cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Stopped-flow kinetic analysis of replication protein A-binding DNA: damage recognition and affinity for single-stranded DNA reveal differential contributions of k(on) and k(off) rate constants.

Replication protein A (RPA) is a heterotrimeric protein required for many DNA metabolic functions, including replication, recombination, and nucleotide excision repair (NER). We report the pre-steady-state kinetic analysis of RPA-binding DNA substrates using a stopped-flow assay to elucidate the kinetics of DNA damage recognition. The bimolecular association rate,kon, for RPA binding to duplex DNA substrates is greatest for a 1,3d(GXG), intermediate for a 1,2d(GpG) cisplatin-DNA adduct, and least for an undamaged duplex DNA substrate. RPA displays a decreased kon and an increasedkoff for a single-stranded DNA substrate containing a single 1,2d(GpG) cisplatin-DNA adduct compared with an undamaged DNA substrate. The kon for RPA-binding single-stranded polypyrimidine sequences appears to be diffusion-limited. There is minimal difference inkon for varying length DNA substrates; therefore, the difference in equilibrium binding affinity is mainly attributed to the koff. Thekon for a purine-rich 30-base DNA is reduced by a factor of 10 compared with a pyrimidine-rich DNA of identical length. These results provide insight into the mechanism of RPA-DNA binding and are consistent with RPA recognition of DNA-damage playing a critical role in NER.
Influence of the rhizosphere of Spartina alterniflora Loisel. On nitrogen loss from a Louisiana Gulf Coast salt marsh

Abstract The influence of the rhizosphere of Spartina alterniflora Loisel., a common salt marsh macrophyte on loss of NH + 4 -N by denitrification was examined in the greenhouse. Denitrification in the sediment was estimated by using acetylene to inhibit the reduction of N 2 O to N 2 and measuring N 2 O accumulation. The presence of the rhizosphere, which is usually considered to be oxidized, stimulated denitrification 6 days after the injection of 5 g NH 4 ClN/m 2 into the sediment. The enhanced denitrification rate in the sediment cores with aerial plant material was reduced to the level found in systems without aerial plant material at 9 days. Actively growing S. alterniflora apparently assimilates inorganic soil N before any appreciable gaseous N forms can be lost via nitrification-denitrification reactions in the root rhizosphere.
Thermal perception on lingual and labial skin.

The perception of warmth and cold was measured on six labial and lingual loci plus the fingertip. The results indicate that (1) the responsiveness to warming varies substantially across oral sites; (2) compared to warming, the responsiveness to cooling is more homogeneous across oral locations and somewhat stronger relative to the fingertip; (3) the psychophysical function for warmth on the vermilion lip and the labial mucosa has two limbs that may represent the contributions of two sensory systems to perceptions of warmth; and (4) the psychophysical functions on labial skin tend to be accelerated for warmth and decelerated (compressed) for cold. The differences in responsiveness within and between thermal modalities are considered in terms of probable differences in both neural innervation and the physical properties of the skin. It is hypothesized that the oral contribution to thermoregulation, although arguably minor, may be greater for cold than for warmth.
In-vivo Bone Strain as an Indicator of Masticatory Bite Force in Macaca Fascicularis

The hypothesis that mandibular bone-strain patterns are a good indicator of molar bite-force patterns in M. fascicularis during mastication was tested by determining the relationship between mandibular bone-strain patterns and bite-force patterns during isometric biting. Bone-strain patterns were determined using rosette strain gauges bonded to mandibular cortical bone below the roots of the M2 during isometric binding on a transducer along the M1-M2 region. The effects of rosette position on bone-strain patterns during mastication was determined by comparing bone-strain patterns recorded from two different rosettes; one bonded below the roots of the M2 and the other below the roots of the M3. The data from the two experimental sets support the hypothesis that bone-strain patterns along the working side of the mandible are a good indicator of bite-force patterns during the power stroke. The relationship between bone-strain patterns and bite-force patterns was not perfect and the two principal strains were not of equal value. In general, principal compression was a better indicator of bite force than principal tension.
EXPERIMENTAL CONSTRAINTS ON THE AXION DARK MATTER HALO DENSITY

Most of the mass of the Milky Way is contributed by its halo, presumably in the form of noninteracting cold dark matter. The axion is a compelling cold dark matter candidate. We report results from a search that probes the local Galactic halo axion density using the Sikivie radio frequency cavity technique. Candidates over the frequency range 550 MH MHz (2.3 me meV) were investigated. The absence of a signal z ≤ f ≤ 810 V ≤ m ≤ 3.4 a suggests that the axions of Kim and Shifman, Vainshtein, & Zakharov contribute no more than 0.45 GeV cm 3 of mass density to the local dark matter halo over this mass range. Subject headings: dark matter — Galaxy: halo — instrumentation: detectors
Effect of Evanescent Modes on Conductance Distribution in Disordered Waveguides

We demonstrate that proper account of evanescent modes in wave propagation results in a reduction of transport mean free path whilst preserving the universality of the conductance distribution and its single parameter scaling.
Analysis of a simple algorithm for global data flow problems

There is an ordering of the nodes of a flow graph G which topologically sorts the dominance relation and can be found in 0(edges) steps. This ordering is the reverse of the order in which a node is last visited while growing any depth-first spanning tree of G. Moreover, if G is reducible, then this ordering topologically sorts the "dag" of G. Thus, for a reducible flow graph (rfg) there is a simple algorithm to compute the dominators of each node in 0(edges) bit vector steps.The main result of this paper relates two parameters of an rfg. If G is reducible, d is the largest number of back edges found in any cycle-free path in G, and k is the length of the interval derived sequence of G, then k≥d. From this result it follows that there is a very simple bit propagation algorithm (indeed, the obvious one) which also uses the above ordering, and is at least as good as the interval algorithm for solving all known global data flow problems such as "available expressions" and "live variables."
Solution of quantum evolution equations by finite-difference

Abstract We report some recent improvements on the rotation-frame cylindrical-coordinate finite-difference scheme for solving quantum evolution equations in atomic collisions. A Hermitian discretization of the Coriolis term in the rotating Hamiltonian is discussed. Illustrative results from calculations of muon capture by helium atoms are also presented. In other collision calculations involving helium, parametrized Hartree-Slater wavefunctions of helium excited states are used as final projection states. The values of the parameters for states up to 1s4f are tabulated here in the hope that they might be useful in other contexts.
SU-FF-I-49: Daily Patient Dose From Kilo-Voltage Cone-Beam Computed Tomography: A Comparison Between XVI and OBI

Purpose: To make a comprehensive set of absolute dose measurements from the X‐ray Volumetric Imager (XVI®, Elekta Medical Systems) and the On‐Board Imager (OBI®, Varian Medical Systems) on cylindrical phantoms using a calibrated ion chamber.Method and Materials: Two cylindrical (acrylic) phantoms with diameters of 18 cm (head phantom) and 30 cm (body phantom) were used for all measurements. Each phantom has a hole in the center and 2 cm below the phantom surface. For the XVI unit, the four manufacturer‐supplied protocols were measured, namely, “head & neck”, “prostate”, “pelvis”, and “pelvis — large”. The total mAs settings were also varied for each protocol to verify the dose linearity. For the OBI unit, full bow‐tie, half bow‐tie, and no bow‐tie filters were used in combination with the two scanning modes, namely, “full‐fan” and “half‐fan”. Results: For the XVI unit, the (isocenter) doses range between 0.1 and 2.2 cGy for the “head & neck” and “prostate” protocol, respectively, and agree well with the “Nominal Scan Dose” supplied by the manufacturer. The measured doses were highly linear with the total mAs settings. For the OBI unit, the (isocenter) doses range between 0.9 and 8.5 cGy. In the full bow‐tie with the “full‐fan” mode, the head phantom central dose was 8.5 cGy. This is significantly larger than a similar protocol scan measured with the XVI unit (“head & neck”). Half value layers were between 4.6 to 7.0‐mm‐Al for the two x‐ray units. Conclusion: A comprehensive series of dose measurements were made on the XVI and OBI CBCTimagers. It was observed that the OBI unit generally results in higher dose with up to 8.5 cGy measured with the head phantom. More studies are required to determine the increase in image quality expected from the increase in patient dose from the OBI unit.
Unmixing of lead, 137Cs, and PAH records in lake sediments using curve fitting with first- and second-order corrections

Two methods to unmix pollutant records obtained from sediment core data are investigated. A first-order method is expanded to include polynomial curve fitting to the original data. In addition, a new second-order method is developed; this method is based on the advection—diffusion equation for a tracer with constant mixing in a layer of thickness zm and no mixing below. The original data are fitted with a polynomial. The first-order method effectively unmixes lead and 137Cs profiles in a core from northern Lake Michigan that was collected in 1984. Without unmixing, a 1969 maximum in the lead record would have been missed, and the 1963 137Cs maximum would have been underestimated, and incorrectly dated as 1956. Unmixing profiles of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in two cores collected from central and northern Lake Michigan in 1988 produces more equivocal results, probably because of smaller zm values in these latter cores. The second-order method gives profiles of similar shapes as the first-order method, but the time scales are only identical for zm < 0.5–1.0 cm. For larger zm, the first-order method gives extrema at more recent and correct times. Equivalent mixing parameters in the two methods are obtained by maintaining the Peclet number constant for conservative tracers. Errors in the reconstructed profiles are smaller for the first than for the second-order method. Accurate error estimates may be obtained by a Monte-Carlo method that takes into account the correlation between adjacent data points.
The effects of relative price perceptions and demographic factors on restaurant catfish consumption

Using dichotomous logit analysis, the study measures the effects of relative price perceptions and demographic factors on the probability of restaurant catfish consumption in the United States. The study uses data from the 1988 Southern Regional Aquaculture Center Consumer Survey. Relative price perceptions, income, race, religion, urbanization, and region are found to be significant determinants of the probability of restaurant catfish consumption. The probability of consumption is higher among consumers in urban areas and the Central regions and lower among low income consumers, Hispanics, Catholics, and consumers in the New England and Mid-Atlantic regions.
Ketone Functionalized Nitroxides: Synthesis, Evaluation of N-Alkoxyamine Initiators, and Derivatization of Polymer Termini

Two ketone-bearing N-alkoxyamines have been prepared and evaluated as initiators in nitroxide-mediated polymerization. N-(1-Phenethyloxy)-5,5,8-trimethyl-7-phenyl-azanonan-2-one (1) forms polymers with excellent control of molecular weight and low polydispersities, whereas N-(1-phenethyloxy)-5,8-dimethyl-5,7-phenyl-azanonan-2-one (2) does not effect controlled polymerization at 125 °C. Polymers prepared from initiator 1 retain the ketone functionality on the nitroxide terminus. Near-quantitative functionalization is demonstrated via hydrazone formation.
Flatness-Based Control of Mode Transitions Between Conventional and Premixed Charge Compression Ignition on a Modern Diesel Engine With Variable Valve Actuation

Energy needs in the transportation sector and strict emissions regulations have caused a growing focus on increasing engine efficiency while simultaneously minimizing engine out emissions. One method for accomplishing this is to leverage advanced combustion strategies which are efficient yet very clean. One such combustion mode is premixed charge compression ignition (PCCI). PCCI can lead to drastically lower emissions than conventional diesel combustion while still maintaining engine efficiencies; however, the engine operation region over which it can be utilized is limited. In order to take advantage of this advanced combustion mode, engines must be designed to move between conventional diesel combustion and PCCI. To achieve transitions between different combustion modes, a control strategy was developed which utilizes a extensively validated gas exchange model and flatness-based methods for trajectory planning and trajectory tracking to enable smooth transitions between different combustion modes on a modern diesel engine with variable valve actuation. Since the engine considered here has the ability to alter valve timings, the control method exploits both capabilities to control the gas exchange process as well as the effective compression ratio of the engine. Simulation results indicate that this flatness-based approach is effective in enabling mode transitions.Copyright © 2013 by ASME
Effect on the Superior Colliculus of Cortical Removal in Visually Deprived Cats

ONE of the principal goals of analyses of the processing of sensory information has been an understanding of the receptive field properties of central neurones in terms of the convergence of afferents from more peripheral levels. Although it is well known that most cell groups receiving peripheral input also receive inputs descending from higher centres, there have been relatively few studies of descending effects on the organization of the receptive field1. We are concerned here with the superficial layers of the superior colliculus which receive optic nerve fibres, chiefly from the contralateral retina, and descending input from the ipsilateral visual cortex2. Most collicular cells in the normal cat are binocularly driven by slits, bars or edges and are directiorially selective, that is they respond much better to movement of a visual stimulus in one direction than to movement in the opposite direction3. After the visual cortex is removed, collicular cells respond to the same types of visual stimuli, but most cells are driven only by the contralateral eye. The cells also lose their directional selectivity and respond equally well to all directions of stimulus movement4. It therefore seems clear that some features of collicular cells depend on the cortex. The work described here with visually deprived animals demonstrates in another way the influence of the cortex on collicular cells.
Electronic courses for programming languages at Catholic University in Ruzomberok

Development of the society in the current period puts the education on the top place. Besides the classical education, the e-learning is getting to the forefront. The e-learning is one of the most modern individual learning methods. The introduction of modern information and communications technologies contributes to the increasing level and quality of knowledge of students. This doesn't concern removal of teacher's personality from the teaching process, because a teacher at university is indispensable. A combination of classical teaching and e-learning at university has been established. It is possible to create a suitable electronic study material by using the advantages of e-learning. In the paper, the authors describe a electronic materials for teaching of the programming languages Pascal, Imagine and C at Faculty of education Catholic university in Ruzomberok.
Effects of diet, water hardness, and population source on acute and chronic copper toxicity toCeriodaphnia dubia

The effects of diet, water hardness, and population source on acute toxicity, and diet and water hardness on chronic toxicity of copper (Cu) toCeriodaphnia dubia were evaluated. A diet of three algae (Chlamydomonas rheinhardti, Ankistrodesmus falcatus, and Chlorella vulgaris, hereafter referred to as CAC) cultured in vitaminenriched media was superior to synthetic diets consisting of yeast, Cerophyll, and trout chow (YCT). Neonates from mothers reared on CAC were 1.4 to 1.5 times more resistant to Cu than those reared on YCT or yeast and Cerophyll (YC). Forty-eight hr LC50s of Cu toC. dubia increased from 35 to 79 μg/L at water hardness of 94 and 170 mg CaCO3/L. Three populations ofCeriodaphnia derived from three USEPA (United States Environmental Protection Agency) laboratories showed no differential Cu sensitivity. Chronic Cu impairment was measured by neonate production in the 7-day life-cycle test. Chronic values were 7.9 and 10.1 μg/L at water hardnesses of 94 and 170 mg/L respectively. A comparison of daily water renewal and renewal on days 3 and 5 only was made. Neonate production was significantly greater using day 3 and 5 renewals (Friedmann's Rank Sum Test, p < 0.005), even though Cu concentrations were comparable between the two tests. Therefore, handling stress may have been incurred using daily changes. It is recommended that future tests and USEPA guidelines should address deleting YCT and including multi-algal diets for culturing and chronic testing ofCeriodaphnia.
Rules, Norms, and Injustice: A Cross-Cultural Study of Perceptions of Justice in Water Institutions

Access to water is often inequitable, and perceived as unjust by stakeholders. Based on qualitative analysis of 135 ethnographic interviews in Bolivia, Fiji, Arizona, and New Zealand, we conduct a cross-cultural analysis to test for shared notions of justice in water institutions (i.e., rules, norms). A key finding is that institutional rules are a common concern in evaluations of justice, but institutional norms were prominent in justice evaluations only in the Bolivia site (where water access problems are most acute). Similarly, while concerns related to distributive and procedural justice were widely shared across community sites, interactional justice was only a salient concern in Bolivia. We propose that the study of water and other natural resource institutions will benefit from an expanded concept of environmental justice that includes interactional injustices and also a more explicit analytic focus on institutional norms, particularly for communities that face resource scarcity and less-developed ...
Numerical analysis and optimum design of efficient μc-Si/μc-Si 1−x Ge x thin-film solar cells

This study deals with the numerical simulation and analysis of electrical transport properties of μc-Si/μc-Si 1−x Ge x thin-film solar cells. Layer by layer optimization of this solar cell structure was done by using advanced bandgap engineering for its structural and electrical characterization. Study was performed by varying the thickness of intrinsic μc-Si and doping concentration of μc-Si 1−x Ge x layer. It was found that μc-Si absorber and μc-Si 1−x Ge x strained layers play a critical role to improve the light absorption properties of the solar cell structure. Obtained result shows a significant enhancement in conversion efficiency of the proposed μc-Si/μc-Si 1−x Ge x thin-film solar cells.
Muscle Fiber Type Specific Induction of Slow Myosin Heavy Chain 2 Gene Expression by Electrical Stimulation

Vertebrate skeletal muscle fiber types are defined by a broad array of differentially expressed contractile and metabolic protein genes. The mechanisms that establish and maintain these different fiber types vary throughout development and with changing functional demand. Chicken skeletal muscle fibers can be generally categorized as fast and fast/slow based on expression of the slow myosin heavy chain 2 (MyHC2) gene in fast/slow muscle fibers. To investigate the cellular and molecular mechanisms that control fiber type formation in secondary or fetal muscle fibers, myoblasts from the fast pectoralis major (PM) and fast/slow medial adductor (MA) muscles were isolated, allowed to differentiate in vitro, and electrically stimulated. MA muscle fibers were induced to express the slow MyHC2 gene by electrical stimulation, whereas PM muscle fibers did not express the slow MyHC2 gene under identical stimulation conditions. However, PM muscle fibers did express the slow MyHC2 gene when electrical stimulation was combined with inhibition of inositol triphosphate receptor (IP3R) activity. Electrical stimulation was sufficient to increase nuclear localization of expressed nuclear-factor-of-activated-T-cells (NFAT), NFAT-mediated transcription, and slow MyHC2 promoter activity in MA muscle fibers. In contrast, both electrical stimulation and inhibitors of IP3R activity were required for these effects in PM muscle fibers. Electrical stimulation also increased levels of peroxisome-proliferator-activated receptor-gamma co-activator-1 (PGC-1alpha) protein in PM and MA muscle fibers. These results indicate that MA muscle fibers can be induced by electrical stimulation to express the slow MyHC2 gene and that fast PM muscle fibers are refractory to stimulation-induced slow MyHC2 gene expression due to fast PM muscle fiber specific cellular mechanisms involving IP3R activity.
An exact probability distribution on the connectivity of random graphs

Abstract Recently, several authors have proposed the use of random graph theory to evaluate the adequacy of cluster analysis results. One such statistic is the minimum number of lines (edges) V needed to connect a random graph. Erdos and Renyi derived asymptotic distributions of V. Schultz and Hubert showed in a Monte Carlo study that the asymptotic approximations are poor for small sample sizes n typically used in data analysis applications. In this paper the exact probability distribution of V is given and the distributions for some values of n are tabulated and compared with existing Monte Carlo approximations.
Functional Tests Of Purified Slack Channel Protein For Cryo-em Structure Determination

The Slack (slo2.1) gene product is a sodium-gated potassium channel. We seek to image it using single-particle electron cryo-microscopy (cryo-EM). A first step is to verify that the expressed and purified protein is functional. Slack is expressed in HEK cell lines, solubilized, and purified by antibody-affinity. We have employed three methods to check the integrity of the solubilized and reconstituted Slack protein. Western blots verify the reconstitution of protein into floated vesicles. Fusion of these vesicles with planar bilayers yields sodium-sensitive K+ channel activity, while flux assays using the voltage-sensitive dye JC-1 show a high specific activity.
A histologic pattern approach to the anatomy of the face.

. Superficial facial anatomy is usually presented in texts by sequential, two-dimensional illustrations of dissections at various levels of depth. Three-dimensional structural relationships of nerves, vessels, and fasciae can be best understood, however, by recognizing their patterns of organization. These patterns are reviewed and illustrated by histologic sections from various anatomic sites.
Preparation of dried vegetable marrows for winter use in north manchuria

It is well known that the diet of the Chinese consists in great part of vegetable products. This people cultivate many kinds of vegetables which are consumed usually when they are fresh. In the northern provinces of China, however, some kinds of fresh vegetables are not available during the cold period of the year. They, therefore, are preserved for winter use in a variety of ways. One of these ways, for instance, is the preparation of dried strings cut from vegetable marrow (Cucurbita pepo L.), which I have seen widely practiced in the North Manchurian countryside. This product is usually prepared in the late summer and beginning of autumn, when it is the end of the season of vegetable marrows. The fruit of the marrow is placed vertically on a pointed rod mounted on a bench and cut spirally in long and narrow strings
The relationship between systemic hypertension and obstructive sleep apnea: Facts and theory

This article provides an in-depth overview of the relationship between primary hypertension and adult obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. The background data and research are taken from the English-language literature through 1993. Primary hypertension is a common cause of major medical illnesses, including stroke, heart disease, and renal failure, in middle-aged males. Its prevalence in the United States is around 20%, with the rate of newly diagnosed hypertensive patients being about 3% per year. Sleep apnea syndrome is common in the same population. It is estimated that up to 2% of women and 4% of men in the working population meet criteria for sleep apnea syndrome. The prevalence may be much higher in older, non-working men. Many of the factors predisposing to hypertension in middle age, such as obesity and the male sex, are also associated with sleep apnea. Recent publications describe a 30% prevalence of occult sleep apnea among middle-aged males with so called "primary hypertension." Is this association fortuitous, related to a high prevalence of both diseases in the same population, or is it caused by a factor common to both diseases, such as obesity? Should the diagnosis of apnea be actively sought with sleep studies in hypertensive populations? If a diagnosis of "asymptomatic" sleep apnea is made in a hypertensive person, should the apnea be treated? Current research data provide only partial answers to these and other questions regarding the association of apnea and hypertension. Logic dictates that clinically symptomatic patients in hypertensive clinics should receive appropriate evaluation for apnea, but broad populations of hypertensive individuals should not be referred for sleep studies.
NYSE execution costs: A case study of a leading bank

Using trade data obtained from a major bank and a measure of indirect execution costs based on the stock price when orders are placed, we investigate indirect costs and their relation to brokerage commissions. For all trades the mean brokerage commission is 6.5 cents per share, and the mean indirect execution cost is about 3.6 cents per share, or 0.1084% of the transactions amount. Contrary to the prediction of the price pressure hypothesis, indirect execution costs are lower for larger size trades. Further, higher indirect execution costs are not associated with lower brokerage commission.
Translating imaging results into tumor biology: FDG-PET and the response to chemoradiation in human cervical carcinoma.

18F-fluoro-deoxyglucose-positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) is a molecular imaging technique that can be used to monitor treatment-related changes in tumor glucose uptake. In cervical cancer, the FDG-PET response is predictive of survival outcome after chemoradiation. In an effort to understand the signaling pathways that regulate the FDG-PET response in cervical cancer, gene expression profiling was performed. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) identified alterations in expression of genes from the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway in tumors with incomplete FDG-PET response after chemoradiation. Pretreatment phosphorylation and activation of AKT is common in cervical cancer, and patients whose tumors have increased pAKT expression prior to treatment have inferior survival outcomes after standard chemoradiation. Recently, activating mutations in the PIK3CA gene have been identified that are associated with poor prognosis after chemoradiation in cervical cancer. These results suggest that targeted inhibition ...
On removable sets for quasiconformal mappings

we call E removable for QCH if every f in QCH(E) is quasiconformal in R n. In R 2, the following theorems ([C], [G], [K]) are known: T h e o r e m A. (Carleson, Gehring) If S C R 1 is compact, then S• [0, 1] is removable for QCH if and only if S is countable. T h e o r e m B. (Kaufman) If S C R 1 is uncountable, then S• [0, 1] contains a graph E which is not removable for QCH. In R '~, n>2, Cantor type sets are removable ([HK]): T h e o r e m C. (Heinonen and Koskela) Let E be a closed set in R% Suppose that there exist a > l , and {rj}, rj--+O as j--*c~, such that at each x E E , the annular regions { y : a l r j m > 2 and S is an {ak}-porous set in R m with ~ a k = C ~ , then S • n-m is removable for QCH in R n. I f S is closed in R 1, then S • n-1 is removable for QCH in R n if and only if S is countable. Given {ak}, 0 < a k < l , a set SC_R n is called {ak}-porous if there exists a sequence of coverings gk -={Bk,j ~B(xk , j , rk,j)} of S, by balls with mutually disjoint interiors, so that each Bk,j \ S contains a ring Rk,j =-{ x: (1 -(~k ) rk,j < IX-Xk,j I < rk,j },
Status of the National Transonic Facility Characterization

This paper describes the current activities at the National Transonic Facility to document the test-section flow and to support tunnel improvements. The paper is divided into sections on the tunnel calibration, flow quality measurements, data quality assurance, and implementation of wall interference corrections.
Functional polymorphism of detoxification gene NQO1 predicts intensity of empirical treatment of childhood asthma.

Abstract The management of moderate to severe childhood asthma remains empirical. Genotypic variation has been proposed as a way to tailor specific pharmaceutical regimens to individual patients. The objective of this study was to determine the factors associated with asthma treatment progression, including functional polymorphisms of phase II detoxification enzymes, demographics, and environmental factors. In a study of 120 asthmatic children cared for in a single pediatric pulmonary practice, intensity of medical treatment over the year prior was modeled as a function of null mutations of glutathione S transferase ( GST ) M1 and T1, ile105val variant of GSTP1 , and pro187ser variant of NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase 1 ( NQO1 ). The model included demographics, medical information, and environmental factors obtained via questionnaire analyzed with multivariate logistic regression and artificial neural networks. Multivariate logistic regression with bootstrapped validation identified a polymorphic variant of NQO1 as significantly contributing to increasing the odds of receiving more aggressive medical therapy (odds ratio, 11.56; p = 0.0001). Parent income and education inversely correlated with medical treatment (odds ratio, 1.50; p = 0.001 and odds ratio, 0.375; p = 0.002, respectively). Age and reporting restricted physical activity due to asthma also impacted medical treatment (odds ratio, 0.63; p = 0.0001 and odds ratio, 5.90; p = 0.004, respectively). The optimism-adjusted discriminative ability ( c -index) of the model was 0.881 (close to Bayes optimum of 0.902) with 80% overall classification accuracy. Our study supports the role of NQO1 polymorphism as an important factor determining the intensity of medical therapy in asthmatic children after adjusting for significance relating to parental income and education level, age, and restricted physical activity. Asthmatic children with a functional polymorphism of NQO1 may require more intensive pharmaceutical treatment to effectively control their asthma.
Applying constructivist principles to reinvigorate faculty training

Traditionally, faculty training programs have used Information Technology (IT) instructor-led sessions to impart technology skills through pre-scripted exercises. The selection of topics is typically made by IT staff based on available technologies with which they are familiar. While faculty may find these learning experiences initially satisfactory, they are often challenged to make the personal connection to their specific teaching needs.The University of Delaware has reinvigorated its summer faculty institute program by applying constructivist learning principles. The process begins with a competitive application for participation in which a faculty member identifies learning goals for their students and technical skills that the applicant would like to master along with their current skills and barriers to progress. Upon acceptance, faculty learning styles are profiled. The preliminary information is used to establish objectives, identify session topics, and assign staff roles to meet individual needs drawing from a palette of varied learning situations.The participants are provided a laptop-based technology bundle to accomplish their goals. Faculty members are introduced to successful technology applications by their experienced colleagues. Participants work on a project of their choosing throughout the skill-based sessions. Faculty members have the opportunity to form a cohort for continued learning and support after the institute ends.This paper will detail the conceptual framework of the faculty institute and will describe specific tools including: participant applications, daily surveys, and companion course materials. The authors will share the strategies and challenges of applying constructivist principles to a faculty training program.
Nutrient Assessment of a Dryland Wheat Agroecosystem after 12 Years of Biosolids Applications

Biosolids beneficial-use programs effectively recycle plant nutrients when these waste materials are applied at an agronomic rate. Plant-nutrient availability questions have arisen relating to Littleton and Englewood (L/E), Colorado Wastewater Treatment Plant biosolids applications to dryland wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)-fallow agroecosystems. What is the long-term estimated nitrogen equivalency (N E ) of the biosolids? Can we estimate long-term micronutrient distribution with continuous biosolids application? How does plant-nutrient availability change with continuous application? Before each growing season we added biosolids at rates of 0 to 11.2 dry Mg ha -1 to plots arranged in randomized complete blocks with four replications per treatment. We found 12 years of application (6 applications to two sites in a 2-yr wheat-fallow rotation) produced N equivalencies, based on wheat-grain N uptake, of about 9 kg N Mg -1 biosolids. Estimated first-year mineralization rates were ≈21 to 33%. Since P, Cu, Ni, and Zn grain removal were <1% of biosolids-applied concentrations, we estimated that tillage-layer (top 20 cm of soil) concentrations could be predicted within 5% of actual total soil contents based on biosolids additions of these nutrients. Biosolids additions produced linear increases in NH 4 ΗCO 3 -diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (AB-DTPA) soil extract concentrations of P, Cu, Ni, and Zn. Soils initially were Zn deficient; biosolids application provided plant-available Zn for dryland wheat. If biosolids agronomic rates were based on P instead of N availability, these soils could not receive biosolids. Also, if the Colorado Phosphorus Index was utilized, agronomic rates would continue to be based on N. Biosolids addition to dryland winter wheat according to N agronomic rates is a feasible method of recycling plant nutrients.
The topological structure of the unitary and automorphism groups of a factor

It is proved that a large class ofII 1 factors have unitary group which is contractible in the strong operator topology, but whose fundamental group in the norm topology is isomorphic to the additive real numbers as proven by Araki-Smith-Smith [1]. The class includes the approximately finite dimensional factor of typeII 1 and the group factor associated with the free group on infinitely many generators. This contractibility is used to prove the contractibility of the automorphism group of the approximately finite dimensional factor of typeII 1 and typeII ∞. It is further shown that the fundamental group of the automorphism group of the approximately finite dimensional factor of typeIII λ, 0<λ<1, is isomorphic to the integer group ℤ.
Surface Plasmon Resonance Spectroscopy: A Versatile Technique in a Biochemist’s Toolbox

Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) spectroscopy is a powerful, label-free technique to monitor noncovalent molecular interactions in real time and in a noninvasive fashion. As a label-free assay, SPR does not require tags, dyes, or specialized reagents (e.g., enzymes–substrate complexes) to elicit a visible or a fluorescence signal. During the last two decades, SPR has been broadly applied to study of noncovalent interactions of protein–DNA, protein–cell, RNA–DNA, DNA–DNA, protein–protein, protein–carbohydrate, small molecule–macromolecule (e.g., receptor–inhibitor complex), protein–peptide, and self-assembled monolayers. In addition, SPR has been successfully applied to drug discovery ligand-fishing and clinical immunogenicity studies (i.e., to monitor an immune response against a therapeutic agent). SPR spectroscopy can address questions such as specificity of an interaction, kinetics, affinity, and concentrations of selected molecules present in a sample of interest. Given the current enhancements in hard...
High-frequency dynamics and microrheology of macromolecular solutions probed by diffusing wave spectroscopy: the case of concentrated solutions of F-actin

The linear viscoelastic properties of macromolecular solutions and networks are traditionally investigated by probing their mechanical response upon applied shear. However, a small-amplitude strain may be insufficient to reach the torque resolution of a mechanical rheometer, especially for weak hydrogels. Such materials may require large deformations, which can orient and even rupture the constitutive polymers. This paper reviews a recently-developed approach to probe the mechanical properties of macromolecular networks and solutions non-invasively in the linear regime, and over an extended frequency range. This approach consists in measuring the thermally-induced displacement of microspheres imbedded within the solution, from which equilibrium, linear viscoelastic moduli can be extracted. The displacement of the probing microspheres is measured by diffusing wave spectroscopy (DWS). The extended bandwidth of DWS provides for new insight into the short-time and short-length scales motion of individual polymers in solution and offers a more stringent test of models of polymer dynamics. Here, we illustrate the use of DWS on a semi-dilute solution of model semi-flexible polymers: a concentrated actin-filament network.
Personnel Administration in the Tennessee Valley Authority

Within recent years the development of a number of new federal agencies has been accompanied by the establishment of personnel systems outside of the ordinary classified civil service of the United States. The Tennessee Valley Authority constitutes one such agency, in which an attempt has been success fully made to establish a system of personnel administration based on "merit and efficiency." In part, the procedures and policies evolved by the administrators of the Authority differ from practices in use in other branches of the civil service of the United States. It is the purpose of this paper to outline the policies of the Authority in the field of personnel administration, and to compare Authority policies with those established in the federal service outside Authority jurisdiction. No attempt will be made to appraise or evaluate the methods employed. The Authority under the law has practically complete control of personnel administration within its jurisdiction. Thus, personnel management in this agency includes some activities which are centralized in the federal Civil Service Commission in the classified civil service, and others which are decentralized at the department level. The scope of this paper will not permit detailed comparison with practices of the individual government departments; rather, where comparisons seem possible, major attention will be devoted to the policies established by the United States Civil Service Commission. However, some of the policies of the Authority appear so significant that a description seems in order, even though a comparison at this point with federal departmental policies is not feasible.
Static analysis of large programs (invited talk) (abstract only): some experiences

Our research group at Microsoft has spent some effort over the last few years attempting to apply static analysis methods to large application programs (over a million lines of code). In the first part of the talk, I will share some of the insights we have gained along the way. The first insight is that the static analysis method of interest must scale to large programs. It must scale in terms of performance, both running time and memory requirements. The interesting complexity metric is average-case behaviour. The analysis must also scale in terms of the quality of information produced. This metric is hard to measure, and depends on the problem to be solved. The second insight is that large commercial applications differ from the benchmark programs typically used in the literature in many ways beyond sheer size: For instance, they routinely circumvent the type system, they make use of every conceivable language feature, they use large shared libraries, they contain some very large automatically generated functions, they define functions with large numbers of call sites, and they include many indirect call sites. All of these characteristics make analysis hard. In particular, they make the implementation of a scalable analysis an exercise in careful engineering.In the second part of the talk, I will make the claim that it is possible to develop scalable static analysis methods for large programs, using the following approach: First, implement an efficient algorithm, and carefully engineer it to scale. Important requirements are modularity, a complete parser, and some form of garbage collection. Next, identify the conceptual limitations of the efficient algorithm, and examine the test programs to identify common cases or idioms in the code that expose these limitations. Finally, extend the original algorithm in a principled manner to account for these common cases, without compromising performance. I will use my work on pointer analysis of large programs as an example of this approach. The key insight is that it is possible to identify common idioms in the code that are the bottlenecks for efficient algorithms. A scalable static analysis method can be developed if these idioms can be identified and accommodated.
Efficiently incorporating user feedback into information extraction and integration programs

Many applications increasingly employ information extraction and integration (IE/II) programs to infer structures from unstructured data. Automatic IE/II are inherently imprecise. Hence such programs often make many IE/II mistakes, and thus can significantly benefit from user feedback. Today, however, there is no good way to automatically provide and process such feedback. When finding an IE/II mistake, users often must alert the developer team (e.g., via email or Web form) about the mistake, and then wait for the team to manually examine the program internals to locate and fix the mistake, a slow, error-prone, and frustrating process. In this paper we propose a solution for users to directly provide feedback and for IE/II programs to automatically process such feedback. In our solution a developer U uses hlog, a declarative IE/II language, to write an IE/II program P. Next, U writes declarative user feedback rules that specify which parts of P's data (e.g., input, intermediate, or output data) users can edit, and via which user interfaces. Next, the so-augmented program P is executed, then enters a loop of waiting for and incorporating user feedback. Given user feedback F on a data portion of P, we show how to automatically propagate F to the rest of P, and to seamlessly combine F with prior user feedback. We describe the syntax and semantics of hlog, a baseline execution strategy, and then various optimization techniques. Finally, we describe experiments with real-world data that demonstrate the promise of our solution.
Supporting Loss Guarantees in Buffer-Limited Networks

We consider the problem of packet scheduling in a network with small router buffers. The objective is to provide a statistical bound on the worst-case packet loss rate for a traffic aggregate (connection) routed along any network path, given a maximum permissible link utilization (load). This problem is argued to be of interest in networks providing statistical loss-rate guarantees to ingress?egress connections with fixed bandwidth demands. We introduce a scheduling algorithm for networks using per-packet transmission reservation. Reservations allow loss guarantees at the aggregate level to hold for individual flows within the aggregate. The algorithm employs randomization and traffic regulation at the ingress, and batch local scheduling at the links. It ensures that a large fraction of packets from each connection are consistently subject to small loss probability at every link. These packets are therefore likely to survive long paths. To obtain the desired loss-rate bound, we analyze the performance of the algorithm under global routing and bandwidth allocation scenarios that maximize the loss rate of a connection routed along an arbitrary network path. We compare the bound to that obtained using the scheduling algorithm that combines the FCFS service discipline and the drop-tail policy. We find that the proposed algorithm significantly improves the constraints on link utilization and path length necessary to achieve strong loss-rate guarantees.
Dealkylation with boron bromide chelates

Potential two-point Lewis acid compounds can be formed by combining the salen( t Bu)H2 (N ,N ?-alkylenenebis(3,5-di-tertbutyl(2hydroxy)benzylidenimine) class of ligands and its derivatives with boron tribromide. In the present study compounds having the formula, L(BBr2)2 (L� /salen( t Bu) (1), salhen( t Bu) (2), L([ p tolyl]BBr) (L � /salen( t Bu) (3), salpen( t Bu) (4), salben( t Bu) (5), salhen( t Bu) (6), and t Bu-sal( t Bu)BBr2 (7) were prepared. These compounds are active towards the dealkylation of alkyl phosphates and are catalytic when stoichiometric amounts of BBr3 and trimethylphosphate are introduced to the chelate ligand. All of the compounds were characterized by Mp, elemental analysis, 1 H- and 11 B-NMR, IR, MS and in the case of 2 by X-ray crystallography.
Learning by doing: construction and manipulation of a skeletal muscle model during lecture.

Active learning, “learning by doing,” enhances student performance on examinations and improves student retention of course content. Active learning also provides inquiry-based, collaborative, and problem-solving activities that promote curiosity, skepticism, objectivity, and the use of scientific reasoning. To incorporate active learning into our undergraduate anatomy and physiology course of 70 nursing students, students constructed working physical models of skeletal muscle during the scheduled class time. Our goals were to actively engage students in the process of building and testing their own mental models from the information they were acquiring. During the process, the focus was on the student acquiring knowledge, thinking about the information, testing assumptions, solving problems, and appreciating the joy, excitement, and love for learning. We conclude that the construction of physical models during class is a valuable educational experience.