cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Research Spotlight: New multiparameter bioanalytical technologies for applications in personalized medicine, drug discovery and fundamental biology

The ability to determine expression levels of multiple genetic and/or proteomic signatures simultaneously from the same sample volume is of tremendous importance in a wide range of biomedical applications, including disease diagnostics, drug discovery and fundamental studies of complex biological processes. Unfortunately, many of the tremendously enabling genomic and proteomic technologies available to the academic are not applicable in the clinical setting. Combining traditional chemical and biological insight with cutting-edge concepts from materials science, physics and engineering, our group brings an interdisciplinary approach to developing new tools in order to tackle longstanding refractory problems in the biological sciences - technologies that will enable fundamental biological discovery and, in some applications, expedite the transfer of biomolecular insight to the hands of the physician, where it can directly impact patient care.
Measurement of Bilirubin-Albumin Binding. I. Comparative Analysis of Four Methods and Four Human Serum Albumin Preparations

Measurement of Bilirubin-Albumin Binding. I. Comparative Analysis of Four Methods and Four Human Serum Albumin Preparations
α1-Adrenergic Receptor Stimulates Interleukin-6 Expression and Secretion through Both mRNA Stability and Transcriptional Regulation: Involvement of p38 Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase and Nuclear Factor-κB

Our previous studies have demonstrated that activation of α1-adrenergic receptors (ARs) increased interleukin-6 (IL-6) mRNA expression and protein secretion, which is probably an important yet unknown mechanism contributing to the regulation of cardiac function. Using Rat-1 fibroblasts stably transfected with the α1A-AR subtype and primary mouse neonatal cardiomyocytes, we elucidated the basic molecular mechanisms responsible for the α1-AR modulation of IL-6 expression. IL-6 mRNA production mediated by α1-AR peaked at 1 to 2 h. Studies of the mRNA decay rate indicated that α1-AR activation enhanced IL-6 mRNA stability. Analysis of IL-6 promoter activity using a series of deletion constructs indicated that α1-ARs enhanced IL-6 transcription through several transcriptional elements, including nuclear factor κB (NF-κB). Inhibition of α1-AR mediated IL-6 production and secretion by actinomycin D and the increase of intracellular IL-6 levels by α1-AR activation suggest that α1-AR mediated IL-6 secretion through de novo synthesis. Both IL-6 transcription and protein secretion mediated by α1-ARs were significantly reduced by chemical inhibitors for p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and NF-κB and by a dominant-negative construct of p38 MAPK. Serum level of IL-6 was elevated in transgenic mice expressing a constitutively active mutant of the α1A-AR subtype but not in a similar mouse model expressing the α1B-AR subtype. Our results indicate that α1-ARs stimulated IL-6 expression and secretion through regulating both mRNA transcription and stability, involving p38 MAPK and NF-κB pathways.
A non‐anemotactic mechanism used in pheromone source location by flying moths

it I Introduction ABSTRACT Male oriental fruit moths, Grapholztha molesta (Busck) (Tortri- cidae), continue to zigzag along a pheromone plume to the source in zero wind, if they have started flight with wind on. If the pheromone source is removed and the plume is hence truncated, moths flying in zero wind out of the end of the plume into clean air increase the width of their reversals and the angles of the stiaight legs of the tracks so they are more directly across the former wind line. Such moths reach the source less often than do those flying along a continuous plume The males continue to zigzag up a plume in zero wind, apparently by a combination of sequential sampling of concentration along their path and the performance of an internal, self-steered progiamme of track reversals (zigzags) whose frequency increases with concentiation Visual feedback may aid in the still-air performance of the zigzags We propose that both the sequential samp- ling (longitudinal klinotaxis) and self-steered counter-turning programme also are used in wind as well; anemotaxis apparently polarizes the direction of the zigzags to result in upwind displacement, and the narrow zigzags caused by the higher concentration in the plume keep the male 'locked on7 to the odour
Reduced Intravascular Catheter-related Infection by Routine Use of Antibiotic-bonded Catheters in a Surgical Intensive Care Unit

We report a comparative analysis of intravascular catheter-related infection before and after routine use of antibiotic-bonded catheters in an intensive care unit. Cefazolin-bonded catheters were placed in patients requiring catheterization for at least 3 days, or with remote infection, standard catheters at other times. One thousand forty-five catheters (259 patients) over 6 months were compared with 801 (236 antibiotic-bonded, 565 standard) catheters (239 patients) the next 6 months. After use of antibiotic-bonded catheters, we found: 1.7% catheters infected versus 3.7% (p = 0.01); catheter-associated bacteremia 0.1% versus 1.3% (p < 0.005); catheter-related infection rate 4.39 versus 10.73 per 1000 patient days (p < 0.005), and 5.06 versus 11.47 per 1000 catheter days (p < 0.01); and cumulative risk of infection decreased (p < 0.005). Antibiotic-bonded catheters were used with more remote infections (52% versus 27%, p < 0.001), had longer indwelling time (4.4 versus 3.1 days, p = 0.0001), and more were inserted over a guide wire (66% vs. 28%, p < 0.001). In conclusion routine use of antibiotic-bonded catheters was associated with a significant reduction in infectious complications.
An Economic Analysis of the Current Universal 2-dose measles-mumps-rubella Vaccination Program in the United States

To evaluate the economic impact of the current 2-dose measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccination program in the United States, a decision tree-based analysis was conducted with population-based vaccination coverage and disease incidence data. All costs were estimated for a hypothetical US birth cohort of 3803295 infants born in 2001. The 2-dose MMR vaccination program was cost-saving from both the direct cost and societal perspectives compared with the absence of MMR vaccination, with net savings (net present value) from the direct cost and societal perspectives of US dollars 3.5 billion and US dollars 7.6 billion, respectively. The direct and societal benefit-cost ratios for the MMR vaccination program were 14.2 and 26.0. Analysis of the incremental benefit-cost of the second dose showed that direct and societal benefit-cost ratios were 0.31 and 0.49, respectively. Varying the proportion of vaccines purchased and administered in the public versus the private sector had little effect on the results. From both perspectives under even the most conservative assumptions, the national 2-dose MMR vaccination program is highly cost-beneficial and results in substantial cost savings.
Validating medical students' self-report of smoking-related communication skills and educational experiences.

Objective Pediatric clerkships can be important settings for medical students to learn how to perform smoking assessments and counseling with parents. In evaluating an educational intervention that promotes this skill, we assess whether students' self-report of this counseling skill was a valid measure of actual behavior. Methods A trained observer evaluated student smoking assessment and counseling practices during pediatric well-child visits at 5 clinical sites in eastern Massachusetts. The external observations of behavior were used as a gold standard, and we determined the accuracy of the students' self-report of their smoking counseling practices with families and of their preceptors' educational interventions. Results We observed 38 pediatric preceptors and 85 Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) III students in 85 clinical encounters. Sensitivities of the students' report of assessing smoking practices and counseling parents and children ranged from 0.60–1.00, and specificities ranged from 0.41–0.88. Specifically, with regards to the students' report of performing a smoking assessment with the family, the sensitivity was 0.97 (95% confidence interval, 0.89–0.99) and the specificity was 0.88 (95% confidence interval, 0.72–0.97). For measures where the observer could not determine practice, agreement between the student and preceptor was between 57% and 83%. Specifically, with regard to whether the preceptor made expectations clear with the student, students and preceptors agreed 83% of the time. Conclusion Although direct observations of behavior may still be the most accurate report of true practice, when this is not feasible, student self-report appears to be a valid measure of smoking assessment and counseling practices during pediatric clerkships.
Global self-localization for autonomous mobile robots using region- and feature-based neural networks

This paper presents an approach to global self-localization for autonomous mobile robots using a region- and feature-based neural network. This approach categorizes discrete regions of space using mapped sonar data corrupted by noise of varied sources and ranges. The authors' approach is like optical character recognition (OCR) in that the mapped sonar data assumes the form of a character unique to that room. Hence, it is believed that an autonomous vehicle can determine which room it is in from sensory data gathered while exploring that room. With the help of receptive fields, some pre-processing, and a robust exploration routine, the solution becomes time-, translation- and rotation-invariant. The classification rate of this approach is comparable to the Kohonen based approach. Some pros and cons of both approaches are discussed.
Noise in solid-state devices and lasers

A survey is given of the most important noise problems in solid-state devices. Section II discusses shot noise in metal-semiconductor diodes, p-n junctions, and transistors at low injection; noise due to recombination and generation in the junction space-charge region; high-level injection effects; noise in photodiodes, avalanche diodes, and diode particle detectors, and shot noise in the leakage currents in field-effect transistors (FETs). Section III discusses thermal noise and induced gate noise in FETs; generation-recombination noise in FETs and transistors at low temperatures; noise due to recombination centers in the space-charge region(s) of FETs, and noise in space-charge-limited solid-state diodes. Section IV attempts to give a unified account of 1/f noise in solid-state devices in terms of the fluctuating occupancy of traps in the surface oxide; discusses the kinetics of these traps; applies this to flicker noise in junction diodes, transistors, and FETs, and briefly discusses flicker noise in Gunn diodes and burst noise in junction diodes and transistors. Section V discusses shot noise in the light emission of luminescent diodes and lasers, and noise in optical heterodyning. Section VI discusses circuit applications. It deals with the noise figure of negative conductance amplifiers (tunnel diodes and parametric amplifiers), and of FET, transistor, and mixer circuits. In the latter discussion capacitive up-converters, and diode, FET, and transistor mixers are dealt with.
Are We Overestimating the Genetic Contribution to Schizophrenia

That genetic factors contribute to the etiology of schizophrenia is no longer debated; the nature and magnitude of that contribution, however, are still open for discussion. In this article, concordance rates for twin studies of schizophrenia are reviewed as one means of assessing the magnitude of the genetic contribution. Using only those studies in which representative samples were used and zygosity was determined with reasonable certainty, the pairwise concordance rate for schizophrenia was found to be 28 percent for monozygotic (MZ) and 6 percent for dizygotic (DZ) twins. Review of twin studies of other central nervous system diseases reveals that schizophrenia is most similar to multiple sclerosis (MZ concordance rate 27%). Although genetics remains as the single most clearly defined etiological factor in schizophrenia, the question remains whether we are overestimating the magnitude of the genetic contribution.
Mitochondrial and nuclear gene expression for cytochrome oxidase subunits are disproportionately regulated by functional activity in neurons

Mitochondrial respiratory complexes such as cytochrome oxidase (CO) contain both mitochondrial- and nuclear-encoded subunits. To determine whether mitochondrial and nuclear gene expression are regulated proportionately in neurons, we analyzed CO subunit mRNA and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) levels by in situ hybridization and grain counting in the visual system of normal and monocular TTX-treated monkeys. We compared the regulation of these molecules with the regulation of CO activity and CO protein, analyzed by histochemistry and immunohistochemistry, respectively. In normal animals, CO activity was in general related more closely to mtDNA and CO subunit I (COI) (mitochondrial-encoded) mRNA levels than to COIV or COVIII (nuclear-encoded) mRNA levels. For example, puffs (also known as blobs) of high CO activity in striate cortex were enriched in mtDNA and COI mRNA, but not COIV or COVIII mRNA. In 3-7 d TTX-treated animals, proportionate decreases in CO activity and CO protein were observed in specific visual centers; these changes were accompanied by disproportionate decreases in COI, COIV, and COVIII mRNA levels. After 7 d of TTX, COI mRNA fell by 49 +/- 3% (mean +/- SEM) in LGN neurons, while COIV and COVIII mRNAs fell by only 18 +/- 3% and 29 +/- 3%, respectively. In comparison, CO activity decreased by 23 +/- 2%, and mtDNA by 26 +/- 4%. Qualitative observations in striate cortex also indicated that COI mRNA changed more than COIV mRNA, COVIII mRNA, mtDNA, or CO activity. Our results suggest that the local distribution of CO within neurons, and acute regulatory changes in CO activity occurring over periods of days are controlled mainly by regulation of the mitochondrial genes that encode the catalytic subunits of the enzyme.
Acoustically discriminative training for language models

This paper introduces a discriminative training for language models (LMs) by leveraging phoneme similarities estimated from an acoustic model. To train an LM discriminatively, we needed the correct word sequences and the recognized results that Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) produced by processing the utterances of those correct word sequences. But, sufficient utterances are not always available. We propose to generate the probable N-best lists, which the ASR may produce, directly from the correct word sequences by leveraging the phoneme similarities. We call this process the “Pseudo-ASR”. We train the LM discriminatively by comparing the correct word sequences and the corresponding N-best lists from the Pseudo-ASR. Experiments with real-life data from a Japanese call center showed that the LM trained with the proposed method improved the accuracy of the ASR.
Molecular wires: Charge injection, charge transport and motion mechanisms in DNA

The use of the DNA duplex as a molecular wire is discussed with particular attention to recent experimental findings. Experimental studies of photo-excited hole dynamics in DNA can be understood within the phenomenological hopping model. However a microscopic first principles approach requires taking into account the interaction between charge and duplex degrees of freedom. The nature of possible metallic native DNA behavior is discussed.
Peeling and conservation laws in the Born-Infeld theory of electromagnetism

1. Introduction Born and Infeld originally proposed their non-linear theory of electromagnetism (1) as one derivable from a Lorentz invariant Lagrangian and, in contradistinction to the usual Maxwell theory, possessing solutions of the ‘point charge’ type without singularities at the position of the charge. Subsequently, examination of the theory by means of iterative methods (2) has demonstrated the self-scattering of outgoing radiation and the existence of wave tails. In the present paper it is shown that the theory, under suitable asymptotic conditions, gives rise to peeling of the type exhibited by Maxwell's theory as well as by the asymptotically flat space-times of general relativity (3, 4, 5). It is also shown that certain conserved quantities exist paralleling those exhibited in the above theories. The Maxwell theory exhibits a sequence of such conserved quantities, the truncation of which is examined in detail for the Born-Infeld theory.
Hatchability as Affected by Egg Turning in High Density Plastic Egg Flats During the Last Half of Incubation

Abstract Five experiments were conducted to determine the optimum day of incubation to stop turning eggs in high density plastic egg flats to obtain maximum hatchability. Eggs were set from Cobb broiler breeders with 511, 528, 525, 540, and 990 eggs/treatment in Experiments 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, respectively, and from HyLine W-36 Leghorn breeders with 498, 540, 540, and 540 eggs/treatment in Experiments 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively. Turning (once per hour) was stopped at incubation Days 13, 16, and 19 in all experiments and also at Day 10 in Experiments 1 and 2. Jamesway 252 incubators were used in Experiments 1 and 2; Robbins IH-A incubators were used in subsequent experiments. Hatchability of Leghorn eggs was significantly decreased by cessation of egg turning after 10 days but was not affected when turning was stopped at 13 days. Hatchability of broiler breeder eggs was not significantly affected by turning treatment in Experiments 1, 2, or 5 but was decreased following cessation of turning at Day 13 in Experiments 3 and 4. Embryonic mortality after 10 days of incubation occurred primarily in the last 4 days of incubation in both breeds. There were no differences between turning treatments in incidence of malposition. It is concluded that turning of hatching eggs can be stopped at 16 days of incubation without adversely affecting hatchability.
Using carbon nanotube in digital memories

With the continuous technology scaling, interconnect delay plays an increasingly important role in determining integrated circuit performance. This has motivated tremendous research efforts on searching better interconnect technologies as alternatives to conventional Cu wires, among which carbon nanotube (CNT) has received the most attentions. However, in spite of its well demonstrated relatively small delay over long distance, CNT has several drawbacks that prevent it from being used in practice, including fabrication difficulty and contact resistance. This work concerns the practical use of carbon nanotube in digital memories, in particular this paper presents a simple yet effective hybrid word-line/bit-line design solution that aims to complement metal wire with CNT in order to well leverage the low resistance property of CNT and meanwhile embrace the drawbacks inherent in CNT. HSPICE simulations were carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of this hybrid design strategy at technology nodes down to 16nm.
Real-time very short-term load prediction for power-system automatic generation control

A fundamental objective of a power-system operating and control scheme is to maintain a match between the system's overall real-power load and generation. The automatic generation control (AGC) loop addresses this objective by using system load and electrical frequency samples to periodically update the set-point power for key "swing" generators with a control sample rate ranging from 1 to 10 min. To improve performance, emerging AGC strategies employ a look-ahead control algorithm that requires real-time estimates of the system's future load out to several samples using a one to ten minute sample period. This paper describes a strategy for developing a very short-term load predictor using slow and fast Kalman estimators and an hourly forecaster. The Kalman model parameters are determined by matching the frequency response of the estimator to the load residuals. The design strategy is applied to the system operated by the Bonneville Power Administration and specific performance and sensitivity studies are presented.
Reinforcement learning and adaptive dynamic programming for feedback control

Living organisms learn by acting on their environment, observing the resulting reward stimulus, and adjusting their actions accordingly to improve the reward. This action-based or reinforcement learning can capture notions of optimal behavior occurring in natural systems. We describe mathematical formulations for reinforcement learning and a practical implementation method known as adaptive dynamic programming. These give us insight into the design of controllers for man-made engineered systems that both learn and exhibit optimal behavior.
Synoptic Revision of Blabericola (Apicomplexa: Eugregarinida: Blabericolidae) Parasitizing Blaberid Cockroaches (Dictyoptera: Blaberidae), with Comments On Delineating Gregarine Species Boundaries

Abstract: Complete synoptic redescriptions, including complete morphometric data for all life cycle stages, species recognition characters, and differential comparisons are presented for the 4 gregarine species comprising Blabericola. Blabericola cubensis (Peregrine, 1970), Blabericola haasi (Geus, 1969), Blabericola migrator (Clopton, 1995), and Blabericola princisi (Peregrine, 1970) are redescribed from their type hosts, i.e., the discoid cockroach Blaberus discoidalis, the lobster cockroach Nauphoeta cinerea, the Madagascar hissing cockroach Gromphadorhina portentosa, and the Bolivian cockroach Blaberus boliviensis, respectively. These gregarine species descriptions are stabilized through deposition of extensive new voucher collections. Species of Blabericola are distinguished by differences in relative metric ratios, morphology of oocysts, and by relative metric ratios of mature gamonts in association. This work is discussed as a model for morphological species descriptions in the Eugregarinorida incl...
“Multiliteracies”: New Literacies, New Learning

This paper examines the changing landscape of literacy teaching and learning, revisiting the case for a “pedagogy of multiliteracies” first put by the New London Group in 1996. It describes the dramatically changing social and technological contexts of communication and learning, develops a language with which to talk about representation and communication in educational contexts, and addresses the question of what constitutes appropriate literacy pedagogy for our times.
Toward mobile robots reasoning like humans

Robots are increasingly becoming key players in human-robot teams. To become effective teammates, robots must possess profound understanding of an environment, be able to reason about the desired commands and goals within a specific context, and be able to communicate with human teammates in a clear and natural way. To address these challenges, we have developed an intelligence architecture that combines cognitive components to carry out high-level cognitive tasks, semantic perception to label regions in the world, and a natural language component to reason about the command and its relationship to the objects in the world. This paper describes recent developments using this architecture on a fielded mobile robot platform operating in unknown urban environments. We report a summary of extensive outdoor experiments; the results suggest that a multidisciplinary approach to robotics has the potential to create competent human-robot teams.
Neck management in malignant head and neck paragangliomas

The vast majority of paragangliomas are benign. It is unclear what percentage is malignant but it has been estimated between 6% and 10% of those reported. Despite their distinct radiologic and pathologic appearance, there is no reliable way to distinguish benign from malignant paragangliomas preoperatively. There are no absolute pathologic criteria for malignancy. The accepted criteria for determining malignancy preoperatively are spread to regional lymph nodes or distant metastasis.There are predictors of malignancy. They include location of the paraganglioma (vagal paragangliomas are malignant more often than any other paraganglioma), pain as a presenting symptom, recent rapid growth, and the succinate dehydrogenase B subunit mutation. The 5-year survival rate for malignant paraganglioma has been estimated to be around 60%. As the presence of lymph node metastasis could be the only sign of malignancy, it is recommended that lymph nodes be removed during the resections of these tumors. In the case of paragangliomas presenting in the neck, levels II and III are easily approached and should be sampled. In cases where there is preoperative involvement of lymph nodes by paraganglioma, a modified neck dissection is indicated. It should address minimally levels II through IV.
"Starting Stories" among Older Northern Plains American Indian Smokers

American Indian adults have the highest smoking rate of any racial group in the nation.1 By the turn of the twenty-first century, smoking rates for the general adult population were reported to be 24 percent.2 Among adolescents in the United States, 34.8 percent of high school students reported they currently smoked in 1999.3 In comparison, American Indian adults report smoking rates ranging from 34 to 79 percent.4 American Indian youth smoking rates range as high as 50 percent, especially among Northern Plains states.5 Tobacco use, which includes smoking cigarettes, is the most preventable cause of death in the United States.6 To date, there is no clear explanation as to why American Indians have extremely high smoking rates.7 It is known, however, that approximately 90 percent of the general population began smoking in adolescence, most by age eighteen.8 The age of smoking initiation by American Indians is predicted to be somewhat younger, as young as twelve to sixteen years.9 Understanding the phenomenon of starting smoking— in terms of how individuals are introduced to cigarettes, influences of smoking initiation, and culture-bound attitudes that facilitated the smoking initiation—is an important step toward ameliorating the problem of smokinginduced health problems.
Is predation intensity reduced with increasing depth? Evidence from the west Atlantic stalked crinoid Endoxocrinus parrae (Gervais) and implications for the Mesozoic marine revolution

The number of regenerated arms was counted on specimens of two distinct phenotypes of the stalked crinoid Endoxocrinus parrae (Gervais) from a wide bathymetric range in the Caribbean (178-723 m). In one phenotype, the sample was divided into two groups, one from shallower (< 500 m) depths, the other from deeper (2 500 m); in the other phenotype the group divided at 550 m. In both phenotypes, the frequency of regenerated arms is significantly higher in specimens from shallower water than in those from deeper water. If the regenerated arms in Endoxocrinus parrae were the result of sublethal predation, as previously suggested, then predation intensity is higher in shallow water than deep water. These results are consistent with the idea of the late Mesozoic marine revolution-that there has been stronger predation on various invertebrates in shallow-wa- ter environments since the late Mesozoic. The stalked crinoids may have been unable to cope with increased predation in shelf environments, and they migrated to offshore environments.
Information directed sampling for stochastic root finding

The Stochastic Root-Finding Problem (SRFP) consists of finding the root x* of a noisy function. To discover x*, an agent sequentially queries an oracle whether the root lies rightward or leftward of a given measurement location x. The oracle answers truthfully with probability p(x). The Probabilistic Bisection Algorithm (PBA) pinpoints the root by incorporating the knowledge acquired in oracle replies via Bayesian updating. A common sampling strategy is to myopically maximize the mutual information criterion, known as Information Directed Sampling (IDS). We investigate versions of IDS in the setting of a non-parametric p(x), as well as when p(·) is not known and must be learned in parallel. An application of our approach to optimal stopping problems, where the goal is to find the root of a timing-value function, is also presented.
The endogenous fluorescence of fibroblast in collagen gels as indicator of stiffness of the extracellular matrix

The stiffness or rigidity of the extracellular matrix (ECM) regulates cell response. Established mechanical tests to measure stiffness, such as indentation and tensile tests, are invasive and destructive to the sample. Endogenous or native molecules to cells and ECM components, like tryptophan and cross-links of collagen, display fluorescence upon irradiation with ultraviolet light. Most likely, the concentration of these endogenous fluorophores changes as the stiffness of the ECM changes. In this work we investigate the endogenous fluorescence of collagen gels containing fibroblasts as a non-invasive non-destructive method to measure stiffness of the ECM. Human fibroblast cells were cultured in three-dimensional gels of type I collagen (50,000 cells/ml). This construct is a simple model of tissue contraction. During contraction, changes in the excitation-emission matrix (a fluorescence map in the 240-520/290-530 nm range) of constructs were measured with a spectrofluoremeter, and changes in stiffness were measured with a standard indentation test over 16 days. Results show that a progressive increase in fluorescence of the 290/340 nm excitation-emission pair correlates with a progressive increase in stiffness (r=0.9, α=0.5). The fluorescence of this excitation-emission pair is ascribed to tryptophan and variations in the fluorescence of this pair correlate with cellular proliferation. In this tissue model, the endogenous functional fluorescence of proliferating fibroblast cells is a biomechanical marker of stiffness of the ECM.
Detoxifying, Diffusing, Germicidal, and Surface Tension Depressing Properties of Soaps

Considerable work has been done on soaps during the last few years. Various outstanding properties of soaps have been studied. Larson and Nelson1 showed that sodium ricinoleate (castor oil soap) possessed the property of detoxifying soluble toxins and endotoxins. Larson, Evans and Nelson2 found that oleic, stearic and palmitic acid soaps had no detoxifying properties against diphtheria and tetanus toxins, while the soaps of lauric, myristic, ennenoic and hendeconoic possess some, and castor oil soap possesses high detoxifying ability. Larson and Nelson3 showed that rabbits could be immunized against fatal doses of pneumococcus. Netter, Andre, Cesari and Catoni' showed that sodium ricinoleate (castor oil soap) immunized rabbits against pneumococcus and streptococcus. Larson, Evans and Nelson2 found that soaps which detoxify bacterial toxins readily, form clear solutions and dialyze readily through collodium sacs. While there is considerable difference of opinion, the general view is that soaps are not highly germicidal. Rosenau5 states "ordinary soaps have but limited disinfecting power." Reichenbach' found potassium stearate, palmitate and myristate germicidal to B. coli, but soaps made from oleic, erucic, linolic were inactive. Reasoner' found soaps active against Spirochaeta pallida, Tilley and Schaeffer8 found coconut oil soap effective against B. typhosus, B. pyocyaneous and Staphylococcus aureus. Walker' found chemically pure soaps very different in germicidal ability, while commercial soaps showed considerable germicidal activity against streptococcus, pneumococcus, diphtheria bacillus, and to a lesser extent against typhoid bacillus. He found coconut oil soap active against typhoid bacillus. Larson10 found that pneumococcus and streptococcus will not grow in the presence of even small quantities of castor oil soap. Bacteriologists are becoming more interested in the importance of surface tension on bacterial growth and activity. Larson, Cantwell and Hartzell11 pioneers in this field, found lowering of the surface tension of broth caused pellicle formers to grow down in the medium, and spores formed more slowly. Larson12 found pneumococcus and streptococcus grew poorly at a low surface tension. Ayers,
Renal Excretion of Calcium and Phosphate in the Mouse as Influenced by Parathyroids.

SummaryChanges in renal excretion rates of calcium and phosphate, as affected by parathyroidectomy and parathyroid extract administration, were studied in mice. Parathyroidectomy temporarily increased urinary calcium values to 3 times control values, while decreasing phosphate excretion to 1/3 normal values. Urinary excretion of both ions returned to within normal range by 14 hours after start of experiment. Parathyroid extract administration produced opposite changes of about the same magnitude. Urinary calcium values decreased while those for phosphate rose. These changes were also temporary. Results are interpreted as due to changes in renal tubular reabsorption rates for the 2 ions, causing altered excretion rates until plasma levels adjust to the new renal thresholds. Particular emphasis is placed on changes in renal calcium excretion. These studies demonstrate parathyroid influences on handling of calcium by the kidney for a fourth mammalian species, suggesting the importance of this little consider...
Evaluation on effect of the two round supplementary immunization of measles vaccine in Baoshan of Yunnan province

Objective To evaluate effect of two round supplementary immunization of measles vaccine in Baoshan of Yunnan province.Methods Descriptive analysis was made according to the vaccination rate of measles vaccine for supplementary immunization.Data were obtained from the field investigation and the legal measles epidemic reporting system,and detection of antibody levels.Results The two round vaccination rate of measles vaccine was all above 98%.At the same time,the antibody level of measles was greatly improved to 95.02%(P0.001)and the incidence of measles greatly decreased from 5.99/100000 to 1.08/100000 of 2009 and 0.12/100000 of 2010,finally there was no measles cases which had been reported so far.Conclusions The incidence of measles was effectively controlled after two round supplementary immunization of measles vaccine.
A Control Strategy for Secure and Economic Operation of On-load Capacity Regulating Transformer

The on-load capacity regulating transformer can really realize the automatic regulation of transformer's capacity during the operation process with load,and can reduce no-load power losses of the transformer effectively.The structure characteristics and the energy-saving operation principles of on-load capacity regulating transformer are described.The configuration of the automatic control system and the main functional blocks for implementation of on-load adjustment of transformer's capacity,are introduced.By analyzing the transformer's economic operation mode and its critical economic capacity,the typical reference value of switchover position for its economic operation is given.The design and the implementation methods for the key control strategies,such as economic operation strategies and secure operation strategies,are described.The operating effects and the economic benefits of the on-load capacity regulating transformer developed are followed and analyzed,and the future application is prospected.
Molecular glasses: NMR and dielectric susceptibility measurements

We review the properties of simple diatomic molecular glasses as explored by nuclear magnetic resonance techniques and measurements of the dielectric susceptibility. We focus on the behavior of classical molecular rotors formed by solid N2–Ar mixtures and discuss the time dependent behavior in terms of replica symmetry breaking theories.
P.R.N. medications in child state hospital inpatients.

The authors reviewed the administration of p.r.n. medications over 12 months in 49 child psychiatry inpatients. There were 1263 p.r.n. administrations (mean +/- SD = 25.6 +/- 36.7 administrations/patient). Only 7 (14%) of the 49 patients had none; 9 (18%) had more than 50. The number of p.r.n. administrations correlated with the dose of regular neuroleptics and with the time spent in seclusion. Age, race, sex, diagnosis, neurological disorders, IQ, and self-injurious behavior were poor predictors of the number of p.r.n. administrations. Antihistaminics accounted for 54% (683) of the p.r.n. administrations, neuroleptics for 24% (303), and chloral hydrate for 17% (214). Seventy percent (891) of the p.r.n. drugs were given for disruptive behavior. Only 32% (403) of the 1263 administrations were clearly effective, 14% (170) were ineffective, and 54% (690) were dubious. A controlled trial is needed to assess the efficacy of this ubiquitous psychiatric practice.
Consensus style centralizing auto-encoder for weak style classification

Style classification (e.g., architectural, music, fashion) attracts an increasing attention in both research and industrial fields. Most existing works focused on low-level visual features composition for style representation. However, little effort has been devoted to automatic mid-level or high-level style features learning by reorganizing low-level descriptors. Moreover, styles are usually spread out and not easy to differentiate from one to another. In this paper, we call these less representative images as weak style images. To address these issues, we propose a consensus style centralizing auto-encoder (CSCAE) to extract robust style features to facilitate weak style classification. CSCAE is the ensemble of several style centralizing auto-encoders (SCAEs) with consensus constraint. Each SCAE centralizes each feature of certain category in a progressive way. We apply our method in fashion style classification and manga style classification as two example applications. In addition, we collect a new dataset, Online Shopping, for fashion style classification evaluation, which will be publicly available for vision based fashion style research. Experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of SCAE and CSCAE on both public and newly collected datasets when compared with the most recent state-of-the-art works.
NGC 7027: New 7.8 – 20.0 μm Array Camera and Hα/Hβ CCD Image Analysis of Dust, PAH and Ionized GAS Distribution

Infrared array camera images of the planetary nebula NGC7027 at seven wavelenghts between 7.8 and 20µm taken at the IRTF telescope are compared to Hα and Hβ images obtained at the CFHT, and published 2-, 6-, and 20-cm VLA maps, all made with better than ∼ 1 arcsec resolution. The mid--infrared images have also been deconvolved using the Maximum Residual Likelihood algorithm to show structural details on the ∼ 0.3 arcsec scale. The visible, infrared and radio images are aligned with ±0.2 arcsec astrometric precision using common features and visible stars. Image algebra can then be readily performed. The images are analysed to determine the spatial distribution of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) grains and ionized gas relative to the continuum dust emission. The results show the extent of the mid-infrared dust continuum, the PAH emission features at 8.65 and 11.25µm, and would reveal any contribution from 9.8 µm “silicate” emission. The optically thicker 20-cm emission more closely resembles the extinction-corrected Ha distribution. The large grains giving rise to the visible extinction (derived from the Hα/Hβ ratio) are distribued differently from the mid-infrared and ionized gaz, indicating the location of the outer cold dust. The 11.6µm image could contain both PAH and continuum grain emission, and we have attempted to separate the two components. It appears that the overall emission distributions are quite similar for all the infrared wavelengths, so the various dust constituents are generally uniformly mixed.
Accelerating Equi-Join on a CPU-FPGA Heterogeneous Platform

Accelerating database applications using FPGAs has recently been an area of growing interest in both academia and industry. Equi-join is one of the key database operations whose performance highly depends on sorting, which exhibitshigh memory usage on FPGA. A fully pipelined N-key mergesorter consists of log N sorting stages using O(N) memorytotally. For large data sets, external memory has to be employedto perform data buffering between the sorting stages. Thisintroduces pipeline stalls as well as several iterations betweenFPGA and external memory, causing significant performancedegradation. In this paper, we speed-up equi-join using a hybridCPU-FPGA heterogeneous platform. To alleviate the performanceimpact of limited memory, we propose a merge sort based hybriddesign where the first few sorting stages in the merge sort tree are replaced with "folded" bitonic sorting networks. These "folded" bitonic sorting networks operate in parallel on the FPGA. Thepartial results are then merged on the CPU to produce the finalsorted result. Based on this hybrid sorting design, we develop twostreaming join algorithms by optimizing the classic CPU-basednested-loop join and sort-merge join algorithms. On a rangeof data set sizes, our design achieves throughput improvementof 3.1x and 1.9x compared with software-only and FPGA onlyimplementations, respectively. Our design sustains 21.6% of thepeak bandwidth, which is 3.9x utilization obtained by the state-of-the-art FPGA equi-join implementation.
Electronic and magnetic properties of electron-doped V 2 O 5 and NaV 2 O 5

Because of its narrow split-off conduction band, doping of ${\mathrm{V}}_{2}{\mathrm{O}}_{5}$ leads to interesting strongly correlated electrons. We study the effects of doping on ${\mathrm{V}}_{2}{\mathrm{O}}_{5}$'s electronic and magnetic properties, either by adding electrons compensated by an artificial homogeneous background, or a virtual crystal approximation (VCA), by changing the atomic number ${Z}_{\mathrm{V}}$, so as to keep charge neutrality, or by explicitly introducing Na as a dopant. The former two are considered as a way to simulate injected charge by gating, the latter occurs in the vanadium bronze ${\mathrm{NaV}}_{2}{\mathrm{O}}_{5}$. We also simulate ${\mathrm{Na}}_{1\ensuremath{-}x}{\mathrm{V}}_{2}{\mathrm{O}}_{5}$ using a virtual crystal approximation by changing the atomic number $10\ensuremath{\le}{Z}_{\mathrm{Na}}\ensuremath{\le}11$. The differences in the band structure, which result from how the electrons added to the band are compensated by positive charge in the three models, are compared. The electronic band structures are calculated using the quasiparticle self-consistent $QSGW$ method including a lattice polarization correction and the local spin density functional method with Hubbard-$U$ corrections (LSDA+$U$). For ${\mathrm{NaV}}_{2}{\mathrm{O}}_{5}$, the half-filling leads to a splitting of the up- and down-spin lowest ${d}_{xy}$ band. The spins are found to prefer an antiferromagnetic ordering along the chain direction. Other spin configurations are shown to have higher energy and the exchange interactions are extracted and compared with literature. The optical conductivities are calculated and compared with experiment. Similar results are found for simply doping the band compensated by a background or virtual crystal approximation. However, the position of the occupied bands depends on the method chosen for compensating the charge. The most realistic way to simulate gating in which the compensating charge is kept away from the ${\mathrm{V}}_{2}{\mathrm{O}}_{5}$ layer is the VCA with varying ${Z}_{\mathrm{Na}}$. The splitting between the up- and down-spin bands depends on the filling. We find that below a certain concentration of about 0.88 electrons per V, the FM arrangement becomes preferable over the antiferromagnetic one. The magnetic moments then gradually decrease as we lower the filling of the split-off band.
Influence of triethyl phosphate on phosphatase activity in shooting range soil: Isolation of a zinc-resistant bacterium with an acid phosphatase

Phosphatase-mediated hydrolysis of organic phosphate may be a viable means of stabilizing heavy metals via precipitation as a metal phosphate in bioremediation applications. We investigated the effect of triethyl phosphate (TEP) on soil microbial-phosphatase activity in a heavy-metal contaminated soil. Gaseous TEP has been used at subsurface sites for bioremediation of organic contaminants but not applied in heavy-metal contaminated areas. Little is known about how TEP affects microbial activity in soils and it is postulated that TEP can serve as a phosphate source in nutrient-poor groundwater and soil/sediments. Over a 3-week period, TEP amendment to microcosms containing heavy-metal contaminated soil resulted in increased activity of soil acid-phosphatase and repression of alkaline phosphatase, indicating a stimulatory effect on the microbial population. A soil-free enrichment of microorganisms adapted to heavy-metal and acidic conditions was derived from the TEP-amended soil microcosms using TEP as the sole phosphate source and the selected microbial consortium maintained a high acid-phosphatase activity with repression of alkaline phosphatase. Addition of 5mM zinc to soil-free microcosms had little effect on acid phosphatase but inhibited alkaline phosphatase. One bacterial member from the consortium, identified as Burkholderia cepacia sp., expressed an acid-phosphatase activity uninhibited by high concentrations of zinc and produced a soluble, indigo pigment under phosphate limitation. The pigment was produced in a phosphate-free medium and was not produced in the presence of TEP or phosphate ion, indicative of purple acid-phosphatase types that are pressed by bioavailable phosphate. These results demonstrate that TEP amendment was bioavailable and increased overall phosphatase activity in both soil and soil-free microcosms supporting the possibility of positive outcomes in bioremediation applications.
Quasi-Quadratic Residue Codes and their weight distributions

Quasi-Quadratic Residue Codes (QQR Codes) are a family of double circulant codes. They are important in at least two respects: Firstly, they have very good minimum distances when p ≡ 3 (mod 8), providing a critical test case for Goppa's Conjecture. Secondly, they serve as a powerful tool for studying point distributions on hyperelliptic curves. We will use the result of their weight distributions to prove a variant on a result of Larsen [1] on asymptotic normal distribution of numbers of points on hyperelliptic curves.
Causal role for inheritance of H3K27me3 in maintaining the OFF state of a Drosophila HOX gene

Many eukaryotic cells can respond to transient environmental or developmental stimuli with heritable changes in gene expression that are associated with nucleosome modifications. However, it remains uncertain whether modified nucleosomes play a causal role in transmitting such epigenetic memories, as opposed to controlling or merely reflecting transcriptional states inherited by other means. Here, we provide in vivo evidence that H3K27 trimethylated nucleosomes, once established at a repressed Drosophila HOX gene, remain heritably associated with that gene and can carry the memory of the silenced state through multiple rounds of replication, even when the capacity to copy the H3K27me3 mark to newly incorporated nucleosomes is diminished or abolished. Hence, in this context, the inheritance of H3K27 trimethylation conveys epigenetic memory.