cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The Most Conserved Genome Segments for Life Detection on Earth and Other Planets

On Earth, very simple but powerful methods to detect and classify broad taxa of life by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) are now standard practice. Using DNA primers corresponding to the 16S ribosomal RNA gene, one can survey a sample from any environment for its microbial inhabitants. Due to massive meteoritic exchange between Earth and Mars (as well as other planets), a reasonable case can be made for life on Mars or other planets to be related to life on Earth. In this case, the supremely sensitive technologies used to study life on Earth, including in extreme environments, can be applied to the search for life on other planets. Though the 16S gene has become the standard for life detection on Earth, no genome comparisons have established that the ribosomal genes are, in fact, the most conserved DNA segments across the kingdoms of life. We present here a computational comparison of full genomes from 13 diverse organisms from the Archaea, Bacteria, and Eucarya to identify genetic sequences conserved across the widest divisions of life. Our results identify the 16S and 23S ribosomal RNA genes as well as other universally conserved nucleotide sequences in genes encoding particular classes of transfer RNAs and within the nucleotide binding domains of ABC transporters as the most conserved DNA sequence segments across phylogeny. This set of sequences defines a core set of DNA regions that have changed the least over billions of years of evolution and provides a means to identify and classify divergent life, including ancestrally related life on other planets.
Arterial smooth muscle cell heparan sulfate proteoglycans accelerate thrombin inhibition by heparin cofactor II.

Heparin cofactor II (HCII) is a potent thrombin inhibitor in the presence of heparin and dermatan sulfate, glycosaminoglycans that accelerate the inhibition reaction. HCII is postulated to be an extravascular thrombin inhibitor that is stimulated physiologically by dermatan sulfate proteoglycans. To understand how thrombin activity may be downregulated within the artery wall, cultured monkey aorta smooth muscle cell (SMC) proteoglycans were tested for their ability to accelerate thrombin inhibition by HCII. Early confluent SMC monolayers increased thrombin-HCII inhibition rates 2-fold to 4-fold compared with reactions in cell-free control wells (7.3±0.5 versus 2.7±0.2×104 mol·L−1·min−1, with and without SMCs, respectively; n=7 experiments). Extracellular matrix obtained by cell monolayer removal also accelerated the thrombin-HCII inhibition reaction 3-fold to 5-fold. Rate increases were abolished by Polybrene or protamine sulfate. Pretreatment of monolayers with heparitinase I (and of extracellular matrix with HNO2) to degrade heparan sulfate blocked the thrombin-HCII inhibition rate increase. In contrast, pretreatment with chondroitinase ABC in the presence of proteinase inhibitors had no effect. “Pericellular” (cell surface– and extracellular matrix–derived) SMC heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) were purified and fractionated by charge on DEAE-Sephacel. At a concentration of 1 μg/mL hexuronic acid, high-charge HSPG stimulated a 7-fold thrombin-HCII inhibition rate increase relative to reactions without proteoglycan, whereas low-charge HSPG induced a 2-fold rate increase. In comparison, an 18-fold rate increase was observed with 1 μg/mL dermatan sulfate proteoglycan purified from SMC culture media. These results indicate that SMC HSPG could contribute significantly to thrombin inhibition by HCII in the artery wall.
Sustaining Reforms Under the Oil Windfall

After a 4 percent growth in 2010, Russia’s real output is expected to grow 4.4 percent in 2011, increasingly driven by domestic demand. The country emerged from the global recession with lower-than-expected unemployment and poverty. Although in the short term, high oil prices will help Russia’s export and fiscal revenues, there is no room for complacency. The challenge is to sustain reforms under the conditions of a new oil windfall. Economic policy should focus on the short-term objective of controlling inflation and making medium-term adjustment towards a long-term, sustainable level of non-oil fiscal deficit and a more productive, diversified economy. Improving the efficiency of public expenditure to create fiscal space for productive infrastructure and strengthening the investment climate for the private sector remain among key long-term challenges.
Blood Sugar Changes After 1-2-4 Dinitrophenol

Summary1-2-4 dinitrophenol causes an hyperglycemia in dogs when injected subcutaneously. The drug also increases the rate at which excess glucose is removed from the blood after quantities of the latter have been given intravenously.
The Effects of Trial and Incentives on Repeat Purchase Behavior

Although relatively under-researched, behavioral influence strategies commonly are used by marketers to modify consumer demand. Reported here are the results of a field experiment which tested the ...
Improved algorithms of ray tracings in stratified ocean

Ray model is one of the conventional sound propagation models in the water,but the inter-active effect of ocean surface and bottom on ray model will make the computation very complicated.For stratified ocean with plane bottom,sea can be expanded upward and downward to keep the sound-speed profile symmetrical,and the virtual ray traces are computed under this ideal environment,then the virtual ray traces out of the sea depth are transformed into the true ray traces within the sea depth according to some rules.This method improves the computational efficiency with the same result as before.
Design of VSC-HVDC Multi-model Damping Controller Based on LMI Method

VSC based HVDC technology features fast power regulation capability,which can increase the electromechanical damping of a system with additional small signals damping control.LMI technique is a new approach in the power system damping controller design.Based on a multi operating-points model,a two-step LMI optimization method is applied in the design of single and multi-model damping controller.Simulation results on a PSASP three-machine system demonstrate that a multi-model based controller is robust in a relatively wide range of operating conditions.
Superhydrophobic materials for biomedical applications.

Superhydrophobic surfaces are actively studied across a wide range of applications and industries, and are now finding increased use in the biomedical arena as substrates to control protein adsorption, cellular interaction, and bacterial growth, as well as platforms for drug delivery devices and for diagnostic tools. The commonality in the design of these materials is to create a stable or metastable air layer at the material surface, which lends itself to a number of unique properties. These activities are catalyzing the development of new materials, applications, and fabrication techniques, as well as collaborations across material science, chemistry, engineering, and medicine given the interdisciplinary nature of this work. The review begins with a discussion of superhydrophobicity, and then explores biomedical applications that are utilizing superhydrophobicity in depth including material selection characteristics, in vitro performance, and in vivo performance. General trends are offered for each application in addition to discussion of conflicting data in the literature, and the review concludes with the authors' future perspectives on the utility of superhydrophobic biomaterials for medical applications.
AUTOIMMUNITY IN VIRAL INFECTIONS

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the role of autoimmunity in viral infections. Autoimmune reactivity has been described in both acute and chronic viral infections, with both DNA and RNA viruses, and in both experimental animals and in man. Several mechanisms that may be responsible for initiating autoimmune phenomena in conjunction with virus infections are: (1) release of sequestered antigens from virus-infected cells or tissues; (2) virus-induced alteration of host cell membrane antigens; (3) immunologic crossreactivity between viral and host antigenic determinants; and (4) direct or indirect alteration of immunocytes and/or immune regulator cells by virus infection of those cells. It is improbable that any one mechanism accounts for all the autoimmune phenomena associated with viral infections. Different mechanisms might be dependent on variables, such as the primary target tissues for viral replication, the mode of virus replication, or the degree of antigen sharing between virus and host. Viruses can induce autoimmune phenomena independent of virus-antibody complex deposition.
Predicting synergistic effects between compounds through their structural similarity and effects on transcriptomes.

Motivation: Combinatorial therapies have been under intensive research for cancer treatment. However, due to the large number of possible combinations among candidate compounds, exhaustive screening is prohibitive. Hence, it is important to develop computational tools that can predict compound combination effects, prioritize combinations and limit the search space to facilitate and accelerate the development of combinatorial therapies. Results: In this manuscript we consider the NCI-DREAM Drug Synergy Prediction Challenge dataset to identify features informative about combination effects. Through systematic exploration of differential expression profiles after single compound treatments and comparison of molecular structures of compounds, we found that synergistic levels of combinations are statistically significantly associated with compounds’ dissimilarity in structure and similarity in induced gene expression changes. These two types of features offer complementary information in predicting experimentally measured combination effects of compound pairs. Our findings offer insights on the mechanisms underlying different combination effects and may help prioritize promising combinations in the very large search space. Availability and Implementation: The R code for the analysis is available on https://github.com/YiyiLiu1/DrugCombination. Contact: hongyu.zhao@yale.edu Supplementary information:Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Zeroth Order Fabry–Perot Resonance Enabled Strong Light Absorption in Ultrathin Silicon Films on Different Metals and Its Application for Color Filters

In this work, Fabry–Perot nanocavity resonance enabled strong light absorption in ultrathin single layer silicon films on different metal surfaces was investigated. It was found that the peak absorption wavelength depends on the metal underneath the silicon film in addition to the silicon film thickness. Perfect light absorption was observed in deep subwavelength ultrathin silicon films on titanium (Ti) and chromium (Cr) metal surfaces in visible spectrum, which is caused by the zeroth order Fabry–Perot resonance mode where the round-trip phase delay in the nanocavity is zero. A perfect light absorber with an ultrathin silicon film as thin as 1/27 of the absorption wavelength on titanium metal surface has been demonstrated.
V-NIIRS fusion modeling for EO/IR systems

The Video National Imagery Interpretability Rating Scale (V-NIIRS) is an emerging standard of the Motion Imagery Standards Board (MISB). V-NIIRS extends NIIRS to from image-based scene characterization to streaming video for image quality assessment of object recognition. To apply V-NIIRS for image fusion, there is a need to understand the operating conditions of the sensor type, environmental phenomenon, and target behavior (SET). In this paper, we explore V-NIIRS as related to resolution, ground sampling distance, and probability of detection, recognition, and identification success. In a modeling analysis, we determine the issues and capabilities of using V-NIIRS video quality ratings to determine task success. Scenarios are provided that allow one to determine the V-NIIRS requirement for a given operational parameter.
A longitudinal investigation of parenting stress in caregivers of children with retinoblastoma

Background Retinoblastoma is typically diagnosed in young children and may present unique parenting challenges. Qualitative research suggests that parents experience distress related to the initial diagnosis and treatment that subsequently resolves. The objectives were to systematically assess parenting stress over time in parents of young children with retinoblastoma and to examine associations between parenting stress and child outcomes. Procedures Parents of children with retinoblastoma completed the Parenting Stress Index (PSI) during serial psychological assessments scheduled based on the child's age (6 months to 5 years). Caregivers of 92 patients (85.9% mothers) completed the assessments. Child outcomes included developmental functioning and parent-reported adaptive functioning. Results At baseline and age 5, all subscales on the PSI were within normal limits, and most were significantly below normative means (i.e., demonstrating low levels of stress). All domains remained relatively stable over time. Associations between parenting stress and child outcomes were much stronger at age 5 than at baseline. Child-directed parenting stress was a small but significant contributor to declines in child functioning over time. Conclusions Parents of children with retinoblastoma report normal levels of parenting stress while their children are young. However, baseline parenting stress appears to contribute to changes in child functioning over time. Future studies should assess illness-related aspects of adjustment to further understand the parenting experience of young children with cancer and/or having a visually impaired child.
Successful metformin treatment of insulin resistance is associated with down-regulation of the kynurenine pathway.

Context An extensive body of literature indicates a relationship between insulin resistance and the up-regulation of the kynurenine pathway, i.e. the preferential conversion of tryptophan to kynurenine, with subsequent overproduction of diabetogenic downstream metabolites, such as kynurenic acid.
The Illusion of Resistance: Commodification and Reification of Neoliberalism and the State

While protests and acts of resistance are central to democracy and the potential for social change, what is often ignored is the usurping of resistance through commodification and consumption. Here we argue that it is important to remember that even acts of resistance, such as we have witnessed since the election of Donald Trump to the Presidency of the United States, that speak out against inequality and social harm are commodified and consumed within the spectacular domination of the State and capital, making resistance part and parcel of the neoliberal system that commoditizes in totality.
Identification of lipid peroxidation products as physiological substrates of aldo-keto

4342 Aldo-keto reductase 1 B10 (AKR1B10, also designated aldose reductase-like-1, ARL-1), overexpressed in human liver, lung, and breast cancers, possesses active-site properties of a carbohydrate binding protein. Recent studies demonstrate that AKR1B10 facilitates cancer cell proliferation and clonogenic growth. The current study determines the substrate specificity of AKR1B10 and validates lipid peroxidation products as its efficient physiological substrates. In this observation, recombinant AKR1B10 protein was prepared using a prokaryotic protein expression system and used for enzymatic activity assays. Kinetic constants (K m and V max ) were determined using colorimetric methods with substrates at a range of 1-20,000 µM. Results show 4-hydroxynonenal (HNE), crotonaldehyde, acrolein, trans-2-hydroxenal, and 2,4-hexadienal are all ideal substrates of AKR1B10, with K m at 24.0 to 110.0 µM and V max at 1,559.0 to 5,837.0 nmol/mg protein/min. To estimate physiological significance, the lowest active concentrations of these substrates were defined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis of the enzymatic products; and results showed that efficient reductions occurred at 900 nM for crotonaldehyde, 800 nM for acrolein, 200 nM for HNE, 200 nM for trans-2-hydroxenal, and 100 nM for 2,4-hexadienal, all of which are at or close to the pathophysiological concentrations to which humans expose. These data suggest that AKR1B10 is a critical enzyme that eliminates highly toxic reactive carbonyls produced during cell metabolism, being a potential target for cancer management.
ILUSTRASI GAYA KARTUN PADA POSTER FILM ANIMASI ANAK-ANAK KARYA STUDIO ANIMARS DI YOGYAKARTA

Poster merupakan suatu medium untuk menyampaikan pesan dari komunikator kepada komunikan yang umumnya berbentuk gambar dan kata atau tulisan yang singkat yang merupakan iklan warna berukuran besar dicetak pada selembar kertas dan ditempatkan pada panel, dinding atau kaca jendela. Penelitian bertujuan untuk mendeskripsikan (1) Alasan penggunaan gaya kartun pada poster film animasi karya Studio Animars (2) Aspek-aspek yang digunakan dalam pembuatan poster film karya StudiomAnimars (3)m Prosesm pembuatanL posterL filmL animasiL karyaL StudioL Animars. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan deskriptif-kualitatif yaitu penelitian menghasilkan data deskriptif berupa kata-kata tertulis atau lisan dari orang-orang dan perilaku yang dapat diamati, kemudian menjabarkannya berupa kalimat-kalimat baku. Variabel dalam penelitian ini adalah Poster Film Animasi Anak-anak Karya Studio Animars. Objek penelitian ini adalah Ilustrasi Gaya Kartun pada poster film anak-anak karya Studio Animars. Penggumpulan data dilakukan dengan menggunakan metode observasi, wawancara, dan dokumentasi. Tahap analisa data yang dilakukan meliputi penghimpunan data, analisis data, mengklasifikasi data, menarik kesimpulan, menyusun laporan. Kesimpulan hasil penelitian ini adalah (1) Alasan penggunaan gaya kartun dalam film animasi karya Studio Animars. Gaya kartun membuat anak-anak lebih bersemangat dalam belajar, Gaya kartun sebagai ciri khas di setiap Studio Animars, Gaya kartun lebih digemari anak-anak sehingga pesan dan materi edukasi lebih mudah tersampaikan. (2) Aspek-aspek yang diperhatikan dalam pembuatan poster film animasi anak-anak karya Studio Animars adalah menarik perhatian, tampilan poster yang simple, penggunaan huruf yang menarik, tata letak desain yang seimbang.(3) Proses pembuatan Poster Film Animasi karya Studio Animars dilakukan setelah proses pembuatan film mencapai 80% memilih action tokoh karakter, menampilkan semua tokoh figuran, memilih background, memilih gambar tambahan.MMMM MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM Kata Kunci : Ilustrasi, Kartun, Poster Film Animasi, StudioIAnimars.
Facilitating Coping Through Reflective Learning in Adult Education: A Review of the Reciprocal Relationship Between Coping and Learning:

Coping in adult learning-based environments is a relevant phenomenon because stressful experiences are inevitable at times. Three main types of coping strategies are distinguished to either solve t...
Out of a closet: the early years of the computer museum

The 2011 opening at the Computer History Museum of the world's largest and most complete physical and cyber exhibit of computing history marks the sixth stage of a public museum's evolution, which began in 1975 with a closet-sized exhibit in a Digital Equipment Corporation building, migrating to The Computer Museum, Boston. It now lives in an 119,000 square foot public home in Silicon Valley. This chance/luck driven evolution of an institution is due to the dedication and leadership of a few people who persuaded hundreds of others that the endeavor was worthwhile and needed their support. Gwen Bell, The Computer Museum's founding director, and Len Shustek, the founding chairman of the Computer History Museum were committed to its success! Behind nearly every artifact, exhibit, and pioneering effort is a story that the museum is dedicated to understand and tell. This is the story leading to the Computer History Museum.
Flame Tube Testing of a GEA TAPS Injector: Effects of Fuel Staging on Combustor Fuel Spray Patterns, Flow Structure, and Speciation

This paper presents results in which we compare fuel staging and its effect on fuel spray pattern, velocity and speciation during combustion for several inlet conditions using a GE TAPS injector configuration. Planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF), particle image velocimetry (PIV) and phase Doppler interferometry (PDI) were used to investigate spray patterns and velocity. The 2D PIV provides slices in the flow of axial-vertical or axial horizontal velocity components. With 3D PDI, we obtained 3 components of velocity, and fuel drop sizes. Chemiluminescence imaging and spontaneous Raman scattering (SRS) were used to investigate flame structure, species location and relative species concentration. Phase Doppler and PIV data were acquired using scatter from fuel droplets; therefore, those data were obtained only at the pilot-only test points. Raman measurements were acquired only at 10/90 split points to avoid droplets.
A Scoping Review of Feminism in U.S. Social Work Education: Strategies and Implications for the Contemporary Classroom.

Purpose: Feminism has an agenda to advance equal opportunity, inclusivity and justice for women and to reduce gender-based oppression. Though this reflects social work's grand challenges, it is unc...
Early platform mound communalism and co-option in the American Southeast: Implications of shallow geophysics at Garden Patch Mound 2, Florida, USA

Abstract Flat-topped platform mounds of earth, shell, or both, were constructed for millennia in the American Southeast and became pervasive during the Mississippi period (ca. 1000 CE to 1500) as elevated surfaces for buildings that served as temples, council houses, and residences of the elite. The sub-structural functions of Mississippian platform mounds departed significantly from those of most platforms that preceded them, which lacked buildings or enclosures on summits and served primarily as stages for communal feasts and other ceremonial events. The transition between these alternative functions of platform mounds is critical to understanding the emergence of social differentiation and hierarchical power in the region. Here we look to the last centuries of the Middle Woodland period (ca. 200 BCE to 600 CE) as a key moment of change in Florida and the American Southeast, and present results of investigations of the platform mound at Garden Patch, a civic-ceremonial center on the northern Florida Gulf coast, as a prominent example. Ground-penetrating radar, magnetometry, resistivity, and limited test excavation indicate a series of construction stages reflecting communal feasting and ceremony as well as a summit structure that belies collective control. We argue that these features denote social tensions between communal and exclusive functions and rights of access to the platform mound and corresponding social, political, and spiritual powers in the context of the earliest aggregated villages of the region.
The Work of Learning from Silence

We draw on two studies of silence as a social achievement: one from a Quaker Meeting in which adult congregants use five kinds of silence to orchestrate their situation (Steinbock, 2012); the other from a second grade classroom in which children and their teacher employ 16 kinds of silence to juggle a question–answer exchange on arithmetic (Rutherford-Quach, 2013). Silence is not ‘an empty space,’ said Charles Goodwin (2018, p. 201), ‘but a place occupied by its own relevant activity.’ We stress the productive nuances of silence, illustrating its use as a flexible resource in the relations among people in specific learning situations. At Quaker Meeting, silence as ‘relevant activity’ is both goal and method for arranging a space for reflection and spiritual reorientation. In a second grade classroom, silence gains its relevance in the rougher interactional waters of schools where aspects of ability, attention, and intelligence are negotiated and turned into institutional identities.
The Structure of Sexual Orientation and its Relation to Masculinity, Femininity, and Gender Diagnosticity: Different for Men and Women

Three hundred ninety-four college students (148 men and 246 women; 42% White, 25% Hispanic, and 23% Asian) were assessed on masculine instrumentality (M), feminine expressiveness (F), gender diagnosticity (GD), and the Big Five personality traits (Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness). Participants completed a 16-item sexual behavior and attitude questionnaire that asked about their attraction to men, their attraction to women, their degree of emotional commitment in sexual relationships, their level of sex drive, and their interest in visual sexual stimuli and fantasy. Factor analysis of sexual behavior and attitude items for men showed four factors: Bipolar Sexual Orientation, Emotional Commitment, Sex Drive, and Sexual Fantasy. Factor analysis of items for women showed four somewhat different factors: Homosexuality, Heterosexuality, Emotional Commitment, and Sex Drive. Thus, sexual orientation proved to be bipolar for men, but two-dimensional for women. For men, Sexual Orientation correlated most strongly with GD, less with M, and not at all with F. Among women, there were few significant correlations between personality measures and Homosexuality or Heterosexuality.
Censorship and Publication Control in Early Post-War Taiwan: Procedures and Practices:

This article explores how state institutions and party organs of the Kuomintang used various means of exercising power and projecting authority in order to shape the literary scene and literary production in Taiwan during the early post-war period (1945–1949). Censorship is examined from two complementary perspectives. First, integrating the Taiwanese case into a broader political and social context, the presentation focuses on the legal framework of the publishing law of Republican China and on regulations propagated in local official bulletins. Second, the article analyses censorship as a practice and set of procedures. This second part is based on the archival files of Taiwan Historica, which holds official documents from both early post-war governments. The archival material unveils some of the motivations behind censorship practices, and helps us to understand chosen strategies to legitimise sociocultural norms.
Improved Survival on Palliative Home Inotropes in the Modern Era

Introduction Continuous outpatient intravenous inotrope therapy (COIIT) is a treatment strategy in stage D heart failure as bridge to advanced therapies or palliation. Studies conducted before the era of modern guideline directed medical and device therapy (GDMDT) have demonstrated poor outcomes for palliative COIIT, with survival rates as low as 25% at 1 year. Our objective is to describe the outcomes of patients receiving palliative COIIT in the current era of GDMDT. Hypothesis Overall survival on palliative COIIT has improved in the era of GDMDT. The choice of inotrope (milrinone or dobutamine) has an impact on survival. Methods We retrospectively analyzed data from a large US registry of patients receiving COIIT (milrinone or dobutamine) from 2015-17. Patients were included if the indication for COIIT was palliation and excluded if they had incomplete data or Results Of 1,149 registry patients receiving COIIT, the indication was palliation in 404 (35%). The mean age was 65 years, and 30% were women. During the study period, 124 (31%) patients died. Estimated survival at 1 and 2 years was 55% and 42% respectively (Figure Panel A). Milrinone was used in 235 (58%) patients and dobutamine in 169 (42%). Compared to patients treated with dobutamine, patients treated with milrinone had greater survival at 1 year (63% vs 43%, p=0.0003) and 2 years (47% vs 34%, p=0.0003). Median survival was estimated at 699 days for milrinone and 247 days for dobutamine (Figure Panel B). The use of high-dose milrinone (≥0.375 mcg/kg/min) was associated with greater survival than either low-dose milrinone or low- or high-dose dobutamine (Figure Panel C). Conclusion Survival on palliative COIIT appears to be higher than previously reported, and milrinone use was associated with better survival than dobutamine. Prospective studies of palliative COIIT are urgently needed.
One Feature—One Head: Features as Functional Heads in Language Acquisition and Attrition

This chapter explores the ramifications of envisaging an architecture of syntax in which each functional projection (head) consists of only one singleton feature. Following Kayne, (2005), I refer to this as the One Feature—One Head (1F1H) architecture. Beyond providing a sketch of the core desiderata associated with this architecture, I discuss how L1 and L2 acquisition would take place within the 1F1H-architecture, demonstrating that analyses undertaken in the Feature Reassembly-model can be directly subsumed into this architecture in a straightforward and conceptually appealing way. Finally, I turn my attention to language attrition, addressing how the 1F1H-architecture adopts a version of Scontras et al.’s, (2018) call for representational economy in the grammatical representations of languages affected by attrition (see also Putnam et al., 2019).
TRENDS: Economic Interests Cause Elected Officials to Liberalize Their Racial Attitudes:

Do attitudes of elected officials toward racial issues change when the issues are portrayed as economic? Traditionally, scholars have presented Confederate symbols as primarily a racial issue: elit...
Plasticity of amygdala neurons underlying fear learning and extinction

Abstract The amygdala undergoes neuronal adaptations at the synaptic, cellular, and systems levels during various forms of associative learning. Yet, the major insights in the functional role of such adaptations come from the studies of the classical Pavlovian conditioning. The chapter reviews the studies of different forms of plasticity that occur during auditory fear learning and extinction in the lateral and basolateral amygdala. The findings suggest that plastic changes at different levels of neuronal organization work together toward creating the fear memory trace.
The effects of age on the contributions of head and eye movements to scanning behavior at intersections

The current study was aimed at evaluating the effects of age on the contributions of head and eye movements to scanning behavior at intersections. When approaching intersections, a wide area has to be scanned requiring large lateral head rotations as well as eye movements. Prior research suggests older drivers scan less extensively. However, due to the wide-ranging differences in methodologies and measures used in prior research, the extent to which age-related changes in eye or head movements contribute to these deficits is unclear. Eleven older (mean 67 years) and 18 younger (mean 27 years) current drivers drove in a simulator while their head and eye movements were tracked. Scans, analyzed for 15 four-way intersections in city drives, were split into two categories: eye-only (consisting only of eye movements) and head+eye (containing both head and eye movements). Older drivers made smaller head+eye scans than younger drivers (46.6° vs. 53°), as well as smaller eye-only scans (9.2° vs. 10.1°), resulting in overall smaller all- gaze scans. For head+eye scans, older drivers had both a smaller head and a smaller eye movement component. Older drivers made more eye-only scans than younger drivers (7 vs. 6) but fewer head+eye scans (2.1 vs. 2.7). This resulted in no age effects when considering all-gaze scans. Our results clarify the contributions of eye and head movements to age-related deficits in scanning at intersections, highlight the importance of analyzing both eye and head movements, and suggest the need for older driver training programs that emphasize the importance of making large scans before entering intersections.
Using mobile eye‐tracking technology to examine adolescent daughters’ attention to maternal affect during a conflict discussion

Attention to socio-emotional stimuli (i.e., affect-biased attention) is an integral component of emotion regulation and human communication. Given the strong link between maternal affect and adolescent behavior, maternal affect may be a critical influence on adolescent affect-biased attention during mother-child interaction. However, prior methodological constraints have precluded fine-grained examinations of factors such as maternal affect on adolescent attention during real-world social interaction. Therefore, this pilot study capitalized on previously validated technological advances by using mobile eye-tracking and facial affect coding software to quantify the influence of maternal affect on adolescents' attention to the mother during a conflict discussion. Results from 7,500 to 9,000 time points sampled for each mother-daughter dyad (n = 28) indicated that both negative and positive maternal affect, relative to neutral, elicited more adolescent attentional avoidance of the mother (ORs = 2.68-9.20), suggesting that typically developing adolescents may seek to avoid focusing on maternal affect of either valence during a conflict discussion. By examining the moment-to-moment association between in vivo displays of maternal affect and subsequent adolescent attention toward the mother's face, these results provide preliminary evidence that maternal affect moderates adolescent attention. Our findings are consistent with cross-species approach-avoidance models suggesting that offspring respond to affectively charged conversations with greater behavioral avoidance or deference.
Building an Energy Atlas

The UCLA Energy Atlas is a constantly evolving database of building energy consumption that links utility account information to building characteristics, sociodemographic data, and other significant attributes that can be expressed spatially. Perhaps one of the most important aspects of this tool is that it can be continually updated, expanded, and improved upon. This chapter describes the essential data building blocks used to create the UCLA Energy Atlas. We will explore how these datasets are linked together to form a queryable, spatially aware database. We will also discuss data and process limitations that have significant impacts on how this tool can be used. While the details of this chapter are specific to the UCLA Atlas, we share these guidelines in the hope that others may use, and perhaps improve upon, our methods when building similar tools to serve their needs.
Genetically Improved Pines for Reforesting Florida’s Timberlands

Just as farmers plant the best-available varieties of crops that have been developed through many generations of breeding, forest landowners should plant the best-available genetically improved varieties of pines for reforestation of their timberlands. This 8-page fact sheet written by Timothy L. White, Mary L. Duryea, and Gregory L. Powell and published by the UF/IFAS School of Forest Resources and Conservation explains how planting genetically improved varieties of pines can increase the productivity, health, and value of reforested Florida timberlands. edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fr007
Transcriptomic and Functional Analyses of Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Pressure Overload-Induced Right Ventricular Failure.

Background In complex congenital heart disease patients such as those with tetralogy of Fallot, the right ventricle (RV) is subject to pressure overload, leading to RV hypertrophy and eventually RV...
Can Q-Learning be Improved with Advice?

Despite rapid progress in theoretical reinforcement learning (RL) over the last few years, most of the known guarantees are worst-case in nature, failing to take advantage of structure that may be known a priori about a given RL problem at hand. In this paper we address the question of whether worst-case lower bounds for regret in online learning of Markov decision processes (MDPs) can be circumvented when information about the MDP, in the form of predictions about its optimal $Q$-value function, is given to the algorithm. We show that when the predictions about the optimal $Q$-value function satisfy a reasonably weak condition we call distillation, then we can improve regret bounds by replacing the set of state-action pairs with the set of state-action pairs on which the predictions are grossly inaccurate. This improvement holds for both uniform regret bounds and gap-based ones. Further, we are able to achieve this property with an algorithm that achieves sublinear regret when given arbitrary predictions (i.e., even those which are not a distillation). Our work extends a recent line of work on algorithms with predictions, which has typically focused on simple online problems such as caching and scheduling, to the more complex and general problem of reinforcement learning.
A comparison of accelerometer cut-points for measuring physical activity and sedentary time in adolescents with Down syndrome.

Abstract Background No cut-points have been developed for youth with Down syndrome; there is concern that altered gait patterns, decreased energy expenditure and exercise capacity of individuals with Down syndrome may produce inaccurate physical activity data if accelerometer data are analyzed using cut-points from populations with typical development and other IDD diagnoses. Aim To compare physical activity and sedentary time across existing accelerometer cut-point methods in adolescents with Down syndrome. Methods In this cross-sectional analysis, participants diagnosed with Down syndrome (n = 37; 15.5 ± 1.9 years; 57 % female) wore an accelerometer on their non-dominant hip for seven-days. Data were analyzed and compared across four physical activity intensity cut-points: Evenson, Freedson 4-MET, McGarty, and Romanizi. Outcomes & results Differences in time spent in each intensity across cut-point methods were evident for sedentary (448−615 min/day), light (72−303 min/day) and moderate-to-vigorous (12−77 min/day) activities. Between 0.0–67.6 % of the sample met the physical activity guidelines, depending on the cut-point method selected. Conclusions & implications This study presents the wide variation of accumulated physical activity minutes when different cut-points are applied to individuals with Down syndrome. There is a critical need to establish Down syndrome-specific measures of physical activity assessment rather than applying methods developed for their peers with typical development. What this paper adds This paper highlights concerns over the application of objective measurements of physical activity in youth with Down syndrome from measurement methods derived from populations with typical development. This is the first manuscript to examine this issue in a sample comprised solely of youth with Down syndrome. Results demonstrate the large variation in time spent in each activity intensity that arise due to the application of different cut-point methods.
What is the Optimal Position for Induction of Anesthesia for a Morbidly Obese Patient

Special positioning is required for MO patients during induction of anesthesia since proper positioning can maximize oxygenation, improve airway management, and facilitate tracheal intubation in these patients. Extremely obese patients should never be allowed to lie flat but should be placed in the head-elevated laryngoscopy position to maximize view during direct laryngoscopy while the operating room table is tilted in the reverse Trendelenburg position to maximize the safe-apnea period and to facilitate mask ventilation.
Measuring ultraweak, broadband, spatially incoherent ultrashort pulses using optical-parametric-amplification cross-correlation FROG

We demonstrate a technique for measuring extremely weak, broadband, complex, and spatially incoherent pulses with random absolute phase (e.g., fluorescence). It uses the temporal gating, broad bandwidth, and high gain of noncollinear optical parametric amplification.
Acyl-CoA-independent esterification of retinol bound to cellular retinol-binding protein (type II) by microsomes from rat small intestine.

Abstract Cellular retinol-binding protein (type II) (CRBP(II)), a newly described retinol-binding protein, is present in the small intestinal absorptive cell at high levels. Retinol (vitamin A alcohol) presented as a complex with CRBP(II) was found here to be esterified by microsomal preparations from rat small intestinal mucosa. The esterification observed utilized an endogenous acyl donor(s) and produced retinyl esters containing linoleate, oleate, palmitate, and stearate in a proportion quite similar to that previously reported for retinyl esters in lymph and isolated chylomicrons of rat. No dependence on endogenous or exogenous acyl-CoA could be demonstrated. The apparent Km for retinol-CRBP(II) in the reaction with endogenous acyl donor was 2.4 X 10(-7) M. Retinol presented as a complex with CRBP(II) was esterified more than retinol presented as a complex with cellular retinol-binding protein or retinol-binding protein, two other proteins known to bind retinol in vivo, but about the same as retinol presented bound to bovine serum albumin or beta-lactoglobulin. The ability of protein-bound retinol to be esterified was related to accessibility of the hydroxyl group, as judged by the ability of alcohol dehydrogenase to oxidize the bound retinol. However, whereas retinol bound to CRBP(II) was unavailable for esterification in any acyl-CoA-dependent reaction, retinol bound to bovine serum albumin was rapidly esterified in a reaction utilizing exogenous acyl-CoA. The results suggest that one of the functions of CRBP(II) is to accept retinol after it is absorbed or generated from carotenes in the small intestine and present it to the appropriate esterifying enzyme.
Drawing Force-Directed Graphs Using Optigraph

Optigraph is an interactive, multi-threaded tool for forcedirected graph drawing. The interface allows a user to construct an arbitrary graph made of edges, free vertices and fixed vertices, and then apply circular and orthogonal spring forces to the graph to achieve an optimal graph layout. The user can step through simulations, transform the graph and vary forces at any time making the application highly interactive and educational.
Bacteria integrated swimming microrobots

A new approach of integrating biological microorganisms such as bacteria to an inorganic robot body for propulsion in low velocity or stagnant flow field is proposed in this paper with the ultimate goal of fabricating a few hundreds of micrometer size swimming robots. To show the feasibility of this approach, Serratia marcescens bacteria are attached to microscale objects such as 10 micron polystyrene beads by blotting them in a bacteria swarm plate. Randomly attached bacteria are shown to propel the beads at an average speed of approximately 15 µm/sec stochastically. Using chemical stimuli, bacteria flagellar propulsion is halted by introducing copper ions into the motility medium of the beads, while ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid is used to resume their motion. Thus, repeatable on/off motion control of the bacteria integrated mobile beads was shown. On-board chemical motion control, steering, wireless communication, sensing, and position detection are few of the future challenges for this work. Small or large numbers of these microrobots can potentially enable hardware platforms for self-organization, swarm intelligence, distributed control, and reconfigurable systems in the future.
AC impedance diagnosis of a 500 W PEM fuel cell stack: Part II: Individual cell impedance

Abstract AC impedance or electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) has been demonstrated to be a powerful technique for characterizing and evaluating fuel cells. In this work, as an extension of our previous study on the stack impedance of a 500 W PEM fuel cell, we report the AC impedance studies on individual cells of the same fuel cell stack. The EIS of the stack with an active area of 280 cm2 was measured at currents from 10 to 210 A in steps of 20 A using the combination of a FuelCon test station, a TDI loadbank and a Solartron 1260 Frequency Response Analyzer. Measurement of the individual cell EIS was carried out with the help of a rotary switch unit made in our lab. Two methods (floating mode and grounded mode) were utilized for measuring the impedance spectroscopy of the individual cells. The results show that both methods are applicable to individual cells. The results also indicate a good agreement between the total Ohmic loss in the stack and the combined Ohmic losses of the individual cells.
Crystal Field Studies of Co2+ in α‐Zn3(VO4)2

Complete solid solubility was found in the system Cog-(VO4)2−α-Zn3(VO4)2. Optical spectra of Co2+-containing α-Zn3(VO4)2 samples are discussed in the light of crystal field theory. The calculated and theoretical frequencies were in good agreement for octahedral symmetry in the zinc sites. The crystal field parameter Dq was consistent with the ionic approximation rule. The nephelauxetic ratio did not show any relation to cation-anion distance. Most probably the expanding d-d electron clouds of Co2+ interacted.
Genetic characterization of maize populations selected for grain methionine content

Methionine is one of three essential amino acids that are nutritionally limiting in maize, which is a major component of animal diets. Diets consisting mainly of maize must be supplemented with other sources of methionine to provide adequate nutrition. Plant breeding strategies have been implemented to increase the level of methionine in maize. The objective of this study was to genetically characterize two programs involving recurrent selection for grain methionine content. These programs started with the synthetic populations BS11 or BS31. We sought to determine the genetic effects this selection process has had on the genome. Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers distributed across the genome and in gene regions potentially related to methionine levels were examined using allele frequency based and linkage disequilibrium (LD) analyses. The percentage of polymorphic loci decreased through the cycles of selection in both populations and alleles present in the starting populations were lost. The two measures of LD used in this study, D and r, demonstrate an increase in disequilibrium across the genome for both BS11and BS31derived populations suggesting selection occurred at multiple loci. Several genetic loci exhibited allele frequency changes that paralleled the advancement of the selection program.
Projected Dynamical Systems

Many systems in the modern world involve interacting agents competing for scarce resources and in such problems the concept of equilibrium plays a central role. Examples of scarce resources include: many natural resources, financial budgets, limited production capacities, and the systems themselves as in the design of the underlying network in, for example, urban transportation systems. Examples of equilibrium problems abound in operations research and management science, in economics, and in engineering, and their study has helped to forge bridges between different disciplines.
Formation of methane and carbon dioxide from dimethylselenide in anoxic sediments and by a methanogenic bacterium.

Anaerobic San Francisco Bay salt marsh sediments rapidly metabolized [14C]dimethylselenide (DMSe) to 14CH4 and 14CO2. Addition of selective inhibitors (2-bromoethanesulfonic acid or molybdate) to these sediments indicated that both methanogenic and sulfate-respiring bacteria could degrade DMSe to gaseous products. However, sediments taken from the selenium-contaminated Kesterson Wildlife Refuge produced only 14CO2 from [14C]DMSe, implying that methanogens were not important in the Kesterson samples. A pure culture of a dimethylsulfide (DMS)-grown methylotrophic methanogen converted [14C]DMSe to 14CH4 and 14CO2. However, the organism could not grow on DMSe. Addition of DMS to either sediments or the pure culture retarded the metabolism of DMSe. This effect appeared to be caused by competitive inhibition, thereby indicating a common enzyme system for DMS and DMSe metabolism. DMSe appears to be degraded as part of the DMS pool present in anoxic environments. These results suggest that methylotrophic methanogens may demethylate methylated forms of other metals and metalloids found in nature.