cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Dielectric constant trends in silicate spin-on glasses

The prediction of the effects on the dielectric constant in thin film dielectrics is of interest in a variety of electronic applications ranging from microelectronics to displays and MEMS applications. This paper discusses the link between the molecular structure of a silicate spin-on dielectric and the final processed dielectric constant by relating trends in the calculated dielectric constant using Density Functional Theory to measurements made on thin films produced during formulation and cure studies. For this investigation, silanol and water content, film density and stress were varied both computationally and experimentally in order to understand the trade-off contributing toward the final dielectric constant. It was found that there is a non-trivial relationship between all these variables which relates back to the molecular structure of the final material, expressed by the density and the stress state of the material. This underlines the importance of finding stable processes in order to produce reproducible films.
Latent infection with bovine herpesvirus type 1

Abstract As with other alphaherpesviruses, the molecular mechanisms that underlie bovine herpesvirus type 1 (BHV-1) latency and reactivation are poorly understood. Restricted transcription of the BHV-1 genome has been described in latently infected neurons of the natural host and in the rabbit latency model. BHV-1 latency-associated transcription (LAT) is predominantly nuclear, approximately 1.0 to 1.2 kb in size, and anti-parallel to and overlapping an immediate-early gene. Down-regulation of LAT expression observed in ganglia during dexamethasone-induced viral reactivation, together with altered reactivation characteristics of a LAT-promoter deletion mutant suggests that expression and/or proper regulation of LAT is necessary for efficient viral reactivation.
Simulation of geological surfaces using fractals

Methods suggests in the past for simulated ore concentration or pollution concentration over an area of interest, subject to the condition that the simulated surface is passing through specifying points, are based on the assumption of normality. A new method is introduced here which is a generalization of the subdivision method used in fractals. This method is based on the construction of a fractal plane-to-line function f(x, y, R, e, u), where (x, y) is in (a, b) x (c, d), R is the autocorrelation function, e is the resolution limit, and u is a random real function on (-l, l). The simulation using fractals escapes from any distribution assumptions of the data. The given network of points is connected to form quadrilaterals; each one of the quadrilaterals is split based on ways which are extensions of the well-known subdivision method. The quadrilaterals continue to split and grow until resolution obtained in both x and y directions is smaller than a prespecified resolution. If the x coordinate of the ith quadrilateral is in (a/sub i/, b/sub i/) and the y coordinate is in (c/sub i/, d/sub i/), the growth of this quadrilateral is a function of (b/sub i/ - a/submore » i/) and (d/sub i/ - c/sub i/); the quadrilateral could grow toward the positive or negative z axis with equal probability forming four new quadrilaterals having a common vertex.« less
Developments in ultra-high energy accelerators

A great deal of knowledge of the structure of the atomic nucleus has been gleaned during the past 30 years from accelerators yielding particles of energies up to hundreds of millions of electron volts — but many mysteries remain. “Particle physicists” are now investigating the “fundamental particles” using protons or electrons accelerated to energies of billions of electron volts
A note on dimensionless life histories for birds versus mammals

Offspring production over the adult lifespan (b/M whereb is the yearly fledgling or offspring production and 1/M is the mean adult lifespan) is an approximate invariant within both birds and mammals. The two taxa differ, however, in that mammals have bothαM and αb as invariants (b/M = αb/αM) while birds do not (α is the age at first breeding). Birds have a surprising cancellation in that bothαM andαb are ∝α−0.25.
Paths to scaling-up : Alternative strategies for local nongovernmental organizations

This article proposes an initial scientific look at scaling-up, i.e., the process whereby non-governmental organizations (NGOs) increase their impact. It distinguishes four types of scaling-up—quantitative, functional, political and organizational—and discusses the paths organizations can employ to achieve these types. The article constitutes what can be called a "pre-theory:" the development of some clear definitions and taxonomies, which can constitute the basis for scientific investigation and comparative discussion. The conclusion of this article briefly presents two visions for approaching NGO scaling-up in its larger social context.
Constancy of somatomedin response to growth hormone treatment of hypopituitary dwarfism, and lack of correlation with growth rate.

The correlation between acute and chronic somatomedin (SM) response to hGH treatment of hypopituitary dwarfism and the value of SM levels in predicting growth rates were investigated in 20 children with GH deficiency. Plasma samples for SM determinations were obtained before treatment, 12–14 h after each of 4 daily injections of hGH (0.1 U/kg) and after 6 months of hGH (0.1 U/kg 3 times per week). Mean plasma SM-C levels by placental membrane radioreceptor assay rose from 0.39 ± 0.05 U/ml (mean ± SEM) on day 1 to 1.18 ± 0.14 U/ml on day 5 and measured 0.95 ± 0.12 U/ml at 6 months. By RIA, mean plasma SM-C levels rose from 0.19 ± 0.03 U/ml on day 1 to 0.82 ± 0.11 U/ml on day 5 and measured 0.79 ± 0.11 U/ml at 6 months. However, individual SM responses to acute and chronic hGH treatment were highly variable, with 7 children raising SM-C levels above 1 U/ml (RIA) by day 5, while 3 children maintained SM levels less than 0.1 U/ml. The latter 3 had persistently low SM levels at 6 months (<0.20 U/ml), despite g...
Prospective, randomized trial of steroid withdrawal in kidney recipients treated with mycophenolate mofetil and cyclosporine

: Our transplant centre began a prospective, randomized trial of steroid withdrawal in low risk renal transplant recipients on triple immunosuppression consisting of mycophenolate mofetil (MMF), microemulsion cyclosporine (CSA), and prednisone. One hundred and twenty patients were randomized either to discontinue or remain on steroids (60 patients per group). Study design consisted of analyses of 1-yr outcomes after study entry. This report includes the 1-yr results plus results at last follow-up (mean follow-up 3.7 yr). There were no significant differences in rates of patient and graft survival at 1 yr or at last follow-up. Additionally, the incidences of acute and chronic rejection as well as graft function were the same at 1 yr and at last follow-up. Significant improvement was noted in total serum cholesterol and bone density at 1 yr and last follow-up. Initial improvement in patient weight at 1 yr was not sustained at last follow-up. No significant impact of steroid withdrawal on serum triglycerides, blood pressure, or post-transplant diabetes mellitus was observed. To date, we have observed no immunologic risk, and some significant benefit in regards to side effects, of steroid withdrawal between 6 and 36 months after transplantation in low risk renal transplant recipients maintained on prednisone, MMF, and microemulsion CSA. Conclusion: Steroid withdrawal in low risk kidney transplant recipients is safe and ameliorates many of the unwanted sides effects of steroid use.
Possible nosocomial transmission of HIV

Abstract We report an infant with AIDS whose source of HIV is unknown; investigation supported the possibility of patient-to-patient transmission of HIV during medical care.
Aggressive pricing as a source of funding

Abstract The role of aggressive pricing as a source of internal funding is studied. We find that during recessions, excepting the 1990–1 recession, smaller-firm industries reduce markups more than large-firm industries, moreover, markup reductions increase in inventory intensity.
Perceived racism and increased waist-to-hip ratios among African American women: The Uterine Fibroid Study

Purpose Psychosocial stress may be a contributor to the accumulation of body fat in the central abdominal region of the body. Traditional psychosocial stress measures have not addressed racism as a stressor. The purpose of this study was to explore the association of perceptions of and passive coping responses to racism with central adiposity in African Americans women. Methods Four hundred and seventy-six African American women who participated in the Uterine Fibroid Study completed a telephone interview on perceived racism. Participants ranged in age from 35 to 49 years. Socio-demographical variables were collected using mailed questionnaires and telephone interviews. Measures of waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) and body mass index (BMI) were obtained during a clinic visit. Multiple logistic regression analyses controlling for BMI were used to evaluate the associations of WHR with perceived racism and passive emotional coping responses to this stressor. Results Cigarette smokers and older age women were found to have higher WHRs. Passive emotional coping was not related to WHR, but higher perceptions of racism appeared to be protective against a high WHR in this population. However, higher levels of general stress were associated with an increased WHR. Conclusions Although perceived racism was surprisingly found to be protective of increased WHRs, more research is needed to understand the role of this stressor on health.
Timing of coronary recanalization. Paradigms, paradoxes, and pertinence.

In hearts of experimental animals, irreversible myocardial injury occurs when perfusion is interrupted completely for intervals as brief as 20-60 minutes.45 The failure of reperfusion to salvage irreversibly injured tissue has been documented rigorously. For example, Reimer et a14 ligated coronary arteries in dogs for selected intervals and assessed necrosis morphologically. In contrast to the 55% of ischemic myocardium that remained viable when reperfusion was implemented after 40 minutes, less than 17% remained viable when reperfusion was implemented only after 6 hours (Figure 1). Similarly, in dogs with experimentally induced thrombotic coronary artery occlusion and subsequent thrombolysis induced with streptokinase, reperfusion within 2 hours salvaged approximately 50% of jeopardized myocardium as judged from positron emission tomograms.5 In contrast, late reperfusion (implemented after 6 hours) resulted in no significant salvage (Figure 2). Despite the consistency of these results, extrapolation to human hearts is neither straightforward nor necessarily justified. In patients, the impact of thrombotic occlusion will be conditioned by the severity and extent of underlying atherosclerotic coronary artery disease and variable contributions of collateral flow to protection of myocardium.6 In addition, some favorable consequences of reperfusion may depend on mechanisms independent of salvage of jeopardized myocardium, as discussed below. Nevertheless, results of several con-
Repair Kinetics of Amnion Cells after Microsurgical Injury

Objective: There is a paucity of data regarding healing of fetal membranes. We assessed the repairing ability of a microsurgically-injured monolayer of amnion-derived cells compared
Selectivity Aspects in Cross Metathesis Reactions

Abstract When certain catalysts that display a low apparent metathesis activity on terminal olefins are employed on mixtures of terminal and internal olefins, they lead to a selective formation of cross metathesis products. Critical experimentation using deuterated 1-pentene reveals that terminal olefins prefer to scramble “head-to-tail”. A study of the macrocyclics distribution produced at various conversions during 1,5-cycloocta-diene polymerization suggests that these are being formed exclusively via an intramolecular transalkylidenation. The significance of the two sets of results is discussed in terms of two basic mechanistic schemes.
Amphibole compositions and metamorphic history of the Rand Schist and the greenschist unit of the Catalina Schist, Southern California

The Catalina Schist and Rand Schist are two high P/T terranes in southern California. The Catalina Schist is correlated with the Franciscan Complex and occurs in the continental borderland. It consists of a blueschist-facies melange tectonically overlain by a “greenschist” unit, which, in turn, is overthrust by an amphibolite unit. The greenschist unit itself is inversely zoned from epidote-amphibolite fades at the top through greenschist facies in the center to transitional blueschist-greenschist facies at the base. The Rand Schist is part of the eugeoclinal Pelona-Orocopia Schist terrane, which lies interior to the present continental margin, structurally beneath Precambrian to Mesozoic sialic basement. The Rand Schist is inversely zoned from epidote-amphibolite facies to transitional blueschist-greenschist facies, similar to the greenschist unit of the Catalina Schist.
Tunable laser action at 4.0 microns from Fe:ZnSe

The spectroscopic properties of Fe:ZnSe were investigated and 4 micron lasing action was demonstrated for the first time at sub-ambient temperatures. Using an Er:YAG laser as a pump source, the Fe:ZnSe laser produced output energies of 8 µJ/pulse with pulse lengths of 48 µs at a repetition rate of 100 Hz. The output wavelength varied with temperature from 3.98 µm at 14 K to 4.54 µm at 180 K. A slope efficiency of 6.7% at 130 K was obtained.
Severe deficiencies in dopamine signaling in presymptomatic Huntington's disease mice

In Huntington's disease (HD), mutation of huntingtin causes selective neurodegeneration of dopaminoceptive striatal medium spiny neurons. Transgenic HD model mice that express a portion of the disease-causing form of human huntingtin develop a behavioral phenotype that suggests dysfunction of dopaminergic neurotransmission. Here we show that presymtomatic mice have severe deficiencies in dopamine signaling in the striatum. These include selective reductions in total levels of dopamine- and cAMP-regulated phosphoprotein, M(r) 32 kDA (DARPP-32) and other dopamine-regulated phosphoprotein markers of medium spiny neurons. HD mice also show defects in dopamine-regulated ion channels and in the D(1) dopamine/DARPP-32 signaling cascade. These presymptomatic defects may contribute to HD pathology.
COMPOSITION AND SPECTRAL PROPERTIES OF THE 1 AU QUIET-TIME SUPRATHERMAL ION POPULATION DURING SOLAR CYCLE 23

We have surveyed the spectral and compositional properties of suprathermal heavy ions during quiet times from 1995 January 1 to 2007 December 31 using Wind/Energetic Particles: Anisotropy, Composition, and Transport/SupraThermal-through-Energetic Particle Telescope and Advanced Composition Explorer/Ultra-low Energy Isotope Spectrometer at energies between 0.04 and 2.56 MeV nucleon–1. We find the following. (1) Quiet-time Fe/O and C/O abundances are correlated with solar cycle activity, reflecting corresponding values measured in solar energetic particle and interplanetary (IP) shock events during solar maximum, and those measured in the solar wind and corotating interaction regions (CIRs) during solar minimum conditions. (2) The 3He/4He ratio lies in the 3%-8% range during the quiet times of 1998-2004 with finite 3He detected on ~27.4% of the days. This ratio drops to 0.3%-1.2% during 2005-2007 and finite 3He is detected on ~5% of the days. (3) All heavy-ion species exhibit suprathermal tails between 0.04 and 0.32 MeV nucleon–1 with spectral indices ranging from ~1.27 to 2.29. These tails sometimes extend above ~2 MeV nucleon–1 with Fe spectra rolling over at lower energies than those of CNO. (4) The suprathermal tail spectral indices of heavier species (i.e., Fe) are harder than those of the lighter ones (i.e., CNO). These indices do not exhibit a clear solar cycle dependence and for ~50% of the time, they deviate significantly from the 1.5 value. These compositional observations provide evidence that even during the quietest times in IP space, the suprathermal population (3He and C-through-Fe) consists of ions from different sources whose relative contributions vary with solar activity. The heavy-ion energy spectra exhibit suprathermal tails with variable spectral indices that do not exhibit the spectral index of 1.5 predicted by some recent models.
Establishing a community partnership to optimize recruitment of African American pedigrees for a genetic epidemiology study

We developed a breast cancer genetic epidemiology study in collaboration with a community partnership to optimize recruitment and participation of African American women. We recognized that recruitment of relatives for a family-based study was a unique challenge in this minority group in the USA. Through an established partnership with The National Witness Project, we convened focus groups to identify potential recruitment challenges and issues related to decisions about study participation that may be unique to African Americans and family-based recruitment. Using the PEN-3 model, we analyzed qualitative data and applied the thematic findings to our recruitment protocol in order to mitigate potential recruitment challenges. The most relevant positive themes included a need for research and education and potential benefit to future generations. Negative themes included communication barriers in sharing disease status within a family and historical issues such as fatalistic attitudes and shamefulness of cancer. Collaboration with community partners allowed for development of culturally appropriate recruitment strategies for African American breast cancer survivors and their family members for a genetic epidemiology study. Understanding factors unique to family-based recruitment in the USA is a significant factor in enhancing participation of under-represented minorities in future genetic studies.
A confidence-based recommender with adaptive diversity

This paper proposes a new confidence-based Collaborative Filtering (CF) technique, and studies the impact of incorporating an adaptive diversity technique for recommending composite products and services. We are demonstrating the need and value of incorporating multi-criteria ranking in new generation recommender systems to extend their capabilities and provide better quality results. First, a light yet efficient CF technique is presented to learn the preference of the user from history rating data, and then estimate similarity among users based on confidence measure. Second, An adaptive diversity algorithm is introduced. The algorithm is randomized, and iteratively relaxes the selection by the Greedy algorithm, with an exponential probability distribution. Third, we conducted extensive experimental studies on the efficacy of the proposed CF method proposed to compare precision of our ranked recommendations with broadly used CF techniques, we achieved a precision of 90% on average, in addition, the adaptive diversity technique consistently converges to find an optimal or near-optimal solutions on a dataset of 10 million ratings from Movielens.
Synthesis of Potential Phytochemicals: Pyrrolylindolinones and Quinoxaline Derivatives using PEG as an Environmentally Benign Solvent

3-pyrrolylindolines and pyrrolylindeno[1,2-b]quinoxaline derivative, having pyrrole, indole and quinoxaline moieties known for antibacterial, antifungal and antiprotozoal properties, used in agricultural fields as fungicides, herbicides and insecticides, present in hormones responsible for plant growth have been synthesized in good yields, using Polyethylene glycol (PEG-400) which is an effective, inexpensive, non-toxic and an environmentally benign solvent used in drug designing.
Holistic verification: myth or magic bullet?

Development of multi-million gate SoCs/ICs enabled by advances in submicron technology inherit verification complexity due to feature diversity on a single die and thus convergence of multiple design disciplines on one project with time-to-market pressures unchanged. For example, it is not uncommon for SoCs to integrate mixed-signal components, provide power-management features, contain instances of soft as well as hard 3rd party IPs or large building blocks developed in-house and support compliance/compatibility requirements ranging from functional to electrical aspects for various standard-based protocols. Timely and high-confidence verification sign-off for such SoCs/ICs requires a multi-prong strategy defined in this paper as holistic verification. Holistic verification emphasizes a cocktail of verification methodologies designed to address specific verification challenges of a given SoC as well as advocates aspects of verification planning and design-for-verification techniques that aid verification efforts and enhance verification efficiency. Additionally, this paper describes details of verification challenges associated with mixed-signal integration and power management features of SoCs -- two distinctly different design disciplines converging in one project and thus adding growing complexity to verification.
Transformational Superplasticity of Bi2WO6 and Bi2MoO6

Transformational Superplasticity was studied in the compounds Bi2WO6 and Bi2MoO6. The magnitudes of transitional strain are related to the (Tt/TmP), s of the phase transitions and are proportional to the externally applied stresses. Strain-rate sensitivities were similar, 0.85 and 0.86; however, the Bi2WO6 exhibited a strain-axis intercept and the Bi2MoO6 a stress-axis intercept. The grain-size effect present in the Bi2WO6 supports an accommodated grain-boundary sliding mechanism for the superplastic deformation process.
A Measure of the Various Modes of Inbreeding in Kalmia latifolia

Inbreeding can occur in several ways. For a given species, analysing overall inbreeding down to its component parts can be useful in explaining how and why inbreeding is maintained in a population. Kalmia latifolia, a long-lived evergreen shrub, was chosen for this study for two reasons: its unique floral morphology suggested that it was specially adapted to assure reproduction in the delayed mode of self-fertilization, and previous studies had suggested that populations that were more limited by pollinators showed higher rates of within-flower self-fertilization when pollinators were excluded. Floral manipulations, controlled pollinations, and paternity analysis were performed to determine the most common form of inbreeding within a flower, among flowers of one individual, or among related individuals. Although plants are capable of setting seed within a flower, the overall rate of inbreeding was low. Among the modes of inbreeding within one individual, a negligible selfing rate among emasculated flowers suggests that selfing is more prevalent within a flower than among flowers on the same plant. In addition, as the multi-locus estimate of inbreeding was less than the single-locus estimate, inbreeding among related individuals also contributes to the natural level of inbreeding. # 2000 Annals of Botany Company
Genetic insights into the population structure of Culex pipiens (Diptera: Culicidae) in the Northeastern United States by using microsatellite analysis.

Members of the Culex pipiens complex are considered as biting nuisance and vectors of important arbo- viruses including West Nile virus (WNV). To analyze the genetic structure of urban and rural populations of Cx. pipiens form pipiens and gain insights into behavioral implications, mosquitoes were collected from established WNV trans- mission foci in Connecticut from October 2006 through October 2007, examined by using microsatellite markers, and compared with other populations from neighboring states in the northeastern United States. The mean numbers of alleles per locus for the aboveground Cx. pipiens form pipiens populations ranged from 11.5 ± 2.3 to 13.2 ± 2.4 and were not significantly different. In contrast, Cx. pipiens form molestus had greatly reduced allelic diversities with an average of 4.4 ± 1.2 alleles per locus, which was significantly lower than that of an yo f theCx. pipiens form pipiens populations analyzed. We did not detect significant genetic differences between urban and rural populations of Cx. pipiens form pipiens from Connecticut nor did we observe temporal genetic changes. However, in a comparative analysis with populations of neighboring states, New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts, genetic variations associated with geo- graphic distance were identified. In the analyses of Bayesian clustering and principal component analysis, we identified two clusters separating Cx. pipiens form molestus from Cx. pipiens form pipiens populations, indicating that Cx. pipiens form molestus was genetically distinct from any of the Cx. pipiens form pipiens populations examined during this study.
The Emperor's New Body: Personhood, Ontology and the Inka Sovereign

This article engages with current debates in archaeology with respect to matters of ontological difference — particularly in terms of bodies, personhood and the much-contested category of the individual. Drawing on early Spanish historical accounts of the material and bodily practices through which the Inka sovereign was constituted, I argue that although he was certainly not a Cartesian individual, neither was he a kind of fractal or partible person. Contrary to the growing tendency to see non-Western modes of personhood as highly ‘relational’, the Inka emperor was in my view a bounded and tightly delineated entity, albeit one not contiguous with a biological body. In archaeological theory, a growing divide appears to be emerging between relational and individual species of personhood — with the former often ascribed to non-modern societies, and the latter frequently associated with the modern West. I present a critique of this trend and argue for the need to break beyond such binaries — interpreting the Inka emperor as a form of individual that stood outside a nature/society divide and thus still very much incommensurable with Western ontologies of the person.
Protective Pychosocial Factors in Depression Among Spousally Bereaved Elders.

Three psychosocial factors were examined for their ability to reduce depressive symptomatology among a sample of 79 spousally bereaved elders. Baseline assessments of social supports, stability of social rhythms, and mastery events were used in linear and logistic regression analyses to examine their association with: 1) baseline depressive symptomatology, and 2) the likelihood of being or becoming syndromally depressed, or 3) dysthymic from approximately 2 until 13 months after the loss of a spouse. Results indicated that mastery events, global social support, and "appraised" or "belonging" support, in particular, significantly reduced the severity or likelihood of depression but appeared to have no significant effect upon dysthymia.
DO GLOBAL WARMING AND CLIMATE CHANGE REPRESENT A SERIOUS THREAT TO OUR WELFARE AND ENVIRONMENT

I. Introduction The subjects of “global warming” and “climate change” have become parts of both the popular lexicon and the public discourse. Discussions of global warming often evoke passionate responses and fierce debate between adherents to different views of the threat posed. Yet there are many nuances regarding global warming, climate change, and the threats they represent that are not well understood by the public. The public’s conceptual understanding hinges largely on images and paradigms within the popular culture that are often little more than caricatures of the actual, underlying scientific concepts. To appreciate the potential threat that climate change and global warming represent to human society, living things, and our environment, it is necessary that we first understand the true science underlying these phenomena. The purpose of this essay is to assess the implications of climate change for the welfare of human society and our environment. I will first discuss the science underlying global warming, climate change, and the connections between these two phenomena (Section II). I will then explore what climate changes are projected for the future under various plausible scenarios of future human behavior (Section III), and what impacts these changes are likely to have on society, ecosystems, and our environment (Section IV). Finally, I will consider the economic, security, and ethical considerations relevant to evaluating the threat of climate change (Section V) and the steps that should arguably be taken to mitigate climate change and its impacts (Section VI). I will summarize my conclusions Section VII.
Paper and toner three-dimensional fluidic devices: programming fluid flow to improve point-of-care diagnostics

We present a new method for fabricating three-dimensional paper-based fluidic devices that uses toner as a thermal adhesive to bond multiple layers of patterned paper together. The fabrication process is rapid, involves minimal equipment (a laser printer and a laminator) and produces complex channel networks with dimensions down to 1 mm. The devices can run multiple diagnostic assays on one or more samples simultaneously, can incorporate positive and negative controls and can be programmed to display the results of the assays in a variety of patterns. The patterns of the results can encode information, which could be used to identify counterfeit devices, identify samples, encrypt the results for patient privacy or monitor patient compliance.
Local effects of horizontal and vertical sound fields on natural convection from a horizontal cylinder

Abstract Experiments were made with a heated horizontal circular cylinder subjected to transverse horizontal and vertical standing sound fields, and supported at a velocity antinode. Shadowgraphs of the air around the cylinder are presented for sound fields having frequencies of about 710 and 1470 Hz, with closely-spaced intervals of intensity. The observations confirm the local changes in boundary layer thickness and heat transfer indicated in previous work, and provide new evidence of the progressive splitting of the rising plume with a horizontal sound field and the development of a reverse-flow bubble at the bottom of a cylinder in a vertical sound field; the latter flow pattern has previously been predicted by analysis. The local changes are in general agreement with the trends predicted by boundary-layer theory.
DotSlash: handling Web hotspots at dynamic content Web sites

We propose DotSlash, a self-configuring and scalable rescue system, for handling web hotspots at dynamic content Web sites. To support load migration for dynamic content, an origin Web server sets up needed rescue servers drafted from other Web sites on the fly, and those rescue servers retrieve the scripts dynamically from the origin Web server, cache the scripts locally, and access the corresponding database server directly. We have implemented a prototype of DotSlash for the LAMP configuration, and tested our implementation using the RUBBoS bulletin board benchmark. Experiments show that by using DotSlash a dynamic content web site can completely remove its web server bottleneck, and can support a request rate constrained only by the capacity of its database server.
Depression and Everyday Social Activity, Belonging, and Well-Being.

Dysfunctional social behavior has been implicated in the experience of depression. People with higher levels of depressive symptoms report more frequent negative social interactions and react more strongly to them. It remains unknown, however, whether reaction strength differs depending on whether social interactions are positive or negative. Drawing on socioevolutionary models of depression (N. B. Allen & P. B. T. Badcock, 2003), the authors propose that people with higher levels of depressive symptoms should react more strongly not only to negative social interactions but also to positive social interactions and a sense of belonging. Using nonclinical samples, 2 daily process studies examined the role of depression in people’s reactivity to social interactions in natural, ongoing, social contexts. In Study 1, the number of positive and negative social events showed a stronger relation to well-being among people with higher levels of depressive symptoms. Study 2 extended this finding to perceptions of belonging in memorable social interactions, finding a stronger link between belonging and well-being among people with higher levels of depressive symptoms. Together these studies provide the first indication that depressive symptoms may sensitize people to everyday experiences of both social rejection and social acceptance.
Scaling of the PARSEC benchmark inputs

A good benchmark suite should provide users with inputs that have multiple levels of fidelity. We present a framework that takes the novel view that benchmark inputs should be considered approximations of their original, full-sized inputs. The paper demonstrates how to use the proposed methodology to create several simulation input sets for the PARSEC benchmarks and how to quantify and measure their approximation error. We offer guidelines that PARSEC users can use to choose suitable simulation inputs for their scientific studies in a way that maximizes the accuracy of the simulation subject to a time constraint.
Axonal mitochondrial transport and potential are correlated.

Disruption of axonal transport leads to a disorganized distribution of mitochondria and other organelles and is thought to be responsible for some types of neuronal disease. The reason for bidirectional transport of mitochondria is unknown. We have developed and applied a set of statistical methods and found that axonal mitochondria are uniformly distributed. Analysis of fast axonal transport showed that the uniform distribution arose from the clustering of the stopping events of fast axonal transport in the middle of the gaps between stationary mitochondria. To test whether transport was correlated with ATP production, we added metabolic inhibitors locally by micropipette. Whereas applying CCCP (a mitochondrial uncoupler) blocked mitochondrial transport, as has been previously reported, treatment with antimycin (an inhibitor of electron transport at complex III) caused increases in retrograde mitochondrial transport. Application of 2-deoxyglucose did not decrease transport compared with the mannitol control. To determine whether mitochondrial transport was correlated with mitochondrial potential, we stained the neurons with the mitochondrial potential-sensing dye JC-1. We found that ∼90% of mitochondria with high potential were transported towards the growth cone and ∼80% of mitochondria with low potential were transported towards the cell body. These experiments show for the first time that a uniform mitochondrial distribution is generated by local regulation of the stopping events of fast mitochondrial transport, and that the direction of mitochondrial transport is correlated with mitochondrial potential. These results have implications for axonal clogging, autophagy, apoptosis and Alzheimer9s disease.
Creating interactive learning objects with PowerPoint: Primer for lecture on the autonomic nervous system

Background: In medical curricula, difficult topics are often presented to students with varied backgrounds and therefore at different levels of preparation to learn and assimilate the information.Aim: A method is described to create an interactive primer for the study of a basic neuroscience topic to improve student preparation for and understanding of the autonomic nervous system.Methods: Action buttons or links within a PowerPoint show were used to create an interactive show. Branch points were imposed, as students answered questions correctly or incorrectly. In this way, the learning path was individualized depending on the level of comprehension.Results: Response to the interactive learning objects has been favorably received by the students with very favorable scores on the end-of-course evaluation. Preliminary analysis of the benefit of the interactive primer on summative examination suggests modest improvement on more difficult questions.Conclusions: Use of the primer on the autonomic nervous syste...
The medical care programs of the Farm Security Administration, 1932 through 1947: a rehearsal for national health insurance?

At a time of renewed interest in universal health insurance, an examination of earlier periods when society grappled with the link between socioeconomic status and health is fruitful. Between 1935 and 1947, the federal government sponsored a comprehensive medical care program for low-income farmers, sharecroppers, and migrant workers under the auspices of the Farm Security Administration (FSA). Despite the strong opposition of the American Medical Association, humanitarian and economic concerns at the local level often promoted physicians' participation in the program's group prepayment plans. Many FSA leaders clearly saw the program as a model upon which national health insurance might advance. However, in the wake of World War II, the FSA program declined as physicians' income improved, the rural population declined, and traditional ideological objections to federal intervention in medical care resurfaced. The FSA experience illuminates the complex ideological, economic, and humanitarian motivations of ...
Active Computerized Pharmacovigilance Using Natural Language Processing, Statistics, and Electronic Health Records: A Feasibility Study

OBJECTIVE It is vital to detect the full safety profile of a drug throughout its market life. Current pharmacovigilance systems still have substantial limitations, however. The objective of our work is to demonstrate the feasibility of using natural language processing (NLP), the comprehensive Electronic Health Record (EHR), and association statistics for pharmacovigilance purposes. DESIGN Narrative discharge summaries were collected from the Clinical Information System at New York Presbyterian Hospital (NYPH). MedLEE, an NLP system, was applied to the collection to identify medication events and entities which could be potential adverse drug events (ADEs). Co-occurrence statistics with adjusted volume tests were used to detect associations between the two types of entities, to calculate the strengths of the associations, and to determine their cutoff thresholds. Seven drugs/drug classes (ibuprofen, morphine, warfarin, bupropion, paroxetine, rosiglitazone, ACE inhibitors) with known ADEs were selected to evaluate the system. RESULTS One hundred thirty-two potential ADEs were found to be associated with the 7 drugs. Overall recall and precision were 0.75 and 0.31 for known ADEs respectively. Importantly, qualitative evaluation using historic roll back design suggested that novel ADEs could be detected using our system. CONCLUSIONS This study provides a framework for the development of active, high-throughput and prospective systems which could potentially unveil drug safety profiles throughout their entire market life. Our results demonstrate that the framework is feasible although there are some challenging issues. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study using comprehensive unstructured data from the EHR for pharmacovigilance.
Draft Genome Sequence of Microvirga sp. Strain BSC39, Isolated from Biological Soil Crust of Moab, Utah.

Massilia sp. BSC265 was isolated from a biological soil crust near Moab, Utah. The strain appears to be capable of chemotaxis and exopolysaccharide synthesis for biofilm adhesion. The BSC265 genome contains a complete dissimilatory nitrate reduction pathway as well as a TCA cycle, making it a facultative anaerobe.
Differences in the effectiveness of optic uncrossed fiber systems in albino and hooded rats

Pattern discrimination performances were evaluated in albino and hooded rats surgically limited to uncrossed optic fiber systems. These pathways proved far less effective in albino than in hooded rats, thus providing a partial explanation of the marked differences in interocular transfer exhibited by the two strains.
Triage protein fold prediction

We have constructed, in a completely automated fashion, a new structure template library for threading that represents 358 distinct SCOP folds where each model is mathematically represented as a Hidden Markov model (HMM). Because the large number of models in the library can potentially dilute the prediction measure, a new triage method for fold prediction is employed. In the first step of the triage method, the most probable structural class is predicted using a set of manually constructed, high-level, generalized structural HMMs that represent seven general protein structural classes: all-α, all-β, α/β, α+β, irregular small metal-binding, transmembrane β-barrel, and transmembrane α-helical. In the second step, only those fold models belonging to the determined structural class are selected for the final fold prediction. This triage method gave more predictions as well as more correct predictions compared with a simple prediction method that lacks the initial classification step. Two different schemes of assigning Bayesian model priors are presented and discussed. Proteins 2002;48:654–663. © 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
VEHICLE-FOLLOWER CONTROL WITH VARIABLE-GAINS FOR SHORT-HEADWAY AUTOMATED GUIDEWAY TRANSIT SYSTEMS

The use of the vehicle-follower approach for the longitudinal control of vehicles in an automated transit system is discussed for the short headway (0.4 to 3.0 s) range of operation. It is shown, if one adopts a constant gain approach, that the required bandwidth of such controllers increases rapidly with a decrease in nominal headway if safe operation is to be assured. Initial conditions typically encountered during merge and overtake maneuvers can cause unacceptably large jerk and acceleration levels if applied to such constant gain controllers. A candidate for overcoming these problems is a control technique which first employs gains appropriate to the initial conditions and then varys the gains to achieve the desired values as controller errors are reduced. Under nominal operating conditions, this time-varying gain approach is also demonstrated to satisfy performance requirements based upon the kinematics of ride quality constraints.
Market-based control mechanisms for electric power demand response

We propose a settlement mechanism for optimally scheduling real time electricity consumption which is suitable for an automated demand response control system. Our proposed settlement mechanism, supply function bidding, is interpreted as a Newton algorithm for optimization problems with decomposable structure, and it is shown to satisfy the second fundamental theorem of welfare economics for the case of affine supply function bids. We simulate the behavior of our proposed control mechanism for the case of demand response via home temperature control, and we demonstrate how a suboptimal control policy can have adverse impacts both in terms of system performance and also in terms of economic incentives.
Intermediates in extrachromosomal homologous recombination in Xenopus laevis oocytes : characterization by electron microscopy

Abstract Several molecular mechanisms have been proposed to account for nonconservative homologous recombination. This type of recombination is particularly efficient in Xenopus oocytes when appropriate DNA substrates are injected. To distinguish between possible models, we have investigated recombination intermediates from oocytes by direct observation in the electron microscope. Partially recombined DNA was crosslinked with a psoralen derivative after incubation in oocytes to limit the branch migration that might occur during recovery procedures and alter the structures that were initially present. Branched structures, which we interpret as intermediates, represented approximately 10% of the DNA recovered and were readily analyzed. We did not observe any structures with internal loops predicted by invasion mechanisms. The majority of intermediates had one or two single-stranded branches on product-sized molecules, as predicted for incomplete junctions in the resection-annealing mechanism. Detailed length measurements confirmed the expectations of that model. When recovered DNA was not crosslinked, or when annealed junctions were prepared in vitro, we saw branched structures that indicated the occurrence of extensive branch migration. Comparison with the crosslinked sample confirmed the effectiveness of the crosslinking in preserving structures created in the oocytes. Our results strongly support a resection-annealing mechanism of recombination in oocytes.
Visualcasting---scalable real-time image distribution in ultra-high resolution display environments

Visualization has proven its value in scientific advances by helping scientists gain insight from their data and verify scientific computations. The amount of scientific data collected from sensors and simulations can easily be on the order of petabytes of data. Visualization of this large-cale data requires cluster computing, and more often than not distributed computing over high-speed networks, as the size of the data exceeds the capacity of the average computing clusters, and the data may not even reside locally. To view visualizations of large-scale data at or near native resolution, scalable tiled display walls are increasingly being used for scientific visualization. In this context, the Scalable Adaptive Graphics Environment (SAGE) has been developed to support large-scale data visualization in a distributed visualization environment that includes ultra-high resolution scalable tiled displays. It is a specialized middleware that enables real-time streaming of extremely high-resolution graphics and high-definition video from remotely distributed rendering and storage clusters to scalable display walls over ultra high-speed networks. This dissertation extends SAGE to support distant collaboration between multiple endpoints. In the SAGE framework, each visualization application streams its rendered pixels to the virtual high-resolution frame buffer of SAGE, allowing users to freely move, resize and overlap the application windows on the display. Every window movement or resize operation requires dynamic and non-trivial reconfigurations of the involved graphies streams. These reconfigurations become even more complex when SAGE is required to support multiple collaboration endpoints with different tiled display configurations and application window layouts. Visualcasting is a new SAGE network service to address this problem using a high-speed bridging system that receives pixel streams from rendering clusters and that duplicates and sends them to each end-point. This enables distant collaboration among international researchers in scalable display environments. Using the Visualcasting service, collaborators can share their visualizations and interact with each other through high-definition video conferencing in the SAGE Framework.