cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Java Access to Numerical Libraries

SUMMARY It is a common and somewhat erroneous belief that Java will always be ‘too slow’ for scientific computing. Two projects under way at the University of Tennessee are addressing the question of scientific computing via Java: NetSolve and f2j. The approaches taken by these two projects are radically different. NetSolve allows users to access pre-installed computational resources, such as hardware and software, distributed across the network. Using these resources, the user can easily perform scientific computing tasks without having any computing resource installed on his or her computer. NetSolve features a Graphical User Interface written in Java as well as a Java Application Programming Interface. The f2j (Fortran to Java) project will provide the numerical subroutines translated from their Fortran source into class files suitable for use by Java programmers. This makes it possible for a Java application or applet to use established legacy numerical code that was originally written in Fortran. This article describes the research issues involved in these two projects and their current limitations. We also explain how, although using two different paradigms and addressing somewhat different classes of users and applications, NetSolve and f2j achieve a common goal: to provide efficient, reliable and portable access to standard numerical libraries via Java. ©1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Development of crystallinity in NEW-TPI polyimide

Development of crystallinity in NEW-TPI semicrystalline polyimide has been studied using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), wide (WAXS), and small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). Crystallinity of the fully imidized powder, pellet, or film processed NEW-TPI can occur from the melt, and depends upon the holding temperature of the melt. Repetitive exposure to elevated temperatures supresses the development of crystallinity from the melt state. In amorphous pellets and film, crystallinity can also develop by cold crystallization from the rubbery amorphous state. SAXS results show that during cold crystallization, NEW-TPI develops a periodic structure consistent with formation of alternating crystalamorphous stacks, but with crystals only a few molecular repeat units thick. Kinetics of nonisothermal crystallization were studied as a function of heating rate and could be described using the Ozawa analysis. Non-isothermal crystallization proceeds at a slower rate in NEW-TPI than in other high temperature thermoplastics such as PEEK, and with a much narrower processing window. The maximum degree of crystallinity that could develop during heating was 0.34, which occurred at a rate of 5°C/min. Similar degrees of crystallinity could be introduced by heating amorphous NEW-TPI film in N-methylpyrrolidone.
Design features and focal properties of simple three element two- or three-dimensional lens systems for decelerating intense ion beams to very low energies

Abstract This paper describes the design features and focal properties of a simple two- or three-dimensional lens system for decelerating ion beams of variable intensity to very low energies (⩽100 → ⩾2000 eV). The characteristics of the lenses were determined by numerically computing the electrostatic field distributions and particle trajectories through specified electrode configurations. The results of computer simulation studies are presented which illustrate the influence of space charge, angular distribution, and aperture size on the focal properties of the lenses. The measured focal properties of a lens designed according to such calculations agree well with the predicted values.
A Technical Assessment of Electron Optical Systems

This paper reviews the types and capabilities of currently available, state-of-the-art electron optical systems. For the purpose of this comparative discussion of relative system capabilities and limitations, the various electron optical systems will be categorized as follows: scanning electron microscopes (SEM); transmission electron microscopes (TEM); scanning-transmission electron microscopes (STEM); and scanning Auger microprobes (SAM). The extra capabilities gained by adding major ancillary equipment, e.g., a microchemical analysis capability created by adding energy dispersive x-ray analysis (EDX) facilities, will be considered for each system. These discussions are primarily directed to metallurgists and materials engineers who have little background in this area but wish to learn the applicability of the various electron optical systems to their individual materials problems.
Preliminary studies on a chlamydial agent in the digestive diverticular epithelium of hard clams Mercenaria mercenaria (L.) from Great South Bay, New York

. The prevalence of a chlamydial infection in hatchery-reared adult hard clams Mercenaria mercenaria (L.) from Great South Bay, Long Island, New York was relatively high and seasonally stable. Infection occurred early in life while juvenile clams were still within the hatchery. Fluorescent antibody tests suggested that the clam agent shares the group antigen specific for chlamydia, but to a lesser degree than a known chlamydial strain used as a positive control. The method of Gimenez failed to stain elementary bodies in clam cell inclusion bodies. Based on the observations of this study, the inclusion body agent in the hard clam differs from known strains of chlamydia. Characterization of the clam chlamydia must await the successful propagation of the agent.
Unprotected Floor Assemblies and Tenability Conditions in a Test House Under Two Basement Fire Scenarios

A full-scale experimental program was undertaken to study the impact of two basement fire scenarios on the structural integrity of unprotected floor assemblies above a basement and the tenability conditions in a test facility representing a typical two-storey detached single-family house with a basement. The experiments utilized relatively severe, fast-growing fires set in the basement, which had an unprotected (unfinished) ceiling, to challenge the structural integrity of the floor system above the basement, which provides the normal egress route on the first storey for occupants. A range of floor assemblies constructed with various types of engineered floor joists and trusses (including wood I-joists, steel C-joists, metal plate wood trusses and metal web wood trusses) and with solid-wood joists, were used in the experiments with the basement side unprotected (unsheathed). Potential exposure to toxic gases, heat and smoke obscuration under the test conditions was analyzed to estimate the time available for escape. The results help establish the sequence of fire events such as fire initiation, smoke alarm activation, onset of untenable conditions, and structural failure of the floor assembly above the basement to understand how these factors affect the ability of occupants on the upper storeys to escape in the event of a basement fire.
A multiprogramming operating system for a minicomputer

Described in this paper is a small, modular operating system which was written for an Interdata-70 machine. The total operating system is memory resident and occupies 5K bytes. The primary motivation in redesigning the operating system was to structure it so that students and general system users could easily expand or modify the basic services of the supervising system. Towards this end, the following system principles are embodied in the design: (1) clearly defined separation of system functions, (2) separate object modules for each system routine, and (3) simple system design. Although specifics of implementation are discussed, general design concepts are covered which should aid the reader in any similar attempt (either by example or counter example).
Online feature subset selection for object tracking

Online tracking often encounters the drift problem due to factors such as occlusion, motion blur, pose and illumination changes. While much success has been demonstrated, it is still a challenging task to design a robust appearance model for the tracker to effectively solve the drift problem. In this paper, we propose a novel object tracking framework with appearance model based on an effective online feature subset selection scheme which combines a support vector machine recursive feature elimination (SVM-RFE) procedure and a multiple instance learning (MIL) optimization process. The SVM-RFE procedure can help find the most informative subset from a feature pool, while the MIL optimization process helps to solve the ambiguity problem. Experiments on the benchmark dataset and comparisons with the latest state-of-the-art trackers validate the advantage of our approach.
DNA probes for detection of cariogenic Streptococcus mutans.

Streptococcus mutans has been identified as the principal etiological agent in human denial caries. Therefore, the specificity and sensitivity of 3 potential gene probes derived from S. mutans GS5 have been examined as potential reagents for detecting the cariogenic bacteria. The gene probes derived from the cloned gtfB, gtfD and ftf genes were examined in Southern blots with a panel of representative oral bacteria. The gtfB and ftf genes were apparently specific for S. mutans under high-stringency hybridization conditions. However, the gtfD gene fragment did cross-hybridize with the DNA from other mutans streptococci. These results suggest that gtfB and ftf gene fragments may be used as specific probes for S. mutans.
The myth of virtual memory

A common myth surrounding virtual memory systems is that they eliminate completely the need for programmers and analysts to deal with conservation, allocation, and management of addressable memory. This paper shows that paying appropriate attention to these factors can have even greater impact on virtual memory system performance than on real memory system performance. Guidelines for effectively using virtual memory are presented.
Genomic architecture of asthma differs by sex.

Asthma comprised of highly heterogeneous subphenotypes resulting from complex interplay between genetic and environmental stimuli. While much focus has been placed on extrinsic environmental stimuli, intrinsic environment such as sex can interact with genes to influence asthma risk. However, few studies have examined sex-specific genetic effects. The overall objective of this study was to evaluate if sex-based differences exist in genomic associations with asthma. We tested 411 asthmatics and 297 controls for presence of interactions and sex-stratified effects in 51 genes using both SNP and gene expression data. Logistic regression was used to test for association. Over half (55%) of the genetic variants identified in sex-specific analyses were not identified in the sex-combined analysis. Further, sex-stratified genetic analyses identified associations with significantly higher median effect sizes than sex-combined analysis for girls (p-value =6.5E-15) and for boys (p-value =1.0E-7). When gene expression data was analyzed to identify genes that were differentially expressed in asthma versus non-asthma, nearly one third (31%) of the probes identified in the sex-specific analyses were not identified in the sex-combined analysis. Both genetic and gene expression data suggest that the biologic underpinnings for asthma may differ by sex. Failure to recognize sex interactions in asthma greatly decreases the ability to detect significant genomic variation and may result in significant misrepresentation of genes and pathways important in asthma in different environments.
Mapping of benthic enrichment patterns in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island

A synoptic reconnaissance survey was performed over a five-day period in August 1988 to assess benthic habitat quality throughout Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, using REMOTS® sediment-profile photography and analysis in combination with measurements of the levels ofClostridium perfringens spores (a fecal indicator) in sediments. Three main areas of degraded benthic habitat quality related to either excessive organic enrichment or physical disturbance were identified based solely on the REMOTS® analysis: the Providence River Reach, Greenwich Bay and its associated coves and harbors, and an area located along the southwest side of Prudence Island. Sediments at many stations in these areas exhibited shallow apparent redox-potential discontinuity (RPD) depths, high apparent oxygen demand, and low-order benthic successional stages. ElevatedClostridium perfringens spore counts in surface sediments were attributed to inputs from wastewater treatment facilities. The highest spore counts occurred at the head of the bay, where wastewater treatment discharges and associated combined sewer overflows are numerous. Using data from the REMOTS® analysis and the sediment inventory ofC. perfringens spores, a distinction was made between organic enrichment of the bottom from sewage, versus nonsewage enrichment or physical disturbance. The combination of techniques employed in this investigation could be used to design more efficient monitoring programs to assess eutrophication effects in estuaries and determine the effectiveness of regulatory or management initiatives to reduce organic overenrichment of benthic habitats.
Virtual terminator nucleotides for next-generation DNA sequencing

Nucleotide analogs modified with a free 3′ hydroxyl, maintaining the interactions at the polymerase active site, and a cleavable linker, attaching a fluorescent dye and an inhibitor, are efficient at reading homopolymer runs in a single-molecule sequencing reaction. We synthesized reversible terminators with tethered inhibitors for next-generation sequencing. These were efficiently incorporated with high fidelity while preventing incorporation of additional nucleotides, and we used them to sequence canine bacterial artificial chromosomes in a single-molecule system that provided even coverage for over 99% of the region sequenced. This single-molecule approach generated high-quality sequence data without the need for target amplification and thus avoided concomitant biases.
Development of covert and overt hostility scales from the Buss-Durkee Inventory.

The purpose of this study was to develop covert and overt hostility scales from the Buss-Durkee Inventory. First, 22 covert hostility and 29 overt hostility items were identified by the authors. Second, an item analysis was done to assess the content saturation of the individual items on these scales. This analysis yielded the final form for 7 items for covert hostility and 14 for overt hostility. Cronbach alphas for the covert and overt scales were .67 and .77, respectively, and their intercorrelation was .08. Correlations for these Buss-Durkee scales with several existing measures of anger expression were consistent with expectations.
Biopython: Python tools for computational biology

The Biopython project was formed in August 1999 as a collaboration to collect and produce open source bioinformatics tools written in Python, an object-oriented scripting language. It is modeled on the highly successful Bioperl project, but has the goal of making libraries available for people doing computations in Python. The philosophy of all the Bio* projects is that part of bioinformaticists' work involves software development. In order to prevent repeated efforts we believe that the field can be advanced more quickly if libraries that perform common programming functions are available. Thus, we hope to create a central source for high-quality bioinformatics tools that researchers can use.As an open source project, Biopython can be downloaded for free from the web site at http://www.biopython.org. Biopython libraries are currently under heavy development. This paper describes the current state of available Biopython tools, shows examples of their use in common bioinformatics problems, and describes plans for future development.
An ab initio determination of the rate constant for H 2 +C 2 H --> H+C 2 H 2

The first ab initio determination of the rate constants for the reaction of ethynyl radical C2H with molecular hydrogen is presented. The potential energy surface was determined in the seagent and Saddle point regions using configuration interaction methods and the rate constant was evaluated using transition state theory. (AIP)
Mother-adolescent-sibling conflict in families of juvenile felons.

(1999). Mother-Adolescent-Sibling Conflict in Families of Juvenile Felons. The Journal of Genetic Psychology: Vol. 160, No. 1, pp. 115-118.
Channel Network Scaling Laws in Submarine Basins

[1] Fluvial drainage basin area is often related to channel length and local slope through power law relationships and the relatively small range of exponents observed in these relationships is thought to result from physical mechanisms. Proposed mechanisms assume that the observed correlation between drainage area and fluid discharge is caused by precipitation. Using high resolution DEMs of channelized continental slope settings offshore Monterey, CA and Brunei Darussalam we extracted submarine channel profiles and drainage area statistics from five basins. In-situ and remote observations suggest discharge in these oceanic settings is determined by boundary conditions at the shelf-edge. In spite of substantial differences in environment and physical process, the data yield submarine scaling exponents within the range of terrestrial (fluvial) observations. The convergence in scaling relationships from two very different settings supports theoretical arguments that channel network structure results from the aggregation of random walks.
Identification of target populations for current active safety systems using driver behavior

Frontal Pre-Collision Systems (PCS) and Lane Departure Warning (LDW) systems are two of the first active safety systems to penetrate the passenger vehicle market. PCS can warn the driver, amplify the driver's braking effort, and autonomously brake even if there is no driver input. LDW systems deliver a warning to the driver when the vehicle is drifting out of its lane. The potential effectiveness of these two systems in the field not only depends on the crash scenarios they are likely to activate in but also on driver behavior. This study utilized the National Motor Vehicle Crash Causation Survey (NMVCCS), which unlike traditional databases focuses on behavioral aspects that lead to a collision. The target populations for PCS and LDW were found by aggregating crashes that had a) crash scenarios and b) critical reasons attributed to the collisions that were most likely mitigated by the systems. The warning component of PCS was found to be potentially effective in 45% of applicable crash scenarios. The brake assist and autonomous braking components were potentially effective in 71% and 74% of collisions, respectively. LDW was potentially effective in 18% of road departure collisions. These target populations are not estimates of actual system effectiveness but are quantification of the specific crash and driver scenarios most likely to be mitigated by LDW and PCS.
Internal Dielectric Transduction of a 4.5 GHz Silicon Bar Resonator

This paper presents experimental verification of frequency scaling in an internal dielectric transduced resonator. A silicon bar resonator is excited in its 3rd and 9th longitudinal harmonic modes at 1.53 and 4.51 GHz, respectively. The resonator demonstrates a 2 dB improvement in transduction efficiency in its 9th harmonic relative to its 3rd harmonic, normalized to the quality Q of the resonance. This result is in close agreement with theory, promising low- impedance transduction of silicon bulk acoustic resonators at frequencies exceeding 10 GHz.
Multiple magnetic reconnection sites associated with a coronal mass ejection in the solar wind

[1] Magnetic reconnection exhausts in the solar wind are often associated with interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs). Occasionally, an exhaust is observed at the interface between ambient solar wind and the leading edge of an ICME where reconnection serves to erode away some of the magnetic flux carried by the ICME. More often the exhausts are observed at thin current sheets within the interiors of ICMEs or near their trailing edges. We have examined an unusually large set of seven reconnection exhausts, including both sunward and antisunward directed events, observed within the interior of and near the trailing edge of an ICME. Six of these exhausts occurred as pairs on the opposite sides of relatively small magnetic filaments of locally reversed fields. For three of the exhausts the local magnetic shear was considerably less than 90°, indicating that reconnection can occur at times when the so-called guide field component considerably exceeds the antiparallel field component. One exhaust had a local width of only 1.6 × 103 km (25.4 ion inertial lengths) and was convected past the Wind spacecraft in ∼5.4 s. No Hall field rotations were observed in association with this event, probably because of the significant guide field present and because even this extremely narrow exhaust was probably sampled well downstream (∼380 ion inertial lengths) from the reconnection site. The current sheets bounding the exhaust had widths of 3.5 and 5.2 ion inertial lengths, respectively, exceeding by several times the expected scale size of the associated diffusion region.
Petrographic Evaluation of West Virginia Coals for Coal Utilization Schemes: ABSTRACT

End_Page 1578------------------------------Proper evaluation of coals for utilization, whether it is to be combustion, carbonization, gasification, or liquefaction depends on a knowledge of the petrographic (maceral) composition of the coals in question. This petrographic study of West Virginia coals was designed to provide a basic knowledge of the composition of the state's coals, with specific reference to utilization. Compositional trends and their causal influences were evaluated. Thirty major seams were quantitatively analyzed, and the data were displayed in histograms for interpretation of the resulting frequency distributions. The frequency distributions of the macerals were generally non-normal with minor macerals showing highly negatively skewed histograms, and major maceral distributions displaying bimodal characteristics. Both areal and vertical stratigraphic trends were evident in the abundance of some macerals. Q-mode factor analysis related these trends in composition to metamorphism (rank), plant evolution, and sedimentary environments of peat deposition. The knowledge acquired on coal composition, its expected variation, and factors influencing composition can be applied to the evaluation of West Virginia coals for many utilization technologies. End_of_Article - Last_Page 1579------------
Automatic near-threshold fatigue crack growth rate measurements at liquid helium temperature

Abstract The development of a fully automated test apparatus for near-threshold fatigue crack growth rate measurements in a liquid helium environment is described, and some initial results for AISI 300 series stainless steels are presented. The experimental apparatus consists of a servohydraulic test machine and a cryostat, complete with a minicomputer, a programmable arbituary waveform generator, a programmable digital oscilloscope and a fully automatic liquid helium refill system. The technique uses 6.4 mm thick compact specimens subjected to systematically decreasing loads, with 24 h operation at 40 Hz, the crack growth being continuously monitored by specimen compliance measurements. The results presented in this study include d a/ d N vs ΔK curves and threshold fatigue stress intensity factors, ΔK th , at 4 K for AISI 304L, 304LN and 316 stainless steels. The near-threshold fatigue behaviours of these materials are similar, and the fatigue crack growth rate trends at intermediate ΔK levels nearly agree with published results.
The role of age-specific learning and experience for turtles navigating a changing landscape.

Summary The severity of the environment often influences animal cognition [1–6], as does the rate of change within that environment [7–10]. Rapid alteration of habitat places limitations on basic resources such as energy, water, nesting sites, and refugia [8, 10]. How animals respond to these situations provides insight into the mechanisms of cognition and the role of behavior in adaptation [11–13]. We tested the hypothesis that learning plays a role in the navigation of the painted turtle ( Chrysemys picta ) within a model of environmental change. We radiotracked experienced and naive turtles at different developmental stages from two different populations as they sought out new habitats when their pond was destroyed. Our data suggest that the ability of turtles to navigate is facilitated in part by experience during a critical period. Resident adults repeatedly used specific routes with exceptional precision, while translocated adults failed to find water. Naive juveniles (1–3 years old) from both populations used the same paths taken by resident adults; the ability to follow paths was lost by age 4. We also used laboratory behavioral assays to examine the possible cues facilitating this precise navigation. Turtles responded to manipulation of the local ultraviolet environment, but not the olfactory environment. This is the first evidence to suggest that learning during a critical period may be important for how animals respond to changing environments. Our work emphasizes the need for the examination of learning in navigation and the breadth of critical learning periods across vertebrates.
The plasma 17-hydroxycorticosteroid response to corticotropin. SU-4885 and lipopolysaccharide pyrogen.

Two different mechanisms of pituitary activation were evaluated in 34 normal subjects, 5 patients with anterior pituitary insufficiency, 3 with adrenocortical insufficiency, 2 with Cushing’s syndrome, and 3 with acromegaly, by studying serial changes in plasma 17-hydroxycorticosteroid levels in response to intravenously administered purified lipopolysaccharide pyrogen (Lipexal) and a propanone compound, SU-4885. These responses were compared to those observed following the intramuscular administration of 80 units of corticotropin gel. Similar studies were performed on 15 subjects maintained with corticotropin or corticosteroid therapy. The plasma 17-hydroxycorticosteroid responses to these tests provide a means for distinguishing between normal subjects and patients with panhypopituitarism, Addison’s disease or Cushing’s syndrome. Four hours after the fourth injection of corticotropin gel (administered intramuscularly in doses of 80 units every eight hours) there is complete separation between the ranges ...
On the periodic nonlinearity and the multiplicity of solutions

Abstract : This document studies the multiplicity of solutions for semilinear elliptic systems as well as Hamiltonian systems, in which the nonlinear terms are periodic in certain variables. The cuplength for cohomology rings of the torus is used. Our results generalize and unify several recent works by Conley-Zehnder, Rabinowitz, Mawhin-Willem, Pucci-Serrin etc. In particular, the resonance problems and indefinite problems are studied. Keywords: Critical point, Neumann problem, Periodic solution.
Endothelins and their receptors in cancer: identification of therapeutic targets.

Endothelins and their receptors are important in normal physiology, but have been implicated in various pathophysiological conditions. Members of the so-called “endothelin axis” are dysregulated in a wide range of human cancers, opening the door for novel anticancer therapies. Established cancer chemotherapeutic agents and drugs that target specific components of the endothelin axis have been combined with promising results, but more work is needed in this area. The endothelin axis affects numerous signaling pathways, including Ras, mitogen activated protein kinases, β-catenin/T-cell factor/lymphoid enhancer factor, nuclear factor-κB (NFκB), SNAIL, and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR). There is much still to learn about optimizing drug specificity in this area, while minimizing off-target effects. Selective agonists and antagonists of endothelins, their receptors, and upstream processing enzymes, as well as knockdown strategies in vitro, are providing valuable leads for testing in the clinical setting. The endothelin axis continues to be an attractive avenue of scientific endeavor, both in the cancer arena and for other important health-related disciplines.
Clinical picture of boys with XSCID and the road to gene therapy

X-Linked Severe Combined Immune Deficiency is a rare (about 1/50 000) disorder manifested by a lack of both cellular and humoral immune function. Without treatment the affected male infants usually die in their first year of life from persistent and chronic infections, particularly with opportunistic pathogens. Treatment by bone marrow transplantation (BMT) rescues > 90% of the patients fortunate enough to have an HLA matched sibling donor. Survival is decreased to 60–80% if the donor is a parent whose HLA antigens match half of the child’s. However, short and long-term complications of BMT include graft failure, graft versus host disease and lack of B-cell reconstitution, leaving patients dependent on monthly IV gammaglobulin infusions. We have evaluated eight males between the ages of 5–19 who were selected because of poor outcome after BMT. They all have growth failure, malabsorption, lung disease, and chronic anemia. They all have received 1–4 haploidentical BMTs but continue to be on monthly IVIG and antibiotics. Because their T cell counts are falling and are insufficient to regulate immune response, they are candidates to enrol in the NIH XSCID Gene Transfer clinical trial. This presentation will describe the clinical picture of the eight gene transfer candidates and how the treated subject progressed after receiving gene transfer.
Differential requirement of lipid rafts for FcγRIIA mediated effector activities

Abstract Immunoglobulin G (IgG) dependent activities are important in host defense and autoimmune diseases. Various cell types including macrophages and neutrophils contribute to pathogen destruction and tissue damage through binding of IgG to Fcγ receptors (FcγR). One member of this family, FcγRIIA, is a transmembrane glycoprotein known to mediate binding and internalization of IgG-containing targets. FcγRIIA has been observed to translocate into lipids rafts upon binding IgG-containing targets. We hypothesize that lipid rafts participate to different extents in binding and internalizing targets of different sizes. We demonstrate that disruption of lipid rafts with 8 mM methyl-β-cyclodextrin (MβCD) nearly abolishes binding (91% reduction) and phagocytosis (60% reduction) of large IgG-coated targets. Conversely, binding and internalization of small IgG-complexes is less dependent on lipid rafts (49% and 17% inhibition at 8 mM MβCD, respectively). These observations suggest that differences between phagocytosis and endocytosis may arise as early as the initial stages of ligand recognition.
Use of Legal Drugs by Psychiatric Outpatients: Benefits, Costs, and Change.

Caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol use by persons with a severe mental illness occurs frequently but is poorly understood. We used qualitative methods to elicit information regarding the functional relationships between legal substance use and its antecedents and consequences. This report summarizes responses provided by 37 psychiatric outpatients who participated in focus groups and key informant interviews regarding the use and functions of alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine. We describe major themes regarding positive and negative consequences, triggers for use, change efforts, and offer observations regarding substance use in this underserved population.
Benzotriazol‐1‐ylmethylammonium salts synthesis and reactivity

Benzotriazol-1-ylmethylamines on treatment with alkylating agents afford benzotriazol-1-ylmethylammoni-um salts, also available from reactions of chloromethylbenzotriazole with tertiary amines. In deuterated solvents under basic conditions the methylene protons of these salts exchange with deuterium. At elevated temperatures, an alkyl group substituent migrated from the ammonium center to the benzotriazolyl N-3. Reactions of the salts with Grignard reagents afforded various products arising from substitution of the ammonium moiety and/or from attack on the benzotriazolyl N-3 or on the benzenoid ring.
Long term outcomes in women with inflammatory breast cancer treated with multimodality therapy

Results: Seven patients were randomized to the Adriamycin first arm (AT) and 9 patients to the Taxol first arm (TA). A mean of 137 pO2 measurements was taken in each tumor (range 86 to 153) using (4 to 8 tracks). Both IFP and pO2 measurements were performed under ultrasound guidance. The mean IFP in tumors was 8.6 mmHg (range 3-17), while the mean IFP in normal tissue was 1 mmHg (range 0 – 3) (p 0.05). The median pO2 measurements varied between 1.6 and 49.4 mmHg with an overall mean of 22 mmHg. The median pO2 measured in normal tissue varied between 26 and 55 mmHg with an overall mean of 45 mmHg (range 26-55) (p 0.0002). There was no correlation between the baseline IFP and median pO2 found (p 0.29).
Getting Them All into the Act: Using Audience Participation to Increase the Effectiveness of Role-Play Activities.

ABSTRACT Foreign language teachers often use role-play and simulation activities to encourage spontaneous language use in the classroom. Although these activities are a useful tool in developing student communicative competence, they have several inherent problems which can limit their effectiveness. Typically, three or four students act out a scene while the rest of the class watches. The majority of the class, therefore, has no active role in the activity. This paper describes several organizational strategies designed to increase the level of audience participation in role-play and simulation activities. By giving non-performing students a specific task during a role play, they become more involved in the experience, and the time devoted to these activities becomes more productive and more enjoyable for all students.
Design and fabrication of hollow flexible terahertz waveguides

A low loss, hollow, flexible waveguide was designed and fabricated for the transmission of terahertz radiation. Polycarbonate and glass tubing was chosen as the base material of the waveguide. The inner surface of the dielectric tube was coated with silver using a wet chemistry method. The waveguides were fabricated in several diameters namely, 2.4 mm, 3.2 mm, 3.8 mm, and 4.6 mm. The attenuation coefficients for the waveguides were measured at a wavelength of 215 μm using an optically pumped terahertz laser. The free space Gaussian mode from the terahertz laser source was coupled into the lowest loss TE 11 mode inside the waveguide. The mode profiles of the output beam from the waveguides were shown. A loss of 3.5 dB/m was measured for the silver coated dielectric tube of diameter 4.6 mm.
Pharmaceutical Drug Discovery: Designing the Blockbuster Drug

Twenty years ago, drug discovery was a somewhat plodding and scholastic endeavor; those days are gone. The intellectual challenges are greater than ever but the pace has changed. Although there are greater opportunities for therapeutic targets than ever before, the costs and risks are great and the increasingly competitive environment makes the pace of pharmaceutical drug hunting range from exciting to overwhelming. These changes are catalyzed by major changes to drug discovery processes through application of rapid parallel synthesis of large chemical libraries and high-throughput screening. These techniques result in huge volumes of data for use in decision making. Besides the size and complex nature of biological and chemical data sets and the many sources of data “noise”, the needs of business produce many, often conflicting, decision criteria and constraints such as time, cost, and patent caveats. The drive is still to find potent and selective molecules but, in recent years, key aspects of drug discovery are being shifted to earlier in the process. Discovery scientists are now concerned with building molecules that have good stability but also reasonable properties of absorption into the bloodstream, distribution and binding to tissues, metabolism and excretion, low toxicity, and reasonable cost of production. These requirements result in a high-dimensional decision problem with conflicting criteria and limited resources. An overview of the broad range of issues and activities involved in pharmaceutical screening is given along with references for further reading.
Transitions in Medical Education and Medical Educators

A career in academic medicine requires flexibility and adaptability. This is especially true in changing times where support for research is under pressure due to economic challenges. Moreover, as the curricula for training physicians are examined and revised, methods of teaching are shifting away from a primarily lecture-based format toward group-learning formats in which information traditionally taught along discipline lines is now integrated throughout the medical school years. Transitions in the level of support for research, medical school curricula, and the way content is taught lead inevitably to transitions in faculty careers. Such transitions show the necessity for change-aware academic career management. Transitions in the environment of academic careers may be managed in the same way environmental changes are managed by organisms—by adaptation. In this paper, we describe the most frequent types of transitions in the three-fold axis of faculty life—scholarly activities (research), educational activities, and service to the institution including clinical activities. We discuss obstacles to faculty transitions and propose ways in which departmental and institutional administrations may better encourage and support these transitions.
Evidence accumulation using binary frames of discernment for verification vision

Vision sensor output can be processed to yield a multitude of low-level measurements, where each is inherently uncertain, which must somehow be combined to verify the locations of an object. It is shown that this combination can be accomplished via Dempster-Shafer theory using binary frames of discernment (BFODs). A special advantage of BFODs is the computational ease with which they allow information from disparate sources to be combined, which is particularly significant in light of recent concerns about the exponential complexity of a brute-force implementation of this theory. >
An Exploratory Assessment of Race and Gender-Specific Predictors of Failure to Appear in Court Among Defendants Released via a Pretrial Services Agency:

Failure to appear (FTA) in court is an understudied and ubiquitous problem throughout the justice system and spans across all forms of pretrial release, whether financially or nonfinancially secure...
The Recognition of Extended Targets: SAR Images for Level And Hilly Terrain

An experiment was performed using radar image simulation techniques to determine what a SAR image would look like for a collection of area extensive targets, first with flat underlying terrain and second, in the presence of moderate relief. Although compression, layover, and shadow are well known from the one-dimensional geometry analyses, it has not been previously demonstrated in a pictorial fashion what happens to the appearance of the same controlled reflectivity pattern, for level and hilly ground. It is not surprising to radargrammetrists that even modest elevation changes seriously affect the detection and recognition of boundaries and shapes. The image results clearly demonstrate these effects, and are valuable for many researchers who have previously used, or are just beginning to apply SAR imagery to crops and soils, minerals, and water resources assessment, etc. This research was performed during the course of an investigation to establish the performance of the Seasat-A SAR, in terms of user-oriented features, thus the radar system model and geometry are pertinent to that sensor, although the results can be applied to radar imaging in general. A review of range perspective imaging is included, since information extraction from radar imagery necessitates the knowledge of geometry/propagation effects.
A latent-class regression approach for the analysis of recurrent choice data

This paper introduces a mixture regression model for the analysis and interpretation of multivariate count data in a heterogeneous population. The model is derived by specifying a regression relationship at the individual level between the choice data and a set of concomitant variables. A latent class representation is introduced to describe variations in the regression weights among individuals and to obtain a representation of the aggregate choice behaviour. An easy-to-implement EM algorithm is presented for parameter estimation.
Clinical outcome, role of BRAF V600E , and molecular pathways in papillary thyroid microcarcinoma: is it an indolent cancer or an early stage of papillary thyroid cancer?

Most human thyroid cancers are differentiated papillary carcinomas (PTC). Papillary thyroid microcarcinomas (PTMC) are tumors that measure 1 cm or less. This class of small tumors, recognized fairly recently, has proven to be a very common clinical entity in endocrine diseases. PTMC may be present in 30-40% of human autopsies and is often identified incidentally in a thyroid removed for benign clinical nodules. Although PTMC usually has an excellent long-term prognosis, it can metastasize to neck lymph nodes; however deaths related to this type of thyroid tumor are very rare. Few data exist on molecular pathways that play a role in PTMC development; however, two molecules have been shown to be associated with aggressive PTMC. S100A4 (calcium-binding protein), which plays a role in angiogenesis, extracellular matrix remodeling, and tumor microenvironment, is over-expressed in metastatic PTMC. In addition, the BRAFV600E mutation, the most common genetic alteration in PTC, is present in many PTMC with extra thyroidal extension and lymph node metastasis. Importantly, recently developed selective (e.g. PLX4720, PLX4032 (Vemurafenib, also called RG7204)) or non-selective (e.g. Sorafenib) inhibitors of BRAFV600E may be an effective treatment for patients with BRAFV600E-expressing PTMCs with aggressive clinical-pathologic features. Here, we summarize the clinical outcome, cancer genetics, and molecular mechanisms of PTMC.
An optimal control approach to the decentralized robust servomechanism problem

A linear-quadratic optimal control approach is presented for designing linear time-invariant decentralized controllers to solve the robust servomechanism problem. It is assumed that not only the plant and the measurements but also the controllers may be subject to certain disturbances. A physically meaningful quadratic cost functional is defined, making it possible to assign desired weights to the errors, to their derivatives, to the system effort, and to the controller efforts. It is shown that the resulting controlled system has many properties like asymptotic tracking, stability, and robustness. The solution does not require much control effort at high frequencies, and the system is guaranteed not to have high frequency oscillations. >
The Impact of Outcome Biases on Counterstereotypic Inferences about Groups

Two experiments explored the possibility that the occurrence of inferences biased by different outcomes might produce the perception that a target social group had changed, even in a counter-stereotypic direction. In Experiment 1, subjects made inferences about the conservatism of a political group based on whether the group passed a liberal measure or not. The decision rule in operation at the time of the vote on the issue was manipulated experimentally, so that the measure either passed or failed, even though the same number of group members supported the measure in each vote. When ever the measure passed, subjects saw the group as more liberal than when the measure failed, even if this change was counterstereotypic. In Experiment 2, subjects read about a sequence of performance outcomes that were either consistent or inconsistent with subjects' stereotypes of Black and Asian college students. The magnitude of the impact of outcome biases was as great for the stereotype-inconsistent inferences as for th...
Isothiocyanates inhibit proteasome activity and proliferation of multiple myeloma cells

Isothiocyanates (ITCs), including benzyl isothiocyanate (BITC), phenethyl isothiocyanate (PEITC) and sulforaphane, compounds found in cruciferous vegetable, are highly effective in inducing cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in a variety of cancer cells and animal models. Although some studies indicate that ITC-induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation may underlie apoptosis induction, our recent studies show that covalent binding to target proteins may be an important event triggering apoptosis. In this study, we report that BITC and PEITC significantly inhibit proteasome activity in a variety of cell types. Further studies show that ITCs inhibit both the 26S and 20S proteasomes, presumably through direct binding, and that this inhibition is unrelated to either ROS generation or ITC-induced protein aggregation. The potency of ITC-induced proteasome inhibition correlates with the rapid accumulation of p53 (tumor suppressor) and IκB nuclear factor-kappaB (nuclear factor-kappaB inhibitor). Finally, our results demonstrate that BITC and PEITC, the two strongest proteasome inhibitors, significantly suppress growth of multiple myeloma (MM) cells through induction of cell cycle arrest at G₂/M phase and apoptosis. This study suggests that proteasome, like tubulin, is a potential molecular target of ITCs, thus providing a novel mechanism by which ITCs strongly inhibit growth of MM cells and new leads in identifying compounds with therapeutic and preventative efficacies for MM. It also supports the future studies of ITCs as therapeutic and preventive agents for MM.
An insect-bacteria bioindicator for assessing detrimental nutrient enrichment in wetlands

Field and laboratory studies were conducted to evaluate the use of bacterial growth on aquatic insects as a metric for determining the existence of nutrient impacts in wetlands. Results from field investigations indicated that elevated concentrations of nitrate and phosphate were associated with growth of filamentous bacteria on insect body surfaces and that there were significantly fewer mayflies (Ephemeroptera) in the nutrient-enriched wetland. Laboratory investigations confirmed a strong linkage between bacterial growth and reduced survival of mayflies. Survival was examined for individuals with bacterial infestation ranging from 0% to 60% body coverage. A threshold for catastrophic mortality was present at about the 25% level of coverage; there were very few survivors above that level. Based on these findings, the diagnostic endpoint for the bioindicator is 25% body coverage by bacterial growth, a level that signifies major differences in insect populations in the field and is also easy to detect visually. This study provides evidence that the insect-bacteria bioindicator is a reliable tool for assessing nutrient impacts on wetland macroinvertebrate communities. The bioindicator could be useful in the development of a Wetland Bioassessment Protocol.