cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Problem section (rotating fluids): a system of polynomial equations and a solution by an unusual method

A system of three third order polynomial equations with parameters is presented, along with its solution by the construction of a single carefully chosen determinant. This system displays some characteristics which may be common in practice, but are not dealt with effectively by most automatic solvers.
Detection, quantification and confirmation of anabolic steroids in equine plasma by liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry

Abstract Anabolic androgenic steroids are related to the male sex hormones and are abused in equine sports. In an effort to deter the abuse of anabolic steroids, a sensitive LC–MS/MS method was developed for detection, quantification and confirmation of eight major anabolic steroids (testosterone, normethandrolone, nandrolone, boldenone, methandrostenolone, tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), trenbolone, and stanozolol) in equine plasma. Formation of solvent adduct ions of the analytes was observed under electrospray ionization (ESI) conditions, and desolvation of the solvent adduct ions by source collision-induced decomposition (CID) increased the abundance of the [M + H] + ions as well as the multiple-reaction monitoring (MRM) signals. ESI (+) and APCI (+) were compared with respect to sensitivity for the analytes and the former provided better sensitivity. The matrix effect on ion suppression or enhancement was evaluated, and was negligible. Confirmation of the analytes was performed using criteria of three ion transitions and LC retention time of each analyte. The limit of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) was 25 pg/mL. The limit of confirmation (LOC) was 25 pg/mL for boldenone; 50 pg/mL for normethandrolone, nandrolone, and methandrostenolone; and 100 pg/mL for testosterone, THG, trenbolone, and stanozolol. The analytes were evaluated for stability and found to be stable in plasma for 24 h at room temperature, 13 days at 4 °C, and 34 days at −20 and −70 °C. The method was successfully applied to analyses of equine plasma samples for pharmacokinetics study. This method is sensitive and useful for detection, quantification and confirmation of these anabolic steroids in equine plasma.
Polymeric Dyes: Useful Nonabsorbable Reference Markers for Intestinal Perfusion Studies in Animals

Abstract The properties of two polymeric dyes were examined to determine their suitability as nonabsorbable reference markers for intestinal perfusion studies. The first dye was a violet anthroquinone dye, R-478, named polyporphyre; the second was a blue anthroquinone dye, R-411, named polycyanine. The dyes could be determined spectrophotometrically over a concentration range of 0.03-5 μ M (1–200 μ g/mL) and had no appreciable osmotic effect. They were light stable and their absorption spectra did not change in solution over a pH range of 1–11. The dyes had a molecular weight of ~40,000 by gel permeation chromatography; they did not appear to have hydrophobic binding sites because they did not bind added dihydroxy bile acid or fatty acid anions. Determination of the dyes was not influenced by the presence of bilirubin when the latter was present at concentrations reported to occur in small intestinal content during digestion. The dyes did not interfere with an endpoint enzymatic determination of bile acids. The dyes caused little quenching of 3 H- or 14 C-radioactivity in a toluene-based liquid scintillation cocktail. Dyes were easily removed from aqueous solution by passage over a large-pore anion exchange column or by a BaCI 2 :ZnSO 4 protein precipitation procedure. When tested in a rat jejunal perfusion model, changes in dye concentration evoked by hypotonic or hypertonic perfusates were identical to those of polyethylene glycol 4000, a commonly used reference marker. The dyes did not influence the rate of glucose absorption and did not bind to mucus. These studies suggest that these two polymeric dyes have ideal physicochemical and biological properties for use as nonabsorbable reference markers in intestinal perfusion studies in animals. The dyes appear to be an attractive alternative to polyethylene glycol 4000.
Infrared laser desorption and ionization of polypeptides from a polyacrylamide gel

We observed direct desorption and ionization of angiotensin II and bovine insulin from a frozen polyacrylamide gel without the addition of an exogenous matrix, using picosecond pulses from a tunable, mid-infrared free-electron laser tuned to strong absorption bands of the gel. At 5.7, 5.9, 6.1 and 6.3 µm we were able to desorb and ionize both analyte molecules, with the strongest analyte signal generated at 5.9 µm. However, no analyte signal was observed at 5.5 µm. Consistent with a previous report, we did not observe ions of either polypeptide at 2.9 µm, in spite of strong overall absorption. We discuss the implications of this wavelength-dependent ionization, including possible ablation mechanisms and energy partitioning between competing vibrational modes. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Infestation of Wild and Ornamental Noncrop Fruits by Drosophila suzukii (Diptera: Drosophilidae)

Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura) (Diptera: Drosophilidae) is a pest of small fruits and cherries, and has also been noted to infest a variety of wild, ornamental, and uncultivated hosts. Identify- ing alternative hosts is critical for pest management. Research objectives were to: 1) survey fruits in the field for natural infestation of D. suzukii, 2) determine the susceptibility of fruits in laboratory no-choice studies, and 3) evaluate short-range preference between simultaneously ripe alternative hosts and culti- vated fruits in laboratory choice studies. Field surveys identified new hosts or confirmed previously re- ported hosts including: Berberis aquifolium Pursh, Oregon grape; Cornus spp., dogwood; Cotoneaster lacteus W.W. Smith, milkflower cotoneaster; Elaeagnus umbellata Thunberg, Autumn olive; Frangula purshiana (de Candolle) A. Gray, cascara buckthorn; Lindera benzoin (L.) Blume, spicebush; Lonicera caerulea L., blue honeysuckle; Morus sp., mulberry; Phytolacca americana L., pokeweed; Prunus avium (L.) L., wild cherry;Prunus laurocerasus L., cherry laurel;Prunus lusitanica L., Portuguese laurel;Rubus armeniacus Focke, Himalaya blackberry; Rubus spectabilis Pursh, salmonberry; Sambucus nigra L., black elderberry; Sarcococca confusa Sealy, sweet box; Solanum dulcamara L., bittersweet nightshade; andSymphoricarpos albus (L.) S.F. Blake, snowberry. High fruit infestations were observed in S. confusa during April-May and Lonicera spp. in June before most commercial fruits ripen. From both field and laboratory studies, there was no evidence of susceptibility during the estimated ripe period Crataegus L. 'Autumn Glory,' hawthorn; Ilex crenata Thunberg, Japanese holly; Nandina domestica Thunberg, sacred bamboo; Rhaphiolepis umbellata (Thunberg) Makino, yeddo hawthorne; Rosa acicularis Lindley, prickly rose; Skimmia japonica Thunberg, Japanese skimmia; and Viburnum davidii Franchet, David's vibur- num. Lastly, laboratory choice tests identified that several fall-ripening alternative hosts were more sus- ceptible than 'Pinot noir' or 'Pinot gris' wine grapes. By understanding host use, growers can identify high-risk areas where coordinated action may reduce infestation ofD. suzukii in crops.
Interaction of razoxane and radiation on cultured Chinese hamster cells

Abstract Razoxane [(±)-1,2-bis(3,5-dioxopiperazine-1-yl)propane] was investigated for its effects on the survival of irradiated Chinese hamster libroblasts in vitro . Razoxane alone produced cytotoxicity that was dependent upon drug concentration and pulse exposure time, with a preferential lethality for cells treated while in the DNA-synthetic phase. Razoxane enhanced radiation-induced cell kiling when used as either a pulse exposure or a continuous treatment. In asynchronous populations of cells, this was expressed as an increase in the slope and a reduction in the shoulder of the radiation dose-survival curve. In synchronous populations of cells, a modest increase in cell killing was observed for those cells treated in G 1 and G 2 , with a greater enhancement for cells treated in the S -phase. Overall, razoxane may potentiate the radiation-induced killing of cultured mammalian cells by a number of mechanisms: 1) a blockade of cell] cycle progression causing an accumulation of cells in radiosensitive phases of the cell cycle; 2) selective cytotoxicity of cells in radioresistant phases of the cell cycle; 3) inhibition of the accumulation of sublethal radiation damage; or 4) interaction of the damages induced by each agent so as to produce an enhanced effect. These mechanisms may need to be considered if razoxane and radiation therapy are to be used in combined modality therapeutic approaches.
Defending the Self in a Total Institution: Staff Prompting and Patient Burlesque

This paper offers an analysis of forms of social interaction between direct care staff and patient members of a state institution for the “Mentally Retarded” (MR) and dually-diagnosed (MR with a mental disorder diagnosis) located in the northeastern United States. This work’s significance is that it updates and extends Erving Goffman’s (1961) classic study of the underlife of total institutions. It does so by delineating a sub-type of secondary adjustment to total institutions, termed ancillary adjustment. Ancillary adjustment is defined as performances of patient role that undercut the institution’s official prescription for patient identity toward normalizing direct staff member identity. It is shown how ancillary adjustment arose as an unintended consequence of the institutional reforms of the 1970s, or how, under a professionally reformed and bureaucratized “New School”, direct care staff members experienced themselves as disempowered and discredited as “normal” professionals and defensively and repeatedly cued hyper-stigmatized comedic spectacles through types of staff-patient interaction termed staff prompting and patient burlesque. This paper is based on a three-year fieldwork study entitled Defending the Self in an Institution for the Mentally Retarded that utilized Glaser and Strauss’ (1967) and Strauss and Corbin’s (1990) grounded theory methods for qualitative research.
Existence of a positive solution to a class of fractional differential equations

Abstract In this paper, we consider a (continuous) fractional boundary value problem of the form − D 0 + ν y ( t ) = f ( t , y ( t ) ) , y ( i ) ( 0 ) = 0 , [ D 0 + α y ( t ) ] t = 1 = 0 , where 0 ≤ i ≤ n − 2 , 1 ≤ α ≤ n − 2 , ν > 3 satisfying n − 1 ν ≤ n , n ∈ N , is given, and D 0 + ν is the standard Riemann–Liouville fractional derivative of order ν . We derive the Green’s function for this problem and show that it satisfies certain properties. We then use cone theoretic techniques to deduce a general existence theorem for this problem. Certain of our results improve on recent work in the literature, and we remark on the consequences of this improvement.
Soft scheduling in high level synthesis

In this paper, we establish a theoretical framework for a new concept of scheduling called soft scheduling. In contrasts to the traditional schedulers referred as hard schedulers, soft schedulers make soft decisions at a time, or decisions that can be adjusted later. Soft scheduling has a potential to alleviate the phase coupling problem that has plagued traditional high level synthesis (HLS), HLS for deep submicron design and VLIW code generation. We then develop a specific soft scheduling formulation, called threaded schedule, under which a linear, optimal (in the sense of online optimality) algorithm is guaranteed.
Chromosomes of three species of mantidae

There are twenty-seven spermatogonial chromosomes in Tenoder'a sinensis, three of which are larger than the others and lag behind in anaphase. These three chromosomes have been traced through the prophases of the first spermatocyte to the metaphase, where they appear as a hexad. In the first spermatocyte division two of the constituent diads of the hexad pass to one pole, the remaining one to the other, thus giving rise to two types of second spermatocytes, one with thirteen and the other with fourteen chromosomes. There are twenty-eight chromosomes in somatic metaphases of the female; four of these chromosomes are larger than the others. The sex chromosomes of the male are represented by the formula Xa + Y + Xb, that of the female by 2Xa + 2Xb. Similar conditions are reported for Mantis religiosa and Stagmomantis carolina.
Management of the Suicidal Pediatric Patient: An Emergency Medicine Problem

Suicide in children and adolescents is a serious cause of concern for emergency department physicians. Suicide remains a leading cause of death and potential years lost in children and adolescents. Children who are acutely suicidal often present to the emergency department for medical and psychiatric care and evaluation. This article will discuss the epidemiology of suicide in children and provide the emergency physician a framework from which to evaluate and manage children who are acutely suicidal.
Comparative Free Choice Selection of Various Fish Meal Diets by the Chick

Abstract Two-choice feed consumption tests have been conducted in which one-week-old chicks were given a choice between two corn-fish meal diets made with two different fish meals. Diets made with Peruvian anchovy meals were consumed in lower amounts than those made with herring meals or hake meals. This was especially true of a feed containing low fat anchovy meal. Chicks showed a marked preference for an anchovy meal diet made from meal containing 10.7% fat over a similar diet prepared with meal containing 6.4% fat. No such difference in preference was noted between rations formulated with hake meals which differed similarly in fat content. The chicks showed no marked or consistent preference for diets made with hake meals or British Columbia or Atlantic herring meals. There was a tendency for the chicks to show some preference for diets made with a sample of Norwegian herring meal in nearly all comparisons made. When comparing diets containing the Norwegian herring meal and low fat anchovy meal, the chicks showed a preference for the herring meal ration when the feeds compared contained only 5% of the fish meals.
The Galileo arrival date selection process

The Galileo arrival date selection process has culminated in the selection of December 7,1995. This arrival date will provide excellent science opportunities at Jupiter as well as the first spacecraft reconnaissance ever of not one, but two asteroids during the cruise to Jupiter.
IR Photodissociation Spectroscopy and Theory of Au+(CO)n Complexes: Nonclassical Carbonyls in the Gas Phase

Au+(CO)n complexes are produced in the gas phase via pulsed laser vaporization, expanded in a supersonic jet, and detected with a reflectron time-of-flight mass spectrometer. Complexes up to n = 12 are observed, with mass channels corresponding to the n = 2 and n = 4 showing enhanced intensity. To investigate coordination and structure, individual complexes are mass-selected and probed with infrared photodissociation spectroscopy. Spectra in the carbonyl stretching region are measured for the n = 3−7 species, but no photodissociation is observed for n = 1, 2 due to the strong metal cation-ligand binding. The carbonyl stretch in these systems is blue-shifted 50−100 cm-1 with respect to the free CO vibration (2143 cm-1), providing evidence that these species are so-called “nonclassical” metal carbonyls. Theory at the MP2 and CCSD(T) levels provides structures for these complexes and predicted spectra to compare to the experiment. Excellent agreement is obtained between experiment and theory, establishing th...
Comparison of access methods for time-evolving data

This paper compares different indexing techniques proposed for supporting efficient access to temporal data. The comparison is based on a collection of important performance criteria, including the space consumed, update processing, and query time for representative queries. The comparison is based on worst-case analysis, hence no assumptions on data distribution or query frequencies are made. When a number of methods have the same asymptotic worst-case behavior, features in the methods that affect average case behavior are discussed. Additional criteria examined are the pagination of an index, the ability to cluster related data together, and the ability to efficiently separate old from current data (so that larger archival storage media such as write-once optical disks can be used). The purpose of the paper is to identify the difficult problems in accessing temporal data and describe how the different methods aim to solve them. A general lower bound for answering basic temporal queries is also introduced.
High quality a -Si/Nb and a -SiN/NbN artificial multilayers for Josephson applications

A high resolution transmission electron microscopy study of multilayer films prepared by magnetron sputtering shows that the morphology of the growing interface in a-Si/Nb and a-SiN/NbN multilayers is remarkably uniform and smooth; this is in contrast to the polycrystalline AlN/NbN multilayers grown under similar conditions, which exhibit columnar grain structure with rough interfaces. For proper sputtering parameters, the amorphous layers seem to periodically restore a relatively smooth initial interface condition for the successive Nb (or NbN) layer growth, consequently interrupting the tendency toward increased roughness due to mechanisms such as columnar growth. Artificial multilayers having very flat interfaces could stimulate applications based on multilayer Josephson junctions.
An Asset Theory of Social Policy Preferences

We present a theory of social policy preferences that emphasizes the composition of people's skills. The key to our argument is that individuals who have made risky investments in skills will demand insurance against the possible future loss of income from those investments. Because the transferability of skills is inversely related to their specificity, workers with specific skills face a potentially long spell of unemployment or a significant decline in income in the event of job loss. Workers deriving most of their income from specific skills therefore have strong incentives to support social policies that protect them against such uncertainty. This is not the case for general skills workers, for whom the costs of social protection weigh more prominently. We test the theory on public opinion data for eleven advanced democracies and suggest how differences in educational systems can help explain cross-national differences in the level of social protection.
Dose-response characteristics of nebulized isoproterenol in asthmatic children.

Abstract The optimal dose of nebulized isoproterenol for nontoxic bronchodilation in asthmatic children is not established. In this study the response of 23 asthmatic children to four doses of nebulized isoproterenol hydrochloride, 1:200, a metered dose form of isoproterenol, and placebo were compared for onset, duration, and degree of bronchodilatation as well as cardiovascular responses and side effects. Data, including forced expiratory volume in 1 sec (FEV 1 ), maximum mid-expiratory flow (MMEF), heart rate, and blood pressure obtained before and at 5, 15, 30 and 60 min after each test nebulization, were analyzed. The results show that all doses of isoproterenol produced significant bronchodilatation at all times. The lowest dose of nebulized isoproterenol produced bronchodilatation which was initially equal to the higher doses but was significantly less effective at 60 min. There was no significant difference in the bronchodilator response to doses 2, 3, and 4. There was, however, a progressive increase in heart rate with increasing doses of isoproterenol, but significant effects were observed on blood pressure only with doses 3 and 4. We conclude that a dose of 0.005 ml/kg (0.025 mg/kg) of inhaled isoproterenol by the nebulization technique described and using the same equipment (air compressor, T tube apparatus, and nebulizer) is optimal for bronchodilatation in asthmatic children with minimal cardiovascular side effects.
Fazylov's Edition of Khujandi's Latafat-Nama: A Review Article

The Latāfat-nāma (Book of Eloquent [Praise]) is a Central Asian Turkic panegyric poem from the early fifteenth century. Its author, Khujandi, a poet with a bilingual (Turkic and Persian) background and with a religious, probably Sufi, upbringing, composed this work in Khorazmian Turkic on the model of Khorazmi's Mahabbat-nāma and dedicated it to Mahmūd Khan, son of Kuchuk Muhammad and ruler of Khorezm in 1411 and 1422−1424.
Translation Planes and Related Combinatorial Structures

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the concept of translation planes and related combinatorial structures. Translation plane is an affine plane that admits a transitive group of translations. By the fundamental results of Andre, given a translation plane, there is an associated vector space V of two dimension over a skewfield K such that the points of the affine plane are the vectors of V and the lines of the plane are translates of certain mutually disjoint d-dimensional K -subspaces called the “components.” The set of components is called the “spread of the plane.” The original translation group becomes the vector group of V and the skewfield K is called the “kernel” if there is no containing skewfield L such that the plane and the components are L -spaces. The collineation group of a translation plane is thus a semidirect product of the stabilizer of the associated zero vectors by the translation group. The stabilizer subgroup is a subgroup and is called the “translation complement.” The intersection of the translation complement is called the “linear translation complement.” The chapter also discusses the Thas–Walker construction, flocks and partial flocks of hyperbolic quadrics, generalized quadrangles, partial flocks and Baer groups, and others.
Comparative Phenotypic Analysis of the Bordetella parapertussis Isolate Chosen for Genomic Sequencing

The genomes of three closely related bordetellae are currently being sequenced, thus providing an opportunity for comparative genomic approaches driven by an understanding of the comparative biology of these three bacteria. Although the other strains being sequenced are well studied, the strain of Bordetella parapertussis chosen for sequencing is a recent human clinical isolate (strain 12822) that has yet to be characterized in detail. This investigation reports the first phenotypic characterization of this strain, which will likely become the prototype for this species in comparison with the prototype strains of B. pertussis (Tohama I), B. bronchiseptica (RB50), and other isolates of B. parapertussis. Multiple in vitro and in vivo assays distinguished each species. B. parapertussis was more similar to B. bronchiseptica than to B. pertussis in many assays, including in BvgS signaling characteristics, presence of urease activity, regulation of urease expression by BvgAS, virulence in the respiratory tracts of immunocompromised mice, induction of anti-Bordetella antibodies, and serum antimicrobial resistance. In other assays, B. parapertussis was distinct from all other species (in pigment production) or more similar to B. pertussis (by lack of motility and cytotoxicity to a macrophage-like cell line). These results begin to provide phenotypes that can be related to genetic differences identified in the genomic sequences of bordetellae.
Bargaining to Improve Channel Sharing between Selfish Cognitive Radios

We consider a problem where two selfish cognitive radio users try to share two channels on which they each have potentially different valuations. We first formulate the problem as a non-cooperative simultaneous game, and identify its equilibria. For cases where the resulting Nash equilibria are not efficient, we then propose a novel coordinated channel access mechanism that can be implemented with low overhead in a decentralized fashion. This mechanism, based on the Nash bargaining solution, guarantees full utilization of the spectrum resources while improving the utility of each user compared to the non-cooperative setting. We quantify the resulting gains. Finally, we prove that risk-averse users that are willing to accept offered information at face value have no incentive to lie to each other about their valuations for the non-cooperative game. However, we find that truthfulness is not guaranteed in the bargaining process, suggesting as an open problem the design of an incentive compatible mechanism for bargaining.
Vacancy Mobility in Nickel Aluminide Versus Composition

The fractional concentration of Ni-vacancies in NiAl at high temperature has been determined for compositions between 50 and 53 at.% Ni from measurements using perturbed angular correlation of gamma rays (PAC). The vacancies were detected by quadrupole interactions induced at nearby 111In/Cd impurity probes present on the Al sublattice in high dilution. One set of measurements was made at high temperature. A second set made after rapid quenching exhibited an enhancement of Ni-vacancy site fractions that is attributed to diffusion and trapping of vacancies during quenching. The composition dependence of the enhancement was analyzed assuming that the enhancement is proportional to the root-mean-square diffusion length during quenching. The experimental dependence on composition is found to be consistent with bulk diffusion data. The methodology developed clarifies how local environments of impurity probes are modified during rapid quenching. In addition, it is shown that there is an enormous increase in the mobility of vacancies with increasing deviation of the composition from stoichiometry. Diffusion mechanisms that can explain the data trends are discussed.
A 26 ps self-aligned epitaxial silicon base bipolar technology

A self-aligned epitaxial base technology is presented which allows fabrication of advanced bipolar devices with 40 to 60 nm basewidths and implementation of novel profile design concepts. The viability of this technology for advanced bipolar circuits has been examined by fabricating ECL ring oscillators, thus demonstrating that fully scaled epi-base devices can be successfully integrated. Devices with current gains of 80-90 and intrinsic base sheet resistances less than 10 kO/sq were fabricated. Epitaxial technology was used to position a novel lightly doped collector (LDC) spacer within the base collector junction of these heavily doped, thin-base devices to control avalanche breakdown and increase BVCEO. Conventional and active pull-down ECL ring oscillators with minimum gate delays of 40.5 and 26.3 ps, respectively, were fabricated with devices showing a measured cutoff frequency of 19.6 GHz
Show me the money!: deriving the pricing power of product features by mining consumer reviews

The increasing pervasiveness of the Internet has dramatically changed the way that consumers shop for goods. Consumer-generated product reviews have become a valuable source of information for customers, who read the reviews and decide whether to buy the product based on the information provided. In this paper, we use techniques that decompose the reviews into segments that evaluate the individual characteristics of a product (e.g., image quality and battery life for a digital camera). Then, as a major contribution of this paper, we adapt methods from the econometrics literature, specifically the hedonic regression concept, to estimate: (a) the weight that customers place on each individual product feature, (b) the implicit evaluation score that customers assign to each feature, and (c) how these evaluations affect the revenue for a given product. Towards this goal, we develop a novel hybrid technique combining text mining and econometrics that models consumer product reviews as elements in a tensor product of feature and evaluation spaces. We then impute the quantitative impact of consumer reviews on product demand as a linear functional from this tensor product space. We demonstrate how to use a low-dimension approximation of this functional to significantly reduce the number of model parameters, while still providing good experimental results. We evaluate our technique using a data set from Amazon.com consisting of sales data and the related consumer reviews posted over a 15-month period for 242 products. Our experimental evaluation shows that we can extract actionable business intelligence from the data and better understand the customer preferences and actions. We also show that the textual portion of the reviews can improve product sales prediction compared to a baseline technique that simply relies on numeric data.
A Novel Planar Conformal Antenna Designed With Splines

A broadband planar dipole, radiating from 280 to 1000 MHz (with Gain > 0 dBi), is considered for shape optimization using splines. It is demonstrated via simulations and measurements that the 0 dBi gain point is shifted to 190 MHz (32% size reduction). The entire optimization amounts to antenna reshaping.
Recent advances in RF integrated circuits

This article describes recent activities in the area of RF integrated circuits. First, transceiver architectures developed for cellular and cordless telephone standards are presented. Next, the choice of device technology is discussed, and the design of building blocks such as low-noise amplifiers and mixers, oscillators, and power amplifiers is described. Last, some of the emerging applications of RF circuits and their implications for the design are considered.
Cyclic changes in metabolic state during the life of a yeast cell

Budding yeast undergo robust oscillations in oxygen consumption during continuous growth in a nutrient-limited environment. Using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry and comprehensive 2D gas chromatography-mass spectrometry-based metabolite profiling methods, we have determined that the intracellular concentrations of many metabolites change periodically as a function of these metabolic cycles. These results reveal the logic of cellular metabolism during different phases of the life of a yeast cell. They may further indicate that oscillation in the abundance of key metabolites might help control the temporal regulation of cellular processes and the establishment of a cycle. Such oscillations in metabolic state might occur during the course of other biological cycles.
Does the leaf economic spectrum hold within local species pools across varying environmental conditions

Summary Understanding patterns of trait variation across environmental variability is necessary for development of ecological predictions. The leaf economic spectrum (LES) has demonstrated global trade-offs in leaf traits, but it is unclear whether such patterns are robust in local communities exposed to varying environments. We conducted separate greenhouse experiments to examine the effects of varying water-table depth and nitrogen availability on leaf-level trait values among a suite of co-occurring wetland species. We then assessed the effects of species-specific trait value responses on relationships predicted by LES and whether species responded similarly to variations in water-table depth and nitrogen availability. We found that both water-table depth and nitrogen availability had significant species by treatment interactions for specific leaf area, leaf nitrogen and photosynthetic rates, indicating species-specific responses to environmental variability. The responses of individual traits to different treatment levels were relatively consistent across species, but multivariate responses were more variable. We found that apart from significant relationships between specific leaf area and photosynthetic rate under some treatments, there was little support for the relationships predicted by the LES. These results suggest that, before trait-based ecology will be able to make progress towards using plant traits to predict responses of communities and ecosystems to changes in environmental drivers, considerable attention needs to be paid to the processes that control intraspecific trait variation.
The influence of compliance with the use of refractive correction in hyperopic children on accommodation.

PurposeTo indicate the relationship between constant, correct use of hyperopic spectacles and relaxation of accommodation in children.MethodsAfter thorough ophthalmic examination (cycloplegia inclu...
Bio-adhesive Surfaces to Promote Osteoblast Differentiation and Bone Formation

Binding of integrin adhesion receptors to extracellular matrix components, such as fibronectin and type I collagen, activates signaling pathways directing osteoblast survival, cell-cycle progression, gene expression, and matrix mineralization. Biomimetic strategies exploit these adhesive interactions to engineer bio-inspired surfaces that promote osteoblast adhesion and differentiation, bone formation, and osseointegration. These emerging initiatives focus on directing integrin binding through presentation of bio-adhesive motifs derived from extracellular matrices. These biomolecular approaches provide promising strategies for the development of biologically active implants and grafting substrates for enhanced bone repair.
Finite Element Analysis of Thickness Dependent Debonding Forces of Elastomer Coatings

Adhesion tests consisting of cylindrical studs to be pulled off from a soft elastomer coating on a substrate have been widely performed in the literature to characterize various biofouling and adhesive situations. These experiments have shown that the pull-off forces are strongly dependent on the coating thickness. To understand this thickness dependence on the debonding forces, a detailed analysis is performed by the finite element method, applying the virtual crack closure technique. In these simulations, coating thickness, elastic modulus, and initial geometries have been varied to study their influence on the debonding forces. The effect of these factors on the debonding forces is discussed with respect to experimental pull-off results of silicone coatings.
Vernal Photosynthesis and Nutrient Retranslocation in Dryopteris intermedia

Abstract The value of preserving wintergreen fronds into the spring by forest understory fern species is unknown. In this study, net photosynthetic rates and nitrogen and phosphorus contents were monitored in a population of Dryopteris intermedia throughout a spring season to explore potential photosynthetic and retranslocational benefits of wintergreen fronds. Net photosynthesis occurred throughout the study indicating a potential for movement of fixed carbon from wintergreen fronds to other parts of the plant. Nitrogen and phosphorus content in the old fronds did not change through spring, thus no evidence for net retranslocation of these nutrients from wintergreen fronds to the rest of the plant was obtained. Maintenance of the wintergreen fronds may simply increase retention time and thus nutrient use efficiency of limiting nutrients. Other possible benefits of wintergreen fronds exist and should be investigated.
Bees remember flowers for more than one reason: pollen mediates associative learning

Ever since Karl von Frisch's Nobel Prize-winning work in the early 1900s, bees have served as an important model system for the study of learning, memory and foraging behaviour. Bees can learn about floral features including colour, scent, texture and electrostatic charge, and show surprisingly sophisticated forms of learning. However, nearly every study of bee cognition and foraging to date has used a sole reward: nectar, most often in the form of a simple sucrose solution. Plants also offer a number of other rewards to pollinators, the most prevalent being pollen that bees collect as their primary source of protein. Indeed, a significant proportion of angiosperm species are nectarless, rewarding bees with pollen alone. Surprisingly, whether free-flying bees can learn visual features based solely on floral pollen rewards is unknown. Here we show that bees can learn to associate multiple floral features with a pure pollen reward. Furthermore, these associations are remembered long term, comparable to bees' memory for nectar associations. These findings raise new questions about bee learning and the evolutionary history between plants and bee pollinators.
Welsh alveopalatals: Functional pattern attraction

AbstractIn the Welsh mutation system, consonants alternate in grammatical context. As the borrowed affricates and are integrated into the phonological system of a dialect, they begin to alternate in soft mutation on the pattern of [t] and [d], respectively. As these affricates are further integrated in some dialects, they begin to alternate in nasal mutation—as [t] alternates with and [d] alternates with [n], alternates with an innovative and alternates with an innovative . Finally, they have integrated in some dialects into the alternations of aspirate mutation—as [t] alternates with [θ], alternates with an innovative [θ']. The manner in which these innovations have taken place indicates that the affected dialects of Welsh have developed an alveopalatal order that is now almost complete—a new functional place of articulation. While Martinet's theory of pattern attraction in a strictly structural inventory of orders and series would not have predicted these developments, an extension of this theory in a f...
Effects of Mountants and Fixatives on Wall Structure And Melzer's Reaction in Spores of two Acaulospora Species (Endogonaceae)

Freshly extracted and preserved spores ofAcaulospora dilatata and A. rugosa were crushed in mountants often used to assist in identifying and describing vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Wall thickness increased in proportion to the amount of phenol in a mountant. Phenol also caused differential swelling of laminae so that they resembled adherent unit walls and transformed the "beaded" inner wall into a smooth membranous wall. Preservatives such as formalin, glutaraldehyde, and lactophenol obscured separation of inner unit walls, giving them the appearance of laminae in a thick, single wall. The amorphous wall type in both Acaulospora species was highly elastic in mountants of a pH less than 2.0, but was rigid at higher pH, regardless of other mountant characteristics. The amorphous wall stained dark reddish-purple in Melzer's reagent, lost iodine-staining capacity after treatment with a-amylase but not with f-amylase, and stained orange-yellow in Dragendorffs reagent. These observations suggested that this wall was composed of quaterary ammonium compounds and polysaccharides with few exposed a-1,4 linkages. After storage of spores in preservatives, resilience and capacity of the amorphous wall to react with Melzer's reagent disappeared. Mountant and/or preservative effects on spore morphology must be known if genetic differences of taxonomic significance among spore populations are to be recognized.
Interactions between Lattice Dislocations and Interfaces in Solids

Attention is focused on the interactions which occur when lattice dislocations impinge on interfaces (i.e., grain boundaries, crystal/crystal interphase boundaries and crystal/amorphous boundaries) in solids. The lattice dislocations can generally dissociate into interface dislocations possessing smaller Burgers vectors under a driving force produced by a decrease in the elastic energy. For crystal/crystal interfaces, a wide range of possibilities exists, depending upon the grain boundary type, which extends from dissociation into a discrete number of interface dislocations to dissociations into a distribution consisting of, in the limit, an infinite number of interface dislocations possessing infinitesimal Bur.ers vectors. For crystal/ anorphous interfaces, the latter model is applicable. Examples of dissociations in these various interfaces are presented. The dissociation geometries and kinetics are described briefly. Some of the wider implications of these phenomena are mentioned.
398 OSTEOPOROSIS SCREENING AND EFFECT OF CHRONIC DISEASES AND COMORBID CONDITIONS ON SCREENING.

Background Bone densitometry examination with DXA is an important tool in identifying patients with low bone densities and high fracture risk. Osteoporotic fractures account for more than 1.2 million fractures, at the cost of $20 billion yearly. Mortality from hip fracture is 25% per year. Despite this, many women do not get screened. One barrier might be that physicians do not order tests in patients with comorbid conditions. We examined the association of comorbid illnesses and the rate of DXA screening in an outpatient setting. Methods This study was a cohort prospective quality improvement project to enhance adherence to osteoporosis screening guidelines in eligible or at-risk patients. This was a collaborative multicenter study consisting of six different outpatient clinic sites. Female patients age 65 or older were recruited from each clinic site. We examined the relationship of comorbid illnesses individually and as a comorbid score to the rate of osteoporosis screening. Results We presented preliminary results of 137 patient questionnaire surveys with a mean age of 75 years (age 65-98). Of 121 charts reviewed, 44% had DXA screening. Using chi-square test, we found positive correlation between DXA screening and a diagnosis of cancer (p = .03). We also found a positive association between DXA screening and thyroid disease (p = .07). A diagnosis of DM had a negative association with DXA screening (p = .01). No association was found between other chronic disease conditions and DXA screening. The positive association of cancer and thyroid disease was also present using logistic regression analysis (OR = 3.02, p = .05 and OR = 3.2, p = .03). The negative correlation of DM and DXA screening was also present with logistic regression analysis (OR = 0.3, p = .02). The combined comorbid score was not associated with DXA scan performance. Conclusion Based on preliminary data, patients with cancer and thyroid disease appear to have an increased rate of DXA screening. Physician awareness of detrimental effects of aromatase inhibitor therapy and of oversupplementation of l-thyroxine on bone mineral density might explain these findings. Diabetic patients, on the other hand, were screened less. This phenomenon might be attributable to the association of diabetes and increased severity of illness or physicians9 perception of competing medical interests. To maximize osteoporosis screening further investigation of this result is warranted.
An Evaluation Program and an Evaluation Model about Risk Investment Project

An evaluation program and the standards about risk investment project are described by summarizing and analyzing the experiences of the risk investment activities in developed contries and areas such as America and Taiwan. It proffers a beneficial reference to build up the risk investment mechanism in the developing of new and high technology of our country.
Proteomic Characterization of Exosomes from HIV-1-Infected Cells

Proteomics has increasingly become an invaluable tool to characterize proteomes from various subcellular compartments. Here, we describe a quantitative proteomics method using the technique of Stable Isotope Labeling by Amino acids in Cell culture (SILAC) to analyze the effects of HIV infection on host exosomal proteomes. The procedure, described below, involves differential isotope labeling of cells, exosome purification, mass spectrometric quantification, and various bioinformatic analyses/verifications. Although this chapter focuses on analyzing the effects of HIV-1 infection on the exosomal proteome, the protocol can easily be adapted to other subcellular compartments under different stress conditions.
Is Reflective Equilibrium a Coherentist Model

Over the last twenty years, John Rawls has developed an approach to political philosophy which appeals to the notion of reflective equilibrium. This notion has proven suggestive to those attracted to coherence approaches to justification, in ethics and in other domains as well. In this paper, I explore the question whether Rawls’s approach provides a model for a coherentist account of justification, concluding that although the discussion of reflective equilibrium has provided helpful insights it has not produced a coherentist model of justification.
Optical Differentiation Wavefront Sensing for Astronomy and Vision Applications

An optical differentiation wavefront sensor utilizing binary pixelated transmission filters is an inexpensive and high performance adaptive optics instrument. Simulated and experimental results that demonstrate its potential for astronomical and vision applications are presented.
Competitive Advantage in the Information Age

Present-day robots can work tirelessly, and they are rapidly growing cheaper. For relatively simple tasks, they are already facile enough to be competitive with high-cost workers in the OECD countries. Their impact on the industrial process is strikingly conveyed by a European textile executive’s description of a night visit to an automated textile mill in Japan: It is pitch dark… Robots have no eyes, so they need no light. Malfunctions are signalled to a control centre. The problem spot is then lit and a qualified engineer fixes the snag… No more than ten people, boss included, are needed per shift to run the 30,000 ring spindles that represent $22 million in investment.
Supermodularity and Supermodular Games

The concept of complementarity is well established in economics at least since Edgeworth (1881). The basic idea of complementarity is that the marginal value of an action increases with the level of other actions available. The mathematical concept of supermodularity formalizes the idea of complementarity. The theory of monotone comparative statics and supermodular games provides the toolbox to deal with complementarities. This theory, developed by Topkis (1978; 1979), Vives (1985; 1990) and Milgrom and Roberts (1990a), in contrast to classical convex analysis, is based on order and monotonicity properties on lattices (see Topkis, 1998; Vives, 1999; and Vives, 2005, for detailed accounts of the theory and applications). Monotone comparative statics analysis provides conditions under which optimal solutions to optimization problems change monotonically with a parameter. The theory of supermodular games exploits order properties to ensure that the best response of a player to the actions of rivals increases with their level. Indeed, this is the characteristic of games of strategic complementarities (the term was coined in Bulow, Geanakoplos and Klemperer, 1983). The power of the approach is that it clarifies the drivers of comparative statics results and the need of regularity conditions; it allows very general strategy spaces, including indivisibilities and functional spaces such as those arising in dynamic or Bayesian games; it establishes the existence of equilibrium in pure strategies (without requiring quasi-concavity of payoffs, smoothness assumptions, or interior solutions); it allows a global analysis of the equilibrium set when there are multiple equilibria, which has an order structure with largest and smallest elements; and, finally, it finds that those extremal equilibria have strong stability properties and there is an algorithm to compute them.