cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
“Spraying” Behavior During Queen Competition in Honey Bees

In honey bees (Apis mellifera), virgin queens may eject a liquid substance from their abdomens while they are engaged in fatal combat. We investigated the functional significance of “spraying” behavior by staging queen “duels” within colonies housed in observation hives. Spraying occurred in 39.7% of all interactions between rival queens and was recorded in 12 of 15 duels. Workers were highly attracted to the surfaces and individuals contaminated by spraying, forming tight clusters with hundreds of bees in which movement was severely restricted. One or both queens in a pair became immobilized by the workers in 37.5 and 29.2% of all spraying events, respectively, but the queens were never killed by the workers. Conversely, a mobile queen penetrated the worker aggregation and stung an immobilized queen in one-third of the observed bouts. Thus spraying may serve as a fighting tactic by virgin queens to increase their chances of winning by temporarily immobilizing their rivals.
Imaging of Nanoparticle Distribution to Assess Treatments That Alter Delivery

Molecular imaging is a vital tool to non-invasively measure nanoparticle delivery to solid tumors. Despite the myriad of nanoparticles studied for cancer, successful applications of nanoparticles in humans is limited by inconsistent and ineffective delivery. Successful nanoparticle delivery in preclinical models is often attributed to enhanced permeability and retention (EPR)—a set of conditions that is heterogeneous and transient in patients. Thus, researchers are evaluating therapeutic strategies to modify nanoparticle delivery, particularly treatments which have demonstrated effects on EPR conditions. Imaging nanoparticle distribution provides a means to measure the effects of therapeutic intervention on nanoparticle delivery to solid tumors. This review focuses on the utility of imaging to measure treatment-induced changes in nanoparticle delivery to tumors and provides preclinical examples studying a broad range of therapeutic interventions.
Automatic Analysis of Diagnostic Features from Digitized Radiocolloid Liver Images

In radiocolloid liver imaging, increased liver mass, and patchiness of the radiocolloid image are difficult for the physician to evaluate subjectively. We devised an automatic, computer-assisted method that aids in objective measurement and interpretation of these two image features, and summarize our methods in this paper. Our estimate of liver mass, and a texture index of image patchiness designated T2: D2, are calculated from a preprocessed gamma camera image of the right lateral projection of the liver. At the operating point of liver mass estimate >2.0 kg or T2: D2 > 0.54, the specificity was > 0.95 and sensitivity 0.5 for detection of liver disease in a population of male patients with independent histologic liver diagnoses or normal volunteers.
The Structural Dimension of Sustainability Ethics

This chapter provides an ethical analysis of the structural dimension of sustainability. I argue that sustainability ethics cannot just refer to the individual and her ethical role within the sustainability relations, but must be complemented by a structural dimension of sustainability ethics, which addresses the ethical role of social and global structures in regard to the sustainability relations. I provide a detailed ethical analysis of the meta-structures science, technology, and the economy. My ethical analysis refers to the conception of the sustainable person developed in Chap. 9. I argue that meta-structures must be compatible with the cultivation of the sustainable person and her sustainable relations. However, the existing meta-structures do not fulfill this criterion. I demonstrate in detail that the current meta-structures show inherent elements and assumptions which are fundamentally in conflict with the concept of the sustainable person and, with this, are in conflict whit the normative meaning of sustainability. I particularly refer to the specific concepts of rationality, the paradigms of independence, control, and growth, and the dynamics of increasing complexity, immanent to science, technology, and economics. I argue that we need to redevelop the meta-structures with particular regard to these ethically problematic elements in order to make them sustainable, and I provide suggestions and examples for such a redevelopment.
Legal Trends (Part II): Global Technology and Local Patent

The Internet is generally perceived as an American invention, and this is largely true. The global interconnection of computers using shared protocols was based on the cold war inspired ARPANET, developed by the U.S.’s Advanced Research Projects Agency in the 1960's. But as ARPANET evolved from a Department of Defense-oriented system to a research-oriented system, non-US research interests began to take a more active role in the development of the Internet’s protocols and features. The Worldwide Web and the first web browsers, for example, were developed at the CERN European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva Switzerland. Now, the Internet is truly global, both in its reach and in its continuing development. As outlined in last month’s Legal Trends: Patenting the Internet article, a very large number of the technologies and processes that underlie the Internet are protected by patents. Given a worldwide Internet, these patented processes control functions that operate both inside and outside U.S. borders. In a similar vein, there are a large number of Internet patents that were awarded outside the U.S. that impact Internet functions within the U.S. This article addresses the challenges presented by these cross-border patents.
Female Tubal Sterilization

Although the first tubal sterilization was performed more than 125 years ago, it took many years before it gained widespread acceptance. Today surgical sterilization is a simple, safe, and cost-effective method of achieving long-term contraception. It remains the second (behind oral contraceptives [OCs]) most widely used form of contraception in the United States (Chapter 1). The emergence of sterilization as a popular method of avoiding pregnancy paralleled the introduction of OCs. Both methods became readily acceptable at the time of the “sexual revolution.”
Abstract 13223: Influence of Troponin Elevation on Short- And Long-Term Mortality in Severe Sepsis and Septic Shock

Background: Troponin-T (TnT) elevation is common in severe sepsis and septic shock, but the impact on mortality and other clinical outcomes remains uncertain. Methods: This was a retrospective revi...
Reducing Restraint in Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities and Autism Spectrum Disorders: a Systematic Review Group Interventions

Safe restraint reduction is important to remove unnecessary stigmatizing and harmful behavior management practices in individuals with developmental disabilities. Despite calls to reduce such practices, they remain common. The literature was searched to identify empirical papers using interventions of any kind to reduce restraint and related restrictive behavior management practices in group settings, such as institutions, community group homes, and schools. This systematic review identified 21 empirical papers of which 7 were experiments. The three most commonly used interventions were (1) packages of organizational reform, target setting, staff training and feedback in institutional; (2) interventions in community settings; (3) mindfulness sometimes combined with positive behavior support; and (4) interventions in schools including organizational reform, goal setting, and feedback. Almost all studies reported large reductions in use of restraint and other restrictive behavior management practices without substitution of one form of restrictive behavior management practice by another. Papers that reported data on client and staff safety and economic analyses reported positive outcomes. Those studies that reported follow-up data reported positive outcomes with maintenance of up to 13 years. These findings have three main implications, namely, (1) large-scale, safe restraint reduction is possible in a variety of settings using varied methods; (2) large-scale restraint reduction results in improved safety for clients and staff and reduced costs, primarily due to reduced coasts of staff injuries and lost time; and (3) future research should focus on measures of treatment integrity, independent replication of promising interventions, complete reporting of all settings recruited to studies, manualization of all treatment strategies, and comparison of alternate approaches.
Wild and small

Postmodernism isn’t dead. It has been captured, trained, and, quite frightfully, made useful in the hands of politicians, entertainers, and those cavorting at the intersection of politics and enter...
Rapid Manufacture and Isolation of Highly Viable Interferon-γ Expressing Virus-Specific T Cells: Validation Results for the Virus-Specific Cytotoxic T-Lymphocyte Consortium for Refractory EBV, CMV, and Adenovirus Infections

Background Children and young adults who develop treatment-refractory infection with EBV, CMV, and/or adenovirus (AdV) after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (allo-HSCT) have a dismal prognosis (≥90% mortality). Adoptive transfer of ex-vivo expanded virus-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) is a treatment option for these patients, but the cell manufacturing process is labor-intensive and typically takes several weeks of culturing to complete. More recently, a culture-free method has been developed to directly isolate virus-specific T cells from peripheral blood for adoptive transfer. The process is fully automated using the CliniMACS Prodigy device (Miltenyi Biotec), a cGMP-compliant, temperature-controlled, closed system. Importantly, virus-specific T cells ready for infusion can be isolated with Methods Peripheral blood mononuclear cells from volunteer donors were stimulated with PepTivators (CMV, EBV, and/or AdV), followed by isolation of the virus-specific T cells using the interferon-γ (IFNγ) cytokine capture system (CCS) on the CliniMACS Prodigy device (n=11). Expression of lineage and T-cell subset markers, IFNγ, and cell viability were determined by flow cytometry. Results The viability of recovered T cells was remarkably and consistently high (92.9% ± 7.4%, Table 1). The number of recovered viable T cells was 5.03 × 106 ± 5.09 × 106. The purity of IFNγ+ cells was 69.0% ± 23.8% for CD4 T cells and 82.9% ± 15.3% for CD8 T cells. At a dose of 2.5 × 104 T cells/kg, the mean T cell collection for a 70 kg recipient would suffice for 3 separate infusions. Conclusion The results presented here show that manufacture of virus-specific CTLs by the CCS method reproducibly produced sufficient quantities of viable T cells for patient treatment. These results thus support the feasibility of the multicenter VIRCTLC trial. The trial is currently enrolling patients.
Systemic Therapies for the Treatment of Renal Cell Carcinoma

At the time of this writing, there have been tectonic shifts in the paradigms and algorithms of renal cell cancer (RCC) treatment. Current FDA approved therapeutics and their clinical applications are reviewed here. Recent successes in the immunotherapy arena has encouraged thinking on how to combine immunotherapies with the well-established anti-angiogenesis tyrosine kinase inhibitors. This chapter highlights recent treatment regimens and is intended to be a practical review for clinicians.
An ERP index of real-time error correction within a noisy-channel framework of human communication

Recent evidence suggests that language processing is well-adapted to noise in the input (e.g., speech errors, mishearing) and readily corrects the input via rational inference over possible intended sentences and probable noise corruptions. However, it remains unclear whether this inference takes the form of an offline re-analysis or a rapid, real-time correction to the representations of the input. We hypothesize that noise inferences happen online during processing and that well-studied ERP components may serve as a useful index of this process. In particular, a reduced N400 effect and increased P600 effect appear to accompany sentences where the probability that the message was corrupted by noise exceeds the probability that it was produced intentionally and perceived accurately. Indeed, semantic violations that are attributable to noise -- for example, in "The storyteller could turn any incident into an amusing antidote", where the implausible word "antidote" is orthographically and phonologically close to the intended "anecdote" -- elicit a reduced N400 effect and larger P600 effect. Further, the magnitude of this P600 effect is shown to relate to the probability that the comprehender will retrieve a plausible alternative. This work thus adds to the growing body of literature that suggests that many aspects of language processing are well-adapted to noise in the input and opens the door to electrophysiologic investigations of these processes.
Evolution of Altruism

The evolution of behavior in which an individual sacrifices its own well-being to help others appears plainly untenable, yet our observations of the natural world reveal that altruistic behavior is a ubiquitous strategy. How can such a behavior, which is seemingly antithetical to natural selection, evolve? We show that selection in social systems can be represented in two different ways, either with a focus on individuals (individualist perspective) or with a focus on groups of individuals (collective perspective). Here, we argue that the perspective taken can influence the way that altruism is defined and the precise conditions necessary for its evolution. We show that, under both perspectives, the evolution of altruism is facilitated when altruists preferentially associate with one another through positive assortment. We conclude by presenting empirical research showing that positive assortment can be built into (or closely linked to) the genetic basis for altruism.
Perfect short-range ordered alloy with line-compound-like properties in the ZnSnN2:ZnO system

We present a new solid-state material phase which is a disordered solid solution but offers many ordered line-compound features. The emergent physical phenomena are rooted in the perfect short-range order which conserves the local octet rule. We model the dual-sublattice-mixed semiconductor alloy $${\mathrm{(ZnSnN}}_{\mathrm{2}}{\mathrm{)}}_{1 - x}{\mathrm{(ZnO)}}_{2x}$$ using first-principles calculations, Monte-Carlo simulations with a model Hamiltonian, and an extension of the regular solution model by incorporating short-range order. We demonstrate that this unique solid solution, occurring at a “magic” composition, can provide an electronically pristine character without disorder-induced charge localization and, therefore, a superior carrier transport similar to ordered phases. Interestingly, this phase shows singularities that are absent in the conventional solid-solution models, such as the regular solution and band-gap bowing model. Thermodynamically, this alloy phase has a sharply reduced enthalpy at its composition (like a line compound), but it still requires the entropy from long-range disorder to be stabilized at experimentally accessible temperatures.
A Novel Framework for Collaborated IT Project with the Consideration of Data Security and Privacy

As a practical discipline, there are increasing demand for IT curriculum to incorporate hands-on projects from multiple collaborators include but not limited to internal research collaborators and external industry partners. For data-driven analytic and modeling types of projects whose popularity have grown exponentially in recent years, a key success factor of the projects is gain access to real data from different domains or sources. Being able to share sensitive data among collaborators securely and preserve the privacy of the data, have become a major challenge to many IT educators. In this paper, we introduce a layered framework, including Data Security & Privacy Policy Layer and a Model Building Layer to solve this emerging challenge. Besides benefiting the IT education in project collaboration, the proposed framework could also be easily extended to other data sharing and exchanging projects involving multiple parties in real-life IT practices.
Using graph centrality as a global index to assess students’ mental model structure development during summary writing

During reading, students construct mental models of what they read. Summaries can be used to evaluate the latent knowledge structure of these mental models. We used indices from Student Mental Model Analyzer for Research and Teaching (SMART) to explore the potential of a global index, Graph Centrality (GC), as a measure to describe mental model structure and its relation to the quality of student summaries (e.g., the amount of content-coverage). Students (n = 73) in an online graduate-level course wrote and revised summaries of their course readings. Data preview left the total count of 32 cases to evaluate how students’ mental representations changed from initial to final version. These summaries were analyzed using indices derived from the 3S model (surface, structure, semantic) as well as a measure of GC. The results of this initial investigation are promising, demonstrating that Graph Centrality captures important differences in students’ summaries, including revision behaviors to the wholistic structure of mental models, modification trajectories toward a cohesive and solid mental representation that is semantically similar to the expert model.
Platform-Dependent Computer Security Complacency: The Unrecognized Insider Threat

This article reports on a grounded theory investigation of subject response anomalies that were encountered in the course of a neurocognitive laboratory study of computer user cybersecurity behaviors. Subsequent qualitative data collection led to theoretical development in specification of three broad constructs of computer user security complacency. Theoretical insights indicate that states of security complacency can arise in the form of a naive lack of concern about the likelihood of facing security threats (inherent complacency), from ill-advised dependence upon specific computing platforms and protective workplace technology implementations for protection (platform complacency), as well as the reliance on the guidance on advice from trusted social others in personal and workplace networks (social complacency). Elements of an emergent theory of cybersecurity complacency arising from our interpretive insights are discussed.
Predictive analytics and machine learning for medical informatics: A survey of tasks and techniques

Abstract In this chapter, we survey machine learning and predictive analytics methods for medical informatics. We begin by surveying the current state of practice, key task definitions, and open research problems related to predictive modeling in diagnostic medicine. This follows the traditional supervised, unsupervised, and reinforcement learning taxonomy. Next, we review current research on semisupervised, active, and transfer learning, and on differentiable computing methods such as deep learning. The focus of this chapter is on deep neural networks with common use cases in computational medicine, including self-supervised learning scenarios: these include convolutional neural networks for image analysis, recurrent neural networks for time series, and generative adversarial models for correction of class imbalance in differential diagnosis and anomaly detection. We then continue by assessing salient connections between the current state of machine learning research and data-centric healthcare analytics, focusing specifically on diagnostic imaging and multisensor integration as crucial research topics within predictive analytics. This section includes synthesis experiments on analytics and multisensor data fusion within a diagnostic test bed. Finally, we conclude by relating open problems of machine learning for prediction-based medical informatics surveyed in this chapter to the impact of big data and its associated challenges, trends, and limitations of current work, including privacy and security of sensitive patient data.
The cross-sectional association of cognition with diabetic peripheral and autonomic neuropathy-The GRADE study.

Abstract Background Studies examining whether measures of cognition are related to the presence of diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) and/or cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy (CAN) are lacking, as are data regarding factors potentially explaining such associations. Methods Participants were from the Glycemia Reduction Approaches in Diabetes Study (GRADE) that examined 5047 middle-aged people with type 2 diabetes of Results DPN was significantly inversely related to measures of immediate recall and processing speed. The percent of cognitive variation explained by DPN was small. Tests of CAN had an inconsistent or absent association with measures of cognition. Higher waist circumference and urine albumin creatinine (UACR) levels were the strongest correlates in the relationship between DPN and cognitive impairment. Conclusion DPN, but not CAN, was cross-sectionally associated with lower performance in measures of cognition in people with type 2 diabetes of Clinicaltrials.gov : NCT01794143
INHIBITION OF LACTIC STREPTOCOCCI AND SOME PATHOGENIC BACTERIA BY CERTAIN MILK-ASSOCIATED VOLATILE COMPOUNDS AS MEASURED BY THE DISC ASSAY1

Twenty-seven milk-associated volatile compounds were tested with the disc assay procedure for their ability to inhibit Streptococcus cremoris, Streptococcus lactis, Streptococcus diacetilactis, Leuconostoc citrovorum, Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhimurium, and Staphylococcus aureus. Anisaldehyde, butyraldehyde, formaldehyde, glyoxal, diacetyl, butyric acid, decanoic acid, formic acid, hexanoic acid, octanoic acid, hexylamine, and propylamine inhibited all test cultures although frequently only at concentrations of 10,000 and 100,000 ppm. In addition, isobutyraldehyde (100,000 ppm) inhibited L. citrovorum, E. coli, S. typhimurium, and S. aureus and acetaldehyde (100,000 ppm) inhibited S. aureus. Compounds most active (inhibition at 1,000 ppm) against S. lactis, L. citrovorum, and S. aureus were formaldehyde, glyoxal, and decanoic acid; against S. cremoris were formaldehyde, butyric acid, decanoic acid, formic acid, and hexanoic acid; against one strain of S. diacetilactis were glyoxal, diacetyl, and dec...
Comparative Analysis of Different Heavy Duty Diesel Oxidation Catalysts Configurations

Diesel Oxidation Catalyst in conjunction with large frontal area substrates is a key element in HDV Diesel emission control systems. This paper describes and reviews tests on a set of various Diesel Oxidation Catalyst configurations (for example cell densities), all with the same catalyst coating. The Diesel Oxidation Catalyst specimens were subjected to the European Stationary Cycle (ESC), the European Transient Cycle (ETC), and the US heavy duty Federal Test Procedure (US FTP). The focus was to study relative emissions, pressure drop, and light-off perfor ance. All tests were conducted using the same Detroit Diesel Series 60 engine operating on ultra low sulfur diesel fuel. In addition to this, the exhaust was regulated so that the backpressure on the engine, upstream of the catalyst was also the same for all catalysts. The engine, the exhaust system, and the Diesel Oxidation Catalyst were properly instrumented to monitor incoming exhaust composition and final emissions, temperatures, mass flows, and pressure drop. Prior to the catalyst screening each catalyst was degreened by conducting two ESC and two US heavy-duty transient cycles in an alternate order back-to-back starting with the ESC to guarantee a proper seal between substrate, housing, and mat material. The test procedures will be explained in detail and the analysis of the data and conclusions for performance differences discussed.
TOWARDS THE AMPLE CONE OF Mg,n

In this paper we study the ample cone of the moduli space M g,n of stable n-pointed curves of genus g. Our motivating conjecture is that a divisor on M g,n is ample iff it has positive intersection with all 1-dimensional strata (the components of the locus of curves with at least 3g+n 2 nodes). This translates into a simple conjectural description of the cone by linear inequalities, and, as all the 1-strata are rational, includes the conjecture that the Mori cone is polyhedral and generated by rational curves. Our main result is that the conjecture holds iff it holds for g = 0. More precisely, there is a natural finite map r : M0,2g+n ! M g,n whose image is the locus Rg,n of curves with all components rational. Any 1-strata either lies in Rg,n or is numerically equivalent to a family E of elliptic tails and we show that a divisor D is nef iff D· E � 0 and r � (D) is nef. We also give results on contractions (i.e. morphisms with connected fibers to projective varieties) of M g,n for g � 1 showing that any fibration factors through a tautological one (given by forgetting points) and that the exceptional locus of any birational contraction is contained in the boundary.
Reconstructing the evolutionary history of nitrotoluene detection in the transcriptional regulator NtdR

Many toxic man-made compounds have been introduced into the environment, and bacterial strains that are able to grow on them are ideal model systems for studying the evolution of metabolic pathways and regulatory systems. Acidovorax sp. strain JS42 is unique in its ability to use 2-nitrotoluene as a sole carbon, nitrogen, and energy source for growth. The LysR-type transcriptional regulator NtdR activates expression of the 2-nitrotoluene degradation genes not only when nitroaromatic compounds are present, but also in the presence of a wide range of aromatic acids and analogues. The molecular determinants of inducer specificity were identified through comparative analysis with NagR, the activator of the naphthalene degradation pathway genes in Ralstonia sp. strain U2. Although NagR is 98% identical to NtdR, it does not respond to nitrotoluenes. Exchange of residues that differ between NagR and NtdR revealed that residues at positions 227 and 232 were key for the recognition of nitroaromatic compounds, while the amino acid at position 169 determined the range of aromatic acids recognized. Structural modelling of NtdR suggests that these residues are near the predicted inducer binding pocket. Based on these results, an evolutionary model is presented that depicts the stepwise evolution of NtdR.
Finding your bot-mate: criteria for evaluating robot kits for use in undergraduate computer science education

Robotics can provide an interdisciplinary framework for teaching computer science. This paper describes a set of criteria for judging the utility of robot kits for CS education. We use these criteria to compare three robot kits and their programming environments, specifically with respect to ease of use, flexibility, extensibility, documentation, and on-line community. The three systems we evaluate are the Lego Mindstorms, the iRobot Create, and the Parallax Scribbler.
Average-case analysis of mechanism design with approximate resource allocation algorithms

Mechanism design provides a useful practical paradigm for competitive resource allocation when agent preferences are uncertain. Vickrey-Clarke-Groves (VCG) mechanism offers a general technique for resource allocation with payments, ensuring allocative efficiency while eliciting truthful information about preferences. However, VCG relies on exact computation of optimal allocation of resources, a problem which is often computationally intractable. Using approximate allocation algorithms in place of exact algorithms gives rise to a VCG-based mechanism, which, unfortunately, no longer guarantees truthful revelation of preferences. Our main result is an average-case bound, which uses information about average, rather than worst-case, performance of an algorithm. We show how to combine the resulting bound with simulations to obtain probabilistic confidence bounds on agent incentives to misreport their preferences and illustrate the technique using combinatorial auction data. One important consequence of our analysis is an argument that using state-of-the-art algorithms for solving combinatorial allocation problems essentially eliminates agent incentives to misreport their preferences.
What Is the α2β1 Integrin Doing in the Epidermis

The α 2 β 1 integrin is abundantly expressed by basal keratinocytes in intact skin and is required for re-epithelialization of human skin wounds. However, as Grenache et al. and Zweers et al. report, closure of mouse wounds does not require this receptor. The discrepancies between these models may reflect differences in the composition of the dermal matrices and in the proteinases expressed in response to injury.
The Effect of Constraint on Toughness of a Pressure Vessel Steel

One-third-sized pre-cracked Charpy bars (MPCC, a/W ∼ 0.5) were tested over a range of temperatures. Initiation by unstable fracture or extensive pop-in/arrest events took place in the low and intermediate temperature/toughness regime; at higher temperatures/toughness levels, crack growth was limited to blunting/local damage. The small specimen toughness curve is shifted down in temperature and has steeper transition slopes compared with data for larger compact tension (CT) specimens from the literature. Full size pre-cracked Charpy (PCC) specimens with a/W ratios of nominally 0.1 and 0.5 were tested at -73°C. The toughness for PCCs with a/W = 0.1 was higher by factors of 2 to 4. Confocal microscopy (CM), fracture reconstruction (FR) and finite element method (FEM) simulations were used to evaluate the local conditions at cleavage fracture. For a/W = 0.5 (PCC and MPCC), initiation took place at a single critical stress-critical area criteria independent of size and temperature. However, for the a/W = 0.1 specimens, the critical stress was lower with a correspondingly larger critical area. This is consistent with the reduced stress field present in shallow cracks. Failure by cleavage initiation at a lower critical stress is tentatively attributed to the effects of higher local strains modifying cleavage conditions.
Formalizing the specification of model integrated program synthesis environments

Model integrated computing (MIC) is an effective and efficient method for developing, maintaining, and evolving large-scale computer-based systems (CBSs). One approach to MIC is to synthesize application programs from domain-specific models created using customized, model integrated program synthesis (MIPS) environments. The MultiGraph Architecture is a toolset for creating graphical domain-specific MIPS environments (DSMEs). By modeling the syntactic, semantic, and presentation requirements of a DSME, a metamodel is formed and used to synthesize the DSME itself, enabling design environment evolution in the face of changing domain requirements. Because both the domain-specific applications and the DSME are designed to evolve, efficient and safe large-scale computer-based systems development is possible over the entire lifetime of the CBS. This paper presents a method to represent DSME requirements using UML class diagrams and predicate logic constraint language expressions, and discusses automatic transformation of metamodel specifications into DSMEs.
Endophyte Survival during Seed Storage: Endophyte–Host Interactions and Heritability

Use of nontoxic endophytes in forage tall fescue [Schedonorus phoenix (Scop.) Holub.] is a preferred strategy to overcome fescue toxicosis. Endophytes are transmitted through the seed, but suffer mortality preferentially to the embryo during storage. Loss of viable endophyte reduces the value of the seed, so increasing storage life would be a benefi t. The objectives of this study were to examine (i) viability of an endophyte AR542 in different tall fescue cultivars and endophytes AR542 and AR584 in a Jesup tall fescue seed when stored for extended periods of time, and (ii) heritability of endophyte persistence during seed storage. Seed from each population were stored at room temperatures for 18 mo. Jesup plants containing endophyte after 18 mo of seed storage were placed into polycross blocks. Seed from the selected and parent populations, Jesup with toxic endophyte, and Grasslands Flecha with AR542, were stored at 30°C for 22 mo and tested for endophyte monthly. Pairwise t tests and regression analysis were performed to describe the population responses to storage conditions. Heritability of endophyte viability during storage was calculated. Endophyte AR542 viability during storage was greatest in Flecha followed by Jesup and least in Advance, a third tall fescue cultivar studied in addition to Jesup and Flecha. Endophyte AR584 had greater viability during storage than did AR542 when in Jesup. Selection for endophyte survival increased endophyte viability in stored seed and had heritabilities of 38 and 63% for AR542 and AR584, respectively.
The effect of divalent cations (Ca++ and Mg++) on the optimal salinity and salt tolerance of petroleum sulfonate and ethoxylated sulfonate mixtures in relation to improved oil recovery

It was demonstrated that a surfactant formulation consisting of a petroleum sulfonate and an ethoxylate sulfonate can tolerate a large amount of CaCl2 and MgCl2 in solution without any precipitation or phase-separation. The stability of this surfactant formulation was not influenced significantly by the presence of divalent cations. The maximum salt concentration permissible for a stable formulation depended primarily on the ionic strength of the salt solution and not on the relative proportions of the divalent and monovalent cations. It was also observed that though the optimal salinity (Sγ) decreased upon increasing the amount of divalent cations, the interfacial tension at optimal salinity was always in the millidyne (≃10−3 dynes/cm) range. This study has a practical application in designing the surfactant formulations for tertiary oil recovery process for reservoirs consisting of high concentrations of mono- and divalent cataions.
Are the Eye Movements of Dreaming Sleep Related to the Visual Images of the Dreams

As a result of recording eye movements during Stage REM sleep by AC electrooculography (EOG) previous investigators concluded that each eye movement is the response to the visual action in each dream. When we repeated the study using DC EOG it was discovered that only a minority of eye movements during Stage REM are in the direction of the visual action in the dream. If only single, large amplitude, prominent eye movements are considered then most such movements are related to colorful, compelling visual action occurring as a prominent single visual action against a quiet background. The AC recording method used in past studies emphasizes these isolated movements; perhaps this explains the disparity in results. At any rate, most eye movements during REM sleep are unrelated to the action in the dream. When these eye movements were analyzed in regard to the direction of movements, sequential order of movements, and randomness in time, we found that similar patterns of oculomotor output were found in all subjects. Thus, the nervous system executes a patterned output of oculomotor activity during dreaming sleep which is fairly consistent in all subjects. At times, however, a link is established between the visual and oculomotor systems and the eyes respond to visual action.
A gene for a low density lipoprotein receptor-related protein in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans.

Abstract A >23-kb gene that encodes a large integral membrane protein with a predicted structure similar to that of the low density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor-related protein (LRP) of mammals has been isolated and sequenced from the free-living nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. The 4753-amino acid predicted C. elegans product shares a nearly identical number and arrangement of amino acid sequence motifs with human LRP, and several exons of the C. elegans LRP gene correspond to exons of related parts of the human LDL receptor gene. The existence of an apparent homolog of LRP in C. elegans offers the possibility of genetic analysis of the in vivo roles of LRP and of the relationship between protein structure and function in a simple model organism.
Emerging Parameter Space Map of Magnetic Reconnection in Collisional and Kinetic Regimes

In large-scale systems of interest to solar physics, there is growing evidence that magnetic reconnection involves the formation of extended current sheets which are unstable to plasmoids (secondary magnetic islands). Recent results suggest that plasmoids may play a critical role in the evolution of reconnection, and have raised fundamental questions regarding the applicability of resistive MHD to various regimes. In collisional plasmas, where the thickness of all resistive layers remain larger than the ion gyroradius, simulations results indicate that plasmoids permit reconnection to proceed much faster than the slow Sweet-Parker scaling. However, it appears these rates are still a factor of ∼10× slower than observed in kinetic regimes, where the diffusion region current sheet falls below the ion gyroradius and additional physics beyond MHD becomes crucially important. Over a broad range of interesting parameters, the formation of plasmoids may naturally induce a transition into these kinetic regimes. New insights into this scenario have emerged in recent years based on a combination of linear theory, fluid simulations and fully kinetic simulations which retain a Fokker-Planck collision operator to allow a rigorous treatment of Coulomb collisions as the reconnection electric field exceeds the runaway limit. Here, we present some new results from this approach for guide field reconnection. Based upon these results, a parameter space map is constructed that summarizes the present understanding of how reconnection proceeds in various regimes.
Automated non-rigid registration and mosaicing for robust imaging of distinct retinal capillary beds using speckle variance optical coherence tomography

Variance processing methods in Fourier domain optical coherence tomography (FD-OCT) have enabled depth-resolved visualization of the capillary beds in the retina due to the development of imaging systems capable of acquiring A-scan data in the 100 kHz regime. However, acquisition of volumetric variance data sets still requires several seconds of acquisition time, even with high speed systems. Movement of the subject during this time span is sufficient to corrupt visualization of the vasculature. We demonstrate a method to eliminate motion artifacts in speckle variance FD-OCT images of the retinal vasculature by creating a composite image from multiple volumes of data acquired sequentially. Slight changes in the orientation of the subject’s eye relative to the optical system between acquired volumes may result in non-rigid warping of the image. Thus, we use a B-spline based free form deformation method to automatically register variance images from multiple volumes to obtain a motion-free composite image of the retinal vessels. We extend this technique to automatically mosaic individual vascular images into a widefield image of the retinal vasculature.
WHOLE BLOOD MEASUREMENT OF PROTHROMBIN TIME AND ACTIVATED PARTIAL THROMBOPLASTIN TIME IN A PEDIATRIC POPULATION. 927

WHOLE BLOOD MEASUREMENT OF PROTHROMBIN TIME AND ACTIVATED PARTIAL THROMBOPLASTIN TIME IN A PEDIATRIC POPULATION. 927
Separation of phosphoinositides and other phospholipids by two-dimensional thin-layer chromatography.

Abstract A simple, rapid, two-dimensional TLC system is presented which resolves the four phosphoinositide cycle phospholipids as well as all commonly encountered major and minor phospholipids. Ca2+-free lipid samples are loaded onto silica gel HL plates and developed first in 48:40:7:5 chloroform:methanol:water:concentrated ammonia, and then in 55:25:5 chloroform:methanol:formic acid. The method was applied successfully to human erythrocytes, human platelets, and BL VL3 murine lymphoma cells.
Genotypic Variation in Constitutive and Induced Resistance in Grapes against Spider Mite (Acari: Tetranychidae) Herbivores

We examined genotypic variation in constitutive and induced resistance in grapes against Willamette spider mites, Eotetranychus willametti Ewing, and Pacific spider mites, Tetranychus pacificus McGregor, 2 common species of tetranychid mites found in California vineyards. We found evidence that early-season injury by Pacific mites induced resistance against subsequent Willamette mite populations but early-season injury by Willamette mites did not induce resistance against subsequent Willamette mite populations. Significant levels of induction were detected for several cultivars of the Old World species Vitis vinifera L. as well as the North American species V. calif arnica Bentham. Phylogenetic relationships among grape genotypes explained little of the variation we observed in induced resistance. Phylogenetic relatedness among grapes did help explain patterns of constitutive resistance for Pacific mites; cultivars of V. vinifera L. tended to be susceptible, whereas North American species were resistant. Wi11amette mites, however, performed well on some Old World cultivars and 2 North American species of Vitis that are native to California. We did not find any strong evidence of a negative correlation between constitutive resistance and strength of induction for these grape genotypes. Our results show that several factors contribute to variation in constitutive and induced resistance in grapes against these 2 species of spider mites, including grape genotype, previous history of mite injury (induction), the species of mite causing previous injury, and to some extent, phylogenetic relatedness among grapes. We also suspect that mite genotype has important influences.
Vector quantization with self-resynchronizing coding for lossless compression and rebroadcast of the NASA Geostationary Imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer (GIFTS) data

As part of NASA's New Millennium Program, the Geostationary Imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer (GIFTS) is an advanced ultraspectral sounder with a 128x128 array of interferograms for the retrieval of such geophysical parameters as atmospheric temperature, moisture, and wind. With massive data volume that would be generated by future advanced satellite sensors such as GIFTS, chances are that even the state-of-the-art channel coding (e.g. Turbo codes, LDPC) with low BER might not correct all the errors. Due to the error-sensitive ill-posed nature of the retrieval problem, lossless compression with error resilience is desired for ultraspectral sounder data downlink and rebroadcast. Previously, we proposed the fast precomputed vector quantization (FPVQ) with arithmetic coding (AC) which can produce high compression gain for ground operation. In this paper we adopt FPVQ with the reversible variable-length coding (RVLC) to provide better resilience against satellite transmission errors remaining after channel decoding. The FPVQ-RVLC method is compared with the previous FPVQ-AC method for lossless compression of the GIFTS data. The experiment shows that the FPVQ-RVLC method is a significantly better tool for rebroadcast of massive ultraspectral sounder data.
Speciation of iron in mouse liver during development, iron deficiency, IRP2 deletion and inflammatory hepatitis.

The iron content of livers from (57)Fe-enriched C57BL/6 mice of different ages were investigated using Mossbauer spectroscopy, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), electronic absorption spectroscopy and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). About 80% of the Fe in an adult liver was due to blood; thus removal of blood by flushing with buffer was essential to observe endogenous liver Fe. Even after exhaustive flushing, ca. 20% of the Fe in anaerobically dissected livers was typical of deoxy-hemoglobin. The concentration of Fe in newborn livers was the highest of any developmental stage (∼1.2 mM). Most was stored as ferritin, with little mitochondrial Fe (consisting primarily of Fe-S clusters and haems) evident. Within the first few weeks of life, about half of ferritin Fe was mobilized and exported, illustrating the importance of Fe release as well as Fe storage in liver function. Additional ferritin Fe was used to generate mitochondrial Fe centres. From ca. 4 weeks of age to the end of the mouse's natural lifespan, the concentration of mitochondrial Fe in liver was essentially invariant. A minor contribution from nonhaem high-spin Fe(II) was observed in most liver samples and was also invariant with age. Some portion of these species may constitute the labile iron pool. Livers from mice raised on an Fe-deficient diet were highly Fe depleted; they were devoid of ferritin and contained 1/3 as much mitochondrial Fe as found in Fe-sufficient livers. In contrast, brains of the same Fe-deficient mice retained normal levels of mitochondrial Fe. Livers from mice with inflammatory hepatitis and from IRP2(-/-) mice hyper-accumulated Fe. These livers had high ferritin levels but low levels of mitochondrial Fe.
Branched-chain aminotransferase deficiency in Chinese hamster cells complemented by two independent genes on human chromosomes 12 and 19.

Branched-chain aminotransferase (BCT) catalyzes the reversible transamination of the branched-chain α-keto acids to the branched-chainl-amino acids. Since branched-chainl-amino acids (l-isoleucine,l-leucine, andl-valine) are essential for cell growth, cells which lack BCT were unable to proliferate in media containing α-keto acids in place of the correspondingl-amino acids. CHW-1102, a Chinese hamster cell line, lacks BCT and does not grow in α-keto acid media. Somatic cell hybrids were made by the fusion of CHW-1102 (HPRT−) with several human cell lines and isolated on HAT medium. Growth assays of hybrid clones on α-keto acid selection media independent of the HAT selection medium indicated two cell hybrid phenotypes: either (1) the hybrid clone, like the parental CHW-1102, could not utilize α-keto acid media, or (2) the hybrid could proliferate on all three α-keto acid media. The ability of hybrid cells to proliferate on α-keto acid media correlated with the presence of either of two human genes which independently complemented the Chinese hamster deficiency. Two human genes, BCT1 assigned to chromosome 12 and BCT2 assigned to chromosome 19, were demonstrated to code for the expression of two molecular forms of BCT.
Habituation: Occurrence at a Neuromuscular Junction

At the neuromuscular junctions between the motor giant axon and fast flexor muscle fibers in crayfish, stimulation at frequencies of one per minute produces a large decline in the amplitude of excitatory junctional potentials. Recovery (dishabituation) can be brought about by increases in stimulus frequency, which trigger a potentiation process; at still higher frequencies, a second form of depression intervenes. The last process appears to be due to depletion of transmitter; the first probably depends instead upon electrical changes in presynaptic terminals. Because of the interactions between the three processes, the junctions display the properties of habituation and dishabituation usually associated with complex central nervous networks.
Localization of the mitogen activated protein kinase ERK2 in Alzheimer's disease neurofibrillary tangles and senile plaque neurites

The phosphorylation of normal tau by mitogen activated protein (MAP) or extracellular signal related kinases (ERKs) induces tau to acquire biochemical properties of Alzheimer's disease (AD) paired helical filament (PHF) proteins in vitro. We show here that a monoclonal antibody to MAP kinases recognizes ERK2 in normal and AD cortex, but ERK2 levels are slightly reduced in the AD brain. Since ERK2 was detected in neurofibrillary tangles and senile plaque neurites in the AD hippocampus, ERK2 is positioned to phosphorylate normal tau and could play a role in the generation of PHFs in AD.