cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Leptin and Soluble Leptin Receptor in Follicular Fluid

Purpose : Previous studies suggest that follicular fluid leptin levels predict successful assisted reproduction. The relationship between intrafollicular leptin and the soluble leptin receptor, ovarian hormones, and oocyte quality was examined to determine potential factors contributing to this finding. Methods : Follicular fluid leptin, soluble leptin receptor, hormones, and oocyte quality were examined in 84 individual follicles from 30 women undergoing in vitro fertilization. Results : Follicular fluid leptin and soluble leptin receptor levels correlated inversely with each other (r=−0.354; p=0.001). Follicular fluid leptin levels correlated with intrafollicular estradiol (r=0.42; p<0.001), progesterone (r=0.48; p<0.001), and androstenedione (r=0.49; p<0.001), whereas soluble leptin receptor levels correlated with activin (r=0.38; p<0.001) and follistatin (r=0.35; p<0.002). There was no relationship between follicular fluid leptin or soluble leptin receptor levels and pretreatment serum hormone levels, stimulated serum estradiol, follicle number, oocyte quality, fertilization, or embryo grade. Conclusion : The data demonstrate that leptin and the soluble leptin receptor are highly interrelated with each other and with other intrafollicular hormones, but not with markers of oocyte quality, fertilization, or embryo grade.
Authoritarianism, inner/other directedness, and sensation seeking in firefighter/paramedics: their relationship with burnout.

INTRODUCTION: Burnout in firefighter/paramedics (FF/EMT-Ps) is widely believed to exist, but few empirical data support its existence, symptomatology, or intervention. Understanding the extent, nature, and cause of burnout is crucial to improving employee morale and performance. STUDY POPULATION: Ninety-one FF/EMT-Ps employed by Salt Lake County Fire Department. HYPOTHESES: Three specific hypotheses were tested: 1) FF/EMT-Ps who score high on burnout will also score high on authoritarianism; 2) FF/EMT-Ps who score high on burnout also will score high on inner-directedness; and 3) FF/EMT-Ps who score high on burnout also will score high on sensation seeking. METHODS: In this descriptive study, FF/EMT-Ps completed four standardized instruments measuring authoritarianism, burnout, inner-directedness versus other-directedness, and sensation seeking. RESULTS: Firefighters who scored high on burnout also scored high on authoritarianism and on the sensation-seeking subscale of boredom. Burnout did not correlate with the overall sensation-seeking scale or with its other subscales (thrill, experience, and disinhibition), or inner-directedness versus other-directedness. CONCLUSION: A focus on control issues needs to be an integral part of programs for decreasing employee burnout among FF/EMT-Ps. Specific components of such programs should include stress management and counseling. In addition, management personnel need to be taught not only to assist direct-service staff, but also to recognize and deal with their own control issues as they affect job performance. Language: en
Fenced Off: The Suburbanization of American Politics. By Juliet F. Gainsborough. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2001. 191p. $70.00 cloth, $24.95 paper.

By the 1970s—and, some might argue, a decade earlier—America had shed its urban persona and had metamorphosed into a suburban nation. Yet in comparison with research done on cities and urban politics, little work had focused on this transition and ensuing suburban politics. Juliet Gainsborough's work seeks to reduce this deficiency by examining the suburban movement, its motivations, and their linkage to political behavior. Thankfully moving beyond previous discussions of mortgages and work commutes, the author narrows the focus of this short monograph to how living in the suburbs affects voter choice and policy preferences by altering the decision-making calculus (p. 8).
Absence of Chlamydia pneumoniae and Signs of Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease in Adolescents with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) have accelerated atherogenesis. A recent study suggested that Chlamydia pneumoniae infection might also be a contributing factor in the development of atherogenesis in patients with SLE. The objective of this study was to investigate the possible association of C. pneumoniae infection with markers of atherosclerosis in adolescents with SLE compared with age-matched healthy controls. History and exam focused on cardiovascular risk factors were obtained from 20 patients with SLE and 20 age- and sex-matched controls. Laboratory studies included serum lipid profile and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP). Detection of C. pneumoniae in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and in nasopharyngeal swab specimens was performed. Carotid Intima-Media Thickness (CIMT) was determined by sonography in all subjects. C. pneumoniae DNA was not detected in PBMCs of any of the patients or controls. Nasopharyngeal cultures were also negative for C. pneumoniae in all patients. CIMT was slightly higher in the SLE group (0.48 +/- 0.049) compared with controls (0.454 +/- 0.041, p = 0.29). There was no significant difference between the two groups in body mass index, blood pressure, hsCRP, and serum cholesterol (total, LDL and HDL). Serum triglycerides were higher in the lupus group (p = 0.03). Children and adolescents with SLE might have accelerated atherosclerosis; however, we did not observe an association with C. pneumoniae infection in this population.
Acquisition of a “Group A”-Selective Src Kinase Inhibitor via a Global Targeting Strategy

A “global” strategy for the acquisition of selective high affinity inhibitors for the Src kinase subfamily of tyrosine kinases is described. Members of the Src family exhibit a strong amino acid sequence homology. However, recent studies have revealed differences in the relative spatial relationships of the three distinct protein-binding domains present in these enzymes. We have constructed an inhibitor, using an amalgamation of combinatorial methods and directed design, which simultaneously associates with the active site and an ancillary protein-binding region (SH2 domain). The inhibitor exhibits high inhibitory potency and selectivity for the Group A versus Group B subset of Src kinases.
Knowledge-Based System for Managing Intersection Safety

Management of traffic safety is a complex process that requires decision making under uncertainty in assessing the influence of different conditions on safety in the selection of the optimal treatment. To deal with the associated uncertainties, one needs to be widely experienced and up to date with all the research and new developments in the domain. Due to budgetary and other resources constraints, many agencies responsible for managing traffic safety have been forced to rely on the traditional techniques given in handbooks and procedural manuals. With properly designed knowledge‐based systems, the experience and knowledge that have evolved from years of research and multimillion‐dollar investments in traffic safety measures can be made accessible to all. This paper describes the application of a knowledge‐based system (intersection safety management information system [ISMIS]) to resolve safety issues at intersections. ISMIS, which contains the opinions of several experienced professionals, can assist a...
Esophageal varices in association with unilateral pulmonary vein atresia

A 27-yr-old woman with recurrent episodes of hemoptysis (and hematemesis due to esophageal varices) was found to have unilateral pulmonary vein atresia. Reversed flow in the left pulmonary artery, a finding highly suggestive of this rare congenital anomaly, was demonstrated during cardiac catheterization. The definitive diagnosis was afforded by pulmonary wedge angiography, which not only demonstrated the atretic leftsided pulmonary veins, but also revealed a serpiginous system of systemic collateral veins to be the cause of her esophageal varices. Pneumonectomy of the nonfunctioning hypoplastic lung, the most successful approach to this disorder, may be complicated by severe bleeding of the numerous systemic arterial collateral vessels transected during surgical mobilization of the affected lung. Percutaneously delivered vascular occlusion coils were used in this case to occlude the large systemic to pulmonary artery collateral arteries immediately prior to pneumonectomy. Intra- and perioperative bleeding was minimal, and the patient has done well without further episodes of hemoptysis or hematemesis. Percutaneous occlusion of systemic to pulmonary collaterals may prove useful as a preoperative step for other congenital heart disease patients requiring lung or heart/lung transplantation.
Insect disturbance stridulation: Its Defensive role

1. Many insects stridulate when they are handled or attacked. It has been suggested that this disturbance stridulation acts to deter predators. This hypothesis was investigated in a series of experiments. Predators were given insects which had been silenced by disruption of their sound-producing mechanism or else had been sham operated but retained their normal ability to stridulate. 2. Three types of insects (mutillid wasps, Dasymutilla spp.; water scavenger beetles, Tropisternus spp.; and round sand beetles, Omophron labiatus) were given to wolf spiders (Lycosa ceratiola and Geolycosa ornatipes) at night in the field under natural conditions. When attacking silenced insects, spiders displayed greater persistence than when attacking phonic insects (Table 1). In addition, mortality was greater among silenced insects. 3. Spiders (L. ceratiola) were also given an artificial ‘insect’—a vibrating probe whose vibration mimicked that of the cuticle of a stridulating insect. As with real insects, spiders persisted longer in their attack on the probe when it was silent than when it was ‘stridulating”. 4. Female mutillid wasps were given to wild-caught mice (Peromyscus floridanus) in the laboratory. Unsilenced mutillids survived the encounter more often than their silenced counterparts. In another experiment, the stings of mutillid wasps were removed before testing. Mice killed nearly all these ‘unprotected’ mutillids. However, it took mice significantly longer to attack unsilenced mutillids and longer to kill them after initiating the assault (Table 2). 5. These results support the view that insect disturbance stridulation deters predators. Two modes of action by which these sounds may have their effect are discussed: they may serve to startle the attacker or they may alert it to the potential harmfulness of the insect and as such may qualify as an example of acoustic aposematism.
Implementing Watson's algorithm in three dimensions

Computer generated solid models must be decomposed into finite element meshes for analysis by the Finite Element Method. To enable decompositions of complex solid models, tetrahedra are employed and to avoid badly skewed tetrahedra for finite element analysis, a Delaunay triangulation is created by Watson's Algorithm [6]. Certain two-dimensional properties of Delaunay triangulations do not extend to the three-dimensional implementation of Watson's Algorithm. Furthermore, serious numerical difficulties can occur due to the nonrandomness of triangulation points, Nonrandomness imposed by the geometry can be ameliorated by using tetrahedral decompositions of icosahedra to fill space. A measure of the quality of tetrahedra is proposed and used to identify undesirable tetrahedra created due to point distributions and geometric constraints of solid models. Postprocessing Delaunay triangulations to rectify undesirable tetrahedra is briefly discussed.
Role of ultrasonography in the diagnosis and management of thyroid cancer.

ABSTRACT Objective To review the role of ultrasonography in the detection and management of thyroid cancer Methods Viewpoints are presented on the appropriate applications and the advantages of ultrasonography, based on an extensive personal experience with more than 1,500 ultrasound examinations for assessment of thyroid nodules and for follow-up surveillance of patients with thyroid cancer. Results Ultrasonography is ideal for thyroid imaging because of the high echogenicity of thyroid tissue, the superficial site of the thyroid that allows the use of high- frequency transducers yielding high resolution, and the low expense compared with other techniques. In patients with a thyroid nodule, ultrasonography can assist in distinguishing benign from malignant disease. Ultrasound studies will characterize the presence of cystic versus solid elements, the degree of echogenicity of solid elements, the existence of calcifications, and the regularity and definition of the nodule borders. Although individual sonographic features of thyroid nodules are not specific for benign or malignant lesions, a constellation of typical features has more diagnostic value. Hypoechogenicity, poorly defined irregular margins, and microcalcifications are characteristics that should increase the index of suspicion for a malignant nodule. Cytologic examination of fine- needle aspirates is the optimal diagnostic test, and ultrasonographic guidance for performance of the aspiration biopsy is often helpful and sometimes critical. Ultrasonography is also useful for detection of cervical lymph node metastatic lesions. Lymph nodes involved with metastatic thyroid cancer tend to become rounded and bulging, and they lose their hilar echoes as their structure becomes disrupted. Conclusion Because of its high resolution and relatively reasonable cost, ultrasonography is valuable in the diagnosis and management of thyroid cancer. (Endocr Pract. 2000;6:396-400)
On the regularity and uniformness conditions on quadrilateral grids

In the literature there are various regularity conditions as well as many different so-called almost parallelogram conditions on the subdivisions of quadrilateral grids. In this paper we investigate and clarify their relations.
Facial nerve rehabilitation after radical parotidectomy

Objective: Examine functional outcomes in patients undergoing radical parotidectomy and facial nerve grafting. Identify factors that may affect rehabilitation in these patients. Study Design: Retrospective chart review and photographic analyses of 12 patients undergoing radical parotidectomy with interposition nerve grafts for facial nerve reconstruction. Methods: Data obtained for each patient regarding age, sex, histology of parotid neoplasm, cable graft source, administration of postoperative radiotherapy, and treatment for eye rehabilitation. Functional outcomes were assessed with the House-Brackmann grading system at 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years after surgery. Results: All nerve grafts were harvested from cervical plexus sensory nerves with microscopic epineural repair performed for all neurorrhaphies. Overall, 9 of 12 patients achieved a grade III 2 years after surgery. All patients under age 30 obtained a grade III. Of the seven patients receiving postoperative radiation, five achieved a grade III. Older patients often required surgical procedures to facilitate eye closure. Conclusions: Facial nerve rehabilitation after radical parotidectomy can be successfully achieved with cervical plexus interposition nerve grafts. Postoperative radiotherapy did not appear to affect return of function, and younger patients consistently achieved good functional outcomes after nerve grafting. Older patients frequently require surgical procedures for eye rehabilitation after radical parotidectomy. Key Words: Radical parotidectomy, facial nerve, facial nerve rehabilitation, interposition nerve grafts, functional outcome.
Jackiw-Johnson sum rule for dynamical symmetry breaking.

We reconsider the Jackiw-Johnson sum rule relating the vector-boson masses (or Goldstone-boson decay constants) to the interactions of the fermions which condense. We show that the counterterm can be simplified to remove all reference to chiral-symmetry breaking, producing a much simpler formula involving no derivatives of the fermion self-energy. This is useful for applications to QCD and technicolor. In the process, we also generalize the sum rule to the breaking of an arbitrary symmetry group, paying particular attention to the requirements of gauge invariance and current conservation.
HER‐2 profiling and targeting in prostate carcinoma

BACKGROUND The clinical effects of targeting HER-2 in prostate carcinoma are not known. This study explored the feasibility of molecular profiling to determine the correlation between HER-2 expression, hormonal sensitivity, and the antitumor effects of trastuzumab and paclitaxel in patients with prostate carcinoma. METHODS Patients with progressive androgen dependent (AD) and androgen independent (AI) prostate carcinoma were eligible to participate in the study. HER-2 expression was assessed on pretreatment tissue specimens, and patients were then assigned to one of four treatment groups: AD HER-2 positive, AD HER-2 negative, AI HER-2 positive, and AI HER-2 negative. They were treated with weekly trastuzumab at a dose of 2 mg/kg (after a 4 mg/kg loading dose) until they experienced disease progression, when weekly paclitaxel at 100 mg/m2 was added. RESULTS The authors screened 130 patients for HER-2 expression. In total, 23 patients were treated. Six eligible patients had HER-2 positive disease; therefore, only the AI HER-2 negative arm accrued to completion. All patients (100%) experienced disease progression on trastuzumab alone at or before the first 12 weeks of treatment. Fifteen patients received combined therapy: Seven patients (47%) experienced disease progression, 5 patients (33%) had stable disease, and 3 patients (20%) had a decline ≥ 50% in prostate specific antigen PSA level or in soft tissue disease. HER-2 overexpression was found in significant proportions only in AI metastatic tissue samples (42% HER-2 positive; 95% confidence interval, 14–60%). In three of nine matched pairs, the AD prostate biopsy was HER-2 negative, and the AI metastatic sample was HER-2 positive. CONCLUSIONS Trastuzumab is not effective as a single agent for the treatment of patients with AI HER-2 negative tumors. HER-2 expression varies by clinical state in patients with prostate carcinoma: Accurate HER-2 profiling requires sampling metastatic tissue in patients with metastatic disease. Further development of trastuzumab for the treatment of patients with metastatic prostate carcinoma is not feasible until more reliable and practical methods of sampling metastatic disease are developed to identify patients with HER-2 positive tumors. Cancer 2002;94:980–6. © 2002 American Cancer Society. DOI 10.1002/cncr.10339
Stress proteins in reproductive toxicology.

Although a wide range of physical and chemical agents disrupt gametogenesis and embryogenesis in animals and humans, much less is known about the mechanisms leading up to these disruptions and the factors that determine whether a particular animal or human will be sensitive to a potential toxicant. Recent research has identified a number of different stress protein families, also known as heat shock proteins (HSPs), that play a role in protecting cells and organs from the toxic effects of exposure to hyperthermia and chemical insult (1). These stress proteins could provide significant insight into cellular processes susceptible to toxicant action and the mechanisms that have evolved to protect them. Understanding these protective mechanisms will allow more accurate extrapolation of animal data to humans and thereby improve the assessment of human health risk for a potentially broad range of reproductive and developmental toxicants. To explore the role of stress proteins in reproductive toxicology, the Reproductive Toxicology Division of the National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) held a mini-workshop on 1 November 1996 in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. Seven intramural and extramural scientists (see shaded box), experts in the field of HSPs, presented findings from their respective laboratories and participated in a roundtable discussion of research issues significant to the workshop theme. The research and its implications for toxicology are summarized here. This information promises to provide insights into toxicological processes modulated by HSPs. Furthermore, this research will advance the EPA's long-term goal to develop a scientific basis for assessing and characterizing risks to human health.
The contribution of endogenous insulin secretion to the ketogenic response to glucagon in man.

The magnitude and direction of the lipolytic and ketogenic responses following exogenous glucagon administration is controversial and consideration of the possible role of endogenous insulin secretion upon these events has not been clarified. The present study examines the role of endogenous insulin secretion in modulating the net lipolytic and ketogenic activity of glucagon. Three groups characterized by different levels of endogenous insulin secretory capacity were studied. In all three groups, the responses in plasma insulin, betahydroxybutyrate, and free fatty acids were observed following bolus administration of 1.0 μg/kg glucagon. In the obese subjects with increased endogenous insulin secretion, glucagon administration resulted in a decline below basal levels of both free fatty acid and betahydroxybutyrate. In the diabetic subjects with no demonstrable endogenous insulin secretion, glucagon administration was followed by a rise in plasma free fatty acids and an exaggerated rise in plasma betahydroxybutyrate. The normal control group exhibited a response in betahydroxybutyrate midway between the obese and diabetic groups. These observations support the thesis that the magnitude of endogenous insulin secretion modulates the lipolytic and ketogenic actions of glucagon in man.
N dynamics in the rhizosphere of Pinus ponderosa seedlings

Transformations of inorganic N were studied in microcosms containing Pinus ponderosa seedlings. We assessed the potential for immobilization and mineralization of NH4+ in soils collected from adjacent to coarse, fine and young roots and in soil more than 5 mm from any root. Rates of mineralization and immobilization of NH4+ in soils collected from adjacent to roots were >50% higher than those in soils more than 5 mm from any root. C input estimates suggest that soils adjacent to fine or young roots could have supported immobilization rates higher than those observed. We determined the response of mineralization and immobilization rates to increased NH4+ in rhizosphere and bulk soil. Increasing NH4+ addition resulted in proportional increases in immobilization rates in both rhizosphere and bulk soils but did not affect mineralization rates. The increased immobilization rates with increasing NH4+ addition and the failure to predict immobilization rates based on C supply suggested that in the short-term, immobilization rates were limited by NH4+ supply rather than C availability. In intact microcosms, we determined the transformation rates of inorganic N using a combined 15N pool dilution and tracer approach. The rates of mineralization, immobilization of NH4+ and NO3−, nitrification and plant uptake were determined over 48 h. Rates in the root-zone were compared to rates in soils from which roots had been excluded for 2 weeks before labeling. The elimination of active roots from soil regions did not significantly change the production or the total consumption of NH4+ in those regions. The presence of roots reduced microbial consumption of NH4+ by nitrifiers and heterotrophs. Pine roots were successful competitors with microorganisms for limited inorganic N, but were more successful when the N source was NO3− vs NH4+. Plants accounted for 30% of the total NH4+ consumption, but 70% of total NO3− consumption.
To Mobilize or Not to Mobilize: Catch-22s in International Crises

In his classic novel Catch-22 (1961), Joseph Heller describes a thoroughly frustrating situation faced by a combat pilot in World War II. This is generalized to a “generic” 2 × 2 strict ordinal game, in which whatever strategy the column player chooses, the best response of the row player is to inflict on the column player a worst or next-worst outcome, and possibly vice versa. In the 12 specific games subsumed by the generic game, which are called catch-22 games , “moving power” is “effective,” based on the theory of moves (TOM). A generic “Mobilization Game” applicable to international crises, in which the rules of TOM are somewhat modified, is used to divide the catch-22 games into two mutually exclusive classes. Predictions for each class are compared with the behavior of decision-makers in two Egyptian-Israeli crises. In the 1960 Rotem crisis, Egypt retracted its mobilization after a discreet countermobilization by Israel, which is consistent with being in a class I game in which a status-quo state has moving power. In the 1967 crisis, escalation moved up in stages from a class I to a class II game, which precipitated war and is consistent with cycling wherein both a status-quo and a revisionist state think they have moving power. It is argued that catch-22 games better model the dynamics of conflict spirals than does the usual static representation of the security dilemma as a Prisoners' Dilemma. How such conflict spirals might be ameliorated is discussed with respect to recent conflicts in South Africa, Northern Ireland, and the former Yugoslavia.
Effects of hypophysectomy on acetylcholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterase in the rat.

Abstract Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE) activities were examined in several tissues of normal and hypophysectomized male and female rats. Significant sex differences in the mean AChE activities of normal rats were observed in the superior cervical ganglion (three times more activity in males) and in serum (50% more activity in females). Sex differences in the BuChE activity of serum and liver were even larger (ten times more activity in females), but the activity of other tissues was similar in both sexes. Hypophysectomy had little effect on the mean activity of AChE but did alter BuChE activity in certain tissues. Most of the effects of hypophysectomy on mean BuChE activity were opposite in direction in the two sexes. For example, in males hypophysectomy caused increases in the BuChE activity of serum (300%) and liver (43%), while in females it caused decreases in both tissues (25 and 30% respectively). In rats of a given group, the AChE activity of each tissue appeared to be regulated independently of the activity in other tissues. By contrast, BuChE activity showed statistically significant correlations in more than half of the tissue-pairs examined in control rats of either sex. These correlations can be considered to reflect a tendency toward body-wide regulation. In female rats, the cross-tissue correlations were largely eliminated by hypophysectomy. This finding indicates that the regulation of BuChE mav be strongly affected by hormones under the control of the pituitary gland. However, in male rats, only the correlations involving atria were altered by hypophysectomy. Therefore, the effects of hormones on BuChE are probably both sex and tissue dependent.
Meal to pellet intervals in 14 species of captive raptors.

Abstract 1. In owls, meal to pellet interval was directly related to meal weight and owls normally cast 1 pellet per meal; egestion of pellets in hawks apparently was associated with “lights-on” in the holding rooms regardless of quantity eaten and hawks normally egested less than 1 pellet per meal. 2. All of the smallest raptors digested meals and egested pellets more rapidly than the larger raptors. 3. The correlation between meal weight and pellet weight was only slightly better for owls than for hawks, but, because owl pellets contained more of the bones of their prey, they represented a greater proportion of the meal from which they originated.
Ecological genetics of seed germination regulation in Bromus tectorum L.

Regulation of seed germination phenology is an important aspect of the life history strategy of invading annual plant species. In the obligately selfing winter annual grass Bromus tectorum, seeds are at least conditionally dormant at dispersal in early summer and lose dormancy through dry-afterripening. Patterns of germination response at dispersal vary among populations and sometimes across years within populations. To assess the relative contribution of genotype and maturation environment to this variation, we grew progeny of ten parental lines from each of six contrasting populations in a common greenhouse environment. We then tested the germination responses of recently harvested seeds of the putative full-sib progeny at five incubation temperatures. Significant germination response differences among populations were observed in greenhouse cultivation, and major differences among full-sib families were evident for some populations and traits. Among-population variation accounted for over 90% of the variance in each trait, while within-family variance accounted for 1% or less. Germination responses of greenhouse-grown progeny were positively correlated with the responses of wild-collected seeds, but there was a tendency for lowered dormancy at higher incubation temperatures. This tendency was more marked in populations from cold desert, foothill, and plains habitats, suggesting a genotype-maturation environment interaction. Differences among populations in the amount of among-family variance were more evident at lower incubation temperatures, while among-family variance was more uniformly low at summer incubation temperatures. Populations from predictable extreme environments (subalpine meadow and warm desert margin) showed significantly less variation among families than populations from less predictable cold desert, foothill, and plains environments. Low among-family variance was not specifically associated with small population size or marginality of habitat, as small marginal populations from unpredictable environments showed variance as high as that of large populations. In populations with high among-family variance for germination traits, germination responses tended to be correlated across incubation temperatures, making it possible to characterize families in terms of their general dormancy status. The results indicate that seed germination regulation in this species is probably under strong genetic control, and that habitats with temporally varying selection are occupied by populations that tend to be more polymorphic in terms of their germination response patterns.
Fisherian and Wrightian theories of speciation.

Fisher's theory of sexual selection, Wright's shifting-balance theory, and recent models based on them are reviewed as mechanisms of animal speciation. The joint evolution of mating preferences and...
Plastic constraint of large aspect ratio solder joints

The aspect ratio (joint area/joint thickness) of thin (0.001-0.006 in.) surface mount solder (60S-40Pb) joints plays an important role in determining the mechanical properties and fracture behavior of the joints. This study demon-strates that plastic constraint of a large aspect ratio 60Sn-40Pb solder joint can develop triaxial (hydrostatic) stresses several times greater than the average tensile strength of the bulk solder material. A four to sixfold increase in average joint stress and up to a tenfold increase in peak stress was measured on joints with aspect ratios ranging from 400 to 1000. Although a direct relationship of the aspect ratio to the average tensile stress is shown, as the Friction Hill model predicts, the observed stress increase is not nearly as high but proportional to the classical prediction. This is attributed to the existence of internal defects (oxide particles and micro-voids) and transverse grain boundaries which fail producing internal free surfaces. Thus, the actual aspect ratio is thickness/d2, where d equals the distance between internal surfaces. The fracture of these constrained joints was brittle, with the separation occurring between a tin-rich copper tin intermetallic at the interface and the solder matrix. Voids within the solder joint are shown to relieve the plastic constraint and lower the average tensile stress of the joint. The Friction Hill model may play an important role in explaining the small percentage of atypical solder joint failures which sometimes occur on electronic assemblies. In particular, the sudden failure of a thin joint in a strain controlled environment may be attributed to the development of a large hydrostatic stress component. Therefore, a flaw free, plastically constrained joint which develops a high stress state will be a high risk candidate for failure.
Overview of immune system development in the dog: comparison with humans

Dogs play an important role in toxicology because of their importance as a large animal, pre-clinical model for evaluating potential toxicity in human drug development including the effects of investigational drugs on the immune system. The purpose of this paper is to review the development of the canine immune system during the fetal, neonatal and postnatal periods and to compare it with that of the human immune system. Unlike rodents, the development of the canine immune system shares many similarities to that of the human. In both dogs and humans, the immune system, including the mucosal immune system, is fully developed before birth although the maturity of the immune response may continue into the postnatal period.
The Relationship of Creativity Measures to School Achievement and to Preferred Learning and Thinking Style in a Sample of Korean High School Students

Two major purposes of this study were to ascertain for a sample of 193 11th-grade Korean high school students (92 males and 101 females) the extent to which performance in selected measures of creativity involving both verbal and visual tasks was related to (a) school achievement as revealed by a quantitative indicator (percentage score) and (b) the expressed preference for a given learning and thinking style as revealed in a standardized measure (Style of Learning and Thinking by Torrance) intended to portray left-brain, right-brain, or an integrated left-brain right-brain function. A secondary purpose was to identify possible gender differences of Korean students in the variables under study. The following conclusions became evident. First, measures of creativity translated from the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking show little, if any, relationship to school performance. Second, Korean high school females may be expected to exhibit higher average levels of performance on creativity tests than will th...
Functional Determinants of Temperature Adaptation in Enzymes of Cold- versus Warm-Adapted Mussels (Genus Mytilus)

Temperature is a strong selective force on the evolution of proteins due to its effects on higher orders of protein structure and, thereby, on critical protein functions like ligand binding and catalysis. Comparisons among orthologous proteins from differently thermally adapted species show consistent patterns of adaptive variation in function, but few studies have examined functional adaptation among multiple structural families of proteins. Thus, with our present state of knowledge, it is difficult to predict what fraction of the proteome will exhibit adaptive variation in the face of temperature increases of a few to several degrees Celsius, that is, temperature increases of the magnitude predicted by models of global warming. Here, we compared orthologous enzymes of the warm-adapted Mediterranean mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis and the cold-adapted Mytilus trossulus, a native of the North Pacific Ocean, species whose physiologies exhibit significantly different responses to temperature. We measured the effects of temperature on the kinetics (Michaelis-Menten constant-K(m)) of five enzymes that are important for ATP generation and that represent distinct protein structural families. Among phosphoglucomutase (PGM), phosphoglucose isomerase (PGI), pyruvate kinase (PK), phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (GTP) (PEPCK), and isocitrate dehydrogenase (NADP) (IDH), only IDH orthologs showed significantly different thermal responses of K(m) between the two species. The K(m) of isocitrate of M. galloprovincialis-IDH was intrinsically lower and more thermally stable than that of M. trossulus-IDH and thus had higher substrate affinity at high temperatures. Two amino acid substitutions account for the functional differences between IDH orthologs, one of which allows for more hydrogen bonds to form near the mobile region of the active site in M. galloprovincialis-IDH. Taken together, our findings cast light on the targets of adaptive evolution in the context of climate change; only a minority of proteins might adapt to small changes in temperature, and these adaptations may involve only small changes in sequence.
Pulverized coal stream ignition delay under conventional and oxy-fuel combustion conditions

Abstract The coal stream ignition process is critical to the performance of modern pulverized coal burners, particularly when operating under novel conditions such as experienced in oxy-fuel combustion. However, experimental studies of coal stream ignition are lacking, and recent modeling efforts have had to rely on comparisons with a single set of experiments in vitiated air. To begin to address this shortfall, we have conducted experiments on the ignition properties of two U.S. and two Chinese coals in a laminar entrained flow reactor. Most of the measurements focused on varying the coal feed rate for furnace temperatures of 1230–1320 K and for 12–20 vol.% O 2 in nitrogen. The influence of coal feed rate on ignition with a carbon dioxide diluent was also measured for 20 vol.% O 2 at 1280 K. A second set of measurements was performed for ignition of a fixed coal feed rate in N 2 and CO 2 environments at identical furnace temperatures of 1200 K, 1340 K, and 1670 K. A scientific CCD camera equipped with a 431 nm imaging filter was used to interrogate the ignition process. Under most conditions, the ignition delay decreased with increasing coal feed rate until a minimum was reached at a feed rate corresponding to a particle number density of approximately 4 × 10 9 m −3 in the coal feed pipe. This ignition minimum corresponds to a cold flow group number, G , of ∼0.3. At higher coal feed rates the ignition delay increased. The ignition delay time was shown to be very sensitive to (a) the temperature of the hot coflow into which the coal stream is introduced, and (b) the coal particle size. The three high volatile bituminous coals showed nearly identical ignition delay as a function of coal feed rate, whereas the subbituminous coal showed slightly greater apparent ignition delay. Bath gas CO 2 content was found to have a minor impact on ignition delay.
Cautious virus detection in the extreme

It is well known that there exist viruses whose set of infected programs is undecidable. If a virus detector is to err on the side of caution with respect to such a virus, then it must label some perfectly innocent programs as being infected by the virus. Can there exist a virus whose set of infected programs is so unwieldy that any cautious virus detector must label all but finitely many programs as being infected by the virus - even when infinitely many programs are not infected by the virus? Although such viruses can exist, strong theoretical evidence is presented that such a virus is unlikely to be encountered in the real world. Several of our proofs employ infinitary self-reference arguments
Effects of canopy shade on the lipid composition of soybean leaves

The effect of canopy shade on leaf lipid composition was examined in soybeans (Glycine max cv. Young) grown under field conditions. Expanding leaves were tagged at 50, 58 and 65 days after planting (DAP) in plots with either a high (10 plants m -1 row) or low (1 plant m -1 row) plant density. At 92 DAP, light conditions ranged from a photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD) of 87% of full sun with a far-red/red (735 nm/645 nm) ratio of 0.9 at upper canopy leaves to extreme shade where the PPFD was 10% of full sun with a far-red/red ratio greater than 6. Highly shaded leaves in the high plant density treatment accumulated triacylglycerol (TG) up to 25% of total leaf lipid, a 2.4-fold increase in TG on a chlorophyll basis compared to leaves in the upper canopy. Although total polar lipid content was reduced up to 50% in shaded leaves, shade had little affect on the lipid content or composition of thylakoid membranes. Shade did not affect leaf chlorophyll content. Therefore, the changes in leaf lipid composition were not related to senescence. These findings suggest that conditions of low irradiance and/or a high FR/R ratio cause a shift in carbon metabolism toward the accumulation of TG, a storage lipid. Eighteen-carbon fatty acid desaturation was also affected in highly shaded leaves where a reduction in linolenic acid (18:3) content was accompanied by a proportional increase in oleic (18:1) and linoleic (18:2) acids.
Endotracheal drug administration in the critical care setting

Administration of drugs through an endotracheal tube has been evaluated in a number of animal models. In addition, the technique has been utilized in humans as reported in several published cases. A review of endotracheal drug administration with emphasis on application to the critical care setting is presented.
Error reduction of channel estimation based on singular value decomposition

In this paper, a channel estimation algorithm for localized resource assignment is studied. Here, we exploit the singular values of coefficient matrix between the received demodulation reference signal (DMRS) and the channel impulse response (CIR), and discover that the singular values will attenuate rapidly after a particular index. Utilizing this characteristic, the proposed algorithm modifies the accuracy of channel estimation by filtering out the noise at the singular value domain. Firstly, it transforms the received DMRS into singular value domain by multiplying the left-singular matrix of coefficient matrix, so as to concentrate the energy of channel information on enumerable principle singular values. Then it eliminates the noise relying on the extremely small singular values to decrease the estimation error. The mean square error of channel estimation is simulated to evaluate the proposed CE algorithm. Results show that channel information can be estimated accurately, and the proposed algorithm outperforms other typical CE algorithms, such as LMMSE, DFT and DCT.
Discriminative k-metrics

The k q-flats algorithm is a generalization of the popular k-means algorithm where q dimensional best fit affine sets replace centroids as the cluster prototypes. In this work, a modification of the k q-flats framework for pattern classification is introduced. The basic idea is to replace the original reconstruction only energy, which is optimized to obtain the k affine spaces, by a new energy that incorporates discriminative terms. This way, the actual classification task is introduced as part of the design and optimization. The presentation of the proposed framework is complemented with experimental results, showing that the method is computationally very efficient and gives excellent results on standard supervised learning benchmarks.
Nondestructive Compositional Analysis

X-ray spectroscopy is about the only nondestructive method for quantitative chemical analysis. Portable x-ray machines can be carried directly to the material to be analyzed but laboratory x-ray machines are more common in industrial use. Historically, x-ray spectroscopy began with Moseley’s 1913 demonstration that each chemical element emits characteristic x-ray lines when excited by high-energy electrons. Early difficulties in quantitiative analysis were overcome by better instrumentation and mathematical methods for relating x-ray intensity and composition. Today many kinds of samples including solids, liquids, powders, pollution, etc., can be analyzed rapidly for 20–30 elements for less than $ 10 per sample. Computer programs make the data interpretation simple and accurate.
Phase Transformation Kinetics in the System Bismuth Oxide‐Zirconia

This paper reports the effect of ZrO{sub 2} addition on the phase transformation of Bi{sub 2}O{sub 3} studied with powder x-ray diffraction and differential thermal analysis. Samples containing higher than a few mole percent ZrO{sub 2} were obtained as the metastable {beta} phase (tetragonal) at room temperature when they were cooled at 20{degrees}C/min from 800{degrees}C where the {delta} phase (fcc) is stable. When the same samples were cooled at the same rate from 1000{degrees}C, which is above the solidus, they formed the stable {alpha} phase (monoclinic) at room temperature. Evidence for the relatively higher solubility of ZrO{sub 2} in the {delta} phase is discussed to explain this observation.
Detecting zinc and cadmium with fura ratiometric probes

Abstract. Fluorescent probes such as fura-2 and its relatives mag-fura-2 and fura-2FF are used to detect changes in intracellular ions such as Ca2+ and Mg2+. However, they are sufficiently non-selective to record changes in other species such as Zn2+, Cd2+, Fe2+ and other transition metals. In the present study we have characterized the responses of these three dyes to Zn2+ and Cd2+, in a buffered salt solution using spectrofluorophotometry. Fura-2, mag-fura-2 and fura-2FF generally reacted to increasing concentrations of Zn2+ or Cd2+ with a shift in the excitation spectra. We found that for a given probe the Zn2+ and Cd2+ excitation spectra were broadly similar, but isosbestic and peak wavelengths were useful in distinguishing between the two metals.
Modulation of guinea pig intrinsic cardiac neurons by prostaglandins

Activation of cardiac mast cells has been shown to alter parasympathetic neuronal function via the activation of histamine receptors. The present study examined the ability of prostaglandins to alt...