cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Computational thermo-hydro-mechanics for multiphase freezing and thawing porous media in the finite deformation range

Abstract A stabilized thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) finite element model is introduced to investigate the freeze–thaw action of frozen porous media in the finite deformation range. By applying the mixture theory, frozen soil is idealized as a composite consisting of three phases, i.e., solid grain, unfrozen water and ice crystal. A generalized hardening rule at finite strain is adopted to replicate how the elasto-plastic responses and critical state evolve under the influence of phase transitions and heat transfer. The enhanced particle interlocking and ice strengthening during the freezing processes and the thawing-induced consolidation at the geometrical nonlinear regimes are both replicated in numerical examples. The numerical issues due to lack of two-fold inf–sup condition and ill-conditioning of the system of equations are addressed. Numerical examples for engineering applications at cold region are analyzed via the proposed model to predict the impacts of changing climate on infrastructure at cold regions.
Detailed Study on Dynamic Characteristics of a High-Performance SGT-MOSFET With Under-the-Trench Floating P-Pillar

We proposed a 150 V shielded-gate trench (SGT) power MOSFET with floating P-pillars under the trench and studied its static and dynamic characteristics, especially the transient capacitance and dynamic ${\mathrm {R}}_{{\mathrm {ds}}({\mathrm {on}})}$ at high switching frequency. TCAD simulation demonstrated over 33% ${\mathrm {R}}_{{\mathrm {ds}}({\mathrm {on}})}$ reduction compared with regular SGT-MOSFET. Up to MHz switching frequency, simulation indicates almost no ${\mathrm {R}}_{{\mathrm {ds}}({\mathrm {on}})}$ increase in this device, meaning negligible dynamic ${\mathrm {R}}_{{\mathrm {ds}}({\mathrm {on}})}$ penalty. On the other hand, elevated ${\mathrm {C}}_{{\mathrm {oss}}}$ is observed within a particular ${\mathrm {V}}_{{\mathrm {ds}}}$ range (40–90 V) as switching frequency increases, which translates to $\text{Q}_{{\mathrm {oss}}}$ penalty. We investigated the underlying physical process for this ${\mathrm {Q}}_{{\mathrm {oss}}}$ change, and attributed it to the hole pilings in the undepleted region of the P-pillar. The overall parameters of this device, including ${\mathrm {R}}_{{\mathrm {ds}}({\mathrm {on}})}$ and ${\mathrm {R}}_{{\mathrm {ds}}({\mathrm {on}})} \ast {\mathrm {Q}}_{{\mathrm {oss}}}$ , are superior to regular SGT-MOSFET and are close to superjunction MOSFET, which is more expensive and challenging in manufacturing. Although a 150 V MOSFET is used as our study vehicle, the analyses and conclusions apply to any power devices that employ the proposed device architecture.
Preparation for Genocide: The “Center for the Study of the Jewish Problem” in Trieste, 1942–1944

In 1941 Fascist Italy established the so-called Centers for the Study of the Jewish Problem in an effort to develop an Italian variant of "spiritual racism" as a fitting counterpart to Nazi racial doctrine. The most active of the Centers was located in Trieste, home to one of Italy's largest Jewish communities. The institute's close ties with the German consulate and SS contingent played a crucial role in the assault on Trieste's Jewish population that began after German forces occupied northern Italy in 1943. While the Center served both propaganda and practical purposes, its key role lay in preparing the ideological groundwork for genocide.
Modeling of Vulnerable Subjects

Abstract Although people in vulnerable populations, such as children and elderly females, are at a greater risk of injury in automotive crashes than middle-aged and midsized occupants, automotive safety designs are based on current crash-test dummies of limited number of shapes and sizes that do not adequately represent such vulnerable populations. Computational models that represent age- and gender-dependent changes in impact responses are necessary. To close the gap between injuries for which current safety testing is aimed at and the actual injuries suffered by children and elderly females who have been insufficiently protected, CHARMs (The Collaborative Human Advanced Research Models) have been developed to represent a 10-year-old child and a 70-year-old female. In this chapter, we introduce the development of CHARM-10 and CHARM-70F models as examples to show the general procedures and specific challenges of developing FE models of vulnerable subjects. First, anthropometric investigation is performed with geometric and compositional datasets to ensure the model is a good representative of the target population. Second, multiblock meshing strategies are adopted to obtain good mesh quality and flexibility for changing mesh densities. Finally, component and whole-body validations are performed against different loading conditions to finalize material constitutive parameters and to assess the biofidelity of the model.
Are Non-US Citizens More Likely to Die From Heat Exposure?

The article responds to an issue article on heat-related mortality among U.S. citizens as compared with among U.S. non-citizen residents. Topics include problems with heat intervention measures among at-risk non-citizens, regional prevalence of heat deaths in the Southwestern U.S., and the need for more accurate reporting of heat-related deaths.
Comparison of Marker-Based and Stereo Radiography Knee Kinematics in Activities of Daily Living

Movement of the marker positions relative to the body segments obscures in vivo joint level motion. Alternatively, tracking bones from radiography images can provide precise motion of the bones at the knee but is impracticable for measurement of body segment motion. Consequently, researchers have combined marker-based knee flexion with kinematic splines to approximate the translations and rotations of the tibia relative to the femur. Yet, the accuracy of predicting six degree-of-freedom joint kinematics using kinematic splines has not been evaluated. The objectives of this study were to (1) compare knee kinematics measured with a marker-based motion capture system to kinematics acquired with high speed stereo radiography (HSSR) and describe the accuracy of marker-based motion to improve interpretation of results from these methods, and (2) use HSSR to define and evaluate a new set of knee joint kinematic splines based on the in vivo kinematics of a knee extension activity. Simultaneous measurements were recorded from eight healthy subjects using HSSR and marker-based motion capture. The marker positions were applied to three models of the lower extremity to calculate tibiofemoral kinematics and compared to kinematics acquired with HSSR. As demonstrated by normalized RMSE above 1.0, varus–valgus rotation (1.26), medial–lateral (1.26), anterior–posterior (2.03), and superior–inferior translations (4.39) were not accurately measured. Using kinematic splines improved predictions in varus–valgus (0.81) rotation, and medial–lateral (0.73), anterior–posterior (0.69), and superior–inferior (0.49) translations. Using splines to predict tibiofemoral kinematics as a function knee flexion can lead to improved accuracy over marker-based motion capture alone, however this technique was limited in reproducing subject-specific kinematics.
Multiplicities as Invariants of Reduced Spaces

A symplectic manifold (M, ω) is said to be prequantizable if there exists a Hermitian line bundle L→M and a connection ▿ on L whose curvature form is w. Prequantizability imposes a strong constraint on the cohomology class [ω] ∈ H2(M, ℝ). Namely, the exact sequence 0→Z→R→S1→0 gives rise to a long exact sequence in cohomology: ...→H1(M,S1→H2(M,Z)→H2(M,R)→...and one can show:
Network Regulation of the Immune Response to Bacterial Polysaccharide Antigens

Protective immunity against encapsulated bacteria can be achieved by eliciting serum antibodies directed against the polysaccharide capsule (Schneerson et al. 1971; Kaijser and Ahlstedt 1977; Egan et al. 1983). In adults and in children over the age of 2 years this can readily be accomplished by the use of polysaccharide vaccines (Makela et al. 1977; Parke et al. 1977; Makela et al. 1980; Vodopija et al. 1983). Infants, however, are unresponsive to most polysaccharide antigens (Smith etal. 1973; Parke et al. 1977; Peltola etal. 1977; Pincus et al. 1982; Kayhty et al. 1984), and a significant proportion of invasive and other serious bacterial infections caused by organisms such as Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib; Kayhty et al. 1984), Neisseriae meningitidis groups A, B, and C (Band et al. 1983) and Streptococcus pneumoniae (Makela et al. 1980; Douglas and Miles 1984) occurs in this age group. Stimulation of antipolysaccharide antibodies in infants would be enormously important both from the medical point of view and from the inferences that can be drawn regarding our understanding of the mechanisms of neonatal unresponsiveness.
Conceptual and Theoretical Dilemmas Facing Social Support Research

The past two decades have witnessed an explosion in the number of studies investigating the relationships between the occurrence of a wide variety of social stressors and both physical and psychological symptomatology. These studies come from a number of different fields and a variety of perspectives. Many of these studies have examined the relationships between a variety of specific social stressors and health outcomes. Investigators have focused on reactions to a variety of disasters, both natural (Erikson, 1976) and man-made (Baum, Gatchel, & Schaeffer, 1983), as well as more common stressors such as marriage (Raush, Goodrich, & Campbell, 1966), divorce (Hetherington, Cox, & Cox, 1977), job loss (Cobb, 1974), retirement (Bell, 1975), and bereavement (Lindemann, 1944). A second line of research has focused on the joint or accumulated contributions of a variety of life events to both physical and psychological distress (Dohrenwend & Dohrenwend, 1974; 1981; Rabkin & Struening, 1976). The relatively modest relationship between measures of social stressors and measures of symtomatology and illness behavior has led many researchers to explore the ways in which a variety of biological, psychological, behavioral, and situational factors might moderate the relationship between life stressors and health outcomes (Cohen, Horowitz, Lazarus, Moos, Robins, Rose, & Rutter, 1982; Jenskins, 1979; Johnson & sarason, 1979.
Learning to Build Resilience into Transportation Systems

There is increased recognition of the value of resilience thinking yet few studies have examined key experiences and lessons for the transportation industry. This paper presents eight case studies ...
Correlating exhaled aerosol images to small airway obstructive diseases: A study with dynamic mode decomposition and machine learning

Background Exhaled aerosols from lungs have unique patterns, and their variation can be correlated to the underlying lung structure and associated abnormities. However, it is challenging to characterize such aerosol patterns and differentiate their difference because of their complexity. This challenge is even greater for small airway diseases, where the disturbance signals are weak. Objectives and methods The objective of this study is exploiting different feature extraction algorithms to develop a practical classifier to diagnose obstructive lung diseases using exhaled aerosol images. These include proper orthogonal decomposition (POD), principal component analysis (PCA), dynamic mode decomposition (DMD), and DMD with control (DMDC). Aerosol images were generated via physiology-based simulations in one normal and four diseased airway models in G7-9 bronchioles. The image data were classified using both the support vector machine (SVM) and random forest (RF) algorithms. The effectiveness of different features was evaluated by classification accuracy and misclassification rate. Findings Results show a significantly higher performance using dynamic feature extractions (DMD and DMDC) than static algorithms (POD and PCA). Adding the control variables to DMD further improved classification accuracy. Comparing the classification methods, RF persistently outperformed SVM for all types of features considered. While the performance of RF constantly increased with the number of features retained, the performance of SVM peaked at 50 and decreased thereafter. The 5-class classification accuracy was 94.8% using the DMDC-RF model and 93.0% using the DMD-RF model, both of which were higher than 87.0% in the previous study that used fractal dimension features. Conclusion Considering that disease progression is inherently a dynamic process, DMD(C)-based feature extraction preserves temporal information and is preferred over POD and PCA. Compared with hand-crafted features like fractals, feature extraction by DMD and DMDC is automatic and more accurate.
Super-Resolved Interferometric Imaging with a Self-Cohering Si-Photonic Beam-Steering LIDAR Array

We present a SCALABLE (Self-Calibrated Adaptive Lidar Aperture Beamsteering Light Engine) serpentine-grating Silicon-photonic emitting aperture for rapid 2-D beamsteering and show how to perform computational interferometric image synthesis within each beam.
State variation in the characteristics of Medicare-Medicaid dual enrollees: Implications for risk adjustment.

Objective To examine between-state differences in the socioeconomic and health characteristics of Medicare beneficiaries dually enrolled in Medicaid, focusing on characteristics not observable to or used by policy makers for risk adjustment. Data source 2010-2013 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey. Study design Retrospective analyses of survey-reported health and socioeconomic status (SES) measures among low-income Medicare beneficiaries and low-income dual enrollees. We used hierarchical linear regression models with state random effects to estimate the between-state variation in respondent characteristics and linear models to compare the characteristics of dual enrollees by state Medicaid policies. Principal findings Between-state differences in health and socioeconomic risk among low-income Medicare beneficiaries, as measured by the coefficient of variation, ranged from 17.5 percent for an index of socioeconomic risk to 20.3 percent for an index of health risk. Between-state differences were comparable among the subset of low-income beneficiaries dually enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid. Dual enrollees with incomes below the Federal Poverty Level were in better health and had higher SES in states that offered Medicaid to individuals with relatively higher incomes. Duals' average incomes were higher in states with Medically Needy programs. Conclusions Characteristics of dual enrollees differ substantially across states, reflecting differences in states' low-income Medicare populations and Medicaid policies. Risk-adjustment methods using dual enrollment to proxy for poor health and low SES should account for this state-level heterogeneity.
Data-driven discovery of free-form governing differential equations.

We present a method of discovering governing differential equations from data without the need to specify a priori the terms to appear in the equation. The input to our method is a dataset (or ensemble of datasets) corresponding to a particular solution (or ensemble of particular solutions) of a differential equation. The output is a human-readable differential equation with parameters calibrated to the individual particular solutions provided. The key to our method is to learn differentiable models of the data that subsequently serve as inputs to a genetic programming algorithm in which graphs specify computation over arbitrary compositions of functions, parameters, and (potentially differential) operators on functions. Differential operators are composed and evaluated using recursive application of automatic differentiation, allowing our algorithm to explore arbitrary compositions of operators without the need for human intervention. We also demonstrate an active learning process to identify and remedy deficiencies in the proposed governing equations.
The Effect of Abolishing Operations on Mand Acquisition During Functional Communication Training

Previously applied research has shown independent manding is not likely to emerge when functional communication training (FCT) is implemented in conjunction with dense schedules of noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) but does emerge when it is implemented after NCR schedules have been leaned. One interpretation of these data may be that participants are unlikely to acquire mands when functional reinforcers are abolished and that FCT is optimally effective in the presence of relevant establishing operations (EO). However, it is also possible that participants acquire mands during FCT + NCR but only demonstrate learned relations when it becomes necessary to do so, following sufficient exposure to relevant EOs. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether independent manding would emerge during no-prompt probes (i.e., when therapeutic contingencies were enforced but not trained) following training sessions that exclusively occurred in contexts in which functional consequences were abolished as reinforcers.
Anterolateral thigh osteomyocutaneous femur (ALTO) flap reconstruction for composite mandible and near total tongue defect utilizing a retrograde intramedullary femoral nail stabilization technique: Report of a first case

Abstract The anterior lateral thigh osteomyocutaneous free flap (ALTO) offers the advantage of reconstructing large bony and soft tissue defects. We report a novel approach for femur stabilization via retrograde intramedullary nail placement in a patient with a near total tongue and large mandibular defect who underwent ALTO reconstruction that saves operating room time and decreases risk of post-operative fracture.
Autophagy: an essential but limited cellular process for timely skeletal muscle recovery from injury

Macroautophagy/autophagy induction, i.e., the formation of autophagosomes, is robust following many forms of muscle injury. Autophagy inhibition studies strongly indicate that autophagy is necessar...
Advanced Textiles for Personal Thermal Management and Energy

Summary To realize improved human body thermal comfort and reduce energy consumption on building heating and cooling, personal thermal management emphasizing energy management of human body and its local environment is emerging as a promising solution. Advanced textiles are being invented and developed to effectively regulate heat exchange between human body and its surroundings. Here, recent progress on advanced textiles for personal thermal management and its significance in energy efficiency are reviewed. We will mainly discuss textiles with engineered properties targeting at passively controlling human body heat dissipation routes, the active warming and/or cooling textiles, and the responsive textiles that offer adaptive personal thermal management ability according to the external stimuli. An outlook discussing important challenges and opportunities in this field is also presented.
Retained Bullets After Firearm Injury: A Survey on Surgeon Practice Patterns:

Retained bullets are common after firearm injuries, yet their management remains poorly defined. Surgeon members of the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma (N = 427) were surveyed using a...
Examining the influence of bilayer structure on energy transfer and molecular photon upconversion in metal ion linked multilayers.

Metal ion linked multilayers is a unique motif to spatially control and geometrically restrict molecules on a metal oxide surface and is of interest in a number of promising applications. Here we use a bilayer composed of a metal oxide surface, an anthracene annihilator molecule, Zn(II) linking ion, and porphyrin sensitizers to probe the influence of the position of the metal ion binding site on energy transfer, photon upconversion, and photocurrent generation. Despite being energetically similar, varying the position of the carboxy metal ion binding group (i.e. ortho, meta, para) of the Pt(II) tetraphenyl porphyrin sensitizer had a large impact on energy transfer rates and upconverted photocurrent that can be attributed to differences in their geometries. From polarized attenuated total reflectance measurements of the bilayers on ITO, we found that the orientation of the first layer (anthracene) was largely unperturbed by subsequent layers. However, the tilt angle of the porphyrin plane varies dramatically from 41° to 64° to 57° for the para-, meta-, and ortho-COOH substituted porphyrin molecules, which is likely responsible for the variation in energy transfer rates. We go on to show using molecular dynamics simulations that there is considerable flexibility in porphyrin orientation, indicating that an average structure is insufficient to predict the ensemble behavior. Instead, even a small subset of the population with highly favorable energy transfer rates can be the primary driver in increasing the likelihood of energy transfer. Gaining control of the orientation and its distribution will be a critical step in maximizing the potential of the metal ion linked structures.
SNAIL Transctiption factor in prostate cancer cells promotes neurite outgrowth

Abstract Neurite outgrowth involves reciprocal signaling interactions between tumor cells and nerves where invading tumor cells have acquired the ability to respond to pro-invasive signals within the nerve environment. Neurite outgrowth could serve as a mechanism leading to invasion of cancer cells into the nerve sheath and subsequent metastasis. Snail transcription factor can promote migration and invasion of prostate cancer cells. We hypothesized that prostate cancer cell interaction with nerve cells will be mediated by Snail expression within prostate cancer cells. For this study we utilized various prostate cancer cell lines: C4-2 non-silencing (NS, control); C4-2 Snail shRNA, (stable Snail knockdown); LNCaP Neo (empty vector control) and LNCaP Snail (stably over-expressing Snail). Cancer cell adhesion and migration towards nerve cells (snF96.2 or NS20Y) was examined by co-culture assays. Conditioned media (CM) collected from C4-2 cells was cultured with nerve cells (PC-12 or NS20Y) for 48 h followed by qualitative or quantitative neurite outgrowth assay. Our results showed that cancer cells expressing high levels of Snail (LNCaP Snail/C4-2 NS) displayed significantly higher migration adherence to nerve cells, compared to cells with lower levels of Snail (LNCaP Neo/C4-2 Snail shRNA). Additionally, LNCaP Snail or C4-2 NS (Snail-high) CM led to a higher neurite outgrowth compared to the LNCaP Neo or C4-2 Snail shRNA (Snail-low). In conclusion, Snail promotes migration and adhesion to nerve cells, as well as neurite outgrowth via secretion of soluble factors. Therefore, targeting cancer cell interaction with nerves may contribute to halting prostate cancer progression/metastasis.
The Effects of Financial Statement and Informational Complexity on Analysts’ Cash Flow Forecasts

ABSTRACT: We characterize the operating-activities section of the indirect-approach statement of cash flows as backward because it presents reconciling adjustments in a way that is opposite from the intuitively appealing, future-oriented, Conceptual Framework definitions of assets, liabilities, and the accruals process. We propose that the reversed-accruals orientation required in the currently mandated indirect-approach statement of cash flows is unnecessarily complex, causing information-processing problems that result in increased cash flow forecast error and dispersion. We also predict that the mixed pattern (i.e., +/−, −/+) of operating cash flows and operating accruals reported by most companies impedes investors’ ability to learn the time-series properties of cash flows and accruals. We conduct a carefully controlled experiment and find that (1) cash flow forecasts have lower forecast error and dispersion when the indirect-approach statement of cash flows starts with operating cash flows and adds c...
Morphological Metrics of Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Glioblastoma as Biomarkers of Prognosis

Morphological characteristics have been linked to outcomes across a variety of cancers. Lacunarity is a quantitative morphological measure of how shapes fill space while fractal dimension is a morphological measure of the complexity of pixel arrangement. Glioblastoma is the most aggressive primary brain tumor with a short expected survival given the current standard-of-care treatment. Due to the sensitive location of the tumor, there is a heavy reliance on imaging to assess the state of the disease in the clinic. In this project, we computed lacunarity and fractal dimension values for glioblastoma-induced abnormalities on gadolinium-enhanced T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (T1Gd MRI) as well as T2-weighted (T2) and fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) MRIs. In our patient cohort (n=402), we aim to connect these morphological metrics calculated on pretreatment MRI with the survival of patients with GBM. We calculated lacunarity and fractal dimension across all MRI slices on necrotic regions (n=390) and abnormalities on T1Gd MRI (n=402), as well as on enhancing abnormalities present on T2/FLAIR MRI (n=257). We also explored the relationship between these metrics and age at diagnosis, as well as abnormality volume. We found statistically significant relationships to outcome across all three imaging subtypes, with the shape of T2/FLAIR abnormalities showing the strongest relationship with overall survival. The link between morphological and survival metrics could be driven by underlying biological phenomena, tumor location or microenvironmental factors that should be further explored.
First Report of Biofluorescence in Arctic Snailfishes and Rare Occurrence of Multiple Fluorescent Colors in a Single Species

Biofluorescence has recently been reported to be phylogenetically widespread and phenotypically variable across bony fishes, and is most common in tropical coral reef lineages. Here we provide the first documentation of prominent biofluorescence in Arctic fishes including two juvenile specimens of Liparis gibbus (variegated snailfish) collected from the coastal waters of Eastern Greenland, as well as an adult L. tunicatus (kelp snailfish) collected in the Bering Strait off of Little Diomede Island, AK. Observations of L. gibbus were made during nighttime dives within kelp forests in iceberg habitats in Southeastern Greenland in August 2019. The juvenile L. gibbus specimens exhibit both green (523–530 nm) and red (674–678 nm) biofluorescence on discrete anatomical areas, which provides a rare example of multiple fluorescent colors emitted from a single individual. Notably, the adult L. tunicatus emitted only red fluorescence in a bilaterally symmetrical pattern of discrete red dots and blotches. Potential weak green biofluorescence was also noted in a flatfish (Hippoglossoides platessoides) collected in Greenland, but in no other Arctic species. As the distribution and function of biofluorescence in marine fishes is further examined, this report adds context to its widespread geographical and environmental distributions, and shows that, although rare, biofluorescence does occur in Arctic fish lineages.
User Driven Model Adjustment via Boolean Rule Explanations.

AI solutions are heavily dependant on the quality and accuracy of the input training data, however the training data may not always fully reflect the most up-to-date policy landscape or may be missing business logic. The advances in explainability have opened the possibility of allowing users to interact with interpretable explanations of ML predictions in order to inject modifications or constraints that more accurately reflect current realities of the system. In this paper, we present a solution which leverages the predictive power of ML models while allowing the user to specify modifications to decision boundaries. Our interactive overlay approach achieves this goal without requiring model retraining, making it appropriate for systems that need to apply instant changes to their decision making. We demonstrate that user feedback rules can be layered with the ML predictions to provide immediate changes which in turn supports learning with less data.
An in vivo screen identifies ependymoma oncogenes and tumor-suppressor genes

Cancers are characterized by non-random chromosome copy number alterations that presumably contain oncogenes and tumor-suppressor genes (TSGs). The affected loci are often large, making it difficult to pinpoint which genes are driving the cancer. Here we report a cross-species in vivo screen of 84 candidate oncogenes and 39 candidate TSGs, located within 28 recurrent chromosomal alterations in ependymoma. Through a series of mouse models, we validate eight new ependymoma oncogenes and ten new ependymoma TSGs that converge on a small number of cell functions, including vesicle trafficking, DNA modification and cholesterol biosynthesis, identifying these as potential new therapeutic targets.
Quantitative morphology and regional and laminar distributions of senile plaques in Alzheimer's disease

Senile (neuritic) plaques are one of the two major neuropathologic hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease. Despite their obvious importance (e.g., they are significantly correlated with severity of dementia), there is little present information about their etiology, the specific neuronal elements that form them, or a quantitative definition of where in cortex they occur. We have sought clues to these issues by quantifying regional and laminar distributions of neocortical plaques and setting these data against the present wealth of information on neocortical cytoarchitecture and neurotransmitter-specific circuitry. Senile plaques are significantly more numerous in associative regions of neocortex than in sensory areas and are significantly more numerous in cortical laminae dominated by their role in corticocortical, associative relations. Plaques are also largest in those laminae characterized by large pyramidal cells subserving input/output functions. The quantitative distribution of senile plaques in Alzheimer's disease does not necessarily correspond to innervation patterns for any known subcortical afferent system. This, coupled with the finding that several different neurotransmitters can be immunocytochemically co-localized with plaques, casts doubts on a primary role of cholinergic deterioration in plaque etiology, and opens the possibility that neocortical senile plaques may derive from pathologic events initiated in the neocortex.
Food and Drug Interactions

The relationships and interactions between foods, the nutrients they contain, and drugs have gained tremendous recognition in the healthcare and medical fields. Certain foods and specific nutrients in foods, if ingested concurrently with some drugs, may affect the overall bioavailability, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and therapeutic efficacy of the medications. Furthermore, the therapeutic efficacy of many drugs depends on the nutritional status of the individual. In other words, the presence or absence of some nutrients in the gastrointestinal tract and/or in the body’s physiological system, such as in the blood, can enhance or impair the rate of drug absorption and metabolism resulting in treatment failure. These types of interactions are considered to be nutrient–drug interactions.
Cell-Size Homeostasis and the Incremental Rule in a Bacterial Pathogen

How populations of growing cells achieve cell-size homeostasis remains a major question in cell biology. Recent studies in rod-shaped bacteria support the ''incremental rule'' where each cell adds a constant length before dividing. Although this rule explains narrow cell-size distributions, its mechanism is still unknown. We show that the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa obeys the incremental rule to achieve cell-length homeostasis during exponential growth but shortens its cells when entering the stationary phase. We identify a mutant, called frik, which has increased antibiotic sensitivity, cells that are on average longer, and a fraction of filamentous cells longer than 10 mm. When growth slows due to entry in stationary phase, the distribution of frik cell sizes decreases and approaches wild-type length distribution. The rare filamentous cells have abnormally large nucleoids, suggesting that a deficiency in DNA segregation prevents cell division without slowing the exponential elongation rate.
The Relative Option to Stock Volume (OS) and Market Response to Earnings Surprises

The study examines the effect of option volume relative to stock volume (O/S) on market response to earnings surprises. The market reaction per unit of earnings surprise is lower for firms that have high O/S prior to earnings announcement than for firms with low O/S prior to earnings announcement. The difference is exacerbated for higher levels of pre-announcement returns. Results suggest informed trading by option traders stimulates pre-emption of the information content of earnings releases and makes earnings surprises less of a surprise. Overall, results are consistent with the view that options improves informational efficiency. Results are robust to several controls.
The glass ceiling in human resources: Exploring the link between women's representation in management and the practices of strategic human resource management and employee involvement

Research on sex stereotypes suggests that gender bias is an invisible barrier—the so-called glass ceiling—preventing women from breaking into the highest levels of management in business organizations. Using data from a state-based professional HR organization, we investigated this phenomenon in the field of HR management. Building on the lack of fit model of gender discrimination and previous research, we tested two hypotheses: that women in HR are more likely to be concentrated in lower-level managerial positions in organizations that emphasize employee involvement (because of a related emphasis on stereotypically feminine managerial abilities) and that women in HR also are more likely to be concentrated in lower-level managerial positions in organizations that emphasize strategic human resource management (because of a related emphasis on stereotypically masculine characteristics). Our results support the first but not the second hypothesis. Theoretical and practical implications related to the glass ceiling are discussed. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Towards Fault-Tolerant Energy-Efficient High Performance Computing in the Cloud

In cluster computing, power and cooling represent a significant cost compared to the hardware itself. This is of special concern in the cloud, which provides access to large numbers of computers. We examine the use of ARM-based clusters for low-power, high performance computing. This work examines two likely use-modes: (i) a standard dedicated cluster, and (ii) a cluster of pre-configured virtual machines in the cloud. A 40-node department-level cluster based on an ARM Cortex-A9 is compared against a similar cluster based on an Intel Core2 Duo, in contrast to a recent similar study on just a 4-node cluster. For the NAS benchmarks on 32-node clusters, ARM was found to have a power efficiency ranging from 1.3 to 6.2 times greater than that of Intel. This is despite Intel's approximately five times greater performance. The particular efficiency ratio depends primarily on the size of the working set relative to L2 cache. In addition to energy-efficient computing, this study also emphasizes fault tolerance: an important ingredient in high performance computing. It relies on two recent extensions to the DMTCP checkpoint-restart package. DMTCP was extended (i) to support ARM CPUs, and (ii) to support check pointing of the Qemu virtual machine in user-mode. DMTCP is used both to checkpoint native distributed applications, and to checkpoint a network of virtual machines. This latter case demonstrates the ability to deploy pre-configured software in virtual machines hosted in the cloud, and further to migrate cluster computation between hosts in the cloud.
Transcript analysis of the plasmid R100 traJ and finP genes

Single-stranded RNA probes were used to study the regulation of plasmid transfer in the infectious antibiotic resistance plasmid R100. Transcription of the positive transfer control gene traJ of R100 appears to be initiated continuously. In the presence of finO, the traJ transcript is 235 bases long, and in the absence of finO it is 1050. These sizes are strain specific. finO increases four-to tenfold the amount of the transcript from the finP gene that is detectable in cells containing R100, R136, or the sex factor F. The size of the principal finP transcript from R100 as determined on Northern blots is 105 bases. A secondary transcript with a size of 180 bases was detected in small amounts in R100 extracts. The finP transcript size was also determined by nuclease protection experiments. In this case the size was 74 bases. The 5′ ends of the finP and traJ transcripts were located by primer extension experiments. A new model of FinO/P control is proposed.
Vacuum sublimation kinetics of urea nitrate

Urea nitrate completely sublimes in a continuously pumped vacuum at a rate dependent upon the extent of the surface area. The fraction sublimed (α) vs. time (t) curve is sigmoidal in shape with an inflection point fluctuating between 5.3 and 8.1 % weight loss in the temperature range 56 to 97°.
Performance and comparison of 532-nm and 355-nm groundwinds lidars

GroundWinds 2nd Generation (2nd Gen.) New Hampshire (NH) and GroundWinds Hawaii (HI) are direct detection Doppler LIDAR instruments that operate at 532nm and 355nm, respectively. These ground based incoherent LIDARs utilize backscatter from Rayleigh and Mie scattering to measure Doppler shifts in the atmosphere. The NH and HI instruments routinely make wind measurements from 0.5 to 15 kilometers and achieve sub-meter per second accuracies in the lower troposphere. This paper will provide a brief review of each instrument, and detail the instruments performance and achievements in wind measurement.
Normative Data for the Balance Error Scoring System in Adults

Background. The balance error scoring system (BESS) is a brief, easily administered test of static balance. The purpose of this study is to develop normative data for this test. Study Design. Cross-sectional, descriptive, and cohort design. Methods. The sample was drawn from a population of clients taking part in a comprehensive preventive health screen at a multidisciplinary healthcare center. Community-dwelling adults aged 20-69 (N = 1, 236) were administered the BESS within the context of a fitness evaluation. They did not have significant medical, neurological, or lower extremity problems that might have an adverse effect on balance. Results. There was a significant positive correlation between BESS scores and age (r = .34). BESS performance was similar for participants between the ages of 20 and 49 and significantly declined between ages 50 and 69. Men performed slightly better than women on the BESS. Women who were overweight performed significantly more poorly on the test compared to women who were not overweight (P < .0001; Cohen's d = .62). The BESS normative data are stratified by age and sex. Conclusions. These normative data provide a frame of reference for interpreting BESS performance in adults who sustain traumatic brain injuries and adults with diverse neurological or vestibular problems.
Optical charge modulation as an internal voltage probe for CMOS ICs

The use of optical charge modulation of refractive index as a probe for internal voltages in CMOS integrated circuits is examined. The Kramers-Kronig relations are used to calculate the index of refraction from absorption coefficient measurements. Both free-carrier depletion and the internal electric field of the p-n junction modulator are shown to affect the measurement sensitivity of this technique. The sensitivity is calculated from experimental results and is dependent on which device, NMOS or PMOS, is under test. These results contradict the predictions of a previous model which was developed using the Drude theory of free-carrier modulation of the refractive index. >
Density functional theory study of propane steam reforming on Rh–Ni bimetallic surface: Sulfur tolerance and scaling/Brønsted–Evans–Polanyi relations

Enhanced sulfur tolerance on binary Rh–Ni metals is examined for the propane steam reforming process on close packed metal surfaces of Rh, Ni, Rh1Ni2, and Rh2Ni1 with and without co-adsorbed S atoms. Scaling and Bronsted–Evans–Polanyi (BEP) correlations are constructed from density functional theory (DFT) methods. The combined use of these methods produces significant errors among these similar metal surfaces; however, BEP relations applied within reaction types are reliable across Rh, Ni, and binary Rh–Ni surfaces with and without co-adsorbed S atoms. The potential energy surface of propane steam reforming, estimated using the BEP correlations, shows that the C–C cleavages of CHC*, CH3CC* and CH2C* along with the O addition to CH* are kinetically significant elementary steps. Three of these steps show only slight barrier increases with co-adsorbed S on the Rh2Ni1 surface, suggesting an energetic explanation for enhanced S tolerance. The average poisoning effect by the presence of co-adsorbed sulfur for bond breaking is minimized on binary Rh–Ni metals, suggesting a high sulfur resistance can be induced using a bimetallic formulation of Rh and Ni.
Structure and Dynamics of Zymogen Human Blood Coagulation Factor X

The solution structure and dynamics of the human coagulation factor X (FX) have been investigated to understand the key structural elements in the zymogenic form that participates in the activation process. The model was constructed based on the 2.3-A-resolution x-ray crystallographic structure of active-site inhibited human FXa (PDB:1XKA). The missing gamma-carboxyglutamic acid (GLA) and part of epidermal growth factor 1 (EGF1) domains of the light chain were modeled based on the template of GLA-EGF1 domains of the tissue factor (TF)-bound FVIIa structure (PDB:1DAN). The activation peptide and other missing segments of FX were introduced using homology modeling. The full calcium-bound model of FX was subjected to 6.2 ns of molecular dynamics simulation in aqueous medium using the AMBER6.0 package. We observed significant reorientation of the serine-protease (SP) domain upon activation leading to a compact multi-domain structure. The solution structure of zymogen appears to be in a well-extended conformation with the distance between the calcium ions in the GLA domain and the catalytic residues estimated to be approximately 95 A in contrast to approximately 83 A in the activated form. The latter is in close agreement with fluorescence studies on FXa. The S1-specificity residues near the catalytic triad show significant differences between the zymogen and activated structures.
Tc-99m-N-MPO: novel cationic Tc-99m radiotracer for myocardial perfusion imaging.

Background. Technetium 99m-N-MPO ([Tc-99m-N(mpo)(PNP5)]+) is a cationic Tc-99m nitrido complex. The objective of this study is to evaluate its potential as a new radiotracer for myocardial perfusion imaging. Methods and Results. Biodistribution studies were performed in Sprague-Dawley rats and guinea pigs to compare the myocardial uptake and excretion kinetics of Tc-99m-N-MPO from noncardiac organs, such as the liver and lungs, with those of the known cationic Tc-99m radiotracers: Tc-99m-N-DBODC5 and Tc-99m-sestamibi. Planar imaging was performed in Sprague-Dawley rats to evaluate the utility of Tc-99m-N-MPO as a myocardial perfusion imaging agent. Metabolism studies were carried out by use of both Sprague-Dawley rats and guinea pigs. In general, the heart uptake of Tc-99m-N-MPO was between that of Tc-99msestamibi and Tc-99m-N-DBODC5 over the 2-hour study period. However, the heart-liver ratio of Tc-99m-N-MPO (12.75±3.34) at 30 minutes after injection was more than twice that of Tc-99m-N-DBODC5 (6.01±1.45) and approximately 4 times higher than that of Tc-99msestamibi (2.90±0.22). The heart uptake and heart-liver ratio of Tc-99m-N-MPO and Tc-99m-sestamibi in guinea pigs were significantly lower than those obtained in Sprague-Dawley rats. The metabolism studies demonstrated no detectable Tc-99m-N-MPO metabolites in the urine and feces samples of the Sprague-Dawley rats at 120 minutes after injection. In guinea pigs no Tc-99m-N-MPO metabolites were detected in the urine at 120 minutes, but only approximately 60% of Tc-99m-N-MPO remained intact in the feces samples. In contrast, there was no intact Tc-99m-sestamibi detected in urine samples, and less than 15% of Tc-99m-sestamibi remained intact in the feces samples. Planar imaging studies indicated that clinically useful images of the heart may be obtained as early as 15 minutes after injection of Tc-99m-N-MPO. Conclusion. The combination of favorable organ biodistribution and myocardial uptake with rapid liver clearance makes Tc-99m-N-MPO a very promising myocardial perfusion radiotracer worthy of further evaluation in various preclinical animal models.
Design of SCR devices for SiGe BiCMOS applications

An optimum vertical SiGe SCR design is presented for on-chip electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection. The device response to fast transients, emulating ESD CDM-type events, is compared with standard clamp structures having similar footprint-area, loading-capacitance and current handling ability. SCR designs include variation in the device's anode construction, anode geometry and triggering mechanism.
The sources of plasma catecholamines in the American eel, Anguilla rostrata.

The origin of the catecholamines (CAs) in the systemic blood of the American eel, Anguilla rostrata , was studied by three approaches: (1) determination of the CA content of tissues suspected to release large quantities of dopamine, norepinephrine, and/or epinephrine into the circulation; (2) measurement of local CA titers in selected regions of the cardiovascular system; and (3) removal of tissues with high CA concentrations, followed by determination of its impact on stimulated CA release. Large quantities of all three CAs were found in the walls of the posterior cardinal veins, from their caudal origin within the opisthonephric kidney to their termination in the ductus Cuvieri. Near the ductus Cuvieri, the CA concentration was 1–3 orders of magnitude above that in other tissues. In this region, which contains the presumed adrenal medulla equivalent, occur the highest plasma levels of the CAs. Strong CA release also in the opisthonephric kidney region raises the question if these CAs affect locally the kidney functions, and/or via the hepatic portal vein (which originates in this region), the liver. Other organs (especially brain and heart) contain CA concentrations high enough to potentially affect the CA level in the systemic blood, if instantly released. However, neither partial removal of the brain nor hypophysectomy, “adrenomedullectomy,” Stanniectomy, or urophysectomy had an appreciable impact on stimulated CA release. Together with previous data, these findings show that in the eel (a) the region of the presumed adrenal medulla equivalent is the most important source of all three CAs in systemic plasma; (b) that strong CA-stimulated CA release also occurs outside this region; and (c) that the pituitary, forebrain, and midbrain are not necessary for the CA-stimulated CA release.