cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Thermal modeling and management of DRAM memory systems

With increasing speed and power density, high-performance memories, including FB-DIMM (Fully Buffered DIMM) and DDR2 DRAM, now begin to require dynamic thermal management(DTM) as processors and hard drives did. The DTM of memories, nevertheless, is different in that it should take the processor performance and power consumption into consideration. Existing schemes have ignored that. In this study, we investigate a new approach that controls the memory thermal issues from the source generating memory activities - the processor. It will smooth the program execution when compared with shutting down memory abruptly, and therefore improve the overall system performance and power efficiency. For multicore systems, we propose two schemes called adaptive core gating and coordinated DVFS. The first scheme activates clock gating on selected processor cores and the second one scales down the frequency and voltage levels of processor cores when the memory is to be over-heated. They can successfully control the memory activities and handle thermal emergency. More importantly, they improve performance significantly under the given thermal envelope. Our simulation results show that adaptive coregating improves performance by up to 23.3% (16.3% on average) on a four-core system with FB-DIMM when compared with DRAM thermal shutdown; and coordinated DVFS with control-theoretic methods improves the performance by up to 18.5% (8.3% on average).
A nonlinear dual-porosity model

Abstract A nonlinear dual-porosity formulation incorporating a quadratic gradient term in the governing flow equation is presented. To avoid solving the simultaneous system of equations, decoupling of fluid pressures in the matrix from the fractures is furnished by assuming a quasi-steady-state flow in the matrix with the pressure difference between matrix and fractures as a primary unknown. The nonlinear fracture flow equation is linearized using the function transformation currently adopted in the nonlinear single-porosity formulation. Analytical solutions are obtained in a radial flow domain using the Hankel transform. Both solution accuracy and efficiency are achieved by using an optimized algorithm when solving the inherent Bessel functions. The study indicates that the intensity of the dual-porosity effect is strongly conditioned by the magnitude of the initial pressure difference between matrix and fracture phases. The model presented appears to be suitable for simulating naturally fractured reservoirs subjected to high injection or production rate, or to significant fracture compressibility.
Mortality, cost, and downstream disease of total hip arthroplasty patients in the medicare population.

Abstract The purpose of this study is to compare the differences in downstream cost and health outcomes between Medicare hip OA patients who undergo total hip arthroplasty (THA) and those who do not. All OA patients in the Medicare 5% sample (1998–2009) were separated into non-THA and THA groups. Differences in costs and risk ratios for mortality and new disease diagnoses were adjusted using logistic regression for age, sex, race, socioeconomic status, region, and Charlson score. Mortality, heart failure, depression, and diabetes were all reduced in the THA group, though there was an increased risk for atherosclerosis in the short term. The potential for selection bias was investigated with two separate propensity score analyses. This study demonstrates the potential benefit of THA in reducing mortality and improving aspects of overall health in OA patients.
Subclavian artery puncture repair with Angio-Seal deployment

Abstract Background. Inadvertent placement of a port-a-catheter in an artery during central venous cannulation is rare and can result in devastating complications. Although traditional closure devices have been employed as prompt and adequate treatment, more innovative devices such as collagen plugs are being studied for their efficacy. Case. We report a case involving a 63-year-old woman who was treated with chemotherapy for recurrent metastatic uterine leiomyosarcoma. During port-a-catheter placement, puncture of the subclavian artery occurred. Vascular surgery and interventional radiology consultation was obtained, wherein an Angio-Seal device was used to seal the exit from the subclavian artery. Angio-Seal placement was successful and the patient has since become clinically stable and was then discharged. Conclusion. Subclavian artery puncture is rare but can occur due to the close proximity between the subclavian artery and vein. Prompt vascular surgery and radiology consultation is necessary. Although traditional manual compression and closure devices have been effective at restoring hemostasis, collagen seals or plugs may be more viable to treat this precarious situation.
The effects of exposure to darkness on the reproductive and hypothalamo-hypophysial systems of Budgerigars, Melopsittacus undulatus.

Exposure to continuous darkness caused an increase in ovarian and oviduct weight of paired Budgerigar females. The effects of dehydration by salt injection and exposure to continuous darkness on the reproductive system and on the histology of the median eminence, the nucleus supraopticus (NSO), and the nucleus paraventricularis (NPV) was subsequently investigated. Saline injections caused depletion of neurosecretory material (NSM) from the female neurohypophyses (males not investigated), and caused changes in the histology of the hypothalamic nuclei. Salt injections caused smaller body weights, and regression of testes and ovaries. In one experiment, exposure to continuous darkness caused an increase in ovarian and oviducal weights and at the same time caused a decrease in the volume of the cell nuclei of the NPV of males and females, with an accompanying decrease of finely granular NSM in the median eminence. The testicular size was not affected by the light treatment. In another experiments, exposure to continuous darkness did not affect the reproductive system, the histology of the median eminence or of the NSO. The increase in acid phosphatase activity was less in Budgerigars kept in darkness than it was in birds kept under 14 hours of light per day. The acid phosphatase activity in the median eminence of males was higher than that of females.
Core ERM Money Demand and Effects on Inflation

The paper presents evidence supporting the existence of a stable money demand relationship for Germany plus a core group of countries—France, Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg and the Netherlands—that have not realigned their parities against the deutschmark since at least 1987. The predictive power of the core ERM aggregate for French and German inflation is also examined; it is shown that the ERM aggregate is a better predictor of German inflation than the German monetary aggregate alone. Thus, the ERM money supply is a useful indicator for German monetary policy, even if the latter only focuses on achieving domestic inflation targets.
Wave patterns in plane Poiseuille flow created by concentrated disturbances

A model is constructed for perturbations created in the surrounding laminar flow by a turbulent spot in plane Poiseuille flow. The turbulent spot is represented as a distribution of increased Reynolds stress, which travels steadily through the surrounding laminar flow. The Navier-Stokes equations are linearized and are solved by using Fourier transforms in the plane parallel to the channel walls and a finite-difference method in the direction perpendicular to the walls. The travelling Reynolds stress distribution acts as a forcing term in the equations. Numerical results show that a packet of oblique waves are generated around the disturbance when the force is antisymmetric with respect to the channel centreline, whereas no identifiable wave crests are found when the forcing is symmetric. Furthermore, wavelengths of the typical waves composing the packet are insensitive to the size of the region of Reynolds stress. The dependencies of the flow field on Reynolds number and spot speed are investigated. In the case of symmetric forcing, the flow is forced around the disturbance, causing distortions to the basic velocity profiles. These results are in qualitative agreement with experimental observations.
Toward sociable robots

Abstract This paper explores the topic of social robots—the class of robots that people anthropomorphize in order to interact with them. From the diverse and growing number of applications for such robots, a few distinct modes of interaction are beginning to emerge. We distinguish four such classes: socially evocative, social interface, socially receptive, and sociable. For the remainder of the paper, we explore a few key features of sociable robots that distinguish them from the others. We use the vocal turn-taking behavior of our robot, Kismet, as a case study to highlight these points.
Orthonormal vector polynomials in a unit circle, application: fitting mapping distortions in a null test

We developed a complete and orthonormal set of vector polynomials defined over a unit circle. One application of these vector polynomials is for fitting the mapping distortions in an interferometric null test. This paper discusses the source of the mapping distortions and the approach of fitting the mapping relations, and justifies why the set of vector polynomials is the appropriate choice for this purpose. Examples are given to show the excellent fitting results with the polynomials.
Long, polymorphic microsatellites in simple organisms

We have examined the phylogenetic distribution of the longest, perfect microsatellites in GenBank. Despite the large contributions of model higher-eukaryotic organisms to GenBank, the selective cloning of long microsatellites from these organisms as genetic markers, and the relative lack of concentration on the microsatellites in lower eukaryotes and prokaryotes, we found that simple organisms, defined here as slime molds, fungi, protists, prokaryotes, viruses, organelles and plasmids, contributed 78 of the 375 examined sequences. These 78 simple-organism microsatellites are characterized predominantly by trinucleotide repeats, nearly half of which lie in exons, and in general show a bias towards A+T rich motifs. Simple-organism microsatellites represented more than once in GenBank displayed length polymorphisms when independent clones were compared. These facts collectively raise speculation as to the role of these 'junk' sequences in such highly economical genomes, especially when precise changes in long microsatellites are known to regulate critical virulence factors in several prokaryotes. Regardless of their biological significance, simple-organism microsatellites may provide a general source of molecular markers to track disease outbreaks and the evolution of microorganisms in unprecedented detail.
Regression Analysis of Soil Chemical Composition for Two Shrimp Farms in Texas

. Several nutrients, pH, organic matter, and total soluble salts of surface soil from 81 ponds on two Texas shrimp farms were measured. The relationship between shrimp yield and soil characteristics was analyzed statistically. Shrimp yield was negatively correlated with soil concentrations of S, P, NO3-, B, Ca, Mg, K, Na, Cu, and total water-soluble salts. Shrimp yield was directly correlated with soil concentrations of Fe, Mn, and organic matter. Stepwise multiple regression analysis indicated that Ca and S concentrations explained 54% of the variation in shrimp yield.
Streak Camera Observation Of Weak Imploding Shock Waves In Argon

An experimental requirement to generate shock waves in noble gases from detonating explosive charges and to minimize the usual disruptive effects associated with these charges led to the development and evaluation of an imploding shock wave system based on the use of nitroguanidine, which is a low-density explosive. The explosive surrounded an aluminum tube, the inside of which was filled with argon. The nitroguanidine was initiated at its periphery in such a manner that a cylindrically imploding detonation sent an imploding shock wave through the aluminum tube and into the argon gas. The experimental evaluation of this system was conducted by means of high speed photographic instrumentation, to verify that the imploding detonation in the nitroguanidine was symmetrical, and to observe the reflection of the imploding s!)ock wave in argon at the axis of symmetry. The resulting streak camera records clearly revealed the times at which the shock wave entered the argon gas and at which the shock wave reflected from itself at the center of implosion. The observed shock velocity in the argon was in good agreement with the theoretical value calculated from the shock Hugoniot compression curves for the various materials utilized in the experiment.
Fermion masses and neutrino mixing in an SU(5) (grand unification) ⊗ SU(8) (extended hypercolor) model

We extend the SU(3)xSU(2)xU(1) model without scalars to SU(5) (grand unification)xSU(8) (extended hypercolor). In our model, the mixing in the leptons is identical to that for the quarks, so that the Cabibbo angle determines the mixing of ..nu../sub e/ and ..nu../sub ..mu../. The quark masses and mixing angles are studied for two and three generations of quarks.
Do Modifications of the American Heart Association Guidelines Improve Survival of Patients with Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest?

Major predictors of survival of patients with out-of-hospital primary cardiac arrest are witnessed collapse and a shockable rhythm. Since early bystander initiated resuscitation efforts prolong the electrical or shockable phase of untreated ventricular fibrillation, areas with higher rates of early-onset bystander resuscitation efforts and shorter emergency medical services (EMS) response times have higher survival rates.1,2 These areas enjoyed and enjoy acceptable survival rates by following the American Heart Association Guidelines for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and Emergency Cardiac Care (ECC),3,4 hereafter referred to as “guidelines.” However, because these 2 survival criteria (early bystander CPR and rapid EMS response times) are not present in most areas, the survival of individuals with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) overall remains suboptimal.5,6 Article see p 2597 In an effort to improve survival, chest compressions only for bystanders was advocated in the 1990s, and modifications of the 2000 guidelines for EMS providers were instituted by the Sarver Heart Center Resuscitation Research Group in 2003.7–11 The major elements of the EMS modifications were (1) eliminating the decades-long emphasis on early intubation and positive pressure ventilations, (2) eliminating the recommendation for immediate defibrillation and the use of stacked shocks, (3) eliminating all unnecessary interruptions of chest compressions, and (4) advocating chest compressions before and immediately after a single defibrillation shock, and the early administration of epinephrine. This approach for patients with OHCA was called cardiocerebral resuscitation. 8 to differentiate it from cardiopulmonary resuscitation , which we think should be reserved for cardiac arrest secondary to respiratory arrest or failure. Our first 2 outcomes reports using cardiocerebral resuscitation were published by Kellum and associates.12,13 In the first report from Rock and Walworth counties in Wisconsin, survival of patients with OHCA and an initially shockable rhythm was 18/92 (20%) …
Adsorption compared with sulfide precipitation as metal removal processes from acid mine drainage in a constructed wetland

Abstract Metal removal processes from acid mine drainage were studied in an experimental constructed wetland in the Idaho Springs-Central City mining district of Colorado. The wetland was designed to passively remove heavy metals from the mine drainage flowing from the Big Five Tunnel. Concurrent studies were performed in the field on the waters flowing from the wetland and in the laboratory on the wetland substrate. Both studies suggest that there is competition for organic adsorption sites among Fe, Cu, Zn and Mn. Iron and Cu appear to be more strongly adsorbed than Zn and Mn. The adsorption of metals varies with the fluctuation of pH in the outflow water. Also indicated by field and laboratory studies is the microbial reduction of sulfate with a corresponding increase in the sulfide concentration of the water. As sulfide is generated. Cu and Zn are completely removed. The field results suggest that upon start up of a constructed wetland, the adsorption of dissolved metals onto organic sites in the substrate material will be an important process. Over time, sulfide precipitation becomes the dominant process for metal removal from acid mine drainage.
Vaginal tumors in childhood: the experience of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

Abstract Background/Purpose The aim of this study was to retrospectively analyze the clinical presentation, histology, treatment, and outcomes of children with vaginal tumors who were treated at a single institution. Methods A retrospective review of medical records and pathologic materials of all children with vaginal tumors treated at St Jude Children's Research Hospital between 1970 and 2009 was conducted. Results Eighteen patients (median age, 3.7 years; range, 0.1-15 years) were identified. Three different histologies were found: rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS; n = 13), germ cell tumor (n = 3), and clear cell adenocarcinoma (n = 2). Bleeding or blood-tinged discharge was the most common clinical presentation (66%), followed by a protruding mass (39%). Vaginal and uterine salvage was 44.4% (8 of 18 patients). Thirteen patients (72.2%) remain disease-free, with a median follow-up of 23.2 years (range, 2-39 years). Four patients (22.2%) died of disease progression (1 RMS, 2 germ cell tumor, and 1 clear cell adenocarcinoma), and 1 patient with RMS died of colon cancer 12 years after the primary diagnosis had been made. Conclusions Vaginal tumors are extremely rare in the pediatric population. Early recognition of symptoms like bleeding and a protruding vaginal mass may prevent morbidity and mortality. Our findings confirm the good prognosis of vaginal RMS.
Advertising creativity and repetition: Recall, wearout and wearin effects

Creativity is seen as an important component of advertising, with highly creative ads being easier to recall than control ads. However, the boundary conditions around this effect are less understood. This research examines how creativity influences recall across repeated ad exposures. Additionally, this paper investigates the influence of creativity on advertising wearin/wearout. We utilise creative and control commercials embedded in a television programme for a naturalistic viewing experience, along with a one-week follow-up measure. We find that creative advertisements exhibit higher recall, though repeated exposures reduce this advantage.Further, creative ads are more liked, demonstrate wear in effects more quickly and are less susceptible to wearout.
Fine structure of the mucilaginous sheath of Anabaena sp.

Ultrastructural studies on the mucilaginous sheath of Anabaena were carried out using negatively stained intact cell preparations, replicas of frozen-fractured cells, and thin sections obtained from cell preparations that were processed with ruthenium red or alcian blue in the fixation solutions. The electron microscopic observations of cells processed by these various procedures reveal the appearance of fine filaments which radiate from the outer convoluted cell membrane of the cell wall (i.e., the cell envelope of the blue-green algal cell). The cytochemical studies suggest that the sheath material is composed of pectic acids and acid mucopolysaccharides. The sheath material around the cells of Anabaena is compared with the polysaccharide-rich extraneous coat (“glycocalyx”) that has been reported for some microorganisms as well as some animal and plant cells.
Connectionism and explanation

More generally, the problem of representing new proposit.ions in connectionist networks is a real mess. The connectionists know about this however, and t, here has been some work on the topic. The basic idea is tha t one uses the s ta te of the entire network to represent a proposition ra ther than concentra t ing it a t a node. So, one might have one set o1" nodes which represent the first a rgument of a proposition, one for the second, and one for the predicate, and each set of nodes could indicate different individuals, depending on the pat tern . The networks could be tra.ined so that , say, if " fa ther -of" was the propositi.ou, it, would tend to like " j ack" as argument one, and " a n n " as a rgument two, assuming one wanted to store the fact that, Jack is the father of Ann. Using the connectionist abili ty to complete pat terns, one can a.lso see how such a network might fill in " j a c k " if both " fa ther -of" and " a n n " where put into the appropr ia te places. David McClelland does something like this in his work on case assignment using connectionist networks. There are other ways to repreresent propositions as well (perhaps best being the work of David Touretzky) , but they all loose what is so nice about the unsophisticated version of the networks. Before, the network as a whole represented the situation as a whole, and filling in
Etiology of Yellow Fever. iv. The Acquired Immunity of Guinea Pigs against Leptospira icteroides after the Inoculation of Blood of Yellow Fever Patients.

The majority of guinea pigs inoculated with the blood of yellow fever patients escaped a fatal infection. There were a number of instances in which the inoculation of yellow fever blood induced in these animals a temporary febrile reaction on the 4th or 5th day, followed in some cases by slight jaundice, but with a rapid return to normal. Most of these guinea pigs when later inoculated with an organ emulsion of a passage strain of Leptospira icteroides resisted the infection. On the other hand, the animals which had previously been inoculated with the blood of malaria patients or normal guinea pigs died of the typical experimental infection after being inoculated with the infectious organ emulsion. It appears from the results just described that a number of nonfatal, mild, or abortive infections follow the inoculation of blood of yellow fever patients into guinea pigs. The fact that such animals manifested refractoriness to a subsequent attempt to infect with a highly virulent passage strain of Leptospira icteroides is an indication, judging from the reciprocal immunity reaction, that they actually passed through an infection with the same organism, or a strain closely related to it, as that which was used for the second infection experiment
Particle-in-cell simulations of nonneutral magnetic vortex dynamics

Summary form only given. Non-neutral magnetic vortices have been observed in electromagnetic particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of plasmas where density gradients exist. When plasma dynamics on the length scale of the electron inertial length (c/ωpe) and the time scale of electron motion (t~1/ωpe) is considered, charge separation and electron inertia effects become important. Relativistic effects may also be important in a regime where very large current densities exist (|J|>>vTe/ene). This can arise when a large magnetic field pushes on an initially unmagnetized plasma (e.g., in a plasma opening switch, dense plasma focus, etc). One phenomenon which can occur in this regime is the formation of magnetic vortices, in which a strong azimuthal current sustains an axial magnetic field. An associated charge separation gives rise to a radial electric field, and the electron motion is primarily an E×B drift in the azimuthal direction. For short times (t <;<;1/ωpi), the ions are motionless and the vortex is a steady-state solution to the two-fluid approximation to the kinetic equations. Gradients in the background plasma density can cause the vortex to propagate along density contours, and can transport magnetic fields into an unmagnetized plasma. Theory indicates that field penetration must be accompanied by energy dissipation and the balance between electromagnetic energy, thermal, and directed kinetic energy can be verified. On longer time scales (t ≈1/ωpi), the strong electric fields in the vortex can accelerate the ions radially outward from the plasma disrupting the vortex and giving rise to a bi-modal ion velocity distribution function. In plasmas with multiple ion species, this can lead to a spatial separation of the ion species. In the fixed-ion limit, the two fluid equations for a magnetic vortex reduce to a fairly simple form which has a semi-analytic solution. This solution has been used as an initial condition in a PIC code, in order to study the dynamics of vortex propagation and the effect of gradients in the background plasma density.
Intragroup Contact and Anxiety Among Ethnic Minority Adolescents: Considering Ethnic Identity and School Diversity Transitions

Everyday interactions with same-racial/ethnic others may confer positive benefits for adolescents, but the meaning of these interactions are likely influenced by individual differences and larger structural contexts. This study examined the situation-level association between contact with same-ethnic others and anxiety symptoms among a diverse sample of 306 racial/ethnic minority adolescents (Mage = 14 years; 66 % female), based on (1) individual differences in ethnic identity centrality and (2) developmental histories of transitions in diversity between elementary, middle, and high school. The results indicated that at the level of the situation, when adolescents interacted with more same-ethnic others, they reported fewer anxiety symptoms. Further, for adolescents who had experienced a transition in school diversity, the positive benefits of contact with same-ethnic others was only conferred for those who felt that their ethnicity was very important to them. The importance of examining individual differences within larger developmental histories to understand the everyday experiences of ethnic minority adolescents are discussed.
The Effect of Some Divalent Cations on Extracellular Polysaccharide Synthesis in Streptococcus salivarius

The amount of extracellular insoluble polysaccharide produced by Streptococcus salivarius can be effected by some divalent cations. Calcium at concentrations of 1 × 10-3 and 10-4 M caused a reduction in polysaccharide synthesis. Magnesium at 1 × 10-3 M inhibited extracellular polysaccharide production but at 1 X 10-4 M had little effect. Manganese was without effect on polysaccharide synthesis. Zinc at 1 X 10-3 and 1 X 10-4 M caused a substantial increase in extracellular polysaccharide synthesis.
Removal of Organic Compounds from Water via Cloud-Point Extraction with Permethyl Hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin

Abstract Aqueous solutions of nonionic surfactants are known to undergo phase separations at elevated temperatures. This phenomenon is known as “clouding,” and the temperature at which it occurs is referred to as the cloud point. Permethyl-hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin (PMHP-β-CD) was synthesized and aqueous solutions containing it were found to undergo similar cloud-point behavior. Factors that affect the phase separation of PMHP-β-CD were investigated. Subsequently, the cloud-point extractions of several aromatic compounds (i.e., acetanilide, aniline, 2,2′-dihydroxybiphenyl, N-methylaniline, 2-naphthol, o-nitroaniline, m-nitroaniline, p-nitroaniline, nitrobenzene, o-nitrophenol, m-nitrophenol, p-nitrophenol, 4-phenazophenol, 3-phenylphenol, and 2-phenylbenzimidazole) from dilute aqueous solution were evaluated. Although the extraction efficiency of the compounds varied, most can be quantitatively extracted if sufficient PMHP-β-CD is used. For those few compounds that are not extracted (e.g., o-nitroaceta...
Determination of the Solubility Limit of Tris(dibenzylideneacetone) dipalladium(0) in Tetrahydrofuran/Water Mixtures

Determination of the solubility limit of a strongly colored organometallic reagent in a mixed-solvent system provides an example of quantitative solubility measurement appropriate to understand polymer, nanoparticle, and other macromolecular aggregation processes. The specific example chosen involves a solution of tris(dibenzylideneacetone) dipalladium(0), Pd2(dba)3, in THF/H2O mixtures, which has the desired properties of high absorption in the visible range (λmax = 528 nm) and significant difference in solubility in the two solvents THF and H2O. Pd2(dba)3 is readily available, safe, and commonly used in nanoparticle syntheses. The application of Flory−Huggins theory permits the fit of a quantitative model to data obtained from a straightforward laboratory experiment that can be conducted in less than 3 h. The absorbance of this compound is easily measured by UV−vis absorption spectroscopy. The application of the Beer−Lambert law to the data in this experiment is a useful exercise for students because th...
Adrenergic Regulation of AMP-activated Protein Kinase in Brown Adipose Tissue in Vivo

AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), an evolutionarily conserved serine-threonine kinase that senses cellular energy status, is activated by stress and neurohumoral stimuli. We investigated the mechanisms by which adrenergic signaling alters AMPK activation in vivo. Brown adipose tissue (BAT) is highly enriched in sympathetic innervation, which is critical for regulation of energy homeostasis. We performed unilateral denervation of BAT in wild type (WT) mice to abolish neural input. Six days post-denervation, UCP-1 protein levels and AMPK α2 protein and activity were reduced by 45%. In β1,2,3-adrenergic receptor knock-out mice, unilateral denervation led to a 25–45% decrease in AMPK activity, protein expression, and Thr172 phosphorylation. In contrast, acute α- or β-adrenergic blockade in WT mice resulted in increased AMPK α Thr172 phosphorylation and AMPK α1 and α2 activity in BAT. But short term blockade of α-adrenergic signaling in β1,2,3-adrenergic receptor knock-out mice resulted in decreased AMPK activity in BAT, which strongly correlated with enhanced phosphorylation of AMPK on Ser485/491, a site associated with inhibition of AMPK activity. Both PKA and AKT inhibitors attenuated AMPK Ser485/491 phosphorylation resulting from α-adrenergic blockade and prevented decreases in AMPK activity. In vitro mechanistic studies in BAT explants showed that the effects of α-adrenergic blockade appeared to be secondary to inhibition of oxygen consumption. In conclusion, adrenergic pathways regulate AMPK activity in vivo acutely via alterations in Thr172 phosphorylation and chronically through changes in the α catalytic subunit protein levels. Furthermore, AMPK α Ser485/491 phosphorylation may be a novel mechanism to inhibit AMPK activity in vivo and alter its biological effects.
Vertebrate Gastrulation: Separation Is Sticky and Tense

During vertebrate gastrulation, cells separate into different germ layers. A recent study investigates and quantifies the roles of cell adhesion and cortical tension during germ layer formation in zebrafish.
Application of two hydrologic models with different runoff mechanisms to a hillslope dominated watershed in the northeastern US: a comparison of HSPF and SMR

Abstract Differences in the simulation of hydrologic processes by watershed models directly affect the accuracy of results. Surface runoff generation can be simulated as either: (1) infiltration-excess (or Hortonian) overland flow, or (2) saturation-excess overland flow. This study compared the Hydrological Simulation Program—FORTRAN (HSPF) and the Soil Moisture Routing (SMR) models, each representing one of these mechanisms. These two models were applied to a 102 km2 watershed in the upper part of the Irondequoit Creek basin in central New York State over a seven-year simulation period. The models differed in both the complexity of simulating snowmelt and baseflow processes as well as the detail in which the geographic information was preserved by each model. Despite their differences in structure and representation of hydrologic processes, the two models simulated streamflow with almost equal accuracy. Since streamflow is an integral response and depends mainly on the watershed water balance, this was not unexpected. Model efficiency values for the seven-year simulation period were 0.67 and 0.65 for SMR and HSPF, respectively. HSPF simulated winter streamflow slightly better than SMR as a result of its complex snowmelt routine, whereas SMR simulated summer flows better than HSPF as a result of its runoff and baseflow processes. An important difference between model results was the ability to predict the spatial distribution of soil moisture content. HSPF aggregates soil moisture content, which is generally related to a specific pervious land unit across the entire watershed, whereas SMR predictions of moisture content distribution are geographically specific and matched field observations reasonably well. Important is that the saturated area was predicted well by SMR and confirmed the validity of using saturation-excess mechanisms for this hillslope dominated watershed.
A PUBLIC UTILITY APPROACH TO LAND USE

Escalating legal confrontations between private enterprise and government over land use controls are raising the costs of land development and slowly eliminating the potentials for reasonably priced family housing. Equally important, these confrontations are beginning to have more and more of the negative aspects of public utility control processes without any of the associated benefits. Now would seem to be an ideal time in which to review the ''public utility'' approach to land use controls since it can offer many more benefits than current control systems, while balancing society's concerns and private developers' fair return objectives. 28 references.
Marriage and Mental Health: When a Spouse Has Alzheimer's Disease

When spouses suffer from memory disorders, caregivers are at high risk for negative mental health consequences. The purpose of this pilot study was to identify factors within marital relationships that increase risk for caregiver burden and depression. Participants/Sampling Caregivers (5 men and 11 women) and their partners with Alzheimer's disease were English speaking, age 55 and older and living in the community. Caregivers were cognitively intact and spouses had moderate cognitive impairment. Methods This was a descriptive correlational study. Martial quality was rated by caregivers (CG) using the Marital Quality Index. Caregiver burden was measured by the Zarit Burden Interview and depression was measured by the 20-item Center for Epidemiological Studies- Depression Scale (CES-D). Results Spouses who rated their marriage as strong and satisfying experienced less burden than spouses who rated their marriage more negatively (r = -.464, p Implications Individuals with Alzheimer’s disease are often cared for by spouse caregivers who may become overburdened and depressed. Findings suggest that spouses who were inexperienced caregivers were most vulnerable to negative outcomes and therefore a population warranting closer scrutiny.
Lidar measurements of temperature turbulence in the atmosphere

Optical turbulence is an important characteristic for laser propagation in the atmosphere. The optical turbulence causes refractive index fluctuations in the air. The accumulative atmospheric refractive index fluctuations can incur deleterious effects to a laser beam propagating in the atmosphere by distorting its wavefront. Accurate characterization of turbulence in the atmosphere is important to many light propagation studies and related applications. Temperature fluctuations/turbulences in the atmosphere are highly correlated with the atmospheric optical turbulence. In many occasions, optical turbulences profiles in the atmosphere were obtained through the measurements of temperature turbulence and other other atmospheric quantities, for example, air humidity. Therefore determination of temperature fluctuations/turbulences parameter C 2 T is helpful to the measurement of optical turbulence. Thermosonde was commonly seen in measurements of C 2 T in the past. Here we show that a direct lidar system is able to fulfill the task of C 2 T measurements. And compared to the thermosonde measurements the proposed lidar method has many advantages.
Mutualistic Fungal Endophytes Express a Proteinase that Is Homologous to Proteases Suspected to Be Important in Fungal Pathogenicity

Many cultivated and wild grass species are hosts to mutualistic fungal endophytes. These associations are ecologically and agronomically significant, yet little is known regarding the physiological aspects of the interaction. In the Poa ampla/Acremonium typhinum interaction, a fungal serine proteinase, At1, is surprisingly abundant and may constitute 1 to 2% of the total leaf-sheath protein. Sequence analysis of cDNA and genomic clones indicates that proteinase At1 is a member of the eukaryotic subtilisin-like protease family. It is homologous to proteases suspected to be virulence factors in fungal pathogens of insects, nematodes, and other fungi. Gel blot analysis of RNA extracted from infected leaf-sheath tissue indicates that the proteinase At1 transcript level is extremely high. RNA gel blots and immunoblots of purified enzymes indicate that similar proteinases are produced by Epichloe festucae and Acremonium lolii, the fungal endophytes infecting Festuca rubra subsp. rubra and Lolium perenne, respectively. Fungal expression of proteinase At1-like enzymes may be a general feature of endophyte infection.
Neuroprotective and neurotrophic curcuminoids to treat stroke: a translational perspective

Importance of the field: Curcumin has been investigated in preclinical and translational stroke models because of its pleiotropic ‘neuroprotective’ activities. Since curcumin has poor blood–brain barrier (BBB) penetration following acute administration, creative medicinal chemistry has been used to modify the parent curcumin molecule, resulting in second generation curcuminoids, which have enhanced BBB penetration, improved pharmacokinetics and interact with multiple viable targets to treat stroke.Areas covered in this review: This review covers epidemiological, preclinical and translational data published between 2002 and 2010.What the reader will gain: There are two main goals: First, epidemiological data comparing the incidence of stroke in North America to that of India, a country where curcumin is a main-stay of the diet is presented. Second, the pharmacological characteristics of curcuminoids are detailed to determine if they should be further studied in translational stroke models for safety and ef...
Scattering from an elliptic cylinder loaded with an active or passive continuously variable surface impedance

Recently it has been shown that a plane wave reflected from an active surface may be amplified [1]. The active surface was theoretically assumed to be a corrugated planar structure with slots properly loaded with negative conductance material (e.g., Gunn, tunnel, or IMPATT diodes). If the corrugations are sufficiently close, such surfaces, whether active or passive, can be modeled in terms of an equivalent surface impedance. From the boundary-value point of view this makes the problem amenable to easy computation. In this communication, an example is discussed where a plane electromagnetic wave scatters from an elliptic cylinder loaded by a continuously variable surface impedance. For negative surface conductance, significant amplification of the backscattered field is obtained. Results are also shown for passive surface impedances.
Measuring Context-Specific and Cross-Contextual Components of Hierarchical Constructs

Rating scales are often used to measure behavioral constructs. Yet, different informants’ ratings may not necessarily agree. The situational specificity (SS) perspective postulates that discrepancies between ratings by different informants are primarily attributable to contextual behavior of the people being rated. The multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) perspective, however, attributes discrepancies between informants to rater bias, i.e., each informant provides a systematically distorted picture of the person being rated. Similarly, the Attribution-Bias-Context (ABC) perspective also attributes informant discrepancies to systematic biases. Within the context of measuring hierarchical constructs, we proposed a hybrid perspective that takes account of variance attributable to the behavior of the person being rated in a particular context from the perspective of a specific informant. We then provided a parametric representation of this perspective and analyses of mother, teacher, and self-ratings of Rule-Breaking and Aggressive Behavior to illustrate features of the model. Strengths and limitations of the SS, MTMM, and hybrid perspectives are discussed.
Automated identification of voids in three-dimensional point clouds

In the construction of three-dimensional (3D) point clouds from multi-view aerial imagery, voids in the point cloud often exist where multiple views of the area were not obtained during collection. A method is presented for identifying these voids. In this work, point clouds are derived from oblique aerial imagery using multi-view techniques from the photogrammetry and computer vision communities. A voxel-based approach is used to partition the 3D space and each voxel is classied as containing or not containing derived points. Using the imagery and the position of the camera, it is possible to analyze what the cameras can and cannot see, thereby making it possible to label the voxels as occupied, free, and non-classied spaces. Voids in the data will manifest themselves in the non-classied voxels. This method has been tested on high-frame-rate oblique aerial imagery captured over Rochester, NY as well as synthetic data sets. Also presented is a unique synthetic dataset for 3D reconstruction. The data set, created with the Rochester Institute of Technology’s Digital Imaging and Remote Sensing Image Generation (DIRSIG) software, provides high-delity
Classification and Quantification of Neuronal Fiber Pathways Using Diffusion Tensor MRI

Quantitative characterization of neuronal fiber pathways in vivo is of significant neurological and clinical interest. Using the capability of MR diffusion tensor imaging to determine the local orientations of neuronal fibers, novel algorithms were developed to bundle neuronal fiber pathways reconstructed in vivo with diffusion tensor images and to quantify various physical and geometric properties of fiber bundles. The reliability of the algorithms was examined with reproducibility tests. Illustrative results show that consistent physical and geometric measurements of novel properties of neuronal tissue can be obtained, which offer considerable potential for the quantitative study of fiber pathways in vivo.
Scale-invariant optical flow in tracking using a pan-tilt-zoom camera

SUMMARY An efficient method for tracking a target using a single Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ) camera is proposed. The proposed Scale-Invariant Optical Flow (SIOF) method estimates the motion of the target and rotates the camera accordingly to keep the target at the center of the image. Also, SIOF estimates the scale of the target and changes the focal length relatively to adjust the Field of View (FoV) and keep the target appear in the same size in all captured frames. SIOF is a feature-based tracking method. Feature points used are extracted and tracked using Optical Flow (OF) and Scale-Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT). They are combined in groups and used to achieve robust tracking. The feature points in these groups are used within a twist model to recover the 3D free motion of the target. The merits of this proposed method are (i) building an efficient scale-invariant tracking method that tracks the target and keep it in the FoV of the camera with the same size, and (ii) using tracking with prediction and correction to speed up the PTZ control and achieve smooth camera control. Experimental results were performed on online video streams and validated the efficiency of the proposed method SIOF, comparing with OF, SIFT, and other tracking methods. The proposed SIOF has around 36% less average tracking error and around 70% less tracking overshoot than OF.
Performance analysis for an important class of parallel-processing networks

This paper presents performance and feasibility analyses for important mesh-connected architectures that contain sparse broadcast buses. Two basic architectures, that implement bus intersections differently, are given special attention. The first architecture simply allows row/column bus crossovers. The second architecture has separable buses and implements such intersections with switches for further flexibility. Both architectures have lower cost than the mesh with multiple broadcast, which has buses spanning each row and each column, but the former architectures maintain to a high extent the powerful properties of the latter mesh. The architecture with separable buses is shown to often perform better than the higher-cost mesh with multiple broadcast. Architectures with separable buses that employ store-and-forward routing often perform better than architectures with contiguous buses that employ high-cost wormhole routing. All these architectures are evaluated in reference to cost, and efficiency in implementing several important operations and application algorithms. The results prove that these architectures are very promising alternatives to the mesh with multiple broadcast; in addition, their implementation is cost-effective and feasible.
Toddlers Receiving Early Intervention in Childcare Centers A Description of a Service Delivery System

This article presents a descriptive analysis of the early intervention services received by a group of 68 toddler-age children. The children were 30 months of age and early intervention services were delivered within childcare centers. Data were collected across family, child, and service characteristics. Results suggested that the children were receiving services distributed across special instruction, speech therapy, occupational therapy, and physical therapy delivered primarily at the childcare center. The families consisted mostly of two-parent households, having at least one parent employed. The Individual Family Service Plans primarily contained child-focused outcomes. Recommendations for service delivery improvements and future research are included.
A Global Sand Budget—A Discussion of Sand Generation, Use and Destruction. Are We Running Out of Sand?

Recent articles on soil erosion sound the alarm regarding the large amount soil that is being lost due to modern agricultural practices, and there is a general concern that we may be destroying our...
Current-voltage characteristics of semiconductor-coupled superconducting weak links with large electrode separations

We have studied the current-voltage characteristics of superconducting weak links in which the coupling medium is the two-dimensional electron gas in InAs-based semiconductor quantum wells, with relatively large (typically 0.5 \ensuremath{\mu}m) separations between niobium electrodes. The devices exhibit Josephson-like current-voltage characteristics; however, the falloff of the differential resistance with decreasing temperature is thermally activated, and is orders of magnitude slower than for more conventional weak links. Most unexpectedly, the thermal activation energies are found to be proportional to the width of the device, taken perpendicular to the current flow. This behavior falls outside the range of established theories; we propose that it is a fluctuation effect caused by giant shot noise associated with multiple Andreev reflections. The possibility of nonequilibrium effects is discussed.