cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Significance of the fungus balansia cyperi infecting medicinal species of cyperus (Cyperaceae) from Amazonia

At least two species of Amazonian sedges (piripiri, i.e., Cyperus articulatus andC. prolixus, Cyperaceae) are widely utilized for various medicinal purposes, including birth control and induction of labor, and in hallucinogenic preparations. Examination of herbarium specimens collected from throughout South America and of living specimens collected in Ecuador has revealed that plants are infected by the systemic, ascomycetous fungusBalansia cyperi. This fungus is classified in the Clavicipitaceae and is known to infect only six species ofCyperus, including both North and South American species. Pure cultures of the fungus were obtained from two species of piripiri from Ecuador andC. virens from southern USA, and grown in submerged liquid culture. Extracts of the liquid medium revealed several unidentified ergot alkaloids. Current and past pharmacological uses of ergot alkaloids are consistent with uses of piripiri, suggesting a fungal basis for the ethnobotanical utilization of piripiri in Amazonia.
Ethics, Advocacy, and the Child Client

Lawyers, who represent children in abuse and neglect proceedings, face ambiguities in the role they are to assume and the manner in which they must confront ethical issues that arise during the course of representation. Lawyers often represent children as guardians ad litem and make recommendations to the court about the children’s best interests, without necessarily giving weight to the children’s opinions. In doing so, lawyers tend to bypass the ethical and professional rules that govern the lawyer-client relationship and are unable to effectively advocate for the child client’s legal rights. Preconceptions about children’s lack of capacity have led to a paternalistic approach to the representation of children. Our legal system assumes that children, in general, are incapable of rational decision-making. The common presumption is that children do not know what is in their best interests and that they often desire outcomes that conflict with what would be in their best interests. This may be true under some circumstances, but not all. In many cases, if not the majority, children can communicate with their lawyers, understand their options, and assist their advocates. In addition, when lawyers function in their traditional roles as advocates, they can assist the child clients in the comprehension of factual and legal issues involved in their cases and thereby facilitate the decision-making process. Children involved in the court system need true legal advocacy in the form of the traditional lawyer-client model. Lawyers who take on the advocate role must operate within the ethical rules set forth by the profession. When faced with the task of representing diminished capacity clients, lawyers should look to the governing rules and represent their clients within that framework. This article addresses the primary dilemmas lawyers face when representing children in abuse and neglect proceedings and how lawyers can effectively advocate for their child clients.
Left Ventricular Aneurysmectomy in a Child: Treatment of Anomalous Left Coronary Artery

Anomalous origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery with development of a massive left ventricular aneurysm in a 23-month-old child is described. Operative treatment included ligation of the anomalous origin, ventricular aneurysmectomy, and a saphenous vein bypass graft to the anterior descending coronary artery. The principles of ventricular aneurysm resection used in adults are applicable to small children with this complication of anomalous coronary artery origin.
Evaluation of Infants with Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia Using Cardiac Catheterization

Nine infants with bronchopulmonary dysplasia underwent cardiac catheterization to define thier circulatory status. In room air, the mean cardiac index was normal (3.4 liters/min/sq m), but pulmonary arterial pressure (39 mm Hg, mean) and pulmonary vascular resistance (8.6 Wood units . sq m) were elevated. Preejection period/right ventricular ejection time ratios determined echocardiographically correlated well with values obtained at catheterization, but did not correlate well with hemodynamic values. Administration of 40% and 88% oxygen caused variable responses in hemodynamic measurements. Studies of left ventricular function were normal in all patients. These findings raise questions about the long-term prognosis of infants with bronchopulmonary dysplasia.
Building and Querying Large Modelbases

Model building is one of the most important objectives ofdata mining and data analysis. As many data miningapplications, such as personalization, bioinformatics andsome large enterprise-wide business applications, becomeincreasingly complex and require a very large number ofmodels, it is becoming progressively more difficult for dataanalysts to built and to manage a large number of modelsin these applications on their own. Therefore, developmentof software tools helping data analysts in these tasks isbecoming a pressing issue. This paper presents a modelmanagement system supporting various types of datamining models. It describes how to build and populatelarge heterogeneous modelbases. It also presents a querylanguage for querying these modelbases and examinesperformance results for some of the queries.
Applications of Advanced Fracture Mechanics to Fuselage

Multi-site damage (MSD) in the form of cracking at rivet holes in lap splice joints has been identified as a serious threat to the integrity of commercial aircraft nearing their design life targets. Consequently, to assure the safety of aircraft that have accumulated large numbers of flights, flight hours and years in service requires inspection procedures that are based on the possibility that MSD may be present For inspections of aircraft components to be properly focused on the defect sizes that are critical for structural integrity, fracture mechanics analyses are needed. The current methods are essentially those of linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) which are strictly valid only for cracks that extend in a quasi-static manner under small-scale crack tip plasticity conditions. While LEFM is very likely to be appropriate for subcritical crack growth, quantifying the conditions for fracture instability and subsequent propagation may require advanced fracture mechanics techniques. The specific focus in this paper was to identify the conditions in which inelastic-dynamic effects occur in (1) the linking up of local damage in a lap splice joint to form a major crack, and (2) large-scale fuselage failure by a rapidly occurring fluid/structure interaction process.
Stability and convergence of probabilistic data association filters

The author considers the recursive optimal probabilistic filter (PDAF), finds a new expression for its covariance, and analyzes stability versus false alarm density and signal detection probability, showing the relationship between asymptotical stability and practical filter accuracy. Simulation results are given for a bearing-only measurement case (passive sonar), and the PDAF is compared to a single Kalman filter. >
Graft Copolymer and Block Copolymer Surfaces

Homopolymers and random copolymers are relatively homogeneous in composition throughout their bulk. At the outermost molecular layer of such materials, the surface chemistry might differ substantially from the average bulk chemistry due to orientation effects, oxidation, or contamination. Graft copolymers and block copolymers, on the other hand, often demonstrate large compositional differences between surface and bulk and these differences can be observed over many molecular layers extending from the surface into the bulk (see Figure 1). This review article will concentrate on the nature of the differences between the bulk and surface of graft and block copolymers and on methods which can be used to explore the surfaces of such systems.
The dynamics of technological innovation: The sector of antibacterial medicines

Abstract This is an empirical and historical study of the dynamics of technological innovation in antibacterial medicines, a key sector of the pharmaceutical industry. It is based on an analysis of all the innovations that were introduced over the period 1935–1987; from Prontosil, the first sulphonamide, through penicillin and the semisynthetic antibiotics, to the monobactams and the quinolones of the mid-1980s. In the historical section, we describe the influence that antibacterial medicines have had on the structure and research intensity of the innovating companies and through them, on the pharmaceutical industry and its geography. We also describe the catalytic role played by government agencies and universities. In the empirical section, the innovations are evaluated in terms of originality and market performance and are classified into four technological trajectories. Their distribution over time and among technological trajectories, companies and countries, the relation between originality and market performance of individual innovations, the interplay between social needs, market demand and technological innovation, the role of market-successful radical innovations in the launching of technological trajectories, the orientation of subsequent academic and industrial research and the establishment of corporate technology traditions, provide insights in both innovation theory and the dynamics of technological innovation.
Facilitating Facilitators' Facilitation: Experience with a Model for Teaching Leaders of Hypnosis Practice Groups

Abstract We developed a 6 hour training seminar for leaders of small group practice sessions integral to introductory hypnosis workshops. It has been offered annually for 3 years to prepare new faculty for our Introductory Workshop. Applicants met specific experience criteria. Participation was limited to 8 to match and model 8 learners/small group in workshops. Learners reviewed principles of adult education, group dynamics, and guidelines for leaders. Each had the opportunity to role-play small group participant and small group leader in two 3 hour evening periods a week apart. Twenty-four learners participated. Some had taught before. Most were new to teaching small groups and desired specific training. Extensive evaluation of the training was integral to the process. Training was evaluated by examining ratings of leaders by participants in our Annual Introductory Workshop. Ratings used the same parameters taught and evaluated during the training seminar. The training curriculum is presented with the r...
Selective Sorting and Abrasion of River Gravel. I: Theory

Most gravel rivers show a tendency for characteristic grain size to decrease in the downstream direction over scales of tens or hundreds of kilometers. It has been surmised that this downstream fining is due to some combination of selective sorting, by which finer grains are preferentially transported downstream; and abrasion, by which individual particles are reduced in size. Here a framework for the simultaneous treatment of both phenomena is developed. The analysis is restricted to bed‐load transport of gravel. Only abrasion due to binary collisions between moving bed load and stationary bed particles is considered. The formulation includes the possibility of differential basin uplift and subsidence due to tectonism, and mixtures of rock types with differing coefficients of abrasion. The formulation of selective sorting is based on the concept of hiding, as applied to a surface‐based bed‐load transport relation. Abrasion is first treated in terms of a Lagrangian formulation for individual grains, and t...
Numerical Computation of the Effects of Brownian Motion on the Effective Thermal Conductivity of Suspensions

In this paper, a numerical scheme based on the immersed boundary method is used to study the motion of nano-sized particles subjected to Brownian motion and heat transfer. Our objective is to use this numerical technique as a tool to better understand the effect that Brownian forces have on the overall heat transfer process. The conventional approach to perform Brownian dynamic simulations is based on the use of a random force in the particle motion such that the fluctuation-dissipation theorem is satisfied. Our preliminary computational results suggest an increase in the thermal conductivity of the bulk fluid. Results are presented for several particles in a two-dimensional space.Copyright © 2007 by ASME
A Suite of Dermestid Beetle Traces on Dinosaur Bone from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation, Wyoming, USA

Most studies of insect traces on fossil bone deal with one or two trace morphs found on isolated bone fragments, making it difficult to identify the trace-maker and its behavior. We report the discovery of a suite of insect traces on an articulated Camptosaurus dinosaur skeleton that permits the identification of the trace-maker and interpretations of its behavior. The traces include mandible marks, pits, and shallow bores on cortical bone, and deep, meandering furrows and tunnels (borings) on articular surfaces. The interiors of bones are intensely mined, and the cavities and borings are filled with fine bone fragments (insect frass). The distinctive mandible marks consist of opposing sets of parallel grooves, indicating the maker had two apical teeth set on symmetrical mandibles and that all of the traces were made by a single taxon. Comparison of the fossils with the mandible morphology and bone traces of extant insects indicates dermestid beetles made the traces. Based on extant dermestid behavior, so...
Movement Control: Dedicated or Distributed?

Neural networks in which 'commands' spread 'horizontally' across multiple neurons have been believed to mediate motor pattern variation. A recent study shows that dedicated 'vertical' neural pathways can also underlie these variations.
The robustness of calendar anomalies in daily stock returns

This paper investigates the robustness of the major calendar anomalies in stock returns with respect to the choice of return measure, estimation procedure, and time period. For daily returns from 1972 to 1994, the size and statistical significance of the anomalies differ more across return measure than across estimation procedure. For the returns on small-firm stocks, there is robust evidence of weekend effects, pre-holiday effects, and January effects. For the returns on large-firm stocks, calendar anomalies are weaker and essentially disappear after 1986.
Investigation of the boron nitride/polybenzoxazine interphase

The influence of a hexagonal boron nitride powder surface on the polymer- ization of a benzoxazine monomer is examined by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). By varying the thickness of the benzoxazine coatings on boron nitride particles, a distinct influence of the surface substrate on the polymerization reaction could be observed. At a coating thickness calculated to be on the order of a monolayer, the heat of reaction is reduced, while the exothermic peak temperature and peak width at half height are increased relative to that of the neat resin values. The reduced heat of reaction and increased exothermic peak temperature indicate that the boron nitride surface is inhibiting the benzoxazine polymerization reaction. In the intermediate coating thickness region, the heat of reaction increases and the exothermic peak temperature and peak width at half height decrease with increasing coating thickness. With even thicker coatings, the heat of reaction and exothermic peak temperature and peak width at half height reach values corresponding to that of the neat resin and no longer change with thickness. In addition, the influence of surface treated boron nitride particles on the thermal polymerization behavior, as well as the effect of the surface treatment on the viscosity, dynamic mechanical properties, and flexural properties of the filled composites are also investigated. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci B: Polym Phys 37: 2360 -2372, 1999
Computing Sparse Representation in a Highly Coherent Dictionary Based on Difference of L 1 and L 2

We study analytical and numerical properties of the $$L_1-L_2$$L1-L2 minimization problem for sparse representation of a signal over a highly coherent dictionary. Though the $$L_1-L_2$$L1-L2 metric is non-convex, it is Lipschitz continuous. The difference of convex algorithm (DCA) is readily applicable for computing the sparse representation coefficients. The $$L_1$$L1 minimization appears as an initialization step of DCA. We further integrate DCA with a non-standard simulated annealing methodology to approximate globally sparse solutions. Non-Gaussian random perturbations are more effective than standard Gaussian perturbations for improving sparsity of solutions. In numerical experiments, we conduct an extensive comparison among sparse penalties such as $$L_0, L_1, L_p$$L0,L1,Lp for $$p\in (0,1)$$p?(0,1) based on data from three specific applications (over-sampled discreet cosine basis, differential absorption optical spectroscopy, and image denoising) where highly coherent dictionaries arise. We find numerically that the $$L_1-L_2$$L1-L2 minimization persistently produces better results than $$L_1$$L1 minimization, especially when the sensing matrix is ill-conditioned. In addition, the DCA method outperforms many existing algorithms for other nonconvex metrics.
Retinoic acid and dexamethasone interact to regulate S14 gene transcription in 3T3-F442A adipocytes

Abstract We have examined the effects of retinoic acid (RA) on S14 gene expression in 3T3-F442A preadipocytes and adipocytes. RA induced mRNA s14 14-fold in adipocytes, but had no effect on S14 gene expression in preadipocytes. Northern analysis of retinoic acid receptor (RAR) isoforms revealed the presence of RARα, but not RARβ, in both preadipocytes and adipocytes. These results suggest that adipocytespecific factors expressed during differentiation may be required for RA control of S14 gene expression in cultured adipocytes. When compared to dexamethasone (DEX), RA was a weak inducer of S14 gene expression. However, when added together, RA and DEX acted synergistically to induce S14 gene expression. Since changes in S14 gene transcription paralleled changes in mRNA s14 levels, the principal target for RA and DEX action on S14 gene expression was at the level of gene transcription. In the presence of DEX (0.1 nM), RA effects on S14 gene expression were dose-dependent (ED 50 = 5 nM) and rapid (within 4 h). In contrast to S14, RA inhibited glycerol 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GPD) gene transcription and mRNA GDP abundance by 75%. The effects of RA on S14 and GPD gene transcription in cultured adipocytes suggest that RA action may extend beyond growth and differentiation to include effects on lipid metabolism.
Executive order no. 13,233: A threat to government accountability☆

Abstract Public access to the presidential records covered under the Presidential Records Act of 1978 (PRA) has been restricted by the implementation of George W. Bush's Executive Order 13,233. This article examines the original intent and scope of the PRA, how Ronald Reagan's Executive Order 12,667 began the modification of the PRA with regards to claims of executive privilege, and how Bush's Executive Order 13,233, if left unchallenged, will create further significant alterations to the PRA. The article explores the controversies surrounding the signing of Executive Order 13,233, investigates the key issues raised by critics, and analyzes the long-term implications to government accountability and the accessibility of public records covered by the PRA.
Accelerated methylation of ribosomal RNA genes during the cellular senescence of Werner syndrome fibroblasts

Ribosomal DNA (rDNA) metabolism has been implicated in cellular and organismal aging. The role of rDNA in premature and normal human aging was investigated by measuring rDNA gene copy number, the level of rDNA methylation, and rRNA expression during the in vitro senescence of primary fibroblasts from normal (young and old) donors and from Werner syndrome (WS) patients. In comparison to their normal counterparts, WS fibroblasts grew slowly and reached senescence after fewer doublings. The rDNA copy number did not change significantly throughout the life span of both normal and WS fibroblasts. However, in senescent WS and normal old fibroblasts, we detected rDNA species with unusually slow electrophoretic mobility. Cellular aging in Saccharomyces cerevisiae is accompanied by the formation and accumulation of rDNA circles. Our analysis revealed that the rDNA species observed in this study were longer, linear rDNA molecules attributable to the inhibition of ECO:RI cleavage by methylation. Furthermore, isoschizomeric restriction analysis confirmed that in vitro senescence of fibroblasts is accompanied by significant increases in cytosine methylation within rDNA genes. This increased methylation is maximal during the abbreviated life span of WS fibroblasts. Despite increased methylation of rDNA in senescent cells, the steady-state levels of 28S rRNA remained constant over the life span of both normal and WS fibroblasts.
Contraceptive choices for adolescents.

Because unintended pregnancy rates are 50-85% lower in European countries than in the US there is great need to provide contraceptive choices to adolescents. In this context there is discussion of confidential and comprehensive service requirements the recommended medical care of the sexually active adolescent the most effective protection with hormonal agents the importance of barrier methods for sexually transmitted disease (STD) protection and other choices for special groups. It is concluded that providers must obtain a confidential sexual history and discuss birth control and STD protection with adolescent patients: 50% of the 15-19 year old population are sexually active. Emphasis should be on the safety of the preventive methods available and the benefit of reducing the morbidity and mortality associated with early pregnancy. Abstinence and delay in sexual activity as the only complete protection needs to be communicated. Families need to be reassured that contraceptive counseling does not increase sexual activity or the number of partners but education and comprehensive services reduce the adolescent pregnancy rate. Sociodemographic inequalities need attention also but service providers are not able to do whole life counseling. Continuation of chosen methods is linked to frequent follow up involvement of both partners reducing barriers to appointments and information seeking and personalized anticipatory guidance. Pediatricians can identify high risk patients. Rapid screening tests are important in early identification of pregnancy and patients need to know nonjudgementally the options available. Oral pills provide the most effective contraception and latex condoms are needed to reduce exposure to viral and bacterial infections. However with pill use there is still a 6-12/100 women years pregnancy rate for adolescents. Low-dose combined pills have the least reported side effects and their use may help the discontinuation rate due to side effects. In the future the female condom with a spermicide may provide the simplest and most effective contraception and STD protection. For those who have difficulty with compliance progesterone implants may be helpful. The life-long repercussions of early pregnancy and STDs required the involvement of providers teachers peers and families.
Design considerations for wireless electric vehicle charging

This paper focuses on the design challenges in the design of an efficient, wireless, Level-2 PHEV battery charger. Specifically, this work focuses on the challenges posed by the coupling factor, AC resistance and Q-factor, equivalent load impedance, and need for power electronics. It uses the WiTricity™ system proposed by researchers as a sample system for wireless automotive charging. In-depth study study shows that the output could be modeled as a current source. This paper presents a novel AC/DC rectification and regulation scheme based on a modified boost converter and hysteresis controller. Detailed simulation has been carried out for the system, which shows that the system has 80% efficiency at full load.
X-ray lasing in thick foil irradiation geometry

Abstract X-ray lasing on five Ne-like lines has been demonstrated using thick, laser-irradiated germanium targets, up to 2.2 cm in length. The scaling of gain with the plasma length and the laser angular distribution have been measured. The experiment has been modeled using codes which simulate the hydrodynamics of the target expansion in two dimensions and the propagation of the X-ray laser beam in three dimensions. Code calculations which successfully replicate the experimental results show that for each ray trajectory, only a limited plasma length contributes to the total gain-length product, so that at long plasma lengths the gain is limited by refraction. The major contribution to the observed gain comes from rays which are refracted into and out of high-density target regions, and sample the highest local gain near their turning points. The use of a target with a curved surface would enable near-exponential gain to be maintained over longer plasmas without being limited by refraction.
Modeling individual residential preferences: A totally disaggregate approach

Abstract This paper outlines a general conceptualization of the individual residential location choice process and presents theory necessary to develop separate preference equations for each individual in sample. It is suggested that the coefficients of these equations are systematically related to measurable social, economic, situational, experiential and environmental factors unique to the individual and that this conceptualization can adequately handle dynamics. Empirical work is presented in support of the conceptualization which demonstrates significant relationships between preference coefficients and interpersonal measures. Results also indicate that different individuals have different coefficients and decision variables and that the sets of decision variates may not jointly overlap in any well-behaved manner. Implications for modeling and further work are discussed.
Motorway control systems: Planning and designing to maximise value for money

The use of Motorway Control Systems (MCS) can allow traffic problems to be resolved in a more cost-effective, environmentally sensitive and politically acceptable way than other solutions such as road widening. Traffic problems are often attributable to multiple root causes, and careful investigation can identify specific locations and specific driver behaviours which combine to result in congestion or high accident rates. The following process (which is being used successfully by the authors) can lead to a targeted, low cost option which will give the best chance of yielding high benefits: 1. Very detailed analysis of the specific problem; 2. Wide ranging view of the options available to address it; 3. Careful design and testing of the options; 4. Identification of the best value for money solution. The key purpose of this process is to gain a clear understanding of the root causes of the traffic problem and of the potential impacts of the solutions being considered before deciding on the scheme to address the problem. This will ensure the benefits of chosen solution match the benefits required to mitigate the problem. Investing in this process upfront can reduce construction and maintenance costs while maximising the benefits. This provides better value for money than settling on a solution and slavishly following the `design standards'. (7 pages)
Abstract painting with interactive control of perceptual entropy

This article presents a framework for generating abstract art from photographs. The aesthetics of abstract art is largely attributed to its greater perceptual ambiguity than photographs. According to psychological theories [Berlyne 1971], the ambiguity tends to invoke moderate mental effort in the viewer for interpreting the underlying contents, and this process is usually accompanied by subtle aesthetic pleasure. We study this phenomenon through human experiments comparing the subjects' interpretations of abstract art and photographs, and quantitatively verify, the increased perceptual ambiguities in terms of recognition accuracy and response time. Based on the studies, we measure the level of perceptual ambiguity using entropy, as it measures uncertainty levels in information theory, and propose a painterly rendering method with interactive control of the ambiguity levels. Given an input photograph, we first segment it into regions corresponding to different objects and parts in an interactive manner and organize them into a hierarchical parse tree representation. Then we execute a painterly rendering process with image obscuring operators to transfer the photograph into an abstract painting style with increased perceptual ambiguities in both the scene and individual objects. Finally, using kernel density estimation and message-passing algorithms, we compute and control the ambiguity levels numerically to the desired levels, during which we may predict and control the viewer's perceptual path among the image contents by assigning different ambiguity levels to different objects. We have evaluated the rendering results using a second set of human experiments, and verified that they achieve similar abstract effects to original abstract paintings.
Mystery Boxes: Helping Children Improve their Reasoning

This guest editorial describes ways teachers can use guessing games about an unknown item in a “mystery box” to help children improve their abilities to listen to others, recall information, ask purposeful questions, classify items by class, make inferences, synthesize information, and draw conclusions. The author presents information from a qualitative analysis of 90 preservice teachers’ reflections on using mystery boxes with preschool through elementary students in urban public school settings in central New York State. Children were enthusiastic about the game, used a variety of strategies to generate questions, experienced difficulties in paying attention, remembering and synthesizing information, and had difficulty focusing on more than one characteristic at a time. Errors included repetition of questions and class inclusion/exclusion errors. Modeling, thinking out loud, and giving hints helped children become successful. Creating one’s own mystery box, exercises in identifying attributes and classifying items, and practice in questioning techniques are among suggested follow-on activities.
Marker selection for whole-genome association studies with two-stage designs using dense single-nucleotide polymorphisms

Large-scale genome-wide association studies are increasingly common, due in large part to recent advances in genotyping technology. Despite a dramatic drop in genotyping costs, it is still too expensive to genotype thousands of individuals for hundreds of thousands single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for large-scale whole-genome association studies for many researchers. A two-stage design has been a promising alternative: in the first stage, only a small fraction of samples are genotyped and tested using a dense set of SNPs, and only a small subset of markers that show moderate associations with the disease will be genotyped in the second stage. In this report, I developed an approach to select and prioritize SNPs for association studies with a two-stage or multi-stage design. In the first stage, the method not only evaluates associations of SNPs with the disease of interest, it also explicitly explores correlations among SNPs. I applied the approach on the simulated Genetic Analysis Workshop 15 Problem 3 data sets, which have modeled the complex genetic architecture of rheumatoid arthritis. Results show that the method can greatly reduce the number of SNPs required in later stage(s) without sacrificing mapping precision.
The Jeans Condition: A New Constraint on Spatial Resolution in Simulations of Isothermal Self-gravitational Hydrodynamics

We demonstrate with a new three-dimensional adaptive mesh refinement code that perturbations arising from discretization of the equations of self-gravitational hydrodynamics can grow into fragments in multiple-grid simulations, a process we term "artificial fragmentation." We present star formation calculations of isothermal collapse of dense molecular cloud cores. In simulation of a Gaussian-profile cloud free of applied perturbations, we find artificial fragmentation can be avoided across the isothermal density regime by ensuring the ratio of cell size to Jeans length, which we call the Jeans number, J ≡ Δx/λJ, is kept below 0.25. We refer to the constraint that λJ be resolved as the Jeans condition. When an m=2 perturbation is included, we again find it necessary to keep J≤0.25 to achieve a converged morphology. Collapse to a filamentary singularity occurs without fragmentation of the filament, in agreement with the predictions of Inutsuka & Miyama. Simulation beyond the time of this singularity requires an arresting agent to slow the runaway density growth. Physically, the breakdown of isothermality due to the buildup of opacity acts as this agent, but many published calculations have instead used artificial viscosity for this purpose. Because artificial viscosity is resolution dependent, such calculations produce resolution-dependent results. In the context of the perturbed Gaussian cloud, we show that use of artificial viscosity to arrest collapse results in significant violation of the Jeans condition. We also show that if the applied perturbation is removed from such a calculation, numerical fluctuations grow to produce substantial fragments not unlike those found when the perturbation is included. These findings indicate that calculations that employ artificial viscosity to halt collapse are susceptible to contamination by artificial fragmentation. The Jeans condition has important implications for numerical studies of isothermal self-gravitational hydrodynamics problems insofar as it is a necessary but not, in general, sufficient condition for convergence.
Toward a unified view of radiological imaging systems. Part II: Noisy images

''The imaging process is fundamentally a sampling process.'' This philosophy of Otto Schade, utilizing the concepts of sample number and sampling aperture, is applied to a systems analysis of radiographic imaging, including some aspects of vision. It leads to a simple modification of the Rose statistical model; this results in excellent fits to the Blackwell data on the detectability of disks as a function of contrast and size. It gives a straightforward prescription for calculating a signal-to-noise ratio, which is applicable to the detection of low-contrast detail in screen--film imaging, including the effects of magnification. The model lies between the optimistic extreme of the Rose model and the pessimistic extreme of the Morgan model. For high-contrast detail, the rules for the evaluation of noiseless images are recovered.
Accuracy of stereoscopic navigation system in flights above natural landscapes and urban land

Accuracy of stereoscopic navigation system designated for solution of problems of high accuracy navigation, guidance, and remote landscape probing is estimated. Linearization of photometric equations of the stereoscopic navigation system in the regime of stabilized horizontal flight of an aircraft is performed. Observation equations of the stereoscopic navigation system with account of the only stereo pair and a set of stereo images are determined. New algorithms of image processing in the stereoscopic navigation system based on the following two proved results: direct and inverse photogrammetry equations and the theory of joint optimal filtering, identification, and verification of hypotheses in a discrete dynamic system, are used to obtain formulas characterizing the accuracy of the stereoscopic navigation system in flights above natural landscapes and urban land. Procedure of choosing correction segments is considered.
Antiadrenergic action of adenosine on ventricular myocardium in embryonic chick hearts

Abstract Adenosine, a physiological metabolite, is known to exert a negative inotropic effect on atrial muscle [5, 7], to impair atrioventricular conduction [2, 7, 17] and depress pacemaker activity [18]. In addition to such direct actions, adenosine is also known to modulate several of the actions of catecholamines in different tissues [9, 15, 16]. In ventricular muscle, adenosine attenuates the inotropic effect of catecholamines, but has no contractile effect in the absence of catecholamines [1, 6, 15]. Thus, adenosine appears to exert its functions in heart by direct [2, 5, 7, 18] and indirect (anti-adrenergic) [1, 11, 15] mechanisms. The isoproterenol-induced increase in ventricular contractility is associated with an increase in cyclic AMP (cAMP) [19]. Since isoproterenol, cAMP analogs, and cAMP itself (applied internally), increase the Ca2+-inward current (Isi) and slow action potentials, a causal relationship between cAMP and Isi has been proposed [10]. The ability of isoproterenol to restore excitability to partially depolarized cardiac fibers and/or enhance pre-existing slow action potentials is attributed to increase in cAMP that leads to an increase in the Isi. Adenosine decreased the cAMP levels of catecholamine-treated hearts [1, 6, 15] but unexpectedly adenosine had no inhibitory effect on slow action potentials obtained in elevated K+ (27 mM) plus 10−7 to 10−6 M isoproterenol solution [12, 13]. In the present study, we wanted to find out whether adenosine would attenuate ventricular slow action potentials enhanced by relatively low concentrations of isoproterenol in normal K+ solution. We set out to confirm in parallel experiments that adenosine also reduces the cAMP content of hearts exposed to isoproterenol.
Field Dependence and Inner-Other Directedness.

Nonsignificant correlations (n ♂ = 51; n ♀ = 49) were obtained between Kassarjian's Inner-Other-directed scale and the Rod-and-frame Test. Two separate factor analyses were performed on the scale matrices. The Rod-and-frame Test failed to correlate significantly with the factors that were extracted.
Ambient temperature limits and stability of temperature regulation in telemetered male and female rats

Abstract Knowing the ambient temperature (Ta) limits of normothermia in laboratory rodents is important because their thermoregulatory responses are useful in studies of physiology, pharmacology and toxicology. The present study assessed the Ta limits of normothermia using radiotelemetry to monitor core temperature (Tc), heart rate (HR), and motor activity (MA) in unrestrained, male and female Long-Evans rats over a 24 h period. Rats were housed individually in acrylic cages with wire-screen tops and bottoms and maintained at T'as ranging from 12 to 33.5°C for 24 h with food and water provided ad libitum on a 12:12 L:D photoperiod. The limits of normothermia (i.e. where there was no significant change in Tc) were [( ΔT c ΔT a ) × 100]/2 ) was ±1.3 and ± 0.9% for males and females, respectively, over a 24 h period. These data on the stability of Tc in the male and female rat provide a valuable framework to study the acute and chronic effects of drugs, chemicals and other agents that affect temperature regulation.
Fuzzy logic with biomolecules

The uncertain and inexact nature of the chemical reactions used to implement DNA computations can be turned into an advantage for implementing robust soft computing systems. The key feature of DNA hybridization that makes it appropriate for fuzzy computing is the uncertainty and incompleteness in the formation of a double-stranded duplex from single-stranded oligonucleotides. To implement fuzzy computing, a set of encoding DNA molecules is given that reproduces a specific membership function in the energetics of the DNA duplex. In addition, a fuzzy inference system implemented with DNA hybridization on solid supports is discussed. The ultimate success of this idea as a general technique, however, is dependent on the actual geometry of the Gibbs free-energy landscapes in the space of all duplex formations. Elucidating this problem is undoubtedly of great importance for biomolecular implementation of soft-computing because it may, in particular, shed light on the true import of fuzzy models in biological processes fundamental to life.
Cotranscriptional Association of mRNA Export Factor Yra1 with C-terminal Domain of RNA Polymerase II

The unique C-terminal domain (CTD) of RNA polymerase II, composed of tandem heptad repeats of the consensus sequence YSPTSPS, is subject to differential phosphorylation throughout the transcription cycle. Several RNA processing factors have been shown to bind the phosphorylated CTD and use it to localize to nascent pre-mRNA during transcription. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the mRNA export protein Yra1 (ALY/RNA export factor in metazoa) cotranscriptionally associates with mRNA and delivers it to the nuclear pore complex for export to the cytoplasm. Here we report that Yra1 directly binds in vitro the hyperphosphorylated form of the CTD characteristic of elongating RNA polymerase II and contains a phospho-CTD-interacting domain within amino acids 18-184, which also include an "RNA recognition motif" (RRM) (residues 77-184). Using UV cross-linking, we showed that the RRM alone binds RNA, although a larger segment extending to the C terminus (amino acids 77-226) displayed stronger RNA binding activity. Although the RRM is implicated in both RNA and CTD binding, RRM point mutations separated these two functions. Both functions are important in vivo as RNA binding-defective or CTD binding-defective versions of Yra1 engendered growth and mRNA export defects. We also report the construction and characterization of a useful new temperature-sensitive YRA1 allele (R107A/F126A). Using ChIP, we demonstrated that removing the N-terminal 76 amino acids of Yra1 (all of the phospho-CTD-interacting domain up to the RRM) results in a 10-fold decrease in Yra1 recruitment to genes during elongation. These results indicate that the phospho-CTD is likely involved directly in the cotranscriptional recruitment of Yra1.
1,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D3 selectively translocates PKCα to nuclei in ROS 17/2.8 cells

Abstract We have investigated protein kinase C (PKC) regulation by 1,25-(OH) 2 D 3 in the rat osteosarcoma cell line ROS 17/2.8 since previous reports have implicated PKC in the 1,25-(OH) 2 D 3 -mediated regulation of osteocalcin gene expression (J. Biol. Chem. 267 (1992) 12562; Endocrinology 136 (1995) 5685). Here we report that 1,25-(OH) 2 D 3 increased PKCα, but not PKCβI, e or ζ, levels in the nuclear fraction in a time-dependent manner. Unlike PMA, 1,25-(OH) 2 D 3 did not alter the association of any of the expressed PKC isoenzymes with the plasma membrane. Treatment with 20 nM 1,25-(OH) 2 D 3 for 15 min, 30 min, 1 h and 24 h increased PKCα levels in the nuclear fraction by 2.3- to 2.6-fold. Nuclear PKCα expression was also increased with doses of 1,25-(OH) 2 D 3 as low as a 0.05 nM. 1,25-(OH) 2 D 3 -mediated stabilization of osteocalcin mRNA (Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 332 (1996) 142) was inhibited with bisindolylmaleimide treatment, suggesting that PKCα may be involved in the 1,25-(OH) 2 D 3 -mediated regulation of osteocalcin gene expression.
Determination of ammonium n and nitrate n in acid permanganate solution used to absorb ammonia, nitric oxide, and nitrogen dioxide evolved from soils

Abstract Simple steam distillation methods are described for determination of ammonium N and nitrate N in acid KMnO4 solution used to absorb NH3, NO and NO2 evolved from soils. They involve use of MgO for distillation of ammonia and of FeSO4, Ag2SO4, and MgO for reduction of nitrate to ammonia. The methods are rapid and precise, and they permit nitrogen‐15 analysis of NH3‐N and (NO + NO2)‐N evolved from soils.
Emotional Experience in Younger and Older Adults

This study examined the affective experiences of young, middle-aged, and older adults using differential emotions theory as a guide. The results indicated more age similarities than differences. There was no support for the claim that there is a drift toward more negative affect with age nor was there evidence that emotion is less salient or important to older people. There was support, however, for the hypothesis that classes of emotional experience have somewhat different elicitors at different stages in the life cycle and that people monitor and inhibit the expression of their feelings in different ways over the adult years. The most striking finding was that conventional constraints on the overt display of affect appear to have less impact on older versus younger individuals. The findings indicate that emotion is more important in the lives of women and that they may engage in more emotional masking than men.
Beyond consolidation: auto-SCT and immunotherapy for plasma cell myeloma

Autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation (auto-HCT) is the standard consolidation therapy for plasma cell myeloma patients following induction therapy. Auto-HCT improves disease-free survival (DFS), but is generally not curative. The allogeneic HCT experience demonstrated that T-cell immunotherapy can confer long-term DFS. Preclinical and clinical data indicate that myeloma-associated Ags elicit humoral and cellular immune responses (IRs) in myeloma patients. These findings strongly suggest that the immunotherapeutic strategies, including immune checkpoint inhibitors, therapeutic cancer vaccines and adoptive cellular therapies, are promising avenues of clinical research that may be most applicable in the minimal residual disease state following auto-HCT. These strategies are designed to prime or augment antimyeloma IRs and promote a 'host-vs-myeloma' effect that may result in durable DFS. Innovative clinical trials investigating immune checkpoint inhibitors and cancer vaccines have demonstrated that robust immunity against myeloma-associated Ags can be elicited in the setting of auto-HCT. A diverse array of immunotherapeutic strategies have entered clinical trials in myeloma, including PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors, DC/myeloma cell fusion vaccines and adoptive chimeric Ag receptor T-cell therapy, and further investigation of combinations of immunologic and pharmaceutical agents are expected in the near future. In this review, we will discuss the preclinical data supporting immunotherapy in auto-HCT for myeloma, clinical investigation of these strategies and the future prospects of immunotherapy in pursuit of the goal of curative therapy.
Optimizing Intrapulmonary Perfluorocarbon: Dosing Method and Mode of Ventilation 182

Partial liquid ventilation (PLV) appears promising in the treatment of severe acute lung injury, but the stategy for optimal intrapulmonary perflubron (PFC) distribution is unclear (perfluro-octyl bromide, LiquiVent®, Alliance Pharmaceutical Corp, San Diego, CA). We examined the effect of supine vs. rotational dosing on PFC distribution using conventional mechanical ventilation (CMV) or high frequency oscillatory ventilation (HFOV). METHODS: 13 piglets (wt 4.5-6.6 kg) underwent repetitive saline lavage to a target SpO2<90%,FiO2 1.0, PEEP 2, then either continued on CMV or conversion to HFOV. PFC was instilled in three 5cc/kg doses either with the pig supine (S) or alternating supine to prone (R) between each dose. Lateral cinefluoroscopic images at 90 min. were digitized. Image density increased with increasing PFC. A density index (DI) was calculated (mean image density/pixels2) of a 2 cm2 window in three pre-vertebral (PV) and three substernal (SS) lung regions. Comparisons made with two-way factorial ANOVA and a Bonferroni/Dunn post-hoc subanalysis. RESULTS: See graph. CONCLUSIONS: PFC is more uniformly dispersed when dosed in a rotating fashion independent of mode of ventilation.