cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
SEMI-SUPERVISED LEARNING OF ALTERNATIVELY SPLICED EXONS USING EXPECTATION MAXIMIZATION TYPE APPROACHES

Successful advances in DNA sequencing technologies have made it possible to obtain tremendous amounts of data fast and inexpensively. As a consequence, the afferent genome annotation has become the bottleneck in our understanding of genes and their functions. Traditionally, data from biological domains have been analyzed using supervised learning techniques. However, given the large amounts of unlabeled genomics data available, together with small amounts of labeled data, the use of semi-supervised learning algorithms is desirable. Our purpose is to study the applicability of semi-supervised learning frameworks to DNA prediction problems, with focus on alternative splicing, a natural biological process that contributes to protein diversity. More specifically, we address the problem of predicting alternatively spliced exons. To utilize the unlabeled data, we train classifiers via the Expectation Maximization method and variants of this method. The experiments conducted show an increase in the quality of the prediction models when unlabeled data is used in the training phase, as compared to supervised prediction models which do not make use of the unlabeled data.
A study on the interaction between barrier and plating causing edge stringer defects in 28nm

In any technology, although we have an edge exclusion (usually around 3mm), defects on the extreme edge almost always kill the saleable dies inside [1][2]. For these reasons, edge defectivity reduction plays an important role on any matured technology. Edge defects include films peeling, residues from lithography steps, and many others. In this paper, one such failure mode is discussed. It will also be discussed how the interaction of two unit processes creates the defects that causes issues for downstream processing. Copper stringers are thin strands of copper wire that are seen post edge bead removal in the copper plating process. Initially thought to be coming from the plating process, detailed study supported by material and physical analysis shows the interaction of the barrier seed deposition process with the plating process resulting in the formation of stringers. It was also observed that further thinning of the barrier thickness makes the defectivity worse.
Pediatric considerations in homecare.

"If I had known beforehand how difficult, demanding, time consuming, and exhausting it would be--having my child home on a ventilator--I would never have agreed to bring her home" (personal communication with a parent, 1994). This mother's statement strikes at the heart of pediatric high-tech homecare. Parents assume caregiver roles that professional health providers have taken years to develop. Nurses, as strangers, intrude into intimate family relationships that have cultivated over years. Pioneering agencies attempt to fill a gap in pediatric care using guidelines that have been entrenched in the medical and economic models for years. The multiple dimensions of high-tech pediatric homecare require more than provision of technical nursing services. In homecare, nurses are challenged by cultural differences, language barriers, loss of control, family dynamics, practicing in unfamiliar environments, and new technology. To ensure quality nursing care, all professional dimensions need to be considered to be of equal importance.
High-Density Lipoproteins, Endothelial Function, and Mendelian Randomization

Although plasma high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels correlate inversely with the incidence of cardiovascular disease,1 the causative nature of this relationship has been called into question by Mendelian randomization studies2 and several failed clinical trials involving HDL-raising drugs.3 Studies in humans have indicated that the macrophage cholesterol efflux capacity of HDL is a strong inverse predictor of subclinical atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease and remains highly statistically significant after correction for HDL cholesterol levels,4 suggesting that HDL-C levels may be a poor surrogate for key functions of HDL mediating antiatherogenic effects. In this issue of Circulation Research , Monette et al5 measured acetylcholine-induced coronary artery vasodilation, an indicator of endothelial nitric oxide (NO) bioavailability, in subjects undergoing coronary angiography, and showed that the cholesterol efflux capacity of HDL correlated inversely with coronary endothelial dysfunction (ED), a key event in early atherogenesis. In contrast, HDL and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels did not correlate with coronary ED.5 However, the HDL particle concentration, as assessed by ion mobility analysis, did correlate with HDL cholesterol efflux capacity and inversely correlated with coronary ED, leading to the conclusion that both HDL cholesterol efflux capacity and HDL particle concentration might provide clinically useful information on ED and coronary risk5 and further supporting that HDL-mediated cholesterol efflux is directly related to suppression of atherogenesis in humans. Article, see p 83 Although the macrophage foam cell has recently received the lion’s share of attention in cholesterol efflux studies, this new human investigation spotlights the importance …
Responsibilities of Financial Regulation

The incarnation of the concept of market regulation first saw the day in ancient Athens, when the city-state appointed a regulator of the grain trade. In more recent times, regulatory rules imposed against deception and price manipulation were first put forward in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Compared with these efforts, the need for a broader perspective on bank regulation is a relatively recent concept. To operate effectively and within reasonable limits, markets need clear and explicit rules, which include: Legally binding and enforced contracts, Protection of each party’s proprietary and trading rights, A system of traffic lights all players must observe, and Corrective action for those who get out of line.
Examining Health and Relationship Beliefs in Family Discourses About Purity Pledges: Gender, Faith Values, and the Communicative Constitution of Reality

This research draws from multiadic interview data with 13 purity-pledge families to explore parental roles in sex education. The use of values coding reveals that participants present their beliefs in three ways: as research-oriented facts about sex and sexuality; as common-sense logic; and as informed by personal lived experience. These beliefs are both health- and relationship-oriented. Implications include how knowledge is selected and applied by parents in family talk about sex, gendered ways parents share sexual history, and problematic aspects of purity pledge talks. The study also adds to a larger cultural discourse regarding faith and the politics of science.
Reliability of Ceramics for Heat Engine Applications

The significant improvements in operating efficiencies that can be obtained through uncooled operation of heat engines at temperatures above those attainable with high-temperature metals and superalloys are well known. Recent advances in the field of ceramics have resulted in materials that have high-temperature capabilities, as well as improved mechanical properties and resistance to chemical attack. However, the structural use of these ceramics introduces problems arising from lack of experience which requires resolution by development of design techniques, materials, and materials processing approaches.
CRT-100.61 Bleeding And Mortality Following PCI Is Predicted By Age: Insights From The Dartmouth Dynamic Registry

The very elderly are the fastest growing segment of the US population. Decisions regarding PCI in the elderly will need to be made with increasing frequency in the future, and there is uncertainty whether age alone should be used to limit access to PCI. Previous studies have shown that very elderly
Primordial helium recombination. I. Feedback, line transfer, and continuum opacity

Precision measurements of the cosmic microwave background temperature anisotropy on scales l>500 will be available in the near future. Successful interpretation of these data is dependent on a detailed understanding of the damping tail and cosmological recombination of both hydrogen and helium. This paper and two companion papers are devoted to a precise calculation of helium recombination. We discuss several aspects of the standard recombination picture, and then include feedback, radiative transfer in He i lines with partial redistribution, and continuum opacity from H i photoionization. In agreement with past calculations, we find that He ii recombination proceeds in Saha equilibrium, whereas He i recombination is delayed relative to Saha due to the low rates connecting excited states of He i to the ground state. However, we find that at z<2200 the continuum absorption by the rapidly increasing H i population becomes effective at destroying photons in the He i 21Po-11S line, causing He i recombination to finish around z≃1800, much earlier than previously estimated.
Multimedia Educative Curriculum Materials (MECMs): Teachers’ Choices in Using MECMs Designed to Support Scientific Argumentation

ABSTRACTIn this article, we describe the development process for designing multimedia educative curriculum materials (MECMs) focused on supporting teachers in argumentation. We also describe results from a study with 46 teachers. We were interested in whether teachers’ backgrounds or characteristics of the MECMs impacted MECM use. Overall, 89% of the teachers used the MECMs. Teachers’ use was not related to their background, such as years teaching; however, placement of the MECMs and the type of support impacted use. Teachers were more likely to access MECMs embedded in lesson plans or reflective self-assessment prompts compared to a separate library. In addition, teachers were more likely to watch videos earlier in the curriculum and the 1st time a new activity structure was introduced.
A Randomized Controlled Study on the Effects of a Documentary on Students' Empathy and Attitudes towards Older Adults.

Background Despite the rapid increase in the size of the geriatric population, no current published literature is available based on the effects of viewing a documentary covering medical and psychosocial issues concerning older adults influencing young people's empathy and ageism. The aim of the current study was to test whether participants who viewed an original documentary about older adults experiencing physical pain would report lower ageism and higher empathy scores when compared to participants who watched a neutral documentary. Method Seventy-seven students (ages 18-29 years) were randomized to either the experimental (pain documentary) or the control (neutral documentary) conditions and given pre- and post-test measures of empathy and ageism. Results The results of a series of Profile Analyses (Multivariate Mixed ANOVAs) showed a significant interaction (Wilk's λ=0.933, F(1,75)=5.389, p=0.023, partial η2=0.067) between treatment and time (pre- vs. post-viewing the film) for the empathy measure that was confirmed by follow-up t-tests. The latter showed a significant increase in empathy scores for only the experimental group, t(37)=-2.999, p=0.005. However, contrary to the original prediction, this same treatment by time effect was not observed for ageism (Wilk's λ=0.994, F(1,75)=0.482, p=0.490, partial η2=0.006), as the experimental participants did not significantly reduce their ageism scores, t(38)=0.725, p=0.473. The results of these analyses, as well as those obtained by using the subscales of each questionnaire, have been discussed. Conclusions The findings of this preliminary study indicate that showing a pain-based, anti-bias documentary feature film has the potential to significantly improve empathy towards older adults in university students.
Mechanisms of Glial Activation after Nerve Injury

In response to peripheral nerve injury, glia (microglia and astrocytes) in spinal cord become activated. This spinal glial activation has been causally linked to the induction and maintenance of neuropathic pain. The question arises as to how glia become activated as a consequence of distant injury. This chapter reviews current evidence for glial activation in response to neurotransmitters, neuromodulators, and unique neuron-to-glia signals.
Practical Laboratory Exercises for Plant Molecular Cytogenetics

Practical laboratory work parallel with a lecture topic is one way to improve understanding of the subject matter. Cytogenetics deals mainly with chromosome behavior and biology. The key concepts of cytogenetics can be attached to actual experimental observations that can help students visualize the relationship of the concepts to chromosomes in practice. Many new technological developments are available to aid understanding of chromosome behavior, biology, and manipulation for plant and animal improvement. We present here a series of exercises designed to help students understand chromosome behavior during cellular divisions, chromosomal aberrations, and chromosome preparations for molecular cytogenetics, such as fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), genomic in situ hybridization (GISH), and even fiber-FISH. These exercises are used in several undergraduate and graduate courses. If they are to be incorporated into a cytogenetics course, we recommend that the instructor choose those that fit the course time-table and available resources.
10B enriched plastic scintillators for application in thermal neutron detection

Abstract We report here on the synthesis and characterization of a novel 10 B enriched aromatic molecule that can be incorporated into common poly(vinyltoluene) (PVT) based plastic scintillators to achieve enhanced thermal neutron detection. Starting from relatively inexpensive 10 B enriched boric acid, we have prepared 4,4,5,5-tetramethyl-2-phenyl-1,3,2-dioxaborolane (MBB) in three high yield steps. MBB is soluble and compatible with PVT based formulations and results in stable plastic scintillators. Chemical synthesis, solubility limit in PVT, and the physical properties of the dopant were explored. The relevant response properties of the resulting scintillators when exposed to neutron and gamma radiation , including light yield and pulse shape discrimination properties were measured and analyzed.
Additional Insights between Fermi–Löwdin Orbital SIC and the Localization Equation Constraints in SIC-DFT

This letter highlights additional mathematical relationships between the Fermi–Lowdin orbital self-interaction correction (FLO-SIC) formalism and the localization equation constraints in SIC-DFT. We demonstrate this relationship analytically by highlighting symmetries in the mathematical expression for the gradient of EPZ–SIC, which has not been previously shown in the scientific literature. To complement our analytical derivation, we also present additional numerical tests that allow us to investigate a possible accelerated-convergence technique that could be used when solving the iterative FLO-SIC equations. Taken together, our results highlight the importance of satisfying the localization equation constraints for obtaining accurate DFT energies, which we demonstrate are nearly satisfied in the FLO-SIC formalism.
Use of Iodinated Hyaluronan Derivatives to Study Hyaluronan Binding, Endocytosis, and Metabolism by Cultured Cells

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the use of iodinated hyaluronan (HA) derivatives to study (HA) binding, endocytosis, and metabolism by cultured cells, and describes the use of 125 I-labeled HA to quantitate the activity of HA-binding proteins or receptors in live or permeable cells and to quantitate cellular uptake and metabolism of the labeled HA. Several simple procedures are described to determine whether cells have specific receptors or binding proteins for HA. The advantage of using the uniquely modified 125 I-labeled HA as a probe is that low levels of binding can be detected. It has been straightforward and productive to use 125I-labeled HA to quantitate cell surface and intracellular binding sites to determine affinity constants for HA binding and to determine whether the cell type being studied can efficiently endocytose and degrade the HA. The 125 I labeled HA preparations and assays are described that provide a very useful array of methods for studying the biochemistry and cell biology of HA. The chapter discusses cell surface binding of 125 I-labeled HA, total cellular binding of 125 I-labeled HA, endocytosis of 125 I-labeled HA, degradation of 125 I-labeled HA, equilibrium-binding studies, and scatchard analysis.
Prevalence and Correlates of Simultaneous and Separate 30-Day Use of Tobacco and Cannabis: Results from the California Adult Tobacco Survey

Background: There is limited information on separate use and simultaneous use of tobacco and cannabis products, particularly for new electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS). This study presents detailed information about the prevalence and correlates of individual use, separate use, and simultaneous use of tobacco and cannabis in California, the first state to allow medical marijuana in the US. It specifically distinguishes between simultaneous use (both substances used in the same occasion) and separate use (both products used, but not simultaneously). Objectives: Participants in the 2016 California Adult Tobacco Survey (N = 3,058; age range 18-64 years) completed online surveys between February and March 2016 that assessed tobacco and cannabis use in the past 30 days. Results: Participants' use of tobacco (15% cigarettes) was higher than use of ENDS (6%) or cannabis (10%); the overall rate of separate use was 6% and the overall rate of simultaneous use was 3%. Correlates of tobacco use included lower levels of education and income. Correlates of simultaneous tobacco and cannabis use included being unemployed or having a disability. Conclusions/Importance: This survey of California residents suggests how use patterns change in states that legalize medical marijuana prior to recreational cannabis, although it may underestimate prevalence due to reliance on self-reported use. Persons who were unemployed and persons with disabilities were at higher risk for simultaneous use of tobacco and cannabis. These findings suggest that prevention and cessation interventions intended to target simultaneous use should address these populations, as well as adolescents and young adults.
FlowSculpt: software for efficient design of inertial flow sculpting devices.

Flow sculpting is a powerful method for passive flow control that uses a sequence of bluff-body structures to engineer the structure of inertially flowing microfluidic streams. A variety of cross-sectional flow shapes can be created through this method, offering a new platform for flow manipulation or material fabrication useful in bioengineering, manufacturing, and chemistry applications. However, the inverse problem in flow sculpting – designing a device that produces a target fluid flow shape – remains challenging due to the complex, diverse, and enormous design space. Solutions to the inverse problem have been constrained to single-material fluid streams that are shaped into top–bottom symmetric shapes due to the bluff-body structures available in current libraries (pillars) that span the height of the channel. In this work, we introduce multi-material design and symmetry-breaking flow deformations enabled by half-height pillars, presented within an extremely fast simulation method for flow sculpting yielding a 34-fold reduction in runtime. The framework is deployed freely as a cross-platform application called “FlowSculpt”. We detail its implementation and usage, and discuss the addition of enhanced search operations, which enable users to more easily design flow shapes that replicate their input drawings. With FlowSculpt, the microfluidics community can now quickly design flow shaping microfluidic devices on modest hardware, and easily integrate these complex physics into their research toolkit.
Institutionentheoretische Fundierung: Organisationen als Makro-Meso-Mikro-Link

Ziel der Arbeit ist die Entwicklung einer theoretischen Konzeption, mit der analysiert werden kann, wie sich Digitalisierung auf der Mesoebene vollzieht. Um eine Analyse zu entwickeln, die der Komplexitat des Phanomens gerecht wird, muss allerdings uber die Mesoebene der Organisationen hinausgegangen werden. Digitalisierung ist ein Megatrend, der tiefgreifende Veranderungen fur alle gesellschaftlichen Teilbereiche bedeutet – und sich auf globaler Ebene vollzieht.
Prevention of stroke in people living with HIV

In the era of effective antiretroviral therapy (ART), HIV has become a manageable disease marked by an elevated risk of non-AIDS-related comorbidities, including stroke. Rates of stroke are higher in people living with HIV (PLWH) compared with the general population. Elevated stroke risk may be attributable to traditional risk factors, HIV-associated chronic inflammation and immune dysregulation, and possible adverse effects of long-standing ART use. Tailoring stroke prevention strategies for PLWH requires knowledge of how stroke pathogenesis may differ from non-HIV-associated stroke, knowledge of long-term stroke outcomes in HIV, and accurate stroke risk assessment tools. As a result, the approach to primary and secondary stroke prevention in PLWH relies heavily on guidelines developed for the general population, with an emphasis on optimization of traditional vascular risk factors and early initiation of ART. This review summarizes existing evidence on HIV-associated stroke mechanisms and considerations for stroke prevention for PLWH.
Information Disclosure and Privacy Paradox: The Role of Impulsivity

Self-disclosure of personal information is generally accepted as a security risk. Nonetheless, many individuals who are concerned about their privacy will often voluntarily reveal information to others. This inconsistency between individuals' expressed privacy concern and the willingness to divulge personal information is referred to as privacy paradox. Several arguments have been proposed to explain the inconsistency. One set of arguments centers around the possible effects of differences in personality characteristics, such as the Big Five factors. In the current article, we examine the role of one personality characteristic, impulsivity, in explaining the relationship between privacy concern and information disclosure. We report the results of a survey-based study that consisted of two hundred and forty-two (242) usable responses from subjects recruited on Amazon Mechanical Turk. The results show that one of the three dimensions of impulsivity, motor impulsivity, directly influences the extent of information disclosure and also moderates the relationship between privacy concern and information disclosure. Furthermore, our study shows impulsivity explains more variance in information disclosure than explained by the Big Five factors only.
Waveguide Probe Calibration Method for Permittivity and Loss Characterization of Viscous Materials

We present a new measurement technique based on reduced-reflectometer calibration of a waveguide with a highly-reflecting termination for the complex permittivity characterization of viscous materials. In this novel method, the waveguide is simply dipped into the viscous material at 4 different depths, separated roughly by $\lambda/8$, and the reflection coefficients are recorded. Subsequently, a multi-reflect calibration procedure is applied to these measurements to determine the propagation constant of material-filled waveguide. The complex permittivity of the material is then extracted from the calculated propagation constant. The proposed approach is very simple and cost-effective, as it only requires a one-port network analyzer, and is applicable to the wide range of frequencies. We show the validity of this new technique by characterization of olive oil over 90-130 GHz band.
Flat bands and ferrimagnetic order in electronically correlated dice-lattice ribbons

We study ribbons of the dice two-dimensional lattice (that we call ``dice ladders'') known to have nontrivial topological properties, such as Chern numbers 2 [Wang and Ran, Phys. Rev. B 84, 241103(R) (2011)]. Our main results are two fold. (1) Analyzing the tight-binding model in the presence of Rashba spin-orbit coupling and an external magnetic field, we observed that dice ladders qualitatively display properties similar to their two-dimensional counterpart all the way to the limit of only two legs in the short direction. This includes flat bands near the Fermi level, edge currents and edge charge localization near zero energy when open boundary conditions are used, two chiral edge modes, and a nonzero Hall conductance. (2) We studied the effect of Hubbard correlation $U$ in the two-leg dice ladder using Lanczos and density matrix renormalization group techniques. We show that by increasing $U$ the flat bands split without the need of introducing external fields. Moreover, robust ferrimagnetic order develops. Overall, our work establishes dice ladders as a promising playground to study the combined effect of topology and correlation effects, one of the frontiers in quantum materials.
What factors impact student performance in introductory physics

In a previous study, we found that students' incoming preparation in physics—crudely measured by concept inventory prescores and math SAT or ACT scores—explains 34% of the variation in Physics 1 final exam scores at Stanford University. In this study, we sought to understand the large variation in exam scores not explained by these measures of incoming preparation. Why are some students’ successful in physics 1 independent of their preparation? To answer this question, we interviewed 34 students with particularly low concept inventory prescores and math SAT/ACT scores about their experiences in the course. We unexpectedly found a set of common practices and attitudes. We found that students’ use of instructional resources had relatively little impact on course performance, while student characteristics, student attitudes, and students’ interactions outside the classroom all had a more substantial impact on course performance. These results offer some guidance as to how instructors might help all students succeed in introductory physics courses.
Defect-driven ferrimagnetism and hidden magnetization in MnBi 2 Te 4

MnBi${}_{2}$Te${}_{4}$ and MnSb${}_{2}$Te${}_{4}$ are the first examples of antiferromagnetic topological insulators. However, the presence of magnetic defects in the form of antisite mixing between Mn and Bi or Sb introduces defect-driven ferrimagnetism. The application of a large magnetic field of ~50 Tesla aligns the magnetic defects with the main Mn layer, allowing for estimates of the defect concentration and the strength of the antiferromagnetic coupling (${J}^{\ensuremath{'}}$) between Mn defects and the main layer, which is by far the largest magnetic coupling in the system.
Situational Awareness Oriented Interfaces on Human-Robot Interaction for Industrial Welding Processes

Abstract Safety, efficiency and effectiveness are important characteristics for human-robot interaction in a factory. So, workers and operators are exposed to challenges of interacting with these systems, in particular with welding robots. Considering the complexity of the industrial context and of the welding process itself, an important factor for the operator is "to understand what is happening" or to obtain situational awareness (SA). The SA increases decision-making capacity, reduces errors, and adds features to improve the human-robot interface (HRI). In order to integrate SA into interfaces for human-robot interaction, this work proposes the mapping of important aspects of SA for the welding process, based on a literature review and a case study to identify SA on interfaces for HRI. Finally, comments which aspects should be included in situational awareness oriented interfaces in order to provide more intelligent interfaces.
Error Analysis and Selection of Optimal Excitation Parameters for the Sensing of CO2 and O2 from Space for ASCENDS Applications

Simulation studies to optimize sensing of CO2 and O2 from space are described. Uncertainties in line-by-line calculations unaccounted for in previous studies identified. Multivariate methods are employed for measurement wavelengths selection. The Active Sensing of CO2 Emissions over Nights, Days, and Seasons (ASCENDS) recommended by NRC Decadal Survey has a stringent accuracy requirements of 0.5% or better in XCO2 retrievals. NASA LaRC and its partners are investigating the use of the 1.57 m band of CO2 and the 1.26-1.27 m band of oxygen for XCO2 measurements. As part of these efforts, we are carrying out simulation studies using a lidar modeling framework being developed at NASA LaRC to predict the performance of our proposed ASCENDS mission implementation [1]. Our study is aimed at predicting the sources and magnitudes of errors anticipated in XCO2 retrievals for further error minimization through the selection of optimum excitation parameters and development of better retrieval methods.
Prediction of Success in a Motor Skill on the Basis of Early Learning Achievement

Abstract Forty college women learned a ball juggling task during 27 practice periods (totaling 2,025 trials) spaced over 9 weeks. Learning scores (gains) were moderately reliable (r=.80). They were not significantly related to initial scores. However, appreciable correlations, ranging from .32 to .59, were found between the criterion (performance score on the 27th day) and cumulated learning scores. Prediction of the criterion by multiple correlations employing initial score and the cumulated learning score through the 4th, 6th, 11th, 15th and 19th practice day ranged from R=.76 to R=.96. A two-component exponential equation was effective in describing the form of the learning curve.
Multi-Level Shape Representation

We present a method for the multi-level shape estimation and abstraction of an object’s surface from range data. The surface shape is estimated based on the parameters of a superquadric that is subjected to global deformations (tapering and bending) and a variable number of levels of local deformations. Local deformations are implemented based on locally adaptive finite elements, whose shape functions guaranteeC1continuity. The surface pose is estimated based on the model’s translational and rotational degrees of freedom. The method is a generalization of the shape representation and estimation method presented in the previous chapters due to the introduction of multiple levels of local deformations. Through the application of Lagrangian mechanics, the model’s translational, rotational, global and local deformation parameters are modified based on forces that originate from the range datapoints. These forces are computed from approximation errors between the model and the data.
Have Developing Countries Gained From the Marriage Between Trade Agreements and Intellectual Property Rights

Have developing countries gained from the incorporation of IPR standards into the WTO framework? We use historical, theoretical, and empirical methods to answer this question and reach several conclusions. First, U.S. history provides a clear case of a developing country which used strong patent rights and weak copyrights in the 19th century to enhance its growth prospects. Second, recent theoretical literature presents a strong case for welfare gains to developing countries from patent harmonization if developed countries pay lump-sums to offset higher royalty payments by developing countries. Third, the creation of intellectual property in new types of inventions is necessary, but the scope, depth, and enforcement of IPRs is likely to differ across countries according to their economic and political institutions, their per capita income, and their capability to engage in and disseminate the fruits of R&D.
A data model for design databases

This paper reviews the premises and current status of work on EDM, a data model for engineering product databases. A new data model is defined, and its application to the modeling of a portion of an intelligent CAD system demonstrated. Application of the data model to CAD database schema definition is discussed, as well as for translation between databases. This work summarizes and extends the previously published work on EDM, presented in (Eastman, Bond and Chase, 1991a) and (Eastman, Bond and Chase, 1991b).
Interaction Trap/Two‐Hybrid System to Identify Loss‐of‐Interaction Mutant Proteins

Protein-protein interactions play a critical role in biology. Disrupting a specific protein-protein interaction and studying the resulting phenotype can help elucidate the function of the interaction. A method to rapidly make and identify mutant proteins that no longer bind to a specific partner protein is described. The method takes advantage of the ease of the interaction trap/two-hybrid system and PCR mutagenesis. PCR fusion of the target protein to GFP is used to ensure the protein's open reading frame is not disrupted by mutagenesis. The resulting noninteracting mutant proteins usually result from a single missense mutation, which can easily be identified.
A Lyapunov Based Nonlinear Control Scheme for Stabilizing a Basic Compression System Using a Close-Coupled Control Valve

The use of a closed loop control to allow surge free operation of a compression system beyond its uncontrolled surge line is addressed. In contrast to previous analyses which used a linearized model, the approach described here directly addresses the nonlinear nature of the compressor characteristic using a Lyapunov based control law design formulation. The proposed approach is fairly generic, and should be of interest for gas turbine engine, as well as other applications.
Creating Minimalist Instruction

The early 1980s were disruptive for computing. In many countries, the set of persons who regularly used computing expanded rapidly from a tiny and homogeneous set of data processing professionals to include nearly everyone. The dawn of the “new user” entrained challenges for training and instructional design: the economics of smaller systems ruled out vendor-provided, face-to-face training, which was succeeded by the paradigm of self-instruction. Our group at IBM’s Watson Research Center was in the cross hairs of this challenge: IBM wanted to expand office systems toward microcomputer platforms, and to enter the personal computing business. Our initial studies focused on office workers using standard self-instruction materials to learn these new systems. We identified key problems in self-instruction, and created alternative designs, such as the Minimal Manual and the Training Wheels Displaywriter, to address them. Our “minimalist” designs sought to leverage user initiative and prior knowledge, instead of controlling it through warnings and ordered steps. It emphasized that users typically bring much expertise and insight to this learning, for example, knowledge about the task domain, and that such knowledge could be a resource to instructional designers. Minimalism leveraged episodes of error recognition, diagnosis, and recovery, instead of attempting to merely forestall error. It framed troubleshooting and recovery as learning opportunities instead of as aberrations.
Primary nursing: a contemporary model for delivery of care

The evolution of nursing care concepts, from the case method to the primary care nursing concept, is reviewed. Of the traditional nursing concepts--case method, and group and functional assignments--the case method provided the highest degree of personalized and continuous care but was too costly. Group- and functional-assignment nursing, and the newer team-nursing concept, were more efficient but placed increasing amounts of patient care in the hands of nonlicensed health care workers. Primary care nursing has decentralized decision making, made nurses professionally accountable for their own practices, and provided continuity of care.
Differential regulation of Rho GTPases by β1 and β3 integrins: The role of an extracellular domain of integrin in intracellular signaling

Integrins mediate cell adhesion and signal transduction at focal adhesions. Here we investigate the roles of integrin β subunits in the regulation of actin cytoskeletal structure and the activities of Rho and Rac. The overexpression of β3 integrin in Chinese hamster ovary cells enhances Rho activity and stress fiber formation, whereas the overexpression of β1 integrin increases Rac activity and lamellipodia formation. The overexpression of a mutant β1-3-1 integrin, in which the extracellular I-domain-like sequence of β1 integrin has been replaced with the corresponding sequence of β3 integrin, also enhances Rho activity and the formation of stress fibers. Our results demonstrate that β1 and β3 integrins differentially regulate the activities of Rho family GTPases and that the extracellular domains of integrin β subunits play a critical role in transducing the extracellular ligand-binding information into specific intracellular signaling events.
Identification of two down-regulated genes in entomopathogenic nematode Heterorhabditis bacteriophora infective juveniles upon contact with insect hemolymph

Entomopathogenic nematode Heterorhabditis bacteriophora infective juveniles (IJs) employ multiple strategies to combat with insect innate immune system after invasion. We employed suppressive subtractive hybridization (SSH) technique to study the gene expression in the IJs upon contact with the insect hemolymph in vitro. We identified two clones having higher expression levels in the IJs than IJs treated with insect hemolymph. The differential expression levels were confirmed by Northern blot hybridization with reference to the constitutive expression level of Heterorhabditis bacteriophora actin2 gene. Clone HbGPS11.C1G02 encoded a phosphofructokinase (PFK) with a 2.5 kb transcript and clone HbGPS11.C4C08 corresponded to a 2.1 kb transcript encoding a protein that had weak similarity to trans-sialidase from Trypanosoma cruzi. The differential expression of PFK in H. bacteriophora IJs before and during recovery process represented a switch from active movement in search of insect hosts to a state of combating insect innate immune system. This first report of H. bacteriophora differential gene expression provides a glimpse at the gene expression profile of H. bacteriophora IJ recovery process.
A Modeling and exploration framework for interconnect network design in the nanometer era

As we approach serious scaling roadblocks in the next few process nodes, it is imperative to identify new emerging technologies that can complement or supplant CMOS in the future. We present an integrated cyclic approach to explore new interconnect technologies in the nanometer era for manycore systems, where on-chip interconnects are jointly optimized at all the levels in the design hierarchy to develop a complete interconnect solution - from interconnect technology to network topology.
A Field Data Examination of Policy Constructs Related to Fatigue Conditions in Law Enforcement Personnel

This study used systematic, semistructured qualitative field interviews for a purposive sample of law enforcement agency directors (e.g., police chiefs, sheriffs) to analyze policy constructs that affect the relationship between fatigue and job performance in law enforcement. Trained interviewers gathered a breadth of field data that describe department-level approaches to policy on secondary employment, overtime, court appearances, and other job-related activities that affect the fatigue of line officers. The findings reveal the reality of a tired workforce but a low-level desire among agency chiefs to have fatigue reduction policy. Where such policy exists, a business-like managerialism dominated executive conceptualization rather than citizen safety or civil liability orientations. Informal controls, rather than formal rules, emerged as applicable tools used to address and reduce officer fatigue.
Translational to rotational energy transfer in molecule-surface collisions.

A theoretical approach that combines classical mechanics for treating translational and rotational degrees of freedom and quantum mechanics for describing the excitation of internal molecular modes is applied to the scattering of diatomic molecules from metal surfaces. Calculations are carried out for determining the extent of energy transfer to the rotational degrees of freedom of the projectile molecule. For the case of observed spectra of intensity versus final rotational energy, quantitative agreement with available experimental data for the scattering of NO and N2 from close packed metal surfaces is obtained. It is shown that such measurements can be used to determine the average rotational energy of the incident molecular beam. Measurements of the exchange of energy between translational and rotational degrees of freedom upon collision are also described by calculations for these same systems.
Scaling of diffusion-mediated island growth in iron-on-iron homoepitaxy.

An analysis of the island size and separation distributions of Fe islands, observed in the initial stages of growth in the homoepitaxy of Fe on Fe(001) whiskers, shows scaling properties recently predicted in nucleation and growth theories. A critical size of one atom, where islands greater than the critical size undergo irreversible nucleation, is supported by the measured scaling functions for the Fe on Fe system in the temperature range of 20--250 \ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}C.
Genetic response of adult Bracon hebetor (say) to alkylation by ethylenimine

Abstract Experiments were performed to characterize the genetic and physiological damage induced by ethylenimine (EI), a monofunctional alkylating agent, on adult Bracon hebetor. These studies were specifically designed to enable a comparison with our previous data obtained with another aziridine compound, the hexafunctional agent apholate. All experiments provided consistent evidence that a dose of EI which was 50–100 times the apholate dose was required to give comparable genetic damage. The monofunctional agent is more toxic than apholate in females since adult life-span was reduced by 43% in these experiments. Previously, no reduction was found with apholate. Reduced oviposition was recorded in all stages of oogenesis, the greatest decline occurred in cells that were undergoing mitotic divisions at the time of treatment. Decreased egg production of developing oocytes which were accumulating nutrients at the time of injection implicates damage to nurse cells and/or follicle cells which provide much of the necessary cytoplasmic constituents necessary for normal egg development. Drastic reduction in hatchability of eggs deposited by treated virgin female is indicative of dominant and recessive lethals. The majority of the embryos died before completing meiosis. Gross chromosomal abnormalities have previously been shown to be the causative factor for early deaths. Metaphase oocytes are more sensitive than prophase to both EI and apholate. The essential difference in the damage induced by the two agents in meiotic oocytes is in the pattern of prophase sensitivity. Hatchability of eggs reaches control level by day 4 after apholate treatment but remains well below controls after EI. Additional work is necessary to determine whether this difference is due to differences in the extent of chromosomal damage.
Vibrational energy relaxation rates of H2 and D2 in liquid argon via the linearized semiclassical method.

The vibrational energy relaxation (VER) rates for H2 and D2 in liquid argon (T = 152 K, ρ = 1.45 × 1022 cm-3) are calculated using the linearized semiclassical (LSC) method (J. Phys. Chem. 2003, 107, 9059, 9070). The calculation is based on Fermi's golden rule. The VER rate constant is expressed in terms of the quantum-mechanical force−force correlation function, which is then estimated using the LSC method. A local harmonic approximation (LHA) is employed in order to compute the multidimensional Wigner integrals underlying the LSC approximation. The H2−Ar and D2−Ar interactions are described by the three-body potential of Bissonette et al. (J. Phys. Chem. A 1996, 105, 2639). The LHA-LSC-based VER rate constants for both D2 and H2 are found to be about 2−3 orders of magnitude slower than those obtained experimentally. However, their ratio agrees quantitatively with the corresponding experimental result. In contrast, the classical VER rate constants are found to be 8−9 orders of magnitude slower than those...
The inflammatory response to ischemic acute kidney injury: a result of the 'right stuff' in the 'wrong place'?

Purpose of review Ischemic acute kidney injury may be exacerbated by an inflammatory response. How injury elicits inflammation remains a major question in understanding acute kidney injury. The present review examines the hypothesis that molecules released by injured cells elicit inflammation. Recent findings After necrotic death, intracellular molecules find their way into the extracellular space. These molecules include heat shock proteins and HMGB1. Receptors for these proteins include TLR4, TLR2, CD91 and RAGE. These proinflammatory mechanisms may be so useful that nature has evolved mechanisms for programming necrotic death via poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase and cyclophilin D. In addition, apoptosis may also elicit inflammation. Summary The concepts discussed in this review are important for clinical medicine. Drugs and genetic manipulation may ameliorate ischemic kidney injury by regulating the inflammatory response to cell injury.
Stroke in childhood.

Background Childhood stroke is increasingly recognized as an important cause of morbidity and mortality. Risk factors for stroke in childhood are different than those traditionally seen in adults. Review summary This review summarizes, in brief, the epidemiology, risk factors, evaluation, treatment, outcome, and recurrence risk of children with arterial ischemic stroke (AIS). Areas of controversy and those that require further study are highlighted. Tables summarizing important points of the history, physical examination, and diagnostic evaluation of AIS are provided. Conclusions Children with stroke should be carefully evaluated for risk factors and possible etiology of stroke. At the present time, treatment is based upon extrapolation from the adult literature and expert opinion, as no evidence-based guidelines exist, except in sickle cell anemia. International, multicenter trials are beginning and should provide some answers over the next few years.
Transmission Electron Microscopy Study of Diamond Films Grown by Plasma Deposition

The morphology and crystal structure of diamond crystallites grown by radio frequency (RF) and microwave (MW) plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) under comparable conditions are examined by electron microscopy and found to be a strong function of the plasma. A novel TEM sample preparation method is developed to examine the internal structure of diamond as well as interfacial structure between diamond and substrate by direct deposition of diamond crystallites on prethinned metal grids. The diamond crystallites grown by RF PECVD are highly defective and composed of nanocrystalline grains of random orientation while those grown by MW PECVD are wellfaceted and process near perfect long range order in crystal structure.
2-deoxyribose-5-phosphate aldolase of Salmonella typhimurium: purification and properties.

Abstract 2-Deoxyribose-5-phosphate aldolase from Salmonella typhimurium has been purified and crystallized. The purified enzyme forms a Schiff base intermediate with the substrate acetaldehyde. One mole of acetaldehyde is bound per 57,300 gm of protein indicating the presence of one active site on the enzyme. The reduced acetaldehydeenzyme derivative has been identified as N6-ethyllysine. This aldolase, therefore, is similar in its mechanism of action to other Class I aldolases and can be labeled at the active site. The ability to label specifically the active site of an enzyme isolated from a bacterium subject to genetic analysis will enable us to compare the active site peptide purified from the normal enzyme with peptides purified from mutationally altered forms of the enzyme.