cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Interacting with Cage: Realising classic electronic works with contemporary technologies

At a time when tape music, which obviated the need for performers by eliminating interpretation after composition, was becoming the dominant paradigm for electronic music, John Cage, motivated by his inchoate aesthetic of indeterminacy, radically reimagined electronic music that ‘treats machines as things to perform with’. In the 1950s and 1960s, Cage employed electronic technologies in place of musical instruments in concert music, but also reframed the creation of tape music by following a score to be a performative act. Although Cage idealised a liberal approach to performance practice and maintained a modernist, utilitarian attitude towards technological progress, his actions and scores reflect allegiance to the ‘work concept’ (Goehr 1992). Twenty-first-century performers of Cage’s electronic music are challenged to address the seemingly paradoxical imperatives of technological progressivism and creative interpretation with fidelity to a work embodied in a score. This article discusses efforts to reconcile these forces in contemporary realisations using the interactive technologies of three of Cage’s classic electronic works. The development of interactive performance interfaces in response to musical requirements of a score is presented as an important but overlooked model for the development of new interfaces for musical expression.
TOWARD AN ANALYTICAL CRIMINOLOGY: THE MICRO–MACRO PROBLEM, CAUSAL MECHANISMS, AND PUBLIC POLICY

In this address, I revisit the micro–macro problem in criminology, arguing for an “analytical criminology” that takes an integrated approach to the micro–macro problem. I begin by contrasting an integrated methodological-individualist approach with traditional holist and individualist approaches. An integrated approach considers the concept of emergence and tackles the difficult problem of specifying causal mechanisms by which interactions among individuals produce social organizational outcomes. After presenting a few examples of micro–macro transitions relevant to criminology, I discuss research programs in sociology and economics that focus on these issues. I then discuss the implications of social interaction effects for making causal inferences about crime and for making crime policy recommendations.
The Problems of Realism-Based Ontology Design: a Case Study in Creating Definitions for an Application Ontology for Diabetes Camps

A requirement of realism-based ontology design is that classes denote exclusively entities that exist objectively in reality and that their definitions adhere to strict criteria to ensure that the classes are re-usable in other ontologies while preserving their ontological commitment. Building realism-based ontologies is therefore quite challenging and time-consuming, demanding considerable training. Although the top-level in the form of the Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) is worked out very well, and also the upper levels of certain domains, there is still a disconnect with the bottom- up or middle-out approach which is typical, and more practical, for application ontologies. Using the development of an application ontology for diabetes management in diabetes camps as an example, we present an overview of problems trainees in realism-based ontology design can be confronted with and offer some guidelines on how to deal with them in case no ideal solution is available.
Using movement data to estimate contact rates in a simulated environmentally-transmitted disease system

Agent-based models have become important tools in ecology, particularly in the study of infectious disease dynamics. Simulations of near-continuous movement paths guided by empirical data offer new avenues of investigation into disease transmission. Here, we simulate the spatiotemporal transmission dynamics of anthrax, the acute disease caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis, a pathogen transmitted primarily via environmental reservoirs. We explore how calculations of the probabilities of contact between a host and infectious reservoirs are affected by the scale and method of analysis. At both the landscape and individual scales, empirical movement tracks offer previously unattainable estimates of impacts of movement decisions on contact rate metrics. However, the analytical method selected for the calculation of the probability of contact has notable impacts on the resulting estimates, with convex polygons virtually canceling out variation, and unions of local convex hulls (LoCoH methods) and space-time prisms reflecting reasonable variation, but differing in the magnitude of their estimates. The explicit consideration of behavioral states along movement pathways also impacts evaluations of exposure risk, though its effects differ across methods of analysis. Ultimately, simulations demonstrate that the incorporation of movement data into pathogen transmission analyses helps clarify the role of movement processes underlying the observed dynamics of infectious disease.
Catalytic Use of a Leader Peptide in the Biosynthesis of 3-Thiaglutamate

Small molecule natural products are key modulators of many types of intra- and interspecies communication. The availability of genome sequences allows the discovery of pathways to previously unknown natural products. We describe here a pathway in which a ribosomally synthesized small peptide serves as a catalytic scaffold on which a small-molecule anti-metabolite is biosynthesized in Pseudomonas syringae. First, a cysteine residue is transferred from Cys-tRNA to the C-terminus of the peptide, a reaction that replaces ribosomal protein synthesis. Then, a translocation of the cysteine thiol from the β-carbon to the α-carbon is catalyzed by an oxidase that removes the β-carbon as formate. The resulting thiol is carboxymethylated and proteolysis releases 3-thiaglutamate, in the process regenerating the peptide scaffold. This pathway features three previously unknown biochemical processes.
Associations between cyberbullying victimization and deviant health risk behaviors

Abstract The primary aim of this study is to establish associations between cyberbullying victimization and health risk behaviors that have been traditionally linked to juvenile delinquency. These “deviant health risk behaviors” include drug use, alcohol use, and sex with multiple partners. A secondary aim is to compare the effects of cyberbullying on these deviant health risk behaviors to the effects of physical bullying. Models are estimated using the 2015 Youth Risk Behavior Survey conducted by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (n = 15,624). The findings showed that cyberbullying victimization is positively associated with each deviant health risk behavior predicted. The magnitude of this association increased when respondents reported being both cyberbullied and physically bullied. When comparing the effects of cyberbullying to physical bullying, the findings showed that respondents who were cyberbullied reported higher rates of each deviant health risk behavior. Establishing these associations is important for scholars and education professionals as they point to another pathway through which a young person can adopt delinquent or problematic behavior.
Piano recital consisting of works by J. S. Bach, L. Van Beethoven and F. Chopin with extended program notes

OF THE THESIS PIANO RECITAL CONSISTING OF WORKS BY J.S. BACH, L. VAN BEETHOVEN AND F. CHOPIN WITH EXTENDED PROGRAM NOTES by Danica Borisavljevic Florida International University, 2006 Miami, Florida Professor Kemal Gekic, Major Professor Partita No 4 in D Major, BWV 828 Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Sonata No 23 in F minor, Op 57 Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) Scherzo No 1 in B minor, Op 20 Frederic Chopin (1810-1849)
Optimal Orthogonal Expansion for Estimation I: Signal in White Gaussian Noise

The purpose of the paper is to present a systematic method to develop an approximate recursive estimator which is optimal for the given structure and approaches the best estimate, when the order of approximation increases.
Refugees in the German higher education system: implications and recommendations for policy change

The refugee influx in the European context has challenged national systems and individual higher education institutions to develop and iterate solutions for prospective and, increasingly, enrolled ...
Photoactive organic material discovery with combinatorial supramolecular assembly

Organic semiconductors have received substantial attention as active components in optoelectronic devices because of their processability and customizable properties. Tailoring the organic active layer in these devices to exhibit the desired optoelectronic properties requires understanding the complex and often subtle structure–property relationships governing their photophysical response to light. Both structural organization and molecular orbitals play pivotal roles, and their interactions with each other are difficult to anticipate based upon the structure of the components alone, especially in systems comprised of multiple components. In pursuit of design rules, there is a need to explore multicomponent systems combinatorially to access larger data sets, and supramolecularly to use error correcting, noncovalent assembly to achieve long-range order. This review will focus on the use of supramolecular chemistry to study combinatorial, hierarchical organic systems with emergent optoelectronic properties. Specifically, we will describe systems that undergo excited state deactivation by charge transfer (CT), singlet fission (SF), and Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET). Adopting combinatorial, supramolecular assembly to study emergent photophysics promises to rapidly accelerate progress in this research field.
Predicting doped MgB2 superconductor critical temperature from lattice parameters using Gaussian process regression

Abstract Magnesium boride, MgB2, has attracted much attention since the discovery of its superconductivity in 2001. The absence of weak-links in grain boundaries, less prominent anisotropy, rather simple powder-in-tube wire fabrication techniques, and much lower prices of raw materials, have made this new superconducting material a promising candidate for high-field magnet applications. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that various methods, such as chemical doping, irradiations, and different processing parameters, can lead to lattice disorders in the materials and thus alter physical properties. Empirical results have shown that changes in lattice parameters through various methods correlate with changes in Tc but correlations are merely general tendencies and obviously not universal. In this work, the Gaussian process regression model is developed to predict critical temperature based on lattice parameters among disordered MgB2 in various materials systems. This modeling approach demonstrates a high degree of accuracy and stability, contributing to efficient and low-cost predictions of Tc and understandings of disorders and superconductivity in MgB2 superconductors.
Hidden Curriculum of Violence: Affect, Power, and Policing the Body

Grounded in two collaborative interpretive studies—one with women in India who were survivors of domestic violence, and another with queer youth and youth of color in the Midwest who were survivors...
DC-CNN: computational flow redefinition for efficient CNN through structural decoupling

Recently Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) are widely applied into novel intelligent applications and systems. However, the CNN computation performance is significantly hindered by its computation flow, which computes the model structure sequentially by layers with massive convolution operations. Such a layer-wise sequential computation flow can cause certain performance issues, such as resource under-utilization, huge memory overhead, etc. To solve these problems, we propose a novel CNN structural decoupling method, which could decouple CNN models into "critical paths" and eliminate the inter-layer data dependency. Based on this method, we redefine the CNN computation flow into parallel and cascade computing paradigms, which can significantly enhance the CNN computation performance with both multi-core and single-core CPU processors. Experiments show that, our DC-CNN framework could reduce 24% to 33% latency on multi-core CPUs for CIFAR and ImageNet. On small-capacity mobile platforms, cascade computing could reduce the latency by average 24% on ImageNet and 42% on CIFAR10. Meanwhile, the memory reduction could also reach average 21% and 64%, respectively.
Genetic variation in lean body mass, changes of appetite and weight loss in response to diet interventions: The POUNDS Lost trial.

AIM To investigate whether the genetic risk score (GRS) for lean body mass (LBM) modified the effects of weight-loss diets on changes in appetite and adiposity among overweight and obese individuals. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS In the 2-year Preventing Overweight Using Novel Dietary Strategies (POUNDS Lost) trial, we included 692 adults who were randomly assigned to one of four diets varying in macronutrient intake. A GRS was calculated using five single nucleotide polymorphisms associated with LBM. RESULTS The LBM-GRS was not associated with the baseline LBM measured by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry in a subgroup (50%) of the study population. We found that the LBM-GRS had significantly different associations with changes in appetite from baseline to 6 months according to low- or high-fat diet group (P-interaction < 0.001, 0.021, 0.005 and 0.024 for total appetite score, hunger, fullness and prospective consumption, respectively). Lower LBM-GRS (indicating a greater genetic predisposition to LBM) was associated with greater decreases in the total appetite score (P < 0.001), hunger (P = 0.01), fullness (P = 0.001) and prospective consumption (P = 0.019) in participants in the low-fat diet group, whereas no significant associations with these appetite measures were observed in the high-fat diet group. In addition, lower LBM-GRS was associated with greater reduction in body weight (P = 0.003) and waist circumference (P = 0.011) among participants in the low-fat diet group, while no associations were observed in the high-fat diet group. The interactions attenuated, along with weight regain, from 6 months to 2 years. CONCLUSIONS Our findings suggest that genetic variation in LBM may be differentially associated with appetite changes, and may subsequently be related to changes in body weight and waist circumference, according to dietary fat intake.
Classification of COVID-19 in CT Scans using Multi-Source Transfer Learning

Since December of 2019, novel coronavirus disease COVID-19 has spread around the world infecting millions of people and upending the global economy. One of the driving reasons behind its high rate of infection is due to the unreliability and lack of RT-PCR testing. At times the turnaround results span as long as a couple of days, only to yield a roughly 70% sensitivity rate. As an alternative, recent research has investigated the use of Computer Vision with Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) for the classification of COVID-19 from CT scans. Due to an inherent lack of available COVID-19 CT data, these research efforts have been forced to leverage the use of Transfer Learning. This commonly employed Deep Learning technique has shown to improve model performance on tasks with relatively small amounts of data, as long as the Source feature space somewhat resembles the Target feature space. Unfortunately, a lack of similarity is often encountered in the classification of medical images as publicly available Source datasets usually lack the visual features found in medical images. In this study, we propose the use of Multi-Source Transfer Learning (MSTL) to improve upon traditional Transfer Learning for the classification of COVID-19 from CT scans. With our multi-source fine-tuning approach, our models outperformed baseline models fine-tuned with ImageNet. We additionally, propose an unsupervised label creation process, which enhances the performance of our Deep Residual Networks. Our best performing model was able to achieve an accuracy of 0.893 and a Recall score of 0.897, outperforming its baseline Recall score by 9.3%.
Neural sensitivity to phonological characteristics is stable across the lifespan.

Abstract Aging is often associated with declines in language production. For example, compared to younger adults, older adults experience more tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) states, show decreased speed and accuracy in naming objects, and have more pauses and fillers in speech, all of which indicate age-related increases in retrieval difficulty. While prior work has suggested that retrieval difficulty may be phonologically based, it is unclear whether there are age-related differences in the organization of phonological information per se or whether age-related difficulties may arise from accessing that information. Here we used fMRI to investigate the neural and behavioral basis of phonological neighborhood denisty (PND) effects on picture naming across the lifespan (N=91, ages 20-75). Consistent with prior work, behavioral results revealed that higher PND led to faster picture naming times and higher accuracies overall, and that older adults were less accurate in their responses. Consistent with the behavioral analyses, fMRI analyses showed that increasing PND was associated with decreased activation in auditory and motor language regions, including bilateral superior temporal gyri and bilateral precentral gyri. Interestingly, although there were age-related increases in functional activation to picture naming, there were no age-related modulations of neural sensitivity to PND. Overall, these results suggest that having a large cohort of phonological neighbors facilitates language production, and although aging is associated with increases in language production difficulty, sensitivity to phonological features during language production is stable across the lifespan.
Comparative Study of Droop Control Methods for AC Islanded Microgrids

This paper presents a comparative study of two Droop-Based Control (DBC) schemes that have a hierarchical structure to manage power sharing among distributed generations (DGs) in AC islanded microgrids (MGs). DBC schemes are designed based on assumptions regarding feeder lines impedances that limit the design utility. In this comparative study, a control scheme is designed based on a purely inductive feeder lines assumption. The first control scheme consists of three combined controls: (1) a conventional (P/f and Q/V) Droop control, (2) a negative phase sequence virtual impedance control, and (3) an unbalanced power and small signal frequency droop control. A second control scheme is also designed based on a purely resistive feeder line assumption. This control consists of (1) a P/V and Q/$\delta$ droop control, also known as Inverse Angle Droop control, and (2) a virtual resistive output impedance control. This research examines the impact of both the feeder line model and the effects of unbalanced loads on power sharing in the islanded MGs.
Multifractal roots of suprapostural dexterity.

Abstract Visually guided postural control emerges in response to task constraints. Task constraints generate physiological fluctuations that foster the exploration of available sensory information at many scales. Temporally correlated fluctuations quantified using fractal and multifractal metrics have been shown to carry perceptual information across the body. The risk of temporally correlated fluctuations is that stable sway appears to depend on a healthy balance of standard deviation (SD): too much or too little SD entails destabilization of posture. This study presses on the visual guidance of posture by prompting participants to quietly stand and fixate at distances within, less than, and beyond comfortable viewing distance. Manipulations of the visual precision demands associated with fixating nearer and farther than comfortable viewing distance reveals an adaptive relationship between SD and temporal correlations in postural fluctuations. Changing the viewing distance of the fixation target shows that increases in temporal correlations and SD predict subsequent reductions in each other. These findings indicate that the balance of SD within stable bounds may depend on a tendency for temporal correlations to self-correct across time. Notably, these relationships became stronger with greater distance from the most comfortable viewing and reaching distance, suggesting that this self-correcting relationship allows the visual layout to press the postural system into a poise for engaging with objects and events. Incorporating multifractal analysis showed that all effects attributable to monofractal evidence were better attributed to multifractal evidence of nonlinear interactions across scales. These results offer a glimpse of how current nonlinear dynamical models of self-correction may play out in biological goal-oriented behavior. We interpret these findings as part of the growing evidence that multifractal nonlinearity is a modeling strategy that resonates strongly with ecological-psychological approaches to perception and action.
Comparison of atmospheric pressure argon producing O(1S) and helium plasma jet on methylene blue degradation

A solution of methylene blue dye was degraded under an atmospheric pressure plasma jet operating in a linear field configuration with pure argon or pure helium as working gases. Optical emission spectroscopy was carried out to understand the reactive species present with and without dye treatment. Both plasma jets contain reactive species such as OH, N2, and atomic oxygen (O). However, atomic oxygen takes a greatly different form depending on the working gas. In the argon plasma jet, we observe that most of the atomic oxygen produced is the O(1S)–O(1D) transition that also leads to the green colored plasma plume. On the other hand, the helium plasma jet produces the well known triplet states of oxygen at 777 and 844 nm. The absorption spectra confirmed the faster and more energy efficient degradation of the methylene blue dye when treated by the argon plasma jet. Argon plasma with enhanced atomic oxygen content can be utilized as a cheaper and efficient method for waste water treatment.
Abstract 17056: Food and Drug Administration Mandated Post-Market Studies for High Risk Cardiovascular Devices Approved 2015-2019

Introduction: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) emphasizes a “life-cycle approach” to medical device regulation, in which the pre-approval process is expedited and more emphasis is placed on p...
Fundamental Considerations in Developing Vaccination Protocols

A tremendous amount of time, effort and expense is placed on vaccination programs in the cattle industry. Recent surveys of vaccination practices in the U.S. suggest that many producers are not effectively vaccinating their animals for optimum immunity. Development of an effective vaccination program requires a thorough understanding of vaccine immunology. Antigen processing and presentation are key mechanisms of an appropriate immune response and affect the type of response that can be expected from different types of vaccines. Modified live vaccines provide effective humoral and cytotoxic immunity that is long lived. Killed vaccines can provide effective humoral immunity when appropriate adjuvants are used. New concepts in antigen presentation and adjuvants will undoubtedly improve the immune response elicited by future killed vaccines. Vaccination programs should adopt a concept of strategic vaccination in order to provide the most effective immunity to the animals prior to stress or exposure. Vaccination programs may be monitored in the field by evaluating specific serological responses. This information can be used to compare vaccines and vaccination programs as well as provide information that can be used to differentiate vaccine responses from recent infection. While vaccines are instrumental in decreasing disease incidence and severity, there are inherent risks. Adverse reactions include systemic responses to endotoxin, anaphylactic and anaphylactoid reactions, vaccine induced disease, and reproductive effects including infertility and abortion. These risks can be minimized by appropriate use of vaccines. Ultimately, we expect vaccines to be efficacious and provide a positive economic return to the producer.
Multicentered computer architecture for real-time data acquisition and display

Base Language 63 Abstract Interpreter State 83 CHAPTER 4 TIMED PETRI NETS 98 Introduction 98 Petri Nets 99 Timing Constraints and Petri Nets 105 State Machine Decomposable Petri Nets 108 Dynamic Behavior of SMD Petri Nets 1X3 CHAPTER 5 APPLICATION OF THE MCS DESIGN APPROACH 129 Introduction 129 Timed Petri Nets in the RTDAD Environment 130 Example T Structural Identification of Macro-parallelism 140 Example II Bussing Networks 148 Example III Condensed RTDAD System I 5 5 CHAPTER 6 SUMMARY I94 BIBLIOGRAPHY I95
rRNA Functional Sites and Structures for Peptide Chain Termination

This chapter provides an overview of recent work that has demonstrated the roles of two rRNA functional sites, one in 16S rRNA (the small subunit) and the other in 23S rRNA (the large subunit), in release factor (RF) binding and in catalysis of peptidyl-tRNA hydrolysis and has implicated five other regions in termination, with one (in 23S rRNA) being a likely part of the hydrolytic center. The results thus far verify the validity of trying to isolate termination-defective mutants of rRNA by searching for nonsense suppressors that exhibit specificity for one or two of the termination codons, at least under some conditions. The major defect in RF2dependent termination caused by G1093A in vitro was consistent with the specific suppression of UGA (RF2-specific stop codon) seen in vivo in the presence of the mutation. In addition to G1093, other nucleotides in the GTPase center have been implicated in RF2-dependent termination based on UGA-specific suppressor mutations. After finding the G1093A mutation in the GTPase center of 23S rRNA, the authors asked whether they could find other codon-specific suppressors in 23S rRNA, particularly in the vicinity of nt 1093. The authors have suggested that an effective operational phenotype for potential termination-defective mutants is codon-specific nonsense suppression, at least under some conditions. It should be emphasized, however, that such a phenotype can be explained in other ways, less likely but indicative of other classes of very interesting mutants.
Topological approaches to studies of protein-mediated looping of DNA in vivo.

Publisher Summary This chapter presents topological approaches for studying the protein-mediated looping of DNA in vivo. It describes methods for studying protein-mediated looping of DNA in vivo using the lac repressor–operator complex as a model system. The tetrameric lac repressor has been shown to bind simultaneously to two operators both in vitro and in vivo . The simultaneous binding of the lac repressor to two operators on the same DNA molecule causes looping of the intervening DNA. Such lac repressor-mediated looping of DNA interferes with template supercoiling during RNA transcription and can cause changes in the supercoiled state of plasmid DNAs. The looping of DNA due to lac repressor binding requires the presence of at least two lac repressor-binding sites on the same molecule. For plasmid DNAs containing only a single lac repressor binding site, only the multimeric forms of the plasmid DNAs can be efficiently looped by the tetrameric lac repressor complex. The preferential supercoiling of the multimeric forms of the plasmid DNAs can, therefore, be a good indication of protein-mediated looping of DNA in vivo .
The Consumer Juggernaut: Web-based and Mobile Applications as Innovation Pioneer

As happened previously in electronics, software targeted at consumers is increasingly the focus of investment and innovation. Some of the areas where it is leading is animated interfaces, treating users as a community, audio and video information, software as a service, agile software development, and the integration of business models with software design. As a risk-taking and experimental market, and as a source of ideas, consumer software can benefit other areas of applications software. The influence of consumer software can be magnified by research into the internal organizations and processes of the innovative firms at its foundation.
An Optimized S-Box Circuit Architecture for Low Power AES Design

Reducing the power consumption of AES circuits is a critical problem when the circuits are used in low power embedded systems. We found the S-Boxes consume much of the total AES circuit power and the power for an S-Box is mostly determined by the number of dynamic hazards. In this paper, we propose a low-power S-Box circuit architecture: a multi-stage PPRM architecture over composite fields. In this S-Box, (i) the signal arrival times of gates are as close as possible if the depths of the gates from the primary inputs are the same, and (ii) the hazard-transparent XOR gates are located after the other gates that may block the hazards. A low power consumption of 29 µW at 10 MHz using 0.13 µm 1.5V CMOS technology was achieved, while the consumptions of the BDD, SOP, and composite field S-Boxes are 275, 95, and 136 µW, respectively.
Gender differences in Crohn's disease are mediated by differential effects of estrogen on T cell function (MUC2P.825)

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is one of several autoinflammatory diseases for which a female gender bias has been reported. We hypothesized that hormonal signaling may alter T cell function in IBD, since chronic activation of pathogenic T cells drive intestinal inflammation and symptoms of female patients often change during times of altered hormone signaling, such as puberty and pregnancy. We studied the function of regulatory T cells in experimental murine models of ileitis (SAMP1/YitFc) and colitis (CD45RB transfer model), as well as in human IBD patients. In the CD45RB colitis model, CD45RBlow cells (enriched for Treg cells) from WT female mice were less effective at dampening colitis compared to their male counterparts (p<0.001, n=6/group). Consistent with this finding, female SAMP (SAMP-F) mice developed accelerated, worsened ileitis compared to SAMP-M beginning at 6 weeks of age (p<0.01, n=6/group), and displayed reductions in Foxp3 expression and Treg function in vitro. SAMP-F Tregs were non-responsive to estrogen-mediated increases in Foxp3 expression, suggesting that hormone signaling may influence Treg function in ileitis. Lastly, female IBD patients displayed a reduction in Foxp3 expression by FACS compared to males (p≤0.05, n=3/group); this was in contrast to Foxp3 expression in healthy female controls, which exceeded that of healthy males (p<0.01, n=5/group). Together, these data suggest that hormone signaling may directly influence Treg function in IBD.
Reductive Dechlorination of Tetrachloroethylene by Soil Sulfate-Reducing Microbes under Various Electron Donor Conditions

Biotransformation of tetrachloroethylene (PCE) by soil sulfate-reducing bacteria was investigated using acetate, lactate and methanol as electron donors. Results show that the effectiveness of biotransformation of PCE by soil sulfate-reducing bacterial is dependent upon the type of electron donor used.
The characterization of organic modified montmorillonite and its filled PMMA nanocomposite

Thermogravimetric analysis (TG) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR)results of commercial montmorillonite were compared to that exchanged with trimethyloctadecyl quaternary ammonium chloride (SCPX2048), both were treated up to500°C. The time-of-flight mass spectrometer (TOF/MS) results of SCPX2048 trapped under300 and 500°C were compared with that of N,N,Ntrimethyl-1-dodecanammonium chloride(A 18-50) trapped under 200 and 300°C. The degradation mechanism of organic modified montmorillonite was proposed. PMMA-clay nanocomposite was synthesized through intercalation method and its properties were examined by both TG and DSC techniques. The thermal stability and glass transition temperature of montmorillonite filled PMMA increase comparing with that of the pure PMMA.
Poly(sodium 4-styrene sulfonate): evaluation of a topical microbicide gel against herpes simplex virus type 2 and Chlamydia trachomatis infections in mice

Objective To investigate the in vivo activity of poly(sodium 4-styrene sulfonate) (T-PSS) gel formulations as topical microbicides. Methods The ability of the gel formulations to reduce the incidence of infection when applied prior to pathogen challenge was examined in mouse models of vaginal herpes simplex type 2 (HSV-2) and Chlamydia trachomatis infection, and rectal HSV-2 infection. Results In the vaginal HSV-2 challenge studies, 10% T-PSS gel provided significant protection against infection, even when administered 60 min prior to virus challenge (P Conclusions T-PSS gel formulations have promising in vivo activity as topical microbicides.
State holding circuit using heterojunction bipolar transistors and resonant tunnelling diodes

A state holding circuit, similar to the Muller C-element used as a latch, a register or a counter, has been successfully fabricated using GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). Using the negative resistance in a resonant tunnel diode, the circuit has a simpler configuration than the C-element and the potential for use in high speed circuits.
Question answering based on semantic structures

The ability to answer complex questions posed in Natural Language depends on (1) the depth of the available semantic representations and (2) the inferential mechanisms they support. In this paper we describe a QA architecture where questions are analyzed and candidate answers generated by 1) identifying predicate argument structures and semantic frames from the input and 2) performing structured probabilistic inference using the extracted relations in the context of a domain and scenario model. A novel aspect of our system is a scalable and expressive representation of actions and events based on Coordinated Probabilistic Relational Models (CPRM). In this paper we report on the ability of the implemented system to perform several forms of probabilistic and temporal inferences to extract answers to complex questions. The results indicate enhanced accuracy over current state-of-the-art Q/A systems.
Preferences for home delivery in Ethiopia: Provider perspectives

More than half of the maternal deaths worldwide occur in sub-Saharan Africa, most commonly during childbirth or the immediate post-partum period. Although delivery in health care facilities can avert maternal deaths, many women in sub-Saharan Africa continue to deliver at home. Factors influencing mothers' decisions to use facility-based delivery services in rural, low-income settings are not well understood. Health care professionals who provide delivery services in these areas may have unique insights about factors specific to such settings. Accordingly, we conducted a qualitative study of health care professionals in rural Ethiopia to determine key factors influencing facility delivery, using in-depth interviews and the constant comparative method of data analysis. Results suggest multiple influences on women's decisions to deliver at home, including inadequate resources in facilities; unappealing aspects of delivery in facility settings; and known barriers to accessing services such as distance, trans...
Role of Carbonate Rocks in Modifying Flood Flow Behavior

. The interrelationships between the runoff characteristics of watersheds (expressed as the mean annual flood), standard basin parameters (area, drainage properties, and relief), and the parameters which describe the solutional modification of the basins (carbonate rock fractions, sinkhole development, and measures of internal drainage) were used to group 62 carbonate watersheds. Simple binary correlations were obtained by direct plotting of the data. This was followed by multivariate analyses: factor and cluster analyses. Following the cluster analysis, which separated the basins into three groups, the variance within each group was examined again by binary correlations and by factor analysis. Prediction equations for those basins underlain by dolomite rock [QBAR = 12.4 TOT1.01] and for those basins underlain by carbonate rock with very little surface expression [QBAR = 43.5 TOT0.87] were proposed. Basins underlain by karstic limestone had a large amount of variance within the data set; therefore no prediction equation could be obtained. (QBAR = mean annual flood, cfs; TOT = total length of all blue lines shown on topographic maps, miles.)
Prior Multiple Ethanol Withdrawals Enhance Stress-Induced Anxiety-Like Behavior: Inhibition by CRF1- and Benzodiazepine-Receptor Antagonists and a 5-HT1a-Receptor Agonist

Repeated withdrawals from chronic ethanol induce a persistent adaptive change. Further, stress substitutes for the initial two withdrawals of a multiple-withdrawal protocol to sensitize rats to withdrawal-induced anxiety-like behavior ('anxiety'). Therefore, it was tested whether the persistent adaptation induced by multiple-withdrawal exposures allows stress to elicit anxiety after a period of abstinence. Social interaction was used to assess the degree of anxiety induced by 45 min of restraint stress 3, 7, or 14 days after rats were exposed to multiple withdrawals from a chronic 4.5% ethanol diet. Restraint stress reduced social interaction (ie anxiety-like behavior) at 3, but not at 7 or 14 days, after the multiple withdrawals. No anxiety response was observed in animals that received multiple withdrawals without stress or in animals that received stress when exposed only to control liquid diet. Drugs (ie a CRF1-receptor antagonist, a benzodiazepine receptor antagonist, and a 5-HT1A-receptor agonist) previously demonstrated to block the cumulative adaptation, when administered during repeated withdrawals, prevented stress-induced anxiety-like behavior during abstinence. Additionally, these drugs applied prior to stress in the rats previously exposed to the repeated withdrawal protocol, likewise, minimized stress-induced anxiety. The anxiety following stress during abstinence from previous chronic ethanol exposure is indicative of an interaction of stress with the persistent adaptive change caused by repeated withdrawals. Stress eliciting anxiety-like behavior during abstinence from previous ethanol exposures in rats is consistent with stress inducing anxiety during recovery (sobriety) in the alcoholic, a circumstance that can facilitate craving and relapse.
Erosion measurement techniques for plasma-driven railgun barrels

Plasma-driven railguns are now in operation at several locations throughout the world. All share common problems in barrel erosion arising from the fact that the bore surface must contain a high temperature plasma armature which transmits the acceleration force to a projectile. The plasma temperature at the core of the armature is estimated to be 30 000 K or higher. Such conditions are erosive to most materials even when the exposure time is 100 μs or less. We have adapted two accelerator based techniques to aid in the study of this erosion. The first technique involves the collection and analysis of material ablated and left behind by the plasma. This analysis is based on the unfolding of the Rutherford backscattered (RBS) spectra of 1 MeV deuterons incident on residue collected from a railgun bore. The second technique is an erosion measurement involving thin layer activation (TLA) of surfaces. In this process, the copper rail surface is activated by 2.4 MeV protons creating a relatively thin (3 m) layer sparsely seeded with a long lived zinc isotope. Monitoring the decay of the activated sample before and after a firing can detect surface wear of about 0. 1 m. Results from the RBS and TLA experiments on the BRL plasma driven railgun are described.
Toward online, noninvasive, nonlinear assessment of cerebral autoregulation

Online estimation of cerebral autoregulation (CA) may be advantageous in neurosurgical and neurointensive care units. Data from transcranial Doppler, and continuous arterial blood pressure are readily available at high temporal resolution and may be used to assess CA. There are currently no methods for nonlinear, noninvasive, online assessment of CA. We frame the assessment of CA as a parameter estimation problem, in which we estimate the parameters of a nonlinear mathematical model of CA using the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF). In this simulation study, we use the EnKF to estimate the parameters of a model of cerebral hemodynamics which predicts intracranial pressure and cerebral blood flow velocity, generated from real patient arterial blood pressure measurements. We examine the flexibility and appropriateness of the EnKF for CA assessment.
Sunburn on the Vineyard: Terroir and the Sustainability of Juice Grapes in an Arid Climate

Agricultural sustainability practices make the best use of both nature's resources and available technology, and generally avoid those land use practices that lead to greater environmental stress. There are examples in some agro-ecosystems, however, where stress is vital to food quality and productivity. In the case of grape production, a limited amount of environmental stress actually leads to an increase in fruit quality, and with wine grapes, to improved wine quality. But when the stress exceeds an acceptable threshold, vine vigour declines and production and quality may be compromised. Using our experiences with environmental stress in grapes grown in the landscapes of Central and Eastern Washington, USA, we question how agricultural sustainability should consider environmental stress, and at what point management interventions contribute or detract from a sustainable system. Framed by the two French land-related terms ‘appellation’ and ‘terroir’, we discuss agricultural sustainability for grape culti...
Symbolic numeric index analysis algorithm for differential algebraic equations

Mathematical modeling of dynamic chemical engineering systems such as flow-sheet simulation, transient analysis of reaction and separation networks, computational fluid dynamic, or control problems often leads to systems of differential−algebraic equations (DAEs). Knowing the index of a DAE is an important prerequisite for its consistent initialization and its numerical solution. For large sets of DAEs occurring in chemical engineering practice, index analysis requires computational procedures. This paper presents a new approach for automatic index analysis. Earlier index analysis algorithms were based on purely structural calculus. Unfortunately, structural methods may actually arbitrarily over- or underestimate the correct DAE index. To overcome the shortcomings of existing approaches, this paper proposes a novel algorithm expanding DAE analysis to include both symbolic and numerical information. The novel symbolic numerical analysis accounts for variable cancellation and processes linear expressions ac...
Anisotropic effects on the strain rate dependence of a wrought magnesium alloy

The anisotropic effects on the microstructure and mechanical response of rolled magnesium alloy Mg–3Al–1Zn in the H24 condition have been quantified. Strong strain rate dependences on the compressive yield, hardening rate and ductility were observed in the normal direction, while the rolling and transverse directions exhibited no strain rate dependence on the yield strength, but did show a marked increase in hardening at a characteristic strain level. The microstructural characteristics associated with the different mechanical property tests were also determined.
Electron-induced mass spectrometry of 1,2-dihydropyridine derivatives

The electron-induced mass spectrometry of 1-substituted-4-phenyl-1,2-dihydropyridines is characterized by a [M-1] peak that accounts for the base peak, and a fragment corresponding to the loss of the N-substituent in every example examined.
Consequences of C -Violating Interactions in η 0 and X 0 Decays

In this article several decay modes of the $\ensuremath{\eta}$ and the ${X}^{0}$ (heavy $\ensuremath{\eta}$) meson are discussed under the assumption that there exist $C$-violating interactions which conserve parity and strangeness. Various speculations about the strength, symmetry, and electromagnetic properties of this interaction are considered to find out how these properties might be determined experimentally from these decays. From available experimental data, several limits for the strength of $C$-violating interactions are obtained.
Diagnosis and Treatment of Anal Intraepithelial Neoplasia and Condylomata

Anal human papilloma virus (HPV) infection causes significant pathology, including condylomata as well as low- and high-grade anal intraepithelial lesions, the precursors of invasive cancer. Men who have sex with men, women with concomitant high-grade cervical/vulvar disease, and immunocompromised patients are particularly vulnerable. The incidence of anal cancer is increasing in men and women, but human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients regardless of immune reconstitution are at greatest risk. A critical review of the literature and evidence-based, comparative analysis and discussion of treatment modalities for anal HPV related diseases was undertaken. Anal cytology screening for high-grade dysplasia has been shown to be sensitive and cost-effective in men who have sex with men; any abnormal anal cytology result should be followed with high-resolution anoscopy. Condylomata must be considered a marker for intraanal HPV disease, and patients should be screened for concomitant high-grade dysplasia. A variety of topical and ablative treatment modalities are available, including pharmacologic, targeted ablation of lesions and surgery. Treatment modality is directed not only by the extent and location of disease but also by available expertise and resources. Currently, there is no pharmacologic therapy approved by the Food and Drug Administration for intraanal HPV-related disease. Once treated, recurrence over time remains high, and patients should be closely monitored.
No Sex Differences Exist in Posterior Condylar Offsets of the Knee

Background Restoration of posterior condylar offset during TKA is believed to be important to improving knee kinematics, maximizing ROM, and minimizing flexion instability. However, controversy exists regarding whether there are important anatomic differences between sexes and whether a unisex knee prosthesis can restore the anatomy of knees in males and females.
LISA: pointing sensor development stand

We are developing a pointing sensor as part of the technlogy development effort for the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission. The sensor will measure the angle between two beams, by measuring the phase difference in the heterodyne frequency on different sides of the pupil plane. In LISA, one beam would be from the local laser, while the other beam comes from a different spaceraft. The beam coming from the other space ccraft will have a Doppler shift due to changes in the orbits of the satellites. The phase difference across the aperture will be measured to align the incoming and outgoing beams. We have characterized our pointing noise levels due to electronics over bandwidths of 0.001 to 1 Hz with a heterodyne frequency of 5 MHz. The LISA pointing requirements is on the order of 10 nrad/square root Hz stability on the sky, with a worst case scenario of 1 nrad/square root Hz. We present our first results, in which we have reached 4 micro-radians/square root Hz on the detector. This is equivalent to 70 nrad/square root Hz for LISA.