cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
New Horn Rules for Probabilistic Consequence: Is $$\mathrm{O}{+}$$ Enough?

In our 2007 paper David and I studied consequence relations that correspond to conditional probability functions above thresholds, the probabilistic consequence relations. We showed that system O is a probabilistically sound system of Horn rules for the probabilistic consequence, and we conjectured that O might also provide a complete axiomatization of the set of finite premised Horn rules for probabilistic consequence relations. In a 2009 paper Paris and Simmonds provided a mathematically complex way to characterize all of the sound finite-premised Horn rules for the probabilistic consequence relations, and they established that the rules derivable from system O are insufficient. In this paper I provide a brief accounts of system O and the probabilistic consequence relations. I then show that O together with the probabilistically sound (Non-Horn) rule known as Negation Rationality implies an additional systematic collection of sound Horn rules for probabilistic consequence relations. I call O together with these new Horn rules ‘O+’. Whether O+ is enough to capture all probabilistically sound finite premised Horn rules remains an open question.
PURE COMPETITION AND MONOPOLY

This chapter describes an economic organization that is both elaborate and smooth-working in the summer of 1944. Then came the August cuts and deflation. Prices fell, rallied with deliveries of cigarette parcels in September and December, and fell again. In January, 1945, supplies of Red Cross cigarettes ran out and prices slumped still further; in February, the supplies of food parcels were exhausted and the depression became a blizzard. Food, itself scarce, was almost given away to meet the nonmonetary demand for cigarettes. Laundries ceased to operate, or worked for £'s or Reichmarks: food and cigarettes sold for fancy prices in £'s, until that time unheard of. The Shop was empty and the Exchange Mart notices were full of unaccepted offers for cigarettes. Barter increased in volume, becoming a large portion of a smaller value of trade. By April, 1945, chaos had replaced order in the economic sphere: sales were difficult, prices lacked stability. Economics has been defined as the science of distributing limited means among unlimited and competing ends.
Building a big data research program at a small university

In the 2010-2011 school year we received an Army High Performance Computing Research Center grant whose goal was increasing the number of Hispanic engineers with expertise in complex systems, simulations and large data sets. Our university is a medium-sized, public, Hispanic-serving institution; our department is small. Our goals were to improve the social support available to our Hispanic students, encourage them to complete their degrees, and give them a valid research experience to provide a basis for informed decisions about whether or not they want to go to graduate school. This paper will cover how we structured our program to accomplish our goals, including how we factored in results from prior research on minority student experiences. In the second year, we expanded our program to include geography and give a new cohort of students a multi-disciplinary experience. We will discuss how a small computer science department successfully built an undergraduate research program organized around the theme of large data sets, what we have accomplished so far and how we hope to continue.
Backcountry encounter norms: theory, method and empirical evidence.

Efforts to understand the impacts resulting from visitors in backcountry settings have increasingly turned to normative explanations. This paper builds on earlier review articles by providing a con...
Measurements and modeling to determine the critical temperature for preventing thermal runaway in Li-ion cells

Abstract Li-ion cells are widely used for electrochemical energy conversion and storage, but suffer from safety problems due to overheating. At elevated temperatures, the cell enters a state of thermal runaway involving multiple heat-generating decomposition reactions that eventually lead to fire and explosion. Understanding the nature of thermal runaway, specifically the highest temperature that a cell can safely withstand, is critical for improving cell safety. This paper presents an experimentally validated method to predict the critical temperature based on the thermal balance between temperature-dependent heat generation, thermal conduction in the cell and heat dissipation on the cell surface. It is shown that for a single reaction case, the critical temperature can be determined from the root of a non-linear, transcendental equation involving parameters that characterize these processes. A computational model for a more realistic but complicated case of multiple reactions with reactant consumption is also presented. The predicted critical temperature is found to be in good agreement with experimental measurements on a thermal test cell in a wide range of thermal parameters. Trade-offs between cell thermal conductivity and convective heat transfer coefficient are shown to dramatically influence the critical temperature. Results presented here enable accurate prediction of the critical temperature of a Li-ion cell in a given thermal environment, and therefore, may contribute towards improved safety in the storage, transportation and operation of Li-ion cells.
Mycobacterium phlei as a flotation collector for hematite

Mycobacterium phlei has very good potential as a hematite flotation collector. The flotation recovery of hematite is dependent upon the solution pH and concentration of the microorganism. The critical pH for maximum recovery of hematite is around three, which corresponds to the point of zero charge of the microorganism. An excellent correlation between the flotation recovery and bacterial adhesion on hematite is observed. The adhesion of Mycobacterium phlei on hematite can be described by the potential energy of interaction calculations using an extended DLVO theory.
VA-Store: A Virtual Approximate Store Approach to Supporting Repetitive Big Data in Genome Sequence Analyses

In recent years, we have witnessed an increasing demand to process big data in numerous applications. It is observed that there often exist substantial amounts of repetitive data in different portions of a big data repository/dataset for applications such as genome sequence analyses. In this paper, we present a novel method, called the VA-Store, to reduce the large space requirement for repetitive data in prevailing genome sequence analysis tasks using $k$ k -mers (i.e., subsequences of length $k$ k ) with multiple $k$ k values. The VA-Store maintains a physical store for one portion of the input dataset (i.e., $k_0$ k 0 -mers) and supports multiple virtual stores for other portions of the dataset (i.e., $k$ k -mers with $k \ne k_0$ k ≠ k 0 ). Utilizing important relationships among repetitive data, the VA-Store transforms a given query on a virtual store into one or more queries on the physical store for execution. Both precise and approximate transformations are considered. Accuracy estimation models for approximate solutions are derived. Query optimization strategies are suggested to improve query performance. Our experiments using real and synthetic datasets demonstrate that the VA-Store is quite promising in providing effective storage and efficient query processing for solving a kernel database problem on repetitive big data for genome sequence analysis applications.
Electrical stimulation of the human claustrum.

Abstract To probe the causal importance of the claustrum in human subjective experience, we delivered electrical pulses either unilaterally or bilaterally within the core of this structure in five neurosurgical patients implanted with intracranial electrodes. Patients reported subjective experiences in various sensory domains and exhibited reflexive movements after real but not sham stimulations. However, none of the stimulations evoked loss of consciousness or lack of subjective awareness even with strong bilateral stimulations. Our study is the first to probe the effects of electrical perturbation of human claustrum through electrodes implanted within the claustrum itself and provide novel causal information about the human claustrum.
Longitudinal non-adherence predicts treatment escalation in paediatric ulcerative colitis.

Background Medication non-adherence in paediatric ulcerative colitis (UC) has been associated with negative health outcomes including flares in disease activity. However, no studies to date have examined longitudinal adherence to maintenance medication in a prospective controlled trial. Aims To determine whether objectively measured adherence to standardised mesalazine (mesalamine) therapy over time was related to remission at 52 weeks and the need for treatment escalation in newly diagnosed paediatric patients with UC METHODS: PROTECT (NCT01536535) was a prospective, inception cohort, multi-site study of paediatric patients aged 4-17 years with newly diagnosed UC followed for 52 weeks. Patients received standardised mesalazine, with pre-established criteria for escalation to thiopurines or anti-TNFα inhibitors. Patients used pill bottles with electronic caps to monitor mesalazine adherence. We tested whether longitudinal adherence to mesalazine predicted steroid-free remission at week 52 (i.e. quiescent disease on mesalazine alone with no corticosteroids ≥4 weeks prior) and need for treatment escalation (i.e. introduction of immunomodulators, calcineurin-inhibitors or anti-TNFα inhibitors). Results Among 268 patients, average mesalazine adherence trajectories did not predict week 52 steroid-free remission. Declining adherence over time strongly predicted treatment escalation (β = -.037, P = .001). By month 6, adherence rate ≤85.7% was associated with treatment escalation. Conclusions Non-adherence may have affected therapeutic efficacy of standardised mesalazine, thereby contributing to need for treatment escalation. Routine adherence monitoring for at least 6 months following treatment initiation and addressing adherence difficulties early in the disease course are recommended.
Unobserved Population Heterogeneity and Dynamics of Health Disparities.

Background: A growing body of literature has reported widening educational health disparities across birth cohorts or time periods in the United States, but research has paid little attention to the implication of mortality selection on the cohort trend in health disparities. Objective: This study investigates how changes in the variance of unobserved frailty over time may complicate the interpretation of cohort trends in health disparities and life expectancy. Methods: We use the microsimulation method to test the effect of mortality selection and further propose a counterfactual simulation procedure to estimate its contribution. Data used in the simulations are based on Panel Studies of Income Dynamics 1968–2013, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data 1999‒2012, and National Health Interview Survey data 1986‒2011. Results: Simulation shows that mortality selection may generate seemingly contradictory trends in health disparities and life expectancy across birth cohorts at the group and individual level. Life expectancy can change even when the individual mortality curve is fixed. In the absence of a change in the causal effect of education on mortality at the individual level, an educational life expectancy gap can change across cohorts as a result of the change in frailty variance. Empirical analysis shows that mortality selection accounts for a sizeable amount of contribution to the widening educational life expectancy gap from the 1950s to 1960s birth cohorts in the United States. Contribution: We demonstrate how mortality selection can complicate the cohort trend in health disparities and life expectancy and propose a counterfactual simulation method to evaluate its contribution.
Harnessing powers of genomics to build molecular maps of coronavirus targets in human cells: a guide for existing drug repurposing and experimental studies identifying candidate therapeutics to mitigate the pandemic COVID-19

Coronavirus pandemic COVID-19 caused by the newly emerged SARS-CoV-2 virus is rapidly spreading around the glove and entering the most dangerous acute phase of its evolution in the United States Recent progress in defining genetic and molecular determinants mediating the SARS-CoV-2 entry into human cells (Walls et al , 2020) should facilitate development of targeted therapeutics and efficient vaccines Here, human genes required for SARS-CoV-2 entry into human cells, ACE2 and FURIN , were employed as baits to build genomics-guided maps of up-stream regulatory elements, their expression and functions in human body, including pathophysiologically-relevant cell types Genes acting as repressors and activators of the ACE2 and FURIN genes were identified based on the analyses of gene silencing and overexpression experiments as well as relevant transgenic mouse models Panels of repressors ( VDR;GATA5;SFTPC;HIF1a ) and activators ( HMGA2;INSIG1 ) were then employed to identify existing drugs that manifest gene expression signatures of the potential coronavirus infection mitigation agents Using this strategy, Vitamin D and Quercetin have been identified as putative pandemic mitigation agents Gene expression profiles of Vitamin D and Quercetin activities and their established safety records as over-the-counter medicinal substances suggest that they may represent viable candidates for further assessment and considerations of their potential utility as coronavirus pandemic mitigation agents Notably, gene set enrichment analyses and expression profiling experiments identify multiple drugs, smoking, and many disease conditions that appear to act as putative coronavirus infection-promoting agents Discordant patterns of Testosterone versus Estradiol impacts on SCARS-CoV-2 targets suggest a plausible molecular explanation of the apparently higher male mortality during coronavirus pandemic Observations reported in this contribution are intended to facilitate follow-utargeted experimental studies and, if warranted, randomized clinical trials to identify and validate therapeutically-viable interventions to combat the pandemic
In acute soft tissue injuries, NSAIDs do not differ from acetaminophen for pain reduction.

SOURCE CITATION Jones P, Lamdin R, Dalziel SR. Oral non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs versus other oral analgesic agents for acute soft tissue injury. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2020;8:CD007789. 32797734.
CASPAR (Alliance A031902): A randomized, phase III trial of enzalutamide (ENZ) with rucaparib (RUCA)/placebo (PBO) as a novel therapy in first-line metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC).

TPS181Background: Treatment with novel antiandrogens (NAA) and androgen deprivation therapy prolongs life in men with mCRPC but approximately 40% patients (pts) have radiographic progression within...
Incorporating Antiracist Education Using Aspects of Asian American Studies to Teach About Race and Discrimination

The COVID-19 pandemic and wide-scale white awareness of police brutality in 2020 have led to increased attention to the effects of race in our lives and educational systems. As a result, educators need support on how to pedagogically address the multitude of racial issues that may arise as well as learn how to address race in the classroom through open dialogues, creating safe spaces for students to share their experiences, and problem-solving issues such as dealing with dissenting students. This chapter details how incorporating an antiracist framework using aspects of Asian American Studies (AAS) can help professors teach concepts related to racism and discrimination. I highlight three elements of antiracist education to introduce suggestions on how educators can (1) build a classroom atmosphere that encourages open discussions on race while creating inclusive spaces, (2) foster a sense of civic engagment and activism among students regarding obstacles faced by marginalized communities and faculty of color, and (3) utilize current racial events as lecture points. I support these suggestions through examples of how my use of antiracism education and AAS has helped students become critical thinkers, learn about structural racism, and become civically engaged. My hope is that these recommendations can help to support educators at these historical crossroads, helping us to work toward antiracism in our classrooms, aiding in the fight for social justice and equity.
Guidelines for Assessing and Minimizing Risks of Emotion Recognition Applications

Society has witnessed a rapid increase in the adoption of commercial uses of emotion recognition. Tools that were traditionally used by domain experts are now being used by individuals who are often unaware of the technology’s limitations and may use them in potentially harmful settings. The change in scale and agency, paired with gaps in regulation, urge the research community to rethink how we design, position, implement and ultimately deploy emotion recognition to anticipate and minimize potential risks. To help understand the current ecosystem of applied emotion recognition, this work provides an overview of some of the most frequent commercial applications and identifies some of the potential sources of harm. Informed by these, we then propose 12 guidelines for systematically assessing and reducing the risks presented by emotion recognition applications. These guidelines can help identify potential misuses and inform future deployments of emotion recognition.
Pass the SOAP: Shifting from SOAP to Consult Notes for Clinical Documentation in Pharmacy Students.

Objective. Clinical documentation is an important element of patient care that pharmacy students traditionally learn through Subjective-Objective-Assessment-Plan (SOAP) notes. In clinical practice, pharmacists often document more succinctly both in regard to length and time; utilizing formats such as consult notes. The objective of this study was to assess consult note assignments for third-year pharmacy students (P3).Methods. Consult note assignments were implemented in a P3 skills laboratory course by converting SOAP notes to consult notes. The series began with an introduction and a practice consult note. Four graded notes were then completed throughout the semester with time allotted for writing decreasing throughout the semester. To assess the series, grades and estimated time for completion were collected for each graded note. A pre-post survey assessed student self-confidence in: 1) overall documentation, 2) specific elements of consult notes, and 3) concerns related to writing. Friedman's tests were utilized to compare grades and time. Wilcoxon Signed Rank tests were used to compare self-assessments.Results. Median consult note grades were: 92%, 88%, 80%, and 90% for each note. Median time for completion were: 75 minutes, 120 minutes, 60 minutes, and 60 minutes. Student self-confidence in writing consult notes significantly increased as did five of the six individual elements.Conclusion. The consult note assignments allowed students to practice documenting patient care in a succinct format with consideration for time efficiency. Further work should evaluate best pedagogies for teaching documentation skills and assess the impact on performance during advanced pharmacy practice experiences.
American Wasteland: How America Throws Away Nearly Half of Its Food (and What We Can Do About It) by Jonathan Bloom

With his first book, American Wasteland, Jonathan Bloom steps up as a leader for the growing number of people disturbed by society's acceptance of edible food filling our landfills. After being ins...
Multiple Regulatory Events in the Development of Competence for Genetic Transformation in Haemophilus influenzae

Abstract Cyclic adenosine 3′,5′-monophosphate derepresses enzyme synthesis but does not yield high levels of transformability or detectable levels of competence-related envelope polypeptides. Additional regulatory events must trigger complete expression of competence.
Statistical theories of large atoms and molecules

Since 1972 the author, at first in collaboration with Simon, and then with Benguria and Brezis, [1–10], has undertaken a systematic mathematical investigation of the Thomas-Fermi (TF) theory, and its modifications (von Weizsacker, Dirac), of atoms, molecules and solids. A rigorous and coherent picture has emerged from the research and, while many problems are still unsolved, a fairly complete account can be given. The following is a thumb-nail sketch which, for brevity, concentrates mostly on atoms. There are three review articles:[3,4] and, more recently [10].
Roots and Benefits of Costly Giving Children Who Are More Altruistic Have Greater Autonomic Flexibility and Less Family Wealth

Altruism, although costly, may promote well-being for people who give. Costly giving by adults has received considerable attention, but less is known about the possible benefits, as well as biological and environmental correlates, of altruism in early childhood. In the current study, we present evidence that children who forgo self-gain to help other people show greater vagal flexibility and higher subsequent vagal tone than children who do not, and children from less wealthy families behave more altruistically than those from wealthier families. These results suggest that (a) altruism should be viewed through a biopsychosocial lens, (b) the influence of privileged contexts on children’s willingness to make personal sacrifices for others emerges early, and (c) altruism and healthy vagal functioning may share reciprocal relations in childhood. When children help others at a cost to themselves, they could be playing an active role in promoting their own well-being as well as the well-being of others.
Action potentials in the dendrites of retinal ganglion cells.

Action potentials in the dendrites of retinal ganglion cells. The somas and dendrites of intact retinal ganglion cells were exposed by enzymatic removal of the overlying endfeet of the Muller glia....
CQ-397 and CQ-414: antimicrobial activity and spectrum of two fluoroquinolone—cephalosporin, dual-action compounds with carboxamido bonds

Objective: To evaluate the potential spectrum of activity of two novel dual-action compounds with carboxamido bonds (CQ-397 and CQ-414; Laboratorios Aranda, San Rafael, Mexico) against human pathogens. Methods: Approximately 800 Gram-positive and Gram-negative aerobic clinical bacteria were tested in vitro using the Mueller-Hinton broth microdilution method of the National Committee of Clinical Laboratory Standards. Results: CQ-397 (cefamandole+enrofloxacin) and CQ-414 (cefamandole + norfloxacin) were equally potent against Enterobacteriaceae (MIC 90 range, 0.06–0.5 μg/mL and 0.06–1 μg/mL, respectively). Citrobacter freundii (MIC 90 , 4 μg/mL) and Providencia spp. (MIC 90 , >32 μg/mL) exhibited elevated study drug MICs. Enterobacteriaceae resistant to fluoroquinolones generally remained resistant. CQ-397 and CQ-414 were active against Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (MIC 90 , 4 μg/mL) and oxacillin-susceptible staphylococci (MIC 90 , 0.25 μg/mL), but not oxacillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MIC 90 , >32 μg/mL), Staphylococcus epidermidis (MIC 90 , 8 μg/mL), and enterococci (MIC 90 S, 8 to >32 μg/mL). There was no difference in the dual-action drug activity (MIC 90 , 2 μg/mL) between penicillin-susceptible and -resistant pneumococci. Haemophilus influenzae and Moraxella catarrhalis were very susceptible (MIC range, ≤0.015–0.06 μg/mL) to both compounds. Conclusions: The activity of these novel dual-action compounds, formed from the bonding of older antimicrobials, warrants further investigation for potential human and/or animal health use, including toxicology and pharmacokinetics.
Bird Respiration: Flow Patterns in the Duck Lung

1. A heated thermistor probe was designed to determine the direction of air flow in the respiratory system of birds. The probes did not significantly affect the respiratory rates, tidal volumes, or body temperatures of birds implanted with the probes as compared to unimplanted birds. 2. Air-flow directions were determined in the primary bronchus, the craniomedial secondary bronchi, and the caudodorsal secondary bronchi in the lungs of ducks which were either unanaesthetized and at rest, anaesthetized, or panting due to heat load. 3. The recorded air-flow directions suggested the following patterns of air flow in the duck lung for resting respiration. During inspiration air flows to the posterior air sacs directly from the primary bronchus (the most direct route), without passing through the tertiary bronchi, while air flows towards the anterior air sacs via the caudodorsal secondary bronchi and the tertiary bronchi (thus by-passing the most direct route, the craniomedial secondary bronchi connecting these sacs to the primary bronchus). During expiration air flows from the anterior sacs to the primary bronchus via the craniomedial secondary bronchi (the most direct route), but from the posterior sacs through the tertiary bronchi and through branches of the craniomedial secondary bronchi to the primary bronchus (by-passing the most direct route, the portion of the mesobronchus posterior to the craniomedial bronchi). 4. The patterns established for panting and anaesthetized respiration were very similar to those described for resting respiration. There was no indication of an effective shunt operating during panting to avoid excessive ventilation of the exchange surfaces of the lung. 5. Flow in the tertiary bronchi appeared to be in the same direction during both inspiration and expiration (from the caudodorsal secondary bronchi towards the craniomedial secondary bronchi). Such unidirectional flow would permit the operation of a counter-current exchange system, provided that the blood vessels are arranged appropriately around the parabronchi.
Sendai Virus-Induced Transcriptase from Infected Cells: Polypeptides in the Transcriptive Complex

A Sendai virus-induced transcriptase-template complex was isolated from the cytoplasm of infected cells by combined sedimentation and isopycnic centrifugation. This transcriptive complex banded at 1.27 g/cm(3) in D(2)O-sucrose gradients. It contained two polypeptides, the viral nucleocapsid structure unit (molecular weight, 60,000) and the largest virion polypeptide (molecular weight, 75,000). The buoyant density, chemical composition, and electron microscopic appearance of the transcriptive complex indicate a structure like that of viral nucleocapsids.
The verification of sentences: The effects of delay of evidence and sentence length

Two experiments were conducted to explore further the relationship between the syntactic stracture of a sentence and its verification. In Exp. I, the evidence confirming or disconfirming a sentence was delayed for 3 sec after the sentence. Active sentences were verified faster than passive and affirmative faster than negative, contrary to an hypothesis that the hearer immediately decodes a complex sentence by transforming it into its underlying structure. In Exp. II, passive sentences were made shorter than active by deleting their agent phrases. Active sentences were still verified faster, indicating that the relation of verification time to sentence structure is not an artifact of sentence length.
Drug use and receipt of highly active antiretroviral therapy among HIV-infected persons in two U.S. clinic cohorts.

Objective Drug use and receipt of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) were assessed in HIV-infected persons from the Comprehensive Care Center (CCC; Nashville, TN) and Johns Hopkins University HIV Clinic (JHU; Baltimore, MD) between 1999 and 2005. Methods Participants with and without injection drug use (IDU) history in the CCC and JHU cohorts were evaluated. Additional analysis of persons with history of IDU, non-injection drug use (NIDU), and no drug use from CCC were performed. Activity of IDU and NIDU also was assessed for the CCC cohort. HAART use and time on HAART were analyzed according to drug use category and site of care. Results 1745 persons were included from CCC: 268 (15%) with IDU history and 796 (46%) with NIDU history. 1977 persons were included from JHU: 731 (35%) with IDU history. Overall, the cohorts differed in IDU risk factor rates, age, race, sex, and time in follow-up. In multivariate analyses, IDU was associated with decreased HAART receipt overall (OR = 0.61, 95% CI: [0.45–0.84] and OR = 0.58, 95% CI: [0.46–0.73], respectively for CCC and JHU) and less time on HAART at JHU (0.70, [0.55–0.88]), but not statistically associated with time on HAART at CCC (0.78, [0.56–1.09]). NIDU was independently associated with decreased HAART receipt (0.62, [0.47–0.81]) and less time on HAART (0.66, [0.52–0.85]) at CCC. These associations were not altered significantly whether patients at CCC were categorized according to historical drug use or drug use during the study period. Conclusions Persons with IDU history from both clinic populations were less likely to receive HAART and tended to have less cumulative time on HAART. Effects of NIDU were similar to IDU at CCC. NIDU without IDU is an important contributor to HAART utilization.
Gas and Vapor Solubility in Cross-Linked Poly(ethylene Glycol Diacrylate)

Polymers containing poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) have been investigated for CO2 removal from mixtures with light gases such as CH4, N2, and H2 because of the good affinity of PEG for CO2. In this st...
Some Microstructural Observations of MBBA Liquid Crystal Films

Abstract Microstructural changes of MBBA liquid crystal films are investigated where the direction of observation is perpendicular to the applied electric field (dc or low frequency ac) direction. Some unusual features are reported and possible mechanisms for the formation of Williams domains and the “dynamic scattering” state from the microstructural point of view are discussed.
On the asymptotic analysis of statistical multiplexers with hyper-bursty arrivals

We consider multiplexers in discrete time fed by the superposition of “Ternary Markov Sources”. Such sources are the natural extension of the Binary Markov Sources (BMS) recently used to model bursty arrivals in a high speed environment. Unlike BMS, we allow sources to have arbitrary (large) variance in the duration of their OFF (silence) or ON (burst) periods. This paper focuses mainly on the impact of large variability either in the ON or OFF period on the performance. Following some asymptotic analysis, simple results on the tail behavior of the number of cells queued in the multiplexer are given. Our results indicate that ignoring the variability in the ON period may grossly underestimate the cell buildup in the multiplexer queue for all levels of the utilization. Furthermore, the impact of large variability of the OFF period depends very much on the utilization of the system. For a lightly-loaded multiplexer (utilization below a given threshold), the impact of large variability of the OFF period is minimal. However, for a heavy-loaded multiplexer (utilization above the threshold) the impact of the large variability in the OFF period is similar to that of the ON period.
Changes in activity of cytosolic phospholipase A2 in human amnion at parturition

Abstract OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine whether increased cytosolic phospholipase A 2 activity mediated arachidonic acid mobilization for prostaglandin synthesis in amnion at parturition. STUDY DESIGN: Amnion was collected immediately after delivery from four groups of patients: preterm ( 37 weeks) with no labor or labor and stored at –70° C. Tissues were homogenized and centrifuged for 1 hour at 100,000 g, and cytosol was assayed for cytosolic phospholipase A 2 activity with use of carbon 14-labeled 1-stearoyl-2 arachidonyl phosphatidylcholine plus 10 μmol/L unlabeled substrate and 5 mmol/L calcium in 10 mmol/L N-2-hydroxyethylpiperazine-N-2-ethanesulfonic acid, pH 7.4. Incubations were performed in duplicate ± 10 μmol/L arachidonyl trifluoromethyl ketone, a specific inhibitor of cytosolic phospholipase A 2 activity, at 30° C for 45 minutes. RESULTS: Total cytosolic phospholipase A 2 activity (in picomoles of arachidonic acid per minute per milligram of protein) calculated as the difference between the activity in the presence and absence of arachidonyl trifluoromethyl ketone was (mean ± SE) as follows: preterm no labor ( n = 7) 8.94 ± 3.08, preterm with labor ( n = 6) 6.79 ± 2.31, term no labor ( n = 7) 14.85 ± 1.66, and term with labor ( n = 5) 5.51 ± 1.52. Enzyme activity increased with gestational age and was highest in the term no labor group. A significant decrease in cytosolic phospholipase A 2 activity occurred with labor ( p p CONCLUSION: Total cellular cytosolic phospholipase A 2 activity in amnion is highest in anticipation of labor but during labor total activity is depleted, resulting in the low activity measured after delivery of the placenta. The substrate specificity and changes in amnion total cytosolic phospholipase A 2 activity with labor strongly suggests a role in mediation of arachidonic acid mobilization and prostaglandin synthesis at labor. (Am J Obstet Gynecol 1997;177:179-84.)
HOKLO HIP-HOP: RESIGNIFYING RAP AS LOCAL NARRATIVE TRADITION IN TAIWAN

Since Hoklo-language rap music first emerged in Taiwan just after the end of martial law in the late 1980s, it has drawn comparisons to the musical narrative genre liām-kua 唸歌 (song reading/songs w...
Co-gasification of blended coal with feedlot and chicken litter biomass

Intensive animal feeding operations create large amounts of animal waste that must be safely disposed to avoid environmental degradation. Improper disposal leads to contamination of water supplies and poses serious health risks to humans. In this paper, fixed-bed gasification has been described as a technology for utilizing animal waste as a source of renewable energy, which can reduce its disposal problems and associated pollution issues. Fixed-bed co-gasification studies on coal and animal waste-based fuels like feedlot biomass (cattle manure), and chicken litter biomass have been experimentally investigated under batch mode operation. The average oxidation-front and gasification-front propagation velocity, spatial temperature profiles, and product gas composition have been measured for coal and the blended fuels at two different airflow rates: 1.48 and 1.97 kg/h (1.28 and 1.70 m3/h), and two different fuel particle sizes: 9.4 (±3.1), and 5.15 (±1.15) mm. The results suggest that the average oxidation-front propagation velocity is primarily dependent on the airflow rate and ash content of the gasified fuel. Using phenomenological analysis, the average oxidation-front propagation velocity is correlated with a dimensionless group involving the fuel properties and airflow rate through the gasifier. The typical molar composition of the product gas is 27–30% CO, 7–10% H2, 1–3% CH4, 2–6% CO2, and 51–63% N2 (dry basis), which is almost insensitive to the fuel particle size and airflow rate. The heating value of the product gas mixture varies between 4.5 and 5.12 MJ/kg (dry basis).
Cardiac Troponin I A164H and pH-Dependent Inotropy

Ischemic heart disease is the most common cause of mortality in the world. To develop novel therapeutic strategies and gain mechanistic insight we are using time-resolved fluorescence measurements to detect structural changes within the cardiac troponin complex that occur during acute ischemic insult. During myocardial ischemia, penultimate to cell death, there is a shift from oxidative to glycolytic metabolism resulting in an acidification that severely impairs sarcomere function. In cardiac myocytes, this decrease in pH uncouples calcium homeostasis from force-generation. We and others have shown that the neonatal cardiac isoform of TnI, ssTnI, confers pH-insensitivity in this regard compared to the adult cTnI isoform. However ssTnI confers deleterious effects of impaired relaxation in the adult myocyte. Alignment and functional studies have demonstrated that this pH-insensitivity is derived from ssTnI residue H132. Introduction of a histidine at the cognate position in cTnI (A164H) mitigates the pH-sensitivity of the calcium-force relationship in cardiac myocytes while retaining relaxation enhancement via the N-term domain relative to ssTnI. We are establishing a time-resolved fluorescence methodology for detecting alterations in the calcium sensitivity of the thin filament during ischemia. We have engineered a single cysteine mutation for labeling with environmentally sensitive fluorophores designed to detect Ca2+ and pH-sensitive structural changes in cTnI and cTnC. We will discuss progress using this approach to interrogate troponin function in ischemia mimetic conditions.
What We Learned along the Way: Librarian Experiences from K–12 and How They Aid in University Library Instruction

This article shares the perspectives of two former high school and middle school librarians who moved into academic libraries. The move from the K–12 sector to higher education offered them unique insights into working with first-year students as they started their college careers. Existing literature discusses the importance of collaboration between high school and academic librarians. The authors of this article have firsthand experience of how students work in the middle and high school realm, and they demonstrate how to apply that knowledge and experience with college students.
Stacking the deck : teaching social skills to retarded adults with a modified table game

This study developed and evaluated a social skills training program for institutionalized mildly or moderately retarded and dually diagnosed individuals. Social skills were conceptualized as requiring an action or reaction within six skill areas: compliments, social interactions, politeness, criticism, social confrontation, and questions/answers. The program taught social skills using a commercially available table game, Sorry, and a specially designed card deck. Each card represented one of the skill areas and was designed to train either an actor or reactor response. The program featured response specific feedback, self-monitoring, individualized reinforcers, and individualized performance criterion levels. A multiple baseline across two groups (N = 3 per group) revealed that the game contingencies increased social skills in all targeted areas. After training, the subjects displayed their newly learned skills at or above their trained levels in two different settings with novel persons present. Although untargeted, the complexity of the subjects' responses increased across conditions, since there was a steady increase in the number of words they used per response. The program appears to be a viable means of training social skills since it uses standardized training procedures, requires only one facilitator, and is in itself a social situation that may encourage interactions with peers, cooperation, competition, and politeness.
Model-Based Ultrasonic Flaw Classification and Sizing

The problem of flaw characterization can be viewed as a multi-step process (Fig. 1) where decisions are made as to flaw type (a classification process) and geometry (a sizing process). Previously, we have described our work on the use of the expert system FLEX for determining if an unknown flaw is a volumetric flaw or a crack [1] and the use of equivalent flaw sizing algorithms whereby the flaw is sized in terms of a best fit ellipsoid (for volumetric flaws) or ellipse (for cracks) [2]. Here, we will describe some of our work on how classification information can be used to improve sizing estimates and on the use of new, more efficient sizing algorithms.
Reduced expression of manganese superoxide dismutase in cells resistant to cytolysis by tumor necrosis factor.

Abstract Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) induces synthesis of manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD). It was previously shown that overexpression of MnSOD protected some mammalian cells from TNF cytotoxicity. The purpose of this study was to establish whether MnSOD was increased in cells selected for resistance to cytolysis by TNF in combination with cycloheximide. Melanoma SK-MEL-109 and HeLa cell-resistant variants were selected by repeated treatments with TNF and cycloheximide. The SK-MEL-109 variants had relatively low levels of MnSOD that were inducible by TNF. Surprisingly, the HeLa variants had very low levels of MnSOD that were poorly inducible by either TNF or interleukin-1α. Therefore, an elevated level of MnSOD was not required to protect these cells from TNF-mediated cytolysis. The HeLa variants were more sensitive than parental cells to superoxide radical ( O 2 − ) generating compounds, such as paraquat or xanthine/xanthine oxidase. Pretreatment of these variants with TNF did not provide protection against damage by superoxide radicals.
Evidence for alternative binding modes in the interaction of benzylamine analogues with bovine liver monoamine oxidase B

Abstract The interaction of purified bovine liver MAO B with the benzylamine analogues N,N-dimethylbenzylamine and α-methylbenzylamine has been investigated. Both classes of analogues are competitive inhibitors of benzylamine oxidase activity. The Ki values were determined for nine different para-substituted N,N-dimethylbenzylamine analogues. Analysis of the binding affinities demonstrate the deprotonated forms of the tertiary amines are preferentially bound to MAO B and the affinity decreases with increasing van der Waals volume of the para-substituent. The correlation for this relation is: Log K i =−0.97±(0.28)σ+(0.75±0.11)(0.1×V w )−4.24±(0.16) α-Methyl benzylamine analogues are also found to be competitive inhibitors of MAO B-catalyzed benzylamine oxidation. Similar Ki values were determined using either the S or R stereoisomers. Analysis of the binding affinities of five para-substituted α-methylbenzylamine analogues to MAO B shows the deprotonated form also to be preferentially bound and the affinity is marginally increased with increasing van der Waals volume of the para-substituent: Log K i =−0.71σ−(0.32)(0.1×V w )−3.50 Comparison of these data with that previously published for para-substituted benzylamine binding to MAO B (Walker and Edmondson, Biochemistry 33 (1994) 7088–7098) demonstrates that these benzylamine analogues exhibit differing modes of binding to the active site of MAO B. The presence of an electronic substituent effect in the binding of these two classes of analogues compared with the lack of an observable electronic effect in the binding of benzylamine to MAO B is consistent with the proposal that orientation of the benzyl ring of the bound substrate is responsible for the absence of an electronic substituent effect on the rate of the reductive half reaction (Miller and Edmondson, Biochemistry 38 (1999) 13670–13683).
Genetic Risks to Nicotine Dependence Predict Negative Mood and Affect in Current Non-Smokers

Nicotine is the psychoactive agent involved in nicotine dependence. However, nicotine as a drug, and its effects on human psychology are largely under-investigated in genetic studies. In this study, we recruited 208 current non-smokers to evaluate the effect of nicotine and its relationship to genetic risks to nicotine dependence. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, as well as measurement invariance testing, were conducted to evaluate the latent factor structures of the POMS, PANAS and DEN questionnaires across 3 nicotine doses. Structural models were used to examine the effects of nicotine and their relationship to genetic risks of nicotine dependence. We found that nicotine administration led to the change of both measurement construct and factor means, indicating the causal effect of nicotine on the psychological responses. The genotypes of rs588765 predicted the scores of the DEN Confused and Dizzy factors (p = 0.0003 and 0.001 respectively), and rs16969968 and rs588765 were associated with the PANAS Nervous factor (p = 0.006 and 0.007 respectively). Our study suggested that genetic risk of nicotine dependence is associated with acute psychological responses. The integration of psychometric analyses and dose effects could be a powerful approach for genetic study of nicotine dependence.
Effects of food restriction on antioxidant defense system in exercised rats

Abstract The present study was designed to investigate the effects of food restriction on the activities of hepatic antioxidant enzymes in exercised male Fischer-344 rats. Weanling male Fischer-344 rats were fed semipurified diet containing 10% corn oil diet (CO), or lab chow (LC), ad libitum (AL) and at 40% food restriction (FR). After being on the diets for two months, the animals in each diet group was divided into sedentary (S) and exercised (EX) groups. The diets were continued and the animals in the exercise group were run everyday for two months on tread mill to exhaustion. The three key enzymes involved in the antioxidant defense system were determined in the hepatic cytosolic fraction. Catalase activity was significantly higher in the livers of rats fed restricted diets when compared to AL fed rats with the exception of the LC-EX group. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity in the CO diet fed groups was significantly lower compared to rats fed the LC diet. Exercise significantly increased SOD activity only in the LC-AL group. In the CO-AL group, SOD activity in exercised rats decreased significantly compared to those from the sedentary group. Exercise resulted in modest increase in the glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activity in these food restricted groups. The LC diet groups had significantly higher levels of saturates (16:0 and 18:0) and monounsaturated fatty acids and significantly lower levels of 18:2n-6, 18:3n-3, 20:3n-3, 20:4n-6, 20:5n-3, 22:5n-3 and 22:6n-3 compared to the CO-fed groups in the liver microsomes. Lipid peroxidation in the liver microsomes of CO fed rats was significantly higher compared to that of LC-AL-S group. The data from the present study suggest that food restriction and exercise have differential effects on the enzymes involved in antioxidant defense and the microsomal fatty acid composition was not altered by exercise or food restriction. Moreover, exercise did not increase lipid peroxidation in these rats.
Phase control of a Zeeman-split He-Ne gas laser by variation of the gaseous discharge voltage.

Zeeman-split lasers are useful for precise positioning or motion control. In applications that employ such a laser to control closely the position of a moving system, phase noise in the Zeeman frequency is a serious problem. Control of low-frequency phase noise can be obtained through variation of the external magnetic field by way of a solenoid wound around the laser tube. It is the finding in this work that control of the residual higher-frequency noise of a He–Ne laser can be obtained through small variations of the high voltage that is used to effect the gaseous discharge in the laser tube. The application of the present system is to the control of the path difference in a Fourier-transform interferometric spectrometer.