cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Mary, the Model of Discipleship

One woman above all other men and women presents for us a genuine and enlightening model of discipleship – Mary the mother of Jesus. Examining the trajectory of her life, from her teenage calling, motherhood to the Christ child, follower during His ministry, to being a close and complete witness to the death, burial and resurrection of her own son, Mary’s words, attitudes and actions warrant a deeper review of the model of discipleship her life presents to us today. Though awaiting her own Messiah, in her relationship with her son, God, the only begotten Son, we see a model disciple who implicitly understood and explicitly lived out a calling to discipleship. This article outlines the keys to discipleship as illustrated by Mary, the mother of Jesus.
As Easy as ABC: Adaptive Binning Coincidence Test for Uniformity Testing.

We consider the problem of uniformity testing of Lipschitz continuous distributions with bounded support. The alternative hypothesis is a composite set of Lipschitz continuous distributions that are at least $\varepsilon$ away in $\ell_1$ distance from the uniform distribution. We propose a sequential test that adapts to the unknown distribution under the alternative hypothesis. Referred to as the Adaptive Binning Coincidence (ABC) test, the proposed strategy adapts in two ways. First, it partitions the set of alternative distributions into layers based on their distances to the uniform distribution. It then sequentially eliminates the alternative distributions layer by layer in decreasing distance to the uniform, and subsequently takes advantage of favorable situations of a distant alternative by exiting early. Second, it adapts, across layers of the alternative distributions, the resolution level of the discretization for computing the coincidence statistic. The farther away the layer is from the uniform, the coarser the discretization is needed for eliminating/exiting this layer. It thus exits both early in the detection process and quickly by using a lower resolution to take advantage of favorable alternative distributions. The ABC test builds on a novel sequential coincidence test for discrete distributions, which is of independent interest. We establish the sample complexity of the proposed tests as well as a lower bound.
Isotopic identification of natural vs. anthropogenic sources of Pb in Laramie basin groundwaters, Wyoming, USA

Water well samples, precipitation, and leachates of aquifer rock samples from the Laramie basin, Wyoming, were analyzed to test the suitability of Pb isotopes for tracing hydrologic processes in a basin where Sr isotopes had proven effective. Leachable Pb from host rocks to aquifers in this basin have isotopically distinct compositions and isotopic tracing would be effective in differentiating natural sources of Pb. However, in almost all cases, this natural signal is apparently swamped by anthropogenic Pb sources in drilled water wells. The isotopic compositions of these samples cannot be produced by any combination of Pb in precipitation and leached Pb from the aquifers alone, but are consistent with mixtures of anthropogenic Pb. Thorogenic (208Pb) vs. uranogenic (206Pb, 207Pb) Pb was especially useful for discriminating natural from anthropogenic sources for these samples. It is strongly recommended that all four Pb isotopes be reported in hydrologic and environmental studies that employ this approach.
The Use of State-of-the-Art Kites for Profiling the Lower Atmosphere

This paper presents the capabilities and limitations of using state-of-the-art kites for atmospheric research. A brief historical review of the subject is first presented, followed by an outline of the current status of kite-borne measurement technology. The utility of the technique is then illustrated by presenting a series of recent measurements made using kite-borne technology. A summary of the advantages and limitations of kite-based measurements relative to other technologies is provided for reference.
Abstract 2694: Novel sesquiterpene lactones derived from Vernonia cinerea inhibit STAT3 activity and suppress human glioblastoma phenotype

Constitutively-active STAT3 is prevalent in glioblastoma multiforme, breast cancer and many other human tumors and is a valid target for the discovery of novel anticancer therapeutics. Screening of whole plant extracts from Vernonia cinerea identified sesquiterpene lactones of the hirsutinolide type that inhibit aberrant STAT3 activity and suppress human glioma phenotype in vitro and in vivo. Compounds 6, 10, 20 and 22 suppressed the viability of human glioma, U251MG cells that harbor aberrantly-active STAT3, with IC 50 of 2.4-6 µM. Treatment of U251MG cells with any of the four natural product agents inhibited STAT3 phosphorylation in a time-dependent manner, with little or no effects on pErk1/2 and pAkt levels. By contrast, other hirsutinolides, including compounds 8, 9, 11, 18, 19 and 28 showed modest or undetectable effects on U251MG cell viability or on pSTAT3 in U251MG cells. Furthermore, treatment with compounds 6, 10 or 22 had moderate or no effects on phospho-JAK2 or phospho-Src or on the protein tyrosine phosphatase, PTP1B level, as measured by Western blot. Moreover, combined treatment with sodium orthovanadate had minimal effect on compound 6-induced decrease in pSTAT3 levels, altogether suggesting that protein tyrosine phosphatases are less likely to be the primary mechanism for down-regulation of pSTAT3 in treated U251MG cells. By contrast, co-treatment with compund 6 repressed the robust induction of pSTAT3 levels by sodium orthovanadate. Furthermore, treatment with compound 6, 10, 20 or 22 inhibited colony formation and the migration of U251MG cells in vitro, and repressed the expression of STAT3 regulated genes, including Mcl-1 in U251MG cells. In vivo anti-tumor efficacy studies of compound 6 revealed dose-dependent inhibition of the growth of human glioma tumor xenografts in mice. Our studies have identified natural product-based small molecules that potently inhibit STAT3 activity and preferentially induce antitumor cell effects in vitro and antitumor response in vivo against human glioma. Citation Format: Gabriella Miklossy, Ui Joung Youn, Peibin Yue, Leng Chee Chang, James Turkson. Novel sesquiterpene lactones derived from Vernonia cinerea inhibit STAT3 activity and suppress human glioblastoma phenotype. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 2694. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-2694
Fatigue crack propagation of nickel-base superalloys at 650 deg C

The 650 C fatigue crack propagation behavior of two nickel-base superalloys, Rene 95 and Waspaloy, is studied with particular emphasis placed on understanding the roles of creep, environment, and two key grain boundary alloying additions, boron and zirconium. Comparison of air and vacuum data shows the air environment to be detrimental over a wide range of frequencies for both alloys. More in-depth analysis on Rene 95 shows at lower frequencies, such as 0.02 Hz, failure in air occurs by intergranular, environmentally-assisted creep crack growth, while at higher frequencies, up to 5.0 Hz, environmental interactions are still evident but creep effects are minimized. The effect of B and Zr in Waspaloy is found to be important where environmental and/or creep interactions are presented. In those instances, removal of B and Zr dramatically increases crack growth and it is therefore plausible that effective dilution of these elements may explain a previously observed trend in which crack growth rates increase with decreasing grain size.
The various quenching effects in thin-layer chromatography : Application to air pollution

Abstract Eight fluorescence quenching techniques of value in the direct analysis of spots on thin-layer chromatograms are discussed. Use of an insoluble quencher in the adsorbent is of benefit in the selective analysis of fluorescent compounds. It is predicted that with the help of polymeric materials containing nitro, phenolic, amino, anilino, thiocarbonyl, ketonic carbonyl, hydrazine, azo, and nitroso groups quick highly selective methods of direct quenchofluorometric analysis of spots on a plate will be possible for compounds containing various types of functional groups. This type of functional group analysis should approach the simplicity of colorimetry. Examples are given of the application of some of these techniques to the analysis of urban air pollutants. The following compounds have been readily and quickly characterized by the fluorescence quenching techniques: acridine, benz(a)acridine, benz(c)acridine, 7H-benz(d,e)anthracen-7-one, benzo(f)quinoline, benzo(h)quinoline, phenalen-1-one and xanthen-9-one. All of these compounds have been found in the examined polluted urban atmospheres.
Absolute Wavelength Measurements and Fundamental Atomic Physics

The Rydberg constant ties together several areas of fundamental physics: fundamental constants; atomic and molecular theory; and spectroscopy of basic systems. As determined at Yale, (Zhao et al.[1]) R is the most precisely measured, fundamental constant[2]: R = 109 737.315 73(3) [cm-1].
Fractional Maps as Maps with Power-Law Memory

The study of systems with memory requires methods which are different from the methods used in regular dynamics. Systems with power-law memory in many cases can be described by fractional differential equations, which are integro-differential equations. To study the general properties of nonlinear fractional dynamical systems we use fractional maps, which are discrete nonlinear systems with power-law memory derived from fractional differential equations. To study fractional maps we use the notion of α-families of maps depending on a single parameter α > 0 which is the order of the fractional derivative in a nonlinear fractional differential equation describing a system experiencing periodic kicks. α-families of maps represent a very general form of multi-dimensional nonlinear maps with power-law memory, in which the weight of the previous state at time t i in defining the present state at time t is proportional to \({(t - t_{i})}^{\alpha -1}\). They may be applicable to studying some systems with memory such as viscoelastic materials, electromagnetic fields in dielectric media, Hamiltonian systems, adaptation in biological systems, human memory, etc. Using the fractional logistic and standard α-families of maps as examples we demonstrate that the phase space of nonlinear fractional dynamical systems may contain periodic sinks, attracting slow diverging trajectories, attracting accelerator mode trajectories, chaotic attractors, and cascade of bifurcations type trajectories whose properties are different from properties of attractors in regular dynamical systems.
Exercise dependent increase in axon regeneration into peripheral nerve grafts by propriospinal but not sensory neurons after spinal cord injury is associated with modulation of regeneration-associated genes

Insufficient regeneration of central nervous system (CNS) axons contributes to persisting neurological dysfunction after spinal cord injury (SCI). Peripheral nerve grafts (PNGs) support regeneration by thousands of injured intraspinal axons and help them bypass some of the extracellular barriers that form after SCI. However this number represents but a small portion of the total number of axons that are injured. Here we tested if rhythmic sensory stimulation during cycling exercise would boost the intrinsic regenerative state of neurons to enhance axon regeneration into PNGs after a lower thoracic (T12) spinal transection of adult rats. Using True Blue retrograde tracing, we show that 4 weeks of cycling improves regeneration into a PNG from lumbar interneurons but not by primary sensory neurons. The majority of neurons that regenerate their axon are within 5 mm of the lesion and their number increased 70% with exercise. Importantly propriospinal neurons in more distant regions (5-20 mm from the lesion) that routinely exhibit very limited regeneration responded to exercise by increasing the number of regenerating neurons by 900%. There was no exercise-associated increase in regeneration from sensory neurons. Analyses using fluorescent in situ hybridization showed that this increase in regenerative response is associated with changes in levels of mRNAs encoding the regeneration associated genes (RAGs) GAP43, β-actin and Neuritin. While propriospinal neurons showed increased mRNA levels in response to SCI alone and then to grafting and exercise, sensory neurons did not respond to SCI, but there was a response to the presence of a PNG. Thus, exercise is a non-invasive approach to modulate gene expression in injured neurons leading to an increase in regeneration. This sets the stage for future studies to test whether exercise will promote axon outgrowth beyond the PNG and reconnection with spinal cord neurons, thereby demonstrating a potential clinical application of this combined therapeutic intervention.
Specific “toxemia”, essential hypertension, and glomerulonephritis associated with pregnancy

Abstract 1. 1. A workable classification for the so-called toxemias of pregnancy has been presented. 2. 2. The dangers of toxemia are immediate and remote. If the condition progresses notwithstanding conservative medical treatment, pregnancy should be terminated. 3. 3. The frequency with which essential hypertension follows toxemia of pregnancy has caused growing concern. While toxemia may actually induce persistent hypertension, it is possible that the pregnancy merely makes evident a latent hypertensive state. It is incumbent upon obstetricians to recognize that such a state may supervene. Therefore, a decision must be arrived at cautiously when judging the advisability of future pregnancies following one complicated by toxemia. 4. 4. The imminent and future dangers of a pregnancy complicated by pre-existing essential hypertension should be discussed with the family. If the patient has living children, that pregnancy should be terminated and future ones avoided. Not infrequently, the method of choice is hysterotomy with tubal sterilization. Fifteen out of 69 such pregnancies were terminated by abdominal operation. Ten women had tubal sterilizations. 5. 5. Pre-existing glomerulonephritis is rare during pregnancy. It usually becomes complicated by specific toxemia. 6. 6. The second stage of labor should be shortened by simple forceps delivery in order to prevent cerebral injuries in premature births and to forestall progression of the toxemic state. 7. 7. The maternal mortality rate is high, the uncorrected rate in our series was 2.8 per cent. 8. 8. There was a total fetal mortality rate of 30.8 per cent.
An examination of adults on antipsychotic medication at risk for metabolic syndrome: a comparison with obese and eating disorder populations.

Little research has explored how eating disorders (ED) may be involved in the increased risk for metabolic syndrome in adults on antipsychotic medication. This pilot study compared participants on antipsychotic medication with obese and ED samples with respect to demographic and psychosocial factors. Participants (antipsychotic medication n = 12; obese n = 12; ED n = 12), were adults presenting to an outpatient psychiatry department (83.3% women; M age = 45.75 ± 11.5). Analysis of variance, analysis of covariance and chi-square tests were used to compare the samples. Participants on antipsychotic medications had a significantly lower mean body mass index than the obese (p < .001) and ED (p < .05) samples, as well as significantly lower Restraint Total scores (p < .05) and subjective binge episode frequency (p < .05) than the ED sample. The lack of significant differences that occurred between the antipsychotic medication sample and two eating disorder samples significantly different from one another indicates that this population may have unique symptomology and treatment needs.
Potential for Interspecific Competition between Congeneric Longhorned Beetle Species (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) in an Adventive Environment

The cerambycid beetle, Phoracantha semipunctata F., was introduced into California in the mid-1980s and killed large numbers of Eucalyptus host trees. The populations of the borer declined to very low levels in the mid-1990s following the establishment of the congener, Phoracantha recurva Newman, and the intentional introduction of the egg parasitoid, Avetianella longoi Siscaro. The distributions of the beetles overlap in the Australian native range, but one species has replaced the other in the adventive range in California. One possible explanation is differential susceptibility to natural enemies introduced for biological control. An alternative explanation for the reduced abundance of P. semipunctata is asymmetric interspecific competition between the two species. To test this hypothesis, equal larval densities of each species were introduced into host logs. In all cases, more P. recurva adults emerged than P. semipunctata adults, but the presence of congeners did not have a different effect than the presence of an equal density of conspecific individuals. Neither the temporal order of introduction or bark thickness altered the outcome of potential competitive interactions. Consequently, it appears that the ecological replacement of one borer with another in the adventive environment in southern California may not be a result of bottom-up intraguild competitive interactions. The top-down effects of natural enemies on P. semipunctata have most likely led to its decline.
Predicting Driver Seeing Distance in Natural Rainfall

Four field studies were conducted in natural rainfall to develop a model for predicting distances at which drivers are able to see other vehicles in the roadway at various time periods following stoppage of a windshield-wiper stroke. The seeing distance prediction was developed as a function of rain intensity, rain accumulation time, and ambient daylight illumination. Two situations were studied; in the first, drivers seated in a stationary vehicle detected moving vehicles, and in the second, moving drivers detected a stationary vehicle. Useful seeing distance models were developed from the field studies. Seeing distances predicted from the models developed from these earlier studies were compared with seeing distances obtained in a subsequent validation field test. Results indicated that average error in the prediction of seeing distances ranges from 9% to 23%.
RURAL MICROFINANCE AND CLIENT RETENTION: EVIDENCE FROM MALAWI

Microfinance institutions (MFIs) have largely focused on urban markets, leaving the rural poor underserved. The high costs of serving rural markets has often been identified as the key impediment to serving these markets, resulting in saturation and heavy competition in urban markets while poor rural clients remain unserved. In this paper, we provide evidence from a sample of over 10,000 microfinance loans in Malawi, that the cost argument has an important flaw. Results show that client retention, a critical aspect of financial sustainability, is significantly higher in rural markets. In addition to being a key financial indicator in an industry where annual client exit rates can exceed 50 percent, client retention is also a key measure of social impact. By operating in rural markets, MFIs may be able to increase both social impact and financial performance.
Gene transfer into murine hematopoietic stem cells with helper-free foamy virus vectors

Gene transfer into hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) is an ideal treatment strategy for many genetic and hematologic diseases. However, progress has been limited by the low HSC transduction rates obtained with retroviral vectors based on murine leukemia viruses. This study examined the potential of vectors derived from the nonpathogenic human foamy virus (HFV) to transduce human CD34(+) cells and murine HSCs. More than 80% of human hematopoietic progenitors present in CD34(+) cell preparations derived from cord blood were transduced by a single overnight exposure to HFV vector stocks. Mice that received transduced bone marrow cells expressed the vector-encoded transgene long term in all major hematopoietic cell lineages and in over 50% of cells in some animals. Secondary bone marrow transplants and integration site analysis confirmed that gene transfer occurred at the stem cell level. Transgene silencing was not observed. Thus vectors based on foamy viruses represent a promising approach for HSC gene therapy. (Blood. 2001;98:604-609)
University student e‐tailing: a marketing study at the entrepreneurship interface

This paper is the third report on an enlarging worldwide study of university students’ attitudes and opinions related to e‐commerce. The data set is made up of over 600 business majors distributed between three US and one Australian university. The purpose of the study was to explore students’ attitudes and opinions related to e‐commerce and how those varied based on gender, technology adeptness, shopping intensity, and university affiliation. Differences did exist between the more and less technology adept shoppers. In addition, differences existed between those who had higher or lower shopping intensity. Gender and university affiliation appeared to play little role. These differences perhaps could be utilized by entrepreneurial e‐commerce firms to make their sites more efficient for shopping cart completions and, in this case, for student shoppers. E‐marketing at the entrepreneurship interface appeared similar for students in English speaking countries.
Non-exchangeability of running vs. other exercise in their association with adiposity, and its implications for public health recommendations.

Purpose Current physical activity recommendations assume that different activities can be exchanged to produce the same weight-control benefits so long as total energy expended remains the same (exchangeability premise). To this end, they recommend calculating energy expenditure as the product of the time spent performing each activity and the activity's metabolic equivalents (MET), which may be summed to achieve target levels. The validity of the exchangeability premise was assessed using data from the National Runners' Health Study.
Ultrasound Induced Synthesis of CdS Nanocrystals Under Continuous Flow

Cadmium sulfide nanoparticles generally exhibit quantum confinement effects when the particle size is less than 10 nm and approaches the Bohr exciton radius. It is a widely used buffer material in solar cells owing to its wide band transmission of solar light and hence used as a window layer in photovoltaic devices. Sonochemical synthesis permits the rapid heating of reactant baths by acoustic cavitation leading to high local temperatures. In this research, results from batch trials for heating and synthesis are reported. These results were used to design experiments for the continuous synthesis of CdS nanoparticles using a sonochemical reactor consisting of a flow cell and a high intensity horn. By utilizing the continuous synthesis approach a more than hundred fold reduction in processing time over batch synthesis for similar product was reported.Copyright © 2013 by ASME
Entry and Schumpeterian Profits: How Technological Complexity Affects Industry Evolution

A large empirical literature has documented differences in Schumpeterian profits, both among firms in single industries and between firms in different industries. Theorists have proposed various institutional and strategic factors to account for such differences but have had relatively little to say about the manner in which technology affects entry and profits. In this paper I present a model in which persistent intraindustry differences in firm profitability arise as the outcomes of learning and imitation, and interindustry differences in the persistence of above normal profits arise solely from production being more technologically complex in some industries than in others.
Hydrogen production technology for powering civil and industrial systems : a review

Partial use of alternative energy exemplified by hydrogen energy is expected to reduce negative impacts associated with the current dependence on fossil energy and bring net gain to regional and national economies. Hydrogen has emission levels that are far below the existing and possibly, future standards. Hydrogen energy may enhance energy security and perhaps allay concerns some concerns about global climatic change, environmental issues, energy efficiency, and infrastructure development. Since the production of hydrogen is energy-intensive, a production technique that negates this disadvantage with a high volume output within a reasonable time, is desirable.
Mechanism of the synergistic end-product regulation of Bacillus subtilis glutamine phosphoribosylpyrophosphate amidotransferase by nucleotides.

De novo purine nucleotide synthesis is regulated, at least in part, by end-product inhibition of glutamine PRPP amidotransferase. An important feature of this inhibition is the fact that certain synergistic nucleotide pairs give more than additive inhibition. The physiological importance of synergism is in amplifying regulation by the adenine and guanine nucleotide end products of de novo synthesis. Using a new method to quantitate synergism, ADP plus GMP were confirmed [Meyer, E., and Switzer, R. L. (1978) J. Biol. Chem. 254, 5397-5402] to give strong synergistic inhibition of Bacillus subtilis glutamine PRPP amidotransferase. An X-ray structure of the ternary enzyme.ADP.GMP complex established that ADP binds to the allosteric A site and GMP to the catalytic C site. GMP increased the binding affinity of ADP for the A site by approximately 20-fold. Synergism results from a specific nucleotide-nucleotide interaction that is dependent upon a nucleoside diphosphate in the A site and a nucleoside monophosphate in the C site. Furthermore, synergism is enhanced by the competition between nucleotide inhibitor and PRPP substrate for the C site. Purine base specificity results from a backbone carbonyl interaction of Lys305' with the 6-NH2 group of adenine in the A site and a Ser347 Ogamma interaction with the 2-NH2 group of guanine in the C site. Steric considerations favor binding of the nucleoside diphosphate to the A site. Site-directed replacements of key residues increased the nucleotide concentrations needed for 50% inhibition and in some cases perturbed synergism. Mutations in either of the nucleotide sites perturbed function at both sites, supporting the important role of synergism.
Adhesive Capsulitis: A Review of Current Treatment

Adhesive capsulitis is characterized by a painful, gradual loss of both active and passive glenohumeral motion resulting from progressive fibrosis and ultimate contracture of the glenohumeral joint capsule. Variable nomenclature, inconsistent reporting of disease staging, and a multitude of different treatments have created a confusing and contradictory body of literature about this condition. Our purpose is to review the evidence for both nonsurgical and surgical management of adhesive capsulitis with an emphasis on level I and II studies when available. Significant deficits in the literature include a paucity of randomized controlled trials, failure to report response to treatment in a stage-based fashion, and an incomplete understanding of the disease's natural course. Recognition that the clinical stages reflect a progression in the underlying pathological changes should guide future treatments.
Regular structure in the inner Cassini Division of Saturn's rings

Voyager imaging, radio occultation, and stellar occultation data for the regular structure of Saturn's inner Cassini Division are presently analyzed. The regular optical depth variation observed by the radio occultation experiment scan and the feature noted in Voyager images is the same structure, namely the gravitational wakes of two 10-km radius satellites orbiting within the division. The structure is azimuthally symmetric, and is judged to rule out the possibility that large moonlets may be responsible for the observed structure.
Physics and scaling prospects of pH-based genome sequencers

Fig. 2 shows the temporal distribution of proton inside the well and the polymer layer (the diffusion coefficient of protons in electrolyte and polymer is D free = 9.31×10−5 and D poly = 4×10−8 cm2/s, respectively). The calculated voltage shift (ΔV) in MOSFET successfully explains the experiment data with two different sizes of wells and beads, as shown in Fig. 3. As we scale the microwells by a factor of k, the sensitivity remains constant: this is because the number of protons released from bead is proportional to the bead area (∼ k−2) and the sensor surface area is also scaled by a factor of k−2. Since the surface group charge on the oxide surface changes linearly with proton density while the amount excess protons is much smaller than that in the well, the voltage signal remains constant.
The periodic acid-Schiff reaction and prognosis in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

We evaluated the intensity of the periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) stain reaction by examining 200 lymphoblasts from the initial marrow aspirate specimen of 38 children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The patients were separated into low, intermediate, and high groups according to mean PAS score. The groups were then compared in terms of age, sex, initial hematologic values, T- and B-lymphocyte markers, percentage of patients in remission six months after diagnosis, and percentage surviving. Significant differences were found between the low group and the other two groups with respect to sex, height of initial white blood cell (WBC) count, outlook for continued remission at six months, and overall survival (P < 0.05). The low-score patients were predominantly males, whereas the other PAS-score groups contained approximately equal numbers of males and females. The low-score patients had a higher median initial WBC than the others, but all three groups had a similar proportion of patients with initial WBC under 20,000/cu mm. Low-score patients were less likely to be in remission six months from diagnosis, and they had shorter survival than the intermediate- and high-score patients (P < 0.05). The results suggest that children with ALL whose lymphoblasts stain weakly with PAS have a worse prognosis than those with intermediate or high PAS reactivity. PAS reactivity may vary independently of the WBC at diagnosis in children with ALL, because children with a low PAS score have a poor outlook even with initial WBC under 20,000/cu mm.
Patterned Dye Diffusion using Transferred Photoresist for Polymer OLED Displays

A method of large-area dye diffusion for patterning the emissive color of organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) using transferred photoresist is introduced. Using a large-area dye diffusion source, the dye is diffused into the emissive layer of the OLED. To locally pattern the emissive color, either a shadow mask or a patterned dye source has to be used. The implementation of both approaches using photolithographic patterning and transferred photoresist is outlined in this paper. In addition, a method using transferred photoresist for patterning of the cathode will be discussed.
Macrophages, Oxidation, and Endometriosis

Retrograde menstruation has been suggested to be the cause for the presence of endometrial cells in the peritoneal cavity. However, little is known about the events that lead to the adhesion and growth of these cells that ultimately result in endometriosis, considering the fact that the disease occurs only in certain women despite the common occurrence of retrograde menstruation in most women. We postulate that, in normal women, the endometrial cells and tissue that arrive in the peritoneal cavity during menstruation are effectively removed by macrophages that are chemoattracted and become resident tissue macrophages in the peritoneal cavity. In contrast, the peritoneal macrophages in women with endometriosis are nonadherent and ineffectively scavenged, resulting in the sustained presence and growth of the endometrial cells. We also postulate that the peritoneal fluid is not a passive reservoir of the factors secreted by cells of the peritoneum, but actively promotes endometriosis. The peritoneal fluid is rich in lipoproteins, particularly low-density lipoprotein, which generates oxidized lipid components in a macrophage-rich inflammatory milieu. The oxidants exacerbate the growth of endometriosis by inducing chemoattractants such as MCP-1 and endometrial cell growth-promoting activity. We provide evidence for the presence of oxidative milieu in the peritoneal cavity of women with endometriosis, the nonscavenging properties of macrophages that are nonadherent, and the synergistic interaction between macrophages, oxidative stress, and the endometrial cells. For example, the peritoneal fluid lipoproteins of subjects with endometriosis have increased the propensity to undergo oxidation as compared with plasma lipoproteins, and the subjects also have increased titer of autoantibodies to oxidatively modified proteins. If the oxidative proinflammatory nature of the peritoneal fluid is an important mediator of endometriosis growth, anti-inflammatory agents and antioxidants might afford protection against endometriosis.
From transient to steady-state response of ecosystems to atmospheric CO2-enrichment and global climate change: conceptual challenges and need for an integrated approach

Evidence continues to accumulate that humans are significantly increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations, resulting in unprecedented changes in the global climate system. Experimental manipulations of terrestrial ecosystems and their components have greatly increased our understanding of short-term responses to these global perturbations and have provided valuable input to ecosystem, dynamic vegetation, and global scale models. However, concerns exist that these initial experimental responses may be transitory, thereby limiting our ability to extrapolate short-term experimental responses to infer longer-term effects. To do these extrapolations, it will be necessary to understand changes in response patterns over time, including alterations in the magnitude, direction, and rate of change of the responses. These issues represent one of our largest challenges in accurately predicting longer-term changes in ecosystems and associated feedbacks to the climate system. Key issues that need to be considered when designing future experiments or refining models include: linear vs. non-linear responses, direct vs. indirect effects, lags in response, acclimation, resource limitation, homeostasis, buffers, thresholds, ecosystem stoichiometry, turnover rates and times, and alterations in species composition. Although experimental and landscape evidence for these response patterns exist, extrapolating longer-term response patterns from short-term experiments will ultimately require a unified multidisciplinary approach, including better communication and collaboration between theoreticists, experimentalists and modelers.
Simulation of animal behavior using neural networks

In this paper, we simulated some basic animal behavior by letting it “evolve” through generations. The animals, which are able to survive, will be given the privilege to breed the new generation and pass the good genes to the next generation. Our simulation environment consisted of a Prey-Predator-Food model. The prey and predators created in our simulation are objects that have sensors to make them aware of their environment, and they are able to move freely around the world. The food sources are stationary objects placed randomly throughout the world, which serve as targets for prey to search for and eat.
Recovery of sparse active inputs in general systems: A review

A staggering amount of attention was recently devoted to the study of compressed sensing and related areas using sparse priors in over parametrized linear models. The number of citations listed on the Rice University compressive sensing website within the last 5 years exceeds 600! The threshold phenomenon was empirically observed in early papers of Donoho et al : as the dimension of a random instance of a problem grows there is a sharp transition from successful recovery to failure as a function of the number of observations versus the dimension and sparsity of the unknown signal. We argue in this paper that there are strong parallels between this threshold behavior and earlier Shannon's justification for similar phenomenon in his notion of the capacity of the information transmission. Attempts of finding performance bounds for the compressive sensing with the standard information-theoretic tools were later made, e.g. by Wainwright et al. We outline sharp asymptotical bounds obtained in 1979 that were inspired by the Multi-Access Capacity Region theory and that can greatly enhance the current understanding of recovery of active inputs in sparse compressive sensing. These bounds were obtained for asymptotically optimal designs which include random designs and thus imply upper bounds for performance of recovery under arbitrary designs. These optimal designs are a natural choice in settings where the experiment can be predesigned, providing in addition a competitive performance of a simplified analysis method: separate testing of inputs (STI). STI originated in 1959 and can be further traced back to Fisher's idea of randomization in estimation. The STI capacity exceeds that of linear programming (LP) relaxation for randomized designs in a wide range of models and admits a straightforward generalization to nonparametric noisy models including ‘colored noise’. The latter observation inspires promising applications such as detecting the change-point in users profiles in a large computer network possibly caused by unauthorized intrusion into the system or monitoring either natural language corpora, or the phone call traffic in ‘sensitive’ areas for their profiles matching those of special interest.
Protein-resistant coatings for glass and metal oxide surfaces derived from oligo(ethylene glycol)-terminated alkyltrichlorosilanes

This paper describes the preparation of oligo(ethylene glycol)-terminated alkyltrichlorosilanes, Cl3Si(CH2)11(OCH2CH2)(n)OCH3 (n = 2, 3), and their use in the formation of self-assembled monolayers on an oxide surface. The adsorption of the trichlorosilanes from solution produces densely packed, oriented monolayer films that are 2-3 nm in thickness. The trichlorosilyl group anchors the molecules to the surface, and the resulting film exposes the ethylene glycol units at its surface, as noted by its moderate hydrophilicity (theta2(H2O) approximately 68 degrees). The films are robust with stabilities similar to those of other alkylsiloxane coatings. These oligo(ethylene glycol)-terminated silane reagents produce films that notably exhibit resistances against the non-specific adsorption of proteins from solution that are better than for films prepared from octadecyltrichlorosilane. With insulin, tysozyme, albumin, and hexokinase, no adsorption was observed with the oligo(ethylene glycol)-siloxane coatings whereas protein films of approximately a monolayer formed on surfaces-treated with octadecyltrichlorosilane. With fibrinogen, complete resistance was not possible with either coating; however, the oligo(ethylene glycol)-siloxane coatings exhibited greater resistance against non-specific adsorption. The oligo(ethylene glycol)-siloxane coatings offer performance advantages over available systems and could easily provide a direct and superior replacement in protocols that presently use silane reagents to generate hydrophobic, 'inert' surfaces.
Polarized Far-Infrared Emission from the Core and Envelope of the Sagittarius B2 Molecular Cloud

We have detected linear polarization in the 115 μm continuum radiation from the giant molecular cloud Sagittarius B2. We found polarization at nine positions in the dense cloud core and at 15 positions in the less-dense envelope. The polarization in the core is due to absorption by magnetically aligned grains and that in the envelope is due to emission from magnetically aligned grains. The inferred magnetic field direction is roughly north-south everywhere, but with spatially smooth variations of up to 30°. By considering our data together with Zeeman splitting observations we are able to set a conservative lower limit of 150 μG on the strength of the large-scale field in the envelope. If large-scale fields this strong are common in Galactic center clouds, they could be detectable via large-beam Zeeman measurements. For positions in the envelope that are furthest from the core, the field is nearly parallel to the plane of the Galaxy. This is consistent with the idea of a globally azimuthal magnetic field in the Galactic center neutral gas layer, which is expected if gravitational forces dominate magnetic forces.
Control of 3T3 cell proliferation by calcium.

When a population of 3T3 mouse cells was subcultured regularly at confluency, the original epitheliodid or stellate cells disappeared and, by the ninth passage, they had been replaced by spindle-shaped cells. The original cells proliferated only when the extracellular calcium concentration exceeded 0.1mm, and their proliferative activity became maximum only when the calcium concentration was 0.5mm. The spindle-shaped cells were much more sensitive to proliferative stimulation by calcium. Although these cells also could not proliferate without extracellular ionic calcium, they proliferated maximally in the presence of as little as 0.05mm calcium. Thus, calcium is a major regulator of the proliferation of 3T3 mouse cells. Moreover, it appears that the sensitivity of the proliferative machinery to the calcium ion can vary greatly within an established cell line.
Titrimetric method for determination of O-desulfated heparin in physiological samples using protamine-sensitive membrane electrode as endpoint detector.

O-Desulfated heparin (ODSH) is a promising new anti-inflammatory agent for the prevention of reperfusion injury following myocardial infarction or stroke. This partially desulfated heparin derivative has less anticoagulant activity than unfractionated heparin but retains the inherent anti-inflammatory properties of heparin. Thus, ODSH could be administered at the high doses needed to achieve desired anti-inflammatory function without risk of hemorrhage. However, given the very low anticoagulant activity of this species, traditional methods for heparin determination in clinical samples might not be well suited for ODSH measurements. In this article, a novel titrimetric method for detection of ODSH in buffer and plasma is described using a protamine-sensitive polymer membrane electrode as the detector. Titrations of ODSH with the heparin antagonist protamine yield sharp endpoints with sensitivity to ODSH in the micrograms per milliliter range for plasma samples. The stoichiometry for protamine interaction with ODSH is determined to average 1.39 μg protamine/μg ODSH in plasma. This technology is further applied to a toxicokinetic study of ODSH in an animal model, demonstrating the ability to detect the changes in ODSH concentrations in biological samples.
A Fast Nonrigid Image Registration With Constraints on the Jacobian Using Large Scale Constrained Optimization

This paper presents a new nonrigid monomodality image registration algorithm based on B-splines. The deformation is described by a cubic B-spline field and found by minimizing the energy between a reference image and a deformed version of a floating image. To penalize noninvertible transformation, we propose two different constraints on the Jacobian of the transformation and its derivatives. The problem is modeled by an inequality constrained optimization problem which is efficiently solved by a combination of the multipliers method and the L-BFGS algorithm to handle the large number of variables and constraints of the registration of 3-D images. Numerical experiments are presented on magnetic resonance images using synthetic deformations and atlas based segmentation.
Time Controlled Protein Release from Layer-by-Layer Assembled Multilayer Functionalized Agarose Hydrogels

Axons of the adult central nervous system exhibit an extremely limited ability to regenerate after spinal cord injury. Experimentally generated patterns of axon growth are typically disorganized and randomly oriented. Support of linear axonal growth into spinal cord lesion sites has been demonstrated using arrays of uniaxial channels, templated with agarose hydrogel, and containing genetically engineered cells that secrete brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). However, immobilizing neurotrophic factors secreting cells within a scaffold is relatively cumbersome, and alternative strategies are needed to provide sustained release of BDNF from templated agarose scaffolds. Existing methods of loading the drug or protein into hydrogels cannot provide sustained release from templated agarose hydrogels. Alternatively, here it is shown that pH-responsive H-bonded poly(ethylene glycol)(PEG)/poly(acrylic acid)(PAA)/protein hybrid layer-by-layer (LbL) thin films, when prepared over agarose, provided sustained release of protein under physiological conditions for more than four weeks. Lysozyme, a protein similar in size and isoelectric point to BDNF, is released from the multilayers on the agarose and is biologically active during the earlier time points, with decreasing activity at later time points. This is the first demonstration of month-long sustained protein release from an agarose hydrogel, whereby the drug/protein is loaded separately from the agarose hydrogel fabrication process.
Renormalization and effective lagrangians

There is a strong intuitive understanding of renormalization, due to Wilson, in terms of the scaling of effective lagrangians. We show that this can be made the basis for a proof of perturbative renormalization. We first study renormalizability in the language of renormalization group flows for a toy renormalization group equation. We then derive an exact renormalization group equation for a four-dimensional λo4 theory with a momentum cutoff. We organize the cutoff dependence of the effective lagrangian into relevant and irrelevant parts, and derive a linear equation for the irrelevant part. A lengthy but straightforward argument establishes that the piece identified as irrelevant actually is so in perturbation theory. This implies renormalizability. The method extends immediately to any system in which a momentum-space cutoff can be used, but the principle is more general and should apply for any physical cutoff. Neither Weinberg's theorem nor arguments based on the topology of graphs are needed.
Effects of acute and repeated dosing of the synthetic cannabinoid CP55,940 on intracranial self-stimulation in mice

Abstract Background Synthetic cannabinoids have emerged as a significant public health concern. To increase the knowledge of how these molecules interact on brain reward processes, we investigated the effects of CP55,940, a high efficacy synthetic CB 1 receptor agonist, in a frequency-rate intracranial self-stimulation (ICSS) procedure. Methods The impact of acute and repeated administration (seven days) of CP55,940 on operant responding for electrical brain stimulation of the medial forebrain bundle was investigated in C57BL/6J mice. Results CP55,940 attenuated ICSS in a dose-related fashion (ED50 (95% C.L.) = 0.15 (0.12–0.18) mg/kg). This effect was blocked by the CB 1 receptor antagonist rimonabant. Tolerance developed quickly, though not completely, to the rate-decreasing effects of CP55,940 (0.3 mg/kg). Abrupt discontinuation of drug did not alter baseline responding for up to seven days. Moreover, rimonabant (10 mg/kg) challenge did not alter ICSS responding in mice treated repeatedly with CP55,940. Conclusions The finding that CP55,940 reduced ICSS in mice with no evidence of facilitation at any dose is consistent with synthetic cannabinoid effects on ICSS in rats. CP55,940-induced ICSS depression was mediated through a CB 1 receptor mechanism. Additionally, tolerance and dependence following repeated CP55,940 administration were dissociable. Thus, CP55,940 does not produce reward-like effects in ICSS under these conditions.