cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Spontaneous osteonecrosis of the knee (SONK): The role of MR imaging in predicting clinical outcome.

Abstract Background/aim We try to investigate the association between patterns of imaging findings in patients who had a diagnosis of subchondral fracture around the knee, formerly known as SONK and their clinical outcome. Materials and methods We retrospectively identified 43 knees of 37 patients (28 males, 15 females) who had diagnosis of subchondral fractures around the knee. The mean age is 56-year-old (range 17–83). Musculoskeletal fellowship trained radiologist evaluated all 43 knee MRI in: 1)location of marrow edema 2)peri-osseous edema; 3) subchondral fracture line; 4) subchondral articular surface contour; 5)meniscal tear and extrusion; 6)adjacent soft tissue edema; 7) joint effusion. Independent clinical chart review was performed for clinical outcome with follow up time average of 13.3 months (range 0–88 months). Bad outcome was defined as worsening on imaging, continued complaint with surgical management and knee replacement or another episode of SONK. Chi-square analysis and Student's T tests were conducted to test the statistical significance of association between MR findings and outcomes. Statistical significance was set at p = 0.05 level. Results Of 43 knees, 6 patients had another episodes of SONK (14%), 11 patients were not improving or needed injection vs arthroscopy (26%), 4 patients required arthroplasty (9%), 22 patients had no negative outcome (51%). Gender, age, diabetic status, and location of the subchondral fracture show no influence on outcome. Worse outcome group had a significantly higher average BMI (31.7 vs. 28.0, P = 0.02). Positive change of subchondral articular surface contour is the only imaging finding with positive association with worse outcome (80% vs. 39.9%, P = 0.02). Presence of positive findings of above 3), 4), 5) and 6) had higher percentage of bad outcome (77.8%) compared to those with less positive findings (47.2%). Conclusion MR imaging findings may help at identifying SONK patient with potential risk of developing bad outcome.
Generation of Mixed Multi-mode Vortex Beam using Uniform Circular Array Antenna

In this paper the generation of mixed multi-mode vortex beams by means of uniform circular array is presented. Vortex beams have desirable characteristics which make them a suitable candidate for many modern applications such as high data rate short-range telecommunications and also for short range high resolution two dimensional imaging.
Cost Inefficiency and the Holding of Nontraditional Assets by Solvent Stock Thrifts

In contrast to greater restrictions on thrifts' nontraditional assets under FIRREA, Congress is considering new legislation forcing thrifts to convert to banks. Hence, the efficiency implications of product diversification for thrifts is an important issue. We examine the relation between thrifts' movement into nontraditional assets and the operating inefficiency of adequately capitalized stock thrifts in 1988 and 1994. We estimate inefficiency scores for individual thrifts for each respective year using a stochastic cost frontier methodology. In a second step, we regress these scores against measures for movement into nontraditional assets. We find a significant fall in inefficiency with a rise in holdings of both traditional and nontraditional assets. Our results suggest that greater diversification privileges for thrifts should be beneficial to the health of the industry.
Is U.S. CEO Compensation Broken

This article addresses four major concerns about the pay of U.S. CEOs: (1) failure to pay for performance; (2) excessive levels of pay; (3) failure to index options and other equity-based pay, resulting in windfalls; and (4) too much unwinding of incentives. The authors' main message is that most if not all of these concerns are exaggerated by the popular tendency to focus on the annual income of CEOs (consisting of salary, bonus, and stock and option grants) while ignoring their existing holdings of company equity. Taking into account the effect of stock price changes on CEO wealth leads the authors to a number of interesting conclusions. First, the pay-for-performance relationship is strong and has grown significantly in recent years. Second, what may appear as above-normal growth in annual pay levels may be necessary to compensate CEOs for the increased risk associated with their growing level of equity-based incentives. Third, conventional (that is, unindexed) stock and options, when viewed as a combination of market risk and firm-specific risk, may provide an optimal solution to two conflicting demands: shareholders' demand for executive rewards tied to company performance and executives' preference to diversify their wealth. Finally, there is little evidence of widespread CEO unwinding of incentives, and levels of CEO equity ownership in the U.S. remain impressively high.
Examining the Effect of Self-explanations in Distributed Self-assessment

Self-assessment is a twofold activity consisting of self-evaluation and self-explanation, which are considered imperative metacognitive strategies in learning science. Although the self-explanation effect has been scaffolded in numerous learning systems, it remains unclear whether the effect can still occur to students in a voluntary setting of learning such as remote learning that requires self-regulation to persist in making progress. Furthermore, it is inconclusive what students’ behavioral patterns can be when they exercise self-evaluation and self-explanation overtime. In this study, we investigate the effectiveness of self-assessment and the embedded self-explanation by dissecting semantic elements in the explanations in a multilevel analysis. The result showed that the low-performing students were challenged by the complexity of topics, which resulted in an increased error rate when they ventured into more learning opportunities. However, the self-explanation effect might occur to them and improved their performances, especially when they reflected on the content of questions that were relevant to the concepts. In summary, this study provides an insight into effective self-assessment. Specifically, it shows that students can potentially improve performances by writing compact and relevant explanations over time.
Lectures on surfaces

Various ways of representing surfaces and basic examples Combinatorial structure and topological classification of surfaces Differentiable structure on surfaces: Real and complex Riemannian metrics and geometry of surfaces Topology and smooth structure revisited Suggested reading Hints Index.
Fixed points and powers of self-maps of -spaces

We give a new proof of the following result due to Duan: Let f : X -* X be any self-map of a finite connected H-space. Then fk has a fixed point if k > 2. Our proof is based on an approach due to Steve Halperin, whereby the Lefschetz number of a self-map is expressed in terms of the eigenvalues of the induced homomorphism of rational homotopy groups. This allows us to give a considerably shorter proof which avoids most of the technicalities of the original proof. ?
Transportation Costs and US Manufacturing FDI

In empirical models of foreign direct investment (FDI), distance is most often used to proxy for transportation costs and other pure-trade costs. Given that distance is time invariant but transportation costs are not, this approach is less than satisfactory when actual transportation costs rise and fall over time.The contribution of this work is to explicitly control for transportation costs and thereby better understand their impact on FDI. We explore the impact of shipping costs on total US FDI stocks abroad, manufacturing stocks and service stocks using measures of sea-shipping and air-shipping costs in a Hausman–Taylor model that controls for endogeneity and allows for time-invariant variables such as distance. We find that transportation costs have a positive and statistically significant relationship with US total and manufacturing FDI, suggesting a substitute relationship between FDI and trade flows consistent with horizontal MNE activity. As one would expect, these costs are insignificant for service stocks.
Properties of the mixed /spl mu/ problem and its bounds

Upper and lower bounds for the mixed /spl mu/ problem have recently been developed, and here we examine the relationship of these bounds to each other and to /spl mu/. A number of interesting properties are developed and the implications of these properties for the robustness analysis of linear systems and the development of practical computation schemes are discussed. In particular we find that current techniques can only guarantee easy computation for large problems when /spl mu/ equals its upper bound, and computational complexity results prohibit this possibility for general problems. In this context we present some special cases where computation is easy and make some direct comparisons between mixed /spl mu/ and "Kharitonov-type" analysis methods.
LLBL Contribution to the Plasma Sheet Ions

The cold dense ions along the plasma sheet flanks have been previously observed during periods of northward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) with in situ satellites and have been interpreted in terms of low latitude boundary layer (LLBL) ion entry into the plasma sheet. We have previously developed a method for inferring plasma sheet ion temperature (T), density (n), and pressure (p) from ionospheric observations. Using this method and DMSP observations for 1992, we present 2D profiles of the equatorial plasma sheet ion n and T for southward and northward IMF for quiet and moderate magnetic activity. The results show the spatial extent of the cold dense ions in more detail than previously shown. The plasma sheet ion n and T profiles generally differ between the northward and southward IMF cases, but they exhibit the sharpest contrast along the flanks. During periods of northward IMF, cold dense ions can be found plentifully along the plasma sheet flanks. However, during periods of southward IMF, the presence of these cold dense ions is noticeably diminished, especially alongthe dusk flank where the density peak is barely discernible. The result here suggests that any mechanism proposed to transport magnetosheath ions from dusk LLBL to the plasma sheet during periods of northward IMF has to be able to do it on a massive scale efficiently. A recent Geotail case study along with a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation of the same event suggest that the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability can be one such mechanism.
Analytic formulation of intelligent machines as neural nets

The design of the organization level of the intelligent machine as a Boltzmann machine, as described in current neural network literature, is discussed. Since this level is responsible for planning the actions of the machine, the problem at this tier is formulated as the construction of the right sequence of tasks or events which minimizes the entropy for the desired action. Two search techniques, simulated annealing (SA) and expanding subinterval random search (ESRS), are described. These techniques are used to find the global minimum entropy of a Boltzmann machine. Simulations using these search techniques were conducted using energy as a cost function, and results indicate that ESRS converges faster than SA to a global minimum if the topology contains narrow and deep cost wells. >
The O-Antigen Capsule of Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhimurium Facilitates Serum Resistance and Surface Expression of FliC

ABSTRACT Group IV polysaccharide capsules are common in enteric bacteria and have more recently been described in nontyphoidal Salmonella species. Such capsules are known as O-antigen (O-Ag) capsules, due to their high degree of similarity to the O-Ag of the lipopolysaccharide (LPS O-Ag ). Capsular polysaccharides are known virulence factors of many bacterial pathogens, facilitating evasion of immune recognition and systemic dissemination within the host. Previous studies on the O-Ag capsule of salmonellae have focused primarily on its role in bacterial surface attachment and chronic infection; however, the potential effects of the O-Ag capsule on acute pathogenesis have yet to be investigated. While much of the in vivo innate immune resistance of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium is attributed to the high-molecular-weight LPS, we hypothesized that the O-Ag capsule may enhance this resistance by diminishing surface expression of pathogen-associated molecular patterns, such as flagella, and increasing resistance to host immune molecules. To test this hypothesis, O-Ag capsule-deficient mutants were constructed, and the loss of O-Ag capsular surface expression was confirmed through microscopy and immunoblotting. Loss of O-Ag capsule production did not alter bacterial growth or production of LPS. Western blot analysis and confocal microscopy revealed that O-Ag capsule-deficient mutants demonstrate reduced resistance to killing by human serum. Furthermore, O-Ag capsule-deficient mutants produced exclusively phase I flagellin (FliC). Although O-Ag capsule-deficient mutants did not exhibit reduced virulence in a murine model of acute infection, in vitro results indicate that the O-Ag capsule may function to modify the antigenic nature of the bacterial surface, warranting additional investigation of a potential role of the structure in pathogenesis.
p‐Nitrobenzyl Bromide

[100-11-8] C7H6BrNO2 (MW 216.04) InChI = 1S/C7H6BrNO2/c8-5-6-1-3-7(4-2-6)9(10)11/h1-4H,5H2 InChIKey = VOLRSQPSJGXRNJ-UHFFFAOYSA-N (benzylating agent for a variety of heteroatomic functional groups as well as carbon nucleophiles) Alternate Name: 4-nitrobenzyl bromide, α-bromo-4-nitrotoluene, 1-(bromomethyl)-4-nitrobenzene, PNB-Br. Physical Data: yellow solid; mp 98–99 °C.1 Solubility: soluble in common organic solvents (i.e., CH2Cl2, cyclohexane, and benzene). Form Supplied in: widely available commerically. Analysis of Reagent Purity: melting point. Preparative Methods: p-nitrobenzyl bromide is most readily prepared through bromination of p-nitrotoluene.1, 2 Other preparative methods involve bromination of p-nitrobenzyl alcohol3 and nitration of benzyl bromide.4 Purification: p-nitrobenzyl bromide (280 g) is dissolved in hot petroleum ether (ligroin) (3 L), boiled with decolorizing carbon (10 g), and filtered with suction. After cooling the filtrate in an ice bath, the resulting crystals are collected on a Buchner funnel, pressed, and washed with two 25 mL portions of cold petroleum ether to provide p-nitrobenzyl bromide as pale yellow crystals (250 g).1 Handling, Storage, and Precautions: p-nitrobenzyl bromide is a corrosive lachrymator, and accordingly should be dispensed and used in a well-ventilated fumehood.
Aminoguanidine Prevents the Negative Inotropy Associated with Rabbits on High‐fat, High‐cholesterol Diets

Nitric oxide appears to play a key role in many pathophysiological cardiovascular events, including coronary artery disease and cardiac dysfunction. The purpose of this study was to determine if chronic administration of aminoguanidine, an inhibitor of inducible nitric oxide synthase, can prevent the negative inotropic effects present in high-fat, high-cholesterol dieted rabbits. New Zealand white rabbits were fed either normal rabbit chow or rabbit chow supplemented with 3% peanut oil, 3% coconut oil, and 0.5% cholesterol for 18 weeks. Some rabbits of each diet group were also concurrently given aminoguanidine hemisulphate in their drinking water at 1 mg mL−1. Total serum cholesterol and triglycerides were monitored throughout the study. After 18 weeks, the serum nitrite/nitrate levels were measured and the cardiac contractile functions were evaluated both pre-ischaemically and post-ischaemically using the Langendorff preparation. Pre-ischaemic cardiac function significantly decreased in the high fat, high cholesterol dieted rabbit group when compared with normal animals. The serum nitrite/nitrate levels were also elevated in the high-fat, high-cholesterol group. Aminoguanidine treatment of the rabbits fed a high-fat, high-cholesterol diet tended to reduce serum nitrite/nitrate levels and this decrease seemed to be related to an increase in rate-pressure products. Post-ischaemic cardiac function was not altered by aminoguanidine. This study demonstrates that chronic administration of aminoguanidine hemisulphate, an inducible isoform of nitric oxide synthese inhibitor, reduces serum nitrite/nitrate levels and is able to prevent the negative inotropic effects present in the rabbits on a high-fat, high-cholesterol diet.
Mutually exclusive apicobasolateral sorting of two oligodendroglial membrane proteins, proteolipid protein and myelin/oligodendrocyte glycoprotein, in Madin-Darby canine kidney cells.

Oligodendrocytes elaborate an extensive membrane network that ensheathes CNS axons in multilamellar wrappings. A compaction process excludes much of the cytoplasm in mature myelin membranes, giving rise to distinct lipid/protein compositions in two membrane compartments (compact myelin and membranes of the cell body and processes). Insofar as oligodendrocytes arise from neuroepithelial progenitors, it seems likely that some elements are shared for protein targeting by these two cell types. We hypothesized that certain membrane proteins targeting different oligodendroglial membrane compartments would preferentially sort to opposite domains when transfected into Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) epithelial cells. Myelin/oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) is found in uncompacted membrane (cell body, processes), and it sorts exclusively to MDCK basolateral membrane. Proteolipid protein (PLP) is found in compact myelin, and it sorts exclusively to MDCK apical membrane. Myelin-associated glycoprotein (MAG) is primarily in the periaxonal inner loop of myelin; however, it fails to target preferentially within MDCK cells. This inability of MAG to sort within MDCK cells suggests a lack of required oligodendroglial-specific targeting components. In contrast, the sorting machinery in both oligodendrocytes and MDCK cells recognizes targeting signals for MOG and PLP, and we propose that these oligodendroglial membrane proteins delineate cognate basolateral and apical domains, respectively. J Neurosci. Res. 66:1140–1148, 2001. © 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Synthesis of the acetylacetone telechelate of polydimethylsiloxane and its gelation with Cr(III) and Fe(III)

The batch synthesis of acetylacetone end-capped polydimethylsiloxane is described. Efforts to end-link the telechelic polymer with several simple metal salts yielded poorly gelled systems, except for the cases where FeCl3 and CrCl3 · 3THF were used. With these salts, low but nonetheless appreciable, gel fractions of 45 and 40%, respectively, were obtained. The difficulty experienced in obtaining high gel fractions is traced to incomplete ligand exchange reactions in low polarity media.
Predicted Effect of Landscape Position on Wildlife Habitat Value of Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program Wetlands in a Tile‐drained Agricultural Region

Justification for investment in restored or constructed wetland projects are often based on presumed net increases in ecosystem services. However, quantitative assessment of performance metrics is often difficult and restricted to a single objective. More comprehensive performance assessments could help inform decision-makers about trade-offs in services provided by alternative restoration program design attributes. The primary goal of the Iowa Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program is to establish wetlands that efficiently remove nitrates from tile-drained agricultural landscapes. A secondary objective is provision of wildlife habitat. We used existing wildlife habitat models to compare relative net change in potential wildlife habitat value for four alternative landscape positions of wetlands within the watershed. Predicted species richness and habitat value for birds, mammals, amphibians, and reptiles generally increased as the wetland position moved lower in the watershed. However, predicted average net increase between pre- and post-project value was dependent on taxonomic group. The increased average wetland area and changes in surrounding upland habitat composition among landscape positions were responsible for these differences. Net change in predicted densities of several grassland bird species at the four landscape positions was variable and species-dependent. Predicted waterfowl breeding activity was greater for lower drainage position wetlands. Although our models are simplistic and provide only a predictive index of potential habitat value, we believe such assessment exercises can provide a tool for coarse-level comparisons of alternative proposed project attributes and a basis for constructing informed hypotheses in auxiliary empirical field studies.
Ecologic Criteria for Recognition of Depositional Environments in Carbonate Rocks: ABSTRACT

Carbonate skeletons of many Recent and fossil species show morphologic characters which can be related to specific factors in their environments. Similarly, the mineralogy and chemistry of the carbonate from the skeletons are known to reflect a variety of ecologic factors. Few attempts have been made to utilize the ecologic information from the physical and chemical properties of skeletal carbonates in the analyses of depositional environments of carbonate rocks. Data are presented to illustrate their usefulness in recognizing certain ecologic factors in the depositional environment of carbonate rocks. In this presentation, particular emphasis is placed on comparative functional morphology of carbonate skeletons. Ecologic factors to be considered are habitat, derivation of constituent grains, rates of sedimentation, turbidity, micro-hydrography, consistency of the sediments, temperature, and depth of the accumulating sediments. End_of_Article - Last_Page 473------------
Pathophysiology of headache--past and present.

In 1979 my laboratory published its first article on migraine in The Lancet, and it was entitled “Neurotransmitters and the fifth cranial nerve: Is there a relation to the headache phase of migraine?”1 In this article, we hypothesized that the trigeminal nerve was a critical component in the pathogenesis of migraine. At that time, the sensory innervation to the blood vessels of the circle of Willis was unknown. We believed that such a pathway, if it existed, may contain vasoactive neuropeptides such as substance P which would be released into the meninges. Because hemicranial pain was so prevalent in many migraineurs, we wondered whether or not peptide neurotransmitters might be implicated in an ipsilaterally projecting pathway from the trigeminal ganglia to the meninges and its blood vessels.
Facilitating Storybook Interactions Between Mothers and Their Preschoolers With Language Impairment

Three mother-child dyads participated in a study evaluating the efficacy of storybook reading for facilitating mother-child interactions. The children with language impairment (LI), ages 38 to 41 months, and their mothers completed 15 study sessions. Mothers were taught to use a complete reading cycle (CRC) consisting of (a) attentional vocative, (b) query, (c) response, and (d) feedback. Measurable changes occurred in the mothers' number of CRCs, percentage of turns taken, and match in mother-child mean length of utterance (MLU). Measurable child increases occurred for frequency of verbal turns, MLU, and semantic level of storybook response. Results showed that CRC training produced changes in mothers' storybook interactions with reciprocal increases in their children's communicative performance.
Additional flow quality measurements in the Langley Research Center 8-Foot Transonic Pressure Tunnel

Additional tests were conducted to further define the disturbance characteristics of the Langley 8-Foot Transonic Pressure Tunnel. Measurements were made in the settling chamber with hot wire probes and in the test section with pressure transducers when various methods were used to choke the flow. In addition to presenting rms values measured at various locations and tunnel condition, autocorrelations and cross correlation data are also presented.
The evolutionary sequence and quantities of different antigenic determinants of calf lens alpha crystallin

Abstract Immunochemieal cross-reactions between calf lens alpha crystallin and homologous proteins from different vertebrate classes were used for the study of antigenic determinants which, in the evolution of this protein, were derived from common ancestral forms. Determination of the sequence in which the different antigenic determinants evolved was based on estimation of the relative number of antigenic determinants shared by calf alpha crystallin with alpha crystallin from other vertebrate classes. For this estimation, samples of antiserum to calf lens alpha crystallin were absorbed with homologous lens proteins from each of the different vertebrate classes. The unabsorbed antiserum reacted with homologous proteins from all vertebrate classes. Each of the absorbed antisera showed a taxonomically different extent of residual cross-reaction. The species used for absorption were then ordered according to an increasing taxonomic extent of residual cross-reactions of the absorbed anti-calf antiserum, indicating a sequence of species with decreasing numbers of antigenic determinants shared with the mammalian protein. This sequence represents the increasing phylogenetic distances between the species used for absorption and the species used to produce the antiserum. This immunochemical determination showed that the phylogenetic sequence in which antigenic determinants present in the calf alpha crystallin molecule were formed, progressed from the primitive aquatic vertebrates agnatha, elasmobranchii and actinopterygii to the primitive land vertebrates and then to amphibia, reptilia, aves and mammalia. For the estimation of the relative amount (%) of determinants derived from different ancestral forms and transferred in evolution to calf alpha crystallin,125I bound to a calf alpha crystallin immunoadsorbent after saturation with total125I anti-calf alpha crystallin Fab fragments was compared to125I bound to the same amounts of calf alpha crystallin after saturation with125I Fab fragments of phylogenetically restricted specificity. Of all antigenic determinants in present-day calf alpha crystallin. approximately 42% were found also in the homologous lamprey protein. These determinants originated with the primitive agnatha which started the vertebrate subphylum 450 million years ago. Only about 15% originated with the mammalia, some 200 million years later, rellecting the slow evolutionary change of this protein molecule.
G-computation estimation for causal inference with complex longitudinal data

In a companion paper, [Neugebauer, R., van der Laan, M.J., 2006b. Causal effects in longitudinal studies: definition and maximum likelihood estimation. Comput. Stat. Data. Anal., this issue, doi:10.1016/j.csda.2006.06.013], we provided an overview of causal effect definition with marginal structural models (MSMs) in longitudinal studies. A parametric MSM (PMSM) and a non-parametric MSM (NPMSM) approach were described for the representation of causal effects in pooled or stratified analyses of treatment effects on time-dependent outcomes. Maximum likelihood estimation, also referred to as G-computation estimation, was detailed for these causal effects. In this paper, we develop new algorithms for the implementation of the G-computation estimators of both NPMSM and PMSM causal effects. Current algorithms rely on Monte Carlo simulation of all possible treatment-specific outcomes, also referred to as counterfactuals or potential outcomes. This task becomes computationally impracticable (a) in studies with a continuous treatment, and/or (b) in longitudinal studies with long follow-up with or without time-dependent outcomes. The proposed algorithms address this important computing limitation inherent to G-computation estimation in most longitudinal studies. Finally, practical considerations about the proposed algorithms lead to a further generalization of the definition of NPMSM causal effects in order to allow more reliable applications of these methodologies to a broader range of real-life studies. Results are illustrated with two simulation studies.
A global–local discontinuous Galerkin finite element for finite-deformation analysis of multilayered shells

We present a global–local finite element formulation for the analysis of doubly-curved laminated composite shells. The proposed formulation is applicable to a wide range of problems, including those involving finite strains/rotations, nonlinear constitutive behavior, and static or dynamic structural response. Moreover, in dynamic analysis applications, it can be combined with either explicit or implicit time integration schemes. The global–local framework is based on the superposition of a global displacement field, spanning the thickness of the entire laminate, and local (i.e. layerwise) displacement fields associated with each layer in the laminate. This approach affords highly-resolved representations in regions of critical interest, and allows a smooth transition from higher to lower resolution zones. Discontinuous Galerkin fluxes are used to enforce interlaminar continuity conditions in perfectly-bonded laminates, and the cohesive-zone methodology is used to represent interfacial delamination. Stresses and surface normals are referred to the initial configuration in the proposed total Lagrangian formulation. Assumed natural strain and enhanced assumed strain techniques are employed to alleviate shear locking and other pathologies that are known to afflict bilinear shell elements. The performance of the proposed finite element is examined with the aid of several numerical examples involving thick as well as thin shells.
Single-stranded RNA probes generated from PCR-derived DNA templates

Abstract The following report outlines the use of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in combination with in vitro transcription to generate single-stranded radiolabelled RNA probes useful for nuclease protection and in situ hybridization experiments. Specific DNA fragments with bacteriophage promoter (T3 and/or T7) sequences at the 5′ or 3′ end are generated by repeated rounds of amplification. Following purification, these PCR-generated DNA products are used as templates for in vitro transcription with the correct DNA-dependent RNA polymerase. The resultant radiolabelled, single-stranded RNA (ssRNA) can be used for in situ hybridization, Southern or Northern blot analysis, and ribonuclease protection experiments. Sub-cloning or hydrolysis of large fragments is not required. Probes can be made from virtually any sequence using a variety of template sources.
Characterization of a soluble phosphatidic acid phosphatase in bitter melon (Momordica charantia).

Momordica charantia is often called bitter melon, bitter gourd or bitter squash because its fruit has a bitter taste. The fruit has been widely used as vegetable and herbal medicine. Alpha-eleostearic acid is the major fatty acid in the seeds, but little is known about its biosynthesis. As an initial step towards understanding the biochemical mechanism of fatty acid accumulation in bitter melon seeds, this study focused on a soluble phosphatidic acid phosphatase (PAP, 3-sn-phosphatidate phosphohydrolase, EC 3.1.3.4) that hydrolyzes the phosphomonoester bond in phosphatidate yielding diacylglycerol and Pi. PAPs are typically categorized into two subfamilies: Mg2+-dependent soluble PAP and Mg2+-independent membrane-associated PAP. We report here the partial purification and characterization of an Mg2+-independent PAP activity from developing cotyledons of bitter melon. PAP protein was partially purified by successive centrifugation and UNOsphere Q and S columns from the soluble extract. PAP activity was optimized at pH 6.5 and 53–60°C and unaffected by up to 0.3 mM MgCl2. The Km and Vmax values for dioleoyl-phosphatidic acid were 595.4 µM and 104.9 ηkat/mg of protein, respectively. PAP activity was inhibited by NaF, Na3VO4, Triton X-100, FeSO4 and CuSO4, but stimulated by MnSO4, ZnSO4 and Co(NO3)2. In-gel activity assay and mass spectrometry showed that PAP activity was copurified with a number of other proteins. This study suggests that PAP protein is probably associated with other proteins in bitter melon seeds and that a new class of PAP exists as a soluble and Mg2+-independent enzyme in plants.
Influence of thermal expansion mismatch on residual stresses and flow response of microballoon composites

Abstract The effects of thermal expansion mismatch on the residual stress and flow response of microballoon-reinforced metal composites have been examined using finite element analyses of a unit cell model. The calculations indicate that residual tensile stresses can develop within some regions of the microballoons, despite the fact that the thermal expansion coefficient of the microballoon material is lower than that of the matrix. The magnitude of the residual tension increases as the microballoons are brought closer together. The levels of residual tension predicted by finite elements are in qualitative agreement with experimental observations of cracking in Al2O3 microballoons embedded in an Al alloy matrix. The effects of the thermal expansion mismatch on yielding within the matrix both after cooling from the processing temperature and after mechanical loading have also been studied numerically. Preliminary comparisons have been made between the finite element predictions and experimental measurements on two Al/A12O3 microballoon composite, with different microballoon wall thicknesses. The inferred thermal strain from such comparisons is in broad agreement with the reported thermal expansion coefficients of the constituents and an effective temperature change of ∼ 130 K following casting (within a factor of ∼ 2 or 3). The discrepancies are rationalized on the basis of the pre-existing cracks within the microballoons.
Immunochemistry of sperm whale myoglobin. VI. Preparation and conformational analysis of eight mammalian myoglobins.

Abstract Electrophoretically and chromatographically homogeneous myoglobins from human, monkey (Maccacus rhaesus), horse, camel, beef, lamb and goat have been prepared and their conformational and hydrodynamic parameters studied and compared with those of sperm whale myoglobin X. Measurements of Stokes radii and frictional ratios by gel filtration suggested no detectable conformational differences between horse, camel, beef, lamb, goat and sperm whale myoglobins. Human and monkey myoglobins exhibited a slight but definite increase in the Stokes radius and frictional ratio values. Sedimentation studies showed that, except for human and monkey myoglobins, the myoglobins possessed identical sedimentation coefficients, within experimental error at 2.02 ± 0.01 S. The corresponding values of s020,w for human and monkey myoglobins were appreciably lower at 1.85 S and 1.87 S, respectively. Values of f/f0 calculated from s020,w values strongly suggested the presence of less folded or more asymmetric structures in human and monkey myoglobins relative to the others. Spectral studies showed that all the present eight myoglobins had identical spectral properties in the visible and ultraviolet regions. In optical rotatory dispersion (ORD) studies all the present myoglobins gave a negative rotation minimum at 233 nm and a positive extremum at 199 nm. The rotatory behavior of myoglobins from sperm whale, goat, lamb, beef and camel were quantitatively similar, both in [m′]233 nm and in [m′]199 nm. Horse myoglobin showed a slightly lower rotation at the negative minimum at 233 nm and at the positive maximum at 199 nm. Human and monkey myoglobins showed appreciably lower rotations both at 233 nm and at 199 nm. Also the b0 values for human and monkey myoglobins were appreciably lower (−335 and −312, respectively) than the corresponding value for the other myoglobins (−390 to −412).
SQUISH: an online approach for GPS trajectory compression

GPS-equipped mobile devices such as smart phones and in-car navigation units are collecting enormous amounts spatial and temporal information that traces a moving object's path. The popularity of these devices has led to an exponential increase in the amount of GPS trajectory data generated. The size of this data makes it difficult to transmit it over a mobile network and to analyze it to extract useful patterns. Numerous compression algorithms have been proposed to reduce the size of trajectory data sets; however these methods often lose important information essential to location-based applications such as object's position, time and speed. This paper describes the Spatial QUalIty Simplification Heuristic (SQUISH) method that demonstrates improved performance when compressing up to roughly 10% of the original data size, and preserves speed information at a much higher accuracy under aggressive compression. Performance is evaluated by comparison with three competing trajectory compression algorithms: Uniform Sampling, Douglas-Peucker and Dead Reckoning.
Solar wind temperature and speed.

Averaging on a time scale of several solar rotations, the solar wind proton temperature, T, increases monotonically with bulk speed V. This macroscale T-V relation does not change appreciably with solar cycle. The temperatures corresponding to intervals of increasing speed are only approximately 15% higher than those corresponding to decreasing speeds, indicating that the macroscale T-V relation is not appreciably affected by stream interactions. On a time scale of a tenth of a solar rotation, there are time dependent T(t) - V(t) relations which are closely related to the stream profiles. These T(t) - V(t) relations can meaningfully be resolved into two components - the macroscale T-V relation and systematic, time-dependent deviations from the macroscale relation. These results support the view that the macroscale T-V relation is not appreciably affected by non-steady, interplanetary processes, but is determined rather by the proton heating mechanism.
NF-κB and epithelial to mesenchymal transition of cancer†

During progression of an in situ to an invasive cancer, epithelial cells lose expression of proteins that promote cell-cell contact, and acquire mesenchymal markers, which promote cell migration and invasion. These events bear extensive similarities to the process of epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT), which has been recognized for several decades as critical feature of embryogenesis. The NF-kappaB family of transcription factors plays pivotal roles in both promoting and maintaining an invasive phenotype. After briefly describing the NF-kappaB family and its role in cancer, in this review we will first describe studies elucidating the functions of NF-kappaB in transcription of master regulator genes that repress an epithelial phenotype. In the second half, we discuss the roles of NF-kappaB in control of mesenchymal genes critical for promoting and maintaining an invasive phenotype. Overall, NF-kappaB is identified as a key target in prevention and in the treatment of invasive carcinomas.
Infant Mental Health and the “Real World”- Opportunities for Interface and Impact

A growing literature highlights established and developing approaches to infant mental health assessment and treatment. Like other evidence-based and theory-based interventions, real world application of these approaches requires an understanding of the theoretical and empirical foundations of infant mental health as well as consideration of cultural, systemic, and logistical factors. In this article, the authors present models of universal and targeted interventions in infant mental health, with attention to the adaptations used to apply evidence-based practice in real world settings.
Towards a Theory of Moving Target Defense

The static nature of cyber systems gives attackers the advantage of time. Fortunately, a new approach, called the Moving Target Defense (MTD) has emerged as a potential solution to this problem. While promising, there is currently little research to show that MTD systems can work effectively in real systems. In fact, there is no standard definition of what an MTD is, what is meant by attack surface, or metrics to define the effectiveness of such systems. In this paper, we propose an initial theory that will begin to answer some of those questions. The paper defines the key concepts required to formally talk about MTD systems and their basic properties. It also discusses three essential problems of MTD systems, which include the MTD Problem (or how to select the next system configuration), the Adaptation Selection Problem, and the Timing Problem. We then formalize the MTD Entropy Hypothesis, which states that the greater the entropy of the system's configuration, the more effective the MTD system.
Design of a flexible component gathering algorithm for converting cell-based models to graph representations for use in evolutionary search

The ability of science to produce experimental data has outpaced the ability to effectively visualize and integrate the data into a conceptual framework that can further higher order understanding. Multidimensional and shape-based observational data of regenerative biology presents a particularly daunting challenge in this regard. Large amounts of data are available in regenerative biology, but little progress has been made in understanding how organisms such as planaria robustly achieve and maintain body form. An example of this kind of data can be found in a new repository (PlanformDB) that encodes descriptions of planaria experiments and morphological outcomes using a graph formalism. We are developing a model discovery framework that uses a cell-based modeling platform combined with evolutionary search to automatically search for and identify plausible mechanisms for the biological behavior described in PlanformDB. To automate the evolutionary search we developed a way to compare the output of the modeling platform to the morphological descriptions stored in PlanformDB. We used a flexible connected component algorithm to create a graph representation of the virtual worm from the robust, cell-based simulation data. These graphs can then be validated and compared with target data from PlanformDB using the well-known graph-edit distance calculation, which provides a quantitative metric of similarity between graphs. The graph edit distance calculation was integrated into a fitness function that was able to guide automated searches for unbiased models of planarian regeneration. We present a cell-based model of planarian that can regenerate anatomical regions following bisection of the organism, and show that the automated model discovery framework is capable of searching for and finding models of planarian regeneration that match experimental data stored in PlanformDB. The work presented here, including our algorithm for converting cell-based models into graphs for comparison with data stored in an external data repository, has made feasible the automated development, training, and validation of computational models using morphology-based data. This work is part of an ongoing project to automate the search process, which will greatly expand our ability to identify, consider, and test biological mechanisms in the field of regenerative biology.
Minimum energy control of linear time-invariant systems with input derivatives

Linear time-invariant systems of the form are considered, and the problem is as follows. Find a control vector u[t) that will drive the state vector z(t) from a fixed z(0) to a prescribed z(tr) in some fixed final time t, while minimizing a cost functional of the form First, the state-variable system is re-written in the descriptor-variable form diag{Ip} is P+. Then, using a variational method developed previously, a formula is obtained that yields a set of input vectors making the first variation of J zero. Substitution of this input formula into J leads to a scalar-valued functional of several scalar variables that is minimized by the standard Lagrange-multiplier method. The results of the paper may also be used to find inputs that satisfy some prescribed boundary conditions while minimizing
Argon-40/argon-39 age of the El'gygytgyn impact event, Chukotka, Russia

of 3.58 2 0.04 Ma. The Ar step-heating method was critical in this study in identifying inherited Ar in the samples due to incomplete degassing of the Cretaceous volcanic rocks during impact melting. This age is consistent with, but more precise than, previous K-Ar and fission-track ages and indicates an "instantaneous" formation of the crater. This tight age control, in conjunction with the presence of impactites, shocked quartz, and other features, is consistent with an impact origin for the structure and seems to discount internal (volcanogenic) origin models.
A buffer container class hierarchy using Ada 2005

This paper describes the design of a set of multi-purpose containers that implement a buffer abstraction. These buffers feature a multi-layered approach where specialized higher level abstractions can statically select their low level implementation. The lower level implementations include bounded, unbounded, and persistent buffer types, whereas higher level abstractions provide support for various synchronization needs, streaming capabilities, and remote usage capabilities. The design and implementation incorporates some of the new Ada 2005 features including interfaces (limited, protected, and task), object prefix notation, extended returns, and new uses for anonymous access types. In addition, the design utilizes remote interface capabilities, which is the subject of an Ada 2005 AI work item for WG9, the ISO Working group responsible for maintaining the Ada language standard.
The use of alkaline degradation for structural characterization of branched-chain polysaccharides

Abstract Classical methods of polysaccharide characterization are often inadequate for the evaluation of the number and nature of sugar residues associated with side-branches. This investigation demonstrates that controlled, alkaline degradation may be used to eliminate the backbone of the molecule and to convert branches linked through position 6 of the backbone into individual entities containing saccharinic acid end-groups. Application of alkaline degradation to an arabinogalactan revealed that arabinose residues are present not only in the branches but also in the backbone of the molecule. Furthermore it has been shown that, in addition to single-unit and two-unit branches, a few branches contain as many as ten residues.
The Role of PPAR in the Cyclooxygenase Pathway in Lung Cancer

Decreased expression of peroxisome proliferator activated receptor-gamma (PPARgamma) and high levels of the proinflammatory enzyme cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) have been observed in many tumor types. Both reduced (PPARgamma) expression and elevated COX-2 within the tumor are associated with poor prognosis in lung cancer patients, and recent work has indicated that these signaling pathways may be interrelated. Synthetic (PPARgamma) agonists such as the thiazolidinedione (TZD) class of anti-diabetic drugs can decrease COX-2 levels, inhibit growth of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells in vitro, and block tumor progression in xenograft models. TZDs alter the expression of COX-2 and consequent production of the protumorigenic inflammatory molecule prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) through both (PPARgamma) dependent and independent mechanisms. Certain TZDs also reduce expression of PGE2 receptors or upregulate the PGE2 catabolic enzyme 15-prostaglandin dehydrogenase. As several COX-2 enzymatic products have antitumor properties and specific COX-2 inhibition has been associated with increased risk of adverse cardiac events, directly reducing the effects or concentration of PGE2 may provide a more safe and effective strategy for lung cancer treatment. Understanding the mechanisms underlying these effects may be helpful for designing anticancer therapies. This article summarizes recent research on the relationship between (PPARgamma), TZDs, and the COX-2/PGE2 pathways in lung cancer.