cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Review of social influence in crisis communications and evacuation decision-making

Abstract Topography and dynamics of real networks' enable network agents to alter their functional behavior. Theoretical and analytical advancements in network science have furthered our understanding of the effects of social network characteristics on peer influence and engagement. Influence of social network occurs when network players alter their decisions and behavior based on others’ influence in the social network which is evident in different disciplines. Crisis communication networks have significant impact during disasters as people often spread pertinent information in social media due to presence of limited access to conventional information sources. Existing researches in social science and sociology indicate that social networks benefit spreading warning message and disseminate information about an imminent risk, nevertheless, the existing studies do not provide enough understanding on how to quantify such influences and how this map into decision-making during emergency evacuations. This study provides a robust review of the studies exploring how individuals are socially influenced, both on-line and off-line, while communicating risk during extreme weather events such as hurricanes. The scope of this review primarily includes studies that look into how our social networks influence the way we decide to evacuate and how crisis information spread from one agent to another agent in a network. The insights and findings obtained through this comprehensive review will be useful to diverse set of stakeholders such as emergency managers, planners, policy makers and practitioners. These include identifying and implementing targeted strategies for different groups of people in similar crisis events based on their social network properties, interactions, and activities.
A content analysis: Consider mindfulness in response to colorist biases

Via colorist and white privilege, colorism and racism mirror one another. Colorism is internalized racism; an oppressive internalization regarding phenotypes and skin tones. Mindfulness and other s...
Disturbance and riparian tree establishment in the Sespe Wilderness, California, USA

The riparian forests of southern California are subject to disturbance by both fire and flood. These agents are capable of causing pulses of mortality and recruitment, but it remains unclear how they interact to determine patterns of stand development. We use dendrochronology to identify establishment dates for stems of major riparian tree species in the Sespe Creek watershed, in order to examine their relationship to regional flooding and fire history. Our 11 study sites were burned by major fires in 1932 and 2002, with a smaller 1975 fire affecting only two sites; major floods were concentrated within the second half of the 1933–2009 streamflow record, with the largest floods occurring in 1969, 1978, and 1983. Three periods of stand development are evident: (1) the oldest alder (Alnus), cottonwood (Populus), and oak (Quercus) stems became established soon after the 1932 Matilija Fire, (2) minimal stem establishment between the 1940s and mid-1960s, and (3) continued, although irregular, recruitment of al...
An Introduction to Algorithms for Inference in Belief Nets

Abstract As belief nets are applied to represent larger and more complex knowledge bases, the development of more efficient inference algorithms is becoming increasingly urgent. A brief survey of different approaches is presented to provide a framework for understanding the following papers in this section.
Developmental and Postdevelopmental Uptake of Dietary Organic and Inorganic Selenium into the Molar Teeth of Rats

The mechanism for the uptake of dietary inorganic and organic selenium by the fully developed, mature molar teeth of mother rats and the developing molar teeth of their pups was studied. Pregnant rats received drinking solutions containing either 0.2 ppm Na2SiO3 plus 0.043 muCi Na2-75SeO3 per ml from day 10 of pregnancy until parturition. Thirteen days postpartum, the uptake of dietary 75Se into developing molar teeth was more extensive than the postdevelopmental uptake onto mature teeth. Developing molar teeth incorporated more 75Se from dietary selenomethionine than from selenite, as did many hard and soft tissues studied. The major portion of 75Se in enamel and dentine was located in the protein fraction of these dental tissues. Dialysis experiments showed that the selenium in enamel and dentine existed in at least three forms: loosely bound selenium, proteinaceous selenotrisulfides, and proteinaceous stable selenium. These data and the results of a previous study (J. Nutr. 103, 553-559) provide evidence that selenium incorporated into developing proteins as selenotrisulfides or selenoamino acids may be responsible for the increases in dental caries reported in man and experimental animals ingesting somewhat increased amounts of dietary selenium.
Physiological consideration of respiratory disease: a symposium.

A. Physiologic Factors Concerned in the Regulation of Respiration Physiologists now agree that there is a medullary respiratory center which has intrinsic rhythmicity. Nevertheless this center can be influenced profoundly by many chemical and nervous factors. One of the most important of these is carbon dioxide. Under ordinary conditions the medullary center is exquisitely sensitive to changes in carbon dioxide pressure. When the respiratory center is depressed (by deep anesthesia, large doses of morphine or barbiturates, trauma, cerebral edema, increased intra-cranial pressure, severe anoxia or by high concentrations of carbon dioxide itself) it is no longer responsive to carbon dioxide though it may still permit reflex activity and continuation of respiration. Anoxemia may also stimulate respiration; this occurs through reflexes originating in chemoreceptors of the carotid and aortic bodies. It appears certain that these chemoreceptors are functioning in the normal full-term newborn though they may not be functioning or functioning properly in prematures. When these chemoreceptors are in operation, anoxia will stimulate respiration and oxygen therapy will abolish such hyperpnea. When the chemoreceptors are not in action, one would expect no reflex effects from either oxygen or anoxia; oxygen therapy, however, might relieve cerebral ischemia and permit respiration to improve. B. Physiologic Methods for Evaluating Respiratory and Pulmonary Function The function of the lungs is primarily to oxygenate the venous blood and to remove excess carbon dioxide from it. To accomplish this, there must be normal respiratory volumes, normal lung volumes and aerating surface, even distribution of the inspired gas to the alveoli, unimpaired diffusion across the alveolar capillary membrane, and uniform distribution of pulmonary capillary blood flow to the functioning alveoli.
Chapter 9 biology of prostate cancer bone marrow metastasis

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the contributions of various mechanisms to the development of prostate cancer (PCa) bone metastases. Although many of the structural factors and molecular and cellular interactions described in the chapter exhibit tumor- and metastasis-promoting activity, it is unlikely that any one of these factors alone explains the preferential growth of PCa in bone. Individual factors influence the response of PCa cells to other factors in a complex interactive fashion. Within the context of the bone environment, the relative contribution of each of these factors, and perhaps many others, remains to be determined. Further studies directed toward the understanding of the interactions of various growth-factor signaling pathways, growth factor–extracellular matrix (ECM) interactions, and direct cell–cell communication may provide clues to the bone specificity of PCa metastases. These studies may eventually lead to the development of treatment strategies designed specifically to stop the growth of metastatic prostate cancer cells in the bone marrow.
A reconfigurable systolic primitive processor for signal processing

Recent developments in the area of logarithmic number systems have demonstrated that when properly configured, floating point precision can be achieved at fixed point speeds. To overcome the 12-bit historical address space limit of high speed lookup memory devices, a new Adaptive Radix Processor is proposed and an error analysis is performed. Interconnecting a number of identical ARPs, fast and compact DSP systems can be designed operating on a low error budget over a large dynamic range. Examples are presented using a "shared memory design. Finally, due to identical processors used in the designs reconfiguration can be used to fully utilize the available hardware and/or introduce a degree of fault tolerance.
Characteristics of a Meeting Planner

ABSTRACT This is an exploratory research project about meeting planning professionals. Survey responses were collected from 288 meeting professionals in an Internet based survey. The results found a significant difference in perception of minority representation in the industry. The study also found that career counselors are not making students in high school or college aware of meeting planning as a profession, so therefore, they are not studying it in college. People instead are finding out about it in nontraditional ways, such as learning on the job, friends and co-workers. As a result, top skills listed that are needed to succeed included personality or character traits rather than skills that could be learned.
Measurement of cytogenetic damage in rodent blood with a single-laser flow cytometer.

The in vivo rodent micronucleus test is widely utilized to screen chemicals for genotoxic activity. Double-strand chromosome breaks or dysfunction of the mitotic spindle apparatus can lead to micronuclei formation in dividing cells. Erythrocytes have become the target population of choice, as precursor cells are continuously dividing and micronuclei are readily observable after extrusion of nuclei. The traditional method has been to stain peripheral blood or bone marrow smears and microscopically determine the frequency of micronucleated erythrocytes. Because these events are rare, the process is tedious and time consuming. This unit describes a procedure for fixing and staining rodent peripheral blood for flow cytometric enumeration. The combination of reagents provides for differential labeling and enumeration of four subpopulations: mature erythrocytes, micronucleus-containing mature erythrocytes, young erythrocytes (reticulocytes), and micronucleus-containing young erythrocytes. Malaria-infected rodent erythrocytes, which closely mimic micronucleus-containing erythrocytes, serve as a biological standard to facilitate rational and consistent equipment calibration. Keywords: flow cytometry; genotoxicity; chromosome damage; micronuclei; reticulocytes; propidium iodide; CD71-defined antigen The in vivo rodent micronucleus test is widely utilized to screen chemicals for genotoxic activity.
Structure of the mouse Adh-1 gene and identification of a deletion in a long alternating purine-pyrimidine sequence in the first intron of strains expressing low alcohol dehydrogenase activity

Abstract The ethanol-active alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH-A2) expressed at high levels in mouse liver is encoded by the Adh-1 gene. Inbred strains differ in the amount of ADH-A2 expressed. We report here the cloning and sequencing of the Adh-1 genes from mouse strains that express high and low amounts of ADH-A2 in liver (strains YBR/Ki and Balb/c respectively). The gene contains nine exons, and encodes an ADH-A subunit identical to that encoded by the cDNA isolated from DBA/2J, a strain with low liver ADH activity. This demonstrates that the difference between strains in liver ADH activity is not due to differences in the amino acid sequence of the ADH-A2. The 5'-nontranslated region and at least the first 225 bp 5' to the transcriptional start point are identical in both strains. We have found restriction fragment length polymorphisms in the Adh1 gene that correlate with the level of expression of ADH-A2 in different strains. One of these RFLPs is within a remarkably long (288 bp) strictly alternating purine-pyrimidine sequence located in the first intron. This region in YBR/Ki contains 25 copies of the sequence ATGT(A/G)T (four of them inverted), which closely resembles important elements in the SV40 enhancer region. Balb/c mice, which express Adh-1 at lower levels, have a deletion that removes 101 bp of this sequence and also have several transition mutations; the comparable region has nine fewer ATGT(A/G)T repeats. These results suggest that the difference in gene expression may be due to differences in these hexamers or in other portions of the alternating purine-pyrimidine sequences, rather than in cis-acting sequences in the proximal 5' (promoter) region.
Using network motifs to investigate the influence of network topology on PPM-based IP traceback schemes

Abstract Multiple schemes that utilize Probabilistic Packet Marking (PPM) have been proposed to deal with Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks by reconstructing their attack graphs and identifying the attack sources. By analyzing a set of PPM-based schemes, we show that past researchers have evaluated the schemes using disparate and often inadequate underlying topologies, which makes a side-by-side comparison of the scheme performance a complex problem. To tackle this problem, we evaluate selected schemes on a large set of Internet-like topologies and adapt the network motif approach to provide a common ground for comparing the schemes’ performances in different network topologies. This approach allows us to determine the level of structural similarity between network topologies and consequently enables the comparison of scheme performance even when the schemes are implemented on different topologies. Our results reveal that both the value of the PPM-based schemes’ convergence times, and their rankings vary depending on the underlying network topology. However the variation is considerably less when the topologies are compared within superfamilies of structural similarity. More specifically, the standard deviation in convergence times across the networks drops to about a tenth of its original value when the set of 28 networks are arranged in four superfamilies. To complement our results, we present an analytical model showing a link between scheme performance in any superfamily, and the motifs exhibited by the networks in that superfamily. Our work proposes an effective way of comparing general network protocol performance in which the protocol is evaluated on specific representative networks instead of an entire set of networks.
Tu1597 Effect of Neoadjuvant Therapy on Dysphagia in Patients With Locally Advanced Esophageal Cancer

data. To prospectively assess the long-term clinical efficacy of flexible endoscopic diverticuloscope-assisted myotomy of ZD. Methods: From 3/2005 to 3/2009, 35 pts with ZD (19 F; median age 69 yrs; median depth 3 cm) underwent diverticuloscope-assisted myotomy and were followed-up up to 3/ 2011 (43 mos 15). Endotherapy consisted in exposure and stabilization of the septum between the ZD and esophagus by a soft diverticuloscope, cut of the septum by needle knife in a single session (1). Symptoms were differentiated in dysphagia, regurgitation, respiratory and nocturnal. Severity was scored according to frequency (days/week): 0: none; 1: 2; 2: 3-4; 3: 5-7. Clinical follow-up was scheduled after 1 and every 6 months. Clinical success was defined: for all symptoms as complete ( 2 symptoms of grade 1), and for dysphagia only ( grade 1). Variables for prognosis and Kaplan-Meier curves for complete success were: age, sex, ZD depth, residual pouch. Results: Endotherapy was completed within 13 min (range 3-20); perforation occurred in 1 (3%). Depth of ZD was significantly correlated to residual pouch (P 0.0001). Complete and dysphagia success rates were high at 1 month (86% and 97%, respectively) but significantly decreased at the end of follow-up (49% and 77%, respectively, P 0.01). Univariate analysis did not identify any prognostic value. Kaplan-Meier curves showed a significantly higher complete success if residual pouch was 10 mm (P 0.035). At the end of follow-up, prevalence of grades 2&3 and severity of all symptoms were significantly lower (P 0.01): dysphagia (91% vs. 34%), regurgitation (89% vs. 26%), respiratory (97% vs. 9%), nocturnal (94% vs. 9%). Ab ingestis pneumonia did not occur after treatment (20% vs. 0%; P 0.01). Conclusions: This study demonstrates that flexible endoscopic diverticuloscope-assisted myotomy for ZD leads to a resolution or improvement of single symptoms in 2/3 of cases and abolishes the risk of ab ingestis pneumonia. Actually, complete clinical success is achieved in 50% of cases when a strict definition is applied. A significant better clinical outcome seems related to the deeper section of the septum. (1) Costamagna G et al. Endoscopy 2007.
A phase II trial of gefitinib for recurrent or metastatic cancer of the esophagus or gastroesophageal junction.

Background Conventional chemotherapeutic agents are of limited benefit in patients with recurrent or metastatic cancer of the esophagus or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ). We report results from a phase II trial in this population using gefitinib, an oral epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitor. Patients and methods Eligibility required a diagnosis of esophageal or GEJ adenocarcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma, which was either metastatic or recurrent and incurable after initial therapy. No more than one prior chemotherapy regimen was permitted. Treatment consisted of gefitinib 250 mg daily for a minimum of 8 weeks. Results Between April 2003 and January 2010, 58 patients, including 18 who were chemotherapy-naive, were entered into this trial. Toxicity was modest, although most experienced grade 1–2 diarrhea and/or skin rash. There were 4 partial responders (7%) and 10 patients with stable disease (17%). The clinical benefit (partial response and stable disease) lasted for a median 6.1 months. Median survival for all patients was 5.5 months with survival projections at 1-year of 24.6% and at 2-years of 12.5%. Conclusion Gefitinib was well tolerated but of limited efficacy in patients with recurrent or metastatic esophageal or GEJ cancer. Further study of this or similar agents will require better patient selection.
Value of precontrast T(1) for dGEMRIC of native articular cartilage.

Purpose To evaluate if the difference between pre- and post-Gd-DTPA2- relaxation rate (ΔR1) provides better differentiation of osteoarthritic patients (OA) from healthy subjects (HS) with dGEMRIC, as compared to post-Gd-DTPA2- spin-lattice relaxation time (T1Gd). Materials and Methods Seventeen OA and 14 HS underwent pre- and 90 minutes postcontrast (Gd-DTPA2-) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the knee, using inversion recovery fast spin-echo and/or Lock–Locker sequences for T1 mapping. Effect sizes for T1pre, T1Gd, and ΔR1 were calculated, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and regression analysis were also performed to assess the effectiveness of each parameter in the separation of OA and HS. Results T1Gd and ΔR1 were almost identical in terms of areas under ROC curves (0.903 and 0.914, respectively), and effect sizes (1.34 and 1.31, respectively). These were significantly higher than T1pre. In addition, a high inverse correlation was observed between ΔR1 vs. T1Gd (R = 0.96). Conclusion Either T1Gd or ΔR1 could be used as an index in the evaluation of native cartilage. However, considering the practical logistical cost involved in terms of time and effort to acquire precontrast T1 measurements, our data further support the continued use of T1Gd as the dGEMRIC index in the evaluation of native cartilage. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2009;29:494–497. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Inhibition training in wolves and dogs

A theoretical model previously proposed by the first author hypothesizes that dogs (C. familiaris) should perform better than wolves (C. lupus) on training tasks in which (1) cues are arbitrarily selected by the experimenter, (2) reinforcement is administered by the experimenter, and (3) the to-be-learned behavior has no perceptible, functional connection with the reinforcement. To test this hypothesis, four Eastern wolf pups (C. l. lycaon) and four Alaskan Malamute pups (C. familiaris) were administered a passive inhibition task at seven weeks of age and an active inhibition test (leash training) at 11 weeks of age. Significant differences in the predicted direction were obtained for all task variables.
Integrated thermal management strategy and materials for solid oxide fuel cells

Abstract The application of positive temperature coefficient (PTC) thermistors to thermal management of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) is considered. A strategy is proposed for eliminating hotspots and reducing temperature gradients in SOFCs via inclusion of a material that exhibits a dramatic change in resistance near the desired maximum cell temperature. Three PTC thermistor materials with transition temperatures near the maximum desirable SOFC operating temperature are identified and screened for compatibility with common SOFC materials. All are found to be unsuitable because of reaction with the SOFC materials or unacceptably small PTC effect.
Cognitive function--victim of disease or hostage to treatment?

In persons suffering from epilepsy, cognitive functioning may be compromised for various reasons, including--first and foremost--the learning and behavioral effects of the conditions causing the epilepsy. In addition, the epilepsy itself may cause changes in the nervous system through the metabolic and excitotoxic effects of the seizures and the neurotransmitter elements involved at the membrane level. The effect of the treatment modality, be it pharmacologic or surgical, may also play havoc with cognitive function. The neurobehavioral effects of antiepileptic drugs, although probably less important with the newer agents than in the past, must be considered, especially in polypharmacy, as recent reports have indicated. With increasing data, the effects of various surgical procedures on the cognitive elements of human behavior are becoming better recognized. Language: en
Gasoline contributes more than diesel to secondary organic aerosol

Gasoline-powered vehicles contribute more to secondary organic aerosol formation than diesel-fueled vehicles do, a new study shows. Organic compounds in gasoline fuel and diesel exhaust can lead to the formation of secondary organic aerosols, which negatively affect air quality, visibility, and health and have impacts on climate; however, few studies have investigated the relative contribution of gasoline and diesel to secondary aerosols. Traffic studies have found that the ratio of gasoline-to diesel-powered vehicles changes on weekends. For instance, in the Los Angeles, Calif., area, diesel emissions are about 54% lower on weekends than on weekdays, though gasoline emissions are about the same.
Interval representations for interval orders and semiorders

Abstract This paper discusses two types of real interval representations for interval orders and semiorders ≺ on a set X of arbitrary cardinality. In each type, each x in X is mapped into a real interval F ( x ). The first model is: x ≺ y iff a b for all a in F ( x ) and all b in F ( y ). The second is: x ≺ y iff sup F ( x ) F ( y ). Necessary and sufficient countability conditions are presented for the second model for interval orders and for semiorders; simpler sets of these conditions are shown to be sufficient for the first model. Some special properties for the representations are noted, including two monotonicity properties for the semiorder representation.
Numerical studies of multicomponent chromatography using pH gradients

A general numerical method is developed for multicomponent chromatography for the case where a pH gradient occurs and several buffering species are present that become adsorbed together with the components being separated through an ion-exchange mechanism. Acid-base equilibrium relations are used to determine the ionic compositions in the liquid and adsorbed phases and are solved using a single-variable Newton's method. The differential material-balance relations are integrated numerically using the method of characteristics. The transport relations are incorporated using a matrix analog of the linear-driving-force approximation. The resulting method accounts for the adsorption of each ionic form of each buffering species, for multicomponent diffusional interactions arising from induced electric fields, for volume and concentration overloading of proteins, and for changes in the adsorption capacity caused by pH variations. Numerical calculations illustrate factors govening the selection of the adsorbent and buffer components for use in separating mixtures of proteins using retained, internally generated pH gradients.
Does evidence from ethology support bicoded cognitive maps

The presumption that navigation requires a cognitive map leads to its conception as an abstract computational problem. Instead of loading the question in favor of an inquiry into the metric structure and evolutionary origin of cognitive maps, the task should first be to establish that a map-like representation actually is operative in real animals navigating real environments.
A High-Slew Rate SiGe BiCMOS Operational Amplifier for Operation Down to Deep Cryogenic Temperatures

We investigate, for the first time, the design and implementation of a high-slew rate op-amp in SiGe BiCMOS technology capable of operation across very wide temperature ranges, and down to deep cryogenic temperatures. We achieve the first monolithic op-amp (for any material system) capable of operating reliably down to 4.3 K. Two variants of the SiGe BiCMOS op-amp were implemented using alternative biasing schemes, and the effects of temperature on these biasing schemes, and their impact on the overall op-amp performance, is investigated.
Current focusing sharpens local peaks of excitation in cochlear implant stimulation.

Cochlear implant (CI) users’ spectral resolution is limited by the number of implanted electrodes, interactions between the electrodes, and the underlying neural population. Current steering has been proposed to increase the number of spectral channels beyond the number of physical electrodes, however, electric field interactions may limit CI users’ access to current-steered virtual channels (VCs). Current focusing (e.g tripolar stimulation) has been proposed to reduce current spread and thereby reduce interactions. In this study, current steering and current focusing were combined in a four-electrode stimulation pattern, i.e quadrupolar virtual channels (QPVCs). The spread of excitation was measured and compared between QPVC and Monopolar VC (MPVC) stimuli using a forward masking task. Results showed a sharper peak in the excitation pattern and reduced spread of masking for QPVC stimuli. Results from the forward masking study were compared with a previous study measuring VC discrimination ability and showed a weak relationship between spread of excitation and VC discriminability. The results suggest that CI signal processing strategies that utilize both current steering and current focusing might increase CI users’ functional spectral resolution by transmitting more channels and reducing channel interactions.
Na,K-ATPase in several tissues of the rat : tissue-specific expression of subunit mRNAs and enzyme activity

The relative contents of Na,K-ATPase subunit mRNAs in rat renal cortex; ventricular myocardium, skeletal muscle (hind limb), liver and brain (cerebrum) were measured. Expressed per unit DNA, mRNAα1 content was ∼2-fold greater in the kidney and brain as compared to either heart, skeletal muscle or liver. The hierarchy of mRNAα2 expression was brain > skeletal muscle > heart, whereas mRNAα3 was restricted to brain. Betal subunit mRNA content in both kidney and brain exceeded the abundance of liver mRNAβ1 by ∼7-fold. In all tissues examined, the combined abundances of the alpha subunit mRNAs exceeded the content of mRNAβ1 The hierarchy of Na,K-ATPase activity expressed per unit. DNA was brain > kidney > skeletal muscle = heart > liver. The sum of mRNAα as well as mRNAβ1 content, expressed per g of tissue, was highest in brain and kidney. A statistically significant correlation between mRNAβ1 content and Na,K-ATPase activity was evident.
Quantitative determination of secondary metabolites in Cladina stellaris and other lichens by micellar electrokinetic chromatography.

The quantitative determination of usnic acid (UA), perlatolic acid (PA), and atranorin (AT) in Alaska lichens by micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) is reported. The background electrolyte (BGE) included sodium docecyl sulfate (SDS), and β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) in a high-pH borate buffer. The presence of β-CD in the buffer significantly decreases peak width, especially for UA, as it decreases migration time for both UA and PA. Linear calibration curves for UA, PA, and AT were established using an internal standard of benzoic acid (BA). Concentration limits of detection (cLODs) are 2.5, 2.2 and 2.0 μg/mL (S/N 3) for UA, PA, and AT, respectively. Dry samples of lichen were extracted at room temperature with acetone for 24 h in the presence of BA as internal standard. Recoveries of UA from spiked samples ranged from 92 to 98%. Amounts of UA and PA in the lichen samples ranged from 0.28 to 1.7% dry weight and 0.02 to 0.23%, respectively.
Database Approaches and Data Representation in Structural Bioinformatics

Database approaches are widely used in structural bioinformatics, since ab initio techniques are often computationally prohibitive, and the structure of biological macromolecules are typically derived from a limited set of motifs. There are several issues and challenges that arise when developing methods to enable efficient database retrieval. For example, how can complex data be represented efficiently, and what should be the size and composition of the database? In this work, we discuss some of these challenges, based on a crystallographic protein model-building program called TEXTAL. In particular, we discuss how structural information on amino acids is represented (as numeric features), how difficult it is to recognize amino acids (based on 3D electron density patterns), and what types of examples (and how many of them) need to be stored in the database. These insights are potentially useful in many other related applications, such as structure-based drug design, protein-protein interaction, discriminating nucleic acids and proteins in hybrid complexes, etc.
III-Nitride Optoelectronic Devices: From Ultraviolet Toward Terahertz

We review Ill-Nitride optoelectronic device technologies with an emphasis on recent breakthroughs. We start with a brief summary of historical accomplishments and then report the state of the art in three key spectral regimes as follows: 1) Ultraviolet (AIGaN-based avalanche photodiodes, single photon detectors, focal plane arrays, and light emitting diodes); 2) Visible (InGaN-based solid state lighting, lasers, and solar cells); and 3) Near-, mid-infrared, and terahertz (AIGaN/GaN-based gap-engineered intersubband devices). We also describe future trends in Ill-Nitride optoelectronic devices.
A PHYSIOGNOLINGUISTIC APPROACH TO READING ASSESSMENT: AN ALTERNATE FORM OF MISCUE ANALYSIS

This article is a good natured parody of an area of controversy, informal classroom reading assessment, which has been receiving a great deal of journal coverage in recent years. Any similarity between this article and actual research being conducted is completely gratuitous.
In Situ Assessment of Role of Surface Roughness on Interface Response

Improved design methods that allow for more accurate prediction of interface performance are needed as the number and types of interface strength dependent geotechnical systems being used in practice continues to increase. Laboratory research performed in the past two decades has provided significant insight into interface behavior, primarily for material interfaces involving sand. With the recent development of the multisleeve friction penetrometer attachment, direct in situ measurements of interface sleeve stress can be obtained using multiple sleeves, each with a different surface roughness, in a single sounding. This paper presents the findings of extensive field investigations conducted at a sand site with the multisleeve friction penetrometer attachment to evaluate the performance of the device as well as the potential to determine the relationship between surface roughness and interface strength using in situ measurements.
Radiation field properties from electron and intense laser interaction

We have obtained some more details about the electron and intense laser interaction by calculating the exact waveforms of the radiation field. We have shown that the radiation polarization from the nonlinear Thomson scattering does not follow the laser polarization, but changes with the laser intensity, which could be used for measuring high laser intensities. We have also shown that the actual pulse width of the x-ray generated by a relativistic inverse Compton scattering is in the attosecond region due to the relativistic retardation effect.
Paying the Piper: Foundation Evaluation Capacity Calls the Tune.

An overview is presented of forces that have shaped how public and private funders approach evaluation, including the challenges that funders, and particularly foundations, face in effectively using evaluation within an organizational learning framework. Even with internal organizational challenges to learning, foundations are increasingly embracing knowledge management and performance measurement as tools for reflection, learning, and accountability. The authors argue that funders must ultimately adopt a more systems-oriented view of their work if they are to effectively use and learn from evaluation, and to adopt both funding strategies and evaluation approaches that are situated in a systems change paradigm. Emerging tools to help foundations incorporate systems approaches in grantmaking are highlighted. © Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The Influence of Relationship Conflict and Trust on the Transactive Memory Performance Relation in Top Management Teams

Recent research on top management teams examines the effects of team processes on performance. This study attempts to add to this literature by examining how social political relations such as conf...
OOMPAA-Object-Oriented Model for Probing Assemblages of Atoms

An object-oriented library is presented for building molecular-modeling software. This library allows the user to treat individual components of molecules as C++ objects, and provides various templated lists and vector classes for manipulating these objects. Other utilities, such as minimizers and integrators, are continually being added to the body of code. Performance is a key consideration; the performance of simple benchmarks is comparable to that of hand-coded Fortran.
Divergent and dynamic activity of endogenous retroviruses in burn patients and their inflammatory potential

Abstract Genes constitute ~ 3% of the human genome, whereas human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) represent ~ 8%. We examined post-burn HERV expression in patients' blood cells, and the inflammatory potentials of the burn-associated HERVs were evaluated. Buffy coat cells, collected at various time points from 11 patients, were screened for the expression of eight HERV families, and we identified their divergent expression profiles depending on patient, HERV, and time point. The population of expressed HERV sequences was patient-specific, suggesting HERVs' inherent genomic polymorphisms and/or differential expression potentials depending on characteristics of patients and courses of injury response. Some HERVs were shared among the patients, while the others were divergent. Interestingly, one burn-associated HERV gag gene from a patient's genome induced IL-6, IL-1β, Ptgs-2, and iNOS. These findings demonstrate that injury stressors initiate divergent HERV responses depending on patient, HERV, and disease course and implicate HERVs as genetic elements contributing to polymorphic injury pathophysiology.
Enhanced production of α‐amylase in fed‐batch cultures of Bacillus subtilis TN106[pAT5]

Growth of Bacillus subtilis TN106[pAT5] and synthesis of plasmid-encoded protein (alpha-amylase) are investigated in batch, continuous, and fed-batch cultures using a defined medium containing glucose and/or starch as the carbohydrate source. The batch culture studies reveal that reduced availability of arginine hampers growth of recombinant cells (which lack an arginine synthesis gene) but promotes production of alpha-amylase and substitution of glucose by starch as the carbohydrate source leads to slower growth of recombinant cells and increased production of alpha-amylase per unit cell mass. Retention of recombinant cells over prolonged periods in continuous cultures is not possible without continuous application of antibiotic selection pressure owing to segregational plasmid instability. Fed-batch experiments with constant volumetric feed rate demonstrate that alpha-amylase production is enhanced at lower feed concentration of starch (sole carbohydrate source) and lower volumetric feed rate. Such slow addition of starch is however not conducive for growth of recombinant cells. The expression of the thermostable alpha-amylase gene carried on the recombinant plasmid pAT5 (derived from a plasmid isolated from a thermophilic bacterium) is promoted at higher temperatures, while growth of recombinant cells is depressed. In all batch and fed-batch experiments, production of alpha-amylase is observed to be inversely related to growth of recombinant cells. The efficacy of two-stage bioreactor operations, with growth of recombinant cells being promoted in the first stage and alpha-amylase production in the second stage, in attaining increased bulk alpha-amylase activity is demonstrated.
Spectrometer-based combustion monitoring for flame stoichiometry and temperature control

Abstract Conventional combustion control systems for multi-burner furnaces rely on simplified temperature measurement schemes away from the flame and single-point exhaust monitoring of excess O2 and, sometimes, CO. However, an overall furnace stoichiometry control does not preclude inefficient operation of individual burners due to local maldistributions of air and fuel, or malfunction of burner hardware. This, in turn, results in furnace operation at less than optimal fuel efficiency and elevated pollutant emissions. This paper reports on the application of a spectrometer-based system to provide real-time flame stoichiometry and temperature monitoring capabilities at the burner level in natural gas-fired glass furnace applications. The system consists of a special collimating lens, a dual commercially available off-the-shelf spectrometer setup and a bifurcated fiber-optic cable. This paper details full-scale experiments conducted at a 13.7 × 106 kJ/h multi-burner oxyfuel-fired fiberglass furnace and a 179.4 × 106 kJ/h multi-burner gas/air-fired flat glass furnace. The results show great promise for on-line combustion condition monitoring and control applications.
Spatial competition with free entry, Chamberlinian tangencies, and social efficiency

Abstract Free entry in Loschian spatial competition leads to a tangency between each firm's negatively sloped average revenue and the downsloping portion of average costs—as in Chamberlin's monopolistic competition. It is generally concluded that this equilibrium involves too many inefficiently small firms. However, this conclusion is incorrect. The difference between price and firm marginal production costs in spatial equilibrium is just sufficient to cover the additional marginal cost of output resulting from availability of multiple locations. This Chamberlinian tangency does not imply inefficiency, because it does not include all the social costs and benefits resulting from spatial competition.
Performance Simulation of Multihop Routing Algorithms for Ad-Hoc Wireless Sensor Networks Using TOSSIM

The efficiency of the ad-hoc wireless sensor networks (WSNs) largely depend upon the routing algorithm employed. A large number of new routing protocols (table driven, demand driven and hybrid) have also been developed. This paper analyzes the performance of destination-sequenced distance-vector (DSDV) routing protocol (table driven) and the ad-hoc on-demand distance vector (AODV) routing protocol (demand driven) for mobile and stationary environments. The metrics - packet delivery ratio (PDR), end-to-end delay and routing overhead are measured by varying the number of nodes and the traffic load. TOSSIM is used for accurate simulation studies with 30 nodes in many-to-one routing configuration.
Radiation therapy tolerance limits. For one or for all?--Janeway Lecture.

BACKGROUND. The optimal use of radiation therapy for cancer treatment is hampered by the application of tolerance limits of normal tissues derived empirically from population averages. Such limits do not reflect the considerable differences from patient to patient in susceptibility to late radiation sequelae. Assays that accurately predict normal tissue tolerance in individual patients would permit real application of the concept of treatment to tolerance thereby increasing the probability of an uncomplicated cure for the population as a whole. METHODS. A summary of laboratory research is presented to test the hypothesis that the cellular radiosensitivity of normal skin fibroblasts can predict the severity of late connective tissue damage that develops following radiotherapy. The pathogenesis of radiation reactions and the possible role of radiation induced cellular senescence in the development of clinical late effects are briefly reviewed. RESULTS. Although the pathogenesis of radiation injury is highly complex, several clinical studies have demonstrated a significant correlation between fibroblast radiosensitivity and the severity of late sequelae from treatment. However, the precision and reproducibility of fibroblast cell survival assays are inadequate for routine clinical use. Newer assays incorporating insights into the effects of radiation on cellular senescence and cytokine production are being developed. Such assays may, in the future, be complemented or replaced by molecular and/or cytogenetic probes to derive robust estimates of individual tolerance. CONCLUSIONS. The principle of prediction of tolerance to radiotherapy has been established. Although current assays lack the precision required for clinical use, the goal of individualized treatment to tolerance ultimately should be achieved.
Multi-core system performance prediction and analysis at the ESL

Multi-core system and the associated software parallelisation techniques have become one of the major trends of SoC design. For higher system performance and lower power consumption, this paper reveals a system performance prediction and analysis method for multi-core system by adopting electronic system-level ESL design methodology. With the high simulation speed and approximate time characteristic, the ESL virtual platform can be done at early design stage before implementation on the real chip. Based on the scalable multi-core virtual platform, we can perform one to eight-core system performance trend prediction as well as multi-core system performance analysis. The software parallelisation experiments are conducted for observing the performance improvement and further discussed about hardware-software co-design and the hardware cost reduction benefited from increasing software parallelism.
IDEMPOTENT SEMIGROUPS GENERATED BY THREADS II

are idempotent with identity element 1, and have threads A and B with 1 ~ A n B and S = AB. Our main result is a characterization of such semigroups S with S/K commutative, and we show the equivalence of this property with the identity xyz = xy, xz or yz. In analogy with the case of semilattices, we say that S has breadth 2 if it satisfies this identity. Schein and others have called such semigroups exclusive (see, for example, [3]). We show further that S/K is commutative if and only if S is the continuous homomorphic image of
Citrate in the diagnosis of prostate cancer.

BACKGROUND. One of the major current problems involved in prostate cancer (PCa) is the unavailability of sensitive, accurate, and preferably noninvasive procedures for the diagnosis of PCa. Moreover, procedures are needed which will permit the early detection, staging, location, and estimation of the volume of malignancy, and preferably a mapping of the prostate for follow-up of progression and regression of the malignancy. METHODS. The unique citrate relationships of the prostate, coupled with recent developments and technological advancements in magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) for the in situ determination of citrate levels, now provides an excellent diagnostic procedure which can achieve all these goals. There exist strong, compelling basic and clinical studies in support of the employment of 1H MRS measurements of citrate and other associated metabolites in the diagnosis of PCa. RESULTS. This review provides the background leading to the current status of MRS citrate analysis, summarizes the data from clinical trials, and describes the applications of the procedure for the diagnosis of PCa and follow-up of patients. The use of MRS studies in defining the functional, as well as pathological relationships of the prostate, is also discussed. CONCLUSIONS. This review is intended to be informative to the prostate- and oncology-interested community, and, hopefully, to engender much-needed interest and support in future research regarding the prostate relationships described in this report.
Satellite DNA hypomethylation vs. overall genomic hypomethylation in ovarian epithelial tumors of different malignant potential.

Rearrangements in heterochromatin in the vicinity of the centromeres of chromosomes 1 and 16 are frequent in many types of cancer, including ovarian epithelial carcinomas. Satellite 2 DNA is the main sequence in the unusually long heterochromatin region adjacent to the centromere of each of these chromosomes. Rearrangements in these regions and hypomethylation of satellite 2 DNA are a characteristic feature of patients with a rare recessive genetic disease, ICF (immunodeficiency, centromeric region instability, and facial anomalies). In all normal tissues of postnatal somatic origin, satellite 2 DNA is highly methylated. We examined satellite 2 DNA methylation in ovarian tumors of different malignant potential, namely, ovarian cystadenomas, low malignant potential (LMP) tumors, and epithelial carcinomas. Most of the carcinomas and LMP tumors exhibited hypomethylation in satellite 2 DNA of both chromosomes 1 and 16. A comparison of methylation of these sequences in the three types of ovarian neoplasms demonstrated that there was a statistically significant correlation between the extent of this satellite DNA hypomethylation and the degree of malignancy (P<0.01). Also, there was a statistically significant association (P<0.005) between genome-wide hypomethylation and undermethylation of satellite 2 DNA among these 17 tumors. In addition, we found abnormal hypomethylation of satellite α DNA in the centromere of chromosome 1 in many of these tumors. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that one of the ways that genome-wide hypomethylation facilitates tumor development is that it often includes satellite hypomethylation which might predispose cells to structural and numerical chromosomal aberrations. Several of the proteins that bind to pericentromeric heterochromatin are known to be sensitive to the methylation status of their target sequences and so could be among the sensors for detecting abnormal demethylation and mediating effects on chromosome structure and stability.