cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Gene replacement strategies for lung cancer.

Advances in our understanding of the molecular genetics of cancer present an opportunity to develop prevention and treatment strategies based on the reversal of specific genetic lesions. This strategy is analogous to the classic concept of gene therapy for replacement of defective or nonfunctioning genes. The gene families implicated in carcinogenesis include dominant oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. Regional administration of viral vectors expressing wildtype p53 and antisense K-ras prevents tumor growth for tumors with the specific genetic lesions in orthotopic tumor models and mediates regression of large established tumors. These studies provide a rationale for a new clinical protocol recently approved by the National Institutes of Health Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee and Food and Drug Administration to replace a defective p53 gene with intratumor injection of recombinant retrovirus expressing wild-type p53 or elimination of activted K-ras by expression of antisense K.ras messenger RNA. If these agents are efficacious, their lack of toxicity may provide a sufficiently high therapeutic index such that they could be used as an adjuvant to surgery to treat patients with earlier stages of cancer or as prevention for second primary cancers for individuals with genetic abnormalities in premalignant lesions. Although much research needs to be done, the possibility of specific gene targeting with a high therapeutic index makes this a promising area of investigation. Copyright �9 1996 by W.B. Saunders Company
A Hybrid Approach to Coping with High Dimensionality and Class Imbalance for Software Defect Prediction

High dimensionality and class imbalance are the two main problems affecting many software defect prediction. In this paper, we propose a new technique, named SelectRUSBoost, which is a form of ensemble learning that in-corporates data sampling to alleviate class imbalance and feature selection to resolve high dimensionality. To evaluate the effectiveness of the new technique, we apply it to a group of datasets in the context of software defect prediction. We employ two classification learners and six feature selection techniques. We compare the technique to the approach where feature selection and data sampling are used together, as well as the case where feature selection is used alone (no sampling used at all). The experimental results demonstrate that the SelectRUSBoost technique is more effective in improving classification performance compared to the other approaches.
The impact of genetic susceptibility to systemic lupus erythematosus on placental malaria in mice.

Severe malaria, including cerebral malaria (CM) and placental malaria (PM), have been recognized to have many of the features of uncontrolled inflammation. We recently showed that in mice genetic susceptibility to the lethal inflammatory autoimmune disease, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), conferred resistance to CM. Protection appeared to be mediated by immune mechanisms that allowed SLE-prone mice, prior to the onset of overt SLE symptoms, to better control their inflammatory response to Plasmodium infection. Here we extend these findings to ask does SLE susceptibility have 1) a cost to reproductive fitness and/or 2) an effect on PM in mice? The rates of conception for WT and SLE susceptible (SLEs) mice were similar as were the number and viability of fetuses in pregnant WT and SLEs mice indicating that SLE susceptibility does not have a reproductive cost. We found that Plasmodium chabaudi AS (Pc) infection disrupted early stages of pregnancy before the placenta was completely formed resulting in massive decidual necrosis 8 days after conception. Pc-infected pregnant SLEs mice had significantly more fetuses (∼1.8 fold) but SLE did not significantly affect fetal viability in infected animals. This was despite the fact that Pc-infected pregnant SLEs mice had more severe symptoms of malaria as compared to Pc-infected pregnant WT mice. Thus, although SLE susceptibility was not protective in PM in mice it also did not have a negative impact on reproductive fitness.
Retrieval of soil moisture from passive and active L/S band sensor (PALS) observations during the Soil Moisture Experiment in 2002 (SMEX02)

Abstract The Soil Moisture Experiments in 2002 (SMEX02) were conducted in Iowa between June 25th and July 12th, 2002. A major aim of the experiments was examination of existing algorithms for soil moisture retrieval from active and passive microwave remote sensors under high vegetation water content conditions. The data obtained from the passive and active L and S band sensor (PALS) along with physical variables measured by in situ sampling have been used in this study to demonstrate the sensitivity of the instrument to soil moisture and perform soil moisture retrieval using statistical regression and physical modeling techniques. The land cover conditions in the region studied were predominantly soybean and corn crops with average vegetation water contents ranging from 0 to ∼5 kg/m2. The PALS microwave sensitivity to soil moisture under these vegetation conditions was investigated for both passive and active measurements. The performance of the PALS instrument and retrieval algorithms has been analyzed, indicating soil moisture retrieval errors of approximately 0.04 g/g gravimetric soil moisture. Statistical regression techniques have been shown to perform satisfactorily with soil moisture retrieval error of around 0.05 g/g gravimetric soil moisture. The retrieval errors were higher for the corn than for the soybean fields due to the higher vegetation water content of the corn crops. However, the algorithms performed satisfactorily over the full range of vegetation conditions.
Muscarinic Receptor Stimulation Induces Translocation of an α-Synuclein Oligomer from Plasma Membrane to a Light Vesicle Fraction in Cytoplasm

The close correspondence between the distribution of brain α-synuclein and that of muscarinic M1 and M3 receptors suggests a role for this protein in cholinergic transmission. We thus examined the effect of muscarinic stimulation on α-synuclein in SH-SY5Y, a human dopaminergic cell line that expresses this protein. Under basal conditions, α-synuclein was detected in all subcellular compartments isolated as follows: plasma membrane, cytoplasm, nucleus, and two vesicle fractions. The lipid fractions contained only a 45-kDa α-synuclein oligomer, whereas the cytoplasmic and nuclear fractions contained both the oligomer and the monomer. This finding suggests α-synuclein exists physiologically as a lipid-bound oligomer and a soluble monomer. Muscarinic stimulation by carbachol reduced the α-synuclein oligomer in plasma membrane over a 30-min period, with a concomitant increase of both the oligomer and the monomer in the cytoplasmic fraction. The oligomer was associated with a light vesicle fraction in cytoplasm that contains uncoated endocytotic vesicles. The carbachol-induced alteration of α-synuclein was blocked by atropine. Translocation of the α-synuclein oligomer in response to carbachol stimulation corresponds closely with the time course of ligand-stimulated muscarinic receptor endocytosis. The data suggest that the muscarine receptor stimulated release of the α-synuclein oligomer from plasma membrane, and its subsequent association with the endocytotic vesicle fraction may have a role in muscarine receptor endocytosis. We propose that its function may be a transient release of membrane-bound phospholipase D2 from α-synuclein inhibition, thus allowing this lipase to participate in muscarinic receptor endocytosis.
Implementing a future national center concept in veterinary education for the dairy industry.

JAVMA, Vol 232, No. 9, May 1, 2008 M than a quarter of a century ago, concerns were raised about the nation’s capacity to address animal health issues in the 21st century. Later, a Pew report provided suggestions for new directions for veterinary medicine, including veterinary practice in the 21st century. That report contained numerous farreaching suggestions and admonishments. At least two that are germane to this commentary are, first, that the profession needs to focus resources on the development of species specialists, abandoning the idea of equality of competency in all domestic species, and second, with respect to food supply veterinarians, the profession needs to broaden the educational foundation to include focus on the animal population and associated management as it relates to health. The author of that report identified the need to provide the educational capacity to enable practicing veterinarians to contend with livestock enterprises of various sizes. Following the Pew report, the Pew Foundation, through the Pew National Veterinary Education Program, funded a competitive proposal process, from which several food supply educational consortia that have been considered effective developed. One of these was the Food Animal Production Medicine Consortium (FAPMC). The FAPMC, composed of six cooperating universities, focused on species-specific food animal programs, including beef cattle, dairy cattle, and swine programs. The FAPMC offered various educational and research programs, including student exchanges. The organization lasted about 11 years until 2000; however, student exchanges continued between some of original participating universities. The dissolution of the FAPMC has been attributed to changes in leadership, loss of adequate funding, and failure to market its services effectively. Because of the nature of academic consortia, they are considered to be high risk in terms of longevity. With regard to the FAPMC, the dissolution was probably hastened by legitimate changing self interests of some of the member institutions and, following termination of the Pew funding, the inability of the consortium to develop adequate long-range funding strategies to sustain core programs. Baus points out that the primary motivator for interinstitutional cooperation is enlightened self-interest. Also, it is essential Implementing a future national center concept in veterinary education for the dairy industry
Microflow NMR: concepts and capabilities.

The principles and parameters to consider when choosing an NMR probe for analysis of a volume- or mass-limited sample are identified and discussed. In particular, a capillary-based microflow probe is described which has a mass sensitivity comparable to cryoprobes (observe volume ∼40 μL), but with several distinct advantages. The microflow probe has a flowcell volume of 5 μL and an observe volume of 1.5 μL and is equipped with proton and carbon observe channels, deuterium lock, and z-gradient capability. The entire flow path is fused silica; inlet and outlet capillary inner diameters are 50 μm to minimize sample dispersion, making it well-suited to volume-limited samples. An injected sample of 1 nmol of sucrose (0.34 μg in 3 μL, 0.33 mM; MW = 342 g/mol) yields a 1D proton spectrum in 10 min on a spectrometer of 500 MHz or higher. In another example, 15 μg of sucrose (in 3 μL; 15 mM, 45 nmol) is injected and parked in the probe to yield a heteronuclear multiple-quantum coherence (HMQC) spectrum in less than...
Do synthetic adrenergic agents interfere with the measurement of endogenous plasma catecholamine concentrations

Abstract Purpose: It is common to administer synthetic sympathomimetic and sympatholytic agents in the intensive care unit and operating room. The present study examines whether such agents, as well as the products of catecholamine metabolism, interfere with the quantitation of endogenous catecholamines by high-performance liquid chromatography. Methods: Samples of drugs and metabolites were assayed before and after alumina extraction and their relative retention times were compared with dopamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine relative retention times. Blood samples from patients receiving these drugs were also assayed for their interferences with catecholamine determination. Results: Phenylephrine interfered with the quantitation of epinephrine. Isoproterenol's peak was so delayed it appeared in the following chromatogram. Dobutamine had two small peaks in vitro, whereas in the patient samples only one peak was identified; the other was probably masked by the dopamine peak. Labetalol had one peak when the pure drug was assayed but multiple peaks in patient samples, that were probably caused by metabolites of labetalol. Conclusion: Synthetic adrenergic agents and catecholamine metabolites can potentially interfere with the quantitation of the endogenous catecholamines. Thus, it is important to examine whether such interference occurs when conducting high-performance liquid chromatography assays.
Persistent infrared spectral hole burning of the sulfur—hydrogen vibrational mode in hydrogenated As2S3 glass

Abstract Persistent infrared spectral hole burning is observed for the sulfur—hydrogen vibrational absorption in hydrogen-doped As 2 S 3 glass, the first observation of non-electronic spectral persistence in a glassy host. A dramatic increase in hole width with decreasing burn frequency demonstrates a strong correlation between the inhomogeneous broadening perturbation at a given center and that center's excited state lifetime. Holes are observed to narrow as they spontaneously refill. The non-exponential decay of the integrated hole area over a wide dynamical range and four decades in time is well described by a Gaussian distribution of tunnelling parameters.
Performance Measures For Photo-Optical Systems

The problem of defining a useful and quantitative measure of the performance of a photo-optical system has engaged the attention of many investigators for the last twenty years or more. The results have not so far been encouraging. The problem is twofold: first, to achieve a means for measuring the output material in an effective quantitative manner and, second, to interpret the results into a measure of real information content. Modern developments in modulation transfer analysis have helped toward achieving success in the first part; it is in the second half of the problem that much work remains to be done. This paper reviews the application of transfer functions to performance measure-ment and prediction, presents the results of some experimental work which has been done, and suggests some possible approaches to the solution of the remaining problems, with the intention of simulating more work in this area.
Sequential changes in pulmonary mechanics in the very low birth weight (≤1000 grams) infant

Pulmonary function tests were performed on 36 very low birth weight neonates (birth weight ≤1000 gm, gestational age ≤30 weeks, appropriate size for gestational age) from birth until 8 weeks of age. Tidal airflow was measured by means of a pneumotachygraph, and the transpulmonary pressure changes were determined by the esophageal balloon technique. Pulmonary mechanics and energetics were calculated by the least mean square analysis technique at 1/2, 1, 2, 4, 6, and 8 weeks of age. Complicance was lowest at 2 weeks and subsequently increased linearly (at approximately 0.1 ml/cm H 2 O/wk). When compliance was based on body weight, however, no change was noted with advancing age. Resistance was greatest at 2 weeks and subsequently decreased. The infants maintained a normal minute ventilation with a slightly increased resistive work of breathing. Despite our ability to wean 53% of the infants to room air by 8 weeks, none of them had pulmonary mechanics considered normal for term infants. Infants with and without bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) had similar patterns of pulmonary development. At 8 weeks of age, the pulmonary mechanics in infants with BPD who had been weaned to room air were comparable to those in infants without BPD, and observation that calls into question the rationale for defining BPD at 4 weeks in this population. These data suggest that such pulmonary function profiles provide evidence of persistent lung parenchymal abnormalities.
Local epinephrine facilitates laparoscopic Heller myotomy

Incomplete myotomy and mucosal perforation are the most common technical complications of laparoscopic esophageal myotomy. The muscle layers of the lower esophagus are infiltrated with a 1:100,000 epinephrine solution using a thin needle. Gentle pressure is applied with a peanut sponge to diminish the edema produced by the injections. The longitudinal fibers are separated with a dissector and the semicircular fibers are lifted from the submucosa with a dissector or a hook. The muscle transection is done simply by tearing the fibers or cutting them with scissors. No coagulation is required. Infiltration and topical application of epinephrine solution allowed the performance of 22 laparoscopic esophageal myotomies with excellent visualization, complete muscle division, and without any esophageal or gastric perforation. Injection and topical application of epinephrine solution to the area of the esophagus and stomach which will be subjected to myotomy greatly facilitates the procedure and helps to avoid complications.
The behavioral assessment of male and female social competence in dyadic heterosexual interactions.

Male and female undergraduates who were either high (HFD) or low (LFD) indating frequency were matched with opposite sexed partners in a 2×2 design and compared on behavioral, self-report, and partner rating measures of social competence and attractiveness. Neither total frequency nor reciprocal behavioral measures produced any between group differences. Physical attractiveness discriminated significantly between HFD and LFD groups. The importance of negative self-evaluations was supported in males rather than a social skill deficit hypothesis. By contrast, LFD females seemed characterized by a social skill deficit rather than overly negative self-evaluations. Discussion centered on issues in behavioral assessment and models of social inhibition.
Expanding the Family Economic Stress Model: Insights From a Mixed‐Methods Approach

The current study used a mixed-methods approach to examine how low-income mothers managed their household economies, their experiences of economic pressure, and the consequences for family and child functioning. Qualitative analyses (N = 32 families) revealed that experiences of economic pressure were associated with an inability to afford both basic needs and some modest but highly valued “extras.” To meet demands, mothers reported using a variety of strategies, including instrumental support from friends and family members and other financial strategies. Results from the quantitative analyses (N= 516 families; 800 children, ages 6 – 15) were generally consistent with patterns observed in the qualitative analyses and extended the findings to include effects on parenting practices and children’s behavioral functioning.
The Flash Crash: Trading Aggressiveness, Liquidity Supply, and the Impact of Intermarket Sweep Orders

During the Flash Crash on May 6, 2010, a short period of high stock market volatility, some stock prices declined to $0.01, while others increased to $100,000. Examining Intermarket Sweep Orders (ISO) before, on, and after May 6, we find that ISO use is substantially higher on May 6. For those stocks whose prices fell the most, over 65% of the sell volume comes from ISOs. During the price recovery period for these stocks, about 53% of the buy volume comes from ISOs. We believe that the unusual behavior of ISOs contributed to the sudden drop and recovery of the market.
Terminal Pleistocene/Early Holocene Environmental Change at the Sunshine Locality, North-Central Nevada, U.S.A.

Sedimentological, faunal, and archaeological investigations at the Sunshine Locality, Long Valley, Nevada reveal a history of human adaptation and environmental change at the last glacial–interglacial transition in North America's north-central Great Basin. The locality contains a suite of lacustrine, alluvial, and eolian deposits associated with fluvially reworked faunal remains and Paleoindian artifacts. Radiocarbon-dated stratigraphy indicates a history of receding pluvial lake levels followed by alluvial downcutting and subsequent valley filling with marsh-like conditions at the end of the Pleistocene. A period of alluvial deposition and shallow water tables (9,800 to 11,000 14C yr B.P.) correlates to the Younger Dryas. Subsequent drier conditions and reduced surface runoff mark the early Holocene; sand dunes replace wetlands by 8,000 14C yr B.P. The stratigraphy at Sunshine is similar to sites located 400 km south and supports regional climatic synchroneity in the central and southern Great Basin during the terminal Pleistocene/early Holocene. Given regional climate change and recurrent geomorphic settings comparable to Sunshine, we believe that there is a high potential for buried Paleoindian features in primary association with extinct fauna elsewhere in the region yet to be discovered due to limited stratigraphic exposure and consequent low visibility.
Finding explanations online: Easy queries AND trustworthy answers

Web search engines provide easy access to a huge range of web-accessible resources but the most trustworthy explanations are often in hard-to-search resources in the deep web. The literature on information literacy reflects widespread concern that people tend not to use complex online digital versions of traditional reference works and instead depend heavily on easy-to-use resources of questioned reliability, notably Google and the Wikipedia. The proper response lies in better design to combine ease of search with trustworthy resources. We will report on efforts to demonstrate how that could be done.
A Climatology of Subtropical Cyclones in the South Atlantic

AbstractA 50-yr climatology (1957–2007) of subtropical cyclones (STs) in the South Atlantic is developed and analyzed. A subtropical cyclone is a hybrid structure (upper-level cold core and lower-level warm core) with associated surface gale-force winds. The tendency for warm season development of North Atlantic STs has resulted in these systems being confused as tropical cyclones (TCs). In fact, North Atlantic STs are a regular source of the incipient vortices leading to North Atlantic TC genesis. In 2004, Hurricane Catarina developed in the South Atlantic and made landfall in Brazil. A TC system had been previously unobserved in the South Atlantic, so the incidence of Catarina highlighted the lack of an ST climatology for the region to provide a context for the likelihood of future systems.Sixty-three South Atlantic STs are documented over the 50-yr period analyzed in this climatology. In contrast to the North Atlantic, South Atlantic STs occur relatively uniformly throughout the year; however, their pr...
A decentralized control for mobile sensor network effective coverage

This paper investigates the effective coverage problem over an n-dimensional space of a mobile sensor system. We assume the sensor agent in the system has limited sensing range and communication range. We define the effective coverage problem as to achieve the maximum coverage and total communication distance minimized. We proposed decentralized control law to deploy mobile sensors achieve coverage goal based on gradient approach. Furthermore, the deploying control law avoids potential collision between agents.
Shape-based semi-automatic hippocampal subfield segmentation with learning-based bias removal

We develop a semi-automatic technique for segmentation of hippocampal subfields in T2-weighted in vivo brain MRI. The technique takes the binary segmentation of the whole hippocampus as input, and automatically labels the subfields inside the hippocampus segmentation. Shape priors for the hippocampal subfields are generated from shape-based normalization of whole hippocampi via the continuous medial representation method. To combine the shape priors with appearance features, we use a machine learning based method. The key novelty is that we treat the mistakes made by the shape priors as bias, which can be detected and corrected via learning. The main advantage of this formulation is that it significantly simplifies the learning problem by taking full advantage of current segmentations and focusing on only improving their drawbacks. Experiments show that the bias removal approach achieves significant improvement in all subfields. Our bias removal idea is general, and can be applied to improve other segmentation methods as well.
A longitudinal study of work-based, adult–youth mentoring

Abstract Using a longitudinal design, this study explored the relation of urban high school student attitudes toward school, work, and self-esteem beliefs to work-based mentoring, mentor satisfaction, and employment status. Participants included high school students taking part in a formal work-based mentoring program, students who established informal mentoring relationships at work, students who worked without a mentor, and students who were not employed during the academic year. While there were no significant group differences in the measures at the start of the year, results at the end of the year showed that students in the formal mentoring program believed more strongly that school was relevant to work than those who worked without a mentor. Students with mentors had higher levels of self-esteem than those who did not work. Students who were highly satisfied with their mentors had higher levels of self-esteem and believed more strongly that school was relevant to the workplace than students who did not work. The implications of these results are discussed and future research areas are identified.
Four Centuries of Change in Northeastern United States Forests

The northeastern United States is a predominately-forested region that, like most of the eastern U.S., has undergone a 400-year history of intense logging, land clearance for agriculture, and natural reforestation. This setting affords the opportunity to address a major ecological question: How similar are today's forests to those existing prior to European colonization? Working throughout a nine-state region spanning Maine to Pennsylvania, we assembled a comprehensive database of archival land-survey records describing the forests at the time of European colonization. We compared these records to modern forest inventory data and described: (1) the magnitude and attributes of forest compositional change, (2) the geography of change, and (3) the relationships between change and environmental factors and historical land use. We found that with few exceptions, notably the American chestnut, the same taxa that made up the pre-colonial forest still comprise the forest today, despite ample opportunities for species invasion and loss. Nonetheless, there have been dramatic shifts in the relative abundance of forest taxa. The magnitude of change is spatially clustered at local scales (<125 km) but exhibits little evidence of regional-scale gradients. Compositional change is most strongly associated with the historical extent of agricultural clearing. Throughout the region, there has been a broad ecological shift away from late successional taxa, such as beech and hemlock, in favor of early- and mid-successional taxa, such as red maple and poplar. Additionally, the modern forest composition is more homogeneous and less coupled to local climatic controls.
Application of systems engineering methodologies to transitions to sustainable technologies: An architecture framework supporting management of portfolios of sustainable technology transition projects

Transition Management (TM) is a concept which has gained popularity as a means to affect large-scale shifts to more sustainable technologies. The transition management approach is a cyclical process built upon a multilevel perspective of technology transitions. There is also a growing body of research on systems engineering for sustainability, but the field remains focused in areas such as indicators or metrics for sustainability, optimization of design and/or selection decisions and processes, or techniques for evaluation of various projects or proposals, with limited research being conducted directly on the role of systems engineering within TM. This paper discusses the potential for systems engineering application within TM and presents a specific example of a system engineering application developed for use in TM implementation efforts. Requirements for an architecture framework to support a portfolio of TM projects were developed based on a comprehensive literature review. Based on these requirements, an overview and discussion of a Transition Management Portfolio Architecture Framework is presented. Initial results show the need for, and the application of a large body of literature to, such a framework. Further research will include further specification of the architecture framework design as well as validation utilizing a case study of a portfolio of transition projects.
Dispersion of Air

New measurements of the infrared dispersion of air are reported. They agree with series I of the 1962 data of Peck and Khanna, but lie below Edlen’s 1966 formula. A two-term Sellmeier formula suffices to fit the resulting infrared (ir) data as well as the data selected by Edlen in the visible and ultraviolet (uv), being valid down to nearly 0.23 μm. Other possible Sellmeier fits are discussed, including extension to 0.185 μm.
Mechanism of fiber carcinogenesis: From reactive radical species to silencing of the βigH3 gene

Although the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has restricted the industrial use of regulated forms of asbestos in the United States since the early 1970s, environmental exposure to asbestos remains a health concern in the United States and is a significant health issue among developing countries. Exposure to asbestos is associated with chronic pulmonary diseases and cancer of the lung, pleura, and peritoneum. The mechanism of fiber carcinogenesis is far from clear and is likely to be complex, depending on fiber dimensions, surface properties, and physical durability. The induction of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species upon phagocytosis of fibers plays an important role in fiber genotoxicity. The βigH3, a secreted protein induced by the transforming growth factor-β and essential for cell adhesion, is downregulated in asbestos-induced tumorigenic human bronchial epithelial cells. Ectopic expression of the βigH3 gene abrogates the tumorigenic phenotype and suggests that the gene plays a causal role in ...
Preliminary Paleomagnetic Investigations of Winnfield Salt Dome Cap Rock, Louisiana: ABSTRACT

Quarrying operations at Winnfield salt dome in the North Louisiana basin provide access to calcite, gypsum, and anhydrite cap-rock zones. Sulfide laminae in the anhydrite zone are comprised dominantly of pyrhotite with lesser amounts of sphalerite, galena, pyrite, and marcasite. Sulfides cement euhedral anhydrite grains and represent the products of the episodic introduction of metalliferous waters along the salt-anhydrite interface during halite dissolution and residual anhydrite accumulation. Thus, sulfide laminae provide a chronological record of anhydrite cap-rock accretion. Two hundred oriented samples were collected in stratigraphic sequence, covering much of the exposed anhydrite section. Alternating field demagnetization readily revealed the magnetic polarity of most samples. Using only reversely magnetized samples with a well-defined stable magnetization (N = 50, ^agr95 = 6.2°) yields a pole position at 71.4°N, 125.7°E, which implies that the sampled cap-rock sequence formed in the Late Jurassic. This age is consistent with geologic evidence indicating that cap-rock formation began in the late Jurassic and was most intense during the Early Cretaceous. A densely sampled 45-ft stratigraphic interval contains a sequence of normal and reverse polarity zones. Assuming a constant formation rate, these zones can be compared with the M-anomaly sequence. A growth rate of about 67 ft/m.y. (20 m/m.y.) is indicated. This value is about 30 times less than estimates of salt dome growth rates. Because a 10 to 50-fold decrease in volume is associated with halite dissolution and anhydrite accretion, the paleomagnetically determined value for cap-rock formation rate is reasonable. This investigation is the first such study undertaken. The results are encouraging and offer a unique approach for investigating the timing of various geologic processes related to salt dome formation. End_of_Article - Last_Page 1422------------
The association of Medicare health care delivery systems with stage at diagnosis and survival for patients with melanoma.

Results: We found an earlier stage of diagnosis for the HMO group compared with the FFS group for melanoma as the first cancer diagnosis, but this did not persist when melanoma was the second or a later cancer diagnosis. For patients with melanoma as the first cancer diagnosis, improved survival was related to earlier stage at diagnosis. Conclusions: Differences exist in stage at diagnosis between patients in HMOs compared with those in FFS health care plans. This is likely due in part to utilization of services or access to care for patients in HMOs, and maybesimilartothatofpatientsinFFSplanswithaprevious cancer diagnosis before their diagnosis of melanoma.Wedidnotfindanincreasedriskofdiagnosiswith a late-stage cancer among patients with vs those without a previous cancer diagnosis. Improved survival appears to be related to earlier stage at diagnosis. Arch Dermatol. 2005;141:753-757
A systematic approach to extracting semantic information from functional MRI data

This paper introduces a novel classification method for functional magnetic resonance imaging datasets with tens of classes. The method is designed to make predictions using information from as many brain locations as possible, instead of resorting to feature selection, and does this by decomposing the pattern of brain activation into differently informative sub-regions. We provide results over a complex semantic processing dataset that show that the method is competitive with state-of-the-art feature selection and also suggest how the method may be used to perform group or exploratory analyses of complex class structure.
Dynamic reservoir management with real‐option risk hedging as a robust adaptation to nonstationary climate

[1] The implications of climate change and the potential nonstationarity of the hydrologic record necessitate innovative approaches to water management. This study presents a novel adaptation strategy for water reservoir management under nonstationary hydrologic conditions. Seasonal hydrologic forecasts and a real-option instrument allow reservoir operations that dynamically adapt to an evolving hydrologic record. System operating policies are conditioned on seasonal hydrologic forecasts to account for year-to-year variability and climate change and a real option is established to hedge against the risk associated with operational forecasts and unexpected climate outcomes. This scheme is implemented over an ensemble of climate futures based on general circulation model (GCM) simulations. Two alternative management strategies are considered, one in which system operations are optimized for the GCM-based ensemble mean projection of the future and a baseline strategy in which assumptions of stationarity are maintained and operations are left unchanged from historic norms. The approach is evaluated for a water supply– hydropower facility on the Westfield River in the northeast United States. Results suggest that seasonal hydrologic forecasts are a promising adaptation to nonstationary hydrology, even without the support of a risk hedging option. Surprisingly, the option approach enabled even a stationary assumption to perform well in the future, suggesting that option instruments alone can act as a robust adaptation mechanism.
A novel on-chip delay measurement hardware for efficient speed-binning

With the aggressive scaling of the CMOS technology parametric variation of the transistor threshold voltage causes significant spread in the circuit delay as well as leakage spectrum. Consequently, speed binning of the high performance VLSI chips is essential and it costs significant amount of test application time. Further, the knowledge of the actual delay in the critical path of the circuit enables efficient use of typical low power methodologies e.g., voltage scaling, adaptive body biasing etc. In this paper, the authors have proposed a novel on-chip, low overhead and process tolerant delay measurement circuit which can estimate the critical path delay in a single clock period. This has the advantage of efficient on-chip speed binning.
MISR empirical stray light corrections in high-contrast scenes

Abstract. We diagnose the potential causes for the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer's (MISR) persistent high aerosol optical depth (AOD) bias at low AOD with the aid of coincident MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) imagery from NASA's Terra satellite. Stray light in the MISR instrument is responsible for a large portion of the high AOD bias in high-contrast scenes, such as broken-cloud scenes that are quite common over ocean. Discrepancies among MODIS and MISR nadir-viewing blue, green, red, and near-infrared images are used to optimize seven parameters individually for each wavelength, along with a background reflectance modulation term that is modeled separately, to represent the observed features. Independent surface-based AOD measurements from the AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) and the Marine Aerosol Network (MAN) are compared with MISR research aerosol retrieval algorithm (RA) AOD retrievals for 1118 coincidences to validate the corrections when applied to the nadir and off-nadir cameras. With these corrections, plus the baseline RA corrections and enhanced cloud screening applied, the median AOD bias for all data in the mid-visible (green, 558 nm) band decreases from 0.006 (0.020 for the MISR standard algorithm (SA)) to 0.000, and the RMSE decreases by 5 % (27 % compared to the SA). For AOD558 nm
Ultrastructural evidence for two‐cell and three‐cell neural pathways in the tentacle epidermis of the sea anemone Aiptasia pallida

Sensory and ganglion cells in the tentacle epidermis of the sea anemone Aiptasia pallida were traced in serial transmission electron micrographs to their synaptic contacts on other cells. Sensory cell synapses were found on spirocytes, muscle cells, and ganglion cells. Ganglion cells, in turn, synapsed on sensory cells, spirocytes, muscle cells, and other neurons and formed en passant axo-axonal synapses. Axonal synapses on nematocytes and gland cells were not traced to their cells of origin, i.e., identified sensory or ganglion cells. Direct synaptic contacts of sensory cells with spirocytes and sensory cells with muscle cells suggest a local two-cell pathway for spirocyst discharge and muscle cell contraction, whereas interjection of a ganglion cell between the sensory and effector cells creates a local three-cell pathway. The network of ganglion cells and their processes allows for a through-conduction system that is interconnected by chemical synapses. Although the sea anemone nervous system is more complex than that of Hydra, it has similar two-cell and three-cell effector pathways that may function in local responses to tentacle contact with food. J. Morphol. 251:83–92, 2002. © 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
A clustering technique to optimize hardware/software synchronization

In this paper we present a scheme for reducing the amount of synchronization overhead needed between components, after HW/SW partitioning, to preserve the original control flow of the specification. Since traffic between components is expensive, our scheme can significantly enhance the performance of the system implementation. Our optimization technique dynamically groups the tasks in the specification such that synchronization for different tasks can be shared. The grouping depends on the partitioning decision, and hence, is performed during the generation of the partitioned model. We apply our grouping algorithm for various partitions on system level models of industry standard designs. The experimental results show significant reduction in synchronization overhead compared to the unoptimized model.
Hybrid photosensitizer based on amphiphilic block copolymer stabilized silver nanoparticles for highly efficient photodynamic inactivation of bacteria

We report the development of a type of novel hybrid photosensitizers for photodynamic inactivation of broad-spectrum bacteria. A thiol-modified amphiphilic block copolymer, poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-block-styrene), was synthesized and characterized. Subsequently, silver nanoparticles stabilized by poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-block-styrene) were synthesized and used to entrap hydrophobic photosensitizing molecules (such as hematoporphyrin). The resulting water-dispersible hybrid photosensitizers demonstrated enhanced singlet oxygen generation with a broadened excitation profile, as compared to the pristine hematoporphyrin molecules. Photodynamic inactivation of Staphylococcus epidermidis and Escherichia coli by the hybrid photosensitizer showed significantly enhanced killing efficacy, up to ∼5 orders of magnitude, under both white light and red/near-infrared light illuminations. The hybrid photosensitizers at the concentration used in the photodynamic inactivation assays displayed low cytotoxicity to Hela cells under ambient light conditions. These results demonstrate the great potential of such hybrid photosensitizers for photodynamic inactivation and photodynamic therapy applications.
Lexicon-Free Conversational Speech Recognition with Neural Networks

We present an approach to speech recognition that uses only a neural network to map acoustic input to characters, a character-level language model, and a beam search decoding procedure. This approach eliminates much of the complex infrastructure of modern speech recognition systems, making it possible to directly train a speech recognizer using errors generated by spoken language understanding tasks. The system naturally handles out of vocabulary words and spoken word fragments. We demonstrate our approach using the challenging Switchboard telephone conversation transcription task, achieving a word error rate competitive with existing baseline systems. To our knowledge, this is the first entirely neural-network-based system to achieve strong speech transcription results on a conversational speech task. We analyze qualitative differences between transcriptions produced by our lexicon-free approach and transcriptions produced by a standard speech recognition system. Finally, we evaluate the impact of large context neural network character language models as compared to standard n-gram models within our framework.
The polypeptides of adenovirus: I. Evidence for multiple protein components in the virion and a comparison of types 2, 7A, and 12☆

Abstract The adenovirion has been shown to contain at least nine different polypeptides demonstrable by dissociation and acrylamide gel electrophoresis in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). Each polypeptide of adenovirus type 2 is chemically distinct by isotopic ratio analysis, and they all contain lysine, arginine, tryptophan, valine, and threonine. The molecular weights of these polypeptides determined by gel electrophoresis range from 120,000 for the largest and most prominent component to 7500 for the smallest. Comparison of nontumorigenic type 2 with tumorigenic types 7A and 12 by double-isotope labeling revealed a generally similar peptide pattern for all types. However, there were distinct differences between the corresponding peptides of all three types. These results imply extensive differences in the genes for most of the capsid proteins.
The effects of chronic hypokalaemia, hyponatraemia, and acid-base alterations on erythrocyte sodium transport.

SUMMARY 1. Erythrocyte sodium concentration and fluxes were measured in patients with acid-base disturbances, hypokalaemia and hyponatraemia. Results were similar to those obtained with normal erythrocytes exposed to artificial in vitro alterations. 2. Erythrocyte sodium content and influx varied directly with extracellular bicarbonate which appeared to influence membrane permeability. 3. Hypokalaemia increased the erythrocyte sodium content by decreasing active transport initially. When a new high erythrocyte steady-state sodium concentration was reached, active transport returned to normal but efflux and influx were increased considerably by the appearance of a large component of exchange diffusion in the hypokalaemic environment. 4. Hyponatraemia induced a decrease in sodium influx secondary to the decreased transmembrane sodium concentration gradient, A decrease in erythrocyte sodium content then ensued. 5. The results are discussed in relation to the assessment of cell membrane function in disease states.
THE REALIZATHE STUDY AND DEVELOPMENT BASED ON THE AVG DATA FILE SYNTAX OF GDP SERIES DEVICE

The series device of GDP is produced by the US company Zonge,which has been used in many fields since 1980s,such as,resource prospecting ,engineering geology,disaster survey and so on. The according processing program of GDP series device is,however,limited in the practice function. As a result,there are some difficulties in processing the file which has AVG as extended file name.To conclude,we have to study on the AVG file format.This essay introduces some explicit explanation on this data syntax,as well as giving program code how to read the data syntax. Finally the authors present a reading file example, and prove that the program is sound.
Introduction and Analysis to Frequency or Area Matching Method Applied to Precipitation Forecast Bias Correction

Using frequency or area matching method,an experiment is performed to correct precipitation forecast bias from AREM model over China during June-August,2012(rainy season).The method is first introduced including its meteorological principle and mathematical means,and its performance is evaluated.Then in-depth analysis is done to understand its advantages and limitations,and future research directions are suggested.Three conclusions are drawn from this study.(1)The method can effectively eliminate biases in precipitation amount and areal coverage.The corrected precipitation amount and area coverage are much closer to the observations.(2)The method works better when bias is higher.(3)This method,in principle,has no ability to correct precipitation position errors,but through precipitation area alternation,large area of erroneous or spurious light rain from model forecasts can be effectively removed,resulting in significantly improved TS and ETS scores for light precipitation.Therefore,this calibration method can greatly increase the accuracy of a "rain or no rain" dichotomous forecast in numerical weather prediction.In addition,five possible approaches are proposed to remedy the inability of this method in correcting precipitation position error.This method can also be used at single station.Hydrological application of this method is apparent since an accurate input of precipitation amount and areal coverage is critical to a hydrological forecast model over a watershed.Besides for precipitation,this method can also be applied to correct forecast bias for other variables like fog.