cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The Amorites and the Bronze Age Near East: The Making of a Regional Identity

In this book, Aaron A. Burke explores the evolution of Amorite identity in the Near East from ca. 2500–1500 BC. He sets the emergence of a collective identity for the Amorites, one of the most famous groups in Ancient Near Eastern history, against the backdrop of both Akkadian imperial intervention and declining environmental conditions during this period. Tracing the migration of Amorite refugees from agropastoral communities into nearby regions, he shows how mercenarism in both Mesopotamia and Egypt played a central role in the acquisition of economic and political power between 2100 and 1900 BC. Burke also examines how the establishment of Amorite kingdoms throughout the Near East relied on traditional means of legitimation, and how trade, warfare, and the exchange of personnel contributed to the establishment of an Amorite koine. Offering a fresh approach to identity at different levels of social hierarchy over time and space, this volume contributes to broader questions related to identity for other ancient societies.
Effects Assessment for Requirements Faults of Safety Critical Software in Nuclear Industry

In a context where software has been pervasive in safety critical applications, trust in software safety is challenged by software complexity and lack of systematic methods to assess the effects of remaining faults. To expand the use of digital technology in the nuclear industry, systematic methods are required to assess the effects of remaining faults for software-based Instrumentation & Control (I& C) systems in safety critical applications. In this paper, the effects of the remaining requirements faults are assessed using a probability density function (PDF) of their hazard rates. A hazard-based effect analysis (HEA) method is developed to obtain the probability distribution of the hazard rates of a remaining requirements fault. The HEA method is applied to a Reactor Protection System (RPS) in the case study. The probability density functions for the introduced faults, detected faults and remaining faults in the requirements phase of the RPS system on the domain of hazard degree are obtained.
Do Country-level Investor Protections Affect Security-level Contract Design? Evidence from Foreign Bond Covenants

This article studies the ability of security-level contracts to substitute for poor country-level investor protections. Using a cross-country sample of restrictive covenants, we find that bond contacts are more likely to include covenants when creditor protection laws are weak. Further, the use of restrictive covenants in weak creditor protection countries is associated with a lower cost of debt. We also find that strong country-level shareholder rights are not necessarily harmful to bondholders. Overall, the findings suggest that issuers and investors can create international contracts that overcome some of the deficiencies of country-level investor protections and facilitate access to external finance. The Author 2011. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Society for Financial Studies. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com., Oxford University Press.
Interpersonal Trauma in the Lives of Nurses and Perceptions of Nursing Work

The purpose of this study was to explore associations between trauma experiences among nurses and nursing perceptions of risk for involuntary job loss and standing in society. This observational study used 2001 data from the Nurses' Health Study II (N = 53,323 female nurses). The outcome variables were nurses' perceptions of their risk for involuntary job loss and their social standing in the United States and within their own community. The exposure variables were childhood and adulthood interpersonal trauma. Nurses reported high levels of emotional (60% childhood; 44% adulthood), physical (45% childhood, 23% adulthood), and sexual trauma (15% childhood, 11% adulthood). Emotional trauma was associated with perception of higher risk for involuntary job loss, but also higher perception of nurse societal standing. Nurses experience high rates of interpersonal trauma, which may influence how they perceive their profession.
Combining First and Second-Tier Newborn Screening in a Single Assay Using High-Throughput Chip-Based Capillary Electrophoresis Coupled to High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry.

BACKGROUND Most first-tier newborn screening (NBS) biomarkers are evaluated by a 2-min flow injection analysis coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (FIA-MS/MS) assay. The absence of separation prior to MS/MS analysis can lead to false positives and inconclusive results due to interferences by nominal isobars and isomers. Therefore, many presumptive positive specimens require confirmation by a higher specificity second-tier assay employing separations, which require additional time and resources prior to patient follow-up. METHODS A 3.2-mm punch was taken from dried blood spot (DBS) specimens and extracted using a solution containing isotopically labeled internal standards for quantification. Analyses were carried out in positive mode using a commercially available microfluidic capillary electrophoresis (CE) system coupled to a high-resolution mass spectrometer (HRMS). RESULTS The CE-HRMS platform quantified 35 first- and second-tier biomarkers from a single injection in <2-min acquisition time, thus, successfully multiplexing first- and second-tier NBS for over 20 disorders in a single DBS punch. The CE-HRMS platform resolved problematic isobars and isomers that affect first-tier FIA-MS/MS assay specificity, while achieving similar quantitative results and assay linearity. CONCLUSIONS Our CE-HRMS assay is capable of multiplexing first- and second-tier NBS biomarkers into a single assay with an acquisition time of <2 min. Such an assay would reduce the volume of false positives and inconclusive specimens flagged for second-tier screening.
Conduction abnormalities and role of cardiac pacing in cardiac amyloidosis: A systematic review.

Cardiac amyloidosis (CA) is an increasingly recognized cause of heart failure, characterized by extracellular deposition of insoluble protein fibrils leading to progressive myocardial dysfunction. The most common types of cardiac amyloidosis are immunoglobin light-chain (AL) and transthyretin (ATTR). Conduction abnormalities are commonly encountered among patients with cardiac amyloidosis and are an important cause of morbidity and mortality. Abnormalities range from infra-Hisian intraventricular conduction delay and bundle branch block to complete atrioventricular block. Pacemaker placement in CA patients follows established guidelines, similar to those for patients without CA, with generally good efficacy. The role and appropriate timing of pacemakers for primary prevention of brady-arrhythmias in CA remains uncertain. While biventricular (BiV) pacing has been shown to improve clinical outcomes in patients with systolic heart failure without CA, there are few data examining the utility of BiV pacing in patients with CA. With the advent of effective treatments for AL and ATTR, appropriate application of pacing is important to support patients with CA and conduction disease through therapeutic trials. This systematic review summarizes the current literature examining the utility of pacing in CA. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
The hepatitis B virus polymerase.

Abstract Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a hepatotropic, partially double-stranded DNA virus that replicates by reverse transcription and is a major cause of chronic liver disease and hepatocellular carcinoma. Reverse transcription is catalyzed by the four-domain multifunctional HBV polymerase (P) protein that has protein-priming, RNA- and DNA-dependent DNA synthesis (i.e., reverse transcriptase), and ribonuclease H activities. P also likely promotes the three strand transfers that occur during reverse transcription, and it may participate in immune evasion by HBV. Reverse transcription is primed by a tyrosine residue in the amino-terminal domain of P, and P remains covalently attached to the product DNA throughout reverse transcription. The reverse transcriptase activity of P is the target for the nucleos(t)ide analog drugs that dominate HBV treatment, and P is the target of ongoing efforts to develop new drugs against both the reverse transcriptase and ribonuclease H activities. Despite the unusual reverse transcription pathway catalyzed by P and the importance of P to HBV therapy, understanding the enzymology and structure of HBV P severely lags that of the retroviral reverse transcriptases due to substantial technical challenges to studying the enzyme. Obtaining a better understanding of P will broaden our appreciation of the diversity among reverse transcribing elements in nature, and will help improve treatment for people chronically infected with HBV.
An evaluation of resonant scanning as a high-speed imaging technique for two-photon imaging of cortical vasculature

We demonstrate a simple, low-cost two-photon microscope design with both galvo-galvo and resonant-galvo scanning capabilities. We quantify and compare the signal-to-noise ratios and imaging speeds of the galvo-galvo and resonant-galvo scanning modes when used for murine neurovascular imaging. The two scanning modes perform as expected under shot-noise limited detection and are found to achieve comparable signal-to-noise ratios. Resonant-galvo scanning is capable of reaching desired signal-to-noise ratios using less acquisition time when higher excitation power can be used. Given equal excitation power and total pixel dwell time between the two methods, galvo-galvo scanning outperforms resonant-galvo scanning in image quality when detection deviates from being shot-noise limited.
Invariant Recognition Predicts Tuning of Neurons in Sensory Cortex

Tuning properties of simple cells in cortical V1 can be described in terms of a “universal shape” characterized quantitatively by parameter values which hold across different species (Jones and Palmer 1987; Ringach 2002; Niell and Stryker 2008). This puzzling set of findings begs for a general explanation grounded on an evolutionarily important computational function of the visual cortex. We show here that these properties are quantitatively predicted by the hypothesis that the goal of the ventral stream is to compute for each image a “signature” vector which is invariant to geometric transformations (Anselmi et al. 2013b). The mechanism for continuously learning and maintaining invariance may be the memory storage of a sequence of neural images of a few (arbitrary) objects via Hebbian synapses, while undergoing transformations such as translation, scale changes and rotation. For V1 simple cells this hypothesis implies that the tuning of neurons converges to the eigenvectors of the covariance of their input. Starting with a set of dendritic fields spanning a range of sizes, we show with simulations suggested by a direct analysis, that the solution of the associated “cortical equation” effectively provides a set of Gabor-like shapes with parameter values that quantitatively agree with the physiology data. The same theory provides predictions about the tuning of cells in V4 and in the face patch AL (Leibo et al. 2013a) which are in qualitative agreement with physiology data.
Time and memory.

Standard animal memory tasks require judgments of event recency: Delayed matching to sample (DMTS) requires that the animal identify the stimulus seen most recently; radial-maze-type (RM) tasks require that the animal identify the place visited least recently. Delayed-reaction tasks are intermediate. I argue that time discrimination (temporal control) and event memory call on the same processes: Proactive and retroactive effects occur in both, brief events have less effect than protracted events, and increases in event duration have smaller and smaller effects. If the "ages" of past events are represented by animals in a way consistent with Weber's and Jost's laws, and if there is a limit to the number of different recencies that can be discriminated, then the major differences between these three types of memory task can be explained. DMTS performance is poor because the animal must discriminate between two sets of recencies (memory arrays) that differ only in respect of the most recent event; RM performance is good because the recencies of places visited on the current versus earlier trials are always clearly discriminable.
Superconducting magnets in high radiation environments: Design problems and solutions

As part of the Stanford Linear Collider Project, three high-field superconducting solenoid magnets are used to rotate the spin direction of a polarized electron beam. The magnets are installed in a highradiation environment, where they will receive a dose of approximately 103 rad per hour, or 108 rad over their lifetimes. This level of radiation and the location in which the magnets are installed, some 10 meters below ground in contiguous tunnels, required careful selection of materials for the construction of the solenoids and their ancillary cryogenic equipment, as well as the development of compatible component designs. This paper describes the materials used and the design of the equipment appropriate for the application. Included are summaries of the physical and mechanical properties of the materials and how they behave when irradiated.
Quantitative aspects of an in vitro virus-induced toxic reaction

Abstract Addition of large amounts of Newcastle disease virus to monolayers of L cells resulted in a nontransmissible cytopathic effect. Virus inactivated by prolonged incubation at 37°, ultraviolet irradiation, or specific immune serum failed to elicit this reaction. The relationship between Newcastle disease virus and L cells was characterized by the synthesis of large amounts of noninfectious hemagglutinin. In contrast to this, only an extremely limited synthesis of infectious virus occurred. It could be demonstrated that only 10–20% of the infected cell population produced plaque-forming particles, each “yielder” synthesizing from 2 to 3 infectious particles. The cytotoxic effect did not appear to be dependent upon a high multiplicity of infection. The available evidence indicated that the adsorption by a cell of a single infectious particle was sufficient to result in a loss of cellular integrity.
Picking the Correct Argument

This article on trial tactics suggests that probably no rule of thumb is more important to a trial lawyer than this: You need only one good theory of admissibility or objection to win a point, and in many instances the key is to pick the winner and avoid the losers. The rule is easy to state and widely acknowledged. It is more difficult, however, to apply than to acknowledge. A related rule is that a lawyer who has a powerful, potentially winning argument, may ultimately lose if that argument is lost in a flurry of less persuasive arguments.
Pneumocystis carinii Pneumonia: Differences in Lung Parasite Number and Inflammation in Patients with and without AIDS

Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia has emerged as a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised patients with and without AIDS. To determine differences in P. carinii pneumonia in patients with and without AIDS, the P. carinii parasite numbers, lung inflammatory cell populations, gas exchange, and survival were assessed in a series of 75 consecutive patients with P. carinii pneumonia. Bronchoalveolar lavage was used to quantify the parasite and inflammatory cell numbers in these patients. The data from this study indicate: (1) patients with P. carinii pneumonia and AIDS have significantly greater numbers of P. carinii per ml of lavage compared to other immunocompromised patients with P. carinii pneumonia (p < 0.0001); (2) patients with P. carinii pneumonia and AIDS also have significantly fewer neutrophils recovered in the lavage compared to other immunocompromised patients with P. carinii pneumonia (p = 0.0001); (3) patients with AIDS and P. carinii pneumonia have higher arterial oxygen...
Different houses: the distribution of earmarks in the U.S. House and Senate

Nearly all studies of pork-barrel politics in the U.S. Congress focus on the House, biasing our conception of how politics influences federal spending and skewing our attention toward factors that are active in the House. This article highlights differences between the Senate and House in how pork is allocated. We identify four important differences between the House and Senate, generate hypotheses regarding how each difference should influence the distribution of pork projects, and test these hypotheses using data from earmarks in the Appropriations bills passed by the two chambers for fiscal year 2008. The results support three of our four hypotheses, suggesting that senators are driven by different motivations than House members. These results imply that theoretical accounts of pork-barrel spending need to account for these interchamber differences. Our findings also highlight how studies of legislative behavior, more generally, need to account for important differences in legislative structure and organization.
North by Northeast: toward an Asian-Arctic region

Though the Arctic Council accepted China, Japan, and South Korea as observers in May 2013, the multilateral organization’s permanent member states continue to treat them as non-Arctic outsiders due to their lack of territory north of the Arctic Circle. Applying geographic perspectives that consider the importance of territory and proximity on the one hand and relations and networks on the other, the author argues for a reconceptualization of the Arctic region extending beyond the Arctic Circle. After presenting an overview of the Arctic’s long-standing economic integration with disparate parts of the globe, the author examines the bilateral economic cooperation occurring between countries in Northeast Asia and the eight countries with territory north of the Arctic Circle. Special attention is paid to the ports, or gateways and pivots, linking resources in the North Pacific and wider Arctic region to destinations in Northeast Asia. Importantly, the shipping lanes of the Northern Sea Route and the North Pac...
Tracers of oppurtunity and pollutant transport in Southern California

Abstract The Greater Los Angeles Distant Impact Study is an ongoing program to investigate the fate of urban pollutants in the southwestern United States. As an initial phase of this program the source strengths of halocarbon emissions in the Los Angeles Basin were investigated. These inert compounds, emitted in large quantities by various industrial and commercial activities, offer an oppurtunity to routinely trace polluted air leaving the Basin. Results show widespread emissions of halocarbons with two areas of peak concentrations found in the western part of the Basin; however, the distribution of pollutants leaving the Basin indicates that considerable mixing has taken place. Diurnal halocarbon concentrations peak during the late evening at the eastern end of the Basin due to the prevailing westerly winds. Pollutants are transported out of the Basin in discrete episodes of about 14 h duration with the highest concentrations lasting for about 6 h. Surface and upper air meteorological measurements were used to determine the dynamic and thermodynamic structure of air leaving the Basin. Under the prevailing conditions of strong onshore flow, pollutants were transported out of the Basin in a shallow surface layer; above this, the flow reversed in a deep well-mixed layer containing elevated pollutant concentrations. This layer was capped by the planetary boundary layer inversion. Halocarbons appear to be very useful tracers of urban air in the southwestern United States.
Adaptation in Convolutionally Coded MIMO-OFDM Wireless Systems Through Supervised Learning and SNR Ordering

Multiple-input-multiple-output orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM) wireless systems use link adaptation to exploit the dynamic nature of wireless environments. Link adaptation maximizes throughput while maintaining target reliability by adaptively selecting the modulation order and coding rate. Link adaptation is extremely challenging, however, due to the difficulty in predicting error rates in OFDM with binary convolutional codes, bit interleaving, MIMO processing, and real channel impairments. This paper proposes a new machine-learning framework that exploits past observations of the error rate and the associated channel-state information to predict the best modulation order and coding rate for new realizations of the channel state without modeling the input-output relationship of the wireless transceiver. Our approach is enabled through our new error-rate expression that is only parameterized by postprocessing signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs), ordered over subcarriers and spatial streams. Using ordered SNRs, we propose a low-dimensional feature set that enables machine learning to increase the accuracy of link adaptation. An IEEE 802.11n simulation study validates the application of this machine-learning framework in real channels and demonstrates the improved performance of SNR ordering as it compares with competing link-quality metrics.
Proactive vehicle routing with inferred demand to solve the bikesharing rebalancing problem

Bikesharing suffers from the effects of fluctuating demand that leads to system inefficiencies. We propose a framework to solve the dynamic bikesharing repositioning problem based on four core models: a demand forecasting model, a station inventory model, a redistribution needs model, and a vehicle-routing model. The approach is proactive instead of reactive, as bike repositioning occurs before inefficiencies are observed. The framework is tested using data from the Hubway Bikesharing system. Simulation results indicate that system performance improvements of 7% are achieved reducing the number of empty and full events by 57% and 76%, respectively, during PM peaks.
Air shear driven flow of thin perfluoropolyether polymer films

We have studied the wind driven movement of thin perfluoropolyether (PFPE) polymer films on silicon wafers and CNx overcoats using the blow-off technique. The ease with which a liquid polymer film moves across a surface when sheared is described by a shear mobility χS, which can be interpreted both in terms of continuum flow and in terms of wind driven diffusion. Generally, we find that the movement of PFPE films can be described as a flow process with an effective viscosity, even when the film thickness is smaller than the polymer’s diameter of gyration. Only in the special case of sparse coverage of a polymer with neutral end groups is the motion better described by a wind driven diffusion process. The addition of alcohol end groups to the PFPE polymer chain results in strong interactions with the substrate, creating a restricted layer having an effective viscosity an order of magnitude larger than the mobile layer that sits on top of the restricted layer.
Engaged Humanities: moral work in the precincts of medicine

The medical humanities emerged in the late 1960s in response to shared concerns among a group of hospital chaplains, academic clinicians, and moral theologians and philosophers about the growing power of a technological imperative and a perceived trend toward depersonalization in medicine. Gathering themselves originally under the rubric of "health and human values," these reformers launched a new field of intellectual work and practice reminiscent of the revival of liberal learning spawned by the Renaissance humanists, who endeavored to link humanistic ideals to professional practice in the workaday world of their time. The task of appropriating and adapting the studia humanitatis to our time and circumstances is crucial to defining the evolving identity of the medical humanities field.
Comparison of three face recognition algorithms

Face recognition has received a lot of attention in biometrics and computer vision. A lot of face recognition algorithms have been developed during the past decades. This paper reviews three classical methods Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA), and Elastic Bunch Graph Matching (EBGM). Three algorithms are implemented with Matlab. The algorithm performance is evaluated on three different databases. Scenarios and performance benchmarking are compared for each of the algorithms in terms of recognition accuracy, computational cost, and recognition tolerance.
Improved survival in patients with AIDS, Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, and severe respiratory failure.

Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) causing acute respiratory failure (ARF) in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) has been reported in several studies to have a mortality of 84 to 100 percent. A recent report found a 42 percent survival rate. We followed 58 patients with AIDS who required positive pressure ventilation and identified 33 patients with PCP and ARF who had a PaO1/FIo2 level
Evaluating desktop video conferencing for distance learning

Abstract Distance learning applications can now make use of networked computers to transmit and display video, audio, and graphics. However, desktop video conferencing systems (DVC) often display degraded images due to bandwidth restrictions and computer processing limitations. The literature on the influence of video parameters such as frame rate and resolution with respect to subjective opinions and human performance is sparse. A two-part study involving a controlled laboratory experiment and a field study evaluation was conducted on technical parameters affecting the suitability of DVC for distance learning. In the laboratory study, three frame rate conditions (1, 6, and 30 frames per second), two resolution conditions (160 × 120 and 320 × 240), and three communication channel conditions were manipulated. Dependent measures included performance on a quiz and subjective satisfaction with the image quality. Results suggest that quiz performance does not suffer under reduced video quality conditions, but subjective satisfaction significantly decreases. The field study employed similar dependent measures and indicates that students in real classroom situations may be less critical of poor video quality than in laboratory settings and confirms the results from the laboratory study in that performance does not suffer. However, the current state-of-the-art of video conferencing technology needs to be improved and configured most effectively to support college teaching at a distance. Guidelines for implementing and using DVC systems in distance learning applications are provided.
The quantitative analysis of sugars in plant extracts by ion-exchange chromatography.

Abstract The ion-exchange chromatography method of Khym and Zill (3) for separating sugars was applied to the analysis of plant sugar extracts. Essentially quantitative results were obtained both for plant extracts and recovery experiments. The method appears to be especially suitable for the quantitative analysis of sugar mixtures of considerable complexity. Results are given for the analysis of plant samples containing sucrose, raffinose, stachyose, glucose, galactose, and fructose.
Organizational performance under conditions of vulnerability: A multi-agent perspective

We develop a multi-agent system based on computational organization theory to analyze the effect of vulnerability on organizational performance. Agents within the organization are modeled as information processing units, while links between agents represent the communication network along which commands or instructions are transmitted. The vulnerability of an organization is defined in terms of the ability of the organization to accomplish tasks when the agent or communication link fails. We demonstrate the utility of this framework by comparing the performance of four classic forms of organizational structure, and propose a hybrid structure that maximizes flexibility in the face of a rapidly changing environment. It is the ability of information technology to support this flexibility, we suggest, that will allow future organizational forms to gain a competitive advantage.
493 EFFECTS OF HUMAN PANCREATIC GROWTH HORMONE RELEASING HORMONE (HPGRH) ON GROWTH HORMONE (GH) SECRETION IN PREGNANT AND FETAL RATS

Pregnant Holtzman rats were studied at 19 and 20 days gestation. Animals were anesthetized at -30 min with pentobarbitol 60 mg/kg IP. 5 ug HPGRH 1–44 or normal saline was administered IV at 0 min. Blood for maternal GH measurement was obtained via cardiac puncture at 0 min and following decapitation at 11 min. Fetuses were removed by C-section between 7 and 11 min and cardiac blood from littermates pooled for a single fetal GH determination. *x±SD **ng/ml Mean maternal GH levels rose significantly (p < 0.005) in animals receiving HPGRH and were unchanged in those receiving saline. Mean fetal GH levels were significantly greater (p < 0.005) at 20 vs 19 days gestation. There were no significant differences between mean fetal GH concentrations of mothers receiving HPGRH and those receiving saline. HPGRH increases GH concentrations in the pregnant rat. HPGRH administration to the pregnant rat during late gestation does not increase GH concentrations in the fetus suggesting either that HPGRH does not cross the rat placenta or that the fetal rat pituitary is insensitive to HPGRH at this dosage.
The functionality of market‐based discrimination

Advances a framework for understanding the mechanisms that maintain unearned or inherited advantage or privilege in a hierarchical world of unequal rewards and differential opportunity. Central in this framework is the presence of a dominant group and a subaltern group in an environment where there is rivalry over social rewards. A dominant group can seek to structure and control access to the credentials required for preferred positions to insure admission of their own and to keep out others. This could involve, for example, deprivation of subaltern group members of schooling, both in quantity and quality. In other words, the dominant group can take steps to influence the “premarket” characteristics of the members of the subaltern group to the disadvantage of the latter. The dominant group emphasizes the cultural, cognitive, or motivational deficiences of the subaltern group significantly by silently rendering them non‐competing, all the while denying any discrimination.
Lactate dehydrogenase activity in cell subpopulations of 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene-induced mammary tumors

Heterogeneity of cells in a solid tumor prevents direct assessment of enzyme activity of cell subpopulations by conventional homogenization techniques. Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity before and after ovariectomy and following estrogen supplementation in density-defined cell subpopulations from DMBA-induced mammary tumors was determined. Different levels of LDH activity were found in different cell subpopulations. After ovariectomy the level of LDH activity declined. Restoration of the circulatory estrogen level resulted in increased enzyme activity. The highest level of LDH was found in a band which consisted mainly of poorly differentiated cells. This cell subpopulation also tended to be more responsive to endocrine manipulation.
Fructose 2,6-bisphosphate: Changes during neonatal maturation and aging of rat and potential role in regulation of glucose utilization

Abstract During the 6 days following birth, tissue levels of fructose-2,6-P 2 in rat brain, liver, muscle, heart and kidney did not significantly change. However, by the tenth day postpartum fructose-2,6-P 2 levels in brain, heart, and skeletal muscle increased approximately 50% and attained adult values. During maturation of liver, adult levels of fructose-2,6-P 2 were not achieved until 3–4 weeks after birth or approximately at the time of maximum rates of gluconeogenesis. Renal fructose-2,6-P 2 levels in the neonate were initially elevated and 2–3 weeks after birth decreased approximately 2.5-fold to adult values. With the exception of the pons-medulla, which showed no significant changes in fructose-2,6-P 2 amounts, levels of this regulatory sugar from aging brain regions were generally decreased. The fructose-2,6-P 2 levels from heart atria of old rats (24–30 month) were also significantly decreased. In diaphragm, the fructose-2,6-P 2 levels were increased at 12 months of age and at 27 months of age were twice the level at 3 months. The fructose-2,6-P 2 levels during the aging of liver, skeletal muscle (EDL and soleus), spleen, thymus, kidney, testis and lung were not significantly altered.
Electron spin resonance spectra of OSeCl, OSCI, and OSBr

Abstract The radicals OSeCl, OSCI, and OSBr have been identified from the ESR spectra of γ-irradiated polycrystalline selenium and sulfur oxyhalides. Typical powder patterns were obtained in each case showing distinct g anisotropy accompanied by hyperfine structure from one halogen. In addition, the observation of the 77 Se satellite spectrum of ClSeO in natural abundance allowed a determination of the 77 Se hfs tensor. Both the g and 77 Se His tensors for OSeCl have approximately cylindrical symmetry, the principal values being remarkably similar to those previously established for OSeO − . Thus the 77 Se hfs tensor (in gauss with signs assumed) for ClSeO is found to be [286, −137, −127] as compared to [291, −80, −112] for OSeO − , while the g tensors for these radicals are [1.994, 2.039,1.995] and [1.998, 2.032, 2.007], respectively. The strong resemblance between the g tensors of OSCI and OSO − further underlines the similarity between BAC and BAB − radicals possessing 19 valence electrons. Most of the spin density is localized on the central atom of OSeCI and a similar distribution is indicated for OSCI and OSBr by the small spin density on the halogen atom. The results are fully consistent with the Walsh description of these species as π radicals, the unpaired electron occupying an antibonding MO perpendicular to the molecular plane. There is good agreement between the experimental spin densities and those calculated by means of simple Huckel MO theory.
Three-dimensional tomographic imaging of ocean mines from real and simulated lidar returns

Airborne lidar provides an effective method for detection and localization of underwater objects, where the transmitted laser beam can penetrate the air-water interface and illuminate the scatterers within the water column, and the optical field generated by this scattering can be collected and processed. Here, we consider the use of lidar data collected form different observation angles of a particular water volume to image objects of interest. Interpretation the lidar returns as tomographic projections of a 3D reflectivity field, we formulate the problem as a 3D tomographic image reconstruction problem. We show tomographic reconstructions from both real and synthetic data sets. The real dat was collected by a Lockheed-Sanders lidar system in a US Navy field test. The synthetic data is produced by using an accurate statistical model that incorprates multiple scattering.
Regulation of lens cell-to-cell communication by activation of PKCgamma and disassembly of Cx50 channels.

PURPOSE. Lens fiber gap junctions comprise approximately equal molar amounts of connexin46 (Cx46) and connexin50 (Cx50), both of which contribute significantly to coupling in the lens cortex and nucleus. The current study was conducted to test the hypothesis that regulation of lens coupling by activation of protein kinase C (PKC) affects the number of channels composed of Cx46, Cx50, or both connexins. METHODS. Whole rat lenses were treated with phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate (TPA) to activate PKC or the inactive analogue 4-phorbol,12,13-didecaneote (PDD) as a control. The superficial cortical fibers were studied morphologically by quantitative freeze-fracture immunolabeling (FRIL); functionally by Lucifer yellow dye transfer assay; and chemically by measuring PKC activity, connexin phosphorylation and coimmunoprecipitation. RESULTS. Treatment with TPA activated PKC and uncoupled the lens cortex by 60%. PDD had no effect. Activation of PKC decreased the density of Cx50 channels assembled in gap junctions, increased the density of Cx50 hemichannels in the plasma membrane and induced circular voids measuring 22 to 300 nm in diameter within the remaining plaques. Coimmunoprecipitation studies indicated that the soluble PKC was translocated into membrane fractions that contained Cx46, Cx50, and the lipid raft marker caveolin (Cav)-1. In the membrane environment, PKC phosphorylated Cx50 at serines and threonines and Cx46 only at threonines. CONCLUSIONS. The studies provide experimental support for the hypothesis that gap junctions comprising mixtures of Cx46 and Cx50 channels provide malleable communicating pathways between the lens nucleus and the metabolically active fibers in the surface. The findings also suggest that Cx50 channel disassembly occurs in distinct lipid microdomains. (Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2005;46:3247‐3255) DOI:10.1167/ iovs.04-1504
Soft-templated mesoporous carbon-carbon nanotube composites for high performance lithium-ion batteries.

Mesoporous carbon with homogeneously dispersed multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) are synthesized via a one-step brick and mortar soft-templating approach. Nanocomposites exhibit high rate capability and reversible lithium storage capacity of 900 mA h g-1 and good rate performance. Such homogeneous nanocomposites are ideal candidates for electric vehicle applications where high power and energy density are primary requirements.
Estimating the response of polycrystalline materials using sets of weighted statistical volume elements

Abstract The traditional representative volume element (RVE) is usually obtained through an iterative procedure based on the convergence of a selected material property. Although RVEs produced in this manner are generally presumed to automatically capture the salient features of the underlying microstructure, they typically do not achieve this requirement. Alternatively, one can identify a weighted set of statistical volume elements (WSVEs) that captures selected dominant components of n-point spatial correlations of the microstructure to prescribed accuracy. The main advantage of using WSVEs is that the key microstructural features are captured within sets of computationally manageable models ensuring reliable calculation of the material behavior and its variance in an efficient manner. In this paper, this concept of WSVEs is applied and validated for a nearly randomly oriented body-centered cubic β-Ti alloy. Specifically, two WSVE sets composed of members with an average of 100 grains and 200 grains, respectively, are derived from a 4300-grain reconstruction of real microstructure based on the dominant two-point spatial correlation statistics identified by principal component analyses. Crystal plasticity formulation is used to model the behavior of the material under selected globally applied loading conditions. The WSVEs obtained in this work were validated by comparing their overall stress–strain responses with those of a traditional 500-grain RVE. Furthermore, the frequency plots of the microscale cumulative shear strains obtained using the WSVEs compared favorably with those obtained using the traditional RVE. It is concluded that WSVE sets based on microstructure provide a viable practical alternative to the traditionally defined RVE in estimating the response of large polycrystalline microstructure datasets, with reasonable accuracy and significantly smaller computational resource needs.
Association of exceptional parental longevity and physical function in aging

Offspring of parents with exceptional longevity (OPEL), who are more likely to carry longevity-associated genotypes, may age more successfully than offspring of parents with usual survival (OPUS). Maintenance of physical function is a key attribute of successful aging. While many genetic and non-genetic factors interact to determine physical phenotype in aging, examination of the contribution of exceptional parental longevity to physical function in aging is limited. The LonGenity study recruited a relatively genetically homogenous cohort of Ashkenazi Jewish (AJ) adults age 65 and older, who were defined as either OPEL (having at least one parent who lived to age 95 or older) or OPUS (neither parent survived to age 95). Subjective and objective measures of physical function were compared between the two groups, accounting for potential confounders. Of the 893 LonGenity subjects, 365 were OPEL and 528 were OPUS. OPEL had better objective and subjective measures of physical function than OPUS, especially on unipedal stance (p = 0.009) and gait speed (p = 0.002). Results support the protective role of exceptional parental longevity in preventing decline in physical function, possibly via genetic mechanisms that should be further explored.
Host range and searching behaviour of Cricotopus lebetis (Diptera: Chironomidae), a tip miner of Hydrilla verticillata (Hydrocharitaceae)

Abstract A chironomid midge, Cricotopus lebetis Sublette (Diptera: Chironomidae), was discovered feeding on Hydrilla verticillata (L.f.) Royle (Hydrocharitaceae) in Crystal River, Citrus, Co., Florida, in the 1990s. Larvae of the midge mine the apical meristems of hydrilla, causing terminal branching and stunting of the plant. We investigated the fundamental host range of the midge by conducting a series of no-choice and paired-choice tests. No-choice developmental tests with neonate larvae revealed that the fundamental host range of C. lebetis included not only on hydrilla but also several other aquatic plants in different families, suggesting that this insect is not a hydrilla specialist. In paired-choice bioassays, larval colonisation of Elodea canadensis Michx. (Hydrocharitaceae) and Najas guadalupensis (Spreng.) Magnus (Najadaceae) was greater than colonisation of H. verticillata. Behavioural bioassays in a Y-tube olfactometer and in Petri dishes suggested that neonate larvae were not able to locate ...
Transgressive-regressive cycles in Lower Cretaceous strata, Mississippi Interior Salt Basin area of the northeastern Gulf of Mexico, USA

Abstract Four transgressive-regressive (T-R) cycles and five T-R subcycles have been recognized in Lower Cretaceous strata of the northeastern Gulf of Mexico. These T-R cycles are the LKEGR-TR 1 (Lower Cretaceous, Eastern Gulf Region) (upper Valanginian–upper Aptian), the LKEGR-TR 2 (upper Aptian–middle Albian), the LKEGR-TR 3 (middle–upper Albian), and the LKEGR-TR 4 (upper Albian–lower Cenomanian) cycles. The LKEGR-TR 1 Cycle consists of three subcycles: LKEGR-TR 1–1 (upper Valanginian–lower Aptian), LKEGR-TR 1–2 (lower Aptian) and LKEGR-TR 1–3 (upper Aptian) subcycles. The LKEGR-TR 2–1 (upper Aptian–lower Albian) and the LKEGR-TR 2–2 (lower–middle Albian) subcycles constitute the LKEGR-TR 2 Cycle. The LKEGR-TR 3 and the LKEGR-TR 4 cycles consist of a single T-R cycle. Recognition of these T-R cycles is based upon stratal geometries, nature of cycle boundaries, facies stacking patterns within cycles, and large-scale shifts in major facies belts. The T-R subcycles are characterized by shifts in major facies belts that are not of the magnitude of a T-R cycle. The cycle boundary may be marked by a subaerial unconformity, ravinement surface, transgressive surface or surface of maximum regression. A single T-R cycle consists of an upward-deepening event (transgressive aggrading and backstepping phases) and an upward-shallowing event (regressive infilling phase). These events are separated by a surface of maximum transgression. The aggrading phase marks the change from base-level fall and erosion to base-level rise and sediment accumulation; this phase signals the initiation of the creation of shelf-accommodation space. The marine transgressive and flooding events of the backstepping phase are widespread and provide regional correlation datums. Therefore, these T-R cycles and subcycles can be identified, mapped, and correlated in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico area. The progradational events associated with the regressive infilling phase represent a major influx of siliciclastic sediments into the basin, the development of major reef build-ups at the shelf margin, and a significant loss of shelf-accommodation space. These T-R cycles are interpreted to be the result of the amount of and change in shelf-accommodation due to a combination of post-rift tectonics, loading subsidence, variations in siliciclastic sediment supply and dispersal systems, carbonate productivity and eustasy associated with a passive continental margin. The T-R cycles, where integrated with biostratigraphic data, can be correlated throughout the northern Gulf of Mexico region and have the potential for global correlation of Lower Cretaceous strata.
Comparison of Robotic Versus Human Laparoscopic Camera Control

AbstractPurpose: We investigated the accuracy and use of a robotic surgical arm compared to a human surgical assistant during urological laparoscopic surgery.Materials and Methods: A total of 11 patients undergoing pelvic laparoscopic procedures that required identical bilateral surgical manipulations was evaluated. On 1 side a robotic surgical arms was used to manipulate the laparoscopic camera, while on the contralateral side the camera was positioned by a human surgical assistant. The side (left versus right) on which the robot was used was alternated with each case. Parameters assessed included operative time, erroneous camera motions, complications and outcome.Results: All procedures were successfully completed without complications. Laparoscopic camera positioning was significantly steadier with less inadvertent movements when under robotic control (p less than 0.0005). Operative times during dissections using the robot or human assistant were not statistically different.Conclusions: A robotic devic...
Vehicle Sideslip Angle Estimation and Experimental Validation

This paper presents a comparison study of three different methods for the estimation of vehicle’s lateral velocity: one based on algebraic relationships, a second based on a dynamic observer, and lastly one based on kinematic equations. All methods are based on the implementation of an experimental nonlinear model that relates the front and rear axles’ lateral forces to their respective side slip angles. These nonlinear models include the effects of different surface coefficients of friction, and all three methods include a real time estimation of the surface coefficient of friction based on standard production sensors. Real time estimation performance of the proposed observers is compared and evaluated based on experimental implementation on a series production vehicle. Vehicle dynamic tests include highly dynamic maneuvers such as slaloms, single and double lane changes, fishhooks on test surfaces such as ice, snow, gravel, and wet/dry asphalt.Copyright © 2013 by General Motors
Dynamic penetration of alumina/aluminum laminates: experiments and modeling

The effects of structural layering and thermal residual stresses on impact resistance of alumina/aluminum laminated structures were investigated. Two multilayered structures of different layer thicknesses were manufactured. Two different bonding techniques were used to bond these laminates producing four different structures. One bonding process was cured at room temperature, and the other was cured at a high temperature to induce thermal residual stresses in the alumina layers. Laminates were impact tested between 100 and 300 m/s. Dynamic impact experiments showed that the thick layer laminates allowed less penetration than the thin layer laminates. The effect of thermal residual stresses on impact performance was minor. Finite element models using ABAQUS/Explicit successfully simulated the impact, and several parametric studies were completed. The performance of the laminates was highly dependent on the yield strength of the aluminum layers. At increased velocity the thick layer laminate continued to outperform the thin layer laminate in the finite element simulations.