cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The Pathological Consequences and Evolutionary Implications of Recent Human Genomic Duplications

Sequence duplications are one of the primary forces by which genes and genomes evolve. The evolutionary effects occur through a variety of different avenues. Gene duplications, either tandem or dispersed, create families of related genes. Extra copies of a gene can subtly influence the fitness of an organism, imparting a slight but important selective advantage over those lacking the duplication (Cooke et al., 1997; Shimeld, 1999). Also, a redundant copy exists in a state of relaxed selective constraint. This increases the chance that otherwise deleterious mutations will persist in an evolving genome, potentially acquiring new genic function outside the confines of the original function (Ganfornina and Sanchez, 1999). In this manner, individual family members can gain developmentally, spatially, or temporally modified functions independent of the ancestral copy. The most well-studied example of such an effect is the globin family of proteins (Stamatoyannopoulos and Nienhuis, 1994). Multiple globin isoforms are found in the mammalian genome, but each has a developmentally limited period of expression. In addition to generating genes with new or modified function, duplication events may also be used to increase copy number, thereby increasing the dosage of a particular protein or RNA product. The concerted evolution of rRNA genes clusters has long been thought of in this regard (Ganfornina and Sanchez, 1999). Duplications also increase genomic diversity, affording an organism a greater capacity to interact with its environment. Mutations within duplicate copies may occur which facilitate and fine-tune molecular interaction with a diverse repertoire of xenobiotic molecules. Such interactions may confer clear selective advantages to an organism and increase the number of niches that evolving species may occupy. Within the mammalian genome, olfactory receptor and immunoglobulin gene families are examples of such classes of genes that have evolved to recognize a diverse array of odorant molecules and antigens, respectively (Lancet et al., 1993; Kasahara, 1997; Marchalonis et al., 1998; Litman et al., 1999).
Other Iron Monooxygenases

One of the more novel biological reactions in which dioxygen participates is the oxidation of heme to bilirubin. It has long been known that breakdown of heme in vivo leads to evolution of carbon monoxide and biliverdin (Sjostrand, 1952; Ludwig et al., 1957). Bilirubin is then produced by enzymatic reduction of biliverdin. Other facets of the reaction have come to light much more recently. Tenhunen et al. (1969) discovered the enzyme that catalyzes this transformation and found that 3 moles of dioxygen are consumed per mole of bilirubin produced and monoxide given off. The reaction also occurs nonenzymatically under a variety of conditions. Substituents on the porphyrin ring are not critical, but metal ion and oxidation state are. Thus, oxophlorins, the first intermediate in the degradation pathway, can be formed by hydrogen peroxide oxygenation of porphyrin chelates of any of several metals with easily accessible 1-higher oxidation states [Fe(III), Co(III), Mn(II), Mn(III) low yield] (Bonnett and Dimsdale, 1972). Chelates of metals without this property are inert. The product has resonance forms (Figure 16–1) A and B, of which B is predominant.
Accelerated durability testing of gas turbine coatings emphasizing oxide-metal interfaces

Publisher Summary This chapter describes the basis for a mechanism-based approach for establishing a protocol for accelerated durability testing of oxidation resistant coatings and thermal barrier coatings. The adherence and durability of oxide scales, particularly alumina scales, is critical to the long-term performance of most high temperature alloys. The adherence of oxide scales to hardware in the hot section of gas turbines is essential for their long-term corrosion resistance. Oxides also play a key role in other types of coating systems. In particular, the resistance of ceramic thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) to spallation from nickel-based substrates is dependent on the adherence of the alumina scale that forms between the TBC and the substrate. The loss of adherence along the oxide/substrate interface is a fundamental barrier to more widespread use of TBCs on rotating components such as turbine blades and the resulting significant increases in turbine efficiency. Thus, the inservice loss of adhesion in TBC systems is a major problem in the aircraft and power generation gas turbine industries.
Language-Content Integration Across School Subjects: Approaches to Teaching English Language Learners

This chapter provides an introduction to the present book. In an effort to provide practitioners with guidance on such pedagogical endeavor, this collection examines how the educators of varied academic disciplines (English language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies) approach the creation and implementation of curriculum spaces at the intersection of language and content. Our vision for this book was one of theory-based practice wherein descriptions of pedagogical approaches were accompanied by explicit accounts of the authors’ theoretical underpinnings and epistemic/linguistic stance.
Energy-Efficient Virtual Radio Access Networks for Multi-Operators Cooperative Cellular Networks

5G networks will be characterized by massive densification of base stations (BSs). To minimize the network power consumption due to the increased BS deployment, we leverage emerging paradigms to propose BS energy-saving strategies applicable to 5G networks. We explore the potentials of virtualized radio access and core networks to enable spectrum sharing among mobile network operators (MNOs) by harnessing inter-band non-contiguous carrier aggregation. We propose the sleep-mode with efficient beamformers and spectrum-sharing (SEBS) strategy, which minimizes BS power consumption of cooperative MNOs. The licensed bandwidth of each MNO is partitioned into private and shared bands to provision active BSs with sufficient spectrum resources for serving all UEs. Moreover, an optimization problem is formulated to obtain the optimal intra- and inter-RAN beamforming vectors for efficient BS transmission power and improved user signal reception. Numerical simulations show that the proposed strategies yield significant reductions of total power consumption as compared to other schemes. We present different bandwidth sharing ratio formulations to motivate the cooperation among MNOs by the spectrum–user support trading. We also show that the trading does not always yield a higher spectral efficiency in the cooperative cellular network.
Impact of alpha-tocopherol deficiency and supplementation on sacrocaudalis and gluteal muscle fiber histopathology and morphology in horses.

Author(s): Bookbinder, Lauren; Finno, Carrie J; Firshman, Anna M; Katzman, Scott A; Burns, Erin; Peterson, Janel; Dahlgren, Anna; Ming-Whitfield, Brittni; Glessner, Shelby; Borer-Matsui, Amanda; Valberg, Stephanie J | Abstract: BackgroundA subset of horses deficient in alpha-tocopherol (α-TP) develop muscle atrophy and vitamin E-responsive myopathy (VEM) characterized by mitochondrial alterations in the sacrocaudalis dorsalis medialis muscle (SC).ObjectivesTo quantify muscle histopathologic abnormalities in subclinical α-TP deficient horses before and after α-TP supplementation and compare with retrospective (r)VEM cases.AnimalsProspective study; 16 healthy α-TP-deficient Quarter Horses. Retrospective study; 10 retrospective vitamin E-responsive myopathy (rVEM) cases .MethodsBlood, SC, and gluteus medius (GM) biopsy specimens were obtained before (day 0) and 56 days after 5000 IU/450 kg horse/day PO water dispersible liquid α-TP (n = 8) or control (n = 8). Muscle fiber morphology and mitochondrial alterations were compared in samples from days 0 and 56 and in rVEM cases.ResultsMitochondrial alterations more common than our reference range (l2.5% affected fibers) were present in 3/8 control and 4/8 treatment horses on day 0 in SC but not in GM (mean, 2.2; range, 0%-10% of fibers). Supplementation with α-TP for 56 days did not change the percentage of fibers with mitochondrial alterations or anguloid atrophy, or fiber size in GM or SC. Clinical rVEM horses had significantly more mitochondrial alterations (rVEM SC, 13% ± 7%; GM, 3% ± 2%) and anguloid atrophy compared to subclinical day 0 horses.Conclusions and clinical importanceClinically normal α-TP-deficient horses can have mitochondrial alterations in the SC that are less severe than in atrophied VEM cases and do not resolve after 56 days of α-TP supplementation. Preventing α-TP deficiency may be of long-term importance for mitochondrial viability.
Routing on Traffic Networks Incorporating Past Memory up to Real-Time Information on the Network State

In this review, we discuss routing algorithms for the dynamic traffic assignment (DTA) problem that assigns traffic flow in a given road network as realistically as possible. We present a new class...
The relative importance of wetland area versus habitat heterogeneity for promoting species richness and abundance of wetland birds in the Prairie Pothole Region, USA

Recent work has suggested that a tradeoff exists between habitat area and habitat heterogeneity, with a moderate amount of heterogeneity supporting greatest species richness. Support for this unimodal relationship has been mixed and has differed among habitats and taxa. We examined the relationship between habitat heterogeneity and species richness after accounting for habitat area in glacially formed wetlands in the Prairie Pothole Region in the United States at both local and landscape scales. We tested for area–habitat heterogeneity tradeoffs in wetland bird species richness, the richness of groups of similar species, and in species' abundances. We then identified the habitat relationships for individual species and the relative importance of wetland area vs. habitat heterogeneity and other wetland characteristics. We found that habitat area was the primary driver of species richness and abundance. Additional variation in richness and abundance could be explained by habitat heterogeneity or other wetland and landscape characteristics. Overall avian species richness responded unimodally to habitat heterogeneity, suggesting an area–heterogeneity tradeoff. Group richness and abundance metrics showed either unimodal or linear relationships with habitat heterogeneity. Habitat heterogeneity indices at local and landscape scales were important for some, but not all, species and avian groups. Both abundance of individual species and species richness of most avian groups were higher on publicly owned wetlands than on privately owned wetlands, on restored wetlands than natural wetlands, and on permanent wetlands than on wetlands of other classes. However, we found that all wetlands examined, regardless of ownership, restoration status, and wetland class, supported wetland-obligate birds. Thus, protection of all wetland types contributes to species conservation. Our results support conventional wisdom that protection of large wetlands is a priority but also indicate that maintaining habitat heterogeneity will enhance biodiversity and support higher populations of individual species.
Spectral Photon Sorting For Large-Scale Cherenkov and Scintillation Detectors

We describe here measurements with a new device, the ``dichroicon,'' a Winston-style light concentrator built out of dichroic reflectors, which could allow large-scale neutrino detectors to sort photons by wavelength with small overall light loss. Photon sorting would benefit large-scale water or ice Cherenkov detectors such as Hyper-Kamiokande or IceCube by providing a measure of dispersion, which, in turn, could allow improved position reconstruction and timing. For scintillator detectors like JUNO and upgrades to $\mathrm{SNO}+$ or KamLAND-ZEN or to water-based liquid scintillator detectors like Theia, dichroicons would provide effective discrimination between Cherenkov and scintillation light, allowing them to operate as true hybrid detectors. We include measurements with a prototype dichroicon using first a Cherenkov source to show that spectral photon sorting works as expected. We then present measurements of two different linear-alkyl-benzene-based liquid scintillator sources and demonstrate discrimination between Cherenkov and scintillation light. On the benchtop, we can identify Cherenkov light with better than 90% purity while maintaining a high collection efficiency for the scintillation light. First results from simulations of a large-scale detector are also presented.
Influence of invasive earthworms (Amynthas spp.) on Wisconsin forest soil microbial communities and soil chemistry

Abstract The invasion of Amynthas species complex of earthworms from Asia into North American hardwood forests poses a novel threat to these ecosystems. These species can competitively exclude previously-established earthworms, have novel effects on microbial communities, and influence the structural and chemical composition of soils differently than other earthworm species. However, because prior research has found that earthworm species is an important factor for microbial community composition, Amynthas species may also uniquely affect soil microbial community composition. To address this, we took earthworm and soil samples from 0.5-m quadrats along an active invasion front of Amynthas agrestis and A. tokioensis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum. We tested all soil samples for basal metabolic rates, total carbon, and total nitrogen. We also extracted microbial DNA from cast samples, dissected worm guts, and soil samples, and we used high-throughput DNA sequencing to characterize Amynthas species-specific differences in bacterial and fungal community composition. We found that plots that had been occupied by Amynthas for longer than a year had higher total nitrogen, lower C/N, and different communities of soil bacteria and fungi when compared to newly-invaded plots. We also found that Amynthas had species-specific differences in bacterial communities adhered to worm guts and in worm casts. These results suggest that Amynthas species introduce novel assemblages of bacteria and fungi through their casts, and these differences are associated with the species-specific community composition of earthworm guts. These results also suggest that Amynthas species are likely affecting the soil microbial community during invasion.
Spindle cell variant of epithelioid cell histiocytoma (spindle cell histiocytoma) with ALK gene fusions: cases series and review of the literature.

Background Epithelioid fibrous histiocytoma (EFH) is an uncommon dermal neoplasm expressing anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) protein. Rarely a histopathological variant of this entity exhibits exclusively spindle cells. We report three cases of EFH that do not completely fulfill phenotypic criteria featuring spindle cell morphology and expressing ALK protein. We also analyze the fusion partner genes rearranged with ALK in these cases. Methods ALK expression and rearrangement status were evaluated by immunohistochemistry (IHC), fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), and next generation sequencing based gene fusion analysis. Results Three cases, all from females between 25 and 55 years old, have been biopsied from back, left arm, and thumb. All three cases showed tumor with exclusively spindle cell morphology without any epithelioid cells. The tumor cells exhibited strong ALK expression by IHC and FISH study confirmed ALK gene rearrangement in all three cases. DCTN1-ALK fusion was identified in two cases. Conclusion EFH is not always purely epithelioid and its spindled cell variant, spindle cell histiocytoma, should be included in the differential diagnosis of superficial dermal spindled cell neoplasms. ALK immunostain is a useful diagnostic marker for this entity and further studies may be useful to investigate whether DCTN1-ALK fusion mutations are specific to EFH with spindled cell features.
Glycan Clock Forecasts Human Influenza A Virus Hemagglutinin Evolution

Adaptive immunity to influenza A virus is limited by frequent mutations in the immunodominant head of hemagglutinin (HA). Over the last century, the upward trend in HA-head glycosylation indicates glycan addition can increase fitness, but its role in viral evolution remains unclear. Here, we report glycan evolution follows a clock-like rhythm, pacing the timeline, trajectory, and replacement of HA. Following pandemic introduction, glycans are added to HA at 4- to 6-year intervals, until a functional glycan limit is reached, after which, at 9- to 12-year intervals, glycans are either swapped between different sites, or the HA is replaced by a novel pandemic virus. Using this, we predicted the appearance of the newest glycan on pH1N1 HA. Phylogeographic reconstruction suggests these highly fit strains originated in the Middle East, before rapidly replacing all strains globally. Going forward, we can use this simple algorithm to forecast future glycan evolution and identify seasons with higher pandemic potential.
Spatial Reconstruction of Soil Moisture Content using Non-Contact Thermoacoustic Imaging

Sensing of soil water content is useful in many precision agriculture and resource management applications, particularly if the sensing technique permits frequent field-scale measurements at depth. To date, soil moisture sensing technologies have a trade-off between point based measurements at depth or rapid, remote measurements of water content near the surface. In this paper, we propose a non-contact thermoacoustic soil moisture sensing modality which could permit high-resolution, high-throughput mapping of water content at depth. Within, we develop an algorithm for reconstructing the speed-of-sound in soil, which is known to be highly correlated with the soil moisture content. Through verification in simulation, our algorithm demonstrates high fidelity – reconstructing speed-of-sound profiles that match well with the ground-truth.
Comorbidities and the risk of cardiovascular disease mortality among racially diverse patients with breast cancer

Background Women who have coexisting comorbidities at the time of breast cancer diagnosis have an increased risk of breast cancer and overall mortality. However, the associations between newly diagnosed comorbidities and the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality among these patients have not been examined. Methods The authors compared the associations between coexisting and newly diagnosed CVD, type 2 diabetes, and hypertension and the risk of CVD mortality among patients with breast cancer identified in the Missouri Cancer Registry. In total, 33,099 women who had incident invasive breast cancer with inpatient and outpatient hospital discharge data within 2 years after breast cancer diagnosis were included: 9.3% were Black. Subdistribution hazard ratios (sdHRs) and 95% CIs were calculated for the risk of CVD-related mortality using adjusted Cox proportional hazards regression models, accounting for a competing risk of breast cancer deaths. Results Within the first 2 years after breast cancer, the most reported newly diagnosed comorbidity was hypertension (9%), followed by CVD (4%), and type 2 diabetes (2%). CVD mortality was increased in women who had newly diagnosed CVD (sdHR, 2.49; 95% CI, 2.09-2.99), diabetes (sdHR, 2.16; 95% CI, 1.68-2.77), or hypertension (sdHR, 2.06; 95% CI, 1.71-2.48) compared with women who did not have these conditions. Associations were similar by race. The strongest association was among women who received chemotherapy and then developed CVD (sdHR, 3.82; 95% CI, 2.69-5.43). Conclusions Monitoring for diabetes, hypertension, and CVD from the time of breast diagnosis may reduce CVD mortality.
Effects of bradykinin on voltage-gated K V 4 channels in muscle dorsal root ganglion neurons of rats with experimental peripheral artery disease.

Key points During exercise, bradykinin (BK), a muscle metabolite in ischaemic muscles, exaggerates autonomic responses to activation of muscle afferent nerves in peripheral artery disease (PAD). We examined whether BK inhibits activity of KV 4 channels in muscle afferent neurons of PAD rats induced by femoral artery occlusion. We demonstrated that: 1) femoral occlusion attenuates KV 4 currents in dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons innervating the hindlimb muscles and decreases the threshold of action potential firing; 2) BK has a greater inhibitory effect on KV 4 currents in muscle DRG neurons of PAD rats; and 3) expression of KV 4.3 is downregulated in DRGs of PAD rats and inhibition of KV 4.3 significantly decreases activity of KV 4 currents in muscle DRG neurons. Femoral artery occlusion-induced limb ischaemia and/or ischaemia-induced metabolites (i.e. BK) inhibit activity of KV 4 channels in muscle afferent neurons and this is likely involved in the exaggerated exercise pressor reflex in PAD. Abstract Muscle afferent nerve-activated reflex sympathetic nervous and blood pressure responses are exaggerated during exercise in patients with peripheral artery diseases (PAD) and in PAD rats induced by femoral artery occlusion. However, the precise signalling pathways and molecular mediators responsible for these abnormal autonomic responses in PAD are poorly understood. A-type voltage-gated K+ (KV ) channels are quintessential regulators of cellular excitability in the various tissues. Among KV channels, KV 4 (i.e. KV 4.1 and KV 4.3) in primary sensory neurons mainly participate in physiological functions in regulation of mechanical and chemical sensation. However, little is known about the role of KV 4 in regulating neuronal activity in muscle afferent neurons of PAD. In addition, bradykinin (BK) is considered as a muscle metabolite contributing to the exaggerated exercise pressor reflex in PAD rats with femoral artery occlusion. Our data demonstrated that: 1) KV 4 currents are attenuated in dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons innervating the hindlimb muscles of PAD rats, along with a decreasing threshold of action potential firing; 2) KV 4 currents are inhibited by application of BK onto muscle DRG neurons of PAD rats to a greater degree; and 3) expression of KV 4.3 is downregulated in the DRGs of PAD rats and KV 4.3 channel is a major contributor to the activity of KV 4 currents in muscle DRG neurons. In conclusion, data suggest that femoral artery occlusion-induced limb ischaemia and/or ischaemia-induced metabolites (i.e. BK) inhibit the activity of KV 4 channels in muscle afferent neurons likely leading to the exaggerated exercise pressor reflex observed in PAD.
(4-Benzyl-1-methyl-1,2,4-triazol-5-yl­idene)[(1,2,5,6-η)-cyclo­octa-1,5-diene](tri­phenyl­phosphane-κP)iridium(I) tetra­fluorido­borate

A new triazole-based N-heterocyclic carbene iridium(I) cationic complex with a tetra­fluorido­borate counter-anion, [Ir(C10H11N3)(C8H12)(C18H15P)]BF4, has been synthesized and structurally characterized. The cationic complex exhibits a distorted square-planar environment around the IrI ion. One significant non-standard hydrogen-bonding inter­action exists between a hydrogen atom on the N-heterocyclic carbene ligand and a fluorine atom from the counter-ion, BF4−. In the crystal, π–π stacking inter­actions are observed between one of the phenyl rings and the triazole ring. Both inter­molecular and intra­molecular C—H⋯π(ring) inter­actions are also observed.
On Constitutional Changes to Limit Government

Like other members of the Federalist Society's libertarian wing, I would really like to see a govemment limited to genuine public goods like defense and basic: education, a govemment that keeps its fingers off both the economy and personal life. Is constitutional change necessary to achieve this? Yes and no. Yes, because the current Constitution is not one of a limited goveiiunent. No, because not even with constitutional change can those forms of limits be created. The national govemment grew for social and political reasons that cannot be called back with words. People chose larger national govemment, and they chose it through constitutional amendment. Just think of a few of them. There is Section 5 ofthe Fourteenth Amendment, allowing the national govemment to regulate the states.' There is universal suffrage.^ There is the Sixte:enth Amendment on the income tax. There is the direct election of senators."* Those are the principal causes for the size ofthe national govemment. No one, not even Richard Epstein, proposes to limit suffrage to property holders today. So if you are not planning to repeal those constitutional amendments or change them, you have to live with that. It seems necessary to me to go back and think about the sources of modem constitutional power at the federal level and ask what could be done about them, even with creative judicial interpretations? Let us start with the commerce power^ The commerce power was limited at the outset because
Chapter 5 Mitotic Spindles Isolated from Sea Urchin Eggs with EGTA Lysis Buffers

Publisher Summary This chapter describes the mitotic spindles isolated from sea urchin eggs with EGTA lysis buffers. The mitotic apparatus is a complex organelle, and an ideal isolated model has not been achieved. The spindle-fiber microtubules are labile and will generally depolymerize within several minutes if cells are lysed into normal culture media. Several spindle-isolation techniques have been developed that use glycols or purified brain microtubule protein to stabilize the spindle microtubules on cell lysis. It is found that mitotic spindles from first-mitotic sea urchin eggs of Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis or Lumbriculus variegatus could be isolated with a relatively stable normal distribution of spindle BR and organization of microtubules by rapidly lysing the eggs in a simple calcium-chelating, low-ionic-strength, Triton X-100 detergent buffer. Critical requirements for microtubule preservation during cell lysis were strong calcium chelation, low ionic strength, rapid membrane solubilization, and pH below 7.0. The development of ripe sea urchin eggs is generally uniform and synchronous under a constant set of conditions such as temperature, handling of the eggs, and composition of culture medium.
Adolescents' Accounts of Growth Experiences in Youth Activities

Little theory and research exists on the developmental processes that occur during adolescents' participation in extracurricular and community based-activities. As a step in that direction, we conducted 10 focus groups aimed at getting high school students' descriptions of their “growth experiences” in these activities. The youth reported both personal and interpersonal processes of development. The personal experiences included experimentation and identity work, development of initiative skills such as learning to set goals and manage time, and learning strategies for emotional regulation. The interpersonal experiences included acquiring new peer relationships and knowledge, developing group social skills such as taking responsibility and how to work together as a team, and developing valuable connections to adults. Across domains, adolescents described themselves as the agents of their own development and change. Youth activities appear to be a context in which adolescents are active producers of development.
Estimating Import Demand and Export Supply Elasticities

The objective of this paper is to provide estimates of import demand and export supply elasticities for around 4200 goods (six digit of the Harmonized System) in 117 countries. The empirical methodology follows the GDP function approach of Kohli (1991), which allows sufficient flexibility in terms of functional forms. Patterns found in the estimated elasticities are discussed. The estimates and their standard errors can be downloaded from a companion file. JEL classification numbers: F10, F11
Abstract 19542: Endocardial EphB4 Signaling Regulates Neuregulin-1 Expression and is Critically Required for Myocardial Development

The vertebrate ventricular myocardium is formed by a complex and incompletely understood developmental paradigm that regulates accurate organization of an inner trabecular and outer compact zone layers. EphB4, a member of the largest family of receptor tyrosine kinases, is expressed in the developing endocardium, along with its cognate ligand EphrinB2. Whereas EphB4 and EphrinB2 have well-established roles in vascular maturation, their role in cardiac development is unknown. In this study, we show that disruption of embryonic EphB4 expression in the second heart field (Mef2c-cre) or endocardium (Nfat-1c cre) results in a severely thinned and underdeveloped myocardial layer, ventricular non-compaction, heart failure and embryonic lethality around E15.5. Mutant hearts show reduced activation of PI3K pathway and impaired proliferation of developing cardiomyocytes. Knockdown of EphB4 alters multiple downstream signaling pathways of significance in cardiac development. In particular, EphB4 expression regulates neuregulin-1 levels both in vitro and in vivo, which then activates myocardial ErbB receptor signaling. Our study re-iterates the critical role of endocardial signaling in myocardial development. In addition, we identify EphB4 as a novel upstream modulator of Neuregulin-1, and thereby, a critical regulator of myocardial development - a hitherto unrecognized function of this receptor tyrosine kinase.
Ensemble modeling, uncertainty and robust predictions

Many studies of future climate change take an ensemble modeling approach in which simulations of future conditions are produced with multiple climate models (or model versions), rather than just one. These ensemble studies are of two main types—perturbed-physics and multimodel—which investigate different sources of uncertainty about future climate change. Increasingly, methods are being applied which assign probabilities to future changes in climate on the basis of the set of projections (the ensemble) produced in a perturbed-physics or multimodel study. This has prompted debate over both the appropriate interpretation of ensembles as well as how best to communicate uncertainty about future climate change to decision makers; such communication is a primary impetus for ensemble studies. The intuition persists that agreement among ensemble members about the extent of future climate change warrants increased confidence in the projected changes, but in practice the significance of this robustness is difficult to gauge. Priority topics for future research include how to design ensemble studies that take better account of structural uncertainty, how to weight ensemble members and how to improve the process by which ensemble studies are synthesized with other information in expert assessments. WIREs Clim Change 2013, 4:213–223. doi: 10.1002/wcc.220 Conflict of interest: The authors have declared no conflicts of interest for this article. For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.
Nonlinear and Dissipation Characteristics of Ocean Surface Waves in Estuarine Environments

Abstract : The overall goal of this work is the development of computational modules for the dissipation of surface wave energy due to expanses of bottom mud and marshland vegetation. The computational modules would represent both the dissipative effects on the surface waves and the effects of dissipation on other processes of wave transformation and evolution, with particular attention paid to the nonlinear energy exchange among wave frequencies. In addition these modules would allow for feedback between the surface wave and the energy dissipating feature.
Dominating measures for spaces of analytic functions

The mixed norm space $H(p,q,a)$ is the collection of functions $f$ analytic in the unit disk with finite norm $$||f||_{p,q,\alpha}=\left[\int_{0}^{1}(1-r)^{\alpha q-1}\left(\int_{0}^{2\pi}|f\left(re^{i\theta}\right)|^{p} d\theta\right)^{q/p}dr\right]^{1/q}.$$ Sufficient conditions on a family of measures $\{\mu_{r}:0< r <1\}$ on $U$ and a measure $\nu$ on $[0,1]$ are given to obtain an inequality $$||f||_{p,q,\alpha}^{q}\leq C\int{\left(\int{|f|^{p}d\mu_{r}}\right)^{q/p}\,d\nu(r)},\quad f\in H(p,q,\alpha)$$ with $C$ independent of $f$. Similar results are obtained for spaces of ``slow mean growth'' $(q=\infty)$ and the Hardy spaces ($q=\infty$, $\alpha=0$). In the case of the Bergman spaces $(p=q)$ these conditions are an improvement over those obtained in [5] and [6].
Forensic Analysis of Xbox Consoles

Microsoft’s Xbox game console can be modified to run additional operating systems, enabling it to store gigabytes of non-game related files and run various computer services. Little has been published, however, on procedures for determining whether or not an Xbox console has been modified, for creating a forensic duplicate, and for conducting a forensic investigation. Given the growing popularity of Xbox systems, it is important to understand how to identify, image and examine these devices while reducing the potential of corrupting the media. This paper discusses Xbox forensics and provides a set of forensically-sound procedures for analyzing Xbox consoles.
Large-Scale Structure of the Universe and Asymptotics of Burgers' Turbulence with Heavy-tailed Dependent Data Yiming Hue and

Large-time asymptotics of the statistical solutionsν(t,χ) of the Burgers' equation ν t + ννχ = ννχχ is considered. The initial velocity potential is assumed to be of the shot noise type with dependent amplitudes and heavy tails. The problem arises naturally in the adhesion model of the large-scale distribution of matter in the Universe. As t → ∞, the random field ν(t, χ) becomes stochastically relatively asymptotically equivalent to a field with “saw-tooth” trajectories. The intermittent shocks of the velocity field correspond then to the regions of high density in the coupled passive tracer density field. This paper extends a result of S.Albeverio, S.A.Molchanov and D. Surgailis (1992), obtained for the case of independent amplitudes.
Database Technologies for RDF

Efficient and scalable support for RDF/OWL data storage, loading, inferencing and querying, in conjunction with already available support for enterprise level data and operations reliability requirements, can make databases suitable to act as enterprise-level RDF/OWL repository and hence become a viable platform for building semantic applications for the enterprise environments. This tutorial outlines the requirements for supporting semantic technologies in databases including bulk load and data manipulation operations, inference based on RDFS, OWL and user-defined rules, and support for SPARQL queries. It also discusses the design choices for handling issues that arise in implementing support for storage and operations on large scale RDF/OWL data, and in general, touches upon the practical aspects related to RDF/OWL support that become important in enterprise environments. Semantic technologies support in Oracle Database is used as a case study to illustrate with concrete examples the key requirements and design issues.
The Effect of Quality and Quantity of Dietary Fat on the Immune System

The effect of the quality and quantity of dietary fats on the morphology and function of the immune system of Sprague-Dawley rats fed either 5% mixed fat, 24% saturated fat, 24% polyunsaturated fat, or 24% partially saturated fat was examined. After 2.5 months of dietary treatment high fat groups showed evidence of splenic hyperplasia, however, no consistent morphologic changes were seen in the mesenteric lymph nodes (MLN). Splenocytes from rats fed the 24% polyunsaturated fat diet were cultured in fetal bovine serum (FBS) and had a depressed lymphocyte transformation response, which persisted after 5 months of dietary treatment. Supplementing the culture medium with 10% rat serum altered the transformation response profile, but high fat serum did not have an immunosuppressive effect. MLN lymphocytes from rats fed the 24% partially saturated diet for 2.5 months had an enhanced response to concanavalin A; at five months the response was elevated in the groups fed saturated as well as partially saturated fat diets. These results suggest that the modulating effect of fat on the immune system depends on the duration of feeding, the type of fat consumed and the organ examined.
A formal approach to system design and refinement

The Petri net formalism is used in the synthesis of system designs. A methodology is used that makes it possible to synthesize arbitrary size well-behaved Petri nets, using a stepwise refinement technique. This technique provides a method for constructing large systems that are well-behaved by design. The steps that are required in developing a synthesis procedure are outlined and brief mention is made of some of the work that has been done in this area. A subclass of nets called information flow nets (IFNs) is proposed, and the notion of a well-behaved IFN is defined. A refinement procedure for IFNs is presented, and the conditions required for the refinement procedure to preserve well-behavedness are derived. The theorem of refinement of IFNs is given. The author formulates appropriate interpretations for the properties of the nets, enabling him to synthesize systems in different applications. >
Enabling opportunistic and dynamic spectrum access through learning techniques

The expected shortage in spectrum supply is well understood to be primarily due to the inefficient, static nature of current spectrum allocation policies. In order to address this problem, Federal Communications Commission promotes the so called opportunistic spectrum access (OSA) to be applied on cognitive radio networks (CRNs). In short, the idea behind OSA is allowing unlicensed users to use unused licensed spectra as long as they do not cause interference to licensed users. In this paper, we present and evaluate learning schemes that allow unlicensed users to locate and use spectrum opportunities effectively, thus improving efficiency of CRNs. We separately consider two models: single and multiple unlicensed user(s). For the latter model, we present two schemes: noncooperative and cooperative Q-learning. All proposed schemes do not require prior knowledge or prediction models of the environment's dynamics and behaviors, yet can still achieve high performance by learning from interaction with the environment. Using simulations, we show that the proposed schemes achieve good performances in terms of throughput and fairness. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. (We want to mention that these aforementioned results do not account for the communication overhead caused by message exchange needed to share the probability vectors among cooperative SUGs.)
A Discourse Analysis of Parents' Talk Around Their Children's Autism Labels

Keywords: Autism; Discursive Psychology; Parents of Children with Autism Labels; Social-Relational Model of Disability Not so long ago autism was the province of a small group of individuals. Yet it is now everywhere, working to shape the public's imagination and ways of talking about the construct of autism. Public stories told about autism often conflict with and contradict one another, particularly as public stories meet the private, everyday practices of individuals with autism labels and their families and friends. Drawing upon discursive psychology, I share the findings generated from a discourse analysis of 14 interviews with parents of children with autism labels focused on the meanings of autism. I illustrate the ways in which the participants constructed autism as: (1) untenable and apt to receive multiple meanings; (2) representative of a different or non-normative way of thinking; and (3) minimally relevant, as the 'truth' of autism was overshadowed by bodily realities.
End Users Creating More Effective Software.

End-User Software is created using a variety of different techniques and paradigms. The “creating” part is defined as the process of representing the desired program in a computer-understandable form, and entering that representation into the computer. Programs can be represented using textual languages, visual (also called graphical) languages, spreadsheets (which are often included as a type of visual language), programming by example, or simple menu-based specifications. Textual languages range from general purpose languages such as Java, to special purpose languages such as StarLogo and MatLab for simulations and the HANDS language for kids, to “programming” using English as in Metafor. There is also research on how tools can make it easier to enter the text, such as the Alice syntax-directed editor. Visual Programming languages use 2D as part of the meaning of the language, and systems from members of the seminar include AgentSheets, Pursuit, Stagecast, StarLogo, and others. Programming by Example systems watch as the users perform tasks, and use AI (in particular, Machine Learning) to infer the program from the examples. Systems from members of the seminar include Eager, Robofox, Mondrian, and Gamut. Finally, there are some systems that allow limited customization of behaviors using menus and dialog boxes, such as simple parameter tweaking, specifying the behaviors of the characters in the Sims game, and drag-and-drop creation of dynamic web pages in CLICK. An orthogonal issue for software creation is the programming paradigm, such as imperative, event-based such as in Visual Basic and HANDS, functional such as in spreadsheets, and constraint programming as in CoDraw. One goal for EUP is to create what we call “gentle slope systems”, where it is easy to get started (“low threshold”), sophisticated things can be done (“high ceilings”), and there are no barriers or walls where users must stop and learn many new things before making progress. Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings 07081 End-User Software Engineering http://drops.dagstuhl.de/opus/volltexte/2007/1093
DRUG ANTIOXIDANT EFFECTS-A BASIS FOR DRUG SELECTION

A free radical is any species capable of independent existence that contains one or more unpaired electrons. Free radical reactions have been implicated in the pathology of more than 50 human diseases. Radicals and other reactive oxygen species are formed constantly in the human body, both by deliberate synthesis (e.g. by activated phagocytes) and by chemical side-reactions. They are removed by enzymic and nonenzymic antioxidant defence systems. Oxidative stress, occurring when antioxidant defences are inadequate, can damage lipids, proteins, carbohydrates and DNA. A few clinical conditions are caused by oxidative stress, but more often the stress results from the disease. Sometimes it then makes a significant contribution to the disease pathology, and sometimes it does not. Several antioxidants are available for therapeutic use. They include molecules naturally present in the body [superoxide dismutase (SOD), alpha-tocopherol, glutathione and its precursors, ascorbic acid, adenosine, lactoferrin and carotenoids] as well as synthetic antioxidants [such as thiols, ebselen (PZ51), xanthine oxidase inhibitors, inhibitors of phagocyte function, iron ion chelators and probucol]. The therapeutic efficacy of SOD, alpha-tocopherol and ascorbic acid in the treatment of human disease is generally unimpressive to date although dietary deficiencies of the last two molecules should certainly be avoided. Xanthine oxidase inhibitors may be of limited relevance as antioxidants for human use. Exciting preliminary results with probucol (antiatherosclerosis), ebselen (anti-inflammatory), and iron ion chelators (in thalassaemia, leukaemia, malaria, stroke, traumatic brain injury and haemorrhagic shock) need to be confirmed by controlled clinical trials. Clinical testing of N-acetylcysteine in HIV-1-positive subjects may also be merited. A few drugs already in clinical use may have some antioxidant properties, but this ability is not widespread and drug-derived radicals may occasionally cause significant damage.
The performance advantage of applying compression to the memory system

The memory system stores information comprising primarily instructions and data and secondarily address information, such as cache tag fields. It interacts with the processor by supporting related traffic (again comprising addresses, instructions, and data). Continuing exponential growth in processor performance, combined with technology, architecture, and application trends, place enormous demands on the memory system to permit this information storage and exchange at a high-enough performance (i.e., to provide low latency and high bandwidth access to large amounts of information). This paper comprehensively analyzes the redundancy in the information (addresses, instructions, and data) stored and exchanged between the processor and the memory system and evaluates the potential of compression in improving performance of the memory system. Analysis of traces obtained with Sun Microsystems' Shade simulator simulating SPARC executables of nine integer and six floating-point programs in the SPEC CPU2000 benchmark suite yield impressive results. Well-designed compression schemes may provide benefits in performance that far outweigh the extra time and logic for compression and decompression. This will be more so in the future since the speed and size of logic (which will be used to perform compression/decompression) are improving and are projected to improve at a much higher rate compared to those of interconnect (which will be used to communicate the information), both on-chip and off-chip.
Semiactive Connected Control Method for Adjacent Multidegree-of-Freedom Buildings

The connected control method (CCM) has been shown previously to be a viable means to protect adjacent flexible structures. The CCM works by using an auxiliary structure to provide a reaction force for control. The CCM can be applied to a variety of structural systems including civil, mechanical, or aerospace structures, and can incorporate various types of control strategies including passive, active, or semiactive control. This paper focuses on the application of the CCM to seismically excited adjacent buildings employing semiactive control and extends the previous research in semiactive coupled building control to examine the effects of relative building height and coupling link location on the semiactive performance. The optimal semiactive coupled building configuration is shown to follow two guidelines: (1) The dominant frequencies of the two coupled buildings do not coincide and (2) the coupling link is not placed at the node of a dominant vibratory mode. Additionally, it is shown that semiactive con...
A 2D microphysical model of the polar stratospheric CN layer

Each spring a layer of small particles forms between 20 and 30 km altitude in the polar regions. We present the first self-consistent explanation of the observed CN layer from a 2D microphysical model of sulfate aerosol. Our theory relies on photolysis of H 2 SO 4 and SO 3 , consistent with recent laboratory measurements, to produce SO 2 in the upper stratosphere and mesosphere. An additional source of SO 2 may be required. Nucleation throughout the polar winter extends the top of the aerosol layer to higher altitudes, despite strong downward transport of ambient air. This may affect heterogeneous chemistry at the top of the aerosol layer in polar winter and spring.