cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Histamine H2-receptors in the gastric mucosa: Role in acid secretion

Abstract Currently, two major hypotheses dominate thinking about the role of histamine in the regulation of gastric acid secretion. Code has proposed that histamine is the final common mediator of secretagogue action on the parietal cell while Konturek and Grossman have suggested a multi-receptor control of the secretory process. Experimental results derived from the use of recently synthesized histamine H2-receptor antagonists have been used by both groups to support their hypotheses. Paradoxically, these hypotheses depend on the presumed specificity of the H2-antagonists in blocking histamine mediated acid secretion while the apparent lack of such secretagogue specificity of the H2-antagonists is an important basis for the development of the hypotheses. Our review will analyze the experimental evidence which implicates the histamine H2-receptor in the control of hydrogen ion secretion as well as evidence for and against receptor specificity in the gastric mucosa of histamine H2-receptor antagonists.
The Puzzle of American Methodism

Picture, if you will, the rich landscape of American religious history that has taken shape over the last half century. At least three features of this terrain stand out, the first being a richly-textured panorama before us, a recognizable field of study that has come into existence in a relatively short span of time. This field has been shaped by a varietyof forces, among them the vast expansion of religion departments since 1960, the recovery of the role of religion in the broader disciplines of history, literature, sociology and political science, and the stubborn persistence of religion in modern American life which scholars struggle to explain.
Applications of multidimensional scaling: Comment on “a method for studying intercorrelated circulation patterns in library systems”

Applications of multidimensional scaling to library circulation, with implications formanagement decisions in the areas of collection building, housing of collections, allocation of funds, and on-line retrieval are discussed. As a data-descriptive, hypothesis-generating technique, implications for theory building, hypothesis testing, prediction, and explanation are also discussed. Cautions concerning the interpretation of clusters, dimensions, the form of input matrices, and care in the definition of objects submitted to scaling are mentioned.
Extreme Diversity, Conservation, and Convergence of Spider Silk Fibroin Sequences

Spiders (Araneae) spin high-performance silks from liquid fibroin proteins. Fibroin sequences from basal spider lineages reveal mosaics of amino acid motifs that differ radically from previously described spider silk sequences. The silk fibers of Araneae are constructed from many protein designs. Yet, the repetitive sequences of fibroins from orb-weaving spiders have been maintained, presumably by stabilizing selection, over 125 million years of evolutionary history. The retention of these conserved motifs since the Mesozoic and their convergent evolution in other structural superproteins imply that these sequences are central to understanding the exceptional mechanical properties of orb weaver silks.
Sarcoidosis of the heart.

Abstract 1. (1) The diagnosis of generalized sarcoidosis is being made more frequently. 2. (2) Four cases of myocardial involvement with death are added to 29 previously assembled, including one case report. 3. (3) A high index of suspicion will provide the diagnosis of myocardial involvement during life.
Confirmation of interrater reliability of the Marley Differential Diagnostic Scoring System for the Bender-Gestalt Test.

The Bender-Gestalt test has been one of the most popular clinical instruments for the past four decades. Much controversy has surrounded the use of this test as a screening instrument for organicity (brain dysfunction). Marley's Differential Diagnostic Scoring System was recently developed to improve the validity of the test for detecting organicity. The original standardization of the system reported very high interrater reliability. To provide an independent assessment of interscorer reliability, three raters were trained in the system and separately rated 40 protocols. Kappa coefficients for the three raters ranged from .94 to .98. Substantial interscorer reliability was obtained, Mdn = 92.5% for specific scores with three scores attaining 100% agreement, although some values were lower. These results suggest that there is a strong empirical basis for the scoring system and encourage further refinement of the scoring system to reflect central nervous system dysfunction.
Translocation of phospholipase C-γ2 induced by in vitro activation of protein tyrosine kinase activity in mast cell lysates

Abstract Aggregation of the high-affinity receptor for IgE (FcϵRI) on the surface of intact or permeabilized rodent mast cells results in tyrosine phosphorylation of phospholipase C-γ1 (PLCγ1) and PLCγ2, and translocation of both isozymes to the particulate fraction. We report here that activation of resident tyrosine kinases by the addition of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), orthovanadate, and Mg2+ to rat basophilic leukemia cell (RBL) lysates induces an association of PLCγ2 with the Triton-insoluble particulate fraction, with a parallel increase in tyrosine phosphorylation of cellular proteins. Both PLCγ2 translocation and tyrosine phosphorylation are supported by millimolar Mg2+ or Mn2+ but not by Ca2+. Both tyrosine phosphorylation and PLCγ2 translocation are inhibited by genistein. These data suggest that in vitro activation of tyrosine kinase activity in broken cell preparations induces the formation of associations between PLCγ2 and ligands within the Triton-insoluble fraction.
BMP-6 is an autocrine stimulator of chondrocyte differentiation

While parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP) has been characterized as an important negative regulator of chondrocyte maturation in the growth plate, the autocrine or paracrine factors that stimulate chondrocyte maturation are not well characterized. Cephalic sternal chondrocytes were isolated from 13-day embryos, and the role of bone morphogenetic protein-6 (BMP-6) as a positive regulator of chondrocyte maturation was examined in monolayer cultures. Progressive maturation, which was accelerated in the presence of ascorbate, occurred in the cultures. During maturation, the cultures expressed high levels of BMP-6 mRNA which preceded the induction of type X collagen mRNA. Treatment of the cultures with PTHrP (10(-7) M) at the time of plating completely abolished BMP-6 and type X collagen mRNA expression. Removal of PTHrP after 6 days was followed by the rapid (within 24 h) expression of BMP-6 and type X collagen mRNA, with BMP-6 again preceding type X collagen expression. The addition of exogenous BMP-6 (100 ng/ml) to the cultures accelerated the maturation process both in the presence and absence of ascorbate and resulted in the highest levels of type X collagen. When exogenous BMP-6 was added to PTHrP containing cultures, maturation occurred with the expression of high levels of type X collagen, despite the presence of PTHrP in the cultures. Furthermore, BMP-6 did not stimulate expression of its own mRNA in the PTHrP treated cultures, but it did stimulate the expression of Indian hedgehog (Ihh) mRNA. These latter findings suggest that while PTHrP directly inhibits BMP-6, it indirectly regulates Ihh expression through BMP-6. Other phenotypic changes associated with chondrocyte differentiation were also stimulated by BMP-6, including increased alkaline phosphatase activity and decreased proliferation. The results suggest that BMP-6 is an autocrine factor that initiates chondrocyte maturation and that PTHrP may prevent maturation by inhibiting the expression of BMP-6.
Commentary: selenium study on endangered razorback sucker is flawed

The razorback sucker (Xyrauchen texanus) is listed as federally endangered throughout its range. A massive recovery effort by the Recovery Implementation Program for Endangered Fish Species in the Upper Colorado River Basin has focused its efforts in the upper Colorado River. The upper Colorado River basin also has two locations that have been identified by the National Irrigation Water Quality Program as having substantial selenium contamination. Selenium is toxic to fishes, affecting reproductive success. Thus, there is concern about potential effects of selenium on the endangered razorback sucker. Two sets of studies have investigated the effects of selenium on razorback suckers, but study results are conflicting. This commentary evaluates studies that claim selenium is not a problem for razorback sucker. We find that study bias was so pervasive that purported conclusions were unwarranted. Contaminated control water, older life stages of fish tested, lack of methodology for analysis of selenium in water, diet, or fish, use of rotifer food, low feeding rates, low growth rates of fish, and improper storage of site waters resulted in an apparent erroneous linkage of high selenium in whole-body residues with no adverse effects.
Maternal Acceptance as a Moderator of the Relation Between Threat to Self Appraisals and Mental Health Problems in Adolescents from Divorced Families

Appraisals about the implications of stressful events that are evaluated as involving a threat to self (negative self-evaluation, negative evaluation from others, rejection by others) have been shown to place youth at risk for the development of mental health problems. This longitudinal study tested a protective-stabilizing interactive model, in which high maternal acceptance was predicted to mitigate the prospective relation between threat to self appraisals and change in adolescents’ mental health problems six months later. Participants were 89 adolescents from divorced families ages 10–12 and residential mothers. Adolescents reported on threat to self appraisals from the most stressful event experienced in the past month. Mothers and youth reported on maternal acceptance and mental health problems. Multiple regression analyses provided support for the protective effects of maternal acceptance on adolescents’ mental health problems. Intervention implications are discussed.
Sequencing of the IL6 gene in a case–control study of cerebral palsy in children

Background Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of nonprogressive disorders of movement and posture caused by abnormal development of, or damage to, motor control centers of the brain. A single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), rs1800795, in the promoter region of the interleukin-6 (IL6) gene has been implicated in the pathogenesis of CP by mediating IL-6 protein levels in amniotic fluid and cord plasma and within brain lesions. This SNP has been associated with other neurological, vascular, and malignant processes as well, often as part of a haplotype block.
RRAM-based adaptive neural logic block for implementing non-linearly separable functions in a single layer

As the efficiency of neuromorphic systems improves, biologically-inspired learning techniques are becoming more and more appealing for various computing applications, ranging from pattern and character recognition to general purpose reconfigurable logic. Due to their functional similarities to synapses in the brain, memristors are becoming a key element in the hardware realization of Hebbian Learning systems. By pairing such devices and a perceptron-based neuron model with a threshold activation function, previous work has shown that a neural logic block capable of learning any linearly separable function in real-time can be developed. However, in this configuration, any function with two or more decision boundaries cannot be learned in a single layer. While previous memristor-based neural logic block designs have proven to achieve very low area and high performance when compared to Look-Up Tables (LUT) and Capacitive Threshold Logic (CTL), the limitation on the set of learnable functions has made networks of these logic blocks impractical to scale to realistic applications. By integrating an additional layer of memristors into a neural logic block, this paper proposes a logic block with an adaptive activation function. The resulting logic block is capable of learning any function in a single layer, reducing the number of logic blocks required to implement a single 4-input function by up to 10 and significantly improving training time. When considered as a building block for ISCAS-85 benchmark circuits, the proposed logic block is capable of achieving an Energy-Delay Product (EDP) up to 97.8% lower than a neural logic block with a threshold activation function. Furthermore, the performance improvement over a CMOS LUT implementation ranges from 78.08% to 97.43% for all ISCAS-85 circuits.
A latex test for the detection of human IgG aggregates and IgG anti-IgG antibody.

Abstract Latex particles (0·2 μ Lytron, Monsanto) were used for the measurement of certain types of human IgG. At pH 8·4 agglutination of latex particles occurred in the presence of purified 7 S IgG anti-IgG antibody and also of a 13 s IgG aggregate isolated from the serum of a patient with polymyositis, polyarthritis and hyperviscosity syndrome. A mixture of 10 S and 7 S pooled human IgG prepared by DEAE cellulose chromatography and Sephadex G-200 gel filtration was also reactive at certain restricted concentrations with latex particles. Agglutination of latex particles by 7 S IgG anti-IgG antibody and by the 13 S IgG aggregate was strongly inhibited when pooled IgG was present in a concentration of 20 μg/ml. Agglutination of latex particles was used for determining IgG aggregates and/or 7 S IgG anti-IgG antibody in human serum. Sera were treated with mercaptoethanol and diluted 30 fold. The solutions were exposed to an immunoadsorbent prepared from heated human IgG. The immunoadsorbent was eluted at pH 4·5, and the eluates were exposed to a suspension of latex particles not previously coated with human IgG. Preliminary screening tests show that serum IgG aggregates and 7 S IgG anti-IgG antibody and more prevalent in individuals with rheumatoid arthritis than in normal healthy adults.
Homoharringtonine, omacetaxine mepesuccinate, and chronic myeloid leukemia circa 2009

Homoharringtonine (HHT) is a natural alkaloid that is obtained from various Cephalotaxus species. The mechanism of action by which HHT exerts its antitumor activity is through inhibition of protein synthesis and promotion of apoptosis. In the 1990s, HHT proved to be significantly active as salvage therapy for patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) after failure on interferon-alpha therapy. However, the remarkable success of imatinib mesylate in the treatment of CML relegated HHT to oblivion. The development of omacetaxine mepesuccinate, a subcutaneously bioavailable semisynthetic form of HHT, and its activity in imatinib-resistant CML has established this agent for the second time as a valuable option in the management of this disease. Preliminary results appear to support the use of this agent for patients who have imatinib-resistant CML, including those who carry the tyrosine kinase inhibitor-insensitive mutation that exchanges the amino acids threonine and isoleucine at position 315 (the T315I mutation). In this article, the authors discuss the current data on omacetaxine and the prospects of this agent to be integrated into the state-of-the-art treatment algorithms for CML.
Ribonucleic acid within the cellular peripheral zone and the binding of calcium to ionogenic sites

Ribonuclease was shown to reduce the electrophoretic mobility of a line of cultured mammalian cells (RPMI no. 41), and Ehrlich ascites tumour cells. No reduction was detected in the case of human, mouse or embryonic chick erythrocytes. These data, taken with the various controls, support the hypothesis that RNA is a structural component of the peripheries of two types of cells, but not of erythrocytes from three species. Calcium-binding was studied in RPMI no. 41 cells, Ehrlich ascites tumour cells, and human and mouse eryhrocytes, by measurement of reduction in cellular electrophoretic mobility in suspending solutions containing various concentrations of calcium chloride. The effect of treating cells with neuraminidase and/or ribonuclease on calcium-binding was also studied. The results suggest that less calcium binds to the carboxyl groups of peripheral sialic acids than to the phosphates of peripheral, structural RNA. However, calcium apparently binds most avidly to as yet unidentified anionic sites.
Buprenorphine-Naloxone Maintenance Following Release from Jail

ABSTRACT Primary care is understudied as a reentry drug and alcohol treatment setting. This study compared treatment retention and opioid misuse among opioid-dependent adults seeking buprenorphine/naloxone maintenance in an urban primary care clinic following release from jail versus community referrals. Postrelease patients were either (a) induced to buprenorphine in-jail as part of a clinical trial, or (b) seeking buprenorphine induction post release. From 2007 to 2008, N = 142 patients were new to primary care buprenorphine: n = 32 postrelease; n = 110 induced after community referral and without recent incarceration. Jail-released patients were more likely African American or Hispanic and uninsured. Treatment retention rates for postrelease (37%) versus community (30%) referrals were similar at 48 weeks. Rates of opioid positive urines and self-reported opioid misuse were also similar between groups. Postrelease patients in primary care buprenorphine treatment had equal treatment retention and rates o...
Harry Stack Sullivan (1892–1949): Hero, Ghost, and Muse

SUMMARY The author summarizes major contributions of Harry Stack Sullivan (1892–1949) that lie outside his well-known contributions to the interpersonal school of psychoanalysis. She describes him first as a tragic hero who tried to depathologize homosexuality in psychiatry and in Selective Service screening procedures–a role immortalized in John Fisher's 1996 play, Combat! She also interprets features of his “personality” in light of his “theorem of reciprocal emotion.” She then explores ways that he haunts the family psychology and therapy literature as a “ghost” who influenced Nathan Ackerman, Carl Whitaker, Don Bloch, Don Jackson, Robin Skynner, Salvador Minuchin, and R. D. Laing; and as a “buried ancestor” whose ideas pervade the family therapy literature. Finally, she summarizes his role as “muse” to pastoral theologians, emphasizing Sullivan's reciprocal influence on Anton T. Boisen in their explorations of the role of concealment and cosmic dramas in psychosis; his life-changing effect on O. H. Mo...
An Anglican Crisis of Comparison: Intersections of Race, Gender, and Religious Authority with Particular Reference to the Church of Nigeria

The 1998 Lambeth Conference of the Anglican Communion brought into striking relief the two major issues dividing this particular global church: homosexuality and the ordination of women. Debates over these questions tend to split the church into its "conservative" southern dioceses and more "liberal" northern dioceses. With bishops from Africa and Southeast Asia now outnumbering their British and American counterparts, however, this rift had a surprising consequence at "Lambeth '98": church leaders of the northern hemisphere found themselves having to accept the postcolonial South's interpretation of the very Scripture, ecclesiastical traditions, and sexual norms the North had imposed on the South in the first place. This article explores the Anglican Church's internal struggle over women's ordination and homosexuality as a site of internalized and redeployed colonial tactics-as a complex of racial, economic, and historical forces that far exceeds the logic of "reverse colonialism."
Generating coefficients of representation polynomials

K. Johnson [6] defines a representation as an equivalence class of order preserving mappings f:X->R from a poset X into the real numbers R. If Cn is a chain of length n then any mapping onto Cn is called an n-valued representation. A representation polynomial p(X,z) is defined asp(X,z)=Σ a(X,i)ziwhere a(X,i) is the number of ith valued representations of the poset X. In this paper a new algorithm to calculate the coefficients a(X,i) is presented.
Isolation, purification and evidence for a halophilic nature of the blue-green alga Aphanothece halophytica Fremy (Chroococcales)

Abstract An axenic culture of an extremely halotolerant blue-green alga, Aphanothece halophytica (Chroococcaies), was obtained following a multi-step purification procedure. Effectiveness of purification procedures as a function of hypersalinity is discussed. Development of a defined medium and growth in NaCl up to saturation is reported. Changes in cellular morphology are concomitant to changes in salinity and other physico-chemical parameters. Lysis of the alga in distilled water and in media of less than 1 m NaCl, as well as failure of KCL, LiCl and CsCl to substitute for NaCl support the view that the alga is perhaps halophilic rather than only halotolerant.
New Computer Automated Holo-Photoelastic Method For Measuring Planar Principal Stress Magnitudes And Orientation

A complete experimental determination of the stress and strain fields in an arbitrary deformed structure is generally unavailable. However, for two dimensional elasticity problems, such determinations are possible since in those cases one needs only to solve for three stresses (two normal and one shear). In fact, such determinations have been conducted quite often. By using isochromatic and isoclinic photoelastic data, the shear difference and numerical iteration techniques (1) and the least squares techniques (2) have been successfully used for complete stress field determinations of two dimensional elasticity problems. Though the shear difference technique can be particularly sensitive to cumulative errors resulting from numerical integration, the least squares technique is not affected by this and appears to yield better accuracy. The methods just cited use both experimental data and one or more mechanics conditions(e.g., the equations of equilibrium) to determine the stress field. However, the stress field can also be obtained from experimental data alone for planar elasticity problems, if there is enough of it to solve for the three stresses. For example, the Moire* technique or the combination of isochromatic, isoclinic, and isopachic data (for transparent models) can be used for such determinations. Further, with the marriage of advanced image processing equipment to computers, such analyses using this type of data can be conveniently conducted. It is even possible that such analyses could be more accurate than those using the combined experimental/numerical techniques cited above. The purposes of this report are two fold: i) to describe a single apparatus for obtaining isochromatic, isopachic, and isoclinic results for complete stress field determinations of two dimensional transparent models, and ii) to compare experimental and theoretical stress field values for an antisymmetrically loaded beam obtained using that apparatus.© (1987) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Stability for a class of nonlinear pseudo-differential equations

Abstract We study a class of nonlinear evolutionary equations generated by a pseudo-differential operator with the elliptic principal symbol and with nonlinearities of the form G ( u x ) where c η 2 ≤ G ( η ) ≤ C η 2 for large | η | . We demonstrate existence of a universal absorbing set, and a compact attractor, and show that the attractor is of a finite Hausdorff dimension. The stabilization mechanism is similar to the nonlinear saturation well known for the Kuramoto–Sivashinsky equation.
The validity of measures of self-reported well-being

Using a new analytic approach, construct validity estimates are developed for proposed social indicators of self-reported well-being. Two separate investigations are reported: the first involves data on six aspects of well-being each assessed by six methods from 222 adults in one geographic area; the second, a partial replication and extension, involves a more limited set of indicators measured on a sample of 1297 respondents representative of all American adults. The results provide evidence that perceptions of well-being can be measured by single questionnaire or interview items using any of four formats with validities in the range of 0.7 to 0.8 and with correlated method effects contributing less than 10% of the total variance. Two other formats, however, were markedly less valid. These findings are important in view of past criticisms of ‘subjective’ social indicators as lacking in validity, and the findings can guide current efforts to develop new ways to assess the quality of life. Methodologically, the article illustrates the feasibility and utility of deriving parameter estimates of structural equation models of multimethod-multitrait data using Joreskog's LISREL algorithm. The possibility of deriving validity estimates in this way, even when the data include correlated errors, opens new and important opportunities to precisely assess the amount of error variance in much social science data.
Carcinoid tumor of the pancreas. Ultrastructural observations of a lymph node metastasis and comparison with bronchial carcinoid.

The clinical, pathologic, and ultrastructural findings from the case of a 64-year-old woman with a malignant endocrine tumor of the pancreas are presented. Clinically, the carcinoid syndrome was absent; however, elevated levels of blood serotonin and urine 5-HIAA were recorded. Serum insulin, gastrin, ACTH, cortisone, and aldosterone were normal. Histologically, the tumor was consistent with a carcinoid tumor. Argentaffin stains were strongly positive. Ultrastructurally, a supraclavicular lymph node metastasis contained pleomorphic secretory granules morphologically identical to those of enterochromaffin cells and carcinoid tumors of the gastrointestinal tract. Ultrastructural comparison with a pulmonary carcinoid tumor showed both to have identical pleomorphic secretory granules.
“G” NEUTROPENIA AND MULTIPLE IMMUNOLOGICAL DEFECTS

A 4 month old male developed multiple infections including penile gangrene, repeated pneumonia, cellulitis, protracted oral monilia, and glottal and epiglottal inflammation. Persistent neutropenia was noted on day 4 of life. Absolute neutrophil counts ranged from 100-800/mm3. Bone marrow aspirate was cellular with normal myeloid maturation. Urinary uric acid excretion was markedly elevated (3750 mg/m2/24 hrs.). No rise in neutrophil counts occurred with normal plasma infusions. Bone marrow karyotype demonstrated a G group long arm deletion which was also noted in peripheral blood and skin fibroblast cultures. Leukocyte alkaline phosphatase was markedly diminished. Normal quantities of immunoglobulins, C3 proactivator, C3, and total hemolytic complement were found but properdin levels were consistently only 20% of normal. Candida and SK-SD skin tests were negative. There was diminished PHA in vitro stimulation and diminished T cells by rosette formation. There was no latex stimulation of NBT in polys and the patient's plasma with control polys supported the ingestion of latex and yeast poorly. The latter defect was corrected by 20% normal plasma but not by properdin alone. This case represents a unique combination of defects including non-cyclic neutropenia and diminished humoral and cellular immunity in a child with a long arm deletion of a G group chromosome.
ELASTICITY OF AN UPPER MANTLE CLINOPYROXENE

The ambient pressure elastic properties of a natural clinopyroxene (C2/c symmetry) from Kilbourne Hole, NM have been determined. In terms of end-members, diopside (CaMgSi2O6), hedenbergite (CaFeSi2O6), jadeite (NaAlSi2O6), cosmochlor (NaCrSi2O6), and Mg-Tschermak (MgAl(AlSi)O6), its composition is Di72He9Jd3Cr3Ts12. The analytic density, based on chemistry and cell parameters is 3.327 (0.003) g/cm3. The elastic constants [c11, c12, c13, c15, c22, c23, c25, c33, c35, c44, c46, c55, c66] are [273.8 (0.9), 83.5 (1.3), 80.0 (1.1), 9.0 (0.6), 183.6 (0.9), 59.9 (1.6), 9.5 (1.0), 229.5 (0.9), 48.1 (0.6), 76.5 (0.9), 8.4 (0.8), 73.0 (0.4), 81.6 (1.0)] GPa where uncertainties are reported at the 95% confidence level. The aggregate (mean of Hashin-Strikman bounds) adiabatic bulk modulus is 117.2 (0.7) GPa, and the shear modulus is 72.2 (0.2) GPa. Although measured moduli are broadly consistent with trends in elasticity versus atomic volume, deviations from the systematics would produce significant (percent level) changes in calculated velocities for candidate mantle mineral assemblages. The compositional dependence of elasticity for several clinopyroxenes is explored on the basis of just the Di+He and Jd+Ts mole fractions. The bulk modulus lies within experimental uncertainties of the linear mixture of end-member properties while the shear modulus deviates by 3%.
The Lincoln large-vocabulary stack-decoder based HMM CSR

The system described here is a large-vocabulary continuous-speech recognition (CSR) system with results obtained using the Wall Street Journal-based database [15]. The recognizer uses a stack decoder-based search strategy[1, 7, 14] with a left-to-right stochastic language model. This decoder has been shown to function effectively on 20K and 64K-word recognition of continuous speech. It operates left-to-right and can produce final textual output while continuing to accept additional input speech. Thus it need not wait for the end of the sentence and can be structured so that it can accept an unbounded length stream of input speech. The recognizer also features recognition-time adaptation to the user's voice. This system showed improvements of 42% for a 5K vocabulary and 35% for a 20K vocabulary compared to the November 92 evaluation test system.
Quantitation of Cellular Dynamics in Growing Arabidopsis Roots with Light Sheet Microscopy

To understand dynamic developmental processes, living tissues have to be imaged frequently and for extended periods of time. Root development is extensively studied at cellular resolution to understand basic mechanisms underlying pattern formation and maintenance in plants. Unfortunately, ensuring continuous specimen access, while preserving physiological conditions and preventing photo-damage, poses major barriers to measurements of cellular dynamics in growing organs such as plant roots. We present a system that integrates optical sectioning through light sheet fluorescence microscopy with hydroponic culture that enables us to image, at cellular resolution, a vertically growing Arabidopsis root every few minutes and for several consecutive days. We describe novel automated routines to track the root tip as it grows, to track cellular nuclei and to identify cell divisions. We demonstrate the system's capabilities by collecting data on divisions and nuclear dynamics.
DNA and protein tetragrams: Biological sequences as tetrahedral movements

A graphical approach is introduced for representing information-containing sequences in biology. In particular, the procedure takes DNA or protein sequences containing n bases or amino acids, respectively, and computes n three-dimensional real vectors. When displayed on connected tetrahedra these characteristic patterns appear as DNA or amino acid tetragrams T(n). Experiments indicate that these tetragrams are sensitive to certain important patterns in the sequence of bases and allow the human observer to visually detect various properties of biological sequences. The system presented is special in its focus on the fast characterization of the progression of sequence data using a graphics supercomputer with several controlling parameters.
Outcome of early onset anorexia nervosa: What do we know?

Six recent studies on the outcome of early onset anorexia nervosa (AN) are reviewed. It would appear that the intermediate term outcome of early onset AN is not different from that of later onset AN. No prognostic indicators were identified and effect of treatment is unknown. Early onset AN may be a disabling and chronic disorder for 25% of patients seen at psychiatric clinics.
Calculation of significance regions for multiple predictors by the Johnson-Neyman technique

One advantage of multiple regression over traditional analysis of variance (ANOVA) is that continuous independent variables need not be artificially divided (say via median-split) prior to their analysis (cf. Cohen & Cohen, 1975). In practice, however, the researcher is likely to encounter some difficulties when more fine-grained analyses are desired. For example,considerthe case in which a continuous independent variable (e.g., test anxiety) is investigated in an experiment along with a two-level manipulated independent variable(e.g., high vs. low task importance). In this case it is hypothesized that low test anxious subjects will outperform high test anxious subjects, particularly when the task is important (see Figure I). This interaction is easily tested in multiple regression, and its significance would indicate that the regression of performanceon test anxiety is significantly different between the two groups. The next step would be to determine the nature of this interaction more specifically. In ANOVA, this is accomplished by post hoc comparisonsof means, perhapsusingtestsof simplemain effects or pairwise comparisons. In the regression approach, the ability to compare points on the two regression lines is needed to determine when the lines diverge to a significant degree. The solution provided by Johnson and Neyman (1936) establishes regions of significancefor which two groups differ significantly (see also Kerlinger& Pedhazur, 1973; Potthoff, 1964). Recently, two computer algorithms for calculating the Johnson-Neyman significance regionshave been described (Lautenschlager, 1987; Scialfa, 1987). Both providethe user withthe pointsalonga singlepredictor continuum (as in Figure 1) for which two groupsdiffer significantly. The presentprogramextends calculation of the JohnsonNeyman significance regions to the case of one or more predictors. This program represents an advance over previous programs in that regressionapplications may involve the finding that two continuouspredictors interact with a grouping variable. For example, if the curvilinear effect of a continuous variable is of interest, the multiplepredictor case is invoked(e.g., Y= bo+b1X +b1X1). As an example, consider the hypothetical data in Figure 2, in which test anxiety is related to performance in a more complex fashion requiringtwo predictors(i.e., linear and quadratic componentsof test anxiety). Alternatively, the multiple predictors could be different variables (rather
Cooled Radiofrequency Ablation for Bilateral Greater Occipital Neuralgia

This report describes a case of bilateral greater occipital neuralgia treated with cooled radiofrequency ablation. The case is considered in relation to a review of greater occipital neuralgia, continuous thermal and pulsed radiofrequency ablation, and current medical literature on cooled radiofrequency ablation. In this case, a 35-year-old female with a 2.5-year history of chronic suboccipital bilateral headaches, described as constant, burning, and pulsating pain that started at the suboccipital region and radiated into her vertex. She was diagnosed with bilateral greater occipital neuralgia. She underwent cooled radiofrequency ablation of bilateral greater occipital nerves with minimal side effects and 75% pain reduction. Cooled radiofrequency ablation of the greater occipital nerve in challenging cases is an alternative to pulsed and continuous RFA to alleviate pain with less side effects and potential for long-term efficacy.
Collins Asymmetry at Hadron Colliders

We study the Collins effect in the azimuthal asymmetricdistribution of hadrons inside a high energy jet in the single transversepolarized proton proton scattering. From the detailed analysis ofone-gluon and two-gluon exchange diagrams contributions, the Collinsfunction is found the same as that in the semi-inclusive deep inelasticscattering and e+e- annihilations. The eikonal propagators in thesediagrams do not contribute to the phase needed for the Collins-typesingle spin asymmetry, and the universality is derived as a result of theWard identity. We argue that this conclusion depends on the momentum flowof the exchanged gluon and the kinematic constraints in the fragmentationprocess, and is generic and model-independent.
Effect of chemical permeation enhancers on nerve blockade.

Chemical permeation enhancers (CPEs) have the potential to improve access of local anesthetics to the nerve, thereby improving nerve block performance. We assessed the effects of six CPEs on nerve blockade from tetrodotoxin (TTX) and from bupivacaine. Each of the six surfactants, representing three CPE sub-groups (anionic, cationic, and nonionic surfactants) was co-injected with TTX or bupivacaine at the sciatic nerve of Sprague-Dawley rats. Myotoxicity of CPEs, alone and with TTX, was assessed in vitro in C2C12 myotubes and in vivo via histological analysis. All enhancers produced marked concentration-dependent improvements in the frequency and duration of block with TTX but not bupivacaine. An in vitro toxicity assay showed a wide range of CPE myotoxicity, but in vivo histological assessment showed no signs of muscle or nerve damage at concentrations of CPEs that produced a half-maximal increase in the duration of block of TTX (except in the case of the cationic surfactant DDAB). This study demonstrates that CPEs can provide marked prolongation of nerve blockade from TTX but not bupivacaine, without apparent local tissue toxicity. These results may enhance the clinical applicability of TTX for prolonged-duration local anesthesia.
An efficient 1H/31P double-resonance solid-state NMR probe that utilizes a scroll coil

The construction and performance of a scroll coil double-resonance probe for solid-state NMR on stationary samples is described. The advantages of the scroll coil at the high resonance frequencies of 1H and 31P include: high efficiency, minimal perturbations of tuning by a wide range of samples, minimal RF sample heating of high dielectric samples of biopolymers in aqueous solution, and excellent RF homogeneity. The incorporation of a cable tie cinch for mechanical stability of the scroll coil is described. Experimental results obtained on a Hunter Killer Peptide 1 (HKP1) interacting with phospholipid bilayers of varying lipid composition demonstrate the capabilities of this probe on lossy aqueous samples.
When Promotions Meet Operations: Cross-Selling and Its Effect on Call Center Performance

We study cross-selling operations in call centers. The following questions are addressed: How many customer-service representatives are required (staffing), and when should cross-selling opportunities be exercised (control) in a way that will maximize the expected profit of the center while maintaining a prespecified service level target? We tackle these questions by characterizing control and staffing schemes that are asymptotically optimal in the limit, as the system load grows large. Our main finding is that a threshold priority control, in which cross-selling is exercised only if the number of callers in the system is below a certain threshold, is asymptotically optimal in great generality. The asymptotic optimality of threshold priority reduces the staffing problem to a solution of a simple deterministic problem in one regime and to a simple search procedure in another. We show that our joint staffing and control scheme is nearly optimal for large systems. Furthermore, it performs extremely well, even for relatively small systems.
Intensive insulin therapy: a personal and historical perspective.

Intensive therapy of Type I dia betes is a system of therapy in which the patient is the key partner in day-to-day management. A number of technical developments in the late 1970s led to the development of intensive therapy. Self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) proved to be the major change agent that stimulated the revolution in dia betes management that is intensive therapy. One important event that stimulated widespread use of SMBG was the development of spring-loaded finger-pricking devices. The introduction of glycated hemoglobin measure ments as an indicator of glycemic control over several weeks allowed quantitative assessment of glycemic control. The advent of continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII) stimulated thinking about insulin regimens. These advances have combined not only to facilitate development of intensive therapy as a strategy of diabetes management, but also to permit development of research protocols to assess the impact of such therapy on the chronic complications of dia...
MIXED FANTASY: exhibition of entertainment research for mixed reality

This exhibition presents a Mixed Reality experience that applies basic research to the media industries of entertainment, training and informal education. Contributing areas of research include tracking, registration, rendering, real-time and distributed algorithms, and adaptations of existing as well as the creation of new forms of artistic convention. 1. Introduction: Why Entertainment? The power of entertainment stretches far beyond venues for amusement. Entertainment is a language unto itself affecting world culture, world economy and even world opinion. Entertainment is able to excite, motivate, satiate, communicate and inspire. This power is being applied to all aspects of life including learning, training, designing, communicating and collaborating for purposes ranging from social engagements to high powered teams making world decisions. The power of Mixed Reality provides us with the ability to combine the fantastical worlds of the imagination through virtual reality and seamlessly merge these with the compelling aspects of reality. MR envelops the most important aspect of reality-other people. The participants bring the most important part of Mixed Reality—the imagination. The Media Convergence Laboratory’s exhibition of
The Joint Impact of Brand Value and Advertising on Corporate Financial Performance and on Stock Return: A Case study of the Computer Industry

The Joint Impact of Brand Value and Advertising on Corporate Financial Performance and on Stock Return: A Case study of the Computer Industry by Alladin O. Ukiwe M. B. A., Regis University, Denver, 2005 B.S., College of Agriculture, Ibadan, 1995 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Applied Management and Decision Sciences Walden University August 2009 ABSTRACT Firm’s advertising and marketing expenditures do not always translate to measurable financial returns. Understanding brand value appropriation and financial consequences ofFirm’s advertising and marketing expenditures do not always translate to measurable financial returns. Understanding brand value appropriation and financial consequences of advertising is important for more focused investments in branding and marketing. This quantitative study sought to understand the joint effects of advertising expenditure and brand value (BV) on firms return on assets (ROA) and on stock return (SR) in the computer industry. The theoretical framework of the study was the resource-based view theory that proposes that the intangible assets of a corporation have a direct relationship to its ability to sustain its competitive advantage. The key research question involved the joint and positive effect of a firm’s advertising expenditure and brand value on return on assets and on stock return. The research design was a non randomized cross sectional study. The data consisted of advertising expenditures and brand value of 17 firms listed on the Interbrand annual global brand list from 2000 to 2007, ROA and SR extracted from each firms 10K and Morningstar financial report. The study used panel data modeling and time series of cross section analysis. Results showed positive correlation between ROA and BV, and between AER and BV. The association between brand value and ROA, even after accounting for the effect of advertising expenditure and the interaction effect between brand value and advertising expenditure, was statistically significant. Further research is needed to confirm the findings. Effective marketing increases firms’ profitability. Profitable firms contribute more to causes that drive social changes in the areas of education, healthcare and food sustainability. The Joint Impact of Brand Value and Advertising on Corporate Financial Performance and on Stock Return: A Case study of the Computer Industry by Alladin O. Ukiwe M. B. A., Regis University, Denver, 2005 B.S., College of Agriculture, Ibadan, 1995 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Applied Management and Decision Sciences Walden University August 2009
Two-Stage Multiscale Search for Sparse Targets

We consider the problem of energy constrained and noise-limited search for targets that are sparsely distributed over a large area. We propose a multiscale search algorithm that significantly reduces the search time of the adaptive resource allocation policy (ARAP) introduced in [Bashan 2008]. Similarly to ARAP, the proposed approach scans a Q-cell partition of the search area in two stages: first the entire domain is scanned and second a subset of the domain, suspected of containing targets, is rescanned. The search strategy of the proposed algorithm is driven by maximization of a modified version of the previously introduced ARAP objective function, which is a surrogate for energy constrained target detection performance. We analyze the performance of the proposed multistage ARAP approach and show that it can reduce mean search time with respect to ARAP for equivalent energy constrained detection performance. To illustrate the potential gains of M-ARAP, we simulate a moving target indicator (MTI) radar system and show that M-ARAP achieves an estimation performance gain of 7 dB and a 85% reduction in scan time as compared to an exhaustive search. This comes within 1 dB of the previously introduced ARAP algorithm at a fraction of its required scan time.
Soil Health Paradigms and Implications for Disease Management

Soil health has been defined as the capacity of soil to function as a vital living system to sustain biological productivity, maintain environmental quality, and promote plant, animal, and human health. Building and maintaining soil health are essential to agricultural sustainability and ecosystem function. Management practices that promote soil health, including the use of crop rotations, cover crops and green manures, organic amendments, and conservation tillage, also have generally positive effects on the management of soilborne diseases through a number of potential mechanisms, including increasing soil microbial biomass, activity, and diversity, resulting in greater biological suppression of pathogens and diseases. However, there also may be particular disease issues associated with some soil health management practices. In this review, research and progress made over the past twenty years regarding soil health, sustainability, and soil health management practices, with an emphasis on their implications for and effects on plant disease and disease management strategies, are summarized.
How a brane cosmological constant can trick us into thinking that w<-1

Observations exploring the contemporary cosmic acceleration have sparked interest in dark energy models possessing equations of state with $wl\ensuremath{-}1$. We review how the cosmic expansion history of a Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati (DGP) braneworld model with a standard brane cosmological constant can mimic that of ordinary 4D gravity with $wl\ensuremath{-}1$ ``phantom'' dark energy for observationally relevant redshifts. We reinterpret the effective phantom nature of the dark energy as arising from dynamical-screening of the brane cosmological constant in DGP. This unusual variety of expansion history is thus possible without violating the null-energy condition, without ghosts and without any big rip, in a model which seems no more contrived than most evolving dark energy models. We indicate ways by which one may observationally test this effective $wl\ensuremath{-}1$ possibility, and differentiate it from ordinary phantom dark energy.