cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Triple Dissociation of Information Processing in Dorsal Striatum, Ventral Striatum, and Hippocampus on a Learned Spatial Decision Task

Decision-making studies across different domains suggest that decisions can arise from multiple, parallel systems in the brain: a flexible system utilizing action-outcome expectancies and a more rigid system based on situation-action associations. The hippocampus, ventral striatum, and dorsal striatum make unique contributions to each system, but how information processing in each of these structures supports these systems is unknown. Recent work has shown covert representations of future paths in hippocampus and of future rewards in ventral striatum. We developed analyses in order to use a comparative methodology and apply the same analyses to all three structures. Covert representations of future paths and reward were both absent from the dorsal striatum. In contrast, dorsal striatum slowly developed situation representations that selectively represented action-rich parts of the task. This triple dissociation suggests that the different roles these structures play are due to differences in information-processing mechanisms.
The Origin of Paul Gauguin's Vision after the Sermon: Jacob Wrestling with the Angel (1888)

In August 1888, Paul Gauguin began his painting, Vision After the Sermon: Jacob Wrestling with the Angel1 (Fig, 1). Although the work has attracted considerable attention since then, what we know about it comes principally from two sources, Gauguin's own letters,2 and Gauguin's companion during the summer of 1888, Emile Bernard, writing in the Mercure de France in 1895 and 1903.3
Using Light and Scanning Electron Microscopic Methods to Differentiate Ibex Goat and Tibetan Antelope Fibers

The scanning electron microscope is able to provide excellent differentiation between endangered Tibetan antelope and currently used Ibex goat hair fibers for "Shahtoosh" shawls. Although there are differences in the features of the fine hair fibers from these animals, the best differentiation is accomplished by using the significant differences found in the guard hair fibers that are inextricably mixed with the softer, smaller diameter hairs. The larger diameter antelope guard hairs have extremely thin walls, a cuticle structure, and a unique scale pattern that is totally different from those of the Ibex goat. Some of this important information is not as vividly apparent in a light microscope study.
Managing Service Demand Shifting and Bundling

This article shows that although not-for-profit services may find that demand-shifting strategies are effective, these strategies usually offer no improvement in profits. These strategies are, therefore, ineffective for private service providers who seek to improve profits. It is better for these private service providers to eliminate excess demand during peak periods than to attempt to shift some of this demand to the off-peak period. For-profit service providers should, instead, focus on demand-stimulating strategies. The authors show that bundling strategies that manage demand by combining peak with off-peak service delivery can be very profitable. Increases in price during the peak period have a greater impact on profits than increases in demand during the off-peak period because, when operating at maximum capacity, the greatest profits are achieved.
Dynamic motors for bacterial flagella

Bacterial flagella are dynamic, not only because they rotate and reverse, but also because some of their components exchange on a short time scale. In PNAS, Delalez et al. (1) show that signal-dependent turnover of FliM subunits in the motor–switch complex may be part of the chemotaxis response in Escherichia coli.
Aragonite from deep sea ultramafic rocks

Abstract Aragonite mineralization was observed in serpentinized peridotites from the Romanche and Vema Fracture Zones in the Atlantic and the Owen Fracture Zone in the Indian Ocean, either in veins or as radial aggregates in cavities within the serpentinites. Evidence of incipient dissolution of the aragonite crystals was observed in one case. The aragonites tend to have lower Mg content ( 0.95%) relative to other marine aragonites. Their 18 O 16 O , 13 C 12 C and 87 Sr 86 Sr isotopic ratios suggest the aragonite was deposited at ocean floor temperatures from solutions derived from sea water circulating in fissures and fractures within the ultramafic rocks. The 18 O 16 O ratios of the serpentines indicate serpentinization occurred at higher temperatures, probably deeper in the crust. Low-T reactions between circulating seawater and Mg-silicates (primarily serpentine and pyroxenes) caused high pH and enrichment of Mg and Ca in the solution, conditions favoring carbonate precipitation. Aragonite was formed rather than calcite presumably because the high Mg2+ concentration in the solution inhibited calcite precipitation. The high Sr content of the aragonites is probably related, at least in part, to their low temperature of formation. Opaque mineral grains containing over 8% NiO and over 40% MnO were observed concentrated along the margins of some of the aragonite veins, suggesting that Ni is one of the elements mobilized during reactions between ultramafic rocks and circulating seawater.
Patient-specific instrumentation does not improve alignment in total knee arthroplasty.

Patient-specific instrumentation (PSI) was developed to improve the accuracy of component positioning in total knee arthroplasty (TKA). A meta-analysis of level I and level II studies was performed to determine if PSI improves the mechanical alignment of the leg compared with conventional instrumentation (CI) in TKA. Seven studies met inclusion criteria evaluating 559 patients undergoing TKA. Mean coronal alignment was within 1 degree of neutral mechanical alignment in both groups (PSI, 0.78 degrees; CI, 0.81 degrees). There were fewer outliers in the PSI group (21.1%) than in the CI group (23.2%), but this was not statistically significant (p = 0.59). On the basis of the data from this analysis, PSI does not significantly improve the postoperative mechanical alignment of the limb after TKA. Moreover, PSI does not decrease the number of outliers compared with CI.
Thresholds for premature contractions in murine hearts exposed to pulsed ultrasound.

A single pulse of high intensity ultrasound can produce either a premature ventricular contrac- tion or a reduction in the aortic pressure in frog hearts. The objective of tbii study was to determine whether shnllar ultrasound exposmes can produce premature contractions in the heart. The cardiac activity of murine hearts in viva was monhored noninvasively nslng elect and pletbys- mography. Each ultrasound exposure was a single pulse of ultrasound, several mllllseeokls ln duration, delivered to the mnrlne heart durlng dlastole. The threshold for producing a premature contra&Ion ,with a 5-ms ultrasound pulse at 1.2 MHz was -2 MPa peak positive pressure. The occmrenee of premature contractions decreased as the duration of the ultrason& pulse decreased. These results found with the mammaliau heart are shnilar to those reported earlier for the frog heart. No damage to cardiac tissue was observed grossly, although sign&ant hemorrhage occurred to adjacent lung tissue. 0 1997 World Federation for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology.
Delayed-onset endophthalmitis associated with conjunctival filtering blebs.

Objective: The purpose of the study is to evaluate the causative organisms, treatment methods, and visual acuity outcomes of patients treated for delayed-onset endophthalmitis associated with conjunctival filtering blebs. Methods: The medical records of 32 patients with conjunctival filtering bleb-associated endophthalmitis treated at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute between 1989 and 1995 were reviewed retrospectively. Bleb-associated endophthalmitis was diagnosed at 1 month or more after surgery in all patients. Patients with bleb infections only but without signs of intraocular infection were excluded from this series. Results: Previous antimetabolite therapy was used in 20 patients, including mitomycin C in 14 and 5-fluorouracil in 6. Streptococcal species were the most frequently cultured organisms occurring in 15 (47%) of 32 eyes. Of the 32 patients, 30 received intraocular antibiotics. The initial treatment included a pars plana vitrectomy in 18 patients and a vitreous tap without vitrectomy in 12 patients. Two of three patients who presented with no light perception vision were treated by evisceration. Overall, 15 (47%) of 32 patients achieved a final visual acuity of 201400 or better. Of those patients with Streptococcal species cultured from the eye, 6 (40%) of 15 had a visual acuity of 201400 or better compared to 9 (52%) of 17 in patients with non-Streptococcal species. Conclusions: Delayed-onset endophthalmitis associated with conjunctival filtering blebs is a current and future concern, especially with increasing use of mitomycin C. The Streptococcal species are a common causative organism. Despite current treatment of these patients, the visual acuity outcomes generally are worse than in patients with acute-onset endophthalmitis after cataract surgery.
Combining Hotel Promotions, Discount Packages, and Yield Management Systems: Make Sure It's Legal

Fierce competition abounds, extreme market segmentation is prevalent, and occupancy levels and profits are down throughout the hotel industry. As a partial response to these problems, the hotel industry has made significant changes in methods used to quote room prices and in the sale of its rooms through central or local reservation systems.To maximize revenue, many hotels have implemented yield management systems that adjust "room rates in response to the level of rooms booked for future arrival dates" (Relihan, 1989). Computer systems, sales incentive programs, and the retraining of reservation personnel and others are necessary in order to produce "the best possible return, or yield, from the space available" (Relihan, 1989). While the hotel management is attempting to boost revenues, they may be simultaneously and actively promoting discount programs to attract weekend guests, seniorcitizens, corporate accounts, government contracts, and families.Potential guests often respond to advertisements for re...
Engineering green fluorescent protein for improved brightness, longer wavelengths and fluorescence resonance energy transfer

Abstract Background: Variants of the green fluorescent protein (GFP) with different colors would be very useful for simultaneous comparisons of multiple protein fates, developmental lineages and gene expression levels. The simplest way to shift the emission color of GFP is to substitute histidine or tryptophan for the tyrosine in the chromophore, but such blue-shifted point mutants are only dimly fluorescent. The longest wavelengths previously reported for the excitation and emission peaks of GFP mutants are 488 and 511 nm, respectively. Results Additional substitutions, mainly in residues 145–163, have improved the brightness of the blue-shifted GFP mutants with histidine and tryptophan in place of tyrosine 66. Separate mutations have pushed the excitation and emission peaks of the most red-shifted mutant to 504 and 514 nm, respectively. At least three different colors of GFP mutants can now be cleanly distinguished from each other under the microscope, using appropriate filter sets. A fusion protein consisting of linked blue- and green-fluorescent proteins exhibits fluorescence resonance energy transfer, which is disrupted by proteolytic cleavage of the linker between the two domains. Conclusion Our results demonstrate that the production of more and better GFP variants is possible and worthwhile. The production of such variants facilitates multicolor imaging of differential gene expression, protein localization or cell fate. Fusions between mutants of different colors may be useful substrates for the continuous in situ assay of proteases. Demonstration of energy transfer between GFP variants is an important step towards a general method for monitoring the mutual association of fusion proteins.
Relation between a three-parameter formula for isotope shifts and staggering parameters

It is noted that the staggering parameters used to describe even-odd effects for isotope shifts can in some cases exhibit very rapidly varying behavior as a function of neutron number. On the other hand, a three-parameter formula (3P) with fixed coefficients can explain the same behavior in the $A=40$ region.
Crude-oil price volatility and agricultural employment in the USA

This study begins by asking whether fluctuations in the price of crude oil have affected agricultural employment in the USA. After reviewing previous assessments of the issue, the existence of an empirical relationship between agricultural employment and crude-oil price volatility is established using Granger causality. Subsequently, the nature of the relationship is estimated with the results suggesting that at least three full years are required before the measurable impacts of a percentage change in the real price of crude oil on the change in agricultural employment are exhausted. Finally, the structural stability of the functional relationship between the change in agricultural employment and the volatility of the price of crude oil, the percentage changes in expected net farm income, realized technological innovation, and the wage rate are examined.
Electrical activity of the isolated cerebral hemisphere and isolated thalamus.

Abstract A surgical technique has been devised which permits complete neural isolation of the cortex of an entire cerebral hemisphere while preserving the blood supply and drainage. The status of the arterial circulation and venous drainage of the isolated hemisphere is evaluated at the termination of each experiment by comparison of the intact and isolated sides following aortic injection of a particulate dye. Such preparations show continuous or semicontinuous electrical activity consisting of high voltage aperiodic 0.5–4 cycle/sec oscillations and a superimposed lower voltage 25–70 cycle/sec rhythm. This activity may be interrupted by brief isoelectric episodes which may occur in all regions of the cortex simultaneously. The fast rhythm is essentially similar to that seen in the intact brain, and appears to constitute an autochthonic activity of the superficial neural feltwork of the cortex sustained in the absence of afferent neural influences. The high voltage aperiodic slow activity appears to be a consequence of the surgical procedure, but is probably related to neural isolation rather than to circulatory or mechanical insult. The isoelectric episodes are directly related to the physiological condition of the isolated hemisphere, and any factor which tends to compromise this state increases their incidence and duration. The isolated hemisphere is totally inactive only in the presence of significant hypoxia or ischemia. In contrast, the surgically isolated thalamus exhibits continuous rhythmic 6–9 cycle/sec activity of sinusoidal waveform. Thus, the aperiodic slow activity of isolated cortex is not a necessary consequence of deafferentation per se but reflects some characteristic peculiar to the cortex, perhaps a dependence of certain elements of its neural population upon subcortical influences for the development of an organized rhythmic behavior.
The Effect of Nutrition on the Composition of Eggs

Abstract Variability in the composition of shell eggs due to the composition of the diet fed to the laying hen exists for a number of nutrients. The fat soluble vitamin content of the egg may vary considerably. While vitamin A and its carotenoid precursors may vary several fold, the liver of the hen moderates the flow of vitamin A to egg yolk. Vitamin D may vary widely and limited data suggest considerable variation in vitamin E content. The relative amounts of 18-carbon fatty acids in egg yolk lipid may vary considerably depending upon the nature of dietary fat. Cholesterol content of egg yolk may also be influenced by large amounts of dietary fat, sterols, and drugs. Among the water soluble vitamins, the vitamin B12 content of the egg can vary considerably, dependent upon its level in the hen diet. Folic acid and pantothenic acid levels in the egg also vary somewhat as does the egg content of unidentified factors for growth of the newly hatched turkey poult. Content of most other water soluble vitamins shows minimum variability. The iodine and selenium content of the egg may vary considerably dependent upon the hen's diet. Iron content of the egg shows minimum variability with dietary change while some variation is possible in other trace elements. A consideration of earlier data on shell egg composition with that obtained during the past five years shows that the nutrient composition of the egg has not changed greatly in response to modern industry practices. Some variability can be expected, particularly with regard to egg content of those factors mentioned above. It appears that adequate data are available for most nutrients to permit nutritional labeling of eggs and egg products.
The fiscal background of the Russian revolution

This article examines important aspects of the interaction between the fiscal history and political events of tsarist Russia's final years in the light of macroeconomic theories of government budget constraints. Using econometric tests of intertemporal stability and techniques of intervention analysis, I find that tsarist Russia had achieved a sustainable peacetime balance in its fiscal relations by the eve of World War I, but that this balance was lost under the strain of wartime financial difficulty.
Specific [3H]phencyclidine binding in rat central nervous system

Abstract [3H]Phencyclidine (PCP) bound specifically and with high affinity (Kd = 0.15 microM at pH 7.4) to a single saturable class of binding sites in rat brain membrane preparations. Specific binding constituted approximately 70% of total binding at 0 degrees C and 33% of total binding at 37 degrees C (at 10 nM [3H]PCP). Bound [3H]PCP could be displaced by nonradioactive PCP, a series of its derivatives, and the psychotomimetic opiate N-allylnorcyclazocine (SKF 10,047) with relative potencies that closely paralleled those determined in animal behavioral tests. Muscarinic cholinergic ligands inhibited [3H]PCP binding, but only at 0.1 mM and in rank order at variance with that for binding to muscarinic sites or for pharmacological potencies. Other drugs, including opiates other than SKF 10,047, were unable to displace specifically bound [3H]PCP at 0.1 mM. [3H]PCP binding was most enriched in crude synaptosomal subcellular fractions, and was about three times higher in hippocampus (region of highest density) than in cervical spinal cord (region of lowest density). Trypsin and Pronase reduced specific [3H]PCP binding. Thus, PCP may exert its effects on the central nervous system via binding to specific brain receptor sites.
Erythrocyte catalase activity in Thalassaemia.

Increased erythrocyte catalase activity per gram haemoglobin or per milliliter red cells was found in all 32 patients with thalassaemia minor, and in 2 of 7 patients with thalassaemia major. The trait was associated with increased catalase activity even when combined with a qualitatively abnormal haemoglobin, sickle haemoglobin. Sickle cell disease and a wide variety of other haematologic conditions were not associated with increased enzyme activity. Exceptions were found in one patient with sideroblastic anaemia and his daughter, both of whom had increased catalase activity. Four other patients with sideroblastic anaemia had normal activity. This evidence suggests that increased erythrocyte catalase activity may be used to identify the thalassaemia trait. The findings add a new point of similarity between thalassaemia and certain types of sideroblastic anaemia and provide indirect evidence that impaired haeme synthesis is not the primary defect in thalassaemia.
Serum demyelinating factors in multiple sclerosis

Sera from 21 patients with multiple sclerosis were applied to myelinated spinal cord cultures and evaluated for demyelinating activity. Samples were collected at various times when patients were on or off therapy with myelin basic protein or prednisone or both, and at various stages of disease. Five of 31 serum samples from 17 patients exhibited demyelinating activity when tested in a 40% concentration in tissue culture nutrient medium. Four of the 10 serum samples taken from patients with active or remitting multiple sclerosis (2 samples from the same patient) were demyelinative; 1 of 21 sera collected during stationary periods of disease was positive. There was no correlation between serum demyelinating activity and the presence or absence of treatment. Sera positive for demyelinating activity failed to inhibit myelin formation in initially unmyelinated cerebellar cultures.
Video compressive sensing using spatial domain sparsity

We present a compressive sensing video acquisition scheme that relies on the sparsity properties of video in the spatial domain. In this scheme, the video sequence is represented by a reference frame, followed by the difference of measurement results between each pair of neighboring frames. The video signal is reconstructed by first reconstructing the frame differences using 1 minimization algorithm, then adding them sequentially to the reference frame. Simulation results on both simulated and real video sequences show that when the spatial changes between neighboring frames are small, this scheme provides better reconstruction results than existing compressive sensing video acquisition schemes, such as 2-D or 3-D wavelet methods and the minimum total-variance (TV) method. This scheme is suitable for compressive sensing acquisition of video sequences with relatively small spatial changes. A method that estimates the amount of spatial change based on the statistical properties of measurement results is also presented.
Radiofrequency ablation of lung tumors in swine assisted by a navigation device with preprocedural volumetric planning.

Purpose To develop an image guidance system that incorporates volumetric planning of spherical ablations and electromagnetic tracking of radiofrequency (RF) electrodes during insertion. Materials and Methods Simulated tumors were created in three live swine by percutaneously injecting agar nodules into the lung. A treatment plan was devised for each tumor with optimization software to solve the planning problem. The desired output was the minimum number of overlapping ablation spheres necessary to ablate each tumor and the margin. The insertion plan was executed with use of the electromagnetic tracking system that guided the insertion of the probe into precomputed locations. After a 72-hour survival period, animals were killed and histopathologic sections of the tissue were examined for cell viability and burn pattern analysis. Results A planning algorithm to spherically cover the tumors and the margin was computed. Electromagnetic tracking allowed successful insertion of the instrument, and impedance roll-off was reached in all ablations. Depending on their size, the tumors and the tumor margins were successfully covered with two to four ablation spheres. The image registration error was 1.0 mm ± 0.64. The overall error of probe insertion was 9.4 mm ± 3.0 ( N = 8). Analysis of histopathologic sections confirmed successful ablations of the tissue. Conclusions Computer-assisted RF ablation planning and electromagnetically tracked probe insertion were successful in three swine, validating the feasibility of electromagnetic tracking–assisted tumor targeting. Image misregistration caused by respiratory motion and tissue deformation contributed to the overall error of probe insertion.
Role of CXCL1 in tumorigenesis of melanoma

The CXC chemokine, CXCL1 (melanoma growth-stimulatory activity/growth-regulated protein α), plays a major role in inflammation, angiogenesis, tumorigenesis, and wound healing. Recently, chemokines have been extensively related to cellular transformation, tumor growth, homing, and metastasis. CXCL1 and its mouse homologue MIP-2 have been shown to be involved in the process of tumor formation. When chemokines such as CXCL1 and CXCL8 (IL-8) become disregulated so that they are chronically expressed, tissue damage, angiogenesis, and tumorigenesis can follow. This up-regulation of chemokines has been attributed to constitutive activation of NF-κB. The constitutive NF-κB activation is an emerging hallmark in various types of tumors including breast, colon, pancreatic, ovarian, as well as melanoma. Previous findings from our laboratory and other laboratories have demonstrated the role of endogenous activation of NF-κB in association with enhanced metastatic potential of malignant melanoma cells and suggest that targeting NF-κB may have potential therapeutic effects in clinical trials. An important step in this direction would be to delineate the important intracellular pathways and upstream kinases involved in up-regulation of NF-κB in melanoma cells. In this review, the signaling pathways involved in the disregulation of NF-κB and chemokine expression are discussed.
A new XRCC1-containing complex and its role in cellular survival of methyl methanesulfonate treatment

DNA single-strand break repair (SSBR) is important for maintaining genome stability and homeostasis. The current SSBR model derived from an in vitro-reconstituted reaction suggests that the SSBR complex mediated by X-ray repair cross-complementing protein 1 (XRCC1) is assembled sequentially at the site of damage. In this study, we provide biochemical data to demonstrate that two preformed XRCC1 protein complexes exist in cycling HeLa cells. One complex contains known enzymes that are important for SSBR, including DNA ligase 3 (DNL3), polynucleotide kinase 3'-phosphatase, and polymerase beta; the other is a new complex that contains DNL3 and the ataxia with oculomotor apraxia type 1 (AOA) gene product aprataxin. We report the characterization of the new XRCC1 complex. XRCC1 is phosphorylated in vivo and in vitro by CK2, and CK2 phosphorylation of XRCC1 on S518, T519, and T523 largely determines aprataxin binding to XRCC1 though its FHA domain. An acute loss of aprataxin by small interfering RNA renders HeLa cells sensitive to methyl methanesulfonate treatment by a mechanism of shortened half-life of XRCC1. Thus, aprataxin plays a role to maintain the steady-state protein level of XRCC1. Collectively, these data provide insights into the SSBR molecular machinery in the cell and point to the involvement of aprataxin in SSBR, thus linking SSBR to the neurological disease AOA.
Insulin-like growth factor receptors.

AbstractCompetitive binding experiments from a number of laboratories showed that IGF receptors are distinct from insulin receptors, and that there are two types of IGF receptors based on their relative affinities for IGF-I and IGF-II and whether or not they bind insulin (reviewed in Rechler and Nissley, 1985). Later, affinity crosslinking experiments provided a physical basis for the two IGF receptor subtypes. The receptor which preferred IGF-II over IGF-I and did not bind insulin, was a large 250 kDa species with no apparent subunit structure (Fig. 1). The receptor which prefered IGF-I over IGF-II and bound insulin with low affinity had a binding sub-unit of 130 kDa after reduction of disulfide bonds. Biosynthetic labeling experiments demonstrated a 95 kDa beta subunit addition to the 130 kDa alpha subunit (Fig. 1). The heterotetrameric IGF-I receptor (a,& was therefore very similar to the insulin receptor, and the case for similarity was increased when the beta subunit was found to be auto-phosphorylat...
Debriefing: toward a systematic assessment of theory and practice

Experiential learning in the educational context incorporates real-life-based processes into the educational setting in order for them to be used and scrutinized The heart of these sorts of learnin...
Effects of microbial particles on oceanic optics: A database of single‐particle optical properties

We describe a database of the single-particle optical properties cd marine microbial particles. This database includes representatives from five classes of particles: viruses (VIR), heterotrophic bacteria (BAC), cyanobacteria (CYA), small nanoplanktonic diatoms (DIA), and nanoplanktonic chlorophytes (CHLO). The optical properties of VIR, whose mean size is 0.07 pm, were determined from Mie scattering calculations using reasonable approximations about the size distribution and refractive index of viral particles. The database for BAC, CYA, DIA, and CHL0 was created from laboratory measurements of microbial cultures and modeling of particle optics. BAC are represented by a mixed natural population of bacterial species (-0.55 pm in size), CYA by Synechococcus (clone WH 8103, - 1 pm), DIA by Thalassiosira pseudonana (-4 Fm), and CHL0 by Dunaliella tertiolecta (-7.5 pm). The database includes the single-particle optical properties that are useful in radiative transfer modeling: the absorption and scattering cross sections and scattering phase functions. Additionally, the database includes the attenuation cross sections, optical efficiency factors, single-scattering albedos, and backscattering properties. For phytoplankton species, chlorophyll- and carbon-specific optical coefficients are also available. The optical quantities are generally determined at I-nm intervals in the spectral region from 350 to 750 nm. The scattering phase function is determined at 5-nm intervals in wavelength and 1” intervals in scattering angle. The size distribution and refractive index of the particles are also included. This database, when combined with radiative transfer modeling, provides a powerful approach to advancing our understanding of oceanic optics. Achieving a detailed understanding of the roles played by various types of particles in oceanic radiative transfer is a prerequisite to advancing our knowledge of the marine optical environment and applying optical techniques to the study of the ocean. It is the fundamental processes of absorption and scattering of light by many individual particles and soluble materials present in seawater that determine the magnitudes and variability of the bulk optical properties and light field characteristics in the ocean. To achieve a comprehensive understanding of the marine optical environment and to construct reliable predictive and inverse optical models, we must first understand how each of these various water components absorbs and scatters light, and hence affects underwater radiative transfer. It is well known that there is great variability in the inherent optical properties (IOPs) of seawater in the world’s oceans. This variability induces a correspondingly large variability in oceanic apparent optical properties (AOPs), even after accounting for variability in the AOPs associated with the incident lighting and sea state. The optical properties of
On propagation of deletions and annotations through views

We study two classes of view update problems in relational databases. We are given a source database S, a monotone query Q, and the view Q(S) generated by the query. The first problem that we consider is the classical view deletion problem where we wish to identify a minimal set T of tuples in S whose deletion will eliminate a given tuple t from the view. We study the complexity of optimizing two natural objectives in this setting, namely, find T to minimize the side-effects on the view, and the source, respectively. For both objective functions, we show a dichotomy in the complexity. Interestingly, the problem is either in P or is NP-hard, for queries in the same class in either objective function.The second problem in our study is the annotation placement problem. Suppose we annotate an attribute of a tuple in S. The rules for carrying the annotation forward through a query are easily stated. On the other hand, suppose we annotate an attribute of a tuple in the view Q(S), what annotation(s) in S will cause this annotation to appear in the view, minimizing the propagation to other attributes in Q(S)? View annotation is becoming an increasingly useful method of communicating meta-data among users of shared scientific data sets, and to our knowledge, there has been no formal study of this problem.Our study of these problems gives us important insights into computational issues involved in data provenance or lineage --- the process by which data moves through databases. We show that the two problems correspond to two fundamentally distinct notions of provenance, why and where-provenance.
Vegetation Dynamics of a Permanent Pasture Plot in Puerto Rico

ABSTRACT I set up a 250 m2 plot and found after five years that (1) grass dominated by ferns and woody species was gradually increasing over time; (2) woody genera (Syzygium, Calophyllum, and Clidemia) common here have not been found elsewhere on the island and “successional” trees, such as Cecropia sp. and Shefflera sp., were completely absent; (3) smaller, earlier trees were also found away from the forest; and (4) the plot had multiple strata and was recovering forest structural characteristics such as productivity and richness.
Midwestern organic farming: A ten-year follow-up

A mailed survey was sent to 174 Midwestern organic farmers originally studied in 1977. We obtained information on 133 of this group, 96 of whom are still farming at the same location, although 12 no longer use organic methods. Fifty-eight currently active farmers returned a detailed questionnaire that covered their perceptions of the advantages and disadvantages of organic farming, some of their practices, and their financial status. Most farmers who employed organic farming methods stated they did so out of concern for the health of themselves, their families, and their livestock. Compared to ten years ago, philosophical or religious considerations were less frequently mentioned as an advantage of organic farming. In contrast, some agronomic and management disadvantages of organic f arming were mentioned more often. The farmers now are more tolerant, in principle, of some chemicals not generally accepted in organic farming, but regular use of soluble fertilizers and synthetic pesticides has not increased appreciably. The farmers reported little change in the institutional and social environment for organic agriculture, including available markets, information sources, and the attitudes of their neighbors.
Evaluation of the Spoken Knowledge in Low Literacy in Diabetes Scale for Use With Mexican Americans

Purpose: This article evaluates the Spoken Knowledge in Low Literacy in Diabetes (SKILLD) questionnaire, a measure of essential knowledge for type 2 diabetes self-management, after it was modified for English- and Spanish-speaking Mexican Americans. Method: We collected surveys (SKILLD, demographic, acculturation) and blood for A1C analysis from 72 community-recruited participants to analyze the SKILLD’s internal consistency, interrater reliability, item analysis, and construct validity. Clinical experts evaluated content validity. Results: The SKILLD demonstrated low internal consistency but high interrater reliability and content and construct validity. There were significant correlations in expected directions between SKILLD scores and acculturation, education, and A1C and significant differences in SKILLD scores between and within groups after an educational intervention and between high- and low-acculturated participants. Conclusion/Implications: The SKILLD generates useful information about Mexican ...
Temperature Effects on Soil Dielectric Properties Measured at 50 MHz

In recent years a number of soil water monitoring instruments have been developed and made commercially available. These instruments generally respond to the complex soil dielectric permittivity and operate at frequencies between 10 and 150 MHz. Although there is some evidence that these instruments are sensitive to temperature change in certain soils, little empirical data exists describing the degree of this sensitivity. We quantified temperature effects on both the real and imaginary components of the complex permittivity for 19 soils collected around the United States using the Hydra Probe soil water sensor, which operates at 50 MHz. We found that the real component response ranged from positive to negative such that the effect of a 40°C temperature change resulted in a maximum apparent water content change of ± 0.028 m 3 m −3 among soils. The effect of temperature on the imaginary component was as much as six times greater than on the real component, changing about 2% °C −1 , which is similar to that observed for electrical conductivity. The high imaginary component sensitivity to temperature is probably responsible for the high temperature sensitivity noted for commercial soil water sensors because they generally respond to a composite of both components. In addition, there was a strong linear correlation ( R 2 = 0.81) between the effect of temperature on the calculated soil water content and the magnitude of the imaginary component. While this relationship suggests the possibility of calculating temperature effects on Hydra Probe–calculated soil water content in the field, it applies only to saturated soil conditions at present.
Photo induced electron emission from nitrogen doped diamond films on silicon

Results are presented on the photo-induced electron emission from nitrogen doped diamond films prepared on doped silicon substrates. In contrast to results for films on metal substrates, a significant increase of emission intensity was observed at elevated temperatures. The results suggest a contribution from photon enhanced thermionic emission.
Memory-Centric Security Architecture

This article presents a new security model called MESA for protecting software confidentiality and integrity. Different from the previous process-centric systems designed for the same purpose, MESA ties cryptographic properties and security attributes to memory instead of each individual user process. The advantages of such a memory-centric design over the process-centric designs are many folds. First, it allows better access control on software privacy, which supports both selective and mixed tamper resistant protection on software components coming from heterogenous sources. Second, the new model supports and facilities tamper resistant secure information sharing in an open software system where both data and code components could be shared by different user processes. Third, the proposed security model and secure processor design allow software components protected with different security policies to inter-operate within the same memory space efficiently. The architectural support for MESA requires small silicon resources and its performance impact is minimal based on our experimental results using commercial MS Windows workloads and cycle based out-of-order processor simulator.
Texaco Gasification Process

The Texaco Gasification process was developed for manufacturer of synthesis gas (CO/H2) or pure hydrogen from a wide variety of solid, liquid and gaseous feeds, and it has been used commercially for 50 years. The size of these commercial units is much too large for dedicated waste disposal; however, Texaco has proposed development of a 100 ton/day transportable unit for waste treatment.
A probabilistic decomposition-synthesis method for the quantification of rare events due to internal instabilities

We consider the problem of the probabilistic quantification of dynamical systems that have heavy-tailed characteristics. These heavy-tailed features are associated with rare transient responses due to the occurrence of internal instabilities. Systems with these properties can be found in a variety of areas including mechanics, fluids, and waves. Here we develop a computational method, a probabilistic decomposition-synthesis technique, that takes into account the nature of internal instabilities to inexpensively determine the non-Gaussian probability density function for any arbitrary quantity of interest. Our approach relies on the decomposition of the statistics into a 'non-extreme core', typically Gaussian, and a heavy-tailed component. This decomposition is in full correspondence with a partition of the phase space into a 'stable' region where we have no internal instabilities, and a region where non-linear instabilities lead to rare transitions with high probability. We quantify the statistics in the stable region using a Gaussian approximation approach, while the non-Gaussian distribution associated with the intermittently unstable regions of phase space is inexpensively computed through order-reduction methods that take into account the strongly nonlinear character of the dynamics. The probabilistic information in the two domains is analytically synthesized through a total probability argument. The proposed approach allows for the accurate quantification of non-Gaussian tails at more than 10 standard deviations, at a fraction of the cost associated with the direct Monte-Carlo simulations. We demonstrate the probabilistic decomposition-synthesis method for rare events for two dynamical systems exhibiting extreme events: a two-degree-of-freedom system of nonlinearly coupled oscillators, and in a nonlinear envelope equation characterizing the propagation of unidirectional water waves.
Metastatic malignancies from distant sites to the tracheobronchial tree

Endotracheal and endobronchial metastases from nonpulmonary malignancies are rare. Since July, 1974, eight patients with such metastases have been seen by the Thoracic Surgical Service at Stanford University Medical Center. Six patients had endobronchial metastases; two from the breast, two from the colon, one from the kidney, and one from the thyroid. Endotracheal metastases from carcinoma of the breast occurred in two patients. Prior treatment of a nonpulmonary neoplasm was known in all patients, and in six of the eight patients metastases to other sites had been previously recognized and treated. The median interval from diagnosis of the primary neoplasm to appearance of the endobronchial or endotracheal metastasis was 5 years. Median survival following diagnosis of such a metastasis was 19 months. Presenting symptoms in patients with endobronchial metastases included cough, hemoptysis, dyspnea, and wheezing. Segmental atelectasis was the major radiographic finding in five of the six patients with endobronchial lesions. Stridor and profound respiratory distress were distinguishing features of the two patients with endotracheal metastases, both of whom required emergency bronchoscopy for palliation as well as diagnosis. Histologic diagnosis of endobronchial and endotracheal metastases is essential in differentiating them from primary tumors of the tracheobronchial tree so that specific treatment may be instituted. The relatively favorable biological behavior of these tumors leads one to be optimistic about the results of treatment, although endotracheal and endobronchial metastases are generally manifestations of far-advanced disease.
DUPA Conjugation of a Cytotoxic Indenoisoquinoline Topoisomerase I Inhibitor for Selective Prostate Cancer Cell Targeting

Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) is overexpressed in most prostate cancer cells while being present at low or undetectable levels in normal cells. This difference provides an opportunity to selectively deliver cytotoxic drugs to prostate cancer cells while sparing normal cells that lack PSMA, thus improving potencies and reducing toxicities. PSMA has high affinity for 2-[3-(1,3-dicarboxypropyl)ureido]pentanedioic acid (DUPA) (Ki = 8 nM). After binding to a DUPA-drug conjugate, PSMA internalizes, unloads the conjugate, and returns to the surface. In the present studies, an indenoisoquinoline topoisomerase I inhibitor was conjugated to DUPA via a peptide linker and a drug-release segment that facilitates intracellular cleavage to liberate the drug cargo. The DUPA-indenoisoquinoline conjugate exhibited an IC50 in the low nanomolar range in 22RV1 cell cultures and induced a complete cessation of tumor growth with no toxicity, as determined by loss of body weight and death of treated mice.
Speciality mushrooms: Cultivation on synthetic substrates in the USA and Japan

Total mushroom production worldwide has increased more than tenfold in the past 25 years from about 350 000 t in 1965 to about 4·3 Mt in 1991. Based on recent and historical trends, it is likely that diversification of the mushroom industry will continue in the USA and other Western countries. In 1993–94, the USA produced 346 188 t of mushrooms, while Japan produced 351 027 t in the same period. In the USA, Agaricus accounted for over 90% of total mushroom production value, while Lentinula, Flammulina, Pleurotus, Hypsizygus, Pholiota, and Grifola were the main genera cultivated in Japan. As consumers become more aware of the additional culinary characteristics offered by a variety of mushrooms, demand for ‘speciality mushrooms’ should increase substantially in the future.
NIMG-32MOLECULAR IMAGING AND IMMUNOHISTOCHEMICAL STUDIES OF THE KYNURENINE PATHWAY IN PATIENT-DERIVED XENOGRAFT MODELS OF GLIOBLASTOMA

BACKGROUND: Recently the kynurenine pathway (KP), which is responsible for ∼99% of the catabolism of the amino acid tryptophan (TRP), has been implicated in the pathophysiology of human gliomas. Furthermore, studies indicate that the KP plays a role in local anti-tumor immune suppression both directly and indirectly by depleting TRP and causing T-cell cell cycle arrest. The KP can be studied through the use of a non-invasive molecular imaging tracer, α-[11C]-methyl-L-tryptophan (AMT). AMT-PET can predict survival in GBM patients with recurrent disease (Kamson et al., Neuro-Oncology, 2014). METHODS: In order to study the KP, we generated patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models of five GBMs. One cell line, KCI-GBM-1040, was implanted intracranially and AMT scans were obtained 9 and 14 days post-op. In vivo analysis of the tumors was performed via immunohistochemistry (IHC) and AMT-PET scans. Formalin fixed tissue sections were stained with antibodies specific for human indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) 1, IDO2, tryptophan 2,3-dioxygenase (TDO2), kynureninase (KYNU), kynurenine 3-monooxygenase (KMO), and the large amino acid transporter, LAT1, which is responsible for the uptake of TRP and AMT. RESULTS: Micro-PET imaging showed robust tumoral AMT uptake in PDX mice with prolonged tracer accumulation over a 60-min scan, with average uptake increasing 38% between 10 minutes and the maximum at 50 minutes. This is consistent with AMT trapping seen in human gliomas. Tumor tissues from both the patient and xenografts showed similar immunostaining results for both the TRP-converting and the downstream enzymes of the KP. CONCLUSIONS: These preliminary results indicate that our PDX model is representative of the human disease as it relates to both the in vitro and in vivo study of the KP. These models allow us to study the KP and offer a novel system through which we can develop and test new therapies for GBM patients.