cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Experimental Charge-Density Study of the Intra- and Intermolecular Bonding in TKX-50

The intra- and intermolecular bonding in the known phase of dihydroxylammonium 5,5′-bistetrazole-1,1′-diolate, TKX-50, has been analyzed on the basis of the experimentally determined charge density distribution from high-resolution X-ray diffraction data obtained at 20 K. This was compared to the charge density obtained from DFT calculations with periodic boundary conditions using both direct calculations and derived structure factors. Results of topological analysis of the electron density corroborate that TKX-50 is best described as a layered structure linked primarily by a number of hydrogen bonds as well as by a variety of other interactions. Additional bonding interactions were identified, including a pair of equivalent 1,5-type intramolecular closed-shell interactions in the dianion. Refinement of anharmonic motion was shown to be essential for obtaining an adequate model, despite the low temperature of the study. Although generally unusual, the implementation of anharmonic refinement provided a sig...
A study of X-divertor in NSTX-U with SOLPS simulations

The X-divertor (XD) geometry in NSTX-U is demonstrated, via SOLPS simulations, to perform better than the standard divertor (SD); in particular, it allows detachment at a lower upstream density and stabilizes the detachment front near the target, away from the main X-point. Consequently a stable detached operation becomes possible—the localization near the plate allows a vast reduction of heat fluxes without degrading the core plasma. Indeed, it is confirmed by our simulation that at similar states of detachment the XD outperforms the SD by reducing the heat fluxes to the target and maintaining higher upstream temperatures, resulting in scrape-off layers that are more favorable for advanced tokamak operation. These advantages are attributed to the unique geometric characteristics of XD—poloidal flaring near the target.
Stochastic dynamic resource allocation for HIV prevention and treatment: An approximate dynamic programming approach

Abstract Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a key global health concern, with 33 million people living with HIV worldwide and 2.7 million new infections occurring annually. To prevent the spread of this widely prevalent epidemic disease, prevention and treatment intervention strategies urgently need to be implemented. The goal of this study is to propose stochastic dynamic programming (SDP) and approximate dynamic programming (ADP) algorithms that will optimally allocate the limited intervention budget among the HIV disease compartments and determine the best set of interventions that should be applied to each disease compartment, while minimizing the number of HIV-infected and people diagnosed with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) as well as related deaths over a multi-year planning horizon. A compartmental model is constructed and formulated as a nonstationary Markov decision process (MDP) in order to capture the progression of the disease among the highest risk group—African American/black men who have sex with men (BMSM). In order to alleviate the computational difficulties arising from the exponentially growing state space in the SDP, we propose ADP algorithms that determine the approximately optimal budget allocation policies over six years. Our results suggest a greater allocation of the limited budget to prevention measures rather than treatment interventions, such as antiretroviral therapy (ART). As opposed to traditional policies that allocate the budget only once at the beginning of the time horizon, the ADP model suggests using a dynamic proportional budget strategy, allocating the budget dynamically over a multi-period planning period as the uncertainty in disease transmission is revealed. Results show that our ADP approach provides significant increases in health benefits and cost savings in HIV prevention and intervention.
Further Properties of Third Order Determinants

(1962). Further Properties of Third Order Determinants. Mathematics Magazine: Vol. 35, No. 5, pp. 304-304.
Amplified Detection of Chemical Warfare Agents Using Two-Dimensional Chemical Potential Gradients

Chemical warfare agents such as sarin are highly toxic, and detection of even trace levels is important. Using a hydrogel film containing a built-in two-dimensional chemical potential gradient, we ...
Double-Bodied Poet, Double-Bodied Poem

Ce travail est la premiere analyse d'une lecture radicale du Amaruśatakam, la celebre collection d'une centaine de poemes traditionnellement attribues a Amaruka ou Amaru. L'auteur examine d'abord en detail le commentaire de cette oeuvre par Ravicandra (XIXe siecle probablement) : la notion d'absence de passion qu'il lit dans le poeme; sa technique de doubler le texte qui etait considere jusque la en vers simples; la maniere dont il justifie cette pratique; et les facteurs qui rendent son oeuvre si unique dans la tradition des commentaires du sanskrit. Puis l'auteur se sert de ce commentaire pour explorer des considerations theoriques fondamentales pour l'interpretation de la litterature en sanskrit : la relation entre l'auteur et le texte, le role d'un commentateur dans la creation du sens, l'acceptation culturelle de certaines interpretations et leur contexte historique.
Engineering Design Applications

Applications of global optimization problems often arise when optimizing complex systems. Examples of such global optimization problems appear in engineering design where design problems are often highly nonlinear. The feasible region may be nonconvex and disconnected, and the functions may be nonconvex, nondifferentiable and even discontinuous. In addition, the decision variables may include both discrete and continuous variables. Many engineers are reporting success applying simulated annealing, genetic algorithms, evolutionary programming, hybrid methods, as well as variations of Improving Hit-and-Run and Hide-and-Seek to optimize complex engineering design problems.
Paraspinous muscle gene expression profiling following simulated staged endovascular repair of thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm: exploring potential therapeutic pathways.

Objectives Thoracic endovascular techniques for aneurysm repair offer less invasive alternatives to open strategies. Both approaches, however, are associated with the risk for neurological complications. Despite adjuncts to maintain spinal cord perfusion, ischaemia and paraplegia continue to occur during thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm (TAAA) repair. Staging of such extensive procedures has been proven to decrease the risk for spinal cord injury. Archived biopsy specimens may offer insight into the molecular signature of the reorganization and expansion of the spinal collateral network during staged endovascular interventions in the setting of TAAA. Methods Biological replicates of total RNA were isolated from existing paraspinous muscle samples from 22 Yorkshire pigs randomized to 1 of 3 simulated TAAA repair strategies as part of a previous study employing coil embolization of spinal segmental arteries within the thoracic and lumbar spine. Gene expression profiling was performed using the Affymetrix GeneChip Porcine array. Results Microarray analysis identified 649 differentially expressed porcine genes (≥1.3-fold change, P ≤ 0.05) when comparing paralysed and non-paralysed subjects. Of these, 355 were available for further analysis. When mapped to the human genome, 169 Homo sapiens orthologues were identified. Integrated interpretation of gene expression profiles indicated the significant regulation of transcriptional regulators (such as nuclear factor кB), cytokine (including CXCL12) elements contributing to hypoxia signalling in the cardiovascular system (vascular endothelial growth factor and UBE2) and cytoskeletal elements (like dystrophin (DMD) and matrix metallopeptidase (MMP)). Conclusions This study demonstrates the ability of microarray-based platforms to detect the differential expression of genes in paraspinous muscle during staged TAAA repair. Pathway enrichment analysis detected subcellular actors accompanying the neuroprotective effects of staged endovascular coiling. These observations provide new insight into the potential prognostic and therapeutic value of gene expression profiling in monitoring and modulating the arteriolar remodelling in the collateral network.
Abdominal Aorta and Renovisceral Arteries

Abstract The abdominal aorta and associated branch vessels are dynamic structures subjected to deformation from respiratory mechanics, pulsatile hemodynamics, and musculoskeletal movement. A variety of quantitative methods have been applied to better assess the geometric change that occurs in these arteries both in their native state and following complex endovascular repair. While unique temporal and directional changes in anatomy have begun to be enumerated, the clinical impact of these geometric deformations in the renovisceral segment remains poorly defined. This chapter begins to describe the longitudinal assessment of these anatomic changes with the aim of adding to our understanding of the natural history of vascular disease and the identification of potential failure mechanisms of current technology.
Software-Defined Events through PAPI

PAPI has been used for almost two decades as an abstraction and standardization layer for profiling hardware-specific performance metrics. However, application developers—and profiling software packages—are quite often interested in information beyond hardware counters, such as the behavior of libraries used by the software that is being profiled. So far, accessing this information has required interfacing directly with the libraries on a case-by-case basis, or low-level binary instrumentation. In this paper, we introduce the new Software-Defined Event (SDE) component of PAPI which aims to enable PAPI to serve as an abstraction and standardization layer for events that originate in software layers as well. Extending PAPI to include SDEs enables monitoring of both types of performance events—hardware-and software-related events—in a uniform way, through the same consistent PAPI interface. Furthermore, implementing SDE as a PAPI component means that the new API is aimed only at the library developers who wish to export events from within their libraries. The API for reading PAPI events—both hardware and software—remains the same, so all legacy codes and tools that use PAPI will not only continue to work, but they will automatically be able to read SDEs wherever those are available. The goal of this paper is threefold. First, we outline our design decisions regarding the functionality we offer through the new SDE interface, and offer simple examples of usage. Second, we illustrate how those events can be utilized by different software packages, specifically, by showcasing their use in the task-based runtime PaRSEC, and the HPCG supercomputing benchmark. Third, we provide a thorough performance analysis of the overhead that results from monitoring different types of SDEs, and showcase the negligible overhead of using PAPI SDE even in cases of extremely heavy use.
The Homology Groups \(H_{n}^{\varGamma }(E_{\mathcal{F}\mathcal{I}\mathcal{N}}(\varGamma ); \mathbb{K}\mathbb{Z}^{-\infty })\)

In this chapter, we compute the homology groups \(H_{n}^{\varGamma }(E_{\mathcal{F}\mathcal{I}\mathcal{N}}(\varGamma ); \mathbb{K}\mathbb{Z}^{-\infty })\), for all 73 split three-dimensional crystallographic groups.
The Dutch Revolt and the Pan-Protestant Literary Sphere

In 1578, an English veteran of the Dutch Wars surveyed the victory over the Spanish at the battle of Rijmenant and wrote: “The year of his redeemed is come: neither will he give over the field any more till he hath utterly destroyed his enemies… and given perpetual rest to Israel, according as it is writen.”
The changing profile of ankylosing spondylitis in the biologic era.

To compare disease characteristics, comorbidities, and medication utilization of 1141 patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) with short ( 8 years. Patients with AS enrolling in this multicenter longitudinal cohort have different disease profiles and medication utilization over time, perhaps reflecting innovations in treatment and increasing disease awareness.
Construction of equilibrium phase diagrams: some errors to be avoided

Abstract Guided by the laws of thermodynamics, phase diagrams can be constructed to display First Order phase transformations (Gibbsian), as well as Higher Order phase transitions (non-Gibbsian). We discuss one and two-component alloy systems in this paper. The principles of the construction of phase diagrams are presented and some of the documented construction errors mentioned in the literature that can arise in phase diagram construction are noted and discussed. We go on to discuss what have been termed “probable errors” of construction. These are constructions which could only arise from the application of highly unlikely solution thermodynamic expressions. We then discuss the application of the Third Law of Thermodynamics to illustrate how phase boundary extrapolations to low temperatures can sometimes be shown to be in error. In addition, errors which may arise in the construction of phase diagrams that include higher order thermodynamic transitions (e.g. magnetic or atomic ordering) are briefly mentioned. These construction rules and comments should be of help to scientists who rely on phase diagrams in the development of materials. Also, we hope that it will be of help to those who utilize computer programs and compilations to display their modeled phase diagrams properly.
An FSO-Based Drone Charging System for Emergency Communications

In a disaster struck area (DSA), macro base stations (MBSs) are usually damaged, and thus the wireless network becomes dysfunctional. To efficiently recover the communications, drone mounted base stations (DBSs) are deployed to relay data between the mobile users (MUs) in a DSA and working MBSs in the proximity of the DSA. However, a DBS may be deployed far away from a working MBS, thus limiting the backhaul link capacity between the DBS and the MBS. Also, the hovering time of current drones is limited, and thus caps the usage of DBSs. In order to increase the backhaul link capacity and prolong the hovering time of a DBS, we propose to apply free space optics to enable an MBS to simultaneously transmit data streams and energy to a DBS with high efficiency. The problem of jointly optimizing the DBS placement as well as the access link bandwidth allocation is formulated to maximize the hovering time of a DBS and guarantee the data rate requirements of the MUs. The join t band w idth allocat i on DB S placemen t (TWIST) algorithm is proposed to solve the problem. The performance of TWIST is demonstrated through simulations.
SUBSCRIBERS’ PREFERENCE TOWARDS MOBILE COMMUNICATION SERVICE – AN ANALYSIS

Fulfilling the preference of the subscribers is an important task to every marketer. As it is a competitive world, the retaing the subscribers is difficult job to the service providers. Today, preference of the subscribers varies from one to one. Due to huge competition in the service sector, there are so many service providers available. Therefore each and every service provider has to focus on lots of aspects in connection with subscriber’s’ preference. In that, the subscribers’ preference must be identified and fulfilled by the service providers. Thus the service providers need to focus on fulfilling the subscribers’ needs, wants and preference to maintain their position in the competitive market. As the success of the marker is depending upon the subscribers’ preference, the marketer should know it and try to fulfill it. This study analyses the subscribers’ preference towards mobile communication service in Tuticorin District.
Starch Granule Size and Morphology as a Proxy for Water Regime Influence on Zea mays

A wealth of information on the patterns of human subsistence and plant domestication has been generated from studies on maize (Zea mays) starch granules. However, very little work has been conducted on how the size and morphology of those granules might change as a function of water stress during the growing season. In the arid Southwest, the role of irrigation in growing maize is an essential parameter in many foraging models. Our study seeks to determine if there are significant changes in the size and other morphological attributes of starch granules from maize planted at Range Creek Canyon under two different irrigation regimes ranging from little water (once every three weeks) to ample water (once a day). Our results provide data on the effects of irrigation on Z. mays starch granules and, therefore, have implications for identifying archaeological maize and possibly determining past water regimes at Range Creek Canyon.
Rapid phenological change differs across four trophic levels over 15 years

The success of consumers often depends on synchronizing with their resources; however, recent climate change has affected the phenology of many species, resulting in mismatches and leading to community-wide changes. Field studies chronicling both the dynamics and behavior of four trophic levels seldom run for more than a few years, thereby bringing into question the longer term trajectories of these phenological shifts at multiple levels. Do these shifts between trophic levels remain constant over time, or do they continue to move apart? To address these questions, in 2004, I initiated a long-term study of the phenological relationships of two ferns, a host caterpillar (and its moth), its principal primary parasitoid wasp, and hyperparasitoid wasp. The study involves only a few species at each level, but they make up nearly all the members of the community. Ferns emerged progressively earlier in the spring, at rates exceeding one day per year, while moths eclosed roughly 0.6 days earlier per year, the primary parasitoid at 0.8 days earlier per year, and the hyperparasitoid fluctuated widely. Each of these changes fostered significant mismatches. Year-to-year changes of the moth and primary parasitoid varied much more than those of the ferns. In each instance, dates of last eclosions moved earlier more rapidly than did early eclosion dates, truncating their seasons. The extremely rapid, though variable, changes in phenology of the various trophic levels follow the unprecedentedly rapid temperature increase of the immediately adjacent Gulf of Maine.
How Do Clerkship Students Use EPA Data? Illuminating Students’ Perspectives as Partners in Programs of Assessment

The implementation of programs of assessment based on Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) offers an opportunity for students to obtain unique data to guide their ongoing learning and development. Although authors have explored factors that contribute to trust-based decisions, learners’ use of assessors’ decisions about the level of supervision they need has not been fully investigated. In this study, we conducted semi-structured interviews of clerkship students who participated in the first year of our EPA program to determine how they interpret and use supervision ratings provided in EPA assessments. Content analysis was performed using concept-driven and open coding. Nine interviews were completed. Twenty-two codes derived from previous work describing factors involved in trust decisions and 12 novel codes were applied to the interview text. Analyses revealed that students focus on written and verbal feedback from assessors more so than on supervision ratings. Axial coding revealed a temporal organization that categorized how students considered the data from EPA assessments. While factors before, during, and after an assessment affected students’ use of information, the relationship between the student and the assessor had impact throughout. Although students reported varying use of the supervision ratings, their perspectives about how assessors and students interact and/or partner before, during, and after assessments provide insights into the importance of an educational alliance in making a program of assessment meaningful and acceptable to learners.
Further evaluation of the Griess test to detect significant bacteriuria

Abstract The Griess test is a simple and inexpensive test which can be useful in detecting significant bacteriuria. The problem has been the high percentage of false negative values. In this study of 1,000 antepartum patients, 2 refinements of the Griess test were evaluated. One, the oral administration of potassium nitrate, did not increase the sensitivity of the Griess reaction. The second modification was to test the first morning urine specimen (which was refrigerated until brought to the clinic) and compare this with a urine specimen obtained in the clinic. This change allowed us to identify 96 per cent of patients with urinary tract infection (as defined), whereas only 55 per cent of these patients could be identified from the clinic specimen. Finally, once again the direct relationship between numbers of bacteria and a positive Griess reaction is demonstrated.
Glial loss in mood disorders and schizophrenia

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the evidence that there is a low density of glia in the frontal cortex and amygdala in mood disorders, and schizophrenia has accumulated from several sources. The evidence is now relatively strong, although it is still based on relatively few cases. It discusses that at present, there is better evidence that oligodendrocytes account for the glial deficit than astrocytes that could substantially affect the interpretation of the effect. An astrocytic deficit suggested the environment, within which neurons function might be compromised. Changes in astrocyte roles, such as buffering of extracellular K + , uptake of glutamate at synapses, and supplying metabolic intermediates to neurons, would alter neuronal excitability significantly. If the deficit is due to oligodendrocytes, it is more likely that there is an abnormality in myelinated axons. This could reflect either a difference in myelinated axons or a more dynamic effect on myelinating oligodendrocytes. Although myelin sheaths around axons are usually presumed to be static, there appears to be relatively little solid evidence that would rule out some degree of plasticity. Finally, other non-myelinating functions of oligodendrocytes could also be affected.
A Redundant Hierachical Structure for a Distributed Continuous Media Server

The growing number of digital audio and video repositories has resulted in a desperate need for effective techniques to deliver data to users in a timely manner. Due to geographical distribution of users, it is not cost effective to have a centralized media server. In this paper, we investigate issues involved in the design of a distributed video server (DVS) to support movie-on-demand (MOD) application. We propose a redundant hierarchical (RedHi) architecture for DVS where the nodes are continuous media servers and the edges are dedicated network lines. With RedHi, each node has two or more parents. We show that the redundant links in RedHi yield a more reliable and efficient system. Our simulation results demonstrate that RedHi can tolerate a single link failure with no degradation in performance while with pure hierarchy almost 2.5% of requests are rejected due to the failure. In normal mode of operation, RedHi outperforms pure hierarchy significantly (160% improvement on the average when counting the number of rejections). In the context of RedHi, we also propose and evaluate alternative object management policies, and load balancing heuristics.
Data from a variable rate shape high pressure injection system operating in an engine fed constant volume combustion chamber

In current systems, for a given nozzle and injection pressure (pump speed), the shape of the injection rate is fixed and the injection timing is the only variable the engine designer can vary. For this non-interactive injection system, changing the injector nozzle (number and diameter of holes) will proportionately change the injection shape. new injection systems in which the rate of injection is a controlled variable are being developed. Results from one such injector, called the UCORS (Universal Combustion Optimization and Rate Shaping), are reported in this paper. The system can dynamically control its injection rate shape by controlling the position and size of the pilot injection relative to the main injection. Data and analysis from an out-of-engine and combustion chamber study of the UCORS injection system are presented. Experimental techniques include rate tracing, high speed photography, two-color pyrometry, and combustion pressure tracing. Results indicate that rate shaping does change the combustion chamber heat release rate. Combustion temperatures were insensitive and soot concentrations (KL) were tremendously sensitive to the injection rate shape. For our experiments, greater soot oxidation occurred as the pilot was positioned closer to the main injection. The lowest end state concentration occurred when the pilot and main more » injection were equally sized and positioned 0.83 ms apart. « less
The Dynamic Relationship between State Party Organizational Strength and Electoral Outcomes

The empirical relationship between party organizational strength and electoral outcomes has important implications for our understanding of democratic political systems, as well as practical implications for party officials. I explore this relationship using fundraising from private sources as a measure of state party organizational strength, and electoral outcomes for state legislature in 43 states during the 2002-2008 election cycles. I find that contributions to state party committees both affect seats won in elections for state legislature and are affected by the share of seats currently held. Simulations show that various exogenous events that might improve the fortunes of a state party have different short and longer term consequences for both contributions and seat shares. The most cost-effective tactic for improving the fortunes of a minority party is likely to be recruiting a single, attractive candidate for statewide office.
Some recent work on traffic performance modeling and channel borrowing for cellular communications

Two major aspects of our work in the area of mobile communications are described. The first is the development of a mathematical framework for modeling teletraffic performance of cellular communications. The approach which is based on multidimensional birth-death processes enables the formulation of analytically tractable models to investigate teletraffic characteristics of many important configurations. A fair amount of physical complexity can be accommodated. The methodology can be used for systems with single and multiple call platforms, various priority schemes for hand-offs, mixed platform types having different mobility characteristics in the same system, mixed call types (voice, data, images, etc.) in the same system, loss, delay and hybrid type service systems, quotas and limits on platform types and on call, types, as well as hierarchically overlaid cellular structures. The second aspect is a family of channel borrowing and sharing schemes for cellular communications which we call CBWL (channel borrowing without locking). The scheme which can be easily managed and implemented allows the real time shifting of spectral resources to accomodate call demands. The result is increased capacity at a given blocking probability.
A lead/liquid scintillator calorimeter for low energy particle detection

A lead/liquid scintillator "shashlik" electro-magnetic calorimeter prototype was built and tested. The calorimeter was read out by wave-length shifting optical fibers, running from front to back of the calorimeter, coupled to photomultiplier tubes. The calorimeter was tested at Brookhaven National Laboratory with negative pion and electron beams of momenta between 0.3 and 7.0 GeV/c. The light yield of the calorimeter was measured to be greater than 500 photoelectrons per GeV of incident electromagnetic energy. Analysis shows excellent linearity (better than 2%), an energy resolution of 9%//spl radic/E, and a position resolution of 6 mm//spl radic/E. This technique can be used to produce large low-cost electromagnetic calorimeters with very fine depth segmentation.
LXXVIII. Some observations on the electrolysis of salts

(1843). LXXVIII. Some observations on the electrolysis of salts. The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science: Vol. 22, No. 147, pp. 461-467.
Moonlight's influence on predator/prey interactions between short-eared owls (Asio flammeus) and deermice (Peromyscus maniculatus)

This study examines the effect of moonlight intensity on deermouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) vulnerability to predation by short-eared owls (Asio flammeus).
Sialyl‐tn antigen expression in Crohn's colitis

SUMMARY : Expression of the mucin-associated sialyl-Tn (STn) antigen is correlated with malignant progression in the colon. In patients with longstanding ulcerative colitis (UC) who never exhibited colonic dysplasia, STn was expressed in fewer than 15% of nondysplastic surveillance colonoscopic biopsies, whereas matched patients who developed colon cancer expressed STn in >40% of previous surveillance biopsies, often several years before the first detection of dysplasia. Since no study has systematically examined STn expression in Crohn's colitis, we performed immunohistochemical staining with monoclonal antibody TKH2 on 110 surgical specimens from 59 patients with Crohn's colitis or ileocolitis. Forty percent of specimens expressed STn antigen. STn was preferentially expressed in specimens of the left colon, regardless of whether the patient had segmental left-sided disease or pancolitis. Specimens with active inflammation manifested increased STn expression, regardless of location in the colon or whether the patient had segmental disease or pancolitis. The enhanced expression of STn in Crohn's colitis compared with UC may reflect important differences in local cytokine profiles between the two inflammatory bowel diseases.
Visual field defects in monkeys.

IT is well known that destruction of part of the visual striate cortex in man leads to a visual field defect1,2. The defect is usually described as an area of total blindness although some workers believe that a slight sensitivity to light remains throughout its extent3. The existence of such field defects in man has provided powerful support for the theory of point-to-point projection of the retina to the striate cortex.
Brewing bachelors: the history of the University of Newark

Locating denominational colleges and state and land grant universities away from major American cities created a growing need for urban higher education institutions in the early twentieth century. Religious denominations, municipal authorities, and entrepreneurs opened colleges and professional schools in many US cities to meet the demand. The proprietary New Jersey Law School – opened in 1908 – added other divisions, shifted to non‐profit status, relocated to a former brewery, and merged with competing local institutions to form the University of Newark in 1936. This “streetcar college” served thousands of working‐class and immigrant students during its 37‐year history. But, unlike other streetcar colleges, its politically left‐of‐centre administration and faculty took on local and regional power centres – a stance that harmed its economic viability. The University of Newark survived the Great Depression, but merged with Rutgers University, the state university of New Jersey, in 1945. Today’s Rutgers‐Ne...
The pathology of infection with Schistosomatium douthitti in the laboratory mouse and the meadow vole, Microtus pennsylvanicus.

Abstract Laboratory mice and meadow voles ( Microtus pennsylvanicus ) were infected with Schistosomatium douthitti , a natural rodent schistosome. Mice developed marked and often fatal clinical schistosomiasis, with infections which produced no signs of disease in voles. Naturally infected meadow voles also showed no sign of clinical schistosomiasis even when harbouring a worm burden of several hundred adult S. douthitti . Examination of tissues of infected animals showed that, despite wide individual variations, each host species developed a characteristic granulomatous response to the schistosome ova. The histopathological responses of wild voles to the parasite ova did not differ from those of the experimentally infected M. pennsylvanicus . In both cases eggs commonly became surrounded by compact giant cell masses, and there was minimal fibrosis, whereas in mice, large epithelioid granulomas were more frequent, and extensive fibrosis occurred around the eggs and in periportal areas. The findings are discussed in terms of variations in pathogenicity of mammalian schistosomes in domesticated animals and models for human schistosomiasis.
Conflict and cooperation in U.S.‐Mexican labor relations: The north American agreement on labor cooperation

This paper: (1) describes the institutions and mechanisms that have been created in North America under the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC) to address labor standards issues as free trade and closer economic cooperation proceeds; and (2) provides an interim assessment of the performance of those institutions and mechanisms. The paper concludes that the experiences of the first eighteen months of implementation of the NAALC have been very positive, with the key institutions fully operational and the mechanisms already beginning to generate cooperative activities and a tripartite dialogue that is bound to have a positive impact on the well being of workers of all three nations.
Inhibition of cellular transport systems by alkyl phospholipid analogs in HL-60 human leukemia cells.

Abstract Specific non-metabolizable alkyl-phospholipids selectively kill neoplastic cells, yet normal and more differentiated cells are relatively resistant. Although these highly selective anticancer lipids appear to target the cell membrane, their mechanism of cytotoxic action remains to be defined. We report here that treatment of ‘sensitive’ HL-60 leukemia cells with one of the most potent lipid agents, 1-alkyl-2-methoxy-glycero-3-phosphocholine, inhibits the cellular transport of multiple essential nutrients including choline, amino acids, fatty acids, and the non-metabolizable carbohydrate, 2-deoxy- d -glucose. Minimal inhibitory responses of the varied transport systems were noted in HL-60 cells treated with the less potent, 2-lyso analog, and in ‘resistant’ K562 leukemia cells, treated with the 2-methoxy lipid. Although both the 2-methoxy lipid and 12-tetradacanoylphorbol 13-acetate induce differentiation in HL-60 cells, significant differences in the interactions of these lipids on cellular choline transport were found. Based on these results, we conclude that multiple nutrient deprivation induced by the detergent-like action of the methoxy-containing alkyl phospholipid results in the selective destruction of neoplastic cells that are sensitive to this membrane-targeted antitumor agent.
Objective Measures To Evaluate The Performance Of Reconstruction Algorithms

The relationships of three objective performance measures for the evaluation of image reconstruction algorithms are presented. Two of them are physical metrics - distance and relative error. The third is a numerical observer performance measure. In a demonstration project, three reconstruction algorithms are evaluated on the basis of a specific task using the above measures. Based on a similarity measure between the rank orderings of 30 reconstructions by the performance measures, relative error is seen to have a significant similarity to numerical observer performance. The similarity between distance and numerical observer performance is considerably less. The following hypothesis appears to be worthy of further investigation: judicious use of simple physical metrics, in place of more elaborate and complicated measures, can in certain circumstances be an attractive alternative method for evaluating image reconstruction algorithms.
Population-genomic insights into the evolutionary origin and fate of obligately asexual Daphnia pulex

Despite much theoretical work, the molecular-genetic causes and evolutionary consequences of asexuality remain largely undetermined. Asexual animal species are rare, evolutionarily short-lived, and thought to suffer mutational meltdown as a result of lack of recombination. Whole-genome analysis of 11 sexual and 11 asexual genotypes of Daphnia pulex indicates that current asexual lineages are in fact very young, exhibit no signs of purifying selection against accumulating mutations, and have extremely high rates of gene conversion and deletion. The reconstruction of chromosomal haplotypes in regions containing SNP markers associated with asexuality (chromosomes VIII and IX) indicates that introgression from a sister species, Daphnia pulicaria, underlies the origin of the asexual phenotype. Silent-site divergence of the shared chromosomal haplotypes of asexuals indicates that the spread of asexuality is as recent as 1,250 y, although the origin of the meiosis-suppressing element or elements could be substantially older. In addition, using previous estimates of the gene conversion rate from Daphnia mutation accumulation lines, we are able to age each asexual lineage. Although asexual lineages originate from wide crosses that introduce elevated individual heterozygosities on clone foundation, they also appear to be constrained by the inbreeding-like effect of loss of heterozygosity that accrues as gene conversion and hemizygous deletion expose preexisting recessive deleterious alleles of asexuals, limiting their evolutionary longevity. Our study implies that the buildup of newly introduced deleterious mutations (i.e., Muller’s ratchet) may not be the dominant force imperiling nonrecombining populations of D. pulex, as previously proposed.
Environmental toxins and neurodegenerative diseases: a challenge for epidemiologists.

In this issue of the journal, Steenland et al1 address the possible toxic effects of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) on neurodegenerative diseases. Evidence from animal and cell studies suggest that some pesticides can cause selective degeneration that resembles Parkinson disease.2 However, the role of PCBs is poorly understood. PCBs can cause oxidative stress and disrupt neuronal function by inhibiting dopamine uptake into synaptic vesicles, thus mechanistically linking them to Parkinson disease.3,4 Environmental toxins also may contribute to motor neuron demise in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), with more equivocal links to Alzheimer dementia.5 Epidemiologists studying toxic agents and neurodegenerative diseases have been hampered by at least 2 factors. One is the lack of disease registries that could enable population-based case–control studies, and another is the lack of large cohort studies with extensive occupational or environmental exposure information and enough well-characterized cases. Steenland and colleagues make a laudable effort with this first occupational cohort study of workers highly exposed to PCBs. The authors used state-of-the-science exposure assessment, including the use of biomarker data to inform a job–exposure matrix. Unfortunately, they had to rely on mortality information for assessing outcomes. As the authors note, death certificates severely underreport Parkinson disease and may not perform much better for Alzheimer disease. Ideally, a cohort study of neurodegenerative diseases would maintain procedures to identify and phenotypically characterize incident cases. This is labor- and cost-intensive and presents a burden to study participants. In retrospective studies, it is usually is not possible. Even though the authors were able to combine 3 cohorts of PCB workers, the number of cases identified was too small for internal comparisons. Also, the study leaves readers and the authors wondering why the positive findings are limited to female workers, even though Parkinson disease and ALS generally affect men more commonly.6,7 A possible answer might lie in the contributions of gene–environment interactions, which have been widely discussed and will have to be taken into account in future studies. Finally, this study reminds us that for relatively rare diseases, human research will continue to suffer from small numbers of cases in any single study. Data pooling across population-based studies with adequate exposure assessment will be needed to advance this field. Steenland et al make 2 good steps in this direction—one by their occupational analysis and the other by pooling several cohorts to create the study sample in the first place.
Making warps from bars and haloes

On montre que certaines orbites dans les plans principaux d'un puits de potentiel triaxial sont instables vis-a-vis des oscillations perpendiculaires a ces plans. Cela suggere que si une galaxie possede une barre centrale ou un halo invisible triaxial, le disque peut se gauchir. On etudie la reponse d'un disque galactique massif a une variete de potentiels triaxiaux, en utilisant a la fois des simulations numeriques et des methodes analytiques
K-Ar ages of Pleistocene rhyolitic volcanism in the Coso Range, California

Rhyolite domes and rhyolite and basalt flows near Coso Hot Springs in the Coso Range, California, give K-Ar ages that range from about 0.04 ± 0.02 m.y. to 0.96 ± 0.19 m.y. Most of the units appear to be between 0.05 and 0.15 m.y. old. The total volume of erupted rhyolitic magma is about 2.4 km 3 . The age, volume, and composition of these volcanic rocks indicate that the Coso volcanic field is a potential geothermal resource area.
Vertical change in osseous and odontic portions of human face height between the ages of 5 and 15 years.

Abstract Four skeletal subdivisions of human anterior face height have been investigated during a decade of childhood and adolescence: (1) nasal height, (2) maxillary subnasal height, (3) dental height, and (4) mandibular height. The subjects, twenty white boys and twenty white girls, were judged to have acceptable occlusion of the dental arches at all ages from 5 to 15 years. Serial norma lateralis roentgenograms of each subject constituted the source materials. Measurements were made at right angles to the Frankfort horizontal, between levels drawn parallel with the Frankfort horizontal through nasion, the tip of the anterior nasal spine, the upper alveolo-incisor junction, the lower alveolo-incisor junction, and menton. Analyses of the data from this four-segment partitioning of anterior face height yield findings on (1) the size of each osseous and dental segment at biennial ages from 5 years to 15 years, (2) the contribution of each segment to total face height at different ages between 5 years and 15 years, (3) the absolute and proportionate change in size of each segment during the decade between the ages of 5 years and 15 years, (4) relationships among the four facial height segments at selected ages, (5) associations with respect to the size of a given segment at two ages a decade apart, (6) associations with respect to change in the size of a given segment during two quadrenniums of childhood and youth, and (7) illustrative size and change combinations of the four segments in individual boys and girls. Methods used previously in studying components of anterior face height have been reviewed, and the results of prior and present research have been compared.
Implications of repeated trinexapac-ethyl applications on Kentucky bluegrass

Reducing turfgrass clipping production is often the goal of managers who recognize the need to save time, money, or landfill space. The objective of this study was to investigate the long-term implications of repeated trinexapac-ethyl [4-(cyclopropyl-α-hydroxy-methylene)-3, 5-dioxocyclohexanecarboxylic acid ethyl ester] applications at two fertility levels (150 and 300 kg N ha -1 yr -1 ) on Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis L.). Trinexapac-ethyl (TE) was applied at 0.17, 0.23, or 0.29 kg a.i. ha -1 every 4 wk or at 0.23, 0.29, or 0.34 kg a.i. ha -1 every 6 wk for three growing seasons. Clippings were reduced by 22 to 41% when TE was applied every 4 wk (five applications per season) from May through August, and turfgrass quality was improved. A 6-wk application schedule (four applications per season) did not reduce clipping production as consistently as the 4-wk application schedule due to a postsuppression rebound effect. Nitrogen fertility above 150 kg N ha -1 yr -1 was not necessary to maintain excellent turfgrass quality. Turf treated with TE consistently displayed better visual quality than untreated turf regardless of the TE application rate. Repeated applications of TE resulted in less dollar spot disease (Sclerotinia homeocarpa F.T. Bennett). Applications of TE not only reduced Kentucky bluegrass clipping production but were also effective in managing turfgrass growth. The postsuppression rebound effect can be utilized to manipulate turfgrass growth, allowing the turf to grow rapidly when it is beneficial to do so. No deleterious implications were observed following repeated TE applications.
Constructing gene association networks for rheumatoid arthritis using the backward genotype-trait association (BGTA) algorithm

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA, MIM 180300) is a common and complex inflammatory disorder. The North American Rheumatoid Arthritis Consortium (NARAC) data, as part of the Genetic Analysis Workshop 15 data, consists of both genome scan and candidate gene studies on RA patients. We applied the backward genotype-trait association (BGTA) algorithm to capture marginal and gene × gene interaction effects of multiple susceptibility loci on RA disease status. A two-stage screening approach was used for the genome scan, whereas a comprehensive study of all possible subsets was conducted for the candidate genes. For the genome scan, we constructed an association network among 39 genetic loci that demonstrated strong signals, 19 of which have been reported in the RA literature. For the candidate genes, we found strong signals for PTPN22 and SUMO4. Based on significant association evidence, we built an association network among the loci of PTPN22, PADI4, DLG5, SLC22A4, SUMO4, and CARD15. To control for false positives, we used permutation tests to constrain the family-wise type I error rate to 1%. Using the BGTA algorithm, we identified genetic loci and candidate genes that were associated with RA susceptibility and association networks among them. For the first time, we report possible interactions between single-nucleotide polymorphisms/genes, which may be useful for biological interpretation.
Terror tracker system: a web portal for terrorism research

Terrorism research has fast become one of the more important fields in research of late. Researchers need to be able to quickly make connections from vast storehouses of publicly available resources. The problem of information overload rapidly becomes one of the central challenges to existing information retrieval systems. Commercial search engines are far too generally scoped to be of much assistance to terrorism researchers. We believe that a narrowly focused vertical search engine coupled with several novel information-organization features will dramatically change the current terrorism research landscape. We introduce the Terror Tracker System (TTS) as our answer to addressing many of the current overload problems