cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Parenting Desires Among Individuals Living With Human Immunodeficiency Virus in the United States.

Background In 1988, 1 of 3 women (W) and heterosexual men living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) reported wanting children, but little is known about parenting desires of men who have sex with men (MSM) living with HIV. We examined parenting desires among persons initiating antiretroviral therapy (ART). Methods Of 1809 participants in the AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) Study 5257, 1425 W aged ≤45 years or men completed questionnaires about parenting desires at baseline and 96 weeks after initiating ART. Self-reported desires for children in the future (yes/unsure vs no) and associations between baseline sociodemographics and parenting desires at 96 weeks were examined using multivariable logistic regression, overall and within subgroups. Results The 1425 participants were as follows: 36% white, 39% black, 22% Hispanic; median age 36 (interquartile range, 28-44); 70% MSM, 13% men reported sex only with W (MSW), 17% W. At baseline, 42% may want children in the future (42% MSM, 37% MSW, 43% W); at 96 weeks, 41% may want children (41% MSM, 37% MSW, 43% W). At follow-up, approximately 10% of responses changed in each direction. In multivariable analyses, education greater than high school, <30 years, and having no children were significantly associated with future parenting desires among all subgroups. Among MSM, being black was associated with desiring children. Conclusions Approximately 40% of MSM, W, and MSW with HIV may want children, both at baseline and 96 weeks after ART initiation. These results highlight the need to regularly assess parenting goals, provide access to comprehensive reproductive services, and address prevention of vertical and heterosexual HIV transmission.
34 – Vis5D, Cave5D, and VisAD

This chapter concerns three scientific visualization systems—Vis5D, Cave5D, and Visualization for Algorithm Development (VisAD)—useful to scientist in their daily work. Vis5D grew out of work with the 4-D McIDAS system during the 1980s, experimenting with animated 3D displays of various types of environmental data. The input data to Vis5D are time sequences of regular 3D grids of values for multiple variables, for example, temperature, pressure, and fluid motion vector components. Vis5D depicts scalar variables via isosurfaces, contour curves embedded on horizontal and vertical planes, pseudo-colors on horizontal and vertical planes, and volume rendering. Observational data is much more challenging than simulation data to visualize and analyze. VisAD is designed to deal with virtually any numerical or text data, to produce virtually any type of data depiction, integrate interactive analyses with visualization, and work with arbitrarily distributed computing resources The core of VisAD's design is its data model, which is a mathematical description of the set of valid Data components.
A Rare Cause of Secondary Hypertension and Left Ventricular Hypertrophy in an Adolescent Female

Introduction: While hypertension is common in adults and adolescents, it rarely presents in younger pediatric patients. Secondary hypertension is more common in younger pediatric populations with common causes being renal parenchymal disease, renovascular disease, cardiac disease, drugs, and endocrine disorders. Due to the long-term health risks resulting from hypertension, recognition and treatment in the pediatric population is essential. Case: A 16-year-old girl with no medical history presented for sports physical. Review of systems was positive for hyperhidrosis, intermittent headaches, and blurry vision. Vital signs revealed blood pressure of 190/130, confirmed by multiple readings using different cuffs. Physical exam was …
Maximizing Ether Oxygen Content in Polymers for Membrane CO2 Removal from Natural Gas

Membrane materials for CO2 removal from natural gas are based on glassy polymers with a high CO2/CH4 diffusivity selectivity. However, these polymers suffer from competitive sorption by heavy hydrocarbons that decreases CO2 permeability and physical aging that reduces gas permeability with time. We circumvent these issues by designing rubbery, solubility-selective polymers with a ratio of ether/ester oxygen to carbon as high as 0.8 through the use of 1,3-dioxolane and 1,3,5-trioxane. The ether/ester oxygen groups interact favorably with CO2 but do not interact with CH4, leading to a high CO2/gas solubility selectivity that is unaffected by heavy hydrocarbons in the raw natural gas. These polar groups are incorporated in short branches to yield an amorphous and rubbery nature, leading to high gas permeability that is stable over time. A polymer with an O/C ratio of 0.71 (P71) shows a mixed-gas CO2 permeability of 320 Barrers and a CO2/CH4 selectivity of 21 in the simulated natural gas at 50 °C, which is in...
Electrical Transition in Isostructural VO 2 Thin-Film Heterostructures

Control over the concurrent occurrence of structural (monoclinic to tetragonal) and electrical (insulator to the conductor) transitions presents a formidable challenge for VO2-based thin film devices. Speed, lifetime, and reliability of these devices can be significantly improved by utilizing solely electrical transition while eliminating structural transition. We design a novel strain-stabilized isostructural VO2 epitaxial thin-film system where the electrical transition occurs without any observable structural transition. The thin-film heterostructures with a completely relaxed NiO buffer layer have been synthesized allowing complete control over strains in VO2 films. The strain trapping in VO2 thin films occurs below a critical thickness by arresting the formation of misfit dislocations. We discover the structural pinning of the monoclinic phase in (10 ± 1 nm) epitaxial VO2 films due to bandgap changes throughout the whole temperature regime as the insulator-to-metal transition occurs. Using density functional theory, we calculate that the strain in monoclinic structure reduces the difference between long and short V-V bond-lengths (ΔV−V) in monoclinic structures which leads to a systematic decrease in the electronic bandgap of VO2. This decrease in bandgap is additionally attributed to ferromagnetic ordering in the monoclinic phase to facilitate a Mott insulator without going through the structural transition.
Constitutional Contours for the Design and Implementation of Multistate Renewable Energy Programs and Projects

States are increasingly considering multistate efforts to promote the production, sale, and use of renewable energy. For example, in August 2009, policymakers and stakeholders gathered to consider joint renewable energy (specifically, wind energy) transmission projects among Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. This Article explores a number of constitutional issues that multistate efforts to encourage, market, transmit, or distribute renewable energy could raise. It reflects the reality that, for energy, as for many other issues, multistate creativity in establishing new governance regimesor implementing interstate projects often creates constitutional ambiguities. Many of these ambiguities center on the constitutional status - private or governmental; local, state, or federal - of the resulting multistate or regional institutions. Even so, the constitutional issues raised can usefully be divided into three categories for discussion: (1) issues that can arise as a result of the substantive content of the multistate enterprise; (2) procedural issues regarding the formation and conduct of the multistate enterprise; and (3) the core structural issue of whether the multistate enterprise requires an interstate compact. This Article discusses each of these sets of issues in turn, concluding that most multistate renewable energy programs and projects will require an interstate compact, but that interstate compacts afford states not only extensive flexibility to address renewable energy issues but also substantial protection from particular kinds of constitutional challenges - especially federal preemption.
Anabolics in the management of glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis: an evidence-based review of long-term safety, efficacy and place in therapy.

Introduction Glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis is an underrecognized complication of chronic glucocorticoid therapy characterized by a decrease in new bone formation. Anabolic therapies, such as teriparatide, a recombinant human parathyroid hormone, combat the disease by promoting new bone growth.
Clinical Reasoning: A 26-year-old man with right hand and arm weakness

A 26-year-old infantryman developed right hand and arm weakness while deployed to Iraq. Extension of the right second digit worsened over 2 weeks, followed by difficulty extending digits 3–5 over the following weeks. He reported muscle twitching in the right upper extremity over the same period, and that his thumb would lock or cramp in an opposed position during use. He denied pain, motor, or sensory symptoms in other extremities. Nine months prior, he sustained an injury while parachuting during airborne school, resulting in a concussion, headache, and neck and back pain, but no weakness.
Modeling dislocations with arbitrary character angle in face-centered cubic transition metals using the phase-field dislocation dynamics method with full anisotropic elasticity

Abstract In this study, we present a phase-field dislocation dynamics (PFDD) method that includes full anisotropic elasticity. We apply it to calculate the equilibrium core structures of dislocations with arbitrary character angle in eight face-centered cubic transition metals. The calculations investigate the effects of the gradient energy density in the total energy density and the choice of the averaging scheme to determine the isotropic equivalent elastic moduli (i.e., Voigt, Reuss, and Hill). We show that the addition of the gradient energy term increases the intrinsic stacking fault (ISF) widths for the edge and screw dislocations in most of the metals studied here, but decreases the ISF widths for the edge dislocations in four metals: Ir, Ni, Pd, and Rh. The analysis indicates that among the three isotropic averaging schemes, the Voigt isotropic equivalent modulus best predicts the ISF widths of the edge dislocations and the Reuss scheme for the ISF widths of the screw dislocations, compared to the full elastic anisotropy. Finally, a critical character angle ( ∼ 60∘) is revealed, at which the PFDD simulations with full elastic anisotropy and those with the isotropic Hill average predict the same ISF width. Our work advances the basic understanding of the elastic anisotropic effects on the equilibrium dislocation core structures and can help guide the choice of isotropic averaged moduli.
LESS: A Matrix Split and Balance Algorithm for Parallel Circuit (Optical) or Hybrid Data Center Switching and More

The research problem of how to use a high-speed circuit switch, typically an optical switch, to most effectively boost the switching capacity of a datacenter network, has been extensively studied. In this work, we focus on a different but related research problem that arises when multiple (say s) parallel circuit switches are used: How to best split a switching workload D into sub-workloads $D_1, D_2, ..., D_s$, and give them to the s switches as their respective workloads, so that the overall makespan of the parallel switching system is minimized? Computing such an optimal split is unfortunately NP-hard, since the circuit/optical switch incurs a nontrivial reconfiguration delay when the switch configuration has to change. In this work, we formulate a weaker form of this problem: How to minimize the total number of nonzero entries in $D_1, D_2, ..., D_s$ (so that the overall reconfiguration cost can be kept low), under the constraint that every row or column sum of D (which corresponds to the workload imposed on a sending or receiving rack respectively) is evenly split? Although this weaker problem is still NP-hard, we are able to design LESS, an approximation algorithm that has a low approximation ratio of only $1+e$ in practice and a low computational complexity of only $O(m^2)$, where $m = \|D\|_0$ is the number of nonzero entries in D. Our simulation studies show that LESS results in excellent overall makespan performances under realistic datacenter traffic workloads and parameter settings.
vH+-ATPase-induced intracellular acidification is critical to glucose-stimulated insulin secretion in beta cells

Swelling of secretory vesicles is critical for the regulated release of intra-vesicular contents from cells during secretion. At the secretory vesicle membrane of the exocrine pancreas and neurons, GTP-binding G proteins, vH+-ATPase, potassium channels and AQP water channels, are among the players implicated in vesicle volume regulation. Here we report in the endocrine insulin-secreting MIN6 cells, the similar requirement of vH+-ATPase-mediated intracellular acidification on glucose-stimulated insulin release. MIN6 cells exposed to the vH+-ATPase inhibitor Bafilomycin A show decreased acidification of the cytosolic compartment that include insulin-carrying granules. Additionally, a loss of insulin granules near the cell plasma membrane following Bafilomycin A treatment, suggests impaired transport of insulin granules and consequent decrease in glucose-stimulated insulin secretion and accumulation of intracellular insulin. These results suggest that vH+-ATPase-mediated intracellular acidification is required for insulin secretion in beta cells.
Modulation of Response Regulator CheY Reaction Kinetics by Two Variable Residues That Affect Conformation.

Microorganisms and plants utilize two-component systems to regulate adaptive responses to changing environmental conditions. Sensor kinases detect stimuli and alter their autophosphorylation activity accordingly. Signal propagation occurs via the transfer of phosphoryl groups from upstream kinases to downstream response regulator proteins. Removal of phosphoryl groups from the response regulator typically resets the system. Members of the same protein family may catalyze phosphorylation and dephosphorylation reactions with different efficiencies, exhibiting rate constants spanning many orders of magnitude to accommodate response timescales from milliseconds to days. We previously found that response regulator variable positions one or two residues to the C-terminal side of the conserved Asp phosphorylation site (D+2) or Thr/Ser (T+1/T+2) in response regulators alter reaction kinetics by direct interaction with phosphodonor or phosphoacceptor molecules. Here we explore the kinetic effects of amino acid substitutions at the two positions immediately C-terminal to the conserved Lys (K+1/K+2) in the model Escherichia coli response regulator CheY. We measured CheY autophosphorylation and autodephosphorylation rate constants for 27 pairs of K+1/K+2 residues that represent 84% of naturally occurring response regulators. Effects on autodephosphorylation were modest, but autophosphorylation rate constants varied by two orders of magnitude, suggesting that the K+1/K+2 positions influence reaction kinetics by altering the conformational spectrum sampled by CheY at equilibrium. Additional evidence supporting this indirect mechanism includes: the effect on autophosphorylation rate constants is independent of phosphodonor, autophophosphorylation rate constants and dissociation constants for the phosphoryl group analog BeF3- are inversely correlated, and the K+1/K+2 positions are distant from the phosphorylation site. IMPORTANCE We have identified five variable positions in response regulators that allow the rate constants of autophosphorylation and autodephosporylation reactions each to be altered over three orders of magnitude in CheY. The distributions of variable residue combinations across response regulator subfamilies suggest that distinct mechanisms associated with different variable positions allow reaction rates to be tuned independently during evolution for diverse biological purposes. This knowledge could be used in synthetic biology applications to adjust the properties (e.g. background noise, response duration) of biosensors and may allow prediction of response regulator reaction kinetics from primary amino acid sequence.
The current state of radiomics in pancreatic disease

Radiomics is the extraction of quantitative features from cross-sectional imaging and analysis of these data for decision support. As the role of medical imaging in patient care has increased exponentially over the past decade, so too have the data associated with these studies, allowing for more robust and meaningful exploration. Diseases of the pancreas requiring complex decision making including pancreatic cancer, pancreatic cystic neoplasms, and pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms, are the active subjects of radiomics research, and patients and clinicians stand to benefit from development of this technology in the near term. Radiomics has already revealed novel insights into tumor phenotype, disease biology, and patient outcomes, and will continue to become a more powerful tool in the care of patients with pancreatic disease. Key words: Pancreatic diseases; Radiology; Radiomics; Tumor biology
DANTE: Predicting Insider Threat using LSTM on system logs

Insider threat is one of the most pernicious threat vectors to information and communication technologies (ICT) across the world due to the elevated level of trust and access that an insider is afforded. This type of threat can stem from both malicious users with a motive as well as negligent users who inadvertently reveal details about trade secrets, company information, or even access information to malignant players. In this paper, we propose a novel approach that uses system logs to detect insider behavior using a special recurrent neural network (RNN) model. Ground truth is established using DANTE and used as baseline for identifying anomalous behavior. For this, system logs are modeled as a natural language sequence and patterns are extracted from these sequences. We create workflows of sequences of actions that follow a natural language logic and control flow. These flows are assigned various categories of behaviors - malignant or benign. Any deviation from these sequences indicates the presence of a threat. We further classify threats into one of the five categories provided in the CERT insider threat dataset. Through experimental evaluation, we show that the proposed model can achieve 93% prediction accuracy.
Promoting COVID-19 Vaccination on Social Media.

* Abbreviation: COVID-19 — : coronavirus disease 2019 People’s willingness to get immunized against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continues to shift.1 Vaccine hesitancy remains high in minority communities.2 We do not know how parents will respond when the vaccine becomes available for children. Given these uncertainties and the importance of attaining high levels of immunization, physicians need to encourage people to get immunized. This work will be as difficult and important as providing clinical care for people who have contracted COVID-19. It will require careful communication with individual patients. Furthermore, to fulfill our professional obligations to educate the public, it will also savvy use of social media. If we do this well, it will save more lives than all the ICUs in the world. Health professionals have a long-recognized obligation to care not just for individual patients but, also, for the health of the public. To fulfill that obligation, we need to help the public understand the safety and efficacy of immunization. Today, the best way to do that is by using digital media platforms. Such public education through digital media is not something we learned how to do in medical school. Not every doctor can do it. Opponents of immunization are very active on social media. In some cases, doubters raise important questions about the side effects, anaphylaxis, or the duration of immunity. In other cases, however, their posts spread debunked disinformation embedded in true information. For example, a (true) … Address correspondence to Fajar Raza, MBBS, Department of Bioethics, Children’s Mercy Hospital, 2401 Gillham Rd, Kansas City, MO 64108. E-mail: fraza1{at}cmh.edu
Characterization of Clinical Outcomes in Patients with Cutis Marmorata Telangiectatica Congenita

Cutis marmorata telangiectatica congenita (CMTC) is an uncommon, congenital, cutaneous vascular disease with an unknown pathogenesis. Although considered as a benign condition, anomalies such as body asymmetry are frequently associated. Herein we present a series of patient with diagnosis of CMTC with a focus on clinical outcomes. In our series, limb length abnormalities were the most common associate anomaly, occurring in 24% of the subjects, similar to other series with rates of 33% and 27% but higher than the general population (6.7%). Importantly, dermatologist should be aware of the frequently associated anomalies in CMTC, such as leg length discrepancy, which may have serious consequences if not recognized and treated.
Strategies for induction of HIV-1 envelope-reactive broadly neutralizing antibodies.

Introduction A primary focus of HIV-1 vaccine development is the activation of B cell receptors for naive or precursor broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs), followed by expansion and maturation of bnAb B cell lineage intermediates leading to highly affinity-matured bnAbs. HIV-1 envelope (Env) encodes epitopes for bnAbs of different specificities. Design of immunogens to induce bnAb precursors of different specificities and mature them into bnAb status is a goal for HIV-1 vaccine development. We review vaccine strategies for bnAb lineages development and highlight the immunological barriers that these strategies must overcome to generate bnAbs. Methods We provide perspectives based on published research articles and reviews. Discussion The recent Antibody Mediated Protection (AMP) trial that tested the protective efficacy of one HIV-1 Env bnAb specificity demonstrated that relatively high levels of long-lasting serum titers of multiple specificities of bnAbs will be required for protection from HIV-1 transmission. Current vaccine efforts for induction of bnAb lineages are focused on immunogens designed to expand naive HIV-1 bnAb precursor B cells following the recent success of vaccine-induction of bnAb precursor B cells in macaques and humans. BnAb precursor B cells serve as templates for priming-immunogen design. However, design of boosting immunogens for bnAb maturation requires knowledge of the optimal immunogen design and immunological environment for bnAb B cell lineage affinity maturation. BnAb lineages acquire rare genetic changes as mutations during B cell maturation. Moreover, the immunological environment that supports bnAb development during HIV-1 infection is perturbed with an altered B cell repertoire and dysfunctional immunoregulatory controls, suggesting that in normal settings, bnAb development will be disfavoured. Thus, strategies for vaccine induction of bnAbs must circumvent immunological barriers for bnAb development that normally constrain bnAb B cell affinity maturation. Conclusions A fully protective HIV-1 vaccine needs to induce durable high titers of bnAbs that can be generated by a sequential set of Env immunogens for expansion and maturation of bnAb B cell lineages in a permitted immunological environment. Moreover, multiple specificities of bnAbs will be required to be sufficiently broad to prevent the escape of HIV-1 strains during transmission.
Don’t Be Vague, Go to The Hague!

The Prosecutor encouraged the Kenyan government to conduct its own investigations and prosecutions and the government promised that post-election violence suspects would be tried domestically. The literature on positive complementarity suggests that the threat of international prosecutions ought to have provided a positive incentive for the government to ensure that trials took place at the local level. So why was it that so many members of government, including senior ministers, threw their support behind international prosecutions, united in the popular catch cry, ‘Don’t be vague, go to The Hague?’
Inducing Fine-Grained Semantic Classes via Hierarchical and Collective Classification

Research in named entity recognition and mention detection has typically involved a fairly small number of semantic classes, which may not be adequate if semantic class information is intended to support natural language applications. Motivated by this observation, we examine the under-studied problem of semantic subtype induction, where the goal is to automatically determine which of a set of 92 fine-grained semantic classes a noun phrase belongs to. We seek to improve the standard supervised approach to this problem using two techniques: hierarchical classification and collective classification. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of these techniques, whether or not they are applied in isolation or in combination with the standard approach.
Complex Formation between Ferredoxin Triphosphopyridine Nucleotide Reductase and Electron Transfer Proteins

Abstract Ferredoxin-triphosphopyridine nucleotide reductase (FTR) forms complexes with spinach ferredoxin, bacterial ferredoxin, rubredoxin, and flavodoxin. The protein-protein interactions are complete within 3 msec after mixing and the resulting complex contains 1 molecule of FTR and 1 molecule of electron carrier. Complex formation causes changes in the visible spectrum. The complexes are sensitive to ionic strength; they are completely dissociated at high ionic strength. The effect of ionic strength on a catalytic assay involving FTR and these electron carriers suggests that the complexes are important catalytically. The calculated values for ΔF', ΔH', and ΔS' and the sensitivity of the complexes to ionic strength suggest that the interactions are mainly hydrophilic in nature. TPN also causes perturbations in the visible spectrum of FTR. The changes are qualitatively and quantitatively different from those obtained with the protein electron carriers. Formation of the difference spectrum is affected by ionic strength, although the effect is less marked than in the protein-protein complexes. The initial changes, which occur rapidly, are followed by a slower first order decay to a second species.
Nike Football: World Cup 2010 South Africa (TP)

Nike's Football division needs to devise a strategy to excel at the 2010 World Cup games in South Africa. Nike has gone from a niche player in the market for football apparel and footwear in 1994 to a formidable competitor to Adidas in 2008 (with revenues of over $1 billion for the sport). The case traces how Nike has gone about making this transformation and its activities at each of the World Cups since 1994. For the upcoming World Cup in South Africa, Nike has decided to change its target market focus and to use digital and social media platforms to connect more extensively with consumers. In addition, Nike plans to launch innovative new boots and engage in corporate social responsibility and sustainability initiatives. The company has to do so in light of competition from archrival Adidas and the pressure of succeeding on the biggest stage in football, with billions of people around the world watching. The case allows students to analyze how a company can best integrate several value propositions into a cohesive plan and how it can best communicate with its chosen target market. It also allows for a rich discussion of the brand image the company needs to portray to leverage success beyond the World Cup event.Learning Objective:Devise a marketing strategy and communication plan to reach a new target market; how to integrate and promote several value propositions by the same company and use a high profile event to build brand connection.
Volatility analysis in high-frequency financial data

In this paper we provide a detailed review of univariate and multivariate volatility analysis within the framework of high-frequency financial data setting. The field of volatility modeling and analysis for high-frequency financial data has experienced a rapid development over the past decade. High-frequency financial data pose tremendous challenges on volatility modeling and analysis, such as microstructure noise, non-synchronization, irregularly spaced times between observations, nonstationarity, and jumps. We present models for asset prices and high-frequency financial data. We discuss common volatility estimators such as realized volatility, two-time scale and multi-scale realized volatility estimators, realized kernel volatility estimator and pre-averaging volatility estimator in the univariate setting. For estimating co-volatility, we illustrate data synchronization methods including previous tick, refresh time, and generalized sampling time and present two-time scale and multi-scale realized volatility matrix estimators, realized kernel volatility estimator, and the quasi-maximum likelihood method built on the synchronized data. We also feature pre-averaging volatility and Hayashi-Yoshida estimators which are based on inexplicit data synchronization. We provide detailed formulation and properties for each estimator or method and point out their relationships and differences. Given the recent interests in big data and high-dimensional statistics, large volatility matrix inference approaches are highlighted in the end. WIREs Comput Stat 2014, 6:393–404. doi: 10.1002/wics.1330 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.
Mobile Knowledge, Karma Points and Digital Peers: The Tacit Epistemology and Linguistic Representation of MOOCs.

Media representations of massive open online courses (MOOCs) such as those offered by Coursera, edX and Udacity reflect tension and ambiguity in their bold promise of democratized education and global knowledge sharing. An approach to MOOCs that emphasizes the tacit epistemology of such representations suggests a richer account of the ambiguities of MOOCs, the unsettled linguistic and visual representations that reflect the strange lifeworld of global online courses and the pressing need for promising innovation that seeks to serve the restless global desire for knowledge. This perspective piece critically appraises the linguistic laboratory of thought such representation reveals and its destabilized rhetoric of technology and educational practice. The mobile knowledge of MOOCs, detached from context and educational purpose and indifferent to cultural boundary distortions, contains both the promise of democratized education and the shadow of post-colonial knowledge export.
Foreign accent classification using source generator based prosodic features

Speaker accent is an important issue in the formulation of robust speaker independent recognition systems. Knowledge gained from a reliable accent classification approach could improve overall recognition performance. In this paper, a new algorithm is proposed for foreign accent classification of American English. A series of experimental studies are considered which focus on establishing how speech production is varied to convey accent. The proposed method uses a source generator framework, recently proposed for analysis and recognition of speech under stress [5]. An accent sensitive database is established using speakers of American English with foreign language accents. An initial version of the classification algorithm classified speaker accent from among four different accents with an accuracy of 81.5% in the case of unknown text, and 88.9% assuming known text. Finally, it is shown that as ascent sensitive word count increases, the ability to correctly classify accent also increases, achieving an overall classification rate of 92% among four accent classes.
Accidents Don't Just Happen

(1959). Accidents Don't Just Happen. Journal of Health, Physical Education, Recreation: Vol. 30, No. 4, pp. 31-32.
Effect of Aflatoxin B(1) on Cell Cultures.

Gabliks, J. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge), W. Schaeffer, L. Friedman, and G. Wogan. Effect of aflatoxin B1 on cell cultures. J. Bacteriol. 90:720–723. 1965.—Aflatoxin B1, a metabolite of the mold Aspergillus flavus, is toxic to cell cultures. The toxic effect is evidenced by an inhibition of growth followed by progressive granulation, rounding, and finally sloughing of the cells from the glass. In studies with embryonated eggs, duck embryos were found to be four to five times more susceptible than chick embryos. In studies on Chang liver cultures, there were decreases in cell number, protein, ribonucleic acid (RNA), and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) per culture with increasing aflatoxin B1 concentrations. Since the cell number decreased and the protein, RNA, and DNA content per cell increased with increasing concentrations of aflatoxin, enlarged cells were suggested. These data are consistent with in vivo data of other workers who have found hypertrophic cells with enlarged nuclei in histological studies on the tissues of rats and ducklings fed toxic peanut meal.
THE DYNAMICS OF MICROBIAL GROWTH ON SOLUBLE SUBSTRATES. A UNIFYING THEORY

Abstract This paper reviews the literature relevant to the dynamics of microbial growth on soluble substrates and integrates the knowledge obtained into a unifying theory describing that growth. In the unifying theory cellular mass is divided into five constituents: a synthetic component, a structural component, precursor molecules for those components, enzymes catalyzing the synthesis of the precursors, and storage products. Reactions governing the levels of those constituents are hypothesized. The literature shows that the transient response of a culture is generally either a storage response or a growth response and that environmental factors govern which response is manifested. The unifying theory is developed in a way which allows it to be simplified to either of those responses by proper selection of the rate constants in the reactions governing the levels of the cellular constituents.
Optical constants in the infrared for K 2 SO 4 , NH 4 H 2 PO 4 , and H 2 SO 4 in water*

Relative, specular reflectances of individual 0.5M aqueous solutions of K2SO4 and NH4H2PO4 and of 3M H2SO4 were measured in the 2-20-μm region of the infrared for polarized radiant flux having the electric field vector perpendicular to the plane of incidence. Distilled water was the reflectance standard. The angle of incidence was 70.03° ± 0.23°. Kramers–Kronig analysis of the relative reflectance spectra provided phase-difference spectra for the aqueous solutions and a tabulation of spectral values relative to air for the index of refraction and extinction coefficient. The strengths of selected infrared bands of the solutes were determined by integrating values for the molecular extinction coefficients over the spectral regions of the bands.
Operating and maintenance experiences of the world's largest storage battery

The Chino Battery Storage Project is the world's largest storage battery. This $13.5 million research project recently completed its two-year demonstration phase. This is a report of the operating and maintenance experiences of that phase of the program.
Repression of the Heat Shock Response Is a Programmed Event at the Onset of Reproduction.

The heat shock response (HSR) is essential for proteostasis and cellular health. In metazoans, aging is associated with a decline in quality control, thus increasing the risk for protein conformational disease. Here, we show that in C. elegans, the HSR declines precipitously over a 4 hr period in early adulthood coincident with the onset of reproductive maturity. Repression of the HSR occurs due to an increase in H3K27me3 marks at stress gene loci, the timing of which is determined by reduced expression of the H3K27 demethylase jmjd-3.1. This results in a repressed chromatin state that interferes with HSF-1 binding and suppresses transcription initiation in response to stress. The removal of germline stem cells preserves jmjd-3.1 expression, suppresses the accumulation of H3K27me3 at stress gene loci, and maintains the HSR. These findings suggest that competing requirements of the germline and soma dictate organismal stress resistance as animals begin reproduction.
Technological Determinisms of Victory at the Battle of Agincourt

This article takes issue with the deterministic conclusions of a recent study by three scientists who investigated the effects of wearing armour on soldier exhaustion during the battle of Agincourt. Armour is not the usual military technology given credit for determining victory and defeat at the battle of Agincourt. That has been longbow archery. Too often in retelling the story of Agincourt the technology has determined the outcome. As I show in this article, while armour and the longbow play a role in the battle narratives of the original sources, they do not determine victory and defeat.
Molecular Engineering of Surfaces for Selective Separations

A strategy is outlined for building designer adsorption-based separation materials. The strategy adopts a molecule-by-molecule approach to modify surfaces with polymer films that carry out selective separations. After describing the strategy, we focus this article on preparing the foundation for these materials using self-assembly and a type of surface-confined polymerization on model gold surfaces. Experimental ellipsometry data are presented that show polymer film thickness can be tuned with sub-nanometer precision. Also presented are x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy data that support the ability to control the areal density of growing polymer chains.
Selective monitoring of patients with suspected blunt cardiac injury

Blunt chest trauma can result in cardiac injury with consequent dysrhythmias, valve malfunction, or frank rupture. Typically, patients with blunt chest trauma and suspected cardiac injury have required cardiac monitoring for 48 to 72 hours. Predicting which patients with blunt chest trauma are not at risk for cardiac complications would obviate many patient-hours of monitoring in the intensive care unit. This series examines the sensitivity of two-dimensional surface echocardiography in predicting cardiac complications. Over a 24-month period, 115 patients were admitted with blunt chest trauma and prospectively evaluated for cardiac injury with admission electrocardiograms, serial creatine kinase isoenzyme studies, and two-dimensional echocardiography. Thirty-one patients (27%) had abnormal two-dimensional echocardiograms. In 8 (25.8%) of these patients, cardiac complications requiring treatment developed. Eighty-four patients (73%) had normal two-dimensional echocardiograms, and a cardiac complication requiring treatment developed in only 1 (1.2%) of them. Of the 9 patients who required treatment of cardiac complications, 3 had normal admission electrocardiograms and only 1 had elevated levels of the myocardial-specific isoenzymes of creatine kinase. We believe two-dimensional echocardiography is a sensitive test for evaluating cardiac injury resulting from blunt chest trauma and is helpful in selecting those patients who require monitoring in the intensive care unit.
Electron spin resonance in zinc-blende semiconductors under uniaxial stress

Abstract We present a study of the effect of uniaxial stress on the electric-dipole spin resonance in zinc-blende semiconductors. The stress-induced spin-orbit coupling of the conduction electrons gives rise to a large enhancement of the spin resonance intensity. Previous workers have used this effect to measure the strength, C 2 , of the coupling. Omission of a significant term in the electron-photon coupling has led to underestimates of C 2 by factors ranging from 3 to 4. We discuss the origin of this discrepancy and the possibility of a determination of C 2 by taking advantage of an interference between stress-induced and stress-free transition amplitudes.
Network coding-aware routing in wireless networks

A recent approach--COPE, presented by Katti et al. (Proc. ACM SIGCOMM 2006, pp. 243-254)--for improving the throughput of unicast traffic in wireless multihop networks exploits the broadcast nature of the wireless medium through opportunistic network coding. In this paper, we analyze throughput improvements obtained by COPE-type network coding in wireless networks from a theoretical perspective. We make two key contributions. First, we obtain a theoretical formulation for computing the throughput of network coding on any wireless network topology and any pattern of concurrent unicast traffic sessions. Second, we advocate that routing be made aware of network coding opportunities rather than, as in COPE, being oblivious to it. More importantly, our model considers the tradeoff between routing flows close to each other for utilizing coding opportunities and away from each other for avoiding wireless interference. Our theoretical formulation provides a method for computing source-destination routes and utilizing the best coding opportunities from available ones so as to maximize the throughput. We handle scheduling of broadcast transmissions subject to wireless transmit/receive diversity and link interference in our optimization framework. Using our formulations, we compare the performance of traditional unicast routing and network coding with coding-oblivious and coding-aware routing on a variety of mesh network topologies, including some derived from contemporary mesh network testbeds. Our evaluations show that a route selection strategy that is aware of network coding opportunities leads to higher end-to-end throughput when compared to coding-oblivious routing strategies.
Elevated Erythropoietin mRNA and Protein Concentrations in the Developing Human Eye

Erythropoietin (Epo) is an erythropoietic, neurotropic, and angiogenic factor, and may be involved in retinal development. Studies in adult diabetic retinopathy patients reveal significantly elevated vitreal Epo concentrations. It is unknown whether Epo plays a similar role in retinopathy of prematurity. We sought to determine whether Epo is present in the normally developing human eye. Fetal serum and vitreous samples were obtained from 12 to 24 wk gestation. RNA was extracted from isolated retina for Epo mRNA and hypoxia inducible factor-1alpha (HIF) mRNA determination by real-time polymerase chain reaction. Fetal serum was isolated from the umbilical cord. Serum and vitreous samples were analyzed for Epo protein by enzyme-linked immunosorbent serologic assay. In fetal retina, Epo mRNA increased with increasing gestational age, while HIF mRNA remained constant. Epo protein increased with increasing gestation in both vitreous and serum. At each gestational group measured (12-14, 15-17, 18-20, and 21-24 wk), Epo concentrations were significantly greater in vitreous than in serum (p < 0.05). Epo mRNA and protein concentrations increase with increasing gestational age and are greater in the vitreous than serum. We speculate that changes in Epo production following preterm delivery might affect retinal vascular development.
Poly I:C induces an antiviral state against Ictalurid Herpesvirus 1 and Mx1 transcription in the channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus)

In vivo studies were carried out to investigate the protective effect of the interferon inducer poly I:C against channel catfish virus (CCV). Channel catfish were stimulated by intraperitoneal injection of 50 microg of poly I:C or PBS at various days prior to immersion challenge with CCV. Mortality in the poly I:C group was significantly reduced from 70% to 3% at day 1 compared to the PBS controls. Mortality increased at day 3 but was still significantly different from the PBS controls. Mx1 transcription was significantly higher only at day 1. In an additional study Mx1 transcription was monitored in the liver, kidney, gills, spleen, and intestine at various time points post-stimulation with either poly I:C or CCV. Mx1 mRNA was significantly elevated in all organs only at day 1 post-injection with poly I:C. In response to CCV, Mx1 transcription was not significantly elevated until day 3 post-challenge, but remained elevated in certain organs until day 7.
Hydrogen atom in a static multipole field

It is shown that the method of logarithmic perturbation expansion can be used to obtain the corrections to the energy and the logarithm of the wave function of the ground state of a hydrogen atom in a static multipole field, or a linear combination of static multipole fields to any order in perturbation theory.
Verification of MLC based real-time tumor tracking using an electronic portal imaging device.

Purpose: The authors have developed a novel technique using an electronic portal imaging device(EPID) to verify the geometrical accuracy of delivery of dose-rate-regulated tracking (DRRT). This technique, called verification of real-time tracking with EPID (VORTE), can potentially be used for both on-line and off-line quality assurance (QA) of MLC-based dynamic tumor tracking. Methods: The shape and position of target as a function of time, which is assumed to be known, is projected onto the EPID plane. This projected sequence of apertures as a function of time (target motion) is then used as the reference. The accuracy of dynamic MLC tracking can then be assessed by how well the delivered beam follows this projected target motion without the use of a physical moving phantom. The beam apertures controlled by DRRT (aperture motion) is detected by the EPID as a function of time. The aperture motion is compared to the target motion to evaluate tracking error introduced by DRRT. The accuracy of VORTE was measured using film measurements of ten static fields. The VORTE for dynamic tumor tracking was tested with several target motions, including (1) rigid-body two-dimensional (2-D) cyclic motion in the superior-inferior direction with various period and amplitude; (2) the above 2-D cyclic motion plus cyclic deformation; and (3) 2-D cyclic motion with both deformation and rotation. For each target motion, the controlled aperture motion resulting from DRRT was acquired at ∼ 8 Hz using EPID in the continuous-acquisition mode. Leaf positions in all captured frames were measured from the EPID and compared to their expected positions. The passing rate of 2 mm criteria for all leaves from all frames was calculated for each of the four patterns of tumor motion. Additionally, the root-mean-square (RMS) deviations of the centroid of the apertures between the designed and delivered beams were calculated for all three cases. Results: The accuracy of MLC-leaf position determination by VORTE is 0.5 mm (1 standard deviation) by comparison to film measurements. With DRRT, the passing rates using the 2 mm criteria for all acquired frames are 100% for the 2-D displacement, 99% for the 2-D displacement with deformation, and 88% for the 2-D displacement combined with both deformation and rotation. The RMS deviations are 0.6 mm for the 2-D displacement, 1.0 mm for the 2-D displacement with deformation, and 1.1 mm for the 2-D displacement combined with both deformation and rotation. Conclusions: The VORTE can measure the accuracy of MLC-based tumor tracking without the necessity of employing a moving phantom. Moreover, it can be used for complex target motion (i.e., 2-D displacement combined with deformation and rotation) that is difficult to create with physical moving phantoms. Therefore, the VORTE and the novel QA process illustrated by this study have a great potential for verifying real-time tumor tracking.
Two-species magneto-optical trap with 40K and 87Rb

We trap and cool a gas composed of 4 0 K and 8 7 Rb, using a two-species magneto-optical trap (MOT). This trap represents the first step towards cooling the Bose-Fermi mixture to quantum degeneracy. Laser light for the MOT is derived from laser diodes and amplified with a single high-power semiconductor amplifier chip. The four-color laser system is described, and the single-species and two-species MOTs are characterized. Atom numbers of 1 × 10 7 4 0 K and 2 × 10 9 8 7 Rb are trapped in the two-species MOT. Observation of trap loss due to collisions between species is presented and future prospects for the experiment are discussed.