cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Implementation and evaluation of cloud analysis with WSR-88D reflectivity data for GSI and WRF-ARW

[1] The cloud analysis procedure of the Advanced Regional Prediction System (ARPS) is implemented in a proposed operational numerical forecast system composed of the Grid-point Statistical Interpolation (GSI) and the Advanced Research WRF (WRF-ARW). The case of 23 May 2005 Central Plains storm cluster is used to assess the impact of the cloud analysis using reflectivity data from six operational WSR-88D radars within the proposed operational configuration on 6-h forecast of the storm cluster. The cloud analysis is shown to significantly reduce the spin-up problem and improve the short-range forecast for the storm cluster, even at the relatively coarse 9 km resolution.
Dynamic response of rapidly heated space structures

A review of the dynamic response of rapidly heated space structures is presented. The historical review begins with a description of fundamental research on thermally induced oscillations in the 1950s. Then a review is presented of the events leading to the discovery of thermal flutter in the 1960s and 1970s. Finally, recent experience with thermally induced deformations of large, flexible spacecraft appendages is described. To provide insight into thermally induced oscillations, a description of modeling and analysis of spacecraft booms is provided and a numerical simulation of flexural thermal flutter is presented.
The effects of cell density and starvation on early developmental events in Dictyostelium discoideum

Abstract We show that removal of yeast extract and trypticase from growth medium is sufficient for induction of several key events which occur during the early stages of Dictyostelium differentiation: run-off of polysomes, the earliest known change in macromolecular metabolism; appearance of the cell surface cAMP receptor; and aggregation itself. Starvation of glucose has little effect on these parameters. These results are consistent with those of other investigators who showed that starvation only of amino acids will induce other activities associated with cAMP-mediated cell signaling and cell-cell adhesion. We show, in contrast, that other factors are involved in the increase in the relative rates of synthesis of three polypeptides very early in differentiation: actin, and two proteins (“45-min” proteins) which are synthesized only during the period of 45–90 min. The induction of synthesis of these three proteins and presumably, of their mRNAs, is not the result of starvation for glucose or amino acids but is the result of plating cells at high density. The increases in the synthesis of these proteins are dependent on the density at which cells are plated and do not occur at a density 75-fold lower than the density used in standard experiments. Cells growing at high density or near stationary phase do not show the induction of increased synthesis of actin or the “45-min” proteins. These experiments suggest that these early developmental changes may be dependent on a threshold level of a diffusible factor excreted early in development.
External Counterpressure and the MAST Suit: Current and Future Roles

External counterpressure devices, such as the MAST suit, may be lifesaving not only in acute hypovolemia secondary to abdominal, pelvic and lower extremity trauma, but in a number of other shock states as well. Expanded use of the MAST suit may well include not only supra-diaphragmatic injuries, but diverse entities such as pericardial tamponade, tension pneumothorax, and leaking aortic aneurysm, and as an adjunct to cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The limited adverse effects of the MAST suit, in conjunction with its rapidly favorable and rapidly reversible hemodynamic effect, make it an important tool not only in prehospital care and in the emergency department, but in a wide variety of hospital circumstances. For this reason emergency physicians must not only be aware of uses of the MAST suit themselves, but should be prepared to disseminate this information to the general medical community.
Exploring the Dynamics of Masturbation and Consensual Same-Sex Activity within a Male Maximum Security Prison:

Research on the topic of masturbation and same-sex sexual activities within male prisons has been sparse in sociological and correctional literature. The purpose of the present study was to examine the prevalence, amount, and frequency of masturbation and consensual homosexual activity among male inmates. Surveys were administered to 142 inmates in a male Southern correctional facility. The most salient variable associated with the frequency of male inmate masturbation was education. Educated inmates were more likely to be frequent masturbators in prison than less educated inmates. Race and religion had significant effects on same-sex activities within male prisons. White inmates were more likely to engage in consensual homosexual behavior than non-whites. In addition, non-Protestants were more likely than Protestants to engage in same-sex sexual activities while incarcerated. The present study finds support for both the deprivation and importation models.
Grand canonical ensemble Monte Carlo simulation of the dCpG/proflavine crystal hydrate

The grand canonical ensemble Monte Carlo molecular simulation method is used to investigate hydration patterns in the crystal hydrate structure of the dCpG/proflavine intercalated complex. The objective of this study is to show by example that the recently advocated grand canonical ensemble simulation is a computationally efficient method for determining the positions of the hydrating water molecules in protein and nucleic acid structures. A detailed molecular simulation convergence analysis and an analogous comparison of the theoretical results with experiments clearly show that the grand ensemble simulations can be far more advantageous than the comparable canonical ensemble simulations.
Transforming a Nation-Dominant International System

This paper investigates the problem of system transformation. Focusing on one attribute of system structure, the distribution of power, it is shown that certain power distributions are incompatible with certain optimizing behaviors. Specifically, it is shown that if a system contains a dominant nation, a nation whose power exceeds the sum of the power of all remaining nations, and if nations optimize using stochastic inputs, then the dominant nation will lose its superiority. It is further shown, through a generalization of the argument, that the application of stochastic inputs also insures against subsystem dominance, thus providing a guarantee against “spheres of influence” by some nations over subsets of nations. The general argument is substantiated by showing that similar results can be obtained by way of two different forms of analysis.
Opportunities for growth in the European health and fitness sector

This paper examines whether there are still opportunities left in the UK health and fitness market given the significant growth in recent years. Or are the key opportunities now in continental Europe, where the market is considered to be less mature than that of the UK? Are the key opportunities in organic growth or in consolidation? These issues are considered for both the UK and continental European markets.
Channel-warped impulse propagation functions

This paper discusses some potential approaches to developing next-generation radar technologies via the development of smart hardware subsystems that have the intrinsic capability to compensate for channel warping and propagation distortions. Discussions with regard to typical categories of propagation distortions are provided along with a series of sample scenarios that can provide challenging conditions for radar remote sensing applications. Observations of this set of sample scenarios allows for the exploration of potential approaches to developing state-of-the art digital, RF, and RF/Photonic technologies with intrinsic smart compensation capabilities that will enable the development of highresolution radars that can operate at longer ranges while maintaining compact size and weight requirements.
Reliability prediction of diffused pathset routing in wireless multihop networks

Wireless multihop networks such as ad hoc and mesh networks are susceptible to both random uncertainty of radio links and malicious jamming. Traditional unipath routing techniques reduce the overall packet delivery ratio in presence of network failures. Being able to predict the reliability of a transmission a priori can be useful in designing reliable networks. We consider a network of nodes addressed by their locations carrying out redundancy-based routing, and propose an analytical model that can predict the reliability of a transmission given certain parameters such as network node density and region of network involved in the transmission. For this study we consider a geo-diffuse multipath routing technique called Petal routing, which takes advantage of the broadcast nature of wireless networks to reduce the number of transmissions for multiple paths. We investigate the accuracy of the analytical model by comparing metrics such as reliability obtained from the model and from OPNET simulations.
Herpes simplex virus persistence in mouse neuroblastoma (C 1300) cell cultures: role of interferon.

The Mp strain of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV1) induced a persistent infection in the mouse C 1300 neuronal cell line (clone N 115). C 1300 cultures infected at an MOI of 0.01 or 0.001 survived the initial infection and continued to produce infectious virus and viral antigens for 185 days and 31 days, respectively. Viral antigens were not detected in cultures no longer producing infectious virus; these “cured” cultures had comparable susceptibility to reinfection with HSV as previously uninfected C 1300 cells. While significant amounts of interferon were produced by C 1300 cells when challenged with Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV) or when treated with poly I:C, HSV-induced interferon could not be detected in either the acutely or persistently infected cell lines. The persistent state was not significantly altered by the addition of 1,000 units/ml of murine interferon alpha plus beta (MuIFNα+β), nor was it affected by the addition of antibody to MuIFN. It appears that IFN does not play an important role in the establishment and/or maintenance of viral persistence in this neuronal system.
Vegetation characteristics of Swainson’s warbler habitat at the White River National Wildlife Refuge, Arkansas

The Swainson’s warbler (Limnothlypis swainsonii Audubon) is a species of concern within forested wetlands across the southeastern U.S. Previous studies involving low-elevation sites may not have adequately represented the habitat affinities of this species. We examined relationships between Swainson’s warbler occupancy and vegetation structure at relatively high-elevation bottomlands at White River National Wildlife Refuge (WRNWR). In 2004 and 2005, we systematically surveyed 1453 sites and collected vegetation data at 70 occupied sites (< 5% occupancy) and 106 randomly selected unoccupied sites. Occupied sites had greater canopy cover, density of cane (Arundinaria gigantea Walt. Chapm.) and shrub stems, litter depth, and greater and more uniform understory vegetation density than unoccupied sites. Moreover, cane and understory vegetation density were associated with more persistent habitat use. Ultimately, cane stem density was the best predictor of Swainson’s warbler occupancy with an AICcin weight of 99% over all models considered. Overall, our results suggest that cane, dense understory structure, and a well-developed leaf-litter layer are key habitat components for Swainson’s warblers at WRNWR. These findings are especially relevant given the substantial decline of canebrakes throughout the Southeast. Swainson’s warbler management should include enhancement of canebrakes via manipulations that mimic natural disturbances.
A New SVM Reduction Strategy of Large-Scale Training Sample Sets

There has become a bottleneck to use support vector machine (SVM) due to the problems such as slow learning speed, large buffer memory requirement, low generalization performance and so on. These problems are caused by large-scale training sample set and outlier data immixed in the other class. Aiming at these problems, this paper proposed a new reduction strategy for large-scale training sample set according to analyzing on the structure of the training sample set based on the point set theory. By using fuzzy clustering method in this new strategy, the potential support vectors are obtained and the non-boundary outlier data immixed in the other class is removed. In view of reducing greatly the scale of the training sample set, it improves the generalization performance of SVM and effectively avoids over-learning. Finally, the experimental results shown the given reduction strategy can not only reduce the train samples of SVM and speed up the train process, but also ensure accuracy of classification.
Family play and leisure activities: correlates of parents' and children's socio-emotional well-being

Guided by systems theory, this mixed-methods study of 98 families examined parent- and child-reported play, exploration, and leisure activities in relation to family members' socio-emotional well-being. Parents and children completed surveys independently and interviews were conducted with a subset of families. Quantitative findings showed that child report of secure exploration with both parents, and mother report of leisure activities, were associated with some couple and parent–child well-being indicators and nearly all child well-being indicators. Father report of play and leisure activities was associated with more couple and parent–child well-being indicators than mother report and showed some differences in associations with child well-being indicators. Interview data provided examples of how families incorporate play and leisure into their busy lives and the perceived benefits and enjoyment derived from these activities. These findings emphasize the importance of family play and leisure involvemen...
Fetal head biometry assessed by fetal magnetic resonance imaging following in utero myelomeningocele repair.

Objective: To examine the impact of fetal myelomeningocele (MMC) repair on fetal head biometry and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) spaces assessed by magnetic resonance imaging (MR) studi
Inhalation of Concentrated Ambient Particulate Matter Near a Heavily Trafficked Road Stimulates Antigen-Induced Airway Responses in Mice

Motor vehicle exhaust emissions are known to exacerbate asthma and other respiratory diseases. Several studies have demonstrated significant associations between living near highly trafficked roadw...
Alternating Pattern of Stereochemistry in the Nonactin Macrocycle Is Required for Antibacterial Activity and Efficient Ion Binding

Nonactin is a polyketide antibiotic produced by Streptomyces griseus ETH A7796 and is an ionophore that is selective for K+ ions. It is a cyclic tetraester generated from two monomers of (+)-nonactic acid and two of (−)-nonactic acid, arranged (+)-(−)-(+)-(−) so that nonactin has S4 symmetry and is achiral. To understand why achiral nonactin is the naturally generated diastereoisomer, we generated two alternate diastereoisomers of nonactin, one prepared solely from (+)-nonactic acid and one prepared solely from (−)-nonactic acid, referred to here as ‘all-(+)-nonactin’ and ‘all-(−)-nonactin’, respectively. Both non-natural diastereoisomers were 500-fold less active against Gram positive organisms than nonactin confirming that the natural stereochemistry is necessary for biological activity. We used isothermal calorimetry to obtain the Ka, ΔG, ΔH, and ΔS of formation for the K+, Na+, and NH4+ complexes of nonactin and all-(−)-nonactin; the natural diastereoisomer bound K+ 880-fold better than all-(−)-nonact...
Strategies for Dealing with Rogue Trustees

In the two previous articles in this three-part series the author reported on the motivations and damage caused by rogue trustees. The articles are based on a study of 59 community college CEOs from 16 different states. In this final article the author addresses the strategies that presidents and their board chairs have used to curtail the activities and correct the damage of rogue trustees. The strategies range from obvious advice to create policies and involve the rogue trustee in trustee development programs, to more hard-ball strategies that include political pressure and public censure.
Clinical Use of Carotid Intima-Media Thickness: Review of the Literature

Carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) is a simple and inexpensive tool to assess the cumulative effect of atherosclerotic risk factors and is an independent predictor of future cardiovascular risk. CIMT is commonly used as a surrogate end point in research trials as a marker of atherosclerosis. However, new software programs have made CIMT a clinically practical examination for risk evaluation. CIMT correlates with cardiac risk factors and is an independent predictor of future myocardial infarction and stroke risk. Tests for subclinical atherosclerosis, such as CIMT, will help clinicians to more effectively identify the vulnerable patient who would benefit from aggressive prevention intervention.
Activation of Rubisco regulates photosynthesis at high temperature and CO2

The enzyme Rubisco, short for ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase, is the enzyme that incorporates CO2 into plants during photosynthesis. As it constitutes about 30% of the total protein in a plant leaf, Rubisco is probably the most abundant protein on earth and a major sink for plant nitrogen. Rubisco is widely accepted as the ultimate rate-limiting step in photosynthetic carbon fixation. Atmospheric oxygen competes with CO2 as a substrate for Rubisco, giving rise to photorespiration. When first purified, the enzyme appeared to have a poor affinity for CO2 [ K m (CO2)] of 450 μM (1), whereas air in equilibrium with water, 25°C, is about 10 μM. Later, Lorimer et al. (2) showed that the active site of Rubisco must first be carbamylated by an activator CO2, separate from the substrate CO2, and must bind Mg2+ before binding the five-carbon substrate, ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate (RuBP). Indeed, on addition of RuBP, the measured K m(CO2) approached the concentrations of dissolved CO2 in water; however, the rate of the reaction was sustained for only 5 minutes and then declined rapidly. This decline was shown to be caused by the tight binding of RuBP to Rubisco that had lost the activator CO …
The Relationship Between Referral Types, Work Performance, and Employee Problems

The relationship between the types of supervisory referrals and self-referrals to an employee assistance program to the work performance and kinds of personal problems of the employees referred is examined. For formal supervisory referrals Absenteeism was the most common work performance problems; for informal supervisory referrals Awareness of Slipping was the reason most commonly noted: and for self-referrals Interpersonal Relations problems predominated. Among employees wih alcohol and drug problems, more were self-referred than formally or informally referred by supervisors.
Unknown input observer design and analysis for networked control systems

The insertion of communication networks in the feedback loops of control systems is a defining feature of modern control systems. These systems are often subject to unknown inputs in a form of disturbances, perturbations, or attacks. The objective of this paper is to design and analyse an observer for networked dynamical systems with unknown inputs. The network effect can be viewed as either a perturbation or time-delay to the exchanged signals. In this paper, we (1) review an unknown input observer (UIO) design for a non-networked system, (2) derive the networked unknown input observer (NetUIO) dynamics, (3) design a NetUIO such that the effect of higher delay order terms are nullified and (4) establish stability-guaranteeing bounds on the networked-induced time-delay and perturbation. The formulation and results derived in this paper can be generalised to scenarios and applications where the signals are perturbed due to a different source of perturbation or delay.
CM-SIM: a parallel circuit simulator on a distributed memory multiprocessor

We took the design of on existing circuit simulator, SPICE, considered various parallelization techniques, and selected a relaxation-based algorithm, Iterated Timing Analysis, for further study. In this report, the implementation of this algorithm on the CM-5 is described. Simulation is performed by a collection of subcircuits communicating with one another by sending asynchronous event messages. Initial studies on two platforms, Split-C, a parallel extension of C, and the CMMD message passing library, indicate that this approach, with appropriate partitioning and scheduling taking granularity into account, has a great deal of potential for reducing the cost of circuit simulation. We also tried to exploit parallelism by scheduling the events optimistically. Trace driven analysis shows that the optimistic simulation method exploits more parallelism than the conservative methods for circuits with feedback signal paths. >
Comment on ‘MeSH-up

Contact: neveola@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
ENHANCING EVACUATION WARNING COMPLIANCE: SUGGESTIONS FOREMERGENCY PLANNING*

SUMMARY This review of incentives to evacuate is meaningful largely in the context of planning for and managing the consequences of the impact of riverine floods. Of course, incentives do not constitute an emergency plan. At best, they should be seen as suggestions for structuring some elements of a plan. Furthermore, the enumeration of incentives presented here is meant to be suggestive rather than exhaustive. A primary objective of this paper has been to underscore the importance of advance planning in coping with hazards and to argue that, even though limited, existing research can be productively used in the planning process. The incentives described here are based upon or drawn from empirical research on people's performance under flood disaster conditions. This reflects the view that it is important to build emergency planning around people's known reaction patterns. Too often emergency plans which are administratively devised turn out to be based upon misconceptions of how people react (cf. Drabek and Stephenson, 1971, p. 202; Dynes et al., 1972, p. 31) and, therefore, potentially create more difficulties than they solve. One must be cautioned, however, that although our data indicate that people say they would support the idea of various evacuation incentives examined here, these are attitudinal data and not performance data. Thus, the real test of evacuation incentives lies in their implementation and in evaluation data on pilot programs which, unfortunately, do not presently exist. The outlook for the feasibility of developing and utilizing evacuation incentives appears to be positive, though, judging from responses to our interviews. In the final analysis, it would appear to be wise to develop emergency plans which guide and channel citizen actions into complementary and productive protection behavior patterns. The present discussion of incentives to evacuate is intended to encourage data-based emergency planning.
A CMOS UV-programmable non-volatile synaptic array

A CMOS floating-gate-based nonvolatile analog circuit that implements an array of simple processing synaptic elements is described. In this implementation, unfocussed ultraviolet (UV) radiation is utilised to photo-activate electrons in the silicon conduction band across an oxide barrier onto another slab of silicon that forms an isolated gate of a transistor. It is based on a four-quadrant analog multiplier circuit requiring both X and Y differential inputs, where one such Y-input node is UV programmable. This method relies on exposing the synaptic array with UV light and serially writing the connection weights. These non volatile multiplier cells have been implemented as a fully connected 32*32 cross-bar synaptic matrix using standard p-well CMOS VLSI fabrication process with a 2- mu m feature size. >
Educating pediatric residents about breastfeeding: evaluation of 3 time-efficient teaching strategies.

Background:Previously reported breastfeeding curricula for residents have combined different teaching methods, have focused on knowledge and attitudes, and have been time-intensive.Objective:This study aimed to evaluate 3 time-efficient breastfeeding curricula for effectiveness in regard to pediatric residents’ knowledge, confidence, and skills in managing a simulated breastfeeding scenario.Methods:First-year pediatric residents during their 4-week community hospital newborn nursery rotation were consecutively assigned to 1 of 3 groups. Group 1 shadowed an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) for 1 hour; group 2 watched a 25-minute case-based breastfeeding DVD; and group 3 observed a 3-hour prenatal parent breastfeeding class (CLS). Residents were assessed by (1) a pretest and posttest evaluating their breastfeeding knowledge and confidence, and (2) a clinical skills scenario managing a breastfeeding standardized patient (SP).Results:Thirty-nine pediatric residents participated in th...
Tolerance to Small Delay Defects by Adaptive Clock Stretching

Bridging defects typically manifest themselves as increased path delays instead of stuck-at failures. On the other hand, parametric variations (both inter- and intra-die) increase the spread of the circuit delay. Low power design techniques such as voltage scaling, dual-Vth etc. deteriorate the delay spread further. These mechanisms for delay variations in nanoscaled technologies significantly affect the parametric yield. We propose a new design methodology to tolerate subtle delay failures that arise both due to manufacturing defects and parameter fluctuations. We synthesize the circuit to (a) isolate and predict the critical paths of a circuit; (b) create timing slack between critical and off-critical paths and ensure that they are activated rarely; and, (c) avoid the delay failures in these paths by adaptively stretching the clock period. Since critical paths are the most sensitive section of the circuit in terms of delay defects, we ensure fault-free operation by isolating them and providing extra computation time by predicting their activation. This allows us to achieve the required yield with small performance penalty (due to occasional clock stretching under critical path activation). We present application of the proposed methodology for both linear and non-linear pipeline designs. We also suggest two possible circuit-level implementations of clock stretching using clock gating and handshaking, respectively. Simulations on MCNC benchmark circuits with BPTM 70 nm devices show that the proposed technique can achieve good yield by tolerating increased path delays (under variations and bridging defects of various sizes) with small overhead in performance and ~14% die-area compared to the conventional design. For performance analysis, we have implemented the proposed methodology in simple in-order pipeline in Simplescalar. Simulation results on SPEC2000 benchmarks show less that 2% of IPC (instructions-per-cycle) degradation.
Use of array-based technology in the practice of medical genetics

Mental retardation affects approximately 3% of the population, and the background birth defect rate is 3% to 4%. An underlying cause is identified less than 50% of the time. In the cases in which a cause is determined, a chromosomal anomaly is the cause in up to 40%. Laboratory evaluation routinely includes high-resolution karyotyping, subtelomeric fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis, and targeted fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis depending on the clinical features. There are technical limitations to these techniques, however. For example, anomalies less than 2 to 3 Mb in size are undetectable by karyotype, and subtelomeric fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis is a labor-intensive analysis with a relatively low yield. With completion of the Human Genome Project, diagnostic testing is moving toward the use of DNA-based techniques such as comparative genomic hybridization microarray analysis or array comparative genomic hybridization. Although this technology has been used in the evaluation of tumors and cancer patients in the past, it is now being applied in the assessment of patients demonstrating idiopathic mental retardation or developmental delay, dysmorphic features, congenital anomalies, and spontaneous abortions. As with other well-developed cytogenetic studies, there are technical limitations to array comparative genomic hybridization that must be acknowledged and addressed before its widespread use. A variety of array-based technologies are now available on a clinical basis. We discuss the utility and limitations of using this technology in the evaluation of individuals with mental retardation and malformations, citing the existing literature.
Stromal Cell–Derived Factor-1α Plays a Critical Role in Stem Cell Recruitment to the Heart After Myocardial Infarction but Is Not Sufficient to Induce Homing in the Absence of Injury

Background— After myocardial infarction (MI), bone marrow–derived cells (BMDCs) are found within the myocardium. The mechanisms determining BMDC recruitment to the heart remain unclear. We investigated the role of stromal cell–derived factor-1α (SDF-1) in this process. Methods and Results— MI produced in mice by coronary ligation induced SDF-1 mRNA and protein expression in the infarct and border zone and decreased serum SDF-1 levels. By quantitative polymerase chain reaction, 48 hours after intravenous infusion of donor-lineage BMDCs, there were 80.5±15.6% more BDMCs in infarcted hearts compared with sham-operated controls (P<0.01). Administration of AMD3100, which specifically blocks binding of SDF-1 to its endogenous receptor CXCR4, diminished BMDC recruitment after MI by 64.2±5.5% (P<0.05), strongly suggesting a requirement for SDF-1 in BMDC recruitment to the infarcted heart. Forced expression of SDF-1 in the heart by adenoviral gene delivery 48 hours after MI doubled BMDC recruitment over MI alone (...
Multi-Domain Clock Skew Scheduling

The application of general clock skew scheduling is practically limited due to the difficulties in implementing a wide spectrum of dedicated clock delays in a reliable manner. This results in a significant limitation of the optimization potential. As an alternative, the application of multiple clocking domains with dedicated phase shifts that are implemented by reliable, possibly expensive design structures can overcome these limitations and substantially increase the implementable optimization potential of clock adjustments. In this paper we present an algorithm for constrained clock skew scheduling which computes for a given number of clocking domains the optimal phase shifts for the domains and the assignment of the individual registers to the domains. For the within-domain latency values, the algorithm can assume a zero-skew clock delivery or apply a user-provided upper bound. Our experiments demonstrate that a constrained clock skew schedule using a few clocking domains combined with small within-domain latency can reliably implement the full sequential optimization potential to date only possible with an unconstrained clock schedule.
PC HYPR flow: a technique for rapid imaging of contrast dynamics.

Purpose: To improve spatial and temporal resolution and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in three-dimensional (3D) radial contrast-enhanced (CE) time-resolved MR angiography by means of a novel hybrid phase contrast (PC) and CE MRA acquisition and HYPR reconstruction (PC HYPR Flow). Materials and Methods: PC HYPR Flow consists of a CE exam immediately followed by a PC scan used to constrain the HYPR reconstruction of the time series. Temporal resolution of the new method was studied in computer simulations. The feasibility of the new technique was studied in healthy subjects and patients with brain arteriovenous malformations and in a canine model of aneurysms. Results: Simulations demonstrated preservation of contrast agent dynamics in proximal vessels, showing better performance than peer methods for acceleration up to 20 in 2D. In vivo, PC HYPR Flow yielded 3D time series with frame rate of 0.5 s and significantly outperformed two peer methods by means of a major increase in spatial resolution (0.8 × 0.8 × 0.8 mm3) and arterial/venous ratio, while maintaining necessary temporal waveform fidelity and high SNR. Conclusion: This initial study indicates that PC HYPR Flow simultaneously provides 3D isotropic sub-millimeter spatial resolution, sub-second temporal reconstruction windows and high SNR level, which may benefit a wide range of CE MRA applications. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2010; 31: 447–456. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Quantitative description of the asymmetry in magnetization transfer effects around the water resonance in the human brain

Magnetization transfer (MT) imaging provides a unique method of tissue characterization by capitalizing on the interaction between solid-like tissue components and bulk water. We used a continuous-wave (CW) MT pulse sequence with low irradiation power to study healthy human brains in vivo at 3 T and quantified the asymmetry of the MT effects with respect to the water proton frequency. This asymmetry was found to be a difference of approximately a few percent from the water signal intensity, depending on both the RF irradiation power and the frequency offset. The experimental results could be quantitatively described by a modified two-pool MT model extended with a shift contribution for the semisolid pool with respect to water. For white matter, this shift was fitted to be 2.34 +/- 0.17 ppm (N = 5) upfield from the water signal.
Developmental Screening: Is There Enough Time?

Objectives. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends routine developmental screening in well-child care. Providers cite time restraints as a limitation preventing its widespread adoption. The objectives were to determine whether routine screening lengthened well-visits and was associated with changes in parent satisfaction and report of anticipatory guidance. Methods. Visits before and after implementation of routine screening were timed. Parents whose children were seen before or after screening began were contacted to query their perceptions of the visit. Results. There was no change in visit lengths after the screener was included. With screening, more parents reported their provider talked about their concerns, and that their questions were answered. There were no changes in parent satisfaction ratings or reports of anticipatory guidance discussions. Conclusions. The perceived obstacle that routine screening requires more time than pediatricians have should not prevent its adoption. Screening too...
Regulation of the glutamate-dependent acid-resistance system of diarrheagenic Escherichia coli strains

The ability to withstand an acid challenge of pH 2.5 or less by Escherichia coli strains is a trait generally believed to be restricted to their stationary phase of growth. Of the three distinct acid-resistance systems that have been identified in E. coli, the glutamate-dependent acid resistance (GAD) system provides the highest level of acid resistance. Earlier reports indicated that in the exponential growth phase of E. coli K-12 strains the GAD system is not active. The present study reports that when grown on minimal medium several diarrheagenic and K-12 strains of E. coli have a complete set of induced genes necessary for GAD in the exponential growth phase to overcome the acid challenge of pH 2.5 for several hours. A previously identified factor(s) specific to the GAD system in the stationary phase and predicted to undergo dilution during the exponential phase appears to be glutamate-decarboxylase isozyme(s) inactivated differentially in the rich vs. minimal growth media.
A Finite-Element-Based Domain Decomposition Method for Efficient Simulation of Nonlinear Electromechanical Problems

The dual-primal finite-element tearing and interconnecting (FETI-DP) method is combined with the Newton–Raphson method to expand the capability and improve the efficiency of 3-D finite-element analysis (FEA) of nonlinear electromechanical problems. Despite its modeling capability and high degree of accuracy, FEA has high computational complexity, especially for nonlinear analysis. The FETI-DP method is a robust domain decomposition method, which has been enhanced and applied to solve electromechanical problems involving linear materials. In this paper, the FETI-DP method is extended with the Newton–Raphson method to address problems involving nonlinearity and saturation. Using parallel computing techniques, the total computation time is reduced significantly. Linear and nonlinear regions are separated using the FETI-DP method. This further improves simulation efficiency and flexibility. Cubic splines and relaxation techniques are adopted to ensure stable and fast convergence of the Newton–Raphson method. The performance of the proposed method is compared with infolytica's MagNet, a commercial 3-D FEA solver.
Posterior tooth size, body size, and diet in South African gracile australopithecines

A model relating relative size of the posterior teeth to diet is suggested for forest and savanna primates and Homo. Relative tooth size is calculated for the South African gracile australopithecine sample using posterior maxillary area sums and size estimates based on four limb bones. A number of limbs were shown to be non-hominid. Comparisons show the South African gracile sample apparently adapted to a very heavily masticated diet with relative tooth size significantly greater than any living hominoid. Periodic intensive utilization of grains and roots combined with scavenged animal protein are suggested as the most likely dietary reconstruction.
Satisfiability and resiliency in workflow systems

We propose the role-and-relation-based access control (R2BAC) model for workflow systems. In R2BAC, in addition to a user's role memberships, the user's relationships with other users help determine whether the user is allowed to perform a certain step in a workflow. For example, a constraint may require that two steps must not be performed by users who have a conflict of interest. We also study the workflow satisfiability problem, which asks whether a set of users can complete a workflow. We show that the problem is NP-complete for R2BAC, and is NP-complete for any workflow model that supports certain simple types of constraints (e.g., constraints that state certain two steps must be performed by two different users). After that, we apply tools from parameterized complexity theory to better understand the complexities of this problem. We show that the problem is fixed-parameter tractable when the only relations used are = and ≠, and is fixed-parameter intractable when user-defined binary relations can be used. Finally, we study the resiliency problem in workflow systems, which asks whether a workflow can be completed even if a number of users may be absent. We formally define three levels of resiliency in workflow systems, namely, static resiliency, decremental resiliency and dynamic resiliency, and study computational problems related to these notions of resiliency.
Restricted diffusion of liquids in microporous catalysts

Transient diffusion and adsorption data were obtained for two sizes of ..gamma.. alumina catalysts pellets (pore volumes 0.0626 and 0.58 cc/g of catalyst), in an agitated reactor and for 21 systems involving various alkylbenzenes, n-alkanes, alkenes, and partially hydrogenated polycyclic aromatics, e.g., tetralin and acenaphthene, in cyclohexane, benzene, or toluene as solvent. The data were analyzed on the basis of a previously reported diffusion model. The results showed that the effective diffusivity for the transient diffusion processes involved in liquid diffusion in catalysts is inversely proportional to the partition coefficient. For Vertical Bar3; 0.1:1 ratio of molecular radius to average pore radius (i), at least the reduced diffusivity can be empirically related to an exponential type relationship in i/sup 3/.
Atazanavir metabolism according to CYP3A5 status: An in vitro - in vivo assessment

The current study was a follow-up to an in vivo study in which atazanavir oral clearance was shown to be dependent on genetically determined CYP3A5 expression status, but only in non-African Americans. The aim of this study was to identify atazanavir metabolites generated by CYP3A5 and to evaluate this metabolite pattern in the African-American versus non-African-American CYP3A5 expressors from the previous study. First, the in vitro metabolism of atazanavir was evaluated using human liver microsomes (HLM) and CYP3A4 and CYP3A5 isoforms. Second, the metabolite pattern generated by CYP3A5 was evaluated in human plasma samples from the previous study. Atazanavir metabolites were analyzed using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry methods. Metabolite areas under the time-concentration curves (AUCs) were normalized to atazanavir AUC to generate an AUC ratio. Sixteen metabolites were observed in human liver microsomal incubations representing five “phase I” biotransformation pathways. Mono-oxidation products (M1 and M2) were formed by CYP3A5 at a faster rate than CYP3A4 by 32- and 2.6-fold, respectively. This finding was replicated in HLM from a genetically determined CYP3A5 expressor versus nonexpressor. In the in vivo samples, the M1 and M2 AUC ratios were approximately 2-fold higher in CYP3A5 expressors versus nonexpressors (P < 0.05), and the difference was similar in African Americans and non-African Americans. Thus, CYP3A5 produced a unique metabolite “signature” for atazanavir in vitro and in vivo, independent of race. Therefore, other pharmacological factors are likely to explain the apparent lack of effect of genetically determined CYP3A5 expressor status on atazanavir oral clearance in African Americans from the previous study.
Three-Dimensional Carotid Plaque MR Imaging

There has been significant progress made in 3-dimensional (3D) carotid plaque MR imaging techniques in recent years. Three-dimensional plaque imaging clearly represents the future in clinical use. With effective flow-suppression techniques, choices of different contrast weighting acquisitions, and time-efficient imaging approaches, 3D plaque imaging offers flexible imaging plane and view angle analysis, large coverage, multivascular beds capability, and even can be used in fast screening.
Age-related changes in renal hemodynamics in female rats: role of multiple pregnancy and NO

The objective of the present study was to evaluate 1) the effect of multiple pregnancy and aging on renal function and 2) the effect of NO inhibition on renal function in aged virgin and multiply pregnant rats. Renal hemodynamics were measured in the presence or absence of chronic (2 wk) NO synthase inhibition (nitro-L-arginine methyl ester, L-NAME) in young virgins (YV, 3-4 mo), old virgins (OV, 17-18 mo), and old retired breeders (ORB, 17-18 mo) that had sustained eight to nine pregnancies and lactations. Blood pressure was not different between control YV and OV. Glomerular filtration rate (GFR), renal plasma flow (RPF), and renal vascular resistance (RVR) were similar in OV and control YV. In contrast, the renal vasculature of ORB was more vasoconstricted in ORB than in YV or OV:GFR was decreased by 35% and RVR was higher than in YV or OV. With L-NAME there were similar increases in arterial pressure in all rats. In control YV, L-NAME had no effect on GFR, decreased RPF by 20%, and increased RVR by twofold. In OV, L-NAME decreased GFR by 30% and RPF by 60% and increased RVR by 3.3-fold. In ORB, L-NAME had no effect on GFR, decreased RPF by 30%, and increased RVR by 1.8-fold. These data suggest that the renal vasculature of ORB is vasoconstricted and that the mechanism may be due to a decrease in NO production.
Symmetries and Meson Decays

In the spirit of the general goal of this conference, I have treated the label of the sector I was asked to consider as a broad license to talk briefly about four quite different experiments, connected by little except that their center was, or is, at Brookhaven National Laboratory. I will describe two basic discoveries of the 1950’s that it seemed others would not cover, and with a bow to the present, I discuss two on-going programs that are, at this time, important only in what they have not discovered; that is in the limits they place on breakdowns of symmetries. Moreover, I played no personal role in either of the important discoveries except inasmuch as the critical experiments were conducted by friends and colleagues of mine at Brookhaven. I did play a minor role in one of the two on-going programs and a more significant part in the other.
Using reduced personal protective equipment in an endemically infected mouse colony.

Personal protective equipment (PPE) frequently is used to reduce the risk of spreading adventitial diseases in rodent colonies. The PPE worn often reflects the historic practices of the research institution rather than published performance data. Standard PPE for a rodent facility typically consists of a disposable hair bonnet, gown, face mask, shoe covers, and gloves, which are donned on facility entry and removed on exiting. This study evaluated the effect of a reduced PPE protocol on disease spread within an endemically infected mouse colony. In the reduced protocol, only the parts of the wearer that came in direct contact with the mice or their environment were covered with PPE. To test the reduced PPE protocol, proven naive mice were housed in a facility endemically infected with murine norovirus and mouse hepatitis virus for 12 wk. During that time, routine husbandry operations were conducted by using either the standard or reduced PPE protocols. All study mice remained free of virus antibody when reduced PPE was implemented. These results indicate that reduced PPE is adequate for disease containment when correct techniques for handling microisolation caging are used. Reducing the amount of PPE used in an animal facility affords considerable cost savings yet limits the risk of disease spread.
Papers in the Science of Administration: Comment

This article presents a letter to the editor regarding the incorrect spelling of an author's name.
Reversible Tuning of the Surface Chemical Reactivity of Titanium Nitride and Nitride−Carbide Diffusion Barrier Thin Films

The chemical properties of titanium nitride−carbide (TiNC) and titanium nitride (TiN) films deposited on silicon are investigated comparatively, showing that the surface reactivity of nitride-based films can be modified precisely and reversibly by controlling the surface elemental composition. These materials are used as diffusion barrier films, and therefore understanding their surface chemistry is key for controlling further deposition steps during interconnect metallization. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) using Ti[N(CH3)2]4 leads to the formation of TiNC, and nitridation of this film through postannealing under NH3 decreases significantly the carbon content on the surface, leaving essentially a TiN surface, as characterized through the use of spectroscopic, depth-profiling, and microscopic techniques. As determined by the temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) studies of ethylene (carbidization reagent) and dimethylamine (decomposition product of the deposition precursor), the TiN surface is more rea...