cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Deciphering the combinatorial architecture of a Drosophila homeotic gene enhancer

In Drosophila, the 330 kb bithorax complex regulates cellular differentiation along the anterior–posterior axis during development in the thorax and abdomen and is comprised of three homeotic genes: Ultrabithorax, abdominal-A, and Abdominal-B. The expression of each of these genes is in turn controlled through interactions between transcription factors and a number of cis-regulatory modules in the neighboring intergenic regions. In this study, we examine how the sequence architecture of transcription factor binding sites mediates the functional activity of one of these cis-regulatory modules. Using computational, mathematical modeling and experimental molecular genetic approaches we investigate the IAB7b enhancer, which regulates Abdominal-B expression specifically in the presumptive seventh and ninth abdominal segments of the early embryo. A cross-species comparison of the IAB7b enhancer reveals an evolutionarily conserved signature motif containing two FUSHI-TARAZU activator transcription factor binding sites. We find that the transcriptional repressors KNIRPS, KRUPPEL and GIANT are able to restrict reporter gene expression to the posterior abdominal segments, using different molecular mechanisms including short-range repression and competitive binding. Additionally, we show the functional importance of the spacing between the two FUSHI-TARAZU binding sites and discuss the potential importance of cooperativity for transcriptional activation. Our results demonstrate that the transcriptional output of the IAB7b cis-regulatory module relies on a complex set of combinatorial inputs mediated by specific transcription factor binding and that the sequence architecture at this enhancer is critical to maintain robust regulatory function.
Exploratory Investigation of Nanomaterials to Improve Strength and Permeability of Concrete

Concrete containing various supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) such as silica fume, fly ash, and slag has improved properties. Nanomaterials, new SCMs with possible applications in concrete, have the smallest particle size (less than 100 nm). Nanomaterials are reactive because of the small size and large surface area of the particles, and they have great potential in improving concrete properties such as compressive strength and permeability. This study evaluates the use of a variety of nanomaterials in concrete compared with conventional concrete and concrete containing common SCMs. The potential benefits of using nanomaterials over other SCMs are high reactivity and cost-effectiveness; in addition, smaller amounts are necessary, resulting in less cement replacement. Concretes containing nanosilica and nanoclay were prepared in the laboratory. They were compared with concretes containing silica fume, fly ash, slag, or only portland cement. Specimens were tested for compressive strength and perme...
High pressure model studies of oil recovery by carbon dioxide

Linear scaled physical model studies were designed and carried out to study the recovery of crude oil by the injection of carbon dioxide. The basic prototype considered in this study is a homogeneous reservoir with a permeability of 20 millidarcies and a distance between injector and producer of 462 feet and an equivalent thickness of 28 feet. The results reveal that two factors dominate the recovery process: the high mobility of the carbon dioxide, and its solubility in the subject crude oil. The latter in turn appears to be a function of the density of the carbon dioxide. 22 refs.
ASIC Design and Verification in an FPGA Environment

A unified algorithm-architecture-circuit co-design environment for dedicated signal processing hardware is presented. The approach is based on a single design description in the graphical Matlab/Simulink environment that is used for FPGA emulation, ASIC design, verification and chip testing. This unified description enables system designer with a visibility through several layers of design hierarchy down to circuit level to select the optimal architecture. The tool flow propagates up circuit-level performance and power estimates to rapidly evaluate architecture-level tradeoffs. The common Simulink design description minimizes errors in translation of the design between different descriptions, and eases the verification burden. The FPGA used for emulation can be used as a low-cost tool for testing of the fabricated ASIC. The approach is demonstrated on an ASIC for 4times4 MIMO signal processing.
Performance of First Structure Built with High-Performance Concrete in Virginia:

The preparation and placement operations, concrete properties, costeffectiveness, and 5-year performance were evaluated for the first bridge containing high-performance concrete built by the Virginia Department of Transportation. High-performance concrete was used in the prestressed beams and cast-in-place substructure and deck concrete. The concrete in the beams contained silica fume, and the concrete in the cast-in-place substructure and deck contained slag. A high compressive strength was specified for the prestressed beams, normal strengths were specified for the cast-in-place substructure and deck concretes, and low permeability was specified for all concretes. Steam-cured specimens for the beams had high early strengths, but moist-cured specimens developed high long-term strengths. The permeability was much lower than specified. Concretes were easily placed, and the strengths were higher than specified. The structure was monitored during construction and surveyed after construction and at 5 years. S...
Integration of protein motions with molecular networks reveals different mechanisms for permanent and transient interactions

The integration of molecular networks with other types of data, such as changing levels of gene expression or protein-structural features, can provide richer information about interactions than the simple node-and-edge representations commonly used in the network community. For example, the mapping of 3D-structural data onto networks enables classification of proteins into singlish- or multi-interface hubs (depending on whether they have >2 interfaces). Similarly, interactions can be classified as permanent or transient, depending on whether their interface is used by only one or by multiple partners. Here, we incorporate an additional dimension into molecular networks: dynamic conformational changes. We parse the entire PDB structural databank for alternate conformations of proteins and map these onto the protein interaction network, to compile a first version of the Dynamic Structural Interaction Network (DynaSIN). We make this network available as a readily downloadable resource file, and we then use it to address a variety of downstream questions. In particular, we show that multi-interface hubs display a greater degree of conformational change than do singlish-interface ones; thus, they show more plasticity which perhaps enables them to utilize more interfaces for interactions. We also find that transient associations involve smaller conformational changes than permanent ones. Although this may appear counterintuitive, it is understandable in the following framework: as proteins involved in transient interactions shuttle between interchangeable associations, they interact with domains that are similar to each other and so do not require drastic structural changes for their activity. We provide evidence for this hypothesis through showing that interfaces involved in transient interactions bind fewer classes of domains than those in a control set.
Fine Mapping of Loci Linked to Autoimmune Thyroid Disease Identifies Novel Susceptibility Genes

Context: Genetic factors play a major role in the etiology of autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD) including Graves' disease (GD) and Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT). We have previously identified three loci on chromosomes 10q, 12q, and 14q that showed strong linkage with AITD, HT, and GD, respectively. Objectives: The objective of the study was to identify the AITD susceptibility genes at the 10q, 12q, and 14q loci. Design and Participants: Three hundred forty North American Caucasian AITD patients and 183 healthy controls were studied. The 10q, 12q, and 14q loci were fine mapped by genotyping densely spaced single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) using the Illumina GoldenGate genotyping platform. Case control association analyses were performed using the UNPHASED computer package. Associated SNPs were reanalyzed in a replication set consisting of 238 AITD patients and 276 controls. Results: Fine mapping of the AITD locus, 10q, showed replicated association of the AITD phenotype (both GD and HT) with SNP rs6479...
Integration of Technical Projects with Larger Political and Economic Contexts

The first chapter of this volume, written by Drs. Lystsov and Khlopkin, identified the major problems facing Russia today regarding the safe disposition of radioactive wastes produced by the operations and decommissioning of Russian nuclear submarines in the Arctic North. Many of the remaining chapters then discuss existing procedures and technologies that can be applied to the removal, processing, storage, and transport of spent nuclear fuel and liquid and solid radioactive wastes. These analyses come after many studies identifying the sites and extent of contamination in the region. [5,6,7,9] One of the conclusions reached at the NATO Advanced Research Workshop in Kirkenes, from which these papers are taken, was that many of the technologies already exist to resolve current radioactive waste problems in the Arctic North.
A steroid-mimicking nanomaterial that mediates inhibition of human lung mast cell responses

Abstract Water-soluble fullerenes can be engineered to regulate activation of mast cells (MC) and control MC-driven diseases in vivo . To further understand their anti-inflammatory mechanisms a C 70 -based fullerene conjugated to four myo -inositol molecules (C 70 -I) was examined in vitro for its effects on the signaling pathways leading to mediator release from human lung MC. The C 70 -I fullerene stabilizes MC and acts synergistically with long-acting β 2 -adrenergic receptor agonists (LABA) to enhance inhibition of MC mediator release through FceRI-simulation. The inhibition was paralleled by the upregulation of dual-specificity phosphatase one (DUSP1) gene and protein levels. Concomitantly, increases in MAPK were blunted in C 70 -I treated cells. The increase in DUSP1 expression was due to the ability of C 70 -I to prevent the ubiquitination and degradation of DUSP1. These findings identify a mechanism of how fullerenes inhibit inflammatory mediator release from MC and suggest they could potentially be an alternative therapy for steroid resistant asthmatics. From the Clinical Editor This study investigates the role and mechanism of action of fullerenes in deactivating mast cell-based inflammation, paving the way to the development of a novel, non-steroid therapy in reactive airway disease.
Acute pre-renal failure: acquired chloride diarrhea after bowel resection

A 58-year old male with a history of small bowel resection and ileostomy presented with severe dehydration and high ostomy output. Laboratory investigation indicated hypochloremia, hypokalemia, hyponatremia, metabolic alkalosis, chloride-rich diarrhea, acute renal failure, and low urinary chloride excretion. Due to striking similarities to congenital chloridorrhea (CCD) reported in neonates, we empirically diagnosed acquired chloridorrhea (ACD, chloride diarrhea). This is a rare disorder resulting in profuse chloride-rich diarrhea and classic metabolic derangements affecting adults with chronic intestinal inflammation, often in association with bowel surgery. In this report, we review the relevant literature and discuss the genetic defects likely contributing to both the congenital and acquired forms of chloridorrhea.
Thermal Aware Clocktree Optimization in Nanometer VLSI Systems Considering Temperature Variations

This paper proposed an accurate yet efficient clocktree synthesis algorithm that tolerates the temperature variation in the nanometer very large scale integration (VLSI) systems. Observing that there exists the correlation between input thermal power and temperature, we propose a clustered perturbation based parameterization to compactly generate a clocktree model considering the temperature variation. Moreover, using a structured and parameterized model reduction, an accurate worst case skew can be efficiently obtained from a transient simulation, which provides both nominal temperatures at those sinks and their sensitivities with respect to the changes of merging points. With the use of the sensitivities from the macromodel, a thermal aware routing based clocktree optimization is performed level by level. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm reduces up to 1.7X- 5X worst case skew in comparison to the existing approaches.
Harpin induces disease resistance in Arabidopsis through the systemic acquired resistance pathway mediated by salicylic acid and the NIM1 gene

Harpin, the product of the hrpN gene of Erwinia amylovora, elicits the hypersensitive response and disease resistance in many plants. Harpin and known inducers of systemic acquired resistance (SAR) were tested on five genotypes of Arabidopsis thaliana to assess the role of SAR in harpin-induced resistance. In wild-type plants, harpin elicited systemic resistance to Peronospora parasitica and Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato, accompanied by induction of the SAR genes PR-1 and PR-2. However, in experiments with transgenic Arabidopsis plants containing the nahG gene which prevents accumulation of salicylic acid (SA), harpin neither elicited resistance nor activated SAR gene expression. Harpin also failed to activate SAR when applied to nim1 (non-inducible immunity) mutants, which are defective in responding to SA and regulation of SAR. In contrast, mutants compromised in responsiveness to methyl jasmonate and ethylene developed the same resistance as did wild-type plants. Thus, harpin elicits disease resistance through the NIM1-mediated SAR signal transduction pathway in an SA-dependent fashion. The site of action of harpin in the SAR regulatory pathway is upstream of SA.
Sphingolipids and Transient Receptor Potential Channels Evolutionarily Ancient Families Now Joined

See related article, pages 1381–1389 Sphingolipids are one of three main classes of lipids in the cell membrane, the others being glycerolipids and sterols. Whereas sphingolipids were initially considered to act only as structural components of biological membranes, recent studies have shown that they also act as both first and second messengers in a variety of signaling pathways and have important roles in membrane microdomains called “lipid rafts.”1 Like the other classes of lipids, sphingolipids exhibit an enormous combinatorial structural diversity that enables functional specialization. At present, functional roles in signal transduction pathways have been elucidated mainly for the simpler sphingolipids, ceramide, sphingosine, and spingosine-1-phospate (S1P). The sphingolipid metabolite, S1P, is an evolutionarily ancient signaling molecule that functions in plants, yeast, and mammals. Its conserved actions across phylogenetic systems is consistent with important biological roles. In higher eukaryotes, S1P is the ligand for a family of 5 G protein–coupled receptors. These S1P receptors are differentially expressed, coupled to various G proteins, and regulate angiogenesis, vascular maturation, cardiac development, and immunity, and are important for directed cell movement.2 Similarly, the transient receptor potential (TRP) proteins, originally discovered in the fruit fly Drosophila , comprise a family of evolutionarily ancient effector molecules.3–6 TRP channels are activated by diverse non–voltage-dependent mechanisms, and appear to form many of the non–voltage-gated cationic channels found in a variety of cells. They mediate transmembrane flux of cations down their electrochemical gradients, thereby raising intracellular Na+ and Ca2+ concentrations, resulting in depolarization of the …
Case finding for refractive errors: assessment of refractive error and visual impairment in children.

The World Health Organization informal planning meeting, in July 2000, clearly indicated that detailed comparisons of refractive error prevalence across study reports are generally not possible because of different measurement methods and definitions.1 Further, because most studies are carried out using samples of unknown representativeness, interpretation of the findings in a population-based context has problems.
Control Sampling Strategies for Case-Crossover Studies: An Assessment of Relative Efficiency

The case-crossover study design is a method to assess the effect of transient exposures on the risk of onset of acute events. Control information for each case is based on his/her past exposure experience, and a self-matched analysis is conducted. Empiric evaluation of five approaches to the analysis of case-crossover data from a study of heavy physical exertion and acute myocardial infarction onset is shown. The data presented are from the Onset Study, a case-crossover study of the determinants of myocardial infarction onset conducted in 45 centers from August 1989 to October 1992. In model 1, exactly one control period (matched on clock-time) was sampled per case. In models 2-4, up to 25 control periods were sampled, and the effect of clock-time on the baseline hazard of infarction was modeled. In model 5, a census of the person-time experienced by each subject over the year preceding the infarction was sampled. The 95% confidence interval for model 1 was 2.7 times wider, and the relative efficiency, defined as v infinity/vM, where vM represents the asymptotic variance estimate of the estimated log relative risk with M control periods sampled per case, was only about 14% of model 5. In models 2-4, the efficiency increased with the number of control periods, regardless of the modeling assumptions. Even with many control periods sampled, models 2-4 achieved only half the efficiency of model 5. The control sampling strategy in any given case-crossover study should be selected with the trade-offs between precision and potential biases of the estimates in mind.
Dual-Sampling Skewed CMOS Design for Soft-Error Tolerance

Presented is a circuit technique that mitigates the impact of single-event transient (SET) in deep submicrometer circuits with minimal speed, power, and area penalty. The technique combines a novel dual-sampling flip-flop (DSFF) and the skewed CMOS (SCMOS) circuit style. The DSFF and SCMOS are designed to eliminate SETs with the polarity of 1rarr0 and 0rarr1, respectively. We study inverter chain circuits as well as sum-of-products implementation of random logic circuits in a typical 0.18-mum process under the influence of radiation induced soft errors. We quantify the SET tolerance of the proposed technique by using an error map and a recently developed tool soft-error rate analyzer (SERA). The results show that the DSFF incurs no speed penalty, if no SETs have reached the input of DSFF. Otherwise, the DSFF alone eliminates the 1rarr0 SETs while incurring a worst case speed and power penalty of 310 ps and 39 muW, respectively. The SCMOS eliminates the 0rarr1 SETs when the skewing factor is greater than four. Thus, the proposed technique potentially eliminates the impact of SETs with both polarities
Evaluation of Methods To Identify the Klebsiella pneumoniae Carbapenemase in Enterobacteriaceae

The Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenem (KPC) β-lactamase occurs in Enterobacteriaceae and can confer resistance to all β-lactam agents including carbapenems. The enzyme may confer low-level carbapenem resistance, and the failure of susceptibility methods to identify this resistance has been reported. Automated and nonautomated methods for carbapenem susceptibility were evaluated for identification of KPC-mediated resistance. Ertapenem was a more sensitive indicator of KPC resistance than meropenem and imipenem independently of the method used. Carbapenemase production could be confirmed with the modified Hodge test.
Chance, Possibility, and Explanation

AbstractI argue against the common and influential view that non-trivial chances arise only when the fundamental laws are indeterministic. The problem with this view, I claim, is not that it confli...
A SENSITIVE GAS CHROMATOGRAPH ASSAY FOR THIOPENTONE IN PLASMA

A sensitive flame ionization gas chromatograph assay method has been developed for thiopentone in human plasma. The extraction procedure minimizes desulphuration of the drug while removing most endogenous substances and is limited by a maximum of 50 ng ml“1 in 2-ml plasma samples. There is linearity throughout the 30.0–5.0 μg ml-1 and 5.0–0.1 μg ml-1 ranges. Extraction of six replicate 2.5-μg ml-1 samples resulted in a coefficient of variation of 3.0%. Similar treatment of six 0.20-μg ml-1 samples afforded a coefficient of variation of 4.6%.
Osmotic effects on arginine kinase function in living muscle of the blue crab Callinectes sapidus.

SUMMARY Flux was examined through the reaction catalyzed by arginine kinase in intact blue crab ( Callinectes sapidus ) muscle during simulated changes in salinity. Isolated dark levator muscles from the swimming leg were superfused with a saline solution that had an osmolarity equivalent to that of the hemolymph under different salinity regimes. Animals were acclimated for 7 days to a salinity of 5, 17 or 35‰, which corresponds to a hemolymph osmolarity of 640, 720 or 960 mosmoll -1 , respectively. Experiments were conducted under control conditions, in which the osmolarity of the superfusion medium matched that of the acclimated hemolymph, as well as under hypo- and hyperosmotic conditions. These latter treatments were meant to simulate a rapid change in environmental salinity. Pseudo-first-order unidirectional rate constants and flux rates were measured for arginine kinase in the forward and reverse directions using a 31 P-nuclear magnetic resonance saturation transfer method. There were no differences in the rate constants or flux rates among the controls, indicating that arginine kinase function is not modulated by salinity if the animal has had sufficient acclimation time. However, the rate constants and flux rates of arginine kinase varied over a modest 1.7-fold range across the three types of osmotic treatments, although the range for the flux data was reduced when cell volume changes were taken into account. The hyperosmotic treatments led to a reduction in arginine kinase flux, while the hypo-osmotic treatments led to an enhanced arginine kinase flux. We propose that this effect is mediated by an increase in the concentration of perturbing inorganic ions under hyperosmotic conditions and a decrease in the concentration of such ions during the hypo-osmotic treatments.
Studying Injuries With Case-control Methods in the Emergency Department

To study factors that cause or prevent injuries, it can be efficient to use a case-control study design and select both cases and controls from patients seen in the ED. Bias in case ascertainment can be reduced by studying exposures that, aside from their influence on the risk of injury, are unrelated to the use of emergency care. The ideal control group often includes persons generally not seen in an ED: for example, those who experience the injury-producing event, such as a bicycle crash, but who do not sustain serious injury. However, the exposure experience of the underlying population at risk sometimes can be closely approximated with information from selected persons seeking emergency care. With careful attention to the selection of study subjects, valid case-control studies of the causes of some injuries can be conducted in the ED.
Algebraic functions for recognition

In the general case, a trilinear relationship between three perspective views is shown to exist. The trilinearity result is shown to be of much practical use in visual recognition by alignment-yielding a direct reprojection method that cuts through the computations of camera transformation, scene structure and epipolar geometry. Moreover, the direct method is linear and sets a new lower theoretical bound on the minimal number of points that are required for a linear solution for the task of reprojection. The proof of the central result may be of further interest as it demonstrates certain regularities across homographics of the plane and introduces new view invariants. Experiments on simulated and real image data were conducted, including a comparative analysis with epipolar intersection and the linear combination methods, with results indicating a greater degree of robustness in practice and a higher level of performance in reprojection tasks. >
Will Big Data Mean the End of Privacy

Big Data is currently a hot topic in the field of technology, and many campuses are considering the addition of this topic into their undergraduate courses. Big Data tools are not just playing an increasingly important role in many commercial enterprises; they are also combining with new digital devices to dramatically change privacy. This article will argue that it is absurd to teach about Big Data in our classes without discussing its effect on privacy in our society.
John Snow, MD: anaesthetist to the Queen of England and pioneer epidemiologist.

John Snow's accomplishments in medicine, anesthesia, and epidemiology constituted an achievement that changed the face of medical practice. He conducted translational research in his home laboratory that enabled him to understand the mechanisms of vaporizing volatile anesthetic agents—ether and chloroform—so that safe delivery systems of anesthesia could be designed. He brought obstetric anesthesia into acceptance against religious, ethical, and medical beliefs by administering chloroform to Queen Victoria for the births of Prince Leopold and Princess Beatrice. He mapped out the spread of cholera and developed a transmission theory based on his knowledge of respiratory physiology. He published his theory in an essay in 1849, where he described cholera to be a communicable disease spread by contamination of the water supply. He acted on his theory of water transmission and may have expedited the end of the Broad Street London epidemic by removing the handle of the local water pump.
UTD-MHAD: A multimodal dataset for human action recognition utilizing a depth camera and a wearable inertial sensor

Human action recognition has a wide range of applications including biometrics, surveillance, and human computer interaction. The use of multimodal sensors for human action recognition is steadily increasing. However, there are limited publicly available datasets where depth camera and inertial sensor data are captured at the same time. This paper describes a freely available dataset, named UTD-MHAD, which consists of four temporally synchronized data modalities. These modalities include RGB videos, depth videos, skeleton positions, and inertial signals from a Kinect camera and a wearable inertial sensor for a comprehensive set of 27 human actions. Experimental results are provided to show how this database can be used to study fusion approaches that involve using both depth camera data and inertial sensor data. This public domain dataset is of benefit to multimodality research activities being conducted for human action recognition by various research groups.
Sinus Disease in Cystic Fibrosis

Educational objectives: To understand cystic fibrosis with regards to diagnosis, medical management, and head and neck manifestations and to understand the application of endoscopic sinus surgery techniques to the sinonasal pathology in patients with cystic fibrosis.
Integration of On-site Energy Generation into Production Planning Systems

Abstract Due to the energy turnaround in Germany, the costs for energy are peaking year by year. As a result, industrial companies are investing in on-site generation, preferably from renewable sources like photovoltaic. Companies can profit from an on-site usage in order to hedge price volatility. Therefore, the fluctuating on-site energy and the public energy supply need to be synchronized to the production demand in an efficient way. In order to use the fluctuating renewable on-site generation, a transformation of the production organization and the production planning systems is needed towards the concept of energy flexibility.
Follicular Dendritic Cell Sarcoma (FDCS)

Follicular dendritic cell sarcoma (FDCS) of the spinal dura mater is an extranodal malignant tumor of the focal dendritic cells with a characteristic histological picture and immunohistochemically the cells are strongly positive for follicular dendritic cell markers CD21 and CD35. For more details see pathology.
Data Command Files

Data command files allow users to define set and parameter data with a high-level language. This chapter discusses the format of these data commands, as well as the various data declarations that Pyomo supports. Pyomo’s data commands include both direct specifications of data, as well as specifications that indicate how data is to be extracted from a variety of different sources, including table files, CSV files, spreadsheets, and databases.
Prospective Genomic Profiling of Prostate Cancer Across Disease States Reveals Germline and Somatic Alterations That May Affect Clinical Decision Making.

PurposeA long natural history and a predominant osseous pattern of metastatic spread are impediments to the adoption of precision medicine in patients with prostate cancer. To establish the feasibility of clinical genomic profiling in this disease, we performed targeted deep sequencing of tumor and normal DNA from patients with locoregional, metastatic noncastrate, and metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.Patients and MethodsPatients consented to genomic analysis of their tumor and germline DNA. A hybridization capture-based clinical assay was used to identify single-nucleotide variations, small insertions and deletions, copy number alterations, and structural rearrangements in more than 300 cancer-related genes in tumors and matched normal blood.ResultsWe successfully sequenced 504 tumors from 451 patients with prostate cancer. Potentially actionable alterations were identified in DNA damage repair, phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase, and mitogen-activated protein kinase pathways. Twenty-seven perc...
Studying Plant–Pollinator Interactions Facing Climate Change and Changing Environments

Plant-pollinator interactions are essential for successful plant reproduction in both natural and agricultural systems. These interactions are negatively impacted by recent large-scale alterations of the environments, particularly climate change. The responses of plants and pollinators to changing abiotic conditions that vary seasonally and geographically are often uncoordinated, potentially leading to the breakdown of this interaction. The complexity of the responses of plants and pollinators to our changing climate necessitates creative approaches. The six articles in this special issue directly address this need by providing a variety of key methods and reviews of current methodology. The articles include: DNA barcoding methods for use on pollen collected from visiting bees; methods for assessment of plant attraction traits (nectar and review of floral volatiles methods); a field sampling method for ground nesting bees; a review of using spatial and temporal transplants for addressing changing dynamics of plant-pollinator interactions; and a review of approaches used to assess potential shifts in phenology of plants and pollinators. Collectively, these articles illustrate some of the breadth of approaches needed to address the changing dynamics of plant-pollinator interactions.
Convolutional sparse coding on neurosynaptic cognitive system

Image features can be learned and subsequently used for reconstruction and classification tasks in the fields of machine learning and computer vision. In this work, we propose image reconstruction using Convolutional Sparse Coding (CSC) on IBM's TrueNorth Neuromorphic computing system. CSC explicitly models local interactions through the convolution operations. Convolutional kernels define a dictionary and Sparse Feature Maps (SFMs) that are generated through a training process. The images are reconstructed with convolutional operations on SFMs and respective kernels. In this paper, we report on experimental results demonstrating promising sparse reconstructions on the IBM Neuromorphic TrueNorth hardware for two different benchmarks: MNIST and CIFAR-10. It is noted that this is the first ever important step towards convolutional sparse coding on neuromorphic hardware.
Blue skies, impacts, and peer review

This paper describes the results of a survey regarding the incorporation of societal impacts considerations into the peer review of grant proposals submitted to public science funding bodies. The survey investigated perceptions regarding the use of scientific peers to judge not only the intrinsic scientific value of proposed research, but also its instrumental value to society. Members of the scientific community have expressed – some more stridently than others – resistance to the use of such societal impact considerations. We sought to understand why. Results of the survey suggest that such resistance may be due to a lack of desire rather than a lack of confidence where judging impacts is concerned. In other words, it may be less that scientists feel unable to judge broader societal impacts and more that they are unwilling to do so.
A conservative view of the community information utility

The computer may be compared with the clock as an artifact capable of altering man's life and manner of viewing and experiencing the world. The growing literature on the community information utility (CIU) calls an analogy to mind. I am reminded of the clock in the cathedral of Lund, Sweden, where I once lived. It is a typical medieval clock that tells the time, date, courses of the sun and moon, etc. Furthermore, at noon (1 P.M. on Sundays) and 3 P.M. mechanical knights clash on top of the clock and three wise men appear in the wings to pay homage to Mary and Jesus while an organ plays "In dulci jubilo". Clearly the 14th century builders of astronomical clocks were interested in pushing their new technology to the hilt and quickly putting as many applications as feasible on the town clock.
Metal physics down under

… An on-the-spot report of the first conference on solid-state physics held in Australia; it was sponsored by the Australian Branch of the Institute of Physics.
Body size reference norms and subjective weight status: A gender and life course approach

This paper uses data from The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) to describe county-level variation in norms regarding physical weight among adolescents in the United States. We demonstrate that regardless of one's physical size, those residing in counties with a heavier weight norm are significantly less likely to see themselves as overweight than those residing in counties with a light weight norm. We further show that the local weight norm during adolescence (Wave 1) is associated with individuals' weight perceptions through adolescence and into young adulthood (Wave 4), though these associations attenuate in strength as respondents age. Our results suggest that weight norms have a stronger influence on weight perceptions among women compared to men and that the role of gender is particularly important during adolescence. We encourage life course researchers to consider the normative health environment during adolescence as an important context for understanding disparities in health and health lifestyles as people age.
Development of Self-Assembled Nanoribbon Bound Peptide-Polyaniline Composite Scaffolds and Their Interactions with Neural Cortical Cells

Degenerative neurological disorders and traumatic brain injuries cause significant damage to quality of life and often impact survival. As a result, novel treatments are necessary that can allow for the regeneration of neural tissue. In this work, a new biomimetic scaffold was designed with potential for applications in neural tissue regeneration. To develop the scaffold, we first prepared a new bolaamphiphile that was capable of undergoing self-assembly into nanoribbons at pH 7. Those nanoribbons were then utilized as templates for conjugation with specific proteins known to play a critical role in neural tissue growth. The template (Ile-TMG-Ile) was prepared by conjugating tetramethyleneglutaric acid with isoleucine and the ability of the bolaamphiphile to self-assemble was probed at a pH range of 4 through 9. The nanoribbons formed under neutral conditions were then functionalized step-wise with the basement membrane protein laminin, the neurotropic factor artemin and Type IV collagen. The conductive polymer polyaniline (PANI) was then incorporated through electrostatic and π-π stacking interactions to the scaffold to impart electrical properties. Distinct morphology changes were observed upon conjugation with each layer, which was also accompanied by an increase in Young's Modulus as well as surface roughness. The Young's Modulus of the dried PANI-bound biocomposite scaffolds was found to be 5.5 GPa, indicating the mechanical strength of the scaffold. Thermal phase changes studied indicated broad endothermic peaks upon incorporation of the proteins which were diminished upon binding with PANI. The scaffolds also exhibited in vitro biodegradable behavior over a period of three weeks. Furthermore, we observed cell proliferation and short neurite outgrowths in the presence of rat neural cortical cells, confirming that the scaffolds may be applicable in neural tissue regeneration. The electrochemical properties of the scaffolds were also studied by generating I-V curves by conducting cyclic voltammetry. Thus, we have developed a new biomimetic composite scaffold that may have potential applications in neural tissue regeneration.
Enhancement of antigen presentation of a vaccine with the use of human anti-rhamnose antibody both in-vitro and in-vivo

Since anti rhamnose antibody is the most common natural anti-carbohydrate antibody present in human serum, using rhamnose as a targeting moiety for a rhamnose containing vaccine can be a good approach for effective vaccine formulation. Binding rhamnose of a rhamnose-containing vaccine with anti-rhamnose antibody has been proven effective for capturing and processing of antigen by antigen presenting cells (APC) via stimulatory Fc receptors. This was shown using anti-rhamnose antibodies generated in mice. We wished to determine if human anti-rhamnose antibodies isolated from human serum work in a similar manner. To isolate anti-rhamnose antibodies, we prepared a rhamnose affinity column with a rhamonse-2 amino ethyl linker conjugate coupled to CNBr-activated Sepharose. In-vitro, human anti-rhamnose antibodies enhanced uptake of rhamnose-ovalbumin by murine APC as determined by proliferation of ovalbumin-primed T cells. In-vivo, injection of human anti-rhamnose antibodies into mice improved the priming of T cells to rhamnose-ovalbumin. Also, we found increased priming of both CD4+ and CD8+ T cells toward the MUC1-Tn cancer antigen when mice were given human anti-rhamnose antibodies prior to a rhamnose-modified MUC1-Tn-containing cancer vaccine. Other human immunoglobulins did not enhance priming. Therefore, we have confirmed that human anti-rhamnose antibodies can enhance immune responses to rhamnose-containing vaccines through increased antigen uptake and presentation.
Macrolevel: The Mob

Blending with, but often numerically and emotionally different from, groups is the macrolevel, social ecological collective, mobs. Chaplin (1985) defines a mob as a crowd acting under strong emotional conditions that often lead to violence or illegal acts. Milgram and Toch (1969) describe the actions of such a collective as “group behavior which originates spontaneously, is relatively unorganized, fairly unpredictable and planless in its course of development, and which depends on interstimulation among participants” (p. 507). Momboisse (1970) speaks of four types of mobs: escape, acquisitive, expressive, and aggressive. Thus a mob may be a panicked collective seeking safety by fleeing from some real or imagined threat. Or mob formation and expression may take such concrete benign forms as a congregation at an emotional religious meeting or an aroused audience at an athletic event or a rock concert. Far less benign mobs may emerge in the form of a collective urging a potential jumper suicide; a loosely affiliated, ganglike group of adolescent males engaged in wilding,* swarming,** or other violent behavior; or a full-scale riot destructive of property and persons in a community, prison, or other setting. As noted earlier (pp. 73–75), the United States has a long history of mob violence in the form of draft riots; vigilante or regulator groups; lynch mobs; landholder rebellions; maritime riots; agrarian strife; collective violence in the mining, railroad, and auto industries; race riots; antiwar disturbances; and more. What does mob formation “feel” like?
The Scope of Depression

Depression covers a wide range of human, emotional, and clinical states. As a normal mood, depression is ubiquitous in human existence; not to grieve after the loss of a loved one is to make one “less than human.” As a symptom, depression occurs in a wide variety of reactions to stress, medical, and psychiatric conditions. As a clinical state, the various psychiatric syndromes are usually considered along with mania as belonging to the affective disorders.
Weak synchronization and synchronizability of multitape pushdown automata and turing machines

Given an n-tape automaton M with a one-way read-only head per tape which is delimited by an end marker $ and a nonnegative integer k, we say that M is weakly k-synchronized if for every n-tuple x=(x1, …, xn) that is accepted, there is an accepting computation on x such that no pair of input heads, neither of which is on $, are more than k tape cells apart at any time during the computation. When a head reaches the marker, it can no longer move. As usual, an n-tuple x=(x1, …, xn) is accepted if M eventually reaches the configuration where all n heads are on $ in an accepting state. We look at the following problems: (1) Given an n-tape automaton M, is it weakly k-synchronized for a given k (for some k)? and (2) Given an n-tape automaton M, does there exist a weakly k-synchronized automaton for a given k (for some k) M′ such that L(M′)=L(M)? In an earlier paper [1], we studied the case of multitape finite automata (NFAs). Here, we investigate the case of multitape pushdown automata (NPDAs), multitape Turing machines, and other multitape models. The results that we obtain contrast those of the earlier results and involve some rather intricate constructions.
Between Justice and Accumulation: Aristotle on Currency and Reciprocity:

For Aristotle, a just political community has to find similarity in difference and foster habits of reciprocity. Conventionally, speech and law have been seen to fulfill this role. This article rec...
IT Curriculum: Coping with Technology Trends & Industry Demands

The field of Information Technology (IT) has evolved more rapidly over the past 15 years than ever thought possible. To keep up with industry demands, IT educators have had to react accordingly and with enough foresight to identify those trends that are short lived and those that are here to stay. In this paper, we identify a four-layer IT Stack with associated core techniques within each layer. The evolution of the core techniques over time is then discussed with respect to industry trends, changes in ACM/IEEE IT curricula, and the topics of technical oriented papers presented at the ACM SIGITE conference since 2003. Finally, a case study chronicling the evolution of an Information Technology MS program is presented, along with recommendations for modeling future IT curriculum.
Autonomous Embedded System Vehicle Design on Environmental, Mapping and Human Detection Data Acquisition for Firefighting Situations

When firefighters are at burning sites, they are exposed to a spectrum of hazards. These include extreme temperatures, low visibility, and the presence of harmful air pollutants. Another concern is a foreign building layout and determining the precise location of individuals. For this research, an embedded system design approach that can give firefighters capabilities to remotely monitor and analyze thermal conditions, atmospheric conditions, produce a 2D LiDAR map of individual rooms, and assist in the detection of human presence in the building before proceeding inside. It is proposed an Autonomous Embedded System Vehicle (AESV) design that is equipped with several sensors that provide firefighters outside of the burning site with environmental and topographical information that can assist in planning and time spent on rescue operations. The AESV communicates all sensory data back to a host system in the fire truck where real-time data can be evaluated. This current design is the first prototype of the AESV and integration of all the peripheral devices. The design approach is to develop a multilayered micro controller system to handle the different types of devices, requirements of processing digital and analog inputs, and integration of the communication modules to transmit data back to the host system. Temperature, gas and GPS values have been successfully transmitted through the Xbees as other devices are being integrated to the design.
SUCCESSFUL ABLATION OF A MULTIFOCAL ATRIAL TACHYCARDIA BY PULMONARY VEIN ISOLATION

Multifocal atrial tachycardia (MAT) is commonly noted in association with obstructive airway disease; and is generally considered not amenable to ablation. We describe a case of successful ablation of incessant MAT in a patient with severe obstructive sleep apnea. 51M presented with
SiC Power MOSFETs: Designing for Reliability in Wide-Bandgap Semiconductors

The properties of wide bandgap semiconductors provide new capabilities and also challenges to the development of reliable and rugged power devices. Reliability characterization of fully-processed 1200V, 80 mOhm SiC power MOSFETs show gate oxide reliability projected life> 100 years at a gate voltage of V Gs =+25V and T=175°C. These 1200V, 80 mOhm SiC power MOSFETs deliver single-shot unclamped inductive switching avalanche energy greater than 1 Joule and <10% parametric shifts after 100,000 repetitive 250 mJ avalanche events. These results suggest that SiC power MOSFETs are suitably reliable and rugged for commercial and industrial applications.
The Enneagram: A Primer for Psychiatry Residents

The Enneagram is a personality theory describing nine strategies by which the psyche develops a worldview and relates to self and others. Each of the nine "types" has a basic fear, basic desire, an...
Dynamic Nuclear Polarization of Metal-Doped Oxide Glasses: A Test of the Generality of Paramagnetic Metal Polarizing Agents

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy can provide unique, atomic-level, insights into the structure and dynamics of materials, but applications are impeded by its intrinsically low sensitiv...