cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Testing the simple and complex versions of Gloger’s rule in the Variable Antshrike (Thamnophilus caerulescens, Thamnophilidae)

Gloger's rule is a classic ecogeographical principle that, in its simplest version, predicts animals should be darker in warmer and wetter climates. In a rarely tested more complex version, it also predicts animals should be more rufous in warmer and drier climates. The Variable Antshrike (Thamnophilus caerulescens) is a widely distributed South American passerine that presents an impressive amount of plumage color variation and occupies a wide variety of climatic conditions. Moreover, genetic and vocal evidence indicate ongoing hybridization in south-central Bolivia among 3 populations with very distinct plumages. We collected color data from 232 specimens from throughout this species' distribution to test the predictions of Gloger's rule. We found a negative correlation between brightness and precipitation, consistent with the simple version of Gloger's rule. In contrast, we found that birds were darker in cooler climates, contrary to the simple version of Gloger's rule, but consistent with recent findings in other taxa. We found support for both predictions of the complex Gloger's rule and suggest it might be driven by background matching. We conclude by concurring with a recent suggestion that the simple version of Gloger's rule should be reformulated exclusively in terms of humidity.LAY SUMMARYAlmost 200 years ago, the German naturalist Constantin Gloger predicted that birds that live in warm and rainy areas tend to be darker than those that in live in cool and dry areas. He also predicted that birds tend to be browner when they live in dry areas. This pattern has come to be known as Gloger's rule.South America has the world's greatest bird diversity, but Gloger's rule has almost never been studied in South American birds. This is an important question to address because it can help us learn about how species evolve respond to their environments. It becomes even more important in our era of human-induced climatic changes.We studied Gloger's rule in the aptly named Variable Antshrike. This small South American bird species varies geographically in color from almost all black to almost all white. We used a technique called reflectance spectrophotometry, which allows us to precisely quantify the colors of feathers. We measured over 200 specimens kept in natural history collections. The majority of those specimens were collected by one of us (Brumfield) in Bolivia in the early 2000s. This is the largest sample size ever used to study Gloger's rule in a tropical bird.As predicted by Gloger, we found that the Variable Antshrike tends to be darker in rainier areas, and it tends to be browner in drier and warmer areas. But contrary to Gloger's ideas, we found that it tends to be darker in cooler, not warmer, areas. We suggest that this might be because being dark in cooler places helps birds maintain warm body temperatures. We also suggest that being brown in dry areas helps the birds camouflage amidst sparse vegetation.
Change theory and theory of change: what’s the difference anyway?

This commentary focuses on the difference between a theory of change and change theory, as it relates to systemic change projects in STEM higher education. A theory of change is project-specific and related to evaluation. It makes the underlying rationale of a project explicit, which supports planning, implementation, and assessment of the project. In addition, a theory of change is often required by funding agencies as part of grant proposals. In contrast, change theories represent theoretical and empirically grounded knowledge about how change occurs that goes beyond any one project. Ideally, a theory of change is informed by change theories. This essay describes the connections between a theory of change and change theory and provides examples of how change theory can inform a project’s theory of change. Grounding projects in change theory allows change agents to draw on existing knowledge and to better contribute to our collective knowledge about how to achieve meaningful change in STEM higher education.
The relations of White parents' implicit racial attitudes to their children's differential empathic concern toward White and Black victims.

The goal of this study was to investigate the relations between White parents' implicit racial attitudes and their children's racially based bias in empathic concern toward White and Black victims of injustice as well as the moderating role of children's age in this relation. Children aged 5-9 years (N = 190) reported how sorry (i.e., sympathy) and nervous (i.e., personal distress) they felt after watching sympathy-inducing videos in which either a White (non-Hispanic) child or a Black child was teased by peers. Participants' primary caregivers (mostly mothers) completed a computerized Implicit Association Test to assess their implicit racial attitudes. Parents' implicit race bias was associated with their children's reported sympathy toward Black victims and their sympathetic bias (i.e., relative sympathy toward White vs. Black victims); however, results were moderated by children's age. Specifically, parents with higher implicit race bias tended to have children with lower levels of sympathy toward Black victims for younger children and higher levels of sympathetic bias for younger and average-aged children but not for older children. Older children tended to report relatively high levels of sympathy toward Black victims and low levels of sympathetic bias regardless of their parents' implicit attitudes. The importance of parents' implicit attitudes in understanding young children's race-based moral emotional responses and the implications for intervention work are discussed.
Scripture, Culture, and Agriculture: Seeing with God: Israel's Poem of Creation

God's seeing protects the world from falling back into the void, protects it from total destruction. God sees the world as good, as created – even where it is the fallen world – and because of the way God sees his work and embraces it and does not forsake it, we live. (Dietrich Bonhoeffer) To preserve our places and to be at home in them, it is necessary to fill them with imagination. To imagine as well as see what is in them. Not to fill them with the junk of fantasy and unconsciousness, for that is no more than the industrial economy would do, but to see them first clearly with the eyes, and then to see them with the imagination in their sanctity, as belonging to the Creation. (Wendell Berry) READING GENESIS 1 AS A POEM The first chapter of Genesis would seem to present an initial and perhaps insurmountable challenge to my thesis that the dominant mind-set expressed in the Hebrew Scriptures is agrarian. Ecologically sensitive readers, both professional and lay, generally take offense at the notion that God commands humans to exercise dominion over the earth. The attitude of Genesis 1 is “arrogant and narcissistic,” according to soil scientist Daniel Hillel, in contrast to the “more responsible role assigned to humanity in the second creation story.”
Light in Biology and Medicine

Humans were unaware of radio waves until 1885, when Heinrich Hertz detected them after Maxwell’s prediction in 1864. We now realized how important all electromagnetic waves are in the Universe and in their actions on life forms, including the effects of infrared ‘heat’ waves, microwaves, visible light, ultraviolet light, X-rays, and gamma rays. Today, our technological society utilizes all such waves, including for biological research and medical applications.
Band offsets of (100) β-(Al x Ga 1-x ) 2 O 3 /β-Ga 2 O 3 heterointerfaces grown via MOCVD

The valence and conduction band offsets at (100) β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3/β-Ga2O3 heterointerfaces with the increasing Al composition are determined via x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The (100) β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 thin films with the Al composition of 0.10 < x < 0.52 are grown on (100) β-Ga2O3 substrates by the metalorganic chemical vapor deposition method. By examining the onset of inelastic energy loss in core-level atomic spectra, the bandgaps of β-Ga2O3 and β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 alloys with different Al compositions are measured from 4.83 ± 0.12 eV (x = 0) to 5.85 ± 0.08 eV (x = 0.52). The valence band offsets are determined to be −0.06 ± 0.06 eV (x = 0.10), −0.11 ± 0.06 eV (x = 0.33), and −0.19 ± 0.06 eV (x = 0.52). The conduction band offsets of 0.34 ± 0.17 eV (x = 0.10), 0.62 ± 0.17 eV (x = 0.33), and 1.21 ± 0.16 eV (x = 0.52) are determined from the extracted bandgaps of β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 alloys. The determined band alignments at β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3/β-Ga2O3 interfaces reveal the formation of type-II (staggered gap) heterojunctions for all Al compositions investigated. The bowing parameters obtained from the quadratic fitting of both conduction band minimum and valence band maximum values are estimated to be 1.25 eV and 0.005 eV, respectively.
A Role for Artificial Intelligence in the Classification of Craniofacial Anomalies.

ABSTRACT Development of an objective algorithm to diagnose and assess craniofacial conditions has the potential to facilitate early diagnosis, especially for care providers with limited craniofacial expertise. Deep learning, a branch of artificial intelligence, can automatically analyze and categorize disease without human assistance. Convolutional neural networks (CNN) have excelled in utilizing medical images to automatically classify disease. In this study, the authors developed CNN models to detect and classify non-syndromic craniosynostosis (CS) using 2D images. The authors created an annotated data set of labeled CS (normal, metopic, sagittal, and unicoronal) conditions using standard clinical photography from the image repository at our center. The authors extended this dataset set by adding photographic images of children with craniofacial conditions from the internet. A total of 1076 images were used in this study. The authors developed a CNN model using a pre-trained ResNet-50 model to classify the data as metopic, sagittal, and unicoronal. The testing accuracy for the CS ResNet50 model achieved an overall testing accuracy of 90.6%. The sensitivity and precision were: 100% and 100% for metopic, 93.3% and 100% for sagittal, and 66.7% and 100% for unicoronal, respectively. The CNN model performed with promising accuracy. These results support the idea that deep learning has a role in diagnosis of craniofacial conditions. Using standard 2D clinical photography, such systems can provide automated screening and detection of these conditions. In the future, ML may be applied to prediction and assessment of surgical outcomes, or as an open-source remote diagnostic resource.
Preoperative Cardiovascular Monitoring

Summary Clinicians have available to them a variety of preoperative screening and monitoring techniques allowing detection of CAD, infarction, and evaluation of ventricular function, factors that have been shown to correlate with postoperative cardiac morbidity. Electrocardiography has been the traditional mainstay for detecting CAD. The increasing use of ambulatory ST-segment monitoring should ensure its importance for the foreseeable future. The use of techniques that unmask CAD by increasing myocardial oxygen demand, or by use of pharmacologic vasodilation to induce regional differences in coronary blood flow, have greater sensitivity than tests performed in the resting state. Dipyridamole-thallium imaging, attractive due to its application to patients unable to exercise, has grown in popularity. Although it may be a sensitive predictor of adverse outcome or intraoperative ischemia, evidence suggests that it has little value as a routine screening tool. Evaluation of left ventricular function is possible using many different techniques, although radionuclide angiography is the most sensitive. Low ejection fraction, especially below 0.40, identifies a subgroup of patients at high risk. Aggressive therapy of myocardial ischemia or congestive heart failure, identified by these techniques, may enhance perioperative survival in these patients. Preoperative assessment remains the cornerstone of perioperative care.
Using deep perceptual embeddings as a quality metric for synthetic imagery

The potential of synthetic image generation in machine learning applications has a myriad of both benefits and drawbacks. Synthetic datasets are valuable when real datasets are costly to acquire or difficult to share. Although synthetic imagery has improved in quality over the years, automated evaluation of the synthetic data remains challenging. For example, the Frechet inception distance does not always correlate with perceptual quality and the perceptual path length operates at the model level rather than the data level. In this work, we propose a new evaluation metric that both correlates with perceptual quality and operates at the data level so that it can function on datasets from any domain. We do this by mapping high dimensional images into a lower dimensional, perceptually disentangled embedding space and computing the distance between distributions of embeddings within this space. We utilize a convolutional autoencoder trained with a linear combination of pixelwise and perceptual losses to perform the mapping and use existing metrics to measure the distance between the distributions of embeddings. We demonstrate efficacy of this metric on the CIFAR-10 dataset.
DLPacker: Deep Learning for Prediction of Amino Acid Side Chain Conformations in Proteins

AO_SCPLOWBSTRACTC_SCPLOWPrediction of side chain conformations of amino acids in proteins (also termed packing) is an important and challenging part of protein structure prediction with many interesting applications in protein design. A variety of methods for packing have been developed but more accurate ones are still needed. Machine learning (ML) methods have recently become a powerful tool for solving various problems in diverse areas of science, including structural biology. In this work we evaluate the potential of Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) for prediction of amino acid side chain conformations. We formulate the problem as image-to-image transformation and train a U-net style DNN to solve the problem. We show that our method outperforms other physics-based methods by a significant margin: reconstruction RMSDs for most amino acids are about 20% smaller compared to SCWRL4 and Rosetta Packer with RMSDs for bulky hydrophobic amino acids Phe, Tyr and Trp being up to 50% smaller.
Summary Talk—International Conference of Spin Observables of Nuclear Probes

A selected summary of the presentation and discussions at the 4th Telluride Conference is presented. The summary deals mainly with the eifects of nuclear spin and isospin on the interaction between nucleons and their consequences in nuclear structure.
The Crouch Case

Much of the material previously discussed regarding civil and criminal commitment can perhaps best be grasped if it is reviewed in the context of a concrete case. The present chapter will attempt that review and will seek also to introduce certain other important issues in the commitment process. Finally, as the culminating chapter in the commitment portion of the book, this chapter will explore, through the case example, some salient aspects of the relationship between the systems of civil and criminal commitment.
Random Model Approach to QTL Mapping

The mapping populations we have discussed so far are all initiated from crosses of two or a few lines (breeds). As a result, the number of alleles is relatively small, and thus the conclusion is drawn based on narrow genetic variation. In addition, through control of the mating design, we can control the allele frequencies. Because the number of alleles is determined by the number of inbred lines involved in a line crossing experiment and the number of lines is small, we can estimate and test the allelic effects or the average effects of allelic substitution. The linear models that allow us to estimate and test the allelic effects are called fixed effect models. Therefore, all methods we have learned so far are based on thefixed model approach.
Statement of the Problem

The polemic of classical empiricists against scholastic and rationalistic metaphysics was an endeavor to prove that the only avenue to the kingdom of knowledge is sensory experience. This general conviction has been expressed in a variety of ways up to the present time.
Feasibility of a multimodal 18F-FDG-directed lymph node surgical excisional biopsy approach for appropriate diagnostic tissue sampling in patients with suspected lymphoma

18F-FDG PET/CT imaging is widely utilized in the clinical evaluation of patients with suspected or documented lymphoma. The aim was to describe our cumulative experience with a multimodal 18F-FDG-directed lymph node surgical excisional biopsy approach in patients with suspected lymphoma.
Structure characterization with thermal wave imaging

Thermal imaging is a technique of recent interest for the nondestructive evaluation of materials. This method attempts to characterize the internal structure of a sample (perhaps to locate flaws-cracks, bubbles, corrosion, etc.) by using its surface temperature response to an external heating. Some recent work on this subject is detailed in [2], [3], [4] and [6].
A Trial of Lifestyle Modification on Cardiopulmonary, Inflammatory, and Metabolic Effects among Obese with Chronic Kidney Disease.

Background: The feasibility and benefits of lifestyle intervention in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients who are obese has not been well studied. We examined the early effects of an exercise plus weight loss intervention on body composition, exercise capacity, metabolic parameters and kidney function in obese subjects with CKD. Methods: Nine subjects (median age 57 years, body mass index (BMI) 43.9) underwent a lifestyle intervention program that included supervised aerobic exercise (i.e. ∼85% maximum heart rate) and dietary counseling (500 kcal reduction in daily caloric intake). Body composition (iDXA), exercise capacity (maximal oxygen consumption), quality of life, insulin resistance (Matsuda index), inflammation (high sensitivity C-reactive protein), adipokines (leptin and total adiponectin) and kidney function (iothalamate glomerular filtration rate) were measured at baseline and after 12 weeks of the intervention. Changes in parameters were compared using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Results: After 12 weeks of intervention, there was a significant decrease in BMI and fat mass (median -4.9 kg (25th-75th percentile -5.9 to -3.0)). There was a significant increase in exercise capacity (3.7 ml/kg/min (3.0-4.7)), along with improvements in insulin sensitivity (0.55 (0.43-1.2)), total adiponectin (780.9 μg/ml (262.1-1,497.1)) and leptin (-5.1 ng/ml (-14.5 to -3.3)). There were improvements in biomarkers of kidney disease very quality of life measures, but kidney function remained unchanged. Conclusion: Lifestyle modification is feasible in obese patients with CKD and produces weight loss that is related to improvements in exercise capacity, insulin resistance and adipokines. Whether lifestyle-induced weight loss and fitness can be sustained and whether it will mediate improvements in kidney function over time merits further investigation.
Control of globin synthesis by hemin: factors influencing formation of an inhibitor of globin chain initiation in reticulocyte lysates.

Abstract The control of globin synthesis by hemin in rabbit reticulocyte lysates is mediated by the formation of an inhibitor of globin chain initiation. This cytoplasmic repressor does not appear to be a product derived from newly synthesized globin. It is formed in the absence of hemin from a protein in the post-ribosomal fraction without participation of free, low molecular weight components. This proinhibitor and the inhibitor are eluted at the same point on a Sephadex G-200 column, which corresponds to a molecular weight of 3.0 · 10 5 . Although the complete transition of proinhibitor to inhibitor in the ribosome-free supernatant fraction takes place over a period of 12 to 15 h, partially purified proinhibitor can be converted to inhibitor within 15 min by reaction with N -ethylmaleimide or o -iodosobenzoate. These findings suggest that inhibitor formation may involve a specific conformational change in the proinhibitor molecule.
Premorbid antiplatelet use and ischemic stroke outcomes

We are intrigued by the additional evidence on the protective effect of premorbid antiplatelet use in patients with stroke reported by Sanossian et al.1 Although the study showed that premorbid antiplatelet drugs had a protective effect on short-term outcome, the authors did not provide sufficient background to analyze this effect. Rankin score was assessed at discharge but this is a vague timepoint. It was recently shown that some patients with stroke had functional deterioration after early recovery2 and the highest risk of occurrence of stroke after TIA or minor stroke is within the first several days.3 If the time to assess Rankin score is too early, a confounding effect is unclear due to the subgroup of unstable patients. In addition, any medications used after stroke were …
Coombs' Testing and Its Diagnostic Significance in Dogs and Cats

The Coombs' test can detect both immunoglobulin and complement on the surface of RBCs, and as such can be of value as an aid in the diagnosis of IMHA. Techniques that may improve sensitivity include use of monovalent reagents, increased dilutions of antiglobulin to avoid a prozone effect, and testing at 4°C. These techniques are not without controversy, and positive tests should always be interpreted in the presence of other clinical and hematologic evidence for IMHA. Alternate techniques, such as flow cytometry, can improve detection of RBC-bound immunoglobulin, but require a flow cytometer and further standardization between laboratories.
Fraud in For-Profit Higher Education

The rising prominence of for-profit higher education in recent years has been impressive, as these organizations have come to play a more prominent role in American higher education. Nonetheless, for-profits continue to be troubled by allegations of fraud and other questionable practices, usually involving federal student-aid and the recruitment of students, which have triggered new regulations by the Department of Education. This article examines the criminogenic nature of the behavior in the for-profit sector, both from an historical and a more contemporary perspective. The analysis indicates that market structures and government policies play crucial roles in facilitating crime in these organizations and that such behavior is likely to continue despite tougher regulations, since the same elements will continue to influence for-profit colleges.
Electronic social fields in bureaucracies

Advanced computer tools designed to facilitate collaboration in a common task or across functions have had a remarkably disappointing record of diffusion and adoption [16]. Technologies that are unresponsive to users needs will not find their markets. Groupware such as electronic mail, conferencing, and on-line editing, however, has an apparently natural affinity to the team and project work of salaried professional employees.
A Novel Experimental Device for Seebeck Coefficient Measurements of Bulk Materials, Thin Films, and Nanowire Composites

An experimental setup has been designed and built for measuring the Seebeck coefficient of bulk thermoelectric materials, thin films, and nanowire composites in the temperature range 200―350 K. The setup utilizes a differential method for measuring the Seebeck coefficient of the sample. The sample holder is a simple clamp design, utilizing a spring-loaded mounting system to load and hold the sample between two copper blocks, on which the electrical leads, as well as thermocouples, are mounted. The spring-loaded design also offers fast turn-around times, as the samples can be quickly loaded and unloaded. To measure the Seebeck coefficient, a temperature difference is generated across the sample by using four 10 kΩ resistive heaters mounted in series on one of the copper blocks. The resulting slope of the thermo-emf versus temperature difference plot is used to obtain the Seebeck coefficient at any temperature. Test measurements were carried out on bulk samples of nickel (Ni), bismuth-telluride (Bi 2 Te 3 ), antimony-telluride (Sb 2 Te 3 ), as well as thin films and nanowire composites of Ni.
PTTH-stimulated ERK phosphorylation in prothoracic glands of the silkworm, Bombyx mori: Role of Ca2+/calmodulin and receptor tyrosine kinase

Abstract Our previous studies showed that the prothoracicotropic hormone (PTTH) stimulated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) phosphorylation in prothoracic glands of Bombyx mori both in vitro and in vivo. In the present study, the signaling pathway by which PTTH activates ERK phosphorylation was further investigated using PTTH, second messenger analogs, and various inhibitors. ERK phosphorylation induced by PTTH was partially reduced in Ca 2+ -free medium. The calmodulin antagonist, calmidazolium, partially inhibited both PTTH-stimulated ERK phosphorylation and ecdysteroidogenesis, indicating the involvement of calmodulin. When the prothoracic glands were treated with agents that directly elevate the intracellular Ca 2+ concentration [either A23187, thapsigargin, or the protein kinase C (PKC) activator, phorbol 12-myristate acetate (PMA)], a great increase in ERK phosphorylation was observed. In addition, it was found that PTTH-stimulated ecdysteroidogenesis was greatly attenuated by treatment with PKC inhibitors (either calphostin C or chelerythrine C). However, PTTH-stimulated ERK phosphorylation was not attenuated by the above PKC inhibitors, indicating that PKC is not involved in PTTH-stimulated ERK phosphorylation. A potent and specific inhibitor of insulin receptor tyrosine kinase, HNMPA-(AM) 3 , greatly inhibited the ability of PTTH to activate ERK phosphorylation and stimulate ecdysteroidogenesis. However, genistein, another tyrosine kinase inhibitor, did not inhibit PTTH-stimulated ERK phosphorylation, although it did markedly attenuate the ability of A23187 to activate ERK phosphorylation. From these results, it is suggested that PTTH-stimulated ERK phosphorylation is only partially Ca 2+ - and calmodulin-dependent and that HNMPA-(AM) 3 -sensitive receptor tyrosine kinase is involved in activation of ERK phosphorylation by PTTH.
Prevalence of Cryptosporidium and Giardia infections on two Ohio pig farms with different management systems

The prevalence of Cryptosporidium and Giardia infections in pigs was investigated by the use of a direct immunofluorescence assay on two Ohio farms with different management systems. Cryptosporidium and Giardia infections were detected only in weanlings on the farm with slotted and wire floors, but in both weanlings and nursing piglets on the farm with porous concrete floors. Giardia infection was also detected in sows on the latter farm. The farm with porous concrete floors had a significantly higher Cryptosporidium infection rate in nursing piglets and Giardia infection rates in weanlings than the farm with slotted and wire floors. Sows were implicated as the source of both Cryptosporidium and Giardia infections for nursing piglets.
Fast algorithm for computing weighted projection quantiles and data depth for high-dimensional large data clouds

In this paper we present a new algorithm based on a weighted projection quantiles for fast and frugal real time quantile estimation of large sized high dimensional data clouds. We present a projection quantile regression algorithm for high dimensional data. Second, we present a fast algorithm for computing the depth of a point or a new observation in relation to any high-dimensional data cloud, and propose a ranking system for multivariate data. Third, we briefly describe a real time rapid monitoring scheme similar to statistical process monitoring, for actionable analytics with big data. We believe these algorithms would be very useful for real time analysis of high dimensional ‘big data’ sets including streaming data sets. The proposed algorithms would be of immense use in several application areas such as real time financial market analysis, real time remote health monitoring of patients using body area networked devices and real time pricing and inventory decisions in retail and manufacturing sector.
The effects of environmental water vapor on hailstone size distributions

Abstract The aim of this work is to analyze the effects of environmental water vapor on the hailstone size distributions as observed at the ground in the four different times-of-the-day (i.e. local morning, afternoon, evening and night) through the measurements obtained by a network of hailpads posed on the plain of Friuli Venezia Giulia (Italy). The hypothesis tested is that the observed differences in the hailstone size distributions, i.e. larger hailstones during nighttime than during daytime, could be related to differences in the vertical profile of environmental mixing ratio. Data obtained by a sounding carried out every 6 h in the middle of Friulian plain are used to compute the average vertical profiles in the four times-of-the-day during the warm period (i.e. from April to September). The differences in the average vertical profile of environmental mixing ratio are then used in a simple analytical model to compute their effects on the hailstone size distributions. The results of the analytical model show that the differences in the average mixing ratio vertical profile produce effects on the hailstone size distributions that are qualitatively (i.e. stretching of hailstone size distribution) in agreement with the observations and with the right order of magnitude. Because of this qualitative and semi-quantitative agreement between observations and model results, the differences in the environmental water vapor are then considered as one of the main causes of the observed differences in the hailstone size distributions in the four times-of-the-day on the plain of Friuli Venezia Giulia.
Peptide identification from mixture tandem mass spectra

The success of high-throughput proteomics hinges on the ability of computational methods to identify peptides from tandem mass spectra (MS/MS). However, a common limitation of most peptide identification approaches is the nearly ubiquitous assumption that each MS/MS spectrum is generated from a single peptide. We propose a new computational approach for the identification of mixture spectra generated from more than one peptide. Capitalizing on the growing availability of large libraries of single-peptide spectra (spectral libraries), our quantitative approach is able to identify up to 98% of all mixture spectra from equally abundant peptides and automatically adjust to varying abundance ratios of up to 10:1. Furthermore, we show how theoretical bounds on spectral similarity avoid the need to compare each experimental spectrum against all possible combinations of candidate peptides (achieving speedups of over five orders of magnitude) and demonstrate that mixture-spectra can be identified in a matter of seconds against proteome-scale spectral libraries. Although our approach was developed for and is demonstrated on peptide spectra, we argue that the generality of the methods allows for their direct application to other types of spectral libraries and mixture spectra.
A truth-functional logic for near-universal generalizations

L'A. explore la possibilite de traiter le concept de quasi-universalite en termes d'un quantificateur ajoute a la logique du premier ordre
A new cryostage design for cryomicroscopy

The use of cryomicroscopes for the study of cryopreservation of biological samples has been well established. This paper describes a new cryostage design for a cryomicroscopic system able to yield cooling and warming rates up to 18 000 °C min−1. This directional solidification cryostage incorporates design features that enable it to span large temperature gradients and high cooling rates. Each copper base of the new design is a three-piece construction containing a sandwiched thermofoil heater and an internal zigzag flow channel for the refrigerant. Consequently, the temperature of each base can be independently varied between −150 °C and +150 °C. In addition, the new design includes an adjustable gap between the bases that can be adjusted from 0.5 mm to 2.5 mm using attached micrometer heads. The visible gradations on each micrometer enable symmetry of the copper bases to be maintained after each adjustment. In addition to the specifics of the design, this work discusses the surface and thermal characterization results of the stage. Then to demonstrate the performance of the instrument, experimental results with saline solution and the subsequent quantitative analysis are presented.
Developmental origins of neurotransmitter and transcriptome alterations in adult female zebrafish exposed to atrazine during embryogenesis.

Abstract Atrazine is an herbicide applied to agricultural crops and is indicated to be an endocrine disruptor. Atrazine is frequently found to contaminate potable water supplies above the maximum contaminant level of 3 μg/L as defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The developmental origin of adult disease hypothesis suggests that toxicant exposure during development can increase the risk of certain diseases during adulthood. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying disease progression are still unknown. In this study, zebrafish embryos were exposed to 0, 0.3, 3, or 30 μg/L atrazine throughout embryogenesis. Larvae were then allowed to mature under normal laboratory conditions with no further chemical treatment until 7 days post fertilization (dpf) or adulthood and neurotransmitter analysis completed. No significant alterations in neurotransmitter levels was observed at 7 dpf or in adult males, but a significant decrease in 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) and serotonin turnover was seen in adult female brain tissue. Transcriptomic analysis was completed on adult female brain tissue to identify molecular pathways underlying the observed neurological alterations. Altered expression of 1928, 89, and 435 genes in the females exposed to 0.3, 3, or 30 μg/L atrazine during embryogenesis were identified, respectively. There was a high level of overlap between the biological processes and molecular pathways in which the altered genes were associated. Moreover, a subset of genes was down regulated throughout the serotonergic pathway. These results provide support of the developmental origins of neurological alterations observed in adult female zebrafish exposed to atrazine during embryogenesis.
Immunohistochemical localization of guanine nucleotide-binding proteins in rat olfactory epithelium during development

Abstract It has recently been proposed that guanine nucleotide (GTP)- binding proteins (G-proteins) are involved in transducing stimuli in olfactory receptor neurons3,43. If this is the case, G-proteins should be expressed when receptor cells first generate action potentials in response to odorants, i.e. in the rat fetus on the 16th embryonic day (E16)14. We have done an immunohistochemical study to determine when the α- and β-subunits of the stimulatory G-protein (Gs), are expressed in developing rat olfactory epithelium. The 3 primary antisera used were monospecific polyclonal antibodies generated in rabbits by immunization with synthetic peptides, the amino acid sequences of which matched a portion of the α- or β-subunits of stimulatory G-protein39. Both subunits were present in olfactory axons at E15 and in olfactory receptor cell cilia at E16, the day when cilia first sprout in these cells. As development progressed and more cilia grew, most were immunoreactive with antisera to both subunits. Examination of specimens with electron microscopic immunocytochemistry confirmed the localization. Not all cilia on a given olfactory cell were stained, in either fetal or juvenile specimens. The observation that G-proteins are expressed in cilia when action potentials are first demonstrated supports the hypothesis that G-proteins are involved in signal transduction in olfactory receptor cells.
Mastocytosis: New Understandings in Cutaneous Pathophysiology

Human mast cells contain large quantities of chymotryptic and tryptic proteinases. In human skin, mast cells contain both chymase and tryptase, whereas, in the mucosa of the gastrointestinal tract, mast cells contain primarily tryptase. By contrast, submucosal mast cells in the gastrointestinal tract are of the connective tissue type because they contain both chymase and tryptase. Chymase has a broad array of biological functions which include; activation of angiotensin, cleavage of basement membrane through the lamina lucida, activation of IL1 beta, and potentiation of histamine. Chymase may play a significant role in the control of a variety of biological phenomena. Urticaria pigmentosa is a disease characterized by deposition of "normal" connective tissue mast cells within the skin. The source of these mast cells is the bone marrow and mast cells appear to be deposited within other internal organs in almost all cases. Excretion of histamine and prostaglandin metabolites correlates with the deposition of mast cells in extracutaneous sites. High potency steroids under occlusion for six week results in long-lasting clearing of the cutaneous lesions with minimal side effects.
Impact of Elevated Nighttime Air Temperatures During Kernel Development on Starch Properties of Field-Grown Rice

ABSTRACT The structural features of starch were examined to better understand the causes of variability in rice quality resulting from nighttime air temperature (NTAT) incidence during kernel development. Starch samples were isolated from head rice of four cultivars (Bengal, Cypress, LaGrue, and XL723) field-grown in four Arkansas locations (Keiser, Pine Tree, Rohwer, and Stuttgart) in 2009 and 2010. Average NTATs recorded during the grain-filling stages of rice reproductive growth in the four locations were 3.0–8.4°C greater in 2010 than 2009. Elevated NTATs altered the deposition of starch in the rice endosperm. Means pooled across cultivars and locations showed that amylose content was 3.1% (percentage points) less for the 2010 sample set. The elevated NTATs in 2010 resulted in a decrease in the percentage of amylopectin short chains (DP ≤ 18) and a corresponding increase in the percentage of long chains (DP ≥ 19) by an average of 1.3% (percentage points). The greater NTATs in 2010 also produced greate...
High pressure NMR and electrical conductivity studies in acid form NAFION membranes

Abstract The effect of high pressure on the electrical conductivity and proton, deuteron and 17 O NMR in acid form NAFION-117 conditioned at various levels of relative humidity has been determined. NMR measurements of T 1 were carried out as a function of pressure up to 0.25 GPa. The complex impedance studies were made along the plane of the film at frequencies from 10 to 10 8 Hz at room temperature and pressures up to 0.3 GPa. The electrical conductivity and proton and deuteron NMR measurements show that the activation volume for materials containing greater than about three water molecules per sulfonate is 2–3 cm 3 mol −1 and larger values are found as the amount of water decreases. The implications of these results are discussed. The 17 O NMR results are unexplained at the present time.
Non-Cooperative Outcomes for Stochastic Nash Games: Decision Strategies towards Multi-Attribute Performance Robustness

Abstract The advantages of compactness from logic of state-space model description and quantitativity from probabilistic knowledge of stochastic disturbances have been exploited to construct a situational awareness which then provides essential common knowledge to noncooperative decision makers about the adverse and dynamic environment within a linear-quadratic class of nonzero-sum stochastic games. It incorporates the perception of relevant attributes of the decision problem, comprehension of the meaning of the shared interaction model in combination with and in relation to various goals of non-cooperative decision makers so that future projection of higher-order characteristics of the Chi-squared random measures of performance is obtained with high confidence. New solution concepts, called the multi-cumulant Nash strategies are proposed to directly influence respective performance distributions and to effectively guarantee performance robustness for non-cooperative decision makers.
Pharmacists as laboratorians.

This issue of AJHP features part 1 of a review of devices for monitoring blood pressure and other variables.[1][1] The authors’ assessment of trends influencing point-of-care (POC) testing by pharmacists is on target. Laboratory testing is growing because of increases in the number and longevity
A NOTE ON THE DEFINITION OF THE “MOTOR” AND “PREMOTOR” AREAS

Since the anterior boundary of the excitable precentral cortex cannot be accurately defined in anatomical terms, and since the functions of the anterior part of the excitable cortex obviously differ from those of the posterior, a more precise terminology is needed to designate these functionally discrete regions. The term “premotor area” has been used in the past synonymously with the “intermediate precentral” region, but adequate anatomical definition has not hitherto been given. Since these regions correspond roughly with well-recognized cytoarchitectural fields, it is suggested that the following conventions be adopted (fig. 1). That: 1. Motor area be restricted to the area giganto-pyramidalis, i.e. Area 4 of Brodmann, the Vogts and Foerster. 2. Premotor area , which is also motor in function, include Area 6a (upper part) of the Vogts, the posterior part being designated 6a α and the anterior part 6a β. 3. Frontal association areas include Areas 9, 10, 11 and 12 of Brodmann. The term “excitable area” is applicable to both the motor and premotor regions.
Parathyroid tumors: preoperative localization and association with other tumors.

Preoperative localization of hyperfunctioning parathyroid tissue with venous catheterization for venous blood sampling and parathyroid thermography was done in 23 patients with hypercalcemia. The elevated levels of PTH, and the unilateral and bilateral PTH gradient in the thyroid venous blood samples permitted correct localization of the hyperfunctioning parathyroid tissue in 20 patients. The other 3 patients had a peak level of PTH in the left innominate vein blood. The parathyroid adenoma in 2 of these patients was found on the right side; this was attributed to the drainage of the right thyroid vein into the left innominate vein. In the 3rd patient, the hyperfunctioning parathyroid tissue was not found at surgery, but the mediastinum and the paraesophageal area were not investigated. Sixteen of these patients were studied by thermography of the neck, and 6 showed the correct localization. Ten of the 23 patients studied had neoplasms in other organs while 3 other patients belonged to a family with pluriglandular syndrome. These data indicate: A) radioimmunoassay of plasma PTH from selectively cathetherized thyroid veins and large neck veins gave the correct preoperative localization in the majority of patients with hyperfunctioning parathyroid tissue; B) a peak level of PTH in the left innominate vein may indicate left or right hyperfunctioning parathyroid tissue; C) primary hyperparathyroidism should be considered as one of the causes of hypercalcemia found in patients with neoplasia; and D) hyperparathyroidism may be familial and associated with pluriglandular syndrome.
Relaxin Secretion and Gene Expression in Porcine Granulosa and Theca Cells Are Stimulated during In Vitro Luteinization

During formation of the corpus luteum, the primary source of relaxin switches from theca cells (TC) to granulosa-derived, large luteal cells. What controls this shift in relaxin production is poorly understood. The objective of this study was to observe the effect of luteinization on relaxin gene expression and secretion by porcine granulosa (GC) and TC using an in vitro model. TC and GC from medium-sized porcine follicles (4-6 mm) were treated for up to 8 days with LH (250 ng/ml) and/or insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I; 10 ng/ml). Media were assayed for relaxin and progesterone by RIA, changes in cell morphology were recorded, and total RNA was subjected to reverse transciption-polymerase chain reaction to monitor relaxin gene expression. In vitro luteinization, induced with LH + IGF-I treatment, was confirmed in both GC and TC by a change in morphology and a sustained, significant rise in progesterone secretion. In luteinizing GC, relaxin secretion was first detected after 5 treatment days, and steadily rose until it became significantly higher (p < 0.001) by treatment Days 7-8. In contrast, relaxin release from luteinizing TC was significant after only 2 days of treatment (p < 0.05) and increased consistently over the 8-day culture period (p < 0.001). In GC, relaxin mRNA was not detected until treatment Day 4 and became significantly higher (p < 0.001) by Day 8, the final treatment day. Relaxin transcript in luteinizing TC was low on treatment Days 2-4 and significantly higher (p < 0.01) by treatment Days 6 and 8. In summary, the present study demonstrates that hormones important in the control of luteinization are essential for regulating relaxin gene expression and secretion by GC and TC in the porcine follicle.
An ab initio study of the influence of substituents and intramolecular hydrogen bonding on the carbonyl bond length and stretching force constant. I. Monosubstituted carbonyl compounds

The CO bond length and fCO,CO, the corresponding harmonic stretching force constant, are calculated ab initio using the 4-31G basis set (augmented by polarization functions on the sulfur and chlorine) with full geometry optimization for the monosubstituted carbonyl compounds RCHO, where R = H, CHO, CHCH2, CO2H, CHCHOH, OH, OC(O)OH, OOH, SH, Li, F, Cl, and NH2. Straight-line relationships are found in plots of ln[fCO,CO] vs. ln[rCO] for the series of compounds in which carbon atoms and oxygen atoms are bonded directly to the carbonyl carbon, in accordance with the empirical expression f = C′/rn. The slopes and intercepts give n = 7.62 and 6.47, C′ = 62.6 and 48.6, for the lines with carbon and oxygen as the atom bonded directly to the carbonyl carbon, respectively. The point for formaldehyde lies very close to the C line, whereas the points for SH, Li, F, Cl, and NH2 lie closer to the O line.
How do we know that management is working

Over the last years, the Management community has witnessed a shift away from information models and protocols towards value-added management services that improve the configuration and fault management of a distributed system, or optimize its performance. However, whenever we try to articulate the value of Management, it turns out that we neither have the methodologies, nor the tools to help us assess where we as a discipline are on the maturity curve and how 'self-managing' the systems we build actually are. Metrics such as 'total cost of ownership' or 'number of servers per administrator' are often overly simplistic and essentially focus just on symptoms, not on the true factors that impact the value of management. It is therefore hard, if not impossible, to quantify the value that the investment in management technology actually yields actually yields, and there are no hard metrics available that facilitate the comparison between management systems from different vendors. The panel will address the following issues: 1. Can we measure automation and are we able to assess its value? 2. Is there a way to develop a 'Capability Maturity Model' for Management? 3. What would such a model look like? 4. What are the key performance indicators of Management? 5. What lessons can we learn from system benchmarks that have been developed over the last 15 years? 6. Will we ever see TPC-Management or SPECManagement benchmark suites?