cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Analyzing Cancer and Breast Cancer in Space and Time

This chapter introduces concepts central to the space-time analysis of cancer and breast cancer in space and time. By “space” we mean geographic location; by time we mean when specific events occurred. We deal with cancer at both the individual- and population-level, and are concerned with quantifying individual exposures through space and time, and the assessment of space-time patterns in cancer outcomes in groups of individuals and in populations. We begin by setting the stage with a discussion of the complexity of the problem, and consider factors including carcinogenesis, models of cancer progression, cancer latency, biological vulnerability, temporal orientation in space-time cancer analysis, and human mobility. Next, specific methods for space-time pattern recognition for mobile individuals are summarized, followed by specific examples for pancreatic, breast and bladder cancers. Sources of error are discussed, with an emphasis on actual exposure measurement for individuals in comparison to model-based estimates. It is suggested that model- and GIS-based estimates substantially underestimate actual exposures, resulting in exposure misclassification and under-estimation of cancer burdens attributable to environmental exposures. Next, future research directions that leverage advances in the mutational signatures for cancers and improved measurement technologies for quantifying the cancer exposome over the life course are identified. The chapter concludes with critical challenges and barriers in the realization of a genome+, exposome, behavome synthesis for cancer prevention and a more complete causal understanding.
Light-induced Nrf2-/- mice as atrophic age-related macular degeneration model and treatment with nanoceria laden injectable hydrogel.

Elevated oxidative stress and associated reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation are hallmarks in the induction and progression of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). By exposing nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor (Nrf2) knockout (Nrf2−/−) mice to mild white light, we were able to generate a new dry-AMD like murine model to the study. This animal model developed phenotypes of photoreceptor degeneration, retinal function impairment, ROS accumulation, and inflammation reaction in a relatively shorter time. In the treatment of this animal model we utilized an antioxidative and water soluble nanoparticle known as glycol chitosan coated cerium oxide nanoparticles (GCCNP). The delivery of GCCNP protected retina against progressive retinal oxidative damage. Further combination of GCCNP with alginate-gelatin based injectable hydrogel provided synergistic antioxidant effects and achieved a more rapid recovery of the retinal pigment epithelium and photoreceptor cells. This combined treatment technique has the potential to translate into a clinical intervention for the treatment of AMD.
Aging, sex, inflammation, frailty, and CMV and HIV infections

Aging is characterized by significant immune remodeling at both cellular and molecular levels, also known as immunosenescence. Older adults often manifest a chronic low-grade inflammatory phenotype. These age-related immune system changes have increasingly been recognized not only to lead to immune functional decline and increased vulnerability to infections, but also to play an important role in many chronic conditions such as frailty in older adults. In addition to sex as an important biological factor, chronic viral infections including that by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and cytomegalovirus (CMV) are all known to have major impact on the aging immune system. This article provides an overview of our current understanding of aging immunity, sex, inflammation, frailty, and HIV and CMV infections.
Handling Unstructured Data Type in DB2 and Oracle

The objective of our work is to determine which mainstream object-relational database management systems (ORDMS) provide convenient facilities for the storage and manipulation of unstructured data objects. These objects, which consist of video, audio, photographs, and even executable code such as Java applets, are becoming readily employed by desktop, network, and Internet applications. Typically, these ORDMSs must store the objects in a manner by which they can be easily accessed, but more importantly, easily processed during either storage or retrieval. Our focus is on two of the ORDMS market leaders: IBM’s DB2 and Oracle. The salient facilities of DB2 and Oracle in handling object types are analyzed, considering their advantages and disadvantages.
Hysteresis in calcium rhythm patterns during electric field stimulation of cardiac tissue

Cardiac tissue subjected to fast pacing via electric field stimulation revealed hysteresis in calcium instability patterns (stimulus:response patterns) beyond departure and return to 1:1 response. The pacing frequency at which the first appearance of instabilities occurred (Fa) was higher than the frequency of ultimate disappearance (Fd) upon rate deceleration. Furthermore, hysteresis was observed in multiple pattern transitions. In the spatially extended system studied here, 2:2 alternans were the preferred starting point (Fa) in calcium instability development, while 2:1 blocks were more common in the return to Fa from higher pacing rates. Recovery of 1:1 patterns was preceded mostly by 2:2 alternans at Fd. In addition to previously reported hysteresis in action potential duration during 1:1 rhythm and alternans magnitude hysteresis (in 2:2 rhythm), our data reveal hysteresis in rhythm pattern transitions not just away from and return to 1:1, but also between different instability patterns, and thus provide insight into the rules of such transitions in electrically stimulated cardiac tissue.
Katheterablation von persistierendem Vorhofflimmern: Möglichkeiten des Dipole-density-Mapping

Spannungsbasierte Methoden bilden aktuell die diagnostische und therapeutische Grundlage der klinischen kardialen Elektrophysiologie. Dies gilt sowohl fur Methoden, fur welche kein direkter Kontakt mit dem Myokard notwendig ist – wie das Oberflachen-Elektrokardiogramm – als auch fur etablierte kontaktbasierte 3‑D-Mappingsysteme. Die raumliche Auflosung dieser Verfahren kann dabei u. a. abhangig von Elektrodengrose, Elektrodenabstand, Umgebungssignalen und verwendeten Algorithmen begrenzt werden. Dadurch konnten Details komplexer Aktivierungsmuster, wie sie beispielsweise beim Vorhofflimmern beobachtet werden, bisher nur unzureichend erfasst werden. Das Dipole-density-Mapping stellt einen alternativen Ansatz zur Erfassung und Darstellung der elektrischen Aktivitat des Herzens dar. Er zielt darauf ab, die lokale Aktivitat der inneren Oberflache einer Herzkammer mit hoher raumlicher und zeitlicher Auflosung simultan und kontaktlos zu erfassen. Dies konnte helfen, das Verstandnis fur die Mechanismen und therapeutische Moglichkeiten weiter zu verbessern. Die vorliegende Arbeit gibt eine systematische Ubersicht uber dieses Verfahren, potenzielle Moglichkeiten und bisher vorliegende klinische Erfahrungen.
Large and Emissive Crystals from Carbon Quantum Dots onto Interfacial Organized Templates

Here, we report template-assisted assembly of emissive carbon quantum dot (CQD) microcrystals on organized cellulose nanocrystals templates at the liquid-air interface. This large-scale assembly is facilitated by the complementary amphiphilic character of CQDs and cellulose nanocrystals in the organized nematic phase. The resulting large microcrystals up to 200 μm across show unusually high emission that is not observed for limited CQDs aggregates. The dense crystal packing of CQDs in the layered fashion suppresses local molecular rotations and vibrations, thus restricting the intermolecular energy transfer and corresponding quenching phenomena. The as-prepared crystals are mechanically stable and can be exploited for recyclable catalysis, enabling applications beyond the individual nanoparticles or disordered aggregates. The ligand-templated assembly can be used to diversify CQD crystal architectures to guide formation of fibers, microplates, and micro-flowers.
Tribological Behavior of In Situ Processed Ni-Ti-C Nanocomposites

Ni-Ti-C metal matrix composites (MMCs) with in situ formed, homogeneously distributed titanium carbide (TiC), as well as graphite (C) reinforcement in the nickel metal matrix, were synthesized usin...
Effect of the p75 Neurotrophin Receptor on Glycemic Control of Obese Mice during Time-Restricted Feeding

ABSTRACT Circulating glucose regulates organismal energy homeostasis and is tightly controlled in response to feeding behavior. In overweight individuals, glucose homeostasis is often perturbed due to resistance to normal satiety signals, such as insulin and leptin, leading to type 2 diabetes and its attendant complications. An emerging dietary intervention, time-restricted feeding (TRF), aims to ameliorate the adverse metabolic consequences of obesity, however, its effectiveness on glucose control is uncertain. Here, we demonstrate that TRF is only transiently effective in reducing pre-meal serum glucose levels in obese mice lacking leptin. However, in Ob/Ob mice that also lack a gene known to suppress behavior associated with TRF, the p75 neurotrophin receptor (p75NTR), a sustained reduction of glucose levels is observed. These results suggest that the effectiveness of TRF on glycemic control can be enhanced with concurrent targeting of modulators of glucose homeostasis and TRF response.
Self-Driving Cars: A Platform for Learning and Research

We present a self-driving car platform that can be used by both students and researchers. Students can use the platform to learn about the technology and challenges that exist in the self-driving car industry, while researchers can use it to test and iterate through potential solutions to self-driving car challenges. The platform is low-cost and small-scale, which makes it a desirable tool for both research and learning. The main technologies used on autonomous vehicles, such as computer vision and object detection, are implemented on this platform. We begin with a high-level overview of how self-driving cars work. Then we present the platform we have created, followed by a description of how it compares with industry level self-driving cars. Finally, we discuss the future work of this research.
Enrollment Management in Undergraduate Medical School Admissions: A Complementary Framework to Holistic Review for Increasing Diversity in Medicine

Medical schools implemented holistic review more than a decade ago, which led to more deliberate consideration and inclusion of applicants historically underrepresented in medicine. This article presents a theory of holistic enrollment management that unites holistic review with enrollment management principles. This theory contextualizes medical school admissions as a complex marketplace with multifaceted, competing forces. Applying an enrollment management framework of mission, market, means, and metrics can improve the capacity of a medical school to efficiently advance its mission over time. Medical schools employing a clear, compelling, and focused mission to direct all aspects of the medical education enterprise can more effectively attract applicants who are better prepared to enact that mission throughout their careers. Medical schools share a marketplace and collectively compete to identify, attract, admit, and matriculate the most mission-aligned student body within the pool of applicants they share. Institutions that deliberately mobilize resources within this dynamic marketplace will engage, admit, and matriculate the most suiting applicants and attract even more mission-aligned matriculants over time. Widespread adoption of this holistic framework of enrollment management may enhance the capacity of the medical education system to better capitalize on the existing diversity in the national pool of applicants, encourage more underrepresented applicants to apply in the future, admit and matriculate a more diverse national student body, and ultimately better prepare new physicians to meet the increasingly diverse health care needs of the nation.
Data-Driven Approach for Evaluating the Energy Efficiency in Multifamily Residential Buildings

AbstractCities account for more than 70% of global fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions. This number is likely to increase due to urban population growth. Much of the energy used in cities ...
High-volume and -adiabat capsule (“HVAC”) ignition: Lowered fuel compression requirements using advanced Hohlraums

Lower-than-expected deuterium–tritium fuel areal densities have been experimentally inferred across a variety of high-convergence, nominally low-adiabat implosion campaigns at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) using cylinder-shaped Hohlraums [Hurricane et al., Phys. Plasmas 26, 052704 (2019)]. A leading candidate explanation is the presence of atomic mix between the fuel and ablator from hydrodynamic instability growth [Clark et al., Phys. Plasmas 26, 050601 (2019)], leading to reduced fuel compressibility and an effectively higher (in-flight) fuel adiabat α. Tolerating a high-α implosion can be obtained with significantly higher capsule absorbed energy E cap according to the one-dimensional (1-D) ignition-threshold-factor analytic scaling [S. Atzeni and J. Meyer-ter-Vehn, Nucl. Fusion 41, 465 (2001)], ITF ∼ E cap · α − 1.8. Recent experiments with large Al shells in rugby-shaped Hohlraums have established high laser-capsule coupling efficiencies of ≽ 30% [Ping et al., Nat. Phys. 15, 138 (2019)], enabling a path to E cap ≽ 0.5 MJ at the NIF and increased performance margin M ≡ ITF − 1. The ability to operate at high adiabat with large capsules using nonstandard Hohlraums leads to the predicted onset of a volume-ignition mode, defined as when both the entire fuel is the “hot spot” and inertial confinement is principally provided by the ablator compared with the compressed fuel. Such an ignition mode, normally reserved for high-Z targets, e.g., double shells [Amendt et al., Phys. Plasmas 14, 056312 (2007)], is predicted to lead to lower fuel convergence and less exposure to mix due to the intended high adiabat—but at the expense of ∼3–4 × reduced (1-D) yield compared with conventional central hot-spot ignition designs.
Millimeter-Wave Radiometer System for an Atmospheric Research Satellite

Design of the radiometers being developed for the Microwave Limb Sounder instrument tentatively selected for the Upper Atmospheric Research Satellite will be described. Total power radiometers are planned to operate in five spectral bands centered at 63, 119, 183, 205 and 233 GHz to measure several atmospheric parameters.
Experience With Pretravel Testing for SARS-CoV-2 at an Academic Medical Center

International travel has been a significant factor in the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Many countries and airlines have implemented travel restrictions to limit the spread of the causative agent, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2. A common requirement has been a negative reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction performed by a clinical laboratory within 48 to 72 hours of departure. A more recent travel mandate for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 immunoglobulin M serology testing was instituted by the Chinese government on October 29, 2020. Pretravel testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 raises complications in terms of cost, turnaround time, and follow-up of positive results. In this report, we describe the experience of a multidisciplinary collaboration to develop a workflow for pretravel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction and immunoglobulin M serology testing at an academic medical center. The workflow primarily involved self-payment by patients and preferred retrieval of results by the patient through the electronic health record patient portal (Epic MyChart). A total of 556 unique patients underwent pretravel reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction testing, with 13 (2.4%) having one or more positive results, a rate similar to that for reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction testing performed for other protocol-driven asymptomatic screening (eg, inpatient admissions, preprocedural) at our medical center. For 5 of 13 reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction positive samples, the traveler had clinical history, prior reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction positive, and high cycle thresholds values on pretravel testing consistent with remote infection and minimal transmission risk. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 immunoglobulin M was performed on only 24 patients but resulted in 2 likely false positives. Overall, our experience at an academic medical center shows the challenge with pretravel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 testing.
Latent Class Analysis and Predictors of Marijuana Use among Reservation-based American Indian High School Students.

American Indian (AI) youth residing on reservations report higher rates of marijuana use compared to national youth. Latent class analysis (LCA) was used to identify unique types of marijuana use a...
“FabNER”: information extraction from manufacturing process science domain literature using named entity recognition

The number of published manufacturing science digital articles available from scientific journals and the broader web have exponentially increased every year since the 1990s. To assimilate all of this knowledge by a novice engineer or an experienced researcher, requires significant synthesis of the existing knowledge space contained within published material, to find answers to basic and complex queries. Algorithmic approaches through machine learning and specifically Natural Language Processing (NLP) on a domain specific area such as manufacturing, is lacking. One of the significant challenges to analyzing manufacturing vocabulary is the lack of a named entity recognition model that enables algorithms to classify the manufacturing corpus of words under various manufacturing semantic categories. This work presents a supervised machine learning approach to categorize unstructured text from 500K+ manufacturing science related scientific abstracts and labelling them under various manufacturing topic categories. A neural network model using a bidirectional long-short term memory, plus a conditional random field (BiLSTM + CRF) is trained to extract information from manufacturing science abstracts. Our classifier achieves an overall accuracy (f1-score) of 88%, which is quite near to the state-of-the-art performance. Two use case examples are presented that demonstrate the value of the developed NER model as a Technical Language Processing (TLP) workflow on manufacturing science documents. The long term goal is to extract valuable knowledge regarding the connections and relationships between key manufacturing concepts/entities available within millions of manufacturing documents into a structured labeled-property graph data structure that allow for programmatic query and retrieval.
U.S.-bound IPOs: Issue Costs and Market Selectivity

We examine initial public offerings (IPOs) by foreign firms in the U.S. market between 1990 and 1997, and compare their direct and indirect issue costs to IPOs by U.S. firms. Our results indicate that foreign IPOs involve approximately the same costs on average as domestic IPOs, for all except those experiencing strong demand and upward revisions in the offer price over the course of the road show. For upwardly revised IPOs, foreign IPOs have significantly lower underpricing compared to domestic IPOs. For these offers, we find that lower underpricing is associated with less risk due to the generally greater quality of foreign issuers. It is also the case that these offers are sold more frequently in multiple markets. In addition, we observe lower underpricing for IPOs from emerging markets, which is consistent with demand being driven to some extent by diversification. Overall, we uncover no evidence to suggest that foreign IPOs experience greater capital raising costs than domestic IPOs.
Race and Medical Education

For nearly half a century, medical schools in the United States have worked to increase the racial and ethnic diversity of students selected for admission. Early efforts focused on affirmative action approaches, often setting aside a specific number of slots for minority students. In 1978 the Supreme Court found this approach to be unconstitutional. In response, medical schools shifted to an approach that views racial and ethnic diversity among students as essential to providing a high-quality medical education. By maintaining an adequate level of diversity, schools are able to enhance the cultural competency of the physicians they train – an essential step to reducing documented racial disparities in quality of care and access to care. In addition, minority students trained as physicians are often more likely to focus their practice careers on disadvantaged, under-served patient populations. Problems have developed, however, in maintaining the “pipeline” of minority students in college who hope to enter medical school, with many of these students at risk of losing interest in a medical career. Efforts to support these students in their preparation for medical school will continue to be central to maintaining the racial and ethnic diversity of those trained as physicians. Keywords: doctor–patient interaction; education; equality; ethnicity; health
Overexpression of copper/zinc superoxide dismutase (SOD1) in the median preoptic nucleus improves cardiac function after myocardial infarction in the rat (686.17)

Previous reports indicate that overexpression of SOD1, an intracellular superoxide (O2•-) scavenging enzyme, in the brain subfornical organ improves cardiac function in a mouse model of heart failu...
Turnover, Hiring, and the Changing Face of the Federal Service

Using a 1% sample of personnel records for full-time, white-collar workers in the federal domestic agencies, I document how levels of education, experience, and age have risen over the past one-third century. The changing mix of occupations – clerical jobs fell by three-fourths and administrative jobs doubled – has contributed to rising qualifications, but educational and experience levels have risen within each occupational category. Current age and experience distributions mean that turnover will rise over the next decade, making hiring patterns even more important. I document how much older, more educated, and more diverse federal new hires have become over time and how changing occupational mix affects that.
Kinetics of protein folding. A lattice model study of the requirements for folding to the native state.

Abstract A three-dimensional lattice model of a protein is used to investigate the properties required for its folding to the native state. The polypeptide chain is represented as a 27 bead heteropolymer whose lowest energy (native) state can be determined by an exhaustive enumeration of all fully compact conformations. A total of 260 sequences with random interactions are generated and subjected to Monte Carlo simulations to determine which chains find the ground state in a short time; i.e. which sequences overcome the folding problem referred to as the Levinthal paradox. Comparison of the folding and non-folding sequences is used to identify the features that are required for fast folding to the global energy minimum. It is shown that successful folding does not require certain attributes that have been previously proposed as necessary for folding; these include a high number of short versus long-range contacts in the native state, a high content of the secondary structure in the native state, a strong correlation between the native contact map and the interaction parameters, and the existence of a high number of low energy states with near-native conformation. Instead, the essential difference between the folding and the non-folding sequences is the nature of the energy spectrum. The necessary and sufficient condition for a sequence to fold rapidly in the present model is that the native state is a pronounced energy minimum. As a consequence, the thermodynamic stability of the native state of a folding sequence has a sigmoidal dependence on temperature. This permits such a sequence to satisfy both the thermodynamic and the kinetic requirements for folding; i.e. the native state predominates thermodynamically at temperatures that are high enough for folding to be kinetically possible. The applicability of the present results to real proteins is discussed.
Zappos.com 2009: Clothing, Customer Service and Company Culture

On July 17, 2009, Zappos.com, a privately-held online retailer of shoes, clothing, and other soft line retail categories, learned that Amazon.com, a $19 billion multinational online retailer, had won its Board of Directors' approval to offer to merge the two companies. Amazon had been courting Zappos since 2005, hoping a merger would enable Amazon to expand and strengthen its market share in soft line retail categories. While Amazon's interest intrigued Zappos' senior executives, they had not felt the time was right, until now. Amazon's offer-10 million shares of stock (valued at $807 million), $40 million in cash and restricted stock units for Zappos' employees and a promise that Zappos could operate as an independent subsidiary-was on the table. Zappos' financial advisor, Morgan Stanley, estimated the future equity value of an IPO to be between $650 million and $905 million; this estimate skewed the Amazon offer-at least in financial terms-toward the high end of Zappos' estimated market value. Hsieh and Lin, Zappos' CEO and COO respectively, knew that much of Zappos' growth, and hence its value, had been due to the company's strong culture and obsessive emphasis on customer service. In 2009, they were focusing on the three C's-clothing, customer service and company culture-the keys to the company's continued growth. Hsieh and Lin had only a few days to consider whether to recommend the merger to Zappos' board at their July 21st meeting.
A Local Example of Land‐Use Change: Southern Illinois—1807, 1938, and 1993*

This article provides an analysis of a wetland site in southern Illinois from presettlement to the present. The study area is part of the Cache River-Cypress Creek Wetland, which has international ...
Microbiological efficacy of pressure assisted thermal processing and natural extracts against Bacillus amyloliquefaciens spores suspended in deionized water and beef broth

Abstract Effect of aqueous extracts of pomegranate peel (PPE) and tamarind pulp (TPE) on lethality of pressure assisted thermal processing (PATP) against Bacillus amyloliquefaciens Fad 82 spores was investigated. B. amyloliquefaciens spores (≈10 8 CFU ml −1 ) were suspended in deionized water (DIW), 4-(2-hydroxyethyl)-1-piperazineethanesulfonic acid (HEPES) buffer PPE, and TPE (1% w/v in DIW, pH-6) and beef broth with or without PPE and TPE (0.45% w/v). Samples were subjected to pressure assisted thermal processing (PATP, 600 MPa, 105 °C), and thermal processing (TP; 0.1 MPa, 105 °C) for 0 (come-up time), 0.5, 1, 3, and 5 min. Beef broth samples were also pressure treated (HPP; 600 MPa, 35 °C) for 3 and 5 min. Dormant spore survivors were enumerated by spread-plate technique. Heat shock (80 °C for 15 min) was used to enumerate the heat sensitive spores. A 5-min PATP reduced spore survivors counts to below 1-log CFU ml −1 (≈6.5–7.0 log reduction) in PPE and TPE as compared to 2.5-log and 3.1-log in DIW and HEPES buffer, respectively. 3 min PATP treatment reduced the spore survival to 3.58 and 2.1 log CFU ml −1 in beef broth and beef broth + natural extract, respectively. TP and HPP processing could inactivate the spores only by 0.5–1.2 log CFU ml −1 . PPE and TPE are found to enhance the efficacy of PATP.
Age-Associated Differences in Responses to Noxious Stimuli

Background . Although population-based studies typically report age-associated increases in clinical pain, laboratory-based pain assessment procedures generally indicate diminished pain sensitivity with age. The majority of these studies have utilized noxious thermal stimuli as the method of pain induction. However, other pain assessment methodologies, including ischemic pain induction, may have a more meaningful relationship to clinical pain. The present study examined the effects of age on responses to a variety of experimental noxious stimuli. In addition, relationships between cardiovascular measures and pain responses were investigated in both older and younger subjects. Methods . Responses to thermal, mechanical, and ischemic pain were assessed in 34 younger (mean age, 22.4 years) and 34 older adults (mean age, 62.2 years). In addition, relationships between resting blood pressure and pain responses were assessed separately for older and younger participants. Results . Although group differences in thermal and mechanical pain responses did not achieve statistical significance, older individuals demonstrated substantially lower ischemic pain thresholds and tolerances assessed via the modified submaximal effort tourniquet procedure ( p s , .01). Overall, higher resting arterial blood pressures were associated with increased pain thresholds and tolerances, although relationships between blood pressure and ischemic pain variables were evident only for the younger group. Conclusions. These findings indicate that age-related differences in responses to experimental noxious stimuli vary as a function of the pain induction task, with older individuals showing greater sensitivity to clinically relevant stimuli. In addition, the absence of a relationship between blood pressure and ischemic pain responses in older adults may suggest potential functional decrements in at least one endogenous pain-modulatory system. ESPITE the recent increase in the volume of published studies examining relationships between aging and the
The δ-corrected Kolmogorov-Smirnov test for goodness of fit

Abstract The empirical distribution function used in the classical Kolmogorov-Smirnov test is redefined in such a way that it becomes a function of a parameter called delta. Monte Carlo simulations are conducted for small sample sizes (n≤25) in order to determine those values of delta that lead to improvements in power. A goodness-of-fit test procedure is proposed as a replacement to the classical Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. Simulation results indicate that the size of the test is not affected by delta, and that the proposed test procedure has power that is at least as high as the classical Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, and in many instances the power improvement is very substantial.
ENERGY FLOW IN A NATURAL POPULATION OF THE HERBIVOROUS GASTROPOD TEGULA FUNERRALIS1

The gastropod Tegula funebralis (A. Adams, 1855) is confined to the intertidal. At Mukkaw Bay, Washington, it typically occurs in patches of characteristic individual size structure. Various energy flow parameters have been determined for a high intertidal (+ 1.8 to +0.9 m) and a low intertidal (+0.6 to −0.15 m) subpopulation; these values were then combined in a 3:1 ratio to generate a composite population. Direct and indirect calorimetry and direct observation on the natural population suggest the following: Tegula spawns once per year; the dry weight-shell diameter relationships for males and females can be expressed by a single regression; different caloric values characterize immature (5.2 kcal/ash-free g), mature males (5.4), intermediately mature females (5.8), and fully mature females (6.1); rates of aquatic and aerial respiration are different (at 13.5C an average low intertidal individual, 211 mg dry wt, respires at a rate of 75 µl O2/hr in water and 43 µl/hr in air). The energy budget, in which ingestion was obtained by summation, suggests an assimilation efficiency of about 70%, a gross efficiency of growth of 16.7%, and an ecological efficiency of predators of 4.9%. Other efficiencies are discussed. In Tegula, 60% of energy transferred to other levels is to decomposers. Comparison of the rate of annual consumption by Tegula, 1,071 kcal m− 2 yr−1, and net primary production estimated by cropping, 1,167 kcal m−2 yr−1, indicate a near balance. Importation of primary production may be necessary to the maintenance of the rocky intertidal community at Mukkaw Bay.
Numerical simulation of annular phased arrays for anatomically based models using the FDTD method

Annular phase arrays (APAs) of aperture and dipole antennas used for hyperthermia are simulated in three dimensions by using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. A 17363 cell, 1.31 cm resolution, anatomically based model of the human torso surrounded by a bolus of deionized water is used for calculations of specific absorption rates (SARs). Test runs on the calculation of fields in the water-filled interaction space and with homogeneous circular- and elliptical-cylinder phantoms correlate well with the experimental data in the literature, lending support to the accuracy of the FDTD method for near-field exposure conditions. Results are given for APAs using different sizes of aperture and dipole antennas and for a subannular array to obtain higher SARs in the liver. It is concluded that, because of its flexibility, the proposed procedure may be useful for a variety of realistic radiofrequency applicators for hyperthermia and other biomedical applications. >
American Diabetes Association 60th Scientific Sessions, 2000: Thiazolidinediones, obesity, and related topics

This is the second of four reports on the American Diabetes Association^M(ADA) 60th Scientific Sessions held in San Antonio, TX, in June 2000. It^Mcovers topics related to thiazolidinediones, insulin resistance, and^Mobesity. At a debate at the meeting, Thomas A. Buchanan, Los Angeles, CA, spoke in favor of the use of thiazolidinediones (TZDs) for prevention of diabetes. He described a prevention trial in a mainly Hispanic group of patients who had previously had gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) at ∼30 years of age. Approximately 10% of such women have type 2 diabetes after pregnancy, and their ultimate diabetes risk approximates 50%. These women have decreased β-cell function and insulin resistance, both during and after pregnancy. Buchanan hypothesized that the β-cell defect is either caused or worsened by insulin resistance. In 1994, given the hyperbolic relationship between insulin secretion and insulin resistance, his group adopted the strategy of increasing insulin sensitivity with troglitazone. The initial short-term study was of women who had been diagnosed with GDM within the past 4 years and impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), whose risk of developing type 2 diabetes is ∼80%. Insulin sensitivity increased with treatment, and the insulin responses to oral and intravenous glucose and to intravenous tolbutamide, suggesting “afterload reduction for the β-cell.” Based on these data, the Troglitazone in Prevention of Diabetes (TRIPOD) study was started in a group of women who had had GDM and who had an estimated 70% 5-year risk of developing diabetes; 121 received placebo and 114 troglitazone (400 mg daily), with 27 and 29 months of follow-up. There was no significant difference in weight gain or pregnancy rates. Intention-to-treat analysis showed a 60% reduction in diabetes, with a 12.4% annual risk in patients receiving placebo and 5.7% annual risk in those treated with troglitazone. Buchanan noted that approximately one-third of the …
The interaction of adriamycin with nuclear DNA: evidence for a drug induced compaction of isolated chromatin.

Abstract Incubation of adriamycin with isolated chromatin converts the DNA to a form which enhibits an extremely fast sedimentation rate in sucrose gradients. This effect of adriamycin is abolished when chromatin is treated with pronase prior to the addition of the drug. Although both adriamycin and ethidium bromide intercalate into DNA the latter compound is without effect in this system. Examination of chromatin in the electron microscope demonstrates that in the presence of adriamycin there occurs an extensive condensation and compaction of the DNA fibers.
The effects of mirex on the neonatal rat lens in vitro, with a comparison to kepone.

Abstract Lenses were removed from 12-day-old rats and incubated in medium containing 20 μM mirex. Lenses were removed from the medium at 2, 4, 6, and 8 h and assayed for K+ and Na+ concentrations and hydration. Mirex had no in vitro effect on these lens parameters compared to controls, and produced no changes in lens clarity. In contrast, incubation for 8 h in medium containing 20 μM kepone resulted in elevated lens Na+ and lower lens K+. Thus, cataracts induced by mirex in vivo are probably not due to a direct toxic effect on the lens.
Regulation of AMPA receptor gating and pharmacology by TARP auxiliary subunits

Presynaptic glutamate release elicits brief waves of membrane depolarization in neurons by activating AMPA receptors. Depending on its precise size and shape, current through AMPA receptors gates downstream processes like NMDA receptor activation and action potential generation. Over a decade of research on AMPA receptor structure and function has identified binding sites on AMPA receptors for agonists, antagonists and allosteric modulators as well as key residues underlying differences in the gating behavior of various AMPA receptor subtypes. However, the recent discovery that AMPA receptors are accompanied in the synaptic membrane by a family of auxiliary subunits known as transmembrane AMPA receptor regulatory proteins (TARPs) has revealed that the kinetics and pharmacology of neuronal AMPA receptors differ in many respects from those predicted by classical studies of AMPA receptors in heterologous systems. Here, we summarize recent work and discuss remaining questions concerning the structure and function of native TARP–AMPA receptor complexes.
The antiviral enzymes PKR and RNase L suppress gene expression from viral and non-viral based vectors

Expression of transfected genes is shown to be suppressed by two intracellular enzymes, RNase L and protein kinase PKR, which function in interferon-treated cells to restrict viral replication. RNase L(-/-) or PKR(-/-) murine embryonic fibroblasts produced enhanced levels of protein from transfected genes compared with wild-type cells. Increased expression of exogenous genes in RNase L(-/-) cells correlated with elevated levels of mRNA and thus appeared to be due to enhanced mRNA stability. Plasmid encoding adenovirus VA RNAs was able to further enhance accumulation of the exogenous gene transcript and protein, even in cells lacking PKR. In contrast to the increased expression of transfected genes in cells lacking RNase L or PKR, expression of endogenous host genes was unaffected by the absence of these enzymes. In addition, a dominant-negative PKR mutant improved expression from a conventional plasmid vector and from a Semliki Forest virus derived, self-replicating vector. These results indicate that viral infections and transfections produce similar stress responses in mammalian cells and suggest strategies for selectively increasing expression of exogenous genes.
Measurement of structural abnormalities in arthritis using radiographic images

This article reviewed the current methods for scoring radiographic abnormalities in RA with emphasis on reliability. There is disagreement on the expected course of RA with usual treatment and there is no clear resolution of this disagreement although several factors that contribute to this disagreement have been identified. Scoring joint damage has been effective in establishing benefit from drug treatment for nine agents, five within the last 3 years. Scoring will continue to be used to examine the benefit of new agents in the immediate years to come. A panel of experienced readers agreed that some repair of erosion damage was seen with available treatment. The extent of damage that is reversible has not been established and the frequency of any degree of repair remains unknown. Several methods of true measurement of erosions and joint space width have been reported. They have not found a place in daily practice or in research studies, probably because experience is too limited to know whether they are more powerful in detecting real progression of disease than scoring methods. Several problems that are related to standardizing methods of measuring joint space width were identified.
The Electron Gun for the Stanford Two-Mile Accelerator

The design of the electron gun for an electron linear accelerator is of prime importance in achieving a small emittance volume and good reliability. This paper discusses phase space concepts useful in gun design, the design of the SLAC electron gun, and tests of its performance. A convenient definition for the effective area in phase space of a finite set of calculated points is proposed and a discussion of the increase in transverse phase space within a linear accelerator is presented. The SLAC gun is a Pierce spherical triode with a 50-ohm coaxial input to the grid. The gun is designed to operate with 80 kV dc between the cathode and the anode. The current in the beam can be varied from 2 A peak to less than 10-8 A peak by varying the grid to cathode voltage over a range of about 1000 volts. The design permits use of either an oxide cathode radiantly heated or a thoriated tungsten cathode heated by electron bombardment.
Optical implementation of neocognitron and its applications to radar signature discrimination

A feature-extraction-based optoelectronic neural network is introduced. The system implementation approach applies the principle of the neocognitron paradigm first introduced by Fukushima et al. (1983). A multichannel correlator is used as a building block of a generic single layer of the neocognitron for shift-invariant feature correlation. Multilayer processing is achieved by iteratively feeding back the output of the feature correlator to the input spatial light modulator. Successful pattern recognition with intraclass fault tolerance and interclass discrimination is achieved using this optoelectronic neocognitron. Detailed system analysis is described. Experimental demonstration of radar signature processing is also provided.
Detection of leukemia using electromagnetic waves

The presence of leukemia in bone marrow causes an increase in the electric permittivity and a decrease in the conductivity of the marrow. This suggests the possibility of detecting leukemia by electromagnetic imaging. We show how this can be done for the case of an absorbing host medium (i.e. water) and provide numerical experiments using synthetic data for detecting proliferated tissue at localized portions of the bone marrow. We do not assume that the refractive index of the fat, bone, and muscle are known but will instead recover these values as part of the imaging process.
The Suburbanization of the Institutional Investment Advisory Industry: Metropolitan Philadelphia, 1983–1993

Traditionally, the institutional investment advisory industry in Pennsylvania has been concentrated in Philadelphia's Central Business District (CBD). However, analysis of the industry's organizational structure and spatial dynamics over the 1983–1993 study period indicates suburbanization and growth of the industry outside of the CBD. Maps and tables describe the institutional investment advisory industry's spatial organization at the intra-metropolitan scale using the Money Market Directory of Pension Funds and their Investment Advisors (Money Market Directories 1983, 1993). This industry-specific research contributes to the ongoing attempt to theorize financial services location and growth, and provides a basis for examining the impact of information technology (IT) on the spatial concentration of financial services activity at the intra-metropolitan scale.
Paper: Relative/multiplicative model reduction for unstable and non-minimum-phase systems

This paper considers the relative/multiplicative model reduction for unstable and non-minimum-phase systems using generalized frequency-weighted normal representations. The proposed method only requires solving two Lyapunov equations with possibly indefinite solutions, and preserves the number of unstable poles (and the number of zeros in the square case). Furthermore, a priori L"~-norm error bounds are also derived for the relative approximation error and the multiplicative approximation error.
Quantitative determination of bile acids by direct densitometry of thin-layer chromatograms.

Abstract A method was developed for quantitative analysis of bile acids by chromatography and densitometry. Within the range of experimental error, the results of cholic and chenodesoxycholic acid determinations on biological samples agreed with those obtained by the spectrophotometric method of Ganshirt1. Reproducibility was influenced by the uniformity of the plate-coating and of the spraying, by width of channels, and by spot size. Since several samples may be run simultaneously and it is unnecessary to locate and remove them from the plates for spectrophotometric analysis, this method has advantages over methods currently employed for bile acid analysis.
Cloning and characterization of a novel exo-α-1,5-L-arabinanase gene and the enzyme

A novel exo-α-1,5-l-arabinanase gene (arn3) was isolated, cloned, and expressed in E. coli. The recombinant enzyme (ARN3) had a pH optimum of 6.0–7.0 and a pH 3.0–7.0 stability range. The temperature optimum was 50°C with a stability less than or equal to 45°C. The recombinant ARN3 cleaved carboxymethyl (CM)-arabinan, debranched arabinan, and linear arabinan at a decreasing rate and is inactive on sugar beet arabinan, wheat arabinoxylan, and p-nitrophenyl-α-l-arabinofuranoside. The enzyme hydrolyzed debranched arabinan and synthetic arabino-oligosaccharides entirely to arabinose. The apparent Km and Vmax values were determined to be 6.2 ± 0.3 mg/ml and 0.86 ± 0.01 mg ml−1 min−1, respectively (pH 7.0, 37°C, CM-arabinan). Multiple sequence alignment and homology modeling revealed unique short sequences of amino acids extending the loop involved in partial blocking of one end of the substrate-binding site on the surface of the molecule.
Increasing the Value of Wind with Energy Storage

One economic disincentive to investing in wind generation is that the average market value of wind energy can be lower than that of other generation technologies. This is driven by the exercise of market power by other generators and the fact that the ability of these generators to exercise market power is inversely related to real-time wind availability. We examine the use of energy storage to mitigate this price suppression by shifting wind generation from periods with low prices to periods with higher prices. We show that storage can significantly increase the value of wind generation but the currently high capital cost of storage technologies cannot be justified on the basis of this use. Moreover, we demonstrate that this use of storage can reduce consumer surplus, the profits of other non-wind generators, and social welfare. We also examine the sensitivity of these effects to a number of parameters including storage size, storage efficiency, ownership structure, and market competitiveness—showing that a more-competitive market can make storage significantly more valuable to a wind generator.
Intravascular polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography

Polarization measurements through a catheter have been limited by system induced polarization distortions. A new reconstruction strategy overcame these limitations, enabling intravascular polarimetry and offering valuable insight into the morphology of atherosclerotic plaques.