-bp fragments encompassing only the region containing the binding sites. Footprinting confirmed that the regions protected for the longer mutant templates are at different positions within the intergenic region compared to those seen in the intact intergenic region. Oxidized and reduced preparations of MsvR demonstrated different EMSA binding patterns and regions of protection on the intergenic sequence, suggesting that MsvR may play a role in detecting the redox state of the cell.
Imaging for the Diagnosis and Management of Ductal Carcinoma in Situ

Diagnosis of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) has increased dramatically in parallel with the increased use of screening mammography. There are specific mammographic findings, most associated with shapes (amorphous, fine and coarse pleomorphic, and fine linear) and distributions (linear and segmental) of calcifications that permit a reasonable sensitivity for detection of DCIS without an unreasonable decrease in specificity, especially in view of the dramatic decrease in breast cancer mortality associated with early detection. While some DCIS may never progress to invasive disease, at this time, we cannot make that separation. This should be an active area for research.
Inferior Parietal Region Implicated in Neurocognitive Impairment in Schizophrenia-Reply

In Reply.— We thank Dr Cleghorn and his colleagues for their interest in our study 1 and for their comments. Regional cerebral blood flow values for the two individual right parietal detectors 6 and 8 to which Cleghorn et al refer are presented in Table 1. There were no significant differences between 25 normal control subjects and 24 patients with schizophrenia who were not receiving medication during either Raven's Progressive Matrices or the symbols matching control task described in our article. The groups also did not differ in the degree of change between the two tasks. Examination of the values in Table 1 may appear to show that the patients have lower values, but none of these small differences approached significance, despite the use of statistically liberal multiple t tests. Furthermore, these regional values must be considered in the context of slightly but not significantly lower flow in all brain
Standardizing Citizenship: The Potential Influence of State Curriculum Standards on the Civic Development of Adolescents

The rise of state-mandated standards in public education have allowed legislators to answer the question of what constitutes a proper civic education, a debate that has existed in the United States since the turn of the twentieth century. Through the content they employ in their standards, states may indirectly influence the type of citizenship education students receive in the classroom. The present study focuses on the Virginia Standards of Learning for two courses, civics and economics and U.S. and Virginia government, which are commonly taught to eighth graders and high school seniors, respectively. A content analysis of the essential knowledge found in the standards for these courses categorizes instructional content into seven forms of citizenship: civic republicanism, character education, deliberative, social justice, participatory, transnational, and cosmopolitan. Although the results are specific to the Virginia Standards of Learning, the nature of how citizenship is portrayed within the standards may transfer to other states with similar forms of standards-based education within their social studies curricula.
Factors affecting protein synthesis in vitro in rabbit reticulocytes.

Rabbit reticulocytes in vitro rapidly incorporate labeled amino acids into their proteins. The process is accelerated by the plasma of every mammal investigated and also by extracts of normal erythrocytes, rabbit reticulocytes, liver, spleen, and yeast (1). We have described two sets of stimulating factors: one of these sets consists of certain amino acids (1), the other of fructose-amino acids in liver (2-4). The latter set is ineffective without the addition of iron to the reaction medium. The effect of iron has been referred to in preceding publications (2-5), but without detail. After the necessity of adding iron was recognized, in order to obtain a maximal rate of protein synthesis the reaction mixture was improved further by adding to it certain substances which depend upon added iron for their effect. These increased the effect of plasma. Eventually the total (potential as well as actual) accelerating effects of plasma and liver extract were accounted for by known substances. This led to the devising of a reaction mixture formula in which the amino acid incorporation is about five times as fast as that observed when the cells are incubated in saline.
A bag-of-features-based framework for human activity representation and recognition

Human activity recognition using wearable sensors is an important topic in ubiquitous computing. In this paper, we present a statistical motion primitive-based framework for human activity representation and recognition. Our framework is based on Bag-of-Features (BoF), which builds activity models using histograms of primitive symbols. Experimental results validate the effectiveness of this framework for the task of human activity recognition. In addition, we have demonstrated that our statistical BoF framework can achieve a much better performance compared to the non-statistical string-matching-based approach.
Some General Aspects of Geomagnetically Trapped Radiation

This paper provides a sketch of the physical principles of radiation belts and an abridged summary of the present State of knowledge of the geomagnetically trapped radiation. As such, it is intended as an introduction to detailed papers on specific topics which constitute the remainder of the Bergen conference.
UDP packet data transmission over TETRA radio system

This paper studies the performance of transmitting User Datagram Protocol (UDP) packets over Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) networks. The IPERF program was used at the client station to generate UDP packets and at the server station to receive these packets and analyze them. Almost 1,800 measurements were taken for different packet sizes. The measurements were made for UDP packet size of 50 bytes to 800 bytes with 50 bytes increment. Additional measurements were done for UDP packet size ranging from 350 bytes to 400 bytes with an increment of 5 bytes. The measurement results were used to draw and relate the data transfer, throughput, jitter and lost packet with reference to the UDP packet size.
Additions to the genus Pseudopiptocarpha (Asteraceae, Vernonieae) from northern South America

ABSTRACT Pseudopiptocarpha garcia-barrigae H. Robinson & S. C. Keeley is described as new, and P. tovarensis (Gleason) H. Robinson & S. C. Keeley of Venezuela (Asteraceae, Vernonieae) is transferred from Lepidaploa (Cassini) Cassini. The new species and P. tovarensis have branching inflorescences unlike the two previously known members of Pseudopiptocarpha H. Robinson. All four species of Pseudopiptocarpha have Aynia H. Robinson–type pollen, which does not occur in Lepidaploa as redelimited.
Optimal Factor Analysis and Applications to Content-Based Image Retrieval

We formulate and develop computational strategies for Optimal Factor Analysis (OFA), a linear dimension reduction technique designed to learn low-dimensional representations that optimize discrimination based on the nearest-neighbor classifier. The methods are applied to content-based image categorization and retrieval using a representation of images by histograms of their spectral components. Various experiments are carried out and the results are compared to those that have been previously reported for some other image retrieval systems.
Splitting method for the combined formulation of the fluid?particle problem

Abstract In this paper, a splitting method for the direct numerical simulation of solid–liquid mixtures is presented, where a symmetric pressure equation is newly proposed. Through numerical experiment, it is found that the newly proposed splitting method works well with a matrix-free formulation for some benchmark problems, avoiding an erroneous pressure field which appears when using the conventional pressure equation of a splitting method. When deriving a typical pressure equation of a splitting method, the motion of a solid particle has to be approximated by the ‘intermediate velocity’ instead of treating it as unknowns since it is necessary as a boundary condition. Therefore, the motion of a solid particle is treated in such an explicit way that a particle moves by the known form drag (pressure drag) that is calculated from the pressure equation in the previous step. From the numerical experiment, it was shown that this method gives an erroneous pressure field even for a very small time step size as the particle velocity increases. In this paper, coupling the unknowns of particle velocities in the pressure equation is proposed, where the resulting matrix is reduced to the symmetric one by applying the projector of the combined formulation. It has been tested over some benchmark problems and gives reasonable pressure fields.
The United States and the Central American Federation

The administration of Warren G. Harding found itself facing the issue of Central American Union when it assumed office in March, 1921. Central Americans had debated combination since independence, and the question came to the fore periodically, resulting in numerous attempts to reunite the isthmus. But the previous proposals had all faltered when governments favoring confederation were overthrown. The issue was periodically revived whenever renewed coups returned pro-union regimes to power in several of the countries. In this way the debate continued throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, ebbing and flowing with the frequent revolutions, coups, and counter coups that constituted Central American politics.
Assessment of the electronic structure of 2,2'-pyridylpyrrolides as ligands.

The ligand class 2,2′-pyridylpyrrolide is surveyed, both for its structural features and its electronic structure, when attached to monovalent K, Cu, Ag, Au, and Rh. The influence of pyrrolide ring...
Occurrence of Eye Gnats (Hippelates spp.) in the Central San Joaquin Valley, California

An adult. Hippelates eye gnat survey was conducted in the San Joaquin Valley near Fresno, California, from March 1960 to March 1961. Collecting equipment and techniques included egg bait traps and human attractants. A reliable volumetric method of estimating numbers of eye gnats in large collections was developed. Hippelates collusor (Townsend), a highly anthropophilous species, was found in greatest numbers and was observed to be the most important pest of man. The second most numerous species trapped, H. robertsoni Sabrosky, was not an important pest of man. Small numbers of two minor species, H. dorsalis Loew and H. microcentrus coquillett, also were taken. The numbers of H. Collusor were related to average weekly temperatures throughout the year. The numbers of H. robertsoni increased with average weekly temperatures until the average temperatures exceeded 70° F., then declined. The threshold of gnat. activity in terms of average weekly temperature was approximately 50° F.
Coronary Ostial Anastomosis in Aortic Root Replacement

We describe reliable methods for coronary ostial anastomosis in aortic root replacement which are uncomplicated and provide a secure attachment of the coronary ostia.
Reliability and Validity of the 6 Minute Walk Test in Individuals with Facioscapulohumeral Dystrophy (P3.120)

Objective: To determine the reliability, relationship measures of disease, and consistency across sites of the 6 minute walk test (6MWT) in patients with facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD). Background: With the potential for targeted treatment in FSHD in the near future, establishment of relevant outcome measures is crucial. The 6MWT is a measure of sub-maximal exercise capacity that incorporates strength and endurance into a single test, and has become a standard outcome in various neuromuscular diseases. Methods: Genetically defined and clinically affected FSHD participants at the University of Rochester and Kennedy Krieger Institute performed measures of mobility and strength. The 6MWT, the Timed Up and Go (TUG) and the 30 foot go/Timed 10 meter test (10MT) were performed as measures of mobility at both sites using standard procedures. Strength was assessed using standard manual muscle testing. Results: 91 participants (57[percnt] male) with a mean age of 48.6 years (range= 18-84) performed mobility measures. The mean distanced walked during the 6MWT was 412.3 meters (range 61.3-653.7; standard deviation 127.4). The interclass correlation coefficient for test-retest reliability of the 6MWT was 0.99 (n=36). The 6MWT was correlated with lower extremity strength (n= 36; r=0.789; p<0.0001), the FSHD Clinical Score (n=76; r=0.585; p<0.001), and the 10MT (n=89; r= 0.775; p<0.0001). There were significant differences between sites with regard to age, TUG, and 10MT, however no significant differences were noted between sites in distance walked during the 6MWT or the FSHD clinical score. Conclusions: The 6MWT is a reliable measure of functional capacity for individuals with FSHD. No significant differences were noted in the mean distance walked during the 6MWT between sites. Assessing the sensitivity of the 6MWT will be important in determining its utility of as an outcome measure for future trials. Study Supported by: FSHD Society grant (FSHS-22013), NIAMS #U01AR065119, and CTSA #KL2TR000119 Disclosure: Dr. Eichinger has nothing to disclose. Dr. Heatwole has nothing to disclose. Dr. Heininger has nothing to disclose. Dr. Stinson has nothing to disclose. Dr. Wagner has nothing to disclose. Dr. Tawil has received personal compensation for activities with Acceleron, Atyr and Novartis. Dr. Statland has nothing to disclose.