cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Characterization of Exercise and Alcohol Self-Management Behaviors of Type 1 Diabetes Patients on Insulin Pump Therapy.

Background:There is a lack of systematic ways to analyze how diabetes patients use their insulin pumps to self-manage blood glucose to compensate for alcohol ingestion and exercise. The objective was to analyze “real-life” insulin dosing decisions occurring in conjunction with alcohol intake and exercise among patients using insulin pumps.Methods:We recruited adult type 1 diabetes (T1D) patients on insulin pump therapy. Participants were asked to maintain their daily routines, including those related to exercising and consuming alcohol, and keep a 30-day journal on exercise performed and alcohol consumed. Thirty days of insulin pump data were downloaded. Participants’ actual insulin dosing behaviors were compared against their self-reported behaviors in the setting of exercise and alcohol.Results:Nineteen T1D patients were recruited and over 4000 interactions with the insulin pump were analyzed. The analysis exposed variability in how subjects perceived the effects of exercise/alcohol on their blood gluco...
Performance of High Friction Bridge Deck Overlays in Crash Reduction

AbstractIn recent history, a number of State Departments of Transportation have looked at providing safer driving conditions on bridges. One improvement method is placing high friction overlays on bridge decks. This study analyzed crash data to evaluate the performance of high friction overlays in reducing crashes. This study was completed by analyzing 10 years of data for nine bridges encompassing four different proprietary overlay systems. Within one of the overlay systems, three different aggregate types were also compared. Crash characteristics analyzed included the crash time, weather conditions, bridge surface conditions, average annual daily traffic, and severity of crashes. This study is part of a comprehensive study that includes extensive field evaluation and comparative performance analysis between different systems to evaluate their effectiveness on bridge decks in Minnesota. While the data presented herein is from bridge sites located in Minnesota, the findings apply to most of the northern t...
Counter-Based Tree Structure for Row Hammering Mitigation in DRAM

Scaling down DRAM technology degrades cell reliability due to increased coupling between adjacent DRAM cells, commonly referred to as crosstalk. Moreover, high access frequency of certain cells (hot cells) may cause data loss in neighboring cells in adjacent rows due to crosstalk, which is known as row hammering . In this work, the goal is to mitigate row hammering in DRAM cells through a Counter-Based Tree (CBT) approach. This approach uses a tree of counters to detect hot rows and then refreshes neighboring cells. In contrast to existing deterministic solutions, CBT utilizes fewer counters that makes it practically feasible to be implemented on-chip. Compared to existing probabilistic approaches, CBT more precisely refreshes rows vulnerable to row hammering based on their access frequency. Experimental results on workloads from three benchmark suites show that CBT can reduce the refresh energy by more than 60 percent and nearly 70 percent in comparison to leading probabilistic and deterministic approaches, respectively. Furthermore, hardware evaluation shows that CBT can be easily implemented on-chip with only a nominal overhead.
Medical center staff attitudes about spanking

Several medical professional organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, recommend that parents avoid hitting children for disciplinary purposes (e.g., spanking) and that medical professionals advise parents to use alternative methods. The extent to which medical professionals continue to endorse spanking is unknown. This study is the first to examine attitudes about spanking among staff throughout medical settings, including non-direct care staff. A total of 2580 staff at a large general medical center and 733 staff at a children's hospital completed an online survey; respondents were roughly divided between staff who provide direct care to patients (e.g., physicians, nurses) and staff who do not (e.g., receptionists, lab technicians). Less than half (44% and 46%) of staff at each medical center agreed that spanking is harmful to children, although almost all (85% and 88%) acknowledged that spanking can lead to injury. Men, staff who report being religious, and staff who held non-direct care positions at the medical center reported stronger endorsement of spanking and perceived their co-workers to be more strongly in favor of spanking. Non-direct care staff were more supportive of spanking compared with direct care staff on every item assessed. All staff underestimated the extent to which their co-workers held negative views of spanking. If medical centers and other medical settings are to lead the charge in informing the community about the harms of spanking, comprehensive staff education about spanking is indicated.
Using Amazon web services to teach web-enabled database and networking concepts

Amazon offers cloud infrastructure through its Amazon Web Services(AWS). The authors taught a cloud computing course using AWS. Besides offering a general introduction to cloud computing, the course also enabled students to build a fault-tolerant web site with a database backend. Students were able to further hone their database skills by initially designing a database which would then be used by the web site to store information such as a shopping cart or payment information. The database itself was initially hosted on AWS using an instance running MySQL. Towards the end of the course, the students migrated their databases to the Relational Data Service (RDS) provided by Amazon. Additionally, students setup a virtual web server on several instances with S3 storage for all static content. Students also deployed an elastic load balancer which directs traffic to instances of the Web server. Figure 1 shows the initial design.
Does PSM Really Eliminate the Big N Audit Quality Effect

A large auditing literature concludes that Big N auditors provide higher audit quality than non-Big N auditors. Recently, however, a high profile study suggests that Propensity Score Matching (PSM) on client characteristics eliminates the Big N effect (Lawrence, Minutti-Meza, and Zhang 2011, hereafter, LMZ). We conjecture that this finding may be affected by PSM’s sensitivity to its design choices and/or by the validity of the audit quality measures used in the analysis. To investigate, we examine random combinations of PSM design choices that achieve covariate balance, and four commonly used audit quality measures. We find that the majority of these design choices support a Big N effect for most of the audit quality measures. Overall, our findings show that it is premature to suggest that PSM eliminates the Big N effect.
BORC coordinates encounter and fusion of lysosomes with autophagosomes

Whereas the mechanisms involved in autophagosome formation have been extensively studied for the past 2 decades, those responsible for autophagosome-lysosome fusion have only recently begun to garn...
Enabling Human Conduct: Studies of Talk-in-interaction in Honor of Emanuel A. Schegloff

This book presents a collection of academic papers in honor of Emanuel ‘Manny’ Schegloff, one of the three founders of the field of conversation analysis (CA). On one level, the curation of papers serves nicely to both embody and extend this esteemed scholar’s work by building on and debating the main tenets of his extensive research and contributions to relevant fields. On another level, the volume gives the reader a glimpse of Schegloff the man through an interview and personal anecdotes offered by some of the authors. The book is organized as follows: The first chapter relays some background on Schegloff and the field of CA, and previews the content; then, a two-part interview with Schegloff provides a firsthand account of his work endeavors, interests, and professional experience; next, a set of multilingual empirical studies examines concepts originating in Schegloff’s own research such as sequence-initiation, repair, person reference, practices found in telephone openings and closings, and embodied conduct; finally, two reflective papers by authors from surrounding disciplines assess Schegloff’s contributions to the understanding of human interaction, after which a response to one of the reflections by Schegloff himself gives the honoree the last word.
Density-dependent Growth

Let's go back to our Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) data from Chapter 1 on density-independent growth — now we look at all the data.
Undressing policy: a critical analysis of North Carolina (USA) public school dress codes

Student dress codes are controversial school policy in US schools. As dress codes were initially established with the intent to eliminate the appearance of differences among students and mitigate g...
Financial Incentives for Smoking Abstinence in Homeless Smokers: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.

Introduction Three-quarters of homeless people smoke cigarettes. Financial incentives for smoking abstinence have appeared promising in nonexperimental studies of homeless smokers, but randomized controlled trial (RCT) data are lacking. Methods We conducted a pilot RCT of financial incentives for homeless smokers. Incentive arm participants (N = 25) could earn escalating $15-$35 rewards for brief smoking abstinence (exhaled carbon monoxide <8 parts per million) assessed 14 times over 8 weeks. Control arm participants (N = 25) were given $10 at each assessment regardless of abstinence. All participants were offered nicotine patches and counseling. The primary outcome was a repeated measure of brief smoking abstinence across 14 assessments. The secondary outcome was brief abstinence at 8 weeks. Exploratory outcomes were self-reported 1-day and 7-day abstinence from (1) any cigarette and (2) any puff of a cigarette. Other outcomes included 24-hour quit attempts, nicotine patch use, counseling attendance, and changes in alcohol and drug use. Results Compared to control, incentive arm participants were more likely to achieve brief abstinence overall (odds ratio 7.28, 95% confidence interval 2.89 to 18.3) and at 8 weeks (48% vs. 8%, p = .004). Similar effects were seen for 1-day abstinence, but 7-day puff abstinence was negligible in both arms. Incentive arm participants made more quit attempts (p = .03). Nicotine patch use and counseling attendance were not significantly different between the groups. Alcohol and drug use did not change significantly in either group. Conclusions Among homeless smokers, financial incentives increased brief smoking abstinence and quit attempts without worsening substance use. This approach merits further development focused on promoting sustained abstinence. Registration ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02565381). Implications Smoking is common among homeless people, and conventional tobacco treatment strategies have yielded modest results in this population. This pilot RCT suggests that financial incentives may be a safe way to promote brief smoking abstinence and quit attempts in this vulnerable group of smokers. However, further development is necessary to translate this approach into real-world settings and to promote sustained periods of smoking abstinence.
Anticipatory Syncopation in Rock: A Corpus Study

While syncopation generally refers to any conflict between surface accents and underlying meter, in rock and other recent popular styles it takes a more specific form in which accented notes occur just before strong beats. Such “anticipatory” syncopations suggest that there is an underlying cognitive representation in which the accented notes and strong beats align. Syllabic stress is crucial to the identification of such syncopations; to facilitate this, we present a corpus of rock melodies annotated with lyrics and syllabic stress values. We propose a new measure of syncopation that incorporates syllabic stress; we also propose a measure of anticipatory syncopation, and show that it reveals a strong presence of this type of syncopation in rock music. We then use these measures to explore other aspects of syncopation in rock, including its occurrence in different parts of the 4/4 measure, its dependence on tempo, its historical evolution, and its aesthetic functions.
Process intensification by applying chemical looping in natural gas to dimethyl ether conversion process—Implications for process design education

Abstract Process intensification (PI) is an important concept in the profession of chemical engineering. In this article, we use the chemical looping reforming for dimethylether synthesis (CLR-DME) as an example to explain five aspects of PI and how they can be achieved by utilizing chemical looping to replace the conventional autothermal reforming (ATR-DME) process. Two CLR-DME process configurations, one with single reducer and the other with modular reducers, are modeled in ASPEN plus v10.0 and compared to the conventional ATR-DME process. The originality of this work is the construction of the overall process model encompassing both the chemical looping section and the downstream methanol and DME syntheses, and a heat exchanger network built over the whole process to enhance energy efficiency. The chemical looping approach significantly intensifies the process by eliminating the air separation unit (ASU) in both two configurations, and fuel gas combustion turbine and amine scrubber in modular design. A more intensified process has less process losses thus can significantly improve the thermal efficiency and reduce the CO2 emissions. In the end of the article, the applicability of this process for teaching undergraduate process design and meeting ABET learning outcomes is discussed.
On neural recording using nanoprotrusion electrodes.

OBJECTIVE Nano neuroelectrodes, often adopting a nanoprotrusion structure, are promising for improved chronic reliability and capability of both extracellular and intracellular recordings. However, a complete theoretical foundation has yet to be established, significantly impeding further developments and applications. This paper derives analytical solutions to this extracellular and intracellular recording problem of nanoprotrusion electrodes, unraveling the underlying recording mechanisms and elucidating the natures of different recordings. APPROACH Advanced circuit modeling and analysis techniques from the electrical engineering discipline are introduced to this cutting-edge, interdisciplinary problem, and an analytical framework is developed to produce closed-form solutions that offer clear images on the recording mechanisms, nature of signals, and interplays between key interface parameters. MAIN RESULTS The results show that the 'intracellular-like' recording after membrane poration contains fractions of both intracellular action potential (iAP) and extracellular field potential (eFP). When recording using multiple nanoprotrusion electrodes on the same conductive substrate, while the signal itself is only slightly enhanced, the recording is substantially enhanced, comparing to using a single electrode. Having the substrate unpassivated can distort the iAP component more with the eFP component, and the portion uncovered by cell can further severely compromise the recording quality. SIGNIFICANCE Through key conceptual breakthroughs, this present work advanced our prior knowledge on this topic to a critical level capable of deriving closed-form analytical solutions. These findings are significant to advance the theory and practice of nano neuroelectrode technologies.
The Integration and Test of the TROPICS Flight Segment

The Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats (TROPICS) mission was selected by NASA in 2016 as part of the Earth Venture Instrument (EVI-3) program and is now in development with planned launch readiness in late 2019. The TROPICS constellation consists of six CubeSats, two in each of three low-Earth orbital planes with a nominal circular orbit of 550 km and inclination of 30 degrees. Each CubeSat hosts a high-performance radiometer payload with twelve microwave channels, providing atmospheric temperature profiles, water vapor profiles, and rain rate. The TROPICS mission will produce rapid-refresh microwave measurements (median refresh rate of approximately 40 minutes for the baseline mission) over the tropics (±30°inclination) that will enable observations of the entire tropical storm lifecycle. The radiometer design is similar to two other MIT Lincoln Laboratory (MIT LL) Cube-Sat programs, MicroMAS and MiRaTA, with improvements to meet enhanced performance requirements and longer mission life. The CubeSat bus is under contract with a commercial vendor who will integrate the MIT LL payload and their bus, and test the complete space vehicle. This paper will describe the integration and test of the payload and space vehicle. A novel characterization of the radiometer payload is described. The design was verified with a qualification space vehicle which successfully completed environmental testing July, 2019.
Evolving Dynamically Reconfiguring UAV-hosted Mesh Networks

We use potential fields tuned by genetic algorithms to dynamically reconFigure unmanned aerial vehicles networks to serve user bandwidth needs. Such flying network base stations have applications in the many domains needing quick temporary networked communications capabilities such as search and rescue in remote areas and security and defense in overwatch and scouting. Starting with an initial deployment that covers an area and discovers how users are distributed across this area of interest, tuned potential fields specify subsequent movement. A genetic algorithm tunes potential field parameters to reposition UAVs to create and maintain a mesh network that maximizes user bandwidth coverage and network lifetime. Results show that our evolutionary adaptive network deployment algorithm outperforms the current state of the art by better repositioning the unmanned aerial vehicles to provide longer coverage lifetimes while serving bandwidth requirements. The parameters found by the genetic algorithm on four training scenarios with different user distributions lead to better performance than achieved by the state of the art. Furthermore, these parameters also lead to superior performance in three never before seen scenarios indicating that our algorithm finds parameter values that generalize to new scenarios with different user distributions.
Life in silico: Are we close yet?

In his 1944 book What is Life? (1), Erwin Schrodinger asked, “How can the events in space and time which take place within the spatial boundary of a living organism be accounted by physics and chemistry?” In nearly 80 y that have followed, we have learned a great deal about the physical mechanisms of subcellular phenomena, yet a first-principles computer simulation of a living cell in action remains an elusive goal. In a recent article (2), Netz and Eaton predict how long we will have to wait before such a simulation becomes a reality. They further extend their estimate to larger biological systems and discuss whether and when it will be possible to simulate multicellular entities such as the human brain. Simulating a molecular assembly as large as a cell over a biologically meaningful time interval of, say, an hour (comparable to the cell division time) seems like a daunting task. Indeed, one of the triumphs of the modern field of molecular simulations is the observation of reversible folding of small proteins (3), which occurs at a microsecond timescale. A single cell, in contrast, can synthesize thousands or millions of proteins per hour, many of which may take seconds or minutes to fold, and only with additional help from the cellular machinery. In a recent computational tour de force (4), a relatively large, 100 nm × 100 nm × 100 nm subvolume of a cell’s cytoplasm was simulated. The timescale of tens of nanoseconds attained in that study was, however, woefully short, ∼10 orders of magnitude shorter than the desired 1 h! Yet, if the computational power continues to grow exponentially, as predicted by Moore’s law, bridging such a timescale gap does not seem out of reach; indeed, if the computer speed is doubled, say, every 1.5 y, then it … [↵][1]1Email: makarov{at}cm.utexas.edu. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1
Relaxation and Recovery in Hydrogel Friction on Smooth Surfaces

Hydrogels are crosslinked polymer networks that can absorb and retain a large fraction of liquid. Near a critical sliding velocity, hydrogels pressed against smooth surfaces exhibit time-dependent frictional behavior occurring over multiple timescales. The origin of these dynamics is unresolved Here, we characterize this time-dependent regime and show that it is consistent with two distinct molecular processes: sliding-induced relaxation and quiescent recovery. Our experiments use a custom pin-on-disk tribometer to examine poly(acrylic acid) hydrogels on smooth poly(methyl methacrylate) surfaces over a variety of sliding conditions, from minutes to hours. We show that at a fixed sliding velocity, the friction coefficient decays exponentially and reaches a steady-state value. The time constant associated with this decay varies exponentially with the sliding velocity, and is sensitive to any precedent frictional shearing of the interface. This process is reversible; upon cessation of sliding, the friction coefficient recovers to its original state. We also show that the initial direction of shear can be imprinted as an observable “memory”, and is visible after 24 hrs of repeated frictional shearing. We attribute this behavior to nanoscale extension and relaxation dynamics of the near-surface polymer network, leading to a model of frictional relaxation and recovery with two parallel timescales.
Space Environmental Effects on Graphite/Epoxy Composites

In a study of T300/934 graphite/epoxy composite, which forms the composite skin of the space shuttle cargo bay doors, the following composite properties were investigated as a function of increasing gamma-radiation exposure dosages: directional moisture absorption/desorption kinetics, glass transition temperatures, interlaminar shear strength and damping peaks (tan δ). Irradiation conditions were: open to atmosphere and vacuum, ambient and high temperature (100°C). Four dosage levels were investigated: 4 X 10', 8 X 10 7 , 1.4 X 10 8 , and 3.2 X 10 8 rads, the final dosage level being equivalent to a three-year orbit life. Directional moisture diffusion studies indicate anomalies in the three diffusing axes (translaminar, transfibrous, and interlaminar). Interlaminar shear strengths showed an initial increase, followed by a decrease, as the dosages increased. Although the glass transition temperatures remained essentially unchanged, the peak heights of the tan δ measurements also showed an initial increase, and then decreased as radiation dosages increased.
Torah Codes: New Experimental Protocols

Because of its unexpected nature, finding words in as equidistant letter sequences (Torah codes in a text may appear to be interesting. However, there is a significant probability that they occur by chance. In this paper we discuss a repeatable and objective methodology for defining a priori related pairs of key words for use in an experiment and we define a testing methodology for testing the hypothesis of whether such related equidistant letter sequences found in the Torah text are more spatially close in the text than expected by chance.
Effects of oxygen rearing on the electroretinogram and GFA-protein in the rat.

Albino rats were maintained in 60% oxygen from birth through 14 days of age. Control rats were simultaneously maintained in room air. At the end of the exposure period some animals from both groups were prepared for electroretinography and, following this analysis, were sacrificed for histological scrutiny of retinal vasculature. The rest of the rats were removed to room air and allowed to remain for various periods of time before electroretinography and sacrifice. Some of the retinas from the latter group were analyzed for the presence of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) by immunocytochemistry. Oxygen exposed rats had a permanent reduction of the b-wave of the electroretinogram (ERG). The a-waves of the two groups were indistinguishable. Control rats showed GFAP reactivity in the retinal astrocytes at all times. The oxygen-treated rats showed positive GFAP-staining in astrocytes at all times and in Muller cells from 2 weeks post-treatment through 8 weeks post-treatment, the last time point. Immunoblot analysis confirmed that the anti-GFAP reacted with a protein having a molecular weight and solubility characteristics like those of GFAP. These results indicate that Muller cells produce GFAP in response to oxygen-rearing in newborn rats and that this production occurs in the absence of any detectable neuronal cell death.
Lessons from Leon

This paper describes some lesson learned from Leon Henkin while the author wrote a dissertation on Cylindric Algebras and collaborated with Henkin on several projects in math education. The lessons were about writing, lecturing, relating to administrators, and making decisions.
The crying of newly born babies; a follow-up study after additional nursing care had been provided.

Summary A study of the crying in the nursery for newly born babies at one of the hospitals in Rochester, Minnesota, was done after making more nursing care available and individualizing the babies' care. The study was based on data obtained from continuous observation for eight days. The average amount of crying for each baby was 55 minutes each day incontrast to 113.2 minutes during the study in 1944. The average number of times each baby cried daily was eighteen, of which 5.7 were prolonged spells, that is, crying lasted more than 3 minutes. Hunger led the list of causes for crying, but unknown reasons was closebehind. Wet diaper, soiled diaper, and vomiting remain in that order as minor causes of crying. The actual amount of nursing care given each baby daily was 1.9 hours in contrast to 0.7 hours during the study in 1944. This was 43.1 per cent of the available nursing time.
Phyllostachys aurea: Didn't he work with Socrates? Reference work in science libraries by librarians who are not scientists

Over half of all science librarians do not have science degrees. The author-one of these non-science science librarians-offers some stories and some advice about how a humanities major navigates the complex world of reference work in a science library.
Propeller-Nacelle Whirl Flutter

An analytical investigation is made of a heretofore unimportant flutter phenomenon that may occur in a propeller-nacellewing combination—a flutter condition which involves propeller and nacelle precession, and which has been of major concern recently. One of the objects of the investigation is to isolate and show the influence of those parameters which appear to be most strongly linked with this whirl-type instability. Considered, for example, are various combinations of pitch and yaw stiffnesses of the nacelle, structural damping, and propeller speed. To understand the behavior of the system better, the motion due to various initial disturbances is also studied for both subcritical and supercritical conditions. The results presented are derived by digital and analog means, the analog setup being used primarily for the motion studies. Part of the study is devoted to a further examination of the propeller aerodynamics. Finally, a comparison is made of analytically determined critical conditions with results obtained in some wind-tunnel tests.
Load Current Funneling Examination for Power Distribution in High Performance Multi-Core Silicon Devices

Powering silicon devices today is challenging due to the increasing concentration of current into the load at the silicon. As multi-core processing becomes more available larger numbers of computational units are placed on a single piece of silicon allowing more processing and higher bandwidth in our computer systems. However, as the devices become smaller, the current density also increases which raises some fundamental questions on the impacts at the interconnect level and the performance of the power distribution network in general. This paper discusses the issue of current funneling into high density devices particularly around the advent of multi-core processing and discusses some of the issues and effects one may see as the technology moves forward into the future.
W-band power metamorphic HEMT technology on GaAs

Our 0.15 um power MHEMT development at W-band includes comparison of single (53%) and split channel (53/43%) material. Preliminary single stage microstrip amplifier results yield 225 mW/mm and >10dB small signal gain at 95 GHz.
Constraints and Probabilistic Networks: A Look At The Interface

I am going to discuss the interface between two types of networks; one deterministic and one probabilistic. The deterministic network, also known as constraint network, a CSP problem, or a SAT formula, represents a collection of constraints among groups of variables.
COMPOSITION OF THE SHEATH OF SPHAEROTILUS NATANS.

Abstract Romano, Antonio H. (University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio) and Joyce P. Peloquin. Composition of the sheath of Sphaerotilus natans. J. Bacteriol. 86:252–258. 1963.—The sheath of Sphaerotilus natans was isolated and subjected to chemical analysis. Isolation of the sheaths was accomplished by incubating cells in the presence of lysozyme and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid in tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane buffer and adding sodium dodecyl sulfate subsequently. Under these conditions, there was complete dissolution of cells. The sheaths, which were left intact by this treatment, were recovered by centrifugation, washed exhaustively, lyophilized, and subjected to analysis. Hydrolysis of the sheath material with 2 n HCl at 100 C resulted in the liberation of reducing sugars amounting to 36% of the dry weight. Amino sugar accounted for 11% of the dry weight. Paper chromatography of hydrolysates showed the presence of glucose and hexosamine. Tests for muramic acid were negative. In addition to carbohydrate, 27% protein and 5.2% lipid were found to be present. Fractionation studies indicated that essentially all of the polysaccharide was associated with a trichloroacetic acid-soluble fraction. The sheath is therefore considered to be a protein-polysaccharide-lipid complex, which is chemically and anatomically distinct from the cell wall and the slime layer. It is hypothesized that this unique structure may be related to the microcapsule found in many gram-negative bacteria, and may represent a structural specialization of this more common structure.
Growth morphologies of thick films of Nb3Sn formed by electron beam evaporation

Abstract Thick films of Nb 3 Sn (in the ordered A-15 phase) have been synthesized by codeposition of the elements niobium and tin from separate electron-beam-heated sources onto heated rotating Hastelloy B tube substrates. Using a fixed deposition rate (approximately 60 A s -1 effective at the tube surface), single-layer samples 2.8 μm and 7 μm thick were prepared at substrate temperatures ranging between 830 K and 1020 K. The samples were examined using scanning electron microscopy, electron microprobe analysis and X-ray diffraction. The transition from porous columnar to dense columnar growth was observed. Column diameters increased monotonically with substrate temperature. For substrate temperatures between 650 °C and 700 °C a very shiny deposit was formed with a 〈211〉 growth orientation. In layered structures formed by sequential deposition of Nb 3 Sn (about 420 A layer -1 ) and yttrium (about 90 A layer -1 ) the columnar growth observed in single- layer thick films appeared to be disrupted. Using the technique of fine layering, thick films of Nb 3 Sn with acceptable 50 Hz loss and outstanding critical current density have been prepared for superconducting power transmission line applications.
Anticancer effects of the p53 activator nutlin-3 in Ewing’s sarcoma cells

Mutation of p53 is rare in Ewing's sarcoma (ES), suggesting that targeting and activation of wild-type p53 may be an effective therapeutic strategy for ES. The recently developed small-molecule MDM2 inhibitor nutlin-3 restores wild-type p53 function, resulting in the inhibition of cancer cell growth and the induction of apoptosis. In the present study, we explored the responsiveness of ES cell lines with wild-type or mutated p53 to nutlin-3. We found that treatment with nutlin-3 increased p53 level and induced p53 target gene expression (MDM2, p21, PUMA) in ES cells with wild-type p53, but not in ES cells with mutated p53. Consistently, nutlin-3 elicited apoptosis only in wild-type p53 cells, as assessed by caspase-3 activity assay and flow cytometric analyses of mitochondrial depolarisation and DNA fragmentation. In addition, we found nutlin-3 to evoke cellular senescence, indicating that nutlin-3 induces pleiotropic anticancer effects in ES. Furthermore, combined treatment with nutlin-3 and an inhibitor of NF-κB produced synergistic antineoplastic activity in ES cells. Our findings suggest that the direct activation of p53 by nutlin-3 treatment may be a useful new therapeutic approach for patients with ES.
An analytical study of a magnetically tuned matching network

A complete analysis of a new tunable matching network utilizing a transformer-capacitor network that exploits magnetic tuning is presented. The performance of this matching network is explored in the presence of non-idealities and an example matching network capable of continuous tuning from 3 to 8 GHz is presented.
Molecular level studies of solid-gas and solid-liquid interfaces

Solid-liquid interfaces represent systems of great and diverse technological importance. Nevertheless, molecular scale surface science studies have so far been carried out primarily at solid-gas and solid-vacuum interfaces. In recent years, several optical and scanning probe techniques have become available that permitted molecular scale studies of solid-liquid interfaces. This paper reviews results from solid-gas interface studies as viewed from the perspective of relevance to solid-liquid interfaces, and correlates data obtained at the two interfaces wherever it is possible.
Jacobians of nearly complete and threshold graphs

The Jacobian of a graph, also known as the Picard group, sandpile group, or critical group, is a discrete analogue of the Jacobian of an algebraic curve. It is known that the order of the Jacobian of a graph is equal to its number of spanning trees, but the exact structure is known for only a few classes of graphs. In this paper, we compute the Jacobian for graphs of the form K n ? E ( H ) where H is a subgraph of K n on n - 1 vertices that is either a cycle, or a union of two disjoint paths. We also offer a combinatorial proof of a result of Christianson and Reiner that describes the Jacobian for a subclass of threshold graphs.
Can behavioural therapy influence neuromodulation

This paper reviews non-invasive behavioural approaches – broadly construed as cognitive, affective, behavioural and psychophysiological interventions – and examines whether they can impact central, peripheral or autonomic nervous system components responsive to pain in general and headache in particular. It focuses on two developing bodies of literature – neurophysiology of migraine and fMRI studies of pain networks. The available literature suggests behavioural interventions can affect neuromodulation, although further research is clearly warranted.
Environmental nitrite and aquaculture: a perspective

During the past four decades, researchers have gained a good understanding of the effects of environmental nitrite on cultured aquatic animals and how to manage elevated environmental nitrite concentrations by the addition of chloride to the environment. Our understanding of the mechanisms of nitrite toxicity has largely paralleled the development of an understanding of chloride influx mechanisms in aquatic organisms. We need to expand our phylogenetic understanding of chloride influx mechanisms in order to predict nitrite resistance in taxa that are being considered for aquaculture. A better understanding of the role of salinity in modulating nitrite toxicity in euryhaline species is also needed.
Synthesis of 2′-deoxy-2′-[18F]fluoro-5-bromo-1-β-D-arabinofuranosyluracil ([18F]-FBAU) and 2′-deoxy-2′-[18F]fluoro-5-chloro-1-β-D-arabinofuranosyl-uracil ([18F]-FCAU), and their biological evaluation as markers for gene expression

Abstract [ 18 F]-FBAU and [ 18 F]-FCAU have been synthesized and evaluated in vivo as markers for HSV1-tk gene expression. At 2 hours, uptake of [ 18 F]-FBAU and [ 18 F]-FCAU in HSV1-tk–positive tumors was 7.9-fold and 6.0-fold higher than the control tumors, respectively. Micro-PET images also showed very high uptake in HSV-tk tumors. Compared to [ 14 C]-FMAU, total uptake of [ 18 F]-FBAU and [ 18 F]-FCAU was similar in tk-positive cells, but the uptake ratio (tk+/wild) was higher. [ 18 F]-FBAU and [ 18 F]-FCAU appear to be potential PET imaging agents for gene expression.
Vigilance behavior and chickens: Differences among status and location

Abstract The feeding and vigilance behavior of domestic chickens ( Gallus domesticus ) was examined in Bali and Sulawesi in Indonesia and in the highlands of New Guinea. The null hypothesis that there were no difference in the time devoted to vigilance as a function of location or condition (sex, age, or motherhood) was tested. Chicks spent significantly more time foraging (and less being vigilant) than did roosters or hens, and hens with baby chicks spent the least amount of time foraging and devoted more time to vigilance than did the other classes of chickens. Mother hens in Indonesia devoted more time to vigilance than did those from New Guinea, and I attribute this difference to the cultural norm of ‘pay-back’ in New Guinea where if you kill or injure someone else's livestock, the penalty is far greater than merely replacing one chicken.
Kyrgyzstan – A virtual narco-state?

Abstract Numerous myths have surrounded the drug trade in Central Asia over the past two decades. Analysts writing on the issue and the law enforcement structures of the respective countries often have no complete and accurate information about the scale of the trade, the different groups involved and the role of drugs-related money in politics. Generally there are two dominating views: the first considers Kyrgyzstan to be a virtual narco-state and overstates the involvement of politicians and police officials; the alternative underestimates the role of state representatives, describes the smuggling as more decentralised and chaotic and emphasises the role of organised crime gangs and radical Islamic organisations. Based on the interviews in the field conducted in January–March 2012, this paper analyses these alternative perspectives and the empirical evidence supporting these views. It highlights methodological problems relating to research on similar issues, elucidates networks of smuggling and their links with politics and reflects on complexities in addressing these challenges.
Tuberous Sclerosis Complex: Genetic Aspects

Much has been learned about tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) since it was described at the end of the nineteenth century. TSC was recognized to be a genetic disease with autosomal dominant inheritance in the early twentieth century. The prevalence in the general population is at least 1 in 10,000 with two-thirds of cases occurring sporadically and one-third of cases being familial. The disease exhibits variable expression which may cause mildly affected individuals to be undiagnosed. Because the aberrant or missing proteins which result in TSC have eluded investigators, a positional cloning approach has been pursued to find the mutated genes. Genetic linkages have been reported to chromosomes 9, 11, and 12. There is definite evidence for a TSC-causing locus on chromosome 9 which is thought to account for between one-third and one-half of all familial cases. Investigators have narrowed the location on chromosome 9 to approximately two megabases of physical distance. There is some evidence for a locus on chromosome 11 which probably accounts only for a small percentage of familial cases. The locus proposed on chromosome 12 was reported by a single group and has not been confirmed by other research groups. Evidence for genetic heterogeneity is abundant. There is definitely a TSC-causing locus on chromosome 9q (TSC-1) and there is at least one additional locus, maybe more than one. As the molecular basis of TSC unfolds, new insight will be gained about the protean nature of the disorder and the genetic heterogeneity.
Recovery and Functional Properties of Soy Storage Proteins from Lab- and Pilot-Plant Scale Oleosome Production

The aim of this study was to investigate soy protein recovery feasibility after lab- and pilot-plant scale oleosome isolation. The proteins were isolated by isoelectric precipitation and by ultrafiltration. The functional properties of the recovered proteins were compared to soy protein isolate produced in our laboratory. The residual lipid content in the aqueous supernatant affected the protein recovery yields and purities. Ethanol precipitation and ultrafiltration resulted in the best protein yields, which were 25 and 26% greater than protein yield obtained by isoelectric precipitation with distilled water dilution. The protein content of the isoelectric precipitated pilot-plant supernatant was higher (98%) than the protein content of ethanol-precipitated proteins (80%). Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis showed similar peptide profiles for laboratory and pilot-plant supernatants. Protein solubility curves between pH 3 and 8 were typical for soy protein isolate with higher solubilities for proteins obtained from pilot-plant supernatant. The soy protein isolate and ethanol-precipitated protein had the highest emulsification capacity on a dry-weight basis. These desirable functional properties of proteins recovered as co-products after oleosome isolation suggest they are highly suitable for industrial application as food ingredients and their recovery would contribute to the economics of the overall oleosome fractionation process.
Evaluating different bahiagrass cytotypes for heat tolerance and leaf epicuticular wax content

Bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum Flugge) is a polymorphic species indigenous to South America which has become naturalized in the southeastern U.S. The most common form in the United States is Pensacola bahiagrass,P. notatum var.saurae Parodi., which is a valuable forage. Pensacola is a sexual diploid, while most other bahiagrasses are apomictic tetraploids. Pensacola bahiagrass is considered to have greater heat tolerance (based on anin vitro heat tolerance test) than a number of otherPaspalum species, but has less leaf epicuticular wax (a drought avoidance mechanism) than other species. Both heat tolerance and leaf epicuticular wax are desirable characteristics for species grown where periodic drought occurs. We measured both characteristics over two years in a collection of 23 bahiagrass accessions, many of which had been collected in South America near the center of origin of the species. The collection included various ploidy levels. For both years, no accessions ranked statistically lower in damage in the heat tolerance test than Pensacola, although eight had significantly higher damage. Two entries in addition to Pensacola had very low damage in the heat tolerance test. Pensacola was high in leaf wax, with 16 accessions rated significantly lower in wax. The accession having the lowest wax content was a triploid, which also exhibited considerable leaf death in the field in response to drought and heat. The diploid entries tended to be higher in leaf wax than the other ploidy levels. This study has identified additional bahiagrass germplasm which may be of use in a breeding program.
Ballistic performance of confined 99.5%-Al203 ceramic tiles

Abstract An experimental investigation has been performed to investigate the ballistic performance of ceramic tiles as a function of the extent of confinement. A secondary objective of the study was to generate experimental data for ceramic modelling validation studies. Two impact velocities were used for the testing, nominally 1.52 and 1.79 km/s. The depth-of-penetration (DOP) into the backup steel cylinder was the measure of penetration performance. 99.5%-pure aluminium oxide tiles, 2.54-cm thick, were used for the study. Confinement was changed by varying the type and thickness of a cover plate. Differential ceramic tile performance, calculated from the DOP measurements and baseline penetration into semi-infinite steel, varied in the range ≈ 1.5-2.8, depending upon the type of confinement and the impact velocity. The data are compared with other data in the literature, and conclusions are made concerning ceramic tile performance as a function of confinement and impact velocity.
Effects of Mathematics Methods Courses on the Mathematical Attitudes and Content Knowledge of Preservice Teachers

Abstract Teachers who have inadequate meaningful mathematical content knowledge and/or poor attitudes toward the subject often exacerbate the problems that students experience in learning mathematics. In the present study, the effects of mathematics methods courses that use manipulatives, technology, and cooperative learning on meaningful mathematical content knowledge and attitude toward mathematics for preservice elementary teachers and preservice secondary mathematics teachers were investigated. Initial differences regarding content knowledge between these groups was also considered. Following the completion of a mathematics methods course, the preservice elementary teachers' attitudes improved significantly and their content knowledge increased significantly. These measures increased, but not significantly, for the preservice secondary mathematics teachers. Initially, the preservice secondary mathematics teachers had more content knowledge than the preservice elementary teachers did. An item analysis ...
Effects of alpha particles on the scattering function in CO2 laser scattering

It is shown that the alpha-particle contribution to the scattered power can be dominant in the coherent scattering of a CO2 laser in a Maxwellian plasma. For Ti = Te = 10 keV, the optimal forward-scattering angle is around 1.0°, with detection of the electron density fluctuation wavenumbers k⊥ >> k|| (relative to the toroidal magnetic field). A strong resonance occurs at the lower hybrid frequency. Because of the strong dependence of the scattered signal on the alpha-particle temperature and the alpha distribution function, it seems feasible that CO2 laser scattering, using heterodyne techniques, could give detailed local information on fusion alphas.
Remobilization of labelled nitrogen from vegetative tissues to pods of mungbean

Remobilization of15N from vegetative tissue of mungbean (Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek) into pods was measured during the reproductive phase of growth. Plant tissue was labelled with15N during vegetative development. Experiments were conducted in the field at two sites. At one site the soil provided cowpeas with most of their N but at the other site N fixation provided most of the N. Remobilized N from vegetative tissue to pods occurred soon after they began to develop. The quantity of the labelled N ultimately remobilized to the pods amounted to 50% for one cultivar (Tx33) at the high soil N site and 70% at the low N site. For the other cultivar (Tx13) the values were 25% and 30%, respectively. The two cultivars performed very differently with respect to partitioning of N into pods and the rate of N fixation. Even though more N was accumulated in the shoots of the high N fixing cultivar (Tx13) less total N was contained in the pods.