cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Mechanical alloying studies in the Γ(Fe3Zn10) and Γ1(Fe5Zn21) single and mixed phase compositions

Homogeneous or uniform crystalline materials are obtained following the ball milling of pure elemental powders of Fe and Zn in proportions to yield single phases Γ(Fe3Zn10), Γ1(Fe5Zn21), and Γ + Γ1 mixed phase (Fe25Zn75). Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) measurements of the as-milled materials show characteristic stages in the temperature range of 50–600 °C prior to establishing stable equilibrium. The activation energies determined from kinetic analyses range from 49 to 189 kJ/mole in these materials. A characteristic stage at 130 °C marking the distinct evolution of the Γ and Γ1 phases from the intermediate or mixed phase composition is identified from XRD measurements. The identification of a unique Fe site with a quadrupole splitting (QS) of 1.5 mm/s in corroboration with x-ray diffraction (XRD) shows that this stage marks the onset of an in situ transformation prior to the distinct evolution of the homogeneous phases. The Mossbauer effect measurement of the as-milled materials are resolved in terms of four unique Fe sites with QS of 1.1, 0.241, 0.073, and 0.0772 mm/s.
Race and Networks in the Job Search Process

Racial disparities persist throughout the employment process, with African Americans experiencing significant barriers compared to whites. This article advances the understanding of racial labor ma...
The Oxford Handbook of Public Choice : A Masterful Compendium (Book Review)

This is a review article of The Oxford Handbook of Public Choice, edited by Roger Congleton, Bernard Grofman, and Stefan Voigt. This two-volume collection has 90 chapters, with each chapter averaging 20.4 pages (excluding the volumes’ indexes). My subtitle conveys my judgment of this work. The articles are written for serious readers, and they give clear and concise statements of the material they cover. Someone who reads one of the articles will arrive in the vicinity of the frontier of the mainstream of public choice theorizing as this has developed since the middle of the 20th century. Despite my position from somewhere outside the public choice mainstream, I acknowledge readily and enthusiastically the ability of the essays in this Handbook to convey the contemporary state of public choice theorizing. The editors and authors deserve congratulations for their fine work.
Geographic Assessment of Photovoltaic Module Environmental Degradation Stressors

Environmental stress can degrade photovoltiac (PV) modules. We perform a literature search to identify models that estimate the damage caused by exposure to various environmental stressors, including temperature, radiation, and humidity. The weather-related variables, including ambient temperature, irradiance and humidity are calculated using the Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS). The analysis also calculated degradation-model stressors, module temperature, plane of array irradiance, and relative humidity and compared these PV-specific variables to identify correlations and the translation required to represent the stressor accurately. The results show that global horizontal (GHI) irradiance can be used instead of plane-of-array irradiance to represent radiation dose. However, module temperature can be significantly different from ambient temperatures and specific humidity is significantly different from relative humidity.
Lack of the MHC class II chaperone H2-O causes susceptibility to autoimmune diseases.

DO (HLA-DO, in human; murine H2-O) is a highly conserved nonclassical major histocompatibility complex class II (MHC II) accessory molecule mainly expressed in the thymic medulla and B cells. Previous reports have suggested possible links between DO and autoimmunity, Hepatitis C (HCV) infection, and cancer, but the mechanism of how DO contributes to these diseases remains unclear. Here, using a combination of various in vivo approaches, including peptide elution, mixed lymphocyte reaction, T-cell receptor (TCR) deep sequencing, tetramer-guided naive CD4 T-cell precursor enumeration, and whole-body imaging, we report that DO affects the repertoire of presented self-peptides by B cells and thymic epithelium. DO induces differential effects on epitope presentation and thymic selection, thereby altering CD4 T-cell precursor frequencies. Our findings were validated in two autoimmune disease models by demonstrating that lack of DO increases autoreactivity and susceptibility to autoimmune disease development.
Association of Silent Myocardial Infarction With Major Cardiovascular Events in Diabetes: The ACCORD Trial.

The epidemic of diabetes continues to grow, with recent prevalence estimates of 12% among U.S. adults. Though type 2 diabetes is associated with a two- to fourfold heightened risk of cardiovascular disease, this risk is heterogeneously distributed (1). Thus, markers of cardiovascular risk beyond traditional risk factors are needed. Prior efforts to incorporate novel blood biomarkers in risk prediction have found only modest additive value in risk discrimination, despite significant economic cost (2,3). The routine 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) may represent a cost-effective measure to refine atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk. Silent myocardial infarction (SMI) is more common among those with diabetes due to impaired nociception. The risk of ASCVD among those with prior SMI and diabetes has not been adequately studied. We used patient-level data from the Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes (ACCORD) study and the ACCORDION follow-up study to assess the additive utility of SMI for discrimination of risk. For this analysis, eligible participants were free of prevalent cardiovascular disease (defined as history of myocardial infarction, stroke, coronary revascularization, carotid or peripheral revascularization, or positive stress test) at study enrollment and had adequate baseline ECG data. SMI was defined as the presence of a …
Graft-versus-host disease : implications from basic immunology for prophylaxis and treatment

Graft-vs.-host disease (GVHD) continues to be a major complication after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation, especially with the increasing use of unrelated and mismatched donors. To understand how best to prevent GVHD and to treat GVHD should prophylaxis fail, it is necessary to have a good understanding of the underlying immunology of GVHD. There has been recent progress in understanding two basic aspects of the immune response in GVHD — the immunologic target and the effector mechanisms. First, the target of the immune response in GVHD has been identified as histocompatibility antigens possessed by the host but not the donor. Recognition of self antigens in GVHD has been documented, showing that GVHD is more than simple alloreactivity. Second, the effector mechanism in GVHD was initially thought to be direct cytotoxicity by alloreactive T cells. Cytokines are now known to play a central role in mediating many of the clinical and experimental manifestations of GVHD.
Gordian: Formal Reasoning-based Outlier Detection for Secure Localization

Accurate localization from Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) is a critical enabling technology for context-aware applications and control. As localization plays an increasingly safety-critical role, location systems must be able to identify and eliminate faulty measurements to prevent dangerously inaccurate localization. In this article, we consider the range-based localization problem and propose a method to detect coordinated adversarial corruption on anchor positions and distance measurements. Our algorithm, Gordian, rapidly finds attacks by identifying geometric inconsistencies at the graph level without requiring assumptions about hardware, ranging mechanisms, or cryptographic protocols. We give necessary conditions for which attack detection is guaranteed to be successful in the noiseless case, and we use that intuition to extend Gordian to the noisy case where fewer guarantees are possible. In simulations generated from real-world sensor noise, we empirically show that Gordian’s trilateration counterexample generation procedure enables rapid attack detection even for combinatorially difficult problems.
In Defense of Breakups: Administering a “Radical” Remedy

Calls for breaking up monopolies — especially Amazon, Facebook, and Google — have largely focused on proving that past acquisitions of companies like Whole Foods, Instagram, and YouTube were anti-competitive. But scholars have paid insufficient attention to another major obstacle that also explains why the government in recent decades has not broken up a single large company. After establishing that an anti-competitive merger or other act has occurred, there is great skepticism of breakups as a remedy. Judges, scholars, and regulators see a breakup as extreme, frequently comparing the remedy to trying to “unscramble eggs.” They doubt the government’s competence in executing such a difficult task, pointing to decision-making flaws dating back to the breakups of Standard Oil in 1911 and AT&T in 1984. Even many scholars calling for more vigorous antitrust enforcement recommend alternative remedies. This Article asserts that the pervasive hesitancy about administering breakups renders antitrust impotent in the face of monopolies — too often a statutory right without a remedy. More importantly, the Article challenges the perception of breakups as unadministrable. The intellectual foundations for the anti-breakup stance are weak, relying on outdated, anecdotal evidence. Moreover, antitrust needs a methodological shift toward paying greater attention to the breakup insights yielded by other disciplines. In particular, business scholars have studied how the world’s leading companies regularly break themselves up voluntarily. Additionally, administrative law scholarship has observed a broader evolution toward collaborative regulation that shows how the much-maligned historical approaches to antitrust remedies could be greatly improved by relying more on the business sector in designing and implementing breakups. In other words, insights from outside of antitrust address many critiques of breakups and show how that remedy is far from radical and messy. Antitrust observers should thus abandon the worldview that compares breaking up prior companies to unscrambling eggs. Or at a minimum they should recognize that scrambled eggs, once cooked, are regularly divided into smaller portions. A greater willingness to do the same to monopolies in the post-merger context and beyond would bring regulators more in line with the business sector, which sees divestitures as a routine part of effective governance.
Topology Preserving Data Reduction for Computing Persistent Homology

An emerging method for data analysis is called Topological Data Analysis (TDA). TDA is based in the mathematical field of topology and examines the properties of spaces under continuous deformation. One of the key tools used for TDA is called persistent homology which considers the connectivity of points in a d-dimensional point cloud at different spatial resolutions to identify topological properties (holes, loops, and voids) in the space. Persistent homology then classifies the topological features by their persistence through the range of spatial connectivity. Unfortunately the memory and run-time complexity of computing persistent homology is exponential and current tools can only process a few thousand points in $\mathbb{R}^{3}$. Fortunately, the use of data reduction techniques enables persistent homology to be applied to much larger point clouds. Techniques to reduce the data range from random sampling of points to clustering the data and using the cluster centroids as the reduced data. While several data reduction approaches appear to preserve the large topological features present in the original point cloud, no systematic study comparing the efficacy of different data clustering techniques in preserving the persistent homology results has been performed. This paper explores the question of topology preserving data reductions and describes formally when and how topological features can be mischaracterized or lost by data reduction techniques. The paper also performs an experimental assessment of data reduction techniques and resilient effects on the persistent homology. In particular, data reduction by random selection is compared to cluster centroids extracted from different data clustering algorithms.
The Hidden Potential of Energetically Passive Exoskeletons

Bicycles have successfully augmented top human movement speed despite supplying no external power or increasing human limb force. This raises the question on what are the fundamental requirements for moving faster, when increasing force or supplying external power are not necessary to moving faster. This presentation will communicate our recent efforts to develop analytical models to study the fundamental physics of human locomotion, and the development of energetically passive devices that maximize top running speed given the limited force and power of human limbs. We take inspiration from the bicycle, which uses pedals to allow the legs to supply energy continuously instead of intermittently in running.
On the Optimality of the Earliest Due Date Rule in Stochastic Scheduling and in Queueing

Abstract We consider an environment with m servers in parallel and n jobs. The n jobs have i.i.d. exponentially distributed processing requirements. The servers operate at different speeds and preemptions are allowed. The jobs have random release times that are not known in advance, but whenever a job is released, its due date is fixed and becomes known to the scheduler. We first consider three stochastic scheduling problems with three due date related objective functions and consider variations of the Earliest Due Date (EDD) rule, including the preemptive policy that at any point in time assigns the job with the Earliest Due Date to the Fastest Server (EDD-FS). Our optimality results turn out to be examples of stochastic scheduling problems that have relatively simple priority rules that are optimal while their deterministic counterparts do not allow such simple priority rules to be optimal. We furthermore extend our results to include a priority queueing model with m exponential servers that operate at different speeds and preemptions being allowed. The jobs arrive according to an arbitrary renewal process, and we assume that the utilization factor of the system is less than 1. Upon a job’s release the time difference between its due date and release time is set by the draw of a random variable from a given distribution. At a job’s release time, its due date is then immediately fixed and known while its actual processing time only becomes known upon its service completion. We show that for this priority queueing model the preemptive EDD-FS rule also minimizes the limit of several due date related objective functions as the number of jobs converges to infinity.
Sadie American, Chicago's Pioneer of Visual Sociology

This paper celebrates the accomplishments of Sadie American, Chicago's pioneer of visual sociology. While much has been written about her tireless efforts to support immigrant causes in Chicago and New York City, relatively little is known about her career as a sociologist and pioneer of the sociological sub-specialty called visual sociology. This paper examines her sociological work and how it was shaped by her identity as an immigrant, a Jew, and a woman.
A New Principle in Physics: the Principle of "Finiteness", and Some Consequences

In this paper I propose a new principle in physics: the principle of "finiteness". It stems from the definition of physics as a science that deals (among other things) with measurable dimensional physical quantities. Since measurement results, including their errors, are always finite, the principle of finiteness postulates that the mathematical formulation of "legitimate" laws of physics should prevent exactly zero or infinite solutions. Some consequences of the principle of finiteness are discussed, in general, and then more specifically in the fields of special relativity, quantum mechanics, and quantum gravity. The consequences are derived independently of any other theory or principle in physics. I propose "finiteness" as a postulate (like the constancy of the speed of light in vacuum, "c"), as opposed to a notion whose validity has to be corroborated by, or derived theoretically or experimentally from other facts, theories, or principles.
Reclaiming the Critical Self in Modernity: Individual Contention, Educational Reflection and Political Action

What I am exploring with my research are new types of performances that specific people can add to the repertoire of any individual. Using the work of Sidney Tarrow and Charles Tilly (Contentious Politics, 2007), I show why these techniques of resistance are necessary against a society making claims on the individual, and then provide examples of particular techniques that an individual can employ. The idea here is that once aware of these fairly simple methods of taking back control in his or her life, the individual will take the next step to actually putting these concepts into practice. Of course, this is where contentious politics seemed to break down for Tarrow and Tilly; they ask "why do citizens of democratic regimes so often sit on their hands when they have the right to resist?" (Tarrow and Tilly 2007, 199). In the end, then, whether or not these ideas are enacted still rests with the individual.
Nacionalismo tribal y sexismo Reflexiones desde las mujeres nativo-americanas de Estados Unidos

Este articulo analiza la resistencia del movimiento nativoamericano a reconocer y enfrentar el problema del sexismo al interior de las propias comunidades indigenas, y plantea la importancia de apoyar y desarrollar una agenda feminista nativa, como parte de las estrategias de descolonizacion de los pueblos originarios en Estados Unidos. La autora senala que, con mucha frecuencia, en las comunidades nativas se da por sentado que las mujeres indigenas deben defender un nacionalismo tribal que haga caso omiso del sexismo en aras de la sobrevivencia como mujeres y de la liberacion de los pueblos originarios ante el colonialismo. Por el contrario, en este ensayo se afirma que las categorias de analisis raza, nacion tribal y genero deben ligarse de manera no jerarquizada con el fin de abarcar la extension de la opresion de las mujeres indigenas
Prototypes and production rules: an approach to knowledge representation for hypothesis formation

A system called CENTAUR has been implemented to interpret data derived from pulmonary function tests using a knowledge representation that combines the advantages of both production rules and frames. The system uses a hypothesis-directed approach to problem solving, in which hypotheses are suggested by the Initial data, further Information is acquired, and then more specific hypotheses are selected. The hypotheses are represented as PROTOTYPES, frame-like data structures each of which characterizes some pulmonary disease. The prototypes guide the invocation of the production rules and focus the search for new information. Some of the advantages afforded by representing knowledge as both prototypes and rules are also presented.
Using Videoconferencing Technology to Provide Breastfeeding Support to Low-Income Women Connecting Hospital-Based Lactation Consultants with Clients Receiving Care at a Community Health Center

The Tele-Lactation Pilot Project (TLPP), 1 of 13 community-based breastfeeding projects implemented in Indiana in 2013 using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grant funds, explored the feasibility of using videoconferencing technology to provide breastfeeding education and support to low-income women by a centrally located International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC). The IBCLC was housed at the Breastfeeding Center at the hospital where the women would deliver; the women receiving the education and support were located at an inner-city community health center (CHC) where they received their primary care. The videoconferencing sessions were juxtaposed with the women's regularly scheduled prenatal and postnatal visits at the CHC. After delivery, the lactation consultant visited the mother and infant in person at the hospital to offer additional support. Overall, 35 mothers were served by the TLPP during the 9-month project period. A total of 134 visits (30-45 minutes each) were conducted (3.8 sessions per woman). At the conclusion of the project, interviews with key participants indicated that the tele-lactation videoconferencing sessions were easy to implement, allowed the IBCLC to reach a wider client base, and allowed the women to receive expert support that they might not have otherwise received. Comments indicated that, in addition to providing education and increasing the women's confidence, the tele-lactation sessions appeared to have decreased the mothers' anxiety about the birthing process and the hospital experience. The TLPP demonstrated that incorporating videoconferencing technology into routine care can help foster collaboration among health care providers and provide mothers with continuous, easily accessible breastfeeding education and support.
Sat-solving based on boundary point elimination

We study the problem of building structure-aware SAT-solvers based on resolution. In this study, we use the idea of treating a resolution proof as a process of Boundary Point Elimination (BPE). We identify two problems of using SAT-algorithms with Conflict Driven Clause Learning (CDCL) for structure-aware SAT-solving. We introduce a template of resolution based SAT-solvers called BPE-SAT that is based on a few generic implications of the BPE concept. BPE-SAT can be viewed as a generalization of CDCL SAT-solvers and is meant for building new structure-aware SAT-algorithms. We give experimental results substantiating the ideas of the BPE approach. In particular, to show the importance of structural information we compare an implementation of BPE-SAT and state-of-the-art SAT-solvers on narrow CNF formulas.
Low phase noise, FBAR-based voltage controlled oscillator without varactor

A Colpitts voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) at 1.1 GHz is designed with a film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) as the frequency control element. The oscillator achieves an extremely low phase noise of -115 dBc/Hz at 10 kHz offset, which is 19 dB better than that of an LC oscillator. Voltage control of the oscillation frequency is obtained by applying a DC voltage on the FBAR, unlike a conventional VCO that uses a PN junction varactor (a significant noise contributor) to vary the oscillation frequency. The frequency tunability of the VCO is approximately -12 kHz/V between -5 V and +10 V.
Dairy, fruit, and vegetable intakes and functional limitations and disability in a biracial cohort: the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study

BACKGROUND Dairy, fruit, and vegetable intakes may be associated with functional limitations and disability through their role in muscle function, osteoporosis, and prevention of the oxidative damage associated with aging and chronic disease. OBJECTIVE The associations between dairy, fruit, and vegetable intakes and functional limitations and disability were examined in African Americans and whites (baseline age: 45-64 y; n=9404) in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study. DESIGN Logistic regression analyses were used to ascertain the associations between usual dairy, fruit, and vegetable intakes obtained at baseline by using a food-frequency questionnaire and lower-extremity function, activities of daily living (ADLs), and instrumental ADLs (IADLs) self-reported approximately 9 y later in models stratified by race and sex. RESULTS Baseline dairy, fruit, and vegetable intakes tended to be inversely associated with impaired lower-extremity function, ADLs, and IADLs approximately 9 y later, particularly in African American women. For example, in African American women, baseline dairy intakes were inversely associated with impaired ADLs and IADLs [odds ratio (95% CI): 0.60 (0.40, 0.90) and 0.69 (0.48, 0.98), respectively [corrected] in the 3rd versus the [corrected] 1st tertile of intake (P [corrected] for trend<0.05]. Combined baseline intakes of fruit and vegetables were also inversely associated with impaired lower-extremity function, ADLs, and IADLs [odds ratio (95% CI): 0.67 (0.47, 0.95), 0.52 (0.36, 0.76), and 0.64 (0.45, 0.90), respectively; P for trend<0.05]. CONCLUSIONS Dairy, fruit, and vegetable intakes may be inversely associated with functional limitations and disability. Further research is needed to ascertain the effect of diet on subsequent functional limitations and disability.
Cost-effective application of the centers for disease control guideline for prevention of surgical wound infections

Surgical wound infections present a serious hazard to patients and an important legal and economic liability to health care providers. This Guideline furnishes infection control practitioners with several excellent cost-saving concepts and, if implemented, would result in a reduction in the rates of surgical wound infections.
Breast Cancer Mortality vs. Exercise and Breast Size in Runners and Walkers

Purpose Identify predictors of breast cancer mortality in women who exercised below (<7.5 metabolic equivalent hours/week, MET-hours/wk), at (7.5 to 12.5 MET-hours/wk), or above (≥12.5 MET-hours/wk) recommended levels. Methods Cox proportional hazard analyses of baseline pre-diagnosis MET-hours/wk vs. breast cancer mortality adjusted for follow-up age, race, baseline menopause, and estrogen and oral contraceptive use in 79,124 women (32,872 walkers, 46,252 runners) from the National Walkers' and Runners' Health Studies. Results One-hundred eleven women (57 walkers, 54 runners) died from breast cancer during the 11-year follow-up. The decline in mortality in women who exercised ≥7.5 MET-hours/wk was not different for walking and running (P = 0.34), so running and walking energy expenditures were combined. The risk for breast cancer mortality was 41.5% lower for ≥7.5 vs. <7.5 MET-hours/wk (HR: 0.585, 95%CI: 0.382 to 0.924, P = 0.02), which persisted when adjusted for BMI (HR: 0.584, 95%CI: 0.368 to 0.956, P = 0.03). Other than age and menopause, baseline bra cup size was the strongest predictor of breast cancer mortality, i.e., 57.9% risk increase per cup size when adjusted for MET-hours/wk and the other covariates (HR: 1.579, 95%CI: 1.268 to 1.966, P<0.0001), and 70.4% greater when further adjusted for BMI (HR: 1.704, 95%CI: 1.344 to 2.156, P = 10−5). Breast cancer mortality was 4.0-fold greater (HR: 3.980, 95%CI: 1.894 to 9.412, P = 0.0001) for C-cup, and 4.7-fold greater (HR: 4.668, 95%CI: 1.963 to 11.980, P = 0.0004) for ≥D-cup vs. A-cup when adjusted for BMI and other covariates. Adjustment for cup size and BMI did not eliminate the association between breast cancer mortality and ≥7.5 MET-hour/wk walked or run (HR: 0.615, 95%CI: 0.389 to 1.004, P = 0.05). Conclusion Breast cancer mortality decreased in association with both meeting the exercise recommendations and smaller breast volume.
A Model for Ca(2+)-Dependent Cooperative Activation in the Cardiac Thin Filament that Allows for Crossbridge Cycle Feedback

The mechanism underlying the apparent cooperativity of the cardiac thin filament was investigated by using FRET to follow the N-domain opening of recombinant cardiac troponin C (N-cTnC opening) passively exchanged into rat myocardial fiber bundles and tested under a variety of experimental conditions. Calcium titrations conducted in the presence of crossbridge cycle modulators and tension recovery experiments revealed: 1) N-cTnC opening occurred just as “cooperatively” with or without crossbridge cycle activity; 2) the calcium sensitivity of N-cTnC opening is enhanced by crossbridge cycling; 3) the rigor state results in no cooperativity and 10% of the cTnC ensemble being apparently open under resting conditions; 4) the breaking of crossbridges preceding a tension recovery phase results in a slight relaxation of the FRET distance associated with N-cTnC opening, which recovers during tension recovery. In light of this and other evidence from the literature, a model of apparent cooperativity based on the three state model is proposed wherein the steep force-Ca2+ relationship ultimately arises from a tunable cTnC binding affinity for Ca2+. Activation may be mathematically modeled by a sum of weighted Hill-equation fractions (i.e. [L]n / (Kd + [L]n)) with each fraction governed by a hill coefficient of n=1 and representing a particular cTnC conformation with a unique affinity for Ca2+, or “affinity-state”. The affinity-state of an individual cTnC is influenced by the activation state of its neighboring regulatory units. Thus the apparent cooperativity of activation is an emergent property caused by the ensemble of cTnC populating distinct affinity-states that arise from the coordinated super architecture of the sarcomeric lattice; due to the nature of the cTnC-Ca2+ binding event, cTnC is biased toward binding Ca2+ in affinity-states with higher Ca2+-affinity as activation progresses.
The impact of interactivity on business website visibility

To stay abreast of competition, business websites have to have more than a professional appearance; they need to attract and engage users. The literature indicates that adding dynamic and interactive features judiciously can increase web engagement; after all, who does not like to play? In so doing, cyber interactivity can be used as a strategic tool to improve the popularity of websites. The goal of this study is to examine interactivity dimensions and how they relate to the popularity of websites. This study compares a website's popularity as measured through "link-backs" or "referrals." Twenty-five features that relate to cyber interactivity as prescribed by Ha and James were classified into five dimensions: playfulness, reciprocal communication, choice, connectedness and data collection. The analysis was carried across three sectors of business: manufacturing, service and retail. No significant differences of adopting interactivity features were found by the industry sector. The findings suggest that playfulness and reciprocal communication are the most salient predictors for site popularity. Implications and suggestions were drawn from the results.
Effects of discrimination training on stimulus generalization in pigeons: Role of resistance to extinction and response-produced stimuli

In Experiment 1, two groups (n = 10) of pigeons received 17 sessions of TD (true discrimination) or ND (nondifferential) training with line angles. Seventeen sessions of SS (single stimulus) training with a wavelength preceded this training and two followed it. Subsequent wavelength generalization testing in extinction revealed a sharper TD than ND gradient. This slope difference was evident from the very first test stimulus presentation and remained stable throughout testing. As a consequence of substantial overtraining, there was no reduction of response strength and no sharpening of generalization during testing for either group. In Experiment 2, two groups (n = 16) of pigeons received 10 sessions of TD or PD (pseudodiscrimination) training with line angles, followed by four sessions of SS training with a single wavelength. During this training and in subsequent wavelength generalization testing in extinction, brief blackouts separated stimulus presentations. Again, the TD group yielded the sharper gradient. Although responding weakened and the gradients sharpened during the test, these effects were comparable in the two groups. Furthermore, gradients based on the percentage of trials with at least one response showed the same TD-PD slope difference. This finding indicates that differential control over responding by response-produced feedback is inadequate to account for the TD-PD difference in generalization slope. Both experiments indicate that a purported difference in resistance to extinction is also an inadequate explanation.
Control and controls: A reexamination of control patterns in budget execution

Consistent choice in an inconsistent world requires processes both for rational calculation and effective control. The budgetary process incorporates both of these functions. However, students of public sector budgeting tend either to ignore budget execution or to view the time expended by budgeteers on the execution of budgets - as opposed to their construction - as a gross misallocation of resources. In the authors' opinion this perspective - or lack thereof - seriously undervalues the control function and the budgeteer's role in preventing control loss. At the same time, the authors acknowledge that budgeteers frequently misuse the controls at their disposal and that in certain cases (i.e., where competitive supply of a public service is justified and in effect) expenditure controls are redundant and serve no real purpose.
Interactive effects of mental and physical stress on cardiovascular control

Physiological responses to mental tasks and physical exercise were studied independently and combined. We hypothesized that combined mental and physical stresses produce a synergistic interaction. ...
The photoreceptor guanylate cyclase is an autophosphorylating protein kinase

The photoreceptor membrane guanylate cyclase is a member of a family of proteins with a set of four structural motifs: an extracellular ligand binding domain, a transmembrane domain, an intracellular protein kinase-like domain, and an intracellular catalytic domain. Purified preparations of the photoreceptor guanylate cyclase have allowed us to explore the function of the protein kinase-like domain. ATP enhances the guanylate cyclase activity 2-fold in membranes stripped of peripheral proteins. The stimulation can be mimicked by ATPgammaS (adenosine 5'-O-(3-thiotriphosphate)), AMPPNP (5'-adenylyl beta,gamma-imidodiphosphate), and ADP, but not AMP. While this effect is lost by solubilizing guanylate cyclase, ATP binds the purified, solubilized enzyme in a site distinct from the catalytic GTP site as shown by specific labeling with 8-N3[alpha-32P]ATP. The enzyme has a protein kinase activity that is Mg2+-dependent and autophosphorylates serine residues. Myelin basic protein serves as a substrate for the kinase and enables further characterization of the kinase properties. The Km for ATP is 81 microM. The kinase activity is unaffected by calcium, cyclic nucleotides, and phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate/L-alpha-phosphatidylserine/Ca2+ and is inhibited by high concentrations of staurosporine. These properties are distinct from other Ser/Thr kinases identified in rod outer segment preparations including protein kinase A, protein kinase C, and rhodopsin kinase. The observations offer the first biochemical evidence that a member of the receptor guanylate cyclase family has intrinsic protein kinase activity.
2-5A-DNA conjugate inhibition of respiratory syncytial virus replication: effects of oligonucleotide structure modifications and RNA target site selection.

To define more fully the conditions for 2-5A-antisense inhibition of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), relationships between 2-5A antisense oligonucleotide structure and the choice of RNA target sites to inhibition of RSV replication have been explored. The lead 2-5A-antisense chimera for this study was the previously reported NIH8281 that targets the RSV M2 RNA. We have confirmed and extended the earlier study by showing that NIH8281 inhibited RSV strain A2 replication in a variety of antiviral assays, including virus yield reduction assays performed in monkey (EC90=0.02 μM) and human cells (EC90=1 μM). This 2-5A-antisense chimera also inhibited other A strains, B strains and bovine RSV in cytopathic effect inhibition and Neutral Red Assays (EC50 values=0.1–1.6 μM). The 2′-O-methylation modification of NIH8281 to increase affinity for the complementary RNA and provide nuclease resistance, the introduction of phosphothioate groups in the antisense backbone to enhance resistance to exo- and endonucleases, and the addition of cholesterol to the 3′-terminus of the antisense oligonucleotide to increase cellular uptake, all resulted in loss of activity. Of the antisense chimeras targeting other RSV mRNAs (NS1, NS2, P, M. G, F, and L), only those complementary to L mRNA were inhibitory. These results suggest that lower abundance mRNAs may be the best targets for 2-5A-antisense; moreover, the active 2-5A antisense chimeras in this study may serve as useful guides for the development of compounds with improved stability, uptake and anti-RSV activity.
Hamster peritoneal macrophages in vitro: substratum adhesion, spreading, phagocytosis and phagolysosome formation.

A series of manipulations designed to promote cell adhesion and spreading made it possible to maintain satisfactorily hamster peritoneal macrophages in vitro for up to 30 days. The essential requirements for this include in vivo stimulation of the peritoneal cavity, coating of the substratum with polylysine, and the use of HEPES-buffered medium 199 supplemented with horse serum (10%), fetal bovine serum (10%), and lactalbumin hydrolysate (0.5%). Results with the single deletion of the medium components indicate that serum factors are essential for optimal spreading, and horse serum and lactalbumin hydrothorotrast-labeling method revealed that secondary lysosomes are especially numerous in cultured cells, which otherwise resemble mouse macrophages in cellular organization, as shown by scanning and transmission electron microscopy. More than 95% of the cultured cells manifested cytochalasin B-sensitive phagocytosis of polystyrene latex spheres which, along with morphologic and ultrastructural evidence, indicate the homogeneity of cell population. Erythrophagocytosis of hamster macrophages was demonstrated by scanning electron microscopy and found higher after opsonization implying the presence of receptors for immune ligands on their cell surface.
Personality Correlates of Achievement in a Personnel Evaluation Course

Forty-four students enrolled in a personnel evaluation course were given three examinations on the content of Cronbach's textbook, Essentials of Psychological Testing. The sum of the three achievem...
Optimization Services: A Framework for Distributed Optimization

We describe a research project to design a distributed optimization environment in which solvers, modeling languages, registries, analyzers, and simulation engines can be implemented as services and utilities under a unified framework. Our work, which we call optimization services or OS, defines standards for all activities necessary to support decentralized optimization on the Internet: representation of optimization instances, results, and solver options; communication between clients and solvers; and discovery and registration of optimization-related software using the concept of Web services. In this paper we place emphasis on issues in distributed computing that are posed by the special character of optimization. We also describe a reference implementation that is freely available as an open-source project of COIN-OR.
Contributions by Federal Trade Commission Economists to Consumer Protection: Research, Policy, and Law Enforcement:

Imust begin by thanking William (“Bill”) Wilkie for inviting me to share my perspective on the role of economists at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in advancing consumer protection policy. Professor Wilkie has long advocated for the preservation of FTC history, with the hope that future researchers will learn from and build on prior work. I share this goal; I know how easy it is for a generation of scholars to be unaware of what has preceded them because I was once like them. There is a significant potential for losing knowledge related to public policy—in part because much of the analy sis within government entities is nonpublic and in part because public reports do not always find homes in the aca demic literature. Moreover, even published research can be lost over time if it appears in a stream of research over looked by newer scholars from different disciplines. Indeed, a new PhD economist working in behavioral economics recently asked me if we at the FTC had ever considered that information disclosures may not work as intended. At that moment, I realized that I had failed because decades of work at the FTC on this issue had not made its way to the next generation of policy researchers. My goal in this essay is to provide readers with a rough road map of consumer protection economics at the FTC. After providing some insight into my perspective in con structing this road map, I describe the history of the Division of Consumer Protection (DCP) within the FTC’s Bureau of Economics (BE) and the current role of econo mists in the division. I then highlight some key contribu tions by FTC economists to the conceptual and empirical development of consumer protection economics, the advancement of consumer policy analysis, and support of
Rate of accumulation of acetylcholine in discrete regions of the rat brain after dichlorvos treatment.

Abstract– The time course for accumulation of acetylcholine was measured in rat brain regions after treatment with 15 mg/kg, i.v., dichlorvos. With this dose of dichlorvos 84-96% of the brain cholinester-ase is inhibited within 1 min. After killing and concomitant enzyme inactivation through microwave irradiation, the acetylcholine levels were measured by pyrolysis-gas chromatography. In the brain regions studied, the striatum had the highest rate of accumulation of acetylcholine and the cerebellum had the lowest. The calculated turnover time in minutes for the regions of the brain were cerebral cortex 0.9; hippocampus 1; striatum 1.4; cerebellum 1.7; medulla-pons 2.2; midbrain 4.5; thalamus 5.6.
Perineal musculature in the cat.

Muscles of the perineal region were dissected in 20 cats. Levator ani muscle was composed of two parts: iliocaudalis and puboischiocaudalis; both parts inserted entirely on caudal vertebrae, as did the coccygeus muscle. A well developed band of smooth muscle, the pars analis of retractor penis (clitoridis), inserted on the anal canal to retract the anus. The external anal sphincter had pars caudalis and pars cranialis divisions, the latter covered paired anal sacs. In addition, a distinct sphincter encircled each anal sac duct. In the male, levator scroti muscle originated from external anal sphincter. There was no continuity between external anal sphincter and bulbospongiosus muscles. Cremaster muscles were absent in the cat. In the female, pars cranialis of external anal sphincter gave origin to the constrictor vestibuli muscle, and pars caudalis to constrictor vulvae muscle. Bulboglandularis muscles were present in both sexes. Urethralis, ischiourethralis, and ischiocavernosus muscles in the cat were similar to other quadripeds.
Evolving to distributed database environments

As the computer industry begins to experience a transition from centralized processors to distributed environments of networked processors, a methodology for conversion must be considered. Various considerations are identified in this paper that affect the development of this new technology. The impact of data models for distributed databases is considered. The concept of a dictory, a dictionary/directory facility, is developed as the focal point for extension into the distributed environment.
Transient frequency-modulated spectroscopy: application to the measurement of vector and scalar correlations in molecular photodissociation

An intrinsically time-resolved version of frequency-modulation (FM) spectroscopy has been recently developed and applied to the study of gas-phase photodissociation dynamics. Transient FM spectroscopy allows low background detection of radical species with shot-noise limited sensitivities, time resolution sufficient for detection of collisionless photoproducts, and frequency resolution characteristic of single-mode cw lasers. Methods for the quantitative analysis of Doppler-broadened FM line shapes to give velocity and rotational polarization information have been established permitting the measurement of scalar and vector properties of molecular fragmentation in exquisite detail. Several recent examples of the application of transient FM spectroscopy will be presented and discussed, including correlated scalar distributions in the dissociation of ketene from CH{sub 2}(a{sup 1} A{sub 1}) Doppler profiles, and the full vector correlation analysis of CN (X {sup 2}{Sigma}{sup +}) fragments arising from ICN dissociation.
Application of intention awareness and sentic computing for sensemaking in joint-cognitive systems

The ensemble application of intention awareness and sentic computing techniques is hereby examined for sensemaking in joint-cognitive systems, particularly in symbiotic systems that incorporate human and associate systems. The developed framework, in particular, exploits not only situational information of the operating environment, but also causal and temporal dimensions, together with circumstantial semantics and sentics, that is, the conceptual and affective information associated with objects and actors of such an environment. The work also highlights the effects of synchronized sensemaking processes in enabling associate systems to recognize the state of human activity. Studying the phenomenon of sensemaking, in fact, has direct implications for the development of more tightly coupled pairs. Specifically, the military doctrine is examined as a family of relevant case studies to demonstrate the role and potential applications of such joint cognitive systems.
Responses in astrocytic C6 glioma cells to ethanol and dibutyryl cyclic AMP.

Abstract Late passage C-6 glioma cells exhibit astrocytic properties as shown by a characteristic cell morphology and by high levels of the astrocytic cell marker glutamine synthetase (GS). In this study the effects of ethanol (0.2%–1.0% w/v) on the pattern of dibutyryl cyclic AMP (dBcAMP, 1 mM) -induced differentiation were examined using cell number and DNA content as indices for proliferation and cell morphology and GS activity to evaluate differentiation. Differences were observed in the susceptibility of cells to dBcAMP alone, ethanol alone, or simultaneous exposure to both drugs, when cultures were compared at logarithmic and postconfluent phases of growth. Exposure to dBcAMP decreased cell proliferation, induced a characteristic change in cell shape and increased GS activity. In logarithmic phase, simultaneous exposure of cells to ethanol and dBcAMP delayed the dBcAMP-induced change in cell shape and attenuated the mitosis-restricting properties of exposure to dBcAMP. Furthermore, GS activity was greater in dually treated cultures than in cultures treated with dBcAMP alone. We interprete this higher enzyme activity to be the consequence of increased cell-cell contact resulting from larger numbers of cells in the dually treated cultures, coupled with a subsequent dBcAMP-induction of this cytosolic enzyme. In postconfluent cultures, ethanol-exposure did not statistically alter DNA content; whereas GS activity was lower, suggesting that synthesis of GS may be impaired by cellular exposure to ethanol. Furthermore, enzyme activity was also lower in cultures treated with dBcAMP in concert with ethanol than in those treated with dBcAMP alone. These findings indicated that cellular differentiation, as manifested by the dBcAMP-induced changes in cell morphology may be vulnerable to ethanol toxicity. Additionally, the differences between logarithmic and postconfluent phase cultures in GS activity following exposure to ethanol and dBcAMP indicate that the growth kinetics of cultures influence the susceptibility of cells to perturabation by ethanol.