cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Motor system plasticity after unilateral injury in the developing brain.

In maturity, motor skills depend on the corticospinal tract (CST) and brainstem pathways that together synapse on interneurons and motoneurons in the spinal cord. Descending signals to spinal neurons that mediate voluntary control can be distinguished from peripheral sensory signals, primarily for feedback control. These motor system circuits depend initially on developmental genetic mechanisms to establish their connections and neural activity- and use-dependent synaptic refinement during the early postnatal period to enable motor skills to develop. In this review we consider four key activity-dependent developmental mechanisms that provide insights into how the motor systems establish the proper connections for skilled movement control and how the same mechanisms also inform the mechanisms of motor impairments and developmental plasticity after corticospinal system injury: (1) synaptic competition between the CSTs from each hemisphere; (2) interactions between the CST and spinal cord neurons; (3) synaptic competition between the CST and proprioceptive sensory fibres; and (4) interactions between the developing corticospinal motor system and the rubrospinal tract. Our findings suggest that the corticospinal motor system effectively ‘oversees’ development of its subcortical targets through synaptic competition and trophic-like interactions and this has important implications for motor impairments after perinatal cortical stroke. What this paper adds Neural activity-dependent processes inform the brain and spinal cord response to injury. The corticospinal motor system may ‘oversee’ development of its downstream subcortical targets through activity, trophic-like interactions, and synaptic competition.
Single Dalton Collision-Induced Dissociation for Petroleum Structure Characterization

Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR MS) has been used to assign elemental formulas to tens of thousands of ions generated from petroleum samples. While elemental formulas can give insights on hydrogen deficiency or heteroatom content, they do not directly give structural information. Previous broadband collision-induced dissociation (CID) experiments yielded useful information on the aromatic cores of petroleum molecules. However, it is difficult to track parent-product correlations in broadband experiments. In this work, isomers and isobars in a single dalton window were isolated and subjected to CID to obtain more conclusive information on the core structures of the ions. Several aromatic ring class fractions of a heptane deasphalted vacuum residue (VR) and the associated asphaltene fraction were examined by CID mass spectrometry. A 15T FT-ICR mass spectrometer was used with atmospheric pressure photoionization to probe the structural features of each fraction. Ions that ...
Evaluation of the Risk for Acute Kidney Injury in Adult Cystic Fibrosis Patients Receiving Concomitant Vancomycin and Tobramycin.

Background The risk for acute kidney injury (AKI) has been associated with both tobramycin and vancomycin. Objective To determine whether the rate of drug therapy-related nephrotoxicity is greater in Cystic Fibrosis (CF) patients receiving concomitant vancomycin and tobramycin than patients receiving either agent alone. Methods Adult CF patients admitted for acute pulmonary exacerbation (APE) over a seven-year period (2008-2014), who received at least 72 hours of intravenous vancomycin, tobramycin or a combination of the two agents were evaluated for AKI. AKI was defined as a 1.5-fold increase in serum creatinine per RIFLE criteria. One hundred seventy-four hospital encounters from 72 unique patients were assessed in this single-center, cross-sectional study. Results AKI outcomes were not statistically different. AKI rates were 19% for vancomycin, 8.7% for tobramycin, and 19.7% for combination cohorts (p = 0.16). Conclusion Our data suggest there is no significant difference in AKI risk when vancomycin and tobramycin combination therapy is used.
The Effects of Dehydroepiandrosterone on the Rate of Development of Cancer and Autoimmune Processes in Laboratory Rodents

Mammalian species vary tremendously in their rates of aging. The maximal life-span of the smaller rodents (mouse, rat, and hamster) is about 3.5 years, whereas for the human it is over 110 years (Altman and Dittmer, 1964). It is probable that the biological processes responsible for aging are fundamentally similar in different mammalian species, but that they occur at different rates.
Common Sexually Transmitted Infections in Women

The spread of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) remains a significant public health issue in the United States. Social, economic, and behavioral implications affecting the spread of STIs have been identified. The most important social factor in the United States is the stigma associated with discussing sex and STI screening. In this article, specific recommendations for women are included regarding screening, diagnosing, and treating common vaginal and cervical infections. Screening women for infections of the vagina and cervix is essential because untreated infections may result in complications that have current and long-term health consequences and impact quality of life.
The Role of Blood Substitutes in Emerging Healthcare Systems

Abstract In the US and western Europe, the risk of transmission of viral illnesses by transfused blood has essentially reached zero. This has been achieved at great cost, however, by implementation of rigorous exclusion of high-risk donors, extensive serological testing, and reduction or elimination of unnecessary transfusions. Molecular amplification (PCR) techniques are being used for some pooled products and may be used in single blood units in certain high-risk areas. These steps have also increased the cost of blood and blood products and reduced the size of the donor pool. In most of the developing countries of the world, serious problems reduce the potential to achieve this same level of blood safety. These problems include limited economic resources to implement sophisticated testing, smaller donor pools because of endemic diseases, shortages of technically-trained personnel, and lack of a blood-banking infrastructure. Thus, it seems unlikely that all of the methods used to achieve zero-risk blood in developed countries will be successful in the developing world. Current and future “blood substitute” products may have their most significant impact in developing countries if they are cost effective and can be adapted to local medical practice. In contrast to the developed world, where blood substitutes may be used primarily as adjuncts to elective surgery/hemodilution, the need in developing countries is for products that can be infused in severe hemorrhage, particularly in surgical or obstetrical settings. The ability to render cell-free oxygen carriers virus-free by current sterilization or purification procedures would allow even units contaminated with hepatitis virus or HIV to be processed into safe hemoglobin-based products that can be stored and used as needed. Limitations of these new products including duration of action and side effects must be clearly delineated, and their properties must be matched to clinical indications. Decisions as to the use of blood substitute products should be made at the level of national blood policies in individual countries.
Breast specimen radiography: can it predict margin status of excised breast carcinoma?

Rationale and Objectives This study examined the value of intraoperative specimen radiography (SR) in determining margin status of excised breast lesions. Of interest was the concordance between the radiologic and histopathologic interpretation of margins. We investigated the influence of in situ disease and of one versus two radiologic views on this concordance. Materials and Methods Our study consisted of 112 women who underwent breast conservation therapy (BCT) during 2002. Margins were examined with one- or two-view SR. Margins were histologically positive if malignant cells resided ≤1 mm from the specimen edge. The McNemar’s test was used to determine concordance between SR and histopathology (HP). Because surgeons excised extra tissue in cases of positive radiologic margins, we believe that a change in margin status occurred in which true positives became false positives. Accordingly, we analyzed our data with multiple iterations in which, one by one, false positives were considered true positives. Results Concordance between SR and HP reached statistical significance after 5/17 false positives were considered true positives. Data excluding DCIS reached significance after 6 of 6 false positives were considered true positives. One- and two-view SR reached significance when 2 of 8 and 7 of 9 false positives, respectively, were considered true positives. Conclusion In conclusion, our study suggests that SR can aid in margin assessment for patients undergoing BCT. We did not find that concordance between SR and HP is higher in cases of purely invasive disease. Concordance was higher in one-view SR in comparison to two-view. A larger sample size should be analyzed before recommending against using two views.
Renaturation of Aequorea green-fluorescent protein

Abstract Renaturation of Aequorea green-fluorescent protein (A-GFP) was achieved for the first time following denaturation in guanidine-HCl or acid. Denaturation was accompanied by the concerted loss of visible fluorescence, alteration of absorption characteristics, and large negative deflection of CD signal in the far UV. Dialysis of a guanidine-denatured sample at pH 8 resulted in 64% renaturation (return to native absorption) and neutralization of an acid-denatured sample restored 90% of the native absorption. Renatured GFP is highly fluorescent and indistinguishable from native GFP with respect to the shape of excitation and emission spectra. Both native and denatured proteins exhibit resistance to trypsin hydrolysis and have identically broad pH and heat stability profiles, all of which suggest full renaturation.
HSP90 inhibition without heat shock response.

In this issue of Blood, Bhatia and colleagues describe a heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) C-terminal dimerization inhibitor with mechanistic differences that distinguish it from other clinically unsuccessful N-terminal ATPase binding compounds.1 Can graveyard raiding of an old therapeutic target with a new strategy bring long awaited success?
Abstract PR01: A DNA methylation-based classifier for accurate molecular diagnosis of bone sarcomas

Background: Bone sarcomas present a unique diagnostic challenge because of the considerable morphologic overlap between different entities. The choice of optimal treatment, however, is dependent upon accurate diagnosis. Genome-wide DNA methylation profiling has emerged as a new approach to aid in the diagnosis of brain tumors, with diagnostic accuracy exceeding standard histopathology. In this work we developed and validated a methylation-based classifier to differentiate between osteosarcoma, Ewing9s sarcoma, and synovial sarcoma. Methods: DNA methylation status of 482,421 CpG sites in 15 osteosarcoma, 10 Ewing9s sarcoma, and 11 synovial sarcoma samples were measured using the Illumina HumanMethylation450 array. From this training set of 36 sarcoma samples we developed a random forest classifier from the 400 most differentially methylated CpG sites (FDR q value Results: Methylation profiling revealed three distinct molecular clusters, each enriched with a single sarcoma subtype. Within the validation cohorts, all samples from TCGA were accurately classified as synovial sarcoma (10/10, sensitivity and specificity 100%). All but one sample from TARGET-OS were classified as osteosarcoma (85/86, sensitivity 98%, specificity 100%) and all but one sample from the Ewing9s sarcoma series was classified as Ewing9s (14/15, sensitivity 93%, specificity 100%). The single misclassified osteosarcoma sample was classified as a Ewing9s sarcoma, and later determined to be a misdiagnosed Ewing9s sarcoma based on RNA-seq data demonstrating high EWRS1 and ETV1 expression. An additional clinical sample that was misdiagnosed as a synovial sarcoma based on initial histopathology was accurately recognized as osteosarcoma by the methylation classifier. Pathway analysis with MSigDB (Broad Institute) identified targets of polycomb group proteins SUZ12 and EED, possessing the H3K27 trimethylated mark, as highly enriched within classifier genes Conclusions: Osteosarcoma, Ewing9s sarcoma, and synovial sarcoma have distinct epigenetic profiles. Our validated methylation-based classifier provides increased diagnostic accuracy, including in cases where standard histopathology is inconclusive. This abstract is also being presented as Poster A01. Citation Format: Shengyang Wu, Benjamin Cooper, Fang Bu, Christopher Bowman, Jonathan K. Killian, Shiyang Wang, Twana Jackson, Daniel Gorovets, Richard Gorlick, Kristen Thomas, Matthias Karajannis, Matija Snuderl. A DNA methylation-based classifier for accurate molecular diagnosis of bone sarcomas [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Conference on Advances in Sarcomas: From Basic Science to Clinical Translation; May 16-19, 2017; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Clin Cancer Res 2018;24(2_Suppl):Abstract nr PR01.
Embedded in Shakespeare’s “Fair Verona”

Drawing from the medical humanities to examine Verona as an “epidemic assemblage,” Totaro offers an unsettling reading of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. A phrase blending Joost van Loon’s concept of “epidemic space” and Jane Bennett’s thinking about human–nonhuman assemblages as sites of distributive agency, the epidemic assemblage denies a patient zero. As an assemblage of people, weather, politics, economy, infrastructure, etc., Verona thus denies assignation of causal agency or blame. Furthermore, while the always-changing mixtures of non-human and human things in this space give rise to the literal plague, to contagious anger, and to seemingly effective curses, they also produce young love, maternal love, friendship, and exuberant pleasure. Embedded within the epidemic assemblage of Verona, Totaro advocates the rethinking of all spaces of contagion, literary and literal; spaces issuing death. They produce equally salubrious forms of change, including laughter.
Evidence-Based Recommendation for Content Improvement Using Reinforcement Learning.

One of the most challenging issues for online-courseware engineering is to maintain the quality of instructional elements. However, it is hard to know how each instructional element on the courseware contributes to students’ learning. To address this challenge, an evidence-based learning-engineering method for validating the quality of instructional elements on online courseware is proposed. Students’ learning trajectories on particular online courseware and their final learning outcomes are consolidated into a state transition graph. The value iteration technique is applied to compute the worst actions taken (a converse policy) to yield the least successful learning. We hypothesize that the converse policy reflects the quality of instructional elements. As a proof of concept, this paper describes an evaluation study where we simulated online learning data on three hypothetical pieces of online courseware. The result showed that our method can detect more than a half of the ineffective instructional elements on three types of courseware containing various ratios of ineffective instructional elements.
A Battery-Connected Symmetric Modified Multilevel Ladder Converter Achieving 0.45W/mm 2 Power Density and 90% Peak Efficiency

A symmetric modified multilevel ladder (SMML) DC-DC converter is presented which relaxes the trade-off between efficiency and power density by employing an inherent phase interleaving between the SC phases and by reducing the current ripple in the inductor, both allowing for reduced conduction losses. In addition, the SMML topology minimizes or eliminates the circuit overhead required in conventional multilevel converters to generate extra supply rails for the drivers and to balance the flying capacitors, allowing the converter to be solely powered by a Li-ion battery. A prototype shows the converter can achieve a power density of 0.45W/mm2, a peak efficiency of 90%, and can provide conversion ratios up to $15 \times $ with efficiency $\gt 70$%.
Sarcomeres regulate cardiomyocyte maturation through MRTF-SRF signaling

Abstract Cardiomyocyte maturation is essential for robust heart contraction throughout life. The signaling networks governing cardiomyocyte maturation remain poorly defined. Our prior studies established the transcription factor SRF as a key regulator of the assembly of sarcomeres, the contractile unit of cardiomyocytes. Whether sarcomeres regulate other aspects of maturation remains unclear. Here we generated mice with cardiomyocyte specific, mosaic mutation of α-actinin-2 (Actn2), a key organizer of sarcomeres, to study its cell-autonomous role in cardiomyocyte maturation. In addition to the expected structural defects, Actn2 mutation triggered dramatic transcriptional dysregulation, which strongly correlated with transcriptional changes observed in SRF-depleted cardiomyocytes. Actn2 mutation increased monomeric actin, which perturbed the nuclear localization of the SRF cofactor MRTFA. Overexpression of a dominant-negative MRTFA mutant was sufficient to recapitulate the transcriptional and morphological defects in Actn2 and Srf mutant cardiomyocytes. Together, we demonstrate that ACTN2-based sarcomere assembly and MRTF-SRF signaling establish a positive feedback loop that promotes cardiomyocyte maturation.
Ecohydrology of urban trees under passive and active irrigation in a semiarid city

The infiltration of stormwater runoff for use by urban trees is a major co-benefit of green infrastructure for desert cities with limited water resources. However, the effects of this passive irrigation versus regular, controlled moisture inputs, or active irrigation, is largely unquantified. We monitored the ecohydrology of urban mesquite trees (Prosopis spp.) under these contrasting irrigation regimes in semiarid Tucson, AZ. Measurements included soil moisture, sap velocity, canopy greenness, and leaf-area index. We expected both irrigation types to provide additional deep (>20 cm) soil moisture compared to natural conditions, and that trees would depend on this deep moisture for transpiration and phenological activity. Results show that active irrigation supported higher soil moisture throughout the study than passive irrigation. Passive irrigation only provided additional deep moisture when green infrastructure features received impervious runoff from a city street. Sap velocity and greenness were similar under both irrigation types, outside of isolated periods of time. These differences occurred during the extremely wet summer 2017 when passively irrigated trees exhibited a greenness peak, and the dry conditions of spring when actively irrigated trees had higher sap flow and relative greenness. Finally, it was not determined that deep soil moisture had a stronger relationship with mesquite productivity than shallow moisture, but both relationships were stronger in the spring, before summer rains. This study aims to contribute empirical observations of green infrastructure performance for urban watershed management.
Using Interactive Learning Spaces for Global Diplomacy: Social Justice Collaboration between US and International Students

Students from six countries collaborated on projects promoting social justice and aimed at international diplomacy. The collaboration included social work students in policy courses and internation...
What Does Honors Mean? National Analysis of Medical School Clinical Clerkship Grading

OBJECTIVE Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE) letters provide critical comparative information about clerkship performance, and are a crucial part of the surgical residency application. The elimination of USMLE Step 1 numeric reporting increases the importance of transparency, standardization, and accessibility of comparative information reported on the MSPE. The objective of our study was to measure the variability in clerkship grade reporting on the MSPE from US medical schools, particularly focusing on the highest (honors) grades. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS We identified representative MSPE letters from US medical schools and recorded the percentage of honors for 5 core clerkships. We grouped medical schools according to medical school rankings, geographic region, and number of grading categories RESULTS Of 122 medical schools, 106 schools (87%) reported their grading scheme and percent honors. The most commonly used grading scheme was a 4-tier system (51/122; 42%). The percentage of honors was highly variable (from 1-91%) and did not vary by region. However, schools in the top 20 research ranking were less likely to report grade comparisons (30% vs. 10%), and more likely to award more students honors in 4 of the 5 clerkships. Schools in the top 20 primary care ranking were more likely to award more honors in the medicine clerkship. CONCLUSIONS There is significant variability in the number of grading tiers used and the percentage of students awarded honors across US medical schools. Factors that correlated to higher grades included schools with higher rankings, and higher ranked schools were less likely to report comparative information at all.
Incidence of myocardial infarction correlated with venous and pulmonary thrombosis and embolism. A geographic study based on autopsies in Uganda. East Africa and St. Louis, U.S.A.

Abstract Recent autopsy records at Washington University in St. Louis and Makerere College in Uganda, East Africa were reviewed to determine the incidences of venous thrombi and pulmonary thromboembolic phenomena, as well as the incidences of myocardial infarcts, in three groups of patients: (1) St. Louis white patients, (2) St. Louis Negroes, and (3) Uganda Negroes. The incidence of myocardial infarcts was high in St. Louis white patients, intermediate in St. Louis Negroes and practically nil in Uganda Negroes; the only infarct found in Uganda among 1,427 patients over forty years of age was a small healed one. The incidence of venous thrombi and pulmonary thromboembolic phenomena closely paralleled the incidence of myocardial infarcts in the three groups. The studies reported herein suggest that differences in the general tendency of the blood to clot and/or lyse account, at least in part, for the differences in the incidences of coronary thrombosis and myocardial infarction that exist between autopsied Ugandans and St. Louisans. Further investigation must be carried out utilizing many technics before the suggestion can be established as fact. Other studies will then be necessary to determine the precise nature of the difference and the reason for it, i.e., dietary, emotional or genetic. Probable, but as yet unestablished, differences in the degree of atherosclerosis present in the three groups may also contribute to the differences in incidences of myocardial infarction, but since the local factor of atherosclerosis is not present in veins, it could not account for the observed differences in evidences of venous thrombosis.
Understanding Leisure Services for Individuals With Mental Retardation

This paper was developed to promote understanding of the complex process of leisure service delivery for children and adults with mental retardation and encourage people to work together to enhance leisure opportunities in integrated settings. 'The meaning of several terms associated with leisure were clarified and limitations of past and existing leisure services presented. We discussed our belief that all individuals, including those with mental retardation, have the right to experience leisure. Suggestions were made for development of leisure services involving social integration with peers who do not have mental retardation, the facilitation of active participation, development of age-appropriate behaviors, provision of comprehensive leisure education services, encouragement of self-determined leisure participation, and systematic coordination and communication among practitioners and family members.
Scheduling to Reduce Memory Coherence Overhead on Coarse-Grain Multiprocessors

Some Distributed Shared Memory (DSM) and Cache-Only Memory Architecture (COMA) multiprocessors keep processes near the data they reference by transparently replicating remote data in the processes'' local memories. This automatic replication of data can impose substantial memory system overhead on an application since all replicated data must be kept coherent. We examine the effect of task scheduling on data replication and memory system overhead due to coherency requirements. We show that simple policies using programmer hints can reduce memory coherence overhead in our workload applications.
Parallel graph transformations with double pushout grammars

Multiagent systems implementing artificial intelligence systems, require a formal representation to specify and simulate their properties and behavior. Double pushout graph grammars posses a very high expressive power; the possibility of the use of parallel graph transformations in a distributed environment make them useful in this area thanks to application of the complementary graphs concept. The mentioned idea is formally introduced and the polynomial computational complexity of underlying algorithms is proved.
An Algorithm to Remove Noise from Audio Signal by Noise Subtraction

This paper proposes an algorithm for removing the noise from the audio signal. Filtering is achieved through recording the pattern of noise signal. In order to validate our algorithm, we have implementation in MATLAB 7.0. We investigated the effect of proposed algorithm on human voice and compared the results with the existing related work, most of which employ simple algorithm and effect the voice signal. The results show that the proposed algorithm makes efficient use of Voice over the IP communication with less noise in comparison to similar existing algorithm.
Infrared and EPR Spectroscopic Characterization of a Ni(I) Species Formed by Photolysis of a Catalytically Competent Ni(I)-CO Intermediate in the Acetyl-CoA Synthase Reaction

Acetyl-CoA synthase (ACS) catalyzes the synthesis of acetyl-CoA from CO, coenzyme A (CoA), and a methyl group from the CH3-Co3+ site in the corrinoid iron−sulfur protein (CFeSP). These are the key steps in the Wood−Ljungdahl pathway of anaerobic CO and CO2 fixation. The active site of ACS is the A-cluster, which is an unusual nickel−iron−sulfur cluster. There is significant evidence for the catalytic intermediacy of a CO-bound paramagnetic Ni species, with an electronic configuration of [Fe4S4]2+-(Nip+-CO)-(Nid2+), where Nip and Nid represent the Ni centers in the A-cluster that are proximal and distal to the [Fe4S4]2+ cluster, respectively. This well-characterized Nip+-CO intermediate is often called the NiFeC species. Photolysis of the Nip+-CO state generates a novel Nip+ species (Ared*) with a rhombic electron paramagnetic resonance spectrum (g values of 2.56, 2.10, and 2.01) and an extremely low (1 kJ/mol) barrier for recombination with CO. We suggest that the photolytically generated Ared* species is...
Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) compatible data compression of mammograms

We have developed a Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) compatible image compression scheme tailored to the compression of digitized mammographic images. This includes a preprocessing step that segments the tissue area from the background, replaces the background pixels with a constant value, and applies a noise-removal filter to the tissue area. The process was tested by performing a just-noticeable difference (JND) study to determine the relationship between compression ratio and a reader's ability to discriminate between compressed and noncompressed versions of digitized mammograms. We found that at compression ratios of 15∶1 and below, image-processing experts are unable to detect a difference, whereas at ratios of 60∶1 and above they can identify the compressed image nearly 100% of the time. The performance of less specialized viewers was significantly lower because these viewers seemed to have difficulty in differentiating between artifact and real information at the lower and middle compression ratios. This preliminary study suggests that digitized mammograms are very amenable to compression by techniques compatible with the JPEG standard. However, this study was not designed to address the efficacy of image compression process for mammography, but is a necessary first step in optimizing the compression in anticipation of more elaborate reader performance (ROC) studies.
Signals and noise in magnetotellurics

Magnetotelluric noise properties were determined as a function of separation using an orthogonal array of stations. The simultaneous recording of high sensitivity biaxial tiltmeters along with the electric and magnetic fields allowed a measurement of the magnetic noise caused by sensor movement within the earth's static field. A point-by-point time domain linear least squares model was used allowing routine remote magnetic signal cancellation of typically 40 to 50 db. This method corrects for orientation and calibration errors of the magnetometers and removes tilt induced magnetic signals, thereby allowing accurate gradient magnetic field measurements on short baselines (less than 3 km). Microseismic activity in the low signal MT band, from 0.1 to 1 Hz, is demonstrated to bias the impedance estimate downward, even using the remote reference technique, due to correlated tilt motion. Tilt corrected expressions for both single site and remote reference MT impedance are formulated and compared to the standard remote reference expression. 3 refs., 4 figs. (DWL)
Large sample tests for a regression model with autoregressive conditional heteroscedastic errors

The Wald and Rao's Score test statistics are derived for testing for addi¬tional regression parameters in a regression model with aut©regressive con¬dition heteroscedastic (ARCH) errors, The limit distributions of the test statistics, both under the null and a sequence of alternative hypotheses, are obtained.
Correlation filters for recognition of live-scan fingerprints with elastic distortions

A special NIST database of live-scan fingerprint with elastic distortion wa prepared. It is used to evaluate the effect of elastic and other distortions on correlation filters. The need for normalized and fine vs. coarse rotationally-aligned data are addressed with performance gains for various cases noted. Procedures to test and evaluate fingerprint recognition algorithms for verification and identification are defined for the first time and initial results are presented.
Genetic differences and phenotypic plasticity as causes of variation in oviposition preference in Battus philenor.

Bradshaw (1965) proposed that phenotypic plasticity would be more common than adaptive genetic variability in species for which environmental fluctuations occur over periods roughly equal to that species' generation time. In an effort to examine this notion, sources of seasonal variation in two components of oviposition behavior in an east Texas population of pipevine swallowtail butterflies (Battus philenor) were investigated under natural and seminatural conditions. Variability in a visually-based prealighting component involving orientation to leaf shape was primarily due to phenotypic plasticity in the form of adult learning; no seasonally-based genotypic differences in leaf-shape discrimination behavior were observed. By contrast, a chemotactile post-alighting component involving elicitation of oviposition after landing on the host plant was not phenotypically plastic, i.e., not susceptible to learning. In addition, only slight and nonsignificant seasonally-based differences in post-alighting responses to different host species were observed.
Integrated traditional and applied education in a public US university: exploring sustainable cities and regions in classrooms and communities

The most effective and promising models for teaching sustainability sciences and studies in a university setting are a topic of vigorous debate. This paper discusses an integrated sustainability curriculum at a large public university, which serves students from departments such as city and regional planning, environmental studies and sciences, geography, and many more—as well as professional schools such as public health, journalism, business, and government. We describe an integrated suite of sustainability offerings that link available academic opportunities laterally across campus to touch more students at once, as well as longitudinally to provide individual students with a progressively more focused academic experience. Finally, we share lessons learned from the development of new curriculum over the last decade. The curriculum described here illuminates the larger discussion on emerging models for educating university students in planning for prosperous, stable, efficient, and just cities and regions.
A prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of orbital radiotherapy for Graves’ ophthalmopathy

Abstract Context Although widely used for more than 85 years, the efficacy of radiotherapy for Graves’ ophthalmopathy (GO) has not been established convincingly. Objective To evaluate the efficacy of radiotherapy for GO. Design Prospective, randomized, internally controlled, double-blind clinical trial in a tertiary care academic medical center. Participants The patients were ethnically diverse males and females over age 30 seen in a referral practice. The patients had moderate, symptomatic Graves’ ophthalmopathy (mean clinical activity score, 6.2) but no optic neuropathy, diabetes, recent steroid treatment, previous decompression, or muscle surgery. Forty-two of 53 consecutive patients were enrolled after giving informed consent and fulfilling study entry criteria. Eleven eligible patients declined to participate because of inconvenience, desire for alternative therapy, or concern about radiation. Intervention One randomly selected orbit was treated with 20 Gy of external beam therapy; sham therapy was given to the other side. Six months later, the therapies were reversed. Main outcome measures Every 3 months for 1 year, we measured the volume of extraocular muscle and fat, proptosis, range of extraocular muscle motion, area of diplopia fields, and lid fissure width. Effective treatment for GO will modify one or more of these parameters. Results No clinically or statistically significant difference between the treated and untreated orbit was observed in any of the main outcome measures at 6 months. At 12 months, muscle volume and proptosis improved slightly more in the orbit that was treated first. Conclusions In this group of patients, representative of those for whom radiotherapy is frequently recommended, we were unable to demonstrate any beneficial therapeutic effect. The slight improvement noted in both orbits at 12 months may be the result of natural remission or of radiotherapy, but the changes are of marginal clinical significance.
Diffusion of defects in InP studied using quantum well intermixing

The diffusion rate of grown-in defects in InP is studied by determining the flux of defects from a source layer to underlying quantum wells (QWs). The grown-in defects are caused by epitaxial growth at lower than optimal temperatures, and are located in an upper InP buffer. We study the photoluminescence blueshift of the QWs as a function of the thickness of the buffer and as a function of anneal time. Modeling correlates the intermixing of the quantum wells to the concentration of defects at the wells. Possible locations of defect sinks and the identity of the grown-in defects are also discussed.
Efferent projections of the lateral dorsal nucleus in the rat.

Abstract The present study was undertaken to determine the efferent projections of the lateral dorsal nucleus of the rat thalamus using procedures based on anterograde degeneration as well as anterograde and retrograde axoplasmic transport. Discrete lesions or injections of [3H]leucine were placed at separate anterior and posterior loci in the lateral dorsal nucleus to determine if these portions of the nucleus project to different terminal fields. From both loci, labeled or degenerating axons coursed laterally from the nucleus, passed through the superior thalamic radiation, and entered the caudate-putamen complex. From there, a large number of fibers coursed rostrally in the album cerebri and terminated in layers I and III of anterior cingulate cortical areas 23 and 24. The remaining fibers passed dorsally and entered the posterior cingulate cortex where terminations were observed in areas 29b and 29c. Within area 29b, terminations were arranged parallel to the surface in layers I and III at its border with area 29c. In animals with anteriorly placed lesions or injections, area 29c exhibited input in layers I, III, and IV at the lip of the hemisphere. After injections in the posterior part of the lateral dorsal nucleus, a denser distribution was observed within the same layers at the border of areas 29b and 29c. Projections and areas of termination were also observed from both anterior and posterior lesions or injection sites to the laminae dissecans and externa of the pre- and parasubiculum. These projections were confirmed by retrograde axoplasmic transport of horseradish peroxidase after its injection in the cingulate and subicular cortices. These results indicate that the lateral dorsal nucleus, through its prominent connections with the anterior and posterior parts of the cingulate cortex and subicular region may have significant connections with the limbic system.
Phosphorylation of H1 histones

The phosphorylation of H1 histones is reviewed. Consideration is given to phosphorylation reactions which occur in both replicating and nonreplicating cells. The available evidence suggests that H1 histones accept phosphate groups at different sites in response to different stimuli. The tentative location of the acceptor sites is summarized, and the effects of site-specific phosphorylation on the conformation of H1 histones in vitro is discussed. The phosphorylation of H1 histones which occurs during cell replication is reviewed in detail, and it is concluded that there is no clocklike mechanism which couples the phosphorylation of a particular site or region in H1 histones to a set point in the cell cycle. There is both species-and cell-specific variability in the phosphorylation of H1 histones during cell replication. Recent studies are discussed which show that an interspecific somatic cell hybrid of mouse and Chinese hamster can replicate the Chinese hamster genome in a stable manner using only mouse H1 histones and their phosphorylated forms. I speculate that H1 histone phosphorylation is a mechanism for the relaxation of long-term structures needed for differential gene activity in order to attain the short-term goal of genome replication.
Auger Electron Emission Spectra from Foil and Gas Excited Carbon Beams

Auger electron emission spectra from 2 MeV C+ ions excited by collisions with thin carbon foils and Ne gas are presented. The similarity of qualitative features for the C+ → C (foil) and C+ → Ne spectra indicates the similarity of ionization mechanisms for beam foil and beam gas excitation. The spectra were normalized to the lowest lying Li-like quartet state (1s 2s 2p) 4po in carbon by comparison with time delayed foil excited electron decay-in-flight spectra. Comparison to Hartree Fock calculated transition energies indicates that transitions in three and four electron carbon ions dominate the prompt spectra.
Sensory and Textural Properties of Queso Blanco-Type Cheese Influenced by Acid Type

The influence of acetic, citric, or lactic acids on textural properties and sensory attributes of Queso Blanco-type cheese during refrigerated storage (7 wk at 5°C) was evaluated. Hardness, fracturability, chewiness, and gumminess were highest for cheese made with acetic acid and lowest for that made with lactic acid. Springiness or cohesiveness of cheese was not dependent on acid type. All of the textural parameters except cohesiveness increased with age of cheese. The cheeses were evaluated at 3 or 7 wk, respectively, by 63 or 40 consumer panelists. About 60 or 80% of the panelists awarded cheese scores of 6 to 9 (on a nine-point scale) for 3- or 7-wk-old cheeses, respectively. Chi-square tests for preferences of tasters showed no significant differences between acid types for 3-wk-old cheeses, but 7-wk-old cheeses made with acetic or citric acid were preferred over those made with lactic acid.
Sex differences in spatial ability: the X-linked gene theory.

Among the many theories attempting to explain sex differences in spatial ability, one of the most highly researched is the X-linked recessive gene theory. This is a review of the major research don...
Centralized sensing and control of multiple mobile robots

We discuss the development ideas and merits of a single centralized station to provide supervision, sensing, control, intelligence and perhaps power to a colony of robots, organized for the performance of specific tasks. The consequence of such an approach is that each robot can be much simpler, smaller and less expensive, since no on-board sensing, control and intelligence are required. The issues to be studied concern tradeoffs in control (bandwidth, accuracy, channel capacity); relations between numbers of controllable robots and task suitability and representation for control.
How radical is radical?: Understanding the role of activists’ communication strategies on the formation of public attitude and evaluation

Abstract This study examined whether the public evaluated radical and moderate activists differently in terms of the activists’ communication strategies (i.e., protests, humiliation, and terrorism). Results found that participants were more likely to electronically spread information about the activists when the organizational stances are radical. Among the three communication strategies examined, participants evaluated activists’ protests most positively and were more likely to spread the information of activists via social media. Participants’ intent to donate to activists was also the highest when activists utilized protests, compared to humiliation and terrorism.
Predator interference limits fly egg biological control by a guild of ground-active beetles

We examined whether predator interference could prevent effective conservation biological control of Delia spp. flies, important pests of cole crops, by an assemblage of carabid and staphylinid beetles. In laboratory feeding trials we found that the smaller (<1 cm) beetle species common at our site readily ate dipteran eggs, while the most common large carabid species, Pterostichus melanarius, rarely did. However, P. melanarius did eat several of the smaller beetle species. We conducted two field experiments where we manipulated immigration rates of the ground predator guild and then measured predation on fly eggs. Predation rates were consistently higher in cages where predators were added at ambient densities, compared to cages where ground predators were removed. However, in the second field experiment, when we quadrupled predator immigration rates neither beetle activity-density nor predation rate increased. High immigration rate plots had a higher proportion of P. melanarius in the predator community, compared to plots with beetles added at ambient densities, suggesting that P. melanarius was reducing activity-densities of the smaller beetles, perhaps through intraguild predation. Thus, tactics to improve the biological control of Delia spp. by conserving generalist predators, such as providing in- or extra-field refuges, could be thwarted if the primary predators of fly eggs, small carabids and staphylinids, are the targets of intraguild predation by also-conserved larger predators.
Reliability of Extraction/Chromatography RIAs: Response

It is clear from the above letter by Stanczyk that he agrees with Taieb et al. (1) and Herold and Fitzgerald (2)(3) that commercially available immunoassays cannot be used for the determination of serum testosterone in women. Nonetheless, based on his comparison with four …
The plasticization of an epoxy resin by dibutylphthalate and water

The glass-transition temperature of an epoxy resin cured at two different temperatures and plasticized with water and dibutylphthalate has been studied. Both modulus of elasticity and yield stress were measured as a function of temperature to determine the glass-transition temperature. Drying a saturated material appeared to restore the glass-transition temperature to its original value but some broadening of the transition occurred. The behavior of an undercured epoxy when saturated with water could not be predicted by theory. A substantial increase in the transition temperature was observed which may have been caused by the presence of water and an expanded structure.
Laser Action in dye-infused biological tissue

The narrowing of the spectral linewidth and the increasing of the peak intensity characteristic of laser action was observed in emission spectra of dye-infused biological tissues. The fresh tissue was infused with a solution of Rhodamine 640 perchlorate in ethanol and then excited with frequency-doubled Q-switched Nd:YAG laser pulses. The sharp spectral peaks of laser action in tissues may find applications in detection of superficial disease.© (1996) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
A viscoelastic study of scalp, brain, and dura☆

Abstract A series of creep and relaxation experiments on scalp, brain, and dura from both human and monkey is described. An analysis of a practical creep loading with a rise time is given. An empirical expression for the observed creep curves is developed and deviations from classical viscoelasticity theory noted. A four parameter Maxwell-Kelvin fluid model is proposed and fitted to the creep data. In addition, a free vibration test using the same equipment as the creep and relaxation experiments is presented. Analysis of this experiment yields values of the complex modulus in the frequency range 10–40 Hz.
Does post-crisis restructuring decrease the availability of banking services? The case of Turkey.

Abstract This study examines the relationship between post-crisis bank consolidation and the number of bank branches in Turkey. Using a unique data set, the analysis addresses several issues related to the impact of market characteristics on branching behavior. The findings suggest that sales of failed institutions by the central authority lead to branch closures in small and uncompetitive markets where the buyer does not have a prior presence. Contrary to popular belief, mergers between healthy institutions do not always cause a decrease in the number of branches; rather, they are shown to increase the availability of banking services in concentrated markets.