cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Impacts of directed evolution and soil management legacy on the maize rhizobiome

Abstract Domestication and agricultural intensification dramatically altered maize and its cultivation environment. Changes in maize genetics (G) and environmental (E) conditions increased productivity under high-synthetic-input conditions. However, novel selective pressures on the rhizobiome may have incurred undesirable tradeoffs in organic agroecosystems, where plants obtain nutrients via microbially mediated processes including mineralization of organic matter. Using twelve maize genotypes representing an evolutionary transect (teosintes, landraces, inbred parents of modern elite germplasm, and modern hybrids) and two agricultural soils with contrasting long-term management, we integrated analyses of rhizobiome community structure, potential microbe-microbe interactions, and N-cycling functional genes to better understand the impacts of maize evolution and soil management legacy on rhizobiome recruitment. We show complex shifts in rhizobiome communities during directed evolution of maize (defined as the transition from teosinte to modern hybrids), with a larger effect of domestication (teosinte to landraces) than modern breeding (inbreds to hybrids) on rhizobiome structure and greater impacts of modern breeding on potential microbe-microbe interactions. Rhizobiome structure was significantly correlated with plant nutrient composition. Furthermore, plant biomass and nutrient content were affected by G x E interactions in which teosinte and landrace genotypes had better relative performance in the organic legacy soil than inbred and modern genotypes. The abundance of six N-cycling genes of relevance for plant nutrition and N loss pathways did not significantly differ between teosinte and modern rhizospheres in either soil management legacy. These results provide insight into the potential for improving maize adaptation to organic systems and contribute to interdisciplinary efforts toward developing resource-efficient, biologically based agroecosystems.
When to Add Human Narration to Photo-Sharing Social Media

Social media platforms facilitate communication through sharing photos and videos. The abundance of visual content creates accessibility issues, particularly for people who are blind or have low vision. While assistive technologies like screen readers can help when alt-text for images is provided, synthesized voices lack the human element that is important for social interaction. Here, we investigate when it makes the most sense to use human narration as opposed to a screen reader to describe photos in a social media context. We explore the effects of voice familiarity (i.e., whether you hear the voice of someone you know) and the perspective of the description (i.e., first vs. third person point-of-view (POV)). Preliminary study suggests that users prefer hearing from a person they know when the content is described in first person POV, whereas synthesized voice is preferred for content described in third person POV.
Derivation and investigation of the first human cell-based model of Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome

Genomic imprinting is a rare form of gene expression in mammals in which a small number of genes are expressed in a parent-of-origin-specific manner. The aetiology of human imprinting disorders is diverse and includes chromosomal abnormalities, mutations, and epigenetic dysregulation of imprinted genes. The most common human imprinting disorder is Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome (BWS), frequently caused by uniparental isodisomy and DNA methylation alterations. Because these lesions cannot be easily engineered, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) are a compelling alternative. Here, we describe the first iPSC model derived from patients with BWS. Due to the mosaic nature of BWS patients, both BWS and non-BWS iPSC lines were derived from the same patient's fibroblasts. Importantly, we determine that DNA methylation and gene expression patterns of the imprinted region in the iPSC lines reflect the parental cells and are stable over time. Additionally, we demonstrate that differential expression in insulin signalling, cell proliferation, and cell cycle pathways was seen in hepatocyte lineages derived from BWS lines compared to controls. Thus, this cell based-model can be used to investigate the role of imprinting in the pathogenesis of BWS in disease-relevant cell types.
Partial Personalization of Medical Treatment Decisions: Adverse Effects and Possible Solutions.

BackgroundPersonalizing medical treatment decisions based on patient-specific risks and/or preferences can improve health outcomes. Decision makers frequently select treatments based on partial per...
Poverty Alleviation or Political Calculation? Implementing India's Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme

Politicians can influence the impact of poverty alleviation programs through influencing where they are placed and how they are implemented. Using a novel data set, I examine the effect of electoral competitiveness on the implementation of India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. Results indicate a negative relationship between fund utilisation in the program and the vote share of the Indian National Congress, the main driver of the NREGS. These findings challenge the applicability of traditional probabilistic voting models in the Indian context, according to which transfers are made to competitive constituencies and are partially consistent with ideas of electoral opportunism whereby opposing parties can leverage public programs to claim credit. Using methods proposed by Altonji et al. (2000) and Oster (2013), I conclude it unlikely that unobservables can explain away these results.
Enhanced bioelectrochemical nitrogen removal in flow through electrodes

Abstract In the past decade, bioelectrochemical systems (BESs) have been studied extensively for the generation of power and maximizing power densities. In recent years, it was noticed that BESs applications can critically improve wastewater treatment. Most of the previous BESs work has used varied reactor geometry and configuration, wastewater composition, electrolyte solution, and constant electrode size to maximize power generation. However, there is limited research investigating the influence of increased electrode size on the wastewater treatment process. We investigated the effect of increased electrode surface area on wastewater treatment efficiency and studied the mechanism of nitrogen removal. In this study, we developed a flow-through electrode in a 3-electrode bioelectrochemical reactor. The anodic biofilms were enriched on electrodes for one week. Following the anodic enrichment period, the reactor was operated in a semi-continuous mode with raw domestic wastewater. To investigate the wastewater treatment efficiency, the chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen (TN), ammonia (NH3-N), nitrite (NO2–-N), and nitrate (NO3–-N) concentrations were measured. We found that increased surface area of anode did not significantly contribute to COD removal rate, most likely indicating the limits of BES. On the other hand, the TN removal rate increased proportionally to the surface area of the anode in the BES. We also found that outlet NO3–-N and NO2–-N concentrations were 1.2 ± 0.2 and 3.2 ± 0.9 mg/L, respectively. Our results indicated that it is possible to remove COD and TN simultaneously. Analysis of the microbial community structure showed that nitrogen removal was dominated by sulfidogenesis, anodic ammonia oxidation, autotrophic and heterotrophic denitrification as well as reducing NO3–-N to NO2–-N using Geobacter species in our system.
Twitter Sentiment Analysis of Covid Vaccines

In this paper, we look at a database of tweets sorted by various keywords that could indicate the users’ sentiment towards covid vaccines. With social media becoming such a prevalent source of opinion, sorting and ranking tweets that hold important information such as opinions on covid vaccines is of utmost importance. Two different ranking scales were used, and ranking a tweet in this way could represent the difference between an opinion being lost and an opinion being featured on the site, which affects the decisions and behavior of people, and why researchers were interested in it. Using natural language processing techniques, our aim is to determine and categorize opinions about covid vaccines with the highest accuracy possible.
CD19 Function in Early and Late B Cell Development. II. CD19 Facilitates the Pro-B/Pre-B Transition

Proliferative expansion of pro-B cells is an IL-7-dependent process that allows for the rearrangement of H chain genes and the expression of the pre-B cell receptor (pre-BCR). Further B cell differentiation is dependent upon signals elicited through the pre-BCR, which are thought to be responsible for allelic exclusion, induced L chain gene rearrangement, and continued proliferation. CD19 promotes the proliferation and survival of mature B cells, but its role in early B cell development is less well understood. Here we identify and characterize impairments in early B cell development in CD19 −/− mice. Following sublethal irradiation, we found decreased numbers of autoreconstituted early B cells, which was first evident in the large cycling pre-B cell fraction. Reduced cell progression due to a defect in proliferation was made evident from cell cycle analysis and bromodeoxyuridine labeling of bone marrow cells from CD19 −/− and wild-type mice. Studies of IL-7-dependent pre-B cell cultures derived from wild-type and CD19 −/− mouse bone marrow suggested that CD19 has little affect on IL-7 signaling. By contrast, signaling through the pre-BCR was impaired in the absence of CD19, as demonstrated by reduced activation of Bruton’s tyrosine kinase and extracellular signal-regulated kinase/mitogen-activated protein kinase. Thus, in addition to promoting mature B cell homeostasis and Ag-induced responses, the early onset of CD19 expression acts to enhance B cell generation.
Reliably erasing data from flash-based solid state drives

Reliably erasing data from storage media (sanitizing the media) is a critical component of secure data management. While sanitizing entire disks and individual files is well-understood for hard drives, flash-based solid state disks have a very different internal architecture, so it is unclear whether hard drive techniques will work for SSDs as well.We empirically evaluate the effectiveness of hard drive-oriented techniques and of the SSDs' built-in sanitization commands by extracting raw data from the SSD's flash chips after applying these techniques and commands. Our results lead to three conclusions: First, built-in commands are effective, but manufacturers sometimes implement them incorrectly. Second, overwriting the entire visible address space of an SSD twice is usually, but not always, sufficient to sanitize the drive. Third, none of the existing hard drive-oriented techniques for individual file sanitization are effective on SSDs.This third conclusion leads us to develop flash translation layer extensions that exploit the details of flash memory's behavior to efficiently support file sanitization. Overall, we find that reliable SSD sanitization requires built-in, verifiable sanitize operations.
Domain Theory for Nonmonotonic Functions

We prove several lattice theoretical fixpoint theorems based on the classical theorem of Knaster and Tarski. These theorems give sufficient conditions for a system of generally nonmonotonic functions on a complete lattice to define a unique minimal fixpoint. The primary objective of this paper is to develop a domain theoretic framework to study the semantics of logic programs as well as various rule-based systems where the rules define generally nonmonotonic functions on lattices.
Regulation of transducin GTPase activity in bovine rod outer segments

The photoreceptor G-protein, transducin, belongs to the class of heterotrimeric GTP-binding proteins that transfer information from activated seven-span membrane receptors to effector enzymes or ion channels. Like other G-proteins, transducin acts as a molecular clock. It is activated by photoexcited rhodopsin which catalyzes the exchange of transducin-bound GDP for GTP and then stays active until bound GTP is hydrolyzed by an intrinsic GTPase activity. Our previous study on the components of the amphibian phototransduction cascade (Arshavsky, V. Y., and Bownds, M. D. (1992) Nature 357, 416-417) has shown that transducin GTPase can be significantly accelerated by the target enzyme, cGMP phosphodiesterase (PDE), and more specifically its gamma-subunit (PDE gamma). Here we report that an analogous mechanism is present in bovine photoreceptors. Addition of recombinant PDE gamma to the test photoreceptor membranes which retain transducin but are depleted of endogenous PDE causes a significant acceleration of transducin GTPase activity. A similar effect was observed with the PDE holoenzyme, but not with the complex of PDE alpha- and beta-subunits prepared by a limited proteolysis of PDE with trypsin. The activating effect of PDE gamma is increased as test membrane concentration increases, exceeding 20-fold at rhodopsin concentrations over 80 microM and approaching the rate of the photoresponse turnoff. This suggests either that photoreceptor membranes contain a further factor which is essential for PDE-dependent regulation of transducin-bound GTP hydrolysis or that components of the phototransduction cascade interact in a cooperative manner. We also report that the GTPase-activating epitope is located within the C-terminal third of PDE gamma: the peptide corresponding to the 25 C-terminal amino acid residues of PDE gamma can accelerate transducin GTPase almost as well as the full-length PDE gamma. A part of the GTPase activating epitope is located within the 3 C-terminal amino acid residues: the truncation PDE gamma mutant lacking these residues accelerates transducin GTPase considerably less than the whole length PDE gamma.
Isolated ileal segment as urine conduit after exenteration for pelvic cancer. Further experiences with improved technic.

Abstract When total cystectomy is necessary during pelvic exenteration to remove cancer in this region, an isolated short segment of terminal ileum functions well as a conduit for the urine. The ureters are anastomosed to the side of the ileal segment, the proximal end of which is closed and the distal end opening on the abdominal wall. The segment spontaneously empties at intervals by peristalsis into a receptacle attached to the abdominal skin around the ileostomy. Careful attention to the technical details of the operation, especially the ureteroileal anastomoses, heralds good results. The hazards of acidosis, hyperazotemia, hyperchloremia, and ascending urinary tract infection, the distressing continuous discharge of a liquid mixture of feces and urine which attends the “wet” colostomy, and the almost certain lethal outcome due to nephropathy are avoided. A personal experience with fifty-seven cases underscores the virtues of an isolated ileal segment with its fewer complications as the best available method of conducting the urine from the ureters to an external appliance when pelvic evisceration is performed.
Designing immersive affective environments with biofeedback

Serious games have been recognized in many application areas such as heath, education and training. Designing interactive games responsive to user emotions improves their effectiveness and user acceptances. A major factor in user interaction is the emotional reaction to game scenarios, which has motivated us to analyze immersive games using biofeedback. In this article, a graph-based model is presented to design interactive games in a systematic way. This model is combined with biofeedback such as autonomic nervous system variables to evaluate user emotional reaction to different stimuli. The analysis should be used as a guiding principle for designing serious games. Oculus Rift DK2 is used in experiments to provide immersive virtual reality with affective scenarios. The experiments demonstrate the ability to induce measurable and differentiate emotions.
Simple games and magic squares

Abstract For each integer k ⩾ 3, we introduce a simple game ⊟k built from a k × k “strongly rigid” magic square. These games are not weighted, yet come very close to being weighted, and thus they provide a uniform sequence of counterexamples to several conjectures that have arisen over the past three decades in the fields of threshold logic, hypergraphs, reliability systems, and simple games. In particular, we show that ⊟k is k − 1 asummable but not k asummable (thus strengthening and simplifying an often-referenced, but unpublished, result of R. O. Winder) and that a certain variant of ⊟k is monotonic, strong, proper, has an acyclic “group” desirability relation, and yet is not weighted (thus strengthening a result of E. Einy and answering a question of B. Peleg).
Shear modulus of Laughlin-type wave functions

Using the excited states of Girvin, Macdonald, and Platzman and the fluid ground state proposed by Laughlin, the shear modulus is calculated as a strain autocorrelation function and is found to be finite (0.0056${e}^{2}$/${l}^{3}$).
DYNAMICALLY SPANNING THE LENGTH SCALES FROM THE QUANTUM TO THE CONTINUUM

A challenging paradigm in computational sciences is the coupling of the continuum, the atomistic, and the quantum descriptions of matter for a unified dynamic treatment of a single physical problem. We described the recent achievement of such a goal. We have spanned the length scales in a concerted simulation comprising the finite-element method, classical molecular dynamics, quantum tight-binding dynamics and seamless bridges between these different physical descriptions. We illustrate and validate the methodology for rapid crack propagation in silicon.
Improved resolution in wide-field ultraviolet astronomical imaging

Heritage wide-field ultraviolet imagers have observed large (~30°) fields-of-view, but suffer from relatively poor (~0.6°) spatial resolution. Improvements in mirror design and fabrication technology allow for a new two-mirror design that preserves a large (40°x20°) field-of-view, while improving spatial resolution by nearly a factor of ten to 0.07° while imaging onto a flat focal surface. Such an imager has uses in a number of ultraviolet astronomical applications, including plasmaspheric imaging and monitoring of the interplanetary medium.
Effects of mechanical loading patterns, bone graft, and proximity to periosteum on bone defect healing

The goal of this study is to elucidate whether mechanobiological factors, including mechanical loading patterns, presence of bone graft, and proximity to the periosteum, correlate to de novo tissue generation and healing in critical sized long bone defects, which are enveloped by periosteum in situ and are bridged at 16 weeks, in sheep femora. Quantitative histomorphometric measures of defect cross sections show that, along the axis least able to resist bending loads (minor centroidal axis, CA), bone laid down in the first two weeks after surgery exhibits more mineralization albeit less total area compared to bone along the axis most able to resist bending loads (major CA). Similarly, areas of the cross section along the minor CA show a higher degree of perfusion albeit less total area of perfusion compared to bone along the major CA. Furthermore, proximity to the periosteal niche, in conjunction with the presence of bone graft and predominant loading patterns, relates significantly to the radial distribution of early bone apposition and perfusion of bone at 16 weeks after surgery (linear regression with R(2)>0.80). In the absence of graft, early bone density is relatively evenly distributed in the defect zone, as is the intensity of perfused tissue. As measured by a steeper average slope in intensity of fluorochrome (new bone) distribution between the periosteum and the IM nail, the presence of bone graft retards initial bone formation in the defect zone and is associated with less evenly distributed tissue perfusion (steeper slope) persisting 16 weeks after surgery. Finally, although the mean area of bone resorption is not significantly different within or between groups defined by the presence of graft and/or mechanical loading patterns in the defect zone, the mean area of infilling resorption spaces is significantly higher in areas of the defect zone least able to resist bending (minor CA) but is not significantly related to the presence of bone graft. To our knowledge, the use of the major and minor centroidal axes to relate prevailing mechanical loading patterns to area and density of early bone generation in bone defects has not been reported prior to this study and may provide a new means to assess structure-function relationships in de novo bone generation and healing of bone defects.
Tensile instability and deformation behavior of rapidly heated metals in a constant-load environment

The deformation and failure of rapidly heated metals under constant-load conditions are an area of mechanics in which there has been little research. This is due in part to the experimental challenges involved in the creation of rapid temperature rises in a tensile test specimen and in producing the high strain rates necessary for maintaining a constant load. Additionally, there are the instrumentation problems associated with the measurement of the transient deformation and temperature changes of a metal subjected to this thermomechanical history. This paper focuses on the tensile deformation behavior of metals when rapidly heated (of the order of 100 K · s−1) by the passage of an electric current while a constant load is maintained by a servohydraulic actuator. Experimental observations on the deformation behavior of several metals are presented. The three competing processes, work hardening, annealing, and reduction in cross-sectional area, involved in the development of a tensile instability are examined and are related to the characteristics of the loading system and the temperature rise rate.
A diet rich in (n−3) fatty acids increases peroxisomal β-oxidation activity and lowers plasma triacylglycerols without inhibiting glutathione-dependent detoxication activities in the rat liver

By using comparisons with a safflower oil diet (15% w/w) and a control, low-fat diet, the ability of a fish oil diet (15% MaxEPA) rich in the (n-3) fatty acids, eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid, to alter hepatic activities has been determined in adult, male rats. Compared with the safflower diet, treatment for 2 weeks with the fish oil diet caused significant increases in the ratio of liver weight/body weight and the specific activities in liver homogenates of peroxisomal enzymes fatty acyl-CoA oxidase (263%) and catalase (149%) and caused a significant lowering of plasma triacylglycerol levels. Fish oil diets rich in (n-3) fatty acids should thus be placed in the category of hypotriglyceridemic agents which stimulate peroxisomal beta-oxidation activity. In contrast to the effects seen with the other hypotriglyceridemic, peroxisomal proliferating agents such as clofibrate, hepatic glutathione peroxidase and glutathione S-transferase activities are unchanged or are increased rather than inhibited with the fish oil diet.
High-Resolution Manometry in Evaluation of Factors Responsible for Fundoplication Failure

Background From 10% to 25% of patients undergoing antireflux procedures eventually redevelop symptoms as a result of anatomic failure of the hiatal repair or fundoplication. High-resolution manometry (HRM) allows for reliable evaluation of the lower esophageal sphincter (LES) in detail, including subtle evidence of a hiatus hernia. The aim of this study was to characterize the dynamics and function of the LES postoperatively using HRM to determine which elements may contribute to recurrent symptoms after antireflux surgery. Study Design Twenty-three patients with recurrent symptoms and/or abnormal 24-hour pH monitoring after Nissen fundoplication (Unsuccessful group) and 11 asymptomatic post-Nissen patients tested as routine follow-up (Successful group) underwent HRM. Tracings were analyzed for percentage of peristalsis, LES pressure, length of the high-pressure zone (HPZ), LES residual pressure, and the presence of a dual HPZ (indicating a recurrent hiatus hernia). Results were compared between the 2 groups. Results Mean LES pressure tended to be greater in the Successful group compared with the Unsuccessful group (p = 0.068). There were no differences in length of the HPZ, residual pressures, and peristalsis. A dual HPZ was identified in 13 Unsuccessful group patients (56%), and 1 (9%) of the Successful group patients (p Conclusions The presence of a dual HPZ on HRM in patients after fundoplication appears to be a strong predictor of recurrent gastroesophageal reflux disease. In patients with recurrent symptoms after antireflux surgery, HRM also provides valuable information about peristalsis and LES characteristics that help guide appropriate management.
SU-E-T-538: Does Abdominal Compression Through Prone Patient Position Reduce Respiratory Motion in Lung Cancer Radiotherapy?

Purpose: This study assesses the effect of physiological abdominal compression from prone positioning by comparing respiratory-induced tumor movements in supine and prone positions. Methods: 19 lung cancer patients underwent repeated supine and prone free-breathing 4DCT scans. The effect of patient position on motion magnitude was investigated for tumors, lymph nodes (9 cases), and subgroups of central (11 cases), peripheral (8 cases) and small peripheral tumors (5 cases), by evaluating the population average excursions, absolute and relative to a carina-point. Results: Absolute motion analysis: In prone, motion increased by ~20% for tumors and ~25% for lymph nodes. Central tumors moved more compared to peripheral tumors in both supine and prone (~22%, and ~4% respectively). Central tumors movement increased by ~12% in prone. For peripheral tumors the increase in prone position was ~25% (~40% and 29% changes on along RL and AP directions). Motion relative to carina-point analysis: Overall, tumor excursions relative to carina-point increased by ~17% in prone. Lymph node relative magnitudes were lower by ~4%. Likewise, the central tumors moved ~7% less in prone. The subgroup of peripheral tumors exhibited increased amplitudes by ~44%; the small peripheral tumors had even larger relative displacements in prone (~46%). Conclusion: Tumor and lymphmore » node movement in the patient population from this study averaged to be higher in prone than in supine position. Results from carina analysis also suggest that peripheral tissues have more physiologic freedom of motility when placed in the prone position, regardless of size. From these observations we should continue to avoid prone positioning for all types of primary lung tumor, suggesting that patients should receive radiotherapy for primary lung cancer in supine position to minimize target tissue mobility during normal respiratory effort. Further investigation will include more patients with peripheral tumors to validate our observations.« less
Legal aspects of public health: How law frames communicable disease control in Greece

We reviewed Greek law (legislation, historic Royal Decrees, and modern Presidential ones, 1833-2010) pertinent to control of communicable diseases and compared this body of Greek law with the revised International Health Regulations. Greece authorizes and regulates communicable disease control commensurate with public health risks, and integrates the principles of equality, objectivity, and respect for human rights. Despite strength at the level of principles, Greek law lacks coherence, clarity, and systematization. An inadequate body of regulations means legislation falls short of adequate implementing authority and guidelines; public health authorities often cannot find or understand the laws, nor are they certain about allocation of jurisdictional authority. We identified areas for improvement.
Delayed treatment and late complications of a traumatic arteriovenous fistula.

An 18-year-old soldier had a gunshot wound to his left thigh during the Mexican Civil War (1910–1917). He presented with persistent bright red bleeding. His wound was treated by compression. A few years after the injury, he noticed a thrill, large varicose veins, limb swelling, and skin changes. A plain film showed an 8 × 10-cm midthigh mass. After a bullfighting incident, the pseudoaneurysm ruptured. Because of increased bulk and discomfort, the patient agreed 3 years later to be treated. Angiography showed a chronically obstructed femoral artery and vein. A 3000-mL hematoma was evacuated. This case illustrates the long-term sequelae of an arteriovenous fistula. This report describes a 51-year delay of treatment for causes unrelated to diagnosis. To our knowledge, this case is the longest delay in treatment of an arteriovenous fistula and its complications reported in the literature.
An experimental study on the visual detection of stars in a spacecraft environment.

Visual detection of stars in spacecraft environment, considering window cleanliness and antireflection coating effect on light scattering
Easy-to-use dipstick tests for detection of lead in paints using non-cross-linked gold nanoparticle–DNAzyme conjugates

Easy-to-use dipstick tests for lead have been developed by immobilizing nanoparticle–DNAzyme conjugates on lateral flow devices and their application for detecting lead in paints is demonstrated.
Surgical management of juvenile osteochondritis dissecans of the knee

Purpose Operative management of osteochondritis dissecans (OCD) in the juvenile knee is generally indicated upon failure of conservative treatment, in unstable lesions, and in lesions nearing physeal closure. We hypothesized that juvenile OCD lesions have improved clinical and radiographic outcomes with surgical treatment following failed non-surgical management, in unstable lesions, and in lesions nearing physeal closure.
Identification of sex-specific differences in surfactant synthesis in rat lung.

Delayed lung maturation and lower levels of surfactant phosphatidylcholine have been previously identified in male fetuses compared with female fetuses in several species. We investigated the mechanisms for sex differences in surfactant content by examining parameters of phosphatidylcholine turnover and biosynthesis; the latter was evaluated by measuring metabolic steps within the biosynthetic pathway. Compared with male lung cells, freshly isolated lung cells from female fetuses contained higher levels of disaturated phosphatidylcholine, a marker of surfactant lipid. Female mixed monolayer cultures exhibited a 71% increase in choline incorporation into disaturated phosphatidylcholine compared with male cultures. Male cultures exhibited significantly greater release of [3H]-arachidonic acid into the medium compared with females, suggesting sex differences in phospholipase activity. However, pulse-chase studies showed no sex differences in degradation of disaturated phosphatidylcholine, which was confirmed by assays of phospholipase A2, phosphatidylcholine-specific phospholipase C, and phospholipase D. Female mixed lung cells, however, had greater rates of cellular choline transport and activity of cytidylyltransferase, the rate-regulatory enzyme for phosphatidylcholine synthesis. Separate studies showed that exposure of sex-specific pretype II cell cultures to cortisol-stimulated fibroblast-conditioned medium plus transforming growth factor-β–neutralizing antibody stimulated cytidylyltransferase activity to a greater extent in male cells compared with female cells. These studies indicate that sex differences in surfactant phospholipid content are not due to differences in phospholipid turnover, but rather differential regulation of specific metabolic steps within the surfactant biosynthetic pathway. The data also support a role for transforming growth factor-β as a negative regulator of a key surfactant biosynthetic enzyme within male lungs.
Hand Gestures for Intelligent Tutoring Systems: Dataset, Techniques a Evaluation

Analysis of hand gestures in one-to-one tutoring gives a number of characteristics of social interaction and behavior between the tutor and the student. This analysis can not only aid in understanding the effectiveness of the learning methodology and developing new techniques for learning, but also help in developing intelligent and online tutoring systems. Although there exists a comprehensive literature on recognizing hand gestures, there is limited work on recognizing such gestures in the context of one-to-one tutoring systems. In this paper, we first introduce a new dataset that comprises a set of 2166 richly labeled video sequences of multiple subjects, showing 4 different classes of most prominent gestures in one-to-one tutoring. In addition to the dataset, two methods comprising appearance based cues and motion based cues are proposed and evaluated on this dataset. A detection accuracy of over 53% is achieved when the proposed techniques are validated across 6 different subjects, which can be used as a benchmark for future works that can employ the proposed datasets for hand gestures for one-to-one tutoring systems.
Complexity analysis of sprites in MPEG-4

Sprite encoding/decoding is one of the new tools proposed in the MPEG-4 standard. Sprite encoding operates at the Video Object Plane level. Since the size of a Video Object Plane might change with time, it presents challenges for hardware implementation. This is unlike the other video object coding tools that operate at a fixed-size block level that can be directly mapped to processor structures. Hence there is a need for an analysis that allows a priori estimation of the computational complexity in order to facilitate the following: (1) Assess resources required to implement Sprite Encoding in software. (2) Design of hardware for various modules of Sprite Encoding. (3) Understand the static and dynamic nature of Sprite Encoding operations. This paper presents a detailed complexity analysis of the Sprite Encoding process in terms of basic operations. The computational complexity has been estimated. A modified Sprite encoding algorithm has been proposed. The proposed algorithm provides a similar result in terms of sprite generation but is more amenable to a hardware efficient implementation.
Boundary integral equations for bending of thermoelastic plates with transmission boundary conditions

The solution of an initial-boundary value problem for bending of a piecewise-homogeneous thermoelastic plate with transverse shear deformation is represented as various combinations of single-layer and double-layer time-dependent potentials. The unique solvability of the boundary integral equations generated by these representations is proved in spaces of distributions. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A new mode of transcriptional repression by c-myc: methylation

The proto-oncogene c-myc is a central regulator of cellular proliferation and cell growth, which executes its multiple activities mostly through transcriptional regulation of its target genes. Although the role of c-myc in the activation of transcription is clearly established, the mechanisms of transcriptional repression by c-myc are not well understood. It has been proposed that c-myc represses gene transcription by at least two distinct mechanisms (Gartel and Shchors, 2003). One mechanism is limited to the binding of c-myc to the DNA-binding protein Miz-1, via its C-terminal domain, resulting in inhibition of Miz-1 transcriptional activity (Staller et al., 2001). The other mechanism is dependent on c-myc binding to the Sp1 transcription factor through its central region leading to inhibition of Sp1 transcriptional activity (Gartel et al., 2001). Interestingly, both Sp1 and Miz-1 bind to the proximal promoter of the p21 gene (Gartel et al., 2001; Seoane et al., 2002), which is a major target of Myc repression (Coller et al., 2000).
On the optimal design of N -version software systems subject to constraints

Abstract Software size and complexity continue to grow and find new applications, such as safety assurance systems for nuclear power generators, electronic transfer systems for banking, and manned spacecraft. To achieve ultrareliability in computing, it is necessary to adopt the strategy of defensive programming based on redundancy. Redundant versions, however, require additional resources, e.g., additional costs in terms of programming effort, time needed for design and testing, and hardware requirements. This article addresses the optimization issue for the cost of N -version programming (NVP) and majority systems. The optimization problems are formulated and solved for the minimum expected cost of NVP and majority systems subject to the desired reliability level. The problems of maximizing the reliability of the NVP and majority systems subject to a constraint on expected system cost are also obtained. Numerical examples are provided to illustrate the results.
Effects of vertebral bone fragility and bone formation rate on the mineralization levels of cancellous bone from white females.

Back-scattered electron microscopy was used to study mineralization levels of human iliac cancellous bone of white females (N = 49). Mineralization levels were assessed by converting bone pixel grayscale levels to atomic number (Z) using known calibration standards. The data set consisted of bone biopsies from normal and vertebral fracture subjects that had either high or low values for bone formation rate (BFR(s)) within their respective groups (fracture/low BFR(s), N = 12; fracture/high BFR(s), N = 10; normal/low BFR(s), N = 12; normal/high BFR(s), N = 15). The following three measures of mineralization were quantitatively determined for each specimen: an overall mean mineralization (Z(mean)), the mineralization of trabecular packets deep within the interior of trabeculae (Z(deep)), and the mineralization of superficial exterior packets (Z(superficial)). Two-way analysis of variance revealed that the high BFR(s) group had a significantly lower Z(superficial) than the low BFR(s) group [mean (SD) 10.383 (0.270) vs. 10.563 (0.289)], and there was no significant interaction. BFR(s) had no effect on Z(mean) or Z(deep). For the pooled data, Z(deep) was significantly higher than Z(superficial) [10.866 (0.242) vs. 10.471 (0.291)]. There was no significant difference in Z(mean), Z(deep), or Z(superficial) between normals and those with vertebral fracture, but the standard deviations of the mineralization measures in the fracture group were at least double that of the normal group. Frequency histograms show that the two groups have fundamentally different mineralization distributions. The normal group demonstrates typical Gaussian distributions centered around the mean, and the distributions of the fracture group are bimodal, with peaks occurring at either the high or low tails of the distributions of the normal group. We hypothesize that both low and high patterns of mineralization might detrimentally affect bone material properties, with low mineralization levels causing reduced stiffness and strength and high mineralization resulting in reduced fracture toughness. The degree to which the mineralization differences may affect strength and stiffness of individual elements is estimated. The higher standard deviations of mineralization measures in the fracture group may reflect an inability to properly regulate trabecular level stress and strain. Forward stepwise regression analysis showed significant relationships between Ob.S/OS and both Z(superficial) and Z(mean), suggesting that the osteoblast may play an important role in regulating mineralization.
Optimal motion control for energy-aware electric vehicles

We study two problems of optimally controlling how to accelerate and decelerate a non-ideal energy-aware electric vehicle so as to (a) maximize its cruising range and (b) minimize the traveling time to a specified destination under a limited battery constraint. Modeling an electric vehicle as a dynamic system, we adopt an Electric Vehicle Power Consumption Model (EVPCM) and formulate two respective optimal motion control problems. Although the full solutions can only be obtained numerically, we propose approximate controller structures such that the original optimal control problems are transformed into nonlinear parametric optimization problems, which are much easier to solve. Numerical examples illustrate the solution structures and support their accuracy.
FALSE CONSENSUS BIAS AND GENDER: THE CASE OF JUDGE CLARENCE THOMAS '

Immediately following a weekend of nationally televised U.S. Senate hearings, 53 students completed a questionnaire indicating whether they, same-sex, and opposite-sex students thought Judge Clarence Thomas (a) should be confirmed for the Supreme Court and (b) had sexually harassed Anita Hill. Although there were no sex differences in actual opinions, both sexes presumed gender linkage. Results consistently supported a false consensus effect with one major exception: women who thought Thomas had sexually harassed Hill estimated that relatively few men would agree.
In vitro activity of metronidazole on Entamoeba histolytica in axenic culture

Abstract Various strains of axenic Entamoeba histolytica were exposed to concentrations of metronidazole ranging from 0·5 μg./ml. to 50 μg./ml. Observations were made every 4 hours with the aid of light and phase microscopy, as well as electron microscopy. Neutral red staining was also employed in an effort to distinguish live from dead amoebae. All strains survived 120 hours in 0·5 and 1·0 μg./ml. without discernible effect. At 2 μg./ml. strains of F-22 and 301 died within 24 hours, but strain HK-9 survived. Amoebae of all strains studied died at 4 μg./ml. within 20 hours. Early non-specific changes were visible by electron microscopy. In vitro amoebacidal levels of metronidazole are noted to be well below the serum concentration attained during therapy for amoebiasis.
Distribution of euphausiid assemblages in the Mediterranean Sea

Eleven species of euphausiids from 24 Isaac-Kidd Midwater Trawl (IKMT) night collections taken at stations throughout the Mediterranean Sea were counted. The frequency of occurrence and dominance of individual species and percent similarity faunal analysis of the euphausiid community were used to describe changes in faunal composition between geographical areas and differences in vertical distribution. Although most species were widespread, three distinct patterns of abundance were apparent: Euphausia krohnii, Nematoscelis megalops, Meganyctiphanes norvegica, and Stylocheiron abbreviatum predominated in western basin areas west of the Tyrrhenian Sea; Euphausia hemigibba, Thysanopoda aequalis, and Stylocheiron longicorne predominated in the Tyrrhenian Sea and eastern Mediterranean Sea; Euphausia brevis and Stylocheiron suhmii predominated in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Percent similarity analysis of data from the IKMT samples and data from Ruud (1936) indicates the Tyrrhenian Sea fauna at the time of the collections was more similar to eastern Mediterranean areas than to most other areas in the western basin, although the degree of similarity was dependent, to some extent, on the depth at which the samples were collected. The composition of euphausiids living above 150 m at night in this area was more similar to eastern basin areas, while the composition of deeper living forms was more similar to those of the rest of the western basin. Comparison of euphausiids collected at three points over a 60 year time-span in the Balearic Sea shows the similarity in composition to be greater within the area over time than between adjacent areas in the western Mediterranean Sea.
Residual stress and damage effect on integrity of ground silicon nitride

Ceramic workpiece integrity and residual surface stresses generated by single pass diamond grinding were evaluated for three flaring cup wheels and four machine-loop stiffnesses. Stresses in silicon nitride bars ground on one face were characterized by X-ray diffraction, strength by four-point bending, and grinding damage depth by scanning electron microscopy. A custom-built workpiece holder was used to tune the grinding machine-loop stiffness. Electrolytic in-process dressing was applied to one of the wheels to provide stable cutting conditions. The experimental results indicate machine stiffness does not have significant influence on flexural strength, but rather affects the depth of cut. All ground surfaces have some degree of damage and residual stress, and differences are revealed between wheel bonds and grit sizes. The competing phenomena of strength enhancement due to residual stress and strength degradation due to damage are discussed.
Effects of randomly varying birefringence on soliton interactions in optical fibers

The effects of randomly varying birefringence on soliton interactions in optical fibers are studied. It is shown that for initial separations of less than 10 pulse widths, the phase-dependent short-range interaction dominates. For separations larger than 10 pulse widths, the soliton interacts through the dispersive radiation that they generate. This interaction is too weak to explain the phase-independent long-range soliton interaction observed experimentally.
Modeling biomass accumulation in maize kernels

The use of nonlinear functions provides a concise measure of a variety of physiological traits associated with growth and development that would otherwise be difficult to observe. Maize kernel growth and development is a complex process, and the description of the processes involved benefits from the application of a nonlinear function to the process over growing degree days (GDD), a measure of heat accumulation over a period of development. The objective of this study was to compare and contrast canonical models of growth and development to determine which provided the best description of maize kernel biomass accumulation. Observations of kernel dry weights starting shortly after pollination through maturity were regressed onto a measure of thermal time. Observations from differing maize hybrids taken in two years with significantly different weather patterns were used to construct the model. Of the four nonlinear functions described, the Weibull and Gompertz functions were found to describe the pattern of biomass accumulation best. The Gompertz function was selected to describe kernel growth based on information criteria, biological interpretation of the parameters, and computational ease. Tests of autocorrelation and homogeneity of errors determined that the errors were heteroscedastic but autocorrelation was not an issue. The application of a variance function, which models the residuals as a function of the variance, was used to account for heteroscedastic errors. While the Gompertz function was selected as the best fit for use with this data set, it is suggested that future studies use the selection process described herein to determine the most appropriate function.
Cooperative effect of electron correlation and spin-orbit coupling on the electronic and magnetic properties of Ba 2 Na Os O 6

The electronic and magnetic properties of the cubic double perovskite ${\mathrm{Ba}}_{2}\mathrm{Na}\mathrm{Os}{\mathrm{O}}_{6}$ were examined by performing first-principles density functional theory calculations and analyzing spin-orbit coupled states of an ${\mathrm{Os}}^{7+}$ $({d}^{1})$ ion at an octahedral crystal field. The insulating behavior of ${\mathrm{Ba}}_{2}\mathrm{Na}\mathrm{Os}{\mathrm{O}}_{6}$ was shown to originate from a cooperative effect of electron correlation and spin-orbit coupling. This cooperative effect is responsible not only for the absence of orbital ordering in ${\mathrm{Ba}}_{2}\mathrm{Na}\mathrm{Os}{\mathrm{O}}_{6}$ but also for a small magnetic moment and a weak magnetic anisotropy in ${\mathrm{Ba}}_{2}\mathrm{Na}\mathrm{Os}{\mathrm{O}}_{6}$.