cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
QSAR study of the reduction of nitroaromatics by Fe(II) species.

The development of predictive models for the reductive transformation of nitroaromatics requires further clarification of the effect of environmentally relevant variables on reaction kinetics and the identification of readily available molecular descriptors for calculating reactivity. Toward these goals, studies were performed on the reduction of a series of monosubstituted nitrobenzenes in Fe(II)-treated goethite suspensions. The energy of the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital, ELUMO (B3LYP/6-31G*,water), of the nitrobenzenes was capable of explaining 99% of the variability in the rates. Results of experiments in which the surface area loading of ferric oxides was systematically varied indicate that (i) the reactivity of mineral-surface-associated Fe(II), Fe(II)surf, toward the reduction of p-cyanonitrobenzene (CNNB) decreased in the order hematite > goethite > lepidocrocite > ferrihydrite and (ii) the surface density of Fe(II)surf did not play a crucial role in determining the observed reactivity tren...
Catalyst development for stable hydrogen generation during steam reforming of renewable and nonrenewable resources

The production of hydrogen from renewable and nonrenewable resources is demonstrated. Catalytic steam reforming, using a rhodium-containing catalyst, is shown to be effective for the conversion of natural gas and n-hexadecane (used as a simulant for diesel fuel). Improved conversion efficiencies can be achieved by performing the reaction at higher temperatures and steam to carbon ratios. The presence of sulfur in the fuel is shown to have a significant inhibiting effect on catalyst performance. Steam reforming of biomass-derived species is less effective when compared with that of simpler compounds such as methane and methanol, because these species decompose to produce tars and chars at temperatures below which steam reforming reactions are effective. Autothermal reforming has been shown to be relatively effective for several biomass-derived species. © 2007 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 2008
Examining NIARA: How a Student-Designated Program for Women of Color Is Impacting Mentors

The Problem.Higher education and human resource development (HRD) personnel are constantly seeking ways to enhance the job satisfaction and leadership development of women of color, which is often ...
Integral representations of two-point functions

An integral representation for a general matrix element of two field operators between eigenstates labelled by an arbitrary number of momenta is presented. This representation is conveniently parametrized over a set of invariants related to the total momentum and momentum transfer, and explicitly incorporates spectral conditions. Physically interesting dispersion relations for off-forward scattering cannot be obtained from this representation alone.
Haralick texture features expanded into the spectral domain

Robert M. Haralick, et. al., described a technique for computing texture features based on gray-level spatial dependencies using a Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM). The traditional GLCM process quantizes a gray-scale image into a small number of discrete gray-level bins. The number and arrangement of spatially co-occurring gray-levels in an image is then statistically analyzed. The output of the traditional GLCM process is a gray-scale image with values corresponding to the intensity of the statistical measure. A method to calculate Spectral Texture is modeled on Haralick's texture features. This Spectral Texture Method uses spectral-similarity spatial dependencies (rather than gray-level spatial dependencies). In the Spectral Texture Method, a spectral image is quantized based on discrete spectral angle ranges. Each pixel in the image is compared to an exemplar spectrum, and a quantized image is created in which pixel values correspond to a spectral similarity value. Statistics are calculated on spatially co-occurring spectral-similarity values. Comparisons between Haralick Texture Features and the Spectral Texture Method results are made, and possible uses of Spectral Texture features are discussed.
Experience during suckling increases weight and volume of rat hippocampus

Changes in brain anatomy resulting from early suckling experience were explored by measuring wet weight of whole brain, cortex, hippocampus and cerebellum in juvenile rats. Rats provided with ample opportunity to nipple-shift, a behavior associated with enhanced maze learning, had much larger hippocampal mass than rats whose nipple-shifting experience had been restricted. No differences were observed in the other areas measured. This effect of experience was confirmed by histological measurement of hippocampus volume following differential rearing.
1. “He Ain't Got No Aids”: HIV Risk and Perceptions of Masculinity Among Adolescent and Young Adult Black Males Who Have Sex with Males

“HE AIN’T GOT NO AIDS”: HIV RISK AND PERCEPTIONS OF MASCULINITY AMONG ADOLESCENT AND YOUNG ADULT BLACK MALES WHO HAVE SEXWITH MALES Errol Fields, MD, PhD, MPH, Laura Bogart, PhD, Jonathan Ellen, MD, David Malebranche, D, MPH, Mark Schuster, MD, PhD, Katherine mith, PhD. Children’s Hospital Boston, ivisions of General Pediatrics and Adolescent/ oung Adult Medicine; Boston Medical Center, epartment of Pediatrics; Boston Combined esidency in Pediatrics Department of Medicine, Children’s Hospital Boston Emory University School of Medicine, Department of General Medicine Harvard Medical School, Division of General Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital Boston Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Health, Behavior, and Society Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Using one-parameter sub-family of distributions in empirical likelihood ratio with censored data

Recently, it has been shown that empirical likelihood ratios can be used to form confidence intervals and test hypothesis just like the parametric case. We illustrate here the use of a particular kind of one-parameter sub-family of distributions in the analysis of empirical likelihood with censored data. This approach not only simplifies the theoretical analysis of the limiting behavior of the empirical likelihood ratio, it also gave us clues for the numerical search of constrained maxima of an empirical likelihood.
Active Vibration Control in Structures Using Magnetostrictive Terfenol with Feedback and/or Neural Network Controllers:

Experimental results are described in which a rod of magnetostrictive terfenol was used in the dual capacity of a passive structural support element and an active vibration control actu ator and artificial neural networks were used for the adaptive real-time control algorithm. Tests were performed on a three-legged table, where the terfenol actuators mentioned above are the table legs. For the table experiment, shaker vibrations generated in the ground and transmitted to the tabletop (via the legs) were attenuated by counter vibrations synthesized in the table leg actuators. The goal of this experiment was to maintain a quiescent tabletop in the presence of floor vibrations. Utilizing a proportional-integral derivative and a neural network controller, actuated forces were used to cancel applied disturbance forces. The neural network architecture identifies (learns) and adapts to the tabletop forced disturbance through a fast adaptation law known as Adaptive Back Propagation, generating the required counte...
THE DUALITY OF THE PRICE AND TECHNOLOGY SETS

This paper is concerned with the generalisation of Samuleson's factor-price frontier in the framework of efficient allocation of resources. Efficient prices dual to efficient allocations are defined in terms of the concept of normal profit and characterised by a theorem dual to Koopmans'theorem on efficient allocations. A Duality theorem (familar in convexity theory) shows that a knowledge of these prices leads to an alternative derivation of the technology set.
Dislocation mobility in lead and Pb-In alloy single crystals

Dislocation velocities were determined from the length of slip bands produced on the surface of single crystals of lead and Pb-In alloys by the application of stress pulses of a few microseconds duration. Experiments were conducted at temperatures varying between 4.2° and 298°K in both the normal and the superconducting states of the metals. The velocities studied were in the range 103 to 105 cm per sec. At each temperature studied, the dislocation velocity in lead was found to vary linearly with applied stress in the early stages. At higher stresses the velocity tends to approach some limiting velocity equal to the shear sound velocity in the metal. The damping coefficientsB were calculated from the slopes of the linear portion of the dislocation velocity-stress curves. The value ofB at 77°K was smaller than that at 298‡K. Tests carried out in the normal lead at temperatures between 10° and 30°K showed thatB increases with decreasing temperature. The value ofB at 4.2°K in the superconducting lead was smaller than the values ofB in the normal lead at higher temperatures. Qualitative comparison of these results with existing theories indicates that the dislocation mobility in lead, within the velocity range studied, is controlled by interaction of the moving dislocation with thermal vibrations and the viscosity of the conduction electrons in the lattice. The damping coefficients in the alloy are higher than those in the pure metal.
Robust PCA as Bilinear Decomposition With Outlier-Sparsity Regularization

Principal component analysis (PCA) is widely used for dimensionality reduction, with well-documented merits in various applications involving high-dimensional data, including computer vision, preference measurement, and bioinformatics. In this context, the fresh look advocated here permeates benefits from variable selection and compressive sampling, to robustify PCA against outliers. A least-trimmed squares estimator of a low-rank bilinear factor analysis model is shown closely related to that obtained from an l0-(pseudo)norm-regularized criterion encouraging sparsity in a matrix explicitly modeling the outliers. This connection suggests robust PCA schemes based on convex relaxation, which lead naturally to a family of robust estimators encompassing Huber's optimal M-class as a special case. Outliers are identified by tuning a regularization parameter, which amounts to controlling sparsity of the outlier matrix along the whole robustification path of (group) least-absolute shrinkage and selection operator (Lasso) solutions. Beyond its ties to robust statistics, the developed outlier-aware PCA framework is versatile to accommodate novel and scalable algorithms to: i) track the low-rank signal subspace robustly, as new data are acquired in real time; and ii) determine principal components robustly in (possibly) infinite-dimensional feature spaces. Synthetic and real data tests corroborate the effectiveness of the proposed robust PCA schemes, when used to identify aberrant responses in personality assessment surveys, as well as unveil communities in social networks, and intruders from video surveillance data.
Smaller organ tissue mass in the elderly fails to explain lower resting metabolic rate.

Abstract: We previously reported our in vivo prediction of whole body resting energy expenditure (REE) using magnetic resonance imaging and echocardiography-derived organ volumes combined with published organ tissue metabolic rates.1 The models, developed in young healthy persons from predicted and measured variables, were highly correlated (e.g., calculated vs. measured REE, r= 0.92, p < 0.001), with no significant differences (p= NS) between them. This study employed the same approach to determine whether possible age-related decreases in organ tissue mass may account for the lower REE commonly reported in elderly persons. Measurements of REE (REEm) were acquired by indirect calorimetry. Calculated REE (REEc) models were developed from measured tissues and organs, and energy flux rates were assigned for each of the seven tissue/organ components, as reported by Elia.2 Older men (n= 6) and women (n= 7) had significantly lower REEm compared to REEc (p= 0.001). The magnitude of the differences were 13% and 9.5%, respectively, for men and women. These preliminary data suggest that factors other than organ atrophy may contribute to the lower metabolic rate of older persons. Further studies are required to investigate whether there is a reduction in the oxidative capacity of individual organs and tissues.
Hydrodynamic Damping of Microcantilevers Oscillating Near Solid Walls at Low Knudsen Numbers

The vibrations of microcantilevers in Atomic Force Microscopes (AFM) or Radio Frequency (RF) switches strongly couple to the viscous hydrodynamics of the surrounding fluid in the vicinity of a solid wall. While prior efforts have focused on squeeze film damping effects at high Knudsen and squeeze numbers, the regime of low Knudsen and squeeze numbers is also very important for which squeeze film models need to be discarded in favor of unsteady Stokes hydrodynamics. We present convenient semi-analytical expressions for the unsteady viscous hydrodynamic functions of slender microbeams oscillating near solid walls in terms of key non-dimensional numbers. Using these expressions it becomes possible to predict semi-analytically the quality factors of multiple modes of microcantilever beams near solid walls in diverse applications ranging from AFM in liquids to RF microswitches under ambient conditions. The predictions compare favorably with fully three dimensional, transient flow-structure interaction computations as well as with preliminary experiments on cantilevers under ambient conditions.Copyright © 2008 by ASME
Toward a Synthesis of Some Behavioral and Physiological Antecedents of Belief Perseverance.

Empirical evidence shows that heart rate acceleration produces in human subjects belief perseverance, private self-attention, restricted cue range, and relative left hemisphere activation. This article explores the possible relationships among these four dependent variables. This line of research is considered to be an important means of increasing our understanding of the mechanisms underlying persuasion and resistance to persuasion.
Conditional Transgene Expression in the Heart

Conditional transgene expression is a potentially useful approach to investigate complex biological systems in vivo. We recently demonstrated that tetracycline-responsive promoters could be employed to achieve regulated, cardiac-specific expression of target genes in transgenic mice. To more fully define the quantitative and spatial parameters associated with tetracycline-regulated gene expression in the heart, we crossed transgenic mice harboring either a firefly luciferase or a nuclear-localized bacterial lacZ target gene with strains expressing a tetracycline-controlled transactivator (tTA) under the regulatory control of 2.9 kb of 5' flanking sequence from the rat alpha-myosin heavy chain gene. Luciferase activity was induced nearly 300-fold in the hearts of binary-transgenic mice compared with mice carrying only the luciferase reporter gene. No significant transactivation was observed in any other tissues examined. Binary transgenics harboring the lacZ reporter gene showed substantial beta-galactosidase activity throughout the heart, but the response of individual cardiac myocytes was heterogeneous. For both reporter genes, tetracycline treatment fully repressed tTA-dependent transactivation. These data provide important insights into the nature of studies that can be successfully addressed using the tetracycline-regulated gene expression system in the heart.
Rheological Characterization of in situ Crosslinkable Hydrogels Formulated from Oxidized Dextran and N-Carboxyethyl Chitosan

The gelation kinetics of an in situ gelable hydrogel formulated from oxidized dextran (Odex) and N-carboxyethyl chitosan (CEC) was investigated rheologically. Both Schiff base mediated chemical and physical crosslinking account for its rapid gelation (30−600 s) between 5 and 37 °C. The correlation between gelation kinetics and hydrogel properties with Odex/CEC concentration, their feed ratio, and temperature were elucidated. The gelation time determined from crossing over of storage moduli (G‘) and loss moduli (G‘ ‘) was in good agreement with that deduced from frequency sweeping tests according to the Winter−Chambon power law. The power law exponents for a 2% (w/v) Odex/CEC solution (ratio 5:5) at the gel point was 0.61, which is in excellent agreement with the value predicted from percolation theory (2/3). Temperature dependence of gelation time for the same hydrogel formulation is well-described by an Arrhenius plot with its apparent activation energy calculated at 51.9 kJ/mol.
Computer integrated reconfigurable experimental platform for ergonomic study of vehicle body design

A computer integrated reconfigurable experimental platform is introduced for the ergonomic studies of vehicle body design. Its hardware system consists of lights and camera equipment, and most importantly, many movable parts whose positions and orientations can be adjusted to meet various requirements of ergonomic study. The movements of these parts are driven by actuators. Its software components are a control system, a visualisation system, and a data acquisition system. The control system is operated by human beings to issue the motion commands for system reconfiguration, the visualisation system monitors the reconfigurable platform in the reconfiguration process and ergonomic studies, and the data acquisition system acquires all meaningful data in the integrated experiment platform. Those data include the positions and all movable parts, the status of lighting and camera equipment, and trajectories and postures when a test driver enters or exits the platform. These data can be utilised to optimise the vehicle exterior components to meet the ergonomic needs of different drivers. In this paper, the virtual control and the validation of system set-up are mainly discussed. System architecture is presented, and the designs of hardware and software components are introduced. Two graphical user interface (GUI) systems have been developed for the control and the visualisation of the reconfigurable experimental platform. The visibility study is conducted to ensure a type of motion tracking equipment is appropriate to collect the data of entering and exiting movements by a driver during experiments.
Light regulation of photosynthetic membrane structure, organization, and function

The light environment during plant growth determines the structural and functional properties of higher plant chloroplasts, thus revealing a dynamically regulated developmental system. Pisum sativum plants growing under intermittent illumination showed chloroplasts with fully functional photosystem (PS) II and PSI reaction centers that lacked the peripheral chlorophyll (Ch1) a/b and Ch1 a light-harvesting complexes (LHC), respectively. The results suggest a light flux differential threshold regulation in the biosynthesis of the photosystem core and peripheral antenna complexes. Sun-adapted species and plants growing under far-red-depleted illumination showed grana stacks composed of few (3-5) thylakoids connected with long intergrana (stroma) thylakoids. They had a PSII /PSI reaction center ratio in the range 1.3-1.9. Shade-adapted species and plants growing under far-red-enriched illumination showed large grana stacks composed of several thylakoids, often extending across the entire chloroplast body, and short intergrana stroma thylakoids. They had a higher PSII /PSI reaction center ratio, in the range of 2.2-4.0. Thus, the relative extent of grana and stroma thylakoid formation corresponds with the relative amounts of PSII and PSI in the chloroplast, respectively. The structural and functional adaptation of the photosynthetic membrane system in response to the quality of illumination involves mainly a control on the rate of PSII and PSI complex biosynthesis.
Endogenous infection in mice irradiated with fast neutrons or gamma rays.

Summary1. Single, 90-minute irradiation with fast neutrons within the lethal range (175-250 rep) resulted in early deaths among CF No. 1 female mice with a significant peak in the mortality curve 4-8 days after exposure. Among 129 neutron-irradiated mice (216-265 rep: LD60-98—30 days), sacrificed for bacteriological examination, positive cultures of heart's blood and/or spleen were first obtained on the 4th day, and coincided with the onset of mortality. Between the 4th and 8th days after exposure, approximately 40% of the sacrificed mice showed positive cultures. 2. After comparable irradiation with gamma rays (Co60), from 750-1300 r, deaths occurred later, with a peak approximately 12-14 days post-exposure. Gamma-irradiated mice (900-940 r) were found to have positive blood and/or spleen cultures during the latter part of the second week. There seems to be a close correlation between bacteremia and time of death following these 2 ionizing radiations. 3. All the microorganisms recovered in cultures were ...
Closed Form Solution of Resin Flow From Multiple Line Gates in Liquid Composite Molding

The resin flow from multiple line injection into a fibrous porous medium is investigated analytically and experimentally. The flow in a rectangular porous medium is created by placing two inlets: a channel along one of the domain edges, and a manifold placed in the center of the domain perpendicular to the first inlet on the top surface of the porous medium. It is demonstrated that two distinct sub-regions of the porous medium exist: inner sub-region which is filled by the liquid from the manifold, and outer sub-region that is filled by fluid from the channel. In the experiments, the following geometric parameters are varied: channel cross-sectional area, mold width, and thickness to investigate how the processing parameters influence which part of the overall domain is filled by fluid from a specific inlet. Neither fluid nor porous medium are varied throughout the study. For nonconstrained flow, an analytical model is formulated to predict the interface between the two sub-regions which is called the inner sub-region thickness. Both, implicit and explicit solutions are found, where the explicit solution is represented as inverse Lambert function. The solution relies on one physical constant which is a function of the pressure gradients and the directional permeabilities of the fibrous preform. Comparisons between experimental and analytical results reveal an excellent agreement for various sets of geometric parameters. This research should prove useful in understanding the flow in composites manufacturing when resin is injected simultaneously from multiple gates and channels. POLYM. COMPOS., 31:1434–1441, 2010. © 2009 Society of Plastics Engineers
The phlogistic potential of urate in solution

Physiologic concentrations of urate in solution had a clear and dosage-dependent suppressive effect on the concomitant uptake of radioiodinated human serum albumin (131I-HSA) during the ingestion of particles (bacteria) by human polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN). The effect was rapid, reversible on washing the cells, and demonstrable over a wide range of incubation times and ratios of particles to PMN. In this method, the incubated cells are washed, and most surface radio-activity is thereby removed; the amount of label trapped during particle ingestion then usually provides a sensitive measure of phagocytosis. However, no evidence for an effect of urate on phagocytosis was found by use of several other methods for the assessment of particle uptake, including 1) direct microscopic counts of cell-associated bacteria, 2) studies in which the bacteria were radiolabeled (instead of the media), and 3) the quantitative recovery of surviving bacteria from the media and from disrupted cells. An alternative explanation for the results with 131I-HSA is that urate interferes reversibly with the binding of albumin to the cell membrane, including those portions that become internalized during phagocytosis, thereby creating the false impression of less phagocytosis, when there is really only less trapped label (i.e., albumin). In fact, non-phagocytizing leukocytes—which do not transport albumin across the cell membrane—incubated in serum-buffer with added urate and with 131I-HSA and then drained (not washed) had much less cell-associated radioactivity than controls without added urate. Washing removed the difference (and most of the label from both groups). Crystals of urate and of silica are known to kill the cells that ingest them by disrupting the membranes of phagolysosomes, but only after protective protein has been digested. In the presence of dissolved urate, this inflammatory mechanism might be augmented by the relative lack of protective, membrane-associated protein. Indeed, as measured by the release of lactic dehydrogenase, injury to cells given silica crystals was augmented considerably in the presence of dissolved urate.
The ethics and cultural politics of reproductive risk warnings: A case study of California's Proposition 65

Public space is filled with reproductive risk warnings, from labels on bottles of alcohol and cigarette packs, to disclaimers on drugs, signs posted in front of amusement park rides, and public health campaigns and advisories aimed at modifying pregnant women's behaviour. California's Proposition 65 requires that businesses post signs warning of the presence of chemicals that cause cancer, birth defects, or other reproductive harm. In this paper I examine the history of Proposition 65, and demonstrate the gap between its intended and actual effects. I explore the practical and symbolic implications of this law for women who are or think they might be pregnant, and argues that the Proposition 65 risk warnings have ethically troubling consequences for pregnant women. The warnings imply that reproductive risks are more important than other health risks, thereby singling out pregnant women as having a unique responsibility to make choices that minimise risk for others. They locate responsibility for foetal ri...
IUE observations of the peculiar star RX Puppis

The first set of high-dispersion UV observations of RX Pup are presented. Anomalous line profile structure observed in a number of high-excitation emission lines is discussed in context with a model that includes streams and complex mass motions in the system. Anomalies in high-excitation lines suggest dynamic activity in circumstellar material that probably has the form of rings and/or gas streamers between the cool giant and the hot companion. The continuum in low dispersion is fairly flat around 1200-2000 and rises toward longer wavelengths, and cannot be due to a star earlier than A0 II. Alternatively, it may be from an accretion disk. Photoionizing radiation may be due to the presence of an unseen, hot subdwarf with most probable effective temperature 75,000-90,000 K. Alternatively, it may be due to an accretion disk around a secondary with boundary layer temperature about 100,000 K.
Experimental approaches to the study of reversible protein fatty acylation in mammalian cells

Recent studies suggest a role for reversible fatty acylation of proteins in diverse cellular processes, ranging from modulation of the plasma membrane-cytoskeleton interface to signal transduction, and perhaps even vesicular transport. In this article, we review current evidence relevant to this topic and present experimental methods useful in the study of dynamic fatty acylation. Included are protocols for metabolic labeling with fatty acids, pulse-chase experiments, linkage analyses, and chemical identification of fatty acids, along with discussions of possible problems that might be encountered.
System functions for 2D linear phase frequency sampling filters

In this paper, four frequency sampling filter system functions which are classified as Type 1-1, Type 1-2, Type 2-1 and Type 2-2, are developed. Each type of these frequency sampling filter interpolates a frequency response through a specific set of frequency samples and also uses these frequency samples as coefficients in each of their implementations. Each of these system functions are further developed for 2D linear phase filters that have real impulse responses and for 2D linear phase filters that have real impulse responses and fourfold symmetry. The approximate conditions for which these frequency sampling filters can implement narrowband 2D linear phase filters and narrowband 2D linear phase filters with fourfold symmetry more efficiently than direct convolution filters are also derived.
Petrologic evidence for a terrane boundary in south‐central Circle Quadrangle, Alaska

Greenschist to amphibolite facies pelitic, mafic, and aluminous calc-silicate schists from the south-central Circle quadrangle, east-central Alaska, are in contact with carbonaceous quartzite and calcareous phyllite recording diagenetic temperatures. Their mutual contact is best explained as a post-metamorphic fault, indicating that the Yukon crystalline terrane was, at least in part, assembled after the peak of regional metamorphism. Mineral equilibria within the schists indicate metamorphism at minimum conditions of about 440° to 380°C at 0.3 GPa (3Kbar, biotite grade), 500°C at 0.5 GPa and XCO2 = 0.3 (garnet grade), and 550°C at 0.5 GPa and XCO2 = 0.2 (staurolite-kyanite grade). Reflectance measurements on vitrinite and inertinite from the carbonaceous unit give temperatures of 170° to 230° ± 50°C.
Luring in the Neonate Alligator Snapping Turtle (Macroclemys temminckii): Description and Experimental Analysis

Observations were made on the feeding behavior of 8 newborn Macroclemys temminckii, a species known to lure fish prey with a vermiform appendage situated on the floor of the oral cavity. Each turtle was observed on 3 occasions, including its first feeding experience, over a 7-week period. 4 phases of predation on live fish are described: waiting, luring, attack, and prey-handling. Experiments involving 14 ingestively naive turtles from a second litter investigated the role of visual, chemical, and mechanical cues in eliciting the luring and attack responses.
Synthesis and biological activity of the first cyclic biphalin analogues.

Abstract Biphalin is a linear octapeptide with strong opioid activity. Its structure is based on two identical sequences derived from enkephalins joined C-terminal to C-terminal by an hydrazide bridge (Tyr-D-Ala-Gly-Phe-NH-NH ← Phe ← Gly ← D-Ala ← Tyr). In this study we present the design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of the first cyclic biphalin analogues. d -Alanine residues in positions 2, 2′ of the parent peptide were replaced by d - and l -cysteine and an intramolecular disulfide bond between the cysteine thiol groups was introduced. We obtained two cyclic analogues with quite different biological profiles.
Mesh skin grafting.

Mesh grafts are split-thickness or full-thickness skin grafts in which parallel rows of staggered slits have been cut. The mesh incisions allow the graft to be expanded to cover large defects, provide a route for drainage of blood or serum from under the graft, and increase the flexibility of the graft so that it can conform to uneven recipient beds. Meshing can be accomplished using a no. 11 scalpel blade or a special meshing machine. The use of unexpanded full-thickness mesh grafts is recommended because their cosmetic appearance equals that of sheet grafts, but the mesh incisions still allow drainage of blood and/or serum from under the graft. This technique has been very successful, with 90 to 100 per cent "take" when the grafts have been applied on healthy granulation beds.
Flexible IDL compilation for complex communication patterns[1]

Distributed applications are complex by nature, so it is essential that there be effective software development tools to aid in the construction of these programs. Commonplace “middleware” tools, however, often impose a tradeoff between programmer productivity and application performance. For instance, many corba idl compilers generate code that is too slow for high-performance systems. More importantly, these compilers provide inadequate support for sophisticated patterns of communication. We believe that these problems can be overcome, thus making idl compilers and similar middleware tools useful for a broader range of systems. To this end we have implemented Flick, a flexible and optimizing idl compiler, and are using it to produce specialized high-performance code for complex distributed applications. Flick can produce specially “decomposed” stubs that encapsulate different aspects of communication in separate functions, thus providing application programmers with fine-grain control over all messages. The design of our decomposed stubs was inspired by the requirements of a particular distributed application called Khazana, and in this paper we describe our experience to date in refitting Khazana with Flick-generated stubs. We believe that the special idl compilation techniques developed for Khazana will be useful in other applications with similar communication requirements. [1]This research was supported in part by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, monitored by the Department of the Army under contract number DABT63-94-C-0058, and the Air Force Research Laboratory, Rome Research Site, USAF, under agreement number F30602-96-2-0269. The U.S. Government is authorized to reproduce and distribute reprints for Governmental purposes notwithstanding any copyright annotation hereon.
Teaching and Learning in Recreation and Tourism: A Comparison of Three Instructional Methods

This study compared three instruction methods including one teaching centered (TC) and two learner centered: team-based learning (TBL) and service-learning (SL) on student performance, motivation, evaluation of teaching and retention. No significant instruction method differences were noted on student performance, but significant differences existed on motivation, evaluation of teaching and retention. SL students displayed more motivation than TBL students, while retention was highest under TC followed by TBL and SL in that order. Student evaluation of teaching showed that students’ perception of learning was highest under TC, while teaching effectiveness and satisfaction overall, were highest under SL. Possible implications of findings to learners, instructors and college departments are discussed.
Comparison of asteroid and meteorite spectra - Classification by principal component analysis

The spectra of 103 meteorites and 411 asteroids have been statistically compared via principal component analysis, in order to arrive at an overview of spectral similarities between and among asteroids and meteorites; the result is a map of statistically defined relative spectral similarities measured by distance. There is much more spectral variance in the meteorites than in the asteroids. The analysis indicates no direct meteorite analogs from the outer-belt B, D, F, P, and T type asteroids, indicating that only a limited portion of the inner asteroid belt is sampled by meteorites.
Paradigm shift in language planning and policy: game-theoretic solutions

We come at this review as a graduate student of economics with a focus on Game Theory (Tan) and as an applied linguist specializing in Chinese American language maintenance (Leung). As such, from t...
A memristor SPICE model for designing memristor circuits

The memristor, a circuit element, was first presented by Leon Chua in 1971. The physical implementation of the memristor was created by scientists at HP Labs in 2008 and the coupled variable resistor model was proposed. Here we show a SPICE model for such a memristor using dependent voltage sources. The model is validated by simulating simple circuits and comparing with the expected results. The proposed model makes it possible to design and simulate memristor circuits using SPICE. We simulate two circuits, a low pass filter in which a memristor is in series with a resistor and an integrator circuit with operational amplifier. The results are compared with inductor circuits in which a memristor is replaced by an inductor. The comparison shows that a memristor is acting like an inductor under certain conditions. Since the memristor has great performance in terms of power dissipation and with its nanometer size there might be a possible application of the memristor to be used as an inductor.
From the word to the conversation: Paradigms and psychology in German protestant pastoral thought

Under steady pressure from ordinary pastoral practice German Protestantism gradually made proclamatory pastoral care more responsive to human need and more adequate to human complexity. In doing so it drew heavily from psychology, but the very refinements helped obscure its original intent. For that and other reasons it came into crisis and was replaced by “therapeutic pastoral care,” which now dominates German pastoral thought and practice. Each of these paradigms of pastoral work reflected in its own way on the theological aspects of pastoral care, producing quite different theologies of pastoral care and employing psychology in that process in quite different ways.
The effect of the 226-Hz probe level on contralateral acoustic stapedius reflex thresholds.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of the 226-Hz probe level on the acoustic stapedius reflex threshold. Method Contralateral reflex thresholds for a 1000-Hz pure-tone stim...
Some aspects of the liking for hot coffee and coffee flavor

Interviews with 180 American adult coffee-drinkers indicated that the liking for coffee flavor is often limited to just hot coffee beverage. Liking for coffee flavor in other forms (yogurt, liqueur, iced coffee) was only very weakly related to liking for hot coffee, indicating an important role for context in liking for coffee. Measures of the morning effects of coffee and addiction to caffeine correlated relatively well with the liking for hot coffee beverage, but only weakly with liking for coffee flavor in other contexts. There was some correlational evidence that pharmacological effects of caffeine, especially its calming action, are involved in the development of a liking for hot coffee beverage.
Performance evaluation of multimedia systems with MPEG-2 bitstreams

MPEG-2 has become a compression standard for multimedia applications. Performance analysts, designers, and researchers have been using mpeg-2 bitstreams for evaluating the multimedia performance of their systems. There exist a significant difference in the characteristics and behavior of such bitstreams. The bitstream set, used for performance evaluation, that does not demonstrate such variations results in erroneous evaluations and projections. In this paper, we have proposed a methodology for improving the performance estimations/projections with mpeg-2 data. Our simulation results demonstrate variations in the mpeg-2 bitstreams and the consequence it can have when data from only one of the several classes is chosen for system measurement and evaluation
Electrochemical mechanisms of corrosion influenced by sulfate-reducing bacteria in aquatic systems

Abstract It has been recognized that sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) play a significant role in corrosion by accelerating the electrochemical processes whenever environmental conditions are favouable. In this study, the polarization test and the dual-cell test were conducted to result in a better fundamental understanding of corrosion influenced by SRB. The polarization test showed that the effects of SRB and anodic or cathodic depolarization on corrosion were insignificant when 1.5 mM of CaCO3 was added to the solution. The instantaneous corrosion rates of steel coupons immersed in the SRB-inoculated solution were 1.5–2.5 times greater than those obained in the sterile solution. The polarization curves obtained in the SRB-inoculated solution with 0.5 mM sulfate concentration indicated that both anodic and cathodic depolarization occurred on steel coupons. However, only cathodic depolarization was obtained in the SRB-inoculated solution with 0.1 mM sulfate concentration, due to low hydrogen sulfide production. From the dual-cell test, the electron was transferred from the steel coupon in the sterile solution toward the steel coupon immersed in the SRB-inoculated solution, probably due to the electron consumption by SRB. When CaCO3 was added to the same solution, no reactions occurred on the coupons exposed to either the SRB-inoculated solution or the sterile solution after 20 h of inoculation.
Career of the medalist

It is to me especially fitting that today the name of Charles Concordia should be placed beside that of Benjamin Garver Lamme. Both men have evidenced in their careers an outstanding capacity for technical leadership, for pioneering applications, and for inspiring teaching. Both have exercised brilliant ability to recognize and formulate basic principles cutting across the classical disciplines. But above all, both men had the ability to develop from these principles practical solutions to electrical design and development problems. And their solutions have stood the test of the technological revolution of our times.
The expression of proinflammatory cytokine mRNA in the sciatic-tibial nerve of ischemia-reperfusion injury.

Abstract We evaluated the proinflammatory cytokines, TNF-α and IL-1β, mRNA expression in the rat sciatic and tibial nerves following ischemia–reperfusion (IR) injury, using competitive RT–PCR, to explore the role of cytokines in IR injury. The expressions of both TNF-α and IL-1β mRNA were related to severity of ischemia and occurred with reperfusion rather than ischemia alone. TNF-α gene expression peaked at 24 h of reperfusion, while that of IL-1β peaked at 12 h. These data support the notion that the proinflammatory cytokines TNF-α and IL-1β are involved in the inflammatory response of IR injury to the peripheral nervous system and may be involved in the pathophysiology of ischemic fiber degeneration.
An application of systems analysis techniques to the study of reactor seismic safety

Abstract Systems analysis is being used in conjunction with structural analysis to study the conservatisms and to provide insights into aspects of reactor seismic safety. An event-tree/fault-tree model of a commercial nuclear power plant is being constructed to determine the probability of release and probabilities of system and component failures caused by possible seismic events. The event-tree/fault-tree model is evaluated using failure data generated by applying the response a component sees to the component's fragility function. The responses are calculated by a structural analysis code using earthquake time histories as forcing functions. The quantification of the event-tree/fault-tree model is done conditional on a given seismic event and the conditional probabilities thus calculated unconditioned by integrating the results over the seismic hazard curve. In this way, most of the dependencies between event failures resulting from the seismic event itself are removed making known fault-tree analysis quentification techniques applicable. The outputs from the computations will be used in sensitivity studies to determine the key calculations and variables involved in seismic analyses of nuclear power plants.
Myocardial hypertrophy in the ischemic zone induced by exercise in rats after coronary reperfusion.

BACKGROUNDFactors influencing left ventricular (LV) remodeling after coronary artery reperfusion, including adaptive changes in the infarcted region and the role of exercise, have not been well defined. The common application of early reperfusion by thrombolysis after acute myocardial infarction lends potential significance to such remodeling, and a rat model with 45 minutes of regional ischemia followed by reperfusion was developed to study these events. We postulated that the effects of reperfusion in altering LV morphology would be further modified by exercise training, including induction of hypertrophic changes in the outer region of the nontransmural infarction.METHODS AND RESULTSFemale Sprague-Dawley rats were subjected either to 15 minutes of left anterior descending coronary artery occlusion followed by reperfusion or to sham operation, and at 5 days after the operation, animals were randomly assigned to sedentary conditions or to 3 weeks of swimming exercise. Animals completing the experiment in...
A neural network application for reliability modelling and condition-based predictive maintenance

Traditionally, decisions on the use of machinery are based on previous experience, historical data and common sense. However, carrying out an effective predictive maintenance plan, information about current machine conditions must be made known to the decision-maker. In this paper, a new method of obtaining maintenance information has been proposed. By integrating traditional reliability modelling techniques with a real-time, online performance estimation model, machine reliability information such as hazard rate and mean time between failures can be calculated. Essentially, this paper presents an innovative method to synthesise low level information (such as vibration signals) with high level information (like reliability statistics) to form a rigorous theoretical base for better machine maintenance.
Promoting Social Integration of Young Children at Risk for Learning Disabilities

The Integrated Preschool Curriculum (IPC), designed to facilitate the social integration of young children at risk for learning disabilities into mainstreamed and integrated special education classes, was compared with a standard early childhood education model curriculum. Social interaction data during play are reported for four integrated and two nonintegrated special education classes. Children in the IPC classes were found to exhibit significantly greater proportions of interactive and proximity play, while those in the contrast classes engaged in significantly greater proportions of isolate play. In the integrated classes implementing the IPC, a significantly greater proportion of the nonhandicapped children's interactive play involved handicapped children, as compared to the integrated classes employing the contrast curriculum. Similarly, in the IPC classes handicapped children played with their nonhandicapped peers more often. These data indicate that the IPC successfully promoted social interactio...
Size-sensitive sorting of microparticles through control of flow geometry

We demonstrate a general concept of flow manipulation in microfluidic environments, based on controlling the shape and position of flow domains in order to force switching and sorting of microparticles without moving parts or changes in design geometry. Using microbubble acoustic streaming, we show that regulation of the relative strength of streaming and a superimposed Poiseuille flow allows for size-selective trapping and releasing of particles, with particle size sensitivity much greater than what is imposed by the length scales of microfabrication. A simple criterion allows for quantitative tuning of microfluidic devices for switching and sorting of particles of desired size.
Binding of SH1−SH2-Modified Myosin Subfragment-1 to Actin

Myosin subfragment-1 (S1) was labeled with NPM in the presence of ATP or with pPDM in the presence of ADP at 0 °C, conditions which favor linking of maleimide groups to both Cys-707 (SH1) and Cys-697 (SH2). Unmodified S1 was removed by sedimentation with a small amount of F-actin, and the modified protein in the supernatant thoroughly dialyzed. The myosin high-salt EDTA and calcium ATPase activities of the isolated modified S1 were close to zero, suggesting nearly complete modification of SH1 and SH2. The binding of control and these modified myosins to actin was measured at 100 mM ionic strength using a co-sedimentation assay. In the presence of high MgATP concentration, control and NPM- and pPDM-reacted S1 all bind weakly to actin, with binding constants K3 of 4.9, 2.2, and 1.9 × 104 M-1, respectively. In the absence of MgATP, the binding constant K2 of pPDM-reacted S1 remains weak, 4.6 × 104 M-1,while that of NPM-reacted and control S1 becomes strong, 4.7 and 31 × 106 M-1, respectively. The binding con...