cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Non-linear oscillator limit cycle analysis using a time transformation approach

Abstract A method is presented for the analysis of limit cycle behavior of autonomous non-linear oscillators characterized by second order ordinary differential equations containing a small parameter. The method differs from the classical perturbation methods in that the dependent variable is not expanded in a power series in the small parameter. Rather, a new independent variable is sought such that in its domain the motion is simple harmonic. Use of this time transformation technique to generate limit cycle phase portrait, amplitude and period is presented. We show results of the application of the method to the van der Pol oscillator, to an oscillator with quadratic damping, and to a modified van der Pol oscillator which is statically unstable in the limit of small motion.
Synergistic, p160 Coactivator-dependent Enhancement of Estrogen Receptor Function by CARM1 and p300

Members of the p160 coactivator family (steroid receptor coactivator-1 (SRC-1), glucocorticoid receptor interacting protein 1 (GRIP1), and activator of thyroid and retinoic acid receptors (ACTR)) mediate transcriptional activation by nuclear receptors. After being recruited to the promoter by nuclear receptors, the p160 coactivator transmits the activating signal via two C-terminal activation domains, AD1 and AD2. AD1 is a binding site for the related coactivators cAMP-response element binding protein binding protein (CBP) and p300, whereas AD2 binds to another coactivator, coactivator-associated arginine methyltransferase 1 (CARM1), a protein-arginine methyltransferase. The current study explored the cooperative functional and mechanistic relationships among GRIP1, CARM1, and p300 in transient transfection assays, where they enhanced the ability of the estrogen receptor (ER) to activate transcription of a reporter gene. The coactivator functions of p300 and CARM1 depended on the co-expression of GRIP1. Simultaneous co-expression of all three coactivators caused a synergistic enhancement of ER function. Deletion of the AD1 domain of GRIP1 abolished the ability of p300 to potentiate ER activity but had no effect on CARM1-mediated stimulation. In contrast, when the AD2 domain of GRIP1 was deleted, p300 still stimulated ER function through the mutant GRIP1, but CARM1 failed to do so. Thus, both binding of p300 to AD1 and binding of CARM1 to AD2 are required for their respective coactivator functions and for their synergy. Furthermore, CARM1 and p300 function independently through different activating domains of GRIP1, and their synergy suggests that they enhance transcription by different, complementary mechanisms.
An axonemal dynein at the Hybrid Sterility 6 locus: implications for t haplotype-specific male sterility and the evolution of species barriers

Poor sperm motility characterized by a distinct aberration in flagellar waveform known as ``curlicue'' is a hallmark of t haplotype (t) homozygous male sterility. Previous studies have localized ``curlicue'' and a flagellar developmental defect, ``whipless'', to the Hybrid Sterility 6 locus (Hst6), between the markers Pim1 and Crya1. More recent heterospecific breeding experiments between Mus spretus (Spretus) and Mus musculus domesticus (Domesticus) have mapped the primary source(s) of both ``curlicue'' and ``whipless'' to a small sub-locus of Hst6, Curlicue a (Ccua). Here we report the complete physical isolation of the Ccua locus and the identification of a candidate gene for expression of both ``whipless'' and ``curlicue'' at its proximal end, an axonemal dynein heavy chain gene, Dnahc8, formerly mapped by interspecific backcross analysis near Pim1. Dnahc8 mRNA expression commences in the Domesticus wild-type testis just prior to flagellar assembly and is testis-specific in the adult male. However, expression of Dnahc8 is not readily evident in the testis of either Spretus or ``whipless'' animals (Domesticus males homozygous for the Spretus allele of Dnahc8). Our results argue that Dnahc8 is fundamental to flagellar organization and function in Domesticus, but not Spretus, and suggest that Dnahc8 is integral to both Hst6- and t-specific male infertility.
c-IAP1 and c-IAP2 redundancy differs between T and B cells.

Cellular Inhibitors of Apoptosis 1 and 2 (c-IAP1 and c-IAP2) are ubiquitin protein ligases (E3s) that constitutively ubiquitinate and induce proteasomal-mediated degradation of NF-κB Inducing Kinase (NIK) and repress non-canonical NF-κB activation. Mice expressing an E3-inactive c-IAP2 mutant (c-IAP2H570A) have constitutive activation of non-canonical NF-κB, resulting in B cell hyperplasia and T cell costimulation-independence. If, and if so to what extent, c-IAP1 and c-IAP2 are redundant in NF-κB regulation in these mice is not known. Here we have generated mice expressing a mutant c-IAP1 that lacks E3 activity (c-IAP1H582A). These mice were phenotypically normal and did not have constitutive NF-κB activation in B cells or MEFs. siRNA-mediated knockdown of c-IAP2 showed that accumulated c-IAP2, resulting from lack of c-IAP1-dependent degradation, compensated for absent c-IAP1 E3 activity. Surprisingly, c-IAP1H582A T cells had a lower p100/p52 ratio than wild type T cells, and in the absence of costimulation proliferated to a degree intermediate between wild type and c-IAP2H570A T cells. Therefore, although c-IAP1 and c-IAP2 both can repress constitutive NF-κB activation, the relative importance of each varies according to cell type.
Toxic heavy metals: materials cycle optimization.

Long-term ecological sustainability is incompatible with an open materials cycle. The toxic heavy metals (arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, mercury, silver, uranium/plutonium, zinc) exemplify the problem. These metals are being mobilized and dispersed into the environment by industrial activity at a rate far higher than by natural processes. Apart from losses to the environment resulting from mine wastes and primary processing, many of these metals are utilized in products that are inherently dissipative. Examples of such uses include fuels, lubricants, solvents, fire retardants, stabilizers, flocculants, pigments, biocides, and preservatives. To close the materials cycle, it will be necessary to accomplish two things. The first is to ban or otherwise discourage (e.g., by means of high severance taxes on virgin materials) dissipative uses of the above type. The second is to increase the efficiency of recycling of those materials that are not replaceable in principle. Here, also, economic instruments (such as returnable deposits) can be effective in some cases. A systems view of the problem is essential to assess the cost and effectiveness of alternative strategies.
Transition between different binding modes in rat DNA polymerase β-ssDNA complexes

Interactions of rat DNA polymerase β with a single-stranded (ss) DNA have been studied using the quantitative fluorescence titration technique. Examination of the fluorescence changes accompanying the binding, as a function of the thermodynamically rigorous binding density of rat pol β-ssDNA complexes, reveals the existence of two binding phases. In the first high affinity phase, rat pol β forms a complex with the ssDNA in which 16 nucleotides are occluded by the enzyme. In the second low affinity phase, a transition to a complex where the polymerase occludes only five nucleotides occurs. Thus, the data show that rat pol β binds the ssDNA in two binding modes which differ in the number of occluded nucleotides. We designate the first complex as the (pol β)16 binding mode and the second as the (pol β)5 binding mode. The formation of the (pol β)16 and (pol β)5 modes has been fully confirmed in experiments with short ssDNA oligomers, a 16mer which can form either the (pol β)16 or the (pol β)5 mode, and a 10mer which can form only the (pol β)5 mode. Binding of rat pol β to the ssDNA has been analyzed using a statistical thermodynamic model which accounts for the existence of the two binding modes, cooperative interactions, and the overlap of potential binding sites. The results indicate that the 8 kDa domain of the enzyme is involved in ssDNA binding in both modes. Binding studies show that an isolated 8 kDa domain has the same intrinsic affinity for the ssDNA as the entire intact enzyme in its (pol β)5 mode. However, the site size of the 8 kDa domain-ssDNA complex is ten nucleotides, suggesting that the formation of the (pol β)5 mode is accompanied by a significant conformational transition of the intact protein. A higher intrinsic affinity, a higher net number of ions released, and a lower fluorescence change accompanying the formation of the (pol β)16 than the (pol β)5 mode indicate that the 31 kDa catalytic domain of the enzyme interacts with the ssDNA only in the (pol β)16 mode. The significance of these results for understanding the functioning of rat pol β in the DNA metabolism is discussed.
Taxonomy of Solenopotes Enderlein, 1904, with redescription of Linognathus panamensis Ewing (Linognathidae: Anoplura).

All the known species of Solenopotes Enderlein, 1904 are discussed with a complete synonymy, major references, diagnoses, host associations and distribution; they are S. binipilosus (Fahrenholz, 1916a); S. burmeisteri (Fahrenholz, 1919); S. capillatus Enderlein, 1904; S. capreoli Freund, 1935a; S. ferrisi (Fahrenholz, 1919); S. muntiacus Thompson, 1938; S. natalensis Ledger, 1970 and S. tarandi (Mjoberg, 1915). The species of Solenopotes are compared on the basis of major taxonomic characters. Solenopotes and Linognathus are compared and a key to the known species of Solenopotes is also presented. Taxonomic relationships among the cervid-infesting species are quantitatively studied. The status of Linognathus panamensis Ewing, 1927, previously assigned to Solenopotes, is discussed and the species is redescribed and illustrated.
Radiation graft polymerization of solid monomers by vapor-phase method

Abstract Radiation graft polymerization proceeding in the sublimation vapors of solid monomers exhibits a peculiar feature differed from that of the ordinary liquid-phase graft polymerization, and also from that of the vapor-phase graft polymerization utilizing gaseous monomers or vapors of liquid monomers. In this experiment, polyethylene and poly(ethylene-co-vinyl acetate) films were irradiated with the γ-rays in the atmosphere of α,β-disubstituted ethylenic solid monomer such as maleimide, maleic anhydride, or acenaphthylene, or in that of the binary solid comonomers. Graft polymerization was characterized by little occluded homopolymer formation and high efficiency of grafting. When the monomer vapor was not sorbed into the polymer film, the reaction took place on the surface of film with the formation of fine granules of the grafted polymer. The oxygen gas coexisting with the monomer vapor did not inhibit the grafting reaction, but merely retarded it to the same extent as nitrogen. Thus the graft polymerization of unsorbed polar monomer as maleimide or maleic anhydride onto polyethylene was considered to proceed on the surface by a solid-state polymerization mechanism. When the monomer was sorbed and dispersed monomolecularly into the backbone polymer film, the grafting reaction seemed to proceed mainly in the inner part of the film. Grafting of copolymer took place when a film was exposed under γ-rays to a combined vapor of binary solid monomers chosen as an electron donor-acceptor combination, and in some cases nearly-alternating copolymer grafting was achieved even if one of the binary comonomers could not be sorbed into the film. The effects of the affinity of film to monomers on the rate of grafting and on the composition of grafted copolymer were also investigated by adopting poly(ethylene-co-vinyl acetate) films of various compositions and their surface-modified ones.
Integrated optimal actuator/sensor placement and robust control of uncertain transport-reaction processes

This paper focuses on transport-reaction processes with unknown time-varying parameters and disturbances described by quasi-linear parabolic PDE systems, and addresses the problem of computing optimal actuator/sensor locations for robust nonlinear controllers. Initially, Galerkin's method is employed to derive finite-dimensional approximations of the PDE system which are used for the synthesis of robust nonlinear state feedback controllers via geometric and Lyapunov techniques and the computation of optimal actuator locations. The controllers enforce boundedness and uncertainty attenuation in the closed-loop system. The optimal actuator location problem is subsequently formulated as the one of minimizing a meaningful cost functional that includes penalty on the response of the closed-loop system and the control action. Owing to the boundedness of the state, the cost is defined over a finite-time interval (the final time is defined as the time needed for the process state to become smaller than the desired uncertainty attenuation limit), while the optimization is performed over a broad set of initial conditions and time-varying disturbance profiles. Subsequently, under the assumption that the number of measurement sensors is equal to the number of slow modes, we employ a standard procedure for obtaining estimates for the states of the approximate finite-dimensional model from the measurements. The optimal location of the measurement sensors is computed by minimizing a cost function of the estimation error in the closed-loop infinite-dimensional system. We show that the use of these estimates in the robust state feedback controller leads to a robust output feedback controller, which guarantees boundedness of the state and uncertainty attenuation in the infinite-dimensional closed-loop system, provided that the separation between the slow and the fast eigenvalues is sufficiently large. We also establish that the solution to the optimal actuator/sensor problem, which is obtained on the basis of the closed-loop finite-dimensional system, is near-optimal in the sense that it approaches the optimal solution for the infinite-dimensional system as the separation between the slow and fast eigenvalues increases. The theoretical results are successfully applied to a typical diffusion-reaction process with nonlinearites and uncertainty to design a robust nonlinear output feedback controller and compute the optimal actuator/sensor locations for robust stabilization of an unstable steady state.
Effects of Grapefruit Juice on Intestinal P-glycoprotein: Evaluation Using Digoxin in Humans

Study Objectives. To determine the effects of grapefruit juice on the pharmacokinetics of oral digoxin, a P-glycoprotein substrate not metabolized by cytochrome P450 3A4, in healthy volunteers, and to assess whether polymorphic multidrug-resistance-1 (MDR1) expression contributes to interindividual variability in digoxin disposition. Design. Prospective, open-label, unblinded, crossover study. Setting. University research center. Subjects. Seven healthy adult volunteers (four men, three women). Intervention. Each subject received a single oral dose of digoxin 1.0 mg with water or grapefruit juice with at least a 2-week washout between treatments. During the grapefruit juice phase, juice was administered 3 times/day for 5 days before digoxin administration to maximize any effect on P-glycoprotein. Measurements and Main Results. Digoxin pharmacokinetics in the presence and absence of grapefruit juice were compared. The MDR1 exon 26 C3435T genotype was determined by real-time polymerase chain reaction. Compared with water, grapefruit juice significantly reduced the digoxin absorption rate constant (3.0 ± 2.4 to 1.2 ± 1.0 hr−1, p<0.05) and increased absorption lag time (0.32 ± 0.12 to 0.53 ± 0.34 hr, p<0.05). Grapefruit juice did not affect digoxin maximum concentration (Cmax), area under the curve (AUC), elimination half-life, or renal clearance. The effect of grapefruit juice on digoxin Cmax (-45% to +41%) and AUC0–4 (-29% to +25%) varied substantially among subjects and was inversely correlated with the values during the water phase. Trends toward higher digoxin Cmax, AUC, and absorption rate constant during the water phase were found in CC homozygotes compared with subjects carrying a T allele. Conclusion. Inhibition of intestinal P-glycoprotein does not appear to play an important role in drug interactions involving grapefruit juice. Interindividual variability in response to grapefruit juice may be related to the balance of intestinal drug uptake and efflux transport.
Labeling and Hypertension It Is Time to Intervene on Its Negative Consequences

With the increasing prevalence of hypertension in the adult population, a good number of patients are potentially vulnerable to been mislabeled or misdiagnosed as hypertensive, with resultant negative consequences. Sir George Pickering raised the issue of labeling, when he suggested that hypertension labeling might evoke a feeling of fear of the affliction of a serious disease in a patient.1 This assertion has been proven accurate by numerous investigators who have documented the negative psychological consequences of hypertension labeling.2,3 The study by Hamer et al4 in this issue of the journal is yet another important reminder of the negative consequences of hypertension labeling. In a population-based cohort of >33 000 individuals (aged 51.7±12.1 years; 45.8% men), the authors assessed levels of psychological distress using the 12-item General Health Questionnaire, measured blood pressure, and collected history of hypertension diagnosis and medication usage. Awareness of hypertension (labeling) was confirmed through a physician diagnosis or the use of antihypertensive medication and being unaware of hypertension was defined by elevated clinic blood pressure >140/90 mm Hg without previous treatment or diagnosis. Compared with normotensive participants, an elevated risk of psychological distress was observed in aware hypertensive participants (multivariable adjusted odds ratio: 1.57 [95% CI: 1.41 to 1.74]) but not in unaware hypertensives (odds ratio: 0.91 [95% CI: 0.78 to 1.07]). Similar to previous studies, these findings confirm the negative psychological sequelae of hypertension labeling. Unlike previous studies, however, this is the largest population-based study of hypertension labeling to …
Synthesis and Dielectric Properties of Subsituted Lanthanum Aluminate

LaAlO[sub 3] was chemically modified in order to ascertain the effects of substitution of larger cations on the compound's slight rhombohedral distortion from cubic symmetry--a property that often degrades the performance of LaAlO[sub 3] substrates for epitaxial high-temperature superconducting films. La[sub 1[minus]x]Sr[sub x]Al[sub 1[minus]x]Ti[sub x]O[sub 3] (x = 0.05, 0.10, 0.15, 0.25), La[sub 1[minus]x]Sr[sub x]Al[sub 1[minus]x]Zr[sub x]O[sub 3], La[sub 1[minus]x]Sr[sub x]Al[sub 1[minus]x]Mg[sub x]O[sub 3[minus]2x]F[sub 2x] and La[sub 1[minus]x]Sr[sub x]Al[sub 1[minus]x]Sc[sub x]O[sub 3[minus]x]F[sub x] (x = 0.05, 0.10, 0.15) were prepared in polycrystalline form and 1--2 mm single crystals of the Sr, Ti- and Sr,Zr-substituted systems were grown using a PbO-PbF[sub 2]-B[sub 2]O[sub 3]-PbO[sub 2] flux. Shifts in the peak positions of the X-ray powder diffraction patterns confirmed substitution of the larger cations. The diffraction patterns were also typified by line-broadening and a decrease in the rhombohedral splitting at all doping levels. The dielectric constant of LaAlO[sub 3] was unchanged for all of the fluoride-containing systems and for the 5% Sr,Ti- and Sr,Zr-systems.
The Persistence of US Conflict Behavior: Continuity in the Use of Force:

I argue that decision-making processes by the president and the national security establishment and a conception of past US military operations as credibility-establishing precedents for future US military actions have tended to result in a fixation on political developments occurring in a relatively small number of nations. Together, these foreign-policy making routines produce a high degree of regularity in US military activities whose importance is not often appreciated in studies that emphasize more variable domestic political forces, such as diversionary theory, or traditional security concerns, such as realism. I use both a zero-inflated, negative binomial model and a proportional hazards model to illustrate the impact of past US militarized dispute behavior on the prospects for future military activity. I find that past US conflict behavior exercises the most important influence in both models.
Using Network Motifs to Identify Application Protocols

Identifying application types in network traffic is a difficult problem for administrators who must secure and manage network resources, further complicated by the use of encrypted protocols and nonstandard port numbers. This paper takes a unique approach to this problem by modeling and analyzing application graphs, structures which describe the application-level (e.g., HTTP, FTP) communications between hosts. These graphs are searched for motifs: recurring, significant patterns of interconnections that can be used to help determine the network application in use. Motif-based analysis has been applied predominantly to biological networks to hypothesize key functional regulatory units, but never to network traffic as it is here. For the proposed method, a description of each node is generated based on its participation in statistically significant motifs. These descriptions, or profiles, are data points in multidimensional space that are used as input to a k-nearest neighbor (k-NN) classifier to predict the application. This work also compares the performance of motif-based analysis to an alternative profile type based on "traditional" graph measures such as path lengths, clustering coefficients and centrality measures. The results show that motif profiles perform better than traditional profiles, and are able to correctly identify the actions of 85% of the hosts examined across seven protocols.
No longer a bargain: Women, masculinity, and the Egyptian uprising

Although, according to eyewitness accounts, women made up 20 to 50 percent of the protesters in Tahrir Square, the events immediately following the Egyptian uprising revealed that women would not be part of the political deliberations between various contending parties and the Supreme Military Council in charge of the country. In this essay, I take a close look at the sociocultural dynamics behind the inclusion–dis-inclusion of women in the political sphere to question how this contradiction has, in recent years, characterized the nature of gender relations in Arab countries like Egypt. Multilayered, rapidly changing, and challenged patriarchal power lies at the very core of the uprising in Egypt. What the events of this uprising have revealed is that notions of masculinity undermined by a repressive regime have observably shifted the terms of the patriarchal bargain. [Egypt's uprising, gender relations in the Middle East, masculinity, patriarchy, patriarchal bargain, state patriarchy, women and revolution]
Comparing the Brazilian national quality award with some of the major prizes

Deals with some of the quality award programmes applied worldwide. First, briefly describes five quality awards: the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award from the USA, the European Quality Award, the Deming Prize of Japan, the Canadian Quality Award and the Australian Quality Award. Second, presents the National Quality Award of Brazil. Outlines its criteria for performance excellence and some descriptors. Additionally, describes the application procedure, evaluation process, and the scoring methodology. Finally, performs a comparison between the major awards and the Brazilian programme in order to identify some similarities and differences among them. It can be remarked that the major internationally recognised quality awards use evaluation criteria which are similar in nature, when compared with the Brazilian award.
Testing ADC's at sample rates from 20 to 120 MSPS

Results are presented from an ongoing program to test the performance of high-speed analog-to-digital converters suitable for use at the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) and Large Hadron Collider (LHC). For each device a large number of parameters is measured, such as number of effective bits, noise level, aperture jitter, nonlinearity, analog bandwidth, and total harmonic distortion. Results from a variety of 8-b and 10-b devices are presented. >
Prevalence and predictors of research participant eligibility criteria in alcohol treatment outcome studies, 1970-98.

Aims To describe the eligibility criteria (i.e. study participant inclusion and exclusion rules) employed in alcohol treatment outcome research and to identify predictors of their use. Design The eligibility criteria of 683 alcohol treatment outcome studies conducted between 1970 and 1998 were coded reliably into 14 general categories. Predictors of the use of eligibility criteria were then examined. Findings Patients were most often ruled ineligible for research studies because of their level of alcohol problems (39.1% of studies), comorbid psychiatric problems (37.8%), past or concurrent utilization of alcohol treatment (31.8%), co-occurring medical conditions (31.6%), and because they were deemed non-compliant and unmotivated (31.5%). The number of eligibility criteria employed in studies increased from the 1970s through the 1990s, and was positively associated with funding from the US National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and from the private sector, lack of an inpatient/residential treatment condition, presence of a pharmacotherapy, and use of a randomized, multiple-condition design. Principal investigators with doctoral degrees used more eligibility criteria than those with lower degrees. Conclusion Participant eligibility criteria are extensively employed in alcohol treatment outcome research, and vary significantly across historical periods, funders and research designs. Researchers should report the details of subject eligibility criteria and excluded patients more fully, and, evaluate how eligibility criteria affect the cost, feasibility, and generalizability of treatment outcome research.
Consciousness as a useful concept in epilepsy classification

Impaired consciousness has important practical consequences for people living with epilepsy. Recent pathophysiologic studies show that seizures with impaired level of consciousness always affect widespread cortical networks and subcortical arousal systems. In light of these findings and their clinical significance, efforts are underway to revise the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) 2010 report to include impaired consciousness in the classification of seizures. Luders and colleagues have presented one such effort, which we discuss here. We then propose an alternative classification of impaired consciousness in epilepsy based on functional neuroanatomy. Some seizures involve focal cortical regions and cause selective deficits in the content of consciousness but without impaired overall level of consciousness or awareness. These include focal aware conscious seizures (FACS) with lower order cortical deficits such as somatosensory or visual impairment as well as FACS with higher cognitive deficits including ictal aphasia or isolated epileptic amnesia. Another category applies to seizures with impaired level of consciousness leading to deficits in multiple cognitive domains. For this category, we believe the terms “dyscognitive” or “dialeptic” should be avoided because they may create confusion. Instead we propose that seizures with impaired level of consciousness be described based on underlying pathophysiology. Widespread moderately severe deficits in corticothalamic function are seen in absence seizures and in focal impaired consciousness seizures (FICS), including many temporal lobe seizures and other focal seizures with impaired consciousness. Some simple responses or automatisms may be preserved in these seizures. In contrast, generalized tonic–clonic seizures usually produce widespread severe deficits in corticothalamic function causing loss of all meaningful responses. Further work is needed to understand and prevent impaired consciousness in epilepsy, but the first step is to keep this crucial practical and physiologic aspect of seizures front-and-center in our discussions.
Distributed containment control with multiple stationary or dynamic leaders in fixed and switching directed networks

In this paper, we study the problem of distributed containment control of a group of mobile autonomous agents with multiple stationary or dynamic leaders under both fixed and switching directed network topologies. First, when the leaders are stationary and all followers share an inertial coordinate frame, we present necessary and sufficient conditions on the fixed or switching directed network topology such that all followers will ultimately converge to the stationary convex hull formed by the stationary leaders for arbitrary initial states in a space of any finite dimension. When the directed network topology is fixed, we partition the (nonsymmetric) Laplacian matrix and explore its properties to derive the convergence results. When the directed network topology is switching, the commonly adopted decoupling technique based on the Kronecker product in a high-dimensional space can no longer be applied and we hence present an important coordinate transformation technique to derive the convergence results. The proposed coordinate transformation technique also has potential applications in other high-dimensional distributed control scenarios and might be used to simplify the analysis of a high-dimensional system to that of a one-dimensional system when the decoupling technique based on the Kronecker product cannot be applied. Second, when the leaders are dynamic and all followers share an inertial coordinate frame, we propose a distributed tracking control algorithm without velocity measurements. When the directed network topology is fixed, we derive conditions on the network topology and the control gain to guarantee that all followers will ultimately converge to the dynamic convex hull formed by the dynamic leaders for arbitrary initial states in a space of any finite dimension. When the directed network topology is switching, we derive conditions on the network topology and the control gain such that all followers will ultimately converge to the minimal hyperrectangle that contains the dynamic leaders and each of its hyperplanes is normal to one axis of the inertial coordinate frame in any high-dimensional space. We also show via some counterexamples that it is, in general, impossible to find distribute containment control algorithms without velocity measurements to guarantee that all followers will ultimately converge to the convex hull formed by the dynamic leaders under a switching network topology in a high-dimensional space. Simulation results are presented as a proof of concept.
Clinical and echocardiographic correlations in right heart endocarditis

Abstract The echocardiographic findings were correlated with the clinical findings and outcome in 23 patients with tricuspid valve or pulmonary valve endocarditis. There were 15 males and 8 females with a mean age of 33.1 ± 8.4 years. Eighteen patients had tricuspid valve endocarditis, 1 patient had pulmonary valve endocarditis, 3 patients had concomitant mitral valve and tricuspid valve endocarditis, and 1 patient had tricuspid valve and pulmonary valve endocarditis. Twenty of the 23 (87%) patients had a history of intravenous drug abuse. The most common organisms were Staphylococcus aureus (10 of 23 patients or 43%), Streptococcus viridans (5 patients) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (4 patients). Pulmonary manifestations with septic pulmonary emboli were present in 1823 (80%) patients, and a regurgitant murmur in 1623 (73%) patients. Vegetations on the tricuspid valve or pulmonary valve were detected in all patients who had 2D echo, but they were missed by M-mode echo in 2 patients. Nine of the 23 patients (40%) improved on medical therapy, 5 (21%) expired, and 7 (30%) required surgery (tricuspid valve or pulmonary valve replacement in 3, and tricuspid valve excision without replacement in 4). Conclusions: (1) 11 of 13 patients with persistent infection, multivalvular involvement, fungal or Pseudomonas infection and increasing size of vegetations by echo died or underwent surgery compared to only 1 of 8 patients without these features ( P Staphylococcus aureus infection (10 patients) and flail tricuspid valve or pulmonary valve by echo (6 patients) were not predictive of outcome.
Spontaneous remission in erectile dysfunction: a partial replication.

Frequence des remissions spontanees des troubles de l'erection penienne chez les patients declinant d'envisager le traitement comportemental de ce dysfonctionnement
Fragmenting Malignant Melanoma

Patients with malignant melanoma display widely disparate survival rates among cases with comparable pathological and clinical characteristics. Now, Hirsch and colleagues show that clues to a patient’s outcome can be found in the DNA of melanoma cells. Normal skin cells have two copies of the genome, but as cancer cells divide, they accumulate changes in the DNA, often resulting in a change in the DNA copy number. These genetic alterations most commonly occur in a sequential fashion, with individual events accumulating progressively over time. Recently, scientists observed that some cancers, including a fraction of melanomas, have a single catastrophic event, coined “chromothripsis,” in which portions of chromosomes fragment into tens to hundreds of pieces that subsequently get reassembled incorrectly. These events lead to rampant gene copy number changes and rearrangements. The role that chromothripsis and genomic instability play in the prognosis of individuals with malignant melanoma is poorly understood. In order to identify a link between outcomes and DNA copy number, Hirsch et al . studied a cohort of 20 well-curated malignant melanomas with dichotomous survival rates. Ten patients had a median disease-free survival of 3.7 years, whereas the remaining 10 patients survived for a median of 14.8 years. To 18 of the samples , the authors applied comparative genomic hybridization—a method capable of identifying DNA copy number changes throughout the genome—and discovered that the cases with poor prognoses, including two that demonstrated chromothripsis, had significantly more chromosomal aberrations when compared with the samples associated with good prognoses. When copy number aberrations were seen in cases with favorable prognoses, large segments of chromosomes were lost, in contrast to cases with poor prognoses, in which focal gains or losses predominated. Although this study provides a potential genetic approach to guide prognostication in malignant melanoma, future large-scale studies will be required to validate these results and determine how such information can inform clinical decision-making. D. Hirsch et al. , Chromothripsis and focal copy number alterations determine poor outcome in malignant melanoma. Cancer Res. , published online 27 December 2012 (10.1158/0008-5472). [[Abstract]][1] [1]: http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/early/2012/12/27/0008-5472.CAN-12-0928.short
ASIS&T: The student perspective

EDITOR'S SUMMARY An engaged student membership is a key source of strength and vitality for a professional organization like ASIST having an active chapter at each university with studies in information science would further strengthen the Association. An early 2014 survey elicited responses from 38 current or past students, 28 of whom had a local ASIS&T student chapter with 23 being members. Just over half had attended an ASIS&T Annual Meeting. Respondents noted the value of networking within the Association and special interest groups and the assistance available for career and research goals. They also observed drawbacks including the cost of Annual Meeting attendance and feeling lost at the large conference. Students are drawn by the opportunities for involvement and networking. Among the numerous suggestions offered to strengthen and enrich the student experience were leadership training, practical skill development and improved communications.
Expressive language in male adolescents with fragile X syndrome with and without comorbid autism.

Background Approximately one-quarter of indi- viduals with fragile X syndrome (FXS) meet diag- nostic criteria for autism; however, it is unclear whether individuals with comorbid FXS and autism are simply more severely affected than their peers with only FXS or whether they have qualitatively different profiles of behavioural impairments.To address this issue, variation in the FXS linguistic phenotype was examined in males with FXS with and without autism.The syndrome-specificity of the expressive language impairment of both groups of those with FXS was assessed in relation to Down syndrome.The extent to which different language sampling contexts affected expressive language in each diagnostic group was also examined. Method Spontaneous language samples were col- lected from male adolescents with FXS without autism (n = 20), comorbid FXS and autism (n = 8), and Down syndrome (n = 16). Syntactic complexity (indexed by mean length of utterance), expressive vocabulary (indexed by lexical diversity), talkative- ness, fluency and intelligibility were assessed in two contexts: conversation and narration. Groups were matched on non-verbal IQ, non-verbal mental age and chronological age to allow the assessment of relative strengths and weaknesses across language variables. Results Males with comorbid FXS and autism were less intelligible than males with only FXS; no other differences between these two groups were found. Participants' performance differed across contexts for syntactic complexity, lexical diversity, talkativeness and fluency. Conclusions These findings contribute to existing research on the behavioural profiles of individuals with FXS or FXS with autism who have low cogni- tive abilities. Although individuals with comorbid FXS and autism may be, as a group, more impaired than those with only FXS, data from this small sample of males with comorbid FXS and autism with low IQs suggest that their relative strengths and weaknesses in spontaneous expressive language are largely comparable and not differentially affected by the context in which their talk occurs.
Impact of views to school landscapes on recovery from stress and mental fatigue

Abstract Previous research has demonstrated positive associations between the greenness of high school landscapes and school wide academic performance. We do not known, however, if green landscapes cause better performance or if the association between the two is a product of self-selection. If there is a causal relationship, the pathways through which green school landscapes affect student performance remain unclear. We hypothesize that views onto green landscapes help students recover from mental fatigue and stress. To test these hypotheses, we conducted a randomized controlled experiment with 94 high school students at five high schools. Participants were randomly assigned to classrooms without windows or with windows that opened onto a built space or a green space. Participants engaged in typical classroom activities followed by a break in the classroom to which they were assigned. Attentional functioning was measured using Digit Span Forward and Backwards. Physiological stress levels were measured by skin conductance, body temperature, pNN50 (the proportion of the number of pairs of successive NNs that differ by more than 50 ms divided by the total number of NNs) and LF/HF (the ratio between low-frequency peak and high frequency peak). Results demonstrate that classroom views to green landscapes cause significantly better performance on tests of attention and increase student's recovery from stressful experiences. A lack of mediation effect demonstrates that attention restoration and stress recovery are two distinct processes. Implications for school site selection, design and renovation are discussed.
Near-horizon Kerr magnetosphere

We exploit the near-horizon conformal symmetry of rapidly spinning black holes to determine universal properties of their magnetospheres. Analytic expressions are derived for the limiting form of the magnetosphere in the near-horizon region. The symmetry is shown to imply that the black hole Meissner effect holds for free Maxwell fields but is generically violated for force-free fields. We further show that in the extremal limit, near-horizon plasma particles are infinitely boosted relative to accretion flow. Active galactic nuclei powered by rapidly spinning black holes are therefore natural sites for high-energy particle collisions.
Carbohydrate metabolism of vegetative and reproductive sinks in the late-maturing peach cultivar 'Encore'

Activities of NAD(+)-dependent sorbitol dehydrogenase (SDH), sorbitol oxidase (SOX), sucrose synthase (SS), acid invertase (AI), and neutral invertase (NI) in 'Encore' peach (Prunus persica L.) fruits and developing shoot tips were assayed during the growing season to determine whether carbohydrate metabolizing enzymes could serve as indicators of sink strength. In fruit flesh, SS activity was detected during Stage I of growth, when cells were actively dividing, and SDH activity was detected during Stage III, when cells were actively enlarging. Acid invertase activity was detected during Stage I and showed a closer correlation with relative increase in fruit weight during the growing season than SS activity. During seed filling and pit hardening (Stage II), when relative fruit growth rate was slowest, activities of carbohydrate metabolizing enzymes in fruit flesh were not detectable. No SOX activity was detected during Stages I and II. The highest sucrose content occurred near the end of fruit development when the activities of sucrose metabolizing enzymes were low. In developing shoot tips, the sorbitol:sucrose ratio was 2:1 (w/w) and SDH activity was low at the beginning and end of the season when vegetative growth was slowest. The sorbitol:sucrose ratio changed to 1:1 (w/w) along with an increase in SDH activity in shoot tips during the mid-growing season. In 'Nemaguard' peach, SDH exhibited higher activity in root tips than in other organs. Among the sorbitol- and sucrose-metabolizing enzyme activities, only SDH activity was positively correlated with shoot growth in 'Nemaguard' plants.
Evidence of Leptospira sp. infection among a diversity of African wildlife species: beyond the usual suspects.

BACKGROUND Leptospirosis is an important public health threat in sub-Saharan Africa but little is known regarding the host spectrum and epidemiology of this zoonotic disease. METHODS 289 kidney samples from 69 wild, domestic and peri-domestic species in northern Botswana were screened for the presence of Leptospira sp. RESULTS Renal carriage was widespread among mammals (31.4%, n=11/35 species), birds (27.8%, n=5/18 species) and reptiles (6.3%, n=1/16 species), including several novel species. CONCLUSION Leptospiral surveillance is often limited to the usual suspects: rodents and domestic animals. We identify Leptospira in a wide range of African wildlife, suggesting that leptospirosis transmission and persistence may also involve hosts not normally considered.
Imaging to Assess the Effect of Anti-Inflammatory Therapy in Aortic and Carotid Atherosclerosis

A considerable body of experimental and clinical evidence has implicated inflammation in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and its complications, such as plaque disruption and thrombosis [(1,2)][1]. Because elevated levels of atherogenic (containing apolipoprotein B-100) lipoproteins play a major
68: Ribotypes of Clostridium difficile Isolates Correlate With Whole Genome Mapping and Reveal Long-Term Presence of Both Toxigenic and Nontoxigenic Strains

Ribosomal polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based bacterial identification and typing methodologies (“ribotyping”) can provide valuable information beyond the species level for a variety of clinical and epidemiological purposes, but it is difficult to interpret phylogenetic relationships between ribotyped strains without correlating data. While a variety of ribotypes can suggest genetic diversity, clear divisions between …
Approximation of network linear operators using similarity shift filters

We address the problem of designing linear filters based on polynomial shift operators to implement network linear transformations. We introduce the similarity shift and the associated similarity shift filter, and find conditions for perfect reconstruction of the desired transformation. In addition, when such reconstruction is not possible, we provide an approximation, and supplement its analysis with the quantification of the error incurred. To compare the studied scenarios with existing approaches, we perform numerical simulations in two distinct cases: Erdos-Renyi random networks and brain networks based on a real dataset from neuroimaging. For a given performance level, we observed that the similarity shift method was able to approximate target operators with filters with comparatively lower degree. This characteristic allows linear operators with larger dimensions to be considered in practice.
Caching and Coded Multicasting in Slow Fading Environment

We study the delay-outage tradeoff in a shared link caching network formed by one source node and $n$ users over a wireless slow fading channel. Each user requests an arbitrary file from a library of $m$ files, each of entropy $F$ bits. The users can locally cache up to $MF$ information bits. Under a single-input single-output (SISO) multi-user system, we present a closed form expression of the delay- outage tradeoff under any i.i.d. channel distributions by using the classical caching and coded multicasting scheme presented by Maddah-Ali and Niesen in [1], where outage probability is regarded as the probability that a user cannot decode the requested file. In addition, when the channel gains follow a Gaussian distribution, we show that for a large range of vanishing outage probability $p$, the average delay scales as$\Omega\left(\min\left\{n^{2-\varepsilon_1}, n^{1- \varepsilon_2}#x002F;p\right\}\right)$, where $\varepsilon_1,\varepsilon_2amp;#62;0$ are some arbitrarily small constants. This means that the multiplicative caching gain introduced by Maddah-Ali and Niesen is lost. To overcome this problem, we modify the network to a single-input multiple-output system (SIMO) system and find the required number of receive antennas per user such that the promised multiplicative caching gain can be preserved.
Deep Multimodal Subspace Clustering Networks

We present convolutional neural network based approaches for unsupervised multimodal subspace clustering. The proposed framework consists of three main stages—multimodal encoder, self-expressive layer, and multimodal decoder. The encoder takes multimodal data as input and fuses them to a latent space representation. The self-expressive layer is responsible for enforcing the self-expressiveness property and acquiring an affinity matrix corresponding to the data points. The decoder reconstructs the original input data. The network uses the distance between the decoder's reconstruction and the original input in its training. We investigate early, late, and intermediate fusion techniques and propose three different encoders corresponding to them for spatial fusion. The self-expressive layers and multimodal decoders are essentially the same for different spatial fusion-based approaches. In addition to various spatial fusion-based methods, an affinity fusion-based network is also proposed in which the self-expressive layer corresponding to different modalities is enforced to be the same. Extensive experiments on three datasets show that the proposed methods significantly outperform the state-of-the-art multimodal subspace clustering methods.