cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
“Am I a good [white] mother?” Mad men, bad mothers, and post(racial)feminism

ABSTRACTIn this article we locate, interpret, and critique the figure of the “bad” white mother, focusing on the critically acclaimed AMC drama, Mad Men. Advancing feminist and postcolonial approaches to myth, we uncover a prevailing “white consciousness” that relies on racializing logics in, first of all, Mad Men’s representations of (white) motherhood through the character of Betty Draper, and second, public discussions of the show in academic and media outlets. Drawing on Black feminist thought, we propose that these discourses rely on and feed underlying assumptions that support post(racial)feminism—an ideological location that allows for the explicit embracement of “bad” mothering as a progressive, even transgressive act that, at the same time, implicitly relies on expectations for (good) mothering shaped by white privilege. This cross-pollination between postfeminism and whiteness, we argue, is especially important to engage, since it carries potentially limiting implications for our collective imag...
The Standardized Antimicrobial Administration Ratio: A New Metric for Measuring and Comparing Antibiotic Use.

Background To provide a standardized, risk-adjusted method for summarizing antibiotic use (AU), enable hospitals to track their AU over time and compare their AU data to national benchmarks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention developed the Standardized Antimicrobial Administration Ratio (SAAR). Methods Hospitals reporting to the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) AU Option collect and submit aggregated AU data electronically as antimicrobial days of therapy per patient days present. SAARs were developed for specific NHSN adult and pediatric patient care locations and cover five antimicrobial agent categories: (1) broad-spectrum agents predominantly used for hospital-onset/multi-drug resistant bacteria; (2) broad-spectrum agents predominantly used for community-acquired infections; (3) anti-methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus agents; (4) agents predominantly used for surgical site infection prophylaxis; and (5) all antibiotic agents. The SAAR is an observed-to-predicted use ratio where predicted use is estimated from a statistical model; a SAAR of 1 indicates that observed use and predicted use are equal. Results Most location-level SAARs were statistically significantly different than 1: adult locations up to 52% lower than 1 and up to 41% higher than 1. Median SAARs in adult and pediatric ICUs had a range of 0.667-1.119. SAAR distributions serve as an external comparison to national SAARs. Conclusions This is the first aggregate AU metric that uses point-of-care, antimicrobial administration data electronically reported to a national surveillance system to enable risk-adjusted, AU comparisons across multiple hospitals. Endorsed by the National Quality Forum, SAARs provide AU benchmarks that stewardship programs can use to help drive improvements.
An SH0 lithium niobate trans-impedance chirp compressor with high voltage gain

We present a new type of acoustic devices that, for the first time, can simultaneously perform chirp compression and impedance transformation to achieve passive voltage amplification with a gain of 12. The device consists of an acoustic dispersive delay line (DDL) based on shear-horizontal waves (SH0) in lithium niobate (LiNbO 3 ). SH0 waves are employed due to their demonstrated high electromechanical coupling (k2) of 39%, low propagation loss, and a slow phase velocity of 3700 m/s. As a result of these desirable features, the fabricated device demonstrates a large fractional bandwidth (FBW) of 50%, a low insertion loss (IL), a high processing gain (TB) of 76, and a compact size of 1.57 by 0.23 mm. In addition to the compression, the device harnesses an asymmetrical transduction scheme to provide a compounding voltage gain from impedance transformation. Consequently, it results in a much higher voltage at the device output, which can be exploited to attain a higher sensitivity for wake-up radio receivers.
Grassroots Anti-Fascism: Ethiopia and the Transnational Origins of the National Negro Congress in Philadelphia, 1935–1936

As Fascism spread from Europe to the Kingdom of Abyssinia, a transnational solidarity movement emerged in Philadelphia's black community. For some, this movement ignited a new racial consciousness ...
Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography in Glaucoma Care.

Purpose: To provide the reader with information on the principal techniques of optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA); the current literature on OCTA reproducibility; its applications to g...
Surface Activity and Rotation in Low-Mass Stars

Active coronae and chromospheres (ie. surface activity) in late type stars are believed to be caused by an interior dynamo mechanism which, in a general way, involves the interaction between rotation, convection, and an extant magnetic field (Parker 1979 and references therein). Solar observations suggest that the actual energy release in the chromosphere and the corona involves the interaction between convection and the dynamo-generated magnetic fields at the foot-points of magnetic loops (Rosner, Tucker, and Vaiana 1978; Golub et al. 1980). However, the actual level of energy release in surface activity is most closely correlated with the rotation rate of the star. For example, coronal X-ray emission in cool stars is proportional to the equatorial velocity raised to a power between one and two (Pallavicini et al.1981; Fleming, Gioia, and Maccacaro 1989), although the X-ray flux appears to saturate for high rotation rates. This emission declines with decreasing rotation as a star spins down, presumably as a result of magnetic braking which involves the interaction between a stellar wind and extended magnetic field (Weber and Davis 1977). Since the rotation rate in turn declines with age, it has also long been recognized that coronal and chromospheric activity decrease with increasing stellar age (Skumanich 1972), with the probable exception of close binary systems where orbital angular momentum is maintained indefinitely.
Economic Principles, Issues, and Research Priorities in Hazard Loss Estimation

The quantification of economic losses from natural and manmade hazards is necessary to gauge individual and community vulnerability, evaluate the worthiness of mitigation, determine the appropriate level of disaster assistance, improve recovery decisions, and inform insurers of their potential liability. Several notable studies dealing with hazard loss estimation have recently been undertaken. These include chapters in surveys by the National Research Council (NRC, 1999; Mileti, 1999) and Heinz Center (2000), as well as various case studies (see, e.g., Cole, 1995; Tierney, 1997; Shinozuka et al., 1998; Gordon et al., 1998; Chang et al., 2001).
5.15 – Degradation Issues in Aqueous Reprocessing Systems

The long-term sustainability of nuclear power generation will be enhanced by the reprocessing of used fuel. This will extend the supply of natural uranium and mitigate the environmental consequences of nuclear waste disposal. This chapter surveys the radiolysis and hydrolysis of the main complexing agents being considered for use in the advanced fuel cycle. A disparate group of ligands is being considered worldwide for the extraction of actinides, fission products, and lanthanides from dissolved nuclear fuel, yet their important reactions in irradiated nitric acid have much in common. Oxidation and nitration of ligands occurs due to the reactions with nitric acid alone, and with enhanced yields due to radiolytically produced transient species, such as • OH and • NO 3 radical, and radiolytically produced nitrous acid. The result may be decreased solvent-extraction efficiency and reduced separation factors. While these effects cannot be eliminated, understanding of the mechanisms of these reactions may be successfully used to mitigate the effects of radiolysis and hydrolysis in solvent-extraction systems.
Noncontrast Head CT in Children: National Variation in Radiation Dose Indices in the United States

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Radiologists should manage the radiation dose for pediatric patients to maintain reasonable diagnostic confidence. We assessed the variation in estimated radiation dose indices for pediatric noncontrast head CT in the United States. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Radiation dose indices for single-phase noncontrast head CT examinations in patients 18 years of age and younger were retrospectively reviewed between July 2011 and June 2016 using the American College of Radiology CT Dose Index Registry. We used the reported volume CT dose index stratified by patient demographics and imaging facility characteristics. RESULTS: The registry included 295,296 single-phase pediatric noncontrast head CT studies from 1571 facilities (56% in male patients and 53% in children older than 10 years of age). The median volume CT dose index was 33 mGy (interquartile range = 22–47 mGy). The volume CT dose index increased as age increased. The volume CT dose index was lower in children9s hospitals (median, 26 mGy) versus academic hospitals (median, 32 mGy) and community hospitals (median, 40 mGy). There was a lower volume CT dose index in level I and II trauma centers (median, 27 and 32 mGy, respectively) versus nontrauma centers (median, 40 mGy) and facilities in metropolitan locations (median, 30 mGy) versus those in suburban and rural locations (median, 41 mGy). CONCLUSIONS: Considerable variation in the radiation dose index for pediatric head CT exists. Median dose indices and practice variations at pediatric facilities were both lower compared with other practice settings. Decreasing dose variability through proper management of CT parameters in pediatric populations using benchmarks generated by data from registries can potentially decrease population exposure to ionizing radiation.
Surgical considerations of marijuana use in elective procedures

Abstract Background Marijuana consumption is estimated as upwards of 9.5% of the U.S. adult population. Nevertheless, few trials exist on potential implications for surgical outcomes amongst users. Methods A current literature review explored marijuana's effects to answer: (I) How is marijuana use screened for in clinical and pre-operative settings? (II) What are potential surgical complications of marijuana use? (III) How should surgeons handle patient marijuana use regarding elective surgery? (IV) Are marijuana's effects the same or different from those of tobacco? Results In acute settings, marijuana's effects peaked at approximately 1 hour post initiation, lasting 2–4 hours. Marijuana increased cardiac workload, myocardial infarctions and strokes in young, chronic users. Cannabis caused similar pulmonary complications to those of a tobacco smoker. Marijuana caused airway obstruction and increased anesthetic dosages needed to place laryngeal airways. Use within 72 hours of general anesthesia was advised against. In vitro and in vivo studies were contradictory regarding prothrombic or antithrombotic effects. Conclusions Marijuana use is problematic to surgeons, left without evidence-based approaches. In emergency settings, marijuana use may be unavoidable. However, further research would provide much needed information to guide elective procedures.
Locally-Weighted Elastic Comparison of Planar Shapes

Registration of curves is a necessary component of statistical shape analysis. The goal of registration is to align collections of shapes so that common features are appropriately matched for further comparison and subsequent analyses. Traditional methods for registration typically rely on optimizing an energy functional over a set of appropriate shape-preserving transformations (i.e., rotations and reparameterizations). These functionals typically rely on the standard L^2 metric. In certain applications, it may make sense to use a more flexible metric which can align shapes most preferably with respect to a local shape feature (i.e., a certain curve segment selected from the overall shape). In this work, we define a weighted shape metric which allows for emphasis on local shape features. Registration can be performed with respect to this metric. We demonstrate the registration procedure using simulated curves as well as real data, and show the dependence of the optimal rotation and re-parameterization on the specified weights, as well as the resulting deformation path from one shape to another.
Effects of heat release and imposed bulk strain on alignment of strain rate eigenvectors in turbulent premixed flames

Abstract The impact of combustion heat release and bulk compressive strain on local alignment between the flame front normal and strain rate eigenvectors (principal strain rates) are investigated using simultaneous laser-induced fluorescence imaging of OH and tomographic particle image velocimetry in turbulent premixed CH4/O2/N2 counterflow flames with Karlovitz numbers (Ka) of 1.3 and 2.7. The bulk strain rate imposed by the counterflow introduces a preferential alignment of the most compressive principal strain rate, s3, with the flame normal, n. Dilatation induced by heat release acts as a competing mechanism that promotes the alignment of the most extensive principal strain rate, s1, with n. In the counterflow flames, the preferential s3-n alignment prevails and remains dominant across the entire flame. This alignment stands in stark contrast to observations from previous studies in turbulent Bunsen flames or flames in isotropic turbulence, indicating the significance of bulk strain rate in determining local strain-flame alignment. The effects of increasing turbulence intensity on strain rate-flame front alignment are twofold; on the one hand, turbulence diminishes the s3-n preferential alignment that is associated with the bulk strain field by increasing flame surface wrinkling and reducing the tendency of the flame front normal and s3-eigenvectors to align with the axis of the counterflow. On the other hand, turbulence reduces the impact of heat release and enhances preferential s3-n alignment approximately 1 mm ahead of the flame front, reflecting the characteristic alignment of compressive strain and scalar gradients in turbulent non-reacting flows. The effects of bulk strain are also observed in strain rate alignment statistics based on the fluctuating velocity fields, although the impact is less pronounced than for the statistics based on the full velocity fields. As a result of this complex interplay between heat release, turbulence, and bulk strain rate, the flame-tangential strain rate is on average extensive, and the flame-normal strain rate is dominantly compressive except for an approximately 0.8 mm wide region near the flame front where it is extensive due to dilatation. The compressive bulk strain in the counterflow was also shown to compress the length scales over which the strain rate and its alignment are affected by flame heat release. The present finding is important for developing turbulent flame models to accommodate the effect of bulk strain rate that is inherently associated with practical burner geometries, and the length scale dependence of the bulk strain effect could be a consideration for determining the cutoff scale in the context of large-eddy simulations.
Encouraging energy conservation at work: A field study testing social norm feedback and awareness of monitoring

Abstract The financial cost of personal energy consumption is substantial at the organizational level. Rarely do incentives for saving energy for the individual employee and organization align, making conservation a challenge. Here we perform a 12-week field experiment piloting two behavioral strategies: (1) social norms feedback and (2) awareness of energy monitoring, to encourage savings among 46 administrative staff at a university who were given the impression of participating in an energy quality study to reduce self-selection bias. Those in the social norms feedback condition used significantly less energy during the intervention (10% less energy) and follow up monitoring (11% less energy) phases compared to their baseline consumption. Moreover, these participants demonstrated that they learned more about their energy use than did those in the awareness monitoring condition. For policy makers and building mangers interested in the effectiveness of behavioral nudges in inducing energy savings, social norms feedback appears to be an effective energy savings nudge in an organizational setting where there are neither financial savings at-stake nor intrinsic motivation to conserve.
The hydration of periclase: atomistic insights from quantum-chemical look

Abstract A first principles density functional theory study has been carried out to investigate the hydration kinetics of periclase (MgO) through the interaction between water and periclase (0 0 1) and (1 1 1) surfaces. A single water molecule associatively adsorbs on both surfaces. Dissociative adsorption of water molecule only occurs by the co-adsorption of water on the (0 0 1) surface. Excepting this co-adsorption on the MgO(0 0 1) surface, the adsorption of two or monolayer water molecules on both surfaces are associative in nature. The interaction of water monolayer with the MgO(1 1 1) surface leads to the formation of Mg(OH)2. The calculated energy barrier for the formation of Mg(OH)2 from MgO is 93.6 kJ/mol, which is higher than the experimental values (66–84 kJ/mol). The absence of defect in the model surface sets the upper limit to the energy barrier for the hydration reaction. The effect of surface defects is demonstrated through the adsorption of a single water molecule. A single water molecule adsorbs both associatively and dissociatively on the (1 1 1) defect surface. The energy barrier for the conversion of associative to dissociative adsorption is 36.7 kJ/mol. The important new insights from this study are: (1) only MgO(1 1 1) surface is involved in the hydration of periclase and (2) surface defects play very significant role in the experimental measurement of energy barrier for hydration reaction.
Chapter 10 – Respiration and Diving Physiology

The anatomy and physiology of the respiratory (lungs, breathing), cardiovascular (heart and blood vessels, total body oxygen stores) systems, and diving in marine mammals are reviewed. In addition to a summary of the diving response, behavior and the phylogenetic implications of these diving patterns for each major lineage of marine mammals are also considered.
Networking in Circulation: Lipoproteins, PM20D1, and N-acyl Amino Acid Bioactivity.

N-acyl amino acids are a class of biologically active lipids that control thermogenesis, and their biosynthesis is facilitated by PM20D1. In this issue of Cell Chemical Biology, Kim et al. (2020) identify a lipoprotein-albumin network in the blood that regulates physiological levels of N-acyl amino acids.
Impact of laser frequency noise on high-extinction optical modulation.

In present literature on integrated modulation and filtering, limitations in the extinction ratio are dominantly attributed to a combination of imbalance in interfering wave amplitude, instability of control signals, stray light (e.g., in the cladding), or amplified spontaneous emission from optical amplifiers. Here we show that the existence of optical frequency noise in single longitudinal mode lasers presents an additional limit to the extinction ratio of optical modulators. A simple frequency-domain model is used to describe a linear optical system’s response in the presence of frequency noise, and an intuitive picture is given for systems with arbitrary sampling time. Understanding the influence of frequency noise will help guide the design choices of device and system engineers and offer a path toward even higher-extinction optical modulators.
The Phenomenology of the Pipe Organ

An extended illustration from Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception describes the interplay of habit, sedimentation, and intersubjectivity in the practice and performance of a skilled organist. This paper takes up Merleau-Ponty’s example in order to describe some of the phenomenological characteristics of embodied musical performance. These characteristics point toward an intersubjective event of “consecration,” as Merleau-Ponty describes it, in which the musician adopts the role of rhetor, inviting the audience into a shared dwelling place.
An Expectation-Maximization Algorithm for Continuous-time Hidden Markov Models

We propose a unified framework that extends the inference methods for classical hidden Markov models to continuous settings, where both the hidden states and observations occur in continuous time. Two different settings are analyzed: hidden jump process with a finite state space, and hidden diffusion process with a continuous state space. For each setting, we first estimate the hidden states given the observations and model parameters, showing that the posterior distribution of the hidden states can be described by differential equations in continuous time. We then consider the estimation of unknown model parameters, deriving the continuous-time formulas for the expectation-maximization algorithm. We also propose a Monte Carlo method based on the continuous formulation, sampling the posterior distribution of the hidden states and updating the parameter estimation.
The Arts@ Program: The Creation and Impact of an Arts Community at a Specialized Institution

This paper will examine the Arts@ Program, an arts and leadership program run by a director at a specialized institution of higher education in the northeastern United States. This paper offers the opportunity for readers to: 1.) Analyze a community arts program from a leadership perspective; 2.) Examine ways in which leadership, decision-making, and related factors can impact a community arts program; and 3.) Apply concepts of the Arts@ Program toward future virtual programmatic efforts. Key learnings from this paper include the following: 1.) Arts communities provide opportunities for all community members to engage in, build lasting memories from, and benefit from arts-related programmatic efforts, including arts instructors; 2.) Community arts programs have the potential to encourage aspects of self-leadership while also allowing participants to develop a deep, cogent appreciation for the arts; and 3.) Many of the design and delivery aspects of arts programs such as those discussed about the Arts@ Program can be applied toward future programmatic efforts, particularly in virtual formats. Reflections and recommendations for future research are presented.
What Has the Visual Artist's Rights Act of 1990 Accomplished?

This paper presents an economic analysis of the Visual Artist's Rights Act of 1990 (VARA) which provides attribution and integrity rights, commonly called moral rights, for defined types of artistic works. The paper shows that these laws may actually harm artists by adding contracting and transaction costs in the art market. For most works, these costs will be trivial because collectors have a strong self-interest in preserving works in good condition. These costs are more likely to be significant, however, for works subject to destruction or alteration in the future, such as site-specific works and works installed in buildings, because purchasers will require waivers rather than risk violating the Act. The paper also examines the few cases that have been litigated under VARA. Consistent with the economic model, these cases involve large-scale works by relatively unknown artists that have been destroyed by building projects. Finally, the paper presents an empirical analysis of state moral rights laws. Nine states enacted these laws prior to VARA. These laws had no significant effect on artist earnings but a positive and significant effect on the number of artists living and working in the state.
Applying the Cognitive Space Gateway to Swarm Topologies

NASA’s future vision for interplanetary networking includes a lunar network, Cube Satellite (CubeSat) constellations, and deep space robotic missions, comprising what could be viewed as a network of networks. Delay-tolerant networking (DTN) architecture and protocols provide a standard network layer among these varying scenarios and mitigate many challenges of the space environment, such as long delays, unplanned service interruptions, and asymmetric links. The Cognitive Space Gateway (CSG) is a routing method in a DTN architecture that uses spiking neural networks as the learning element to optimize routing decisions in a complex environment.This work aims to further develop cognitive networking technologies in several critical areas, including DTN, the CSG algorithm, SmallSat swarm topologies, and cloud services. The CSG algorithm is tested in a realistic scenario in which the emulated network topology is based on a SmallSat swarm. The emulation environment will be built upon a commercial cloud service, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) Elastic Compute Cloud. This work investigates the ability of such a platform to enable a flexible, lower maintenance approach to creating a multi-hop network outside of a physical laboratory. The cloud platform will provide a secure environment allowing for collaboration among government and academic entities.
Religion, neighborhood environments and partisan behavior

Abstract By far the dominant approach in the study of religious characteristics and political behavior has been to analyze different denominations and the varying ways in which each denomination affects the political behavior of its members. Using a unique data set collected in South Bend, Indiana, during the 1984 presidential campaign, this paper replicates one such analysis (Segal and Meyer, 1974) based on neighborhood influences and further tests its major hypotheses concerning the effects of religion. This paper measures and considers the effects of church context as well as neighborhood contexts, thus addressing two questions: how does the neighborhood environment affect members of different denominations and religions; and to what extent are individuals influenced by church environments as opposed to neighborhood environments? The structure of the South Bend data allows for neighborhoods and individual churches to be utilized as the primary units of analysis, and for contextual measures to be calculated as well. The results indicate that the neighborhood environment does have differential effects for different denominations, especially in regard to partisanship, and further shows that church environments play an important role in influencing individual political behavior (voting), even after controlling for other individual-level variables. These findings strengthen the argument for considering churches and other religious institutions as significant units of political influence.
The resistance of Micrococcus radiodurans to ultraviolet radiation: III. A repair mechanism☆

Abstract The thymine-containing pyrimidine dimers in the DNA of ultraviolet-irradiated Micrococcus radiodurans are excised at exponential rates from the DNA and appear in the medium outside the cells rather than in the acid-soluble fraction of the cells. The dimers extruded into the medium are apparently almost all in oligonucleotides smaller than tetranucleotides, as judged by chromatographic mobilities, and some of the oligonucleotides contain a terminal phosphate. The excision process depends on the presence of some nutrients in the medium, but glucose is not required. It is inhibited by iodoacetamide but not by chloramphenicol. The rate of excision, but not cell sensitivity, is considerably greater in log-phase cells than in stationary cells.
Parallel Algorithms for Linked List and Beyond

Linked list problems are fundamental problems in the design of parallel algorithms. We present design techniques for linked list algorithms and applications of these algorithms.
Regulation of nuclear import and export.

Publisher Summary An exchange of molecules between the nucleus and cytoplasm is indispensable for gene regulation and normal cell growth and development. Transcription of RNA from DNA occurs in the nucleus, while translation of RNA into protein occurs on cytoplasmic ribosomes. Many proteins rapidly shuttle between the nucleus and cytoplasm, and their steady-state distribution is dictated by the relative rates of nuclear import and export. The permeability barrier of the nuclear envelope breaks down during mitosis and the nuclear proteins must reenter the nucleus after that barrier is restored. The targeting of proteins to the nucleus is different from many other intracellular sorting mechanisms, which require precursor sequences removed during or following transport. Thus, understanding the mechanisms and regulation of protein trafficking across the nuclear envelope is central to an understanding of cell structure and function.
Brain: Sensory Activation Monitored by Induced Hemodynamic Changes with Echo Planar MRI

The sections in this article are 1 Introduction 2 Postprocessing Methodology 3 Pulse Sequence and Hardware 4 Auditory Stimuli 5 Visual Stimuli 6 Conclusions 7 Acknowledgements 8 Biographical Sketches Related Articles
Missed Opportunities for Intervention in a Patient With Prolonged Postoperative Delirium.

Abstract Purpose Postoperative delirium is a common and costly state of brain dysfunction that complicates postsurgical management in some patients. The purpose of this report was to describe a case of prolonged postoperative delirium and to review the appropriate identification and management of this condition. Methods A 56-year-old female patient who presented with newly diagnosed diabetes mellitus and dry gangrene underwent a vascular bypass procedure while under general anesthesia. After extubation, the patient became disoriented and agitated. Findings The delirium continued in a hypoactive form for 10 days before it progressed to severe agitation. During the patientʼs 2-month hospitalization, she underwent 6 additional surgeries. Eventually, the delirium improved with the use of antipsychotic agents, and the patient was discharged to a skilled nursing facility. Implications This patientʼs history, medications, and anesthetic and surgical exposure placed her at high risk for postoperative delirium. Her exceptionally prolonged course of postoperative delirium was likely perpetuated by a multitude of factors, including the continued use of high-risk medications, the stress of repeated surgeries, urinary issues, and infection. Conclusion In this high-risk patient, a proactive approach to the prevention and treatment of delirium may have avoided or mitigated the prolonged delirium and, potentially, long-term cognitive deficits.
Polyoxymethylene in Cometary Dust: Laboratory Tests

We have investigated the stability of gas-phase formaldehyde oligomers and its implications for cometary science. Our experiments indicate that when a formaldehyde-methanol solution is vaporized in the mass spectrometer, high molecular mass POM species (45, 61, 75, 91, 105, 121, 135, 151, 165 amu) exist in the gas phase in the temperature range 473 K to 773 K. These laboratory results complement our previous experiments using a formaldehyde-water solution and indicate that formaldehyde oligomers are stable in the gas phase up to at least 6 monomeric units in length. Methanol is important in the end-capping process of the oligomers, leading to increased stability and a richer mass spectrum when compared to the formaldehyde-water solution. The results are consistent with mass spectra obtained by the Giotto PICCA instrument exhibiting alternating 14–16 amu mass peaks.
Evaluating the effect of environmental factors on pathogen regrowth in compost extract.

Pathogenic microorganisms may survive the composting process in low numbers and subsequently regrow to high levels under favorable conditions. The objective of this study was to investigate the regrowth potential of Salmonella spp., Escherichia coli O157:H7, and Listeria monocytogenes in dairy-based composts under different environmental conditions. Water extract of commercially available dairy compost was used as a model system. Cocktails of five rifampin-resistant strains of each pathogen previously grown in reduced nutrient media (1/2 or 1/10 strength of tryptic soy broth, TSB) were inoculated into water extract of compost of different ratios (1:2,1:5, and 1:10, w/v), and then stored at 35°C or 22°C for 7 days. The strains exhibiting greatest survival or regrowth were identified by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). At 22°C, both E. coli O157:H7 and L. monocytogenes multiplied in all compost extracts, whereas Salmonella spp. regrew in both 1:2 and 1:5 compost extracts but not in 1:10. For all three pathogens, incubation at 22°C provides better conditions for regrowth than at 35°C. Both Salmonella and E. coli O157:H7 previously adapted to nutrient-limited broth (1/10 strength of TSB) regrew in compost extracts to higher populations than the control cultures grown previously in full strength of TSB. In the absence of indigenous microorganisms, all three pathogens regrew even in the most diluted sterile compost extract (1:10) with growth potentials ranging from 2.30 to 3.59 log CFU/ml. In nonsterile compost extract with ca. 5 log CFU/ml of background microorganisms, all three pathogens regrew only in the most concentrated compost extract (1:2) with much less population increases ranging from 0.70 to 1.43 log CFU/ml. Compost extract samples of all ages supported the regrowth of both Salmonella and E. coli O157:H7 with population increases ranging from 0.95 to 2.32 log CFU/ml. The PFGE patterns for E. coli O157:H7 isolates from sterile compost extracts matched with either the spinach outbreak strain or an avirulent B6914 strain. These results demonstrated that compost extract of dairy-based compost contained sufficient nutrients for pathogen regrowth. Cultures previously adapted to low nutrient media regrew to higher populations than control cultures; however, indigenous microflora suppressed the pathogen regrowth in compost extract, especially at 35°C.
Chemical analysis of organotypic cultures of mouse spinal cord in normal, demyelinative, and nondemyelinative conditions.

: Several biochemical parameters were analyzed in cultured embryonic mouse spinal cord during various stages of normal myelinogenesis or demyelination. In cultures demyelinated by exposure to anti-whole CNS tissue serum plus complement, the activity of 2′,3′-cyclic nucleotide 3′-phosphohydrolase (EC 3.1.4.37) was decreased 70%, whereas in cultures that did not show morphological changes with complement-inactivated anti-CNS serum or anti-myelin basic protein serum, the activity was 30% lower than in control cultures. The lipid composition of these cultures was quantitated by means of high-performance thin-layer chromatography densitometry technique. Cultures with normal nutrient medium alone or with the addition of 5% normal rabbit serum plus 10% guinea pig serum had 30% of the total lipid content of that present in newborn mouse spinal cord of the corresponding age. There were, however, relatively more lysophospholipids, cholesterol esters, triglycerides, and free fatty acids and less phosphatidylethanolamine and galactolipids in cultures as compared with normal spinal cord. Explants demyelinated by exposure to anti-CNS serum plus complement demonstrated principally a 70% decrease in the content of galactolipids with respect to normal cultures. When complement was inactivated, total lipids increased 42% (with increases of 40–70% in individual lipids). Inclusion of anti-myelin basic protein serum plus complement in the medium produced no significant changes in the lipid composition of the cultures.
Input-adaptive parallel sparse fast fourier transform for stream processing

Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is frequently invoked in stream processing, e.g., calculating the spectral representation of audio/video frames, and in many cases the inputs are sparse, i.e., most of the inputs' Fourier coefficients being zero. Many sparse FFT algorithms have been proposed to improve FFT's efficiency when inputs are known to be sparse. However, like their "dense" counterparts, existing sparse FFT implementations are input oblivious in the sense that how the algorithms work is not affected by the value of input. The sparse FFT computation on one frame is exactly the same as the computation on the next frame. This paper improves upon existing sparse FFT algorithms by simultaneously exploiting the input sparsity and the similarity between adjacent inputs in stream processing. Our algorithm detects and takes advantage of the similarity between input samples to automatically design and customize sparse filters that lead to better parallelism and performance. More specifically, we develop an efficient heuristic to detect the similarity between the current input to its predecessor in stream processing, and when it is found to be similar, we novelly use the spectral representation of the predecessor to accelerate the sparse FFT computation on the current input. Given a sparse signal that has only $k$ non-zero Fourier coefficients, our algorithm utilizes sparse approximation by tuning several adaptive filters to efficiently package the non-zero Fourier coefficients into a small number of bins which can then be estimated accurately. Therefore, our algorithm has runtime sub-linear to the input size and gets rid of recursive coefficient estimation, both of which improve parallelism and performance. Furthermore, the new heuristic can detect the discontinuities inside the streams and resumes the input adaptation very quickly. We evaluate our input-adaptive sparse FFT implementation on Intel i7 CPU and three NVIDIA GPUs, i.e., NVIDIA GeForce GTX480, Tesla C2070 and Tesla C2075. Our algorithm is faster than previous FFT implementations both in theory and implementation. For inputs with size N=2^{24}, our parallel implementation outperforms FFTW for k up to 2^{18}, which is an order of magnitude higher than prior sparse algorithms. Furthermore, our input adaptive sparse FFT on Tesla C2075 GPU achieves up to 77.2x and 29.3x speedups over 1-thread and 4-thread FFTW, 10.7x, 6.4x, 5.2x speedups against sFFT 1.0, sFFT 2.0, CUFFT, and 6.9x speedup over our sequential CPU performance, respectively.
Lymphomas differ in their dependence on Epstein-Barr virus.

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) encodes oncogenic information and, oftentimes concomitant with host immunosuppression, gives rise to malignancies in all major categories of lymphoma defined by the World Health Organization.1 Here, we conditionally evicted the viral extrachromosomal genome from tumor cells in vitro to examine the role of EBV in different lymphomas, including Burkitt lymphoma (BL) and posttransplant lymphoproliferative disorder. Cells derived from 2 canonical BLs were found to have the least dependence on the virus; some required EBV to prevent the inefficient induction of apoptosis. In contrast, cells derived from a subset of BL, Wp-restricted BL, required EBV to block a robust apoptotic program that involves the up-regulation of the proapoptotic protein Bim. Wp-restricted BL cells also relied on the virus to promote efficient proliferation, a distinction that highlights the multiple contributions EBV makes to affect proliferation of its host cells. Like Wp-BL cells, posttransplant lymphoproliferative disorder cells depended on the virus to inhibit apoptosis. They furthermore required the virus to drive them out of G1/G0. Together, these results reveal a graded dependence on EBV among tumor cells that directly correlates with the number of viral genes expressed in the tumor cell.
An Experimental Investigation of the Behavior of Droplets in Axial Acoustic Fields

This paper describes an experimental investigation of the behavior of water droplets in axial acoustic fields. It was motivated by the increasing interest in the use of pulsations to improve the performance of energy intensive, industrial processes. The presence of an acoustic field is believed to enhance heat and mass transfer to and from the droplets, probably because of the relative motion between the droplets and the gas phase. This relative motion is characterized by the ratio of the amplitude of the oscillatory droplet velocity to that of the acoustic velocity (entrainment factor), and by the phase between the droplet and gas phase oscillations. An experimental set-up was developed to investigate the effect of acoustic oscillations on the motion of individual droplets. In these experiments a droplet produced by a piezo-ceramic droplet generator is allowed to fall through a transparent test section in which an acoustic field has been set up using a pair of acoustic drivers. Images of the droplets in the test section acquired at consecutive instants using a high speed, intensified imaging system were used to determine the time dependent droplet trajectory and velocity. The acoustic velocity was calculated from measured acoustic pressure distributions. The entrainment factor and the phase difference were then determined from these data. The results show how the entrainment factor decreases and the phase difference increases with increasing droplet diameter and frequency, indicating that larger diameters and higher frequencies reduce the “ability” of the droplets to follow the gas phase oscillations. The measured data are in excellent agreement with the prediction of the Hjelmfelt and Mockros model. Both theoretical predictions and measured data were correlated with the Stokes number, which accounts for the effects of droplet diameter and frequency. It was also shown that acoustic oscillations decrease the mean terminal velocity of the droplets.
XAS characterization of a nitridoiron(IV) complex with a very short Fe-N bond.

X-ray absorption spectroscopy has been used to characterize the novel nitridoiron(IV) units in two [PhBP^R_3]Fe(N) complexes (R = iPr and CyCH_2) and obtain direct spectroscopic evidence for a very short Fe−N distance. The distance of 1.51−1.55 A reflects the presence of an FeN triple bond in accord with the observed Fe_≡N vibration observed for one of these species (ν_(FeN) = 1034 cm^(-1)). This highly covalent bonding interaction results in the appearance of an unusually intense pre-edge peak, whose estimated area of 100(20) units is much larger than those of the related tetrahedral complexes with Fe^I−N_2−Fe^I, Fe^(II)−NPh_2, and Fe^(III)_≡NAd motifs, and those of recently described six-coordinate Fe^V≡N and Fe^V≡IN complexes. The observation that the Fe^(IV)−N distances of two [PhBPR_3]Fe(N) complexes are shorter than the Fe^(IV)−O bond lengths of oxoiron(IV) complexes may be rationalized on the basis of the greater π basicity of the nitrido ligand than the oxo ligand and a lower metal coordination number for the Fe(N) complex.
Folding the proteome.

Protein folding is an essential prerequisite for protein function and hence cell function. Kinetic and thermodynamic studies of small proteins that refold reversibly were essential for developing our current understanding of the fundamentals of protein folding mechanisms. However, we still lack sufficient understanding to accurately predict protein structures from sequences, or the effects of disease-causing mutations. To date, model proteins selected for folding studies represent only a small fraction of the complexity of the proteome and are unlikely to exhibit the breadth of folding mechanisms used in vivo. We are in urgent need of new methods – both theoretical and experimental – that can quantify the folding behavior of a truly broad set of proteins under in vivo conditions. Such a shift in focus will provide a more comprehensive framework from which to understand the connections between protein folding, the molecular basis of disease, and cell function and evolution.
Synthesis and characterization of a versatile bis(pyridylether) ligand and its complexes with Ag(I), Cu(II) and Co(II)

Abstract A new bis(pyridylether) ligand L was synthesized in 46% yield from the reaction of two equivalents of 2-pyridylethanol with α,α′-dibromo-o-xylene in the presence of sodium hydroxide. Ligand L possesses structural features that allow it to react either intermolecularly or in a chelating fashion with transition metal ions. With AgNO3, ligand L forms a helical metallopolymer. Ligand L, in combination with 2-pyridylethanol, reacts with Cu(ClO4)2 to form a bridged dinuclear complex. With Co(NCS)2, ligand L behaves as a chelating ligand to give a monomeric octahedral complex.
Subjective Evaluation Of A Perceptual Quality Metric

A major problem which has plagued image processing has been the lack of an effective image quality measure. It is well known that common measures which are mathematical and analytically tractable do not correlate with human subjective evaluation. This paper presents the results of a subjective evaluation on twelve versions of a black and white image (the SPIE GIRL) and the rank ordering obtained with three computational measures. It was found that a measure based on a model of the human visual system compared to the subjective evaluation with a correlation of .92.© (1981) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Double labeling of cytochrome oxidase and γ-aminobutyric acid in central nervous system neurons of adult cats

Abstract The relationship between the levels of cytochrome oxidase and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) was investigated within single neurons by double labeling the 2 markers in the same section. Double staining was equally effective when immunogold-silver staining of GABA was followed by indirect immunoperoxidase labeling of cytochrome oxidase, or when cytochrome oxidase histochemistry was followed by immunogold-silver staining of GABA. Neurons in the perigeniculate nucleus (PGN) and basket cell terminals in the cerebellum were GABA positive and rich in cytochrome oxidase. Interneurons of the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) as well as stellate and Golgi cells of the cerebellum were GABA-rich but poor in cytochrome oxidase. These results demonstrate that there is no consistent relationship between the levels of cytochrome oxidase and GABA in neurons.