cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Tetrasomy 13q32.2qter due to an apparent inverted duplicated neocentric marker chromosome in an infant with hemangiomas, failure to thrive, laryngomalacia, and tethered cord.

BACKGROUND Approximately 100 small supernumerary marker chromosomes (sSMCs) with a non–α-satellite neocentromere structure have been reported in the literature. Of the few derived from chromosome 13, five have consisted of inverted duplicated segment 13q32qter. CASE REPORT We herein describe the sixth case, characterized by genome wide SNP array, conventional cytogenetics and FISH studies. The de novo occurrence of the marker, the poor prognosis and the presence of hemangiomas are consistent with previous cases. CONCLUSION We hereby expand the clinical spectrum of this rare cytogenetic disorder and suggest a possible mechanism for the pathogenesis of associated congenital vascular malformations. Birth Defects Research (Part A), 97:812–815, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Comparing Democracies: A Spatial Method with Application to Ancient Athens

A graphic method for specifying historians’ judgments about political change, with special reference to the distance and the direction that Athenian democracy had moved from the era of Cleisthenes to that of Lycurgus. For Vincent Azoulay and Paulin Ismard (eds.). Cleisthene et Lycurgue d’Athenes: Autour du politique dans la cite classique. Editions du Sorbonne, Paris.
The absolute energy positions of conduction and valence bands of selected semiconducting minerals

The absolute energy positions of conduction and valence band edges were compiled for about 50 each semiconducting metal oxide and metal sulfide minerals. The relationships between energy levels at mineral semiconductor-electrolyte interfaces and the activities of these minerals as a catalyst or photocatalyst in aqueous redox reactions are reviewed. The compilation of band edge energies is based on experimental flatband potential data and complementary empirical calculations from electronegativities of constituent elements. Whereas most metal oxide semiconductors have valence band edges 1 to 3 eV below the H2O oxidation potential (relative to absolute vacuum scale), energies for conduction band edges are close to, or lower than, the H2O reduction potential. These oxide minerals are strong photo-oxidation catalysts in aqueous solutions, but are limited in their reducing power. Non-transition metal sulfides generally have higher conduction and valence band edge energies than metal oxides; therefore, valence band holes in non-transition metal sulfides are less oxidizing, but conduction band electrons are exceedingly reducing. Most transition-metal sulfides, however, are characterized by small band gaps (<1 eV) and band edges situated within or close to the H2O stability potentials. Hence, both the oxidizing power of the valence band holes and the reducing power of the conduction band electrons are lower than those of non-transition metal sulfides.
The central limit theorem for Tukey's 3R smoother

Abstract Asymptotic properties of a non-linear smoothing algorithm are analyzed. It is shown that under appropriate conditions the output of the algorithm is absolutely regular and that partial sums are asymptotically normal.
Cooking up better doctors as teachers globally: a novel integrated nutrition and cooking class curriculum for pediatric residents to boost their competencies and attitudes in patient counseling

The objective of the study was to identify competencies, attitudes, and health habits of pediatric residents, during the initial phase of a trial tracking the impact of a novel 21-h multi-disciplinary nutrition curriculum with hands-on cooking skills to improve patient education. We conducted a 44-question baseline survey of pediatric residents (n = 52) from 2012 to 2013 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Univariate analyses using appropriate test statistics were performed with subsequent multivariate adjusted logistic regression. Residents reported a low perceived importance of providing nutrition education to patients and low competencies on validated education topics, as well as personal intake of fruits and vegetables below national dietary guidelines. In multivariate regression models controlling for nutritional attitudes, the significant relationship remained between inadequate daily fruit intake predicting decreased competencies for educating patients on identifying antioxidant-rich produce (OR = 0.13, 95 % CI = 0.0269–0.5833, p = 0.008), and between adequate vegetable intake and competency for daily hydration education (OR = 0.12, 95 % CI 0.0244–0.5873, p = 0.009). This survey details the barriers facing physician residents in providing effective nutrition-based preventative medicine education for patients. This study supports continued development of a longitudinal nationally scalable model of curriculum improvement from the premedical student stage of training to the attending physician stage.
A penetration-aspiration scale

The development and use of an 8-point, equalappearing interval scale to describe, penetration and aspiration events are described. Scores are determined primarily by the depth to which material passes in the airway and by whether or not material entering the airway is expelled. Intra-and interjudge reliability have been established. Clinical and scientific uses of the scale are discussed.
Sexually Violent Predator Evaluations: Empirical Evidence, Strategies for Professionals, and Research Directions.

Several states have passed civil commitment laws that allow the precautionary detention of sex offenders who have completed their criminal sentences. Over 2,500 sex offenders have been committed across states with such statutes and several thousand more sex offenders have been evaluated. Most statutes call for an evaluation of risk by a mental health professional and, although each state statute is worded differently, three main elements common to sexually violent predator evaluations are used to guide evaluators: mental abnormality, volitional capacity, and likelihood of future sexual violence. The current article presents empirical evidence for the main tenants of these forensic evaluations, provides recommendations for evaluators in light of current limitations of evidence, and offers suggestions for future research in this area of forensic assessment.
Perfusion lung scan. An aid in detection of lymphangitic carcinomatosis

Lymphangitic carcinomatosis is usually a late manifestation of metastatic disease. The patient usually presents with cough or dyspnea, and the chest radiograph is often nondiagnostic. Two patients are presented who developed symptoms while on adjuvant chemotherapy. Both had abnormal perfusion lung scans. One had matching ventilation defects; the other a normal ventilation study. Biopsy revealed metastatic carcinoma; in one case tumor was seen in both the pulmonary lymphatics and arterioles; in technique which can speed diagnosis and institution of therapy in lymphangitic carcinomatosis.
Microwave Processing of Polyimide Thin Films

Microwave processing has been used to reduce the long process cycles normally associated with the curing cycles for highly ordered polyimides, such as BPDA-PDA. These materials have found applications in the electronics industry due to the excellent thermal stability and low coefficient of thermal expansion of this class of polymers. Thin polymer films - an application not normally considered for microwave curing - were processed and the dependence of the mechanical properties compared with conventional thermal processing.
On nonlinear mappings of monotone type homotopic to odd operators

Let A be a (nonlinear) mapping of monotone type from the real Banach space X into its conjugate space X∗. The solvability of the functional equation Au = 0 in a given open subset of X is investigated under the assumption that A = A0 is homotopic to an odd mapping A1. The same problem is then studied for A of the form A = T + B, with T a maximal monotone mapping of X into the set 2X∗ of all subsets of X∗, and B of monotone type. The results are used to derive criterions of Fredholm alternative type for the solvability of the equation Au = f, provided A is asymptotically homogeneous and odd. Applications to nonlinear Hammerstein integral equations and to elliptic boundary value problems are given.
Effect of Substrate Cleanness on Permalloy Thin Films

The use of mechanical and chemical cleaning techniques in the production of a clean, random, and smooth microslide glass substrate surface for the vacuum deposition of uniaxial thin Permalloy film elements has been studied. The principal cleaning techniques intensively investigated were: (1) a mild detergent wash followed by a vapor degreasing cycle in isopropyl alcohol; (2) a chalk paste scrub followed by an ultrasonically agitated distilled water rinsing cycle and a forced hot air drying process; and (3) hydrofluoric acid etching followed by a distilled water rinsing cycle and a forced air-drying process. The surface condition of the cleaned microslide glass was assessed with electron micrographs of preshadowed carbon replicas (magnification 88 000×). The micrographs show that the chalk-cleaned glass substrate has the smoothest surface. The variously cleaned substrates were then used for the vacuum deposition of 1700-A 4-mm-diam Permalloy film elements (melt composition 83% nickel, 17% iron). This work was carried out in a 10−6 mm Hg vacuum system. Twenty-five evaporations were made with a total of 54 elements per evaporation. The Permalloy film elements deposited on the differently cleaned glass substrates were then examined by means of a 1000-cycle hysteresis loop apparatus and the following measurements were made: (1) coercive force H c ; (2) saturation flux φ s ; (3) orientation of the anisotropy axis θ (4) magnetoelastic strain coefficient η and (5) anisotropy field H K . Dispersion measurements of the easy axis were made on a 1000-cycle crossed field hysteresis loop apparatus. Measured in this manner, the chalk-cleaned glass substrates yielded consistently the lower average value of H C ; i. e., 1.4 oe. The average value of H K for the three different cleaning techniques was 2.5 oe. Within the total range of values of coercive force and the anisotropy field, the chalk-cleaned and the acid-etched glass substrates yielded the same values; i. e., H C ±0.2 oe, H K ±0.3 oe. Measurements of angular dispersion varied from 8° to less than 2° with an average value of less than 3°. The chalk-cleaned substrates yielded the lowest values of angular dispersion.
The neural system for the inhibition of startle

In the rat, lesion of the lateral tegmentum but not of the raphee eliminated inhibition of acoustic startle by prior acoustic and visual stimuli with lead times of 50 msec. Since lesion of the lateral tegmentum did not interfere with latency reduction (when the same prior stimuli had lead times of 4 msec), it is concluded that lesion of the lateral tegmentum interferes with an inhibitory system while leaving sensory processing intact.
Weight Change and Physical Function in Older Women: Findings from the Nun Study

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association between change in weight and decline in physical function in older women. DESIGN: Longitudinal study of a defined population of Catholic sisters (nuns) whose weight and function were assessed twice, an average of 584 days apart. SETTING: Unique life communities (convents) located throughout the United States. PARTICIPANTS: 475 Catholic sisters who were 75 to 99 years of age (M = 82.1, SD = 4.8) and were independent in at least one Activity of Daily Living (ADL) at the first assessment of weight and function. INTERVENTIONS: None. MEASUREMENTS: At each assessment, weight, ADLs, and cognitive function were evaluated as part of the Nun Study-a longitudinal study of aging and Alzheimer's disease. Annual percent weight change was calculated using weights from the two assessments, as well as the number of days that elapsed between assessments. RESULTS: Mean weight at first assessment was 140 pounds (range 78 to 232, SD = 27). The mean annual percent weight change was 0.1% (range 22% loss to 16% gain, SD = 3.8). Age- and initial weight-adjusted findings indicated that those participants with an annual percent weight loss of 3% or greater had 2.7 to 3.9 times the risk of becoming dependent in each ADL, compared to the sisters with no weight change. The elevated risk persisted in those who were mentally intact or were independent in their eating habits. CONCLUSION: Monitoring of weight may be an easy and inexpensive method of identifying older individuals at increased risk of disability.
Electrocatalytic dechlorination of a PCB congener at a palladized granular-graphite-packed electrode: Reaction equilibrium and mechanism

Abstract Our previous study on the electrocatalytic dechlorination of 2-chlorobiphenyl at a Pd-loaded granular graphite-packed electrode demonstrated that the process did not follow the first-order kinetics. The rate constant varied with the applied potential at the beginning, but later became irrelevant to the potential. The electrocatalytic kinetic was investigated in this study, in which several experiments were conducted to dechlorinate 2-chlorobiphenyl using a Pd-loaded granular graphite-packed electrode at different potentials and in methanol–water solutions. Analysis of the experimental results reveals that the electrocatalytic process had reached equilibrium in these experiments. The apparent equilibrium constants, as well as the rate constants for the overall forward and backward reactions, were related to the applied potential. These relationships follow the Tafel equation, but the apparent charge transfer coefficients are very small values. The potential dependence of the overall rate constants suggests a reaction mechanism in which the electrocatalytic reaction is the rate-determining step. The influence of methanol on (together with the potential dependence of) the overall rate constants and the apparent equilibrium constant suggests a Langmuir–Hinshelwood mechanism.
Optimal 2-D interleaving with latin rectangles

One of the key problems in the study of optimal interleaving schemes for correcting two-dimensional (2-D) cluster errors is how to place, say, n distinct symbols, each appearing m times, in an m/spl times/n array such that the resulting array has the maximum possible burst error-correcting power. In a previous paper, the authors have proved that for any given m, n, the maximum possible interleaving distance, and hence, the largest possible value t such that an arbitrary error burst of size t can be corrected in an m/spl times/n interleaved array, is given by t=/spl lfloor//spl radic/2n/spl rfloor/ for n = /spl les/ /spl lceil/m/sup 2//2/spl rceil/, and t=m+/spl lfloor/(n-/spl lceil/m/sup 2//2/spl rceil/)/m/spl rfloor/ for n /spl ges/ /spl lceil/m/sup 2//2/spl rceil/. In this work, we extend these results and show that for all m, n with n /spl ges/ m, an optimal m/spl times/n interleaving array can always be obtained by a Latin rectangle in which each row and each column contains each symbol at most once. This provides additional error-correcting power to the array in that all linear error bursts occupying a whole row or column can also be corrected.
Receptor-mediated changes at the myristoylated amino terminus of Gαil proteins

GPCRs catalyze nucleotide release in heterotrimeric G proteins, the slow step in G protein activation. Gi/o family proteins are permanently, cotranslationally myristoylated at the extreme amino terminus. While myristoylation of the amino terminus has long been known to participate in anchoring Gi proteins to the membrane, the role of myristoylation in regards to interaction with activated receptors is not known. Previous studies have characterized activation-dependent changes in the amino terminus of Gα proteins in solution [Medkova, M. (2002) Biochemistry 41, 9963-9972; Preininger, A.M. (2003) Biochemistry 42, 7931-7941], but changes in the environment of specific residues within the Gαi1 amino terminus during receptor-mediated Gi activation has not been reported. Using site-specific fluorescent labeling of individual residues along a stretch of the Gαil amino terminus, we found specific changes in the environment of these residues upon interaction with activated receptor and following GTPγS binding. These changes map to a distinct surface of the amino-terminal helix opposite the Gβγ binding interface. The receptor-dependent fluorescent changes are consistent with a myristoylated amino terminus in close proximity to the membrane and/or receptor. Myristoylation affects both the rate and intensity of receptor activation-dependent changes detected at several residues along the amino terminus (with no significant effect on the rate of receptor-mediated GTPγS binding). This work demonstrates that the myristoylated amino terminus of Gαil proteins undergoes receptor-mediated changes during the dynamic process of G protein signaling.
The role of human creativity in mechanized verification

In a presentation at FMCAD 1996 I decried industry's expectations that the creative insights of highly-paid, world-class hardware designers “should” be checkable by “push-button” tools. In the associated paper, my co-authors and I observed that unequivocal rejection of “lightweight” tools is impossible because of the role of “heavyweight thinking” in their use: problems that are impossibly large can often be rendered tractable by push-button means if the user is clever or persistent enough to create the right abstractions. The sensitivity of “tractability” to apparently minor modeling decisions is a well-known phenomenon for all of our tools. The decision not to model a certain bit or to avoid a certain form of definition, while appearing coincidental to the reader, may in fact be a crucial choice and we ought to highlight such decisions when we are aware of their importance. That we sometimes do not highlight them is not intellectual dishonesty but concern for clarity. Like mathematicians who revise a proof repeatedly for publication, the key insights are often lost as the presentation is polished. In this talk I again delve into the key question of the role of human creativity in mechanized verification. I argue that the more explicit we make that role, the better. Unlike mathematicians, we are fundamentally concerned with automating the methods of theorem discovery and proof. By highlighting the “minor decisions” that represent major breakthroughs in the problem, we serve our science better because we identify the key problems yet to be solved.
Safer Vesicant Administration: Improving Communication Across Provider Lines

The administration of vesicant drugs involves nurses and physicians as stakeholders in providing safe patient care. Improving communication often is the first step to increasing the awareness and problem-solving for the patient care team.
Jaguar: enabling efficient communication and I/O in Java

Implementing efficient communication and I/O mechanisms in Java requires both fast access to lowlevel system resources (such as network and raw disk interfaces) and direct manipulation of memory regions external to the Java heap (such as communication and I/O buffers). Java native methods are too expensive to perform these operations and raise serious protection concerns. We present Jaguar, a new mechanism that provides Java applications with efficient access to system resources while retaining the protection of the Java environment. This is accomplished through compiletime translation of certain Java bytecodes to inlined machine code segments. We demonstrate the use of Jaguar through a Java interface to the VIA fast communications layer, which achieves nearly identical performance to that of C, and Pre-Serialized Objects, a mechanism which greatly reduces the cost of Java object serializa-
Models and rulers in dynamical development

Non-linear dynamics holds enormous promise for transforming the field of development, moving it from rich but loose descriptions of developmental processes toward powerfully explicated dynamical models of change that are closely linked to empirical data about growth functions. The study of cusp catastrophes in developmental transitions provides an example of the beginning of this transformation. For the dynamics revolution to live up to its promise, researchers need not only to build on the tools that are explained in this special issue but also to move beyond catastrophe models of transition to deal with a fuller range of developmental processes, including hierarchical-growth and predator-prey models. If researchers are to ground these models effectively in observations, they must focus on building sound rulers of development to replace the poorly constructed scales that are the norm in the study of cognitive development. The papers in this special issue point the way towards achieving important parts of this agenda.
Protection against mucoid Pseudomonas aeruginosa in rodent models of endobronchial infections

Chronic endobronchial infection with mucoid Pseudomonas aeruginosa accounts for much of the morbidity and mortality in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). Reduced morbidity is observed when infection is absent. Clinical investigations have implicated opsonizing antibody specific for the mucoid exopolysaccharide (MEP) surrounding these bacteria as a potential immunologic protective mechanism, whereas nonopsonizing antibody to MEP is not protective. Mice and rats immunized with doses of MEP that elicited opsonizing antibody had reduced levels of infection compared with nonimmune controls after intratracheal challenge with mucoid P. aeruginosa enmeshed in agar beads. Doses of MEP that elicited nonopsonizing antibody were not protective. Parallel experiments in which passive transfer of polyclonal and monoclonal opsonizing and nonopsonizing antibody were used yielded similar results. These data indicate that MEP-specific opsonizing antibody can protect against chronic P. aeruginosa infection in this model of disease.
T cell lines from systemic sclerosis patients and healthy controls recognize multiple epitopes on DNA topoisomerase I.

Anti-DNA topoisomerase I (topo-I) antibodies are exclusively detected in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc). Participation of this topo-I-specific autoimmune response in the pathogenesis of SSc has been actively investigated, but remains unproven. Here we characterized the peripheral T cell proliferative response to recombinant topo-I (rtopo-I) in 16 SSc patients with circulating anti-topo-I antibody. A low level (cpm 3) was detected in 6 (38%) of 16 patients. This low level response was similar to those previously observed in healthy controls. We established 56 topo-I-specific T cell lines recognizing 13 distinct T cell epitopes on topo-I from 4 SSc patients and 2 healthy controls. These T cell lines were established from in vitro activated PBMC (CD25(+)) by rtopo-I antigen. However they did not have the phenotype of regulatory T cells. Notably, 40 (71%) of the 56 T cell lines recognizing a common epitope were established from one patient. DNA sequencing of the T cell receptor cDNA produced an identical sequence indicating these T cells were from a single topo-I-specific T cell precursor. These results suggest that topo-I-specific T cells can become clonally expanded in some patients and may contribute to the pathogenesis of this disease.
Synthesis via the Krebs' cycle in the utilization of acetate by rat liver slices.

Abstract 1. 1. The incorporation of 14 C of acetate-1- 14 C and -2- 14 C, by liver slices prepared from fed and fasted rats, into CO 2 , lipides, protein, β-hydroxybutyric acid, glucose, glutamate, glutathione, alanine, lactate, urea, and di- and tricarboxylic acids was studied. 2. 2. Approximately half of the utilized acetate was metabolized via the Krebs' cycle. About 40 to 50% of the acetate carbon metabolized via the Kreb's cycle was recovered as CO 2 , and about 20% each in glucose and glutamate. 3. 3. Fasting for 24–48 hours did not affect the conversion of 14 C of 14 C-acetate to CO 2 , glucose, and glutamate. It did, however, greatly depress acetate incorporation into the di- and tricarboxylic acids. 4. 4. The carboxyl carbon of acetate was oxidized to CO 2 three times as rapidly as was the methyl carbon. On the other hand, the incorporation of the methyl carbon into glucose was three times as great as that of the carboxyl carbon, and the incorporation into glutamate, one and one-half times as great. 5. 5. A model is presented for the operation of the Kreb's cycle that will account for the abovementioned ratios. It is concluded that, in rat liver slices, the Krebs' cycle acts as a synthetic as well as an oxidative mechanism.
Fluorescence and laser photon counting: measurements of epithelial [Ca2+]i or [Na+]i with ciliary beat frequency.

We describe a system we developed that enabled simultaneous measurements of either epithelial calcium ion concentration ([Ca2+]i) or sodium ion concentration [Na+]i with the ciliary beat frequency (CBF) in native ciliated epithelia using either Fura-2 (AM) or SBFI (AM) ratiometric fluorescence photon counting along with nonstationary laser light scattering. Studies were performed using native epithelial tissues obtained from ovine tracheae. The dynamic range of the laser light-scattering system was determined by a simulated light “beating” experiment. The nonstationary CBF was demonstrated by the time-frequency analysis of the raw photon count sequences of backscattered heterodyne photons from cultured and native epithelia. Calibrations of calcium and sodium ion concentrations were performed using the respective Fura-2 and SBFI impermanent salts as well as in native epithelia. The cumulative responses of 10−6, 10−5, and 10−4} M nifedipine on [Ca2+]i together with the CBF as well as the cumulative responses of 10−5, 10−4, and 10−3 M amiloride on [Na+]i together with the CBF were also determined. Nifedipine decreased [Ca2+]i but had no effect on CBF. Amiloride decreased [Na+]i and CBF. Stimulation of CBF corresponded with either an increase of [Na+]i or an increase of [Ca2+]i. Decreases of [Na+]i or substantial decreases of [Ca2+]i were associated with decreases in the CBF. These data demonstrate the utility of this system for investigating the regulatory mechanisms of intracellular ions dynamics and the CBF in native epithelia. © 1998 Biomedical Engineering Society.
A dialysis study on the conformation of lysozyme and its binding properties with N-acetyl-d-glucosamine

Abstract The technique of thin-film dialysis has been applied to the study of the conformational mobility of lysozyme in solution. An increase of ionic strength by NaCl in the solvent (0.01 M acetic acid, pH 3.3) increases slightly the diffusional size of lysozyme. This change is reversible and does not inactivate enzymatic activity. Bovine pancreatic ribonuclease A and chymotrypsinogen A show a similar behavior. N-Acetyl- d -glucosamine (NAG) does not add to the effect of NaCl on lysozyme except at near 0.01 M where the diffusional size increases. Tritium-hydrogen exchange studies reveal that 10 fewer hydrogens are accessible to solvent in the presence of 1.0 M NaCl than in the absence of salt. At the constant ionic strength of 0.06 in phosphate buffer, the variation of pH from 4.5 to 9.0 results in changes in the rates of dialysis with a minimum diffusional size at pH 5.9 which coincides with the presumed pKa of the catalytic site. This trough disappears in the presence of 10−3 M NAG. The thin-film method is also applied to studies of NAG-lysozyme binding with the result that the binding constant is shown to increase with a decrease in the concentration of lysozyme. A Scatchard plot of the data reveals a behavior suggestive of allosteric interaction at a lysozyme concentration lower than 2 × 10−4 M. This phenomenon could be explained by the lower binding capacity of lysozyme dimer. The dissociation of the latter to monomer is a function of both lysozyme and NAG concentrations.
Functional Comparison of Native and Recombinant Human Salivary Histatin 1

Histatin 1 is a histidine-rich phosphoprotein present in human parotid saliva that possesses candidacidal activity and functions in mineralization by adsorbing to hydroxyapatite. The objective of the present study was to develop a system for recombinant production of histatin 1 and to examine the role of phosphorylation in the functional activities of this molecule. Native histatin 1 (containing a phosphoserine at residue 2) was purified from parotid saliva, whereas a bacterial expression system was used to produce a recombinant form of histatin 1 (re-Hstl) that lacked phosphorylated serine. Histatin 1 cDNA was inserted into the vector pGEX-3X, which expresses foreign genes as soluble fusion proteins attached to the carboxyl-terminus of glutathione S-transferase (GST). The GST/re-Hstl fusion protein was isolated from cell lysates by affinity chromatography on glutathione (GSH)-Sepharose and digested with cyanogen bromide to separate re-Hstl from the GST fusion partner. The digest was subjected to reversed...
Neurohypophyseal hormones and analogues: magnesium dependence and contraction of arterial smooth muscle.

The present quantitative results, using isolated rat aorta, demonstrate that different [Mg2+]o (i.e. 0.2, 1.2 and 6.0 mM) potentiate the contractile actions of a variety of neuohypophyseal hormones and synthetic analogues on vascular smooth muscle. [Mg2+]o can alter both the hormone-receptor affinities (H-RA) and intrinsic (contractile) activities (i.a.) of these peptides on vascular muscle; 1.2 mM [Mg2+]o (approximately that found in rat plasma) appears to optimize H-RA and i.a. on rat aortic smooth muscle. The presence of [Mg2+]o not only steepens the concentration-effect curves to the neurohypophyseal peptides but increases the maximum contractile responses as well. The present findings question that [Mg+]o potentiates responses to neurohypophyseal peptides by vascular muscle solely by affecting H-RA. The present study supports the notion that Mg2+ potentiates responses to these peptides by acting at sites other than the receptor in mammalian vascular muscle. In addition, the present experiments suggest that the [Mg2+]o dependence of neurohypophyseal peptides on at lesast one mammalian vascular muscle-rat aorta- is directly rather than inversely proportional to the rat pressor potency of the molecules. Further, the vasopressin receptor which subserves contraction in mammalian blood vessels may differ in this respect from that in uterine smooth muscle.
MT6D: A Moving Target IPv6 Defense

The Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) brings with it a seemingly endless supply of network addresses. It does not, however, solve many of the vulnerabilities that existed in Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4). In fact, privacy-related crimes in IPv6 are made easier due to the way IPv6 addresses are formed. We developed a Moving Target IPv6 Defense (MT6D) that leverages the immense address space of IPv6. The two goals of MT6D are maintaining user privacy and protecting against targeted network attacks. These goals are achieved by repeatedly rotating the addresses of both the sender and receiver. Address rotation occurs, regardless of the state of ongoing sessions, to prevent an attacker from discovering the identities of the two communicating hosts. Rotating addresses mid-session prevents an attacker from even determining that the same two hosts are communicating. The continuously changing addresses also force an attacker to repeatedly reacquire the target node before he or she can launch a successful network attack. Our proof of concept demonstrates the feasibility of MT6D and its ability to seamlessly bind new IPv6 addresses. We also demonstrate MT6D's ability to rotate addresses mid-session without dropping or renegotiating sessions. Since MT6D operates at the network layer of the protocol stack, it provides a powerful moving target solution that is both platform and application independent.
Reversal of chronic rhinosinusitis-associated sinonasal ciliary dysfunction.

BackgroundAlthough multiple etiologies contribute to the development of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS), a common pathophysiological sequelae is ineffective sinonasal mucociliary clearance, leading to stasis of sinonasal secretions, with subsequent infection and/or persistent inflammation. Proper therapeutic intervention typically restores mucociliary activity, suggesting that the pathophysiological process(es) responsible for CRS-associated mucostasis may be reversible. We previously demonstrated a blunted response of CRS sinonasal cilia after purinergic stimulation. This study investigated whether the blunted ciliary response is unique to purinergic stimulation and addressed whether the blunted effect is primarily caused by local CRS-associated mediators or inherent genetic defects in ciliary function.MethodsA dual temperature-controlled perfusion chamber, differential interference contrast microscopy, and high-speed digital video were used to analyze both basal as well as cholinergic, adrenergic, and puri...
The crystal and molecular structure of bis(diacetamide)(perchlorato)sodium(I)

Abstract The structure of bis(diacetamide)(perchlorato) sodium(I), Na[(CH3CONHCOCH3)2ClO4], has been determined from three dimensional X-ray diffraction data using monochromatic CuKα radiation. The unit cell is monoclinic, space group P21/c, having dimensions a = 7.529(3) A, b = 20.69(2) A, c = 10.974(5) A, β = 122.4(1)°, and Z = 4. The intensity data were collected on an EnrafNonius CAD-4 automated diffractometer. The structure was determined by the heavy atom method and refined anisotropically by block diagonal least squares to a conventional unweighted R factor of 0.078. The compound is a dimer, each sodium being bonded to six oxygens, one from the perchlorate ion and the other five from the diacetamides, two of which form bridges between the sodium atoms. The dimers form infinite chains along the [001] direction. The units of the chain are held together by hydrogen bonds between an amide group and a perchlorato oxygen. Sodium-oxygen bond distances fall within the range 2.31–2.51 A. It is believed that this is the first reported structure in which perchlorate is coordinated to a non-transition metal.
Ab initio computations in atoms and molecules

The present status of ab initio computations for atomic and molecular wave functions is analyzed in this paper, with special emphasis on the work done at the IBM Research Laboratory, San Jose. The Roothaan-Hartree-Fock method has been described in detail for atomic systems. A systematic tabulation of atomic Hartree-Fock functions has been made available in an extended supplement to this paper. Techniques for computing many-center, two-electron matrix elements have been discussed for Slater or Gaussian basis sets. It is concluded that the two possibilities are comparable in efficiency. We have advanced a few suggestions for the extension of the self-consistent field technique to macromolecules. The validity of the suggestions have not been tested. Following the Bethe and Salpeter formalism, the relativistic correction has been discussed and illustrated with numerical results for closed-shell atoms. A brief analysis of the relativistic correction for molecular systems shows that the relativistic effects cannot be neglected in ionic systems containing third-row atoms. The correlation energy is discussed from an experimental starting point. The relativistic and Hartree-Fock energies are used for determining the correlation energy for the elements of the first three periods of the atomic system. A preliminary analysis of the data brings about a "simple pairing" model. Data from the third period force us to consider the "simple pairing" model as a first-order approximation to the "complex pairing" model. The latter model is compared with the geminals method and limitations of the latter are pointed out. A semiempirical model, where use is made of a pseudopotential that represents a coulomb hole, is advanced and preliminary results are presented. This model gives reason to some hope for the practical formulation of a Coulomb-Hartree-Fock technique where the correlation effects are accounted for and the one-particle approximation is retained.
A multi-purpose polarimeter for X-ray studies

Abstract A compact polarimeter for the characterization of X-ray polarization has been built and tested. The device permits the measurement of linear polarization by Bragg diffraction and the determination of circular polarization by means of multiple-beam diffraction [1]. This device is small enough to be mounted on the two-theta arm of a 4-circle spectrometer so that the polarization properties of a beam emerging from an X-ray experiment can be determined. We present several schematic views and important details of the device design. In addition we present results obtained in using the polarimeter to characterize both the angular distribution of synchrotron radiation at the CHESS F3 station and from measurements of resonant diffraction in hematite (α-Fe2O3) near the iron K-edge.
A component infrastructure for performance and power modeling of parallel scientific applications

Characterizing the performance of scientific applications is essential for effective code optimization, both by compilers and by high-level adaptive numerical algorithms. While maximizing power efficiency is becoming increasingly important in current high-performance architectures, little or no hardware or software support exists for detailed power measurements. Hardware counter-based power models are a promising method for guiding software-based techniques for reducing power. We present a component-based infrastructure for performance and power modeling of parallel scientific applications. The power model leverages on-chip performance hardware counters and is designed to model power consumption for modern multiprocessor and multicore systems. Our tool infrastructure includes application components as well as performance and power measurement and analysis components. We collect performance data using the TAU performance component and apply the power model in the performance and power analysis of a PETSc-based parallel fluid dynamics application by using the PerfExplorer component.
THE POLITICS OF IMPLEMENTATION: THE CORPORATIST PARADIGM APPLIED TO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF OREGON'S STATEWIDE TRANSPORTATION PLANNING RULE

Oregon's Transportation Planning Rule, adopted in 1991, originally called for all localities to create plans in compliance with goals of a 10% decrease in parking spaces and a 20% decrease in vehicle miles traveled during a 30-year period. This paper examines how the public and private sector negotiated the implementation of this challenging public policy. The implementation process is placed within the context of a modified corporatist paradigm involving a directive state, the private sector and litigious public interest groups. Recent amendments illustrate tensions among these three groups. The analysis concludes that three factors explain the successes and failures in the rule implementation: a shared commitment among all parties to do what they regard as right, the threat of lawsuit and persistent negotiation.
The Political Economy of the Ecological Native

In Chimalapas, Mexico, nongovernmental actors attempted to integrate campesinos into the discourse and practices of the Western environmental movement. The political economy school of anthropology assumes that cultural identity and practice flow from historical experiences grounded in relevant national and institutional contexts. In this article, I argue that although the movement in Chimalapas drew from the well-developed symbolic toolkit of the environmental movement, it was not able to create a space for local concerns within a transnational agenda that was already fairly well established and inflexible. Political ecology was the hinge of this movement: a political-economic analysis that validated traditional agrarian concerns in Chimalapas but included an environmentalist discourse legible to international funders. In this way, environmentalists in Chimalapas attempted both to create new practices and to link old practices to new expressions of culture and identity.
A cold chain network for food exports to developing countries

This article examines the business relationships in the cold chain used for exporting food to new markets in developing countries. The American Potato Trade Alliance, a cross‐network alliance that includes all levels of the value chain, is the subject of case study research involving participant observation and fieldwork in the Philippines and Thailand. Multinational restaurant companies manage technical challenges in target markets with tight specifications and exclusive supply chains, while smaller firms use extensive networks to supply imported frozen potatoes. Pricing strategies for cold chain services are closely related to quality and potentially affect the availability of outsourced cold chain services. Opportunistic behavior by buyers could reduce incentives for private investment in cold chain infrastructure, while long‐term commitment by chain partners would strengthen the potential for private markets to provide cold chain services in newly developing markets.
Direct Observation of the Coulomb Correlation Gap in a Nonmetallic Semiconductor, Si:B.

Using electron tunneling, we report the first direct spectroscopic measurement of the Coulomb correlation gap in the density of states $N(\ensuremath{\varepsilon})$ of a nonmetallic doped semiconductor Si: B. In agreement with analytic models, $N(\ensuremath{\varepsilon})$ is found to have a nearly parabolic energy dependence, resulting in a "soft" zero at the Fermi energy, with a gap width \ensuremath{\approx}0.75 meV. Resistivity measurements show that this energy governs the observed crossover temperature between noninteracting and correlated hopping transport.
A service for queue prediction and job statistics

Science Gateways often execute computations on clusters managed by batch schedulers. These schedulers queue computations until resources are available and then execute them. Clusters are typically scarce resources so the amount of time a computation waits before it begins to execute can be significant. Gateways can potentially reduce the turn around time of their computations and improve their user experience if they use estimates of how long computations will wait in a queue before beginning to execute. This paper describes a service that provides such estimates as well as current and historical job information. An instance of this service has been deployed on TeraGrid and is available to TeraGrid science gateways.
Characterization and Analysis of Dynamic Parallelism in Unstructured GPU Applications

In this study, we seek to characterize such dynamically formed parallelism and and evaluate implementations designed to exploit them using CUDA Dynamic Parallelism (CDP) - an execution model where parallel workload are launched dynamically from within kernels when pockets of structured parallelism are detected. We characterize and evaluate such implementations by analyzing the impact on control and memory behavior measurements on commodity hardware. In particular, the study targets a comprehensive understanding of the overhead of current CDP support in GPUs in terms of kernel launch, memory footprint and algorithm overhead. Experiments show that while the CDP implementation can generate potentially 1.13x-2.73x speedup over non-CDP implementations, the non-trivial overhead causes the overall performance an average of 1.21x slowdown.
Study of semidilute fibre suspension rheology with lattice-Boltzmann method

A hybrid lattice-Boltzmann numerical simulation method is undertaken to study the rheology of non-colloidal, rigid fibres in sheared, semidilute Newtonian suspension. The viscosity and the first normal stress difference are calculated with the combined use of numerical fibre orientation information and a corrected form of the slender body theory of Batchelor (J Fluid Mech Digit Arch 46(4):813–829, 1971). The corrections make the theory applicable in semidilute suspension flow (Shaqfeh and Fredrickson, Phys Fluids A: Fluid Dyn 2(1):7–24, 1990) with fibres of finite aspect ratio. The corrected theory within its framework, based on spacing among fibres in semidilute suspension, only considers hydrodynamic interactions among fibres and inferences that the effect of actual fibre–fibre mechanical contacts on rheological properties of such suspension systems remains inconsequential. To investigate this issue, the rheological properties of semidilute suspension were calculated directly from the numerical simulation. This approach accounted for both hydrodynamic and mechanical interactions among fibres. This direct measurement proved that the mechanical interactions increase both the relative shear viscosity and the first normal stress difference in the semidilute suspension to values which are larger than permissible within the framework of Batchelor’s theory.
Energy Consumption of Asphalt and Reinforced Concrete Pavement Materials and Construction

In addition to traditional economic and technical objectives, environmental impact, and sustainability are increasingly being considered in the design of roadways and other infrastructure projects....
Profile-based spatial partitioning for parallel simulation of large-scale wildfires

Abstract Spatial partitioning is commonly used for parallel simulation of spatial–temporal systems, such as simulations of wildfires. Achieving effective spatial partitioning is a challenging task due to the dynamic behavior of the simulation models. This paper presents a partitioning method named profile-based spatial partitioning for parallel simulation of large scale wildfires. The profile-based partitioning exploits the dynamic behavior of a wildfire spread simulation model and uses it as a profile to guide the spatial partitioning for parallel simulations. Experimental results show that the profile-based partitioning can increase the degree of parallelism and improve the scalability of parallel simulations of large-scale wildfires.
Computer Network Testbed at Binghamton University

The Network Testbed at Binghamton University was designed to facilitate security research in the area of advanced IDS. It offers a secure, controlled environment for experimental analysis of the efficiency of various intrusion detection/mitigation and computer forensics systems. It allows for staging large scale experiments with real self-propagating malware on thousands of interacting heterogeneous nodes. This paper addresses some principles implemented in the Testbed design including the architecture, accessibility, security, and visualization. The Testbed provides effective ways to collect data representing the network and software operation. It facilitates secure time sharing of the hardware among different research projects. Its enhanced security is achieved by separation and hardening of the core services. The application of the Testbed is demonstrated by the following three experiments featuring novel IDS technologies: behavior-based IDS extracting predefined malicious functionalities from the system call data by semantic analysis, demonstration of the alarm propagation concept for the minimization of false alarms and the detection of distributed low and slow attacks, and network-wide IDS capable of automatic detection of functionalities and statistically significant variations of their relative frequencies indicative of information attacks.
On the psychology of adolescents' use of contraceptives

Abstract Adolescent contraceptive use has typically been described as being irrational. This impression is reinforced by the apparent widespread non‐use of contraception among sexually‐active teenagers‐who have had benefit of formal sex education and have contraceptive devices available to them. This paradox poses an important social problem. To account for adolescent irrationality the present paper discusses the cognitive‐emotional development typical of the adolescent years, particularly the egocentric nature of intuitive adolescent thought. Several practical implications for improving sex education are proposed on the basis of this discussion.